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It was a good day outside. Kaya read a book by the open window, feeling the soft breeze caressing her skin. The children were playing loudly—maybe a little too loud, but Kaya wasn't going to tell them anything, kids need to be loud and play without constraining them.
The door opened. Kaya raised her eyes from her reading.
"...Merry?"
A dark cloud in that sunny morning.
"Miss Kaya...How I wished I could spare you this pain but..."
Kaya placed the book on her lap.
"...What...?" She muttered.
"...The Straw Hat Pirates..." Merry couldn't speak, as if he had something stuck in his throat.
"What?" She repeated, louder.
Merry didn't want to let it out, but he finally did. A shot in the head is more merciful than a long torture. "...They finally met their match...Luffy D. Monkey is dead...The entire crew has been wiped out..."
Kaya slowly got up, letting the book on her lap drop to the floor. The room lost its brightness, as if the dark cloud on Merry's face had spread to the sky.
"...No..."
Did...?, she wanted to ask, and Merry seemed to guess what, because he closed his eyes and remarked:
"Every single one of them..."
The room was dark and moving. It was hard to keep balance.
The children. Now she understood what they were doing.
They were not playing loudly. They were proclaiming.
"CAPTAIN USOPP IS DEAD! CAPTAIN USOPP IS DEAD! "
Kaya woke up with that chocking feeling in her throat.
She looked out the window and found that the sun had already come out and there was not a cloud to be seen. She opened the windows and listened attentively—Ninjin, Piiman and Tamanegi weren't shouting, that she could hear. She waited for long, hours, even, to see if they came at some point.
"Miss Kaya? Is something wrong?" Merry asked her, seeing that she refused to move from there.
No, nothing was. They didn't show up.
"If you're not feeling right, I've got something that might help you feel better..." Merry smiled.
It was just a dream...Nothing but a bad dream...
"Huh? What is it?" Maya smiled faintly.
"You've got a visitor."
"Oh. I don't think I'm in the mood for anybody today, Merry."
"So, should I just turn around and go back the way I came?" Another voice replied from the door.
That voice...!
Before she saw him, Merry saw the smile on Merry's face, confirming it.
Yes, behind him, standing at the door, was Usopp, surrounded by his former young crew, who didn't let go of him and looked at him with adoration!
"U-Usopp!" Kaya stood up, her eyes open wide, unable to shut her mouth.
"You still remember me? I was sure you'd forgotten about me the very second I went through the door!" He smiled.
"Of course I do! I could never...! Oh, Usopp, I had this dream, that you had died in some far away land, where I could never reach to close your eyes or bring flowers to your—!"
Usopp let out a guffaw. "I can never die! In my journey, I met this witch who gave me a potion which makes me invincible and immortal!"
"You're making things up again." Kaya giggled.
Usopp smiled in that funny way, neither confirming nor denying the accusation. She had missed it so much that she ran to throw herself into his arms.
"Now you're sitting me and telling me the whole story, the true story, since the beginning. I haven't seen you in a long time, and I'm sure you've got a lot to—!"
But just when she was about to touch him, she found her arms empty and darkness around her.
She felt around her and found that she was lying in bed, and it was five in the morning.
...Another dream...
She wished she could say that it was the first time she had a dream of that kind, but...
Dreams are the way out of what's in our mind all the time, aren't they?
Years of getting news from him from bounty posters and some newspaper articles...Seeing pictures of him and wondering if he still looked the same or was in blown into smithereens or completely broken somewhere...
...Wondering if he was alive or dying that precise instant...
That was why everybody said that she looked like she was always in the clouds, to the point that she was unable to see the long line of suitors at her door.
It was just that...Usopp had said it in her dreams: everybody expected her to forget about that rascal who turned out to be pirate scum, and she feared he felt the same.
Perhaps it was him who forgot about her after discovering the world and its wonders...
There were times when she saw that. She closed her eyes at night and found him sailing in a ship, with some fancy girl, perhaps a native from an island of love goddesses, by his side, his arm around her waist. But most of the nights it was the same thing: she cried because he was dead, brutally murdered by one of those terrible people the press talked about, somewhere where she couldn't reach him, in such a brutal way that there was nothing left to bury; she cried because he kept his promise in the end and came back, in one piece, victorious, joyful, with stories to entertain her with for years.
The terrible moment of opening her eyes and finding that he wasn't there..., that she had no confirmation of the bitter end.
...And they asked her why she wasn't all there...At least in her dreams she knew for sure where he was and how.
Kaya waited for Merry to make her breakfast with her eyes on the sea, a fine blue line in the horizon, almost blended with the sunrise, her head resting on her hand.
A silhouette suddenly appeared on it. A figure, walking down the old path.
It didn't continue—stopped in front of the house.
Kaya was a bit cautious. This individual was wearing a big hat, googles and a long cloak. A person who had nothing to hide wouldn't be dressing like that.
They were staring in her direction.
"...Can I help you, sir?" Kaya addressed him from the window. Assuming it was a him because she thought she was seeing a flat, muscled chest.
The person removed their glasses and hat.
Her heart skipped a beat.
...No...Wait...
Kaya smiled a little, shutting her eyes.
"I'm dreaming again..." She whispered to herself.
Always dreaming...
"Did I change so much, Kaya?"
Her name, from his lips...
Kaya opened her eyes back again and looked well.
She stood up and ran down the stairs.
"M-Miss Kaya?" She almost bumped into Merry at the stairs, knocking down the tray he was carrying.
She quickly opened the door, fearing that he wasn't there when she opened it, but...there he was, still. With a different look, but the same smile she had seen in her dreams.
"...You...It's you? You're here...?" She muttered.
He took her hand and encouraged her to touch his face, so she felt the flesh and bones. So she did. She caressed his features. He had a goatee now, and longer hair that she tangled around her index finger. Forgetting to ask for permission, as if she still believed this was a hallucination she couldn't offend, she felt his torso, thinking that it had also become harder; she could feel the muscles...Usopp had never been too athletic, except for the legs, for running away...
It was when she raised her eyes and saw him eye to eye when she finally convinced herself that she wasn't dreaming. Not this time.
"I'm home." He softly said.
And her eyes filled with tears as she embraced him.
"Aw, come on, I—" It seemed Usopp didn't expect this reception. He was chocking. "I was honestly thinking...I came so early and with all of this on because I didn't want to bring you trouble..." He returned the hug, slowly tightening it, until Kaya felt his cheek on her shoulder. "...I brought some toys for your kids...I assumed you had chosen somebody and become a mommy already..."
"No! No, I didn't—!" Kaya also had it difficult, because that knot in her throat she felt after the dreams, she had it, but in such a different, good way..."You said you'd come back to tell me stories, and I've been waiting...I've been waiting..."
That thing she was feeling...Was Usopp crying too? Because she, she couldn't stop.
"You will stay and tell me all of it, will you...? If you're only stopping by...I'd love to follow you wherever you go and hear it..." She continued.
Either way, she was never letting go. Now that he was real and he was there.
THE END