Who's Ready to Kill More People?

Krys was kneeling on the floor, her breath was uneasy and uneven yet her spirit was undimmed. Both of her hands were jittering with anticipation, the wind howled in response and at that moment she raised her hands.

"Ow!"

A rope had descended to her right but she blocked in front, not being able to even catch it in time. "Gah!" More ropes were doing the same until it was eerily looking like a BDSM session from how many ropes and pieces of furniture were hitting her.

"Hrrk! Ok, stop!" Krys yells removing the blindfold shutting her eyes and standing up with her hands clenched around it. "Larc! Is this really the only way you can train Haki? I'm going to have bruises all over my face!"

Larc was watching the spectacle, along with a few dozen crewmates who were eventually eased into the reality of who these people were when with friends. "I'm not sure, I've only heard a few but it's not like you're going to get it immediately." He turns to the side and winces as a chair had flown and hit his other friend, Xed, in the back of the head. "At least one of us is doing somewhat better."

It had been days since they left the small three-island chain up north from the Organ islands and west of the Yotsuba island region. The next island was the closest they would ever be to the path of the protagonists of One Piece.

At that time, Larc had explained to them the training methods for a mythical power known as Haki. Though there was never anything too specific in trying to learn Haki, only a few sources from the anime itself were useable by Larc to teach.

Observation Haki was one of those, and if they wanted to fight off stronger pirates, they needed to train while they could. Which led to them all being surprised by how good Xed was at it.

They had discovered randomly during one of the nights that Xed has been seeing the world in a different way. Xed had night vision, then when found out he had it, they concluded it was because he wasn't completely human.

Xed had better hearing, better reflexes, and better sight than anyone on the crew. Being a cat-girl wasn't such a bad thing anymore and he used it to his advantage when trying to learn Observation Haki. It still didn't completely make him able to dodge perfectly.

"Karma! Can you stop doing multiple-" Xed gets his mouth shut by a whole table dropping on his head. "-Fuck! Okay, Karma, you're getting on my nerves just because you're the only one capable of moving dead matter!"

The entire crew laughed, even Karma relished the friendly way the pirates were interacting with one another even though it had been only a week since they met each other in an unusual way.

"Oh, Xed. I can let you throw things at me eventually but since I can train you three simultaneously, you'd have to be a moron not to let me train you all. Besides, the crew has been hard at work with the cannon, swordsmanship and pistol training. Aren't you all?"

""Aye, Captain!"" Everyone replied in earnest, earning a small smile from the four previous gamers.

"Land ho!"

The call made everyone stop, almost like a machine everyone went back to their stations and set the sails. Karma took a spyglass being offered as he went back to the wheel. "There it is, if this is where the island where Jacobin lives, we're close to the island chain that makes up the majority of East Blue."

He hands back the spyglass and observes everyone working hard. They would need to learn to sail the ship eventually since Karma would still need sleep and courses wouldn't correct themselves.

"Looks like they're much faster than before," he utters at his crew. "Everyone! Prepare for anchor!"

The island looked to only have maybe two or three houses on it. It was visible on elevated land. The sails furled close, the anchor was being prepared and the waves did their work while the wind that was left for some of the sails carried to a better position as the anchor dropped.

Karma landed with some of his crew and two of his friends, Krys and Xed while leaving Larc to overlook the ship and watch for any vessels sailing close. Not that they could see anything other than the marine vessels.

"Hey, isn't it strange that newspaper birds or whatever don't deliver to us?" Xed raised the question, they hadn't even realized until he pointed it out.

Krys sliced ahead towards the brush and replied. "Now that you say that… it's been close to a week. Do you think the birds aren't delivering to us for a reason? They say animalistic instincts are strong."

"Probably, let's just get ourselves acquainted with our target before we talk about this to Larc."

After a few more minutes of pathing towards an open area, they reached the houses and were greeted by the citizens with whatever they could scrounge up in their hands acting as weapons. Wait, was that a frying pan?

"Pirates! There is no treasure here!" One of the women screams. Particularly brave one at that, Karma observed.

"What we're here for isn't treasure. Hand us Jacobin Salishe and we will be on our way without any bloodshed!"

The name had seemingly frozen everyone in fear. Why that was the case disturbed the crew.

"W-What do you want with my husband?!" The woman responds.

"Your husband must die." Karma deadpans.

"N-no! Whatever he did in the past is nothing on who he is now!" Tears pooled under her eyes as a man approached the woman and hugged her. "No! …Why did you come out!"

'A brave woman meets a brave man, wondrous. It was the right choice for them. This Jacobin might have been part of something if the woman unintentionally revealed something important.' Karma assumes.

A few low voices exchange right in front of their eyes. The man tried to pry away the woman's grip as she tearfully tried to get him back from turning himself in. With a final kiss, the pair get separated and the man approaches Karma.

"Who are you?"

"Hmm, I would be offended for a prisoner to ask us that but since we're the ones intruding on your abode, I'll tell you who we are. The Reaper's Bones seek your death, we are pirates who sail the Eviction."

"...Pirates? …Aren't you against the World Government?"

'Ah, this must be a revolutionary or something that has cut his ties. I can't assume too much though.'

Karma approaches the man closer, trying to keep the conversation away from the other homeowners on the small island. "I am not here to entertain questions. As per our standards, we have decided to let you tell everyone your regrets. Whatever it may be, you have a family, it's only fit for someone who was strong enough to face death itself."

The man stares at him before turning around and cupping his hands. "...Everyone! I'm sorry! I shouldn't have risked your peace by coming here even when I was working for the royals!"

Jacobin started yelling more out, which was revealing to everyone who they were actually pursuing. Karma was wrong to assume he was a revolutionary but he did have the qualities of one. He was a past member of the guard for a noble in the Goa kingdom of all places who put extermination for something even in his death he didn't want to reveal but he admitted that he killed a lot of people.

A righteous man cursed to his sins. Karma wondered why Jacobin had to die for their voyage.

Jacobin was escorted toward the ship where he had been knelt down. Karma might be a ruthless man in the real seas but he still had some form of understanding in him.

To keep his death as far away from his family, Karma took Jacobin to the shore and sat him down for him to take in his final sight of the sea.

"Any last words?" Karma asked, he was getting generous but he still had to finish his task. A pistol was already aimed at the back of Jacobin's head.

"Not anymore."

"Good."

Karma fired and the smoking barrel wafted its gunpowder scent through the air. Jacobin falls to the ground with a bullet through his head. The silence that came after was memorable.

"The next step is complete." Karma then pulled out a compass, intending to look for the next step to his Reapers voyage. 'So it's an island? Wait… it's spinning around… Jacobin?'

A compass with red highlights and steel edges had its crooked point spinning around the corpse of a dead man. Karma walked around it and saw what it meant. 'So the body itself?'

Karma then pockets the compass back, disguising his ability to pull maps and compasses out of nowhere. "Krys, can you carry him for a moment?"

Krys looked in disgust. "You're asking me to carry a dead body?"

Xed rolled his eyes and lifted the dead man despite his smaller stature. "Don't be squeamish, it's just a person… that's not alive. Practically the same except for that part. Just think of it like a sack of potatoes… that is bleeding… and dead."

A new task had been assigned to them, Karma had taken out a new piece of paper - this time, it was a riddle, which was either easy or hard depending on the person you asked. Often you would find these riddles part of a voyage in Sea of Thieves, this one was rather… different.

"Where the flames never die and its light never fades, a crew reborn out of last life sails. Place the vessel fit, not for a king, but a prince to whereupon it slices a path to the sea." Karma read aloud the first line, he understood its message and looked towards his friends nodding. "Let's get this done with."

Getting up the ship with the body still being carried by Xed, the captain clears the way as Xed places the body on the bow of the ship. As soon as Xed does it, the flames started spreading around the front, making the crew of the Eviction stand back as the sorcery they observed made them lock in the fact that Karma was some kind of accursed person.

A sudden breeze and eerie noise came from the ship and a groan of rasping strings from a guitar played a tune so hollow yet so familiar. The song of which they sank their ship in the Sea of Thieves.

'Who Shall Not Be Returning' played in a distorted tone and from the notes, it was from the Reaper's version, it echoed from all around the ship and sent the crew's skin crawling. The next line revealed itself in a glow of red, different from how it was supposed to be in the game.

"The kindle has been set, a spark is all it thirsts for. A sea of crimson is what it hails from, a devil that does not come from its own world. Take a sacrifice upon your hands and the prince shall rise."

Karma took his sword walked up to the flame-encased dead body and sliced open his palm. Pooling it for a moment he reaches out and lets it drip into the flame. The ship was silent before a bellowing laugh came.

"Karma!" Krys yelled, seeing the captain get engulfed in flames.

"It's fine!" Karma yelled back, the flame did not hurt him at all, its warmth came roaring. The flame that had been so dormant gave its true fire that now burned but also blessed or rather… cursed.

The body rose from its slumber, and the crew exhaled, taking their breaths away at the sight of the body burning. Karma was closest to it and he could see the body's skin turn to ash and get consumed by the ship's flames.

From all around the ship, the ropes were disturbed, the sails shook and the wood creaked at every instant. The song came back, more finetuned from before as the flesh and clothes of the dead body were gone.

The parchment had destroyed itself in the chaos, the lines glowing fully red before disappearing. The prince had risen and The Servant of the Flame was reborn once more.

A skeleton had been burned in total black, Karma stood back as the skeleton lay on the ground only for it to jolt alive with the eye sockets glowing in red. Karma had seen this in the game, similar to how they obtained their skeleton curse in-game… seeing it in person was so awe-inspiring that Karma had only known one thing to do while he saw the skeleton rise and stare at them

He kneeled.

The crew at first were confused but quickly followed.

"Rise." A voice commanded, the crew does as told while they stared at the blackened bones. "Your loyalty to the flame had been recognized before, now it has been affirmed that your enthusiasm carried you through this world. You pledged your unending allegiance to the flame, and have sunk vessels sunk in your wake, charted a course of fire and fury… now the old flame has carried its embers to a new world! The will of my father has been reborn… through me! I… am… Flameheart!"

Assuming his father's name, The Servant of The Flame laughs, shaking everyone down to the core. But to the four crew members, they might as well have been in a dream. They smiled.

"What are your orders, your majesty?"

"The title which my father can only keep does not belong to me," The Servant of the Flame spoke, a supernatural voice reverberating like a voice without air. A whisper of a female and a man's voice talking at the same time.

"In that regard," Karma began. "Why is the king not with us?"

"...My father had shackled himself to the Sea of Thieves, his powers preventing him from fully transitioning into this world I have found refuge in. Too much influence made him unable to break and bypass the bounds where worlds beyond our own meet. Seeing his demise inevitable he had brought me and representatives of the Flame to carry his will."

Flameheart Jr. pointed to the four of them. "And that choice has served his will well. But our work will not end in just my resurrection. That fruit you have been given and this ship with the remnants of his flame were the limits of what he could send."

"So what do we do?"

"Spread the flame. His work may have ended abruptly but this world will suit our needs nicely. These fruits were a good channel for energy and I have plans to collect as much as I can. As for you, the seas beckon for more blood. Follow the voyage I have given and it will take you to where you need."

"We will!" Karma replied.

"Wait." Xed interrupted, making everyone look at him in curiosity. "Why have you turned me into a cat-girl?"

"Xed, now is not the best time to-"

Flameheart Jr. answered unexpectedly. "We couldn't see beyond what you 'players' could see. My father had little time to make suitable avatars for you four after he finished your captain. He took what influence leaked through and that is how your avatars have been created."

"Damn." Xed uttered under his breath, getting an elbow from both Krys and Larc as he did so.

"About this devil fruit… how have you gotten one?"

"It's not from this world, it is merely a conduit for power. It was the closest thing my father could manipulate in order to set up the ritual you have made. It needed another suitable soul and body, this person you have eliminated was one. Your Devil Fruit is made out of his power, it is unlikely that the power it gives is the same as this world's fruits."

"Wait, so I can still swim?"

"Undetermined but I am confident that the seas won't recognize you."

"By the way, when you mean players… do you mean-"

"I do not bother myself with inconsequential details. Whether this is all a game or anything else while you live in the real world does not concern me. Does this answer your question?"

"Yeah, so what will we do?"

"I will sail with you for now, you are the captain of this ship and I will listen to my father's request to let you represent the flame. You will travel the world and destroy anyone in your way, leaving a path where the flames can take over."

"Simple enough, eh?" Xed joked.

"It's going to be hard, idiot." Larc countered. "There are mighty pirates within the sea, that does not make it easy but that is what makes it much better to conquer."

Karma raised his voice. "Then we will train - harder than anyone else if we are to outpace everyone here. East Blue is the weakest but we do not let it cloud our judgment. Am I clear?"

""Aye!"" Even the crew joined in and the Servant of The Flame acknowledged Karma's words.

Karma lets out a parchment and three names were shown with a picture slowly fading in unlike before when the name was only present with the location and name of the island they resided in.

"Commodore Murphy Monsoon, Sarie Nantokanette, and Sterry." Karma read.

Larc widened his eyes. "The future king and queen of the Goa Kingdom and that Commodore that sent us his ships? I know the royalty ones and the commodore, so we're now killing them?"

"That seems to be the case. Set a course for a nearby outpost, well… anywhere we can resupply. We need to build up our crew before we take on a commodore. After that, we need to go to the Goa Kingdom on our own and kill the future king and queen… let us spread the word of the Reaper's Bones… shall we?"