Day 47: Lunch

[idontregret]

Heat was able to ignore the still faintly throbbing spot on his head as he was led back into the cafeteria for another meal he had no intention of eating. He kept himself from rubbing at what he knew would be a small bump because dammit it didn't hurt that much. It was embarrassing, was what it was

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[usoppsenchou]

"Okay, great!" Usopp decided the best way to deal with that open invitation was to take it on face value, and sat down smiling next to Sai. Even if he didn't know Sai that well, at least Sai was a friend, and knew a lot about how the 'hospital' worked.

"I guess you won't be surprised, but almost everything you've said has come true so far... I met a lot of my crewmates already." There were exceptions, but only one was really glaring. "I've been trying to avoid going out past the patient areas at night, and I traveled with one of my crewmates last night, but I thought eventually I'll have to go further. I got a map from a really friendly girl this morning, so after I find someone to team up with I might look around more tonight."

Sai hadn't given Usopp a brief summary of what he'd been doing, and Usopp wasn't sure why he felt an urge to. It just seemed like a good idea. Or a reassurance that, as stupid as Usopp knew he could be, he was keeping his promise and wasn't in any hurry to get eaten either.

"But there's a weird problem." Usopp shifted, then started to pick apart his own fish, looking for the actual meat inside.

[tsunagari]

Sai's smile widened slightly at Usopp's words. The fact that the pirate had tried to take anything he'd said into consideration meant that none of Sai's time had been wasted. This was still the sniper he knew, even if his friend didn't remember his time in the Institute before. He knew he could count on Usopp not to run straight into danger, at least.

At the mention of a problem, however, he did his best to look concerned. A problem of Usopp's had the possibility of becoming a problem of his. Did it involve his crewmates, as the previous comment may have inferred? He had noticed the hat on the pirate's back, and then there was his post on the bulletin earlier...

"This is about your captain," he guessed.

[usoppsenchou]

Usopp paused to take a bite of the fried shell from his fish before answering. It wasn't bad, but it wasn't his favorite meal here so far. Sai didn't seem to like it either, judging from the variety of non-fried foods he had with him. Maybe ninjas just had to be slim to be stealthy. Usopp wouldn't want to gain too much of a gut if he was habitually running around with a half-shirt either.

All of which was an excellent diversion from thinking about Sai's question. "Yeah, Luffy's..." Disappeared. "... acting weird. He's not..." Here, here at all! "Well, this hat is important to him, you see?" Usopp took it off with his spare hand to hold it up. "The only times I've seen him without it, he'd given it to one of us for safekeeping, or it had been knocked off in a fight, or he was asleep. Even then, when he wakes up after a fight, sometimes he'll yell for his hat before he yells for food. Our flag is a skull with this hat."

Usopp realized he was starting to talk to himself, with Sai as a politely quiet audience, giving him an excuse to work towards the unthinkable. Usopp felt a little sick at admitting the idea to himself, and dropped the hat behind his back again. "Sorry for making you listen to such a long story. I guess it's really just... I have his hat, and it's weird, because he really likes his hat. A crewmate and I found it in his room last night, just sitting there. So I'm keeping it safe until he turns up to claim it, or at least tells me it's a fake."

[tsunagari]

There were many possibilities as to what could have happened to the pirate captain to make him leave his hat behind, but a couple were the most plausible. The first was that Luffy had been taken away by the staff for something that night, whether it be experiments or special counseling, and had still been out at the end of night. What made Sai think it wasn't really this was the fact that Luffy had already been through special counseling (as this was how he got his hat back in the first place) and he'd never known anyone to be put through this more than once.

That left the other option, which made more sense based on his lack of overall response so far - that the Strawhat captain had disappeared like so many others. It was difficult to think this, since the young man had been around before Sai had even arrived in the Institute.

"I don't mind." The ninja leaned back in his chair, watching Usopp blankly. "But if there's no word from your captain over the next day it can be assumed that he vanished, just as you did."

[usoppsenchou]

Usopp stared back at Sai's blank expression and straightforward words, before looking away again, even if there wasn't much to look at other than the wreck that had once been fried fish. "You know, you're too much like Robin."

Luffy was here, but he's gone. That's...

"He probably is gone. Like I was before," Usopp repeated, taking a deep breath.

Oh god I'm gonna die we're all gonna die Luffy's gone they took Luffy oh no oh no I'm gonna die

"Okay!" Pushing up a smile that looked a bit ill, Usopp looked back at Sai's expressionless face. "Luffy might be missing. That's okay! He might just be safer than he'd be with the patients, anyway, if he hadn't broken out on his own yet." Or in a meat grinder--maybe he died becoming what he loved. "Or he might be somewhere here that we don't know yet. Or in another world. Or all kinds of things."

There were still other members of the crew, plus Sai, to worry about. Usopp couldn't collapse into a weeping, screaming mess. It'd ruin the meal. "So, I'll have to go look for this Luffy when I look for everyone else who's gotten lost here, when we figure it all out. Maybe Zoro'll take the hat, he'll be able to protect it better."

Really, if anyone, Zoro should be the one lost. Or maybe he was. Usopp hadn't seen him lately either. "Okay! Okay. Thanks."

Even if Sai had just said what Usopp didn't want to say to himself, it helped, creepy expression or not. As long as someone was around to harshly face the truth, Usopp could work more on cheerful denial.