Seaside System - Chapter 10.1 (Patreon)

Conomi Islands, the place where Nami was from was a small archipelago. It was a chain of island that contained if the map Kaden was following was anything go by, around twenty if not more communities.

'Even if each of these communities only had ten adults, with Arlong charging them a hundred thousand beri a month to live….' Kaden's thoughts trailed off as he flew towards his destination on his ever comfortable bright orange flame cloud.

That would be twenty million beri a month he made from just those poor people. But he knew for a fact they were bigger than that, and if he took Nami's village Cocoyasi Village as an average, which he knew should have at least thirty adults if not more…

The number would look closer to sixty million beri on average a month Arlong made, if not more. And he'd been there for what, even years at this point?

He'd have made literally over five billion beri.

That was utterly absurd.

Though he needed to take into account that Arlong had may have destroyed a few of the villages after throwing a tantrum like he had when Nami returned in canon, and then there was the money that he had to have spent to build Arlong Park and pay off the local marine branch.

Being generous and even striking his profit to even a fifth of what it should have been, he'd still have over a billion beri.

God, how did one accumulate so much wealth, talk so much big shit, but just bum around in the weakest sea like he was?

Arlong truly was a pathetic little loser.

Clearly his sister inherited all the worth in his bloodline.

Honestly, thinking about Arlong was pissing him off. The guy was just everything wrong with the world. He was like a caricature of character defects in the shape of a stupid looking blue skinned retard.

…He had the serious urge to rip that stupid ass nose of his clean off his face and stab him in the throat with it.

That sounded cathartic.

Or maybe he could pin him down after ripping his nose off and let Nami do it? Letting the little girl he'd enslaved stab him in the throat with that nose of his he was so proud of, sounded the biggest insult of all he could give that fish freak.

'I should keep the karate one alive for a little bit at least and force him to show me how to use Fishman Karate.' Kaden mused, putting the murder of Arlong out of mind for the moment.

Honestly, he couldn't remember much about the guy aside from the fact he was a cunt and fought Sanji. Oh, and he remembered him beating the shit out of Genzo, the guy Nami and Nojiko saw as a father figure and then carving him up with a sword.

Actually, you know what? Maybe he could just learn Fishman Karate at Fishman Island or something instead.

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It took just over two hours before Kaden arrived at his destination.

Kind of.

….It took him two hours to reach the archipelago of islands and then another half an hour to figure what one had Cocyasi Village.

Which actually just amounted to him flying around atop his glittering orange flame cloud until he found Arlong park.

And as much as it galled Kaden to admit it, it was a pretty snazzy looking place. It looked like a seriously nice vacation spot for some of the rich and famous.

A huge towering mansion-like base. The surrounding area looking like it was build with glittering white marble. High privacy giving walls, and out the front of it, a waterway that looked like multiple large glistening pools, with a marble walkway down the middle of them leading to a gate that led to the ocean.

There was even multiple little wall-less beach hut-like buildings, Kaden wasn't sure what they were called, but they looked really nice.

And the place was surrounded by tons of greenery on the outside lots of small marshes with glistening clear water.

The place was really nice.

And totally undeserved.

"….I'm taking this place." Kaden decided right then and there as he circled above the place on his flame cloud. Luffy had destroyed it, but the place was worth a serious shit ton of money for sure.

Hmm?

As he circled, he noted he could see quite a few figures down below within the confines of Arlong Park. Fishmen of varying sizes, shapes and skin or was that gill(?) colours.

Spreading out his awareness with observation haki, Kaden got a feel for him. He ignored their general emotions, more interested in their strength and numbers.

…And he was left honestly disappointed.

He counted just over fifty of them in total. But, as a whole? They felt disappointingly weak. As in, the vast, vast majority of them wouldn't have stood out from the mook pirates he'd taken ownership over at Clock Tower Island.

And the rest? The stand out ones? One felt around Bear King's level, two a decent bit below Bear King, and one decently above him, but not by a large noticeable amount.

Absolutely pitiful.

….Hmmm!?

Just as he was about to direct his flame cloud away for the moment to take scope of the village, something stood out to him.

Another presence. Pitifully weak, barely standing out strength wise from the mook fish men, but their emotions, their will.

They blazed almost like a sun in comparison to the flickering candles and smouldering camp fires of the rest

Kaden stared directly down at where he felt the presence, and his jaw dropped and eyes widened as he saw an orange haired figure stepping out of Arlong Park's gates and walking along the long winding path leading from it to Cocoyasi Village.

It was a girl, or rather a woman. And what a woman she was. Even from as high up as he was, Kaden could make out her beauty. Short burning bright orange hair, deep brown eyes. Slender and average of height, yet with full hips, long toned legs and a voluptuous chest that stretched out the white shirt she was wearing tantalizingly.

It was Nami!

For a moment, Kaden just stared at her as she power walked away from Arlong Park, a stormy expression on her face.

After him coming to his senses over thinking about her, after deciding saving those people outweighed any personal desires of his own, after even deciding to make a plan to use Arlong and his cronies to make up for not getting to see her-

He came at one of the rare few times she was on the island after bringing back her stolen loot?

Was this karma? Was this the world itself telling him that following the path of the D was better than the path of the Celestial Dipshits?

Or maybe it was just coincidence. Either way, he wasn't about to miss the chance to meet her.

With a thought, he directed his flame cloud down towards her, the glittering orange cloud zipping down through the air and carrying him down right in front of her.

Nami stopped in her tracks, eyes widening in shock at his sudden and abrupt appearance, "W-what the!?" she sputtered.

"Sup?" Kaden lifted a hand and greeted her with a grin, "I'm Kaden, and I'm looking for some information about things going on around here and since you just came from Arlong Park, I figured you'd be in the know."

It was only a little white lie. Actually, not even really a lie because everything he said was the truth, so it was more just an omission of all the facts.

Nami goggled at him for a few good seconds, but points to her, she quickly smothered her emotions and gave him a wary look, "…Kaden, right," she repeated his name, "Why are you here? And what's with this freaky cloud you're sitting on?" she asked, eyes moving from his face to gave the flame cloud a quizzical look, and something else.

He didn't even need to use observation haki to feel the greed coming from her. He could almost predict and hear her thoughts, 'What a freaky cloud. It flies, how? Wait…if I could get my hands on….it!'

It was almost telling really how her face shifted from wary to a bright inviting smile.

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She had no idea who the hell this kid was. He just appeared out of nowhere, sitting cross legged as he pleased on a glowing orange cloud of all things.

What the absolute hell?

She forced a bright pretty smile on to her face even as her mind ran a mile a minute as she took stock of him. He was a teenager, broadly built, bright blonde hair, shining blue eyes, sunny smile. Younger than her, maybe around fifteen years old, sixteen maybe?

The boots and pants he was wearing looked like the types marines tended to wear, but that long red coat with the gold pauldrons? It screamed either privateer or pirate. But, there was no way a kid like this was an actual pirate, right?

Her eyes flickered to his shoulders where the hilts of two blades stuck out noticeably over them and a massive sack sat behind him on the large cloud. Gosh, where did he get that thing? She'd never seen anything like it. And with how fast she'd noticed it zip down to get in front of her…

Well, she could already feel plans beginning to form in her mind. If she could get her hands on it and fly around she could seriously speed up her travel time and have way easier escapes from tough situations when she went back out on her journey to steal more cash.

She had already stolen just shy of eighty million beri, just twenty more to go! And then she could kiss Arlong and his filthy crew behind.

"This? It's just a flame cloud," the kid, Kaden shrugged pointing at the cloud, and the way he casually said it, sounded like it wasn't anything special at all, most likely meaning he could get his hands on another one or maybe even more and- "It's just one of the abilities given to me by my Devil Fruit."

Nami's plans for getting her hands on the cloud ground to a halt, "Devil Fruit?" she gaped at him, was he serious? "They're real?" she goggled at the boy.

She'd heard the stories, but even being part of Arlong's crew for the past eight years now and having been travelling all over the East Blue to gather up the funds to buy back her village, she'd never saw one in person and thought it was just a myth.

"Oh yeah sure, they're pretty common on the Grand Line," the kid casually dropped a massive bomb, "And I've only been here in the East Blue a few days to be honest, but I know there's quite a few people in this sea with them. Like I ran into a pirate group I hunted down with two of them the other day, a paramecia and even a logia. Honestly, gotta say it's crazy a logia was just bumming around East Blue, but then she was pretty damn weak, it was honestly kind of sad."

Paramecia? Logia? She had no idea what he was talking about? Different classifications she assumed, and Logia if the way he talked were pretty…strong devil fruits?

And on top of that, he just casually revealed he came from the Grand Line. Even the few times she overheard Arlong and the others speak about the place, she knew it was filled with utter monsters.

What the hell was a kid this young doing in the Grand Line? And what was he doing in East Blue now?

'He said he just hunted down a pirate group,' she thought, ones with devil fruits at that. If there were pirate groups with devil fruit users, then they were probably some of the highest bounties of East Blue.

…If he was here hanging around not far from Arlong Park, after admitted to hunting another pirate group.

Then there was only one conclusion to make.

"You came to take Arlong's head?" she blurted out, and despite herself she felt her hands clench into fists. She had to make this kid leave. Devil Fruit or not, he was just some dumb kid, Arlong was a fishman, and had a whole crew of them. He was just going to die, and she'd vowed before, to make sure she didn't have to watch people die by his hands ever again if she could do something about it.

"Pretty much," Kaden shrugged in confirmation, "I heard him and his cronies had more or less enslaved the people around here and were paying off the useless marines in the area to look the other way from him. I didn't like the sound of that, so I decided to come shove my foot up ass and take his head."

He was confident, Nami would give him that. And going by what he said about fighting devil fruit users before and pirate ones at that and implying he killed them, he was no doubt strong.

For a human.

"You should leave kid," Nami told him, her bright smile evaporating and being replaced by a serious frown, any thought of getting her hands on his possessions fleeing her mind, "I get you think you're strong, and you probably are. And it's nice of you to want to help the people here…but pick another target, you're just going to die if you try and take on Arlong."

The kid, Kaden blinked and stared at her for a moment.

Before erupting into laughter, "Chadadadadadadadadadadadadadadadadadadadadadadadadadadada!"

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I rolled a bo3 1d100 with a DC of 75 for the possibility of Nami being there. We got a 17, a 6 and an 87. So Nami was there. Yes, I did indeed roll dice. And the dice gods blessed us with Nami.