3.3

Have you have seen violence without end? I have. I saw nothing but bloodshed and hate for an entire year. I saw things that but these men fighting each other to the death to shame. Not going to lie, I'm really disappointed that none of these guys refused to fight. If they refused I'm sure we could had worked something else out.

I was thirteen years old at the time I experienced true combat and it was when I was assigned to Level Four. It was before I met Fredigar, I remember that.

I was chopping wood at the time, and I was placed next to someone the same age as me. We got to talking and I learned his name was Harris. He was a cabin boy for a pirate crew, and he was intensely loyal. He apparently fought some Marines all by himself and bought his crew the time they needed to escape being captured. He was sent to Impel Down for his loyalty.

He told me, "Loyalty is everything to me. It's easy to die for someone. Anyone can step in front of an attack and die to save someone else's life. It's harder to live for someone. I sacrificed my freedom so my crew could live. That's what loyalty is. Sacrifice."

At the time I didn't have the heart to tell him what I had heard Kuzric say about sacrifice. He would probably be singing a different tune after that.

I think I can honestly say that he was my first real friend. We backed each other up through thick and thin. Level Four was awful, but when I had a friend, Hell didn't seem too bad.

Then I lost him.

For around a year we had a new guard in charge of Level Four while the regular overseers went on some sort of administrative training or something. His name was Badric, and he was not a good person. He had a strong opinion that it was a waste of time for guards to torture prisoners. Instead he had prisoners torture prisoners.

What an efficient guy...

For a while I knew what it was like to be one of the torturers. I bruised, beat, and burned. Then I was bruised, beaten, and burned in turn. I never questioned his orders. I wish I had.

One day, he told us to partner up...

I met Fredigar immediately after that exercise and that is how he determined that people born in Impel Down are the most 'brutal".

Now I'm telling these men to partner up the same way Badric did.

They hesitate at first and I hope that they would just refuse, but my hopes are dashed when a man in front of the crowd runs his stolen cutlass through his partner's stomach from behind.

"Meesa da winna!" He calls out as the other man falls do the ground with a leathal stab wound.

Like Pandora's box opening, everyone begins to slaughter their partner, or die trying. Keystone and Kreig are laughing behind me and I can see from the corner of my eye that Klahadore is turning away in apparent disinterest.

Only Gurry and I are watching silently. He's probably thinking deep and important sagely thoughts. My headspace is otherwise preoccupied.

'I have become a monster. Or have I always been one?' Is my exact thought as a splash of blood lands on my feet.

"The world is full of monsters. Don't worry, at least you won't be alone." Gurry says nonchalantly. "Look at these guys. They're criminals, sure, but they aren't monsters. I'm a monster. You're a monster. These Yonko everybody talk about are monsters. The Pirate King was probably a monster. The Marines and the World Government are filled with monsters. Don't worry about it, you aren't all that special in the grand scheme of things."

He snorts amusedly as the brutality in front of us increases somehow. Now the prisoners have eliminated the weak partners and now equally matched people are fighting it out. "Ha! Look at that one go. Where was I... Oh yah. Go with the flow and do what comes naturally."

I look at the writhing mass of carnage. I imitated the horrible guard Badric at first because I didn't know what to do. Now I should do what comes naturally.

"Stop!" I yell out. The fighting doesn't cease immediately, but it does stop without further death.

The prisoners look at me with tired looks in their eyes. They don't seem particularly guilty about the people they've killed, but that's okay. I'm guilty enough for all of them.

"That's about half of you. Alright Keystone, what's next?"

Keystone has stopped laughing and I bet he has an annoyed expression behind his mask. "That's not half of the prisoners."

"I agree. It's about half. So, what next?"

He fumes silently for a moment then licks the ground while crossing hisbarms like an upset child. "I wanted to see more violence...", I hear him mutter under his breath.

He straightens up, then nods. "Whelp, there's a war going on about now. I could have you fight in that as part of my favor... Or I could send you all somewhere else. Before we do any of that however, we need to do one thing first."

I can't see his face but I know he's smiling. "We must build a bridge."