Though Cain had resolved to take things one step at a time, reality rarely cooperated so neatly.
"Hey, Cain, we've been flying around for a whole day now. You said we were going to find Luffy, but where exactly are we now?"
"Uh, well…"
In dragon form, Cain wore an awkward expression across his face, while Uta stood steadily atop his head, peering down below.
Clearly, they were completely lost.
Back when Cain had flown all the way from Marine Headquarters back to the East Blue, he had relied entirely on his sense of direction and the East Blue chart Garp had given him.
But now that Luffy and the others had already entered the Grand Line, trying to locate them in these ever-changing seas was nearly impossible.
Shanks had not given him any map or logpose and Gordon had been empty-handed as well.
Cain could only rely on a vague instinct and keep flying in what he believed was the direction he had come from.
"Cain, look! There's smoke over there! Somebody must live there! Why don't we go down and ask for directions?"
Uta suddenly pointed into the distance.
Through a gap in the clouds, a thin wisp of smoke could be seen slowly rising.
Cain paused, puzzled. At this altitude, even if there really were smoke, it should have dispersed long ago.
How could it still be lingering here?
But when he followed where Uta was pointing—the smoke was undeniably floating in the clouds.
'A sky island?'
Cain immediately told Uta to hold tightly onto his scales, then turned his massive dragon body and sped toward the smoke.
He thought to himself: 'If this was the sky island he remembered, then directly beneath it should be the Grand Line.'
After that, using the position of the sun, he ought to be able to find Alabasta.
The moment he saw the golden city above, Cain confirmed that this was indeed the sky island in the first half of the Grand Line, and he felt deeply relieved that he had not accidentally ended up at the one where Kaido tried to kill himself.
That one was in the New World. At least he had not gone completely the wrong way.
"Cain! There really is a city floating on the clouds!"
Sitting atop Cain's head, Uta shouted excitedly.
Cain gave a slight nod and looked up at her, his voice steady.
"I think I know where Luffy is now. Let's go find him first. We can come back here later."
"Okay!"
Uta nodded in agreement.
The instant the words fell, Cain's enormous dragon body swept straight over the upper reaches of the sky island and sped toward the direction he had in mind.
That sudden intrusion was immediately picked up by the "god" of the sky island, Enel, through his Mantra.
"You dare trespass in the domain of God?"
Enel's eyes sharpened, and in an instant his body dissolved into bolts of lightning and shot skyward.
What he had not expected, however, was that the intruder showed no sign of stopping.
Instead, it barreled straight toward him with a world-shattering force.
"What kind of monster is thi—bzzt."
Before Enel could finish, the hundred-ton projectile flying at insane speed slammed straight into him and blasted him into lightning!
The raging current struck Cain's hard dragon scales, yet failed to do the slightest bit of damage.
Cain's body simply absorbed all of the electricity head-on.
Uta, meanwhile, felt nothing at all.
Only a little static made her hair lift slightly, adding a touch of playfulness to her appearance.
Cain's dragon body suddenly came to a halt, as though he had noticed something odd.
He slowly turned his head and looked toward the tip of his tail.
There, Enel was reforming inside a mass of crackling electricity, his face full of rage and disbelief.
"I am God! You insolent wretch—!!"
Enel shouted furiously, but Cain doesn't give a shit about him.
Locking onto him with Observation Haki, he instantly coated his entire dragon tail in jet-black Armament Haki and casually lashed it at Enel.
Bang—!
With one explosive crash, Enel was sent flying like a kite with its string cut, smashing into the surface of the sky island and kicking up a massive cloud of dust.
"Heh. What a weak god—and a pretty addicting one too."
Cain snorted disdainfully.
So that was what he had bumped into just now!
Maybe early on Enel could get away with calling himself a god, but too bad for him—he had just run into a man who know's Haki.
Cain did not dwell on it.
He had no time to waste on tangling with some self-important fool like that, so he carried Uta swiftly away from that stretch of sky.
"Cain, did we hit something just now?"
Uta asked curiously. She clearly had not noticed Enel at all.
"Just a speed bump."
Cain answered offhandedly as he continued toward the destination he had predicted.
As for Enel, who had been smashed by Cain's dragon tail, he fell unconscious on the spot.
Since obtaining the Rumble-Rumble Fruit, it was the first time he had ever suffered such a severe injury.
That dragon tail coated in Armament Haki had landed squarely on him.
If his body had not instinctively triggered elementalization in the instant he was sent flying, reducing the impact when he hit the ground, then his condition would have been far worse than simple unconsciousness.
…
Time moved onward, and the Straw Hat Pirates' adventure had already passed through several stages.
They fought their way through Whisky Peak, learned Vivi's true identity as the princess of Alabasta, and accepted the request of Igaram, captain of the royal guard, deciding to escort Vivi home.
Along the way, they also encountered Miss All Sunday, whose true allegiance remained unclear.
Their ship later passed an island called Little Garden, where they were fortunate enough to meet Dorry the Blue Ogre and Brogy the Red Ogre, the two captains of the Giant Warrior Pirates from a hundred years ago, and witness a bond and resolve that had endured across a century.
Unfortunately, Nami was bitten by a poisonous insect there and fell gravely ill, forcing the group to alter course and head to Drum Island, the kingdom of Drum, in search of treatment.
And it was precisely because of that mishap that they gained the crew's indispensable doctor—a blue-nosed reindeer who had eaten the Human-Human Fruit, Regular Model, Tony Tony Chopper.
During this journey, they also happened to run into Bon Clay, one of the agents under the Warlord Crocodile.
His Clone-Clone Fruit was extremely peculiar: by touching someone's face with his right hand, he could perfectly copy that person's appearance and physique.
To guard against the possibility of Bon Clay infiltrating the crew using that ability, everyone drew an X mark on their left arm as a secret sign for identifying one another.
When the Going Merry finally docked at Nanohana, a port city on the coast of Alabasta—
Usopp was the first to speak, looking toward the town on shore.
"So that's Alabasta's city?"
"Did any of you hear a huge crash?"
Chopper lifted his blue nose and quietly asked the others, unease in his voice.
"Listen up, everybody!"
Nami warned them sternly.
"Let me make this clear in advance—once we get into town, nobody is to run off and act on instinct!"
Sanji immediately voiced his agreement, while Zoro cast a glance toward the railing and said dryly,
"The one who needed to hear that is already gone, isn't he?"
Sure enough—
"Food! Food! Where's the restaurant?!"
No sooner had Luffy shouted than he leapt off the Going Merry and dashed toward Nanohana.
Nami was just about to explode in anger when she suddenly noticed a huge crowd of townspeople surging toward the same place.
"What's going on over there? Why are so many people gathering?"
She frowned and asked in confusion.
Watching the direction the crowd was rushing toward, Sanji gave a helpless shrug.
"It's probably something Luffy did. Causing trouble is what he does best."
"There's no way he could've stirred up trouble that fast! And why are they running this way now?"
Zoro's expression sharpened, and he gripped the sword at his waist as he spoke.
"No! They're not coming for us—they're chasing someone!"
Nami's eyes were the keenest, and she was the first to grasp what was really happening.
"Don't tell me Luffy really did do this?"
Usopp's voice trembled.
"Why did they suddenly stop?" Vivi asked, puzzled.
"And now they're scattering again? What in the world happened?"
Sanji frowned.
The crowd that had originally gathered near the shore while chasing someone suddenly dispersed for no apparent reason.
All Nami's group could see was the person being chased, carrying a pack, leaping up from the coastline and flying straight toward the air above the Going Merry.
Everyone followed the movement and looked up—
Only then did they realize that a huge orange cloud was floating above the Going Merry, seemingly out of nowhere.
And atop the cloud stood a slender figure.
"Uta!"
A low, powerful voice cut through the wind.
The newcomer stretched out his arms toward the figure on the cloud.
Before Uta could even react, he had already lifted her securely into a princess carry.
Then, with Uta in his arms, he lightly tapped the orange cloud with the tip of his foot, and the cloud vanished instantly.
In the blink of an eye, the two of them were standing firmly on the deck of the Going Merry.
The moment Nami, Zoro, and Usopp recognized that familiar figure, all three lit up with joy.
"CAIN!!" ×3
"YOU BASTARD!."
Only Sanji stood off to the side, glaring viciously at Cain holding Uta while muttering under his breath, his face full of jealousy!