Break Through Crimson Hell - Buggy's Great Uproar Plan

With Blue Gorilla guards swarming them, Luffy lashes out with a Gum-Gum Whip while Buggy fakes a sobbing fit before catching a guard off balance with his Chop-Chop tricks. The clown is stunned to see how easily Luffy floors the brutes he describes as fearsome fighters. Buggy is equally startled that Luffy has come all this way to rescue Ace, and he recalls befriending Ace years earlier when a feast was crashed. Fearing Ace's capture will bring Whitebeard's wrath down on everyone, Buggy flatly refuses to help breach the lower levels.

As more guards force them onward, Buggy notices the armband Nami once gave Luffy and becomes desperate to pry it loose, certain it points to Captain John's hoard. A flashback shows how Buggy, hunting that very treasure through a cave, was mistaken for a recruit by a work crew, then spotted and tossed into Impel Down by Marines, an outcome he took for destiny. Believing the band is the treasure map, Luffy hands it over, and Buggy gratefully accepts before crashing headlong through a wall in search of a shortcut.

Breaking into a guard room, the pair stumble into a forest of Blade Trees and Spike Needle Grass meant to slash prisoners' feet, with venomous spiders driving the torment as Luffy reels at the cruelty of the Crimson Hell. Below, Hancock keeps fretting for Luffy and stomps on Hannyabal for spoiling her daydream. The two fugitives finally reach a deep shaft that drops straight to Level 2, and Luffy leaps in while Buggy, clutching the armband and dreaming of riches, is knocked down the hole by a Blugori's axe.