"Hold on a little tighter."
"Don't let go. Just keep holding my hand like this."
"HUH?!"
Uta gripped Cain's right hand tightly as they walked across the sand.
Psssh— The sound of steam hissed into the air.
Cain went stiff.
His arms and legs jerked awkwardly like a broken puppet. Steam kept rising from the top of his head.
"Why did you come by yourself? Where's Luffy? You didn't leave that guy behind somewhere, did you?" Uta looked up and asked.
Cain gently shook his head. "That guy… he's still sailing at sea right now. To keep a certain promise, there are still a lot of people waiting for him to save them… Sorry."
Since Uta hadn't mentioned Shanks, Cain chose not to bring him up either.
Uta still wore her usual bright smile.
"The fact that you came… is enough. Oh, right!" She stopped and looked him over. "When you fell from the sky just now, you didn't get hurt, did you? The way you're walking is weird."
Her free hand lightly patted Cain's chest and arms, checking him for injuries.
Cain was terrible at handling this kind of closeness.
His whole body froze, and he stumbled over his words.
"U-U-UTA... I-I'M F-FINE!"
"You can barely even talk. Are you really fine?" Uta stepped in front of him.
Her left hand still held his tight, and her bright eyes stared right at his red face.
Cain turned his head away and panicked, grabbing for a new topic. "I-I'M FINE! oh, right, uta i want to hear you sing!"
"So sudden? Sure! Then next up, the singer Uta will perform a song for her audience member, Cain!" Uta let go of his hand, though the joy in her eyes was easy to see.
She wanted to share this happy feeling with Cain, not the cold emptiness she carried for years.
Cain sat down against a large rock.
Uta stood facing him with the ocean at her back. She gave a small bow and cleared her throat.
Her familiar, bright singing rose into the air.
(Try listening to Ado : where the winds blows)
The music flowed smoothly, washing over his heart. Her voice swept across the shore.
The waves lapped gently against the sand in time with the beat, bringing life back to the dead island.
Seabirds flew and danced overhead, echoing the beautiful melody.
Even Gordon, back in the ruined city, heard the song. He slowly made his way over and stood quietly on the beach, listening.
'Uta… is different now,' he thought.
Gordon sensed the change in her right away, just from the raw feeling in her voice.
He looked at Cain sitting by the rock, remembered the drawing hanging in Uta's room, and finally understood.
When the song ended, Uta bowed again.
Cain and Gordon clapped at the same time, both filled with real relief and joy.
Looking at the scene before her, Uta felt like those happy days from the past had just happened yesterday.
But then the dark memory of being left behind rushed back into her heart.
Her face darkened for a second, but she put her familiar smile back on.
She didn't want to show any weakness in front of Cain.
"That was amazing, Uta! You're going to be the greatest singer in the world!" Cain stepped forward, cheering for her.
Uta laughed and waved her hands. "Not at all, not at all! The world's greatest or anything... it's way too early for that."
"And this is…?" Gordon stepped forward and asked.
Uta grabbed Cain's arm and introduced him. "Gordon, this is Cain! My best friend from before… and still my best friend now! Cain, this is my music teacher, Gordon. He's training me to become the world's best singer!"
"Thank you for taking care of Uta all these years." Cain meant to offer his right hand, but Uta was still holding it tight.
He awkwardly offered his left hand instead.
'I'm really not cut out for these polite greetings,' he grumbled in his mind.
"You're too kind. But I don't see a ship anywhere nearby. Where exactly did you come from?" Gordon shook his hand, then glanced at the empty harbor.
Uta leaned in too. "Yeah, Cain! How did you fall out of the sky just now?"
"Out of the sky?" Gordon looked up in confusion.
Cain gave a light cough and smiled at Uta. "That's my Devil Fruit power. It lets me fly. So, Uta... want to fly up into the sky with me and take a look?"
"YES! YES!"
As she said it, Uta immediately let go and jumped up, wrapping her arms around Cain's neck.
Cain instinctively took half a step back, then spread his arms and caught her securely against him.
Psssh—
Steam began rising from the top of Cain's head again.
Uta, however, seemed to notice nothing and only stared at his bright red face.
"What's wrong? Why's your face red again?"
"N-nothing. Let's do this another way… but don't get scared."
The moment he finished speaking, great masses of orange clouds began billowing around him.
Gordon stumbled back several steps in alarm as Cain quickly called out.
"GORDON, PLEASE WAIT DOWN HERE A LITTLE WHILE! I'M TAKING UTA UP INTO THE SKY FOR A LOOK!"
As his voice fell, the orange clouds thickened and thickened, gradually blocking Uta's vision until even Cain's face blurred from sight.
When Cain's face disappeared completely into the haze, an instant of separation struck straight at the deepest fear in Uta's heart.
The despair she had felt when she was abandoned came flooding back like a wave.
She instinctively clutched the person in her arms even tighter, her fingers going pale with force—only to realize in shock that "Cain's neck" was gradually growing thicker, and the texture beneath her hands was becoming harder and stranger.
Still confused, she finally noticed that the ground below had shrunk away until it looked no bigger than dust—the clouds had already lifted her high into the sky.
When she forced herself to turn her head, what met her eyes were a pair of sharp vertical pupils.
Uta screamed, "CAIN!! WHERE ARE YOU?!"
"Uta, I'm here. I'm right here."
The orange clouds slowly drifted apart, and only then did Uta see clearly that she was sitting atop the head of a giant creature.
Pink scales covered its body.
Its sharp claws, twisting form, and long horns were all enough to make her heart leap.
"Cain?!"
"It's me," the giant dragon answered gently.
"So, Uta? I'm a dragon now. Pretty cool, right?"
Cain, in his Azure Dragon form, moved freely through the clouds.
Before coming here, he had already checked the area.
There were no nearby islands within several kilometers, and no merchant ships would be passing through either.
It was the perfect place to use this form without restraint.
Naturally, Uta would never casually reveal his power to anyone else.
As for Gordon, Cain had only fully taken dragon form after they were already close to the cloud layer.
At that distance, under those conditions, there was no way the old man could possibly see clearly.
'And more importantly, this meant I no longer have to stay in such dangerously heart-racing close contact with Uta,' he thought.
After living on this island for so long, she seemed to have lost all sense of the difference between boys and girls.
That was what worried Cain most.
Living all this time off despair and hatred… just how much had Uta changed inside?
"YOU IDIOT! FOR A SECOND THERE, I ALMOST THOUGHT… THOUGHT… ANYWAY, YOU IDIOT!"
After confirming it really was Cain, Uta angrily smacked the dragon's head, though a trace of warmth hid in her eyes.
Cain understood her unease and deliberately joked:
"Huh? Since when did I get lumped into the same category as Luffy? Look, Uta—it's the sunset!"
The blue—well, pink—dragon pierced through the thick clouds and emerged into open sky.
The clouds that had hidden the sunlight were gone.
The warm afterglow of the setting sun spilled over Uta and shone once more into the long-silent chambers of her heart.
"Yes… it's the sunset. I finally saw it."
'And I was finally found by you too, Cain. Just as warm as I thought.'