Chapter 479: Ye Fan’s Arrival at Impel Down

So with Rayleigh making the first move, the two and a half days of foundational training began. Everyone first worked on deepening their mastery of Observation Haki.

Rayleigh kept hitting them with small wooden blocks, forcing them to close their eyes and focus. The only way to dodge was with Observation Haki—no peeking, no listening allowed.

At first, almost no one could avoid Rayleigh’s attacks.

When night fell, Usopp, Nami and Robin were the first to dodge Rayleigh’s wooden blocks. So they started helping train the others in Observation Haki.

Meanwhile, Rayleigh gave Luffy and Zoro a separate lesson on controlling and using Conqueror’s Haki.

That same night, a Navy warship delivered Ye Fan—who’d been handed over by Moria—to Impel Down.

“Warden Magellan, this is Ye Fan, the Straw Hat Pirates’ vice-captain. His bounty is 310 million Berries. He needs to be locked up on the fifth floor of Impel Down!”

“Alright, just leave it to me.”

Magellan, fresh from the restroom, had already gotten the call from Fleet Admiral Sengoku and was waiting for them at the prison gates.

Although Karl had snatched the Poison-Poison Fruit from him, Magellan had eaten the Gasous Poison Fruit instead. It’s like a lesser version of the original, not allowing for elementalization, but still part of the Paramecia line of Devil Fruits.

“Leave it to Warden Magellan. Go, move it!”

Handcuffed and shackled, Ye Fan was led off the ship by the Navy.

“So this is Impel Down? Doesn’t really look that scary.”

Ye Fan took it all in, curious and completely unfazed by getting caught. After all, this was his first time seeing the famous Impel Down.

Impel Down is split into an aboveground level and six underground floors. The ground floor doesn’t hold any prisoners—it’s just a large entry hall.

Here, incoming pirates are processed before going to their cells, and many jailers take their breaks here.

From a distance, the place looks like a huge fortress rising from the sea.

For reasons unknown, there are always thick clouds hanging above Impel Down, giving the whole place a gloomy, foreboding atmosphere.

“Once a pirate sets foot in here, you can forget about escaping.”

Magellan waved his hand. Two jailers stepped up and led Ye Fan inside. The Navy officers outside gave a salute and turned to lead their fleet away.

“But I heard the infamous Golden Lion managed to escape from here, didn’t he?”

Ye Fan gave Magellan a teasing look.

Magellan paused for a moment at that, then quickly recovered and kept walking. “That was a one-time oversight. Anyway, you don’t have Golden Lion’s kind of power.”

Ye Fan didn’t bother to argue. You had to be smart to manage a place like this, and he didn’t want to say something that might land him in trouble.

The rest of the trip was uneventful as the jailers brought Ye Fan to the ground floor hall.

Two jailers soon came over to check Ye Fan for any hidden items.

After the search, they led him down to the first basement—Crimson Lotus Hell.

Each floor has elevators on either side of the cell blocks, so to reach the second basement, you’ve got to pass through the first floor’s corridor. This way, pirates can’t just hop on an elevator and make a direct escape.

Crimson Lotus Hell isn’t for the worst offenders; prisoners here typically can’t beat the blue gorillas. Passing through its corridors, Ye Fan saw a grove outside the cells—full of Sword Trees with razor-sharp leaves and Needlegrass that could pierce straight through a person.

The prisoners are constantly chased by poison spiders and jailers, running back and forth until the Sword Trees and Needlegrass leave them bloodied and screaming. It’s a special torment for pirates.

At the deepest part of level one sat a huge elevator.

“Go on, get in.”

The elevator dropped, and in seconds, they’d reached the second basement.

This was Beast Hell—home to all sorts of ferocious monsters: chicken-snakes, human-faced lions, poison scorpions and more. The boss here was the Sphinx. Prisoners aren’t kept in separate cells—they’re all thrown together, knowing they’re just future monster chow. Most are too terrified to even move.

From the third basement on, individual cells appear again, with a dozen or more pirates packed into each one.

Until finally, the fifth floor!

Here each cell only had three or four pirates—a real VIP treatment by Impel Down standards.

“Ye Fan? Never thought I’d see you behind bars!”

“Hey, isn’t that Buggy?”

To be honest, Ye Fan had already forgotten what Buggy got sent here for—but it was good to see a familiar face.

By chance, his cell was right next to Buggy’s.

“Hey, I have no clue how you ended up here.”

On the fifth-floor Ice Hell, Buggy was the only one who could sneak in and out of cells across the snowfields, bringing back meat and basically ruling his cell.

As soon as the jailers left, Ye Fan glanced over at Buggy. Legs crossed, Buggy grinned. “I came here on my own, you know—not because the Navy caught me!”

“What?!”

“Who in their right mind would walk into a prison on their own!”

Hearing this, Buggy’s head and body split apart, his head zipping right over to Ye Fan’s cell.

“Wait, did you come here to break me out after hearing I was locked up?”

“Idiot, you really think I’d do that for you? Knock it off, Buggy, you’re not that special.”

Ye Fan just listened to Buggy ramble with a pout and a self-satisfied look, and couldn’t help feeling speechless.

He’d never seen Buggy act quite this narcissistic before.

“Hey, do you know a way down to the sixth, or even the rumored seventh floor?”

Ye Fan had come up with this plan while thinking things over on the way here.

He’d planned to wait around for Luffy, but remembered that Oda hinted in a game that there’s a mysterious seventh floor deep in Impel Down.

Supposedly, only monsters on the level of the Four Emperors are held down there. Even the warden is personally chosen by the World Government.

A Four Emperors–level powerhouse guards the seventh floor, which means the prisoners there are truly monsters. The only question: are any of them still alive?

“The seventh floor? There’s a seventh floor here?”

Buggy had been here for over a month, and only ever heard rumors about a sixth floor—even that somewhere between the fifth and sixth floors, a mysterious space exists. But a seventh floor? He’d never heard of it.

“Then forget it.”

If Buggy didn’t know anything, Ye Fan would just have to dig up the secret himself.

“Show some respect for the great Buggy, alright? I came over here to talk to you, and nobody else— Wham!”

“Noisy!”

Ye Fan landed a punch right on Buggy’s head, giving him a big bump and leaving him dazed. Grabbing Buggy by the hair, he tossed his head back across the cell.

“I really don’t have time to argue with you right now.”