His Castle Skin was already incredibly tough, its hardness rivaling his own Armament Haki and sufficient to withstand most powerful opponents. But Bege wasn't satisfied. In his battles against Whitebeard, Garp, Kaido, and even Andrew, his Castle Skin had been shattered. This drove him to find a way to make it even harder.
After much research and development, he had finally found a new path. His internal castle could devour stone or metal to increase its durability. He started with ordinary rocks, but soon they no longer provided any benefit. He moved on to metals, then steel, and finally alloys. The harder the object, the more it enhanced his castle's strength.
Eventually, his sights fell upon the Poneglyphs.
The Poneglyphs were made of a unique, exceptionally hard stone that surpassed even the toughest modern alloys. They were said to be indestructible. He had already absorbed the Poneglyph on Skypiea, and the results had been astonishingly effective, greatly increasing his castle's hardness. This had made him determined to find more.
There were a total of thirty Poneglyphs: four Road Poneglyphs and nine that held historical information. He was confident he could get his hands on three of them: the one on Fish-Man Island, the one in the Alabasta Kingdom, and a Road Poneglyph on Zou, the island on Zunesha's back. He knew that the other Emperors of the New World also possessed Poneglyphs, but taking them from their crews would not be easy. So, he decided to start with the ones he was sure he could obtain.
One of his primary reasons for coming to Fish-Man Island was for this very stone.
Absorbing a Poneglyph was a slow process. The harder the material, the longer it took. The first one on Skypiea had taken him several days.
Time passed. Elsewhere, the three girls were playing happily. After chasing butterflies, they started a game of hide-and-seek. But after a while, they realized Shirahoshi was missing. They searched and searched but couldn't find her.
Viola used her Glare-Glare Fruit to scan an area of several hundred meters, but she still couldn't locate Shirahoshi. Now genuinely worried, Jessica and Viola started to head back.
The squad of Freaks assigned to protect them returned even faster. A goat-headed Freak came running.
"What happened?" Bege asked, frowning.
"Princess Shirahoshi is gone. The two men assigned to protect her have also vanished. We are currently searching," the goat-headed Freak reported grimly.
Bege's brow furrowed. He stood up abruptly, pausing the absorption of the Poneglyph.
"Let's go." Bege led the squad of Freaks, moving quickly. They met Jessica and Viola on the way. He left a team to protect them and shot off into the depths of the Sea Forest, his Observation Haki expanding rapidly.
However, when his Haki reached a certain area, it was blocked. The only thing that could block Observation Haki was more Observation Haki. Had a master of Haki taken Shirahoshi?
He quickly used his space-warping ability, teleporting in a series of flashes to the deepest part of the Sea Forest.
His expression changed dramatically. Before him, three unimaginably massive Sea Kings lay in wait, their colossal bodies like mountain ranges, majestic and awe-inspiring.
These are the Sea Kings that protect Shirahoshi. He recognized the three strange-looking creatures, especially the one with a bird-like head and glasses. He remembered it vividly. In the original story, when Vander Decken tried to destroy Fish-Man Island with the Noah, Shirahoshi had awakened her ability and summoned her guardian Sea Kings, who then dragged the ark away, saving the island.
He also found his two missing Freaks lying in a nearby coral grove. He checked them and found they were only unconscious. He stored them in his internal castle.
In front of the three giant Sea Kings, Shirahoshi sat on the ground, looking innocent and talking, though Bege couldn't hear a word. He knew she was communicating with them.
Has Shirahoshi awakened her power? he wondered.
He had taken her as his protégée for two reasons. First, because she was a kind and lovely person; he had been very fond of her when reading the original story. Second, and more importantly, Shirahoshi was one of the three Ancient Weapons: Poseidon.
Once her power awakened, she would be the queen of the Sea Kings, able to communicate with and control them, possessing the terrifying power to save countless lives or destroy the entire world. He wanted to have that kind of destructive power in his own hands.
Was it these three Sea Kings that blocked my Observation Haki just now? Can they use Haki? Bege grew more puzzled, but he quickly found a plausible explanation. The world of One Piece was full of mysteries and strange creatures; anything was possible. These three Sea Kings had been alive for an unknown amount of time, likely since the construction of the Noah eight hundred years ago. They were true ancient monsters. It wouldn't be surprising if they could use Observation Haki.
Bege wanted to know what they were saying to Shirahoshi, but no matter how hard he concentrated, he couldn't hear their voices. The ability to hear the voices of Sea Kings was possessed by only a few in this world. The first was Gol D. Roger, who called it the "Voice of All Things," an ability to hear the voice of everything in creation, most notably the Sea Kings. Roger had heard them when he visited Fish-Man Island.
The Voice of All Things was not Observation Haki, but a special ability or state of being. This was evidenced by the fact that Luffy could hear the Sea Kings' voices when he came to Fish-Man Island after the Summit War, at a time when his Observation Haki was not yet strong. Furthermore, during the Zou arc, the young Momonosuke could hear Zunesha's voice and even converse with it, despite not having awakened his Observation Haki. This proved that the Voice of All Things was something different.
He didn't know if Shirahoshi could communicate with the Sea Kings because she was Poseidon, or if she also possessed the Voice of All Things.
As he pondered this, he suddenly felt a prickling sensation on his scalp. He looked up to see the bird-headed Sea King with glasses staring directly at him. However, it made no hostile move. Instead, it and the other two Sea Kings turned and swam away, quickly disappearing into the deep sea.
Just then, Shirahoshi came bouncing over.
"Godfather, what are you doing here?" she asked cheerfully.
"Jessica and Viola said you were missing. They were about to cry with worry, so I came to find you," Bege explained.
Shirahoshi gasped, a look of concern on her small face. "Oh, I forgot! I heard someone calling me, so I followed the sound and came here. I found three big fish friends who wanted to chat, and I lost track of time."
"Godfather, we should hurry back! We can't let Jessica and Viola worry!" Shirahoshi said, urgently pulling Bege's hand to lead him back.