The spiral staircase finally came to an end.
A concrete path stretched beneath their feet, dim and damp, with densely packed cages on either side and prisoners of every description huddled behind the bars. The air was thick with a mixture of rot and blood, along with the rank musk peculiar to some large beast.
"Finally-" Ace panted.
Luffy was slung over Ace's shoulder, his stomach resting right against Ace's shoulder blade.
With every step Ace took, that already bruised and swollen head knocked against his back, making dull thudding sounds.
"Ace! Your shoulder's digging into my stomach! It really hurts!"
Luffy's voice came from behind him, his complaints broken up by the jolting.
Ace's face twitched.
He drew a deep breath, stopped, and set his little brother down.
Luffy slid to the floor like a puddle of mud, landing facedown, but showed no intention of getting up. Instead, he wriggled forward like a worm.
"I've turned into a caterpillar, haha!" Luffy drawled weakly, grinning foolishly as he crawled.
A vein bulged at Ace's temple. He cupped his hands around his mouth like a megaphone and shouted back the way they had come:
"Big Brother Boer! Take the cuffs off this idiot! He can't even look around like this!"
His voice echoed through the empty corridor, fading into the distance until it vanished into the darkness behind them.
Magellan stood nearby with his arms folded, watching. His gaze settled on the seamless Seastone Handcuffs around the two children's wrists.
They had been reshaped by a magnetic field, with no keyholes or seams, like perfect rings.
"Perhaps..." he began hesitantly. "I should call Hannyabal after all. Or we could go back first and find a way to remove those two pairs of cuffs."
He eyed the cuffs warily. If they were