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In all their time sailing the seas and braving bizarre corners of the world, Usopp has witnessed more absurdities than he can count.
From islands floating in the sky to talking toys in Dressrosa to a colossal elephant walking through the ocean, name it, Usopp has seen it.
He doesn’t even have to look too far—he has a talking skeleton, a shapeshifting reindeer, and a cyborg as his crewmates.
What once seemed impossible now feels like everyday routine in the life of a Straw Hat pirate. So any sane person would think Usopp was beyond being scared by now.
And yet, the sniper still can’t help but feel terrified at the thought of a ghost haunting the halls of their beloved ship.
Thrice, Usopp encountered unsettling happenings that convinced him there’s something supernatural lurking around the corners of Sunny.
The first time, it happened in the dead of night.
While the long-nosed sniper was normally a heavy sleeper, tonight was different. Earlier in the sweltering afternoon, he had downed one too many of Sanji’s lemon-mint coolers to beat the heat.
So in the middle of the night, he stirred awake, the pressure in his bladder making him restless. “Damn it, Sanji, why did you have to make the drinks so refreshing?” he muttered, dragging himself out of bed. The ship was quiet, save for the gentle creaking of wood and the soft lap of waves against the hull.
With an exaggerated yawn, he headed towards the bathroom.
As he neared his destination, he froze in confusion, eyes darting down the dimly lit hall.
He could’ve sworn he heard a faint trembling voice.
Usopp shook his head, thinking it was the waves or the ship itself creating the noise. As he held the doorknob, his eyes widened.
There it is again.
This time, it was clearer and louder.
It was the voice of a woman crying— no, whimpering.
Was it Nami or Robin?
The thought of one of his crewmates sobbing in the shadows only added to his dread. He hesitated, wondering if he should knock and check up on the person, but Usopp retreated and decided not to bother them since they probably wanted privacy, whoever it was.
As he laid back in his bunk and tried to hold his pee, he kept thinking about the voice he heard until he drifted off to sleep.
In the morning during breakfast, Usopp couldn’t help but ask his female crewmates out of worry.
“Robin, were you in the bathroom last night?” he asked the raven-haired archaeologist, intentionally avoiding mentioning the crying in case it's a sensitive subject.
“I turned in early last night and didn't leave my room until this morning.” answered Robin with a small smile, stirring her coffee.
The sniper turned to the navigator sitting across from him. “Nami, were you in the bathroom last night?”
“Nope, not me.” she answered simply, buttering her toast and taking a small bite.
The sniper’s brows furrowed in confusion, eyes wide. “B-but… but… I heard a woman crying in the bathroom last night!”
This caught the attention of their other crewmates.
Zoro leaned close to the table and smirked deviously at Usopp, “Must be a ghost then, huh, Usopp?”, earning a tiny squeak from the sniper.
“What? There’s a ghost in the Sunny?!” shouted Chopper in panic, jumping from his seat.
“That’s awesome! That’ll make Sunny a ghost ship! Shishishi ” laughed Luffy through mouthfuls of food.
“That might make things more interesting in the ship if it were true.” thought Jinbe out loud, chuckling at everyone’s reaction.
Sanji, flipping pancakes at the stove, glanced over his shoulder. “Don’t be stupid, guys, there’s no ghosts in the Sunny. Well, except for Brook, maybe…” which made the skeleton chortle in his signature laugh.
Usopp still couldn’t shake the eerie feeling. “I’m telling you, I heard something...”
Franky slapped a hand on Usopp’s back, causing him to nearly faceplant into his plate. “You’re just imagining things, bro! The Sunny’s built strong—no ghosts can mess with this super ship! Must be the wind you heard!”
“Still…” Usopp muttered, eyeing the rest of the crew suspiciously.
“Don’t be a coward, long nose,” Zoro grunted, leaning back in his chair. “There’s no ghost. I was just kidding.”
But Usopp wasn’t convinced. Something strange was happening on the Sunny, and he was downright terrified to find out what it was.
On the second night, he was heading back to his room after a long session in the workshop.
He yawned and stretched his arms, realizing he had worked on his Kabuto late into the night.
He switched the light off and exited the factory, trying to shake off the drowsiness from his eyes. As he headed towards the men’s quarters and passed by the aquarium, he stood still in fear when he noticed the light under the doors to the aquarium flickered open.
His mind raced, considering all the possibilities.
It could be Franky doing late-night repairs, or maybe Robin wanted to do some late-night reading by the serene light of the aquarium…
Usopp’s pulse raced and his legs turned to jelly when he heard it: faint creaking noises and what seemed to be strange, wet squelching sounds that made his skin crawl.
Could it be… the ghost? A sea monster? A ghost sea monster?
The blood drained from Usopp’s face as his imagination took over. He pictured a ghostly figure, dripping with seawater, its translucent, bloated form walking across the room.
Every creak on the floorboards was an eerie, hollow groan, with the sound of its swollen, waterlogged limbs dragging behind, slick and slimy.
The noise grew louder, and Usopp could almost see the creature now—a bloated, sea-drenched horror, its cold, invisible hands slick with algae and seawater, reaching out to pull him into its soggy, suffocating grip.
When the light under the door flickered off, Usopp was out of there.
He bolted down the hall, dashing toward the men’s quarters as fast as his legs would carry him. Usopp squeezed his eyes shut, muttering under his breath, “It’s not real… it’s not real…”
He hid under the covers for the rest of the night, not getting a wink of sleep.
The third time, Usopp was on watch duty.
It was a quiet night and most of the crew had already turned in for the night, except for Nami, who had informed everyone earlier that she'd be working late in the library on her maps.
"Don't disturb me unless it's an emergency," she had said, squashing Sanji's hopes of having a late night rendezvous with the navigator.
Usopp, perched up in the crow's nest, was trying to stay awake, his eyes heavy with exhaustion. He yawned, his eyelids drooping as the rhythmic rocking of the ship lulled him closer to sleep.
Just when he was about to nod off, something caught his attention from down below—a mysterious shadow moving swiftly across the deck.
His heart skipped a beat. The shadow seemed to glide towards the direction of the library.
Usopp sat up straight and squinted through the darkness, hoping it was just his eyes playing tricks on him. But there it was again—the unmistakable silhouette moving towards the door.
A shiver ran down his spine. The ghost is back! , the sniper thought to himself in complete dread.
Despite the fear coursing through him, he had to check.
What if Nami was in danger? What if the ghost had decided to finally make its move?
Grabbing his slingshot for reassurance, he cautiously climbed down from the crow’s nest and made his way towards the library, every step slower than the last.
As he approached the door, Usopp’s heart pounded against his chest, his whole body trembling like a leaf.
He was close enough now to hear voices—a low murmur, followed by Nami’s unmistakable voice.
“Oh my god…”
Usopp’s eyes widened in terror. Was she begging for help?
“Please…!”
That was enough for him. Usopp burst through the door with a shriek. "DON’T WORRY, NAMI! I’LL SAVE YOU FROM THE—"
The words died quickly in his throat as his brain processed the scene before him.
Usopp had been in many terrifying, unbelievable situations before.
He’d gone against Captain Kuro to save his beloved Kaya, been hunted by bloodthirsty fishmen in Arlong Park, escaped a deadly game with Sugar in Dressrosa, he even went against Luffy, his own captain, to fight for the Merry.
But nothing could ever be as horrifying and traumatizing as seeing the Straw Hat captain and the navigator—his two dearest friends— going at it on top of the desk, lips and bodies entwined.
As Usopp stood completely frozen by the doorway, Luffy and Nami jumped apart, eyes wide in surprise. Luffy, with his straw hat lopsided, snickered cheekily at the sniper. “Oh! Hey, Uso—”
Usopp let out a petrified shriek.
Nami quickly put on her panties under her skirt (thankfully, she was still fully dressed sans underwear) and stormed over to him, grabbed his long nose, and yanked hard.
“Usopp, you moron!” she whispered furiously. “You’ll wake the whole ship up!”
True enough, footsteps were already approaching.
Usopp whimpered in fear as the other Straw Hats groggily filed into the hallway, rubbing their eyes.
“What the hell's going on?” Zoro grumbled, looking particularly annoyed. “Why are you all yelling?”
Usopp, still on the floor and trembling, couldn’t find the words to explain what he had just seen. His mind raced, and his fear of Nami’s wrath far outweighed his fear of any ghost.
Seeing his distress, Nami quickly interjected. “Usopp saw the ghost again,” she said, giving Usopp a deathly look that told him to play along.
The sniper nodded furiously, his knees shaking as he stammered, “Y-yeah… a ghost! I-it was definitely a ghost!”
Chopper gasped, immediately diving behind Robin for cover. “A ghost? Really?!”
“Oh my, I’m spooked!” interjected Brook, his skull head spinning in panic.
Franky scratched his head. “Well, what did it look like?”
“B-b-bare…” was the word that tumbled out of his mouth, shuddering at the nightmare-inducing image of seeing Luffy’s bare ass.
“Bear? I thought it was a ghost?” asked Franky again, confused.
“You haven’t been sleeping well for a couple of days now, haven’t you, Usopp? And you’re on watch duty tonight as well. Perhaps it’s sleep deprivation.” suggested Robin calmly with a smile. The sniper could’ve sworn the archaeologist shot a look at Luffy and Nami.
“Yeah, he’s probably just hallucinating. Get some sleep, Usopp. One of us can watch over the ship.” added Sanji, lighting a smoke.
“I’ll be glad to watch over the ship so you can rest.” said Jinbe, giving a comforting pat to a shaking Usopp.
“I can do a check-up in the morning and run some tests on you to make sure you’re not sick.” said Chopper, going full doctor.
As the crew dispersed and headed on back to their rooms, pulling a still-traumatized Usopp by the collar on the floor, Luffy suddenly burst out laughing. The crew all turned and looked at him questioningly.
“Shishishi! I can’t believe Usopp saw a ghost!”
He laughed again, shaking his head. “I thought for sure he saw me and Nami having se— OW!” Nami’s fist came flying towards Luffy’s head.
“LUFFY, YOU IDIOT!” she screamed, her voice echoing through the ship, promptly clamping a hand over Luffy's mouth.
The crew stood in stunned silence for a moment.
They looked at their disheveled-looking captain and the furiously blushing navigator.
Then, all hell broke loose.
As Chopper panicked over a passed out Sanji on the floor, with Zoro and Jinbe laughing in amusement while Brook and Franky sobbed out of pure joy, Usopp couldn't help but look back over the last couple of weeks and realized in horror what the whimpering, creaking and squelching noises he heard were really coming from.
The sniper rocked back and forth on the floor as the nightmares he'd just witnessed played on an endless loop in his mind.
"No use hiding it now, huh? Shishishi!" snickered Luffy, putting an arm around the red-faced navigator and planting a sloppy kiss on her cheek, causing more chaos to erupt in the crew.
Robin couldn't help but chuckle at the scene before her and the look on the Nami's face.
There may not have been a ghost on the Sunny, but one thing was for sure:
Nami was definitely going to kill someone tonight.