Chapter 22 - It's a Jimmy

The copy of himself put his hands around Zhu Jiao's neck before raising up quickly to cover his eyes.

"Guess who!" The shadow shouted right beside Zhu Jiao's ears.

"What the heck! That's really loud! I don't know who you are!" Zhu Jiao struggled a bit from the loud shout beside his ears before finally breaking free of the shadow's grasp.

Turning around instantly he looked at the shadow before opening his mouth. It was a replica of how he usually looked without the transformation.

"It's a me! Jimmy!" The shadow smiled while throwing up some jazz hands.

"Holy shit! Jimmy! It's been an awfully long time! How've you been!" Zhu Jiao turned around and looked at Jimmy before rushing forward to give him a hug.

"Same old same old man, lots of things to corrupt. How you doin'" Jimmy replied as he took out a cigarette and put it in his mouth. Zhu Jiao walked over and focused his On his finger to light up the cigarette.

"Yo man, it's alright, I get thrown into a different world for no reason at all, so it kinda sucks, I don't know how many chapters of One Piece I'll miss." Zhu Jiao replied with a frown.

"Don't worry about it man, I heard Oda has been going into hiatus recently. So I wouldn't worry about that." Jimmy replied while leaning against a tree taking a long drag of his cigarette.

Jimmy, as it so happens is Zhu Jiao's inner demon, he first manifested his inner demon when he came into contact with a corrupted mirror, which causes everyone to come face to face with their inner demons, and when they lose, they will be trapped in it forever.

But after coming into contact with his inner demon, they found out that they really hit it off well, so they became good friends, talking with each other all the way through high school, Jimmy was called back to be a substitute inner demon for failing to hit his KPI(Key performance indicator). It was meant to be a punishment, but who knew that Jimmy was actually so good at his job that the councils of inner demons asked him to be the director of substitute inner demons. Leaving him busier and busier with his job causing the two friends to grow apart.

"Man, when I saw your name on the list I just knew I had to come, I told them I'd take this assignment and I bolted, the Council has plenty of manpower anyway so screw em' y'know"

Jimmy smiled as he gave Zhu Jiao a fist-bump.

"That's great man, sure let's hang out for a bit, it'll be like old times. Oh btw, for some reason I'm stuck in this place, do you have any idea how I'm supposed to get out of here?"

Zhu Jiao smiled feeling reassured that he'd met his old friend once again.

"Yeah, it's some illusion thing, don't you have the skill to dispel illusions? Just use your to break free"

Jimmy replied as he stretched.

"Yeah your right, but it's I sorta renamed it, I thought it felt cooler." Zhu Jiao replied

A skill Zhu Jiao manifested when he was younger as he was shopping in a supermarket, his mother and father were quarreling about the prices of the goods there and which of the brands was cheaper. After a good 30 minutes, Zhu Jiao got sick and tired and broke the illusion, the illusion of free will, and lay down the truths for his parents. They still ended up buying both brands because even though the illusion of free will was broken, the spirit of capitalism still remained strong.

"Damn, your name sounds miles better, I guess I'll adopt it too," Jimmy muttered under his breath.

Zhu Jiao opened his eyes as they lit up blue, the world around him started spinning as everything around vanished and he ended up back in that room standing on a jade plate that was carved.

He looked around and he couldn't find Jimmy anywhere, shocking Zhu Jiao, but was soon relieved when he heard Jimmy's voice in his head.

"The thing you're stepping on, I think it can bring you into that world. Maybe we should keep it, you know so we get more fruits?"

Immediately the kleptomaniac inside him was stirred he picked up the jade plate and yeeted it into his before walking out of the room and running into Xia Si Le.

This led to the whole situation of him asking about his master, so he asked Jimmy to help out.

Jimmy used To change his look to an old man as he formed out from the smoke from within Zhu Jiao's mind.

Telepathically, they exchanged messages,

"Jimmy! Tell him you're like my master or something."

"Who dares to trace this old man behind his back!" Jimmy's voice boomed as he shouted at Xia Si Le.

"HAHAHA nice one! How will he have heard of you if he doesn't even know your name! Scold him again!"

Jimmy held back his laughter as his voice boomed out again.

"Hmph! You've heard of my greatness! Do you even know who this ancient one is!? If you don't, how would you have heard of my greatness!"

Jimmy asked Zhu Jiao telepathically, "Quick, I need a name, what's the most ridiculous name you can think of?"

"Chao Li Hai! (Super Amazing), Just call yourself Chao Li Hai" Zhu Jiao replied. He looked down trying very hard not to break into laughter, his shoulders started to tremble.

After saying his piece, Jimmy winked at Zhu Jiao as he entered back into his mind space. The two had a great time, laughing telepathically.

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"I've seen your master with my eyes, I'm sorry for being so forceful! If young master can forgive me…" Xia Si Le panickedly bowed to Zhu Jiao

"Yeah, fine, I just need to take the test for becoming a core disciple…"

Immediately Xia Si Le led him to the room beside the Rune Array test. As he pushed open the door, what lay in front of him shocked Zhu Jiao greatly…