Link to Approval

It had been a week since the fight with Bazile, and to be honest, Yuurei didn’t want to fight anybody anymore in this place. His body was going through such a hardship alone with the way this place was structured. While he knew that his body would only heal to become stronger, he felt like it would cost him his life one day. That was something he had feared for; he almost lost his life before, but now it could happen again in this place, and he was doing his best to make sure that didn’t happen. If there was one thing he noticed the other day was that he was able to use his devil fruit ability on this floor. Since had come here, he had never really tried it because there were certain floors that he walked through when going down to level five that didn’t allow him to use his ability.

Knowing this he would use his ability to float a bit off the ground so that he wouldn’t suffer what the others were going through. This also allowed him to practice with his powers, which was also beautiful. It wasn’t like he wasn’t going to walk around; he still planned on using this as a form of training, but he wasn’t going to be cooked like he noticed what was happening to the prisoners here. Throughout the week that he was recovering, the guards didn’t bother him or asked him for anything. They allowed him to walk around the level as it was something they saw him always do. Yuurei must have walked around this place several times, and it was because he was trying to get a great feel for this place. He had noticed the walls of Impel Down were thick as hell, and that there must have been room in these walls.

It would make sense because he was starting to realize that the guards never really left this place. He felt the presence of other people behind those walls as well, and he knew that he would have to one day go through those walls to escape. The people who guarded this place were basically prisoners as well but had the power to get help, sleep and eat. Yuurei figured he could do the first thing, and it was getting help, but it was hard to sleep here, and if he didn’t do jobs for the guards, then eating would have sucked. He couldn’t leave now though because they had the one thing he wouldn’t leave without, his swords. When thinking about that he knew what his next rewards would be. He knew more than anything having his swords with him would be more complete than getting his freedom.

At this point in time, Yuurei could be seen walking around with his feet flying in the air every couple of minutes. He would blow air towards his feet every time one of them would be placed down on the ground. There was a reason Yuurei didn’t look as cooked as the other inmates here. There were a few reasons behind this or could be seen behind this. One of them, he used his fruit to float in the air, two, he used the new shoes that were given to him by the guard that helped out last week, and or three, he used armament on his legs when he walked through the prison. There were many ways for him to go about his days, and honestly, he used all of them when he could. He was not going to be roasted like the other prisoners.

While moving around the area though, he noticed that there was a guard making his way towards him. At first, Yuurei wanted to pretend like didn’t see him, so he didn’t have to do a job, but then figured they wouldn’t have come to him unless it was important. The guards who were in on this knew the injuries had suffered and knew that they were healing up. He looked at the guard with a smile on his face as he waved at the man. The guard didn’t wave back as he looked like he was a bit nervous, afraid and anxious. Yuurei wondered what had happened, and he figured he was going to find out soon enough. When he got close enough to the guard the two of them would come to a stop and look at each other.

”I assume you came to me because you have a job for me to do? I am willing to hear it just remember I’m still recovering from my last job.” He said this to the guard.

The guard looked at him and nodded that he knew that much. Still, he needed Yuurei for this job because of the rumors of him stealing from Jones, Adam, and Jackal. The man was a bit nervous because he didn’t want the chief warden to find out about this. It was his main reason that he had come to this man. He hoped he didn’t regret it, but what choice did he have? He was doing his best to gather himself before he could say anything to Yuurei. He did hear him, but he was trying to figure out a way to tell him what he wanted to say without it being embarrassing.

”Yeah man I got a job for you. It should fit around your expertise, so I don’t think you going to have to do anything fighting. It is up to you, and you know how things go, you need to accept before taking the job.” He told Yuurei this as he wondered what he would say.

Yuurei shook his head because he didn’t like that ruling, but figured it was the best thing for him just to accept than to create a problem.

”I accept since you said it should be around my expertise, then it shouldn’t be hard to do. I hope things don’t go the wrong way.” He said to the guard.

He would hear Yuurei and smile to know he agreed to do this.

He coughed a bit so that he would be able to speak clearly, and when he finished doing all of that he noticed that Yuurei looked stronger than he did before. He figured he would be able to do a lot more of their job as the time had gone by.

”I had an incident today, and nobody knows about. The guys and I were transporting three prisoners down to level five, and everything went well. I was glad it was a normal day, and I didn’t have to struggle with the prisoners, but then I noticed something was missing from my person. One of the men we transported down here today had taken my keys. I need them back, or else I might lose my job or worse punished. I don’t want that, so that is where you come in.” He paused for a bit as he was looking at Yuurei to see if he understand.

The thief nod when he heard the man’s story, and figured this was good leverage to get what he needed from him.

”I understand, you want me to save your job. What do I get in return?” He asked the guard.

His eyes widen when he heard that, but knew he was actually in a tight predicament.

”Man if you can get me back all my keys. I will get you any two things you want in this prison. I have their pictures, so do this for me.” He sounded desperate to Yuurei, but he needed this.

The guard would soon take out the three pictures from his pocket as he had them gathered in the surveillance room. He handed them to Yuurei, and the thief would grab it to look at these people. They all looked older, which meant they were experienced. He smiled because he figured they knew what they were doing, and were trying to escape as soon as they came in. That was smart of them to do, but he was going to show up and foil their plans. He continued to look at their pictures as he was memorizing their face right now. When he was done with that, he looked up to the guard with a smile on his face.

”Just remember you said any two things I want. I want you to bring me the sword with no guard, and the sword with the black scabbard, that was taken from me, please. If it will make me efficient at doing the jobs you guys ask me to do. Also, let’s not tell anybody about the keys you lost or the sword exchange.” He said to the guard.

The guard heard his words and thought about it for a second, but then he figured it was nothing too bad to do. If he armed Yuurei, it wouldn’t matter much on their end. He knew that escaping this place was futile because this man would have to go through a bunch of strong people to do such a task. The guard knew that it wouldn’t be possible.

”You got yourself a deal. The swords you are talking about are fours you came with right?” He asked to be sure.

The guards knew a lot about Yuurei when he came in because he worked for them. They had to make sure they knew who they were getting into business with.

”Yeah those swords, but you said two rewards, so I will stick with those weapons.” He said to the guard.

He nodded as he was going to get him exactly what he wanted if he came through. His job was on the line, and there was no way he was going to lose it because of an asshole prisoner who took it. He figured Yuurei would take the keys and use it to escape, but at the same time, if he didn’t, then it would show that he meant business with the guards, and they could trust him. He would vouch for Yuurei if things would go right. Now with the deal made between the two, Yuurei turned around and started walking around like he always did. This time, however, he wore the shoes that he had gotten from the guard from his job before this. It negated the effects of the floor, which allowed him to walk around without feeling a crazy amount of pain on his feet.

He continued to use his observation, but this time he was using it to located unknown signatures. This would be a fairly easy walk around the place, or so he thought. He had to remembered there were new prisoners coming into this level per day. He did his best to keep a tab on them because he didn’t want to make a mistake and think they were guards. The only thing he enjoyed about this prison was the fact that he felt stronger. He would fight these amazing prisoners and know they were going to be the reason for his growth. Yuurei kept moving through the area as he could see the number of people on this floor dragging their feet and looking they wished that the crap they were dealing with would end. He hoped he could change that for them in the future, but he wasn’t sure how that was going to plan out.

Yuurei felt the first unrecognizable presence, and he walked over to the prisoner’s direction. He noticed that he was getting closer and closer to the person, and when he caught a glimpse of them he couldn’t see the person as he had his back turned towards Yuurei, but he was going to find out if this was one of his targets right now. He would walk past them, and looked to his side while doing it. He caught a glimpse of the person’s face, and truth be told he looked nothing like the guys he was looking for. Now that he knew that he kept it moving hoping to find the culprit who stole those damn keys.

19/20 Haki Remaining

He wondered what was going to happen when he found the first of the three but figured he would do what he always did. If he saw one bump into them, and see if anything inside their clothing sounded like keys. It shouldn’t be hard to figure out which one of them would have the keys since the guards had a bunch of keys on them at all time. The thief would continue making his way through impel down. There were some people he could see walking around that would nod their heads towards him even though they were exhausted. He would nod back as these were just some people he had seen in Impel down every now and then. Those weren’t the culprit, so he moved on hoping to find these guys soon enough.

I wondered how the outside world is doing right now? Is there something happening out there, that might give me a reason to rush out of here? He thought to himself as he continued walking. It wouldn’t take long, but there was a signature that he didn’t recognize. While he was walking towards them, the face started to look very familiar. They were facing each other, but the man wasn’t looking at Yuurei. He was paying attention to something else, which he didn’t care about. He knew though that this was one of the three men that were from the picture. He would put his head down to pretend like he wasn’t paying attention to where he was walking. He ignored the heat coming from the floor thanks to those boots. His eyes would look towards the prisoner as he looked like he was just exhausted from this heat.

It wouldn’t take long for the two of them to collide. The both of them falling to the ground, and on their ass. The heat from the charcoal floor would bring them both onto the heat though. Yuurei would spin around trying to blow air onto his ass to cool it down from the little burnt he just felt. The man, on the other hand, was spinning around and patting his ass from the heat he felt. Both men’s ass felt like it could have been cooked in a matter of seconds, but they prevented that. Still, even though he felt the heat on his ass, Yuurei was paying attention. When the man was falling, and he hit the ground, he did not hear anything jingle on his person. He knew right then and there that his man didn’t have the keys.

Just because he didn’t have the keys didn’t mean he wasn’t a part of the plan, but he wasn’t going to accuse him unless he had evidence. The man looked angry at Yuurei for bumping into him, which made Yuurei stepped back a bit as he was waving his hands towards the man as if it were an accident.

”I’m sorry I didn’t mean to bump into you. It’s so hot that I wasn’t paying attention to where I was walking. I apologize about that.” He said to the prisoner.

”I don’t care if it was by accident. If you bump into me again lad, I’m going to kick your ass, and make sure you wished you were dead.” He threaten Yuurei’s life.

The thief could only continue to shake his hands because he actually didn’t want to fight. He wasn’t scared of this man, but the deed was done, he didn’t have the keys, so it was time to move on. Yuurei bowed his head down a bit as he was trying to show how sorry he was.

”I’m still sorry. It will never happen again.” He continued to bow his head.

The prisoner just walked away from Yuurei, and when he noticed that he was looking at him, he could only smile and moved along to the next person. Now that one person was checked, he could move onto the next person and see if they had the keys.  The man did notice Yuurei wearing shoes, and he was going to ask where he got them but figured he stole them from a guard. The thief had started moving again as he was going to look for the other two men. If he found the first one, then would the other two be nearby? If they got it together, and the guard’s keys got taken, then they were either good at stealing, or they worked as a group with possibly one of them being the distraction.

He thought like this because that could have been the reason why the guard never realized his keys were gone until now. It was too late to change the past, so he had to think about what was happening now. While he was walking around the area, he didn’t feel the presence of many people around him. The signatures that he did come across were ones that he had already felt before. With that knowledge, he kept moving because there was no point in moving towards them directly. He continued to walk around the area of level five for about a half an hour. He was trying to look for these guys, but no matter how hard he looked for them, they couldn’t be found. It brought Yuurei to stop walking and actually think about the situation.

Where could they be? Did they already start making their escape to the upper levels? That would be crazy because how did they find a door that fast, and found the right key? He thought to himself, and when he thought about the last few words, his eyes widen. He had been searching around level five, but he never checked the areas where the walls and doors were located. They must have been around one of those doors trying to see if one of the keys would unlock it.

18/20 Haki Remaining

He was jogging towards the walls right now. There were areas that he had walked by that he saw doors, but didn’t want to try and open them. He figured they have been locked anyway, so what was the point. Still, one of the remaining two guys had the keys, so he had to get there quick before their escape happened. It wouldn’t take long for him to make it to the outer area of level five, and he noticed that there was nobody around this area. He started moving along the walls but jogged in one direction hoping he had gone in the right direction. His observation was being used to the best of their abilities, and as he continued to move on he wouldn’t find the signature of anybody near the walls. At this point, it was becoming a lost cause, but he felt like he had to continue searching.

This was a big, and ‘key’ opportunity to get the things he wanted back. It was the only reason why he wasn’t giving up, and he kept moving his ass even with the heat that was surrounding him in impel. If there was one thing Yuurei was noticing was his tolerant for this nasty heat. He was getting stronger, and that was also part of his goal before trying to escape this wretched place. The thief would soon feel two signatures; these presence that he was feeling were ones that he had never felt before, and they were pretty close to each other. He had hoped when he felt this because he knew that these might be the guys he was looking for. They had just entered the range of his ability, so jogging would have to stop. He walked instead, as he didn’t want to look suspicious.

His head went from looking straight ahead to him moving it down to look at the ground again. He had to play the part, and if they noticed that he had bumped into them on purpose, then they would know that he was up to no good. He was getting closer to them, and every now and then he would strain his eyes to look in an upward direction. He could see two people, one of them was at a door while the other one was looking around to make sure nobody was coming. Yuurei had noticed the keys in the man’s hand, but his friend had bumped him to show him that Yuurei was coming. The man almost dropped the keys, but then placed it in his left pocket. The thief’s pace in walking had sped up a little bit, but it was because he didn’t want them to ask him to stop.

They both looked at Yuurei, but before they could say anything, the thief had crashed into the both of them. He knew which of the two had the keys, and while he was falling he used his long arms to reach into the man’s pocket. The collision also brought the other two to fall towards the ground, and when Yuurei got a hold of the keys he placed his hands in his pocket. His butt hit the ground, and once again he jumped up into the air as he was patting his butt as he was running around trying to cool it down. He hated doing this, but it was one of the best ways to take people stuff. The two fell on the ground and they jumped up into the air in pain and ignoring everything around them. They were both annoyed with Yuurei as they looked at him angrily as well.

He rubbed the back of his head with his free hand as he put the other one in his pocket. He didn’t want the keys to jingle in his pocket when he started walking away from them. He was about to apologize, but they spoke first before he could get any words out.

”Boy watch where you going. You bumping into some old geezer might break one our hips. How about you get out of here before something bad happens to you. We are very busy, and we don’t need anybody getting in our way.” One of the two guys spoke.

”Yeah why are you even here, and where did you get those shoes?” The other prisoner asked Yuurei.

He looked at the both of them and stopped rubbing the back of his head.

”Sorry I wasn’t paying attention. And I always walk around the outer area of level five. It is something I always do. And I got these shoes from stealing them from a guard.” Yuurei was lying about everything, but they wouldn’t know that.

They both looked at him, and then each other. They figured the quicker this guy left the quicker than can get back to their work.

”Well beat it because we are busy.” He said to Yuurei.

The thief nodded at both of them, and walked by the two of them and started jogging away from them. He did this having one of his hands in his pocket to stop the keys from jingling. It wouldn’t take long for the two to lose sight of Yuurei, and then the man who had the keys went into his pocket. His hands shuffled around to look for the keys, but there was nothing there. He was looking for holes in the pocket, but there was nothing. He looked at his friend with a concerned look on his face.

”I can’t find the keys, I put them in this pocket, but it’s not here.” He said to his partner.

”It was that kid, I know it. Let’s go after him now.” He said to his friend.

The two of them would nod at each other, and they both started chasing after Yuurei. It was hard for them to run after him though, but they did their best to ignore their pain from the floor. Yuurei could feel their presence getting closer, which brought him to pick up his pace as he started going from jog to full sprint because he knew why they were running towards him.

17/20 Haki Remaining

Yuurei could see that even with him running at full speed the two of them were slowly catching up. He had the advantage with being ahead and he wasn’t going through what they were going through with the floor, so he was surprised by how fast they were. He kept moving his butt as he had to meet the guard at the location area. He was moving around Level five like a lunatic right now as he had taken out his hand from his pocket, so he could have better balance when he was running. He looked behind him, and he could see the two of their silhouette appearing in the distances. That was good to know because it just meant they were in the range of his observation.

He kept running and a bunch of the prisoners would look at him to see where he was going. Then they would look at the other two guys and figured that the first guy did something to them and now they wanted his head. They shook their heads because they were wasting a lot of energy in running around this hot place. The swordsman just kept moving though, for he knew that he was close to the destination. Still, he didn’t think to be in front of the guards would have stopped those two. It wouldn’t take long for him to look back, and he saw them actually inching closer to him by the second. He was surprised about this, but he had a trump card. He didn’t want to fight, so he decided to use a trump card when the time was right.

Yuurei could feel the presence of all the prisoners, and then he felt the presence of the guard that hired him. It caused Yuurei to stop running, but at the same time, the man could be seen turning around and running towards them. They noticed this and smiled because they figured the kid had gotten tired of playing cat and mouse, but that wasn’t the case. Yuurei let out a huge wave of willpower the moment the presence of the guard was no longer in his observation range. He knew from using this before that his Observation’s range, and King’s range was identical. The guys running towards Yuurei noticed this wave, and they tried to stop themselves from running. It was, however, too late for them to be able to accomplish that. They had been smacked by the aura Yuurei had emitted, and this time Yuurei had unleashed to hit anybody in the parameter, so it every prisoner there would fall to the ground.

He knew that people in this level had strong willpower, so he knew that they would wake up soon enough. The two guys that chased Yuurei stumbled back when they got hit with the wave. At first, it looked like it didn’t work on them, but then their eyes would roll back, and they would drop to the ground without any resistance. He sighed as he looked back and started running towards the guard again. It wouldn’t take long to reach him, but when he did his eyes widen with what he saw. His swords were in his hand, which brought him to take out the keys from his pocket to show the man he kept his promise. He would stop running when he got close enough to the guard, and he would skid on the ground until he stopped in front of him.

”I…got…your…keys…count them…to…see…if…they are…all…there.” He said this as he was trying to gather his breath while talking.

The guard would take the keys from Yuurei’s hand, and started to count the keys that were there. He would nod his head counting them, and after a minute of doing so, he put the keys on his side and looked at Yuurei.

”All the keys are accounted for. I expected you to try and escape. I also expected you to be sneaky and take one of the keys, but that wasn’t the case either. You are showing us more every day that we can definitely trust you. We will be giving you more work in the future. For now, you can take these swords, but please hide them where the other prisoners can’t find them. I don’t need them taking them from you, and using it on us.” He paused for a bit.

”Still, today I say thank you because you saved my job. I will let the others know what you did, so that way your rewards can open up more. I think you should go into hiding though before those two come looking for you. You most likely made some enemies.” He said this to Yuurei, and with that, he turned around and started walking off back to his station.

Yuurei would sigh as he looked and both of his blades and was excited to see them back in his hand. Still, as much as he wanted to admire them, he instead put them under his prison outfit and started walking off quickly away from where those two guys were. The excitement that courses through his veins, but also gained the official trust of the guards. He didn’t try to escape, but instead retrieved something that could have allowed him to possibly get his freedom. This was his life though, and having his swords only excited him. It was a day he would cherish in Impel Down even if this place was a hell hole to the majority of the people here. The two men would soon wake up, and when they looked around would not find Yuurei anywhere. They had lost their way out of this place, and it was all because of a prisoner like them, but who had a different view on how to do things in this place.

6/20 Haki Remaining

[EXIT]