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Chapter 42: The Impel Down Summit War!
"Gurararara...!!"
"Ice Age!!"
"Ryusei Kazan!!"
"Yasakani no Magatama!!"
"Ki~shishishi! Go! Zombie Soldiers!"
"Parasite."
"Mero Mero Mellow!!"
Cracks shattered the very air, triggering earthquakes that summoned massive tsunamis... Those tsunamis were flash-frozen in an instant, only to be followed by a hailstorm of magma fists raining from the sky... Lasers zipped back and forth, sparking catastrophic explosions that wiped out hundreds of people in the blink of an eye... And for some reason, the dead resurrected as zombies, rising to their feet to continue fighting. The living began slaughtering each other in a frenzy of friendly fire, while those who succumbed to their lust were swiftly turned into stone...
"W-W-What is this situation? T-This is bad... really bad... This is way too bad!!"
The Whitebeard Pirates vs. The Marines vs. The Seven Warlords of the Sea.
It was a war of such magnitude that not even Darkrai could find a way to intervene. The deeper you ventured into Impel Down, the world's greatest prison, the more terrifying the hellscape became. However, at this very moment, the first floor was undeniably a worse hell than anywhere else in the world.
"T-The scenario we feared most has come to pass-nable... The Marines and Whitebeard both caught wind of the chaos... and converged right here in Impel Down..."
Cold sweat dripped down Ivankov's face. I stood beside him, drenched in nervous sweat... My mind was entirely consumed by the word "crap."
W-Well, it seems like nobody's noticed we've made it above ground yet, so let's just quietly slip away from the battlefield...
"Pops!!! Everyone!!!"
...That's what I wanted to do, anyway!? But Ace just had to scream at the top of his lungs toward the Whitebeard Pirates mid-battle!
Stop yelling! You idiot! Idiot, idiot, idiot!!
Thanks to him, not only the Whitebeard Pirates, but the Marines, the Warlords... every single person on the battlefield snapped their heads toward us.
"Hm? Ooh, 'Fire Fist' Ace. So you really were freed. This is... problematic..."
"Ararara... This has got to be his doing, right? The Invisible Phantom Thief. After Mary Geoise and Sabaody, he really loves letting people escape, this dwarf..."
"You think this is the time for jokes...!? Thanks to that damn dwarf, all the traps and strategies we prepared at Marine Headquarters for the war against Whitebeard... have been completely ruined! I won't let him leave here alive...!"
Hiiii!!
Kizaru, Aokiji, Akainu... The Marines' highest military powers, the three Admirals, just locked onto us—!?
U-Umm, this is my first time meeting you, Akainu-san. You look less like a Marine and more like... a yakuza. Haha...
"Great Eruption!!"
"""Gyaaaaaahhhh!!!!"""
He fired off magma five seconds after meeting us!
Scary! This is way too scary!!
We barely managed to dodge, but Akainu-san! Isn't the killing intent behind your ability a little too high!? The Magma Human of the Magma-Magma Fruit, right!? That'll kill you if it hits! I'll die, die, die!!!
"Everyone! We're sitting ducks if we stay clustered together-chable! Scatter for now!"
At Ivankov's command, we split into three groups and took off running.
First, Luffy and Ace.
Then, Ivankov, Bon Clay, and the okama army.
And me... The ones who came with me were Arlong and Jinbe.
"Hah, hah, hah...! Alright, what do we do!? How do we escape this insane situation!? Anyone got a good plan!?"
"Big Bro Line! We're Fish-Men! As long as we reach the sea, we can carry you and swim away!"
"Ooh! Nice, Arlong! I like that plan! Head for the sea! You're good with that too, right, Jinbe?"
"...Indeed. We'll just have to trust that Pops will pick up Ace-san and Luffy-kun... We must focus entirely on escaping!"
"Alright, it's decided!"
Yosh! We're running! He who fights and runs away lives to fight another day! Looking over at the captain of the Whitebeard Pirates, Whitebeard himself...
"Boys!! Now that Ace has been rescued!! We have no more business in a place like this!! Everyone survive! Return to the New World!!"
...He chose to retreat too! What a quick decision!
But the Marines weren't naive enough to let us escape that easily.
"The son of Roger and the son of Dragon...! I'll make sure neither of you get away!!!"
Akainu went straight for Luffy and Ace. His entire body boiled with magma, radiating an immense, murderous aura.
That looked bad... but I saw Marco, the 1st Division Commander of the Whitebeard Pirates, swoop in to assist.
"I won't let you touch Ace and his little brother-yoi!"
Swirling in blue flames, Marco brilliantly blocked Akainu's magma. Despite the pineapple haircut, Marco-san was unbelievably strong!
"Luffy♡ I am so relieved you are safe♡"
Furthermore, Hancock, one of the Seven Warlords, was also subtly(?) providing support for Luffy. They would be fine.
Next, Ivankov, Bon Clay, and the okama army... I saw them being attacked by a large number of Marines and one of the Warlords, Kuma-emon. However...
"Curse you, Kuma~! I'm not holding back anymore-nable! Galaxy Wink!!"
Ivankov was pummeling the approaching Kuma-emon with winks.
...Yep. They'd be fine too. The Okama King was strong.
And over there...
"Gyaaaaaaahhhh!!!!"
"""Captain Buggy!!"""
...For some reason... Buggy, leading a huge crowd of prisoners... was being sliced to ribbons by the world's greatest swordsman, the Warlord "Hawk-Eye" Mihawk.
What the hell is he doing?
Well, I could probably just ignore that side... Rest in peace.
And now, for the main issue: our group.
Standing in the way of me, Arlong, and Jinbe—Team Line (self-proclaimed)—was...
"Kishishishishishi~!!"
"""!!"""
It was a human with snow-white skin, probably around seven meters tall... Wait, no... Is this a human?
He had a weird gourd-like body shape, horns, pointy ears, stitches everywhere, a high-pitched voice—just who was this guy?
"Line-san! This is Gecko Moria. One of the Seven Warlords, a user of the Shadow-Shadow Fruit who steals people's shadows to create zombies!"
Jinbe provided the explanation.
Heh~, so this Gourd Man is a Warlord. He wasn't in the newspaper, so I had no idea. Stealing shadows to create zombies... meaning all the zombies crawling around were because of his ability.
"Kishishi! You're the Invisible Phantom Thief, eh? I've been wanting to meet you."
"...?"
Moria smirked down at me. Wanted to meet me? What did that mean?
"Kishishishishishi...! I heard you're a powerhouse who managed to bring Admiral Kizaru to his knees despite your 'tiny' stature. I want that combat power of yours!"
"...Hah?"
Tiny... did he just say tiny?
"With your shadow and Oars's corpse! I can create the ultimate Special Zombie that could even defeat Kaido!!"
...I don't completely follow what he's saying, but I know for a damn fact I'm being insulted.
Tiny... did this bastard just call me tiny?
I might be small, but I'm an absolute beast in bed! If I feel like it, I can go over 20 times in an hour! And the force, thickness, and volume are incredible! When it goes off inside my pants, it's so incredibly sticky it's a nightmare to wash out! How do you like that!?
"Come... shadows of the Marines! Become my power! Ki~shishishishishi!!"
"Fuhe? Eh!? Uwooooh!!?"
Muku muku muku!
T-This guy, Moria!! By absorbing shadows, he just grew to like... 14 or 15 meters tall!?
He's already ridiculously tall! Don't you dare get any bigger! I'm so jealous!!
...I took this as a declaration of war against me!
"Hand over your shadow!!"
Moria swung down a massive pair of scissors. In response...
"Then hand over your height!!"
"Bfuoohhh!!?"
Dodging the scissors, I drove a headbutt straight into his gut. As Moria crashed onto his back with a loud thud, I jumped on top of him and rained down punches! Belly punch! Belly punch! Belly punch!
"If you have that much height to spare, giving me two or three meters won't kill you, will it!? You bastard! You bastard! You bastard!"
"Buheh!? Boheh!? Gufoh!?"
"Arlong! Shave off all his hair and make him bald! We'll shrink his height even a little bit!"
"You got it! Shark on Bozu!"
"S-Stop... Gyaaaaaahhhh!!!"
Using his jagged nose, Arlong swiftly sawed off all of Moria's hair. ...I'm the one who gave the order, but it was a pretty brutal sight.
"Line-san, this is no time to play around. Leave him be and let's get out of here quickly!"
"...Y-Yeah."
Being called "tiny" made me lose myself a little there. Giving the newly bald Moria a solid kick, we once again prepared to retreat—
"I won't let you~."
—Or we tried to, until Kizaru suddenly appeared right in front of us.
...Wait, what!? Kizaru!? Wait, wait! He's pointing his finger right at—
Pew! KABOOOM!!
"Gwooohh...!?"
"J-Jinbe!"
"Bro Jinbe!"
The moment he appeared, Kizaru fired a finger laser straight through Jinbe's shoulder. Appearing at the speed of light and attacking at the speed of light... Seriously, this guy's ability was a cheat code!
"Are you alright!? Jinbe!"
"Forgive me... Line-san, I let my guard down... guh..."
Jinbe had suffered a pretty nasty wound. It looked incredibly painful... Fighting Warlords like Blackbeard and Moria back-to-back, only to run straight into a Marine Admiral... isn't this situation just a bit too cruel?
"Invisible Phantom Thief... Thanks to you defeating me earlier, Sengoku-san lectured me for over an hour, you know?"
"I don't care!?"
"...So, you see, if I don't capture you and clear my name soon, I'm going to lose my standing... I'm going to have to ask you to die right here~."
"!!"
"Ama no Murakumo."
Kizaru raised both hands, and a sword made of light... a lightsaber, materialized.
This is bad... his eyes are dead serious.
I didn't have my mirror. I didn't have Celestial Dragon hostages. An all-out battle against the Marines' highest military power under these conditions... Was this an impossible game?
"Dammit!"
Even so, I had to do something about this situation...
What do I do? First, buy time for Arlong and Jinbe to escape! Once they're gone, I want to escape too! The difficulty level is way too high...
As I desperately racked my brain...
"Ice Time Capsule!"
...Huh?
Aokiji was right behind me. And he was unleashing a blast of freezing air directly at me.
W-Eh!? You've got to be kidding me! Why is Aokiji here too!?
Because my attention was entirely focused on Kizaru, my reaction was delayed. The freezing air was right on top of me—
"Watch out!! Big Br- ...ck...!!" Clack.
"Arlong!!"
Arlong leaped out and threw himself over me. Because of that, he took the full brunt of Aokiji's freezing attack, turning into a Frozen Shark Fin...
"Ararara... You were protected..."
"A-Aokiji... you bastard...!"
"Whoa there, don't go calling me a coward, Invisible Phantom Thief. We're in the middle of a war. We don't have the leeway to go easy on you guys... Ice Saber."
With that, Aokiji created a sword out of ice.
"Guh... uuh! What is this absolute worst-case scenario!?"
In front of me, Kizaru with his lightsaber... Behind me, Aokiji with his Ice Saber... While protecting the wounded Jinbe and Arlong, I was supposed to face two Admirals at the same time?
No, no, no!! That's impossible! Impossible! Super impossible! Absolutely impossib-snail!!
"I didn't hate you... but, well, it can't be helped."
"Thanks for your hard work. Please pass on without any regrets..."
The sword of ice and the sword of light... two distinct blades closed in on me. According to my Observation Haki's future sight... no matter what I did, evasion was impossible.
Eh... this is... de—
"Nnnghhh!!" CLANG!!
"Eh!?"
For a second, I had prepared myself for death. But I was still alive.
Fearfully opening my tightly shut eyes... I saw Whitebeard standing there, catching both Aokiji and Kizaru's double attack with his arms.
Whitebeard is here!?
"W-W-W-Whi-beash~~!?"
"Gurararara! Hey, dwarf kid! You have my thanks for saving Ace."
"N-No... n-not at all, thank you for saving me!"
T-The world's strongest pirate... Whitebeard... Whitebeard was right in front of me...! He's so tall! Ridiculously muscular! The sheer presence he gave off was insane... He might just be the coolest old man after Ray-san.
"My ship is over there. Take those two and retreat immediately!"
"U-Understood!"
It seemed Whitebeard was going to help us escape from Aokiji and Kizaru. Bam!! He unleashed a cracked-air punch, forcing the two Admirals to stagger back.
"Guh...!"
"Whooa there..."
Ooooh! Amazing! As expected of the world's strongest! I gratefully took him up on his offer and left the battlefield to him. Hoisting the critically injured Jinbe and Arlong onto my shoulders, I immediately broke into a sprint.
"Arara, they got away."
"...Saving the Invisible Phantom Thief, what brought this on? Whitebeard..."
"Gurarara...! Do I need a reason to save the man who saved my son?"
Flash! Clang! Rumble, crash!!
Uwoh...! Whitebeard vs. Aokiji & Kizaru. An incredible battle had begun. If I got caught in that, I'd be 100% dead.
"L-Line-san... put me down... Even Pops will have a hard time taking on two Admirals at once..."
"Going back there injured like you are will only drag him down! Jinbe!"
"Ngh..."
The only thing we could do right now was run with everything we had so we wouldn't be a burden. Misjudging our own strength and acting recklessly would only cause more trouble for everyone else. That's exactly why we had to flee as fast as possible.
That's what I believed.
However...
"Fuffuffuffu..."
...The moment that voice reached my ears, my feet stopped dead in their tracks.
How should I describe it... A sixth sense? A premonition? I didn't quite understand it, but my instincts were screaming at me that I absolutely could not ignore the owner of this voice.
"Whitebeard fighting against two Admirals... Fascinating...! Fuffuffuffuffuffu!!"
Turning around, I saw a man who was roughly three meters tall. Blond hair, sunglasses, ear piercings, and a pink feathered coat... The final member of the Seven Warlords of the Sea, Donquixote Doflamingo, was floating in the air, laughing loudly.
I felt my heart... skip a beat.
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