Year 1510, Sea Circle Calendar — Impel Down, Starvation Hell.
The oppressive air of Starvation Hell weighed on them like molten iron.
The heat from the lower Blazing Hell seeped upward, mixing with the stink of rotting flesh and damp stone.
Prisoners, barely human husks with sunken eyes, crawled to the bars of their cells as Ryoku Vale led the broken remnants of the riot into the depths.
He felt their eyes on him.
But they weren't hopeful.
They were desperate.
And Ryoku?
He was no savior.
He was a weapon.
And weapons eventually break.
Ahead stood Hannibal, Deputy Warden of Impel Down, decked in his ceremonial armor and trident.
The man oozed self-importance, but Ryoku knew better than to underestimate him.
He could see it in the way Hannibal stood.
This wasn't Sadie's sadistic overconfidence.
This was cold, methodical duty... with ambition lurking beneath the mask.
The guards rallied behind him, their trembling subsiding as Hannibal took center stage.
"You're bleeding already, pirate," Hannibal sneered, slamming his trident into the cracked floor, sending dust flying.
"You won't be the one stopping me," Ryoku rasped, his voice like a dull blade scraping stone.
He moved.
Not out of arrogance.
Out of necessity.
Leaf Instant Body.
His body blurred—but not as cleanly as before.
Every movement now came with a price.
The seal groaned inside him, the backlash worsening.
Still, he struck.
But Hannibal was no fool.
He parried the strike with his trident, the force numbing Ryoku's arm.
And then... the seal finally betrayed him.
Rejection.
Collapse.
The vessel weakens...
The cursed power drained from his limbs in an instant.
Ryoku's body buckled.
He staggered.
And Hannibal saw his moment.
The trident-wielding warden drove a brutal kick into Ryoku's gut.
"Boom!"
The impact cracked his ribs, sending him sprawling into the mob of prisoners behind him.
He spat blood, clutching his abdomen as the world spun.
The prisoners recoiled, their eyes wide with disbelief.
Their predator... was bleeding.
Their demon... was faltering.
The guards roared in triumph.
Morale shifted like a tide.
Hannibal raised his trident high, feeding off the wave of fear.
"You're no different than the rest of them, pirate. Weak. Broken."
He turned to the Den Den Mushi, smirking for the watchers above.
"Watch closely, Warden," he spat, "I'll finish what your incompetence couldn't."
Ryoku didn't answer.
He couldn't.
His body was fracturing from the inside out.
Every breath was a war.
Every heartbeat a scream.
But still... he clenched his fists.
The seal still pulsed inside him.
Tattered, frayed... but there.
He ripped it open again.
This time... the pain was suffocating.
Bones cracked.
Blood leaked from his pores.
But he stood.
Not because he wanted to.
But because if he didn't... he would die.
And dying here, in this pit, wasn't his end.
Not yet.
Without a word, Ryoku Vale charged forward again.
A battered beast.
A fractured weapon.
But still... moving.