Seaside System - Chapter 12.2 (Patreon)

"There's a few places," Kaden gave himself a shake and replied with a roll of his eyes, "Not that I actually plan on selling them at all. I plan on giving them to people I eventually get around to recruiting."

He had a few options that he'd pondered on specifically in regards to those devil fruits. Specifically he'd taken into account level of strength, how hard they would be to recruit and most importantly how much he could trust them to be loyal.

Two stood out specifically.

Both from Dressrosa. Father and daughter actually.

Kyros and Rebecca.

As far as strength went, while he wasn't quite sure where Rebecca would land right now, he did know that she was strong enough to make it to the finals of the Gladiator Tournament with the prize being the Mera Mera no Mi, and faced off against a shit ton of new world pirates without taking a single hit.

And Kyros with only one leg and heavily injured was capable of taking out one of Doflamingo's top officers and even catching Doflamingo himself off guard with his speed and ability with just one leg, albeit he'd switched out with a string clone, but it was still an impressive feat.

Recruiting them shouldn't even be hard either. For one, Doflamingo forgot Kyros even existed right now, as did everybody because he was turned into a toy. And the only worth Rebecca had to him was as a former princess of the Dressrosa kingdom, but even then he only kept her around to torment and insult the former royal family. He wouldn't give a shit if she just disappeared.

And loyalty? He knew how to get it from them, he just had to promise to help them dethrone Doflamingo, which was something he planned on doing eventually anyway.

He'd give the Metal Metal fruit to Rebecca, which would boost her overall ability as a fighter which already wasn't too shabby at all. But more importantly, he'd give the Axolotl Zoan fruit to Kyros.

Allowing him to regenerate his leg. And then giving him an overall boost in his physical ability even in his base human form. And give him zoan transformations to increase his fighting abilities even further.

With some time and luck, Kyros could very well become a match for any of the top tier Yonkou Commanders.

"Mou," Nami pouted at him, "Why not? Think of all that cash. Two billion beri, that's crazy! I'm sure you could use a bunch of cash like that to your advantage over giving powers to random people."

"That's only an estimate, I'm actually sure they're worth way more." Kaden mused aloud. Honestly, while the Metal Metal fruit was by far the more powerful overall fruit, especially being a Logia.

Regeneration was just an incredible power. If used right, one could even become near immortal with it by his reckoning.

"Even better!" Nami pointed out.

"But no," Kaden snorted, poked the older woman on the forehead with his finger and pushed her off of him, "I can get money a ton of different ways if I need it, and selling a devil fruit has a chance of it ending up in the hands of an enemy and being used against me."

"Smart thinking," Nojiko input, "I mean, I don't know anything about devil fruits, and I'm still surprised they even exist and aren't a myth, but selling super powers out for a big lump of cash when you have those crazy plans of yours."

"Why do you have to logic so smartly when we're talking money," Nami rolled her eyes with a huff, "Come on, they can't be that amazing can they or that big of a threat to you? You said you can turn into a giant dragon that can blow up mountains up if you wanted."

"Nyuuu!?" Hachi gave a spit take and his head whipped to Kaden, "Kaido is dead!?"

"Kaido!?" Nokjio sputtered, eyes flying wide open.

"One of the Yonkou?" Nami blinked rapidly, "What does a guy like that have to do with this and why would he be dead? We'd hear about that if he was dead right!?"

…You know it was kind of weird actually Nami knew of people like that, but still thought Arlong was unbeatable before.

"The fish fish fruit - Model: Azure Dragon, that's Kaido's devil fruit, one of the legendary mythical zoan class devil fruits," Kaden informed, "My devil fruit is well…a cloned version of it by Dr. Vegapunk the lead genius scientist of the marines, and gives me all the same powers Kaido's does, though mine is the fish fish fruit - Model: Crimson Dragon."

He had decided to simply rename it after the little debacle of the colour of his scales being called out.

He was met with stunned silence and gaping faces for a few moments.

"…So you're saying you have all the same power as Kaido then, one of the Yonkou?" Nojiko mused, "No wonder you could crush Arlong."

"Power wise sure, at least as far as Devil Fruits go," Kaden admitted with a grin, "But as far as overall strength goes? I don't even come close, he'd probably kill me with a single hit."

Even in his full on dragon form, he didn't think he was as durable as Gear Four Luffy was when they fought. And Kaido had one shot him easily, put him completely out of commission with a single full on hit.

Nami's eyes practically bugged out of her skull, "You didn't even need your devil fruit powers at all to demolish Arlong and you're saying at full strength this guy would kill you in one hit!?" she screamed.

"Yup." Kaden confirmed, unashamedly.

After all if, it wasn't like Doflamingo for instance was as durable as Gear Four Luffy either, he'd probably die from a Thunder Bagua to the face as well.

And he had time before that was ever an issue for him personally. As long as he curbed the fact that even now his instincts urged him to fly off to Wano right here and now and challenge the man to a one on one.

It was why he done his best not to think of Kaido after all. Because it brought memories of what was happening to the poor people there like Tama and Yasui and Hiyori and everyone else….and the flames of rage beat in his heart, fury coursing through his veins.

Because no matter how much he wanted to do so, he had to curb those emotions. Because he couldn't anything as he was now. Facing off against him for the sake of others even when he knew he would lose might have been honourable and admirable even-

But, what good did people thinking he was admirable and honourable actually do for those suffering? Absolutely nothing.

"WHAT KIND OF MONSTSROUS PLACE IS THE GRAND LINE!?" Nami shrieked in fright at the thought.

"Eh…Nami, it's called the place logic goes to die for a reason." Hachi pointed out.

She gave him a baleful look, "Yes that's getting hammered in I think."

"Nyoo, I mean like, you're used to the East Blue here, it's not even alike in any sense," Hachi shrugged, even if he grimaced a bit at her frosty tone, "The weather can change at the drop of a hat. One second it's calm, the next typhoons appear from nowhere and giant glaciers fall from the sky. Spouts of water so big they could islands flying erupting from the depths of the ocean, and you can't even navigate it properly without a special compass called a log pose."

"What….that doesn't make any sense at all!" Nami sputtered, "People tell horror stories of the Grand Line all the time but that's just completely nonsensical and what do you mean you need a special compass called a log pose?"

"Oh you sweet summer child." Kaden snorted.

Nami whipped around to chop him over the head, "I don't wanna hear that from an overpowered dumb brat like you." she barked.

Kaden laughed, not at all bothered by it, honestly it was kind of nice for her to be acting like this and not awkward or anything with him after everything that happened, "It's cuz all the islands in the grand line have special magnetic fields, it completely messes up normal compasses," he told her and lifted his arm, pulling back the sleeve of his coat to show off the two different log poses hanging around his arm, "A log Pose basically locks in the the magnetic fields of these islands and points directly to them."

"That's not how compasses work!" Nami gaped at him, even as she grabbed his wrist and yanked it up to her eyes to inspect the log poses, "Why does this second one have three needles though?"

"The part of the Grand Line you're used to hearing stories about and the place Arlong and his crew couldn't hack it, is actually only the first half of it," Kaden told her, "It's affectionally referred to as Paradise by those who make it into the second half."

"…You know, this is beginning to sound even more absurd than the fact you claim you can turn into a dragon," Nojiko pointed out with a dry smile on her face, "It sounds more fantasy than reality.

"Nyuu…he's not lying though, that's just the kind of place the grand line is," Hachi pointed out wiggling a few of his tentacle arms, "We were only in the second half of it briefly before we had to run away, and we only managed to stay there for that long because of Jimbei. There's sea kings bigger than this island that are casual things there and even islands that constantly rain lightning and stuff."

"And that's an every day occurrence you're regular person will see there out at sea," Kaden nodded in agreement, "The reason why this other log pose has three needles, is because in the New World, the magnetic fields get even crazier and that islands can outright change their magnetic fields or even flat out hide them completely and leave you stranded with nowhere to go in the middle of the craziest place in the entire world where everything wants to kill you. There's three needles in this one-"

"So that you have three chances to find the next island…" Nami breathed out shakily.

"Pretty much." Kaden nodded.

There really was no sugar coating how horrifying and dangerous the New World truly was.

He was lucky in that sense, he never had to deal with navigating that sea, not truly.

"And that's the kind of place you're used too…" Nami bit her lip, "The kind of place you plan on returning to right? To accomplish becoming a warlord and roping this princess into marrying you and making you the king of her nation?"

There was a stormy, serious look in Nami's eyes that Kaden couldn't quite place, "Kind of," he shrugged, "I do have business in the New World, but the country I want to become king of is actually pretty early in the first half of the grand line if you enter through the East Blue opening of Reverse Mountain."

"About that," Nojiko spoke up, "You sound pretty sure of yourself and all, but what are you going to do if this princess knocks your deal back? Are you going to leave the country to get decimated by this warlord guy and taken over?" she asked, eyebrows raised almost…challengingly?

Kaden was super tempted to just open up his observation haki and take a peek at what she was feeling right now and try to figure out what she was thinking right about now.

But he didn't.

"No, because among others things I actually like the princess, she's a good kind girl," Kaden replied honestly with a chuckle, and to be honest, talking out loud like this, being truthful and telling people his plans, was making it seem more…real to him, "I'll take that guy down regardless even if she doesn't take the deal, besides I'd need to deal with him anyway to open up a position in the warlords for me to get myself."

"…You really are an idiot," Nami shook her head, but a smile spread across her face, "If what you're saying is true, you could force it easily, otherwise she'd lose everything and her people would suffer massively, she'd have no choice but to be your woman and marry you for their sake."

"Despite how selfish I wish I was, as it turns out I'm just not that kinda guy." Kaden shrugged.

The thought of doing that to Vivi, or anyone really disgusted him to his very core.

Nami laughed, "Trust me, I'm well aware of that you little moron."

Kaden raised an eyebrow at her, once again, confused.