Warm Memories and Brotherly Bonds

Chapter 46: Middle Levels and Knight of the Sea: Jimbei

Down... Down... Down... they all fell, following Luffy into this deep pit, feeling like they were falling right through the center of the world. It seemed to last forever, with the darkness pressing in on them from all sides. After several tense minutes of falling, they could see a feeble light coming from the bottom, and they knew that they reached the exit.

"Chopper!" Zoro called and threw the little reindeer down to the floor, who exploded into his guard point so that they all had a soft landing. Luffy needed no such thing for he bounced right back up and was looking around as if nothing happened.

"You know, its times like this that make me hate Luffy for being made of rubber," Usopp said sourly, breathing hard as he tried to recover from that fall. He looked above him to where the hole was right above and stared in amazement. They sure fell a long way... he couldn't even see the top anymore.

Luffy, meanwhile, was staring around as if hoping that he could find a sign that would point him in the direction of the next level.

"So... this is the Second Level of Hell," Robin said, glancing around at the place. It looked a great deal like Level 1, only there seemed to be a series of more staircases and hallways to choose from. "Strange... it's like a maze down here."

"A maze? In that case, Luffy's screwed," Sanji said, remembering how he was running around Enies Lobby like a madman, trying to get to the top floor where they had seen the CP9 members standing with Robin—or when they were on Sky Island and Luffy was walking off in circles because he couldn't tell where South was.

"It's not that hard," Usopp offered, "He just has to keep going down right? Find the stairs that go down and that will lead him to Level 3, right?"

"It's not going to be that simple," Robin told him. "Even if he didn't have to deal with the guards and traps on each level, finding the right stairs in all this place...?"

"So Luffy really has to fight his way through all the levels if he wants to get to 5?" Chopper asked as Luffy strayed a few yards.

"Yes," Robin sighed. "We're still on Level 2... that means that we're still three levels up... and we can't be sure that Ace is even on level 5 anyway. It's just a guess."

"So you think that there really are deeper levels than just five?" Nami asked worriedly, wondering just how worse it could possibly get here.

"I'm willing to make a heathy bet on it," Robin answered. "I can't guess at how many levels there are for sure, but I do agree that Ace will most likely be on the very bottom one. Luffy doesn't have any other choice... he has to fight his way through each level. Hancock's probably helping out by keeping the warden distracted, but even she can only keep it up for so long. Luffy's only chance would be to just keep going and get as deep as he can before the Magellan decides to deal with him.

"Do you know anything about Level 2, Robin-san?" Brook asked nervously.

"Turns out the rumors of Level 1 that I heard of were right," she sighed. "And if the rumors I've heard of Level 2 are also correct then that means that what's down here is...?"

But before she could finish her sentence they heard a resounding crash behind them and they turned at once to see Buggy's body lying there without his head—yet no sooner did they realize that did the head soon came crashing right after him and hit the ground hard.

"Buggy's here?" Nami asked, startled to see the clown.

"Yeah, I thought he flew off a long time ago," Zoro said, blinking in surprise as Buggy seethed in pain.

"Yohohoho, maybe he decided to come after all," Brook offered happily

"That coward? After all the fuss he put up in trying to get away?" Sanji said with a shake of his head. "Nothing doing. I bet you all my favorite cooking knife that the oaf fell."