Cocoyasi village was in full spirit. The news of Arlong's death alongside the abrupt end of his crews rule over the Conami Islands Archipelago hit like a ton of bricks.
When Nami revealed the news, it was met with disbelief at first. But soon, cheers of jubilation echoed through the village and everyone took to the streets to celebrate.
'There's a lot more people here than I realised.' Kaden mused as he sat back atop a bench shaded by a large tree in the middle of the village, a pint of rum in hand. It was his third so far.
Just a quick shot of his observation haki had let him know, there was actually well over fifty people within the village of Cocoyasi.
As the hero of the hour, he would probably have been swarmed right about now by the people offering them his thanks. Granted, he was initially, before Nami bid off somewhere, barely able to contain the tears in her eyes.
Kaden had let her go. Honestly, he'd let the situation get to him too much and he'd more or less revealed way more than he should have. Arlong had just rubbed him the wrong way…and he'd let the chance to show off to Nami get to him a bit.
Plus he'd been trying to cow Hachi into submission so he didn't need to kill him. He'd been too much of a loud mouth braggart to keep a tighter lid on things he should have.
He'd need to work on that.
Either way, oh well, he couldn't exactly change anything now.
He cast his eye towards the reason why he currently wasn't the centre of attention within the village. The tall wild haired octopus fishman sitting beside him on the bench, a morose look on his face as he stared down at the ground, his eyes filled with sadness.
With all the main officers besides Hachi gone for good, and Arlong himself dead, the Arlong Pirates were officially disbanded. When the ones he'd knocked out by by flaring his Conqueror's Haki had come too, it was to the horror of their captain being dead.
Hachi had bid them to flee, and Kaden had let them. They were nobodies after all, nobody that he gave a shit about.
Honestly, he'd expected Hachi to leave as well. He hadn't stuck around after all in the original….timeline?
Well he'd fled when his companions got caught by the marines.
Either way, Kaden hadn't expected the fishman to follow him back along to the village of Cocoyasi. And he hadn't said a thing since he'd bid his fellows to flee, not even now with everyone in the village giving him disdainful, suspicious looks.
Honestly, with it just being him alone, Kaden figured the people were itching for some retribution against him for being part of what happened to them and he couldn't exactly blame them.
"Why didn't you leave as well?" Kaden spoke up and asked bluntly, "You oughta know nobody would like seeing your face around here. You might have been a nicer guy than the rest of your pals, but it doesn't change you were part of it all."
"…Nyuuu," Hachi's shoulders slumped, "I don't know. I'm trying to think. I know what we done was bad. I didn't like doing it, but we did it anyway. We deserved it. But they were still my friends."
Honestly, Kaden respected him a bit for his composure. After all, he was currently talking to the guy who decapitated three of his friends.
He wasn't sure he could do the same in his situation, bad guy or not.
"Feel free to hate me, curse me with every breath you take if it makes you feel better," Kaden shrugged, "Nothing will change the fact I killed your friends."
"We killed a lot of people too, we killed Nami's mother," Hachi sniffled, "And we did it for a lot less good reasons than why you killed my friends. I'm not angry. I'm just sad."
"I can respect that," Kaden nodded, looking out over the partying people and smiling, "These people lived in terror because of you guys, there's no excuse for that. Owning your own actions though, is something I can respect. Just like I won't make any excuses for killing your friends. I did it to help these people and fuel my ambitions. And even Arlong, as much as I detest who he was as a person and what he did, I can at least respect for owning his actions in the end and not making excuses."
If nothing else about the guy, he could respect that he supposed.
"Nyuuu…" Hachi released a sad whimper, before looking at Kaden, "Did you mean what you said?"
He wasn't very specific about what, but…
"Every single word." Kaden nodded.
The only lie he spoke at all, was about Hody Jones planning on killing Arlong's sister, and that was more just paraphrasing because the guy did try later down the line because she was trying to help the Straw Hats and such.
Could Kaden hold actions people hadn't committed yet and would only do so in a future he wouldn't be letting come to pass, against them?
For guys like Hody Jones, he sure as hell could. The guy was an absolute piece of shit scum and Kaden would enjoy leaving boot prints on his face.
"Okay," Hachi nodded and his sad eyes narrowed into focus on him, "Then, do you have a spot in your crew for me?"
Kaden blinked, "…What?" he gaped, utterly taken aback.
He was not expecting that at all.
"Nyuu!" Hachi nodded, "You're planning on correcting mistakes caused by us right and helping fishmen island when it's in trouble right? Then as part of the problem and the only high ranking one left, I should help you!"
Hmmm.
"I won't lie, a fishman would be a big help," Kaden mused aloud, "I'm a devil fruit user, and I'll probably have quite a few more on my eventual crew considering I've got two more devil fruits on hand and I plan on hunting for more."
"Ah, cuz devil fruit users can't swim!" Hachi clapped his six tentacle arms together in realisation.
"Yeah," Kaden snorted, the temptation was there to test the guys emotions with observation haki, but he wasn't going to constantly rely on it. Feeling Arlong's emotions earlier during their fight? It probably effected him more than he realised and was probably partially at least why he talked as much as he did. Besides, what he said to Nami earlier also applied. How could anything ever be genuine when he constantly read peoples emotions? That meant he could never trust them hiding anything from him, "Though are you sure? My plan going forward will take me specifically to a country that you as a fishman won't like at all."
"And you need to go there to become a Warlord?" Hachi cocked his head to the side, "And other things you said. What is your plan exactly?"
Kaden shrugged, "It's pretty simple," he smiled, "I'm planning on building up getting some training done here in the East Blue for a bit and mastering a few abilities I haven't gotten down yet. Then I plan on taking out a few other big wig pirates and taking their heads to increase my notoriety as a pirate and prove my strength."
"Ah, okay," Hachi nodded, "But wait…aren't all the warlord positions already filled right now?"
"Yup, but not for long," Kaden's smile widened, "See, one of them is currently in the middle of running a criminal organization in Alabasta and trying to create a civil war, he's planning on taking over as king. The princess of said kingdom infiltrated his little group, but neither she nor anyone in her kingdom has the ability to deal with him, he's a logia user after all and since they're in the beginning of paradise none of them can use Haki. My plan is simple. I'm going to go to that princess, and I'm going to make her an offer. I'll kill the warlord I'm planning on going after and save her kingdom, in return for marrying me and making me king. That way, I'll be free of the world government for a time to build up my strength and influence and have a country with an army of a million men strong to build up to my liking."
"Ah, I see, I think, I guess?" Hachi blinked a few times as he processed the teens words, before nodding, "Oh, that's why I won't like it there, Alabasta is a desert country."
Kaden snorted, "Yeah pretty much." he was amused in spite of himself that Hachi felt the need more to comment on that, than his plan to become king of the place.
"…Should I be hearing this?" a female voice Kaden wasn't familiar with spoke up drily, "I just heard this kid say something absolutely and utterly absurd."
"…To be honest, after everything I heard today, I'm too burned out to even be shocked by the utter stupidity and audacity of this plan," a much more familiar voice commented, just as drily, "You're not very faithful though are you? What was all that talk about wanting a date out of me earlier when you were planning all along to basically extort some poor princess into marrying you?"
Kaden looked over his shoulder, Hachi copying him to find Nami standing behind him, having traded out her white shirt for a strappy green tank top that showed off an absolutely crazy and tantalizing amount of cleavage from her large, voluptuous breasts, one hand placed on her cocked hips, an eyebrow raised at him, and a smirk on her face that belied her words.
Beside her, was a tan woman with glistening light blue hair tied up with a red ribbon, dressed in a similar tank top that showed off a cleavage that could compete with Nami's own, yet perhaps was even more eye drawing because of the tattoo looping from her shoulder over her chest, though her was tan in colour and a pair of blue pants, a surprised look in her deep blue eyes.
Well, hello there.
"Well I mean, I did say I had no idea how to even go about asking someone as gorgeous as you out normally," Kaden shrugged, "Unless you woulda preferred the same method used on you."
"Flattering and skeevy at the same time," the other woman, who Kaden obviously totally did not know the identity of snorted, "I'm not sure how to feel about a kid like this being our saviour."
"This is my sister by the way, Nojiko," Nami jabbed a thumb at the blue haired woman and introduced her, before her smirk widened, "And what if after all your big talk about being genuine and all that, and wanting me to be your woman and you saving us, I went and fell for you? Would I just plan to be side lined, some concubine while this other chick was your queen? Kind of a dick move."
Kaden blinked…he was not at all expecting things to go like this to be honest. And they weren't even like, reacting much to Haci at all either who was just looking on very confused, "I mean…I'm technically already a king?" he pointed out rather lamely, "The place I'm a king of right now is like a lot smaller than the place I want to be king of, but I mean, I could make you queen of Clock Tower Island."
Nami's eyes bulged at his words, "C-Clock Tower Island…as in the place with the diamond clock, that's said to be worth over a billion beri if sold?!" she outright gushed.
Huh, it was worth that much? He hadn't even realised that.
Nojiko palmed her forehead while rolling her eyes and sighing.
"That's the one yeah…." Kaden trailed off, and then his eyes widened as Nami was suddenly sitting right next to him, one arm around his shoulder and pressing her amazingly large and soft chest into his side.
"So then, where's my engagement ring honey?" Nami beamed at him.
She moved so freaking fast he barely saw her at all. Was that Soru!? What the fuck how did she do that?
And holy shit her tits, were amazing!
"And actually now that I remember and the heavy stuff is dealt with," Nami trailed a finger over his chin, "Didn't you say you had two devil fruits worth like a billion a piece easily? Where would we go about selling those I wonder?"
"There's a few places," Kaden gave himself a shake and replied with a roll of his eyes, "Not that I actually plan on selling them at all. I plan on giving them to people I eventually get around to recruiting."
He had a few options that he'd pondered on specifically in regards to those devil fruits. Specifically he'd taken into account level of strength, how hard they would be to recruit and most importantly how much he could trust them to be loyal.
Two stood out specifically.
Both from Dressrosa. Father and daughter actually.
Kyros and Rebecca.
As far as strength went, while he wasn't quite sure where Rebecca would land right now, he did know that she was strong enough to make it to the finals of the Gladiator Tournament with the prize being the Mera Mera no Mi, and faced off against a shit ton of new world pirates without taking a single hit.
And Kyros with only one leg and heavily injured was capable of taking out one of Doflamingo's top officers and even catching Doflamingo himself off guard with his speed and ability with just one leg, albeit he'd switched out with a string clone, but it was still an impressive feat.
Recruiting them shouldn't even be hard either. For one, Doflamingo forgot Kyros even existed right now, as did everybody because he was turned into a toy. And the only worth Rebecca had to him was as a former princess of the Dressrosa kingdom, but even then he only kept her around to torment and insult the former royal family. He wouldn't give a shit if she just disappeared.
And loyalty? He knew how to get it from them, he just had to promise to help them dethrone Doflamingo, which was something he planned on doing eventually anyway.
He'd give the Metal Metal fruit to Rebecca, which would boost her overall ability as a fighter which already wasn't too shabby at all. But more importantly, he'd give the Axolotl Zoan fruit to Kyros.
Allowing him to regenerate his leg. And then giving him an overall boost in his physical ability even in his base human form. And give him zoan transformations to increase his fighting abilities even further.
With some time and luck, Kyros could very well become a match for any of the top tier Yonkou Commanders.
"Mou," Nami pouted at him, "Why not? Think of all that cash. Two billion beri, that's crazy! I'm sure you could use a bunch of cash like that to your advantage over giving powers to random people."
"That's only an estimate, I'm actually sure they're worth way more." Kaden mused aloud. Honestly, while the Metal Metal fruit was by far the more powerful overall fruit, especially being a Logia.
Regeneration was just an incredible power. If used right, one could even become near immortal with it by his reckoning.
"Even better!" Nami pointed out.
"But no," Kaden snorted, poked the older woman on the forehead with his finger and pushed her off of him, "I can get money a ton of different ways if I need it, and selling a devil fruit has a chance of it ending up in the hands of an enemy and being used against me."
"Smart thinking," Nojiko input, "I mean, I don't know anything about devil fruits, and I'm still surprised they even exist and aren't a myth, but selling super powers out for a big lump of cash when you have those crazy plans of yours."
"Why do you have to logic so smartly when we're talking money," Nami rolled her eyes with a huff, "Come on, they can't be that amazing can they or that big of a threat to you? You said you can turn into a giant dragon that can blow up mountains up if you wanted."
"Nyuuu!?" Hachi gave a spit take and his head whipped to Kaden, "Kaido is dead!?"
"Kaido!?" Nokjio sputtered, eyes flying wide open.
"One of the Yonkou?" Nami blinked rapidly, "What does a guy like that have to do with this and why would he be dead? We'd hear about that if he was dead right!?"
…You know it was kind of weird actually Nami knew of people like that, but still thought Arlong was unbeatable before.
"The fish fish fruit - Model: Azure Dragon, that's Kaido's devil fruit, one of the legendary mythical zoan class devil fruits," Kaden informed, "My devil fruit is well…a cloned version of it by Dr. Vegapunk the lead genius scientist of the marines, and gives me all the same powers Kaido's does, though mine is the fish fish fruit - Model: Crimson Dragon."
He had decided to simply rename it after the little debacle of the colour of his scales being called out.
He was met with stunned silence and gaping faces for a few moments.
"…So you're saying you have all the same power as Kaido then, one of the Yonkou?" Nojiko mused, "No wonder you could crush Arlong."
"Power wise sure, at least as far as Devil Fruits go," Kaden admitted with a grin, "But as far as overall strength goes? I don't even come close, he'd probably kill me with a single hit."
Even in his full on dragon form, he didn't think he was as durable as Gear Four Luffy was when they fought. And Kaido had one shot him easily, put him completely out of commission with a single full on hit.
Nami's eyes practically bugged out of her skull, "You didn't even need your devil fruit powers at all to demolish Arlong and you're saying at full strength this guy would kill you in one hit!?" she screamed.
"Yup." Kaden confirmed, unashamedly.
After all if, it wasn't like Doflamingo for instance was as durable as Gear Four Luffy either, he'd probably die from a Thunder Bagua to the face as well.
And he had time before that was ever an issue for him personally. As long as he curbed the fact that even now his instincts urged him to fly off to Wano right here and now and challenge the man to a one on one.
It was why he done his best not to think of Kaido after all. Because it brought memories of what was happening to the poor people there like Tama and Yasui and Hiyori and everyone else….and the flames of rage beat in his heart, fury coursing through his veins.
Because no matter how much he wanted to do so, he had to curb those emotions. Because he couldn't anything as he was now. Facing off against him for the sake of others even when he knew he would lose might have been honourable and admirable even-
But, what good did people thinking he was admirable and honourable actually do for those suffering? Absolutely nothing.
"WHAT KIND OF MONSTSROUS PLACE IS THE GRAND LINE!?" Nami shrieked in fright at the thought.
"Eh…Nami, it's called the place logic goes to die for a reason." Hachi pointed out.
She gave him a baleful look, "Yes that's getting hammered in I think."
"Nyoo, I mean like, you're used to the East Blue here, it's not even alike in any sense," Hachi shrugged, even if he grimaced a bit at her frosty tone, "The weather can change at the drop of a hat. One second it's calm, the next typhoons appear from nowhere and giant glaciers fall from the sky. Spouts of water so big they could islands flying erupting from the depths of the ocean, and you can't even navigate it properly without a special compass called a log pose."
"What….that doesn't make any sense at all!" Nami sputtered, "People tell horror stories of the Grand Line all the time but that's just completely nonsensical and what do you mean you need a special compass called a log pose?"
"Oh you sweet summer child." Kaden snorted.
Nami whipped around to chop him over the head, "I don't wanna hear that from an overpowered dumb brat like you." she barked.
Kaden laughed, not at all bothered by it, honestly it was kind of nice for her to be acting like this and not awkward or anything with him after everything that happened, "It's cuz all the islands in the grand line have special magnetic fields, it completely messes up normal compasses," he told her and lifted his arm, pulling back the sleeve of his coat to show off the two different log poses hanging around his arm, "A log Pose basically locks in the the magnetic fields of these islands and points directly to them."
"That's not how compasses work!" Nami gaped at him, even as she grabbed his wrist and yanked it up to her eyes to inspect the log poses, "Why does this second one have three needles though?"
"The part of the Grand Line you're used to hearing stories about and the place Arlong and his crew couldn't hack it, is actually only the first half of it," Kaden told her, "It's affectionally referred to as Paradise by those who make it into the second half."
"…You know, this is beginning to sound even more absurd than the fact you claim you can turn into a dragon," Nojiko pointed out with a dry smile on her face, "It sounds more fantasy than reality.
"Nyuu…he's not lying though, that's just the kind of place the grand line is," Hachi pointed out wiggling a few of his tentacle arms, "We were only in the second half of it briefly before we had to run away, and we only managed to stay there for that long because of Jimbei. There's sea kings bigger than this island that are casual things there and even islands that constantly rain lightning and stuff."
"And that's an every day occurrence you're regular person will see there out at sea," Kaden nodded in agreement, "The reason why this other log pose has three needles, is because in the New World, the magnetic fields get even crazier and that islands can outright change their magnetic fields or even flat out hide them completely and leave you stranded with nowhere to go in the middle of the craziest place in the entire world where everything wants to kill you. There's three needles in this one-"
"So that you have three chances to find the next island…" Nami breathed out shakily.
"Pretty much." Kaden nodded.
There really was no sugar coating how horrifying and dangerous the New World truly was.
He was lucky in that sense, he never had to deal with navigating that sea, not truly.
"And that's the kind of place you're used too…" Nami bit her lip, "The kind of place you plan on returning to right? To accomplish becoming a warlord and roping this princess into marrying you and making you the king of her nation?"
There was a stormy, serious look in Nami's eyes that Kaden couldn't quite place, "Kind of," he shrugged, "I do have business in the New World, but the country I want to become king of is actually pretty early in the first half of the grand line if you enter through the East Blue opening of Reverse Mountain."
"About that," Nojiko spoke up, "You sound pretty sure of yourself and all, but what are you going to do if this princess knocks your deal back? Are you going to leave the country to get decimated by this warlord guy and taken over?" she asked, eyebrows raised almost…challengingly?
Kaden was super tempted to just open up his observation haki and take a peek at what she was feeling right now and try to figure out what she was thinking right about now.
But he didn't.
"No, because among others things I actually like the princess, she's a good kind girl," Kaden replied honestly with a chuckle, and to be honest, talking out loud like this, being truthful and telling people his plans, was making it seem more…real to him, "I'll take that guy down regardless even if she doesn't take the deal, besides I'd need to deal with him anyway to open up a position in the warlords for me to get myself."
"…You really are an idiot," Nami shook her head, but a smile spread across her face, "If what you're saying is true, you could force it easily, otherwise she'd lose everything and her people would suffer massively, she'd have no choice but to be your woman and marry you for their sake."
"Despite how selfish I wish I was, as it turns out I'm just not that kinda guy." Kaden shrugged.
The thought of doing that to Vivi, or anyone really disgusted him to his very core.
Nami laughed, "Trust me, I'm well aware of that you little moron."
Kaden raised an eyebrow at her, once again, confused.
And thus we return with chapter 12 of this woop woop yay yay, read it all baybay?
Very much a build up chapter, no action at all. Granted, he did just kill Arlong last chapter and now is in the process of building the beginnings of his crew. Yup, the first two slots are filled by Nami and Hachi. Well anyway, still got other things to update so gonna leave the discussion of the chapter here and with the mention that we're still a decent few chapters ahead on the Pa-atreon if you wanna read ahead.
Anyway, again, 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.
