Reunion in Hell!? The User of the Bara Bara No Mi!

The surveillance snail sweeps the entryway for anything out of place. To keep Luffy concealed beneath her cloak, Hancock charms Domino with flirtation, then loosens a Love-Love Mellow beam that hardens both the inspector and the snail into stone. From under the cloak the captain steps free, unharmed. Hancock declares that their road must part here, because lifting the garment would strip away his only cover, and she frets about the horrors the prison holds for anyone caught inside.

Vowing not to disappoint her, Luffy addresses the empress by her true name rather than the usual Hammock, a first that leaves her collapsing in a lovestruck daze. As the elevator carries her down, she wishes him fortune and persuades herself that a parting word from his lips was a confession of love.

Outside, an impatient Hannyabal takes a phone call and turns back to verify the search, only for Hancock and Domino to emerge as though the inspection had wrapped up swiftly. Luffy waits for him to leave before slipping onward. The captain discovers that Ace sits in the prison's depths just as the guiding vivre card nears burnout. Descending the tiers, Hannyabal describes each one: the Crimson Hell of the first floor, the beast level below it, the starvation level, and the boiling Burning Heat Floor.

Tearing through the opening level, Luffy runs into Buggy, who has begun his own breakout and intends to ditch the other inmates. A surveillance snail nearly catches the clown, who panics and trips a danger button, dropping spikes and firing spears near Luffy and luring guards to the racket. The prisoners Buggy abandoned spot the captain and direct him to the fifth floor, where Ace is kept among the high-bounty captives. With Blue Gorilla guards bearing down and his cover gone, Luffy teams with the bisected Buggy to fight their way clear. This entry belongs to the Impel Down Arc and debuts Jean Goen; its preview for the following episode runs shorter than usual.