Kaiser's Ultimatum

Creak

I opened the door. Kaiser's office was dark as per usual, but most of all it felt lonely.

"Hello?" I said closing the door behind me. The desolate feeling... I couldn't see Kaiser, but he had to be here. I glanced around.

Clang

The sound of something being closed. I turned my head towards the origin. From behind some crates in his office came out Kaiser.

"Welcome, sit down kid" He told me as he made his way to his desk.

I complied and found myself a seat right in front of his desk. Kaiser himself got comfortable as he rapped his finger on his desk. His face held a frown.

"You've been pretty relaxed lately, right?" Kaiser asked me.

"Sigh…" Rather than respond, I sighed. This conversation would need a lot of inferences. The annoying old man spoke in riddles as usual.

"So?" I asked, hoping he'd follow up.

"They really want you" He told me straightforwardly. Though, this answer still left me with some doubts. It did help me get the gist. Was he implying that he didn't want to use me since I am wanted? It does explain the relaxing time.

Fortunately, Kaiser's next sentence confirmed my doubts.

"I am troubled, I can't make use of you like this" He was in a dilemma. The resources I stole and he spent on me were being wasted if he didn't make use of me. The problem was that they would also go to waste if I was caught by the government.

"So what will you do?" My powers allowed me to sneak around so I could start doing solo jobs.

"I thought about this, the best compromise is to have you leave" Kaiser said surprising me. He just wanted me to leave? Were those extra crystals a farewell gift? My mind started to go down a rabbit hole of possibilities.

"Don't look so glum, I can't have you being linked to us is all" Kaiser said before tapping on a piece of paper. It was a map of Termina's sector B.

I wasn't looking glum at all, but I decided not to mention this fact and focused on the map on the desk. There had to be more to his request to leave.

"Here are a couple of gangs, I'll give you Seamus, Colt, as well as Hawk, you need to take over one of them and start a new one" Kaiser told me while drawing a red circle over different points.

"These gangs are really all over the place…" I commented, noting that they weren't just in the slums, some were even in the higher class areas of Termina.

"Hmph, those high class gangs are just government dogs" Kaiser harrumphed. To operate under the stricter surveillance of the government was no different from acting explicitly under their permission.

I ignored the comment and took a closer look at the gangs Kaiser provided.

"The goal is to keep us separate… right?" I asked still examining the map.

"That would be best" Kaiser replied.

"This one then" I said placing my finger on a red circle not too far from the library.

"Orsi D'oro huh" Kaiser mumbled as he silently evaluated my choice.

The best way to differentiate myself from Kaiser and his gang was to form an alibi. Problem was, the video footage probably captured me working together with Seamus. If his identity as member of this gang was found…

Well, on second thought, they definitely should have found out his identity. The chances that Farrell, who rewarded us, pulled some strings were instead very high. It made no sense for my wanted state to increase, but for the others and the gang to remain unaffected.

Does this mean I was excluded from the string-pulling? That didn't make- Or was it related to the card I was handed?

"I want to act like a hired hand" Ignoring my suspicions, I explained to Kaiser my idea. He still seemed unconvinced about my decision.

"But the area…" Kaiser was not keen on the location, which was outside the slums. It meant that there were cameras that could capture me moving about.

"It's fine, the middle-class area is busier than even these slums. I just need to move with the crowd" Even if there was some sort of face recognition technology, if I was careful enough I still wouldn't get caught.

"Plus, it will be easier to get rid of this one" The area of the slums was wild and unruly, there were plenty of opportunities for combat. The gangs of the middle and upper classes could not create trouble very often.

"I see, but how do you plan to sell the point that you were a hired hand?" Kaiser wasn't on board, but he was seemingly planning on respecting my decision.

"Just by taking on more jobs" All I had to do was take on more jobs from other gangs. My actions just had to be high profile enough to create a clear connection to me.

The only issue was that anyone willing to dig deep enough would find that my actions started only recently. While it was still explicable, having something that said I was part of Orsi D'oro before would be quite useful.

One option was to take claim for other crimes. The only downside was that the actual perpetrators could rat me out.

Whatever the case, my plan was not horrible.

Kaiser rubbed his chin for a good while before rolling up the map.

"Good, let's do that then. Start as soon as possible" Kaiser said as he handed me the map.

"Use this to contact the other gangs and get some requests" He then explained the purpose of the map. I nodded after grabbing it and soon after bid farewell.

"I'll leave tomorrow then" I still had to contact Seamus, Colt, and Hawk to tell them about this. They then had to prepare themselves. If they weren't ready in a day, I could always pick them up later.

"Erm, wait…" I paused right before leaving Kaiser's office.

"Seamus' appearance can be changed, but what about the others?" I asked Kaiser who only smiled subtly.

"Why can't theirs be changed?" Kaiser replied.

"Oh, right" Seamus was an expert in switching identities. He could definitely impart some of his wisdom onto the other two.

I left the office without any worries this time. Soon, I would be the boss of my own gang. Even if not on the surface.