It was honestly surprising to Kaden, how little the massive village wide party had died down at all.
And by that he meant, it hadn't died down at all. If anything, even as night fell and it time passed into the wee hours of the morning, the party just got louder and happier.
Kaden hadn't been expecting that at all and honestly had been waiting for it to die down so he could slip away and go scope out what kind of loot he was looking at from Arlong's machinations.
When he mentioned as such, Nami wasted no time in just up and dragging him away with an excited gleam in her eyes towards Arlong Park.
Though they needed Hachi to actually go about getting the treasure for them. It was apparently hidden in a specially reinforced room under Arlong Park, and he knew the combination to unlock the safe.
…Admittedly Kaden could have just smashed it open with his bare hands, but he'd already done enough damage to his new vacation home and didn't want to mess it up any further.
That left Kaden and Nami sitting out together alone under the moonlight while Hachi went about grabbing the loot.
"So, devil fruits huh?" Nami eyed him with interest.
"Still on about that?" he snorted, "I'm not selling them." he didn't plan on selling any single devil fruit he got his hands on, no matter how weak it seemed.
Even something as simple and straight forward as the Shout Shout Fruit that he planned on reaping from that twit El Drago's corpse would be put to better use being given as a reward to subordinates he gained in the future for good service or even just to a like a baby den den mushi or something.
He'd need one for carrying around after all for people to get into contact with him properly when he had a good place to lay down his belongings and not constantly carry them around with him.
Plus the idea of a tiny snail firing off a massive beam from its mouth at someone sounded hilarious to him.
"Much as I wish otherwise, I hear you loud and clear," Nami snickered, "I gotta admit I'm curious about them though, you did say if you gave me one of them I could have beaten Arlong myself within a few days."
"Honestly, you might have been able to beat him with either of them within a few days." he shrugged. It honestly would depend on just how big a boost the Axolotl fruit gave physically. It had to be pretty decent though, it was a carnivorous zoan after all.
Well, it would probably at least have made her stronger than one of the mook fishmen in Arlong's crew. They would have to have been stronger than the average fishman, and the average fishman should have been somewhere around at least fifty doriki. So like maybe at the very minimum would give her a physical base strength boost of around a hundred doriki by his estimates, and comparable across the board in durability, endurance, speed and such.
Though that was an incredible lowball in his opinion.
But yes between the zoan form and the regeneration, he could see her having a chance at beating Arlong one on one as long as she kept him away from the water.
"Devil fruits are really bullshit huh?" Nami mused, "So spill, what do these fruits even do?"
"Honestly, it's a pretty long explanation," Kaden shrugged, "I mean, like there's three different types of devil fruit alright? First is paramecia that just gives odd powers across the board which can be anything from becoming an explosion man that can detonate explosions with any part of your body to being a spring man that lets you turn any body part into a spring."
"Right, you said something about that before, but I get what you mean," Nami nodded, digesting his words, "Logia is one as well then right? Like you mentioned?"
"Yeah, we'll get to that in a minute," Kaden said, "The second type is the zoan type devil fruits. That basically let's you turn into whatever animal its based on and have enhanced variations of their natural abilities, on top of that these type vastly increase your physical abilities even in your human form. My fruit is specifically a mythical zoan devil fruit which is basically devil fruits that let you turn into creatures straight out of fantasy stories, in my case that's a dragon. One of the two devil fruits I have on hand is the sala sala fruit - Model: Axolotol and-"
"As in the salamander?!" Nami's eyes practically sparkled, "The thing that can regenerate lost limbs and stuff?"
"Huh, you know about them?" Kaden blinked, impressed despite himself. Like, he only knew of them because of his education in his own world before ending up here, that other bastard knew jack shit about anything like Axolotl's, and would never have understood the worth of the devil fruit.
"Of course I do," Nami rolled her eyes, "I'm the best navigator you'll ever find in the entirety of the world remember? Knowing the kind of animals you can come across on islands is some of the most basic things you should know as a navigator."
"Sure," Kaden shrugged, "Either way, the fruit should give a pretty enhanced version of an Axolot's regeneration. By my estimates, it should be full on capable of regenerating lost limbs and organs and stuff within minutes at most and would make anyone strong who ate it, pretty much unkillable and let you hold your breath for an entire year if not more."
Honestly Axolotl's were pretty damn crazy and amazing. Though, sadly they couldn't breathe under water, though it would mitigate a few risks of falling into water for anyone who ate the fruit.
…Kaden could actually breathe under water though. After all, at the end of the day, he was just a shiny gyarados that evolved from a shiny fish magikarp.
Since his fruit was a fish model, he'd been curious to see if he could actually breathe underwater and found he could when he filled up a sink at his hotel room in Logue Town and jammed his entire face in it.
He had no idea how it worked considering he didn't have gills or anything, but he wasn't going to complain.
It opened up so many possibilities after all.
Though it also meant Kaido could also breathe underwater, as if that freak of nature wasn't already pretty much unkillable anyway. It did explain why the marines didn't just toss him into the ocean to kill him off when they had him prisoner though and were trying to murderize him.
They did, it just failed.
"…Yeah, I can see why you think that kind of power would go for at least a billion," Nami gaped at him, "Actually, if the seller and buyers are smart I can see it going for ten times that easily, and you're just walking around with that in a sack!?"
As expected, someone as intelligent as Nami understood the true value of the Axolotl fruit right away.
"And you're just gonna give something like that to someone you recruit in the future?" she added, giving him an almost scandalized look.
Kaden shrugged, "Someone I can trust and it would help them out and keep them alive? That's worth way more than a mere ten billion beri."
Besides, there was a whole fucking giant city of gold sitting pretty in the sky. Or well it was before some moron with a god complex took it all for himself. Once he was strong enough, or at least had a much better grasp on Armament Haki, he could go see about earning a god slayer title to add to his resume and take all that gold for himself.
"I don't know whether to find it hot that you referred to that absolutely monstrous amount of beri as mere, or be absolutely disgusted with you for not grasping just how much that is." Nami deadpanned.
"I'd prefer you to think it hot." Kaden replied promptly, grinning in spite of himself.
"I bet you would," Nami noted, reaching down and hooking her finger in the strappy front of her top and pulling it a bit forward a bit to display more of her vast canyon of cleavage and laughing as his eyes practically zoomed towards her chest, "So then, Logia is the last category of devil fruits then? And I assume the one the other devil fruit you have falls under?" she asked, letting go of her top and letting them snap back into place.
And making her large round breasts jiggle enticingly as it did.
"That's not nice you know." Kaden pointed out.
"Poor baby, is teasing you too much?" Nami snorted and pat him on the cheek.
He wasn't actually sure what to say in response to that, because he actually quite enjoyed the view.
"It must suck to actually be a nice guy sometimes, huh?" Nami shook her head in pure amusement when he just raised an eyebrow at her, "You've got it all figured out right? You've got all that strength, all this money, and this big amazing plan to become a king with a princess all to yourself. Heck you could even force me down and do whatever you wanted to me right now with nobody capable of stopping you. But you're just not enough of a bastard to actually do it."
She said it as if it was some big accomplishment, "…Is that something I should be bragging about? Like it's an achievement?" Kaden deadpanned.
"You'd be surprised," Nami shrugged, "Is it being genuine that important to you?"
"Yes," he was surprised himself by how quickly he replied to that, "Because it's real. I told you before right? I've got so many plans, know so much and want so much, money, women, power, but none of it means anything if it isn't real? That's how those bubble headed freaks live. They live an illusion of power and prestige that is only maintained by the power of those they don't know are actually above them."
"…The world nobles huh?" Nami pursed her lips, "I don't actually know all that much about them except they're a big deal and wasn't really sure how to broach the subject with you."
"What's to say," Kaden shrugged, giving her a sardonic grin, "They're absolutely retards, the vast majority of them are ugly as hell both outside and inside. They have delusions of grandeur of being the gods of this world and do whatever the hell they want. The only reason I was born in the first place is my stupid ass mother wanted to create what she called the ultimate life form, a god of gods by fucking a guy from the D. clan, a family of people that have basically been the mortal enemies of the Celestial Dragons since the very founding of the World Government. She thought the combination of both bloodlines would create someone unstoppable. My grandfather didn't think so and wanted me dead in the womb. Thinks I did actually, and my mother went to her death gleefully thinking that she gave birth to, in her words the 'ruler of all creation.'"
Kaden gave a bitter snorting chuckle, "Basically, I'm an abomination to them that was never supposed to ever exist, but here I am," he shrugged again, "It disgusts me to think I'm even related to those freaks. If it weren't for the fact I'd have the marine admirals sent after my ass, I'd blow Marejoise off the face of the planet."
"Wow…you know, just wow. I'm not even sure what to say to that," Nami shook her head, "It's just crazy. But, they're scum huh?"
"That's putting it mildly," Kaden laughed, "They've been enslaving people for hundreds of years and treating them like trash. What you overheard earlier? When I was fighting with Arlong. Fisher Tiger is a fishman he grew up with and looked up to. He climbed the red line and freed all the slaves my kin had, fishmen, giants, human, animal and more. He went out of his way to return even humans who had treated him badly in the past to their homes safe and sound, and he was betrayed and killed for it. You could say the whole reason you ended up suffering like you did under Arlong, is because of my filthy family." his bitter laughter erupted from his lips once more at the thought.
A soft touch on his cheek stopped him, cutting him off and he looked to see Nami rolling her eyes and giving him a half smile, "Idiot you said it yourself earlier remember? Arlong's actions are his own, and even knowing he was going to die for them he accepted the accountability of them, that's what you said, right?" she reminded him.
"…You were listening?" he blinked, he'd been talking to Hachi when he said that.
"Yeah, you're pretty oblivious when you're not using that haki power," Nami rolled her eyes, "You might be related to those people that more or less caused Arlong to hate humans and come here, but that was his decision in the end, and the things they did, have no baring on you either idiot. And you're not an abomination, frankly, you're probably the only good thing to come from your messed up family, probably the only good thing they ever accomplished."
Kaden found himself swallowing heavily at her words, his heart thumping in his chest and his cheeks heating up, "…I'm not a good person," he denied, "The thing I'm literally most proud about is slaughtering a full base of marines and killing a vice admiral. The coat I'm wearing right now, that I ripped off that guys corpse, is literally my greatest treasure in the world."
He admitted it. He'd been trying to suppress that feeling since he took it. Tried to make it seem like it was just for style, or an image thing. But quite frankly, this coat he wore now?
It was the symbol of him overcoming his own fear, and putting others before him, of him clashing with a man who was vastly stronger than him, yet putting him in the dirt and taking everything from him for his actions.
It was the first and last time, he felt like he was truly doing his duty as a marine. And for one split moment, where he felt like a hero.
…Yet an action tainted by the fact it was achieved through mass murder, where he brutally cut down anyone in his way and gave no mercy or quarter.
What did that say about him? That it was his shining moment. That it was that, he was most proud of.
"Yeah?" Nami said, "And what exactly were they doing as marines?" she asked, raising an eyebrow at him in question.
"…They were oppressing the people they were supposed to be protecting, taking anything they wanted from them and the vice admiral was raping any of the women that caught his eye." Kaden admitted.
"Oh yes, why ever would you be proud of doing such an amazingly good deed," Nami rolled her eyes, "Killing pieces of trash like that doesn't make you a bad person idiot, plus I bet this coat looks way better on you than it did him."
His eyes widened as glistening orange hair obscured his vision as Nami leaned forward and pressed her lips gently against his own for a moment, before pulling back, "Thank you for everything you did today," she said as she pulled back, her soft hand cupping his cheek, a warm smile on her face, "How's that for a date huh? Alone time with a babe like me under the moonlight and a kiss to go with it, pretty romantic, right?"
"…Join my crew." he blurted out without filter.
Nami laughed, "Took you long enough to ask moron." she huffed and flicked him on the nose, "But sure, you've got yourself the best and the absolute sexiest navigator in the world from here on out."
Kaden couldn't help but laugh, "You could have said you were interested yourself," he pointed out, amused, "I have to work up my courage and all that you know, I'm just an inexperienced young guy here, in fact, you're totally taking advantage of me here."
"Yeah, I'm sure you're all torn up about it," Nami rolled her eyes, "Besides, don't bullshit me, inexperienced my ass. I wasn't born yesterday."
"Nothing worth recounting to be honest." he shrugged. A drunken romp with an older girl at a party in his own world and Honey Queen, which had been alright but been underwhelming due to his actual dislike of the woman.
"Kay, all the better then," Nami grinned, "So, Logia? What exactly do they do then?"
"In general they're the strongest devil fruits on average," Kaden replied, glad to move the topic back with his newest crew member, "Basically, when you eat them, they let you become an element or a chemical reaction, made up of energy or matter. Like fire, sand, ice, mud, gas and more. Outside of mythical zoan devil fruit and special paramecia's, they're the best kind of devil fruit, not just because of their sheer raw power, but because whoever eats them can turn into that element and reform their body. Which means, outside of whatever the fruits element itself has a weakness to, the ocean and the third type of haki I haven't went into yet, armament haki, they can't really be hurt."
"Eh…ehhh!?" Nami's eyes flew wide open and utter shock overtook her, "Like can't be hit at all?" she goggled.
"Beyond the weaknesses I said a second ago…and armament haki which is quite rare in the grand line until you get to the second half, yeah," Kaden nodded, "To the vast majority of people, even incredibly strong people, a logia user is completely unbeatable."
"…So that's why you said I'd be able to beat Arlong easily within a few days if you gave me that fruit," Nami uttered, realisation shining in her eyes, "As long as I kept away from the water with it, he wouldn't be able to touch me at all. No wonder you're so confident in how much it could sell for."
"Yeah, devil fruits are bullshit like that." Kaden laughed lightly.
"I'll say, frigging monsters and their weird fruits," Nami huffed, "I'm totally gonna die if I go to the grand line without an even bigger monster like you to hang over my shoulder."
"Well sea stone weapons work on them as well," he replied, then smirked at her, "But monster? Hurtful."
"The truth usually does hurt," Nami snorted, "Besides, you're the biggest monster I've ever seen and that's without taking your crazy devil fruit powers that I've yet to see fully put into action."
He thumbed his nose, "Hehe." he beamed, pride flaring in his chest.
"But seriously…I'm going to be next to useless beyond eye candy and navigating huh? And even then most of my navigational skills that I've learned won't even work as well in the grand line from what you're telling me." Nami slumped over and bemoaned pitifully.
"I mean I could teach you some of my techniques if you want, though you'd need to get way way physically stronger to use any of them," Kaden pointed out, "Or I could get you a devil fruit if you want."
The devil fruit encyclopedia alongside his knowledge of this world, made it so he had a unique advantage in that regard when it came to hunting devil fruits.
He knew who had devil fruit powers, knew where to find them and with the marines compiled knowledge, knew what many of them reincarnated into fruit wise.
"Pass…no way I'm doing whatever crazy training you did to get that monstrously strong," Nami immediately denied with a shudder, "…And I'm not so sure about a devil fruit either. Amazing as you've made them sound and how absurdly powerful they can get, I'm not sure how I feel about losing the ability to swim. If I did get one, I think I'd want like one that fits me as well, like is there one that can manipulate the weather?"
"I mean there's a Snow Snow logia, but it belongs to a Warlord's subordinate and not the one I'm aiming for," Kaden shrugged, "And there's the Rumble Rumble fruit, a lightning logia and one of if not the strongest logia in existence, it's even called the invincible fruit."
"Invincible fruit? And a logia? One of, if not the strongest at that?" Nami's eyes lit up, "I could definitely get behind that, I wouldn't need to worry at all with something like that. Do you know where it is?"
He in fact did.
"It's currently in the hands of a guy ruling an island nation in the sky in the grand line," Kaden helpfully let her know, "Thinks he's a god and basically has enough fire power to blow this entire island away with a little bit prep time."
Nami's excited gaze, shrivelled up and died with the span of a single moment, "…Why is that a thing?" she whimpered, and shook her head, "That sounds like something out of a nightmare."
"Yeah, I'd offer to get it for you…." Kaden trailed off for a moment, "But that guy would absolutely murder me right now. I need to master a few of my abilities before I'd be confident in taking him down."
Enel was just that bullshit. Fire power wise, he literally wouldn't have been out of place even in the end game fights he'd seen between Luffy and Kaido and shit before he ended up here. His physical ability wouldn't come close to them, but his fire power was just that absurd.
Nami gave him a deadpan look.
He shrugged, "I mean there's other ways to fight if you want," he continued, waving his hand idly, "I mean Clock Tower Island is full of artisans that have been learning to make weapons for the last few years and gotten pretty good at it. I can get a weapon made for you if you want, something to help you protect yourself or fight if you want."
Not to toot his own horn, because it would all be a stolen idea. But, with the artisans of Clock Tower Island and his knowledge, he could for sure get them to make a Clima Tact and with his abilities, he could literally speed run gaining the upgrades Nami went through with it if he wanted.
"…Well that sounds infinitely better than ever going near somebody you claim could beat you right now." Nami said drily.
And it wasn't like there weren't other things he could do for her if she needed it. Like…there was even something he could technically do right now.
His Flame Clouds were perhaps his most varied ability. They could both work like normal clouds, become solid and soft, or even become rigid and hard, harder than steel by his reckoning.
And he could cut them off from his will, with imparted instructions. It was in fact one of his plans for helping out Alabasta in the future he'd thought of over the past few days. He was going to create two massive flame clouds over Alabasta. One that would collect water from the ocean and return to the sky and boil the water under the hot desert country sun, and the other to capture the steam the water turned into, with it then raining down the now purified pure water over the country.
On that note, it should be very much possible for him to create a Flame Cloud, that would simply obey Nami's orders with an autonomous order to protect her.
"Well, we can put a pin in that for now I guess, adding amazing combat ability on top of my number one world class navigation abilities, beautiful face and amazing figure isn't the biggest priority right now. Besides, I might not be a complete monster like you, but I can handle myself alright in a fight, " Nami pointed out, "And like you said we won't be going to the grand line anyway until you get a better handle on your abilities like you said you wanted to. Honestly, what's more important is planning ahead. Like, we need a ship, though you said you already have a bunch of them under your command so we can get one of those. But beyond that, we obviously need more crew members than just me, you and….Hachi."
Oh yeah.
"How do you feel about that, by the way?" he hedged.
"Honestly, I'm not sure what to think," Nami admitted with a deep sigh, shaking her head, "After everything you said earlier when fighting Arlong and what I overheard you say when talking to Hachi earlier, I can understand at least. I'm not happy about it at all, and it doesn't mean I forgive any of them for what they did in the slightest, but I at least get it." she bit out and leaned against his shoulder with her own.
"I don't blame you," Kaden bumped her shoulder a bit comfortingly, "If it were me and they killed someone I cared about and hurt the others? I would have brutally murdered them without an ounce of mercy, and I probably would have had some massive hatred of fishmen as a whole. The fact you don't, goes to show how good a person you are."
"…Flatterer," Nami giggled a bit, before pulling away and slapping her cheeks, "Still, moving on from this heavy topic, what's the plan going forward captain? Ship? Crew? How long are we even gonna stay in the East Blue before heading to the grand line?"
…How long did he actually need?
Going by the growth he'd went through before getting his devil fruit, and the fact he only had two rokushiki left to get down, barring Rokougan, and taking into account how by his estimations, he had an echo of Kaido's own skill within him, as he'd noticed his haki usage becoming more skilled and instinctual through simple use over the past few days…
"Three months I'm thinking once I actually get to training," Kaden mused aloud after some thought, "As far as recruiting crewmates, none really come to mind I'd want here in the East Blue besides you to be honest. And, I kind of want to get a bigger and better ship than any of the ones I have, all the ones I have are decently big, but they're cruisers. I'd prefer one like a marine battleship or bigger if possible."
"Three months huh? Not exactly a lot of time," Nami mused, before giving him the stink eye, "But seriously? No other crew mates and you want a ship that massive? How the hell would we even sail it?"
"I could lift this entire island if I wanted to and fly it around with my flame clouds, a ship of that size isn't a problem." Kaden pointed out with a snort. Also, even if he didn't, he could probably make some flame clouds to cover specific jobs while sailing to make up for a lack of crew members.
Honestly, while far from the most powerful of his abilities, that belonged to the Blast Breath, they were definitely both the most varied and useful.
After all, if he was back home he could even send a flame cloud to pick up the television remote without ever getting up off the couch. Now that, was true power.
Nami blinked, before just staring at him, "…You've gotta be kidding me, there's no way you can do that."
"I totally can," Kaden grinned at her, smugly, enjoying her reaction, "I did tell you didn't I? The best of the best devil fruits are the mythical zoans barring maybe a couple outsiders of Paramecia and Logia and mine is pretty much one of the contenders for the strongest mythical zoan of all."
"…You sure are bragging a lot for a guy who just said a minute ago he couldn't beat a man made of lightning." Nami deadpanned.
"Hey, hey, that's only cuz I can't reliably hit him right now," Kaden denied, "I could kill him in one shot with my strongest attack if I could actually hit him with it."
"Excuses," Nami rolled her eyes and snorted, "Then we don't even need a ship. We could literally just find a big empty piece of land, get a fortress built on it and have you fly us around on it."
"We could," Kaden agreed with a nod, "But I don't want to. If you're gonna be a pirate you need a pirate ship Nami, don't be so dumb."
Left unsaid was the fact that there was a limit to even his almighty unstoppable hella useful flame clouds. While he could in fact make autonomous ones, they were quite a bit less potent than ones directly controlled by him when it came to…the sheer weight they could lift.
"I don't wanna hear that from an idiot like you!" Nami glared at him.
"You just don't understand a mans romance Nami," Kaden snorted, "Like if you're in a desert and find a stick, you need to use it as a walking stick. Or that hitting your opponent harder is a viable strategy when none of your attacks worked before."
"…Here I thought romance was just romance," Nami huffed, "So what was wanting a date with me for then if you've already got such riveting avenues of romance besides girls." she asked drily.
"Saving a fair maiden who's beauty could make dozens of countries go to war, is also a mans romance," Kaden stated honestly with a shrug and grinned, "I've seen the pirate empress Boa Hancock herself before, the woman thought to be the most beautiful in the world, you can easily give her a run for her money."
Nami's cheeks burned and she looked away, "…Well when you put it like that, I guess I can't really be mad about it," she giggled. It took a moment before she shook her head and turned back to him, "But fine we need a ship, and a big one. Where are we getting it? One would cost a ton to buy or get made, unless you plan on stealing one from somewhere, like the marines."
…Well actually seeing as marine battleships tended to come equipped with sea stone lining the bottom, then that would probably be for the best. He could just get one customized after that fact and-
"Nyuu, if it's a big ship you want, I might be able to help there." the voice of Hachi broke him from his thoughts as the tall octopus fishman made his way out of the main building of Arlong Park, a multitude of large sacks held in his tentacled arms.
And thus we return with the big ol' chapteruno duno one to the three thirteen chapter 13!
I think, lemme just double check that!
Yup chapter 13.
Anyway this chapter was more or less dedicated to a big talk between Kaden and Nami, and ended up with him inviting her to join the crew. So now the crew consists so far of Kaden, Nami and Hachi...and Honey Bee and like five thousand other guys I guess technically. Welp, that's it for this chapter, we're still a 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.