Ch5: Talk about the future

Playing together turned out to be really fun for the children. They spent hours playing with toys and when they got bored of them, they started roleplaying.

Caden played as a Big Bad Pirate and Nojiko played as a Brave Marine who had to catch him. Nami acted as the Young Recruit, basically just running after them both.

Caden gave them the chance to catch him a few times, though his stamina was already pretty impressive, as he could run for hours now.

Still thanks to that he saw the faces of pure joy on Nami and Nojiko.

'They are so cute, I will definitely come back here to play some more with them.' He thought, before getting out of the makeshift handcuffs made from some pants and running away again, making the girls chase him for the fourth time already. The fun continued for hours.

Bellemere told them a few times to slow down, but the kids still had a bunch of fun.

Later when the girls got tired, Genzo took Caden for a talk with him and Bellemere.

"Caden, what do you want to do in the future?" He asked with a serious face, sitting on an armchair with elbows on the sides and hands under his chin.

"Well, I don't want to be a pirate." Started Caden, going up to the only chair left, clearly for him and sat there facing the others.

The relief on the adult's faces was immediate.

"Then who do you want to be? Maybe you can be a sheriff after Genzo kicks the bucket?" Asks Bellemere with a teasing smile, looking sideways.

"Yes, you could- Now wait a moment, I am NOT that old and you could join our small police force with no trouble in the future." He said looking annoyedly at Bellemere.

"Thanks, but I don't want to seek justice either. I don't really feel like it."

"Then joining the marines is probably also off the table, huh?" She said with a slightly disappointed look.

"Yes, although I respect those that truly want to make the world a better and safer place, I don't want to be one of them. I would much rather work for myself than for somebody else."

"Then you could become a merchant." Tried to add Genzo.

"Maybe, but I would need funds to even start and don't take it the wrong way, but I don't think any of you could provide me with those." He said, closing his eyes for a moment.

"Who I really want to be is hard to pinpoint. I would like to sail the seas unimpeded. I would also like to stay in one place for extended periods of time. I would like to see the world, write down all about the amazing places I only heard about in stories. The countless islands that exist in the world, the strange seas like the calm belts, the Grand Line, the fabled All Blue, the Reverse Mountain. There are so many amazing things in this world and I would love to see them all." Catching his breath, he finished his speech.

The adults were a little shocked that this small boy would have such grand aspirations. Genzo got over it faster, since he knew of his intelligence, but still decided to speak.

"Do you know how hard is it to do all that you said? Most of these places are infested with pirates or kept off the limits for normal civilians by the World Government, not to mention that some of them might not even exist." Said Genzo with worry written all over his face.

"Additionally, few of those places are extremely dangerous by themselves. There aren't any normal ships traveling through calm belts for example, so how would you do it?" Asked Bellemere, trying to make him aware of how out of reach his dream is.

"I know it might sound very hard or even slightly insane, but I won't change my dream." Stated Caden, fully ready to do almost anything to make his dream come true.

"Caden, you have no idea how dangerous the world is. There are people with powers that can destroy islands and you say that you want to be basically unstoppable? How do you even intend to achieve it?!" Bellemere pushed on, knowing well how dangerous the seas are now.

"Not even mentioning that after the Pirate King's death, the number of pirates skyrocketed! You could be killed after a few days on the sea or worse!" Continued Bellemere speaking more loudly with each sentence.

"I know all that, because I was a marine before taking care of my daughters. I saw It all, how pirates pillage, steal, destroy and rape. How wars are fought on the land and in the water. The world isn't a safe place. It takes only a little bit of bad luck and you could be dead." She said, putting a hand on her forehead.

"I tried my best for so long, but it only took one day for me to almost lose it all. One day I was in the country at war, I don't even remember if they were fighting somebody or by themselves, but I got badly hurt under some heavy fire. I wanted to just let go and die there, but I fortunately met my daughters, who I decided to rescue from that place. I am happy now with them, but it doesn't change the facts. The world is very dangerous and if you don't have some magical power to be stronger than the average folk, then you better stay on dry land." She finished, taking some deep breaths and looking if her words affected Caden in the way she intended, stopping his suicidal dream or at least changing it.

'Hmm, I guess there won't be a much better time than now to say it.' He thought, looking at them both.

"But I have a power." Said Caden with a calm voice.

In that moment, the silence was so loud that you could hear a fly from the other room gently flapping its wings.

"What?""Huh?" They both asked, confused at his declaration.

"Like I said, I have a power. I recently found it out and also figured out how to use it. It took me a while to understand where it came from, but after a few visits to the library, I found some fairytale where the author mentioned something called the 'Devil Fruit' and I'm fairly certain now that I ate one while drifting on the sea before coming here."

Listening to this, Genzo didn't want to believe it and Bellemere was shocked.

"What is your ability? Did you really get cursed by the sea if that is so? What did the fruit look like? Can you show me your power?" Bellemere shot many questions at Caden with clear excitement on her face.

"Slow down, my ability is slime and the fruit should be called a Slime-Slime fruit. Yes, I really got cursed by the sea, I cannot swim, or rather my body acts like it weighs many tons when inside the sea. The fruit was weird, it had a light blue color, some patterns that I don't remember very well and was in a unique shape that I haven't encountered yet." He said, taking a deep breath before continuing.

"Also yes, I can show you my power." Saying so, he put his hand out, palm up, and created a little slime on it.

"What is this?" She asked, getting up and waking him to get a closer look.

"Well, this substance is slime, something between liquid and solid." He said, taking it by its sides and stretching it from one hand to another.

"It is very elastic, I can freely control it and modify it, making it denser, lighter, changing its texture." Showing them how he could move it with his mind made them open their mouths in surprise.

The way it dropped after making it heavier, how it changed from a smooth gel like state to wooden like feel, to being rough but still soft.

"That isn't even all, I find new things about it almost every day, like the fact that by itself it can absorb almost anything you give it or how it reacts to outside force." Saying that he made the slime into a ball shape and took it between his hands.

"Try it out Miss or should I call you Bellemere?"

"Call me by my name and what do you want me to do with this ball?" She asked, poking the slime with her finger.

"As you see, it's soft and elastic, now try to punch it, but I tell you, the harder you do it the more it will resist." Said Caden, smiling with his teeth out.

"Ok kid, you brought it upon yourself, I don't believe how such a squishy thing could take my fist, but here I come!" She said, swinging her fist very fast and hard, striking the ball.

The effect was obvious to Caden, but shocking to both Genzo and Bellemere. Upon contact, her fist only sank by a millimeter and made very small waves on the surface which quickly calmed down. The slime remained undamaged, returning to the way it was before in a moment's notice.

"See? It's pretty strong." Saying that he pulled and stretched the slime again to show that it's still squishy.

"Can I play with that?" Suddenly asked a girly voice from the side.

Looking at the door, we could see a small head peeking through the gap between the door and the wall, slowly coming out to get closer to the toy in Caden't hands.

"Sure Nojiko, here you go." He said, giving the girl what she wanted.

"Is it safe?" Asked worried Bellemere, looking at how her child started to play with the slime.

"From what I know and tried, it tasted very bland, and trying to eat it is really tough. I would treat it like a normal toy most of the time, just don't put it in the eyes or try to swallow it and it should be completely safe." Answered Caden, looking at how Nojiko tried to make a hat out of it.

Surprisingly, it was pretty good, with how solid he created it, it will hold its shape for a while.

"Here, I will make it more liquidy, so you can have more fun with it. You can even mix them together to get some funny effects. Bellemere, do you have maybe a bowl or something for it?" He asked, turning back to the woman.

"Of course, here you go." She said after taking it from the cupboard.

"I forgot to mention but I also can change its color. Nojiko, do you want any color?"

"Make it purple!" She said, very excitedly with the blue slime hat on her head.

"No problem."

The bowl was filled with slime, which the girl took away to play on the floor near the window overlooking the mandarin trees.

"Now, I want to say a few things. I hope that you will keep it a secret, that goes to you too, Nojiko." Said Caden, looking at everybody around.

"Sure""No problem""Okay!" He heard back from all three, the little girl still invested in playing.

"But shouldn't we tell Mummy Mee and Daddy Dee? They are your caretakers after all." Asked Genzo.

"No, they work for the government and I don't want to end up on some list of individuals with powers, who knows, maybe they would decide to imprison me for the fear of what I could possibly do." He said with a grave voice, looking in the eyes of Genzo.

"Ok kid, I get it, I get it. Nobody will hear about it from me." Said Genzo, a little scared by the look in Caden's eyes.

"I also won't tell anybody." Reassured Bellemere, patting Caden's back.

Crouching down to get on his eye level, she put her hands on his shoulders and looked at him.

"Now Caden, since you got such a gift from the world, you will need to use it well. If you want to achieve your dream, education about the world will be essential." She said, looking into his eyes with passion.

"I see great potential in you, kid. The fact that you can use your time better than anybody, considering what age and how aware of the world you are, will most likely make you a powerhouse in the future." At that she rose to her feet, looking at him from above.

"But right now, you need some solid training." She said with a massive grin on her face.

"And I will make sure that you train to the bone starting from now."

With that, Caden's little hell began.

~2139 words