Kaden ended up staying the night in Logue Town. He rented out one of the best rooms in the hotel usually reserved for high ranking celebrities, royalty and other rich types, what was the point of all the money he stole if he never used it after all.
It was a total rip off though.
Two hundred and fifty thousand beri per night. A complete and utter rip off. Though, the deal for it was that those staying could order food whenever they wanted and in however amount they pleased.
He got the last laugh with that.
They weren't expecting a dragon sized appetite after all.
As it was, the next morning found Kaden leaning over the balcony outside his expensive room overlooking the pool, lost in thought. Though, he couldn't help but wonder one thing, "…Why are the elites of this world more often than not ugly as fucking sin?" Kaden mused aloud as he stared down at the pool.
Most of the people down there, kid and adult alike, were butt ugly, with oddly shaped heads, teeth, hair styles and bodies. A good ninety percent of the people actually paying to stay at the hotel.
The ones that weren't ugly as fuck and didn't look like they hit every branch of the ugly tree upon falling out of it at birth….before being taken back up and tossed back down a few extra times for good measure, were their tag alongs. The ugliest men were being accompanied by real beauties, pretty faces, luscious hair, curves for days.
It was rather bemusing to be honest, Kaden shook his head.
Honestly, he should just be grateful he didn't look like the typical Celestial Dragon. He was real lucky in that regard he supposed.
A news coo landing on the balcony brought him out of his thoughts, and Kaden lifted a single coin out of the pocket of the shorts he was wearing and gave it to it in return for the newspaper it was carrying.
He wasn't really interested in the newspaper itself, but rather what came with it.
Fresh bounties.
He quickly pulled them out, finding a stack of four. Three of them, he couldn't place at all, two of them were smaller timers with under ten million beri bounties, the third had sixty seven million which wasn't bad, but it was the last one that truly caught his eye.
A familiar blue eyed spiky haired blonde stared back at him from the picture, covered in blood and holding that piece of shit Graydle up and stabbing him in the throat.
It was quite the brutal looking bounty picture.
"…Crimson Kaden, seriously?" his voice was deadpan when he saw the epitaph they gave him.
That was lame as hell.
And completely uncreative.
Well he supposed it was better than something like Buggy The Clown or Red Hair Shanks.
'I suppose it fits though.' he mused, it matched his scales in his dragon form at least. His eyes settled on the bounty and he just stared for a moment, "…I knew it was gonna be big, but damn." Kaden whistled.
One hundred and eighty five million.
He had a higher bounty than Luffy did after taking out a Shichibukai. He had a higher bounty than Zoro did after helping destroy Enies Lobby.
Huh, didn't that make him a Supernova? Like, right off the bat?
'Neat…' Kaden snorted.
Though that did mean he couldn't stick around here for much longer. It wouldn't be long before he was recognised in a densely populated place like Logue Town and then everyone would know he'd skipped back to East Blue.
He wasn't actually sure how they'd respond to something like that to be honest. But either way, he wanted some peace from that hubbub until he'd gotten some time to himself.
As it was though, he'd specifically stayed here in Logue Town last night because he didn't really have much of a plan beyond dealing with that idiot Bear King and his Trump Pirates.
He supposed he could stick around Clock Work Island after he dealt with them, nobody had bothered them really in the what, ten years they'd ruled the place?
…Seriously what were the marines in the East Blue even doing at this point? Letting a loser like that rule over an entire island and population.
Smoker especially. With his Smoke Smoke fruit, that fool could fly across East Blue and round up the fools like Arlong, Buggy, Krieg and more within a few weeks tops.
Kaden put that out of mind for the moment. Either way, the big problem he had facing him was a lack of strong enough opponents. There was not a single pirate or marine in the East Blue right now, that could push him at all.
His best bet for good opponents to train against was literally at Dawn Island where Luffy trained. The wild life there would be great to train against for his Observation Haki at least.
Hmmm…actually.
What if he trained against Luffy?
Right now, he probably wouldn't be much of a match. But Luffy got stronger quickly in the face of stronger opponents, and Kaden knew of a quick way for him to ramp up his strength with Gear Second and Gear Third.
"Now there's an idea." Kaden grinned. Luffy coming at him with Gear Second, would be an amazing opponent to train his Observation Haki against.
And he couldn't deny, that even if he had decided to not to try and join Luffy on his adventure like he'd dreamed of back in his own world, he still wanted to meet him.
Yeah…actually, yeah! The more he thought about it, the more that seemed like a really good idea. Besides, forging a friendship with Luffy would probably come in helpful down the line.
"Let's do that then." Kaden laughed, stuffing the bounty poster inside his pocket before making his way back into his rented room to change into his actual gear, marine issue boots and pants, a white tank top and his shiny new crimson red coat, then he holstered his new meito blades over his shoulders.
Once that was done, he stepped out onto the balcony once more and held his hand up, a large glowing orange cloud forming out from his palm, which he then jumped up on and sat cross legged on.
And a moment later, at his bidding the cloud speed off through the air, carrying him atop it.
Kaden's first destination before he headed off to Dawn Island to find the future sun god himself, was Clock Work Island.
It wasn't actually all that far away from Logue Town, being one of the last islands before reaching it and heading on to Reverse Mountain.
It only took Kaden a half an hour to reach there following a simple map he picked up in Logue Town yesterday.
"God damn is that castle fucking ugly." Kaden winced as it came into view in the horizon
It started off as a white tower that resembled overlapping, lopsided white crowns painted with the symbols of playing cards, leading up to an observatory throne room at the very top.
Kaden was almost offended by how ugly it was.
Like, it was big and spacious for sure. but it was ugly as all hell. He couldn't ever imagine himself living in such a gaudy place.
It was tempting as all hell, to just transform right now into his full on dragon form and blow it away with his Blast Breath. Just legitimately wipe it off the face of the planet.
It would make the world itself twenty percent less ugly by his estimates. That was how god damn ugly it was!
The only reason he didn't, was because he wasn't sure where that buffoon Bear King kept his crews treasure.
…Speaking of his crew though.
Before heading towards the castle itself, Kaden directed his flying flame cloud down to the very bottom of the island suspended in the sky, to the multiple coves around it and circled the island a few times.
"Gotta admit, not bad." Kaden whistled, he was somewhat impressed despite himself. He supposed those like ten years the Trump Pirates hunkered down at Clock Work Island didn't go to waste.
Through circling the island in total a few times and spreading out his awareness with observation haki, he was able to get a full scope of the fighting force the Trump Pirates had accumulated in their time here.
He could sense so many people, he couldn't even count them with his current haki limits. But it was definitely well over a thousand people.
And a total of fifty five ships, each and every single one a match in size for a marine cruiser, which typically could have up to one hundred marines stationed on them.
That was just impressive.
He wondered if the Trump Pirates had a force that could equal Don Krieg's armada?
Well, not that a few thousand pieces of fodder amounted to munch. The vast majority of them had presences that didn't even measure up to some toddlers he'd felt in the New World.
Still, they were worth claiming. He didn't have a crew or anything, never mind enough subordinates to captain over fifty ships. But, that could very well change in the future.
Nodding to himself, Kaden directed his flame cloud to zip back up higher into the air and ascend to the peak of Clock Work Island, right up to the gaudy castle up top, and then stepped off.
He plummeted down, feet first, smashing through the glass ceiling and landed smack dab in the middle of a spacious throne room.
It was just as gaudy on the inside as it was on the outside. It was an oval room, with plenty of windows and natural sunlight coming through, with a raised station where a large ace-card shaped throne sat, and dozens of card symbols painted over the walls, while below him was a thick glass flower displaying the winder of a massive clock turning around in clock wise motions.
"Who the hell are you supposed to be?" a massive, oddly shaped man sitting upon the throne stared at him queerly.
And when Kaden said oddly shaped, he meant it. He had short squat legs, thick lank arms, a massive potato like torso and his head hung midway down his torso like he was a hunchback. He had a fat rounded face and a massive bulbous nose, with wild black hair jutting out all around it, and so much hair covering his shoulders it looked like fur.
He was the only one in the throne room, and Kaden found himself stunned speechless for a moment at just how ugly the man was.
Hell he even had fur circling his wrists, what the hell?
And what was with the black spade on his forehead? No wonder this dude had to have his subordinates kidnap girls for him.
"Nobody you need to worry about," Kaden shrugged, "Just dropping by to kill you and take your devil fruit to experiment with something, nothing important."
Bear King blinked, before bursting out into loud peals of laughter, "A runt like you is here to kill me? That's a good laugh!" his huge fist pounded against the armrest of his throne in amusement, before he pushed himself up, "I suppose I was actually getting a little bored, pulping your head between my palms might amuse me a-"
Bear King never got to finish, because before he could Kaden disappeared in a blur of speed using Soru and was upon him before the man could even react, his leg flashing out in a blinding fast round house that caught him in the cheek and bodily lifted the ten foot plus man into the air and sent him soaring through the air to crash into the wall hard enough to create spider web cracks and shake the entire throne room.
Kaden took the time before the huge hairy man smashed into the wall, to casually land on his throne and recline back in it, one leg crossed over the knee of the other and perching his head on his fist, "What was that about you pulping my head between your palms?" he bared his teeth at the huge man in a grin, "Weakling."
Hmm, actually, gaudy as this throne was, it was actually quite comfortable. 'Maybe I can stick it on one of my flame clouds and travel around in style?' he wondered.
It would be a whole lot less gaudy when it wasn't surrounded by all the other poker card themed shit at least. And hey, if Mihawk could sail around in a damn coffin, he could fly around on a throne.
It was only fair.
"You….!" Bear King rubbed his cheek that was already bruising from the impact of, and then shot to his feet, fury on his face, "You little bastard! Hot Boiling Special!" he roared, lifting his huge meaty fists. His entire body gleamed like metal for a split moment, before his fists began glowing a molten red and he launched himself towards Kaden like a cannon ball, one of his huge melting hot fists raising above his head.
He did not in anyway have the speed of a cannonball though.
It was like he was moving in slow motion to Kaden's eyes.
His mouth slammed shut, hard as Kaden disappeared from the throne in a blur of speed and his knee struck the bottom of the huge mans chin, the clash of his teeth smashing against either grinding like two anvils smashing together.
He staggered back from the blow with a growl as Kaden landed on his feet, "Hmm, that's not bad at all, I actually felt that." the former marine mused, rubbing his knee.
Easily as hard as steel, if not harder. And Bear King was a total putz who seriously had never taken his fruit to the true limits it could reach.
That was good news for Sandai Kitetsu.
But beyond that-
Kaden weaved to the side and casually dodged a massive molten rid fist aiming for his face, then another, and another, "Hot Boiling Special?" he snorted, "Really? That's the name of your technique?" he mocked, linking his arms behind his back and easily dodging around the mans barrage of punches.
"Stand! Still! And! Die!" Bear King roared as he attacked all out and missed every single time.
"Stand still?" Kaden grinned, "Okay." he agreed and did just that. Stopping in place.
Just in time for Bear King's fist to smash into his forehead.
And did absolutely nothing in the face of Tekkai and armament haki coating his forehead.
"Do you…have a devil fruit like mine as well!?" he gaped, absolutely stunned, before being sent flying back as a fist swung up and slammed into his chin from below, slamming into the wall once more, only this time, it shattered on impact.
Kaden eyed his fist with a hum, "So I can do it if I stand in place, huh?" he mused. What he'd done was simple. He'd punched the man, with Tekkai. He couldn't do such a thing while moving like Jabra could for his Tekkai Kenpo fighting style…yet. But, it was possible to do it with a single arm if he stood in place at least, "I think I'll call that Tekken." he grinned.
Iron Fist.
"Hmm?" he cocked his head to the side as he felt a few presences rushing towards the throne room.
He supposed it was time he finished up then. There wasn't anything he could really get out of this guy combat wise.
Even with his devil fruit, he was simply too weak.
"That's it, I'm going to-" once more as Bear King began growling out threats as he stood back up, he was cut off. Though not by being struck again. Rather, it was by twin arms wrapping around his throat from behind.
"Bear King what is going on!?" the throne room doors burst open and a womans voice cried out.
A voluptuous blonde clad in a purple coat and one piece corset, followed by a squat fat man, a skinny weasel faced man and a tall pale willowy man with a feather shawl around his neck dashed into the throne room.
Just in time for Kaden who had gotten behind Bear King before he could react at all, to jerk his arms, clad with haki and tensed with Tekkai to the side.
And an audible crack to echo through the throne room as he broke Bear King's neck.
Kaden left go of the mans neck and let his now corpse fall to the floor limp and turn his attention to the interlopers who had entered the throne room.
"Bear King!" the fat one cried out in horror.
"Four bounties and one with a devil fruit." Kaden eyed them with a grin, before spinning in place and lashing out with a lightning fast kick, "Rankyaku!"
A massive wind blade erupted from his leg and soared towards them. They screamed in horror, the blonde at the front yelping and her body splitting apart into pink liquid and managing to survive being cut in twain.
The other three? Not so much.
They dropped to the ground, bisected at the middle by his storm leg kick, blood and organs slapping nosily onto the throne room floor as they slid out of their sliced bodies.
"Huh," Kaden blinked as Honey Queen reformed standing before the corpses of her former crew members, a look of horror on her face, "I didn't think you were good enough with your fruit to go into the elemental form fast enough and dodge my attack."
"W-who…are you?" Honey Queen trembled, in place, utter fear in her eyes, "What kind of monster boy are you? W-why are you doing this?"
Kaden raised an eyebrow at her, "Because I wanted to, and you guys had something of use to me," he replied, "Come on you're a pirate, how many innocent people have you tormented and killed over the years because you can? What goes around comes around." he began walking towards her.
"W-wait, wait wait!" she yelped, holding her hands up, "What do you mean we have something of use to you. if you tell me, I can-"
"I wanted your devil fruits," Kaden cut her off with a smirk, "Well I need Bear King's for something, yours is just an added bonus. Logia devil fruits like yours go for a ton of money, I'm betting three hundred million beri easy for it."
"…Selling devil fruits? Logia? What?" Honey Queen was completely overwhelmed by the situation and the information dropped on her.
"Yeah that's about as expected for someone who's bummed around the weakest sea for years and never bothered going to the Grand Line," Kaden laughed, "I'd explain it to you, but it won't matter once you're dead. But here, as a consolation prize let me at least give you the name of your killer. I'm Kaden D. Freeman, or Crimson Kaden as far as my bounty poster of one hundred and eighty five million beri is concerned."
…Okay so he kind of felt the need to flex. But come on, he deserved it after everything he'd accomplished over the last few days and how free he felt now. Before, he was always walking around eggshells around those that could crush him.
Now it was him that could do the crushing.
Her eyes widened in absolute disbelief at his words.
Just as he was about to rush her with Soru and wrap an armament clad fist around her neck, Honey Queen surprised him by giving him a smile, a shaky one though, "…You don't need to kill me, I can be useful," she said, "And a man of your calibre…well three hundred million is a lot for people like me, but I'm sure it's a different matter for one as powerful as you."
Actually three hundred million beri was a shit ton. He only got this much because he robbed two literal New World marine bases of their coffers. Though admittedly, finding a buyer for her fruit would be hard if he didn't give it to anyone.
'What's her angle here?' he wondered, "Useful how?" Kaden asked, curious despite himself.
He still didn't have a goal decided yet after all.
Her smile widened a tiny little bit, and she slowly made her way over to him, hips swaying, "Anyway you want," she purred, "I'm quite the skilled woman despite not being anywhere near as strong as yourself obviously, I can fill any position you want me to." her voice took on a seductive tilt when she said the word 'position' and as she reached him she bent over slightly to trail her finger across his collarbone and flashing off the deep well of her cleavage.
Oh, duh. Seduction.
To be honest, he'd been keeping that out of mind on purpose. While he wasn't a virgin, he wasn't as experienced as his other self had been, whom had this body before him.
…And as he'd mentioned before, his other self's hatred of pirates was quite deep. To be exact, when he got the chance to torture female pirates, he'd raped quite a few of them.
He honestly did his best to suppress those memories. At the end of the day, it showed how alike his other self had been to his Celestial Trash kin.
God he fucking hated that bastard.
"That's seriously the only card you have left to play?" Kaden sighed, rolling his eyes.
Even if he couldn't help but steal a glance at her deep valley of cleavage. She really was attractive. Pretty face, smoky eyes, golden blonde hair done up in a pair of flowy pigtails, plump lips, voluptuous breasts, thin, but somewhat wide hips and long legs, and she knew how to show it off.
Honey Queen froze, a grimace appearing on her face at his tone, "…Yes," she admitted, "I'll do anything you want if you let me live. Fuck the shit out of me as you please, I'm all for it, you're quite the handsome boy if a bit young, but I'm a pirate at the end of the day like you said. Anything, please." she pleaded with him.
She was really weak of will. And really weak physically. Even with a Logia, she wasn't anything of worth.
He hated that he felt a stirring in his balls at her offer. He did want to fuck her, but there was more important things than getting his rocks off.
Hmm.
He eyed her thoughtfully as the voluptuous blonde did her best not to tremble under his gaze, "…I do need somebody to keep an eye on my new fleet of ships." he mused.
Weak as she was, she was still a logia. As long as she didn't do something stupid like get stuck in a jar, she could handle most of the weaklings around East Blue.
"…New fleet?" she blinked, confused.
"Well they used to be yours, but they're mine now," Kaden laughed, "I've not decided what to do with them, so I'll let you live if you if you stick around here and keep an eye on things for me."
"Ah….." Honey Queen trailed off, having absolutely nothing to say to that. Then nodded, "Yes I can do that….my lord?" she said, hesitantly.
He grimaced, "Just call me Kaden," he replied, before reaching over to grasp her by the chin, "If you actually do prove your worth, then I'll show you a world you can't even fathom compared to what you've seen here in the East Blue. Islands in the sky, whales bigger than mountains, cities themselves built of gold." he promised with a smirked.
There, that was pretty grandiose, right?
And her cheeks flushed as she swallowed heavily, "Like I said….I will do my best to fill any position you want," her voice came out in a breathy whisper and she licked her lips, "Perhaps I can show you my appreciation for sparing me from ending up like them." she cast a look at the corpses of her former crew mates bleeding all over the throne room.
Her hand atop his collarbone trailed down, and her eyes widened a moment later, "Oh…my." a surprised noise left Honey Queen's mouth at what she found.
"You know what?" Kaden's smirk widened as she felt him up, "Fine, fuck it." he was a fucking pirate now, anyone who was a criminal in this world was more or less considered one.
He should enjoy the perks, right?
Honey Queen believed now she had made a mistake.
She should never have tried seduction.
But in her defence, it was the only thing that came to mind when an absolute monstrous teenager appeared out of nowhere and casually murdered Bear King and the rest of her crew like bugs.
A monstrous boy straight from the Grand Line, the home of monsters like him for sure. She would have had nightmares of seeing him casually snap her former captain Bear King's neck, if she'd been allowed to sleep.
That was three days ago.
"And where do you think you're going?" Kaden's hand landed on her ankle as she tried to crawl away, placing the now empty plate he'd picked up just moments ago when it was full. They were currently situated atop the massive bed that Bear King used to sleep atop.
Honey Queen yelped as the teenager bodily dragged her back by the ankle as if she were a toy, and pulled her back towards him, a second later his fist was in her now very hair, long since having fallen out of her usual twin tails and she felt something large, massive really, rigid, hot and as ever throbbing spreading her womanhood open.
"Oh fuck!" she squealed as the teenager slammed into her with all the force of cannon. And soon the bedroom was filled once more by the sounds of skin slapping against skin and her squealing moans as he fucked her ragged.
As he had been doing for three days straight.
The only breaks she'd gotten were when he forced members of her crew to bring him food. She'd been seen by dozens of members of the now former Trump Pirate crew getting used by a horny monster of a teenager.
But she didn't even have the energy to feel anything over it, not with how exhausted she was.
"You beast!" Honey Queen squealed, her eyes rolling up into the back of her head once more as another orgasm tore through her from the rough, rapid relentless pounding he gave her.
She'd long since lost count of how many.
Only that it had been so many he'd torn the sheets from the bed, they'd been that soaked with her juices.
"Don't do the crime if you can't do the time!" the monster teenager only laughed, spanking her across the ass.
And here we are back again with the big ol' chapter teighty heighty big oom eight!
So, not really a lot to say about this chapter because I'm a little bit busy right now. But, Kaden came, he saw, he killed Bear King and he conquered Honey Bee. Yay him? Anyway, a lot of this chapter was to highlight that despite him being a better person in general, the memories of his other self who had the body first, still effect Kaden to a degree. Welp, beyond that we're still quite a few chapters ahead on the Pa-atreon if you wanna read ahead boys and girls.
Anyway, shameless Pa-atreon plug. I've got one, go by the same username on there, easy to find and all that jazz. Support me if you want, it'd be swell, but don't feel pressured lads and ladies, I'll be uploading my stuff outside it regardless and not keeping it all behind a paywall or anything like that.