Seaside System - Chapter 10.2 (Patreon)

Nami sat there for a moment as the blonde red clad teenager floating on a glowing orange cloud gave a long laugh of full on hilarity at the warning she gave him.

…His laughter was kind of annoying.

"What's so funny?" she growled in annoyance.

His laughter began to fade, but even still, by time he stopped a few moments later, he was literally wiping tears of mirth from his eyes. He genuinely did find her warning him that Arlong would kill him, absolutely hilarious.

"The fact you think a weakling like Arlong, a Grand Line drop out, could beat me," Kaden snorted, giving her an almost pitying look, "Like, do you even know who Arlong is?"

The question was almost insulting, "Of course I know who he is," she growled, "I've dealt with the bastard for eight entire years."

"Do you really though?" Kaden raised an eyebrow at her, lazily leaning forward and perching his chin atop his fist and staring her in the eye, "Because if you did know who Arlong is, you'd know he's just a little guppy that ran away from the Grand Line like a little bitch after getting kicked out of the Sun Pirates."

The sun pirates. Nami grimaced, she'd heard vague talk about them and their leader, Jinbei one of the seven warlords of the sea and there was talk she'd overheard here and there about how he'd unleashed Arlong on the East Blue in return for becoming a Warlord because he was too hard to control.

And she'd overheard Arlong himself boast about such a thing before she was sure.

That didn't really make much sense to her, but she didn't know much about the Warlord's in general, only that they were absurdly powerful and influential pirates. If one of them couldn't even control Arlong, it showed just how strong he was.

Wait.

"Kicked out?" Nami blinked, "No that isn't right, he got let loose because the Sun Pirates leader couldn't control him, right?"

Kaden outright goggled at her, "…What?" his jaw dropped and he just stared at her for a moment.

Like she was an idiot.

She didn't like that.

Her teeth grit together and a vein pulsed on her forehead. He obviously wasn't trying to, she knew that, but at the same time, it felt like he was completely invalidating everything she and everyone who suffered under Arlong's rule, as if Arlong was truly nothing.

"Arlong wasn't let loose by Jinbei because he was too hard to control, Arlong was literally kicked out of the Sun Pirates because of how violent he was towards humans, he'd literally be locked up right now still in Impel Down if Jinbei didn't use his position as a Warlord to get him out," Kaden spoke before she could blow her top, "But he didn't let him off lightly. Jinbei beat the crap out of Arlong and kicked him out of the Sun Pirates and after that he ran here because he was too scared and weak to hack it in the Grand Line without Jinbei's protection. In fact, he's so low tier as a pirate, Jinbei doesn't even know where he is. Granted, that's because of the corrupt marines he's paying off."

No.

She tried to deny his words. This kid, popping out literally just out of nowhere and talking nonsense like this? She wouldn't allow herself to believe it.

Couldn't.

If she did. Then…what was she doing all this time? It would have meant she could have just went and seduced the first decently strong Grand Line pirate she came across and had him defeat Arlong and his crew for her with ease.

"Honestly, even this Arlong Park is just a copy of Sabaody Park where rich and powerful humans enslaved a lot of different people and races, and were big on getting fishmen slaves," the kid continued on, casting a glance at Arlong Park, "I gotta say, even his aura is pathetically weak from what I can feel from here. I honestly expected it to be stronger but, he feels like fodder. Physically he's nothing to write home about and from what I can feel mentally, you're vastly stronger when it comes to willpower."

What….just what?

Nami was having a hard time processing this, "What do you mean aura? How strong he feels?" she asked, "Is that a power you have from a devil fruit?"

Kaden turned back to her with a grin, "Nah, my devil fruit is a zoan and stupid powerful, but what I'm using to scope Arlong out is a pretty common power in the later half of the Grand Line," he replied, "It's called Haki, specifically I'm using Observation Haki that among other things let's me sense how strong people are, feel their emotions, sense people over a distance, that kind of thing. Honestly, I might actually be able to take Arlong out from here without doing a thing, that's how pathetic he is."

He was bragging, the kid was literally bragging about what he could do and how weak he thought Arlong was in comparison to him.

Nami wasn't sure how to feel here right now. It was so convincing, but at the same time, she wasn't sure how to feel about how it invalidated all of her struggles in a way.

…That explained why he just popped down on his dumb cloud in front of her after seeing her leave Arlong Park. He could literally feel how much she hated Arlong.

And it seemed the Grand Line was even scarier than she thought if that kind of power was common.

"I could literally give you one of the Devil Fruits I have right now and within a few days you'd be capable of beating his ass yourself," the boy laughed, "That would be hilarious actually."

…What?

"You have more Devil Fruit?" she blinked, "And you'd….just give me one?" Nami asked, thoughts stuttering to a halt. Weren't they supposed to be incredibly rare?

"Hilarious as it would be, no," Kaden snorted, "You kidding? The fruit I have that would let you beat Arlong and his entire crew within just a few days is a high tier logia devil fruit. If I wanted to sell it, I could get a billion beri or more pretty easily for it and probably just as much for the other one I have as well, even the weakest devil fruits go for a hundred million as a starting price."

'A billion beri!?' Nami internally sputtered, eyes going wide. Devil fruits could go for that much? And he had two by his estimates that could go for that much? Her eyes flickered to the massive sack sitting on the cloud behind him.

It was huge.

And probably where those devil fruits lay.

Absurd, utterly absurd. And he was just moving around with that kind of loot as casual as could be?

And what else was he carrying in that sack? She couldn't help but wonder. This kid was absolutely loaded for sure.

…But if he was telling the truth, then there was no way in hell she could get any of it off of him. He could literally sense her intentions.

Could she seduce him? He was younger than her, and she hadn't missed the way his eyes lingered on her chest and legs every now and then.

But no, if his strength was as real as he casually stated, so strong he thought Arlong whom she could never beat in a million years was trash, then she'd never escape the kid, at least until he got bored of her in some way.

…What was this guys game, really? There was definitely something more going on here that he wasn't saying.

"Who are you really?" Nami narrowed her eyes at the boy, "You're obviously not coming here just out of the goodness of your heart. You want something out of this for sure. No way you just turned out up here as a coincidence."

The boy blinked at her, before shrugging, "I mean, I kinda did?" he replied, "I mean it wasn't a coincidence, beyond meeting you here I guess. I was actually heading somewhere to train and get stronger when I remembered what Arlong was doing here. It even kind of messes up my goals a bit coming for Arlong right now because I wanted to get stronger first before going after my goals."

"Your…goals?" Nami repeated, fishing for more. Bit by bit, things were becoming clearer, the picture being filled in dot by dot but she needed more information here.

"I suppose I should introduce myself in full then," Kaden shrugged, "Like I said before, I'm Kaden D. Freeman, former marine commander stationed in the Grand Line, now technically a pirate I guess after I went rogue for slaughtering a marine vice admiral and his entire platoon because they were corrupt and abusing their power over the civilians they were trying to protect. I'm planning on becoming a Warlord and to do so, I'm going to be taking the heads of a ton of pirates with bounties to show off my strength."

He grinned at her as her eyes widened once more, "Arlong doing the shit he's doing right now, got to me though on my way to where I want to train and so I ended up coming to take his head," the teen added, "Then I saw you when I was scoping out the island, could feel your literal hate for him and his fishy crew and came down to scope you out because you're gorgeous. If I kill Arlong for you, how about a date?"

Nami was stunned silent at his words.

There was a massive amount to unpack there from being a marine commander with how young he was, to going rogue and killing other marines for being corrupt, to him now being a pirate, which she'd usually hate him for, because she hated pirates…but the reason he became one wasn't one that she could hate.

Then there was the rest of what he said to her.

But beyond that-

This kid….

He was definitely, for sure, an idiot.

Her head was absolutely spinning with everything he'd dropped on her. And despite herself, despite how she'd mustered her resolve for years, despite all the effort she put in to raise the money to buy the freedom of her village from Arlong.

She wanted to believe this kid.

He was just too dumb to be lying to her with what he was saying.

Because if he was telling the truth. Then, the people at her village didn't need to wait any longer. The people across the archipelago of islands that she couldn't do anything about, would be free as well.

And Arlong would be truly punished instead of just getting a pay day of a hundred million beri.

"If you're telling the truth kid, then sure, I'll go on a date with you," Nami plastered a smirk on her face, crossing her arms under her chest and pushing her voluptuous chest up, "But unless you that devil fruit of yours is something truly special, I don't see how you can beat Arlong. Fishmen are ten times stronger than humans, and Arlong is way stronger than most fishmen."

"…I'll hold you to that," the kid grinned, before nodding, "And as far as how strong Arlong is. Believe it or not if you want, but I'm far stronger physically than Arlong. I'm stronger than most fishmen actually, the only one I know who is stronger than my when it comes to pure strength, is Jinbei, and maybe their king, and I'm fine to prove it if you want."

"…Is that a power of your devil fruit, then?" Nami had to ask, because a human being physically stronger than the vast majority of fishmen, just didn't make sense at all.

He'd have to be an utter monster to be able to do that.

"Nah," Kaden chuckled, shaking his head, "My devil fruit power lets me turn into a giant dragon, control a bunch of elements like fire, wind and ice and even lets me fire blasts from my mouth so powerful I can destroy entire mountains." He helpfully informed.

…Eh?