Chapter Text
King Hephaestus had only just sat down at the table when a soldier came running into the room with a panicked look.
"What?!" King Hephaestus barked.
"Your majesty, they have escaped." The soldier reported.
King Hephaestus' face turned red with anger, "I thought I had instructed that high security measures were to be set up outside the room?!"
"But your majesty, it seems that many of them have devil fruit powers and it was difficult to contain the-"
"Enough! Bring me my hammer!" King Hephaestus barked out orders as he prepared to stand up.
"I thought we are currently set to discuss the details of our cooperation?" Daifuku frowned, "you've kept us waiting."
"This is vital to my kingdom's wellbeing and I shall not have you doubting my actions." King Hephaestus frowned at Daifuku.
"Although your kingdom is skilled at creating top notch weaponry, you do not want Big Mom as an enemy." Perospero hissed.
"Was that a threat?" King Hephaestus glared at the man before him.
"Well-"Perospero drawled and was about to continue when the door slamming open interrupted him.
"Your majesty! The Strawhats have made it to the gates with the twins." Another soldier came running into the room.
"Wait! the Strawhats are here?" Perospero was momentarily shocked, "and they broke out with the twins?"
Daifuku was shocked as he looked at Perospero, "brother, you don't think that the twins are involved with the Strawhats?"
"seems like there are some things you have not been sharing with us, King Hephaestus." Perospero drawled, " why don't you say we discuss things in detail again, this time, with honesty?"
"If those that had escaped are truly the Strawhats, you would need our powers to capture them." Flampe said with a smirk.
The King grunted, glaring at the pirates that dared threaten him in his kingdom. However, with the reports coming in about how the vul source is getting more and more unstable day by day, he really needed someone to go into the caves and find the new the vul source and have it reconnected to the island.
The Nigai island was known as the island that was blessed by the gods, providing the island with the rare material vul. Vul was a material that has a wide variety of usage, it could appear as mist or bubble and stick to any one on the island, tracing their whereabouts. Throughout the centuries, his ancestors have explored the different uses of vul and came to discover that it could be applied to strengthen any weapons. His ancestors, a direct descendent of the god Hephaestus has been skilled in the crafting of weaponries, however, the process is long and time consuming. With the vul introduced to the weapon creating process, the time needed to create top weaponry was greatly cut down by 70%. However, every 500 years, the vul source would dry out and a new one would appear, giving the old source a chance to regenerate the vul used up. The challenge about linking up the new vul source to the island's vul system is that one would have to navigate the caves in order to find the source. The caves is a notoriously difficult terrain to navigate as new tunnels are continuously opening up or shutting down. It is rumored that there is only one path to the vul source and it is different every week.
According to legend, this difficult journey has served as a test for the friends that created this kingdom to work together in order to attain the riches given by the gods. Hence, every year, it is the ruler's mission to find the navigator's female descendant as the ability is always passed on to one of the female in the family. When he finally came into power, he decided that it was much too troublesome to keep looking for the descendant year after year and decided to have the descendant marry into his family. He intends to expand the usage of vul and given the speed he is using up the vul, he needed the navigator by his side ready to find the new source when he exhausts the current one. His wife, Aphrodite has been reluctant, wanting to travel the seas instead of being tied down to the Kingdom. However, he abused his power to have things gone his way, he could lock up the woman until he finally got a daughter that inherited the power. But curse that woman! The second that their youngest had shown signs of inheriting the power, she escaped with the child into Grand Line. He had sent people after them, however, they had only arrived at some island in the East Blue to find that his wife had been caught in a battle and passed away. His daughter's body was never found, but given the fact that she was just a couple months old, it was presumed that she had also passed. Hence he redirected his attention to his one of his living daughter, Hana who seem to share more traits of her mother than her other 2 sisters. He had hoped that the power would revive in her in the coming years, however, it never did. That's when he had the suspicion that his youngest daughter must be alive out there.
Now he finally knew, his youngest daughter was indeed still alive. However, it seems that her crew mates seem very reluctant to let her go. His thoughts trailed to the little girl they had captured. If that was his grandchild, perhaps he could brainwash the child into staying with him and use her abilities to navigate the cave...
"What do you say to a cooperation?" Perospero smirked, "we only want the kids or more specifically, the boy, we will help you recapture the children and hold them hostage to force the navigator into completing your mission."
"Let me have the girl too and I will provide the Big Mom Pirates with the weapons you've requested." King Hephaestus said as he extended a hand.
"I see that this is the beginning of a beauty cooperation, King Hephaestus." Perospero nodded as he shook the king's hand.
"You're all late." Flampe frowned as he looked at her brother and sisters that was approaching the gates.
"Be glad that we're late so that we could find and lock up their ship." Cracker said as he stopped before his siblings, "But I have to say, Germa and the StrawHats?"
"Never thought those losers would be working together again." Amande agreed with a drawl, her large sunhat covering up the obvious distain on her face, "but then again, it feels like those Strawhats are up to ruining every thing for us with every chance they got."
"Imagine how happy Mama would be when we deliver the kid to her," Perospero smirked, "the Strawhats have escaped from us, but we will be delivering them straight back into Mama's arms."
"So how did you guys figure out that they were cooperating?" Gallete asked as the group began making their way into the streets.
"This cry baby here began panicking over his power loss after the boy bumped into him." Flampe said.
"The King then mentioned that the twins were the navigator's kid." Daifuku said, "and also the fact that they came to break out the twins."
"Wait...don't tell me..." Cracker's eyes widened before he let out a wild laugh, "they are the children of that navigator and the run away groom?" He turned to Perospero, "oh, Aniki! Mama would be elated once she discovers what we have delivered to her! Who knows, maybe it'll even give you a closer shot at running again for the position of the vice captain!"
"Like that will ever happen" Flampe rolled her eyes, "we all know that its Katakuri niichan's position."
Persopero ignored Flampe's words and laughed, "we've truly hit the jackpot! The offspring of the pirate crew Mama hates and the latest Germa 66 experiments. One that would cancel out devil fruit powers."
"Will we be able to capture them without Katakuri nii chan?" Gallete asked, "we had a hard time battling them when there were only a few of them."
"Pedro isn't here," Perospero shrugged, "and besides, I'm here! Remember we only need the children."
"Like you being here is any reassurance." Gallete scoffed as she swatted her purple feather coat in the direction of Perospero, hitting him in the face.
"Gallete!"
"Aniki! We're near" Daifuku spoke up, interrupting Perospero outburst, "should we sent them a little surprise?"
"Go for it." Perospero smirked as he watched Daifuku summon the genie and head off in the direction before them.