Chapter 146: An old acquaintance

Dialogue "sample"

Thoughts 'sample'

Author notes -sample-

Disclaimer: One Piece and all of its characters belong to Eiichiro Oda.

Chapter 146: An old acquaintance

Sanji came back after the strange creatures were dealt with.

"Guys, I found some stairs that go down! Also, I got rid of all of those snails."

"Great, let's go then!" Said Luffy with urgency.

They followed Sanji until they reached a wide corridor with some descending stairs that ended in a very tall door.

"Did they build these for giants?" Wondered Nami.

"Surely, they have some in here." Said Vivi.

"Ugg!!" Luffy pushed the giant door until it opened, making a tremendous noise.

"That noise has definitely altered some guards, let's hurry inside." Suggested the cook.

As soon as they reached the bottom of the stairs, the atmosphere became very different. Air was thick the smells were unpleasant.

There were many voices resounding all over the area.

"Look, there are cells everywhere!. Ace could be in one of them!" Shouted Luffy.

Vivi still remembered enough details to know that Ace was most definitely at the lowest level of the prison.

"Let's go talk to some of the inmates. Maybe they'll know something." She decided to suggest.

"Let me do the talking!. I don't want you two near those…deviants!" Said Sanji with determination. He then rose his gaze and saw the forms of Vivi and Nami, wearing their pristine white Marine uniforms. A thin trail of blood started to descend from his nose.

Chopper immediately reacted by transforming and grabbing Sanji's head, forcing him to look away.

"Stop it!. Look away."

"Hey!, you lot, how did you get out?!" One of the nearby prisoners shouted from inside his cell.

"Let us out, come on!" Another one followed.

Soon enough, they had gathered the attention of most of the inmates in the area.

"Are you leaving? take us with you!, please!" Someone begged.

Luffy stopped next to that prisoner.

"Leaving? we just got in!"

"You got in?!. You must be lying. Why would anyone want to enter this place voluntarily?" The prisoner said.

"I'm looking for my brother. His name is Ace, he is around this height…always wears an orange hat and a red necklace. Have you seen him?"

The prisoner shook his head. "No, but if you take me out, I'll help you look! There are a lot of people locked here."

"Are you talking about Portagas D. Ace? The member of the White Beard pirates?" Another prisoner asked. A big muscular man with no shirt.

Luffy got excited. "Yes!, that's my brother. Have you seen him?!"

"Sure!, just get me out and I will tell you, hehe" The big man laughed.

"Okay!" Luffy was about to grab on the bars when someone else spoke.

"Don't listen to him, boy. He is lying…" An old man on a different cell said.

"Hey!, shut the fuck up, old timer!. I'm going to beat you up when I get out of here." The big prisoner threatened.

"Look…I don't know this brother or yours…" The old man started. "But I do remember White Beard from my days as a pirate... Any pirate of his crew would be a big shot here. There is no way that he was locked in the first level. He is probably at the fourth, or even deeper."

"Fourth?!, how many levels has this place?" Asked Sanji.

"You should try to find the clown, he can probably give you a tour. That guy has escaped a bunch of times." A younger man who was next to the old-timer said to Sanji.

"Clown?" Asked Luffy.

"Buggy is his name." Someone from the next cell said. "He's been here for over two years and has escaped like ten times already… right?" He asked his cellmate.

"Mmm…I think that this one is the tenth one…he is always captured in the end, usually by the Blue Goris."

"Buggy?" Exclaimed Nami. "He is here?"

"Ahhhh!!" A loud scream was heard nearby and all inmates started laughing.

"Ha!, there he goes again!. He is probably being chased by those beasts." A prisoner said with a smile.

"Seeing that guy escape and be captured again is one of our few enjoyments in here."

"Yeah, we even make bets about it. I think it's been ten minutes since he escaped, who had ten minutes?!"

The inmates started arguing among themselves.

"Help!!!" A desperate cry came from around the corner.

A familiar clown appeared running while a creature like the ones they fought before was chasing him.

"That's a Blue Gori!, you guys should run too!" The old man warned.

"Gyaaaa!" The clown went straight toward where Luffy was.

The Blue Gori sent his giant axe down with a swift move that cleaved the clown in half but this one kept running like nothing had happened.

"I just go cut in half!...is so hard to run like this!" Complained Buggy.

Luffy got in front of the creature and sent a punch at lighting speed that connected with its head, sending it flying.

"What?!. That guy just beat a Blue Gori like it was nothing!" The inmates could not believe what they saw. At this level, those monsters were seen as invincible beings.

Two more Blue Goris appeared from the corner and jumped at the Strawhats.

Sanji moved swiftly and jumped in the air to intercept the one on the right while Vivi moved forward to attack the other one.

The blonde cook jumped once more while he was still in the air, demonstrating his mastery of the 'Geppo' technique, and placed himself above the Gori.

"Concasser!" his right leg came down on the beast's head and this one went immediately crashing against the hard floor.

Vivi stayed in the ground and looked at the Gori who was airborne and ready to chop her in half with its giant axe.

She lifted one hand in the air and then made a vertical slashing motion.

"Water…blade" A very thin layer of water was created in front of her hand and shot up until it connected with the big beast. The water blade found no resistance as it cut the Blue Gori in half, just like its partner had done to Buggy…except the beast did not have the advantage of the 'Chop-Chop' fruit.

"W-Who are those guys?!"

"What the hell?!"

"Did that chick just cut a Blue Gori in half?!"

"I saw that blonde guy jump while he was already in the air!"

The prisoners who witnessed the fight were beyond shocked.

Realizing that the threat was gone, the clown stopped running and looked back.

"Is that you, Strawhat?!"

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