I was gonna make a oneshot for Luffy's bday but I WONT because ummmm other members didn't get one either. If that's something y'all actually want tho, I could put all the Straw Hats(Plus maybe extras) bday scenarios in one really long chapter so I'm not depriving u of the og storyline. Depends on what u guys wanna do bc I will happily write. This account is my way of procrastination instead of doing my school work.
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I have no sense of time down here. It's always dark, I'm fed the bare minimum, and I have absolutely nothing to do. Well, I guess I do have something to do. I've been talking to Ace. He's in the cell opposite of my own, to my luck, and I heard from Jinbe that there was supposed to be a war between the Navy and Whitebeard Pirates due to their intent of executing Ace. That explains why he's in here, but why would they want to fight a legendary Yonko who was on par with Roger? It could potentially just end in heavy Navy losses. At least, that's what I'm hoping will happen... Anyway, Ace didn't want to talk about that, so I've been talking about anything else. I also have no idea about the reason why he's being executed like this. There is no way that the Navy would have such a huge announcement if there wasn't a hidden meaning. Once again, though, he didn't want to talk about it so I did not make him.
In my aversion of that topic, I brought up what I've been doing since he left Jaya. And to say the least, Ace was irritated that I was in Luffy's pirate group. He tried to get me to join the Whitebeard Pirates and I refused him back then because I "didn't wanna be a pirate." In truth, I just didn't want to join the Whitebeard Pirates specifically. It just didn't feel right. Maybe I have epic future sight because I know that the Straw Hats was the right choice. Not that I had a choice, but ya know.
I've also been bothering Crocodile, who must really have been getting sick of me by now. His attitude kind of reminded me of Zoro, though. He wasn't nearly as expressive as the green head, but he talked way more and he was way more cocky. He found it strange that I didn't shy away when I found out who he was. After everything I've been through thus far, I could care less if he was a past enemy of Luffy. Pre-Straw Hats, I would have definitely been surprised, though.
"In any case, it seems like I lucked out on my level. Sure, I'm here to rot and be forgotten about, but at least there's no physical torture on level 6," I hummed to myself, slumping my back against the brick wall on my side of the cell.
"Most people here wouldn't be affected by torture in the first place," Crocodile replied flatly. I think he's as bored as me so he has engages in these conversations. Anyway, the base of his voice literally shakes my heart. I can feel it in my damn chest. I told him this already, and he simply told me to be quiet since he was in the middle of going to sleep at that time.
Back to the present, I nodded at his comment, "That does make sense. Glad my Celestial grandparents are stupid enough to not read the description on what level six is. All that talk of torture and here I am getting the bare minimum of it. Not that I'm complaining."
He let out a laugh and rested his elbows on his knees as he sat on the small bench in the cell, "Your optimism will surely die off soon."
I shrugged, "My optimism knows no bounds, Croc. I've been betting my sanity on the idea that my crew is still alive and kicking, plus I'm hanging onto the idea that I'm going to escape this crazy prison. Oh yea, didn't that same crew I was talking about like... destroy your plans and stuff?"
"Interesting. I'll have to see about that optimism of yours, smart ass," he responded with a bit of amusement from my attempt of agitating him. It's hard to make him mad since he's too... composed? Cocky? Entitled? I don't know. It's definitely something and whatever it is deflects anything irritating I say. I think I like the challenge, though. It's almost become a little game between him and I for the past... I don't know how many hours or days. I also simply like when he talks to me. It blocks out the surrounding prisoners asking me to 'entertain' them, plus, I like his voice. Though, I didn't tell him that when I told him his voice is as deep as an endless pit. He probably already knows. He's pretty damn perceptive. Not to mention I'm less than discrete.
My thought process was cut off when I heard a bunch of footsteps started echoing though the halls, accompanied by the chatter of other inmates. A pharaoh looking guy with a nemes headdress (yes that is what it is called) walked between Ace's cell and my own. He faced Ace and took no notice of me or Croc. "You have a special visitor, Ace!" he said, "Guess who's here! Jinbei, even you have never met her before, so there's no way that Ace can guess who it is. She's well-known but never shows herself! She leads the Kuja- the tribe of warriors! She's a Shichibukai! Strong, noble, and the most beautiful woman in the world! She is the Pirate Empress Boa Hancock!" My eyes widened at the woman who was clad in a red and yellow dress with sea prism handcuffs on her wrists. So they'll even handcuff visitors like her, huh? Strange. The shirtless pharaoh guy started cheering around her, "Yea, yea, Hancock! Hancock-sama! Yo! Goddess! When I become warden, will you marry me?! Please!" He let off a little confetti popper and then got smacked over the head by a huge guy in a black trench coat and horns. That must be the warden, Magellan from what sand man tells me.
"What are you doing?!" the warden scolded him. The rest of the inmates started going crazy over seeing her. It was even worse than when I got down here.
Ace didn't give a pay any mind to the ruckus and asked, "What do you want from me?"
"Nothing," she said flatly while taking a step towards him. "I just wanted to take a look at you because you will become the cause of the war that I will take part in."
"So I'm worth a look, then?" he questioned with mock amusement. He's never met her before so nothing is going on with them right? I'll just ask him when we get out of here spontaneously.
"You've always been an empress with a strong will who never obeyed summons, but you're taking a part in this war? Suddenly, you value you title of Shichibukai?!" Jinbei piped up.
"So you're Jinbei. Don't snarl at me," she snapped at him.
The prisoners were getting louder now, and then when the warden had enough, he turned into... a purple substance? Must be a devil fruit. Dragon-like heads sprung from his purple back, quickly making the prisoners scream and panic from fright. The purple substance was a poison, judging from the shouts of agony from those targeted by the dragon heads. I looked back at Hancock, and she seemed to be speaking to Ace about... something. I couldn't hear her over all of the commotion, but I think that is what she intended: for no one to hear her. I saw her turn when she finished talking, and we made eye contact. She seemed to look indifferent at first, and then she looked like she recognized me. That's too bad, because I have no idea who she- WHY DOES SHE LOOK ANGRY?! Her face darkened as she gazed at me, completely upset with my existence. I scooted back against the wall in fright of her sudden mood change. She left after the warden calmed down.
"What'd you do to her?" Crocodile asked calmly.
I looked at him, "Who do you think I am? I could have never met her before. I have no idea why she's so upset to see me."
"Competition, maybe," he hummed more to himself, ignoring my sass.
"Huh? Ya know what? Nevermind," I waved him off and then went to the bars of our cell, "Ace! What'd she say to you?" He looked to be in shock when he met eyes with me.
"My... brother is here."
"Ah, I see.... WAIT- WHAT?!"
~~~
"The hell are you still doing on the floor?"
"THEY TOOK ACE, WHAT DO YOU WANT ME TO DO? REJOICE?!" I yelled at the floor because I couldn't bother to look at him. I was currently sprawled across the brick flooring of our cell, mourning my uselessness in this situation.
"What happened to the optimism?" Crocodile asked, sounding amused.
I rolled onto my back and scrunched my nose at his smirking face on the bench of the cell. "I know he'll survive, but I'm upset that I couldn't even do anything to help right now. Anyway. Can you shut u-"
"WHERE ARE YOU ACE?! I'M HERE TO SAVE YOU! ACE WHERE ARE YOU?! AAACCCCEEEE!"
I blinked in surprise at the familiar shouting voice of Luffy. A few seconds later, footsteps came this way. Then Luffy came into view with a dude with a weird chin and a purple afro, and another guy with orange and white hair. The ebony haired male looked in Ace's cell, not finding him there. After I snapped out of my shock, I called his name and ran next to the bars. Jinbei's eyes widened when I said Luffy's name.
My yellow vested captain turned around immediately at my voice. "(Y/N)?! WHAT'RE YOU DOING HERE?!" he shouted, running over to the other side of the bars, clutching them.
"I'm uh... being imprisoned. ANYWAY! they only just barely took Ace! Go after them right now! To the elevator!" I said, throwing my hands in the direction of it.
"But what about you?! We need to get you out of there!" my captain panicked as he looked back and forth for some keys, probably. His hands were clutching the bars and his eyebrows were furrowed.
I shook my head and placed my hand over one of his in order to calm him down and get him refocused, making sure not to touch him with the sea prism handcuffs. "What you need to do is get Ace before he leaves the prison! Go right now or I'll kick your ass if you get my keys first!" I ordered.
"Your girlfriend is right, Straw boy! We need to catch up while we can!" the guy with the purple afro in a red leather lingerie body suit thing agreed. How does Luffy always meet such crazy characters? Also, I'm just going to ignore the fact that he just said I was his girlfriend.
Luffy left with hesitation after that, and then the group came right back moments later. The exits were no longer usable, according to them. Purple Afro and Luffy discussed a bit about what to do next, and my captain decided that he would be going to Navy Headquarters. I pipped up to say I'd be going too, even if Luffy didn't want to go. Purple Afro tried to convince us that it would be a bad idea, but once Luffy makes up his mind, that's final, and I wasn't about to just sit idly while my friend was potentially in danger. There was still no way to get out, though.
Deep laughter erupted behind me and I turned to look at Crocodile as he got up to approach the bars, standing next to me. Gosh, he's tall. "If you wanna get out of here, set me free! I can create a hole in the ceiling! What do you think?" he said as he laughed some more when he finally entered the light shining into the cell. Luffy was shocked when he saw him. "It's been a while, Straw Hat(the deepest mugiwara in the series). I thought that there was no reason to get back on the street, but Whitebeard and the Navy are gonna start a war? It's my chance to finally bring down that old man! The war has piqued my interest, and with my power, you and I could get out of here. It's not bad, huh? We both get what we want."
My captain stared at him hard and then yelled, "Screw you! You're the guy who messed up Vivi's country!"
"That was a long time ago. I lost interest in that country," Crocodile responded.
Purple Afro walked up behind Luffy, "Let's release him, Straw boy. His power will aid us greatly."
"EH?! Ivan-chan! If you knew what he's done..! And why is he in there with you, (y/n)?!"
"I didn't ask for this-"
"OI! You wanna keep going, right?! If you wanna make it to Navy HQ, you need him!" Purple Afro, otherwise known as Ivan, cut me off.
"Ivankov..." Crocodile growled in recognition.
"Long time no see, Croco boy!" Ivan greeted. Luffy asked if they knew each other, to which the answer was, "Just as a passing acquaintance! I met him when he was just a rookie! Don't worry! I can bring him under control if he tried to betray us! I can't trust him at all, but I know one of his weaknesses!"
"Hey, if you so much as say it-!"
"Eh? You sure you wanna take that tone? If you like, I can just reveal you past here! But if you just shut up and help us, I keep the secret for Y-O-U~! HEEHAW!"
I watched their exchange with interest, and laughed a little when he said heehaw. I wanna know his secret past too. I looked up at the tall man's profile, seeing his irritated face at the predicament he was in. Surrounding prisoners started asking to be released as well, earning a death wink from Ivan.
I looked up at Crocodile, "Ya know, they were gonna open the cell at the very least since I'm in here anyway." He gave me a look that said 'shut up just this once'. I refused.
Soon after, Jinbei asked to be released as well. It took way less convincing for Luffy to let Jinbei out. All of us were freed by the white and orange man who I found out was Inazuma. Luffy nearly suffocated me in a hug when I stepped out of my cell, which was rudely interrupted by Crocodile who was telling us to move so he could make the hole in the ceiling. He could have just went around.
~~~
Jeez. If I thought the boiling water from when I first got "sterilized" was bad, Level 4 of Impel Down was a rude awakening. I'm surprised the new clothes I got from level 5 weren't burned off of me! What was cool, though, was that when I used my devil fruit power, I literally cooked everything I touched. I could cook some steak on my arm if I wanted. I wasn't cooking right now, though, I was punching and kicking. Let's just say that the guards I punched would be permanently branded.
The progress through the prison level was going smoothly so far. Just when we were going to leave level 4, a crazy whip lady showed up. Her constant moaning between her sentences really pissed me off. When Ivan decided he would take care of her, Luffy and I went with Inazuma to the exit. The door opened by itself, though, and we were faced with that same pharaoh looking guy from earlier with Hancock: the vice warden. I went to help Bon with the guards since Luffy told me he would quickly take care of him. Luffy kept having to beat down the vice warden but he would not stop getting up. The battle ended with the pie guy from Jaya randomly showing up from the staircase we needed to ascend and stomping the vice warden down.
Turns out, pie guy was Blackbeard, and Blackbeard was the man who captured Ace. Naturally, Luffy was angry about it, and proceeded to Jet Pistol the guy in the gut. When Luffy went to attack him again, we came to find out that the devil fruit power Blackbeard had made devil fruits practically useless against him. Since my captain acts before he speaks, he went in to attack again, but was thankfully being stopped by Jinbei. The blue skinned male had grabbed Luffy by the arms to keep him from fighting.
"What is your priority?!" the fishman questioned, keeping his hold on the usually joyful teen. "Think about it! Luffy! Ever since he was on good old Whitebeard's ship, he was so strange! I don't know how he got it, but he has this power that enabled him to defeat even the unbeatable Ace! You can't waste your time and energy here! Fighting with him out of anger now doesn't help you to save Ace!" As he talked, Luffy calmed down.
According to Ivan's allies, Magellan was gaining on us from the other side of Level 4, so we really had no time to be drawling over whether or not we should fight Blackbeard or not.
I placed my regular hand on Luffy's shoulder, causing him to look at me. "We need to go. The path is open now, and it might not be later. Ace is more important than revenge," I told him. He let out a long breath and closed his eyes.
We went up the steps.
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Sorry if I'm skipping around a lot, but the journey back out of Impel Down really isn't all that interesting compared to the journey in. All I actually remembered before rewatching was: they get out with Croc and Jinbei and then their ship falls from the sky at Marineford because of Whitebeard's waves. Also, LONG HAIRED BUGGY. Sorry but WHAT THE FUCK??? Why is he fine??? It shouldn't be legal to be fine when you've literally got a genuine clown nose. BUT HERE HE IS.