Cain was expecting many different things upon stepping through the blindingly bright door to a new world. Maybe he would be put on a deserted island and have to find a way off of it; maybe he'd be placed on and inhabited island and need to gather information on his location from the nearby residents; or, maybe he'd appear on a ship sailing from one island to another and make up a plan from there.
Well, only the third speculation was at least partially correct.
Upon his eyes clearing, the redheaded boy was greeted by water. More water than he'd ever seen in his current life, stretching over the horizon on all sides. With the waves causing his current foothold to bob up and down and lack of anything resembling a landmass in sight, he could easily confirm that he was smack-dab in the middle of one of those oceans that the Sea Devil had mentioned.
Looking down at what he was standing on, a groan immediately escaped his throat. Not only was he stranded in the middle of the sea, but he was stranded on a raft! It was a small raft made from six logs, tied together by what looked like vines instead of rope; barely larger than the average king-sized bed. Additionally, there was no mast, sail, or even an oar to help the teenager guide it in any direction.
Taking a deep breath of the salty air, Cain let out a loud sigh as he glared at the clear blue sky. "Really?" he asked, knowing that a certain blue asshole was watching. Of course, there was no response, but he was 100% sure that the suited demon was laughing at the predicament he put the young angel in.
The glare only lasted about a minute before he decided that he'd made his displeasure known. On some level, he could see the hilarity of the situation; but, as with most practical jokes, it would've been much funnier if he wasn't on the receiving end of it. In the end, all he could do was try to make the best of this predicament.
"Alright," he mumbled, as he usually did when thinking. "If the asshat is to be believed, I can't swim my way out of here, so what are my options?"
His base form had the strongest AT field, but not enough control of it to mold it into a mobile platform. Arael's wings were out, since he didn't know where the closest landing spot would be and he could only fly for an hour before becoming exhausted. Ramael's levitation had the same restriction. Sahaquiel's form, while technically classified as a flier, was more of a "launch himself in one direction and then fall explosively" kind of transformation. That only left one.
A thoughtful overcame Cain's features, his right hand going to his chin. "Would that work? I mean, he took away my ability to swim, but would it also take a away that form's main power?" A few seconds later, he shrugged. "It's not like testing it out will hurt.
"Angel Essence: Gaghiel."
As usual, a bright light covered his body from head to toe. The brief moment of being obscured was once again broken by the light itself shattering, displaying his new form to the world. Unlike Arael's Essence, which visibly only gave him a extra set of appendages in the for of wings, Gaghiel's Essence changed so much more. In fact, the only things this new body had in common with his original were the red hair, red eyes, and general height.
Smooth skin that was once pale had become a yellowish tan, made up of thousands of rough scales. His perfectly straight teeth had morphed into a maw filled with fangs both sharp and strong enough to rend solid titanium. The ears on either side of his head now sported fins, and the spaces between his fingers and toes had a similar webbing between them.
On a less drastic note, his clothing had shifted accordingly. Instead of urban-teen look it had expressed before, his wardrobe now screamed "beach bum." A pair of swim trunks, which were red and bore a pattern that resembled dozens of tiny angle masks, a tan pair of flip-flops, and a shark-tooth necklace were all that covered his body from the neck down. Resting atop his hair, ready to be dropped over his eyes at a moment's notice, was a pair of sunglasses that completed the look perfectly.
Cain wasted no time with getting used to the new body, instead focusing on the task at hand. Raising both arms in front of him, he focused on vast ocean surrounding him. Invisible to the naked eye, his AT field extended out from his palms, mixing itself into the very water itself. The focused silence stretched on for about a minute before look of satisfaction stretched across the boy's face.
"Perfect," he grinned, immediately followed by him stepping off the raft.
To any other Devil Fruit user, this would be tantamount to committing suicide in the dumbest way possible, and they'd be looking at Cain as if he was a complete moron. Their jaws would immediately drop when his foot didn't fall straight through the liquid death, instead finding purchase on it as if it were a completely solid surface. Additionally, unlike how a user of the Ice-Ice fruit would've frozen the water solid, whatever magic Cain worked on the sea allowed it to continue flowing in waves as usual.
This was the main power of Gaghiel's Essence. Alongside superior strength and durability when compared to the average human, and the (now useless) ability to maneuver through water faster than a hummingbird can through the sky, this transformation's premier talent was Mass-Hydro-Kinesis. By saturating any liquid in his AT Field, Cain could control it as if it were an extension of his own body. This included walking upon the ocean's surface it as if it were solid land, despite its shifting nature.
With the first step behind him, the now-tan teenager saw no reason to not continue onward. Slipping his webbed hands into the pockets of his swim trunks, he proceeded to walk off in a random direction, heedless of the sheer impossibility of this action.
Even as the waves rose and fell around him, waters in a ten foot radius around him maintained a relatively calm state, bending to the will of a very laid-back kid. If this had been in the North, West, East, or South Blue, the sight of him would get more than a few bewildered looks. However, he wasn't in any of those weak oceans.
Unknown to him, he'd been dropped in the most dangerous ocean in the entire world. It was an ocean with the extraordinary was ordinary; where holes opening up in the middle of the sea were an everyday occurrence; where beasts the size of skyscrapers could appear out of nowhere and swallow a ship whole; and where the average civilian could cripple a man three times their size, and would do it just for them being disrespectful.
This…was the New World.
Three Days Later
To say that his siblings were shocked by his predicament when they re-connected to his senses would be an understatement. They all were practically falling over themselves trying to analyze his memories and understand just what the hell had led their little brother to make a deal with literal GOD and get spirited away to an entirely different universe. Hell, half of them were still trying to come to terms with the fact that gods actually existed.
After all, despite the fact that their species was technically called "angels," their entire existences were based in science. An AT field may defy the laws of reality itself, but it did so by projecting new rules onto the world within its area of effect. Everything about them could be scientifically calculated, explained, and categorized in a way that was understandable by other species. Gods…real gods…couldn't.
The first to voice their concerns about their little brother's new situation had, of course, been Armisael. Despite being the third-youngest of the family, she had taken on the "overprotective big sister" personality type upon gaining the ability to feel emotions. As a result, even though she could relive all of the experiences Cain had had over the last few days, she proceeded to ask all of the questions one would expect from such a sibling.
'Are you okay? Do you feel sick? Did he scare you? Did he hurt you? I swear, if he harmed a single hair on your head, I will tear that blue bastard to shreds the next time we see him! I don't care if he's a god! Nobody hurts my little brother!' This was only a small portion of the chain of queries, threats, and disturbing conclusions she went through over the course of half an hour. It would've been endearing, if she hadn't started getting incredibly graphic with the types of torture she would put the Sea Devil through by the end of it all.
All of the others were, while not entirely as over-the-top as Armisael, equally worried about the repercussions of the deal he'd made, not the least because of the changes to his soul. Gaghiel was particularly pissed off by the loss of his ability to swim, leading to the aquatic angel letting loose a string of curses so long that – for the first time in all of Cain's memory – he had to be interrupted by Tabris in order to move the conversation along.
Out of all of them, Tabris was the one who understood the youngest angel's decision the best. As he put it: 'Ever since the dawn of their creation, mankind has stared up at the stars and been overcome with the desire to ascend and traverse them. I can't blame you desiring a life beyond the lifeless rock that we raised you on. While I may disapprove of the method you used to get here, I can honestly say that I'm proud of your decision to find a new place in the omniiverse."
Had Cain found a safe place to rest and retreat into his dreams, he'd have done so immediately just to give his older brother a hug. Seeing as he still hadn't found land in the forty-eight hours he'd been strolling among the waves, he settled for sending him a mental image of such a scenario. The following twenty-four hours had included him catching up with each of his siblings and commentating on the world they found themselves in.
You see, just because he hadn't spotted an island or ship over the last three days, didn't mean that things had been completely boring. On the contrary, not an hour had gone by in the last seventy-two hours without something interesting drawing the redhead's attention. Some examples included, but are not limited to: hail the size of mini-vans falling from a cloudless sky; a trio of geysers in the distance that started with spewing boiling water, but halfway through seemed to run out and switched to lava; and he couldn't possibly leave out the numerous species of fish that surfaced either out of curiosity, or to try their luck with making him lunch.
It was the latter category of aquatic life that made the days the most interesting, considering that those encounters usually went one of two ways. Half of them went running when he rose the water up around him, forming it into spiked tentacles in an attempt to give them an idea of how outmatched they were. Those that refused to back off were eviscerated from multiple angles and left for the carnivores that were smart enough to stay away.
Luckily for Cain, he hadn't needed to stop even once throughout his walk among the waves. He didn't need to sleep, eat, drink, or breath, all of his needs being taken care of by his two S2 engines. They seemed to feed off of each other, producing enough energy and sustenance for him to have survived all fifteen years of his life without consuming a single piece of food or a drop of drinkable water. Sometimes, he wondered how the whole thing worked, but when he remembered that it would require a metric ton of scientific research to discern, he dropped it pretty quickly.
As of the evening of his third day of trying to find dry land, the tan-scaled boy idly held a large tooth up to the setting sun. This was the prize he'd ripped from the mouth of his tenth kill, a titanic beast at least thirty times his size. While he'd expected its teeth to dwarf him, it seemed that this fish had evolved to have thousands of them the size of an average human hand. It still had blood stains on it from when he used it to stab the beast in the eye, acting as a nicely improvised dagger.
"Maybe I could get it turned into a proper blade when I reach an island," he mused, lightly tossing it up and down a few times.
'Considering that even a direct punch couldn't even scratch it, that would definitely be a good idea,' Ireul advised, ever the logical one.
'Even if you can't, it'll definitely make a good souvenir,' Sandalphon chipped in.
Cain nodded in agreement. "Well, it's not gonna be much good as it is right now," he said, slipping it into his right pocket before focusing back on the open ocean.
What met his gaze wasn't just the empty water, though. For the first time in the three days he'd been here, he spotted something off in the distance that wasn't just another sea monster guarding its territory. Whatever this was, it moved with the waves in a way that only something floating on top of them could, meaning that it had to be some kind of ship. However, when he focused harder on the shape of it as it drew closer, he only had one thing to say.
"What the fuck?" he mumbled, almost completely unable to believe what he was seeing.
The "ship," as he begrudgingly continued to call it, looked like something out of one of the cookbooks he'd found back in still-standing library of Tokyo-3. More specifically, it was as if it had been taken from the deserts section. It was made up of three layers with a mast sticking out of the top, with the first being a short white pan. The second layer appeared to be a pastry with the word "TARTE" painted on it with large black letters, windows running all around it, and blueberries topping it off. Atop that was the third layer, which resembled the second layer in all ways except that this one was topped with strawberries and whipped cream, and had the number "31" painted on it.
What stood out more than the outlandish design of the sailing vessel itself was the design painted on the flag. It had a skull with large red lips and a tricorn hat, surrounded by pink fluff, and with candy canes crossed behind it. The tree coming off of the curly bottom of one of the candies in the lower right just added more confusion to the mix.
"I repeat: what the fuck?" he mumbled.
'Is that a Jolly Roger?' Gaghiel questioned, taking quite a bit of interest at that point in time.
"A what?" Cain asked back, unknowingly voicing the question on most of his siblings' minds.
'A Jolly Roger,' his older brother repeated, as if that was supposed to explain everything. Following the uncomfortable silence that persisted, he sighed. 'Seriously? Am I the only one that took any interest in the history of naval travel?'
'Yes,' was the general consensus from everyone.
'Why am I even surprised. A Jolly Roger is the symbol pirates had on their flags and sails a few hundred years ago. It would usually take the form of skull and crossed bones, but each famous pirate would put their own special spin on it. If I'm not mistaken, that…thing approaching us is some kind of pirate ship.'
Cain allowed that bit of information to sink in. He'd read in passing that pirates were humans who traveled the world's oceans, raping, pillaging, and killing anyone who got in their way. Some had a code of honor, but the majority were heartless scum. He honestly hoped that the ridiculous nature of both the Jolly Roger and the ship itself were a sign that this wouldn't end terribly.
"How should I get their attention?" he inquired. "Should I even bother?"
A brief conversation between his siblings behind the scenes later, they gave him an answer that both made him smile at its absurdity, and groan at the fact that they spent five minutes discussing it just to come up with this. But he knew better than to doubt their wisdom…well, most of their wisdom, anyway.
Without further ado, he got into position and prepared for the worst.
On the Tarte Ship
It was just another routine day onboard Tarte 31, one of the many ships in the Big Mom Pirates' Fleet. Pawn soldiers, with their orange tunics and pink heart shaped shiels, milled about both inside and out as they made sure their vessel was on course. Sails were adjusted, the wheel was turned, and cannons were prepared in case of an unexpected confrontation.
Normally, this particular boat would be stationed around Yakigashi Island and making sure it wasn't invaded by pirates that weren't familiar with the law of the New World; however, it had been drawn out to the edges of Totto Land as the closest Tarte capable of responding to an odd signal from the territorial sea slugs.
Aside from the Homies that normally inhabited and manned the vessel, there were eleven other passengers who came out to investigate the disturbance with them. Out of all of them, only one stood out on the main deck, leaning on the waist-height lip at the very edges of the tart pan.
She was a teenage girl with long brown hair that hung down to her waist. As for her wardrobe, it was hard to tell whether she was trying to be cute or tomboyish; with red-pink high heels, striped pink and white leggings, blue hotpants, white gloves, a pink crop top with a red ribbon, and a pink bow atop her hair. While this would usually be a pretty outlandish look for any person, she pulled it off quite well. The only thing that offset the look she had going was the large scythe whose snath was clutched lazily in her left hand, leaning against the railing beside her.
This was Charlotte Nutmeg, and she was caught somewhere between boredom and anticipation as she rested her head on her free hand. It'd been a month since she'd turned fifteen along with the nine other siblings from her litter, and they were finally being taken out on official business to prepare them for becoming officers in their mother's crew. Sure, it was a routine inspection of an anomaly around the kingdom, but it was far better than sitting around doing nothing.
You wouldn't think that living on an archipelago where the islands were themed after food would get boring, but you'd be wrong. Everything loses its luster after overexposure. After the five hundredth time she visited cheese town and saw the giant cheeseburger Homie, it became so routine that even she couldn't keep her enthusiasm about it.
When her older brother Oven had announced, on one the decuplets' visits to Yakigashi Island, that he'd need to leave in order to investigate something odd being picked up by the sea slug network, all ten of them had jumped at the chance to come with him. Say what you want about the strict Minister of Browned Food, but he always found it hard to turn down any of his younger siblings. Ten pairs of puppy dog eyes were enough to cause him to cave in and take them with him, although they had strict instructions to be careful. They may have been born in the New World and trained by the best in the Charlotte family, but that didn't mean they were strong enough to take on everything this sea could throw at them.
Her eyes scanned the horizon eagerly, trying to find any sign of the anomaly as her mind ran wild with what it could be. 'Maybe it's an enemy ship trying to try its luck against Mama,' she mentally speculated, lightly swaying with the rocking of the ship as she hummed a happy tune. 'Or a random crew new the New World…or one of the other Emperors sending out a scout…or-'
The nearly-endless string of theories was cut short when she spotted something off in the distance. It was too small to see clearly without any assistance, but it definitely stood out on the relatively-calm ocean. If this wasn't what was setting the slugs off, she'd eat her bow.
"Pawn!" she called out, pushing herself off the railing and facing the nearest chess piece to stop next to her. "Inform the others that the anomaly has been spotted off the port bow and we're slowly approaching it. Also, get me a spyglass."
The Homie replied with a salute before hurrying off to carry out her directions. Shortly after, another approached her with the object she requested. Grabbing it, she nodded to the pawn with a cheerful smile before turning to face the far-off smudge. She extended the spyglass, practically vibrating with anticipation at what she'd see.
"Ooooooh," she practically squealed. "What is it what is it what is-" Upon the figure finally coming into focus, she was…confused. It was such an odd sight that she actually took a second to rub her eyes before taking another look. No, she wasn't mistaken in what she was seeing, which made it all the more unbelievable.
Standing atop the waves as if they were a solid surface was the most human-looking fishman Nutmeg had ever laid eyes on. If it weren't for the webbing between his fingers, the fins on his ears, and tan shade of his skin that bordered on yellow, she'd have mistaken him for a normal teenage boy. If he'd been in a less puzzling pose, she'd probably have even marveled at his amazing abs.
What pose was he in, you may ask? The answer is that he was standing straight, staring directly at her with a lazy smile, and holding out his left arm with his thumb held up.
"Hey sis!" an energetic voice came from her right, snapping her out of the daze she was in. "Whatcha lookin at?"
Turning to the side, she was met by one of her brothers, Newji. He looked exactly like three of the other four male decuplets, with purple hair and black eyes. All of them wore the same pink suit over a red shirt, and were only able to be told apart by a combination of their mannerisms, speech patterns, and the different colored bowler hats they wore, of which Newji's was as red as Nutmeg's ribbon.
"I…honestly don't know," the tomboy replied honestly, taking another quick look to make sure the anomaly didn't disappear. "The longer I look, the more it hurts my brain."
Newji chuckled, swiping the spyglass from her hands. "Oh, come on!" he exclaimed, holding it up to his own eye. "It can't be that…what the hell?"
"Exactly," his sister mumbled.
This process repeated itself eight more times over the course of the next few minutes as the other members of their brood came to take a look. The spyglass was passed from brother to sister, over and over again, leaving each of them just as dumbfounded as the last. By the time their older brother stepped out on the deck, they were all staring dumbfounded at the oddity that was slowly becoming clear to the naked eye.
Standing at almost five meters tall, even taller than both Newshi and Harumeg, who were both twice the height of the other decuplets, Charlotte Oven approached his speechless little brothers and sisters. With orange hair shaped to resemble fire, an incredibly muscled body just barely covered by a similarly colored cape and pants, and a pair of brown gloves which were idly balled into fists, he cut quite the imposing figure. So much so, that even his striped socks and red loafers couldn't detract from the intimidation factor he had on all but his blood relatives.
"I take it you've spotted the cause of the disturbance?" he inquired to the decuplets, causing them all to turn their heads to him.
Fuyumeg was the first to reply. "Well…I wouldn't call it disturbing."
"More like mind-boggling, to be honest," Newichi chimed in, scratching the side of his green bowler hat and idly twirly his blue umbrella.
The afro on Allmeg's head bobbed as she nodded in agreement. "It made me double-take, that's for sure."
Even the silent brother Newshi hummed din acknowledgement, a frown set into his face.
Taking this as a sign that something was more than a little off, Oven held out his hand and requested to use the spyglass. Upon being met with the exact same sight that they'd been privy to, he set it down and turned to them with a questioning look.
"Was that a fishman?" he asked.
"Yep," Newgo replied.
"Standing on the ocean?"
"Uh-huh."
"And trying to hitchhike?"
"It appears that way," Akimeg confirmed.
A moment of silent settled on the deck as the information set in. After a few seconds, he resigned himself to pinching the bridge of his nose in exasperation. "Even after three decades, this sea still finds ways to tax my sanity."
Just as he was about to issue orders to approach the fishman carefully, a roaring splash caused him to snap his attention back to the sea. What met his eyes was a sea king that probably swallow the entirety of Tarte 31 in a single gulp with room to spare. Black and white stripes lined its entire body and maw was lined with teeth larger than Oven himself. Luckily for him and his siblings, the beast was neither near them, nor was its attention focused on them.
The behemoth's blood red gaze was focused solely on the fishman it was currently looming over.
"Looks like the problem is going to take care of itself," Newsan shrugged.
"Such a shame," Harumeg sighed. "He was cute."
Despite the undoubtedly gory scene they were about to witness, not a single one of them turned away. It wasn't every day they had the chance to see a one-sided massacre that didn't involve them being trained by their eldest brothers and sisters.
Only Oven noticed, even at this distance, that the teenager wasn't cowering before the monolithic sea monster. On the contrary, when pulling the spyglass up to his eye again, the heat-man noticed that the yellow kid was looking up at the creature with…disappointment? Despite the logical side of his mind already joining his siblings in declaring the fishman a dead man walking, his instincts reminded him of one of the most important rules of the Grand Line, and especially the New World:
Always expect the unexpected.
Now, the Minister of Browned Food had seen his fair share of fishmen manipulating water in his time. Everything from the weakest water ball to Jinbe's Ocean Current Shoulder Throw. What the boy staring at the sea king summoned from stomping his left foot on the surface of the water put all of them to shame. Four pillars rose around the monstrous creature, each the size of the beast itself and slowly forming into liquid replicas of it, complete with the teeth. Each and every jaw aboard the Tarte ship dropped at the sheer display of power the child so casually displayed as he raised an eyebrow at the thoroughly screwed fish.
Either the beast didn't care about the obvious threat to its life, or its tunnel vision on what it perceived to be fresh meat blocked out its impending doom. Regardless of which was the truth, it did not hesitate to lunge the second it made eye contact with its newest meal. Unfortunately for it, the fangs on the water clones of itself were as sharp as the real deal, and they move faster than it could ever hope to. It took only half a second for it to be stopped mere feet away from the fishman's unimpressed gaze.
Still watching the unbelievable scene through the spyglass, Oven was able to read the redheaded kid's lips as he named the move that would end his captive. "Burial at Sea."
On cue, the water constructs ripped the sea monster to pieces. Blood rained from the sky as they tore entire chunks of meat from the serpent, dropped them into the sea, and went back for more. It was an incredibly gruesome scene, though one that the charlotte sibling couldn't look away from. Just like watching a train wreck, they couldn't look away.
Every single jaw on the deck – from that of the decuplets, to the chess Homies, to Oven himself – was dropped at the sheer madness they were witnessing. Sure, this was the grand line and all, but a boy no older than the younger siblings aboard the ship commanding that much firepower? And throwing it around so casually, without any outward sign of strain? This was either a trick of some kind, or they had all seriously underestimate the sheer madness of the New World.
In a matter of minutes, the sea around the boy had calmed and the constructs had receded. The only pieces of evidence of the carnage he'd committed were the red stains that saturated the surface of the water and the floating hunks of muscle, scales, and bones floating around him. Somehow, not a speck of blood landed on the young fishman, his body as spotless as before the attack.
Then, to Oven's bewilderment, the boy re-donned that same lazy smile as before…and raised left arm with his thumb up.
"I'm sorry if this is rude of me to say," Newsan piped up, snapping the rest of them out of their daze. "But what the actual, certifiable, grade-A fuck just happened!?"
Picking her jaw up off the floor, which was a great height to do so from, Harumeg's voice was equally disbelieving. "You mean I'm not the only one who saw that?"
"No," Newshi replied, speaking up for the first time the entire trip.
The rest were speechless, trying and failing to grasp how the events that just happened could even be possible. Half of them gave up halfway when their brains started straining from trying to make the connection between the harmless-looking boy in swim trunks of a things, and the four leviathans he'd summoned with a mere stomp. The other half were moving on to how to approach said boy without meeting the same fate as the sea king.
"Um…brother?" Fuyumeg called out nervously to Oven, prompting him to look down at her. "Are we still going to do this investigation on our own?"
That was the question of the hour, right there. The heat-man had to think long and hard about what just happened, the ship still not having stopped its approach. Facing such power alone with only a single ship was a death sentence for any devil fruit user, no matter how powerful. That child could drown them all without lifting a single finger, after all, and there'd be nothing they could do to stop it, if the speed with which he'd massacred that sea king was anything to go by.
On the other hand, his body language hadn't turned violent until said sea monster had deemed it a good idea to try making lunch out of him. Oven had more than forty years' worth of experience reading people, and every signal the boy was putting off said "harmless," both before and after the attack. If he was correct, then the odds of the fishman attacking them without them provoking him first were almost zero.
"We'll continue as we were," he voiced his decision, drawing looks of surprise from all on deck. "Approach with caution. Do not attack unless provoked. This child seems more of the reactive than proactive type, anyway."
All of the pawns snapped to attention and went back to manning the mast and the wheel, maneuvering the Tarte 31 so it would stop at the boy's side instead of hitting him dead-on. The decuplets, on the other hand, were at a loss for words. As a whole, the remained at the bow of the ship, staring at the massively-powerful teenager before them as they drew closer.
Only one of them had anything resembling a coherent thought in the time leading up to when they dropped anchor.
'Now that I get a good look at him,' Nutmeg thought, barely conscious of the processes her mind was going through. 'Haru was right. He is kinda cute.'
Back with Cain
The teenage angel internally sagged in relief as the ship continued to come closer. He'd been worried that his little display of self defense my scare them off; or worse, encourage them to shoot first and ask questions later. Drowning the first examples of intelligent life he'd encountered in this world would seriously set him back.
'Look at it this way: they'll either be impressed by the power you exhibited, or cautious of pissing you off. Either way, it's a win-win,' Zeruel stated, unsurprisingly. There was hardly a time when the strongest angel – at least in terms of physical might – didn't advocate for gratuitous displays of strength in any way, shape, or form. Even when they were on Earth when there was nobody left to witness them.
'Though bluntly put, the muscle-head has a point,' Matarael conceded, her voice as cultured as ever. 'It's definitely better to have respect or fear, when the alternative is coming across as a weakling and having these people think they can push you around.'
'Both of you shut up! It's almost time for Cain to make his first impression!' Armisael shouted, and Cain was certain she would've bashed their heads together if they had physical bodies.
Indeed, the "ship" had finally dropped its anchor about twenty yards away. Ten people stood at the raised edge of the giant tart pan, all staring at him with a mixture of wariness and amazement. Taking a closer look, they all looked human. Well, aside from the ones he had to tilt his head way back to look in the eye.
Half of them were males, four of which looked exactly the same, save for the different colored bowler hats they wore. The fifth one was twice the height of the other two, yet still wore the same pink suit as the other and had the same purple hair topped with a purple hat. On the side of the girls, their appearances were more varied, yet still very similar. Aside from the one wearing hotpants, they all had similar pink dresses. What set them apart was not just the color of the ribbons on their chests, but also their hairstyles; An afro, a topknot, and a braid made three of them stand out, while the one that towered over the other four had her hair in bunches with her bangs covering her eyes.
The fact that they all held scythes that were proportionately taller than each of them encouraged him to remain on his guard. But, Cain didn't stare for too long. Considering the forms some of his Angel Essences made him take, he couldn't exactly call them out for their outlandish looks. For all he knew, they could be completely normal by the conventions of this world. So, he settled for greeting them.
"Good afternoon!" he shouted, waving amiably. Silence met him for a few long seconds, before he soldiered on. "A beautiful day for a walk, isn't it?" he joked.
A sweat drop appeared on the side of each of the decuplets' heads at how casual the boy was being. Either he was too laid-back for his own good, or couldn't recognize what family they were from. Before any of them could try replying to the strange boy, Oven returned from directing the pawns.
"Indeed, it is!" he called out, doing his best to remain polite and approachable to the overpowered teenager. "If you don't mind me asking, what has you out for a stroll on this fine day?"
Cain refused to outwardly show signs of surprise at the new man's appearance, despite it being even more outlandish than then others. Internally, though, he was boggling at the combination of height, muscle definition, and that ridiculous hairstyle that somehow made him all the more intimidating. Like Oven, he deemed it best to remain diplomatic until provoked.
"Well, you see," he began, rubbing the back of his with an expression of embarrassment. "I've been stranded out here for about three days, looking for some kind of island to rest at. If I'm being honest with you, I don't even know where we are right now."
Oven studied the boy's body language, trying to find any hint of deceit. Finding none, he was filled with more questions than answers. He did decide to reply, though. "When you say you don't know where you are, do you mean in general, or specifically what territory you're in?"
'Territory?' Cain inwardly questioned. "I'm talking about in a much broader sense, actually. I'm very lost, as you can probably tell."
The Minister of Browned Food decided that the quickest way to move forward was to throw out some geographical names and see if any of them resonated with the fishman. "Does Totto Land sound familiar to you."
Cain stroked his chin, acting as if he were trying to remember. "No, not ringing any bells."
"How about the New World?"
"Uh-uh."
"The Grand Line? Any of the four Blues?"
"Blue whats?"
Either this teenager was a master of deception far greater than even Oven's skills can detect, or he honestly didn't know anything of world as a whole. Even four-year-olds who were just learning to speak complete sentences at least recognized the Grand Line, from all of the stories told by the adults around them. Only one explanation remained for how someone could be so ignorant; especially a fishman.
"It seems that you really lost," Oven chuckled. "If you'd like, we'd be more than happy to take you with us and help you find your way to wherever you need to go."
A bright smile lit up the boy's face, practically blinding all who saw it. "That would be awesome! I hope it won't be too much trouble from you, mister…?"
"Oven," the man replied. "Charlotte Oven, of the Big Mom Pirates! And it wouldn't be any trouble at all. Although, there is one thing that I'll need to request from you before I let you onboard?'
Cain raised an eyebrow. "And that is?"
"Can you please show us your back?"
The decuplets immediately understood what their older brother was asking. Looking at the boy's situation again, it didn't take a huge leap in logic to assume that he was an escaped slave of some kind. If he was, then he would have a brand on his back, depending on who he escaped from. Most of them could be ignored, seeing as there weren't many slavers or slave owners who would dare mess with the Big Mom Pirates; but, if he happened to have the Hoof of the Soaring Dragon burned into his scales and flesh, then it was highly probable that things were about to get very complicated.
Against all of their expectations, Cain merely shrugged and turned around, not a care in the world. Sure, he had no idea what they were looking for, but it was a small price to pay for safe passage to the nearest island.
On the side of the Charlotte family, they were all simultaneously relieved and confused. On one hand, the brand of the world nobles wasn't present on the teen; on the other, there was a brand there that none of them, not even Oven, recognized. The question of why the word "Kinslayer" would be burned across the shoulder blades of someone so young was prominent in everyone's mind.
"Is this good enough?" Cain asked over his shoulder, having been waiting for the last two minutes for a yay or nay from his prospective hosts.
His voice succeeded in snapping Oven out of his speculation, coughing into one of his hands to clear his throat. "Yes, that will do. Pawns! Lower a boarding plank."
Before the living chess pieces could follow the order, they were stopped by Cain shouting. "No need! I can take care of it."
Turning back to look down at the boy, Oven was once again surprised. The teenager was bending his knees, obviously preparing to make the jump over to them. Upon leaping, though, a pillar of water launched him higher than even his obviously-powerful legs could possibly take him. All eyes tracked him as he arched through the air, doing two flips, before landing in a casual stance on the center of the deck, his hands tucked idly into his pockets.
There was silence for a few brief few seconds, before the ship's inhabitants – excluding Oven – proceeded to clap, impressed by the stunt. Cain could swear he even caught three of the living chess pieces in the corner of his eye holding up score cards, with two giving him a 10 while the third displayed a 9.5. Then again, it could've just been a trick of the light.
"Thank you for having me aboard," he thanked the orange-haired man with a slight bow. "The name's Cain, the Kinslayer."
Oven decided to put aside the fact that the boy relayed that title the same way most pirates gave their epithets for later. "Good to have you!" he grinned. "As I said, my name is Charlotte Oven. These-" he gestured to the scythe-wielding humans. "-are my younger siblings: Newichi, NewJi, Newsan, Newshi, Newgo, Nutmeg, Akimeg, Allmeg, Harumeg, and Fuyumeg. They're decuplets."
It said a lot about Cain's self-control that he didn't break down laughing at their names. Paired with Oven, it was obvious that their mother not only had a thing for naming her children after food, cooking appliances, and puns. The redhead's own brothers and sisters, on the other hand, had no reservations toward laughing their figurative asses off. Thankfully, they did so away from the forefront of his mind, allowing him to continue focusing on the situation at hand.
"It's nice to meet all of you," he nodded to them as a whole. "Now, I know that this is going to sound weird, but do you mind if I slip into something more comfortable?"
If they were in a cartoon, question marks would've appeared around the heads of the Charlotte siblings as they skeptically roamed their eyes over his body. There obviously wasn't anywhere to keep a separate set of clothes on him, aside from the pockets in his swim trunks.
"No?" Oven replied, his gut telling him that another weird thing was about to happen.
True to his suspicions, Cain nodded thankfully and mumbled the word, "Release." A bright flash blinded him and the others, and the sound of shattering glass echoes around the deck. When the spots had finally faded from all of their eyes, the were treated to the sight of the teenager in his usual hoodie and cargo pants, and lacking all features that had them previously define him as a fishman.
"Ah," he sighed, lowering his hood and slipping his hands into his jacket pockets. "Much better."
For the first time since meeting them, the decuplets finally joined the conversation. Unfortunately, this took the form of all of them expressing their disbelieve at the now-human teenager's apparent change of species.
"Excuse me, but what?" Newsan gaped.
"He was just – and then the light – and now – " Harumeg stuttered.
"Did Flampe slip something into my cereal this morning again?" was the question voiced by Newgo as he rubbed his eyes in disbelief.
"Hm?" Cain hummed, curiously glancing over at their flabbergasted expressions. "Is there something wrong?"
Once again, the nonchalance he showed toward his own powers floored them.
Allmeg was the first to regain her faculties enough to reply to him. "Something wrong? You were just a fishman, and now you just casually change species to a human in front of us, and you ask if something's wrong?!" She didn't realize until the last word that she was shouting by the end of that sentence.
One of Cain's eyebrows raised. "What's a fishman?"
"You! You were a fishman up until you…changed just now!"
"No, I wasn't."
"You had scales, webbed fingers, and shark teeth! How can you say you weren't a fishman?"
"How could I be something if I don't even know what it is?"
"THAT'S IT! I'M GONNA KILL HIM!" she screamed in fury as she hefted her scythe and prepared to cut down. Luckily, she was caught mid-leap and restrained by Newshi. "LET ME GO! JUST LET ME STAB HIM ONCE!"
Cain glanced at the others. "Is this normal?" he asked, gesturing to the squirming girl with an afro.
Akimeg sighed. "Unfortunately, yes. Allmeg has a really short fuse, and being confused doesn't help. You have our apologies."
"Eh, no problem," the redheaded boy replied. "I'm guessing whatever a "fishman" is would be common knowledge around here, so my denial of being one without having one to compare myself to must've gotten on her nerves. What are they, by the way?"
"Fishmen are a humanoid species of fish people," Fuyumeg stated, drawing his attention. "They are more fishlike than merfolk, and usually look like a combination between a man and a fish or other aquatic creature, such as a shark or clownfish."
"Huh. You learn something new every day," he commented. "Thank you."
"No problem."
As the conversation between all of the teenagers continued, Oven took the chance to break off and head inside the Tarte. While he did order the Homies to turn the ship around head back in the general direction of Totto Land, he wasn't sure if he should just head back to Yakigashi Island, or report directly to Big Mom herself at Whole Cake Island with this new "guest."
Finding the Transponder Snail on a table at the very back of the boat, he decided to consult his brothers.