Chapter 7: Welcome To Hell
The feeling of slight rocking and the sounds of loud motors running made Luffy stir in his sleep (or in this case, unconsciousness). 'Wait. rocking? Motors? That's not normal…..' He groggily sat up and stretched out his limbs and after looking around a bit, he found himself on a bunk bed with chains locked onto his arms and ankles tight. Slightly shocked, Luffy thrusted his arms and legs around to try and break away from the chains but to no avail. Using the term "confusion" and a tint of "fear" was an understatement. He didn't know where he was, he didn't know who was doing these to him, he didn't know where Robin and the other people he's known were, he was panicking inside. Until … it hit him. The memories of the noble, the torture, makino … those memories were enough to make him bend and crunch the railings on the bed. But he sighed as he finalized: '.. I'll worry about those later. Right now, i need to know where the hell i am and how to get to the others.'
Luffy tilted his head upwards and yelled out to see if anyone else was there. "HELLO?! IS THERE ANYONE THERE?!", he yelled out. At first, no one responded and he felt that he was abandoned by some dumbass crew and waiting to drown in the dark and, seemingly, endless ocean. "God damnit. The abandoned ship routine. Now what the hell am I supposed to d-" His train of thought was cut short when an electric jolt shot through his body that instantly knocked him out again. "What the hell…." He falls asleep.
…
…
…
bang. banG. baNG. bANG. BANG. BANG! BANG! BANG!
Luffy jumped awake with a start as he stared out at … bars? He stared out in front of him with his arms chained together with Kairōseki cuffs, making his mind feel like goo and wobbling around the cell. He groggily looked up towards the guard and asks him why the fuck is he banging on the … door, i guess. The guard only responds by stating that it was time for their exercises. Luffy tilts his head in confusion as the cell door opens and guard throws him across the ground hard (yes, it hurt like hell) and yells in his ear: "GET TO THE DAMN EXERCISE ROOM, JACKASS!" The guards forced him to stand and sent him to a room with multiple different contraptions that looked, to him, weapons of absolute torture. It made him shiver.
After the guard dropped him off into the room, he slammed the door and locked it with a special key. Luffy looked around and saw more people with most he didn't recognize. He felt nervous with all of these strangers with him in the same room with him and decided to stay in the corner. Nothing really happens for about 20 minutes until a girl, who was two years older than Luffy, walked up to him wearing a small laced top with exotic swirl patterns leaving her mid-riff exposed with the only other piece of clothing is a small loin cloth around her hips. She looked down at the floor shyly as she spoke at almost a whisper: "H-Hi. A-are you n-new h-here?" Luffy found her shy attitude a tad bit cute as he responded with: "Yeah. Looks creepy as hell, doesn't it?"
"Y-yeah, i g-guess..", the girl responded.
"... So, are you going to introduce yourself? It's considered rude to not do that", Luffy told her.
"I-I know that!", the girl responded with a cute pout, "M-my name is b-boa. B-boa h-hancock."
"See? Was that so hard?", Luffy said with a small smirk.
"S-shut up!", hancock responded, with the pout still on her face.
"Ok. Ok. I'm Luffy. Nice to meet you!", Luffy introduced as he stretched out his hand to shake hers.
"Y-yeah. Y-you t-too", she replied as she shook his hand as the pout vanished and her cute shy face reappeared onto her face.
"So how do a little girl like you get here? Aren't your parents here somewhere?", Luffy asked her, curiosity raising.
A sad look fell upon her face as she started to speak: "A few weeks ago, my sisters and I were included into the Kuja Pirates crew and were sailing on their ship, when suddenly, we were captured by intimidating men and were sold to the World Nobles. During my time so far, I was fed a weird fruit to entertain my captors."
Luffy's face turned serious as he asked his next question: "What did these men look like?"
"The ones that the others were listening to wore weird spacesuits and rode on c-chained p-people… t-they had a look of f-fear and d-death in their e-eyes …. I-i-i don't want that t-to happen to m-me.." She slowly began to break down into tears. The fear in her voice shook Luffy's core and he instinctively gave her a light hug.
"Easy, easy. It won't happen to you. I won't let it", Luffy said as he patted her silky raven hair. She lightly returned the hug and whispered: "You promise?"
Without hesitation, he nodded.
It took hancock 2 minutes to calm her sobbing and let go of Luffy. When she did, he let go as well. "Also… what do you mean by 'entertain'?", Luffy questioned.
"You're about to find out…", Hancock responded as a door opened, revealing the warden of the prison entered the room with a stern look on his face. He ordered all of the prisoners to form a single-filed line, facing the door he entered from. As each approached the door, they received a collar on their necks with a four-digit code.
Luffy= 1240
Hancock= 2906
After each one received a collar, the warden laid down the rules and regulations for the establishment.
"If you have been selected to settle here, then you have been ordered here by master Mackerel or another World Noble. Be proud of yourselves, as you'll all be supporting a cause that will change this world for the better and will succeed to give you meaning to your almost worthless lives. But don't think this will be a walk in the park or something harmless. You'll be the subjects of experiments that will help us stabilize devil fruits and awaken their true powers to protect the good people in this world and establish a new world order. Now, what to do and what not to do. Simple. Do as your told and follow the schedule promptly as we hate people that are late or slack off. In addition, always keep the place tidy … unless you want your guts to be the new dump disposals! Also, your bodies will go through major hell and you may feel like you want to leave or even die to relieve yourself from this. But, sucks to be you." He ends it off with an absolutely evil smirk as the guards send the prisoners to another big room to begin the experiments. The warden watches them leave as says to himself:
"Let Operation: SMILE … begin."
To Be Continued
Next Time: Part 2