The world was black and the air was sweltering. It felt like being in a desert without the stars at night. Regan had woken up with the fear of death beating against his groggy mind. He had accepted death before, but acceptance and experience are not two sides of the same coin. When the grim reaper rears its head, no man has a plan, not even men like Saint Saturn.
He had woken up in cold sweats, courtesy of some dream that he couldn't even remember. Whatever occurred within it had sent his poor heart into a frenzy, slamming against his ribcage. Regan had slammed his back against a balmy wall, its warm kiss giving him a modicum of comfort in the space of darkness that he was confined in.
''HELLOOOOOO???? WHERE THE HELL AM I.''
His voice bounced off of the walls, and leapt through what sounded like a hallway. Regan rose to his feet and rushed forward, but he had found a wall of cold, seastone bars preventing his journey instead of the hallway that he swore he was in.
Shit. I'm a goddam prisoner! Shit, shit!
Regan sank to his knees and then flopped to his ass, disbelief gripping his heart. He thought back to his fight with the transmigrater, and how easily he had lost once she had transformed into a mink. Then, that memory had brought along another one with it, the memory of the grail.
A damn race change? What the fuck is in that grail? Is that even a thing in the One Piece world? No, of course it isn't. Has to be this stupid system that came up with that.
Regan sat with these thoughts for a while, pondering, musing, theorizing, and sighing in frustration as he came to no reasonable conclusion. The heat of his cell made him feel much too uncomfortable, and so Regan was unable to sleep, forced to become acquainted with long hours of silence and pitch darkness, no clues as to his whereabouts.
Am I going to die here!? She should've just killed me back there!
After an hour of uncomfortable silence and rolling around, Regan was blessed by the grace of sleep. His heavy-lidded eyes were now shut, and he yawned to herald the deep slumber that he was about to fall into.
However, as fate would have him, a major One Piece fan, spawn into the very world he grew to love, it would at the same time have his sleep robbed from him through the flick of a light.
The heavy light blinded him, making his eyes squint under its fury. What followed was the heavy stomp stomp of someones, no, of two peoples footsteps. Regan regained his vision, and then wiped the sleep from his eyes, uncovering two people approaching him slowly.
They stopped by his cell, and glowered at him. The transmigrater was back, and by her side stood vice-admiral Strawberry, a disappointed look on his face. The transmigater was back in her human form, donning an expressionless countenance that voiced no thoughts.
What, did she drink from another grail? Creepy bitch.
''Who are you?'' Strawberry said, his tone slick with anger and betrayal. Regan was the one who poured him a drink after all.
Who am I? You should be asking her that
''Guess I'm just somebody trying to make a name for himself.'' Regan shrugged.
''A name for yourself, huh?'' Strawberry scoffed. ''So you attack one of my rear admirals and then beat up a bunch of my men? What're you trying to become? A pirate?''
''I suppose.'' Regan replied, his eyes locked on the transmigrater.
''No wonder you asked me about Monkey.D.Luffy. The younger generation, all of you are the same. You idolize that treacherous fool like he's some saint, even some of my men revere him.''
''You're sounding a little jealous there, chief.''
''That's vice-admiral to you, fool.'' Strawberry hissed.
The woman put her hand on Strawberry's shoulder, a simple action that calmed the anger bubbling in his gut. ''Let me speak to him alone, vice-admiral. I have a couple of things I want to say to him.''
''You're doing me an favour. I can't stand to look at this brat any longer. Don't be long.'' Strawberry said, now walking away to whatever place he came from.
When the two were finally alone, the transmigrater stretched out her hand once more and summoned another grail from thin air. It was the same as the last one, the patterns, the gold, Regan had the mind to ask where she kept summoning it from, but he suspected that she would explain that without him having to move his lips.
''You know what this is?'' She asked.
''A grail that lets you change your race? Yeah, I get the gist of it. But where the hell did you get it from?''
''I didn't get it from anywhere. The system gave it to me.'' She said.
''The system did what!?'' Regan exclaimed, slapping his hand against his lips. He cleared his throat, and then brought his voice to a whisper. ''What do you mean the system gave it to you? How?''
''Wow. You truly know nothing.'' She sighed, shaking her head.
''Not true.'' Regan refuted. ''I know about the stat points, the stats, and even the observation haki window!''
''Every transmigrater knows that stuff.'' She chuckled, unimpressed by Regan's knowledge.
''W-whatever. Answer my question! What do you mean the system gave you that grail?''
''Every transmigrater has an inventory, Dantes. When we kill people or creatures in this world, the system spawns various items inside of our inventory.''
''An inventory.'' Regan pondered. He thought back to the one piece games he had played in the real world. They had inventories, too. One could store various fruits, swords, and other valuable items inside of it. Race changing was a common thing in those games, too. But he had never heard of a race-changing grail in his current life and in his previous one. ''And how do I bring up this inventory?''
[Loading Inventory...]
[Inventory Loaded Successfully]
A red window appeared in front of Regan, floating and presenting itself like a silent winged creature.
''Looks like you already did.'' The woman said.
[Dedmond Dantes Inventory]
Holy Grail(s): 7x
Persona Shard(s): 12x
Rainbow Shard(s): 24x
''Rainbow shards? Persona shards? What the hell are they?''
''Persona shards allow you to change the aspect of your character. Well, not your character, but the character of the person whose body you control. The system calls them traits.''
Regan scratched his head. ''The aspect of their...character? I'm not following.''
''Think of it like this. The person whose body you have taken over may have been a coward, a violent brute, or a little angel to those around him. But if you consume the persona shard, the personality of that person may change. If they were still alive they'd go from being cowardly to being brave, from being a violent man to a gentle one.''
''But they're not alive,' Regan blinked, his scalp reddening as he continued scratching it in confusion. ''What's the point?''
''The point is to gain conquerors haki.'' She said nonchalantly. Regan had almost collapsed at the mention of the haki type, and the woman continued talking without a dent in her calm demeanor. ''You see, the body you have transmigrated into may have been born without conquerors haki, which means that they were born without leadership qualities. The persona shard changes that and gives them those qualities, allowing for you to acquire conquerors haki later on.''
''I see,'' Regan said, nodding as his mind began comprehending every bit of information. ''It can't be that easy, right?''
''Yeah, its not. You may get terrible traits that add nothing to your arsenal of abilities. There are those that acquire thousands of persona shards to meet the pity system that outright gives us the trait we need for conquerors haki.''
A pity system too? Then that means there must be one for the holy grail
''So then what about the rainbow shards?''
''They're simple. Purely cosmetics. It allows you to change the colour of your haki.''
''The colour of my haki? Damn! I don't even have armament haki yet.''
This made her scoff. She folded her arms and shook her head again. ''No armament haki? And yet you're so sure you'll defeat the transmigraters at the grand line. You've lost your mind.''
''Hey!'' Regan yelled, pressing his face against the sea stone bars. ''Who said I'd be going after them now? Give me two years! Two years! And I'll show them idiots who the hell I am.''
''Those idiots will also grow much stronger in those two years. Do you think time is only in your favour?''
Regan had no response to that. He knew she was right, but he didn't want to admit it. He backed away from the bars and took a seat, his back pressed against the walls of his cell.
''Look,'' the woman exhaled, her eyes narrowed as she weighed the words that were about to pass her lips. ''I'm going to give you two options. You can forget about all of this, and walk away a free man. But you will have to go back to whatever island you spawned in, and live out the rest of your days in relative peace. Or you can continue with the two ambitions that every single transmigrater has; to meet Luffy, or to become ridiculously strong and take over the seas in your own way. What will it be?''
Regan blinked. He cocked his head back and then laughed hard, tears gushing out of his eyes. ''What the fuck? Are you fucking kidding? How utterly stupid! Live out the rest of my days in peace? I'd rather face another electro fist!''
The woman only sighed, but this time, as she did, a wide smile contorted her face. ''I thought you'd say that. In fact, I was hoping you'd say that.'' She reached into her pocket and pulled out the keys to his cell, and then threw them at him.
''You're free to leave. But you're going to have to get past me first.''
''Get past you!? I don't stand a chance!'' Regan complained, tempted to throw back down the keys he had picked up.
''You don't,'' she admitted. ''But you don't have a choice. The lives of your friends depend on you getting past me.''
''The lives of...' Regan gasped, fear drawing the air out of him. ''Rose! Clam! What have you done to them!?''
''Huh? I'm sure there were more than two. Well, no matter, Strawberry wants them dead all the same. If you don't get past me they die.''