Chapter 4
Waves gently lapped at the hull of the ship as he watched the residents of the town going about their lives. He'd sent Mora and her crew as cat's paws to check the defenses around the treasure he craved. It was clear to him that she and her crew had been defeated, probably captured. He'd suspected that there would be a hidden Cipher Pol agent silently protecting the secret base. It appeared that his concerns were justified.
As he lowered the spyglass he turned to his second in command, “Return to base. We will have to await news from out spy to know what, exactly, happened. Once we know who the hidden spy is, they will be more easily dealt with in the dark. Once the information arrives, bring it directly to me.”
-----Line Break-----
Kaiden sighed while his legs continued to push against pedals that had recently been installed on the nice sloop he shared with Mira. They'd worked together to install a peddle paddle system to enhance the ships speed. The idea came to him when he remembered that several Logia users used their Devil Fruit abilities to power special vehicles. Smoker's trike, Ace's boat, and Aokiji making ice roads for his bicycle.
If they could do it with Devil Fruit powers, why couldn't he just do it with his own ridiculous strength? Not only did it let them sail the ocean faster but it also provided him with a pretty decent work out. Not so much the weight or strength needed to push the peddles to power the paddles, but the endurance to do it for hours at a time.
It also gave him time to think and go over their gains from fighting those pirates. They'd taken everything the pirates had but their money. That included several technological items that neither he nor Mira had any clue about the function of, though there were notes. Encrypted notes. What they had learned was that one piece of that bunch was made of Seastone. He'd immediately made tens of thousands of copies of that piece just for the raw materials.
He'd made the mistake of modifying the Seastone to plus ten then tried to work with it. Seastone was incredibly hard by itself, making it so much better had made it impossible to even scratch. Thankfully, he never deleted anything unless it was entirely useless or literal garbage, so it was easy to pull out unmodified Seastone to play with. Mira was having the time of her life messing with the new material.
The next interesting item had been the Devil Fruit. The captain had been the one holding it and Kaiden had been shocked to actually find it. Unfortunately, his inventory had no system components so it didn't label things. This meant had hadn't a clue what the fruit actually did. He wasn't about to eat it, or let Mira eat it, until he knew exactly which fruit it was. Even then he might just sell the damned thing.
He glanced at the thing in his inventory. It looked like a mutated Durian fruit. It was a mottled white and gray with black wavy swirls and a T-shaped stem that looked kinda-sorta like a lightning bolt. The stem made him think the fruit had something to do with the electromagnetic spectrum since he remember fruits like the Jiki Jiki no Mi and the Goro Goro no Mi had similar stems.
Then again, the giraffe devil fruit had been red bananas so what the hell did he know about their looks representing their powers? The only way to possibly know for sure was to find a copy of the encyclopedia that showed up in the show a few times. He had no idea how rare the book was, but they were heading for the Black Market on Kutsukku Island. The place used to be ruled by four different gangs, until Eustass Kid took the whole place over. Rumors said Kid had already left for the Grand Line though and someone new had taken the place over. Even so, everyone knew two things about the island. First, it was not associated with the World Government. Second, it was a lawless place where you could buy and sell just about anything.
Regardless of not knowing what the fruit did, he did experiment with it a bit inside of his inventory. Copying it didn't seem to have any effect on it. That didn't mean much though. For all he knew, all of his copies would be useless the moment one of them was eaten by someone. Thinking about it, it wouldn't surprise him if someone eating one of the copies made all the other copies void because the magic, or whatever it was, would be in use.
That didn't stop him from doing his usual thing though and making a plus ten copy of it. The difference between the original and the plus ten was subtle, but it was there. The plus ten version looked... for lack of a better word, cleaner, sharper, more real. Like the lightning bolt stem was literally in the middle of crackling through the air.
If he didn't know better, and he really did know better, the Devil Fruit could have passed as the Goro Goro no Mi. However, he knew the lightning logia was primarily yellow, now white/grey. He also knew the magnetism one Kid had eaten was primarily blue. Maybe it was the Biri Biri no Mi? Was it possible to have a Paramecia version of a Logia? A shock shock fruit that let the user generate electricity seemed possible. Was that what he had?
He growled and turned away from it and tried to put it out of his mind. Something that proved extremely hard to do since it was a Devil Fruit! They were the cool super powers of One Piece that could take someone normal and make them into a super human or even a LITERAL GOD. For all he knew the fruit was a god fruit like Luffy's.
…
Yeah, right.
He expected it would be something decently powerful, possibly even a Logia, given it was locked away in a secret Marine research base, but he highly doubted it would be an exceptionally powerful one. If it were, then they would have given it to one of their men to put it to use rather than having it at a research base.
He pushed it from his mind and instead retrieved a copy of the Seastone sphere. Could a ball of hexagons be called a sphere? Whatever. He then proceeded to break off a single piece. The hexagons were made of thin bars all connected to each other. It was only thanks to how thin those bars were that he could break them apart. He stored the single bar and proceeded to multiply it until he had thousands of them.
“Mira, there's some Seastone you can experiment with.”
They were looking into how to mold the stuff so they could put it to better use. One of his goals was to mimic the marines and coat the bottom of their boat in the stuff. Between that and the him powered paddles, they would be capable of crossing the Calm Belt with ease. Speed and mobility would let them go where they wanted and do what they wanted when they wanted. He smirked at that.
For now, they wanted to head to a lawless island and buy some likely illegal shit.
-----Line Break-----
Kaiden stood at the bow of their sloop as they pulled into the docks of Kutsukku Island. He hopped off and was quickly joined by Mira. A tap of his hand had their boat stored inside of his inventory. This naturally garnered attention, as always, though this time there were less looks of shock and more looks of greed.
Kaiden's casual glance around revealed that his show was only getting half of the attention. The other half was focused on Mira. Not that he could blame them as she was in fine form that day. She was wearing a very revealing bikini that was only made decent by the opaque sarong around her waist that went down to her knees and the crop-top jacket that showed her midriff but was buttoned closed to only show off some cleavage instead of all of it. Her every step on her heeled strappy sandals revealed her long slender left leg as the sarong parted.
Ever since they'd lost their virginity to each other, she'd been even more confident that usual.
Together they made their way into the town connected to the pier. It kind of reminded him of Loguetown with how the buildings were all so cramped together and taller than usual. It was closer to a city than a town, really, and like any city it took a little grease to get the wheels moving to gain some information. It only took a couple of minutes to find information on where the black market was. The whole island was lawless so it wasn't even a deeply hidden secret.
More importantly, there was an auction coming up the next day where the rarest of the rare would be sold. It was a monthly event everyone seemed to look forward to. It was mostly pirates selling their loot, but some items were sold by craftsman and other professionals. There were even rumors that a Devil Fruit would be put on sale.
As they were making their way to the seedier... seediest? How did one describe a worse area of an island completely controlled by gangs and filled with pirates? There wasn't exactly a 'good' or 'clean' side of town or anything.
Whatever. As they were making their way toward the area that sold the more illegal merchandise, Kaiden spotted a store selling something he hadn't seen for sale anywhere else thus far, baseball caps! He knew the Marines had hats styled after baseball caps, but he hadn't been able to find them for sale anywhere until just then.
He immediately picked up the first plain black one that fit him and bought it without a word. As soon as he owned it, he made copies, and upgrades then he wore it with a wide grin. Now his outfit felt complete. The plain black hat really set off his crimson red hair and matched with his dark jacket. Even better, he planned to mark the hat once he had been declared a pirate and designed a jolly roger.
It was strange when they arrived at the black market. It honestly didn't look any different from the other places they'd been shopping before. The only difference was that some of the wares for sale were illegal. For instance, there was a corner store selling groceries but they also had a section set aside where illegal... meats were being sold. Both Kaiden and Mira were a little disgusted when they saw the meat of an octopus fishman for sale right next to regular octopus.
There was one building that stood out from all the others though. It was the largest and most ostentatious one in the area, the auction house. Only the rarest and most expensive items were available for sale from it and it's what they were planning to see and possibly buy stuff from tomorrow. For today, they were just browsing.
One shop finally drew their attention, a weapons shop. The pair walked inside to browse the wares. Seeing poison gas canisters for sale next to common katanas was a little strange. Mira was drawn to a gun on sale, a Marine prototype weapon that looked rather strange. It could have passed for a regular flintlock, if it didn't have a total of ten barrels. He barrels were arranged so that there were two rows of five all splayed out for spread shot.
Mira was looking at the gun with a mixture of curiosity and disgust. It was obviously a curious design, but it was poorly done and unlikely to function properly, if at all. She found it mildly interesting, but Kaiden got something else completely from looking at it.
He'd spent most of his time telling Mira about pistols and rifles from his last life and neglected one of the greatest personal weapons of all time. The shotgun! Double barrels and pump actions should be pretty simple compared to semi-automatic and fully-automatic pistols and rifles. That reminded him of the good 'ol Winchester 1837 rifle so popular in cowboy movies. He didn't need to get Mira to skip from black powder flintlocks to an AK-47 wannabe. Pump action shotguns and Winchester copies would still be a huge leap forward in firearms technology.
For now, he would keep his thoughts to himself. The last thing he needed was someone around here listening in and deciding to either steal the idea or straight up kidnap him to get more ideas. The last thing he needed was to get into a massive fight trying to flee the island.
He spent the next few hours touring the black market with Mira and didn't find anything they really wanted. In fact, they mostly found themselves disturbed by some of the items on sale. The single most interesting thing they'd found was an unnamed Meito sword. The katana was rather plan with a simple circular tsuba with no decorations, a black wrapped handle and a red lacquered sheath. Though plain, it was clearly of a higher quality than anything else the store sold. Kaiden got it by trading him one of the plus ten flintlocks he had thousands of.
No, he did not care in the least that he'd just put a weapon that anyone could use that was likely on par with the top fifty Ryowazamono blades out into the world. Why? Because of what he did next.
With their shopping mood done for the day, Kaiden and Mira made their way toward the auction house. They'd learned that only those with tickets could enter the building and participate in the auctions. Since they wanted in, they needed to get a ticket. The problem? Tickets were invite only, meaning the auction house gave them out only to people they knew or that had a reputation. As nobodies with no wanted status, Kaiden and Mira would obviously not be invited.
The only other way to get in? Have something worthy of the auction house selling. All sellers got invites to the auction their item was being sold at. So, Kaiden made his way to the auction house with the plan to offer something up for sale. They walked up to the building where Kaiden knocked firmly on the door.
Less than a minute later the sliding shutter built into the door opened and a pair of beady eyes peered out at them, “Yeah? What do you want?”
Kaiden was the one to speak up, “I've got something I'd like to sell at tomorrows auction.”
The eyes scanned Kaiden, then moved to Mira to scan her as well. When they returned to Kaiden the voice had a dark edge to it, “If you're wasting out time...”
The threat was left unsaid but was understood. Kaiden had no doubt they would want to sell his item so the threat didn't bother him. The shutter closed and was followed by the loud clicking of locks being undone. Soon the door swung open to revealing the dark entrance and the door guard, a massive man covered in thick muscles meant to look intimidating as hell. Less than a year ago, Kaiden would have been intimidated.
Once they were inside, the thick metal door was slammed shut with a loud clang. A second person appeared, this one more normally proportioned. He wore a nice suit and put on an air of sophistication. It reminded Kaiden of a butler. The man studied both of them from behind his glasses before gesturing for them to follow, “This way. We'll take a look at what you've brought and decide if it's worthwhile or not.”
They were led through twisting corridors that seemed deliberately designed to be confusing. Which... maybe they were? It would be a good anti-intruder and anti-thief measure, he supposed. Eventually they were led to and through another door into a plain but well lit room with a table sitting in the middle. The butler-like man gestured to the table, “Please place your item on the table.”
Kaiden opened his inventory, causing the man to look curious, but say nothing. Devil Fruits and their users, while rare overall in South Blue, were far more common in the auction house. Case in point, they would be auctioning one off the following day. Seeing one in use, while always interesting, was not unheard of to him.
Kaiden reached in a retrieved one of the plus ten revolvers and five boxes of basic ammunition for the revolver, a total of two hundred and fifty rounds. He set all six items on the table and took a small step back. The man pulled out a pair of white gloves and slipped them on, further adding to his butler-like apperance.
He gently picked up the unloaded revolver and examined it closely. He opened the cylinder, giving it a spin and then checking the barrel. He looked over every last detail of the pistol. Once satisfied with his examination, he opened each box of bullets and examined them quickly to make sure they were legitimate rather than to check their quality. They were bullets, not high class materials.
Once he was done, the man addressed Kaiden, “While rather plain in appearance, the quality and precision design of the revolver is exceptional, greatly eclipsing the few revolvers we've seen recently. It's design is also slightly different, but not in a detrimental fashion. The inclusion of a large amount of ammunition is also appreciated and increases the value of the whole package. We find your offering, acceptable.”
After finishing his little speech, he reached into an interior pocket of his jacket and pulled out two pieces of card stock. He held both out toward Kaiden, “These are your receipt for the item which will list it lot number and your ticket into the auction tomorrow night. Do not lose either one. In order to receive your payment for your sale you must present the receipt. Without it even my word on who you are will not suffice. You will also not be given replacement tickets if they are lost or stolen. Understood?”
Kaiden accepted both items. The first listed his lot number in gold leaf, sixty-eight, which annoyed him slightly. Just one more item in front of his and he'd have had a fun one! The second item was just as well made and was good for the holder and one guest. Enough to cover entry for the pair. Kaiden stored both items within his inventory.
“Pardon me for asking, but consider it a curiosity on my part. What is the name of your Devil Fruit?”
Kaiden chuckled, “I don't mind. It's the Saifu Saifu no mi, or the Purse Purse fruit. Not the most manly or deadly of all Devil Fruits, but it is exceptionally convenient for carrying stuff around.”
The man hummed and nodded his head in acknowledgment, “Interesting. I don't believe that one is listed in our encyclopedia. Would you be willing to contribute the knowledge of your fruit to our copy. Solely for future reference, of course.”
Kaiden almost said no, but paused and considered it. He'd wanted to get a look at one of those books and this was a prime opportunity. So what if he'd have to lie his ass off about his 'fruit' and add false information to their copy? This was a chance to identify the fruit he currently owned.
“I wouldn't mind, as long as I'm allowed to take a look at the book itself. Ever since I ate mine I've been curious about others.”
“That shouldn't pose a problem. You can read through it while we await arrival of our artist to draw the depiction of your fruit.”
With the talking finished, they were led to a small office with several book shelves. The butler-like man pulled a large tome off of the shelves and set it on one of the two desks, “Feel free to look through it while I fetch an artist.” He headed toward the door and paused, “I should mention that you won't be leaving this room if any books should go missing.”
Kaiden understood the meaning. The guy had just let someone with the best tools for a thief into a room with books that likely had some value. But, he had no intention of actually stealing any of them so he just nodded, “No problem. I promise none of them will go missing. I'm only curious and I'm no thief.”
The man nodded and left, though Kaiden did spot a guard at the door that hadn't been there when they entered. The people here were pretty competent it seemed. Well, regardless. Kaiden wasted no time in storing the Devil Fruit encyclopedia in his inventory, copying it, then immediately returning it to the desk. All told, it took him less than two seconds to gain his own copy of the book.
He turned the book to a random page, the Horo Horo no Mi it seemed, and left it there to make it look like he'd actually been reading it. With his alibi set, he turned to the other books while Mira watched him curiously, “What are you up to?”
Kaiden eyed the shelves of books, “I think we can both agree that the books in here might be of interest, right?”
Mira nodded, “Considering they kept that encyclopedia in here, yes.” She slowly smiled, “Who knows what other gems might be on those shelves. It would be a shame not to have our own copies.”
Kaiden smirked and walked to the first shelving unit, “Wouldn't it just?”
A simple touch of his finger let him store the first book on the top shelf. Another had it copied. While the last had the original back on the shelf. Then his finger moved to the next book. Seconds later he was onto the third, then the fourth, and so on. Just a few seconds on each book let him obtain a copy of it. It wasn't stealing if he was just making copies!
By the time the butler-like man returned with his chosen artist, Kaiden had managed to copy every last book in the room. The man looked around, even went up to a couple of random books and checked them, only to find nothing wrong at all. Satisfied, he gestured to the artist, a young woman wearing paint covered overalls and a nose long enough to make Usopp jealous. She was nice and clearly excited to get to work.
Kaiden had thought ahead so he was quick to describe his fake fruit's appearance, “The fruit I ate was shaped like an overly wide apple, or maybe two very large cherries pressed into each other. Rather than circular swirls, like other fruits in the book, mine were more squarish. They almost looked like crocodile skin, actually. Though they were colored pink.”
At the looks he got from the artist and butler, he shrugged, “What? I grew up an orphan on the street. It wasn't the first questionable thing I've ever eaten. Anyway. The stem was really weird. Instead of coming out of the center, it came out of one side and arched over to the other. In the middle of it was a single green leaf. Over all, it kind of looked like a pink crocodile skin purse, now that I think about it.”
That earned him even more stares, including Mira whom he'd never told the details of his lie too. Kaiden crossed his arms over his chest and spoke defensively, knowing he'd deliberately made the fruit sound super girly just to have an excuse to not want to talk about it, “Like I said. Poor orphan starving to death. It was eat the weird ass fruit, or die.”
He was still getting strange looks, even when the artist finished her work and he gave the picture his approval. It was added to the book along with a basic description of what he could do with it. Basically, just that he could store non-living things, they weighed nothing, and that he had a lot of (but not infinite) space.
With that finished, Kaiden and Mira left the auction house and made their way back to their hotel.
-----Line Break-----
Kaiden pulled a plus ten copy of the Devil Fruit Encyclopedia out of his inventory. Honestly, it was only a plus ten out of sheer habit. He was so used to upgrading anything he wanted to use that he now had to consciously remember to not do so before hand. There was honestly no reason to not upgrade pretty much everything to plus ten. At the worst, it just makes the object a higher quality. Now he had the highest quality encyclopedia in existence.
Bragging rights!
He flipped the book open to the first page to check the first fruit, the Ame Ame no Mi. He hummed as he looked at the picture of the candy based logia. It seemed familiar but he couldn't recall where from. It also seemed... mildly interesting? If nothing else its user could open the worlds greatest candy shop!
He continued to flip through the book until he arrived at the Goro Goro no mi. Seeing the almost entirely yellow fruit, he nodded to himself. The fruit he had seemed to be in the same family. The next one he stopped at was the Jiki Jiki no mi. Again, same family. The Jiki Jiki no mi even looked very similar to the Goro Goro no mi showing their relationship in full. So the fruit he had was definitely related to them in some manner.
He continued to flip through the book until he noticed something. Every last fruit had a picture. He knew the encyclopedia was pretty comprehensive, but he also knew that pictures of devil fruits were pretty rare. For all of them to have a picture thus far?
He set the book down and pulled out an original copy that hadn't been enhanced at all. He flipped it open and paused immediately. The first fruit listed in the original was not the Ame Ame no mi, but the Aro Aro no mi and it had no picture. He flipped back to the beginning of the plus ten version and saw a picture of the Aro Aro no mi.
“Holy shit!”
Mira looked up from a book on firearms she'd been looking through for inspiration, “What?”
Kaiden turned the books so she could see both of them, “I enhanced the one on the right, the one on the left is an original. The enhanced one has more information in it.”
Mira looked between the two books, her eyes widening slightly as she fully comprehended what that meant, “So, you can combine books, boost their quality, and they literally become better at their subject.”
She tossed the book she'd just been reading at him, “Enhance that one!”
Kaiden caught it and checked the title, then searched his inventory to find it. In a short time, mostly searching, he had a plus ten version that he tossed to Mira. She quickly opened it and began looking through it. She whistled, “Damn! There's way more information along with much better and far more detailed diagrams in this version. Even a complete novice could make a fully functional rifle if they followed these directions. It'd even be a good one!”
She flipped through it some more then put it to the side, “Wait... I know I saw...” She looked through Kaiden's inventory then found the book she wanted, “Aha!” Pulling it out she tossed it to him, “Do it to this one!”
He looked at the book and his eyes widened. It was a chemistry book. He quickly went to look for it in his inventory before he paused and looked at the copy in his hand. Slowly, he stuck it into his inventory and duplicated it while feeling like an idiot. He could have saved time on the previous book by just using it to make more copies.
He pulled out the plus ten chemistry book and tossed it to Mira. She flipped it open and used the table of contents to quickly find what she wanted. Her eyes widened in surprise that quickly morphed into pleasure, “Oh, this is too good.”
She turned the book around to show Kaiden the page she'd turned to. He couldn't follow the chemical formula being displayed, but he could read the title, 'Gunpowder.' They had a formula for gunpowder from an enhanced book which probably made it the greatest gunpowder in the world. Not counting his enhanced gunpowder, of course.
Mira tapped the page repeatedly, “This is different from current gunpowder formulas. Not drastically, but enough to make a pretty big difference with the end result.” She flipped the book back around and looked it over while biting her bottom lip in thought, “I'll also need to make all new machines to be able to make it properly. Getting our hands on even a speck of the required chemicals will be more than enough and easy enough. I don't see anything that would be too hard to find and the other stuff can be synthesized.”
Kaiden arched an eyebrow, “Since when are you a chemist?”
Mira snorted and brushed her hair over her shoulder while putting on a haughty air, “I'm just that much of a genius.”
They both chuckled at that. With the initial excitement of the newest discovery of his inventories abilities, they returned to reading their books. Kaiden set both copies of the encyclopedia down and noticed that the enhanced version was nearly twice as thick as the original. That possibly translated to hundreds of devil fruits that hadn't been included in the original!
He stuffed the original away and began to flick through the pages of the enhanced one. He didn't linger on pages and just looked at the image of the Devil Fruit and moved on when it didn't match the one he had.
Ironically, he found it shortly past the page detailing the Jiki Jiki no mi. He started to read it aloud, “The Kumo Kumo no Mi, Cloud Cloud Fruit, Paramecia. It allows the user to generate and control any type of cloud they desire including rain and even thunder clouds. Though, the fruit does not grant direct control over weather nor can it produce wind on its own. Additionally, while the clouds can generate lightning, the user of the Kumo Kumo no Mi has minimal control of where that lightning will strike. Lastly, the Kumo Kumo no Mi has difficulties working in dry and arid environments and can be hard countered by the Suna Suna no Mi's ability to absorb water, along with other similar abilities.”
Kaiden pulled the original Kumo Kumo no Mi from his inventory and looked at it. It definitely looked like a stylized cloud with a mix of plain fluffy white clouds and dark gray storm clouds. Mira, too, was looking at the fruit and commented, “That sounds.... interesting. Though I don't think it would work well for either of us seeing as we're not weather nerds.”
Kaiden snorted at that, but he didn't disagree. In fact, he had no intention of ever using it on himself. Something like the Kumo Kumo no Mi would be amazing in the hands of a certain orange haired navigator. He actually shuddered at the idea of her being able to generate storm clouds and then use her Clima Tact to take full control over all the lightning it produced. She'd be as deadly as Enel with that kind of power and control!
He didn't even want to begin to imagine the sheer damage she would cause once she learned her weather sorcery stuff. Then if she could claim Zeus from Big Mom again?! He shuddered once again. Nami would literally become a weather goddess.
He was totally stuffing the fruit down her throat weather she wanted it or not!
-----Line Break-----
“Yes, Sebastian?”
Sebastian stepped forward, a plain, though well polished, walnut box held in his hands. Inside of the box was a red velvet pillow and resting atop it was the revolver Kaiden had given to the auction house to be sold. Sebastian, the butler-like man Kaiden had dealt with earlier, spoke in a calm voice, “I thought you might want to see this, sir. It is a commission that was just entered into tomorrows auction a few hours ago.”
“Hoh? It's rather rare for you to want to show me something.” The man turned, and looked at the proffered item with curiosity, “My my, that is interesting.”
He reached out with gloved hands and gently lifted the revolver from the pillow. Much as Sebastian had, he examined it from every angle, “What a masterpiece.” He set it back down so he could open his coat and remove a different revolver from its holster, “And here I thought that this was the greatest gun ever made.”
The revolver the man held was indeed an excellent specimen when compared to it's plain, though functional, brothers. It had clearly been custom engraved and even plated in silver and given pearl handle scales to give it an excellent shine that stood above the rest. However, it paled in comparison to the revolver that was being presented before him.
He holstered his personal pistol and examined Kaiden's as it lay in the box, “I'll have to do my best to win this little beauty tomorrow. Thank you for bringing it to my attention, Sebastian.”
Sebastian bowed and closed the box, “I live to serve, sir.” He carefully closed the wooden box and tucked it beneath his arm, “I've also taken the liberty of setting out your mail for the day in your office, sir.”
The man chuckled, “As diligent as always. Thank you, Sebastian. I will look though it shortly. Hopefully my spy has seen fit to send the information I require.”
Sebastian left shortly after that while the man moved to his desk and began going through his mail. Included within it was just the package he was expecting. He quickly opened it and read the report. His smile slowly turned into a frown as he read about the fates of Mora and her crew. Several dead, the survivors too injured to move and Marines already on the way to collect them. Well, that just wouldn't do. Mora knew too much. He sighed and made a note to have her killed before the Marines arrived. It was too bad, really, she was an excellent pawn.
He did find himself curious, though highly annoyed, to learn that two people, two kids even, had taken down Mora's crew. He flipped to the last two pages and lay them out on his desk. Two faces stared up at him. The first, a young man with a cocky smirk, bright red hair, and dark eyes. Apparently the boy was a strong fighter that insisted on being called a Martial Artist, even stating his goal of becoming the best in the world. A worthy goal, to be sure.
His gaze then switched to the image of a beautiful young woman. While obviously already attractive, he expected she would turn into a true beauty once she was a little more mature. Such a shame she would be dying so young, truly. Black hair, bright green eyes (rather rare), and an excited smile. Truly, a shame. Yet, business was business and they would both need to die so his plans could continue to move forward.
He studied the information his spy had given him like a college student cramming for an early morning test. He wanted to remember every detail as any piece of information could come in handy. One never knew and he always preferred to be as prepared as humanly possible. He would obtain the broken pieces of Uranus from the pair and see to it that it was repaired, all for his ambition.
-----Line Break-----
Kaiden examined himself in the hotel room's mirror with a wide smile, “Damn, I look good.”
Mira walked up behind him and examined him in the mirror, “Damn right you do.”
They were both getting dressed for the auction. Their invitation said formal attire was required so they were both dressed to the nines. Kaiden was wearing a sleek black suit, something he was sure Sanji would approve of, with a red tie that matched the color of his hair an a white shirt.
Mira was wearing what she called an LBD, Little Black Dress. The dress had thin straps that showed off her shoulders, a square cut neck that showed off some, but not a ton, of cleavage, and draped down to the middle of her thighs leaving plenty of her long legs on display. She topped all that off with a nice pair of strappy high heels, a red shawl and red lipstick that matched Kaiden's tie. She'd even gone so far as to let her hair down for once so it cascaded down to her shoulders.
All in all, they made a fine pair.
As they left the hotel, Kaiden offered Mira his arm. Together they walked arm in arm to the action house where they presented their invitation and were let in. Surprisingly, they were also given a pair of masks to wear along with their numbered paddle. It seemed the auction was also anonymous. Which... yeah, that tracked. All someone would need to do was find out who bought what and then murder them for the stuff they bought.
That was the problem to selling to criminals, they were criminals.
On the bright side, they were led to a tiny private box with just enough room for the both of them. While it was small, it also added another layer of privacy. The lighting added another layer as the room was rather gloomy with most of the light emanating from a stage in the center of the room.
No food or beverages were offered to them, but that was quite alright. Kaiden opened his inventory to pull out a chilled bottle of champagne and two champagne flutes. The pop of the cork sounded like a gunshot that cut through the low murmur of people talking quietly. Kaiden chuckled into the silence and couldn't help himself, “Just some champagne folks, nothing to worry about!”
He had to fight not to laugh when he heard a whiny female voice asking, “Why does he get champagne?!”
Mira had no such self restraint and laughed loudly while Kaiden filled her glass with the bubbling liquid. Even in the gloom of the dark room, the champagne had a distinct golden color and bright scent that traveled.
“OH! It's even GOOD champagne! I demand some champagne too daddy!”
Kaiden smirked and took a sip of his drink. It was exquisite. He really needed to look into getting more kinds of alcohol to keep in his inventory. He wasn't a big drinker, but he did like to have on on occasion. In fact... he opened his inventory and began browsing around within in. Soon he found what he was looking for, honey. He tapped his chin as he considered his plan with a smile.
He could make mead. The most simplistic and basic of mead only had three ingredients, honey, water, yeast. With those three things, a jug, and some time, anyone could make a basic mead. Other things to could added during the brewing process to make flavored meads. The thing about mead though, was that the longer it aged, the more complex the flavor became. Even once it was bottled it would continue to age and become better over time. The same applied to wine as well.
He paused and slowly smirked. He needed to remember to buy a couple of bottles of wine. His inventory had time control options, including speeding time up by... well he didn't honestly know what the limit was. He could shove bottles ranging from inexpensive to top of the line and age them for a thousand years with zero effort.
But, just to be sure. He pulled a cup or Mira's coffee into a new slot by itself and set the time dilation to one billion for just a second and then dropped it back to zero to stop time. That one second allowed a billion seconds to pass and, if he did the math right, that was something like thirty years. So, it wasn't entirely surprising that the coffee had completely evaporated and left behind nothing but residual dust.
That could be a problem. He'd have to make sure anything he tried to age was completely sealed so it couldn't evaporate. Wax maybe? It would require experimentation.
“Ladies and Gentleman, welcome to tonight's auction.”
Later. He could experiment later. He closed his inventory and focused on the man standing under a spotlight on the stage, “Tonight we have an excellent assortment of items for sale. Three are especially worthy of note! But more on them later. For those of you with us for the first time tonight, the rules are simple. If you bid, you better be able to pay. There is no negotiating. No trade offers will be considered. You will pay, or you will pay.”
Kaiden studied the announcer, or was it auctioneer? Whatever his title, the man wore an exquisite red suit with black vertical pinstripes, shining patent leather shoes, and had his dark hair clicked back with at least a gallon of oil. He couldn't tell much else due to the mask the man wore. After letting the threat hang for a moment, the man threw his hand up in the air, “Tonight we begin with a truly unique item!”
A second spotlight lit up and revealed a green wine bottle sitting on a pillar topped with a pillow, “This, ladies and gentleman, is one of the few remaining bottles of Green Vine Wine brought back by that tragic expedition to Boin Archipelago fifty years ago! Only ten cases of Green Vine Wine survived the return journey, and this is one of them! The bidding begins at one million Belly!”
Kaiden sipped his champagne and considered bidding on the bottle. If he recalled correctly, Boin Archipelago is where Usopp spent two years and found his Pop Greens. It was the giant islands filled with all kinds of food and drink based plants. It kind of reminded him of the entire world of Toriko. Maybe a mini tribute to Toriko by Oda? Regardless, it was tempting but he decided to pass. Even with infinite funds, he didn't see the point of buying a multimillion Belly bottle of wine when he could turn even the cheapest wine into something amazing with enough time.
Eventually, the bidding ended and the wine sold for thirty-two million Belly. The next item was a sword, a low tier Meito, and uninteresting. Following the sword was a matched set of custom engraved flintlocks that were stolen from a Marine Commodore. On and on it went with such items being sold to the people hidden in the dark.
Honestly? Kaiden was pretty disappointed with it all. Given it was an illegal auction he'd expected more impressive things. Though, he supposed, they were only in South Blue so the things for sale might not be as impressive as a similar auction in the Grand Line might be.
“Ladies and gentleman, this next item for sale is something truly special! Three meters wide, three meters tall, and twenty meters long, I present the only known piece of Treasure Tree Adam wood in all of the South Blue!”
Kaiden perked up and watched as the backdrop curtain was lifted to reveal the piece of wood. It... well it just looked like wood, to be honest. Still, that was one big ass piece of wood!
“Although this piece isn't long enough to build a galleon, it is still long enough to act as the keel for a large ship lending the ship excellent strength! Or, alternatively, a small ship could be constructed with the excess wood used as planking for an extra durable small boat! Really, ladies and gentleman, the limit is only your imagination! Bidding begins at ten million Belly!”
Kaiden immediately lifted his numbered paddle. Seconds later, he was out bid. Kaiden paused in lifting his paddle again and decided to wait for the bidding war to die down. He could outbid anyone so there was no point in getting involved until the end. So, he waited as the price of the wood continued to climb. Mira watched curiously but didn't speak up. She didn't know what the big deal about a big piece of wood was, but if Kaiden wanted it, he could have it.
Soon enough the bidding began to slow as it reached one hundred and fifteen million Belly. At that point, Kaiden rejoined the bidding. It took a few more minutes with him bidding against just one other person, but he eventually won. The small bidding war having pushed the final price to one hundred and fifty million Belly.
If he didn't have infinite money, Kaiden would be feeling pretty ripped off right about then! Franky had bought enough Treasure Tree Adam wood to build the Thousand Sunny for just two hundred million Belly. Then again, he was in the Grand Line far closer to the source of the wood than they were here in the South Blue.
Kaiden continued to smile even as Mira asked, “What's so special about that piece of wood?”
He glanced at her and smiled, “Tell you later.”
From there the auction continued. Kaiden paid attention when his revolver went up on the block and chuckled to himself when it sold for twelve million Belly. Honestly? That was way more than he'd expected it to go for. It only came with a limited amount of ammo and he wasn't about to open a store to sell more or anything. Eventually, the gun would be useless. Well, unless whoever bought it managed to reverse engineer the bullets. He supposed that was possible.
The next few items were once again nothing he was interested in. Maybe having infinite money had ruined his desire for wealth and shiny golden things to show off? That was... kind of disturbing, honestly.
“Ladies and gentleman! Tonight has been a wonderful night but I'm afraid it is coming to a close. This next lot is our last item for the night, but by far the most interesting!” An assistant came out and placed a box on the plinth and flipped it open, “A Devil Fruit!”
There were gasps all around the auction house as almost everyone there witnessed a Devil Fruit for the first, and possibly only, time in their lives.
“Unfortunately, this one cannot be identified so buyer beware. As it is an unknown, the bidding will begin at one hundred million Belly. Please be aware that this item does carry a reserve that, if not met, will mean there is no sale.”
Kaiden, curious about the fruit, retrieved his superior copy of the Devil Fruit Encyclopedia and began rapidly flipping through it to find the fruit on display. As he searched, the bidding grew heated. Any devil fruit was an instant power up. There was also the odds to consider. Odds were, the fruit was a Zoan as they were the most common kind in existence. All Zoans would give in instant boost to the users strength and durability, even without them having to transform. Then there were the animals abilities to take into consideration.
The bidding hit two hundred and fifteen million Belly by the time Kaiden found it. The Ryu Ryu no Mi, Model: Basilisk. It was an Ancient Zoan that transformed the user into a deadly lizard. It had all the basics, heightened strength and endurance, along with a mild healing factor. It also included a potent venom that caused paralysis, muscle failure, and severe pain that could easily lead to death. Though it looked like the famous petrifying glare didn't turn the victim into stone, rather it caused a strong neurological shock that led to temporary paralysis.
He considered what to do while passing the book to Mira so she could read it. His Devil Fruit was awaiting him on Punk Hazard so he didn't want the Basilisk one for himself and he doubted Mira would want it. He'd told her about the Axolotl one and she'd agreed it would be nice for the regenerative power. Though she was still open to other options.
As for people he might give it to... Nami was out. The cloud fruit was going to her the moment he found her and could convince her to eat it. Zoro would likely refuse any devil fruit on principal. Sanji was only interested in the invisibility fruit. That left... well, no one. Luffy, Chopper, Robin, and Brook all had Devil Fruit powers already. Maybe... Vivi? Lizards liked dry climates right? There really wasn't anyone else that came to mind.
Oh! Usopp! He totally forgot about him for a moment there. Though for that guy the Tori Tori no Mi, Model: Chicken might be more appropriate! All kidding aside, a bird fruit, especially a raptor, might be a better option for him. Improved eyesight would really match well with his ranged fighting style.
Yeah, he had no use for it. He lifted his paddle anyway and bid a full two hundred and thirty-two million Belly on the devil fruit. The bidding lasted a few more minutes, but Kaiden eventually won it for a whopping three hundred and twenty-three million Belly. Why? Because he could! Even if he had no use for the Devil Fruit right then, he might find one in the future! He had no idea if he would ever even meet Luffy and the others, though he could if he got to Arabasta first. Even so! He was still looking for people to join his crew and he might find someone that the Basilisk would work for!
“Well, ladies and gentleman, that brings out night to its conclusion. Winners, please stay in your boxes, someone will be by to collect your payments momentarily. Once they are confirmed your items will be delivered to you or pick up instructions will be given for larger items. Thank you all for coming and I look forward to seeing you all at our next auction! Good night!”
The door to their box opened to reveal a young woman in a uniform carrying a box, “Good evening customers! I'll be taking your payment tonight. Your total comes to four hundred and seventy-three million Belly.”
Kaiden nodded calmly, “I assume gold is acceptable?”
The girl nodded with a bright smile, “It's preferred!”
Kaiden chuckled and opened his inventory. The girl looked curious, but was professional enough not to ask. Kaiden quickly put one gold coin, worth one hundred thousand Belly, into a slot and multiplied it. He did this multiple times until he had a total of four thousand seven hundred and thirty coins in five slots. Then, with a casual twist of his hand, he began draining the coins into the box the girl had come in with. Gold coins rained down non-stop for over a minute before he finally dropped the last one.
The girl hefted the box full of gold coins up with a bright smile, surprising Kaiden with the ease she did it. It wasn't impossible, he supposed. The gold in the box only weighed about twenty-one kilos (46.7 pounds) so it wasn't super heavy. With the box in hand the girl took a step backward toward the door, “Your gold will be weighed and calculated. If you've provided enough your first order will be brought to you. It will be up to you to make arrangements for your larger order.”
It took nearly half an hour for the young woman to finally return. She brought the small chest the Devil Fruit had been stored in and offered it to Kaiden, “Your payment has been processed. This is your first item. How will you be retrieving the second?”
Kaiden took the chest from the girl and flipped the lid open to check his purchase. Finding the fruit inside, he grabbed it and stuffed it into his inventory where it was now perfectly safe. The box went next into another slot, “Just take me to it and I'll deal with it myself.”
The girl looked curious then understanding dawned. She smiled brightly and spun on her heels, “If you would follow me.”
Kaiden and Mira were led through the twisting halls of the auction house until the arrived on the stage where the auctioneer had worked and where the large piece of Treasure Tree Adam wood still sat. Kaiden casually placed his hand on the wood and stored it inside of his inventory. It wouldn't do him too much good until he could get it to a good shipwright. Perhaps he'd wait until he arrived at Water 7 in the Grand Line where all the best ones were located. Ohhhh maybe if he got there early enough he could get Franky to build him a ship too? Hmmmm worth thinking about.
Not long after they made their way out of the auction house arm in arm, and toward their hotel room. As they walked, Kaiden glanced at their reflection in a window. He smirked and casually asked Mira, “Have you noticed?”
Mira scoffed, “Amateurs.”
Kaiden couldn't help but to agree. The two men following them 'discreetly' were indeed amateurs. While neither of them were super spies or anything of the sort, they had lived as orphans, the dregs of society and learned to tell when someone was following them. Usually it was for the simple purpose of robbing them of what little they had.
He didn't think the reason was so very different this time. He was sure someone would try to get their hands on what he'd just purchased. The wood or the fruit, or maybe both. Either way, it didn't matter since they wouldn't be getting anything.
Mira glanced at their reflection in the next window and snorted, loudly. Kaiden couldn't blame her. The two following them couldn't be more conspicuous if they tried. While they had rather average bodies as far as height and weight, their hair was a whole different story. Both of them had their hair dyed blue and styled into half meter tall curling waves.
Kaiden chuckled with Mira and shook his head. It looked like they were going to be pulled into something, again. He hoped it wasn't a bad sign that he was looking forward to it.
-----Line Break-----
AN
Only 9.2k words, but this seemed like a good place to stop. This was a nice transition chapter that will lead into the next adventure for the duo. After this adventure, I plan for them to head into the Grand Line.
For those of you who wish for it, yes, they will meet with the Strawhat crew. If nowhere else, they will meet in Arabasta.
I also hope you all approve of the new title. Dumbjoker! While it's not exactly what you suggested, your suggestion led to it. Thanks a lot for that!
Now, this officially closes the poll on what chapter I will be writing next. 99 of you voted, 44% chose The Phenex Rises. Honestly? I did not see that coming! I was 100% certain that Fabricator would win when I posted the poll. Even with it taking a bit longer for me to actually write a chapter for it. So, I hear you all loud and clear! The next thing I publish will be chapter 11 of The Phenex Rises.
Saifu Saifu no Mi (Purse Purse Fruit), made-up name for Kaiden's fake devil fruit to explain his inventory.
Kumo Kumo no Mi (Cloud Cloud Fruit), Paramecia, can create and control the created clouds, including Skypeia Clouds. Can generate rain clouds and even thunder clouds. CANNOT directly control the weather or just produce wind on its own. Has a harder time working in dry arid environments.
Ryu Ryu no Mi, Model: Basilisk (Dragon Dragon Fruit, Model: Basilisk), Ancient Zoan, transforms the user into a deadly lizard. It has all the basics, heightened strength and endurance, along with a mild healing factor. It also includes a potent venom that causes paralysis, muscle failure, and severe pain that could easily lead to death. The 'petrifying stare' causes a neurological shock that leads to temporary paralysis.