Magellan was genuinely miserable.
Utterly miserable.
Ever since becoming Warden of Impel Down, he had always been the one standing above everyone else. Whether it was the small fry on the first floor or the monsters locked away in Level 6: Eternal Hell, anyone who dared act up in front of him always ended badly.
But now, on Da Hong's very first day in the prison, the rabbit had slapped him with a brutal show of force.
Magellan himself had been beaten until he coughed up blood by the liter.
Shiryu had been reduced to half a life at best.
And by conservative estimate, Shiryu wouldn't even be able to get out of bed for months.
And all of it was the fault of those old bastards in Holy Land.
If they hadn't insisted on transferring the Red Rabbit to Impel Down, Magellan would right now be sitting on the toilet in peace, humming to himself while dealing with his chronic stomach issues—not getting swung around by a rabbit until his bones felt loose and his insides were spilling blood.
Luckily, Domino had arrived in time.
Otherwise, before he ever found a way to kill Da Hong, Da Hong would probably have killed him first.
Still—
this was not something he was willing to let end here.
Putting aside his personal grudge, Holy Land's order had never simply been to imprison the rabbit.
Their order was to find his weakness—
and kill him.
As Magellan walked out of Eternal Hell, the sixth floor gradually fell silent again.
Da Hong lay on the Simmons mattress reading his magazine.
Meanwhile, the prisoners in all the surrounding cells kept their silence and stared toward him, each nursing their own schemes.
To them, Da Hong's arrival represented opportunity.
If they could somehow get on good terms with him, then with Da Hong's strength, escaping the prison would be easy.
And even if he wasn't willing to personally take them out—
if he merely helped them tear off their Seastone shackles and bend apart the bars of their cells, that alone would give them a chance to fight their way free.
Silence.
For more than ten whole minutes, the only sound in Level 6 was the faint rustle of Da Hong turning pages. Every other prisoner might as well have been dead and stuffed. Even their breathing seemed to have disappeared.
At last—
the inmate in the closest cell could no longer bear it.
It was Avalo Pizarro.
He rose, walked to the bars, carefully observed Da Hong for a moment, then gathered his courage and called out cautiously,
"Rabbit-bro?"
"?"
Da Hong turned his head and looked at him. A huge question mark practically rose over his head.
Seeing that the rabbit had responded, Pizarro's heart leapt.
His voice remained cautious.
"You really like magazines, huh?"
For once, Da Hong actually nodded.
"Don't call me Rabbit-bro. I have a name."
"Kirenenko."
Then he shook the magazine in his hand.
"I like them."
The moment he realized real communication was possible, Pizarro nearly exploded with joy.
"Lord Kirenenko, I think I could get you plenty of magazines!"
He hurried on before the rabbit lost interest.
"And if you like carrots too, I could have an entire island planted for you. Fresh carrots every single day."
At those words, Da Hong's eyes lit up immediately.
"What about canvas sneakers?"
"Yes, yes, yes!" Pizarro nodded so hard his neck practically snapped. "As long as you like them, I can gather every canvas sneaker in the entire world for you."
"Oh." Da Hong's eyes gleamed even brighter. "I like that."
"Go then. Buy some now."
"Eh?"
Pizarro blinked, then his face collapsed into misery.
"That… won't work right now. This is the sixth floor of the deep-sea prison. It's a steel fortress, sealed in Seastone. So before I can go buy sneakers and plant carrots for you… I may need Your Excellency's help getting out first."
"Steel fortress?"
Da Hong flipped off the mattress, casually walked to the bars, and bent them apart with one hand.
"Just this?"
Pizarro's mouth twitched viciously.
If he didn't need Da Hong's help so badly, he might have started cursing on the spot.
What do you mean "just this"?
If it were really that easy, would he be groveling here in a low voice?
But none of that showed on his face.
Instead, he wore a smile so humble it was almost painful to look at—a far cry from the monstrous criminal who had once terrorized the seas.
"Lord Kirenenko…"
Just then, Catarina Devon could no longer stay silent either. Since several cells separated her from Da Hong, she had to raise her voice.
"You must be tired after fighting Shiryu and Magellan, aren't you? I happen to know massage and bodywork. Would you like to try it?"
The moment the words left her mouth, all the other prisoners of Eternal Hell were stunned.
Then the whole place exploded into uproar.
"Hey, hey, hey, Catarina! You're supposed to be the most vicious woman in Eternal Hell! Why are you talking to a rabbit like that? You've changed!"
"Most vicious woman? What a joke. Is this all you are now?"
"Shut up, idiots! What matters right now is getting on his good side!"
"Exactly! The only one who can help us now is Lord Kirenenko! Whoever gets him to help us escape becomes first mate!"
"Why first mate?"
"You idiot. The captain is obviously Lord Kirenenko!"
Listening to the voices rising one after another from the cells, Da Hong slowly frowned.
Pizarro, the closest one to him, felt his heart jump straight into his throat.
The last time Da Hong frowned like that was when Vasco Shot tore up his magazine.
And Vasco's reward had been getting hacked into chunks.
Thinking of that, Pizarro hurriedly shouted,
"Bad! Lord Kirenenko is angry! Everyone, quiet!"
The shouting stopped almost instantly.
Da Hong's brow slowly relaxed.
Then he turned around, walked back into his cell, picked up a magazine, sat down on the toilet, and began humming a little tune.
"Little rabbit, be good… open the door…"
The song was soft.
The prison was silent.
Every prisoner in Level 6 was forced to sit there and listen to the children's song echo through Eternal Hell.
Whether it was Red Count Patrick Redfield, who had once stood shoulder to shoulder with Roger and Whitebeard through sheer individual power, or the so-called most vicious female prisoner Catarina Devon, everyone kept absolutely silent.
Because they all knew one thing:
As long as Da Hong remained in Level 6—
they were dragons that had to coil, tigers that had to crouch.
From this moment on, the true king of Impel Down's Eternal Hell was not Magellan.
It was the Red Rabbit.
Marine Headquarters
Inside the Fleet Admiral's office, Sengoku no longer dared delay matters after Kizaru, Garp, and the others had returned to Marineford.
He first reported the situation to Holy Land.
Then he picked up another Den Den Mushi and called the warden's office at Impel Down.
"Buru buru—"
Magellan had only just returned to his office when the Den Den Mushi on his desk rang.
A moment later, Sengoku's voice came through.
"Magellan, this is Sengoku. Kirenenko hasn't caused any serious trouble, has he?"
"Nothing too major."
Magellan clutched his chest and shakily walked to his desk before sitting down.
"Just one Level 6 prisoner dead, Chief Jailer Shiryu critically injured, and I myself vomited several more mouthfuls of blood."
"What?!"
The Den Den Mushi practically exploded.
"One Level 6 prisoner dead? Killed by the Red Rabbit? And Shiryu too? What exactly happened? Don't tell me you idiots dirtied his sneakers or damaged his magazine!"
Magellan did not hide anything.
He carefully recounted every detail he had witnessed and experienced.
He even described exactly how many times Da Hong had smashed him around, how much blood he'd coughed up, and how badly Shiryu had been beaten.
He was telling it in this much detail on purpose.
If anything, he wanted Sengoku and the others to suffer mentally right along with him.
The Navy had known full well that Da Hong possessed an immortal body and was immune to poison, and yet they had still dumped him onto Impel Down.
That was clearly just shifting the burden onto him.
As Sengoku listened from Fleet Admiral's Office, the muscles in his face twitched again and again.
Especially when Magellan vividly described the details of Shiryu being brutalized—and his own undignified experience of being swung around by the rabbit—Sengoku nearly lost control and laughed outright.
After all, Magellan was not someone given to emotion or exaggeration.
And yet on the very first day, the Red Rabbit had turned him into the equivalent of a resentful housewife filing a grievance report.
Even without seeing it himself, Sengoku could vividly imagine the scene from Magellan's description—and, to some degree, sympathize with the mental trauma involved.
After a long silence, Sengoku took a deep breath and spoke in a solemn tone.
"Fine. I'll report everything that happened in Impel Down to Holy Land exactly as it is."
"But before that, you must keep looking for the Red Rabbit's weakness. If we truly cannot kill him, then keep him fed, supplied, and calm. Under no circumstances can he be provoked again."
"Impel Down is known as a fortress of iron and steel, but once that rabbit enters his berserk state, no one knows where his upper limit is."
"And if he actually breaks Impel Down and releases the criminals imprisoned there…"
"You know exactly what kind of disaster that would bring."
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