Chapter 72

Grandline, Paradise, Impel Down

Magellan had just comfortably arrived at his quarters and sat himself down on his personally crafted toilette to take the shit of the century when he received a call on his transpondersnail. With an annoying grunt, Magellan took the mic into his hand, still sitting on his beloved toilette and going about it like a champ. After all he had had a lot of time and practise invested in his defecation, evolving it into an artform. Though he guessed few would be willing to call it that...

"Urgghhh, this is, urgh, Magellan speaking. What is it? Hnggg" the tall man spoke into the mic, at first receiving only silence from the other end. Soon though the caller snapped out of it and responded with something that made the wardens mood sour in seconds.

"Sir! There has been a revolt in level one, lead by a tall man who took out all the guards without problem. The revolt has spilled over into the second level and by now reached the third level, with none of the guards, nor monster or man, being able to stop the groups advance. What are your orders, sir?"

Magellan mulled it over once more in his mind before coming to a conclusion.

"First order: Give Hanniabal the order to round up the troops at the upper level one or two to stop any prisoners from escaping Impel Down.

Second order: Tell Sadi-chan to send her guardian-beasts to confront the group.

Should they arrive in the lower level still than I will take care of them myself." Magellan said, hanging up the mic instantly. After all he had his art to perfect and a few stupid convicts wouldn't stop him from doing so.

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The group of prisoners had been walking through the heat of the third level for a few minutes now and a lot of cursing was heard through the group, making for a rather amusing scene in Azuls eyes.

Chopper, who was sitting on Azuls shoulder was already gasping for air as the heat was too much for the reindeer to handle, resulting in him slumbing over Azuls shoulder like a wet towl, just like the guard he had been carrying back on the first level whom he had soon afterwards dumped in a corner as unnescessary balast.

Nami meanwhile had opened her top in the heat, making many of the men grin in happiness though she couldn't be bothered much by it due to the incredible heat that permitted the third level.

Soon they arrived at the cells and it didn't take long for the trio to spot Luffy, Zoro and Sanji, whos eyes widened when they saw Azul leading the large group through their level, accompanied by Chopper and Nami.

"What's up? You comfy in their?" Azul spoke through the bars, not being able to surpress the grin that formed on his face, earning him a scowl from Zoro and a happy laugh from Luffy while Sanji had fainted in the corner after seeing Nami with her shirt unbuttoned.

"Yeye, laugh all you want you overgrown manchild. Now will you get us out of here already?" Zoro asked with a slight grin, thankful to Azul for coming after them.

Azul meanwhile had stepped before the bars and after touching them slightly confirmed that they were made from seastone. Luckily, the rest of the cell was not made from seastone, meaning he could smash everything around the bars and thus freeing the trio. And so he did just that, making Nami facepalm at the stupidity of the architects that had designed the prison cells.

While they had been busy, the other prisoners had gone to look for keys to free their fellow inmates, though they had stumbled upon a slight problem. Gigantic animal guardians with weapons. One of the guardians wielding three familiar looking swords which made Zoro roar in fury and Azul to laugh at the irony.

As it turned out, the animal guardians carried around keys with them making the whole search a whole lot easier, though aquiring them was harder than it first looked. Azul had decided to stay at the back and let the strawhats try and deal with it. After all, Azul couldn't and wouldn't always be there to box them out of the dilema, thus helping them a bit. Though not really. He was just too lazy to move his a.s.s for an overgrown zebra with an iron maze no less...

Thus the third level was conquerored and the troop, now having gather a shitload of members tracked down further to find and rescue the last member of captives. Nico Robin.

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It was dark and despair was creeping closer the longer she stayed down here, accompanied by screams, cruel laughter and mocking proclamations yelled between inmates, strengthening the negative athmosphere that pressed Robin further and further into the cells corner.

And yet, the spark she had secured in the deepest core of her being held firm, not giving in, and it never would if she had anything to say about it.

After all, she knew she could rely on the spark that had imbedded itself in her soul over the last few weeks and would stay strong just like its origin, who was just now on his way to get her. She just knew that it must be so.