"You abandoned me, and now you show up in front of me saying it was all a misunderstanding? On what grounds? What gives you the right?!"
Uta jumped down from upstairs and punched Shanks in the face again and again.
Shanks did not fight back.
He simply let her hit him, blow after blow, and before long, blood began seeping from the corner of his mouth.
With every punch that fell, Uta's body slowly began to change.
Pink scales climbed up from her wrist, and her entire body started transforming toward the shape of a dragon.
Cain and Rayleigh, who were on the first floor of the bar, immediately noticed something was wrong.
"This feeling! It's exactly like last time!" Rayleigh said, his face turning serious.
Cain's voice also sank.
"Shakky-nee, Uta didn't eat anything strange just now, did she?"
Shakky thought for a moment before answering, "Before Shanks rushed in, I saw Uta playing with a bag of yellow candies. I think they were from your pocket, Cain…"
"Crap!"
Cain wanted to step forward and stop Uta, but his stamina had only just recovered a little.
Even moving was still difficult for him.
Rayleigh, on the other hand, had already kicked off the window frame and rushed outside.
"What's wrong? Is there something wrong with those candies?" Shakky asked, confused.
Cain quickly explained.
"Very wrong! Those are Rumble Balls, a drug that affects the wavelength of Zoan-type Devil Fruits. I originally used them to develop new techniques."
"Although I can use that technique now even without the Rumble Ball, the Rumble Ball will instead instinctively trigger its effect."
"Worse, that technique still isn't fully developed. The reason is simple—I can't control it yet. It was originally designed to work alongside Asura Path as a technique for fighting giants: Animal Path. Because it's too dangerous and easily goes out of control, I've never used it in battle and am still developing it further."
"But with Uta like this, she's definitely going to go completely berserk! Even if it only lasts three minutes, she might still destroy this place!"
Almost as Cain spoke, Rayleigh had already rushed in and pulled Shanks out from under Uta's fists.
Shanks had just opened his mouth, wanting to say something, when he saw that Uta's form had completely changed.
In the blink of an eye, Uta finished her dragon transformation, and her body suddenly expanded in size.
Her figure became taller than the Yarukiman mangroves outside the bar, and she was still growing larger.
The originally slender limbs of the dragon slowly became muscular and solid.
In the end, her form looked almost humanoid, with thick limbs, a powerful torso, and a massive dragon head.
She resembled a legendary ancient giant, except her size far surpassed even the ancient giant race.
The pink scales covering her body gradually turned a bloody red.
Just by shifting her feet, she made the ground tremble as if a mountain had moved.
This form was like Cain's pink dragon form forcibly stretched upright, dramatically increased in size, and given a pair of powerful extra limbs along with a sturdy torso.
This was Six Paths of Reincarnation: Animal Path, a form Cain had developed by studying Chopper's transformations and using Rumble Balls to influence the wavelength of a Zoan Devil Fruit.
Rayleigh swallowed and raised his head to look at Uta.
On a night like this, he could not even clearly make out the dragon head high above.
He lowered his head and said to Shanks, "Hey, this is bad. That technique Cain came up with—I barely managed to endure three minutes of it back then. But now it's Uta. We can't go all out against her."
"YOU LOUSY OLD MAN!" Cain shouted from the side. "SO YOU WERE USING FULL STRENGTH WHEN YOU FOUGHT ME BACK THEN? NO WONDER IT HURT SO MUCH!"
As he spoke, Cain rummaged around himself for a while, pulled out a Tone Dial, and threw it hard toward them.
"FIND A WAY TO MAKE UTA HEAR THIS! IT'S ONLY THREE MINUTES. I CAN HOLD ON!"
Rayleigh caught the Tone Dial and instantly understood what Cain intended to do.
But just as he was about to move, he looked up and saw Uta's enormous scale-covered fist smashing down toward him.
Rayleigh had no time to think.
He threw the Tone Dial to Shanks, then kicked Shanks away.
"I'M LEAVING IT TO YOU, SHANKS!"
Before he even finished speaking, there was a thunderous boom.
Uta's fist slammed into Rayleigh, smashing him straight into a massive crater.
Broken stone and dust flew everywhere.
Cain hurriedly shouted from the side, "HEY, UNCLE RAYLEIGH! ARE YOU OKAY?"
"Honestly, you damn brat! Don't you dare tell anyone out there that I taught you."
Rayleigh struggled out of the crater and dodged one punch after another, drawing Uta's attention to buy time for Shanks.
Seeing this, Shanks immediately leaped up and began climbing along Uta's thick arm, step by step.
Scorching heat was already gathering inside Uta's massive mouth.
In another moment, she was about to blast Shanks with her dragon breath.
Tears shone in Shanks' eyes.
Facing that terrifying wave of heat, he did not retreat. Instead, he kept jumping upward along the giant dragon's body.
He deliberately leaped high, rushing over her head and drawing Uta's gaze upward.
The scorching dragon breath burst toward the sky with a roar, swallowing Shanks into the wave of heat as well.
The breath shot high into the air and exploded with a bang.
Shanks clenched Gryphon tightly.
The blade collided with the fiery breath, sending dazzling sparks across the sky like brilliant fireworks.
After finally getting close to Uta's dragon head, he hurriedly sheathed his sword, endured the last wave of breath head-on, and staggered to her ear before activating the Tone Dial.
Uta's cheerful singing from the past rang clearly from the Tone Dial, wrapping both of them in that familiar melody.
Seeing that the timing was right, Cain immediately focused his mind and activated the power of the Sing-Sing Fruit.
In an instant, both of them lost consciousness.
The moment the three minutes were up, Uta's body rapidly shrank back to normal size and began falling from the sky.
Shanks' body fell as well.
Rayleigh quickly rushed forward and caught both of them.
Then he looked toward Cain, who was drenched in sweat.
Cain shook his head, signaling that they still needed a little more time.
Fortunately, Rayleigh had already evacuated the crowd around the bar early on. At the moment, there was no one else nearby.
On top of that, this incident had only lasted three minutes.
Everyone's attention had been drawn to the breath attack shooting into the sky and the blazing burst of fire that followed.
No one noticed the huge dragon-like figure.
Or rather, they only felt the tremors spreading through the Sabaody Archipelago.
Since it lasted less than three minutes, no one paid it much mind.
…
Inside Uta World—
Among the ruins of Elegia, little Uta struck Shanks' body with her small fists while listening to his explanation.
…
"I'm sorry, Uta. Please forgive me for only telling you the truth now. What happened that night in Elegia wasn't what you thought."
…
"It was Tot Musica, the Demon King of Songs, that caused everything. For the sake of your future, we had no choice but to leave."
…
Little Uta's face was full of resentment as she kept complaining.
"Then what exactly have I been hating all this time? Why did you decide on your own to take all the blame? Why?!"
"It was me. I was the one who destroyed that kingdom. I was the one who forced all of you to leave me!"
"Shanks is an idiot! A huge idiot! A total moron! A jerk!"
"Uta, this wasn't your fault. There was never any sin in your singing."
Shanks held Uta's little hands, which were still swinging at him, and slowly spoke.
"Like I said before the war ended, no matter what happens, I'm still your family. Some things are far too heavy for a nine-year-old child to carry. We were always meant to be your support, just like Cain is now. Isn't that right?"
Just then—
Cain also split off part of his consciousness and slowly walked in.
"Uta, although I also want to beat Shanks up badly, he's right."
"The one who hurt everyone and destroyed Elegia was never you. You were affected by Tot Musica's score."
"These sins were never yours to carry. They belong to that Demon King. You don't need to blame yourself."
Little Uta shook her head, pulled free of Shanks' hand, and ran over to Cain in a huff.
She glanced back at Shanks, then raised her voice at Cain.
"Do you remember my confession from before?"
"Huh?"
Cain was visibly stunned.
Looking at little Uta, who barely reached his thigh, his heart was full of confusion.
'Is this really the time to bring that up? And is it because we're inside Uta World that she looks like this?'
At this moment, both of them were in their own appearances.
Cain was still in his young adult form, while Uta was… tiny.
Facing Uta's question, Cain nodded and answered, "Yeah, of course I remember. I accept."
In that instant, an intense sense of foreboding rose in Shanks' heart.
Sure enough, little Uta stood on tiptoe and gestured for Cain to crouch down.
Once Cain bent over, she raised her hands to his shoulders and took the initiative to kiss his cheek.
"NOT AGAIN—NO!"
The next second, Shanks jolted awake, cold sweat clinging to his forehead!
---------
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