8 Marine Based - 8

Kaden left Vergo's office behind in a bit of a daze, making his way back to quarters.

As soon as he was back inside his bedroom, he collapsed on top of his bed and stared up at the ceiling, numb.

What was he even supposed to do at this point? Five thousand doriki, was pretty good for paradise, but…

When it came to those that really mattered? It was absolutely trash. With a maximum physical ability of that…he would be hard pressed to match up to the likes of secondary officers in a Yonkou's crew the like the Tobiroppo, never mind the actual commanders…and a sure far cry away from the likes of the Yonkou themselves.

His full potential was literally…fodder tier in the end.

'This is what it must feel like to be Yamcha.' Kaden thought dimly. He always used to have a good laugh about the Yamcha jokes people made.

It wasn't so funny now.

With such low potential, it didn't really matter what he did. Even if he got a supremely overpowered devil fruit like Whitebeard's, that wouldn't change anything because it didn't make him invincible.

He'd just get bodied instantly by someone like Kaido the second they landed a physical attack on him. Not even just Kaido, but even the likes of post time skip Luffy could probably drop him with a few punches that landed with Armament and shit.

A powerful devil fruit only made fodder more annoying fodder, it didn't change them from the fodder they were at heart. Even something like Enel or Kizaru's fruits would only go so far.

"Fuck this blows!" Kaden snarled, bouncing up from his bed and swinging around to throw a kick at the base of his bed.

It shot up like a football and smashed into the wall hard enough to leave cracks in it.

"Huh…?" Kaden blinked as something caught his eye. Something that looked like a small latch on the floor?

That wasn't right though. He'd seen under the bed before he was sure, and he'd never seen anything like that before.

Just before the bed clattered down atop the floor once more, Kaden reached out and caught it with one hand and hoisted it above his shoulder.

Annoyance at his situation put out of mind for the moment in favour of his confusion, Kaden crouched down, balancing the bed above his head and dug his fingers into the wooden flooring, ignoring the small key latch he could see and bodily ripped it off, like tearing a piece of paper in two.

…To reveal a small treasure chest not much larger than his head.

"What the fuck?" Kaden blinked, staring at it. Seriously, he could remember from the memories of the fuckhead who had this body before, him cleaning under this bed multiple times and he had no recollection of this little secret compartment in the floor.

Reaching in, he grabbed the small treasure chest and dropped the bed back down atop the floor, before plopping his ass on it and popping over the treasure chest to sate his curiosity.

…All he found was a small black book, more like a diary actually.

Eyebrows rising, Kaden lifted the book out and tossed the chest aside, then his eyes widened as he saw his name on the front of the book.

Or rather, two thirds of his name.

Kaden D. Topman.

That was the name printed on the front of the book.

That wasn't his name.

But…Topman. That was familiar for some reason.

His birthname perhaps? Freeman was the name of his adoptive parents in this world that had been killed by pirates and sent the original owner of this body straight into the arms of the marines.

The absolute cunt.

If it wasn't for him signing on to the marines and getting him stuck out here in the New World and part of G5, he wouldn't even need to worry about his strength all that much.

But no, he was a New World marine, if he left, he'd be getting top tier people sent after his ass to hunt him down. Hell the fucking standard for someone of his station deserting the marines, despite being a petty officer, would get him slapped with a twenty five million beri bounty.

How was that even fair? Just leaving his post would have him get a bounty higher than fucking Arlong.

Fucking bullshit.

Kaden sighed, and opened the book up, then blinked as the first words at the very top filtered through his mind.

'To my precious son Saint Kaden, if you are reading this now, it means our attempts at placating my father have failed, and I am dead.'

Oh…well wasn't that a lovely opening sentence.

Though considering he had been adopted, and neither of his adopted parents had the initial D in their name, he'd already come to the conclusion that his birth parents either abandoned him, or were dead.

Wait.

'SAINT KADEN?!' his eyes flew wide opened as the title registered in his band and he gaped, mouth hanging low in absolute shock.

As in…a fucking Celestial Dragon!?

'I am sorry my precious son, but in the eyes of my father and his compatriots, you are an abomination. The blood of the Celestial Dragons runs in your veins, but so too does the blood and will of D, the mortal enemies of we gods. You are one who was never supposed to be born.'

Oh…peachy. Absolutely lovely.

This day could not get any better. First he finds out his pitiful potential and limits, and now he found out that he was…an abomination who should never have been born.

Well his counterpart was…before he somehow forced him into this position. God he fucking hated the other Kaden more and more with each day that passed. Seriously, fuck that guy!

He should be surprised he really was from the D Clan and apparently a Celestial Dragon who was not afforded the same privilege and riches of the others.

But he wasn't.

Because so far, that was just how his luck seemed to roll in this world.