Jacket D. Hoodie

"Ugh, we've been sailing for years, when are we going to find our first island to pillage!"

"Kid, calm down, it's been six hours since we left Ricordo."

As usual, the constant debate between Kid and Killer is ongoing and everlasting. Since there was no difference in seniority between them, as there was in the manga, the two seemed to bicker endlessly.

While Rex didn't mind this bickering, he was annoyed by the fact that they would always use him to settle these stupid arguments.

However, the bickering suddenly stops as Kid stiffens up.

Rex and Killer look at him with concern, as he looks off into a distant location. Before Killer shakes him awake.

"We need to go that way." Kid says, jumping up to the helm to turn the ship in that direction. Killer tries to stop him, wanting to know why, but Rex lifts his hand.

"Did you feel the magnetic field?"

Kid nods.

Ever since Kid had eaten the Jiki Jiki no mi, Rex had been trying to teach him about the magnetic fields of islands.

In the past, Kid was seemingly unable to find them, which Rex later discovered was because Ricordo was too small to have its own magnetic field. However, now that Kid was out and about, he was the best log pose in the world.

Unfortunately, Rex had been too poor to get a map from the corrupt marine, as sea maps were considered almost as valuable as ships themselves. He had to resort to stealing a map if it was necessary, but he needed Kid to find an island first.

"How far is the island?" Rex asked, hoping to make some preparations.

"Not far." Kid says, squinting his eyebrows. "We should be there… soon."

Rex nods. "Lower the Jolly Roger for now. We could be sailing into a marine base for all we know. We'll wear the tabard of traders for now, hiding under its influence. We can even sell some meat and vegetables to complete the outfit."

The others nod, making all the preparations, such as withdrawing the cannons and raising a merchant flag. It wasn't uncommon for merchants to buy pirate ships from Marine impound lots, so there were rather few accommodations to make.

Keep his guard up as he approached the island, Rex was a little excited. This was his first island in the One Piece. Rex didn't count Ricordo as it was little more than an oversized village.

As the island enters sight, all of the pirates ogle it in awe.

The first thing that Rex thinks of when he sees the island is Russia. From the spires of the immense castle in the distance to the architecture of the houses and streets, the island looked exactly like pictures of Moscow in the 1900s.

Rex stares at it in awe, recalling memories of a family trip to Russia so many years ago.

"What are you going to cry?" Kid laughs, being able to snap out of his daze the quickest. He had little to no appreciation for structural beauty and more of an appreciation for destroying it.

The ship quickly docks at the island, which the crew learns is called Roshwan island.

Perhaps because of their ages or maybe Kid's bloodthirsty glare, the port authority warns them that Roshwan was a world government affiliated Kingdom and had a marine presence.

"You needn't worry about that. Me and my brothers are simply food merchants from a rural island. We have come here to make our fortune abroad."

The port guard sighs in relief at that before giving the crew directions to a merchants' hub where they could communicate with other merchants. The crew then leave and enter the city. As they do, Rex pulls them into an alleyway.

"Ok, first things first, we need to get a lay of the land, put our fingers on the inseam of this kingdom. Killer, Kid, I need you two to hit the streets, find street urchins, criminals, get a feel of how well guarded this place really is and who's got the money around here. I'm going to go to the merchants' hub and get us a map of the sea area. The rest of you, hit the pubs, ask the same questions, and no matter what, don't get into any fights. Return to the ship by nightfall. I may be out longer, don't worry about it."

Kid groans in protest, but a stern glare puts him down in his tracks.

"As for you, little Rouge," Rex turns to the tiger cub. "I need you to stay with Killer for a while. Sniff out all the hidden little bilgerats."

The crew then splits up as ordered.

Rex makes his way to the merchants' hub, eager to try out one of the many abilities he drafted out on Ricordo.

The merchants' 'hub' as it was called, was only a pub where merchants would frequent. Most often business deals were brokered there and then ratified in more official settings.

However, Rex had no intention to broker any official deal. Slinking into the pub, Rex finds his target. The coatrack.

Rex's eyes scan the many coats hung on the rack. With the temperature of Roshwan Kingdom, everyone wore a heavy jacket, but since the pub was much warmer, they all took them off. All he needed to do was find the right one.

Eventually, Rex chooses his target, which is a fine, white silk jacket lined with silk. Very valuable, meaning its owner was likely an affluent merchant.

Rex looks around to make sure no one is looking, then puts it on.

Seconds later, it is almost as if Rex had disappeared, with only the coat left on the ground. One of the coat sleeves reaches up, climbs the coat rack, and the coat hangs itself back up, sitting in waiting.

This ability was called 'Camo-Print Jacket'. Rex discovered that he could transform himself into a look-alike of any jacket he was wearing. Of course, there slight differences that an observant individual may catch, not to mention he had to stay completely still to avoid tipping off the wearer that their jacket was sentient.

Rex speculated that this ability had once been used against the marines, and that was why so many Vice Admirals and Admirals never wore their jackets properly.

Rex waits in this position for almost two hours, before the jacket's owner finally comes to retrieve it. Fortunately for Rex, the owner had more than a couple drinks and was barely cognizant enough to remember his jacket, let alone notice the differences.

The merchant then stumbles his way back onto the ship, before falling asleep.

Waiting a few more minutes to be certain, a wide smile breaks out onto the merchant's jacket. Stretching out to encompass the merchant's entire body, Rex slowly engulfed the merchant, taking control of him.

Rex loved that aspect of his devil fruit. As long as the target wore him of their own free will, they couldn't revoke their consent later.

Rex steps up, getting to work immediately. He digs through the merchant's things eagerly, finding a journal that he kept.

Apparently, the merchant he had occupied, Thecil Jonker, was a well-connected fellow, working for a company that traded directly with the royalty of Roshwan Kingdom. In fact, he had a near monopoly on the import of grains and controlled a good share of the exports of the created alcohol, which was the main export of the kingdom.

Noting down everything the merchant knew about the palace and the kingdom's nobles, Rex realizes that the merchant had a meeting with the head of commerce in the palace in three days.

Rex gets an evil glint in his eyes as the wheels in his head start turning.

Rex then quickly sneaks over to the navigator's office, stealing the maps and charts of the neighboring sea areas and placing them in his 'pockets'.

Rex then goes through the merchant's own belongings, finding several stacks of Berries. He removes almost all of them but keeps a few thin stacks of Berries which he places on top of blank sheets of paper, making it look like nothing had been stolen.

Stealing a few more valuable trinkets from the merchant's room, Rex's pockets soon reach full capacity, forcing him to begrudgingly leave the rest behind.

Rex then leaves the ship, preparing to offload all the goods he had looted and inform his shipmates of his plans.

"Where are you headed off to at this late hour, Mr. Jonker?"

Rex freezes as he hears one of the guards call out from behind him. He freezes up, but realizes that there should be no problem as his form and clothing were identical to Jonker from behind.

"I'm just headed out on a midnight stroll. I won't be long." Rex says, using Jonker's vocal cords to imitate his voice.

"Do you want me to accompany you? The streets are dangerous at night."

"Nonsense, we're in the middle of a world government protected kingdom, what could possibly happen to me?"

Rex refuses the urge to laugh at this, but the guard finally relents at this, and lets him go.

Then, the moment Rex feels he has left the guard's sight, he runs off, going towards his ship. When he reaches the ship, he immediately calls Killer and Kid into his chambers.

The two look at his taller figure strangely, but remembering his fruit, they don't ask any questions.

"So, what did you guys get?"

Kid and Killer explain their haul from their search. The citizens seemed to be rather unhappy, as was the case in most World Government countries, due to the high tax rate of the world nobles. These sentiments were typically vented out in bars, and were known to the government.

Outside of that, they got a lot of useful information, including the locations of several nobles' residences and the status of the underworld powers. The crew had found similar information, none of which was too useful.

"So, who are we going to rob? The duke? The baron? The princess!?" Kid asks eagerly, battle-lust in his eyes.

"We're going to rob the king."

Kid and Killer both gasp at this, both shocked at this.

"How are you planning to do that? The king has dozens of guards not to mention the marines backing him!"

"Yeah, even I don't think we can get to the king without a hard fight."

Rex shakes his head and smiles broadly.

"Who said anything about a fight?"

Rex then pulls out the Berries he looted from the merchant. As well as the other goods.

"Here's what we're going to do…"

(Three Days Later)

Thecil Jonker quickly arranged all his affairs for his meeting with the king. Rubbing his forehead, Jonker curses his love of Roshwan 'Juice'. He had only been in the kingdom for a week and yet everyday he had been tempted back to that accursed pub for more.

Moving outside, Jonker watches as the guards load up the crates of rye, barley and wheat on the carriage. He frowns as he sees one of the younger guards struggling with a crate, slowing down the loading process.

"Hurry it up!" Jonker cries, alerting another two guards to help the guard load the final crate as the party begins traveling to the palace.

In the streets, Jonker is alarmed to see a large presence of street urchins and unsavory characters walking about in the daylight. Ordinarily, they would stick to the back streets, so Jonker was surprised to see them.

Shaking his head, Jonker just goes through the paperwork, making sure that he knew how many kilos of goods he was delivering and how many Berries he would get in return.

"Did you have pleasant strolls the past few days, Mr. Jonker?" One of the guards suddenly asks.

This causes Jonker to scrunch up his forehead, confused. 'What nighttime strolls?'

Suddenly, Jonker has a look of realization on his face, suspecting that the guard had seen him sneaking onto the ship when he was drunk. While such actions were not directly forbidden by his company, Jonker knew that it was highly frowned on to drink before a major meeting, especially in the amounts that he did.

Smiling genially, Jonker responds. "Oh yes they were very refreshing strolls indeed." He then stealthily places a thousand Berry note in the guard's hand, disguising it as a handshake.

The guard is confused, but he quickly pockets the bill as the carriage reaches the castle.

Rex, who has heard this conversation in jacket form, cannot help but sigh in relief, understanding what had happened. He had been leaving frequently in Jonker's body and kept getting caught by that annoying guard. Fortunately, Jonker misunderstood.

As they reach the castle, the guards begin unloading the crates, and Jonker clicks his tongue as he sees the same young guard struggling with a crate once more. While Jonker doesn't say anything this time, though he makes a mental note to speak to the company about increases the training regimen for guards. If they couldn't carry barley, how could they fight pirates.

The party are quickly escorted into the commerce chamber, bowing respectfully to the minister of commerce, Vodka IX. Vodka is a young man with a thin mustache and a regal appearance. He wears a jaguar printed sash, as is custom among Roshwan royalty.

Vodka was the king's brother, and was widely regarded as the second most influential man in all of Roshwan, second only to the king himself.

Jonker and Vodka had a good relationship, shaking hands and getting straight to business. The two discuss a few matters such as piracy in the nearby sea regions, the fluctuating costs of grain and future trade agreements.

Eventually, the two move to the exchange of goods, but as they do so, a guard bursts into the room.

"Your majesty, there is a large disturbance in the lower…" The guard starts, but seeing Jonker there he stops.

"You can continue. Jonker here is a close friend and business associate to the kingdom."

The guard nods and continues. "There is a riot in the lower town. The citizens are rebelling against the tax increase."

"I see." Vodka says, unconcernedly. "Have you informed my brother of this matter?"

"His royal highness is currently vacationing on Mount Stoli and can't be reached. He took a regiment of the kingdom's guards with him and we're lacking men to quell the riot."

"And you wish to borrow some of my personal guards?" Vodka asks, to which the guard nods. "Very well. You may take as many as you need, but ensure the message is clear. The royal class is in charge. If you need to kill a few civilians to make this apparent, feel free to do so."

The guard just nods apathetically at this vicious comment, with a sadistic glint in his eye. He then bows and leaves with several guards.

Just before he leaves, Jonker speaks up. "Take some of my own guards as well. Make sure those peasants know their place." Jonker spits.

While Jonker wasn't a royal, he was still of a higher class, being the second son of a noble. As such, he completely supported Vodka's measures.

With that, many of the guards leave the chamber, leaving only a half dozen men to guard the chamber.

Rex smiles in coat form. His plan was going even better than expected. Just a few bribed street urchins had stirred up a huge riot, using the people's dissatisfaction and now the castle was barely under guard.

Of course, Rex knows that his own fruit should take most of the credit for this. After all, the palace gate was the major impediment for any intruder, and with his fruit, he could walk right in with ease.

Now, it was time to strike.

Suddenly, one of the boxes of grain explodes, revealing a man in metallic armor with a mask made of metallic pieces. The man's eyes are covered with blue, studded goggles as he glares menacingly at the guards.

Before they can react, the guards are covered in a purple aura and are magnetized together by their armor. They are then lifted into the air, then smashed into the ground headfirst.

Jonker and Vodka gasp retreating to the back of room, Vodka draws a small dagger he keeps for his protection. Then Jonker finds his arm moving against his accord.

Squelch!

Vodka barely manages to move to the side, moving Rex's stab from his chest to his arm.

"Jonker, you won't get away with this! Surrender now or die! My brother will have your head for…"

Vodka leaps back to avoid a second stab, only to realize that the man before him is no longer Thecil Jonker.

'Disguise?' Vodka thinks. 'No, it was too realistic. Unless it was a de…'

Rex sees the realization don on Vodka's eyes, but in his moment of shock, Rex leaps forward, punching his dagger through the noble's heart. The man, then slumps over, quickly perishing.

Then, Rex detaches from Jonker, killing him and laying his body next to Vodka. Then, Rex vengefully spits on his and Vodka's bodies. While Rex had originally been averse to Kid's plan of slaughtering everybody in the palace, but now he supported it wholeheartedly.

To think that these people, rulers at that, would thoughtlessly cull their civilians, for a peaceful protest. Rex shook his head, that was simply unacceptable in his eyes.

Rex takes Vodka's jacket then envelops Vodka's corpse in his jacket form. He then puts on a mask, a savage glint in his eyes.

Rex and Kid were wearing masks and using different body shapes to prevent the World Government from tracing these actions back to the King pirates.

After all, piracy was one thing. But emptying the stores of a world government subsidiary. If that was tracked back to them…

Preemptively, Rex had Killer disembark two days ago, long before all this went down, to detach the King pirates from the incident.

Not to mention, Rex had ordered Kid to hunt down and kill a famous criminal of Roshwan, throwing his mangled bodies to the fishes.

With that, and the fact that Rex was assuming Vodka's build and voice. The world government would likely suspect that the thief had gotten cocky and worked with or coerced Vodka to steal the gold. They would then go out on a wild goose chase searching for ghosts.

"Let's kill these bastards."

The remainder of the plan goes off smoothly. With most of the guards having been relocated to quell the riots, there was almost no one left in the castle to guard.

Moreover, Kid's devil fruit ability makes it easy to detect and instantly kill the few guards before they even had a chance to react. Kid's fruit was honestly broken as hell against fodder-warriors who relied on guns, metal weapons or armor.

The most difficult task was actually finding the treasury, which took a while, but after a few wrong turns, as well as a particularly awkward one to the maid's changing quarters, the duo finally found it.

Rex then withdraws a key, found on Vodka's body and opens the treasury. Kid then uses his devil fruit to control massive amounts of gold coins and treasure chests to fly towards them.

Suddenly, the treasury is depleted by around a quarter. With most of the gold floating under Kid's control.

"Why are you stopping?" Rex asked, before turning to see Kid's face which was red with exertion. While he had trained his fruit well, he still couldn't handle carrying tons of gold with ease.

Rex shakes his head; this was a problem. If Kid couldn't steal all the gold, that meant that he would have to leave some for these corrupt bastards. But he didn't want to even leave them a cent.

Then, Rex gets an idea.

Climbing up onto the castle's roof, Kid and Rex look down at the riots, seeing the soldiers attempt to forcefully quell the riots. Rex shook his head.

Then clearing his throat loudly, Rex cried out. "People of Roshwan! I am Jackson of Loxley, and this is my companion, little Gold. But you can call us, Jacket D. Hoodie and the merry men! We fight against the oppression of the wealthy over the poor.

For too long, the noble class has oppressed us commoners. Like a suffocating overcoat, they steal our money and call it 'tax', but what service do we get in return! They cloak their corruption and steal the money for themselves, lining their own silken pockets.

I say no more! Take back these ill-gotten gains and enjoy the fruits of your hard work!"

Then, Rex starts throwing gold coins into the crowd, thousands at a time. He would use Kid's fruit, but he was worried that it would be traced back to Kid at a later date so he is stuck with manual distribution.

Cheers spring out as the people collect the gold, but after a few moments, both Kid and Rex have disappeared. Their disappearance is marked by a roaring fire, erupting through the Roshwan palace.