In the Freezing Hell, and indeed throughout all of Impel Down, the guards and soldiers did not make daily patrols. Food was not delivered every day. The patrols were infrequent, happening only every few days.
Here on Level 5, the schedule was even more sparse. Food was delivered only once a week.
Furthermore, the guards only ever delivered food to prisoners who were inside their cells. Anyone found outside was assumed to be undergoing one of the level's many tortures and was simply ignored. Many prisoners died that way, their existence forgotten until their frozen corpse was discovered.
In two days, the guards were scheduled to arrive in the Freezing Hell for their weekly food delivery.
Because of the extreme cold, there were no surveillance Den Den Mushi monitoring the area, so the central command had no idea what Kai and his growing group were up to.
But the prisoners still locked in their cells knew. And among them, there was bound to be someone desperate enough to trade information for a chance at a reduced sentence. Someone would talk.
The only way to ensure their silence was to make them shut their mouths forever.
Of course, even if they were to kill them now, the guards would discover the massacre in two days when they arrived with the food. The outcome was the same. Their hand was forced.
Kai nodded, his expression grim. "So, what you're saying is, no matter what we do, we have to make our move within the next two days?"
"Yes," Cose confirmed.
There was no other option. If they didn't kill the other prisoners, someone might leak the plan, and they would have to face the full, prepared might of Impel Down. If they did kill the other prisoners, the guards would discover the bodies in two days, and they would still have to face the full might of Impel Down.
The deadline was absolute. They had to act, and they had to act now.
A dark resolve settled in Kai's eyes. "Then… let's kill them."
He had been wondering why he couldn't break through that final barrier. After days of brutal, life-or-death combat, his body was more than ready. He was standing on the very threshold of awakening Armament Haki, yet he couldn't take that final step.
Now he understood the problem.
'I've never actually killed a person.'
His 100x multiplier had been both a blessing and a curse. His physical power had grown at a miraculous rate, but his experience and his mental fortitude had not had time to catch up. The recent fighting had helped, but it was like sharpening a spear just moments before the battle. His foundation, his accumulation of true life-or-death experience, was still lacking.
How could he forge a will of iron if he had never taken a life? So far, his victims had been Jailer Beasts and wolves. Not people.
He tried to justify what had to be done. 'The people locked up in Impel Down aren't saints anyway,' he told himself. 'Especially here, on Level 5. Not a single one of them has a bounty of less than 100 million Berries. They're all hardened criminals.'
The Marines issued bounties for two main reasons: either the pirate was incredibly powerful, or they had committed heinous, unforgivable crimes. There were rare exceptions, of course, like revolutionaries who threatened the World Government's authority or scholars who could read the secrets of the past, but those were few and far between.
The men in these cells were, by and large, sinners who had brought suffering to the world. Kai found that he did not feel much resistance to the idea of killing them.
…
"Look! The kid Kai is back!"
"Are all of them back now?"
"Hahaha! What do you suppose those guys have been up to for the past few days?"
"Probably something shady, I bet!"
"I hear they're planning a prison break!"
"A prison break? You've got to be kidding me! This is Impel Down!"
"Hey, hey! Kid Kai! If you're really planning a breakout, how about you take me with you?!"
"Hahahaha!"
"Yeah, take me too!"
Kai and his group of a dozen or so followers, all clad in striped prisoner uniforms, walked slowly back toward the main block of cells. The prisoners still inside saw them coming from a distance, and the yard erupted with discussion, taunts, and cynical laughter.
Most of them had already guessed what was happening. As more and more prisoners left their cells to join Kai's group, the plan became an open secret. The shouts for Kai to "take them along" were a mixture of genuine, desperate pleas and bitter jokes.
Amidst the chorus of laughter, Kai walked on, still shirtless. He was no longer carrying a blade of ice. They had shattered countless times. In his hand was a crude, heavy katana forged from the iron bars of a prison door. It was ugly, but the hardened steel was far superior to any normal sword.
"Hey, everyone," Kai called out, a relaxed smile on his face as he approached one of the cells. "I need you all to do me a favor. There's something I need to get from each of you."
"Hahaha! Kid Kai, you can ask for whatever you want, but the key word is that we don't have anything!" a prisoner shouted back.
"What kind of favor? If it's a prison break, you can count on my help!" another offered eagerly.
"I'm staying out of it," a third voice grumbled.
"This is Impel Down. No one escapes successfully."
The responses came in a flood. Kai didn't seem to pay them any mind. He calmly held his crude katana horizontally in front of him and ran a thumb along its brutally sharp edge.
As he did, his smile vanished. His expression became a mask of ice.
His voice, when he spoke again, was just as cold.
"Oh, what I want is something that all of you definitely have…"
The sudden shift in his demeanor did not go unnoticed. The prisoners saw the smile disappear, saw the undisguised killing intent flash in his eyes. The playful atmosphere evaporated, replaced by a sudden, sharp tension. They grew wary, sensing danger even before he finished his sentence.
"I want your heads," Kai said
Before the last word had finished echoing in the frozen air, he moved.
He vanished from his spot. In the same instant, his crude katana sliced toward the cell door.
SHIIING!
A single flash of light. The doors on Level 5 were made of incredibly strong steel, but under Kai's blade, the door was sheared in half as if it were made of paper.
But the slash didn't stop at the door.
It continued on, through the thick stone wall next to the frame, and through the prisoners who stood just inside…
Their taunts and laughter were cut short as their bodies were separated, top from bottom, cleaved clean in two.