Percy woke up underwater.

Percy had only ever woken up underwater once before in his life, and that was after Beckendorf had sacrificed himself to take out a fleet of the Titan Army. After that explosion, that still haunted Percy's nightmares months later, Percy had woken up in his father's palace somewhere in the Atlantic.

Waking up now, Percy felt a lot better than he had when he woke up in his father's palace.

This was odd to him, as he remembered feeling like chariot roadkill before he'd passed out again.

"Lord Perseus?"

Percy did a very un-manly 'eep!' and did a backflip into a patch of kelp.

Hachi helped Percy out of the kelp, looking slightly concerned, "How do you feel?"

"Great," said Percy, and he meant it. He felt stronger than he had in days.

Hachi grinned, "I knew it! You ARE like us?"

This puzzled Percy, "What do you mean?"

"Well," said Hachi, "Fishmen and mermaids always feel stronger in water. King Neptune is a merman, so I thought that you would get better in the water too!"

"Looks like I owe you one, Hachi," said Percy, "How long have we been down here?"

Hachi frowned, "It's hard to say. Maybe, a few hours? We can go back up now that you're feeling better."

Percy's stomach did a flip. Why was going to the surface making him so uneasy?

"You don't want to go to the surface," Hachi guessed, "Why?"

Percy found a rock that wasn't too covered in sand, and sat down. Hachi followed his lead, perching on an outcropping of coral.

"Kaimi pointed out to me that I'm getting stronger because we've been out at sea for so long," Percy started, "But I'm afraid that I'm relying too much on being near water."

Percy uncapped Riptide, "My sword doesn't even work on most enemies we've faced in the past few days. What am I going to do when there's no water around?"

Hachi hummed thoughtfully, "Nuu, Lord Perseus, your new crew is very strong. Surely you could rely on them to keep you safe?"

Percy shook his head. "No," he said firmly, "Athena once told me that my fatal flaw was my loyalty to my friends. I'm not going to just sit back and do nothing while my friends fight."

"That's an admirable flaw to have, Lord Perseus," said Hachi, "As for your water problem, there's water in everything; you just need to look for it."

This intrigued Percy, "My dad's the Lord of the Sea," he started, "Not the Lord of all water…right?"

"Only one way to find out!" Hachi said brightly, "Let's go to your ship."

They climbed up the back of the ship to find it empty.

Well, mostly empty. Franky and Robin were enjoying a moment to themselves beneath the biggest tree on the deck. Robin leaned against Franky, reading him a book on engineering while Franky guzzled a barrel of coke.

Percy cleared his throat and the two older Strawhats looked up.

"Percy," Robin greeted the demigod, not at all surprised to see him, "It's good to see you awake."

"Yo, Percy-bro!" Franky called, "Feeling Super again, are you?"

Percy had walked in on enough of his mom and his stepdad's date nights to know that he'd interrupted Franky and Robin.

"Hey," he said, hoping his face didn't look too guilty, "We can go somewhere else, if you two are busy."

"Not at all," Robin dismissed him, "What do you need?"

"We're going to train!" Hachi announced.

Franky sat up, "This should be interesting."
Percy didn't really want to train with an audience, but he followed Hachi to the deck.

"Like I said," Hachi began, "There's water everywhere. Try to concentrate."

Percy closed his eyes. The feel of the sea underneath them was as present as ever, but Percy knew that wasn't what he was supposed to be looking for.

"What's he doing?" Percy heard Franky whisper to Robin.

"Shh," Robin shushed him, "Let him concentrate."

Percy held out his palm. Come on, Dad, he prayed, Help me help my friends. Show me what I'm supposed to be doing.

He felt the air around him begin to hum. Concentrating on the air in front of him, Percy opened his eyes, and pulled.

Percy lost his concentration immediately, for when he pulled at the air, water had appeared before his very eyes.

"Cool," he grinned. Now he could help his friends, "Thanks, Hachi."

Hachi beamed, "I told you there's water everywhere! Now you just need to practice!"

Percy pulled his pen out of his pocket, "And my sword? What am I going to do about that?"

"Sword?" Robin asked curiously, "Is this another trick of the mist?"

Percy clicked the top, "Yeah."

"Looks like a baseball bat to me," said Franky, "What a super trick!"

"Come and find me when you get to Fishman Island," Hachi told him, "I will figure something out."

Percy felt a swell in gratitude. However horrible Hachi may have been in the past, Percy knew that he was a changed octopus, and that Luffy was the one to bring on that change.

At that moment, the door to the galley slammed open.

"Guys!" Sanji called, sounding worried, "Chopper says that Kaimi's been kidnapped!"