Impel Down

Sweltering heat. Hunger.

In the silent cells, the half-dead prisoners had endured hunger, heat, and dehydration for so long that even breathing took what little strength they had left.

Suddenly, footsteps echoed down the corridor outside the cells, their firm rhythm mingled with a harsh metallic clatter.

Four stone-faced jailers dragged two blood-soaked prisoners along. The grating clatter came from their shackles and chains scraping against the floor.

In cell after cell, the half-dead prisoners watched the group pass with indifference, as though they had long since grown used to such sights.

The iron doors opened, and the jailers tossed the two unconscious, gravely wounded prisoners into separate cells like garbage.

Meanwhile.

The atmosphere in the interrogation room on Level Four was also somewhat unusual.

Two extraordinarily tall men stood in a silent standoff. Suddenly, one of them, whose head bore what looked like devil horns, spoke with a dark expression:

"Shiryu, this is the last time. If you can't keep your hands under control again, I'll have no choice but to report everything to the warden."

"Tch. They're just a bunch of scum from the seas." With a look of disdain, the swordsman turned, picked up the uniform cap resting nearby, and put it on. Then he casually pushed open the interrogation room door and walked away.

Damn it! The horned man clenched his fists in anger. A few drops of purple liquid fell from his hand, and a cloud of purple vapor immediately rose from the floor.

The jailers standing guard outside caught sight of this out of the corners of their eyes and broke into cold sweats. They seemed terrified of the horned man.

Realizing he had lost his composure, Magellan drew the spreading purple gas back into his body. Then his stomach began churning violently again.

He hurried outside, but before leaving, he gave a stern order to another tall man who looked like a pharaoh:

"Hannibal, keep an eye on that bastard Shiryu. If the warden gets angry, you're dead."

The pharaoh-like Hannibal nodded as he answered, "I don't want to. Shiryu will cut me down... ah! I accidentally said what I was thinking again. Of course, Vice Warden Magellan."

Magellan had already run off, clutching his stomach.

The two gravely wounded prisoners thrown back into their cells lay motionless, like corpses. Only the faint rise and fall of their chests proved that they were stubbornly clinging to life.

One of them, a young-looking prisoner, had a large diagonal gash across his chest. Blood continued to seep from the wound.

The dry, scorching conditions made the cell feel like an oven. Such an environment could cause severe dehydration in the human body.

For wounds, however, it also accelerated scab formation.

A pair of eyes filled with confusion and surprise opened slightly in the darkness. Suddenly, he frowned, apparently feeling waves of sharp pain from the wounds on his body.

He did not get up. He simply lay on the burning-hot floor, and before long, his eyes adjusted to the surrounding gloom.

So that's it! This is Hunger Hell in Impel Down, and this body's name is "Pirate Wang Gao."

Not Pirate King Gao, but a pirate named Wang Gao.

Wang Gao had been born in the Flower Country in the West Blue, the same country where Chinjao and the Eight Treasure Navy were based. He was also a distant relative of the great pirate Ochoku.

In Grand Line Era 1484, the Rocks Pirates had fallen apart in the aftermath of the God Valley Incident.

After that battle, Whitebeard, Golden Lion, Kaido, Big Mom, Captain John, Ochoku, and the others had taken their own followers and gone their separate ways.

Around 1489, Ochoku had returned to his homeland, the Flower Country, to recruit young people in preparation for a bid to dominate the New World.

It was under those circumstances that Wang Gao, only thirteen at the time, had joined Ochoku's pirate crew. Starting as a chore boy, he had fought his way up to command a ship.

Then, in 1495, he had encountered Garp, who was pursuing Roger. One punch had sent him crashing into the sea, and he had become a prisoner in Impel Down, where he remained to this day.

After so long in Hunger Hell, he had little sense of time left. But a piece of news he had overheard in the interrogation room today had confirmed the current date: Grand Line Era 1498, on the eve of Roger's execution.

Golden Lion had been imprisoned just today.

Feeling the weakness in his body, Wang Gao knew it was the effect of the Seastone Shackles. This body had already eaten a Devil Fruit, and that Devil Fruit had saved him three times.

The first had been when Garp defeated him. The second had been during Shiryu's interrogation today. The third was right now.

Had this body not belonged to a Devil Fruit User, he would have died in the interrogation room today. It was not his ability that had saved him, but his status as a Devil Fruit User.

Shiryu's interrogations were outright torture to death.

As it happened, Golden Lion had been escorted to Impel Down today. Magellan had come to inform Shiryu and discovered him torturing prisoners to death. Had they been ordinary prisoners, Magellan would not have made much of it.

The problem was that, among the ten prisoners, Wang Gao and two others were Devil Fruit Users.

Impel Down had two fundamental rules. First, Devil Fruit Users could not be executed at will. Second, relatives of great pirates could not be executed at will.

There were reasons for these two fundamental rules.

The first existed to prevent Devil Fruits from being reborn after their users died. After all, before Vegapunk, Caesar, and Blackbeard, this world had possessed no technology capable of controlling exactly where a Devil Fruit would reappear.

Once a Devil Fruit User died, their Devil Fruit would be reborn in a random piece of fruit somewhere in the world.

Compared with methods such as Haki or swordsmanship, a Devil Fruit could turn someone into a powerful fighter outright, and many Devil Fruit abilities were extraordinarily terrifying.

Take Golden Lion, who had just been imprisoned. If the Navy killed him outright, the next person to obtain the Float-Float Fruit could simply imitate how Golden Lion had used it. Within a few years, another powerful figure would emerge on the seas.

For that reason, Devil Fruit Users imprisoned in Impel Down could not be executed arbitrarily. Their execution required written approval from the World Government.

Every captured Devil Fruit User was documented in detail, and the lists and records had to be sent to the CP Agency, which answered directly to the World Government, for filing.

Whenever a Devil Fruit User died in Impel Down, a detailed report of the circumstances had to be submitted.

As for covering it up within Impel Down, the CP Agency was not merely for show. Once a Devil Fruit User died, their Devil Fruit would be reborn. There was no hiding that from the World Government.

Killing one or two worthless Devil Fruit Users could still be covered up as accidental deaths. But once the number of deaths exceeded a certain threshold, the World Government would certainly intervene.

He suspected that Shiryu had later been locked up in Eternal Hell by Magellan because he had tortured too many Devil Fruit Users to death, prompting the World Government to order his punishment directly.

The reasoning behind the second fundamental rule was actually quite simple, too.

There were many reasons not to kill a great pirate's relatives immediately after capturing them: holding them hostage to keep the pirate in check, interrogating them for intelligence, using them in negotiations for amnesty or exchanges, or conducting human experimentation.

It was Wang Gao's status as a Devil Fruit User, along with his membership in the Ochoku Pirates, that had prompted Magellan to stop Shiryu.

By the time Magellan saved him, however, he had already been slashed six or seven times. Although his wounds had received basic treatment, he had slipped into a near-death state.

If his drifting soul had not merged with this body's original soul and triggered a special reaction, Wang Gao would probably have died here.

The new book sets sail! (ω｀) Thank you all for your support.