Charlotte Coulis belongs to mNakahara98. The Charlotte Siblings belongs to Oda.
Ding dong! Ding dong!
The doorbell rings in the early morning, alarming the Deputy Minister of Cheese from his sleep in his office upstairs. Langres, who is currently thirteen-years-old, stretches a bit and stands to his full height of 203 centimeters. He quickly fixes his white platinum hair and straightens his cravat as the doorbell keeps ringing.
Ding dong! Ding dong!
As he went to the door, he heard shouts of a man saying "Please! Help me!". Langres opens the door with a concerned expression. "What's going on...?" he prodded, wanting to know why the man is so fanatic early in the morning.
The man, filled with panic, shouted "Children have disappeared! Including my son!" This instantly wakes up the Deputy Minister of Cheese from his partial stupor. "Pardon me, can you repeat that!?" Langres asked again. "My son and several boys are gone! They are kidnapped! Please get your father to help us!" The man shouted out. This causes Langres to raced into his father's office and yelled "FATHER!"
Mont-D'or wakes up from his desk with a pen sticking onto his face. Stretching for a bit and rubbing his face, causing the pen to fall out. He asked his son why did he have to shout. Langres responded with "We must go! Children have disappeared!" This causes the Minister of Cheese to shot up from his chair. "EH!?" Mont-D'or yelled out as he goes to the door.
As Langres starts to explain the situation to his father, a young blond hair and green eye girl wearing black and white pajamas walked down, having just woke up. The young girl's name is Charlotte Raclette, the second child and daughter of Mont-D'or, and the younger sister of Langres by eight years. She looks to see her father and brother preparing to leave. The nineteenth son urgently said, "We need to get all the parents together for information!" as Langres nodded in agreement. Raclette starts to say "Daddy, brothers Langres—" but Mont-D'or cut her off with "Raclette, please, we're busy…". Raclette becomes silent with disappointment and went back to her room.
Langres goes to the distressed father and starts asking questions. "Are the other islands dealing with this as well...?". The man responded, "Yes... even in Noko island…". Mont-D'or then chided with "I'll tell Brother Opera to talk to the parents to know where they last saw their children…" The albino teenager replied with "And I will ask the parents here who've lost their children." The man is terrified since he is concerned about the wellbeing of his missing son. The Minister of Cheese turns to him and assured him with "Please do not worry. I will not rest until your son and the children have been found." Internally, Langres scoffed at his father's words. 'That is until you quickly give up or cowered down because of Big Mom…' He thought as he gets his large-brimmed hat and leaves.
Meanwhile, in Raclette's room, the little girl, sitting on a chair close to her desk, glanced at her permission paper for a parent's visit in kindergarten. It was her eighth attempt this week to ask either her brother and father to write it and come over. Fondue, her pet white owl, flew down to the arm of her chair and sees the permission paper. He howled comfort to her as a way to tell her that her father and brother will come around. Raclette can only sigh.
In Monterey Jack Square, Cheese Town, chess soldiers and the cheese police are interviewing the citizens of the island, getting any information as they can. Langres is currently talking to the anxious parents who came knocking on his door. "When was the last time you've seen your child?" He asked the father. The father starts to remember about last night.
"Last night when he was going to bed…" He started and his wife remembered the time with "It was an early night at around 8:30…"
The Deputy Minister writes it down. "Was there anything unusual...?" He inquired. The wife said, "When he went back to his bed, the window was closed but during the morning, it was open."
Langres asked for more information about the window. "Open...? Was there anything he can use to climb down with...? Like a ladder or a rope...?" The man shakes his head. "No. There was no rope or ladder in his room or even outside."
Langres writes it down and asked for the events of last night. "Was there any conflict between you and your son...?" The man sighs as he remembers last night with his son. "My son and I had an argument… It got heated…"
The teenager stopped writing and looks at the father in sympathy. "I wanted to apologize but I thought he would be too angry to talk to me then... So I wait until morning…" The man said. "I see." The albino boy understands.
The man bemoaned "He hates me now…" His wife hugs him gently. "Oh, honey... He doesn't…" She assured him, knowing the anger isn't permanent. "Please find him…" The man pleaded.
Langres: "Don't worry. We will." He vowed to the parents, allowing them to leave back to their home. His den-den mushi rings. Langres accepts the call, hearing his fourteen-year-old cousin, Clementine. He was a bit surprised to hear from her at 9 o'clock AM since this is usually the time she rehearses for a concert but it seems to be on hold.
"Langres-san! Have you heard the news!?" She blurted out the seemingly obvious news to him. Langres writes down more tips as he responded calmly with "If is about missing children, yes."
The Citrus Dancer then shouted "No! Not just the children but some of our cousins as well!", causing her younger cousin to jump up from his seat. "What?!" He was in shock to learn that. "Who are the ones missing?!" He demands to know their names.
Clementine listed them out. "Taiyaki, Comfit, Noghl, and Elstar!" Langres paled as she continued with "Yes, Elstar is kidnapped from his crib!" to confirm the status of their infant cousin. The albino teenager asked with "And the others?!"
The Citrus Dancer further explained to him. "Both Uncle Wiro and Aunt Willow were working late and they notice that Taiyaki was gone when they came home and he wasn't in his room!" This instantly caused the albino teenager to get his notepad to write it down. "Tell me more! Give me all the information possible at the moment!" He requested for more as he writes it down.
She then continued with "Uncle Montb and Marron-san were going to wake up Comfit and Noghl but they are gone with the window open! We just don't know where they are!"
Langres writes more of the information and looks at the notes with the information he got from the distressed parents. There is one part that is consistent with the evidence. That is the windows were wide open despite it was closed the night before. Some even had some of their locks broken.
"Did you say the windows were open when they were gone?!" He asked Clementine. "Yeah! Uncle Gala made sure that the windows were closed when he put Elstar to bed but it seems to be broken in!" She responded urgently.
Langres calms himself down and starts to get his cousin to do the same. "Please calm down. Father already put a lockdown throughout the entire archipelago. Just make sure if there are any more missing children and get more information. I'll talk to you later." He replied before he hangs up.
"Pluto." Suddenly, his slightly slanted shadow moved, separating itself from his feet. It then rises from the ground to appear next to him. The figure floats in front of his owner. "Go around Totto Land and collect more information that could help us. Report any unusual activity. Once you got enough information, go to the Whole Cake Chateau." Langres said before continuing with "Don't even bother to tell Big Mom about this. She'll just shoo you away." Pluto nodded before flying to the neighboring island of Noko.
Later in the afternoon in the Whole Cake Chateau, the whole building is being flooded with papers being transferred and stacked. Missy, the daughter of the fifteenth son, Charlotte Noisette, is trying to sort all of the tips and information. She's also using the telekinesis from her devil fruit, which is the Ghost-Ghost fruit, Model: Poltergeist, to use all the den-den mushis. Coulis, her cousin from her twenty-sixth uncle Bavarois, is trying to sort all the missing papers as fast as he can so they can be distributed throughout Totto Land.
Missy, on the verge of losing her patience, shouted. "We are looking for them as fast as we can!" Then she calls for Coulis to come to her. When he did, she gives him a large stack of pictures of the missing children. She explained to him, "Give these to Uncle Katakuri, Chutney-san, and Langres!" Coulis replied with "Okay!" and left.
The teenage girl kept on answering den-den mushis. After several minutes, she had to stop taking calls and give them to her other cousin, Velvet, the daughter of the thirty-second son, Brownie. The stress was about to overwhelm her. "How many gone missing in one night!?" Missy fumed in frustration. She turns to see Pluto flying in, causing her to jump up a bit due to its dark, ghostly appearance.
"Any more information...?" She asked carefully. It nodded, causing her to eagerly ask "What is it...?" The animated shadow tells her the same suspicious scene when the children got missing; opened windows. This gives the implication they were more likely lured out.
Missy questioned in surprise. "Lured out...?" The shadow nodded to confirm the leading theory. "Tell others... They are searching right now…" Ordered the Poltergeist human. Pluto nodded then flew away as Missy quickly tells Velvet about it.
Langres is in his office looking over possible clues. He is analyzing the information about one disappearance to the other. "Looks like a team effort." He theorized. "It's impossible for one person to do all of this, even with a devil fruit." He sees Pluto enter his office. "Any more clues...?" His animated shadow nodded and it grittily whispers the strong theory that children might have been lured out instead of running away or kidnapped.
The albino teenager frowns in confusion. "Lured out...? Any idea by what...?" He asked. Pluto couldn't give him an answer. The Deputy Minister of Cheese sighs "I'll tell Pez and Ambrosia-san to see if there are any ships at night... Pie and Kalamay are still looking for clues…"
Pluto nodded as he becomes flat to the ground and attach himself to his owner's body to be a normal shadow again. Langres sighs as he collects the stacks of notes. He thinks further about the clues of the missing children. "This feels strange... I think this happened before somewhere else…" Langres mentioned to himself as he gets his large-brimmed hat and goes to Whole Cake Island to further investigate.
In the Seducing Woods during dusk, Langres is looking around the woods. It's strange for the homies to be dormant. Usually, they would be cheerful and singing until he shouts at them to be quiet, resulting in them being silent in fear. He knows this is rather odd behavior. He wonders what caused them to be like this.
The sound of a baby cry breaks his train of thought. He stops walking and looks at the direction of the cry. He starts heading towards the source of the cries to see one of the youngest Charlotte Grandchildren was found. "Elstar!?" The albino teenager shouted. Elstar was crying as he sat on the ground. Langres instinctively picks him up and holds him. The baby boy sniffles as his cousin gently rocks him to calm him, causing the crying to quiet down.
"How did you get here...? Who took you...?" The baby responded to his question by babbling as if he's turning to say something. "Is there anyone else here...?" The albino asked him, understanding his baby talk. Elstar nodded and continued babbling. Langres then walks around as he hears talking. The voices resemble those of young children.
Langres goes to the source of the voices, which is in a very dense and secluded part of the forest. What he saw is that several boys were found, including Comfit and Noghl, the three-year-old twin sons of the
Langres, in a mix of surprised, shocked, and confused, shouted. "You're here! Are there more of you anywhere!?" Comfit nodded at him. The albino teenager responded by calling for his animated shadow with "Pluto!". His shadow detached himself from him and appeared from the ground, leaving the boy without a shadow. "Look for the rest of the boys and bring them back here." Pluto nodded to his owner's command. Langres starts to call Mont-D'or by his den-den mushi.
In Cheese Island, Mont-D'or is busy looking at papers and answering phone calls from citizens. However, there are clear signs that his energy is being drained out. Then his personal den-den mushi rings. The Minister of Cheese answers with a lazy "Hello...?"
Langres, from other line, said, "Father, I've found the boys in the Seducing Woods... More are somewhere around there…" Mont-D'Or was surprised to hear this "In a Seducing Woods?!" He shouted. He then starts to become frustrated at himself for missing a portion to find the children. His son confirmed this. "Yes, that includes Elstar, Comfit, Noghl, and Taiyaki." Mont-D'Or sighs and replied, "I'll inform Brother Opera about it." Langres hangs up as Mon D'Or starts to get ready.
Raclette comes in with the permission slip and about to ask her father about it. "Daddy, can you—" However, her father doesn't listen to her. "Not now, Raclette!" He dismissed her. The young girl tried to talk to him but was dismissed again. "Not NOW! Your brother and I are busy!" He shouted before leaving this house. Raclette goes to her room, upset and disappointed.
When the sun nearly set, Langres walked to a large mirror in the house of his eighth aunt. "Langres~! My nephew~!" She exclaimed. The teenager responds with, "Hello, Aunt Brulee." as he is with several children, including holding Elstar. "They were all here."
This surprises the eighth daughter. "Oh my! All here!? How!?" She asked. "I'm still trying to find out. Please take the children to their respective islands. I need to talk to Comfit and Noghl." He said as he gives her Elstar. When the children are entering the mirrors, he turns to the twins.
Langres asked, "Comfit, Noghl, I need you two to be honest and remember the best you can. Who took you and the rest of the children to the Seducing Woods?" Comfit said this unusual answer. "A fairy took us here." The teenager raised an eyebrow to this. "A fairy?" He questioned.
Noghl confirmed his twin's answer. "Yeah~! He was going to take us to an island.~!" The albino is in a bit surprised when he heard that. "An island? Are you sure?" The twins nodded.
The Deputy Minister then asked for more information. "What else did the 'fairy' do or had?" Comfit thinks about the fairy for a moment or two before responding with a strange answer. "He has a weird pipe…" Langres raised an eyebrow at his response. "A pipe...?" The young boy's twin brother uttered "A musical pipe…" with slight uncertainty due to him unable to know the exact name of it.
Langres writes it down. Despite a musical pipe as a description that would be useless and unnecessary, it will be used for evidence and might be connected to a devil fruit. "That's all the information you have on the 'fairy'...?" He asked them. "He told us he lives on an island where only boys live…" Comfit responded.
Langres is confused when the children said that. His first thought to 'a boys-only island' is the stories he heard from his late mother as a child about several fictitious islands she "traveled" to. Though he may not believe it, he still writes it down as information. He sighs, "Okay... Let's take you all home now…" Brûlée summons a mirror for all the children to go into the Mirror World.
After the children enter and the mirror closed, Langres thinks about the description of the abductor. 'A fairy...? A musical pipe...?' It reminds him of his mother's stories again. He wants to dismiss it but it felt strange these the children would be describing the suspect with those words, reminds him of the conversations he overheard from his mother nine years ago. As Langres leaves to the Whole Cake Chateau, he's starting to get the facts to start the investigation.