"How did it get to this?"
Black flames raged around him, consuming the broken shells of the Pacifistas. The bloodied bodies of Admiral Kizaru and Captain Sentamaro lay at his feet.
The royal Warlord, Bartholomew Kuma, towered over Itachi who stood in front of Rayleigh's wheezing form.
His crew was gone. Sent to who knows where by Kuma.
"If you were to go on a vacation anywhere in the world, where would you go?"
"How did it come to this?"
A paw swiped at him.
"What?" Luffy said in shock. "Ace… is… going to be executed?"
The others also looked at Itachi with similar looks. Luffy's brother was going to die?
Itachi pushed the newspaper that he had picked up earlier to Robin. He knew Luffy wouldn't read it even if he gave it to him.
"Robin. Read the headline."
She picked up the paper, "Fire Fist Ace, 2nd Division Commander of Whitebeard Pirates and Sabo, Revolutionary Army Chief of Staff to be executed at Marineford."
Luffy's eyes widened, the headline confirming Itachi's statement. The second name stirred long-forgotten memories in Luffy's head of a blond with a top hat and big smile with a gap.
"Sabo… It couldn't be..."
"Luffy, I've sent a crow to Whitebeard asking what his plans are, but I can already guess that he's gathering his forces. This news article is a declaration of war against the Whitebeard Pirate as well as the Revolutionary Army. I know without a shred of doubt that Whitebeard is going to show up the day of the execution with everything he's got. Fishman Island can wait until later. What we need to do right now is leave the Sabaody Archipelago and get the marine's attention off of us. If we can get out to sea unscathed, we have two options from there. We either wait to hear from Whitebeard about what exactly he's going to do or we can try and save Ace ourselves."
Itachi pulled out a piece of paper and began to quickly draw a map.
"Ace is imprisoned at Impel Down, right now. It's the jail reserved for only the worst criminals as defined by the World Government. If we want to save Ace, we need to leave here immediately. There's only one route we can take unless we can get a hold of a marine vessel."
"Why would we need a marine vessel if we wanted to take another route?" Nami asked.
Itachi continued to draw out the map, marking important points on it, "The marines have a massive current that they use to travel between their three strongest areas: Marineford, Impel Down, and Enies Lobby. The Gates of Justice can control the flow of these currents by being opened or closed, but to even be allowed to enter or exit through the gates, you need a verified marine vessel. Many pirates have been unlucky to have been caught in the middle of the current, and unable to leave as the marines didn't open any of the gates for them. Using that current, we could get from here to Impel Down in a matter of days. Without a marine vessel, we would have to take the long way around. That would take more than a week as we would be forced to travel in the Calm Belt, which is where Impel Down is located."
Franky understood what Itachi was getting at, "And because we don't have a marine vessel like this, our only route is to go through the Calm Belt. We have the paddles on Sunny, but they're nowhere near as fast as if we had wind blowing us along."
"Exactly, Franky. Which is why if we leave now, we should be able to catch the window where Ace is still in Impel Down or he is in the middle of being transported onto a ship to take him to Marineford. Above anything else, I want to avoid this upcoming war. There's a strong chance that if we can get Ace before he reaches Marineford, Whitebeard will call off his assault and it'll prevent hundreds, if not thousands of meaningless deaths."
Rayleigh and Shakky looked at each other, impressed with Itachi's knowledge and foresight.
Luffy stood up, a determined look on his face and an aura of resolve surrounding him, "Itachi. Sanji. Go buy food and cola. Franky, you and Usopp go buy any materials you guys need for Sunny. The rest of us will head to Sunny and start getting ready. We're going to Impel Down! To save Ace! Then we can come back and go to Fishman Island!"
The rest of the crew didn't argue, standing up to do as their captain bid. The gnawing in Itachi's chest eased at the sight. With these people by his side, he felt that just about anything could be done.
Ace would be saved.
While Sanji was busy buying as many ingredients as he could, Itachi was sealing away copious amounts of cola. Franky had described to him how long the paddles could run on three barrels of cola, so he had found a shop, and bought 30ish barrels of the drink. It would be more than enough to run the paddles day and night for ten days straight and still have enough left over for a few Coup de Burst.
Walking back to the market where he had split off from Sanji, he began to walk around, looking for the man and his curly eyebrows.
"Itachi!"
He turned to the voice, only to see Sanji hiding behind a stall. He urgently waved him over. When Itachi walked up next to him, Sanji looked around before leaning towards Itachi.
"I saw him. The Warlord. Bartholomew Kuma. I saw him or what I think was him pass by the market."
Itachi's eyes widened at the statement. Sanji looked back around before speaking again.
"I don't think it was him though. He didn't have his gloves on and I didn't see any paws on his palms. I think it might be one of those Pacifista things that guy told us about back on Thriller Bark."
"How long ago did you see him, Sanji?" Itachi asked.
"Less than a minute ago. Kuma hinted at the fact that there were multiple of these things. We gotta hurry back to the others and warn them."
Itachi only nodded and they both took off back to Grove 41.
Unknown to them, the other Straw Hats also had encounters with the Pacifistas, but they weren't as lucky to get away with only seeing the cyborgs.
They heard the fighting before they saw it. Bright flashes of light could be seen lighting up an area every now and then, columns of smoke rising above the roots of the giant trees.
Itachi and Sanji jumped up on top of a root, the raging battle coming into view.
"Oi oi! What's this supposed to mean!?" Sanji said.
Below them, the Straw Hats were scattered all around the clearing, the enemy separating them with their intimidating forms. A tall man in a yellow suit stood on one side of the Straw Hats, engaged in an intense sword fight with Rayleigh. A large sumo-like man was fighting Luffy, separating him and Robin further and further away from the other crew members. Interspaced in the clearing were four Kumas, blocking off the Straw Hats into even smaller groups with their hulking bodies, one of which was the actual Kuma seeing as he was the only one carrying a Bible.
Zoro stood in front of the real Kuma, beaten and bloody. He didn't even have his swords out, but he still stared at the Warlord defiantly in the eyes.
Then with a swipe of Kuma's hand, Zoro disappeared from the spot. To everyone but Itachi, it seemed like Zoro had just vanished, but with the Sharingan, Itachi had seen Zoro's body fly up into the sky at an intense velocity.
Seeing Zoro disappear forced Chopper over the edge, and he erupted into his Monster Point with an ear-shattering roar. A massive paw was swung at Kuma, but before the blow could hit, Chopper was launched away just like Zoro.
Luffy cried out in anguish at the sight of losing another friend.
Sanji dropped down from the root and sprinted at Kuma, "DAMN IT ALL! LEAVE THEM ALONE!"
He jumped into the air releasing a deadly kick.
"MUTTON SHOT!"
But he was only knocked away, Kuma's outstretched palm easily deflecting the attack. He turned back towards Usopp's downed form and made to swipe at him as well, only his arm stopped moving before it could reach its intended target.
Itachi stood in front of Usopp, his leg outstretched, his foot pressed against Kuma's wrist.
"Uchiha Itachi," Kuma began. "Do not get in the way."
"No."
Itachi looked up at Kuma, cold fury in his eyes.
"Don't touch my crew."
He pushed Kuma's arm away and launched a high kick at the man's chin. Kuma leaned back, letting the kick pass by his face, but instantly doubled over at the intense punch Itachi had thrown at his exposed stomach. Although he couldn't feel pain anymore, he could tell that punch had severely dented the metal alloy under his skin.
He pushed himself away, shifting to a position further away from Itachi. Itachi made to follow up, but a beam of light stopped him from moving any further. He turned to see who had launched that attack at him and spied one of the Pacifista aiming a palm at him.
The Eternal Mangekyo swirled to life in his eyes.
"Amaterasu."
The cyborg's head erupted in black flame. With the fire melting its eyes, the Pacifista stood there unable to respond to any visual stimuli and because of that, was unable to attack anything. Before long, it fell over, the machinery in its head melted.
"THOSE ARE EXPENSIVE YOU STUPID PIRATE!"
A giant axe landed in front of Itachi, the giant sumo man following it.
"I recognize your face. I thought Uncle Aokiji killed you."
"It's dangerous to think like that," Itachi said as he attempted to dash towards Kuma, who had pushed himself to a different group of Straw Hats: Nami, Franky, and Brook.
The sumo man threw the axe in front of Itachi, preventing him from getting closer. When he got another look at Kuma, Brook was gone, Nami looking at the place he had stood in horror.
The sumo man called out two Pacifistas, "PX-1. PX-3. Attack this man."
The two modified humans looked at Itachi, but their heads only erupted in black flames, their fate the exact same as the previous one.
"RRRRRAAAAGHH! I'll teach you to destroy government property, pirate!" Sumo-man charged at Itachi. "Leg-Locked Heave-Ho!"
Itachi drew out his greatsword, coating its edge with Armament, and slashed at the wave of Haki coming out of the Sumo-man's hands. Fuyukokyo easily cleaved through it, splitting the attack in half and forcing it away from Itachi.
Before the sumo man could attack again, black flames sprouted across his shoulders. The moment that he lost his focus, Itachi slashed across the man's chest, opening a massive cut from the man's shoulder to his hip. He followed up the attack with a brutal strike to the man's temple with the pommel of his sword, splitting the skin and cracking his skull.
He looked at the Warlord only for his heart to tighten. In the time he had taken to defeat the sumo and the other three Pacifistas, Kuma had sent another four Straw Hats flying. Luffy and Robin were still far away, Kuma homing in on Nami, the closest Straw Hat.
He dashed towards her, but a bright beam of light interrupted him before he was forced to dodge a light-enhanced kick from Kizaru.
Rebounding from his dodge with a spinning kick, Itachi smashed his heel into the admiral's arm.
"Out of my way, you monkey!"
The arm gave a sickening crunch, Kizaru's lips forming a surprised "oh" at the unexpected use of Haki, and he was sent flying back the way he came. Itachi turned back around, but could only watch as Nami as Kuma sent her far away, Luffy tumbling through the space she used to occupy.
Luffy wildly looked at Robin, fear and panic in his eyes, "ROBIN! GET OUT OF HERE!"
In an instant, Kuma was towering over Robin, his palm outstretched. Her eyes widened in fear at the sight of the paw, but before it connected a clone burst out of the ground beneath her. Kuma ended up launching a chunk of the fallen tree into the sky, Robin across the clearing in Itachi's arms clutching tightly at his cloak.
"ITACHI!" Luffy cried out in relief. He still had someone here. Someone to help. "RUUUN! TAKE ROBIN AND RUN!"
"Susanoo!"
The ethereal form of Itachi's Susanoo flared to life, surrounding him and Robin, the Sword of Totsuka and the Yata Mirror held in its hands.
"I'm not leaving without you, Luffy."
"~Wheeeew~, you really did a number on my arm," Kizaru appeared in front of him, "You should worry more about yourself, you knoooow~. I don't appreciate what you did to my cute subordinate."
Rayleigh walked up next to them, his breath ragged, "You really like to keep an old man running around don't ya. Pretty rude if you ask me."
Itachi placed Robin on her feet, "Keep her safe, Rayleigh. Try and help Luffy with Kuma if you can. I'll handle Kizaru."
"~Oooooooooh~" Kizaru drawled out. "~You think you can take me alllllllll by yourseeeeeelf~?"
Itachi didn't say anything and charged him.
A giant sword of light formed in the admiral's hands and he rushed forward to meet Itachi.
Kizaru was no match for him.
Their swords clashed, but the overwhelming power of Itachi's Susanoo instantly put Kizaru on the defense, the ground beneath him cracking from the force of the attack. He brought up his free hand to support his light blade and with a grunt, was able to force the Sword of Totsuka off to the side, cutting the sleeve of his coat.
The Yata Mirror slammed into Kizaru from the left, hitting his already injured arm and knocking the breath out of him. The attack sent him tumbling into the buildings to their right.
A beam of light shot out from the ruined buildings and the admiral was suddenly above Itachi, blood dripping down his angry face, his left arm bent and broken.
"~Yasakani Sacred Jewel~"
A bombardment of light rained down on Itachi, but the Yata Mirror easily absorbed the attack. Kizaru disappeared from the air, reappearing behind Itachi, his leg raised ready to fire a tremendous beam at Itachi's back, but Itachi was ready for it.
Before Kizaru could fire his laser, Itachi spun around with a kick of his own.
"Water Release: Raging Water Scythe!"
A crescent-shaped blade of water shot from Itachi's leg as Kizaru's beam fired from his foot.
The attacks met midway.
Water has a normal refractive index of 1.33, of which normal light would refract at an angle of 39 degrees. With Itachi's chakra-based water, the refractive index was increased to a value of 2.74, which is greater than the refractive index of a diamond. Thus, when Kizaru's light beam interacts with Itachi's water blade, his attacks would get redirected into a different direction at an angle of 112 degrees.
Both individuals knew how light refracted with water, but only Itachi knew of the greater index value of the water he created with his chakra.
Kizaru's beam shot off to the right, redirected far away from Itachi, while the water blade passed harmlessly through the admiral's torso.
"Kuzan was riiiiiight~. You arrrrrrrre very annoooooying~," Kizaru said.
He sensed an attack coming from above and tried to dodge out of the way.
Itachi had accounted for that and had enlarged the size of the Yata Mirror enough such that Kizaru couldn't escape. The ground shook with the tremendous force of Itachi's attack.
Lifting the shield, Itachi stabbed Kizaru in the chest with the Sword Totsuka before the man could attempt to phase away.
He honestly didn't know if the sword would seal the man. He had been able to test the other capabilities of his techniques with Ace, which was how he knew that the Yata Mirror could nullify a Logia-type's intangibility, but he had been unwilling to test the Sword of Totsuka's sealing ability on the off chance that it would seal away his brother.
He began to pull the blade out of the admiral's torso, but disappointment welled up in his chest when he didn't feel the familiar pull of the sword's sealing technique. It seems that a Logia's intangibility was able to avoid being pierced by the Sword of Totsuka. If he could apply Armament to it, perhaps that would change, but now was not the time to experiment.
Kizaru coughed up blood, Itachi's initial attack had cracked a couple of ribs and had broken his favorite pair of sunglasses. The giant sword disappeared from his chest, which he took as his queue to escape the hole he had made in the ground. He tried to reform his body a few meters away, but before he could fully complete the reformation, a hand grabbed his throat and he was forced to look into the swirling vortex of Itachi's Eternal Mangekyo.
"Tsukuyomi!"
The admiral's form went limp in his hand, but for good measure, Itachi pulled out a kunai ready to slit his throat.
"I would not do that if I were you, Uchiha Itachi."
Itachi turned to Kuma to see that the Warlord was gently holding onto Robin's battered body, Rayleigh stood calmly next to the Warlord. Luffy was nowhere to be found.
"Sorry… young man… I'm a little bit… out of… shape… to be… running… around... like… this…"
Kuma beckoned Itachi over, "Bring those two with you. I cannot have you kill them."
With a nod from Rayleigh, Itachi picked up the fallen form of the sumo and dragged him and the admiral over to the Warlord. Standing in front of Rayleigh, he roughly threw them down at Kuma's feet.
"You must understand, Uchiha Itachi. I am trying to save your crew. It's like Gecko Moria said, your crew is just not ready to take on the New World. I would not like to see Dragon's son lose what he treasures most forever."
At the mention of Dragon, Itachi understood just exactly who the Warlord Bartholomew Kuma stood with.
The giant man lowered Robin in front of Itachi, placing her gently in his arms.
"Although you yourself have proven to be more than strong enough, the same can't be said for your crew. I have sent them to locations that would most benefit their growth. I would've sent Nico Robin to a location to eventually be picked up by the Revolutionary Army, but I will leave that decision to you."
Itachi looked up at Kuma. A plan began to form in his mind. If he was to go through with it, he would have to send her away. It would keep her safe. He began to draw a simple seal on her shoulder; it would send him a flare of chakra if she got hurt.
"Do it. Send Robin away from here. If she's going to be with the Revolutionary Army, she'll be safe."
Kuma nodded.
"But if I learn that she or any of my crew is hurt, I will hunt you down."
"Understood. We have a deal then." Kuma replied.
He picked Robin up and pushed her in the direction of Baltigo. Although she would've been fine on Tequila Wolf, he wasn't going to take a gamble against Uchiha Itachi.
Kuma looked back to the fearsome Uchiha when he heard him make a request.
"Send me to Impel Down."
He raised his hand. He would respect the man's wish. It was the least he could do.
"If you were to go on a vacation anywhere in the world, where would you go?"
He swiped at Itachi.
"How did it come to this?"
Itachi vanished.
Rayleigh got up from the ground, no longer wheezing, not at all looking tired.
"I'm sorry for making you act so weak, Dark King Rayleigh. It's unbefitting for a man like you."
Rayleigh waved off the comment, "Don't be. I'm an old man now. Things like pride don't matter nearly as much. It's my job to help the new generation, so if I need to lay on the ground for a minute and breathe a little harder, I'll gladly do it. Plus, I don't think Itachi bought it for a second. He's quite the perceptive individual."
Kuma picked up Kizaru and Sentomaru.
"I must be going. We will not meet again, Dark King Rayleigh."
With that, Kuma left Rayleigh in an empty clearing of smoke and destruction. Black flames licking at the melted, empty husks of the Pacifistas.
He looked up to the sky.
"What a wild buncha kids, eh? Roger?"
Hi Keoni,
I hope that you are doing well since the last time you wrote. What you told me before was interesting. Someone important is coming with a massive coating order? I wonder who it could be? Orders of that magnitude don't come out of nowhere. It might be related to the war that's about to happen, I'm sure you've already seen the newspapers. Whitebeard is without a doubt going to send everything he's got at the Marines, so it might be him.
I will not lie, I will be a part of this war. I know I promised you that I would be safe, but I can not sit by and do nothing while Ace's life is at stake. I'm currently on my why to Impel Down to free him. I honestly don't have a solid plan of how I'm going to go about doing this, but this is my best chance to save him. It'll be dangerous and incredibly difficult, but I have no other way. I want to prevent war more than anything and if I can get Ace before he's taken to the execution platform, then I'm sure that Whitebeard will call everything off. I'm not sure what the Revolutionary Army is going to do, though. Their Chief of Staff is also up for execution and I'm sure they're not the type to abandon someone so important.
I sent a crow to Whitebeard four days ago, so I should receive a message back from him rather soon. I'll scope out Impel Down first before I try to enter it, but I'll write when I decide to enter the prison itself.
Now I know you're quite interested to hear about how I went from finding someone who looked like Sanji to preparing to break into the World Government's most secure facility, so I'll give you a general rundown of what happened. So I told you about Duval...
Itachi sent the letter to Keoni.
He was still in Kuma's air bubble flying through the air to the Great Jail, Impel Down. Lola hadn't been kidding when she said that Kuma's ability would keep someone in the air for three days and three nights. The giant paw-shaped bubble had protected him from just about everything on his trip including a thunderstorm, a flock of passing condors, and fireworks.
Turning over, he observed the enlarging mass of stone that was Impel Down. He only had some basic knowledge of the inner workings of the Great Prison. He knew that it had six levels of "Hell" and could make a very accurate guess that Ace would be located in the sixth level. That meant that sneaking all the way down there would require him to encounter and evade every single form of security they had in the prison. If he wanted to do that, he would need to figure out what exactly he was up against.
As he got closer, he could make out more details of the prison. He saw the large number of warships surrounding the massive wall that rose around the top of Impel Down. There were more ships there than there had been at the Buster Call on Enies Lobby. It looked like Marine HQ was not taking any chances of a break-in.
Such a shame that the one breaking in would be someone with skills beyond their wildest imaginations.
The top of the jail came into view and Itachi could see that the entrance was not surrounded by one wall, but two. In the very center, in an area surrounded by the innermost wall, Itachi could see a castle-like structure nestled in a lush forest.
The castle was more than likely the entrance to the massive jail below the sea, and he was headed straight to it.
Itachi pulled out a kunai and coated it in Haki. Once he got close, he would cut Kuma's paw bubble and force himself to land in the forest. He wanted to avoid any detection and the forest would be the easiest place to do it. He could trap anybody who happened to walk in with a simple genjutsu.
As he passed over the warships and the first wall, his kunai popped the bubble, and Itachi began to slow down, the wind whipping past his face, his cloak flapping in the air behind him. He arced beautifully over the second wall and fell into the thick forest.
Landing on a branch, Itachi stood up and looked ahead of him. The entrance to Impel Down in front of him.
He smiled.
It was time to spit in the World Government's face once again.