Chapter 011 Part 1:
New day, new fight
(or that String Bastard is at it again)
Groggily, Camilia threw a pillow towards whatever noise woke her up at this insane hour. She got a feminine squeak in response, which made her scrunch her face in confusion. She got up from the couch and looked at… Kazuho, opening the door to Koichi's apartment and now extremely pissed off. That was as far as she saw before the pillow struck her face and made her fall onto the floor headfirst, followed by a 'crunch' of her skull hitting something she had gotten accustomed to hearing since arriving to this world.
"Why are you here so early?" D asked while hugging the pillow, weighing how much energy it would take her to go back to the couch and how difficult would be to fall asleep on the hard floor.
"It's already afternoon, I just let you sleep in." Koichi answered from somewhere while she buried her face into the heavenly feather sack, deciding she didn't care about messing up her sleep schedule.
Her crewmember, however, had a few choice words to say about that.
"Have you even eaten anything today?"
Her stomach rumbled and she cursed that traitorous bastard. Reluctantly, she let go of her feathery friend and began to stand up. She could barely muster the energy for the act, but eventually she managed. Weren't children supposed to have infinite stamina or something? She didn't do anything strenuous yesterday, so how was she so tired now?
She went to the fridge and grabbed a random bowl, before sitting next to Pop Step and putting whatever she got into her mouth.
"BRAT/D/CAMILIA!" everyone shouted as Kazuho tackled her to the ground, before she felt a pressure around her neck.
Slowly, carefully, D opened her eyes to actually see her surroundings and she noticed Knuckleduster was there, sipping a coffee. Well, he had been sipping a coffee, now he was giving her an incredulous look while his cup was knocked over, the energizing liquid she wished to drink at this moment spilling on the table.
The school girl on top of her was ready to strangle her, but it felt almost… like she would strangle her for her own good? There wasn't any malice in her expression despite having her hands on her neck, just genuine concern and fear.
Camilia began to think about what could prompt this reaction but her tummy rumbled again, so she tried to eat whatever she was about to eat before while pondering about these strange events. Then the pink demon squeezed and she couldn't breathe anymore.
In a panic, she copied Kazuho's appearance and suddenly strangling D became a lot harder, which gave her literal room to breathe. She head-butted the unbalanced idol, finally hitting something with her head on purpose, and pushed her to the side. The copied-woman scrambled to her feet and readied her free fist, her mind suddenly awake and filled with adrenaline.
In less than a second, she surveyed her surroundings. The old man had gotten over his surprise and was putting his namesake weapon on his fists, unsure but preparing himself anyway just in case. In the other hand, the Crawler was much less dignified on getting his All Might hoodie on, which also served no practical purpose besides his 'motivational boost'. Finally, Pop Step was on the floor, cradling her forehead as blood dripped from the injury.
In less than two seconds, she considered the possibilities. They were still acting like themselves, so no mind control. And they didn't suddenly turn on her because they were still concerned, if fearful, for her well-being. However, Pop Step's face reflected those real emotions while her body disobeyed her commands as she strangled D… So, String-String Fruit puppeteering. She swallowed the curse she wanted to send to Best Jeanist and the cry of joy at being right about him pretending to be good for nefarious purposes. Instead, she kicked the table.
…Her plan was to flip over the table with that kick, hitting Knuckleduster and rushing Koichi to bring him down while he had his head stuck on the hoodie. However, she had failed to account that Pop Step wasn't all that strong, so she shouted expletives as she hopped on one foot, table unturned. Kazuho looked up to her face, baffled at her captain randomly kicking a table and hurting herself in the middle of a battle, which… fair.
The Copy Woman barely saw the fist coming towards her face before she undid the copy in a panic, narrowly avoiding a knockout punch from the old vigilante as she suddenly grew shorter. The kid was about to make a noise of disgust at being right in front of his crotch, before feeling resigned to her fate and doing what had to be done to win in this possible battle to the death.
Knuckleduster didn't have time to process his miss before the thick-headed child head-butted his reproductive organs, her thicker-than-average skull causing great damage to his ability to sire children. Still, he had experienced cheap shots before, so he purposefully fell on top of the menace to pin her down while giving himself time to get over the agony.
Meanwhile, Camilia's triumph over disabling one of her opponents died a quick death as her attack made the giant begin falling on top of her. The bastard even grabbed her while he was falling, fully prepared to use his heavy-ass body to squash her into a red paste. She didn't particularly want to experience how a pancake felt like, so she instantly copied Knuckleduster's appearance. This turned out great for her, as she accidently head-butted his chin with her sudden growth and made him fall backwards. It didn't turn out great for him, but he could go fall in a hole and die for all she cared, he had clearly not bathed in a while and her unusual attack had made her incredibly aware of how horrible that part of a man's anatomy could smell.
Her stomach, now that of a tall man, protested even louder, so she tried to eat whatever she had in her hand again, only for The Crawler to shoot her in the face. However, her intensive (and entirely accidental) training had prepared her for this, her brain refusing to be knocked out from a simple hit to the head as it did countless times before.
D kicked the table, successfully flipping it over and hitting Knuckleduster, before rushing Koichi. Her current body only needed two strides to close the distance, which gave enough time for Koichi to shoot her again. She ignored the… surprisingly weak attack that she knew he could do better and swung a wild haymaker. He easily dodged it with a crouch, because her brawling skills ended at 'put your thumbs outside your fists', and tackled her legs. She didn't fall over, as she was currently a giant of a man when compared to Koichi, so she just punched him in the head. He didn't try to evade and simply took the hit, which greatly confused her before remembering they were being controlled by someone who didn't care about their health and could force their bodies to move despite any injuries they received.
Debating on how to win without hurting them too much, she absent-mindedly tried to sate her hunger and, following the startlingly obvious pattern for anyone but a sleep-deprived person, Knuckleduster interrupted her by punching the back of her head while Koichi had her pinned in place.
Her head was killing her, which did not help at all in her decision making skills at all, as was immediately proven when she copied the Repel-Repel Fruit and decided the best direction was down.
D, in her brilliant and insane mind, knew that she couldn't go to the sides due to Koichi holding her in place while using Slide and Glide at the same time, and also knew that up would led to her hitting her head against the celling, again. So, this deranged individual chose to apply as much momentum as possible downwards.
Now, the last time Camilia had done such a thing, she had done so upwards and ended up hundreds of meters up in the sky. Now, however, she was doing it downwards while on the highest floor of a multi-story building.
Her mind registered the pain after the third floor she broke through. She had the great idea of covering her head at around the fifth. Her legs were bending at impossible angles at around the eighth. Her lungs were pierced with fragments of metal pipes at around the eleventh, or she realized it then when she tried to breathe and coughed up blood instead. At around the fourteenth she lost count and started to wonder when would she stop being a living wrecking ball.
Eventually, she hit a floor and didn't break through it, which was met with both relief and disappointment, happy it was over but sad she didn't reach the ground floor. D instinctively dropped all her copies, returning to her child's body with her original powers. She was about to scream at the torment she just had her body go through, the sheer agony she was suffering needing to be vocalized… until she realized she didn't feel a thing.
Slowly, Camilia opened an eye and looked over herself, noting how… her body didn't have a single scratch. She was stupefied, before realizing that when she stopped copying Pop Step, her toe didn't hurt anymore from kicking the table. She didn't think much of it, but… if she hurt herself while copying someone else's appearance, why would the damage transfer to the original?
Logic dictated that the damage should carry over. However, when she actually thought about it, why would it? Her original body went through a horribly painful rearrangement that summoned mass from nowhere, and when she dropped it, her body did so in reverse, unsummoning the excess matter to whatever realm it came from and re-structuring her flesh back to how it was before. When she did a copy, she didn't just copy the appearance temporarily as an illusion or began piloting a flesh suit around her body. She stopped being herself and became someone else through an almost eldritch spectacle, one she accidently made instantaneous and forgot that happened in the first place.
With the mass-creating in mind, one of the best case scenario would mean the original body would suffer damage if she lost more matter than was created during the copying process… This also meant, however, that if she copied someone smaller than herself, the damage done to the copy would be worse when she stopped it, if her train of thought was correct.
D suddenly stilled, ignoring the cold metal scrap that was on top of her chest after being expulsed from her body during the uncopying, and mechanically looked at her baby hands. She opened them, and closed them. She looked at her short legs. She stood up, and viewed the world from her impressive waist-level height. Finally, she looked up. She saw the multiple holes she went through, most of them covered in blood, and felt perfectly fine taking a breath with her unpierced lungs.
Camilia knew that this wasn't the best moment, considering how her friends were being controlled by an unseen enemy against their will. She also knew that at any moment Koichi would descend from the string of craters she created during her fall, ready for round two. If D were acting logically, she would be preparing herself for a fight, or retreating while calling for reinforcements, or any other action that would guarantee success or safety, such as setting traps or hiding.
However, a D was hardly a logical being.
"ARE YOU TELLING ME THIS IS THE REASON I REINCARNATED AS A CHILD, AN ADVANTAGE?!" she roared indignantly, uncaring of anything else but her own outrage. "WHAT, THINK I WOULDN'T BE GOOD ENOUGH IF I HAD AN ADULT-SIZED BODY?!"
It felt like a slap to the face. Whoever reincarnated her as a small kid, did so knowing that she would be stronger because of it. It was a gift, but a backhanded one, they were implying that she wasn't good enough and would need the help, instead of giving her the power alongside her regular-sized adult body.
"YOU BASTARDS!" she screamed at the heavens with shaking fists while glaring past the ceiling and into the unseen sky above, challenging the gods themselves. "YOU'RE ABSOLUTELY RIGHT, BUT WHY NOT GIVE ME AN ADULT DWARF'S BODY?! I WANT TO FUCK!"
D, honest enough to admit that she was a mess and needed every advantage she could get, did not care about the insult at all, as it was true. Instead, she concentrated on how they could have done better and gifted her more stuff.
"ANY RELATIONSHIP I GET INTO WILL BE PEDOPHILIA!" she complained, because whoever reincarnated her did a poor job and should be fired over it. "YOU JUST HAD TO MAKE ME A DWARF, YOU MORON! AND I WILL EVENTUALLY GROW UP TALLER, UNLESS I'M A YOUNG DWARF, AT WHICH POINT WHY NOT MAKE ME AN ADULT DWARF IN THE FIRST PLACE?! I DON'T WANT TO COPY APPEARANCES FOR SEX, AND I DON'T WANT TO WAIT FOURTEEN YEARS FOR MY BODY TO GROW EITHER!"
Camilia didn't particularly want a relationship or to be intimate with someone, but having the choice taken from her hands pissed her off to no end. And while copying appearances was an option, it wouldn't be the same. It had been funny to pretend to be a kid to get away with stuff, but that was her finding fun in her circumstances, she would always choose to have her old body over it.
…Still, those were her reasonable complaints. What followed would be considered… peculiar, to not use more unflattering words.
"YOU COWARDS! WHY NOT MAKE ME A DRESSROSA'S DWARF?!" she demanded, because crashing through seventeen floors and surviving without any injuries wasn't good enough for her. "YOU KNOW HOW MUCH STRONGER I WOULD BE WITH SO LITTLE MASS?! I COULD BOUNCE BACK FROM HAVING ALMOST MY ENTIRE BODY DESINTIGRATED! EVERY MEAL WOULD BE AN UNENDING FEAST! I COULD DO SO MANY PRANKS WITHOUT ANYONE NOTICING! I COULD USE PEOPLE'S HEADS AS BUSES AND NEVER WALK AGAIN!"
D's eyes glazed over as her vision was replaced with fantasies of all she could do with such a size. She still noticed a descending Kazuho who was sighing in relief at seeing her healthy though. After hearing her shouts, however, her relieved face turned into a scowl. She jumped down and was quickly followed by a levitating Crawler and a grappling hook swinging Knuckleduster. The three of them glared in her direction, but she wasn't sure why.
"You done?" the idol asked while tapping her foot on the ground.
Camilia nodded, quite tired from all the screaming she just did. In fact, she was starving, so she threw whatever food she had grabbed earlier into her mouth…
…except she didn't, because she was suddenly a great distance away while vomiting from the hit to the stomach she just received. She tried to get into a fighting stance, but the best she managed was vomiting in the trio's general direction. Her whole body tensed, expecting a second hit while she was down, but none came.
Eventually, after she emptied yesterday's dinner onto the floor, she looked at… Pop Step, standing in D's previous position and lowering a raised leg. Despite the situation, D couldn't help the smile and joy she felt from realizing what had just happened.
"You did your first shave!" she shouted, excited to see her crewmember trying out what she had shown off the other day.
"And you, are an idiot." she told her captain while showing off what she had in her hand.
The Copy-Copy Fruit.
D looked at her hand. Her empty hand. She then remembered throwing something into her mouth, but being kicked away from it. And now, said kicker was holding something that she didn't have on her before.
…The future Pirate King did not flinch as the realization struck her. She did not curse herself for not checking what she was eating and almost dying, or apologize for the injuries she caused in her misunderstanding. Instead, she did the obvious thing to do.
"Hidididididi!" D laughed, because what else could she do with all the concussions she had? "At least we had fun! And I learnt something new about my Devil Fruit!" she offered in consolation.
Before the pink demon could strange her in retaliation, D fell to the ground in exhaustion, utterly drained and unable to lift a single finger. Distantly, the girl had a second realization before her consciousness escaped her.
"Ah… I must have been so tired from making the Copy-Copy Fruit in the first place…" she muttered, feeling quite silly about the whole thing. "I forgot I did that for a moment…"
Chapter 011 Part 2:
Future-Future plans
(or D creates her own story arc through sheer willpower)
"OW!" her moron of a captain complained at a too tight bandage, "Why do I even need to wear this stuff? I'm fine!"
Kazuho, again, wondered why she had accepted the deal. It sounded so good at that moment, to chase their dreams together and help each other achieve them. They even shared laughter, something so freeing… Yet, moments like these reminded her of Camilia's bad qualities.
She was a hypocritical dumbass, who dared to call Koichi a moron while trying to eat a fruit that would kill her without realizing it, and proceeded to fight the three of them while they were trying to prevent her from killing herself, before almost killing herself anyways by not thinking and breaking every bone in her body through a suicidal move, only surviving through a literal miracle she couldn't have possibly known about.
"You got yourself killed at seventeen." She said through gritted teeth as she adjusted another unnecessary bandage a little too tightly, feeling sweet vindication at D's flinch. "I am surprised it took you so long."
"This is why you aren't the Doctor; your bedside talk is terrible." the girl deadpanned, which only managed to infuriate her even more.
"I should kill you myself, I swore no Hippocratic Oath." she muttered, done with her friend's shenanigans. "Just cut a small part of the Devil Fruit, put it in your food and watch as your body explodes."
"You know, I always wondered why nobody did that…" D said to herself in thought, and Kazuho resisted the urge to scream at giving ideas of how to assassinate people to such an unstable individual.
"Enough." Knuckleduster cut in, done with their bickering. "We got off track."
"More like we were never on track in the first place…" Kazuho muttered to herself.
"D." He said while glaring at her, before giving her a pair of cherries. "Do it again."
Camilia did not question it and instead went right at it with excitement. However, just like yesterday, the cherries refused to change at first. And unlike yesterday, they remained that way despite her trying for 10 minutes straight. Eventually, she gave up with a sigh and ate them.
"Yeah, no can do." she told them while chewing, "Don't know why, maybe it's the 1 Devil Fruit rule, maybe it was a fluke from my part, or I did something special without realizing it before. I just can't, or don't know how to."
Knuckleduster's shoulders dropped, tension he wasn't aware he was feeling going away with the words that reminded him that the world made sense, even if at times it didn't. D wasn't like that man, she still played by the rules, if skirting them at times.
"That was all."
"Huh, so there's only one?" the idol asked, unsure of how to feel about the Quirkless population and D's plan to solve that issue. "What will you do with it? Oh, right, probably going to show it to the detective."
Curiously, the kid did not answer with an affirmative. Instead, she seemed to think long and hard before stating her intentions.
"No." she told her, no doubt in sight. "Naomasa… either wouldn't believe me again, or think that there are now Devil Fruit cults out there producing them and worry about chasing ghosts, or give it to someone to prove it works and do the second thing. He would also probably ban me from creating new Devil Fruits once I find out how I did it, and maybe lock me up or restrict my movements to prevent kidnappings and to keep up an eye on me at all times. He was utterly terrified of some boogeyman taking and giving Quirks, so he will probably think something outlandish, like I'm the daughter of him thanks to my ability to clone them, maybe that I'm evil, maybe that my power could destroy the balance of the world…"
Knuckleduster did not flinch. He did not show any exterior clue that would reveal his inner thoughts to that final sentence, except for how he minutely stilled his body for a second. Kazuho was unaware, too concentrated on D's speech to notice. He let out a deep breath, and reminded himself that D was not that man, even if she was somehow aware he existed in passing.
"But above all… he would look at a Devil Fruit, and see it as a weapon." she said, staring down at her hands. "He's afraid of them being real, because he sees them as unnatural, wrong. Just some new drug in the underworld that needs to be taken down like the rest. In his notes, he doesn't talk about taking over production to give it to people who don't like what they were born with, but shutting it down and burning every instruction on how to make them for fear of people becoming too powerful."
"A valid observation." the man commented.
The comment wasn't appreciated.
"But he's WRONG!" Camilia shouted, offended at the mere idea. "That's not what a Devil Fruit is! They are…! They are…" She took a deep breath, before continuing in a wistful tone. "They are dreams." She admitted, nostalgia filling her voice. "They are the dreams of hundreds, no, thousands and more, consolidated in a single fruit. They are meant to allow people to fulfill their dreams or help them along their path. And when their user dies, the dream lives on, appearing in a new fruit ready to be eaten."
D couldn't help but smile, looking at something that wasn't there.
"I always liked a certain theory… the one that called them Dream Fruits… It just felt right." She said, only to scowl right after. "But people like Blackbeard with their rotten dreams and people like Naomasa who fear their power ruined them."
Finally, the kid ended up her speech with an uncomfortable truth, one they had acknowledged but hadn't fully processed yet.
"If I managed to mass produce Devil Fruits… I would bring a new age to this world, and both me and society aren't prepared for it yet. It might even be what kicks off the end of the Void Century. So, I will wait for a better time, when I'm strong enough to fight that fight, or when I see no other choice."
Camilia wasn't happy with that choice and it showed, but still, she felt it was the right choice to make… then, her determination turned into a mischievous smile as she took the carpet from underneath them
"But most importantly, it's mine! Ain't nobody gonna put their grubby little fingers on it without my permission! I will do whatever I want with it, and I feel that revealing it at the last second to Naomasa will be ten times funnier than just showing it now!"
Pop Step sighed, all the seriousness vanishing with her captain's enthusiasm and childishness. She wondered if she did it on purpose to alleviate the atmosphere from how many times she did it. One just couldn't remain serious after hearing her dumbassery.
"So that's what you will do?" Knuckleduster asked, trying to continue with an air of solemnity, only for D to laugh at his face.
"Yeah! For a Pirate, it doesn't matter if other people believe in them or their dreams! They just push on until their dreams come true! So what if Naomasa thinks I'm insane, it's funny!" she told him in a loud voice, before continuing in a soft one, "As long as he doesn't interfere, he can believe and say whatever he wants... He would just be another fool, one who doesn't believe in Golden Cities high up in the sky…"
Kami D. Camilia looked at them, before nodding to herself, a new resolve forming in her mind.
"The Age of Devil Fruits isn't here yet… but a new Age of Dreams and Piracy isn't off the table! After all, how could I be Pirate King without anyone else to compete for the title!"
Before they could answer, D swiped her phone from the table and began typing furiously, her mouth not stopping to even breath as she explained.
"Pirates are the marginalized, the ones whose dreams are belittled or thought to be impossible, or the ones whose freedom is denied. I just have to find a group who can't accomplish their dreams due to the restrictions of the laws and help them achieve them anyways, like you're doing with your music, Pop Step. People who want the thrill of a good fight but are limited in what they're allowed, those who wish to use their powers freely in their day to day life, even the ones who want to do good but aren't allowed to. To give them a chance to achieve them, they will surely jump at the chance to make their dreams come true. I just have to find the biggest… oppressed group… I can… help…"
D's excited monologue slowly died down as her face went through a myriad of emotions as she read more and more. Eventually, all her joy died out as she simply stared with hands frozen at the screen. She hesitated on what to say, bewildered at what she had found, so she simply closed the searches and turned off the phone.
Kazuho… was honestly afraid of what she had found and what she would do with that information. Had she read about Humarise and their hatred of Quirks? Or maybe about some cult that hated certain Quirks and discriminated people based on what they were born with? Was she planning to gather all vigilantes, those who fell through the cracks of society refusing to be Hero or Villain, and convert them into pirates? Was she about to redeem minor villains, break them out of jail to recruit them into her crew? Just… who had she found, and what was she planning to do about it?
"Hey, Knuckleduster?" she asked the man, fake casualty in her tone. "If I wanted a message to be sent to a disorganized group of people all over Japan without the authorities knowing, how could I do so?"
That did not sound right, it did not sound right at all.
"How tight-knit is this group?" he fired back, taking her question seriously. "If you told one, would they be able to spread the message? Would the message leak to the authorities due to a mole or careless divulging? If they use information brokers, you could provide the message to them so they spread it to people who use their services and fit your criteria for a price."
"I would say it's tight-knit in small communities, with not a lot of interaction between those communities besides internet conversations, at least that was how it was in my time. They would definitely spread the message once they realized the truth. Maybe someone would snitch, but once I gather up enough people the police will notice no matter what I do, so it's not a matter of preventing it, but of delaying it until I can get as many people as I can. I don't know about information brokers, but maybe they go to them for unrelated reasons. Once I'm forced to go into hiding, maybe I could give my location to them so more people reach me."
What was she planning?! Why would she need to go into hiding?! Why would the police care about what she was doing?!
"Mmh… If possible, and I think I know what you're planning so it should be, I would say you should go the drug route." WHAT?! "Give free samples, and get those pleased customers to spread the message to their communities. Some member in that community sends the message to another person in another community, until you get everyone in Tokyo. If the police will find out, you don't have enough time to gather but a few people from other locations, too much time wasted and gives more chances for communication to be intercepted. Rely on word of mouth or calls from burner phones, use code words or euphemisms, and make sure the people who spread the message understand the need for secrecy. If you're planning that," WHAT WAS THAT?! "I would say you should hold the people in some hidden place to delay the police noticing as much as possible."
D nodded, before she added her own contributions.
"I was thinking I would say I held them against their will, that they thought it was a convention or something and they didn't want to be affiliated with me. That way, they don't get arrested for doing something illegal."
Knuckleduster grunted in reluctant acceptance, despite Camilia just admitting she was about to commit a crime.
"There will be snitches, people who aren't brave enough despite that contingency. They could topple your plan before it even begins." He advised her, wanting to see her succeed and thinking this was a good way to distract her from Devil Fruits for a long time.
"The people spread it as a hypothetical first, and if the others are receptive, then they make the offer." the girl amended, her mind going a mile an hour. "We let it spread for the whole week, gathering some people during it, and truly start it in Sunday where they are free from their obligations to come."
"A week is too short for the message to spread, the first week should be purely free samples." he corrected, "Then, the second week the message is spread with the free samples singing your praises. That way you have veracity, people actually believe in your offer and don't think it's a scam. So, where are you planning to host them?"
D froze, as if not understanding the question.
"…Here? In the basically abandoned apartment complex?" she tried, as if it was the obvious answer.
"Wrong. You're linking it with who lives in the flat at the top, meaning you and Koichi." he admonished the child who should know better. "And other abandoned buildings in decay will make you look sketchy and prevent people from coming. I own some warehouses under fake names. I will not lend you my main one, but I could let you use one of my most recent ones."
"Wow, thank you!"
"IF you promise to not experiment with Devil Fruits for at least a year." He added as a condition, which was eagerly answered with a nod. "Good. Now, can you actually do it?"
Kazuho stared as D looked at her hands again, flexing them and trying to… feel her power?
"I think. I haven't tested it, but it should work due to how my ability functions." She said unsure, before fire ignited in her eyes, the same one that was there when she shouted to the world she would become Pirate King. "It will work!"
"I wasn't talking about that; I was asking about these." he admonished while showing off his open palm. "You aren't thinking about everything; you haven't realized the consequences you could bring if you do this carelessly."
"…I understand. I… I will practice. I just got to get a handle of my power. I still go all or nothing, but I think that's just my inexperience, I should be able to prevent it."
Knuckleduster accepted the answer, continuing to criticize the plan.
"You will need variety. Your product is limited, only two variations at best. You need to find a way to expand that catalogue, because even if it's what they want, it could still be better."
"What, not gonna help?" D asked, confused at his choice of words.
"No, you will have to do with Kazuho and Koichi, I don't want to be part of this mess." Kazuho was about to protest about her accepting, but his following words shut her up. "The Crawler will do it because it's the right thing despite it being illegal, and Pop Step will do it after she relates to the first sob story about feeling insecure."
…She felt oddly called out after that, so she decided to sit on her chair and let them talk it out.
"…I was thinking of using the people themselves." D commented, though now she was starting to have doubts about it. "Or for the clients to bring their own 'ingredient' for lack of a better word. If we get a lot of people, that will also mean a lot of variety."
"That could work." Knuckleduster admitted, not having thought of that angle. "The free samples will be limited to those variations, but the more people arrive, the more options they have… But you will be limited again when you go into hiding."
"Except my previous clients could help me go looking for others willing to help who are not clients themselves, since I can't just use previous clients as the Copy-Copy Fruit doesn't work like that… yet, I hope."
"I believe we ironed out most of the problems with the plan, so now it's only a matter of hammering out some details and we could enact it as soon as possible." the man finished, before standing up and going out. "I will send you the location of the warehouse later, now I will pay some information brokers to spread the message to people who fit the criteria."
"Oh, how nice of you to pay."
"It's a small price to keep you away from doing crazier stuff." He informed her without shame of his ulterior motives. "If you're busy with something else, then you will have to stop with whatever insane thing you thought of… like creating a Quirk giving fruit."
"Like creating a Quirk giving fruit, you say." D repeated, astonished. "Like what I'm about to do isn't more insane than that."
"It really isn't." he said as he exited the door, "This current madness could be done by anyone in the right circumstances. It will definitely be flashier than a single fruit, but it's less groundbreaking, it can be understood. Goodbye." He added as he closed the door, not letting them say another word.
Both women just stared at the door, not being able to believe he just finished the conversation like that… How rude.
"…I am surprised he's helping, but I didn't want to say it while he was around in fear he would stop helping." Camilia admitted to Kazuho. "He really doesn't want me to experiment with Devil Fruits, does he?"
The idol nodded, unable to form words at whatever just happened. Robotically, she turned to her captain and asked the question she dreaded the most, yet one she needed to know.
"W-what… what are you planning, D?" she questioned in trepidation, just as Koichi arrived from the nearest clinic with more medical supplies.
"Hididi…" she began, giving her shivers up her spine. "Well, what marginalized group can I help with my power?" she answered her question with another.
"Huh, the Quirkless?" Koichi threw out, not having heard their conversation or her promise to the old man.
"Hididididi… It's quite simple, you see?" she said as she touched Pop Step's face, copying her appearance, "As long as my copies are permanent…"
Suddenly, the realization hit her in the face like a brick. All the little things clicked into place to form a terrifying picture, one that would surely bring nothing but problems… and yet, just like the old bastard said, she couldn't help but sympathize and want to go through with it anyways. Furthermore, she would surely crumble at the first sob story, she just knew it.
Yes, just before her captain said it, she understood. So, she couldn't help but feel resigned as D shouted to the world what they would do the next few weeks.
"I WILL BE THE NEXT OKAMA KING!"
It didn't matter to Kazuho how Okama was normally a slur for crossdressing or gay men, or why Camilia thought it meant something else. She still knew what they were actually doing and groaned into her hands, done with her life.
Yes, for the next few weeks, they would do countless illegal sex affirming surgeries through D's abilities, using Koichi and herself as models, until every transsexual person in Tokyo was happy with their bodies. And somehow, this would create pirates, which wouldn't make sense until you considered D said it, at which point you would give up because she was somehow always right.
The idol began to laugh hysterically, wondering what even was her life anymore.
(…what? Expected me to just follow canon story arcs? Those can wait, we're here for the chaos. if you think this will be a meme arc… prepare to be surprised.
Also… it makes one wonder, how "visiting some Okamas and changing their sex around with the Horm-Horm Fruit" was one of six things listed by D in chapter 6… Will she actually do the other five?)