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Chapter 31: Tiny Stealth
Operation: Secretly Rescue Ace!
It was a top-secret mission to reclaim Luffy's captured older brother, "Fire Fist" Ace, completely unnoticed, just as the name implied.
The difficulty level, however, was definitely Very Hard Mode.
After all, this was Impel Down, the greatest prison in the world.
If our infiltration was discovered and we were caught by the guards, we'd be thrown straight into a cell, likely never to see the light of day again. That was exactly why we absolutely could not afford to be seen by anyone, and why we absolutely could not cause a scene.
And yet... And yet...!
"Gyaaaaaah!!"
"Uwooooh!?"
"Whoa!? What the—what is that!?"
Operation: Secretly Rescue Ace met its untimely demise in less than five minutes, entirely thanks to the sudden appearance of a clown-like guy.
Who the hell is this guy!?
He's being chased by some axe-wielding monsters that look like masked Totoros, and now I've been dragged into it!
"Huff, puff... Hm? Gwaaah!! Straw Hat!? Why the hell are you here!?"
Seeing us running right alongside him, the clown guy shouted in shock.
Wait, what? Did Luffy know this guy?
"Oh... it's just Buggy."
Apparently, they knew each other. Luffy let out an obvious sigh. I'd never seen him give someone the cold shoulder like this before.
"Luffy, who is this guy?"
"An idiot."
"All right, don't mess with me, you scatterbrained morons!!"
The clown guy—now identified as Buggy—loudly lost his temper at Luffy's blunt dismissal. Awfully energetic for a guy running for his life.
"Anyway, Buggy, what exactly is chasing us? Those things swinging axes and grunting..."
"They're the martial artists of the sea, Blue Gorillas! Blugori for short! They're kept as jailers here in Impel Down! If they catch you, you'll be in for a flashy, horrible time!!"
"Martial artists using axes..."
In any case, if we kept getting chased around like this, other guards would gather in no time. If that happened, our capture would only be a matter of time.
Based on what I could sense with my Observation Haki, the Blugori were fairly strong, but they didn't seem to be a match for me. I needed to take them out instantly before they called for backup.
"Tontatta Combat: Jaw Tail!"
Whack-whack-whack-whack!
"U-Oho... !?"
I whipped all five of the Blugori with my tail, sending them crashing to the ground unconscious.
Seeing this, Buggy's eyes literally popped out of his skull like a gag manga.
Whoa!? What the!? Creepy!
"Th-The Blugori went down in an instant... Who the hell are you!? You little midget...!"
"Don't call me a midget! And who the hell are you!? Your eyes just flew out of your head! Not to mention that red nose."
"Who're you calling a red nose, you little punk!!"
Buggy didn't just pop his eyes out; his head and limbs completely detached and flew into the air.
I see, a Devil Fruit user...
His whole body was falling apart, so he was probably a Chop-Chop Fruit user or something. Or maybe he just had the quirk of a lizard dropping its tail. Although, I personally think Lizardy is pretty hot!
"Hey, Buggy! I've got something to ask you!"
Luffy closed in on Buggy's floating, severed head. But Buggy spun his face away with a huff.
"Something to ask me? Who cares! Buggy's Great Secret Breakout Operation just got ruined, so I don't have time for this!"
Ah, so he was in the middle of breaking out.
But still, Buggy's Great Secret Breakout Operation... It overlapped perfectly with the name of my Operation: Secretly Rescue Ace, which kind of rubbed me the wrong way.
"I want to save my brother, Ace! Do you know where he's locked up!?"
"I just told you I don't care! You want me to say it again? I. Don't. Care!! But since he's a commander for Whitebeard, he's probably locked up under heavy security on a floor way further down! Level 5... or maybe even lower..."
Even as he claimed he didn't care, Buggy gave us all the information he knew right on the spot. What can I say... he really was a guy who just lived in the moment.
When I tested him by buttering him up, saying, "What's Level 5? What's the lower floor? Tell us, oh knowledgeable Buggy-san~!" he laughed, "Gyahaha! The knowledgeable Buggy-san will teach you!" and explained everything.
...And right after he finished his explanation, he yelled, "Why the hell did you make me explain all that in such detail!!"
A classic double-take routine. I think he should quit being a pirate and become a comedian instead.
...Let's see, to summarize Buggy's explanation... Impel Down gets progressively worse the deeper underground you go, with both the torture levels and the danger of the prisoners increasing...
Level 1: Crimson Hell.
Level 2: Wild Beast Hell.
Level 3: Starvation Hell.
Level 4: Blazing Hell. And so on.
By the way, Buggy said even he didn't know what kind of place Level 5 was. Apparently, the prisoners held there all had bounties of over a hundred million Berries at minimum. Which meant that Ace, with his bounty of 550,000,000 Berries, was probably locked up in Level 5... Or possibly the rumored Level 6, which no one even knew for sure existed, according to him.
"I see. So if I get caught, I'll be in Level 5... or maybe Level 6. That sucks..."
"Aren't you full of yourself, you little midget. Are you really that dangerous? What's your bounty?"
"I told you not to call me a midget! And it recently hit a billion."
"A BILLION!!??"
"Shut up!! I've been telling you! Keep your voice down!"
The guards were going to notice.
"There they are!!"
"Over there!!"
See? They found us.
Left with no other choice, I got ready to quickly knock them all out with another Jaw Tail, but...
"Leave this to me! Gum-Gum Fireworks!!"
Luffy leaped forward before I could. Spinning rapidly as he flew into the air, he went on a wild rampage, punching and kicking everything in sight.
Thanks to that, he managed to take down all the guards in the area, but he also did a fair number on the floors and walls. Naturally, the massive commotion was incredibly loud and drew an insane amount of attention.
"...Right. It hasn't been long, but I've figured it out. Luffy, Buggy, you guys are too damn loud! I thought I said we were doing this secretly!"
"We're sorry."
It was as if these two had been born just to draw attention to themselves. I wouldn't say that was necessarily a bad thing... No, wait, in this particular situation, it was definitely a bad thing. Yeah.
At the very least, they were the absolute worst possible match for someone known as the Invisible Phantom Thief.
"Alright, Luffy... Let's split up from here."
"Split up?"
"You head for Ace on your own. I'll head for Ace on my own."
"We aren't going together?"
"The worst possible outcome right now is for both of us to get caught at the same time. If we split up, one of us can bail the other out if they get captured. I think that's the best way to do it. Plus, I just realized it's literally impossible for you to do anything 'secretly'."
"Oh, okay. Got it!"
Luffy was probably just going to charge straight ahead, causing a massive ruckus the entire way. Because of that, I decided it would be more efficient for me to sneak around without being seen by anyone. If Luffy ended up getting captured along the way, I could just rescue him at the same time I rescued Ace.
"Alright then, Luffy... I know it's probably pointless to ask, but try to be as stealthy as you can. And do your best not to get caught! See ya!"
"Yeah! Let's meet up again once we save Ace!"
"Okay!"
With that, I separated from Luffy and Buggy.
—————
After parting ways with Luffy and the others, the first thing I did was use my Tail Copter to fly up near the ceiling and observe the state of the prison from above.
"Whoa, there are guards frantically running around everywhere."
Well, seeing as Buggy the escapee and Luffy the intruder were currently running wild and wrecking the place... it was pretty much a given.
"According to the intel from the Surveillance Transponder Snails, Buggy the Clown and 'Straw Hat' Luffy are the ones causing this riot!"
"Buggy the Clown is one thing, but why the hell is 'Straw Hat' Luffy in Impel Down!?"
"What is Warden Magellan doing!?"
"Anyway, just catch them already!"
Listening to the frantic conversations of the guards, it seemed my presence hadn't been discovered yet. Good, good. That meant Operation: Secretly Rescue Ace wasn't entirely dead yet.
"But, hmm... there are a lot of people..."
Slipping through all this without being spotted by a single soul... Even for me, that might be a bit tough. I could probably manage if it was just the guards and the Blugori, but the most troublesome obstacles were the Surveillance Transponder Snails. They were crawling on the walls all over the place.
Oh, right. Transponder Snails were unique creatures in this world that looked like somewhat stylized snails. Despite being living animals, they emitted some kind of special radio waves (or maybe telepathic waves?) that allowed them to act as telephones, printers, and video cameras.
And Surveillance Transponder Snails, as the name implied, were the ones fulfilling the role of security cameras. Whatever they saw was broadcast to a monitor located somewhere else in the facility.
"I wonder what the video feed from these Surveillance Transponder Snails actually looks like... If it's super high definition with zoom functionality and slow-motion playback, even someone as tiny as me might have a hard time..."
It was a real pain not fully grasping the level of technology I was dealing with.
"Hmm... Think, think... A way to move through this floor without being seen by the guards, the Blugori, or the Surveillance Transponder Snails..."
Did a method like that even exist? No, even if it didn't, I had to find one.
Unseen by the Surveillance Transponder Snails. Unseen by the guards and the Blugori. Completely ignored... If such an existence existed at all, it would have to be...
"!! The Surveillance Transponder Snails themselves!"
A lightbulb went off in my head, and I eagerly looked around. My eyes locked onto a Surveillance Transponder Snail clinging to a nearby wall.
"Hehehe, perfect. I'll go with that one..."
Buzzing through the air near the ceiling, I positioned myself directly above the Surveillance Transponder Snail and dropped right onto its back.
"Alley-oop!"
Bzzzt... Bzzt!?
I landed with a thud, straddling the top of its shell. Naturally, the Surveillance Transponder Snail reacted with a start and tried to swivel its eyestalks back toward me... so I firmly gripped the base of its eyes.
Guh!?
Then, I dropped my voice to a threatening whisper.
"Don't look back. Keep staring straight down. Otherwise, in the next second, you'll be French cuisine."
...!!?
"Good, good. What a good kid. Just stay nice and quiet~"
... It shivered in terror.
Yes, the plan I had come up with... was this. I would make the Surveillance Transponder Snails stationed here my allies (by threatening them).
Surveillance Transponder Snails were crawling around absolutely everywhere in Impel Down. In other words, its back was the ultimate blind spot in this entire prison. Nobody would ever suspect that an intruder was hitching a ride directly on top of the security cameras themselves.
"Hehehe... Transponder Snail buddy. The truth is, I want to go to the lower levels."
Guhhh...
"We're on Level 1 right now, right? So, I want you to guide me to Level 2... If you don't, I'll crush you."
Bzzt!?
The Surveillance Transponder Snail broke out into a nervous sweat. Perfect, it seemed it understood me just fine. I wouldn't have been able to pull this off if it were just a standard security camera. This strategy only worked because it was a living creature.
"Alright! Then let's depart for Level 2! You're gonna take me there, right?"
Bzzzt...
Letting out a cry of sheer reluctance, the Surveillance Transponder Snail finally began to slither forward with me on its back.
"Good kid, good kid... Come to think of it, since we're traveling together, I might as well give you a name."
Bzzzt...
"Let's see, since you're a Transponder Snail... Denta, Dentaro, Dennosuke, Dr. Denjiro, Denbo Sanjuro, Den-O, Ampharos, Goodra, Escargoon... which one do you like?"
...
"Hmm, Densuke it is. Nice to meet you, Densuke!"
Bzzzzzzt...
Densuke let out a very displeased hum.
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