One Piece Chapter 541: The Likes of Which Has Never Been Seen

Impel Down guards rush toward Level 6 with prison bullets, warning one another that Strawhat, Ivankov and Inazuma all have Devil Fruit powers. They shout, "We've arrived at Level 6!!!" and remind each other to be careful because the enemy is trapped there. But when they reach the floor, they find a huge spiraling stone path leading through a giant hole in the ceiling. They ask, "What is this giant stone thing...!?" and realize the fugitives may have gone up through the opening. The guards can only yell, "Where are those three!? Find them!!!" as the prison's deepest floor has already been breached.

A guard reports the giant hole to Head Guard Shiryu, but Shiryu coldly mocks them: "There's a giant hole in the ceiling and you think you'll find them here? Idiots..." When the guards mention Crocodile and Jimbei were also released and went up through the hole with the others, Shiryu calls it a terrible situation and an Impel Down failure. He remarks that Crocodile's group can do anything without him now, then tells the guard to go tell Magellan that he will lend him a hand. The page frames Shiryu's grin as dangerous rather than reassuring; help from him is its own threat.

In the monitor room, guards realize the escaped group now includes Crocodile and Jimbei. They ask whether the fugitives are not in their cells and whether they outwitted the trap that was supposed to imprison them. Since Warden Magellan is in the middle of another assignment, the officer in charge is blamed as probably completely responsible. He panics and orders all forces to return to Level 4, shouting that he will fight too. He calls for Sadi-chan and Saldeath, telling everyone to gather subordinates and hurry to Level 4, to make him the warden even if it costs their lives, then corrects himself and simply orders them to fight even if it costs their lives.

On Level 5, Freezing Hell, Ivankov asks whether everyone is ready. He explains the new plan: even if they reach the gates on Level 1, the real problem comes afterward because they will be surrounded by the inescapable Calm Belt. They need to steal a Marine ship so they can go to Marine Headquarters, and for that they need numbers. With their current force, only a handful will make it through, and anyone captured will be tortured. Ivankov's answer is to increase the probability of survival by releasing as many prisoners as possible from Levels 5 to 1, taking keys as they ascend.

Ivankov declares that they will create a panic the likes of which Impel Down has never seen. The freed prisoners and New Kama residents roar, "Uwoo-ohhh!!!" while wolves snarl around Level 5. Ivankov tells them, "Yow, let's go, Strawhat boy!!!" but Luffy has already shot ahead under the Tension Hormones, shouting "Forward!!!" and "Stop me!!" Iva calls after him, telling the candies to chase him, while another resident says the hormones worked too well. The page turns the escape into a stampede: stealth is abandoned, and chaos itself becomes the route upward.

The fugitives race up the stairs from Level 5 to Level 4. It is almost 10 a.m.; the execution is at 3 p.m. Jimbei warns that Ace is already being moved, so the fight could start at any time, and that even if old man Whitebeard comes, he will make his move before then. Luffy takes hope from this, shouting that Ace will not be killed before three, so they still have a chance. Crocodile, meanwhile, says doors mean nothing to him and that his right hand brings drought. He calmly reaches toward the prison door as the group advances.

The chapter pauses to explain Crocodile's Suna Suna Fruit power: he can turn his body into sand and control sand, making him a sand man. His right hand can absorb all moisture; with a touch, people and plants wither, and stone and earth turn to sand. Crocodile presses his hand to the Level 4 barrier, drying and crumbling the door until it bursts open in a massive explosion of dust and rubble. The guards waiting beyond the gate stare in shock as the way to Level 4 is forced open by a former Warlord's power.

The escape force enters Level 4, the Inferno Hell. Guards immediately identify the intruder Monkey D. Luffy, the Level 6 escapee and Shichibukai Jimbei, and the former Shichibukai Crocodile. They shout, "They're here!!!" and "Engaging them now!!!" Fire is ordered, but Crocodile smirks at the heat and Jimbei notes the inferno. The guards open fire in formation, trying to stop the group before it reaches the upper levels. Luffy, Crocodile and Jimbei stand together in the blast zone, a combination of enemies and allies that no one in the prison expected.

Crocodile attacks first with "Barchan!!!" The footnote explains that the kanji is "crescent moon sand dune," a barchan being an arc-shaped sand ridge formed by wind. His sand sweeps through the guards, sending them screaming, "Gya-aaa!!" The guards respond by yelling, "Fire!!! Use the prison bullets!!!" but Luffy is already moving, winding up a "Gomu Gomu..." attack while someone reacts, "Ah!" The page shows the newly freed powers overwhelming ordinary guards: Crocodile's sand cuts through the front line while Luffy prepares to strike through the gunfire.

Luffy follows with "Rain" and rains down a storm of fists through the barred opening, battering guards from above while they scream, "Ugyaaaa!!!" Jimbei joins with Merman Karate, using "Karakusa Gawara Seiken" to send another wave of force through the guards. Notes explain that karakusa means arabesque, gawara means roof tile, and seiken means right fist. The attacks leave the officers stunned and unable to understand what kind of punch hit them. Between Luffy's rubber barrage, Crocodile's sand and Jimbei's martial arts, the guards realize they are facing powers they cannot simply shoot down.

Elsewhere, on Level 2, Demon Beast Hell, Mr. 3 hears transmissions and senses something going on in the prison. He says the guards and the Blue Gorillas are going somewhere and that everyone has been sent to Level 4. Buggy's group realizes something is happening on another floor and calls it their chance. Buggy boasts that the keys Mr. 3 made were perfect and that after sneaking along for twenty hours, being chased by wolves on Level 5 and barely making it to Level 2, only one more push remains to reach the outside world. Meanwhile, guards on Level 4 shout that a 300 million rookie and two Shichibukai are too much to fight and that reinforcements must be held out for.

A vice warden in the monitor room receives a report that something is wrong, not with the head pressure, but on Level 2. A monitor shows a shadow that looks like a person sneaking around. The Level 2 guards are ordered to explain what they are doing, then told to look over their floor because the main force is heading to Level 4. Buggy and Mr. 3 use the opportunity to open cells. The prisoners thank Captain Buggy, while Buggy laughs that Lady Luck is smiling on them and that if they raise a riot here, the prison cannot watch them, giving them a chance to sneak onto a Marine ship. He dismisses Luffy and Mr. 2 as probably already dead or doomed to spend their lives inside.

Buggy rallies the Level 2 prisoners with wild bravado, yelling, "Come on, ya bastards!! This is our greatest chance!!! If you want to taste the outside air then run wild!!!" The prisoners cheer for their savior Captain Buggy as he and Mr. 3 start the riot. Guards realize this is Level 2 and report that the prisoners have broken out of their cells and are rioting again. They plead to send the Blue Gorillas back, saying they cannot suppress it. Buggy's self-serving plan becomes exactly the kind of widespread disruption Ivankov wanted: another floor erupts while the main battle rages below.

On Level 4, Crocodile releases Mr. 1 from his cell. Mr. 1 thanks him for the key, while Buggy, from elsewhere, recognizes Crocodile in panic and cries, "Wait, uwoh!! Cr... Crocodile!?" Crocodile tells Mr. 1 that he is thinking of blowing the joint but needs manpower, then asks, "How about it? You in?" Mr. 1, sitting calmly in his cell, answers, "Yeah, I'll go... with you. I was just getting bored of this place...!!!" The page reconnects Baroque Works' old chain of command and adds another dangerous fighter to the expanding escape group.

Reinforcements arrive on Level 4, but they are not the prison's reinforcements. The guards see Okama King Ivankov and Inazuma along with Mr. 2, and report that they have appeared with reinforcements of their own. Ivankov laughs that the prisoners with them are people who disappeared after being spirited away for decades and that there is no mistake. Luffy asks Bon Clay whether he got "tension" too, and Bon Clay declares, "Jeeezz!! I'm in tip top condition!!!" He then spots Mr. 1 and asks why he is there, while Luffy shrugs that he does not know him. The escape army becomes stranger and larger with every step.

The combined escape force charges across Level 4. The guards cry, "We can't stop them!!!" while Ivankov notes that they are dressed bizarrely and then uses "Emporio Face Growth Hormones!!!" A guard yells that reinforcements are needed on Level 4 and Level 2 too, panicking over what to do. As the prisoners who had disappeared emerge, the guards admit it is no good and that they cannot stop them. Luffy, Crocodile, Jimbei, Ivankov, Bon Clay, Inazuma, Mr. 1 and a crowd of New Kama residents and prisoners surge forward. Luffy shouts, "Here we come, Marine Headquarters!!!" and the volume ends with the prison riot in full motion.

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