Chapter 299 - Impeldown 08.

[Chapter Size: 2100 Words.]

Third Person POV

Impeldown, First Half of Grandline.

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Lucy was pensive in Marineford after returning from Enies Lobby. Her brother had protected her, and she almost went to help him fight the admirals, even if it meant her expulsion from the navy, after all, she didn't want Luffy to die. She even tried to find her grandfather, but he had gone to Impel Down to take an important prisoner, which made her feel relieved. However, as soon as she started hearing rumors about a possible war between the navy and the Whitebeard pirates, she was shocked and was about to prepare for war. But when she heard from some marines that it was Portgas D. Ace, the person who was the trigger for the war with his public execution in just over a week, she immediately went to protest. When she was about to head to Sengoku's office to beg for Ace not to be executed, Garp had returned and stopped her.

Lucy was extremely upset about this and started a fight with her grandfather in front of everyone, which ended with Garp imprisoning her, saying she would remain locked up until the end of the war so she wouldn't do anything reckless and get expelled from the navy. Garp, as his personality suggests, did not lock her in just any cell in Marineford but led his granddaughter to the sixth level of Impel Down so she would stay there until the war was over.

Lucy was extremely happy to see Ace after so many years without seeing him, but knowing his situation, she did everything she could to free herself from there. She screamed day and night, stopping only to eat and sleep. The other prisoners often cursed her for her persistence until they gave up trying to make her stop attempting to escape, which was futile as she had a seastone cuff on her wrist.

When she saw Ace being taken away, she thought it would be the last time she would see him and was extremely upset, to the point of straining so hard against the chains that she ended up tiring herself out and falling asleep. What she didn't expect was to wake up to someone she never imagined seeing in this place. Luffy appeared right in front of her.

While Jinbei, a few meters away from her, was shocked, she screamed with all her might, still wearing her navy uniform with the justice cape. She didn't care about showing her happiness to see him there.

"LUUUUUUUUUFFYYYYYYYYYYY!!!" she exclaimed with the biggest smile she could make, while Luffy responded with the same smile, saying he came there to rescue her.

Luffy knew about his sister due to Kuma's message through the Den Den Mushi, saying he heard that Garp's granddaughter was being taken to Impel Down. This led Luffy to come to Impel Down immediately and take the Tenryuubitos as hostages so they wouldn't execute Ace.

"Lucy!?" Yamato exclaimed, stunned to see the girl he saw at Enies Lobby.

"Wait... why is your sister here, Luffy?" Usopp exclaimed, surprised, not having seen her since they met in East Blue.

"This is the girl from Enies Lobby..." Vivi commented, remembering that Luffy fought with her a bit.

"So she is your sister... Luffy?" Robin asked, curious.

"..." Some members didn't know her, as they only heard about her and him meeting at Enies Lobby and fighting a little against each other.

"My grandpa put her here so she wouldn't interfere with the war and be labeled as an enemy of the navy..." Luffy commented.

"LUFFYYYYY!!!" Lucy ignored everyone else while she shouted excitedly for Luffy. "You really came to get me out of here!! Ace is going to be executed, he needs us!!" she exclaimed immediately, while Luffy nodded.

"Don't worry, we will go to Marineford from here and rescue him." Luffy said as she nodded happily.

"Is she finally going away?! Please take her, I can't stand hearing her efforts to escape the cell anymore!" Some prisoner seemed quite relieved with this idea.

"Take this talkative woman quickly!"

"It will be a relief, I can finally sleep in peace!"

"I was almost escaping from my cell because I couldn't stand it anymore!"

The exclamations and complaints about Lucy began to be heard from all sides as they were ignored by Luffy starting to approach the cell.

"You are really here..." Jinbei calmed down after his initial surprise and spoke to Luffy.

"Yes, I came to rescue my sister, as you can see." Luffy said as he got close to her, with a universal key he spent millions on in the shop, and went to Lucy's cuffs, removing them as they fell to the ground.

"Finally!" Lucy exclaimed as she jumped onto Luffy, hugging him with her rubbery arms.

"Good to see you, Lucy." He smiled.

"Luffy, I'm so happy to see you, thank goodness you're here!" she exclaimed joyfully.

"Mugiwara! Let me help you! I'll go to Marineford with you; I intend to fight to save Ace too," Jimbei suddenly exclaimed to Luffy, who left his sister to look at him.

"Jimbei-San..." Hachi was happy to see the Shichibukai there, now that he could be released.

"Jimbei Sama!" Shirahoshi also exclaimed.

"Luffy, save the uncle. He is a good person and cares about Ace!" Lucy also exclaimed, hoping Luffy would release him, but he just kept looking at Jimbei.

"I can do that... but I have one condition." Luffy spoke in a more serious tone.

While Jimbei looked at him, confused. "I'll release you, but I want you to join my crew," he said.

"..." The crew did not expect Luffy to invite someone in the middle of the prison in exchange for their freedom.

"I can't..." Jimbei said.

"You will no longer be a Shichibukai... you'll be locked up here for the rest of your life as far as I know... I don't want to trade your freedom, but you know that I doubt Whitebeard will last after this war... I intend to make Fish-Man Island my territory." Luffy said.

"You intend to take Whitebeard's territories?!" Jimbei exclaimed.

"No, not Whitebeard's, but someone will have to take this place after he falls, you know that... Shirahoshi is my companion, and she is the true ruler of the seas, you know that too." Luffy said while Jimbei looked at him in conflict.

"If you join my crew, you won't regret it, and I intend to help Shirahoshi with the dreams her mother had, to elevate the fish-man race to the surface sun. Whitebeard always treated them as friends, but he could never help them that way, but my crew and I will change that." Luffy had members who could change the structures of the world and move islands; they could easily remove Fish-Man Island, but first, he had to build a safe territory in the New World for that.

"I will join your crew under one condition," Jimbei suddenly said, surprising everyone with the Shichibukai's response.

"Speak, as long as it's not saving Ace, after all, I will naturally do that," Luffy said.

"No, but I want you not to let the old man die. My condition is that Whitebeard lives after this war," Jimbei said.

"You are offending him that way. Whitebeard is an old warrior of the old era; he would rather die on the battlefield than die on a bed with wounds." Luffy scoffed, after all, he didn't know if Whitebeard would survive or even ask for help; it was an insult to Luffy if he were Whitebeard.

"..." Jimbei remained silent for a while before speaking again. "All right... But promise me you will help him if he is fighting unfairly against someone." He spoke, and Luffy nodded.

He went to Jimbei and freed him at that moment, making the Shichibukai, or ex-Shichibukai, finally stand up. Luffy noticed he didn't receive the system message that Jimbei was his crew member, but he didn't care, already knowing he should wait for that until the end of the war.

"Uncle Jimbei! You will help us too! Now you are part of Luffy's crew... You are now a pirate!" Lucy exclaimed but was conflicted.

"Lucy, you know that now you will have to desert the navy. You will be a member of my crew from now on too, but we'll talk about that later. First, we have to deal with one more person here," Luffy said.

His crew saw their captain start to walk out of the cell, followed by Lucy and Jimbei behind him. As he passed the crew, a loud chorus began to explode from all the cells at that moment.

"HEY PIRATE! I MEAN, LUFFY AS THE GIRL CALLED YOU! FREE US, PLEASE! WE WILL FOLLOW YOU!" The voices echoed through the dark and damp corridors of the floor.

"Straw Hat, don't leave us here!"

"We're strong! We can fight by your side!"

"Free us! Together, we can bring down the Navy!"

"LUFFY, DON'T IGNORE US! WE NEED YOU!"

"Help us, Straw Hat! We promise our loyalty!"

The pleas grew around Luffy in the hope that he would free them, from what they heard, heading to Marineford. But Luffy continued walking amid all that shouting while he ignored them, heading straight for a specific cell.

Among them were members of Blackbeard's future crew, some even asking for freedom, but Luffy didn't care about them either.

"Hey, Luffy, what are you doing?!" Vivi frowned as he stopped in front of a man in prison clothes, his hand replaced by a golden claw.

Crocodile, the former Shichibukai, was staring at Luffy with a piercing gaze. After all, he had been taken down by this man before being brought here, and Luffy had mentioned knowing his secret.

"Crocodile," Luffy said calmly.

Crocodile slowly opened his eyes. "Well, well, if it isn't Straw Hat. What do you want with me?" He seemed to speak in control of the situation but was tense, and Luffy could sense it with his haki.

"Met an old acquaintance of yours a few minutes ago, Ivankov, remember him?" Luffy taunted a little.

"What do you want?" Crocodile became a bit tense at that, not maintaining the calmer tone from before.

"I want you to come to Marineford with me. In exchange, I'll give you your freedom and even keep your secret..." Luffy said calmly.

"Hey Luffy! You can't be serious!" Vivi exclaimed, dissatisfied with the man who almost destroyed her country being released.

"..." Even Robin was surprised by this but remained silent.

"It's okay, Vivi. He's necessary there." Luffy said this because he didn't want Crocodile to die there. He knew that if he left him, Blackbeard would try to kill him as soon as he refused to serve him.

Crocodile still had a lot of utility for Luffy, so he didn't want the sand man to die like that.

"You speak as if I won't attack you. Aren't you afraid I might stab you in the back?" Crocodile asked with a serious tone.

"You can try, but you'll hardly be able to hurt me. I'm much more powerful than back then. I have a bounty of 1 billion, you know..." Luffy mocked. "I'm willing to help you get out of there, but if you try to hurt any of my crew members..." He kept a glint in his eye at that moment. "I'll kill you... even if you turn out to be a woman after all..." Luffy whispered for only Crocodile to hear the last part, while only Yamato and Chouchou could hear it.

Crocodile gritted his teeth at that moment, but what could he do? This was an opportunity for him to get out of prison and gain his freedom, even finally meeting Whitebeard from what he had heard.

"Fine... I'll help you until Marineford." Crocodile admitted, and Luffy nodded with satisfaction as he began to open his cell and remove the Seastone cuffs that restrained him. Despite Vivi's continued dissatisfaction, she said nothing more than glare at Crocodile as he now followed Luffy out of the cell.

"Well, now that we have those we came to rescue, let's continue. Our goal now is Marineford and the war between the navy and Whitebeard." Luffy said with some satisfaction before they started heading for the exit from where they came.

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