A flash of annoyance shone in Nami's eyes at the return of the octopus fishman, but it was almost immediately replaced by the gleam of greed as he sat the sack of treasure down in front of them.

To be honest, Kaden himself was a bit confused. Sure the sacks were decently big and all, but he was expecting…more.

"Ohohoho!" Nami practically teleported from his side to beside the sacks and began rifling through them, her eyes flickering at speeds that were totally not natural, "Three hundred and sixty seven million beri!" she crowed with delight.

"…How the hell did you come away with that so quickly?" Kaden asked giving the orange haired beauty a deadpan look.

"Don't underestimate my sense for money amateur!" Nami turned her head to stick her tongue out at him.

"That isn't an explanation," Kaden snorted, but yeah that was way less than he was expecting. He turned his gaze to Hachi who was staring at Nami, nonplussed, "What's the deal Hachi? With how long you guys were here and how many people you were taking money from, I was expecting a few billion to be honest."

"Well, I'm not the best when it comes to balancing money, but there were a lot of expenses nyuu," Hachi shrugged, "We fishmen are naturally bigger than humans on average so we eat more, and our crew was pretty big with over fifty members. Plus we had to keep paying off the marines every month, and the last reason is why I said I can help you with looking for a big ship."

Well that was somewhat something of an explanation, "So you guys had a ship being built?" Kaden raised an eyebrow in interest.

"Yeah, well it was finished years ago and has just been sitting in storage for when we planned on going back to the grand line…." Hachi replied and trailed off, an uncomfortable look on his face.

Yeah, he was probably well aware Arlong never truly had any plans for going back there. And the ship was probably built not to conquer the grand line like they all thought, but more as a placeholder to shut anybody complaining up.

"Where is it then?" Kaden asked, casting a look around what was formerly Arlong Park and now Kaden's Holiday House of Fun.

Or whatever else he thought up to call it.

"It's probably at the ship yard on the other side of the island," Nami mused, "Arlong had a place where he had ships he and the others took down, so they could strip them of all their valuables and use them for parts if needed."

Huh. He hadn't noticed anything like that at all on his way here. Then again it wasn't like he'd been specifically keeping an eye for anything like that and circling the islands.

…Though he had to admit he was a bit impressed Arlong had actually thought that far ahead. It was hard to remember sometimes the guy wasn't a completely retarded racist weakling.

"Alright then, how about we go check it out?" Kaden grinned, interested in spite of himself to see what kind of ship Arlong had gotten built to convince his brethren it was worthy of conquering the grand line.

Considering the Noah was easy to view from Fishman Island, he was hoping Arlong understood what kind of amazing vessel would be needed for such a thing.

Well it had to be big at least, going by what Hachi said.

"…Pass, it'd take over a half hour to walk there from here," Nami snorted, "We can do that later, we should get back to celebrating now we have this load of cash!" she chirped and happily and excitedly rubbed her face against one of the sacks of beri.

Kaden gave her a blank look, "Oh…that's too bad," he noted blandly, "I was hoping it had a good place to use as a treasury and I could store all the beri I've collected in it as well. And since you seem to be so good with money, I figured you'd love to be the treasurer of the crew as well and hold on to it."

In the blink of an eye Nami was standing up, one sack held behind her neck by two hands and a massive grin on her face, "What are you waiting for Kaden? We've got a ship to see!" she chirped marching towards the currently gateless gate leading out of Kaden's Holiday House of Fun.

…Yeah he needed a better name.

Among other things, like getting the place fixed up. But he could probably pay a few people in Cocoyasi village to take care of that for him.

"How about instead of walking the long way, I just fly us over?" Kaden offered.

"On those clouds of yours?" Nami paused and gave him an interested look.

"I could, but…" he trailed off before giving her a smirk, "You're still having a hard time believing a bunch of the stuff I said to you right? Especially about Devil Fruits. How about I transform and you both can ride me through the sky there?"

"Nyuuu?" Hachi blinked, cocking his head to the side and watching with open curiosity.

"….That's not an innuendo is it?" Nami raised an eyebrow at him challengingly.

"If it was, I wouldn't be including Hachi in the offer," Kaden snorted, "No offense Hachi, it's got nothing to do with you being a fishman, I know there's a lot of pretty merfolk ladies, and has more everything to do with the fact you're a guy."
"Nyone taken!" Hachi shrugged and grinned.

"Alright then, let's see this dragon transformation of yours and see if it lives up to the hype." Nami snorted.

"Don't blink then." Kaden grinned at her as he stood up from where he was sitting, and then his body began to change. His eyes turned a gleaming gold, red scales formed upon his skin, golden horns jutted from the top of his head, his spiky blonde hair lengthening out into a wild golden mane and his body as a whole began to change and morph, transforming into a giant serpentine body that towered above both the fishman and human woman alike.

"…Eh….." Nami stared stunned, before swallowing heavily and her eyes widened in absolute shock, "Ehhhhh!? What the hell you're massive!"

Looking down upon her, a smirk spread across Kaden's crimson red maw, huge gleaming sharp teeth beaming under the moonlight, "Not how I was hoping to hear that from you," he laughed, "Chadadadadadadadada!"

"Nyuu, impressive!" Hachi clapped his six tentacles together, "You're like a small sea king!"

Well, that was kind of as expected. As someone from fishman island, Hachi had probably seen sea kings that absolutely dwarfed him.

Hell he'd seen some that absolutely dwarfed him.

Lowering himself down, Kaden lay his head on the ground right in front of Nami and directed his smirk at her, "Well, have I made more of a believer out of you?" he asked.

Nami just stared at him for a moment, before letting go of the sack over her shoulder with one hand and reaching forward to place a hand on his draconic snout, "…Incredible…and freakish as all hell," Nami laughed a bit, "I already mostly believed you, but still seeing you like this? It hammers it in all the more, just how absurd devil fruits are and how the grand line must be."

"You chickening out?" he teased.

"Why would I?" Nami snorted at him, before surprising him as she bodily jumped up on top of his head and he felt her grab onto his horn, "I've got my big scary dragon captain to protect me after all."

"Nyuhuhuhu!" Hachi added on by hopping up onto his neck and suction cupping his tentacles around it, "I've never went flying before, this should be fun!"

"Alright, well hold on tight then." Kaden snorted, before rising up to his full height, getting a gasp from Nami and her hold tightening around his horns and a shout of jubilation from Hachi.

And then he tore his claws through the sky and ascended, Nami's scream echoing right in his ears as he did at the sudden motion with no warning.

"…What the hell is that?" Kaden goggled not long later.

It hadn't taken long at all to make their way to the place where Arlong and his crew had stored ships, though most of them were completely stripped apart and completely useless, nothing of note left behind but scrap.

There was a massive harbour shed kind that looked like it could shelter multiple ships. But inside it, taking up the vast majority of room, was only one ship.

It was absolutely massive. Bigger than a marine warship or galleon. It was an almost pitch black in colour, though with dark blues across it that almost seemed like waves. Across the bottom and top of it, were huge jagged tooth like adornments, with a gargantuan one at the front of the hull, akin to the metal front of an ice breaker but jutting out forward like an ominous spear as if to be used to pierce into anything it came into contact with.

And then there was the figurehead at the front of the ship. Or should he say figureheads? Two massive metallic serpentine creatures with dark grey spikes looming up their back leading to twin pairs of jutting black horns erupting from their heads, and within their spiky toothed maws, each held a massive cannon.

And on the matter of cannons. The ship had an absolute fuck ton of them. As in, each side of the ship was practically dotted with openings for cannons.

Literally thirty seven.

On each side.

With the two within the massive serpentine, possibly dragon figureheads, the massive ship had a grand total of seventy six cannon spots. And that wasn't even getting into the ones on the deck!

On top of said deck, multiple huge pitch black flags hung ominously painted with Arlong's symbol over a set of cross bones, held atop multiple truly massive masts.

It was one weird ass ship.

Probably the most interesting part of it though, was the huge building that looked like two apartment complexes stacked on top of one another, with dozens of windows covered by regal purple curtains that then led down below deck and led off to more windows covered by the same regal purple curtains a bit below deck.

And there was one final smaller building at the back end of the ship, wiuh the largest window of all. Which Kaden assumed to be the captains office.

'I take back all I said about Arlong having good taste when it came to building shit.' Kaden thought right then and there. Clearly he left the design up to whoever he paid to build Arlong Park.

"Are those supposed to be dragons?" Nami was right alongside him, giving the ship a dry look.

"Nyuu!" Hachi shook his head, "They're sea kings!" he puffed his chest out proudly.

'So edgy, fucking hell Arlong.' Kaden cringed just looking at it. The only thing he could say he liked about it at all was the kind of modern looking apartment buildings on it. And he supposed he could get behind the massive spiked ice breaker, that would be good for ramming other ships.

But everything else about it was trash, what the hell man.

"Do I have to sail in that?" Nami whimpered, giving him a pleading look.

"Nyuu, what's the problem, this is an amazing ship! It even has sea stone coating at the bottom and is built with Adams Wood, the same wood that the pirate kings ship was made from according to Rayleigh!" Hachi proudly boasted, "This baby cost us one and a half billion beri to make, it's an amazing ship!"

…Wait, what!?

Putting aside the sea stone coating even though that was awesome, but fucking Adams Wood!? "Adams Wood?!" Kaden gaped at the fishman.

How the hell did Arlong, a total scrub manage to make a deal there to get enough of that for a ship like this, and get someone capable enough to work with it!?

…And why did it have to be done in such a disturbing design!?

"Nyuuup!" Hachi puffed his chest out proudly.

"You've gotta be kidding me…." Kaden huffed, "It's so big and amazing with that, but so lame in design? Arlong what the actual fuck man!?"

Nami turned to him, "What's the big deal about this sea stone coating and Adams Wood? I mean, the same make as the pirate king is cool and all but is it really that big a deal?" she asked.

"…Yeah, it kinda is," Kaden sighed in defeat, shoulders slumping, "It's pretty much the greatest and most durable wood in the world. Just enough Adams Wood for a cruiser sized ship would cost easily two hundred million beri. Cannon fire wouldn't even be able to get through it. No wonder it can stay afloat with those apartment like buildings on it. And sea stone lining the bottom of a ship, makes it so sea kings can't notice your ship, it's how marines get through the calm belt into the grand line easily instead of having to go through reverse mountain."

Nami took in his words, before whimpering, "…Oh god we literally can't just dump it, can we?" she outright sniffled, such was her despair at having to sail in such an ugly edgy ship, "It's a crazy amazing ship….but why is it so ugly?"

Kaden patted her comfortingly on the back, "Right there with you babe," he nodded, "…Maybe change out the sails for white ones. and a different coating of paint like making the dragons red and the hull a lighter colour would help?"

Nothing could be done about the absolutely outlandish amounts of cannon spots though.

"They're sea kings though!" Hachi protested.

Nami sighed, shoulders slumping almost with relief as she entered her home, closing the door behind her.

She wasn't physically tired, or well, too tired, but mentally? She was drained as all hell. After everything that happened today, after everything she'd had dropped on her by her crazy new monstrously strong and ambitious captain, after all the insane things she'd learned about how the world worked-

It was a testament to how awesome she was she didn't have emotional whiplash or something.

'Honestly, I deserve a medal for not peeing my pants in terror really.' Nami snorted to herself. She'd just joined up with a guy that planned on picking a fight with a warlord who was trying to take over an entire country…and apparently so strong he made Arlong look like a guppy by Kaden's own words.

"Back already?"

Looking over at the kitchenette of the small house, Nami was somewhat surprised to find her older sister nursing a cup of what appeared to be coffee.

"I figured you'd be away for a bit longer, what with you guys off to raid Arlong's stuff for anything valuable," Nojiko mused, before giving her catty smirk, "Almost thought with how much the kid is apparently worth you'd be celebrating with him right about now by rolling around in the sheets."

"If only," Nami laughed, making her way over to sit at the table in the middle of the room, "That would have been way simpler, and if I coulda got one of those fruits off of him, it woulda just been icing on the cake."

It wasn't like she was some easy girl or anything, she wouldn't just sleep with anyone at the drop of a hat or even just for money. But she wasn't a virgin at this point either.

But if it was what her new captain had wanted instead? She would have done it. She owed him after all, for everything he'd done for her and her village, and all the villages Arlong had reigned over.

And avenging Bellemere and all the other poor people he'd murdered.

For that, she would have given him the night of his life for sure. Only as it turned out, just pure sex wasn't what he was after.

"He seems to have a bit of a crush on you," Nojiko laughed lightly, walking over to sit opposite of her, "It's quite cute…well, as cute as a guy who can casually murder fishmen like Arlong with his bare hands can be. Honestly, I'm still having a hard time picturing that."

Crush was a bit of a strong word, but he definitely had taking a liking to her for some reason. Nami thought she was pretty damn awesome to be brutally honest, but even she didn't get the kids interest in her.

By his own words he'd saw the pirate empress Boa Hancock herself before and claimed she was better looking. It was flattering, incredibly flattering and made Nami's chest swell with pride and admittedly the smile he'd given her at the time had made her heart thunder in her chest.

Rich as hell, strong as hell, saved her and her village, into her for sure and definitely not bad looking. A total catch that looked perfect on paper, but honestly, the kid was totally out of her league in the grand scheme of things.

And that wasn't getting into the issue of him having his own problems and hang ups. He seemed to have a real chip on his shoulder over him being an actual world noble, and wasn't that just another flavour of crazy to add on top of everything?

"I saw it first hand and I'm still having trouble believing it," Nami sighed in response to her sister, "He definitely wasn't lying about that dragon thing though. He showed me it earlier, he's bigger than Moomoo once he transforms."

It was really incredible, but her shock and awe over it? Was quite muted at the moment. She'd just had too much crazy things happen that blew her entire world, in rapid succession happen.

"That's what she said." her sister joked.

Nami rolled her eyes, "Oh grow up," she huffed, "It's hard to remember who's the older sister here."

"It's me, you can tell by how much more beautiful I am than you," Nojiko teased, "The first and better model."

"Yeah, you keep believing that you old hag," Nami rolled her eyes, a giggle escaping her lips despite herself, her older sister not any better. A comfortable silence filled the air between them, only broken slightly by the echoes of the still raging party within the village even reaching their home. "Kaden asked me to join his crew." she was the one to break the silence after a few moments.

Nojiko raised an eyebrow at her, "…Is that so?" she hummed, seeming completely unsurprised, "And you accepted."

it wasn't a question, it was a knowing statement.

"Yeah." Nami could only shrug as she answered. She'd honestly been waiting on him to drop the question for hours at that point. It seemed only natural. He needed a crew, she was the best navigator ever and he was interested in her.

Yet as it turned out he only asked after they had their little heart to heart, which made her think he wasn't going to ask her unless she brought it up herself.

He was entirely too hung up on that genuine thing he wanted. Which was weird because he was planning on trying to offer a princess straight up marriage with no feelings involved.

It was a contradiction, but then for all his kids knowledge and power, he was still only fourteen. So it was natural he was a complete idiot.

"I figured you'd be heading out with him, after what I overheard with you earlier which seems to be just the bare bones, you need to have strong people backing you up if you want to accomplish your dream," Nojiko mused, lowering her chin to place it in her palm and giving her an amused smirk, "Bellemere would not approve at all."

"No she would not." Nami agreed, a fond smile appearing on her face as she thought back to her mother, her hand coming up to cup her shoulder, tracing her fingers along the blue tattoo along her shoulder, now in the shape of a windmill with a tangerine on the end.

The reason why she'd been late to the big party everyone was enjoying to their lives content, was because she'd been off seeing the village doctor Nako. She'd wasted no time in getting rid of that filthy tattoo that had been branded on her eight years ago. It couldn't be removed entirely, so instead she'd had it changed.

"Not only are you leaving with a pirate, but you're a cradle robber too," Nojiko snorted, "She'd be livid."

"I don't think an age of consent applies to pirates," Nami rolled her eyes, "Besides, I already told you I'm not sleeping with him."

"Yet," Nojiko stuck her tongue out cheekily, "Though, if you don't plan on it, maybe I should throw my hat in the ring? Queen Nojiko has a nice ring to it I think."

"Sounds completely inferior to Queen Nami though," Nami blew a raspberry at her, "So hands off. That crazy monster dragon captain kid of mine, is a Nojiko free zone."

"Stingy as always," Nojiko huffed, before reaching for her wrist, "Here, take this with you."

Nami blinked, hand coming up to catch the gold bracelet thrown her way, "Feeling sentimental?" she teased.

"Something like that," Nojiko shrugged, "Where is Kaden anyway? I honestly thought he'd be attached to you at the hip, or at least grabbing you by them. I'm serious when I say I was afraid I'd find you two going at it like animals on the floor when I came home or something."

"You've got such a dirty mind, Bellemere would be ashamed." Nami huffed and rolled her eyes.

"Who do you think I learned it from?" Nojiko shot back unperturbed, "Though Genzo would throw a fit over it for sure."

"He definitely would," Nami agreed with a giggle, before shrugging, "I dunno where Kaden is at the moment, he told me he still had something to take care of in regards to Arlong and his crew."

…Though, considering the direction he flew off in after dropping her off at the outskirts of the village, once they were done scoping out that tacky ship Arlong had gotten made for his crew, she had a good idea where he was headed.

And would probably see it in the papers in the next few days if she were right.

"Why…why are you doing this?"

Kaden ignored the rat faced man he was dragging around as he made his way through the base of marine branch sixteen. Captain Nezumi was beaten and bloody, his face swelling in a rather ugly manner.

All Kaden had done was backhand the man after he came across him shouting orders to have him killed.

After he'd touched down and invaded the base.

And began slaughtering his way through the mass of corrupt marines inside. He showed them no mercy.

As far as he was concerned, every single one of them was complicit in looking the other way when it came to Arlong. If even a single one of them had reported it to base, it would have gotten to Smoker and he would have wasted no time in making his way over to Cocoyasi and dealing with Arlong.

Every single marine who hadn't fled the base upon his attack, was already dead. The only single one remaining, was Nezumi whom he was keeping alive for a simple reason.

"Because you disgust me, you useless piece of trash," Kaden snorted as he marched through the halls of the now eerily silent marine base, "Now are you going to comply, or do I need to get violent?"

He paused, before grinning at the man menacingly, "Well, more violent." he bared his teeth.

"Yes, yes I promise I'll show you where I stashed it all, just please let me live!" Nezumi pleaded.

"I'll think about it." Kaden shrugged.

Ten minutes later, Kaden sat in Nezumi's chair within his office as the commanding officer in charge of the base, his feet kicked up atop the mans desk and was casually rifling through notes of beri.

On the floor to his right, was a square shaped hole in the ground with a carpet clad door hanging up off of it and an open safe within it.

To his left lay a lifeless Captain Nezumi, his neck grotesquely twisted in a full one hundred and eighty degrees.

Kaden hadn't lied. He'd gave it a full second thought after the man showed him where he'd stowed away his ill gotten gains over the years of working with Arlong. And in that second, he'd decided he had no interest in letting him live.

So grabbed him by the head with both hands and broke his neck.

Honestly it was rather cathartic. As far as he knew in the other timeline where he didn't exist, this guy got off free with no punishment at all.

The world was instantly a better place without that corrupt piece of trash in it.

"…Crazy that a little rat like this from the East Blue managed to get his hands on this much." Kaden mused as he finished counting the last stack and laid it down on the table next to the rest.

A grand total of a hundred and five million beri. More than the total amount Nami had been working for eight years to get, risking her life in the process and living in despair each day, while this rat sat on his ass and did fuck all to get it.

It disgusted Kaden right down to his core to think about really. So much so he couldn't help but stand up and give the dead mans corpse a good kick, sending it flying dozens of feet through the air to crash into the wall on the other side of the office, "Disgusting little freak, I killed you to soon." Kaden spat.

Still, he supposed Nami would be happy they'd be adding another hundred million to their treasury. He could get more if he robbed the money that would be used to pay the marines wages like he had at G5, but he was going to leave it for whatever other marines got stationed here next.

The place wouldn't be left empty for more than a few days. It was simple incentive to do their jobs properly and make sure Nami's village was well looked after all.

"What to do now?" he mused, sitting back down on the swivelling office chair Nezumi had and kicking his feet back up on the desk.

He hadn't been particularly stealthy and avoided the surveillance snails throughout the base. No doubt his actions had already been seen and would be reviewed soon by the main base at Marineford when they went through the recorded records.

He could have avoided them, as was the smart thing to do. But, when he decided to save Nami's island and take out Arlong, he'd already decided to toss the smart path, or well some of it at least out of the window.

He needed infamy after all to become a warlord.

A third toppled marine base added to his 'word resume', even if it was one in the East Blue would help with that.

Every million beri added to his bounty counted. Ideally, he'd like a bounty higher than any of the other warlords. Which if he remembered right, was Doflamingo's at three hundred and forty million.

He was just a bit over halfway there.

…Actually, it might have been Dracule Mihawk but Kaden wasn't actually sure what his bounty was right now, he'd need to look into that.

As he mulled over how to go forward from here in his head, Kaden's eyes drifted around the room and landed back on the desk in front of him. Specifically, the large yellow den den mushi with a white and blue shell.

Spoiler

…Well now.

That was an idea.

A very bold one.

But also, one that may work incredibly in his favour and allow him to throw the higher ups off of his game plan.

A grin appearing on his face, Kaden pointed his finger at the den den mushi and a small orange cloud formed under it, before levitating into the air and floating towards him.

Welp, here we are back again with chapter 14. Sorry it's a few days late, been in a little rut the past few days.

And with this chapter Kaden and co have got a ship, a very chuuni ship, but a ship nonetheless. Guns go brrr. Or well cannons in this case. Nami has had a talk with Nojiko and Kaden murderized a whole other corrupt marine base, yaaay Kaden, yaaay murder! Well anyway, I always upload chapters in advance on my Pa-atreon if you guys wanna catch them there early like the latest chapter of Jordinio Version I finished a few days ago.

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.