Impel Down

"I’ve decided, Chopper. Travel with us."

"My name is Luffy, and I’m the man who’ll become the Pirate King!"

Hearing that, Chopper’s expression changed slightly. As though he had recalled some bad memories, he asked, "There won’t be any ferocious carnivores like cats or leopards on your ship, right?"

"Of course not," Zoro said. "If there were animals like that, the Captain would’ve eaten them already, wouldn’t he?"

"That’s good…" Chopper let out a long sigh of relief. "Then I’ll try traveling with you guys!"

Yota gave Chopper a pitying look. There might not be any ferocious carnivorous animals, but there was a ferocious carnivorous captain.

Luffy and the others did not stay on Punk Hazard for long, only two or three days. Basically, all that happened was Luffy having his blood drawn a few times.

Over those two or three days, Luffy ate nearly a month’s worth of food for all of Punk Hazard. For those few vials of "Sun God blood," Punk Hazard’s research base had paid a painful price.

He heard that the entire Punk Hazard ate nothing but vegetarian food for a full week afterward…

Of course, those matters had little to do with Yota. After all, clones did not need food. The reason he did not have Luffy stay a few more days, aside from the lack of food, was that his Wood Clone’s Chakra was nearly unable to hold on any longer. The ultra-long-distance Flying Thunder God teleportation consumed no small amount of Chakra.

Thus, after spending a few days in the New World, Luffy and his group were teleported back to East Blue and prepared to resume their journey.

Meanwhile, Yota’s real body had used the Flying Thunder God Mark on pirate prisoners captured by the Donquixote Family to infiltrate Impel Down.

With the invisible Imitation Fruit, Yota was like a fish in water throughout the prison. No one could discover him.

He then began his Devil Fruit harvesting journey.

He began at the top level, where there were occasionally one or two fish that had slipped through the net. Then he worked his way down level by level—Iron Needle Hell, Freezing Hell, Crimson Hell. Every level had quite a few Devil Fruit users.

The overwhelming majority of the Devil Fruit users felt nothing at all before their vision went black.

Even the occasional prisoner who noticed something only saw a cloud of black mist before a person vanished, making them think they had merely imagined it.

After making his way through five levels, Yota’s harvest was quite plentiful.

Leaving aside everything else, he had collected the Black Mamba Snake and Titan Boa Snake-Snake Fruits, as well as the Crocodile Fruit—three Devil Fruits that could be incorporated into his fused Azure Dragon Fruit.

He had also gathered nearly twenty other Devil Fruits, which he planned to give to his subordinates later, or to Wano and the Whitebeard Pirates.

"However, the truly top-tier Devil Fruits are all on the Sixth Level. But once I go there, there’ll be no way to keep things hidden."

The first five levels of Impel Down might not have prisoners as numerous as cattle hairs, but even the fifth level, which had the fewest, had at least a thousand people. Moreover, the Devil Fruit users here all wore Sea Stone handcuffs and could not use their Devil Fruit abilities. Thus, even if dozens of people went missing, no one would notice.

Just think of a certain Queen of Okama, who occupied Level 5.5, threw his weight around, recruited who knew how many lackeys, and consumed huge amounts of Impel Down’s supplies. The guards of Impel Down still knew nothing.

But the Sixth Level was different. Nearly all the prisoners here were accounted for. The entire Sixth Level only had around a hundred prisoners, and every one of them was registered.

If these people died or disappeared, it would cause far more of a stir than on the previous levels.

What was more, regardless of their personalities, the prisoners on the Sixth Level all possessed rather steadfast wills, and quite a few even had Conqueror’s Haki. Even if Yota wanted to use Kotoamatsukami to erase their memories, it would be impossible.

"So, there’s no need to hide it anymore."

A faint smile appeared on Yota’s lips as he stepped directly into the Sixth Level.

The tap of footsteps echoed through the empty Sixth Level, and the prisoners seemed to sense that Yota was different as well.

"Someone else has come. A newcomer?"

"Not one of those brainless Jailer Beasts…"

"Hehehe, he looks pretty relaxed. Could Impel Down have gotten some new warden?"

Yota entered the Sixth Level and looked around. Nearly every prisoner had an individual cell, and even the cells themselves were made of Sea Stone. It really was troublesome.

Normally, even a Four Emperors-level figure would find it difficult to rescue anyone from here without special methods.

Yota did not need to rescue anyone, but if he wanted to extract their Devil Fruits, he at least had to enter their cells. The Dark-Dark Fruit’s absorption ability was powerful, but it also struggled greatly against Sea Stone. Absorbing through Sea Stone was still impossible.

As he thought, Yota arrived before a cell. The prisoner inside, bound by Sea Stone chains, laughed loudly at him. "What, are you a new Impel Down jailer? I’ve never seen such a green little brat like you."

"Kid, if I’d seen you out at sea before, you’d have been in luck. The Celestial Dragons love slaves like you…"

"So you’re a part-time slave trader." Yota nodded. "Then you’ll be the first."

Ever since obtaining the Dark-Dark Fruit, he had gained a special perception of Devil Fruit users. It was as though the Dark-Dark Fruit’s gravity could sense the Devil power within other Devil Fruit users.

As he spoke, Yota casually took out a kunai engraved with a Flying Thunder God Mark and tossed it inside.

"What? Your skill with thrown weapons is terrible. Are you giving me a massage?" The prisoner was still laughing loudly when Yota’s figure flashed, suddenly moving from outside the cell to inside it.

"Ghk…" The prisoner’s face filled with shock as he hurriedly stopped himself, making a strange choking sound because he had cut himself off too abruptly.

However, before he could say anything else, black mist erupted from Yota’s hands and swept over him.

"Dragon-Dragon Fruit, Ancient Zoan, Tyrannosaurus Rex Form." Yota put away the Devil Fruit in his hand. "A very nice harvest."

Then he kicked out. With a bang, the prisoner’s head exploded like a watermelon, red and white matter spilling all over the floor.

"In the Pirate World, the first people I hate are the Celestial Dragons. The second are slave traders… And you happen to be a slave trader who supplied the Celestial Dragons." Yota spoke coldly, then wiped the blood and brain matter from his foot onto the headless corpse’s clothes.