Seaside System - Chapter 15.2

Sengoku stilled as he processed the boys words. Showing off the sword was completely random. It seemed to be completely in character for the boy to brag about it, after he led off with bragging about copying Garp's technique, and then flashily showing off his Conqueror's haki. He deepened his voice a bit every time he said the word sword as well.

A high tier prospect of theirs being trained in Haki going rogue. Murdering two full bases of marines now. A classified mission.

'SWORD, huh?' Sengoku grit his teeth in realisation.

So the boy wasn't a traitor at all. And it at least explained why he was wearing a marine coat right now, albeit one dyed crimson red.

…Also one that belong to him at all. And a Vice Admiral's coat. Had he been promoted without his or anyone else's knowledge?

Who had signed off on this? Kong? The five elders?

How annoying. But it didn't matter right now. What did matter, was just exactly why the boy had to call him specifically. And so blatantly at that.

What exactly was his mission? And why would a boy so young accept it? Giving up his entire career and becoming a pirate, when his psyche profile very specifically went into how much he hated pirates.

"Yes, it's a very nice sword," Sengoku nodded at him, and made a show of huffing in annoyance, crossing his arms, "Now get back on subject and stop showing off like a child with a new toy, what exactly have you called me for? Beyond bragging like the child you so clearly are."

"Can't I? I'm just showing my superiority to you marines," Kaden outright sneered at him, "I simply found the fact you gave me such a low bounty absolutely insulting."

…Eh?

Was he wrong?

Or did his mission require him to be assessed as some form of high tier threat towards the World Government?

Was he perhaps trying to infiltrate the revolutionaries? No, that didn't fit the pirate angle. Was he trying to get scouted by some crew?

"Shut up boy," Sengoku shot back half heartedly, "You're nothing truly special and only live now because you fled, you're no true threat to us."

That did it, a scowl appeared on the boys face, "Big talk coming from you, as far as I'm concerned the real traitors are you all," Kaden snapped back, "What exactly do the marines accomplish huh? You all sit on your asses and chase weaklings, meanwhile the people of places like Wano are enslaved by the likes of Kaido and you're all to chickenshit to fight him and free those people. And for that, because they're not part of the united countries, bullshit. You're all just cowards too afraid to lose a single thing. You expect me to believe that between you, Garp, the three admirals, the vice admirals and everyone else you couldn't beat Kaido?"

A strange turn. Was he right then that the boy was trying to be scouted by a specific pirate crew. And why did he bring up Kaido specifically. Was that his mission?

"Defeating Kaido would be only one part of the problem!" Sengoku thundered back. Could they beat the Beast Pirates? Undoubtably, but- "Doing so in his own territory, on his own terms without leaving our backs open to the other three and losing much of our forces in the process is an entirely different matter!"

"A cowardly excuse," Kaden didn't miss a bit and fired back, almost like he had been practicing this exchange, "You're cowards that are afraid of the yonkou, I'm not. Not only that, the marines are rampant with pirate spies, and even the warlords you employ are completely working against you and you're just letting them get away it! You let them do whatever they want, because of your fear of the Four Emperors and wanting to use their power as backup."

Spies in the marines, and the immediately shifting to pointing blame at the warlords, and insulting them. So one or multiple of the seven warlords had spies within the marines that were sabotaging them in some form? Using them?

…As soon as the boy went rogue, he immediately targeted Graydle. So, then did that mean Graydle was one of such spies? And why exactly would he immediately go to East Blue? Unless Captain Nezumi and his branch were also traitors in cahoots with a warlord? But why would a warlord want to get involved with East Blue of all places?

There was a lot going on beneath the surface that he wasn't aware of. Traitors and spies galore and the one who was outed as a traitor by his own hands, was actually not a traitor and was at least partially on a mission to deal with them.

There was no evidence though. So nothing could be done by him legally.

Which was most likely exactly why the boy was in the position he was in now.

"Pointing fingers now are we?" Sengoku scoffed, "Such a childish thing to do. Go on then, tell me what of the seven warlords have infiltrated us with their subordinates then?" he fished for information.

"Don't worry about that, you don't need to know," Kaden smirked at him, the anger that was in him leaving almost immediately, "I'll deal with him in a few months from now, and once I do, you can be a good marine lapdog who's scared of the big bad four emperors and give that shiny cushy warlord title to me, I'll protect you from the big bad emperors."

One thing was for sure, the brat had a mouth on him. A cocky, arrogant mouth and a talent for being annoying.

'And it goes even deeper.' Sengoku frowned internally, thoughts racing. The focus on the Yonkou no doubt meant the boy had some form of mission that needed him to be involved with them in some form. He was also dealing with traitors and spies.

And his mission was to become a warlord of the sea. Strictly speaking, there was nothing stopping the warlords from challenging the Yonkou either. After all, they were still pirates. So the boy needed the reputation and power of a warlord for his mission then?

…Which meant the whole reason he was calling him now and being as abrasive as he was, was to let him know in advance for when he brought down whatever warlord he was talking about before, and to increase his notoriety to give him a grander reputation on the seas as well.

"You have balls boy," Sengoku outwards 'grudgingly' praised the boy, "Calling the fleet admiral himself to talk this nonsense. Don't think you'll get away with this lightly, I'll make it known well how much your head is wanted."

"Sounds fun," the boy merely smirked at him, unafraid, "And here I even went to the bother of taking a few heads while I was here to show you how good a candidate I'd be." he added, sheathing his sword over his back once more, before curling one of his fingers.

An orange cloud with something odd atop it floated into view from the other side of the room.

That odd something being heads, seven of them with bounty posters nailed into the forehead.

Boo Jack - 3,200,000 Beri
Skunk One - 6,000,000 Beri
PinJoker - 9,900,000 Beri
Bear King - 11,600,000 Beri

Kuroobi - 9,000,000 Beri
Chew - 5,500,000 Beri
Arlong - 20,000,000 Beri

Sixty five million or so beri in bounties, from seven top of the line pirates at least as far as the East Blue went.

'I didn't even know Arlong was in East Blue.' Sengoku grimaced, he and his crew had completely disappeared off of their radar years ago after they split from the Sun Pirates under Jinbei.

They weren't exactly high up, but the fact the boy had managed to hunt them all in just a few days, maybe even less than a day considering it was only a week ago he was still in the New world-

It was a testament to his strength and competency.

"I found Arlong here and his pansy crew terrorizing a few islands of people in East Blue they enslaved, making all kids pay 50,000 beri a month tand adults 100,000, if they couldn't meet it, they got killed by him and loser crew," the boy, Kaden snorted, waving at said fishmans head, "They were pretty much like a parody of those bubble headed freaks who like to cosplay as gods. It was disgusting, so I killed them. And then I killed all of marines over here in the sixteenth branch when I learned they had been being paid off by Arlong to hide what they were up to."

The boy then met Sengoku's eyes, "Do give Jinbei my regards, I might respect him, but these pieces of trash deserved to die." the boy said pointedly.

….He pointedly cut off any suspicions on Jinbei. So, a coincidence then as far as Arlong went, and the boy was saying it wasn't Jinbei that had his eyes on the East Blue?

"Well either way, I'm getting bored now so I'm going now, I've got some things to take care of here before I really get down to business," the boy snorted, "That was all I wanted to say, that you all suck and are pretend marines, I'm the real deal unlike you clowns, so you better give a real proper ally of justice like myself proper consideration going forward."

And before Sengoku could say a thing, the boy cut off the feed and left him staring at the blank wall.

"Well, wasn't that something wahahahahaha!" Garp laughed, "What a cheeky brat."

"Oh shut up," Sengoku snapped at him, head swivelling around to scowl at his oldest friend, and marched over to him, "Your personal attack name is completely unimpressive, just like the boy said, Galaxy Impact? Grow up Garp."

And then he snatched the freshly opened bag of rice crackers in his hands, the last one - somehow he'd eaten the rest of the bags bar this one over the process of that aggravating call - and proceeded to dump the entire bag into his mouth and chew them down.

"MY CRACKERS!?" Garp gaped, "You bastard Senny!"

Sengoku ignored his best friends outrage at him eating his food and weaved to the side of a massive fist lashing out at his face, 'On top of everything else…that cloud.' he frowned, forearm coming up automatically on instinct to block another punch that shook the the entire room while his thoughts continued on.

That was perhaps the most subtle part of that entire transmission. If any of it could be called subtle at all. Honestly the boy was about as blunt as Garp, it was a wonder he was the one chosen at all for this mission for SWORD.

Subtle he was not.

But perhaps that may have actually been just why he was chosen? Because he was bold, loud and proud. And he of course stood out maddeningly.

But what was that devil fruit? Only one devil fruit capable of controlling clouds like those came to mind, but it was currently in the hands of a monstrously strong person who was definitely not dead.

If he had died the whole world would know. It would be world knews and-

The transmission from the den den mushi suddenly flickered back on and Kaden came back into view, while he and Garp had their arms locked together and were squabbling like children, "Oh yeah, I forgot to mention, you can take this as the announcement of my newly formed pirate crew, the Dragon God pirates," he helpfully informed, "Later, cowards have fun with...your little old man lover spat." he laughed, sticking the finger up at them-

Before the transmission promptly flickered out once more.

Alright, that did it. SWORD or not. Actually fully loyal marine or not. Doing this all for the mission or not.

"I hate that upstart kid." Sengoku huffed.

…Dragon God pirates huh? Control over physical clouds huh? That told him all he needed to know about what Devil Fruit he had gotten his hands on.

Fucking Vegapunk.

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6/10, four more to hit the minimum quota I've set for myself. Of course I'm aiming for more than that, but ten at least has to be done.