Becoming a Celestial Dragon

"Saint Sanming! Saint Sanming!"

Li Sanming had no idea how much time had passed before he regained consciousness. His mother's crazed screams rang in his ears. "If Saint Sanming doesn't wake up, every last one of you will die!"

"Ugh..."

What were they and Mom calling him Saint Sanming for? Why did they sound like Celestial Dragons? In the world of One Piece, those Celestial Dragons who ruled the world all went by titles like "Saint" or "Palace."

Li Sanming felt weak all over, but a wonderfully soft sensation against his lips gradually brought him back to his senses. So soft, so sweet... Was this the legendary kiss of a young maiden? Then something pressed hard against his chest. A few seconds later, that delightful sensation returned to his lips. Someone was giving him mouth-to-mouth?

Li Sanming struggled to crack his eyes open. A blonde girl in a white Marine uniform was beside him, terrified and trembling, tears streaming down her face. Leaning over him, she pressed desperately on his chest and sobbed, "Wake up!"

Li Sanming wanted to make a sound to answer her, but he had no strength at all. If tears hadn't blurred the girl's vision, she might have noticed the movement at the corner of his eye. But her fear of death left her unable to catch that tiny change.

"If you can't even save someone who's drowned, what good are you Marines?"

As his mother hurled abuse, two arms thicker than a gorilla's seized the blonde Marine girl by the arms and dragged her away from Li Sanming. She screamed through her tears, "I can still save him! I can still try!"

Lying on the ground, Li Sanming felt thoroughly confused. Who exactly needed saving here?

"Drag that useless bitch outside and cut her head off!" his mother roared. "Get another one!"

"I don't want to kiss a corpse!" A Marine girl with long pink hair was shoved forward, crying. "He's obviously been dead for ages! Instructor Zephyr! Save me! There's no way to bring him back!"

"Ugh!" A barely audible grunt escaped Li Sanming's throat. Why were they dragging away the blonde girl who'd saved him to kill her? His head was still hazy, but this didn't feel like a joke. Unable to move his neck, he glanced out of the corner of his eye at the pink-haired girl desperately resisting their attempts to drag her over. She looked familiar. Did he know her? His mind was slowly clearing. The blonde girl from earlier had looked familiar too, but he couldn't remember who she was.

Fortunately, a low voice thick with anger stopped the men dragging the blonde girl away. "Release Sergeant Domino!"

A cold voice called out, "Admiral Zephyr, do you know what you're doing? You dare defy Xia Luqianqian's orders?"

An enormous hand gripped the pink-haired girl's head. It was so large that her head looked like a dragon fruit in its grasp, ready to burst with a squeeze. The hand clearly belonged to an exceptionally tall man. Straining to look through his tears, Li Sanming made out the blurred figure of a burly man over three meters tall. Holding the girl by her head, the man lifted her effortlessly and said without a trace of pity, "You should be honored to have the chance to touch Saint Jalmack's Son's sacred body! This happened because you failed to protect him. If Saint Sanming can't be revived, everyone will die!"

Admiral Zephyr? Wasn't he someone from the world of One Piece? Every figurine in his collection was a character from that world. But what the hell were Saint Jalmack's Son and Xia Luqianqian? Why did those sound like names for him and his mother?

The Marine Admiral, over two meters tall, forcibly restrained his fury as he blocked the executioners dragging the blonde Marine girl away. Behind his back, his fists were clenched so tightly that a layer of pitch-black Haki coated them. Yet the men showed no fear of his rank, meeting Zephyr's gaze with cold stares.

"Xia Luqianqian! I beg you, please allow me to resuscitate him!" At that moment, even the normally fearless Marine Admiral could only bow his back and plead in abject submission.

The Marine ship had come under attack by a Sea King while escorting the Celestial Dragons. Saint Jalmack's Son had gone fishing, only to be eaten instead. By the time Zephyr arrived, it was already too late. When he killed the Sea King and pulled Saint Jalmack's Son from its stomach, the man was already a corpse.

"What nonsense are you spouting? Do you think I'd let that filthy mouth of yours tarnish my son's reputation? This is all your Marines' fault! Cairns, don't let that little bitch waste any more time!" His mother, addressed as Xia Luqianqian, had completely lost her mind. At a wave of her hand, the burly man over three meters tall grabbed the girl's long pink hair and forced her head down. "What are you waiting for? Do it!"

"Waaah..." The pink-haired Marine girl's tears drenched Miming's face. But this man had clearly been dead for ages. How could he possibly be revived? She was doomed. But even if she had to die, she didn't want to die in such humiliation!

Move! Miming shouted desperately inside his head. At last, his lips trembled.

Smack.

The pink-haired Marine girl suddenly lifted her face and touched her lips in astonishment. She hadn't imagined that, had she?

"He moved!" Her eyes widened in surprise. Beneath her palm, she could indeed feel a faint heartbeat! "He's come back to life!"

"How is that possible?" Admiral Zephyr's eyes went wide. The man had already been cold when he pulled him out. Could this be a Devil Fruit power? "Hina, what was your power again?"

"I'm a Cage-Cage Fruit user, Instructor Zephyr!" Hina was still panicking. Surely she didn't have the power to bring the dead back to life?

"Then hurry up and keep resuscitating him!" Overjoyed, Xia Luqianqian hurried over, her fat body swaying, and shoved Hina's head back down. But even after several rounds of mouth-to-mouth, Saint Sanming remained motionless.

Tears streamed down Hina's face. Her first kiss had gone to a reeking Celestial Dragon beast under these circumstances... Damn these Celestial Dragons. Why couldn't he just die? She didn't want to save scum like him in the first place, much less suffer such humiliation!

Admiral Zephyr could bear it no longer. While Xia Luqianqian wasn't looking, he planted a foot on Li Sanming's stomach.

Li Sanming's entire body jolted, springing up beneath Hina. Seawater gushed from his mouth and nose, and he convulsed, curling up like a shrimp. At last, though, he could breathe.

"How dare you!" Several men immediately lunged forward and pressed their blades against Admiral Zephyr's neck, only to be stopped by an arm that suddenly rose.

Everyone stared at that frail arm in delighted surprise. Weak as it was, it belonged to one of the all-powerful Celestial Dragons.

Li Sanming coughed violently. It took a long while for his spasms to stop, and then he used every ounce of strength to utter his first words in this world. "Let them go!"

"My Miming!" Xia Luqianqian flung herself at him in a frenzy and cradled his head against her chest.

"Mom, what happened?" Li Sanming asked weakly.

Xia Luqianqian flew into a rage. "It's all these damned Marines' fault! They failed to protect you and let you fall into the sea!"

"The sea?" Li Sanming turned his head weakly and finally got a clear look at his surroundings.

He was aboard a large ship, one whose appearance was so familiar, with Marine sails overhead. An endless ocean surrounded them, but there wasn't much to see there. Li Sanming's attention quickly shifted to the people around him. First, the Marine Admiral-Black Arm Zephyr?

Then there was the blonde girl over there, limp with terror. Hadn't Admiral Zephyr called her Domino? She looked tall and sexy, and very familiar, but he couldn't quite remember who she was. And the Marine girl with long pink hair in front of him-could she be "Black Cage" Hina? Her pretty, tear-streaked face looked much younger than the Hina figurine in his collection. Still immature as she was, she was definitely Hina.

Had he crossed over into the world of One Piece? If this was a dream, please don't let him wake up!

He looked at his mother. The woman before him was a wealthy lady in an extravagant outfit, her ridiculous hairstyle and entire head enclosed in a bubble helmet. She really was a Celestial Dragon-one of those people who thought themselves so great that they wore bubble helmets rather than deign to breathe the same air as ordinary people!

I'd become a Celestial Dragon?

"Saint Jalmack's Son, do you remember now?" Black Arm Zephyr suppressed his anger and spoke deferentially. "You insisted that we stop the ship so you could fish here in the Calm Belt, and a Sea King ate you."

A Sea King? Li Sanming turned his head and saw an enormous dog-headed fish, a hundred meters long, lying in the sea beside them. Its blood had stained the surrounding waters red, filling the air with a rank, fishy stench. Its belly had been sliced open, and its head had been smashed apart.

"Aaah!"

The horrifying sight made Li Sanming scream. Then his eyes rolled back, and he passed out.

By the time he woke again, the Marine ship had docked.

"Saint Sanming is awake!" Several fawning voices immediately rang out, and their owners rushed off like eager lackeys to report the news.

"Get away!" Li Sanming shoved hard at the burly man trying to help him up. The man obligingly flew backward and bumped lightly against the wall, as though he had been struck by a Marine Admiral's Haki-infused shove.

"Zephyr... Domino... Hina..." Li Sanming could barely contain his excitement. This really was the world he loved so deeply!

His mother's relentless voice came from the bow deck. "After such a serious incident, don't think you Marines can escape responsibility!"

Zephyr's face was full of humiliation. That bastard had been the one to specifically demand that Domino and Hina escort him, claiming that seeing ugly faces would spoil his mood. If Zephyr's own ship hadn't been following behind, allowing him to arrive in time to kill the Sea King-and then miraculously revive that bastard-they would have been in serious trouble! The Celestial Dragons didn't see them as human at all. Even when the Marines saved their lives, they would still pin all the blame on them.