Seaside System - Chapter 7.2 (Patreon)

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.

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.

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.