8 Chapter 8: The Demon Prince

[I tried writing a backstory for a canon character for the first time. Tell me how I can improve.]

Shachi used soru and appeared before each of them and all it took was a kick in the gut to knock them out.

After dealing with everyone, Shachi appeared beside Law and was confused. He said "I was pretty sure I held back a lot. Why are they knocked out so easily?"

Law said "You are strong now Shachi. You should get used to this and pull your punches more."

Shachi smiled proudly and tied them up. Law splashed water on their faces and woke them up.

They woke up and looked around until they noticed that they couldn't move. They wiggled around vigorously to free themselves.

Law walked closer to one of them and said "There is no use trying to escape. Even if you free yourself, it will take us seconds to catch all of you. So, better start talking."

Everyone glared at Law and said "Kill us if you want, but we will never tell where our boss is."

Law said "I like your loyalty, but there are a few people you meet in your life who you shouldn't disappoint."

Law made a room and teleported a stone to his palm. Law said "I have devil fruit powers and I can easily find your leader using your bodies. I am new to this island so, if you take me to your leader, I might consider helping you. If you choose to stay silent and I find him myself, I will torture him so much that he will be begging me to kill him."

The captives immediately tensed up and didn't know what to do. They looked at each other before one of them volunteered to speak.

The captive said "We are soldiers of Prince Basil Hawkins. The Basil is the royal family of this kingdom who were betrayed by their own people. Please help our prince. We will take you to him and you can ask him anything you want for your help."

Law nodded and teleported the ropes, freeing them instantly. Seeing the mysterious powers of his devil fruit, they really hoped Law would help their leader, so treated him with utmost respect.

They escorted Law and his friends through the forest to a cave. The entrance of the cave was properly covered with many bushes, camouflaging the entrance. They then entered the cave and walked into the cave, which is very huge with many rooms dug.

The soldiers were walking in the front, Law and his friends followed behind them.

Penguin approached Law and asked "Are we really going to help the people here when we came here to destroy the whole kingdom?"

Law replied "That plan will not change. I am just curious about this prince who has to live in a cave."

They then walked into a cave with candles on the walls, lighting the room. There were four men besides the captives who brought Law. Three of them were wearing the same black cloth those captives were wearing before.

In the centre of the cave was a table and two chairs. On one chair, there was a man with blonde hair, black triangle symbols on his eyebrows and red eyes. He didn't have the black cross on his throat like the Hawkins from the show.

Law sat down on the other chair that was empty. The man with blonde hair asked the men who brought Law to the cave "Who is he? Why did you bring him here?"

Before they could answer, Law said "We are pirates who are going to destroy this kingdom. I heard about you from them and I am curious as to what the prince of a kingdom is doing here. Depending on your answer, you might get to live, or if your story is interesting enough, I might even help you."

The man before Law looked at him and then looked at Bepo, Penguin and Shachi. He then takes out a deck of tarot cards and pulls out a card. He widens his eyes and looks at Law and his crew. His shocked expression slowly turned to happy and then sad.

He then placed the cards on the table and said "Let me introduce myself properly. I am Basil Hawkins, the prince of the Ragelt Kingdom. Our family ruled the kingdom before it was taken over by the church and it was all because of me.

Hawkins then explains his past in full detail.

*Flashback 24 years ago*

The Ragelt Kingdom was way smaller than it was before. The Basil family ruled over this small kingdom. The only special locations in the Kingdom were the King's castle and church. The kingdom was blessed with a very kind king and a very prosperous land. It was the perfect kingdom.

Five years ago, a few people from another island arrived at this kingdom and wanted to spread their religion in the kingdom. They established a church and had grown close to the citizens of the kingdom with their charities. They also took in orphanages, which added to their good image. Since they were doing good for the people, he allowed them to stay in the kingdom.

Basil Hawkins was the only child, so he often played with the kids from the orphanage. There, he made a friend named Christon.

One day, when Christon and Hawkins were playing, they found a weird fruit with weird swirl pattern on it. Hawkins and Christon, being 5 year olds, their curiosity got to them and decided to eat the fruit since they haven't seen it before, nor did they hear of something like this.

They split the fruit and both ate it. Hawkins was the first one to take a bite and thus got the devil fruit powers. Hawkins immediately learnt new information that felt like he already knew it before and it was common knowledge to know that. It was the information about the fruit. As for Christon, he threw the fruit and said "Disgusting"

Being a 5 year old, Hawkins obviously wanted to test out his newfound powers. He plucked out a hair from Christon's head

"Ouch" Christon exclaimed rubbing his head. He then turned to Hawkins to question him, but stopped when a straw doll suddenly appeared from Hawkins' hand.

Hawkins then did something with the hair and the straw doll. The hair disappeared and Christon asked "Hawkins, what did you just do?"

"I don't know, but I really want it know." Hawkins said and picked up the doll. He picked it up by the arm and Christon immediately held his shoulder and cried out in pain "It hurts...it hurts...what is happening?.."

Hawkins immediately took the straw doll back into his arm and turned to Christon, who stopped crying now that the pain went away.

Christon returned to the church since he didn't want to play anymore and Hawkins also returned to the castle.

What Hawkins didn't know at that time was that a priest was watching them the whole time. He witnessed Hawkins test out his devil fruit powers and reported everything to the pope, along with the half of the devil fruit Christon threw away.

The pope heard everything, looked at the fruit and said "This fruit must be a devil fruit. Hawkins must have eaten it first, so he got the powers. This is getting interesting. Our God has finally answered our prayers and gave us an opportunity."

He then prays to their god and after he finishes his prayers, he says to the priest "Everything you saw should be a secret. Don't let anyone know about this. You may leave now."

The priest leaves the hall and the pope goes to his room. He pulls out a transponder snail from a drawer and dials a number. When the other side picked up the call, he said "I would like to make an offer with the world government."

The next day, there was news spreading around in the kingdom that the royal family was practicing dark arts and was planning to summon a demon.

Obviously, the citizens knew the king for a long time and didn't believe the rumours. The next day, the church started putting out missing posters stating that all the orphans of the church were missing.

Meanwhile, the king felt that there was something wrong going on in the kingdom, but he trusted his citizens and believed that if you are kind to others, they will return the kindness. So, he sent soldiers to help the church search for the kids.

He thought he was helping people by sending the soldiers, but it was his biggest mistake.

The next day, there was a huge crowd at the gates of the royal palace. The guards were struggling to keep them from breaking into the castle. Hearing all the commotion, the king and his family walked out of the castle to the gate.

The king asked "Calm down and tell me what happened."

The pope was standing in front of the crowd and shouted at the king "The evil king is here. Do you want to still feign ignorance when there is sufficient evidence."

"What are you talking about?" King asked, confused.

"The previous night, the men I hired to search for the missing kids found a carriage outside the kingdom with the dead bodies of the missing kids being escorted by your soldiers. When my men tried to atleast retrieve their bodies for a proper funeral, but they were stopped by your soldiers. My men had no choice but to kill your soldiers. Do you still want to say that you didn't to anything." The pope said.

The king understood that he was being framed and said "I really had nothing to do with this. You have to believe me."

The pope shouted "I told you he will try to feign ignorance. Capture them."

Everyone broke through the gates and rushed into the palace grounds. The soldiers were the only ones who trusted the king because they have been near him the whole time and know what kind of a person he is. So, the soldiers tried to save the king and his family, but the men Pope hired were strong enough to easily take down the soldiers.

They tied up the King, Queen and Hawkins and were brought to the market, where the most people are present.

The pope said to the citizens "Citizens, when we came to this kingdom, we just wanted to spread the word of god to everyone. We lived with love and compassion for everyone, but the king repaid our kindness with cruelty. He not only wanted to contact the demons, he also wanted to sacrifice the kids from our church. If left alone, they might try to do it again. So, I will judge them on behalf of gods."

The king pleaded "You all have known me for so long. You have to believe me that I didn't do it."

This got the citizens thinking about it. Pope then said "you say that you are innocent, but the demons have already possessed your son."

A man then swings his sword at Hawkins' neck, but he doesn't die. Everyone is shocked including his parents. The pope shouts "Do you believe me now. Kill them all."

Men beheaded the king and the queen and he also strikes Hawkins to kill him, but he didn't die. This time, a man in the audience dies and before the man could strike Hawkins again, a royal guard, who was knocked out by Pope's men, threw a dynamite near them and used the smoke from the explosion to save Hawkins.

When the smoke cleared, a man appeared beside Pope and asked "Do you want me to follow them?"

The pope said "No. Gods exist only when there is evil. We need him to try to get revenge and that will make everyone turn to us for help."

The royal guard took Hawkins to the forest and when they were far enough, he stopped and bowed down before Law. He teared up and said "I am sorry....I am really sorry....we wanted to come earlier, but we didn't even stand a chance against the man beside the pope. I came to you immediately after we gained consciousness."

Hawkins asked "Do you still think I am innocent after what you saw?"

He had problems believing people after what just happened. The royal guard said "I have seen you since childhood and know that you are good. I believe you and my life is dedicated to the royal family. There are other soldiers who also believe you and want to stand with you. Please give us a chance."

*Flashback ends*