Change of Plans

On that same night and the following day, the Baron was forced by Sterry to relinquish Xed to his wife, all because she found him cute - to be honest, anyone would, but Xed wouldn't like that.

He'd never been so tempted to kill someone so much. The additions of an ugly face ugly attitude and an uglier vocabulary made it Xed's desire to just wring Sterry's neck.

"What are you looking at? Mutt?" Sterry jeers. "Jealous that you sub-humans can't become royalty like me?

Xed was mad but for the wrong reason.

'I am a fucking cat! How the hell do you confuse a cat for a dog?! If you're going to be racist at least be good at it… damn casual, even a based gamer knows that.'

Xed was at his limits, literally and mentally. He was chained by the neck like a collar to the wall while he was left to sleep on the floor near the heir's chambers, guards were there flanking him. Not because Sterry's wife had cared for him but because it was to discourage others from taking her 'pet'.

His position was great, easily able to kill everyone due to them underestimating his strength and putting sea stone cuffs which didn't actually weaken him.

Although this situation was troublesome, the original plan had gone out in flames. It was only supposed to be an operation that would quickly be attributed to a conflict that Krys and Karma were making in the centre of town, but now, their predetermined time was off-course.

'I mean… stealth really isn't needed… right? We're Reapers, we should be able to fight off anyone.'

The most danger their crew was ever in was whenever Xed was left alone to decide things. Being captain? Crashed. Being left to cannons? He somehow shot their own masts. Being left to explore the island? He'd somehow find a way to sink the entire landmass.

"Hrah!" Sterry grunted. Another wimpy ass hell kick was made, Xed easily shrugged it off but Sterry thought it was actually doing something.

"Filthy, filthy, filthy!" Sterry continued his abuse, his wife wasn't nearby which was the reason why Sterry was taking out some frustrations on Xed.

'Filthy?' Xed thought. "My man, you look like the incestuous child of a potato and a rat. You're exposed to the plague, blight and genetic deformity, it's no wonder your parents left you."

"...Ha!? H-How... insolent!"

'...Oh, I said that out loud, didn't I?' Xed saw the anger boiling up inside Sterry, his face turning red and contorting into a deeper ugliness as Xed insulted him directly and openly. He couldn't help but laugh at the sight of it.

Xed shrugged off his kicks casually and insulted royalty without care. Sterry was lost for words and didn't know how to react. He finally mustered, "Guards! …this… m-m-miscreant!"

"Can't even say another word but stutter, huh?"

"I'll kill you, you little-"

"Sterry, darling~" But before Sterry could say anything further, Sarie Nantokanette appeared. Xed's smirk grew as he watched Sterry's abusive behaviour come to a halt.

Sterry fumbled his words for a moment before coming up with a decent response. "Sarie! Ehem… what do you desire with this… pet."

"I have a line of new adorable outfits I can show off to my friends."

Xed eyes twitched as he saw multiple colours of pastel pink and blues come in from a multitude of maids. He can tolerate torture and insults... but one thing he couldn't handle was being a femboy.

Technically he was fully female now but that's not what Xed thinks.

'Karma, forgive me for this. I'm acting on my own.'

~

Karma sat alone in the dreary apartment they had rented, his tired eyes fixed on the blank walls as he listened to the monotonous ringing of the phone. He had just finished coordinating a series of attacks from the outside, and with some assistance from Larc, they had staged another successful false flag operation.

Karma cautiously approached the door, his hand hovering over the lock. After a moment's hesitation, he unlocked and opened it to reveal Krys.

"Krys... it's you," Karma said, relief evident in his voice. He slumped his shoulders, releasing some of the tension he had been holding onto. "Any news? We need to be ready in the next three days, assuming Xed sticks to the plan."

"Bad news and good news, Karma."

"There's bad news?"

Krys slumped onto a nearby makeshift stool with a heavy sigh. "Karma, the Gold Hoarders are here."

Karma's eyes widened in shock. "Again?"

"Yeah," Krys nodded grimly. "They've been lurking around the city since we made Xed go to High Town. I did some digging and found out about their presence. We don't know their intentions, but if they figure out what we're up to, everything we've worked for could crumble."

"Shit. So about them? What are they doing?"

"Trade deals, negotiations on some rights to natural resources and routes… finally a deal on making a mercenary force to protect the seas against pirates - with their dirty hands involved."

"...So it's gonna make Flameheart's goals harder to have a foothold on East Blue that much harder. What's the good news then?"

Krys smiled. "The nobles are in conflict, there are two factions currently open to fighting, not in the streets mind you but underhanded tactics like raiding each other's trade, manipulating prices against each other, sort of like a soft embargo, and more in the courts. It's going to be chaos."

Karma nodded. "Good, let's be thankful everything is going relatively okay."

He then stared out of the window, imagining how all of what he saw would soon be in ruins… yes… like flames spreading through the city and ashes filling the sky… sort of like the royal castle at this time.

Wait a minute.

Fire? In the Castle? Where Xed's general vicinity would be?

"Oh for fuck's sake," Karma muttered, catching Krys' attention. "There's been a change of plans. Knowing Xed, he'd probably find our old spot and wait there."

"Wait, wait, wait. What's happening?!"

"...Open your voyage."

Krys did as told, magically taking out the voyage and was surprised to see the lack of the old step of killing the heirs to the Goa Kingdom. "Oh, it's gone. How are we going to salvage this?"

After a lengthy pause, Karma walked to the door with a heavy step. "We're bringing him back and getting the outta here. Knowing the Gold Hoarders, they'd know what we are and what we represent, our identities shouldn't be revealed yet but I wouldn't complain anymore if we somehow did get our faces on parchment."

"I thought the whole point was to make this a hidden affair?"

"It's like one of those bonus objectives, we'll manage somehow without it but first, we need to get out. Our job is done, let's just hope the World Government won't send the big dogs after us. Krys, you know what to do."

"...Terrorism."

Karma held back a chuckle. "Good. I'll call Larc to relay what changed. He'll be escaping with the crew, we set sail immediately after so I'll have him make the ship get closer to Foosha Village."

The two set off separately at different times, Krys had gone ahead and brought herself to any place that could do as kindling and headed to the docks to find something to blow up. Karma quickly relayed what he needed to Larc and quickly made his way throughout town.

Screams of bloody murder had reached the common street, and every man and woman not inside would be gazing towards the rising inferno within the castle itself. How Xed managed to set fire to everything is amazing in it itself.

Karma passed by multiple people and heard more screams behind him. He looked back to see flames spreading from goods on the streets. The night had waned in favour of the crimson delight of the inferno.

"Xed!" Karma stopped short to see from the side of the walls a cat girl wearing a frilly skirt and shoulder-exposed top. "Uhh…?"

"Wait." Xed stopped, deadly serious in his expression which was unlikely for him. "Before you ask, Sarie dressed me up and I killed them both when I snapped the sea stone cuffs and got the materials with me in my pockets. As I tried to escape, I had to murder a dozen guards before finding myself in the kitchen and setting it on fire. Then I had to slaughter even more people along the way and headed to the Baron's house to free the slaves there and told them to set everything on fire."

"You freed slaves and made them go set stuff on fire? That's… ingenious, you sure you aren't gonna become French anytime soon?"

"...Actually, I yelled Viva La Revolution when I set them free, I told them to join up with the Reapers if they can live. Not confident some of 'em will come out alive but I had a great time seeing them butcher a guard."

"You have the weirdest enjoyments in life. Let's go before anyone catches their eye on us, got a cloak like mine to leave with?" Karma swished a dark robe he had previously gotten from one of their sessions in town.

"Karma, I literally just left the heirs' wardrobes. The last thing royalty would have is a robe that's not attention-grabbing."

"Good point. I'll make something as soon as we enter the town, enough dilly-dallying, let's go!"

Xed and Karma went through the shadows of the streets, leaving a trail of destruction in their wake. They might not have planned to leave at this instant but at this point, many things can be attributed to the fires.

Some may connect the dots between the arrival of a Devil Fruit user to getting the entire town destroyed but knowing the nobles, they would more likely try to blame everyone else to bring them down while propping themselves up in the hierarchy.

If there were someone to notice the connection, Karma would just let the dice roll where it lands. Karma could understand Xed, honestly, he thought he had gone through worse considering the status of every other slave that he has knowledge of.

The trio did what was needed, leaving as soon as possible towards where they could always try to leave, the lack of guards made it known that they were trying to calm down the populace or extinguish the fires but when Karma reach the walls he had a thought cross his head.

"Wait, can't we use this chance?" The other two didn't respond but they turned to him. "Flameheart Jr. wanted a ship, didn't he? Where else but a nobles harbour to get one while we're in this chaos?"

"But how would we know which one would be good?" Krys asked.

"We find the one that's fast but powerful." Karma didn't elaborate further as he rushed to the docks instead of leaving through the wall. It was going to be risky but Karma had a plan.

The trio reached the docks and Karma made the move to stop all of them for a second. "There! It's a frigate, it's a merchant ship for now but with a few upgrades and modifications, Flameheart Jr. would like his own ship to make than having a prebuilt one. Plus it's a frigate which is larger than a brigantine."

"How do we shake off anyone seeing a ship leave at sea as suspicious?" Krys responds.

"If one ship left, it's suspicious. If every ship what do you think everyone would think?"

Krys nodded but had a concerned question. "Wait, the crews would just connect that everyone else had the same experience of their ship suddenly setting sail."

"There is that problem but with everyone raring to blame anyone else at this point, I'm going to bet that these nobles are way too self-centred to even consider that option."

"That's a bit assuming, don't you think?"

"I can't always be right, you know? I don't know what the result of anything is until the situation has passed. Until then, the best guess is what we have."

With that in mind, the trio went to work, seizing the frigate Karma pointed out and boarding it before killing everyone on board and readying themselves in around a few minutes. "Ah, Krys I almost forgot. Can you kill the person that managed that apartment for us?"

"Huh? Why?"

"Loose ends, at first we couldn't kill him because the missing front-desk manager of an apartment complex would easily be noticed during our time here but since everything has gone to flames, literally, it'd be better for us to not have anyone know our daily routine."

Krys sighed, she was getting too used to killing people not even enemies. They just killed a bunch of merchants, granted they were under employment by a noble but she was getting worried everyone was starting to become a psychopaths because of the whole reincarnating thing.

More minutes pass and Krys came back with confirmation of what she had finished. With Krys and Xed on board the frigate, Karma walked along the docks. Karma saw every other ship in the harbour leaving for the sea as his Devil Fruit abilities activated.

Every ship opened its sails, each one having its rigging pull itself to adjust for wind and sail in different directions. Yells of confusion came and Karma could hear people behind him reacting to the ships leaving.

'I think that's good enough-'

As Karma tried walking he felt stiff resistance come from his shoulder, someone had stopped him. "Cool power…" A voice said. "Don't worry, I don't think we have anyone who can take you on right now but I have a feeling we're going to meet again."

Karma turned around, readying his hand over his weapons as he stared at someone wearing a business suit. Karma didn't know who he was but with everything going on, he could only come to one conclusion. "Gold Hoarders?"

"Elon Musk. Nice to meet you, Reapers. Are you the captain?"

"Why should I answer?"

"Ah, so you are the captain. Good, I can tell you right now what I think about everything."

Karma looked confused. "What? Also, Elon Musk? Really?"

Elon nudged his head. "It was their idea to name ourselves after rich people in the game. Listen, I don't really care about the rivalry of Reapers and Gold Hoarders or as a matter of fact, any other company if they managed to come here. What you did today is great for business and I'm just here to say we are of neutral stance, for now."

"The hell are you going on about?" Karma threatened.

"Chill dude, we're reincarnations, right? Or technically we got dragged here but it's the same thing. All these other people in the world are just fictional is all, we are real. What else but on this basis can we talk as equals? Sadly, I'd have to tell everyone that you were part of the attack but as a good show of faith, I'll be telling a different side to my story."

"...What's the catch?"

"Nothing…"

"I don't believe that for a second."

"Call it good faith from the Gold Hoarders, from one earthling to the next."

As soon as Elon left, Karma ran to the ship and sail away from the harbour, disturbed by what he heard. He could kill him right then and there but it piqued his curiosity as to what other reincarnations had planned in One Piece.

"It'll be hours until Larc can leave so we'll sail for the edge of the island and wait."

"Where to next after that?" Krys asked.

"...The Grand Line."