Seaside System - Chapter 13.1 (Patreon)

It was honestly surprising to Kaden, how little the massive village wide party had died down at all.

And by that he meant, it hadn't died down at all. If anything, even as night fell and it time passed into the wee hours of the morning, the party just got louder and happier.

Kaden hadn't been expecting that at all and honestly had been waiting for it to die down so he could slip away and go scope out what kind of loot he was looking at from Arlong's machinations.

When he mentioned as such, Nami wasted no time in just up and dragging him away with an excited gleam in her eyes towards Arlong Park.

Though they needed Hachi to actually go about getting the treasure for them. It was apparently hidden in a specially reinforced room under Arlong Park, and he knew the combination to unlock the safe.

…Admittedly Kaden could have just smashed it open with his bare hands, but he'd already done enough damage to his new vacation home and didn't want to mess it up any further.

That left Kaden and Nami sitting out together alone under the moonlight while Hachi went about grabbing the loot.

"So, devil fruits huh?" Nami eyed him with interest.

"Still on about that?" he snorted, "I'm not selling them." he didn't plan on selling any single devil fruit he got his hands on, no matter how weak it seemed.

Even something as simple and straight forward as the Shout Shout Fruit that he planned on reaping from that twit El Drago's corpse would be put to better use being given as a reward to subordinates he gained in the future for good service or even just to a like a baby den den mushi or something.

He'd need one for carrying around after all for people to get into contact with him properly when he had a good place to lay down his belongings and not constantly carry them around with him.

Plus the idea of a tiny snail firing off a massive beam from its mouth at someone sounded hilarious to him.

"Much as I wish otherwise, I hear you loud and clear," Nami snickered, "I gotta admit I'm curious about them though, you did say if you gave me one of them I could have beaten Arlong myself within a few days."

"Honestly, you might have been able to beat him with either of them within a few days." he shrugged. It honestly would depend on just how big a boost the Axolotl fruit gave physically. It had to be pretty decent though, it was a carnivorous zoan after all.

Well, it would probably at least have made her stronger than one of the mook fishmen in Arlong's crew. They would have to have been stronger than the average fishman, and the average fishman should have been somewhere around at least fifty doriki. So like maybe at the very minimum would give her a physical base strength boost of around a hundred doriki by his estimates, and comparable across the board in durability, endurance, speed and such.

Though that was an incredible lowball in his opinion.

But yes between the zoan form and the regeneration, he could see her having a chance at beating Arlong one on one as long as she kept him away from the water.

"Devil fruits are really bullshit huh?" Nami mused, "So spill, what do these fruits even do?"

"Honestly, it's a pretty long explanation," Kaden shrugged, "I mean, like there's three different types of devil fruit alright? First is paramecia that just gives odd powers across the board which can be anything from becoming an explosion man that can detonate explosions with any part of your body to being a spring man that lets you turn any body part into a spring."

"Right, you said something about that before, but I get what you mean," Nami nodded, digesting his words, "Logia is one as well then right? Like you mentioned?"

"Yeah, we'll get to that in a minute," Kaden said, "The second type is the zoan type devil fruits. That basically let's you turn into whatever animal its based on and have enhanced variations of their natural abilities, on top of that these type vastly increase your physical abilities even in your human form. My fruit is specifically a mythical zoan devil fruit which is basically devil fruits that let you turn into creatures straight out of fantasy stories, in my case that's a dragon. One of the two devil fruits I have on hand is the sala sala fruit - Model: Axolotol and-"

"As in the salamander?!" Nami's eyes practically sparkled, "The thing that can regenerate lost limbs and stuff?"

"Huh, you know about them?" Kaden blinked, impressed despite himself. Like, he only knew of them because of his education in his own world before ending up here, that other bastard knew jack shit about anything like Axolotl's, and would never have understood the worth of the devil fruit.

"Of course I do," Nami rolled her eyes, "I'm the best navigator you'll ever find in the entirety of the world remember? Knowing the kind of animals you can come across on islands is some of the most basic things you should know as a navigator."

"Sure," Kaden shrugged, "Either way, the fruit should give a pretty enhanced version of an Axolot's regeneration. By my estimates, it should be full on capable of regenerating lost limbs and organs and stuff within minutes at most and would make anyone strong who ate it, pretty much unkillable and let you hold your breath for an entire year if not more."

Honestly Axolotl's were pretty damn crazy and amazing. Though, sadly they couldn't breathe under water, though it would mitigate a few risks of falling into water for anyone who ate the fruit.

…Kaden could actually breathe under water though. After all, at the end of the day, he was just a shiny gyarados that evolved from a shiny fish magikarp.

Since his fruit was a fish model, he'd been curious to see if he could actually breathe underwater and found he could when he filled up a sink at his hotel room in Logue Town and jammed his entire face in it.

He had no idea how it worked considering he didn't have gills or anything, but he wasn't going to complain.

It opened up so many possibilities after all.

Though it also meant Kaido could also breathe underwater, as if that freak of nature wasn't already pretty much unkillable anyway. It did explain why the marines didn't just toss him into the ocean to kill him off when they had him prisoner though and were trying to murderize him.

They did, it just failed.

"…Yeah, I can see why you think that kind of power would go for at least a billion," Nami gaped at him, "Actually, if the seller and buyers are smart I can see it going for ten times that easily, and you're just walking around with that in a sack!?"

As expected, someone as intelligent as Nami understood the true value of the Axolotl fruit right away.

"And you're just gonna give something like that to someone you recruit in the future?" she added, giving him an almost scandalized look.

Kaden shrugged, "Someone I can trust and it would help them out and keep them alive? That's worth way more than a mere ten billion beri."

Besides, there was a whole fucking giant city of gold sitting pretty in the sky. Or well it was before some moron with a god complex took it all for himself. Once he was strong enough, or at least had a much better grasp on Armament Haki, he could go see about earning a god slayer title to add to his resume and take all that gold for himself.

"I don't know whether to find it hot that you referred to that absolutely monstrous amount of beri as mere, or be absolutely disgusted with you for not grasping just how much that is." Nami deadpanned.

"I'd prefer you to think it hot." Kaden replied promptly, grinning in spite of himself.

"I bet you would," Nami noted, reaching down and hooking her finger in the strappy front of her top and pulling it a bit forward a bit to display more of her vast canyon of cleavage and laughing as his eyes practically zoomed towards her chest, "So then, Logia is the last category of devil fruits then? And I assume the one the other devil fruit you have falls under?" she asked, letting go of her top and letting them snap back into place.

And making her large round breasts jiggle enticingly as it did.

"That's not nice you know." Kaden pointed out.

"Poor baby, is teasing you too much?" Nami snorted and pat him on the cheek.

He wasn't actually sure what to say in response to that, because he actually quite enjoyed the view.

"It must suck to actually be a nice guy sometimes, huh?" Nami shook her head in pure amusement when he just raised an eyebrow at her, "You've got it all figured out right? You've got all that strength, all this money, and this big amazing plan to become a king with a princess all to yourself. Heck you could even force me down and do whatever you wanted to me right now with nobody capable of stopping you. But you're just not enough of a bastard to actually do it."

She said it as if it was some big accomplishment, "…Is that something I should be bragging about? Like it's an achievement?" Kaden deadpanned.

"You'd be surprised," Nami shrugged, "Is it being genuine that important to you?"

"Yes," he was surprised himself by how quickly he replied to that, "Because it's real. I told you before right? I've got so many plans, know so much and want so much, money, women, power, but none of it means anything if it isn't real? That's how those bubble headed freaks live. They live an illusion of power and prestige that is only maintained by the power of those they don't know are actually above them."

"…The world nobles huh?" Nami pursed her lips, "I don't actually know all that much about them except they're a big deal and wasn't really sure how to broach the subject with you."

"What's to say," Kaden shrugged, giving her a sardonic grin, "They're absolutely retards, the vast majority of them are ugly as hell both outside and inside. They have delusions of grandeur of being the gods of this world and do whatever the hell they want. The only reason I was born in the first place is my stupid ass mother wanted to create what she called the ultimate life form, a god of gods by fucking a guy from the D. clan, a family of people that have basically been the mortal enemies of the Celestial Dragons since the very founding of the World Government. She thought the combination of both bloodlines would create someone unstoppable. My grandfather didn't think so and wanted me dead in the womb. Thinks I did actually, and my mother went to her death gleefully thinking that she gave birth to, in her words the 'ruler of all creation.'"

Kaden gave a bitter snorting chuckle, "Basically, I'm an abomination to them that was never supposed to ever exist, but here I am," he shrugged again, "It disgusts me to think I'm even related to those freaks. If it weren't for the fact I'd have the marine admirals sent after my ass, I'd blow Marejoise off the face of the planet."

"Wow…you know, just wow. I'm not even sure what to say to that," Nami shook her head, "It's just crazy. But, they're scum huh?"

"That's putting it mildly," Kaden laughed, "They've been enslaving people for hundreds of years and treating them like trash. What you overheard earlier? When I was fighting with Arlong. Fisher Tiger is a fishman he grew up with and looked up to. He climbed the red line and freed all the slaves my kin had, fishmen, giants, human, animal and more. He went out of his way to return even humans who had treated him badly in the past to their homes safe and sound, and he was betrayed and killed for it. You could say the whole reason you ended up suffering like you did under Arlong, is because of my filthy family." his bitter laughter erupted from his lips once more at the thought.

A soft touch on his cheek stopped him, cutting him off and he looked to see Nami rolling her eyes and giving him a half smile, "Idiot you said it yourself earlier remember? Arlong's actions are his own, and even knowing he was going to die for them he accepted the accountability of them, that's what you said, right?" she reminded him.

"…You were listening?" he blinked, he'd been talking to Hachi when he said that.

"Yeah, you're pretty oblivious when you're not using that haki power," Nami rolled her eyes, "You might be related to those people that more or less caused Arlong to hate humans and come here, but that was his decision in the end, and the things they did, have no baring on you either idiot. And you're not an abomination, frankly, you're probably the only good thing to come from your messed up family, probably the only good thing they ever accomplished."

Kaden found himself swallowing heavily at her words, his heart thumping in his chest and his cheeks heating up, "…I'm not a good person," he denied, "The thing I'm literally most proud about is slaughtering a full base of marines and killing a vice admiral. The coat I'm wearing right now, that I ripped off that guys corpse, is literally my greatest treasure in the world."

He admitted it. He'd been trying to suppress that feeling since he took it. Tried to make it seem like it was just for style, or an image thing. But quite frankly, this coat he wore now?

It was the symbol of him overcoming his own fear, and putting others before him, of him clashing with a man who was vastly stronger than him, yet putting him in the dirt and taking everything from him for his actions.

It was the first and last time, he felt like he was truly doing his duty as a marine. And for one split moment, where he felt like a hero.

…Yet an action tainted by the fact it was achieved through mass murder, where he brutally cut down anyone in his way and gave no mercy or quarter.

What did that say about him? That it was his shining moment. That it was that, he was most proud of.

"Yeah?" Nami said, "And what exactly were they doing as marines?" she asked, raising an eyebrow at him in question.

"…They were oppressing the people they were supposed to be protecting, taking anything they wanted from them and the vice admiral was raping any of the women that caught his eye." Kaden admitted.

"Oh yes, why ever would you be proud of doing such an amazingly good deed," Nami rolled her eyes, "Killing pieces of trash like that doesn't make you a bad person idiot, plus I bet this coat looks way better on you than it did him."

His eyes widened as glistening orange hair obscured his vision as Nami leaned forward and pressed her lips gently against his own for a moment, before pulling back, "Thank you for everything you did today," she said as she pulled back, her soft hand cupping his cheek, a warm smile on her face, "How's that for a date huh? Alone time with a babe like me under the moonlight and a kiss to go with it, pretty romantic, right?"

"…Join my crew." he blurted out without filter.

Nami laughed, "Took you long enough to ask moron." she huffed and flicked him on the nose, "But sure, you've got yourself the best and the absolute sexiest navigator in the world from here on out."