Part 4.5

One thousand and two hundred seconds. Twenty minutes. One-Third of a hour. Whatever increment of time you prefer, that was how long I sat on the pile of loot watching the fires burn out. The entire time Gurry didn't stop turning the beads he had found.

I'm not going to say I was brooding, but I was a little peeved. And when I say a little, take a small amount and multiply it by Ninety-Fold. That's how peeved I was.

This whole 'loot and pillage' thing was giving me the creeps. Sure, I understand that it's just what criminals and pirates do, but it didn't make a lot of sense to me. None at all in fact. What kind of idiot had the idea of 'Hey guys! I'm going to take this torch and my cutlass, go to that island over there, and fuck them over by fucking them over and then take all their stuff for myself.'

An idiot. That's who had that idea. I can't think of a good reason to start burning and looting. And that's ironic, because I'm doing exactly that. It's doubly ironic because I have a good reason!

Somebody told me to.

"Damn. I'm ironic." I say aloud.

"I thought your name was Tenno Thirteen?" A voice called out from one of the alleys, growing louder as the man assumeably walked closer.

"Meh. People can call me whatever they want as long as I know they're talking about me." I reply immediately. The subject of my name had been discussed before, and it really didn't matter.

I remember how I used to have a name, a long time ago. When I was young I called myself something else entirely. I guess I just forgot it eventually.

The origin of the voice emerged from the alley. It was someone I recognized almost immediately. The purple hair gave it away. Purple hair is weird.

It was Kreig. He had a massive grin on his face and a sack over his back. From the top, I could see guns and swords poking out, as well as what looked like gold plates. He had abandoned his prisoner clothes and now wore a plaid shirt with overalls. For some reason I thought he should be a lumberjack.

He saw my pile of loot and raised both his eyebrows for a moment before smirking and nodding his head.

"That's a nice haul. Huge." He admitted.

"I like to think of it as proportionate to myself." I told him truthfully, thinking of my larger size.

"True. The captain always gets the largest share. Which is why I brought these!" He reaches into his sack and retrieves what I correctly assumed were golden plates. He walked forward and began go through the motions of throwing them on my pile.

I raised my hand and stopped him. "Don't bother. I don't want them. If I wanted goldne plates I would go out of my way to get them. I don't see the point in golden plates to be honest. Gold in general. Seems kind of useless on its own. It's only important once people say it's valuable."

A strange look that I couldn't quite place crossed his face. "Mind if I keep them then."

"Go ahead. If you like gold, you like gold. But, I think gold is almost useless. Do you know what I truly hate?"

He asks confused, "What do you hate?"

I reply with all the hate I can muster, "I hate useless things."

He begins to panic and choke a little. He takes a few steps back and coughs. He waves his hands quickly and frantically says, "Ah! Gold isn't useless! I'm not useless!"

"Really?" I ask interested.

He shakes his head up and down quickly. "Oh yah. Gold is very useful! It can be used to conduct electricity, it has a low melting point so it's easy to make molds out of it, it's shiny and can be easily distracting to your foes! I'm not useless either! I have eight years of college and Master Degrees in Engineering, Logistics, and Metallurgy. Let's not forget my Grand-Master's degree in Chemistry! I used my skills to become one of the most feared pirates in East Blue by making my own tools and weapons!"

He's panting when be finishes speaking and I lean forward in my crafted chair and put my head in my hand. I think that this is the first real chair I've ever sat in and let me tell you something. It's wonderful.

"How do you get a Grand-Master's degree? I didn't even know that was a thing." I ask him.

"You have to get one via apprenticeship with another Grand-Master."

I mull it over before replying, "Seems legit."

Kreig gives a big sigh of relief for some reason and I hear the sound of someone else approaching. I hear the distinct noise of several swords clacking together.

Klahadore calmly made his way into the plaza. Underneath his left arm he carried a bundle of swords wrapped up in twine. He too had discarded his prisoner outfit and now wore a suit and tie. Funnily enough, there was a fat orange cat printed on the tie. It had a speech bubble coming out of its mouth, and I desperately wished I could read. I bet he was saying something funny.

He regarded us without saying anything, and pushed his glasses up. He then made his way to a relatively flat pile of rubble and took a seat. He reached into his coat pocket and retrieves a pair of gloves and what looked like some sort of metal wire.

I watched him fiddle around for a few moments but quickly lost interest. Instead something else caught my attention. Gurry began chuckling to himself while handling his beads.

"What's so funny?" I asked him.

"Future stuff. You wouldn't get it without context."

Kreig snorted. "So I'm supposed to believe you can see the future."

In an instant from Kreig's perspective, Gurry was behind him and gave him a dope slap. "Boy, I will learn you some respect for me. I'm Gurry-Rōshi, and I'm a genuine sage. I don't just see the future, I live it. Like how I know in twenty eight seconds you're going to regret being born."

Kreig probably felt the strength behind the fishman's strike, so he didn't say anything to the sage's face. Instead he got up and grumbled under his breath. He walked away huffing and kicked a plank propped up against a nearby building.

I watched with growing concern as a terrible series of events kicked off.

The plank disturbed a rock, which moved another plank. The second plank caused a burnt out wall to crumble. A brick balanced atop the wall fell from a great height and landed on the far side of a board balanced like a teeter totter. The rest of the wall landed on the other side of the board, launching the single brick far up into the air.

Kreig craned his neck up and took a few steps back as he tracked it's decent. I tried to call out to him but I was too late. He tripped over some rubble and fell on his back. At that exact moment, he brick landed... right on his balls.

Gurry ignored Kreig's high-pitched outburts of pain and rage. Instead the sage just did what he did best, and nodded wisely.

"Again. I foretold you so."

After Kreig recovered enough to get up and limp to take a seat again other prisoners began arriving. Most of them had switched out of their prisoner clothing, but a few odd ducks still wore the shirts or pants, and a clear majority seemed to be wearing striped clothing. They all carried loot and had satisfied expressions on their faces for one reason or another, even that one woman covered in paint.

Some seemed to have light injuries from the populace of Brakka Village fighting back, but for the most part they seemed unharmed.

Well, if they were done looting, I suppose it's time to get on to the next part of Keystone's plan. Going to Diz-Harmony.

For that however, we would need a boat.