Chapter 9 Setting Out

Weeks had passed since Arch's return and needless to say but the food situation had improved immensely so much so that the faith the Tigrian people held in Arch grew stronger by the day.

"Today the Leader of the Willow Gang has been apprehended." A soldier announced as he dragged a boy into the throne room, he was an average looking boy of about 14 years of age and wasn't all that impressive but his eyes held immense hatred as he stared at Arch.

"So what crimes have you committed?" Arch asked resting his head on his hand. "I've robbed food and beaten up other people." The boy replied. Hearing this 4th who was standing to the side nodded, so Arch continued his questioning.

"Have you ever committed murder before?"

"No."

The conversation went back and forth, but it seemed the boy was quite honest. "Okay, now for my final question, why do you hate me so?" Arch chuckled as he locked eyes with the boy. Hearing this the boy immediately shifted his gaze, if he rubbed the King the wrong was he could be executed.

"I don't hate the King, the King is the hero of the people." He said as he looked the other way, Arch didn't even need 4th to tell him that this boy was lying. "Well if you don't want to answer truthfully then what is there to say." Arch sighed as he looked towards 4th who gave him a hand sign.

"I'll be sentencing you to mandatory military service, don't make trouble maybe one day if you rise high enough we may have this conversation once again." Arch commanded, the boy was then dragged away by the soldier but his eyes never wavered.

'Hopefully we don't have a blood feud.' Arch mused as he watched the boy leave the room, those with strong wills had a high chance of becoming just as strong fighters so Arch thought the boy would be quite valuable if he didn't seem so hell bent on killing him.

After a few more hours of sentencing Arch left the throne room along with 4th who went to take care of other duties with Ade Wilhelm the Minister of Internal Affairs.

Surprisingly 4th's devil fruit had actually been quite useful, apart from being a human lie detector he could also tell how evil or good someone was by their "aura". Arch didn't exactly understand but he simply thought of it as something like Karma. Either way as the days passed 4th's devil fruit only showed more and more of its potential.

'I am glad I gave it to him now.' Arch thought with a smile on his face, seeing how versatile the fruit was Arch almost wanted to slap his past self for thinking it was trash.

Besides the constant need to sentence those various gang members along with their leaders the days had been pretty uneventful. William and the team had swiftly completed their task and buried Picker at sea.

With the 300 million Beri acquired Arch had decided to spend half of it to purchase seastone products, from the raw material to some seastone handcuffs and a pair of gloves for his personal use.

'Learning haki is hard.' Arch sighed as he wore the pair of gloves. Although Arch had attempted training his haki, many many many times there seemed to be something he was missing. Arch had consulted his father and even his brother Arthur about this a few times before but it seemed to be of no use.

That didn't mean he was weak though, as Arch had over the years developed a few of his own techniques, but he did accept that his attainments in haki were less than desirable to say the least.

After wearing the gloves, Arch exited his room and headed towards the docks once again where he found the Expedition Team manning the small boat the Team seemed to have a smile on their faces as Arch approached.

"Its complete." Curt declared as he looked at the boat with a smile on his face. Naturally this was one of the other reasons Arch had purchased seastone, to coat a ship with it. With this they could now traverse the calm belt and go and get a very very strong fruit.

But first they had to begin their journey. "So, we can set sail?" Arch asked as he walked onto the ship. Hearing this the Expedition Team was elated, naturally they loved adventures the most and one across the calm belt couldn't just be done every other day.

"Well yes the supplies are read, but are you confident we can row across the calm belt?" William asked as he locked eyes with Arch. "Who said anything about rowing?" Arch smirked before they set off to the calm belt.

As King he couldn't just up and leave, but he had informed 4th and likewise Ade beforehand so they would handle everything, not like there was much to handle these days anyway. His time would be much better spent securing devil fruits and funds for the Kingdom.

A few days later, if one looked at the calm belt they would see a curious little ship sailing across the calm belt with little to no worries. "Your devil fruit is really something." Bertram sighed as he watched how Arch commanded the wind to move the ship along.

They were quite a distance through the calm belt already, when they heard a caw of a bird. William then flew down transforming back into a human, his expression solemn as he looked at Arch. "We need to make a detour, there's an island ahead which we do not want to enter." William said his expression solemn.

"What island?" Arch asked as the ship kept trudging along, but before William could answer the island came into view.

It was a relatively large island with a number of snake statues carved out of it, on the front of the mountain the word "Kuja" was spelled out. Seeing this Arch immediately felt a headache coming on.

'You have to be fucking kidding me.' Arch thought immediately shifting the direction of the wind to dodge the island altogether, he didn't feel like dealing with a younger and possibly crazier Pirate Empress at this point in time.

As if mocking him though, a large red ship appeared with 2 snakes at the front and the jolly roger of none-other than the Kuja Pirates. 'Really? Just how bad is my luck to run into her of all people.' Arch thought as a woman appeared.

She had long black hair, dark blue eyes and had quite the tall and beautiful figure even by One Piece standards. Her long hair was let down framing her face and she was dressed in quite the revealing red blouse.

"You there, you're intruding on the Kuja tribes territory! As payment you must hand over all of your supplies to us or die!" The girl commanded as she faced the sky pointing at Arch's ship.

'So this is Boa Hancock?' Arch questioned as he looked at her. It was a bit difficult to identify characters unless it was blatantly obvious after all they weren't moving cartoon characters. He did have to admit that Boa Hancock was quite beautiful though.

"I am Archelaus Tigra, and I and my comrades were just passing through the calm belt to reach East Blue, we have no problems with your Kuja tribe and would just like to pass through." Arch explained as he bowed slightly. Even if he was a King he still had to show other leaders due respect.

"Did I ask? I already gave you 2 options choose. I may be a Warlord of the sea but that doesn't mean you can trespass on my territory." Boa Hancock continued her demands, as Arch felt his head throb. 'This woman is really fucking irritating.' Arch thought as his eyes flashed.

He was already using his zoan powers earlier to move the ship so he jumped off the ship transforming into his full Byakko form, turning into a white tiger with a blue flame on his tail.

Seeing this Boa Hancock raised her brows but she wasn't too shocked, she had also seen many things while travelling the world. "Shoot down their ship!" She commanded as Arch seemed to walk on air.

The wind blowing him towards their pirate ship. At her command arrows began flying towards the ship, seeing this Arch merely scowled. The air around the arrows redirected them into the sea as Arch landed on the ship reverting back into his human form.

"Is the Kuja tribe really all that? Maybe you're better at hand to hand combat." Arch sneered as he provoked the crew.