Chapter 2 - Saint Jalmack

Percy tumbled out of the light and landed with a massive thud. His head rattled and his vision went blurry.

"Oh wow..."

He heard the sound of people marveling at something. He sat up and looked around. His eyes weren't ready to focus on anything, but he pointed them straight ahead anyway.

The first thing he saw when his vision started to clear was a large television screen hanging on a wall. It was the largest TV he'd ever seen. The screen lit up and there was strange-dressed man staring at him. The man was wearing a thick full-body white suit that looked kind of like the spacesuits astronauts wore. It had a green collar adorned with medals and there was a glass bubble over his head.

Percy recognized the outfit. Celestial Dragon cosplay? he wondered. Was whoever kidnapped him a fan of One Piece too?

"What's all this?" a voice asked.

Percy turned in the direction of the voice and discovered three other people there. Two blondes and a red-haired teen who looked around his age. They looked completely lost and didn't seem to have a clue what was going on.

He scratched his head.

Only a moment ago he was in the library, but then there was that flash of light...and now he was here?

Percy twisted left and right to look around and saw that he was in a far more expensive room than the library. He was in a massive room, draped in exotic silks and tapestries. The walls were made of marble, and they glittered with jewels that cast prisms of light around the room.

In the chamber's center sat an imposing throne made entirely of swords—katanas, rapiers, scimitars, all half-melted down and interlocked.

Percy looked at the floor. It was made of marble too and was covered in geometric patterns that had been painted in some sort of fluorescent material.

Where was he?

Just as he was wondering it, one of the guys next to him asked the Celestial Dragon cosplayer the same thing.

"Where are we?"

"Oh, you four?" the cosplayer seemed surprised that any of them had dared to question him. "You're here to get me home!"

"What?" the other three and Percy shouted in unison. "What is that supposed to mean?"

The cosplayer introduced himself with an air of importance before answering the question.

"I am the Celestial Dragon, Saint Jalmack," he declared, and the name sounded familiar to Percy. "And my situation is quite complicated," the Celestial Dragon continued, "but the simple answer to your question is that I have summoned the four of you to this world. I have been stuck here for over twenty years and I want to go home. But the only way for me to do that is supposedly on Laugh Tale, with the Pirate King's treasure."

"Summoned?"

It sounded crazy, and there was a really good chance that it was all some prank, but it wouldn't hurt to hear the guy out. Besides, if this was a prank, and just some crazy guy losing his mind, or a monster, it would be safer to play along for now, at least until Percy could get the other three out of here.

"Because I don't want to risk my life," Saint Jalmack pointed at them through the screen, "I've selected you four to do it for me."

"Of course, we can..." Percy began, hoping to stall for time to think of a way to get the other three guys out of the room.

But they had a different idea.

"I don't think so."

"Yeah, me neither."

"We can go back to our homes, right? We'll talk about your mental problems after that."

Percy stared at them in shock. What was wrong with them? How did they think it was okay to speak to someone who kidnapped them like that? Someone who had just told them he was okay with all four of them dying?

They must have never been in a situation like this before, Percy thought the three strangers turned to look at him and smile.

What were they smiling about? Couldn't they feel the room growing tense? Maybe they were demigods like him and thought they could handle whatever was going on.

"I see, so that's how you're going to be," Saint Jalmack sighed. Then he lifted his hand. "Room!"

A transparent bubble covered the room.

"Shambles!"

Percy's jaw dropped as the head of one of the blondes vanished and reappeared on the television screen in front of Saint Jalmack. The transparent bubble vanished, and Saint Jalmack drew the sword from his waist and drove it through the head like a shishkabob.

"Ugh, how foul," Saint Jalmack tossed the sword away, head still skewered on the blade.

Percy watched as the headless body fell to the floor next to him. He needed to do something before someone else got killed. Percy knew that… he just couldn't find the motivation to do anything.

"Consider that you're only warning. If you, Ren," Saint Jalmack pointed at the other blonde-haired teen who was still alive then to the red-head, "or you Itsuki, speak out of turn again, I'll have to kill you. Understand?"

Ren and Itsuki both nodded. But they didn't speak.

"We're not friends or partners," Saint Jalmack said, leaning forward as he spoke. "You three work for me."

Percy couldn't even find the motivation to yell, "Work implies that we're getting paid!"

What is wrong with me? he glared at the floor. He just got a front-row seat to Saint Jalmack's willingness to kill them all and he still wasn't motivated enough to move.

"Now then, as I said, the only way for us to get home is to find the One Piece. Supposedly, there's a Poneglpyh there that holds the instructions on how to reverse the spell used to summon me here."

The summary of Saint Jalmack's story was this: After Gol D. Roger's execution, he had been summoned to this world by the same spell he used to summon Percy and the others. The Celestial Dragon didn't say by who, and Percy wasn't going to risk getting stabbed in the brain by asking. Not when there was something keeping him from trying to fight.

Saint Jalmack had been tasked with finding the One Piece—Gold Roger's great pirate treasure, but the world of One Piece was dangerous. It was full of pirates, bandits, marines, bounty hunters, and massive Sea Kings.

So instead of setting sail himself, he killed the guy who summoned him and started a proxy voyage using people he kidnapped and forced to find the One Piece for him.

Of course, since Percy was here, it was clear that everyone before him had failed and most likely died painful deaths in the Pirate Graveyard. Either trying to find Gold Roger's treasure or because they refused and were killed on the spot.

Now it was his turn.

"Understand?" the Celestial Dragon asked.

Percy nodded. It was pretty simple, after all. If he didn't do what Saint Jalmack wanted, the Celestial Dragon would kill him. And what Saint Jalmack wanted him to do was sail the most dangerous sea in the world and find the world's most sought-after treasure.

"Good," Saint Jalmack smiled underneath his bubble. "Of course, I also understand that sending you all out as you are now would result in your immediate deaths."

The arrogant man snapped his fingers and a door behind the throne opened. A troop of Humandrill with green gel-like collars around their necks escorted a shark Fish-Man and half a dozen humans pulling a cart of strange-looking fruit with them. They were all malnourished and wearing nothing but rags.

Percy's stomach turned at the sight, but he just couldn't be bothered to try and save them. He knew that these poor people were just a few of the tens of thousands of slaves being abused by the Celestial Dragons.

Helping them right now was impossible.

The human-like shark walked forward carrying a large silver tray with a book on it.

When he was in front of them, the fish-man stopped and stood as still as a statue.

On the front cover of the book read: Devil Fruit Encyclopedia.

"Look through it," Saint Jalmack ordered. "And because pink-hair was the only one to keep his mouth shut, he gets to choose first."

Pink-hair?

Percy glanced at Ren who had red-hair, and Itsuki who was blonde. They had also run their mouths when they first arrived. Percy was the only one who had been smart enough to realize the situation and not start acting like he was in charge.

But I don't have pink hair…?

"So, you finally noticed?" Saint Jalmack laughed. "I was wondering how long it would take. I used my Personality Transplant to give each of you a body from this world. If I didn't…well, I'm sure you'll understand once you set sail."

Percy lifted the Devil Fruit Encyclopedia and looked at his reflection in the silver tray.

His green eyes and dark hair were gone!

Percy had a completely new face that he instantly recognized from the colored One Piece manga.

I look like Koby!

There are a few reasons why Percy doesn't keep his body, but just to be clear, that won't affect his ability to use his demigod powers. Those will work on a more godly-spirit thing instead of DNA. Kind of like how it is fine for the campers to date each other despite being related because the gods don't have DNA.

At least I'm pretty sure that was the explanation given...if not Percy/Annabeth is a wild pairing!

Also, as it says in the summary, Percy will be getting a Devil Fruit, but it won't affect his ability to swim or anything which will play a bigger part later in the story!

Thanks for reading!