Chapter 13: Impel Down
Year 1516 - Impel Down, The Great Prison
Consciousness returned slowly, accompanied by pain.
Danzo Aiko's first sensation was cold—not the clean, pure cold of his snow powers, but the damp, oppressive cold of stone and sea. His second sensation was the weight of chains around his wrists and ankles, heavy with seastone.
His Devil Fruit powers were completely suppressed.
He opened his eyes to find himself in a cell carved from solid rock. The walls were damp with condensation, the floor was bare stone, and the only light came from a dim corridor beyond iron bars reinforced with seastone.
Impel Down. The World Government's ultimate prison.
"Ah, you're awake." A voice—cultured, calm, slightly amused. "Good. Consciousness is important for what comes next."
A man appeared outside the cell, tall and imposing despite his refined appearance. He wore the uniform of Impel Down's staff, but with embellishments that suggested high rank. His face was sharp, calculating, and carried an expression of mild curiosity.
"I am Hannyabal," the man introduced himself. "Vice Warden of Impel Down. You're Danzo Aiko, the so-called Snow Admiral. Quite the celebrity in our little establishment."
"Where's my crew?" Aiko's voice was hoarse, his throat raw from the magma-infused steam he'd inhaled during the battle. "The people from Iron Haven?"
"Escaped, much to Admiral Akainu's fury. Your sacrifice bought them time to flee beyond our immediate reach. Congratulations—you saved traitors and criminals from justice." Hannyabal's tone made it unclear whether he was being sarcastic. "As for you, you've been assigned to Level 5: Freezing Hell. Ironic, given your Devil Fruit."
"Level 5?" Aiko knew the structure of Impel Down from his Marine training. Six levels, each progressively more horrific. Level 5 was reserved for pirates with bounties over 100 million berries. "That's for dangerous criminals."
"And you, Commodore, are considered extremely dangerous. Not for your power—though that's considerable—but for your ideas. For the questions you make people ask." Hannyabal leaned closer to the bars. "The World Government isn't afraid of strong pirates. They've dealt with Yonko for decades. But they're terrified of someone who makes Marines question their orders. That's why you're here."
"To silence me."
"To contain you. There's a difference." Hannyabal straightened. "You'll have a trial, eventually. It'll be public, very official. And then you'll be convicted of treason and executed. All very proper and legal. But until then, you're ours."
Two guards appeared, both massive men in the black uniforms of Impel Down staff. They unlocked the cell and hauled Aiko to his feet, the seastone chains making him weak and dizzy.
"Welcome to Impel Down, Snow Admiral," Hannyabal said as they dragged him into the corridor. "I hope your stay is... educational."
The journey through Impel Down was designed to break spirits.
They descended through Level 1—Crimson Hell, where prisoners were run through forests of blade-like grass and trees. Through Level 2—Wild Beast Hell, where prisoners served as prey for the prison's collection of exotic monsters. Through Level 3—Starvation Hell, where the heat from Level 4 below and the cold from Level 5 above created a desert of suffering.
Aiko saw prisoners at every level—pirates, criminals, rebels. Some screamed. Some begged. Most had given up entirely, their eyes empty of everything except pain.
This was the World Government's justice. Suffering as punishment. Torture as deterrence. Cruelty elevated to policy.
"Seeing something you don't like?" Hannyabal asked, noticing Aiko's expression. "This is what happens to people who defy order. This is the alternative to the system you rejected. Without the World Government, the world would be chaos. Without prisons like this, evil would flourish unchecked."
"Without the World Government," Aiko replied, his voice steady despite the chains, "this prison wouldn't need to exist. Because the conditions that create most pirates—poverty, oppression, corruption—would be addressed instead of punished."
"Ah, an idealist. Those are always fun to break." Hannyabal gestured ahead. "Welcome to Level 5."
The temperature dropped dramatically as they passed through massive doors reinforced with seastone. Level 5—Freezing Hell—was a frozen wasteland inside a prison, complete with perpetual blizzards and temperatures cold enough to kill unprotected prisoners within hours.
Wolves prowled between cells—military wolves, trained to hunt and kill. The prisoners here wore rags inadequate for the cold, huddling in cells or working in the ice fields under guard supervision.
Aiko's cell was at the far end of the level, isolated from the general population. Inside was a thin mattress, a bucket, and nothing else. No blanket despite the cold. No heat source. Just stone and ice and endless chill.
"You'll stay here until your trial," Hannyabal explained as the guards shackled Aiko to the wall—additional chains beyond the seastone cuffs, ensuring he couldn't move more than a few feet. "Food twice a day. Water once. Toilet breaks at guard discretion. And if you cause any trouble..." He smiled coldly. "Well, Level 6 is always available for particularly difficult prisoners."
Level 6. Eternal Hell. Where the World Government's most dangerous enemies were kept in permanent solitary confinement, their existence erased from public record.
"One question," Aiko said before they left. "Why the elaborate setup? Why not just execute me immediately if I'm such a threat?"
Hannyabal paused at the cell door. "Because Im-sama wants you alive. For now. Something about using you to draw out your accomplices. I don't question orders from that level—I just follow them." He started to leave, then stopped. "For what it's worth, Commodore? You impressed a lot of people with that battle against Akainu. Even prisoners here have heard about it. The Marine who stood against an Admiral for his principles."
"Is that supposed to comfort me?"
"No. It's supposed to explain why your death, when it comes, will be very public and very thorough. They need to destroy the symbol along with the man." Hannyabal's expression was unreadable. "Sleep well, Snow Admiral."
The cell door clanged shut.
Time in Impel Down lost meaning quickly.
Without his Devil Fruit powers, Aiko couldn't generate warmth. The cold of Level 5—normally something he'd barely notice—became genuine torture. His Marine training helped him endure, but it was a near thing.
Days passed. Maybe weeks. The routine was designed to break spirits: minimal food, inadequate warmth, isolation from other prisoners, and the constant knowledge that execution waited at the end.
But Aiko didn't break.
Instead, he meditated. Despite the seastone suppressing his Devil Fruit, his Haki remained accessible—weakened but present. He focused on it, training his Observation and Armament in subtle ways that the guards wouldn't notice.
And he listened.
Impel Down's walls were thick, but sounds carried strangely in the frozen wasteland of Level 5. Aiko heard conversations between guards, snippets of information about the outside world:
"—heard the Wandering Marines hit three more slave operations—"
"—bounties increased again, that Commander Vex is up to 150 million now—"
"—Fleet Admiral is furious, wants them found immediately—"
His crew was still active. Still fighting. Still proving that his sacrifice hadn't been for nothing.
On what Aiko estimated was his thirteenth day, something changed.
A new prisoner was brought to Level 5, placed in a cell two down from Aiko's. Aiko couldn't see them, but he could hear the guards talking:
"Revolutionary Army officer, they said. Caught trying to incite rebellion in the South Blue."
A Revolutionary. Someone from Dragon's organization—the only group openly fighting the World Government besides pirates.
After the guards left, Aiko called out quietly, "Can you hear me?"
Silence. Then a voice—female, young, defiant: "Who's asking?"
"Danzo Aiko. Former Marine Commodore. Currently prisoner of the World Government."
A pause. "The Snow Admiral? You're real? I thought you were a legend the prisoners made up."
"Very real. Very cold. Very imprisoned." Despite everything, Aiko almost smiled. "What's your name?"
"Sadi. Sadi Blackwood. I was coordinating supply lines for Revolutionary cells in the South Blue when CP agents caught me." Her voice carried bitterness. "Tortured for information for three days. They didn't get anything, so they sent me here to rot."
"I'm sorry."
"Don't be. I knew the risks." A shifting sound—Sadi moving in her cell. "But I have to ask—is it true? Did you really defy the World Government to protect escaped slaves? Did you really hold off Admiral Akainu alone so your people could escape?"
"Yes. Though I lost that fight pretty decisively."
"But you survived. And your crew escaped. And they're still fighting." Sadi's voice gained strength. "Do you know what that means to people? To know that even Marines can choose to stand against the system? That someone with power chose to protect the powerless?"
"It means I'm in Impel Down and they're probably going to execute me publicly."
"It means you gave people hope!" Sadi's passion was evident even through stone walls. "The Revolutionary Army has been fighting for years, and most people think we're terrorists or criminals. But you? You were one of them—a Marine officer, part of the system. And you still chose to do right. That's powerful, Commodore. That's dangerous to the World Government in ways you can't imagine."
Aiko considered that. He'd thought of his actions as simple necessity—seeing injustice and refusing to accept it. But Sadi was right. His position as a Marine made his defiance more significant. It proved that dissent could come from within the system, not just from outside it.
"How bad is it out there?" he asked. "The World Government's response to us?"
"Bad. Vice Admiral Onigumo has authorization to use lethal force on sight against any Wandering Marines. Admiral Kizaru has been deployed to Paradise to hunt your crew. And there are rumors..." She hesitated. "Rumors that the Five Elders themselves have taken interest in your case. That they see you as more than just a rebel Marine."
Five Elders. The highest public authority in the World Government, the ones who supposedly ruled the world. If they were personally invested in eliminating him...
"We need to get out of here," Sadi said suddenly. "Both of us. You have people waiting for you. I have intelligence about Revolutionary operations that can't fall into Government hands. We need to escape."
"From Impel Down?" Aiko almost laughed. "This is the most secure prison in the world. No one escapes from here."
"Golden Lion Shiki did. Twenty years ago, he cut off his own legs and flew out."
"And in twenty years, security has only gotten tighter. Magellan—the Chief Warden—has the Venom-Venom Fruit. One touch and you're dead. The guards are trained in Rokushiki. The walls are reinforced with seastone. And even if we got out of our cells, we'd have to fight through five more levels, past countless guards, through waters infested with Sea Kings, and—"
"So you're giving up?" Sadi's voice was sharp. "The great Snow Admiral, who stood against Absolute Justice, is just going to sit in his cell and wait for execution?"
"I'm being realistic—"
"Realistic is what people say when they're too afraid to hope!" A sound of fist hitting stone. "You know what I learned in the Revolutionary Army? That impossible things happen when people refuse to accept defeat. When they find that one tiny crack in the system and exploit it until the whole structure comes down."
Aiko was quiet. She was right—he had been accepting defeat. Letting the weight of Impel Down crush his spirit. Forgetting that he'd built an entire movement on the premise that the impossible could become possible through conviction and action.
"Alright," he said finally. "Let's assume we want to escape. What's your plan?"
"I don't have one yet. But two minds are better than one. Tell me everything you know about Impel Down's structure, guard rotations, weak points. I'll do the same. And we'll figure something out."
Over the next several days, they did exactly that. Speaking quietly during hours when guards were sparse, Aiko and Sadi pooled their knowledge. She knew things from Revolutionary intelligence networks. He knew things from Marine briefings.
Slowly, impossibly, a plan began to form.
It was insane. It had maybe a one percent chance of success. It would require perfect timing, extraordinary luck, and the ability to fight through an entire prison's worth of guards while weakened by seastone.
But it was a plan.
"We'll need help," Sadi said on the seventh day of planning. "There are other prisoners here—pirates, criminals, some Revolutionary agents. If we could coordinate, create a mass breakout that divides the guards' attention..."
"That's risky. Most prisoners here are genuinely dangerous criminals."
"So are we, according to the World Government. And desperate times, desperate measures." Sadi paused. "Besides, I've been listening to the guards. Word is your crew is planning something. A rescue operation. If we can time our escape to coincide with their attack..."
Aiko's heart leaped. His crew was coming. Of course they were—he should have known Isra wouldn't just leave him here.
"Then we need to accelerate our timeline," he said. "Get word out somehow about when we're planning to move. Coordinate with—"
The conversation cut off abruptly as guards' footsteps echoed through Level 5. But it was enough.
Hope had returned.
Meanwhile - Somewhere in Paradise
The Hakusetsu sailed under cover of Aria's mist, her crew gathered in the war room around a map of Impel Down that had cost them three captured Marine officers and a lot of intimidation to obtain.
"This is suicide," Marcus said flatly. "Impel Down has never been successfully assaulted. Even Golden Lion Shiki had to escape from inside—he didn't break in."
"Then we'll be the first," Isra replied, her voice brooking no argument. "Aiko sacrificed himself to save us. We're not leaving him to die in that hellhole."
"I agree with Commander Vex," Kiara added. The former captive had become one of their most valuable assets, her strategic mind proving invaluable. "Besides, we're not just rescuing Aiko. We're sending a message: the Wandering Marines don't abandon their own."
Koji studied the map with his sniper's precision. "Approach is the biggest problem. Impel Down is surrounded by Calm Belt waters—no wind for sailing, Sea Kings that can swallow ships whole. Even if we get there, we'd be sitting ducks."
"Unless we have inside help," Yuki suggested. "We know there are Revolutionary Army agents in Impel Down. If we could make contact with them, coordinate from inside..."
"How?" Doc asked. "It's not like we can just call them."
Tomás, who'd been quiet until now, spoke up. "Actually... there might be a way. I've been monitoring Marine communications. There's a pattern—coded transmissions going to Impel Down, responses coming back. If I could crack the code, we might be able to send a message disguised as official communication."
Everyone looked at him.
"How long would that take?" Isra asked.
"Already done. Took me three days, but I cracked it yesterday." Tomás pulled out a notebook covered in numbers and symbols. "We can send a message to specific prisoners if we know their cell locations. And thanks to the intelligence we gathered, we know Aiko is in Level 5, Cell Block A."
Isra smiled—a predator's smile. "Then here's what we do. Tomás sends a coded message to Aiko, tells him we're coming in three days. Aria and I lead a small strike team—can't risk the whole crew—while the rest provide distraction and extraction support."
"That's still insane," Marcus protested. "Even with coordination, even with the element of surprise, Impel Down has Chief Warden Magellan. His Venom-Venom Fruit makes him practically invincible."
"Then we don't fight him directly. We avoid, evade, and extract." Isra looked at each crew member. "I won't order anyone to come with me. This is volunteer only. It's dangerous, probably lethal, and there's no guarantee of success."
Every hand went up.
"Damn idiots," Isra said, but there was pride in her voice. "Alright. We've got three days to prepare. Tomás, send that message. Everyone else, combat prep. We're going to do the impossible."
"Again," Yuki added with a slight smile.
"Again," Isra confirmed.
Impel Down - Level 5
Three days later, Aiko received the message.
A guard—one who'd shown unusual interest in his case, who'd asked questions about his philosophy, who'd seemed less hostile than others—slipped him a note during food delivery.
"Sunset. Three days. Be ready. - Family"
Family. His crew.
They were coming.
Aiko closed his eyes, feeling something he hadn't felt since his capture: anticipation.
"Sadi," he called quietly once the guard left. "It's happening. Three days. Sunset."
"The rescue?"
"Yes. We'll coordinate our escape with their attack. Maximum chaos, maximum chance of success."
"Then we'd better start spreading the word. Every prisoner who wants freedom, every Revolutionary agent still alive, everyone who's been waiting for a chance." Sadi's voice carried grim determination. "Impel Down is about to experience its first successful breakout."
"Second," Aiko corrected. "Shiki was first."
"No. Shiki escaped alone. We're bringing an army."
Over the next three days, word spread through the whisper network that existed in every prison—the quiet conversations during work details, the coded taps through walls, the signals passed during rare moments of contact.
The Snow Admiral was escaping. And he was bringing anyone who wanted freedom with him.
By the third day, Level 5 was a powder keg waiting for a spark.
And at sunset, that spark would come in the form of the Wandering Marines assaulting the World Government's most secure prison.
Impel Down was about to learn that some convictions couldn't be imprisoned.
END OF CHAPTER 13
Next Chapter: "The Great Escape - Assault on Impel Down"