The Adventures of a Celestial Dragon (One Piece)

You were poor by the measures of a Celestial Dragon.

Your situation was akin to being the only millionaire in a room filled with billionaires. Yes, you still had more money than you knew what to do with, but after a certain point, money was less about buying things and more about prestige. For a social class where work was a myth, prestige meant a lot. Its effects weren't overt, but they were always present. The best example you could think of occurred nearly a month ago. It was at a party, hosted by Lord Dominique.

A small group of business-oriented World Nobles was having a hushed conversation over at the corner of the room, and you had thought to introduce yourself. At that time, you had only recently risen to the head of the Roseward family and wanted to get a read of your equals. It was only when they sneered at you that you realized that in their eyes, you weren't their equal. To them, you were a pauper dressed as a dragon.

They told you that there was no room in their circle for you- a blatant dismissal. To save face, you pretended to believe them even as your ears burned with humiliation. Not five minutes after, you watched with envy as another World Dragon joined the group; welcomed in with laughs and good cheer. You wanted that.

And so you tried to think of a solution that would shore up your family's finances. If asked, you would say that you decided to start a company. It was true enough though it did leave out how you intended to run the company. You were self-aware enough to know that most people didn't think too highly of the Celestial Dragon's habit of owning slaves.

Companies came in three shapes. The first was Corporations, the second was LLC's, and the third was Sole Proprietorships. The first two had the advantage of legally being separate entities from their owners. Consequently, the owners couldn't lose personal assets if they failed. In exchange for that, they were taxed twice at both the corporate and individual levels.

A Sole Proprietorship, on the other hand, was legally the same entity as the owner. This came with certain advantages and disadvantages that were distinct from the other two forms. For starters, you could lose more than you put into the company. If it went into enough debt, you could stand to lose hard assets. In exchange for this, the company would only be taxed once. For most people this was where it would end... but you were a Celestial Dragon, complete with all the privileges. You were legally allowed to own slaves, you didn't have to pay taxes, and the navy was obligated to protect you.

At first, you didn't realize what that meant, and you wouldn't until you talked things over with your lawyer. Because the company and you were legally the same entity, all your privileges applied to the company. It had been determined nearly three centuries ago; the last time a Celestial Dragon had started a Sole Proprietorship. For the most part, your compatriots coasted by on dividends on investments made long ago. It was a loophole that you were determined to take advantage of before anyone else could.

For a company, profits were calculated by subtracting the company's expenses from its revenue. For most companies, the expenses were inflated by things like taxes and paying workers. To generate a profit, the companies then had to pass these costs off to the consumer. Consequently, a firearm that cost twenty belli in raw materials became worth two-hundred belli when sold in a store. You could drive your competitors out of business by selling the same product for much cheaper and still generate a profit.

The last thing you had to do was determine what field you were going to go to business in. You chose to invest in the military-industrial complex. The reasons for that were complicated, but it boiled down to your business means. Slavery had been outlawed two centuries ago by the World Government... on paper at least.

Since then, certain groups had been allowed to continue owning slaves. The Celestial Dragons, for instance. Even outside the aristocracy, however, there were ways to own slaves. The World Government had authorized certain Human Auctioning Houses throughout the world. If a was purchased there, the government would view it as legal.

A single human would cost around five-hundred-thousand belli's... and they were the cheapest slaves on the market. The most expensive slaves were mermaids. A single female could cost over seventy million belli. To put that money into perspective, the average salary-man earned fifty-five thousand belli annually.

In conclusion, slavery was technically illegal but functionally legal to anyone who could afford the prices... which was limited to a few privileged social classes. These social classes tended to have few members and consequently, the legality of slavery tended to be far from the minds of the average citizen. It was enough for them to have the act forbidden on paper. That wouldn't last with your business.

You intended to have run factories from one end of the world to the other. You intended to introduce chattel slavery on a level heretofore unseen. You intended to have your slaves make cheap weapons for the navy, and then use this new supply to enlarge the World Government's armed forces. From there, you intended to use the strengthened forces to conquer new lands, before purchasing those lands and enslaving the denizens to produce more weapons. Rinse, repeat.

It would be impossible to hide, and so when the day came you needed to be very sure that the World Government was willing to protect you, and that meant making yourself indispensable. Still, there was one last problem with your plan: you were squishy in a world filled with monsters. Luckily, you were one fruit away from solving that.

You had heard plenty about devil fruits. Logia types turned the user into an element. This would allow you to survive nearly any attack. What could an assassin with a knife do if you could turn into flames at will? Even if you didn’t get a Logia, you were confident your survival skills would improve with any devil fruit, so you ate one.

And the one you ate gave you powers beyond your wildest dreams. You were a mind controller now. One that could give orders either verbally or telepathically. With this, your business model took on a new dimension and the potential for profits got even higher. All you had to do was reach out and take it.

Your peers might laugh at you know, but one day you would be greater than them all. The only question was: where did you want to start?

Notes: Support me on Patreon.com/malkuthze. Any support is appreciated.

Notes 2: I've rethought the story plan. If you read the previous version of this story, I didn't like it so we're rewriting it. New plan: Your goal is eventually going to become the World King, the absolute ruler of the World Government. A God among Gods, if you will. On the way to that goal, we're going to have sub-arcs.

To get control of the navy, we are going to have to go down the business route; becoming their sole provider. This means setting up base in East Blue (the weakest sea/where the navy is the strongest) and conquering foreign lands, enslaving the native population, and using the resources for military build-up. The options for this arc basically include pointing to where you want to conquer. If you conquer Amazon Lily, for instance, you get Boa Hancock and all the attractive members of the Kuja Pirates as sex slaves.

Another sub-arc would include getting Nico Robin and mind-controlling her to be loyal to you so you could decipher Poneglyphs and learn about the Void Century as well as their hyper-advanced weapons. Yet another arc could be collecting the weapon 'Poseidon' and conquering the Ryugu Kingdom. Another could be the quest to find Pluton and to make mini-Plutons for the Navy. And so on.

This looks to be a much more cohesive story, so I'm changing the first chapter. Hope you agree.

Options for the next chapter: Arc One is setting up your corporate headquarters in East Blue and starting production. It also includes meeting members of the marines and starting integrating of the armed forces and your business. Also, is there a map somewhere of East Blue? Either way, first things first. Choosing a location!

• Option One: Dawn Island- The Island where Gao Kingdom is situated and Luffy grew up. Women include Makino (Link: https://onepiece.fandom.com/wiki/Makino#Before%20Timeskip) and the Queen of Gao, Sarie (Link: https://onepiece.fandom.com/wiki/Sarie_Nantokanette)) The Queen and King are nobles, but not World Nobles. More to the point, having an indipendent kingdom within East Blue offends you. In addition to setting up your company, you'll also be taking steps to take control of the Kingdom and bring it under the control of the World Government. Think British East India Company and annexing India in our world.
• Option Two: Shells town- The place where we meet Zoro in the anime. You can make an alliance with the cruel Captain Morgan- someone unlikely to object to your own cruelty. This is going to be a very short stop because you are unlikely to face serious opposition. Women include Ririka (Link: https://onepiece.fandom.com/wiki/Ririka).
• Option Three: Goat Island- The island the Alvida Pirates were inhabiting. You get the navy to clean up the island, enslave the pirates and keep Alvida for yourself. Note that this is Alvida post Slim-Slim fruit, so she is hot. Yes, I know that the timeline doesn't add up, but I'm changing it so she's hot. (Link: https://onepiece.fandom.com/wiki/Alvida)
• Option Four: Gecko Islands/Syrup Village- This is Usopp's hometown. Also, Kaya lives here: https://onepiece.fandom.com/wiki/Kaya#Before%20Timeskip
• Option Five: Conomi Islands- Nami's hometown. Currently overrun by Arlong Pirates. Nami isn't here right now (currently trying to get money to buy the Islands freedom), but here hot sister is. Link: https://onepiece.fandom.com/wiki/Nojiko#Before%20Timeskip. Beyond this, Fishmen have greater strength than normal men and are more expensive slaves. Whereas a human is worth 500,000 belli a fishman is worth twice that at 1,000,000. Might be a worthwhile investment.
• Option Six: Clockwork Island- The Island is built very high up- which makes it a great HQ for you. This way you can look down on all the peasants around you. Notable women is limited to Honey Queen. Link: https://onepiece.fandom.com/wiki/Honey_Queen