The various abilities derived from the Shadow-Shadow Fruit—
Or rather, the abilities developed by Maud—were already well known to the Marines.
Even Kizaru had decisively killed Momonga in order to weaken the enhancement that Shadows' Gathering Ground brought Maud.
How could Marine Headquarters' battle plans possibly overlook this?
With the important ability-user prisoners transferred away ahead of time, the survival of the other prisoners inside Impel Down was completely irrelevant to Marine Headquarters.
Thus, in Marine Headquarters' deployment plan, Impel Down became a cage capable of temporarily "trapping" Maud.
Things turned out exactly as the Marines had predicted. In order to confirm Saul's condition, Maud had ultimately chosen to charge into Impel Down alone.
The Marines had opened the cage door themselves, so how could they stop Maud from insisting on entering it?
After all, luring Maud into the cage also temporarily separated one crucial combatant from the Maud Pirates.
After allowing Maud to enter Impel Down, all the Marines had to do was exterminate every member of the Maud Pirates before Maud could leave the cage.
Unfortunately, the Red-Haired Pirates, several thousand Fish-Man Race warriors, and the on-the-spot betrayal of two Shichibukai had ultimately caused the plan to fall behind reality.
But no matter how the situation changed, in Vice Admiral Tsuru's estimation, Maud would certainly use the prisoners' shadows to enhance his own strength.
To prevent this, one of the tasks assigned to Impel Down's guards was to clean up the prisoners whose shadows had been taken after Maud left Impel Down.
This was the first layer of insurance.
The second layer of insurance consisted of more than a dozen elite Marines planted among the prisoners beforehand.
Even if the Impel Down guards failed to complete the task, these elite Marines would take over and finish it.
The