Chapter 8 Devil Fruit Here Devil Fruit There

As the convoy approached the shore of Tigria shouts could be heard as the citizens looked at the 10 ships approaching the island. "The King is back!" They chanted as they all recognised the ships in front of them.

The King had succeeded in bringing back enough food to solve the crisis, to say they were excited would be an understatement, for some of them this was literally the best day of their lives.

After the ships docked at Tigria Arch paid them the shipping fee, and they brought down the supplies, soon after the Agriculture department on the island also arrived to take back the supplies, although this would definitely solve the food problem, if it wasn't handled properly then it would all be for naught.

Seeing as the problem was being handled, Arch gave a few final orders and thanked the deliverymen before making his way back to the palace, the people cheering him on his way back. Naturally as King he had to respond in kind, smiling at the citizens and greeting a few of them on the way back.

Once back at the castle Arch requested to see Alonso. "Your Majesty?" Alonso asked, bowing as he entered the room. "I would like you to call the Expedition Team to the Royal Garden, along with my 4th brother, also make sure a lot and I mean a lot of fruits are placed within the Royal Garden." Arch commanded, and immediately Alonso got to work.

'He sure is reliable.' Arch smiled before gazing at his ceiling. The easiest way for him to grow his Kingdom would be to gather many devil fruits and distribute them to the top brass, that way their fighting power and versatility would naturally increase, after that the Kingdom would require allies, more land, greater infrastructure, there was a lot that needed to be done to build the ultimate Kingdom.

"There's also Arthur." He sighed as he rose from his bed, at this point in time though there was nothing he could do about this issue.

A few minutes later Alonso had managed to gather everyone in the royal garden, naturally William and the rest understood why, but 4th was still a bit confused. He had already been informed about Picker but was rather curious as to why his brother had summoned him.

"Now that everyone has been gathered, I'd like to begin the investigation on the greatest harvest of our journey." Arch said reaching for the treasure chest containing the devil fruit. William passed it onto him and immediately Arch's face lit up.

4th wasn't too pleased seeing this his face twitching lightly as he watched his older brother. The boy had wanted a devil fruit ever since he found out he had no talent in combat. Just imagining the mystical abilities a devil fruit could provide made 4th's eyes shimmer in wonder.

Cutting back to reality, Arch locked eyes with 4th as he lightly smiled. "Do you still not understand why I've brought you here?" Arch asked as he patted his little brother on the head. This caused 4th's face to twitch once again as he looked to the side.

"I see you haven't realised, I need you to identify these devil fruits. I remember when we were younger you used to read the encyclopedia religiously so I am sure you can identify this fruit right?" He questioned opening the chest before handing the fruit to 4th.

Seeing the fruit his eyes began to glow, as he noted the grey exterior, the black and white stalk and the overall shape of the fruit. "Hmm, this is? Well not the Smoke Smoke Fruit, and it can't be the Magnet Magnet Fruit either, this, its not the Truth Truth Fruit is it?!" 4th exclaimed in shock as his eyes seemed to shimmer.

"Can you elaborate?" Arch asked, immediately 4th made a light coughing sound. "The Truth Truth Fruit, a paramecia type devil fruit which allows the user to see, hear, and feel the truth of all things. Simply speaking whoever eats this devil fruit becomes a human lie detector and will have comprehension of all languages and writing." 4th explained as he continued marveling at the fruit.

Hearing this Arch's head throbbed. 'Of all things, why this fruit!?' Arch thought as he looked around him. Currently there was only Arch, 4th, and the Expedition team inside the room. Otherwise Arch might have just signed his death sentence.

One had to understand the implications of this fruit, with this if 4th's description was accurate you could read the Poneglyphs and discover the true history meaning that whoever ate this fruit would be just as dangerous as Nico Robin in the World Government's eyes.

"Not a word of this fruit is too be leaked outside of this room. Not. A. Word." Arch commanded, his expression grave. Hearing this the Expedition Team nodded, they didn't understand why this would need to be kept secret but it was an order from the King so they obeyed.

"Now what to do with this fruit..." He muttered as he clutched his forehead, this fruit seemed to be more trouble than it was worth, in fact he was debating just handing it off to the World Government. "Give it to me." 4th replied, this fruit tempted him greatly and if not for the respect he held for his older brother he would have already eaten it whole.

"Why?" Arch was confused as to why his brother would want this fruit, after all this fruit had limited application. "Hehe, well you may be blind to this fruit's usage but I ain't, this is the perfect fruit for a person such as myself." 4th assured as he pointed at himself.

'Well there's no one else I can really give this to.' After this thought he gave his brother the go ahead to eat this fruit, if he was confident in its usability then he'd let his brother have this.

Little did Arch know about the immense dilemma his brother was having. 'I guess its this fruit, or no fruit.' He sighed as he gazed at the fruit in his hands. Aristophanes had dreamed about obtaining a magical logia ability, or a mystical zoan fruit, or even a power paramecia, but now he had resigned himself to taking this albeit versatile extremely weak devil fruit.

'For the Kingdom.' 4th resigned himself to his fate before munching on fruit, he immediately felt like vomiting as his face turned green. Arch couldn't help but chuckle as he witnessed this before paying attention to the detained man in front of him.

Vidar L. Picker, a devil fruit user and a pirate with a bounty of 300 million, this man might as well have been a walking treasure chest. Currently the man was bound in seastone handcuffs and his eyes were destroyed.

Sensing the gaze directed at him, Picker knew what was about to come. "Just finish me off." He muttered, the Expedition Team looking towards Arch to see what their next course of action would be.

"Before that please do explain your devil fruit abilities, it would be a great help to me after all." Arch chuckled as he squatted in front of the man. Although he couldn't see him, he could still sense his presence.

"Fine, as long as you finish me off quickly. My devil fruit the Leaf Leaf Fruit, allows me to produce and manipulate leaves, up to 1000 but this limit can be increased. Leaves produces by the user are much tougher and sharper than regular leaves and with enough practice they can definitely reach a frightening strength. Although I wasn't half bad with this fruit I did indeed grow complacent otherwise I doubt you could have defeated me so easily." Picker sighed as he explained the abilities of his devil fruit.

'If only I had trained harder.' He thought, sadly there was no way he could revert time. "I see, then this is quite the versatile combat fruit is it not?" Arch pondered as he went over the details of the fruit. It was true that the leaves were quite deadly when they fought, and there was also another fact that Picker had overlooked.

Arch was the perfect counter to his leaves due to his ability to manipulate wind, then again Picker wouldn't know that unless he was a genius that deduced it from their one battle.

"Well, I am a King and as a King my words are gold, do you have any last words or something of the like?" Arch asked as he indicated for 4th to be taken away. "I would like to be buried in the sea if possible." Picker pleaded as he said the final words of his life.

"Then good luck in the after life." Arch sent him on his way piercing his claw into his head. He would be lying to himself if he didn't say this was a bit of a sickening experience, but it was a necessary evil in Arch's opinion.

"What now?" William asked only sparing a glance at Picker's dead body. "Well for now we wait, once his devil fruit is secured, I'd like the Expedition Team to take his corpse to the closest Marine Base and claim the bounty, once that's complete bury him in the sea as he wished." Arch commanded, he wasn't a cruel man so he would honor Picker's final request.

"As you wish." The man had his fair share of life experiences sailing the seas and this wasn't exactly a new sight to him.

After the execution was complete, the group of 7 awaited the fruit's revival as they watched the pile of fruits in front of them. Once the devil fruit reappeared these fruits would be given to the citizens to eat.

Finally a few minutes later a fruit transformed as it began turning green with swirls forming on it, its stalk growing taller as it too also swirled. "Bingo."

The fruit was then retrieved, Arch holding it in hands as he looked at the Expedition Team. "Do any of you want this fruit?" He asked them as he held out. For the Truth Truth fruit he didn't feel it suited members of the expedition team but this Leaf Leaf Fruit he was completely fine with giving to them assuming they wanted it.

"We're fine." Curt replied, he and Cort mirrored each other as they were now, so shifting their fighting style wouldn't do well. On the other hand William already had a devil fruit, while Ugo was much of a combatant so he too declined.

"Hmmmm, I am tempted but on second thought I'll pass, after all how can I date a mermaid if I can't swim." Bertram voiced his opinion as he shook his head. Hearing this they all almost burst out laughing.

"If you ever manage to date a mermaid, I'll give you 100 million Beri!" Arch laughed as he slapped his thigh, Bertram simply nodded, he didn't mind accepting a free gift of 100 million Beri after all.

"Well seeing as no one wants it I'll simply keep it away until I find someone suitable. I thank all of you for your help on this journey, now there's just the final stretch which I won't be joining you for." Arch said solemnly as he kept away the Leaf Leaf fruit.

After that Arch informed them of a few things if the World Government asked any prying questions, and sent them on their way the 300 million Beri bounty was a pressing issue because those funds could help out the Kingdom significantly.