The audience had been shrouded in darkness and restless noise, but the instant the first note rang out, the volume rapidly fell until the entire venue went silent.
Every conversation stopped.
Tens of thousands of people turned their attention toward the stage and listened.
"The New Genesis is the future before our eyes.
If we can change everything in this world…
If we can change it all."
Spotlights converged from every direction, gathering at the center of the stage.
A vast wave of white, icy mist poured outward, blocking the view of the front rows.
Within the fog, a hazy silhouette gradually came into focus.
"Sweep away everything that stands in our path,
Everything we hate.
Let us transform alongside this world.
Music is the magic you awaken."
The song continued.
Uta sat atop Bella, the ice cloud carrying her vertically into the air.
The mechanical roof above the venue slid apart to either side, revealing the open sky.
Colored lights shifted constantly with the rhythm, their beams darting rapidly through the air in time with the music.
The moment Uta leaped from Bella onto the stage, a deafening cheer erupted from the audience.
She spread her arms and moved with the beat, each step landing precisely between the notes.
"Close your eyes, and the future will open before you.
The ending will never come.
That is why I sing this song."
Once the roof had fully opened, Cain burst from the heart of the icy fog in the form of a massive pink dragon.
He circled through the sky, constantly adjusting the curve of his body so that every motion matched the rhythm of Uta's performance.
"Do you wanna play?
The game of reality is filled with danger.
The melody feels like an adventure.
I don't want to accept it.
I can't turn back.
I only want to forget.
So let me remain inside this dream.
I wanna be free."
A white staircase formed beneath Uta's feet, constructed entirely from musical energy.
She climbed toward the highest point, then threw herself into the air.
Bella swept beneath her and caught her, carrying her safely as they hovered above the stage.
Uta spread her arms while spinning, and the pink dragon circled around her.
Cain's flight path intertwined with the lights and shadows cast across the stage.
"I've already seen it.
The New Genesis stretches beyond the edge of the world.
Come, raise the sails.
Let us set out together for a new world."
The volume and emotion of Uta's voice continued to rise, while her movements grew larger and faster.
"The New Genesis is the future before our eyes.
If we can change everything in this world…
If we can change it all.
May this endless music reach every distant corner."
The song entered its climax.
Uta leaped once again and landed perfectly atop Cain's head.
Cain carried her over half of the audience area.
Uta waved her right arm in greeting, while Bella followed behind at a fixed distance, scattering icy snowflakes through the air and creating a breathtaking scene.
"I will no longer chase my dreams blindly,
Because you once told me, 'Trust me.'
Erase everything unnecessary and useless.
Let us cross reality in spectacular fashion."
Uta turned one hundred and eighty degrees atop the dragon's head and pointed forward, her finger aligning perfectly with the direction of Cain's dive.
Every leap and movement struck the beat exactly.
"The music begins now.
Rise higher and higher.
Close your eyes, and let us escape together.
Let me show you something more beautiful than the world we know,
As long as we keep singing this song."
"Do you wanna play?
The game of reality is filled with danger.
Fate feels like an adventure.
I don't want to accept it.
I can't turn back.
I only want to forget.
So let me remain inside this dream.
I wanna be free."
After circling the entire audience once, Uta returned to the stage and spun upon landing.
In time with the deep bass of the accompaniment, Cain completed a full three-hundred-and-sixty-degree loop in the sky.
Throughout the entire performance, the positions of girl, cloud, and dragon remained perfectly coordinated.
"I've already seen it.
The New Genesis stretches beyond the edge of the world.
Come, raise the sails.
Let us set out together for a new world."
Uta pointed toward the horizon, softening her voice.
Cain's movements also settled, and the dragon quietly circled behind her as part of the stage's backdrop.
"I want to believe in the future before my eyes.
If we can change everything in this world…
If we can change it all.
May this endless music reach every distant corner."
During the final melody, Uta stretched both arms outward while Bella slowly circled around her.
"Let me carry you into a dream.
Into a dream.
The New Genesis is coming.
The New Genesis is here."
The sight of a human and a dragon performing together stunned every person in attendance from the moment it began.
The song ended on its final note.
Uta steadied her breathing, faced the tens of thousands of spectators seated around the circular stands, and waved her right arm.
"Everyone! It's Uta!"
Her voice traveled through the sound system and reached every corner of the island.
…
The New World, Totto Land.
Whole Cake Island.
"Mamamama! As expected of Red-Hair's daughter!"
Big Mom laughed as she watched Uta's performance through a Visual Den Den Mushi.
"If I remember correctly, her ability activates through her singing, doesn't it?"
"That's right," Perospero replied with a frown. "And according to Katakuri, she can even bring things from her imagination into reality."
"The more I think about it, the more terrifying it sounds. If we ever fought her seriously, she would be extremely troublesome."
"But they're already on our side, aren't they?" Katakuri replied calmly.
Perospero scoffed.
"That's where you're wrong, Katakuri."
"Even though Cain has joined our crew, his relationship with Uta means this situation is merely a temporary balance and compromise between us and the other two Emperor crews."
"Even so," Katakuri answered firmly, "Cain is still one of us."
While the two brothers argued, Zeus, Prometheus, and even Napoleon gathered around Big Mom, all of them curious about one important question.
"Mama, who's that cloud over there?" Zeus asked, bobbing through the air.
"Exactly. We've never seen her before," Prometheus added.
"Hahaha! Looks like you've got no chance, Prometheus!" Napoleon teased.
With Perospero and Katakuri arguing below and her three greatest Homies constantly questioning her, Big Mom merely stared at Bella on the screen with great interest.
"Mamamama! Katakuri, Perospero, stop arguing. And Zeus, Prometheus, Napoleon—don't ask so many questions!"
"Cain joining several different forces may indeed be the result of a compromise, but Katakuri is right about one thing."
"He will always be part of our family. There's no escaping that!"
A sinister grin spread across Big Mom's face.
Just as her Homies had noticed earlier, she had already sensed something within Cain that felt similar to her own power.
"And besides, doesn't that ice cloud standing beside them serve as proof that they represent the Big Mom Pirates?"
Previously, Cain's ties to both Red-Hair and the Beasts Pirates had left Big Mom feeling somewhat dissatisfied.
Uta was Red-Hair's daughter, while Cain himself wielded the power of the Fish-Fish Fruit.
No matter how she looked at it, he seemed more closely aligned with those two factions.
But now that a Homie stood beside him, that strange imbalance had instantly been corrected.
Big Mom found the sight immensely satisfying.
She did not care where Bella had come from.
After all, plenty of Homies had been created without Big Mom personally making them.
The black, shadow-like soul incarnations responsible for collecting the lifespans of Totto Land's residents could also create Homies.
They were simply too low-ranking to be useful in combat.
Big Mom assumed Bella was merely another low-level Homie.
She had no idea that Bella's potential far exceeded the three ornaments floating around her now.
"Mamamama! I don't know where Cain picked up that little cloud, but a Homie of that level isn't worthy of representing the entire Big Mom Pirates!"
"The next time Cain visits, I'll have to replace her with something more respectable."
Once Zeus, Prometheus, and Napoleon heard that Bella had not been created from Mama's own soul, they instantly lost interest in her.
The difference in rank seemed far too great.
What none of them knew was that, in the future, Bella would make all three of them suffer terribly!