"Outta the way, you loooots!!"
With Luffy at the front, the prisoners kept up their furious advance. They threw open cell after cell on Level 4, absorbing the freed inmates into their fighting force, scattering every Guard and Jailer that came at them.
Heavy hitters like the Blugori and the Jailer Beasts were deployed against them, but the Shichibukai-class fighters leading the charge, Luffy, Crocodile, and Jinbe, kicked them aside without breaking stride. There was no sign of them stopping.
"No dawdling, Straw Hat Boy! This commotion has almost certainly reached Magellan's ears by now. He'll be heading to this floor any minute. Not a second to waste, we push upward!"
"The lift is over that way, so if he comes, he'll be pursuing us from behind. If we stop moving, we'll be caught like fish in a net. That truly would be hopeless."
"Got it, Iva-chan! Crab-chan! ...So, which way are the stairs to Level 3?"
"Take a right at the end of that corridor!"
"Here they come, it's the prisoners!"
"Stop them at all costs! If they get through here, the stairs to Level 3 are right there. Even with Vice Warden Hannyabal up ahead, we need to hold them back as long as possible, as many as we can..."
"Sorry, but we're comin' through...! Oooooryaaaaaah!!"
The instant that shout rang out, a dark shadow fell over the Jailers holding their position. They looked up with a start, and there it was: something enormous, plummeting straight toward them.
"Wh-what is that...?! A chunk of iron?!"
"That's... one of the Iron Cauldrons from the Blood Pond torture chambers! You're kidding me... someone threw it?!"
"R-run! We'll be crushed— GYAAAAAAH?!"
"UWAAAHH!! Hot, it's hoooot?!"
From one corridor over, Beauty had hurled one of the torture Iron Cauldrons. A smaller model, sized for submerging a handful of prisoners, but even so, contents included, it easily weighed several tons. It sailed through the air and crashed dead center into the Jailers' formation. Some were crushed beneath it. Others were hit by the scalding, blood-red liquid that splashed out on impact, searing their flesh.
Watching the Jailers writhe in the agony of being burned, the prisoners cackled with glee.
"Hell yeah, lady! Give 'em more!"
"That woman's got insane power! She's chucking those huge Iron Cauldrons around!"
"Serves you right, you Jailer scum! How's it feel, gettin' a taste of your own Blood Pond?!"
"We've been on the receiving end of that every damn day! Try soaking in it yourselves for once!"
"Alright, here comes the next one!"
"Again?!"
"Fall back, fall back! Don't bunch up, or we'll all get wiped— GUAHH?!"
"Don't just watch the ones flying overhead! The prisoners' front line is already here— U-UWAAAH!"
The Jailers scattered in panic, trying to escape the Iron Cauldrons arcing toward them one after another.
But Luffy and the vanguard arrived right on their heels, picking off Jailers who hadn't even managed to form a proper line. In their panicked state, the Jailers fell easy prey to the Newkama and the other prisoners as well.
Advance, and the prisoners attack. Retreat, and the Iron Cauldrons rain down.
"R-reinforcements... where are the reinforcements?! We can't hold any longer!"
"This is Level 4! Are the reinforcements still not here?! Please respond, we're begging you!"
***
"This is Level 4! Are the reinforcements still not here?! Please respond, we're begging you!"
"Th-this is Level 3! We're on our way to you, but... s-sorry, right now we... w-we seem to have gotten lost..."
"Lost?! What are you talking about?! This is Impel Down! Even if it is built like a labyrinth, it's your own workplace! Don't screw with us!"
"This isn't a joke, we're at our limit over here! Get here as fast as— GYAAAHH!!"
Click. Beep, beep, beep...
"Hey... hey?! Damn it... 'Don't screw with us'? That's what we want to say..."
Tucking the now-silent Small Den Den Mushi back inside his jacket, the Guard looked around.
Before him... a dense Mist hung so thick that nothing was visible more than a short distance ahead. Because of it, they couldn't read their surroundings, couldn't even tell which direction they were heading.
"Level 3's supposed to be dry as a desert! There's no way fog just appears here! What the hell is going on?!"
"It's probably some kind of..."
Thud!
"Pow... urgh?!"
"Hey?! Damn it, not again..."
"We're being sniped... from far away!"
"Don't be stupid, who could snipe in this fog?! You can barely see a few meters ahead, there's no way to aim! The shooter's close by! Search for—"
Thud!
"Th... gh... ah... damn..."
"Son of a... what the hell is this...?!"
"Show yourself, you coward!"
Thud!
"UGYAAAHH!"
"Say whatever you like... no sniper worth their salt walks out in front of the enemy."
A considerable distance away, at a position where even stray shots would never reach, Blume stood.
A long-barreled sniper rifle in hand, a beloved weapon confiscated when she was admitted to Impel Down, one she'd carried since long before her arrest, she picked off the Jailers one by one. One shot, one kill. Every target, taken down with certainty.
She couldn't see the Guards through the Mist either. But that posed no obstacle whatsoever.
Blume was a Logia Type Ability User who had eaten the Mist-Mist Fruit. The dense fog blanketing the area was, needless to say, a product of her Powers.
"This Mist is my domain. Everyone inside it, everything happening inside it, I'm fully aware of it all. Not being able to see doesn't pose the slightest problem. Sniping under these conditions is..."
Thud!
"GYAAAHH!"
"A piece of cake. That last one makes exactly half."
Having already picked off a full half of the reinforcements that were supposed to rush down from Level 3, Blume let out a quiet breath.
Her Mist didn't just block vision. It also interfered with the sense of direction of anyone inside it, throwing it into disarray. How strongly it affected someone varied from person to person, but against rank-and-file soldiers with no real strength and no ability to use Haki, simply wrapping them in the fog was more than enough to stop them in their tracks. And given that Impel Down's structure was already a labyrinth, once visibility was gone and their sense of direction scrambled, even trained Jailers and Guards ended up wandering in circles, unable to reach their destination.
All the while, Blume steadily whittled down their numbers, picking them off one by one.
"Just as Sue predicted. To quash the riot quickly, they'd concentrate their forces on Level 4. The Straw Hat boy, Iva-san, and the others will handle things on the floor itself, so if we thin out the reinforcements trying to join them, it'll make things easier down the road and put their side in a slow bleed. Once the rear guard's gone... oh?"
Something caught her eye mid-sniping. Watching the way those things moved, she thought for a moment, then realized what the sight meant.
"So that's what Sue was talking about. In that case... I should let them through."
Blume manipulated the Mist surrounding her, clearing a path from where those things were all the way to the stairs leading down to Level 4. Those things, which had been on the verge of losing their way in the fog, spotted the open path and stampeded through it at full speed.
Watching them go with a satisfied look, Blume restored the Mist to its original state and resumed disposing of the remaining half, the former "reinforcements."
Thud!
***
Meanwhile, in yet another location.
"Mmm~~~!! Get out of my way, you mere prisoners! Excitement's Manifesto, Red Demon's Whip!!"
The crack of leather splitting air. A lash from Sadi-chan, the Chief Jailer, struck the stone floor and walls, shattering them to pieces. Not a torture whip. A combat one. Swung at full force, it could easily shatter human bone. Faced with that power, the prisoners recoiled in terror.
But one among them showed no fear at all. If anything, as if deliberately provoking Sadi-chan, this person dodged her strikes with nimble ease, reading the trajectory perfectly and slipping past each one.
Dancing through gaps where the whip would have connected with only milliseconds to spare, the fighter quickly closed the distance to Sadi-chan and slashed horizontally with the saber in her right hand. Anticipating that Sadi-chan would leap back to dodge, she read the movement and swept in from the side with a second saber in her left hand.
'She's fast, and her movements are precise! Mmm~~~, she's hard to fight!'
Sadi-chan twisted her body into an awkward position but managed to evade that too. When she cracked her whip in retaliation, her opponent used a stone pillar as cover, then hopped nimbly from one chunk of shattered debris to the next, vaulting clean out of the whip's range.
Then, with the pistol she'd switched to her left hand at some point, the fighter aimed at Sadi-chan and fired while doing a midair flip.
Sadi-chan dodged that too, but the distance had opened up, making pursuit impossible.
The gun aside, sword against whip should have given Sadi-chan the advantage in reach. Yet she couldn't finish this opponent off. If anything, it felt like she was the one being toyed with, and her frustration was building. Given that Sadi-chan herself claimed "there's no point in being alive if you're not on the attack," this inability to press her offense stung all the more.
'Wait... who even is this prisoner? I don't remember any little girl like this. As cute and as strong as she is, mmm~~~! I feel like she'd have stuck in my memory...'
"Nihihihi... as expected from Impel Down's Chief Jailer. Quick and tough... but..."
Wearing the same kind of outlandish outfit as the "perverts" who had swarmed up from Level 5, something so eccentric it defied description, the prisoner who looked like a young girl grinned at Sadi-chan, her smile dripping with fearless confidence.
"Against someone like you, big sis... even little old me should be able to manage just fine."
As a side note, when Sue had laid eyes on the outfit Alice was wearing before they set out, she had said:
'You're seriously going out in that?! Look, I'm saying this as your parent, but... a little modesty? You're a girl, you should have some resistance to showing that much skin... and think about defense, too... I mean sure, leotards are legitimate sportswear used in gymnastics and all, but the cut of that crotch area is absolutely pushing the limit... and everything's showing through the fabric so at least put on some underw—'
So that had happened.
As for Sue herself, she was wearing a "virgin-killer outfit."
"Don't get cocky, you little brat! Sadi-chan loves being on the attack and loves tormenting people... but she hates being on the defense! And she hates being looked down on or underestimated even more!"
As she spoke, Sadi-chan charged, whipping in every direction. The long whip snaked and filled the corridor, leaving physically no space to dodge, an onslaught of raw violence.
But even facing that, Alice showed no sign of panic.
"Reversal of Gravity."
She leaped and floated straight up, defying gravity entirely. Gliding above the whip's attack range, she reached a point directly above the wide-eyed Sadi-chan, then canceled her ability and dropped into freefall.
But Sadi-chan seized the moment. She swiftly retracted the whip, snapped her wrist to send it rippling back in a wave, and slammed it dead-on into Alice from the front. With Alice having launched herself into the air like that, the timing was perfect. Inescapable.
What she held wasn't a torture whip but a powerful combat model. In the hands of a skilled wielder, the tip could exceed the speed of sound and carry enough force to shatter rock. Just moments ago, she'd used a single strike to obliterate a stone-built corridor along with the prisoners in it.
One second from now, the female prisoner before her would have every part of her body split open by the impact, blood spraying, bones crushed, falling limp to the ground... accompanied by a lovely death scream. That's how it should have gone, but...
"Reflection!"
CRAAACK!!
"KYAAAAAAH?!"
The instant the whip touched Alice's skin, the Reva-Reva Fruit's Powers sent it flying back at Sadi-chan with its full force intact, striking her while she was completely defenseless. Without meaning to, Sadi-chan had taken upon herself almost exactly the damage Alice had anticipated would come her way.
Alice grabbed the staggering Sadi-chan by the throat with one hand and caught the dropped whip with the other. Then she hoisted Sadi-chan up by the neck. The height difference meant she couldn't actually lift her off the ground, but still.
"Now then... Chief Jailer Sadi-chan. I could just toss you aside somewhere and move on, but... it seems you've been taking real good care of our Mom. I've been watching. I've been told about it, too. I've wanted to thank you for a long, long time."
"M-Mom...?! What are you... talking..."
The damage from her own full-force whip strike had been far worse than she imagined. Sadi-chan could barely breathe, and with her throat being squeezed on top of that, she could hardly get a word out. But Alice didn't seem to be expecting a response. She just kept talking, saying what she wanted to say, matter-of-factly.
A smile still rested on her face, but... this was unusual for Alice, who was always laughing, always cheerful, the kind of person you'd call a clown or a mood-maker. Her eyes weren't smiling.
What filled them instead was anger. Hatred. Black emotions directed at the sworn enemy who had hurt the person most precious to her.
Gripping Sadi-chan's throat, she dragged her along the floor.
"Y'know, unlike Suzu and Leona, I'm a 'bad kid,' the kind Grandpa actually approves of. Normally I'd love to take my sweet time with this, but... we're in a rush right now. So I'll keep it reasonable. Nice and quick. ...Lucky you. At least you won't suffer for long."
Crack!
Thwack!
Stab! Slash!
Snap!
Creak, crunch... crack!
Rip, rip!
Squelch!
Splatter... splatter, splatter.
Slide... slide, slide...
...Thud.
A few minutes later.
Having finished what needed to be done, Alice cracked the whip she'd taken from Sadi-chan, testing it with a few sharp lashes through the air. Then she unleashed a single sweeping strike at the Jailers blocking the way ahead, blowing them all aside at once.
"Yep... it's a little heavy, but it's got power and it's easy to use. Got in a decent bit of practice too, so no problems there. I think I'll keep this one."
As she spoke, she casually tossed the bundle of Sadi-chan's clothing off the edge of the corridor. The fabric was shredded to ribbons and soaked in a staggering amount of blood, making it unmistakably clear that something had happened to its former owner. But it tumbled into the raging inferno below and burned to nothing in an instant, leaving not even ash behind.
And with that, Alice broke into a run to catch up with the vanguard, making up for the time she'd lost.
...After that, no one ever saw Sadi-chan again.
To be continued...