The wind was unusually rowdy today, and the clouds above Sabaody were unusually dramatic—shifting from an S-shape to a B-shape, twisting and swirling like they had minds of their own.
Anyone who liked to gaze up at the sky would notice how strange the clouds were today. Constantly changing shapes, even though there was no wind—something felt off about it.
Unfortunately, on such a fine day, no one happened to be looking up.
BOOM!
A thunderclap rang out from nowhere, startling the people on the island into thinking it was about to rain. But when they looked up, they saw the sun shining brightly and the bubbles sparkling in the light. Not a single sign of rain.
And then—
SPLASH!
It started raining.
The crowd on Sabaody was dumbfounded. Everyone scrambled to hide under eaves, confused and disoriented. The sun was still out—it looked completely real—so how could it be raining? It made no sense!
Of course, this was all Kadun's doing.
A Paramecia-type fruit user, Carden had eaten the Cloud Control Fruit.
---
As long as clouds were present, Kadun could control them. He couldn't create clouds out of thin air, but anything already in the sky? Fair game.
The moment Weiss learned of this ability, he immediately came up with a dozen ways to develop it. The first was: Sky Island. With this power, they might not need to pass through Fishman Island to reach the New World.
After all, in this world, clouds can carry entire islands. So surely, they can carry a ship.
But for now, he needed Kadun to fully familiarize himself with the fruit's abilities.
Clouds drive most weather phenomena, after all. Making it rain, summoning lightning, creating storms—it would all become easy.
Not only could they escape better, but their combat strength would rise significantly too.
"Captain! Look at this cloud I made—nice, huh?" Kadun grinned and wiggled his eyebrows.
Weiss glanced up—and his mouth twitched.
Now he regretted it. Deeply regretted giving this fruit to Kadun. Such a powerful Devil Fruit...
...and this idiot had used it to sculpt a giant woman in the sky.
SWOOSH!
BAM!
Weiss left the bar's entrance with a sigh and cracked his knuckles. After throwing a punch, the suffocating feeling in his chest finally dissipated. Kadun was now curled up, clutching a lump the size of a billiard ball on his forehead, wincing and hissing in pain.
"Tsk tsk. If you wanna show off, fine. But why make it so indecent?" said Jack, coolly stepping out of the Red Romance Bar behind Weiss. "Now everyone's going to think the crew of the Chris is full of perverts. Serves you right."
"Bro, if you want to do this kind of thing, do it in private!" Theodore added with a shake of his head. "Even if you want to use the clouds for... weird stuff... fine. Just don't do it in front of the captain!"
Kadun scrambled to his feet and rushed after them, no longer able to stand the strange looks from passersby.
At the bar's entrance, Bruki stood watching the group leave. Behind him, stacked on a table inside, was 500 million Berries.
Now that they knew what the fruit could do, Weiss thought it was worth every Berry.
Regrets?
Bruki didn't regret selling it—not even a little. He had no idea how to develop the fruit anyway. What, turn the clouds into cannons and start blasting people?
---
The group walked along a narrow path, thick intertwined tree roots curling all around them. The sunlight wasn't so harsh now.
Weiss was already considering whether he should send Kadun to the small Sky Island to study meteorology. If he combined that knowledge with his cloud-controlling powers, he could easily become a walking natural disaster in the New World.
At the very least, if he stayed careful, he'd be a solid asset in a fight.
As a navigator, this Devil Fruit was unexpectedly perfect for him.
Too bad it wasn't a Logia-type Cloud-Cloud Fruit... although Weiss wasn't even sure such a fruit existed.
Then again, with Kadun's personality, if he had eaten a Logia, he probably would've grown so arrogant he wouldn't even notice being schemed to death.
Since he had this good of a fruit, they couldn't waste it. More training would be necessary. He might not be strong in direct combat, but his stamina needed to keep up.
He couldn't swim, obviously. But with some seastone gear, that issue could be managed.
At that moment, Kadun—completely unaware of the hellish future awaiting him—was happily riding a cloud through the sky.
After hearing Weiss mention the concept of Sky Islands, Kadun had quickly figured out how to create a human-carrying cloud.
"Hey Jack! Hey Theo!"
Kadun zipped around on his cloud, flying up tree trunks and skimming the sea surface, leaving behind a long trail like a comet. He was going all out to show off.
Watching him, Jack's expression changed within a minute—from genuine happiness for Kadun… to barely-contained urge to punch him.
Soon after—
BAM! BAM BAM!
"AAAAAAGHHH—!"
WHAM!
"STOP! STOP! I give up! I won't show off anymore! Help! Captain! They're committing murder here!"
Kadun was caught in a two-man beatdown from Jack and Theodore, kicked up in a cloud of dust, with only his head poking out—howling like a banshee.
"WEISS!!"
As the three scuffled, Karina and Joanne came around the corner, waving their arms excitedly.
"My god..." Weiss sighed. "Women's shopping powers are terrifying."
Behind the two women floated five bubbles, each fully loaded with stuff.
Riding a bubble cart, they pulled up in front of the group. Joanne glanced at the sorry state of Kadun and asked, "What happened to you?"
"Ah, nothing. Just tripped," Kadun mumbled through a swollen face while dodging the murderous glares from Jack and Theo.
He could barely talk.
The adorably dense Joanne seemed convinced. She turned to Weiss and said, "Oh right! I heard something interesting—there's going to be an auction on Sabaody tomorrow! Want to check it out? I heard there'll be a fishman! I've never seen one before."
"Sure, we'll check it out," Weiss nodded. "There might be some good stuff there."
Joanne rarely asked for things, so Weiss was happy to agree.
Though, the naive girl probably didn't realize what it meant when a fishman appeared at an auction...
Still, maybe the protagonist's fated encounter was finally coming. They'd been at sea over a year now—aside from that free Star Abyss sword, what else had he gotten?
The Flame-Flame Fruit? That was Ace's.
Cloud Control Fruit? That went to Kadun!
None of this screamed "main character treatment."
Unless...
I'm not the protagonist? Weiss thought bitterly.
"Karina, just load your stuff onto the cloud," Kadun said, now back to acting smug as he pointed to the floating cloud behind him.
"Okay!" Karina didn't think much of it. She just dumped all five bubble-loads of supplies onto the cloud and kept walking with Weiss.
She didn't even ask a single question.
Kadun's proud expression froze. Why didn't she ask anything?
Aren't you curious? Curious how there's a floating cloud? Why it can carry things? Why I can control it?
Kadun's urge to show off instantly deflated. Crestfallen, he trudged behind the group back to the Chris.
There, they saw that Rayleigh had only half-finished coating the ship—and had already gone home for the day. Not a trace of him left.
"Damn that irresponsible old man..." Weiss muttered.
---
Read 120 chapters ahead on P@treon and Ko-Fi:
patreon.com/Sami_27
https:// ko-fi.com/sami27
COMPLETED story available on Patreon and Ko-Fi.