Seaside System - Chapter 9.2 (Patreon)

After delegating the ruling of Clock Tower Island and setting up a Den Den Mushi connection with Honey Queen and his new Prime Ministers, Kaden couldn't leave the place fast enough.

The place just rankled him.

As beautiful and as amazing as a body Honey Queen had, he couldn't see himself just living it up there. Worshipped as a king with a beautiful woman to do whatever he said? That was a dream for most teenagers.

But the vast majority of the people on that island, disgusted him, Honey Queen didn't escape that either. Even if he lowered that disgust simply for her hot body.

He'd never claim to be perfect after all.

On top of that, everything felt so weak around him. He felt like he could break the people there with a simple uncaring swing of his arm. But it wasn't just that they were weak physically, they were weak mentally.

He could literally feel it with his observation haki.

Ironically, the civilians of Clock Tower Island were as a whole mentally tougher than the violent domineering pirates.

Funny as that was, or sad really-

It was stifling being around them.

Now, it would have been a completely different story if say, it was the likes of Nami. With how Clock Tower Island was pretty much isolationist because of Bear King now, he might have just stuck around after wiping out all the pirates and living it up with a bodacious babe like Nami at his side.

That sounded look a good time.

As it was, he wasn't even sure how to go about tracking down Nami. She was always on the move throughout East Blue after all stealing shit to earn enough money to buy her islands freedom from Arlong.

It wasn't like he could just go to Cocoyasi Village on the Conomi Islands and ask around about her or wait for her.

The first would just draw the suspicion of everyone there, including Arlong and his gathered box of fish fingers.

Aka his crew.

And even just going there to wait around wouldn't amount to much. Because he knew for a fact that he'd lose his temper real quick around that serrated cock nosed fuck head of a racist fish.

'I'm a horrible a person.' Kaden realised, sitting back on the flame cloud carrying him through the air towards Dawn Island and staring up at the sky.

The people there were enslaved by the Fishmen. It was well within his power to crush them and free those people from their oppression. Easily in fact, he could do it in a few hours tops.

And he wanted to.

But he didn't want to waste the chance to have the gratitude of Nami because he lusted after her.

…He really was no better than his kin, or even the bastard that had his body before him, huh?

His selfish desires ruled him.

He was disgusted with himself at the very thought. To be even remotely similar to the bastard that swapped bodies with him or those ugly bubble headed freaks formed a disgust so potent in the pit of his stomach he wanted to retch.

He was well aware of the polarizing thought process. He wanted to save those people from the oppression they suffered under, free them from being lorded over and enslaved by sick fucks like Arlong, it made him sick to his literal stomach thinking about it and-

Yet wanted to use their suffering to his advantage at the same time. He wanted to play the gallant hero and look cool and earn the admiration of a woman who had been suffering for years, enslaved by a disgusting freak after he and his goons had murdered her mother.

It was sick, yet he couldn't deny the appeal.

It brought to mind what his….mother had written down, what his grandfather and the other members of the five elder stars thought of his existence.

"Abomination, huh?" Kaden clicked his tongue. Was it truly the blood of two mortal enemies that made his body instinctually desire something like that, the liberation the D's stood for, yet tainted with the greed and sick desires of the Celestial Dragons?

Or was it the influence of his other self, his remnants affecting his personality? An abomination amalgamation of two people from two completely different worlds.

Or was he just that big of a piece of shit that the desire to have a woman like Nami over ruled any true good points about him?

It wasn't even just that. With his power, he could do so much. He could literally fly to Wano right now…well once he found the proper way there. But he could. It wasn't like Kaido and his crew monitored the entire country, it was possible to slip in, Luffy and his crew had.

Those people suffering because of starvation, like Ebisu town and others, he could literally create a flame cloud big enough to carry them all away, he couldn't beat Kaido, he couldn't do anything to Kaido right now, but he knew there was still ways to help the people there.

He could head to Dressrosa right now. He could help Kyros and Rebecca escape and live without fear until they were ready to even think about taking down his….cousin?

He wasn't exactly sure how closely related he and Doflamingo were at least. But no plan survived contact with the enemy-

What if! What if! What if! Niggled at his brain whenever he even remotely thought of something along those lines.

Kaden wanted power. He wanted riches. He wanted women like Nami and Rebecca and Robin. He wanted to enjoy the hell out of life in luxury or going out on crazy adventures like the way the Straw Hats did.

He also wanted to punch Doflamingo in the fucking mouth. He wanted to shove his foot up Kaido's ass. He wanted to blow Marejoise off of the face of the planet with his Blast Breath and allow all those suffering under those monsters to run free and escape their oppression.

But before he did anything, he wanted to make sure he had the means to actually accomplish it all and not run in half cocked like an idiot and just die like a fool and accomplish nothing.

He had too many desires, many polarizing with each other and pulling his thoughts in too many different directions.

Kaden grasped his forehead with a hiss of annoyance, his eyes flashing a bright golden yellow as a headache formed.

The flame cloud he sat cross legged atop came to a halt, floating high in the sky above the bright blue sea below, standing out amongst the shiny white clouds around him.

"…What do I want to accomplish with my power?" he posed the question to himself, "What can I accomplish right now?"

It was a big question. For all the knowledge he had of this world, for all the power at his fingertips, he was still just a stupid 14 year old brat with more balls than brains.

And considering how hesitant he was to act, it said a lot about how miniscule his brains must be.

Well, what he could accomplish in this very moment was simple. He could crush Arlong and his pathetic crew, a gathering of insults frankly to Fisher Tiger's memory.

Now there was a guy he could admire the drive of. He hated humans because of all he went through, yet he never let it cloud his actions with them.

As soon as he did that though, the marines in Arlong's pocket would surely find out about things. He'd need to take care of those corrupt bastards anyway.

As soon as he did, his presence in the East Blue would be marked. Did he want to risk the actual strong people coming to the East Blue to find him before he was ready to do…

What?

Do what?

Travel around doing whatever the hell he wanted? Form a pirate crew? No, that was too small.

With all his desires, with all the things he wanted to accomplish, with all the people he wanted to butt heads with over being utter pieces of shit, what he needed was not only power, but influence.

He was a criminal though. A pirate.

There was no influence for him, nowhere he could set down roots good and proper without the marines coming after him.

The only pirates who could do something like that, build their own kingdoms out of conquered territories, were the Yonkou.

And he was nowhere near that kind of power or influence.

Wait.

There was one way.

He even had an example of it in his demented kin who was also a criminal and pirate.

"I need to become a Warlord." Kaden realised and it clicked for him. They were government dogs, but really only in name.

He could do as he pleased more or less if he became one, and use the time as one to grow his strength. Become a leader, a ruler of a place that could contend with the Yonkou like Kaido and let him pick fights with those bastards if he wanted.

That was a lot easier said than done. For one, all seven of the warlord spots were filled. One would have the be removed.

Hancock was a definite no to take on. He wasn't even sure just how strong she was, but she managed to force Blackbeard as a Yonkou into a stalemate at least. He knew some weaknesses to her devil fruit powers, but still she was way too big a risk to take on for a horny teenager like himself.

Doflamingo was definitely out as well. He didn't have enough haki training right now to resist those damn strings of his. And Mihawk was definitely out as well, dragon form or not, he'd get cut clean down the middle right now by a guy who was the rival of a Yonkou.

That left Jimbei, who he he actually liked and was a good guy and didn't want to bother at all. Kuma, who was secretly a part of the Revolutionary Army and part of Vegapunks experiments right now and the father of Jewelry Bonney. Moria who he had some form of plans for and may need his help in the future.

And Crocodile.

Crocodile who was so rusty he got his ass beat by a Luffy who couldn't even use Gear Second yet, in the middle of a desert where he'd spent years making sure it would never rain around him.

Crocodile whom basically had an entire country at his mercy. With a princess doing everything in her power to stop, so much so she'd infiltrated his little terrorist group numbering over two thousand which held multiple devil fruit users….that all wanted a place in his future kingdom and had never spoken to any of them face to face, none of them besides Nico Robin even knew of his identity and quite a few of them were really loyal.

…That had potential.

"Would Vivi agree to marry me if I promised to save Alabasta and protect it?" he wondered.

Putting aside the thought of getting a girl as amazing and beautiful as Vivi as his woman, if he did it right. He could depose Crocodile, take his fruit to give to someone else he could trust, take over Baroque Works and gain a bunch of decently powerful subordinates that with the right directions could become actually useful, become one of the seven warlords and become king of a massive nation in the Grand Line with a standing fighting force of over a million men.

He could explode right onto the scene of the entire world and let everyone know, pirate and marine alike, he was not to be fucked with.

And gain a massive point to grow into a super power that could even contend with the Yonkou!

…There was only one thing though.

To become a Warlord, his accomplishments and power as a pirate had to be well known, far and wide.

Going by how Blackbeard accomplished such a thing, turning in a massive figure like Portgas D. Ace one of the commanders of a Yonkou. They didn't exactly grow on trees.

…That meant replacing quality with quantity.

And what luck, he had four decently high bounties for the East Blue at least sitting happy in the sack behind him on his flame cloud, iced over to be kept fresh and recognisable.

Four members of Arlong's crew had bounties. He didn't really want to fuck over Hachi, but the other three big lips, fishman karate boy and Arlong should be sufficient themselves.

As a starting point at least.

"Guess I am going after Arlong after all." Kaden mused. It was regrettable he'd probably lose any chance with Nami not making a big show of it and coming to her defence in her darkest hour like Luffy had, but that was better in the end.

Even if he did get her from it, it would never have been genuine. Actually, he had to thank her.

It was thanks to her, he finally began to centre himself, finally had a true goal beginning to form.

"Thanks Nami." he grinned, directing his flame cloud to change directions. She proved once again, why she'd always been his favourite.

She was the common sense of the Straw Hat crew in canon, and thinking over her like this had allowed him to truly decide on beginning down the path he wanted.

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Sorry meant to get this done last night and get around to working on Systematic Shinobi a bit today alongside chapter 10 of this, since I wanted at least 10 chapters of it as a basis before focusing fully on other stuff, but things kinda came up. As it is, some peeps have asked me to focus on this in dm's until the muse on it dries up before Systematic Shinobi...and admittedly I have to re-read the Naruto manga again to make sure my knowledge is fresh. I'll let you guys decide in a poll in a little bit what to focus on.