Marine Headquarters was in an uproar.
A cacophony of emotions ranging from disbelief, betrayal, rage, hatred, disgust and more were liberally expressed in the raised voices of all attending marines.
Commodore Brannew, a tall well built man with tanned skin and curly dark green hair currently donning a pair of sunglasses and sporting a blue shirt and pink pants slammed his hand atop the board he was standing beside, hard.
The mayhem unfolding in front of him ground to a halt immediately. Marines of varying ranks hurriedly sat down at their stations once more while Brannew cleared his throat. His authority was not to be underestimated. He was far from the highest ranked marine in attendance, but nonetheless, he commanded respect regardless from all.
Every eye was on him. "Yes, I understand your feelings on this matter, but level heads must be kept my friends," He calmly spoke, face mostly impassive. but the deep frown on his face was enough evidence of his own feelings over the current matter, "This as you know, isn't a meeting to discuss your typical pirate after all."
He smacked his palm atop a wanted poster situated atop the board, drawing every eye in the room to the depicted image. The image was of a young man, really little more than a boy, tall and broad of build for his age, with bright spiky golden blond hair and gleaming sapphire blue eyes. A handsome youth that only promised to become even more handsome with age.
The image depicted on the wanted poster though did not show off the typical image of such a young boy. No rather, it was the opposite. covered from head to toe in the blood of slain marine's, the young teenager within the image had a fierce snarl and savage glare in his eyes as he held up the now deceased Vice Admiral Graydle with one hand, while the other, a blood soaked weapon in it, was pierced directly through the former Vice Admiral's throat.
"Commander Kaden D. Freeman, Age 14," Brannew spoke the boys name aloud, "Quite a few have had their eyes on him. Few after all go through the marine academy and speed through it within a year, never mind one so young. A prodigy of the highest order, capable of combat within the New World straight from graduation and he only grew more powerful at a rapid pace. Information gathered from the G5 marine base where he was stationed until just yesterday tells us that he is proficient in at least four of the six powers and has roads into the other two, and has begun training in both Observation and Armament Haki according to Vice Admiral Vergo."
The shock was palpable in the air at the revelation. Only the bet of the best could use any of the six powers after all, to even use one of them, one had to be completely superhuman in physical ability. On top of that, very few marines below the Vice Admiral rank had much training at all in any of the haki disciplines.
"Tch, I was one of them," Vice Admiral Onigumu clicked his tongue over the cigarette hanging from his mouth, a blazing anger in his eyes, "I'd hoped to have him gain a bit more experience in dealing with New World pirates before offering to take him as my apprentice. His brutal tendencies focused on pirates alone and his skill would have made him a force in the future they would fear to cross."
Instead, for some inexplicable reason, the boy had went rogue. Which made no sense. Each and every single one of them had a sheet of paper laid out in front of them detailing what they knew of the boy, his history, his time in the marines and even his psyche profile.
His sheer hatred of pirates, made it make no sense that he would go rogue and become one.
"What his reasons are, we are completely unaware of," Brannew spoke up, shaking his head, "And as of right now, they do not matter, what does matter is his actions. Upon abandoning his post at the G5 marine base in the New World, he stole every beri they had, nearly two hundred million in total, before appearing at the marine base at Risky Red Island mere hours later and assaulting the base. He slaughtered every marine in the base, killing well over a hundred of our men, before clashing with Vice Admiral Graydle and taking his life."
Uncomfortable looks were abound in the gathered marines within the briefing room. Vice Admiral Graydle was not well liked. It was nepotism that saw his rise through the ranks to the Vice Admiral rank, and none could deny that when it came to martial prowess and physical prowess, the man simply was not on the level of the other Vice Admirals.
The only thing that allowed him to stay somewhat at their level, was his powerful logia devil fruit. Even so, to come out the victor in one on one combat against him, was no small feat.
"Of course the boy was not done there though, he proceeded to re-enact his actions at the G5 marine base and stole every single beri they had within their coffers," Brannew continued, "In the span of a single night, Kaden D. Freeman killed over one hundred New World marine officers, a vice admiral with a logia devil fruit and stole over three hundred million beri. It has been a long, long time since we've had a traitor of this magnitude, his actions make Gasparde's look like that of a child throwing a tantrum. Because of his actions, alongside his known abilities and sheer potential, we have no choice but to give him a starting bounty most would balk at, but it is necessary, for justice to prevail and stomp out evil acts like this!"
As he finished, Brannew who's hand had been covered the bottom of the wanted poster with his hand since posting it upon the board, brought it down displaying the full amount of the traitorous young marines first bounty.
Crimson Kaden - Wanted Dead Or Alive: 185,000,000 Beri!
The gathered marines were shocked silent at the revelation of the young boys debut bounty as a criminal.
It was a massive bounty to start off with, no matter what sea. But for the boys sheer ability, potential and actions? It could be no less!
To be honest.
For Kaden, there really wasn't a whole lot of places he could go in the New World where he could either live out comfortably without being bothered, or actually just stay and get peace to himself.
The New World, was a crazy place like that. What wasn't controlled by marines, was pirate territory, either that controlled by a Yonkou or lawless pirate infested areas.
It was actually bad enough that he considered heading to Dressrosa. The place might have been controlled by Doflamingo and his 'family', but their security wasn't all that thorough. He could just fly over to the Green Bit and drop in.
And getting to meet Rebecca and maybe Viola was mighty tempting. The problem was that he needed time to get full control over his devil fruit abilities. While the echoes of Kaido's skill due to his Lineage Factor being contained within the fruit and now him, was making learning how to use them much easier than it should have been by far, it would still take him time to master his abilities.
And quite frankly, he could be discreet all he wanted, but he turned into a massive crimson scaled dragon with golden horns and golden blonde hair.
There was no way he could stay out of sight for long.
And he simply did not have the haki ability right now, to be able to resist Doflamingo's strings if he tried to control him.
So instead of staying in the New World, Kaden headed in the completely opposite direction.
The thing about the world he was in, was that it was absolutely massive. Way, way bigger than Earth, his previous world before he ended up here.
Usually traversing such a world at any good pace, was simply unfeasible. But, logic like that went right out of the window when one could turn into a massive dragon and stride through the air.
A massive dragon that ran through the air through creating platforms of brilliant glowing orange clouds. That he could kick off of and use Soru with.
It was exhausting, but with the ability to move faster than a speeding bullet even in his immense size as a dragon.
It meant Kaden could clear vast distances that would usually take others weeks worth of sailing, in mere hours.
And since he was near the very beginning of the New World half of the Grand Line, it meant that Kaden wasn't very far at all from the Red Line.
He could have flown straight over it and headed back into Paradise. But, he had a better idea.
He headed diagonally over the Red Line.
Straight into the East Blue and came out on the other side, not that far off from Reverse Mountain, in fact.
Nobody in their right mind would be thinking a guy who just slaughtered a New World marine base, would turn up a day later in the East Blue.
It was the perfect plan to get a little time to himself to work on his abilities before deciding fully what he wanted to do with this life going forward.
Besides, there were quite a few gems he could get his hands on within the East Blue, and he wasn't talking just about the likes of Nami.
She was more a diamond in the rough as opposed to an already formed emerald or ruby.
Two of which could be found on the island he could see now off in the distance. Logue Town.
It didn't take Kaden long before he was directly above the port of Logue Town. His massive serpentine form shrunk down as he transformed back into his human form and dropped from several hundred feet in the sky.
He bled off the momentum of his fall with a few quick uses of Geppou, before touching down not long later.
'Man I'm fucking hungry.' the boy mused, running a hand through his hair. Eleven apples hadn't filled him up at all and all the effort he'd put in to get here had just made him hungrier.
Thankfully, he could now just hit up a restaurant in Logue Town and eat to his hearts content with all the money he had.
"First though…" Kaden shifted the massive sack he held over his shoulder and eyed a few people working on the dock. He needed directions.
There were two fully fledged gems he wanted in Logue Town after all, once he went and grabbed them, he could drop off something he'd picked up after his fight with Graydle at the clothing store and then go fill his belly.
After asking for directions, it didn't take long for Kaden to find his first destination.
The Arms Shop.
A weapon shop that had been in business for over two hundred years now, and was home to two very special swords.
Stopping in front of the weapon store, Kaden spread his senses out with Observation Haki and focused upon the shop itself.
He felt four presences almost immediately.
Two were of rather weak people.
The other two though, were a completely different story. And vastly different from each other.
One of them gave off the feeling of a calm resoluteness, yet there was a long to it, as if it were waiting for something.
The other on the other hand, Kaden could feel a seething bloodlust and desire for battle. Yet, it was similar to the first as well. There was a longing too it, yet tinged with bitter disappointment.
Kaden found a smirk stretching across his face. He hadn't been sure he'd be able to feel it at all, but he could.
He entered the shop itself to find rows upon rows of different weapons and armour from katana's to straight swords, from flintlocks to riffles, from chain mail to full on plate.
And in the corner, out of the way, sat multiple barrels of dust covered swords. Where he could feeling the bloodlust fuelled presence coming from.
Just as expected.
Kaden cast an eye at the man sitting at the sales desk at the far end of the room, a short man dressed in blue with a dusky skin tone and balding head, tufts of black hair jutting out from the side of his head and a stuffy red looking nose.
"Hey," Kaden called to the man as he walked over, stopping in front of the sales desk, "I'm looking to buy a few swords."
The man blinked, before grinning widely, "Yes yes, welcome to the Arms Shop," he said, "Have a look at anything you'd like."
"I've already picked the two I want." Kaden nodded at the man, getting a confused look from him, before he turned on his heel and made his way over to the corner where the barrels of cheap unwanted swords were left to collect dust.
The store owners face flashed with a grimace of annoyance as Kaden did, before widened as Kaden reached into the barrel and grasped a very specific sword and brought it out.
The hilt was a crimson red with thick bands criss-crossing down it, and the sheath a crimson red to match it.
Spoiler
Kaden could feel it almost immediately as he picked it up. The bloodlust of the blade itself being directed towards him, almost challenging him in a way.
"H-hey wait," the store owner sputtered as Kaden eyed the blade, inspecting it with his haki, "Not that swords, it's not for sale, it's-"
"Cursed, right?" Kaden grinned, grabbing the hilt and unsheathing the blade to inspect its gleaming, razor sharp curved edge, "I could feel it from all the way outside. Sandai Kitetsu, huh?"
"You knew?" the man gaped at him.
"Anyone worth their salt would be able to feel it," Kaden replied as he inspected it, unbothered by the bloodlust being directed at him from the blade, "I'll take it." he looked over his shoulder at the man.
"No, even if you know, I can't sell it to you, every owner this sword has had in the past has met a tragic end because of it!" he vehemently denied selling him the blade, "If you die because of it, it would be like I killed you myself."
"Hardly, it would just be my lacking strength that made that happen," Kaden shook his head, an amusing idea suddenly coming to mind, "How about we test it?"
"Eh?" the shop owner blinked, giving him a confused look.
In reply, Kaden merely smirked and tossed the blade itself into the air, before holding his arm out. If he couldn't even match up to East Blue Zoro, then he shouldn't bother carrying a sword at all.
"Wait wait wait! That sword is the real deal, it will slice right through your arm!" the man panicked as the blade spun in multiple arcs in the air before falling down towards his arm.
No it wouldn't.
Not when he tensed it with Tekkai. And there wasn't any true power being put behind the blade right now.
A split moment passed, before the blade neared his arm-
And narrowly missed it, arcing around his forearm to stab into the ground and slide straight down to the hilt, stabbing through the ground like a hot knife through butter.
Sandai Kitetsu's sharpness was no joke.
It wasn't anything to do with luck. The blade was waiting for a worthy wielder who would take it into great battles was what Kaden could summarise. He simply passed its test.
"Good boy," Kaden's smirk grew as he reached down and pulled the blade out, sliding it back into its sheath and turning to face the shop owner, "Like I said, I'll be taking this sword."
"Oh….wow," the man stared at Kaden in absolute shock, gaping at him for a few moments, before shaking his head a wide grin spreading across his face, "Wait here a moment boy!"
Kaden's smirk grew a little bit as the short man dashed through the door behind him leading deeper into the weapons store.
Before a moment later, dashing back through now carrying something covered by a large purple cloth. He placed it down on the counter, before pulling back the purple cloth to reveal a blade within a gleaming ebony black and gold sheath atop a small sword stand.
"The make is black lacquer," the man shot his grin towards Kaden as he grabbed the blade by its deep black hilt, "And the blade's temper pattern completely uneven. This is one of the fifty skilled grade words, Yubashiri. My shop isn't much, but this is by far the finest sword, or weapon in general I own, even better than that Sandai Kitetsu you just picked up."
The bloodlust from the blade in his hand that had quieted down, suddenly spiked at the mans declaration.
It wasn't happy to be called worse than Yubashiri at all.
"How about it?" the shop owner stared directly into Kaden's eyes, "You said you were looking for two right? How about taking this fine blade out with you? I can see it in your eyes, you're different from the rabble that call themselves swordsmen these days and never amount to anything."
Somehow, Kaden's smirk managed to grow even wider.
'Sorry Zoro, but I'm not so good a guy I'd pass up the chance at swords like these.' Kaden mentally apologized.
He accepted.
An hour later, Kaden sat atop a chair in one of the local restaurants, the table itself piled high with empty plates on one side, and food filled plates on the other.
Sandai Kitetsu and Yubashiri, hilted within their sheaths hung over his shoulders while he gorged himself.
And his giant sack was ten million beri lighter.
The old man who owned the Arms Shop had tried to give him both blades for free. But he knew for a fact Sandai Kitetsu III was worth a million beri, and Yubashiri who was a tier above Sandai Kitetsu had to be more more. So he'd dropped ten million in front of the man just to be safe, before leaving on his way.
He could have gotten them for free, but that just wasn't cool. Two of the very best weapons in the world, given to him for free? When the man was already trying to make a living.
Nah, that just didn't sit right with Kaden.
After that, he'd made his way over to the Robecca Hanberg botique. He'd picked out quite a few clothes, but most specifically left them with one article of clothing he'd picked up and wanted the colour of it dyed a different one.
And as he happily gorged himself silly, Kaden's mind wandered, 'Where to from here?' he mused to himself as he tore a chunk of chicken from a huge drumstick.
Dawn Island might not be a bad idea. There were some pretty big and strong animals there that could be good to train against. It was unlikely they would push him much at all, but using his abilities in combat would be great training.
He had a few things he wanted to accomplish. Mainly getting a good hold on his devil fruit abilities, and mastering the last two of the Rokushiki. And then there was the fact he wanted to train his haki a bit more.
He'd noticed as he travelled, it was coming to him a bit easier. His range had expanded a decent bit and he the amount he could coat his arms in with his armament haki was a decent bit larger and easier to maintain.
Which meant either that brief battle with Graydle had pushed him to new heights without him realising-
Or it was due to Kaido's lineage factor from the devil fruit he ate. Either or was fine really.
'Honestly the ability I'd love most to get my hands on is Life Return.' Kaden mused as he chomped down on half of a burger, before tossing the other half down the hatch at breakneck speeds.
Among other things, it would be amazing for enhancing his physical growth training wise. And there were a few ideas he had that he could use with it to push further beyond for crazy benefits.
The problem was he only knew of two people that knew how to use it, the full thing at least without any devil fruit giving the ability.
But they were both Cp9 members and both highly loyal to the World Government. They'd probably rather die than teach him.
And he had no idea where to look into it to learn it himself. And that wasn't even going into how tough it probably would be to learn it and how long it would take.
If only there was a way for him to steal the information from them and-
"Gecko Moria could do that." Kaden blinked, thoughts coming to a stop. Luffy had gained the abilities of the shadows he'd taken in. If he got a CP9 member to Moria, the man could take their shadow and give it to him.
The only problem there was he couldn't keep the shadow permanently, so he'd need to ingrain the technique into himself while he had it over a short period of time.
He'd either need to kill Gecko Moria for the shadow shadow devil fruit, or ally with the man though.
Either way not something he wanted to approach right now until he was stronger than he was currently.
The man might have been completely out of shape, but he was one of the seven warlords for a reason.
One on one Kaden was sure he could take him, but it was another matter to do it in the heart of his own territory with all his subordinates around to help him.
…And a small part of him simply would rather not kill the man because it would make the cute ghost girl Perona hate him.
Speaking of thinking with his dick though, 'What should I do about Nami?' he wondered. He could easily take care of Arlong and his crew now. But just turning up and doing it when she wasn't around, would work against him.
Well he'd be flying around the East Blue a lot, so he could put a pin in it for now and see if he ran into her during his time here.
Besides, there was one more big reason why he was in the East Blue, beyond the Meito blades he had picked up, Nami and getting time to train and get himself ready.
…Well technically it tied into the Meito themselves.
See, as a marine he'd had access to a lot of marine only information. Such us Doctor Vegapunks experiments into imbuing Devil Fruits within a weapon.
He'd learned exactly how to go about it.
And just why it was only Zoan devil fruits that it was applicable with. It was because the zoan fruits bestowed at the very least, the mind of an animal upon anyone or anything that consumed them.
The other two types of devil fruit, did not. The Zoan's at the very least, had been discovered to have a degree of sentience and sapience.
That was why Paramecia and Logia devil fruits would not work with items. Because there was nothing there mentally to activate the powers.
…But what about a sentient Meito?
He couldn't be sure the theory would work. But, there was no harm in trying, except for the fact devil fruits cost a shit ton of money.
Luckily though, there were a few devil fruit users kicking around the East Blue. One specifically would pair really well with a sword actually.
The Hard Hard fruit.
And said holder of the Hard Hard fruit, had a weak ass logia user working under him. And both, appeared in the encyclopedia of devil fruits he'd picked up.
At least to his knowledge.
It was the Liquid Liquid logia devil fruit she had right? Either way, if it didn't work out, it wasn't that much of a big loss. Shaking his head, Kaden put it out of mind for the moment as another serving of food was brought to his table.
Two hours later after eating his fill and spending more than an entire months wage before he defected, Kaden stood within a changing room of the Robecca Hanberg Botique admiring himself in the mirror.
Beyond changing into a fresh set of marine pants and combat boots, and a white tank top, he hadn't really changed his look at all.
Except for one thing.
The large coat that now mantled his shoulders. A crimson bloody red with golden pauldrons on the shoulders. And on the back?
JUSTICE.
Was displayed proudly.
After killing Graydle, he'd stripped that undeserving boot licker of the Celestial trash of his coat and taken it for himself. And he'd left it to be dyed in his own colour.
It was basically just one last big fuck you to the World Government as a whole, and it brought a smile to Kaden's face.
So much so, he couldn't help but burst out into a great amused laughter, "Chadadadadadadadadadada!" he laughed.
And here we're back again with another chapteruno duno yuno suno uno oh I already said that one. Well, here's chapter seven.
And yes I did just give him a literal chad laughter as a One Piece laugh. I regret absolutely nothing. Now as for this chapter? Kaden is cooking up some ideas for going forward and the outline of overall goals are beginning to form. Oh, and he yoinked the swords of the legendary minority hunter before he could while he was at it. Anyway, if you wanna read ahead, we're still a bunch of chapters ahead on the Pa-atreon.
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.