Chapter 10 The Kuja

"YOU!" Before Arch could even get his footing a leg came blasting towards his face, in response Arch simply bent back as the kick missed him. An arrow then flew towards his leg which he failed to notice.

"Agh." Arch groaned before pulling out the arrow and dashing to the side. Arrows began whizzing towards him which he proceeded to dodge each and every time.

As the arrow rain continued, a cry came from the sky. "We couldn't just let you handle this alone!" William said as gun shots sounded. Cort and Curt who atop of William began to rain down bullets on the Kuja pirates.

Seeing this Arch felt touched, but simultaneously he knew that this wouldn't end well. As a ranged battle ensued between the Kuja and the Expedition team, Arch locked eyes with his 3 main opponents.

"Hancock, Marigold and Sandersonia. I must say fighting 3 devil fruit users especially a Warlord is definitely above my level of strength." Arch muttered, and as if agreeing with him the chubby orange haired Marigold along with the wide faced green haired Sandersonia began to transforming into snakes.

Marigold turned into a yellow King Cobra, while Sandersonia turned into a pale green Anaconda. "I must say I never thought someone would dare go against us in the calm belt." Hancock chuckled as a deadly glint flashed in her eyes.

Suddenly a heart shaped beam shot towards Arch, but he wasn't too scared. Sure he did think she was beautiful but after how much she pissed him off he wasn't going to go all simp mode and get turned to stone.

Likewise Arch wasn't stupid either, so he closed his eyes and made a small cut on his palm. Back then a Vice Admiral had negated Boa Hancock's abilities by focusing on pain.

But as he did this, 2 tails of Marigold and Sandersonia flew towards him hitting him in the abdomen and legs. "Hahaha, you're really trying to kill me." Arch laughed as he began transforming once again. At first he thought of using this as a training experience to hopefully unlock his haki but now he was enraged.

"And? You're surprised about that you piece of trash?" Hancock mocked him as she walked towards him.

"BOOM!"

Before she could take another step Arch shot out of the rubble the wind blowing behind him as his paw grabbed onto her face throwing her off the ship.

"HANCOCK!" The Gorgon sisters screamed as they dashed towards the edge of the ship to see what had happened. Luckily for them Arch had some compassion and was currently holding her as she was half submerged in sea water.

"You bastard." She muttered as Arch merely levitated on the water in his half-beast state, the power to control wind was simply too strong, but its not like it was without cost. Dashing towards his ship, Arch called out to Bertram to retrieve the seastone handcuffs.

Immediately Arch restrained Hancock with them, before holding her up for all of the Kuja Pirates to see. "I've captured your Empress, stand down!" Arch commanded, as the battle concluded.

Luckily William and the gang hadn't killed any of the Kuja Pirates or else it would make their next steps much more difficult. "What do you want?" Hancock asked in disgust as she locked eyes with Arch. "Why are you looking at me like that? You think I as a King would do something so depraved as enslave you?" Arch shot back giving her a weird look.

Naturally he knew her history, but he didn't want anything like that but he did indeed want something. Some time later the Kuja Pirates and the Expedition Team docked at Amazon Lily, and immediately tensions were high.

The Kuja Pirates looked at the Expedition Team in disgust, while the Expedition Team looked back at them warily. "What do you want?" Marigold questioned as she pointed her giant polearm at the Expedition Team.

"Ahah, what are you doing pointing weapons at me? Do I not hold the life of your Empress in my hands?" Arch questions as he held up Boa Hancock by her neck. Hearing this Marigold backed down but Sandersonia looked on in fear as Arch held their sister.

"Now there's 2 ways this goes. A) I hand her into the World Government and say that you all attacked a King allied with the World Government, or B) We have an alliance." Arch declared as he flashed them a smile.

Naturally Arch knew when to push too far, and when to hold back a bit, and clearly he got the reaction he wanted as Marigold and Sandersonia's eyes flashed with fear. Even Boa Hancock couldn't help but shudder when hearing Arch's threat.

"As a sign of good will I'll be leaving my subordinates here, I've heard about your customs so I know it would be a bit inappropriate to allow so many men into your village. All I need is for us to have a room to discuss this matter, I don't care how many Kuja tribe members are in said room either." Arch continued as he grabbed Boa Hancock and waited for a response.

"Don't listen to him!" She struggled as the Kuja Pirates had conflicted expressions on their faces. "This, we need to discuss this first." Marigold said, Arch nodded and let them discuss amongst themselves.

Naturally Arch knew they wouldn't forsake Hancock, but they were probably debating whether or not to let Arch go and then recapture Hancock later. Seeing as the discussions were taking a while Arch decided to make some small talk.

"I hear that all the Kuja know Haki is that true?" Arch asked as he locked eyes with the captured Hancock. He had to admit she was indeed beautiful but her attitude had really irritated him prior. "I am not answering any of your questions." She grunted before looking away.

"Okay, then why did you become a Warlord?" Arch continued, but this time she didn't even dignify him with a response. 'This is so irritating, should I just hand her back to them and be on my way.' Arch pondered as he shot Bertram a look to retrieve the key.

On the other side the Kuja Pirates were still discussing matters but Arch didn't really care. 'Devil fruits are more important to the current Kingdom and what the Kuja can provide is limited.' He decided as he went to uncuff Hancock.

"What are you doing?" She questioned warily. "Oh I am feeding you to my pet dog. What do you think I am doing?" He joked sarcastically as he uncuffed the woman. "We'll be on our way then." Arch said as he took back the handcuffs and walked into his ship.

The Kuja Pirates were stunned seeing this, and didn't know what to do. "Wait, didn't you want an alliance!?" Hancock asked as she looked at Arch. "Yes that is what I want, but I've realised that forcing an alliance is more trouble then its worth." Arch answered as he boarded the ship.

This stunned the Kuja, and even the Expedition Team was confused, he had practically check mated the enemy just to let them go. "Fine then its an alliance you'll get!" Hancock declared as she stared at Arch.

"Oh?" Arch replied, he had to admit that was a bit of a gamble but even if he lost in reality it would be like he never ran into the Kuja. "Sure then, do you have somewhere where we can discuss this matter, as I've said before my subordinates can stay behind." Arch continued with a smile as he turned around.

Although the Kuja had nothing they did have something extremely important to Arch haki, and so Boa Hancock along with the other Gorgon Sisters brought Arch to a house at the outskirts of Amazon Lily, it would naturally be impossible for him to enter the actual town.

Sitting down at a table face to face, Arch smiled as he sipped on some tea. "Not bad." Arch commented as he watched the 4 women in front of him. Apart from the 3 Gorgon sisters Gloriosa was also present.

"I can't believe you broke one of our rules!" Gloriosa scolded Boa Hancock, who simply ignored her. "I am deeply sorry that my presence offends you Madam Gloriosa." Arch said apologetically as he locked eyes with the old woman.

"Quiet!" Boa Hancock immediately commanded gazing at Arch in annoyance. "Who do you think you are, this is meant to be the forming of an Alliance so why are you talking to that old hag?" She questioned Arch seemingly annoyed that he gave Gloriosa any attention.

"Fine I guess you're not wrong, then lets begin." Arch said as he placed down the tea cup and locked eyes with Boa Hancock. "I'll be clear, at this point in time there's nothing I can give you." Arch voiced, and immediately Boa Hancock's expression soured.

"But you need something from us don't you?" She asked having seemingly already given up on this conversation. 'At first I thought there was something to him, but he just seems to be another piece of trash.' Hancock thought her eyes flashing with disdain.

"Precisely, its good you catch on fast. I heard that all of the Kuja are proficient in at least the basic forms of Armament Haki are they not?" Arch asked with a playful smile on his face. 'Its true I can't provide anything at the moment but she did initiate this after I was prepared to leave.' Arch mused.

"Obviously but how is that important?" Hancock questioned it seemed she didn't truly understand the value the Kuja truly presented. "Oh its quite useful I won't stay beating around the bush, I want to propose an exchange program. You bring a few Kuja to my Kingdom to teach my soldiers Armament Haki for a couple months, and I'll send a few of my people to your Kingdom for the same amount of time, you can decide who I send assuming they're willing." Arch proposed.

"Also I'll assign some people to help teach them about the norms of the outside world so they also gain something out of it." Arch continued.

"Okay but what if I don't want anyone from your Kingdom?" Boa Hancock questioned once again, the more she listened the more it sounded like she was being taken advantage of. Naturally this wasn't a terrible proposal the Kuja had to leave the island eventually to bear children and teaching an ally haki wasn't a big deal. Simultaneously though the Kuja seem to be gaining nothing.

"Fine, how about we change the currency which we're exchanging, do you need devil fruits?" Arch asked, hearing this Boa Hancock's eyebrows raised but only for a moment. "No, we don't need them." She swiftly answered.

"Are you sure about that? What if you lose your Warlord position and are invaded by the marines? With your pitiful strength you'll be crushed if they send a few Vice-Admirals needless to say if they send an Admiral." Arch explained. "And you don't even need to feed them to someone, you can always keep them in storage until you require a few devil fruit users." He continued, seeing the confliction on Boa Hancock's face.

"Fine I accept, now show me the devil fruits." Boa Hancock decided as she looked expectantly at Arch. "Slow down, I don't have any devil fruits, rather I have a method to obtain them." Arch began.

"If you kill a devil fruit user who's surrounded by a pile of fruits more often then not the fruit will reincarnate into one of those fruits, meaning that this is perfect for you. Lets assume you find some pirates on the Calm Belt, you can just capture them if they have a devil fruit user and execute them for their devil fruit, its pretty nifty don't you think?" Arch explained with a smile.

"And seeing as you already agreed, don't think about taking back your promise." Arch finished as he rose from his seat. What Arch had said had indeed been valuable information but she couldn't help but feel tricked.

"Then that's it, you can see yourself off." Hancock sneered as Arch walked towards the door. "Okay then, I'll be back somewhere between a week and 2 weeks from now, make sure you have your people ready by then." Arch replied as he walked out of the room.

As soon as he left Marigold, Sandersonia and even Gloriosa looked at Hancock in confusion. "Why did you accept that deal?" Marigold questioned she couldn't understand her eldest sister's thought process.

"Because I believe his ambitions are much higher than they seem." Hancock replied with a smile on her face, after all she wanted nothing more then to see the World Government fall.

Outside the house Arch was quite pleased, in fact that was way easier than expected. 'At first I thought I was going to have to give up a devil fruit or two.' He sweated as he walked back towards his ship.

After a few minutes the Expedition Team left Amazon Lily and headed towards the East Blue, needless to say that had been a tiring experience for them all.