"There is a kingdom on Twin Island… This kingdom is extremely traditional, and it is also a member nation of the World Government."
Vane was reading the information about the next island.
The Twin Kingdom—people who live in this kingdom have an exceptionally high fertility rate, and the probability of giving birth to twins or multiple children is far higher than in other countries.
At the same time, the Twin Kingdom is also a nation whose customs appear extremely bloody and dark to outsiders.
This country has a policy known as the "Twin Policy." That is, any citizen of the Twin Kingdom who gives birth to two children must, once the younger one reaches the age of fourteen, have the two siblings fight each other—only one may survive.
If there are three children, then they are grouped together with other families that also have three children, and they fight until half of them remain.
In short, only half are allowed to survive.
This has been a centuries-old tradition of the Twin Kingdom.
"What a bloody policy… Not only forcing citizens to kill each other, but making brothers and sisters slaughter one another."
According to the book, this originated because the Twin Kingdom's birth rate was extremely high while resources remained relatively constant. In the early years, this policy was implemented to select superior bloodlines that could enjoy more resources.
Of course, that was in the past. Now that maritime technology is highly developed, if resources are insufficient, they could simply let citizens who don't wish to participate in the struggle sail out and live elsewhere.
However, the nobles and the king of Twin Island are staunch conservatives. They absolutely forbid commoners from going to sea and continue enforcing the bloody policy.
Foreign ships may only dock at designated locations on Twin Island. To replenish supplies, they can only move within specified zones… oh, so it's a trading port and special district.
Any ship that appears elsewhere around Twin Island—whether foreign or one attempting to flee the island—will be attacked by the Twin Island army.
"A difficult country to deal with…"
With his identity as a wanted criminal, it was already hard enough to approach a World Government member nation. And with how conservative the Twin Kingdom was, it would probably be extremely difficult just to go ashore and resupply.
Tant immediately suggested, "Boss, we're pirates now. There's no need to follow the rules of these kingdoms. If we want resources, we can just take them!"
Dice chimed in right after, "We're all wanted anyway. Why not attack another kingdom to show our attitude?"
They had precedent for attacking the Six-Gold Kingdom, so the reckless faction—Tant and Dice—were eager to attack another kingdom to prove that the Marines' bounties weren't misplaced, and to conveniently raise their bounty amounts in the process.
Vane obviously wouldn't directly agree with these two hotheads. He turned to Bonez instead.
"What do you think?"
Bonez looked rough and dark-skinned, but in reality, he was the most steady and composed person on the ship.
"That depends on what you need… We went to war with the Six-Gold Kingdom… but that was for Miss Perona."
To bring Perona aboard.
Speaking of which, Perona was also a Devil Fruit user. However, because she was too young—and because the Hollow-Hollow Fruit itself doesn't make it obvious who the ability user is—she wasn't included in this round of bounties.
As for the somewhat capable Bear Guard, he had always been acting as a guard. Since it was almost always Rocket Team bullying others, and very rarely anyone attacking them head-on, he never had the chance to show his strength. He also wasn't listed in the bounties.
Previously, the reason was to bring Perona aboard. Vane's personal reason was to collect an Articuno feather, and the king of the Six-Gold Kingdom just happened to provide one.
Bonez's meaning was obvious—benefits matter.
Whether to attack Twin Island depended entirely on whether there was profit to be gained. Without benefits, Bonez wouldn't even want to set foot ashore, let alone launch an attack.
"Whether there are benefits… we'll have to land and see."
As long as there were Devil Fruit users on this island, Vane would be very interested in taking a look. From the original One Piece story, islands with established kingdoms almost always had Devil Fruit users.
Drum Kingdom had the Munch-Munch Fruit, the Shroom-Shroom Fruit, the Human-Human Fruit, and the Bison Fruit.
The Desert Kingdom, even without Baroque Works, still had the Jackal Fruit and the Falcon Fruit.
In short, kingdoms on the Grand Line more or less had some Devil Fruits or ability users—unlike the East Blue, where ability users were practically legends.
So Vane very much wanted to take a look at Twin Island.
"Thunder Fortress, find a place to stop. Meowth and I will go to Twin Island to scout the situation."
He could fly, so Twin Island couldn't stop him from breaking in. Bringing Meowth would also allow them to replenish a large amount of supplies.
That was the tentative plan.
However, when Vane and the others arrived at Twin Island, they were slightly dumbfounded.
"This… Twin Island is supposed to be shaped like a peanut… so where did this extra island come from?"
Twin Island's shape should have been two large islands partially connected by land, resembling a peanut.
Refusing to believe it, Vane flew up into the sky. From high above, he could see the island's condition more clearly.
From the air, the peanut-shaped Twin Island was indeed still there. But unlike what the map showed, there was now a much smaller island beside it, like a grain of rice embedded next to Twin Island.
"There's no way such a large island wouldn't be marked on the map."
It was unlikely that an island of this size in the Twin Sea area wouldn't be charted. And the map in his hand had been drawn within the past year or two.
In just one or two years, a new island had emerged in the Twin Sea area?
If it were merely a new stretch of land rising, perhaps an undersea volcano could explain it.
But looking at that island—with its towering trees and lush, dense forest, a full-fledged primeval jungle—it didn't look like something that could have developed in just a few years.
...
Twin Island, Twin Port.
Under the pitch-black night sky, the fierce soldiers at the port were somewhat relaxed.
All they needed to do was keep watch over the sea for incoming ships. As for escaping or sneaking onto Twin Island by swimming—such desperate individuals were exceedingly rare. Even if they knew about it, they wouldn't be able to stop them.
However, tonight the moonlight was dim, and far beyond their expectations, a man and a cat slipped into Twin Port from above.
Vane and Meowth entered Twin Port.
The situation inside Twin Port was similar to the bustling districts of ordinary countries.
Here, one couldn't see the bloody policy of the Twin Kingdom—only dazzling lights and lively entertainment.
Of course, most of the people appearing here were from outside. Even if there were locals of the Twin Kingdom, they were either powerful nobles or soldiers who had already slaughtered their siblings and joined the kingdom's army.
"This port isn't short on pirates, meow…"
Vane and Meowth walked along the street, both of them pulling down the large hoods of their windbreakers to cover the upper halves of their faces. That kind of outfit wasn't particularly conspicuous.
Meowth noticed quite a few individuals with a pirate-like aura moving about in Twin Port—many of them even wanted criminals.
"As long as these pirates don't rob them, they're customers. The Twin Kingdom has maintained its bloody policy for so many years—its bottom line when dealing with pirates is clearly very flexible."