Forever...

[ryu19.livejournal.com]

Title: Antero
Prompt: Mental Illness
Rating: M
Characters: Usopp and The Strawhats
Media: Fic

Only one foe remained to block their dreams. His stolen powers were immense, his strength prodigious. But even he was no match for their combined power. On his knees, he suddenly struck, the blow hitting the weakest of the crew.

The sniper blacked out, the pain lancing through every inch of his skull too much for his durability.

When he awoke once more, he was in the medical room of the Thousand Sunny, his nakama gathered around him.

"Did we win?"

Luffy nodded. Usopp sat up and winced a bit as his head throbbed.

Other than that there were no signs that anything was wrong with Usopp.

A few days passed and Usopp was at dinner with the rest of the crew. He ate slowly, as if unsure of what he was doing but eventually managed to finish his meal.

Ten minutes later he was wondering if he had even eaten at all.

Three days later Nami found scraps of paper littering the floor of his work area, each design stopped shortly after being started. She found Usopp alone by the bow, tears marking his face.

"I can't remember what I did half an hour ago," he said softly.

She hugged him then and held him as he cried once more, his tears eventually stopping as he broke apart a little, looking into Nami's face.

"Is this real?" he whispered.

Amnesia Chopper finally announced after observing Usopp a day later.

The marksman would be unable to retain any new memories for the rest of his life.

Years later an old woman hugs a hysterical old man on a creaky boat.

Is this real?

Comments

[thejabberwock.livejournal.com]

owch. excuse me while I go sit in a corner and cry.

(that's code for, "holy CRAP really good job", btw)

[ryu19.livejournal.com]

Thanks, I didn't like doing that to Usopp but the prompt kind of dictated a serious mental illness to me and I thought back to my Psychology college course a few semesters ago.

[ryu19.livejournal.com]

Yeah it is and most likely not ever going to happen outside of fan works.

Thanks for the comment!

[penniless1.livejournal.com]

Usopp~! Xc

And I thought insomnia-induced Sogeking/Usopp trauma was bad? You just killed this challenge dead, my friend! :D

[ryu19.livejournal.com]

Glad you enjoyed it! With this prompt I thought of the worst mental illness a person could get and remembered about anterograde amnesia from my Psychology course a few semesters back.

But hey at least this way the adventure never ends for Usopp.

[penniless1.livejournal.com]

...Isn't he a coward? Doesn't that mean endless torture for him?

XC DX

[ryu19.livejournal.com]

At times but deep down you know he's going to fulfill his dream as will the rest of the crew.

[liashi.livejournal.com]

Gotta agree with Penniless1 on the killing it dead thing. I just got to the end and sat there a moment, going, "Daaaaang..."

Ah, so many unanswered questions, I wanted it to be way longer once I got over the shock. Well done!

[ryu19.livejournal.com]

Thank you! Sorry for the unanswered questions. In my head none of the crew leaves Usopp to this fate and stay on the Thousand Sunny for the rest of their lives, sending Kaya a note saying that Usopp died.

Or something to that effect.