At that moment, Luffy could only stare anxiously at the battle raging in the distance.
Unlike the others, even if Cain's revealed form had stirred some excitement in him, what he was looking at now was still a fight between his two older brothers.
And worse than that, neither of them was holding back.
They were fighting like they really meant to drive the other to the edge of death.
How could Luffy possibly just stand there and watch?
He struggled with all his strength, desperately trying to break free from the chains binding his body, shouting Uta's name over and over and telling her to let him go.
But Uta wasn't in any better shape herself.
She had never steered a ship before!
And on top of that, the Merry's rudder was a long pole, completely different from the round ship's wheel she was used to seeing.
She had no idea what to do with it, let alone how to change direction.
With no other choice, Uta could only release her control over the Straw Hat crew for the moment and let them return to reality.
…
Meanwhile, on the battlefield—
Ace was already sprawled flat on the ground, gasping heavily for breath.
It wasn't that he had lost.
He just didn't want to keep fighting anymore.
What was the point? In a fight where he was getting completely crushed, there was no reason to drag it out.
At this point, he had no choice but to admit that his little brother had grown far stronger than he ever expected.
He let out a long breath and clicked his tongue.
"Hah… hah… You bastard. Since when did you turn into such a monster? I've been fighting you this whole time, and I still haven't managed to leave even a single scratch on you."
"Heh, same goes for you, doesn't it? I've been beating on you for this long, and you're still not dead. Hehe."
Cain stood over Ace, casually pulling back the fist he had just thrown.
Ace slowly pushed himself up, then looked at him and said, "That's different. Your raw strength is probably already on the same level as Kaido's by now, isn't it? And if I'm not wrong about that fruit of yours… it's the Azure Dragon Fruit, right?"
"Yeah, a copy of the Azure Dragon Fruit, to be exact. As expected, someone from a top Four Emperor crew can recognize it at a glance. Keep that a secret for me, okay?"
Cain dropped down and sat across from Ace, his tone turning a little more serious.
"But even then, I only got this strong because of the fruit. Blackbeard's different. Even before he ever ate a Devil Fruit, his body was already abnormal. That guy's not a normal human."
"Oh? And how would you know that?"
At first, Ace had no intention of listening to Cain's warnings about Blackbeard.
But the moment Cain brought up the structure of his body, Ace couldn't help getting curious.
Where had he even heard something like that?
"Uh… we ran into one of Shanks's former crewmates before. He once fought against the Whitebeard Pirates, and during that time, he noticed something strange about that guy… He found out Blackbeard didn't sleep for three days and three nights."
With no better option, Cain shamelessly threw Buggy under the bus again.
"Oh, one of Shanks's former crewmates? Then how'd that crewmate figure it out?"
"He stared at Blackbeard for three days and three nights."
Cain answered with a perfectly serious face.
"Pfft—hahahaha! Cain, you're full of shit! Then the guy you're talking about isn't normal either, right? Besides, three days and three nights? I could pull that off too."
"No, that's not the point. Anyone who goes without sleep for three days and three nights is going to get tired. But Blackbeard didn't, he was still full of energy. He's a complete anomaly!"
The moment he heard that word, Ace's expression changed.
He vaguely remembered Marco saying something similar before—that Blackbeard's body was special.
Marco had used that same word too: anomaly.
At the time, Ace hadn't really paid attention.
But now that he thought about it… it was true. He could barely remember ever seeing that guy sleep.
Saying Blackbeard had twice the life of an ordinary person wouldn't even feel like an exaggeration.
"And that's not all," Cain continued. "Have you seriously never thought about it? That guy was willing to kill his own crewmate for the sake of a single fruit, even knowing he'd be hunted by one of the Four Emperors afterward. That alone should tell you the fruit he wanted has enough power to stand against your old man, Whitebeard."
"That's impossible! Pops isn't that weak," Ace shot back instantly.
Cain already knew Ace would defend Whitebeard no matter what, but even he hadn't expected it to be this bad.
He couldn't help grumbling inwardly, 'This idiot really is addicted—completely hooked on the dream of making Whitebeard king.'
Then he cleared his throat and went on.
"Yeah, yeah, sure. Then let's talk about another pirate on the same level as Whitebeard—Red-Haired Shanks, one of the Four Emperors. You've met him too, right?"
"Yeah," Ace replied after a short pause. "He definitely felt different from Pops."
"Then do you know how he got that scar on his face?"
"Don't tell me…!"
"Yeah. Shanks used to be part of the Pirate King Roger's crew. Back then, he was already older than you are now—and way stronger too. Even so, Blackbeard still managed to injure a vital spot like his eye and that was years ago. So tell me, after all this time, how much stronger do you think Blackbeard's gotten? Do you really think you can handle him?"
Cain's voice was low and heavy, every word pressing down harder than the last.
Ace was visibly shaken.
Cain grabbed him by the shoulder and continued.
"You need to understand something. Behind you, it's not just the Whitebeard Pirates. You've also got me and Luffy. More importantly, your bo—"
Before he could finish, Cain suddenly realized that both he and Ace had already returned to reality.
…
Time rewound slightly.
The instant the Straw Hat crew opened their eyes, they realized the Merry was about to slam straight into the harbor!
Everything turned chaotic at once.
Usopp was just about to dash for the rudder and force the ship to turn, when Luffy suddenly shouted out—issuing the first captain's order of his life.
"Nobody move! I don't care what Cain's trying to do, I'm not letting Cain and Ace kill each other! Uta, stop this! And if you won't—fine! Let the ship crash, let it break apart, and let all of us sink into the sea together!"
His voice was so firm it stunned everyone.
Vivi and Nami clapped their hands over their mouths, their eyes wide with shock.
Usopp looked outright horrified, while Zoro and Sanji exchanged a glance.
Neither of them said a word, but the look on their faces made it clear enough—they hadn't been wrong about him after all.
One by one, everyone turned to Uta.
Luffy didn't give her even a second to hesitate.
And in truth, Uta didn't have that luxury anyway.
There wasn't even time to explain that injuries from the music world wouldn't carry over into reality.
The Merry was about to crash!
Seeing that there was no time left, Uta grit her teeth, stopped hesitating and immediately released her control over Cain and Ace.
Only then did Usopp throw himself at the rudder and desperately yank the Merry away from disaster.
...
Cain's eyes snapped open.
He immediately turned toward Ace—and saw that Ace had already leapt onto the bow.
With one quick motion, Ace tossed a slip of paper toward Luffy, then called out loudly.
"After finally getting a reunion like this, the farewell still ends up being this embarrassing! Seriously, Cain."
He turned his head to glance back at him, his voice tinged with helpless frustration.
"I'll be more careful about how dangerous that guy is. But that still isn't enough to make me stop."
"Wait, Ace!"
Cain lunged after him without thinking.
But flames had already burst fiercely around Ace's legs.
In the next moment, he shot into the sky and flew off into the distance.
"Cain…"
There was a trace of guilt in Uta's voice.
She had thought about using seawater to trap Ace again like before.
But she was a Devil Fruit user too, and she couldn't control the chain length properly. If she messed it up and actually drowned Ace, there'd be no fixing that.
And besides, suddenly waking both him and Ace this time had also been partly her fault.
"Hoo…"
Cain let out a long breath, then turned to look at her. His voice, unexpectedly, was calm.
"It's fine. This isn't your fault."
Then he turned toward Luffy, his tone dropping low.
"Luffy, I'm the one who asked Uta to do this, so don't blame her. If you've got a problem with anyone, take it out on me. But before that…"
Dragon scales began to spread across Cain's body, and flame clouds coiled beneath his feet.
"I'm bringing that idiot back safely."
His eyes reddened.
Grabbing the weapon at his side, he stepped onto the flame clouds and kicked into Moonwalk, tearing through the air at terrifying speed in the direction Ace had gone.
…
"Hoo… I've already flown this far, so I should've shaken him off by now, right? That guy is way too obsessed with me!"
High above the clouds, Ace raised a hand and wiped the sweat from his forehead.
Just as he was finally about to relax, he caught sight of a figure rushing toward him from behind.
Half of Cain's face was still human.
The other half was covered in dragon scales.
With that bizarre yet ferocious appearance, he was literally running through the sky toward Ace in the strangest posture imaginable!
Ace nearly had a heart attack.
"Ace, get your ass back here!"
Cain's furious roar tore through the air together with a violent gust of wind.
"Y-Y-YOU… DON'T COME ANY CLOSER!"
Ace's voice cracked on the spot.
Panicking, he pushed his flames to the limit and bolted forward for his life.
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