The story of Kael Ashwood, Sage of the Grand Line, was, in the version Usopp had been working on for several months now, quite a thing.
It had started out as something very simple – the Sea King of the unnamed island, in Usopp’s first rendering, was around twice as big as the one the rest of the crew had witnessed, and had since expanded to become fifty times the size of the Going Merry and so long that, standing straight up, it could reach the Moon.
This wasn’t the largest creature Kael had mentioned to Usopp in his accounts of other battles and other beasts.
He was acquainted with a second Sea King, one even bigger than the first, who had been his friend at some point unknown to Usopp and was now sleeping on the bottom of an unnamed trench, where it was to awake and take part in a war against the Straw Hat Pirates, which war Usopp was still unaware of but which he was now beginning to sense was coming soon.
The Truth-Seeking Orbs too had been transformed, in Usopp’s retelling.
At first they had been nothing but spheres, “destroying everything that they touched.” But that didn’t do anymore.
The Orbs became “concentrated moonlight of the second age of the world.” Then they had become “the only material existing in the universe the gods have failed to give a name to.” In the twelfth iteration, Kael had heard, the Orbs were “nine pieces of the primordial answer, released into the waking world by one man, chosen by the gods and deemed worthy of this task.”
Kael knew of all these iterations.
He had not objected to any of them.
That Usopp considered that a very good sign.
When he told the legend, he was on the deck of the Going Merry, the sails slack and the wind light a couple of days after their departure from Alabasta.
Chopper was seated in front of him, cross-legged, completely immersed in the story.
Robin had been sitting on the quarterdeck, reading some book and listening attentively.
Sanji was in the galley, the door to it open.
Luffy was hanging upside down on the figurehead, trying to catch every word.
Zoro was practising his sword forms, half-turning his body towards Usopp so as to hear him better.
Nami stood at the wheel, grinning happily – she tried to mask the happiness but couldn’t help smiling widely.
“So – Kael, having subdued the great beast of the sea, sat upon its brow as one sits upon a throne, and the Sea King elevated him so that his head would be at the topgallant of the biggest galleon ever to exist.”
“Just how big was the Sea King?” Chopper wondered.
“Fifty times the size of the Going Merry.”
“I thought that sixty times the size last time around.”
“That was a different Sea King.
There were two.”
“Oh.
I see.”
“The second Sea King sleeps in the bottom of the Calm Belt, to awaken –”
“Yes.”
Robin cleared her throat.
Usopp ignored that and continued with his story.
He had reached the part where he described the trip to the unnamed island, in particular the transmigration across three layers of universe, a personal visitation from God, who gave him the Orbs, and a forty-day fast, when Kael finally joined him on deck.
Kael paused and looked at the crowd.
After looking at the storyteller, who had paused halfway through his sentence with the gesture still raised.
He noticed Chopper’s awed look as well.
“And how far along are you in your legend-making?”
“You have crossed three universe and talked to God.”
“Hmm.
Go on.”
Kael settled beside Robin, who put her book aside without tearing her eyes from Usopp and gestured for Kael to lean in to her.
“There is the third universe,” she pointed out.
“True.”
“Why didn’t you tell him about that?”
“I’ll keep it for last.”
Robin chuckled quietly.
Usopp continued with his tale, and Chopper patiently followed.
Luffy now hung from the figurehead, listening intently.
The story did not really have an ending; it was designed to go on and on forever, just like the best stories should, and Usopp began to suspect this was the secret of Kael’s tales – the ending was to come only once the person ceased doing the deeds that required storytelling, and so far this person had given no sign of stopping.
That day ended in triumph.
Kael, in this rendition, had left his forty-day fast and instantly found himself on the deck of the unnamed island, where he was waiting for the Going Merry to appear – “having predicted our coming through the study of the stars” – and the audience applauded politely, Chopper cheering the loudest and most enthusiastically with both paws.
Kael leant closer to Robin, as silence descended over the ship after the claps had died down.
“He’s close.”
“To the truth?”
Details change, the truth – its shape is correct.
He has a good feel for shapes.”
“He is a storyteller.
That is what they do.”
She studied his face for a moment.
“Did you read the coming of us from the stars?”
“In a manner of speaking.”
“And what manner was that?”
“The most generous manner of speaking.”
And then she suddenly burst into laughter.
Kael felt her surprise, but that didn’t stop her laughing, and so she brought her hand to her mouth, as if to muffle her laughter.
But she failed.
Usopp, on the deck, was already starting his next installment.
He told of a duel that Kael had once fought with an army of three thousand led by a giant warrior, holding a sword of fallen star metal in his hands.
Kael managed to subdue that giant with just one word.
The word was “no,” according to Usopp.
Robin smiled behind her palm.
Kael too smiled, remembering.
The afternoon went by in pleasant chatter as the Going Merry picked up wind – Kael had earlier told Nami it would arrive around noon – and started moving again.
In the next installment of his tale, Usopp introduced a second giant, and Chopper, breathless with excitement, asked if the second giant had also been subdued with the word.
Yes, Usopp confirmed.
It was the word, no.
As Kael watched Chopper’s widening eyes, he understood that this wasn’t entirely untrue.
He too had told no to many a large and dangerous threat during his lifetime, and the world had listened.
He had been correct, in his understanding, about the word that stopped all things.
That was the beauty of stories.