King's Comfort [Part 1: Information and Interviewing]

It would be late at night within the Briss Kingdom. It seemed as if all things stopped at this time as there would be almost no signs of life on the streets. There were some bars open here and there but even within their slowly decaying walls there would be almost no patrons. The cobblestone streets would be the home to a few unlucky souls taking refuge but they wouldn't be there by choice. Life had dealt them a hand that was hard to work with and work with it they must if they want to see the sunrise once more. The ocean wasn't so kind as to give it's players a chance to work with their hands as a lowly man would be spat out by this boundless entity. Crawling out and laying on the sand would be a man called Cody, a name given this name by the corporation that raised him. He laid dormant only for a second to catch his breath before attempting to get up. Having to float all the way here wasn't apart of the plan, but even the best-laid plans of mice and men often go awry. The man would tug on the cloth that was keeping his hair in a ponytail and let his soaked hair droop to his shoulders. He didn't care to fix it up, it merely bugged with the sand getting into it.

Slowly but surely the man would rise to his feet but not without a stumble or two. He would exhale deeply before looking back at the see to just get a glimpse of the small ship he and another person was using. Speaking of that other person, how was he? Cody slung him onto the thick piece of wood he fell on while the ship sank.


He would snicker at his remark of the sea laying claim to him instead of some crazed individual. It was a hopeful and amusing thought to him. Cody would take off his upper attire exposing his chest as to get some of the seawater off of his person. Slowly he would make his way towards his companion. A blonde fellow with a bright outlook on life. Weird indeed but an enjoyable twist to the usual grimy and ragged demeanors he was accustomed to. Falling to his knees Cody would squeeze out his shirt onto the man's head to wake him up. The two had some business to take care of, and a wrecked ship wasn't going to stop such an important mission. Hopefully, Sabian wasn't injured from the wreck as delaying was going to be an exasperating experience for Cody.

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The ballroom would be lit up from golden chandeliers and lights all around the room. A room filled with faces and smiles of the richest on the island. From merchants to nobles from other islands, it was an enormous room most certainly built for this occasion. Men were dressed in a classy black suit, black tie, white shirt attire. While the women had a wide array of dresses. Some ranging on the classier side to a woman covering herself with her slaves. Truly an event no one without an enormous amount of money would be allowed into. Everyone would begin greeting themselves to each other before being silenced once more as trumpets alerted the arrival of the King. The Tyrant King of Briss Kingdom, with a grip tighter around the necks of the island inhabitants they say it was hard to breathe here.

He would begin to descend the 30 step staircase that was built only for his use as the other attendees would clap. Whether this clap represented respect or fear wasn't a problem to the King of Briss. He was being applauded and this fueled his abyssal Ego. There would be a section of the ball where the minor influencers' children were allowed to run rampant. A play area in the back corner of the ballroom. It was almost like the King thought of everything for this event. It was a day for him and for everyone to celebrate him. So for it to not be in his liking would be nigh impossible. The marble floor reflected onto the face of the King as he reached the final step and glanced down to check. He thought he looked perfect in his refection, the people still clapping he assumed thought he looked perfect. What could go wrong on this fabulous night that was meant for no one but himself?

Making his way to the middle of the ballroom he would lift his hand to silence the people in the room before stepping up on an elevated part of the room that was meant to lift him above everyone else.




Everyone cheered and clapped with an ounce of reluctance for this self-absorbed king. They were here because they wanted to expand their social network, not to support a man that didn't view anyone important besides himself. In the back would be a bald man with the usual dress code all except a crow pin on his tux. What could this mean and who was this man?

After Sabian's loony portrayal Cody was a bit at ease from the fact that he could joke currently. Cody would finally slick his sea burdened hair back before going onto the mission details.


Of course, that wasn't Cody's goal as he was informed of Briss Kingdom's declining economy. It was of course at fault of their king who wasn't ruling as he should be. The islanders were leaving and so did a lot of it's lower level goods. That meant that the individuals that relied on these goods no longer had a way to feed themselves which led to crime rising. It was an interesting event going on here, a king completely absorbed in himself where he is too blind to see his island is falling apart. Cody also knew that it wasn't entirely his fault as there was another force at work. Some sort of secret entity that Cody was informed of. So while Sabian was talking to the King, as that was apart of Sabian's strong point, Cody would be collecting info in the back and finding out info about this entity. He was given a place to begin his investigation.


Cody would make way for Sabian to lead the way. It would make sense for the person in charge to decide the pace and what specific direction to go in. Cody merely wanted to lend some advice to Sabian to better help his judgment. Cody focused on blending in and being in the background more than anything else. So him sticking out too much wouldn't help him, it would only serve to cripple his mission. Cody would squeeze out the rest of the seawater from his shirt, not paying mind that his commanding officer was in his boxers. All Cody had to do was no look at it, right? Quack.

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After the King's frivolous speech he would come down from his elevated position to join the rest of the guest. After having a few of them greet him with bows and things akin to that the bald man would approach the king. He had a stern face with a scruff beginning to poke through his skin. He would simply lean in to whisper to him and instantly the king would stiffen up.

"Remember, we own you."

The man would fix his tux and would make his way to the back of the ballroom once more. The King, on the other hand, would begin to sweat. His demeanor would switch from this sort of bravado to a timid mouse sort of character. Not meeting the eyes of various guests and even walking away while int the middle of a conversation with another. He would make his way to one of the many balconies he had built. He was alone, just him and the wind and the sounds of various insects in the night.

"Where the hell are those revolutionaries. Those bastards won't use me anymore...I AM THE KING! ME! No one else...."

The King couldn't even fathom how much of a hold this secret entity had on both him and the island.

It was the first time Cody experienced Sabian's transformation. Rumors reached his ears about it, but catching word and witnessing feels completely different. Cody endured all sorts of pressures placed on his body, so this ride he revived from Sabian wouldn't affect him. There was a sort of alure to seeing something like this though. Something completely out of the ordinary even compared to the unordinary things Cody has seen so far. After the small trip, Sabian would transform right before hitting a dock leaving Cody in a precarious position. He would place his body in a helpful position as to lessen the pain from landing on the ground. After a moment of accessing where they were, Cody got up and dusted himself and as quickly the guards approached them they quickly fell to the floor.


Cody would be explaining his thought process while changing into the armor. It was a bit snug but it would suffice for the operation they were going to be conducting themselves in. The smell on the armor left a sour taste in Cody's mouth but putting up with porr conditions was all apart of the mission. If Sabian told Cody to move the bodies Cody would pick up both of the bodies and stack them on each other. Without their armor, they were quite easy to lift. If Sabian told Cody to leave the bodies, he would at least move the bodies in a place on the docks where it would take a bit to find them. Placing them in a barrel or a box would be Cody's go-to.

Cody would emulate a face of worry. Emulate being the keyword as Cody didn't care for the people on the island. His main focus was completing his mission. Using Sabian and anyone he needed to do so. Masking his emotions was lesson 1 for his line of work, so a mask for a face would be appropriate for Cody. Crack his neck Cody would follow Sabian towards the Palace. Quite grand from afar Cody would admit though. Cody would keep his black den-den mushi on him, even with it being annoying to conceal with his armor. Something as valuable as information comes to and fro from the snail, so of course something who thrives on information like Cody would never separate himself from it. Hopefully, the king was someone not too hardheaded or using him to get to the hidden force controlling the strings would be harder than it needed to be.

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The night was young, and the party still bloomed with excitement and joy as people danced on the ballroom floor or just indulged themselves in conversation with each other. Feeding into each other's emotions and ego would be the holding factors. Nothing too much of substance but hardy enough to keep the ball rolling. The king would continue to sit on the Balcony by himself await the arrival of the two revolutionaries he requested. The bald man would continue to keep an eye on this shaken king. He knows that he is on the edge and that revolutionaries were on their way. He didn't know what they would look like or even if they were already here. The higher-ups of H&M made sure that they wouldn't interfere with their pawn. He was a simple and brash king who only knew how to take care of himself, let alone an island. So them starving him for this long without any guidance was just in their plans to finally spread their influence to other islands.

As the two men would creep up to the Palace, the silence they endured would be shattered by the chatter of various people. After a few moments they would be in front of grand structure Cody saw from afar. It had this sort of alluring aura around it. Probably due to the lights and the materials used to construct it, but you could tell this Palace bled aristocracy. After passing a few guards who gave the duo a worrisome eye before shrugging it off and continuing their duty, Cody would notice other guards were either on their asses or about to be from the constant drinking. This served as a good distraction, with the guards occupied with the guest or each other, this would allow Cody to slip out and find out some information. Cody would lay some string alerts in the area around the front gate, he wanted to know if someone came or if someone left. Any and all information is useful, albeit some more important than others

Cody's hand would be tugged by Sabian and would be pulled off to the side for something. Hopefully, it was to devise a plan, but Sabian would convince Cody that he wasn't the type of person to author a plan, much less go through with one. Honestly, as the gold shower rained on the helpless shrubbery Cody wondered how the two got this far without any problems. But the list of oddities wouldn't end just yet, as a short woman would call forth to Sabian and Cody. It seems this was the contact for the boys to get inside of the Palace. There wouldn't a pause or a moment to relax as the woman would intimately measure Sabian, and carelessly measure Cody. It seems the woman...Cody didn't even want to think about it. The more he thought about Sabian the more a headache would present itself.

Cody's sentence would be cut short as multiple of his strings would snap. It wasn't something that gradually happened either. It was all of them breaking at once. Just as Cody would turn his head he would notice a few people running into the front yard and they didn't seem wealthy. It was the opposite actually, most if not all of them looked impoverished. He would glance at one of them running into the crowd of a few people and a bright light would flash, followed by the deafening sound of an explosion. Cody would instantly go into defense mode looking as the mob of people would rush out followed by a few more ear jarring explosions.

"What the-"

Cody would be cut off once more as he saw a man running towards him and looking at his chest he could tell that nothing good would follow. Who were these people? Were they the islanders? Who gave them explosives and how did the guar- Looking over at the gate and the bodies of guards and islanders would answer his own question. Time was running out, the duo needed to find out a way to either get away from the man running towards them or stop him in his tracks. Cody wasn't a master at his Devil Fruit abilities yet, actually, the only people who knew he had these powers were him and Cipher Pol. What the king aware of what was going on? If not, he damn sure knew of it now!

As quick as Sabian had transformed, he was gone. This caused Cody to smirk, with the comotion, Cody could begin his real plan of finding out who was muddling up the World Governments plans with this island. The man that Sabian had momentarily incapacitated from the force of his jump, Cody used to server the man's head from his shoulders using his devil fruit. The woman that help them with their attire was no where to be found so Cody was free to do what he desired with this crowd of insignificant byproducts. He would wrap some string around the freshly decapitated head before beginning to swing it. For a few moments, blood would spurt out before being drained from the momentum of the consecutive swings.

He would fan the fire in front of himself before proceeding in the direction Sabian headed. He would bash enemies that rushed him with his makeshift mace, using it to deadly precision. He would stop and wait as two other figures would tie up Sabian and head deeper into the Palace where bit more of the mob would head into. Whoever was still in this building was going to get an abrupt ending to their night of enjoyment and bliss. Scott would cut the rope bounding Sabian but didn't wake him up. He would see his head bleeding and if he died, that just meant he was fated to die here. It would be sad though, Scott almost got used to getting angry at Sabian for his antics. What was this feeling, maybe the fear of change?

Hopefully Cody was wrong, fear wasn't his vocabulary. Perhaps it was the annoyance of change instead. Cody truly found it to be an annoyance to readjust himself to a new partner. Cody would check his watch, he predicted that something else, something big, was going to occur in around 30 minutes? Give or take, this mob thirsted for something and it wasn't because of the lack of water they received. Someone or something spurred them on and gave them weaponry. Possibly the hidden entity controlling the island, trying to remove the tyrant king? After setting his watch, Cody would sneakily make his way into the Palace, making sure to hide his presence somewhat. It was something he was good at. Cody was going to go digging around in the palace to see if he could dig up some useful info.

Hopefully Sabian would wake up soon and stop the mob, he was a dino so how soft could his head really be? Cody....unfortunately had hope in his commanding officer. Cody could see that he was going to be a problem for the world government later on, so why not get as much info as he could of Sabian for better use in the future when they may or may not go blow for blow?

As Cody moved, cloaked in both shadows and the noise throughout the palace, there were a few thoughts that managed to graze his mind. They were probably induced by the onset of this sudden surge of bloodshed. Cody managed to deduce that the person responsible is either apart of the hidden power controlling this island, or apart of the military of this island. As Cody moved throughout the palace getting closer and closer to what he perceived as the ballroom, he stopped as he heard the voice of Sabien. A small smirk would begin to curl itself onto Cody's face. He wasn't happy that Sabien lived, he was more happy with the fact of Sabien continuing to be a great distraction.

The bodies didn't lighten up as he made his way slowly towards the ballroom. They seemed to multiply in number, maybe doubling the closer Cody came to the hallway that led to the ballroom door? Each body decorated in aristocratic attire, which made sense for the event they were attending. But then the bodies stop appearing...almost instantaneously. Cody would remain in the shadow as he began to list the reasons for this unorthodox sort of occurrence. The bodies perfectly doubled in number the closer he moved, almost as if to send some sort of message. But to who? Who would they need to send a message to and what did the message mean?

Cody would stare at the ballroom door. It was around 40 feet from him give or take. The chain of bodies stopped at around 100 feet from the door, and there isn't a drop of blood after that. Cody would grab his chin, he would become a slave to his own thought process. As if it were some sort of addictive drug to Cody, he couldn't help himself to a good mystery. Cody wasn't going to fall for some sort of trap, he would rather have Sabien make his way over here and enter. Cody would await the Dino's entrance as he would begin looking for other clues that may lie somewhere in the area. Making sure to remain hidden as to not alert some poor soul that happened to catch a glimpse of the so-called "Butcher"

The echos that pierced the veil of the section of the palace that Cody was in was deafening. A conglomeration of a varying amount of things. Hatred probably being the most potent, it's sharp decibels beginning to annoying the man hidden in the shadows. The sound seemed to get louder hinting it's distance was shortening. Cody would hold his breath as he would watch Sabien in a hybrid of his usual form. As the group made their way into the room, Cody would notice that someone stuck out like a sore thumb. Usually going by appearance, when someone sticks out they either want to or they have some sort of higher rank.

Almost meshing with the crowd before breaking away once more, Cody would make his way deeper into the room. He wasn't expecting the king to be alive, but he was expecting a body. The man must have had some sort of information or a clue towards the hidden hand that truly guided this island to the sorry state it devolved into. scanning the room quickly, Cody wasn't able to spot the body quickly. He firstly searched from someone who was dressed in pompous attire but after not spotting someone like that besides the obvious meat dress wearer or other various....pieces of clothes?

The financially stable in this world truly was wasting their funds on frivolous things. After deducing that either the king was under some sort of furniture or wasn't in the room, Cody brought his eyes once more onto the sore thumb. He had a weapon that was pointed towards the back of Sabian, he mentioned something about his masters and that's when Cody truly began to peer into the conversation. Hopefully, Sabien was capable of getting this man to divulge information that would lead to finding the perpetrators of this bombastic event.



If the man overstepped his boundaries though, so Cody would prepare an attack made of string just for the occasion. Of course, Cody was well aware of that Sabien could very well defend himself....a bit. So maybe he didn't need to intervene...hopefully.