Seaside System - Chapter 8.1 (Patreon)

Kaden ended up staying the night in Logue Town. He rented out one of the best rooms in the hotel usually reserved for high ranking celebrities, royalty and other rich types, what was the point of all the money he stole if he never used it after all.

It was a total rip off though.

Two hundred and fifty thousand beri per night. A complete and utter rip off. Though, the deal for it was that those staying could order food whenever they wanted and in however amount they pleased.

He got the last laugh with that.

They weren't expecting a dragon sized appetite after all.

As it was, the next morning found Kaden leaning over the balcony outside his expensive room overlooking the pool, lost in thought. Though, he couldn't help but wonder one thing, "…Why are the elites of this world more often than not ugly as fucking sin?" Kaden mused aloud as he stared down at the pool.

Most of the people down there, kid and adult alike, were butt ugly, with oddly shaped heads, teeth, hair styles and bodies. A good ninety percent of the people actually paying to stay at the hotel.

The ones that weren't ugly as fuck and didn't look like they hit every branch of the ugly tree upon falling out of it at birth….before being taken back up and tossed back down a few extra times for good measure, were their tag alongs. The ugliest men were being accompanied by real beauties, pretty faces, luscious hair, curves for days.

It was rather bemusing to be honest, Kaden shook his head.

Honestly, he should just be grateful he didn't look like the typical Celestial Dragon. He was real lucky in that regard he supposed.

A news coo landing on the balcony brought him out of his thoughts, and Kaden lifted a single coin out of the pocket of the shorts he was wearing and gave it to it in return for the newspaper it was carrying.

He wasn't really interested in the newspaper itself, but rather what came with it.

Fresh bounties.

He quickly pulled them out, finding a stack of four. Three of them, he couldn't place at all, two of them were smaller timers with under ten million beri bounties, the third had sixty seven million which wasn't bad, but it was the last one that truly caught his eye.

A familiar blue eyed spiky haired blonde stared back at him from the picture, covered in blood and holding that piece of shit Graydle up and stabbing him in the throat.

It was quite the brutal looking bounty picture.

"…Crimson Kaden, seriously?" his voice was deadpan when he saw the epitaph they gave him.

That was lame as hell.

And completely uncreative.

Well he supposed it was better than something like Buggy The Clown or Red Hair Shanks

'I suppose it fits though.' he mused, it matched his scales in his dragon form at least. His eyes settled on the bounty and he just stared for a moment, "…I knew it was gonna be big, but damn." Kaden whistled.

One hundred and eighty five million.

He had a higher bounty than Luffy did after taking out a Shichibukai. He had a higher bounty than Zoro did after helping destroy Enies Lobby.

Huh, didn't that make him a Supernova? Like, right off the bat?

'Neat…' Kaden snorted.

Though that did mean he couldn't stick around here for much longer. It wouldn't be long before he was recognised in a densely populated place like Logue Town and then everyone would know he'd skipped back to East Blue.

He wasn't actually sure how they'd respond to something like that to be honest. But either way, he wanted some peace from that hubbub until he'd gotten some time to himself.

As it was though, he'd specifically stayed here in Logue Town last night because he didn't really have much of a plan beyond dealing with that idiot Bear King and his Trump Pirates.

He supposed he could stick around Clock Work Island after he dealt with them, nobody had bothered them really in the what, ten years they'd ruled the place?

…Seriously what were the marines in the East Blue even doing at this point? Letting a loser like that rule over an entire island and population.

Smoker especially. With his Smoke Smoke fruit, that fool could fly across East Blue and round up the fools like Arlong, Buggy, Krieg and more within a few weeks tops.

Kaden put that out of mind for the moment. Either way, the big problem he had facing him was a lack of strong enough opponents. There was not a single pirate or marine in the East Blue right now, that could push him at all.

His best bet for good opponents to train against was literally at Dawn Island where Luffy trained. The wild life there would be great to train against for his Observation Haki at least.

Hmmm…actually.

What if he trained against Luffy?

Right now, he probably wouldn't be much of a match. But Luffy got stronger quickly in the face of stronger opponents, and Kaden knew of a quick way for him to ramp up his strength with Gear Second and Gear Third.

"Now there's an idea." Kaden grinned. Luffy coming at him with Gear Second, would be an amazing opponent to train his Observation Haki against.

And he couldn't deny, that even if he had decided to not to try and join Luffy on his adventure like he'd dreamed of back in his own world, he still wanted to meet him.

Yeah…actually, yeah! The more he thought about it, the more that seemed like a really good idea. Besides, forging a friendship with Luffy would probably come in helpful down the line.

"Let's do that then." Kaden laughed, stuffing the bounty poster inside his pocket before making his way back into his rented room to change into his actual gear, marine issue boots and pants, a white tank top and his shiny new crimson red coat, then he holstered his new meito blades over his shoulders.

Once that was done, he stepped out onto the balcony once more and held his hand up, a large glowing orange cloud forming out from his palm, which he then jumped up on and sat cross legged on.

And a moment later, at his bidding the cloud speed off through the air, carrying him atop it.

________________

Kaden's first destination before he headed off to Dawn Island to find the future sun god himself, was Clock Work Island.

It wasn't actually all that far away from Logue Town, being one of the last islands before reaching it and heading on to Reverse Mountain.

It only took Kaden a half an hour to reach there following a simple map he picked up in Logue Town yesterday.

"God damn is that castle fucking ugly." Kaden winced as it came into view in the horizon

It started off as a white tower that resembled overlapping, lopsided white crowns painted with the symbols of playing cards, leading up to an observatory throne room at the very top.

Kaden was almost offended by how ugly it was.

Like, it was big and spacious for sure. but it was ugly as all hell. He couldn't ever imagine himself living in such a gaudy place.

It was tempting as all hell, to just transform right now into his full on dragon form and blow it away with his Blast Breath. Just legitimately wipe it off the face of the planet.

It would make the world itself twenty percent less ugly by his estimates. That was how god damn ugly it was!

The only reason he didn't, was because he wasn't sure where that buffoon Bear King kept his crews treasure.

…Speaking of his crew though.

Before heading towards the castle itself, Kaden directed his flying flame cloud down to the very bottom of the island suspended in the sky, to the multiple coves around it and circled the island a few times.

"Gotta admit, not bad." Kaden whistled, he was somewhat impressed despite himself. He supposed those like ten years the Trump Pirates hunkered down at Clock Work Island didn't go to waste.

Through circling the island in total a few times and spreading out his awareness with observation haki, he was able to get a full scope of the fighting force the Trump Pirates had accumulated in their time here.

He could sense so many people, he couldn't even count them with his current haki limits. But it was definitely well over a thousand people.

And a total of fifty five ships, each and every single one a match in size for a marine cruiser, which typically could have up to one hundred marines stationed on them.

That was just impressive.

He wondered if the Trump Pirates had a force that could equal Don Krieg's armada?

Well, not that a few thousand pieces of fodder amounted to munch. The vast majority of them had presences that didn't even measure up to some toddlers he'd felt in the New World.

Still, they were worth claiming. He didn't have a crew or anything, never mind enough subordinates to captain over fifty ships. But, that could very well change in the future.

Nodding to himself, Kaden directed his flame cloud to zip back up higher into the air and ascend to the peak of Clock Work Island, right up to the gaudy castle up top, and then stepped off.

He plummeted down, feet first, smashing through the glass ceiling and landed smack dab in the middle of a spacious throne room.

It was just as gaudy on the inside as it was on the outside. It was an oval room, with plenty of windows and natural sunlight coming through, with a raised station where a large ace-card shaped throne sat, and dozens of card symbols painted over the walls, while below him was a thick glass flower displaying the winder of a massive clock turning around in clock wise motions.

"Who the hell are you supposed to be?" a massive, oddly shaped man sitting upon the throne stared at him queerly.

And when Kaden said oddly shaped, he meant it. He had short squat legs, thick lank arms, a massive potato like torso and his head hung midway down his torso like he was a hunchback. He had a fat rounded face and a massive bulbous nose, with wild black hair jutting out all around it, and so much hair covering his shoulders it looked like fur.

He was the only one in the throne room, and Kaden found himself stunned speechless for a moment at just how ugly the man was.

Hell he even had fur circling his wrists, what the hell?

And what was with the black spade on his forehead? No wonder this dude had to have his subordinates kidnap girls for him.

"Nobody you need to worry about," Kaden shrugged, "Just dropping by to kill you and take your devil fruit to experiment with something, nothing important."

Bear King blinked, before bursting out into loud peals of laughter, "A runt like you is here to kill me? That's a good laugh!" his huge fist pounded against the armrest of his throne in amusement, before he pushed himself up, "I suppose I was actually getting a little bored, pulping your head between my palms might amuse me a-"

Bear King never got to finish, because before he could Kaden disappeared in a blur of speed using Soru and was upon him before the man could even react, his leg flashing out in a blinding fast round house that caught him in the cheek and bodily lifted the ten foot plus man into the air and sent him soaring through the air to crash into the wall hard enough to create spider web cracks and shake the entire throne room.

Kaden took the time before the huge hairy man smashed into the wall, to casually land on his throne and recline back in it, one leg crossed over the knee of the other and perching his head on his fist, "What was that about you pulping my head between your palms?" he bared his teeth at the huge man in a grin, "Weakling."