Ch6: Year gone by, Heart to heart

A whole Month has gone by with Caden training under Bellemere's tutelage.

Finding a proper teacher turned out to be very beneficial for him, since he didn't really know any efficient ways to train his body.

For example, what exercises gave the best results?

How many times should he repeat a motion?

What should he eat to achieve maximum efficiency in muscle and body growth?

These questions need a lot of study, but thanks to Bellemere, he got a full package. The only thing she didn't know how to train him in was his usage of devil fruit.

After all, how do you train slime, other then the obvious, like:

Make more, change it more, etc..

Devil fruits need creativity.

So Caden trained with Bellemere, played with Nojiko and Nami, spent time reading books about the world in the library and helped some villagers from time to time.

Training his body was mostly done around the village or in Bellemere's house, but using the devil fruit was strictly limited to the forest base. Since Caden got very familiar with the forest, he found a quicker route to and from his base which made traveling there much faster.

Sometimes Caden talked with Bellemere.

"Do you plan on staying here forever after the girls grow up?"

"I never really thought about that, I still have almost two decades of taking care of them ahead of me."

"Then you wouldn't be opposed to moving somewhere else or going around the world after they are older?"

Bellemere looked suspiciously at Caden, squinting her eyes with a little smile.

"What are you insinuating? Do you want me to accompany you in that great adventure you so desire?" She asked, referring to his big goal which kept him going with her training.

Whenever he got tired from working out, she would tease him with how he is too weak to travel the world. That mostly worked, pushing him to break his childish limits of stopping after getting tired.

"Maybe, you never know. After all, you might be too old by then to be useful on a ship." He said with a grin, before running away at full speed to dodge her retaliatory attacks.

"What do you mean, too old?! I will always be a young lady full of energy, ready to beat you up after saying stuff like that! Now come on, stop running! You know you can't escape me!" She shouted, grinning evilly after his comment.

The days went by like that, with fun and dedication to fulfill his dream, Caden did his very best and slowly grew up.

One year later, 1508.

The peaceful Cocoyasi Village didn't change much. Some faces became older, a few buildings were painted differently, but mostly things stayed the same.

On the side of the village, near Bellemere's house, you could see Caden, now a year older, laying on the ground with a long rifle in his hand with a small marine logo on it.

He seems to be in deep concentration, trying to focus on a faraway target.

"Remember boy, gently push the trigger as you exhale, it gives more stability, lowering unnecessary movement. Now focus, do you see the target.."

Close to him lying is Bellemere, still looking young and beautiful. She is talking about the target in the distance with a big red circle and a small dot inside it.

Today she decided that Caden is old enough to learn how to properly use a gun. In the future he might need to know how to shoot at the very least.

Right now they are trying out sniping, to see if he has any talent in it.

Previously, they tried on a smaller gun. Caden showed some skill with a revolver, landing 5 out of 6 shots on the target.

Unfortunately, anything bigger than that turned out worse and worse.

*Boom!*

Sound of the gunshot traveled around. Bellemere looked at the target and saw no sign of a hit.

"Ehhh. Caden, show me that, let me see if it's even working right" Taking the gun from his hand, she took position, aimed at the target and shot, hitting it right in the center on her first try.

"Wow." Exclaimed the boy, looking at the great shot.

"Kid, I hate to break it to you, but you are a total trash with guns." She said, looking at him in pity.

"Guess I can't have everything." He remarked, getting up and giving a hand to the lady.

"At least you are great at shooting, maybe in the future you will take care of me from the back." Said Caden with a smile, helping her up.

"You wish." She said, smiling at the kid.

For the better part of that year, they spent a long time together, either playing with the girls or training Caden's body to the limit.

The results were slowly showing themselves, with Caden growing slightly higher than Nojiko, who is his age. His body also got more slender, his arms and legs getting more muscles.

Through this time he let his hair grow unhindered, getting a small ponytail that Nojiko especially loved. She started playing with it, styling his hair into ponytails and braiding it like she learned from her mother.

Seeing how happy it made her, he didn't have the heart to cut it off.

Going back to the house, Bellemere put away her gun, one of many that she took after leaving the marines. She put it in a drawer, secured with a lock.

She held the key mostly on her neck like a necklace, at least until her daughters grow up, so as to not let them somehow find and shoot them accidentally. 

Bellemere made them both some tea, which they took with them and moved to another room.

Getting to the living room, they both sat in their places. Bellemere got on the couch, where she loved lazily lying down.

Caden on the other hand sat on the spacious armchair, right beside the couch.

Sipping their tea, they talked about things.

"It has already been over a year since you came here with Genzo." She started, before taking a sip of her tea.

"Indeed it has been. Time flies. Who would have thought that you and your family would become my closest friends." Said Caden, swirling the tea in his cup.

"Yes, somehow you got so close with my daughters, they treat you like their older brother already."

"Nojiko and Nami are like little sisters to me." He said, hearing their laughter from the other room.

"Looks like they are having fun." Said Bellemere with a smile.

"Nami is probably drawing something again."

"Yes, she is showing talent in it. Most of her drawings look great, it's just a pity that she only wants to draw maps." She said, thinking about how Nami showed her a map she drew a few days ago.

"It isn't so bad, if she gets better, she might even sell them in the future for a pretty penny. I say give it a few years and It could greatly help your monetary problems."

"Maybe, I will have to see what she wants to do with it."

"I still don't understand why can't you accept my help? You know that I don't need the money I get from helping out in the village." He said, looking at Bellemere questioningly.

For the past months, he started to work part time in many places, mostly moving stuff around, because he had too much stamina from all his training. The money he started getting paid became quickly too much for him to spend meaningfully, but too small to buy anything crazy. Still, he could afford to feed one mouth out of his pocket. 

He didn't even have to spend it on himself, since he still gets "free" meals at the orphanage.

"I still won't accept money from a kid." She said, not looking at him.

"In that case, you force me to do the last thing I wanted."

"What do you mean?"

"I will use mental manipulation." Saying that, he looked directly at her eyes.

"You see, I got too much to spend, so I need a secure place to keep it. Ideally, I will have a strong person guarding it, someone who I can trust. I wouldn't even mind If some money was used. I only need to find it in full after I'm old enough to legally own a ship, which will be around my 16th birthday." He said, looking at her and smiling with his teeth clearly visible.

"It just so happens that I know someone trustworthy, who knows how to use guns and has his own place."

At that, Bellemere quietly says something, but he doesn't hear it.

"What was that? Please say that again."

"Thank you Caden" She murmured, her words still being unrecognizable.

"What? Louder please!"

In that moment, she jumped up from the couch and landed on him, taking him into a hug.

"I said thank you!" She said to his ear, giving him a bone breaking hug.

"Ok, OK! I get it, now get off me woman, you will break me in half!" He loudly said, showing her back on the couch.

"Now, since that is behind us, let's talk about something else to teach me." He said, looking at her.

"I taught you only a small portion of what you need to know. Learning everything from me will take you a few years more." She said, before changing the topic.

"Maybe I should actually adopt you." She said, bringing this up for at least the 100th time since he started training under her.

"I already told you, there is no chance in hell that I would agree to that." He said, dismissing her words.

"But why! You always say some stupid reasons, like "The food there is great" or "It's closer to town" etc.." She said, looking at him with a stern gaze.

"Do you really want to know the real reason so much?" He asked, slowly getting tired with constantly evading this topic.

"Yes! Tell me, please Caden." She said, grabbing his hand.

"Ok, the reason is that I…" He stopped for a moment and looked to the side.

"... want to have the ability to marry into your family." He finished, with every word getting quieter, until he got silent.

Both of them got quiet, Bellemere looking intensively at Caden and him looking everywhere but at her.

"Hmm… So which of my daughters got your eye? It was probably Nojiko, right? Since she's your age and you spend most of your time with her." She started commenting, with a huge smile on her face. She had no idea the boy had such feelings toward her daughters.

"Oh, now I will have to monitor you more closely when you are with them, to make sure that you don't do anything perverted to them." She said.

She continued with more comments like that, with how he and them are still kids, how she cheers him on with getting into their hearts and on and on. Slowly Caden got calmer, returning to look at her face as she talked.

"You know.." He said, interrupting her monologue about kids in love.

"Hehe, what is it, my soon to be son-in-law?" She teased, looking at him.

"I never said I would marry your daughters." He said with a grin making its way on his face.

Bellemere got confused, trying to work out the meaning of his words in her head. How would he marry into her family, without marrying her daughters? She doesn't have any other relatives, she was an orphan before.

Is he talking about my grandchildren, children of Nojiko or Nami? But that also makes no sense, who knows how long he will have to wait for that. He doesn't even know If anyone of them will have a daughter.

In that moment, understanding dawned on her face, making her blush from the top of her head, down to her feet.

"Yes, I could marry you, Bellemere." He stated, looking at her and smiling.

"W-what are y-you even t-talking about? You are j-just a kid!" She protested.

"Bellemere, age is just a number, but love is eternal." With a teasing smile, he said so, clearly enjoying her embarrassment.

With that he stood up, getting ready to leave.

"Well, maybe I am still too young for that, but who knows what the future will bring us. Maybe I will manage to make you fall for me, making Nami, together with Nojiko, my daughters." Said Caden, turning to the doors and leaving speechless Bellemere on the couch.

Before closing the doors, he managed to drop in some last words.

"Who knows, maybe I will fall for your daughters before I get old enough, so you better hurry Bellemere or I will be forced to make a harem in the future."

The doors closed, with Bellemere left alone to think about his words.

~2169 words