Seaside System - Chapter 12.1 (Patreon)

Cocoyasi village was in full spirit. The news of Arlong's death alongside the abrupt end of his crews rule over the Conami Islands Archipelago hit like a ton of bricks.

When Nami revealed the news, it was met with disbelief at first. But soon, cheers of jubilation echoed through the village and everyone took to the streets to celebrate.

'There's a lot more people here than I realised.' Kaden mused as he sat back atop a bench shaded by a large tree in the middle of the village, a pint of rum in hand. It was his third so far.

Just a quick shot of his observation haki had let him know, there was actually well over fifty people within the village of Cocoyasi.

As the hero of the hour, he would probably have been swarmed right about now by the people offering them his thanks. Granted, he was initially, before Nami bid off somewhere, barely able to contain the tears in her eyes.

Kaden had let her go. Honestly, he'd let the situation get to him too much and he'd more or less revealed way more than he should have. Arlong had just rubbed him the wrong way…and he'd let the chance to show off to Nami get to him a bit.

Plus he'd been trying to cow Hachi into submission so he didn't need to kill him. He'd been too much of a loud mouth braggart to keep a tighter lid on things he should have.

He'd need to work on that.

Either way, oh well, he couldn't exactly change anything now.

He cast his eye towards the reason why he currently wasn't the centre of attention within the village. The tall wild haired octopus fishman sitting beside him on the bench, a morose look on his face as he stared down at the ground, his eyes filled with sadness.

With all the main officers besides Hachi gone for good, and Arlong himself dead, the Arlong Pirates were officially disbanded. When the ones he'd knocked out by by flaring his Conqueror's Haki had come too, it was to the horror of their captain being dead.

Hachi had bid them to flee, and Kaden had let them. They were nobodies after all, nobody that he gave a shit about.

Honestly, he'd expected Hachi to leave as well. He hadn't stuck around after all in the original….timeline?

Well he'd fled when his companions got caught by the marines.

Either way, Kaden hadn't expected the fishman to follow him back along to the village of Cocoyasi. And he hadn't said a thing since he'd bid his fellows to flee, not even now with everyone in the village giving him disdainful, suspicious looks.

Honestly, with it just being him alone, Kaden figured the people were itching for some retribution against him for being part of what happened to them and he couldn't exactly blame them.

"Why didn't you leave as well?" Kaden spoke up and asked bluntly, "You oughta know nobody would like seeing your face around here. You might have been a nicer guy than the rest of your pals, but it doesn't change you were part of it all."

"…Nyuuu," Hachi's shoulders slumped, "I don't know. I'm trying to think. I know what we done was bad. I didn't like doing it, but we did it anyway. We deserved it. But they were still my friends."

Honestly, Kaden respected him a bit for his composure. After all, he was currently talking to the guy who decapitated three of his friends.

He wasn't sure he could do the same in his situation, bad guy or not.

"Feel free to hate me, curse me with every breath you take if it makes you feel better," Kaden shrugged, "Nothing will change the fact I killed your friends."

"We killed a lot of people too, we killed Nami's mother," Hachi sniffled, "And we did it for a lot less good reasons than why you killed my friends. I'm not angry. I'm just sad."

"I can respect that," Kaden nodded, looking out over the partying people and smiling, "These people lived in terror because of you guys, there's no excuse for that. Owning your own actions though, is something I can respect. Just like I won't make any excuses for killing your friends. I did it to help these people and fuel my ambitions. And even Arlong, as much as I detest who he was as a person and what he did, I can at least respect for owning his actions in the end and not making excuses."

If nothing else about the guy, he could respect that he supposed.

"Nyuuu…" Hachi released a sad whimper, before looking at Kaden, "Did you mean what you said?"

He wasn't very specific about what, but…

"Every single word." Kaden nodded.

The only lie he spoke at all, was about Hody Jones planning on killing Arlong's sister, and that was more just paraphrasing because the guy did try later down the line because she was trying to help the Straw Hats and such.

Could Kaden hold actions people hadn't committed yet and would only do so in a future he wouldn't be letting come to pass, against them?

For guys like Hody Jones, he sure as hell could. The guy was an absolute piece of shit scum and Kaden would enjoy leaving boot prints on his face.

"Okay," Hachi nodded and his sad eyes narrowed into focus on him, "Then, do you have a spot in your crew for me?"

Kaden blinked, "…What?" he gaped, utterly taken aback.

He was not expecting that at all.

"Nyuu!" Hachi nodded, "You're planning on correcting mistakes caused by us right and helping fishmen island when it's in trouble right? Then as part of the problem and the only high ranking one left, I should help you!"

Hmmm.

"I won't lie, a fishman would be a big help," Kaden mused aloud, "I'm a devil fruit user, and I'll probably have quite a few more on my eventual crew considering I've got two more devil fruits on hand and I plan on hunting for more."

"Ah, cuz devil fruit users can't swim!" Hachi clapped his six tentacle arms together in realisation.

"Yeah," Kaden snorted, the temptation was there to test the guys emotions with observation haki, but he wasn't going to constantly rely on it. Feeling Arlong's emotions earlier during their fight? It probably effected him more than he realised and was probably partially at least why he talked as much as he did. Besides, what he said to Nami earlier also applied. How could anything ever be genuine when he constantly read peoples emotions? That meant he could never trust them hiding anything from him, "Though are you sure? My plan going forward will take me specifically to a country that you as a fishman won't like at all."

"And you need to go there to become a Warlord?" Hachi cocked his head to the side, "And other things you said. What is your plan exactly?"

Kaden shrugged, "It's pretty simple," he smiled, "I'm planning on building up getting some training done here in the East Blue for a bit and mastering a few abilities I haven't gotten down yet. Then I plan on taking out a few other big wig pirates and taking their heads to increase my notoriety as a pirate and prove my strength."

"Ah, okay," Hachi nodded, "But wait…aren't all the warlord positions already filled right now?"

"Yup, but not for long," Kaden's smile widened, "See, one of them is currently in the middle of running a criminal organization in Alabasta and trying to create a civil war, he's planning on taking over as king. The princess of said kingdom infiltrated his little group, but neither she nor anyone in her kingdom has the ability to deal with him, he's a logia user after all and since they're in the beginning of paradise none of them can use Haki. My plan is simple. I'm going to go to that princess, and I'm going to make her an offer. I'll kill the warlord I'm planning on going after and save her kingdom, in return for marrying me and making me king. That way, I'll be free of the world government for a time to build up my strength and influence and have a country with an army of a million men strong to build up to my liking."

"Ah, I see, I think, I guess?" Hachi blinked a few times as he processed the teens words, before nodding, "Oh, that's why I won't like it there, Alabasta is a desert country."

Kaden snorted, "Yeah pretty much." he was amused in spite of himself that Hachi felt the need more to comment on that, than his plan to become king of the place.

"…Should I be hearing this?" a female voice Kaden wasn't familiar with spoke up drily, "I just heard this kid say something absolutely and utterly absurd."

"…To be honest, after everything I heard today, I'm too burned out to even be shocked by the utter stupidity and audacity of this plan," a much more familiar voice commented, just as drily, "You're not very faithful though are you? What was all that talk about wanting a date out of me earlier when you were planning all along to basically extort some poor princess into marrying you?"

Kaden looked over his shoulder, Hachi copying him to find Nami standing behind him, having traded out her white shirt for a strappy green tank top that showed off an absolutely crazy and tantalizing amount of cleavage from her large, voluptuous breasts, one hand placed on her cocked hips, an eyebrow raised at him, and a smirk on her face that belied her words.

Beside her, was a tan woman with glistening light blue hair tied up with a red ribbon, dressed in a similar tank top that showed off a cleavage that could compete with Nami's own, yet perhaps was even more eye drawing because of the tattoo looping from her shoulder over her chest, though her was tan in colour and a pair of blue pants, a surprised look in her deep blue eyes.

Well, hello there.

"Well I mean, I did say I had no idea how to even go about asking someone as gorgeous as you out normally," Kaden shrugged, "Unless you woulda preferred the same method used on you."

"Flattering and skeevy at the same time," the other woman, who Kaden obviously totally did not know the identity of snorted, "I'm not sure how to feel about a kid like this being our saviour."

"This is my sister by the way, Nojiko," Nami jabbed a thumb at the blue haired woman and introduced her, before her smirk widened, "And what if after all your big talk about being genuine and all that, and wanting me to be your woman and you saving us, I went and fell for you? Would I just plan to be side lined, some concubine while this other chick was your queen? Kind of a dick move."

Kaden blinked…he was not at all expecting things to go like this to be honest. And they weren't even like, reacting much to Haci at all either who was just looking on very confused, "I mean…I'm technically already a king?" he pointed out rather lamely, "The place I'm a king of right now is like a lot smaller than the place I want to be king of, but I mean, I could make you queen of Clock Tower Island."

Nami's eyes bulged at his words, "C-Clock Tower Island…as in the place with the diamond clock, that's said to be worth over a billion beri if sold?!" she outright gushed.

Huh, it was worth that much? He hadn't even realised that.

Nojiko palmed her forehead while rolling her eyes and sighing.

"That's the one yeah…." Kaden trailed off, and then his eyes widened as Nami was suddenly sitting right next to him, one arm around his shoulder and pressing her amazingly large and soft chest into his side.

"So then, where's my engagement ring honey?" Nami beamed at him.

She moved so freaking fast he barely saw her at all. Was that Soru!? What the fuck how did she do that?

And holy shit her tits, were amazing!

"And actually now that I remember and the heavy stuff is dealt with," Nami trailed a finger over his chin, "Didn't you say you had two devil fruits worth like a billion a piece easily? Where would we go about selling those I wonder?"