Chapter 15 Return

Around 2 days later, the group made it out of the Calm Belt and headed towards Tigria, luckily for Arch and the Expedition Team the Perfume Yuda of the Kuja was much faster than their own boat so their trip back home had been quite fast.

Ugo had now become somewhat of a mentor for the Kuja women as whenever they had a question they'd simply ask him about it, and needless to say he was feeling a bit overwhelmed. "Blegh." He vomited off the side of the boat, and immediately he was bombarded with questions.

"Do boys throw up regularly?"

"Why are you throwing up is something specific about being a guy?"

"You're not sick right?"

Question after question arrived, luckily for Ugo he wasn't alone, Curt and William trying their best to alleviate his pressure, while Cort stood to the side simply spectating. At first Cort's job had been to make sure Bertram didn't say something he shouldn't but now the man had to help navigate the ship according to the eternal log pose.

'At least he remembered one thing.' Arch sighed gazing at the waves atop the sea. It was truly an oddity in Arch's opinion how the sea could so quickly turn from perfectly calm to raging with waves. 'Welp its One Piece.'

The Perfume Yuda continued to make its way towards Tigria but Arch was getting bored of all his peace and quiet. At first it was calming and enjoyable but now after two days he needed something to do.

'Well I can't train my devil fruit here, and I don't exactly have haki to train, so I guess I'll train my literal physique.' Arch pondered before he began to do some exercises. He was already pretty confident in his physique but he didn't really have anyone to scale with.

After all its not like Arch was fighting marines and killing pirates every day but he was pretty confident he at least had the physique on the level of the strongest marines and pirates in paradise, save for the Vice-Admirals and Admirals.

Arch's training went smoothly, no one interrupted him and while his improvements weren't even noticeable Arch was still quite pleased. 'Man sometimes I wish I had a system.' He sighed seeing an island in the distance.

It was quite large and more or less circular in form, Arch could barely see a village at the edge of the island from the ship. The colour of the trees on the island seemed to be orange brown in colour their leaves littered on the flour.

'Home sweet home.' Arch thought as the ship approached, but the villagers reaction was poor to say the least. "SOUND THE ALARM, PIRATES HAVE ARRIVED!" Arch heard a scream from the island. 'Fuck.'

Seeing the panicked movements of the people, Arch slapped himself on the forehead. He came on a pirate ship and he didn't expect this reaction? It seemed being out at sea had dulled Arch's common sense.

"William quickly take me to shore!" Arch commanded, in almost an instant William transformed into an eagle and Arch jumped on top of him before flying towards the island at their highest speed. Flying above the village the people cowered in fear when they saw the eagle.

"I-Its a devil fruit user!" One of them cried before the people began running away. "Wait a second!" Arch's voice resounded, causing the villagers to pause for a second. "Is it, KING!" The villagers cried looking for where the voice came from.

William then descended and Arch's figure came into view. "Thank god." A villager sighed, before the rest of them dropped to their knees. "Your Majesty." They greeted. Arch merely told them to rise before continuing the business at hand.

"That ship isn't filled with pirates, now you'll see." He assured them as he noticed their panicked expressions. "Also do any of you have a den den mushi?" Arch requested, and in less than a minute someone brought him one.

"Who's this?" A gruff voice sounded on the other side. "Brother I need you to bring 100 soldiers to the North to escort some guests, also make sure your soldiers don't do anything indecent." Arch commanded, before hearing a chuckle on the other side.

"I see you're back, I'll be there in about 10 minutes." Apollo replied before hanging up the call. After that Arch then dialed another number and asked Alonso to prepare tents next to the military training camp.

The Perfume Yuda then docked at Tigria and the Kuja tribeswomen began disembarking. "Calm down what are you a bunch of animals?" Hancock sneered when she saw the excited expressions of her fellow tribeswomen.

"Yes." They replied before calming down. "I still don't understand how you can act so cruel yet they still follow you." Arch noted when he arrived back at the group. "Naturally its because I am beautiful." Hancock scoffed flipping her hair back.

"Okay I guess, anyway the escort will be here in about 10 minutes I am sure your Empress explained to you what's going to happen right?" Arch asked, as he looked through the Kuja tribeswomen. "Yes she said we'd have to teach some people haki." One woman answered.

"Good, and I am sure Ugo taught you quite a bit these past few days hasn't he?" Arch questioned once more. "Of course Mr Ugo is like our Master!" One of them said. "Yes he's the smartest man I've ever seen!" Another one said.

'Well that's a pretty low bar.' Arch thought as he dismissed the chit chat. Ugo on the other hand was looking quite prideful with a smile on his face, it seemed like his days of suffering were worth it. "Hmph this is really shameful you don't even have a grand greeting to greet this Empress and instead I have to wait." Hancock complained shaking her head derisively.

"Its not like I could have notified them beforehand." Arch muttered looking away a bit embarrassed. Frankly he hadn't expected that Hancock would come with them so he hadn't planned anything really. Apart from that they didn't even have a den den mushi and Arch doubted if he even had one with a long enough call range to ask for a greeting party all the way in the calm belt.

"Well its not like its the first time you've disappointed this Empress." She voiced causing Arch's face to turn even redder with embarrassment. 'Don't worry she'll be leaving soon.' Arch calmed himself down when he noticed the approaching soldiers.

Seeing them Arch moved forward to greet them, locking eyes with Apollo who stood at the forefront. "Welcome back your Majesty." Apollo greeted with a smile on his face. "Mhm, can we talk privately a bit?" Arch asked as he pointed to the side.

He had already noticed the soldiers gawking at the Kuja tribeswomen. "What do you need?" Apollo whispered once they were a distance away, but he might as well have been shouting considering his voice.

"Have you heard of the Kuja from the calm belt?" Arch asked Apollo as quietly as possible. "The Ku-." Apollo tried to say before Arch shut him up. "I don't need you telling the entire island, anyway these are the Kuja I brought them here to teach you and the soldiers haki, understood?" Arch replied moving his hand away from Apollo's face.

"...Got it." Apollo said with a goofy smile, Arch knew that smile and he knew what this oaf would do next. After walking back to the soldiers Apollo coughed loudly. "Quiet!" He commanded and immediately the incessant mumbling from the soldiers stopped.

"These are our honored guests, they'll be teaching you all very soon, you are to treat them with the utmost respect!" Apollo declared causing the soldiers freeze up and delete any indecent thoughts they were having.

From the side Arch was quite pleased. 'It seems I hadn't made the wrong decision back then.' Arch mused before going back to the Kuja, they there were then escorted to their new residences, and Arch went back to the palace after separating with the Expedition Team.

"What are you doing?" He questioned after noticing that Hancock was still following him. "Naturally since this Empress has made the trip all the way here then I'll be staying for a few days." She replied locking eyes with Arch.

Seeing her expression Arch understood. 'I guess she wants to make sure her people are alright before leaving.' Arch pondered entering the palace.

Once they entered Arch asked Alonso to prepare her a room before making his way to the throne room.