Journey to One Piece

233. The World government is clever

Others could only roll their eyes at Buggy.

Meanwhile, Hancock had returned after taking a good look at the person who was going to cause the war. She wasn't allowed to talk anyway, so it didn't matter. After Luffy and the others had reached Level 5, Magellan finally took a closer look at the intruders. When they had entered Impel Down, he thought that they were of no importance and could be easily held down.

However, seeing the way they had reached Level 5 and vanished made him apprehensive. He asked everyone on all floors to return to their stations and keep an eye on them.

While Magellan was being vigilant, Ivankov and his army were getting ready for the final push to escape the place.

"Let's go. Let's break down Impel Down and the World Government into pieces. They want to oppress us, but we are torchbearers of freedom and liberty. Let the World Government fear us. Are you all with me?" Ivankov shouted, and they were all ready to barge through the door and cause mayhem.

"Yes!"

"Then let's go." Ivankov shouted while swaying his booty. By now he had again become a man. There was definitely something peculiar about this person. Soon they were out and back on Level 5 in the freezing cold.

Wolves and all kinds of arctic animals came to take them down, only to be blown away by the army. Magellan was appalled to see such a huge army.

"I will go down and handle them myself," Magellan said.

With those words, he left the control room. Meanwhile, after fighting for some time, Ivankov, Inazuma, Ken, Luffy, and Sabo continued. Others were asked to remain on Level 5 and be on the lookout, as Level 6 might be tricky for them.

After some struggle, they finally reached Level 6. Level 6 of Impel Down was different from all others. It was eerily quiet, and instead of extreme environments, there were cages everywhere. Huge cages made of Sea Stones. As they passed through the passages, many of the prisoners started hollering and shouting.

Of course, Ivankov came forward and Death Winked them, keeping them quiet. They asked around to find out where Ace was, as the whole level was huge. Some of the criminals were scared enough to direct them, probably because they feared Ivankov due to his Devil fruit powers. Soon, Ken, Luffy, and Sabo reached the cage where Ace was supposed to be held. He was in a separate cage away from the others, positioned so he couldn't talk to anyone nearby.

After reaching the cage, Luffy looked at Ace intently. Ken was ready to blast the doors with his Stormbreaker, but then Luffy spoke.

"He isn't Ace."

"What?"

"What are you saying, Luffy?"

"Yeah, he isn't Ace," Luffy repeated his words. Ken was taken aback and immediately activated his Sharingan. When he looked at the man who was being held down, he didn't see any chakra points or the latent magic that Ace was supposed to have.

"He's a fake." Sabo also activated his Sharingan and came to the same conclusion as Ken. Luffy was able to recognize it because his eyes had already started to see through matter and reality.

"Hey, you fake! What happened to Ace?" Sabo shouted. The man, who wore the same hat as Ace and had an identical body, looked up slowly at Sabo and the others while putting on a smile.

"Hahahaha... When the World Government sent me here, I thought they were joking. Who would be foolish enough to break into Impel Down? But here we are. Some really did break in and cause havoc in all of Impel Down. But that's good. We will be able to capture you all here," the man said with a wicked smile.

His body and face were still impersonating Ace. It was very weird for the others to hear Ace's voice coming from an evil imposter.

"What's going on? Who is this guy?" Sabo asked, visibly angry and distressed.

"Probably some kind of Devil Fruit user, a lackey of the World Government," Ken said.

"Who are you calling a lackey of the World Government? They paid me to impersonate Ace. I am the greatest impersonator, Hikari Kurosawa. I have eaten the Twin-Twin Fruit. I can make copies of myself and others. My original body isn't even here, so even if you kill me, you can never get to him," the man said.

"Hikari? Have you ever heard of this guy?" Ken turned and asked. Everyone else shook their heads.

"So you are not famous at all," Sabo said.

"Damn you! My name will soon resound throughout the world. You are my greatest victims, and your demise will make me famous," Hikari said, laughing loudly. His laugh was more irritating than any other he had heard before. So much so that Ken decided to put this guy in a genjutsu and make him fall asleep. There was no point in talking to this person.

This Devil Fruit hadn't ever shown up as far as Ken knew, so it was a syllabus that he didn't know about in the exams. But he could think about it later, as Ace was not free yet.

Ken had devised a plan to use Shadow clones and install one in Ace, and later let the World Government take the clone and eliminate him. This was the only way to avoid the huge war and secure victory, but fate had different plans, it seemed.

But now that he thought of it, he should have noticed that this guy wasn't Ace from the beginning itself. The simple reason was that these sea stones weren't strong enough to hold him down. He had dragon slayer magic and even chakra so the only way to imprison him was having under surveillance and using different kinds of ways to hold him down.

Impel Down was never the place for him to begin with. They had miscalculated to begin with. The World Government was really clever in this regard.