Chapter 499: Breakout in Impel Down

“Hey, are you guys looking for someone?”

“Whoa, who’s that weirdo?”

Luffy turned toward the voice and saw a strange figure with purple hair and a huge head. More and more silhouettes kept appearing behind him.

“Are they enemies?” Zoro didn’t hesitate to draw his swords, taking up his Three-Sword Style stance. His eyes flashed dangerously as he waited for Luffy’s signal.

“Let’s deal with them quickly. We’re running out of time.”

“Leave these guys to me. You all go find who you’re looking for.”

Franky, clad in nothing but red underwear, strode forward with a dramatic step, slammed a button on his arm, and extended two oversized Gatling cannons from his fists.

“Wait a second, we’re not enemies! We’re pirates imprisoned here, but something’s gone wrong below so we’re just running for our lives.”

Ivankov had no intention of telling them that the chaos started on the Seventh Floor. With Luffy’s personality, he’d probably want to check it out, and that would ruin Ivankov’s plans.

“I see! I’m looking for Ace and Ye Fan. Have you heard of them?”

Luffy, always the easiest to fool, believed them immediately after hearing they weren’t enemies.

He walked right up, hoping to get some info on the Fifth Floor so they wouldn’t have to wander around like headless chickens.

“If it’s Ye Fan you want, I know where he’s locked up. As for Ace, I’m afraid the Navy already took him. Nothing I can do.”

“What?”

“So… we’re too late?”

Hearing that, Luffy’s face fell in disappointment. He pulled out a scrap of burnt paper from his shirt—Ace’s Vivre Card, now reduced to just the edges.

“If that’s how it is, let’s save Ye Fan first.”

“Ye Fan’s cell is right here. Follow me.”

Ivankov charged ahead, with Luffy following right on his heels, full of trust. Zoro, Sanji and the others couldn’t help slapping their foreheads. “Luffy really is too easy to trick.”

Morley didn’t follow but instead started putting Ivankov’s big chaos plan into action.

He rallied his people to break all the pirates out of the Fifth Floor, even sending a team to free the ones down on the Fourth Floor.

“Ye Fan!”

“Where are you?”

“Ye Fan?”

Luffy ran through the halls, shouting for Ye Fan at the top of his lungs.

Inside a cell near the gate to the Sixth Floor, Ye Fan sat with his eyes closed, resting. The moment he heard Luffy’s familiar voice, he smiled, opened his eyes, hurried to the cell door and shouted, “Hey Luffy, I’m in here!”

“Thud thud thud…”

Hearing the shout, Luffy spotted the cell in the distance and sprinted toward it on his long legs.

“I thought you were dead.”

“Nobody in this world has ever managed to kill me. Not even the Navy. Right, Captain Luffy?”

“Yeah!”

“Hang on, let me get you out.”

“E Ichi Dai—Sanzen!”

Clang!

Zoro sheathed his blade. The cell bars now lay on the ground, sliced clean through.

“Ah, finally free! Thanks, Zoro.”

Zoro just gave Ye Fan a quiet nod, still too proud to actually show how pleased he was with himself.

“By the way, Luffy, I think Ace is locked up on the Sixth Floor. Let’s go save him.”

Right now, Ye Fan had to act like he didn’t know what really happened to Ace—otherwise Luffy would start to suspect something.

“No, Ace has already been taken to Navy Headquarters. If we want to save him, we have to go there. Let’s hurry and head out!”

Luffy turned to leave, but as he stepped forward with his left leg, he felt Ye Fan grab his right hand. He looked back, puzzled. “What’s up?”

“You’re not seriously just leaving for Navy Headquarters, are you? Do you even know how many powerful enemies are there right now?”

Luffy really was charging headlong into danger without a plan. If they didn’t get more help, how could they possibly rescue Ace?

If only a couple extra powerhouses had joined in the original timeline, Ace might have been saved, instead of dying at Navy Headquarters.

“No matter how many Navy guys there are, I’ll send every last one of them flying.”

“No, Luffy, one person alone isn’t enough. This is the passageway to the Sixth Floor—there are lots of infamous pirates in there. How about we make a deal with them?”

“We’ll let out anyone willing to help us storm Navy Headquarters. Those who agree can walk free.”

“Alright, let’s do it!”

It’s not like Luffy can’t think, it’s just that solving problems with his fists is usually faster for him than coming up with a plan.

With Karl’s suggestion, Luffy immediately decided to head down to the Sixth Floor of Impel Down, then move on to Navy Headquarters to rescue Ace.

Before long, the whole group arrived at the lift and rode it down to the Sixth Floor.

Meanwhile, down on the Fourth Floor, Buggy had pulled himself together and, along with Galdino and a horde of escaping pirates, kept dodging Magellan’s poisonous gas as they made a dash for the Fifth Floor.

“The Warlord—Crocodile?”

“The Warlord—Jinbei?”

Luffy and his friends reached the Sixth Floor and quickly spotted Crocodile and Jinbei, both chained tightly with Seastone. They could sense the wild, vicious energy pouring off the pirates there, making Luffy frown.

He’d come here to look for allies, not to unleash a bunch of ruthless criminals.

He quickly made up his mind—not to free any pirate he didn’t know and trust, to avoid making the situation worse later on.

“Luffy?”

“Did you get thrown in here too?”

The moment Crocodile saw Luffy, he knew that the flames of war had already been lit. Still, he kept up a fierce glare and growled at Luffy.

“Anyone want to break out with me?”

“If you promise to help me rescue Ace at Navy Headquarters, I’ll set you free.”

“Brat, you’re making demands? Set me loose right now or you’ll regret it!” Vasco Shot barked at Luffy and his crew with murderous intensity.

A chorus of prisoners joined in, shouting threats and trying to bully Luffy into unlocking their cells.

Honestly, with Luffy’s harmless-looking face, he just didn’t have much intimidation factor.

“Zoro, these guys are way too noisy.”

“Yeah, you’re right!”

Thud thud thud!

Zoro walked straight over to Vasco Shot’s cell and drew Shusui.

“Hey—what are you doing?” Vasco Shot could feel Zoro’s deadly aura, and panic took over as he shouted in fear.

“What am I doing? Only dead men stay quiet. And you’re about to join them.”

“No, please, I’m sorry—don’t!”

“He doesn’t feel sorry—he just knows he’s about to die. Zoro, do it!”

Zoro ignored his desperate pleas. His blade shimmered with a faint trace of Conqueror’s Haki.

A single slash—and Vasco Shot’s head flew clean off his shoulders. The man who could have become commander of Blackbeard’s eighth division died right there beneath Zoro’s sword.

Zoro’s ferocity made the rest of the prisoners go silent, every one of them suddenly terrified the next blade might be coming for them.