Three days later, at the concert venue in the East Blue.
Eighteen hours remained before the wedding officially began.
"Oh my… I didn't expect them to hold the wedding somewhere like this."
The moment Shakky and Rayleigh stepped into the venue, even they were taken aback by the sheer scale of the enormous stage.
"This really is something you don't see every day," Rayleigh agreed. "Now I'm even more curious about tomorrow's wedding…"
His voice suddenly trailed off.
His eyes had landed on three objects arranged side by side in the center of the stage.
Silence.
"This place isn't far from the Goa Kingdom. It was originally built as a large concert venue."
Cain walked in behind them and explained,
"Apparently Shanks bought the entire place outright. No idea what connections he used to pull that off."
"The stage was originally supposed to be dismantled once the concert ended, but Uta decided to have it redecorated for Shanks' wedding instead."
"Since we can't let outsiders know what's happening, most of the work had to be handled by people from the village."
He turned toward Rayleigh and the others.
"Everyone can stay here tonight. There are plenty of rooms."
"Most of the villagers are helping cover for us too."
"Once Uta brings Big Sis Makino over tonight, we'll get Shanks drunk, and then—"
"PFFT—!!!"
Cain's eyes suddenly bulged.
He froze as though lightning had struck him.
"What the hell is THAT?!"
Three enormous framed photographs were standing in the middle of the stage.
Luffy's bounty poster.
Ace's bounty poster.
And beside them—
Roger.
All three had been enlarged, framed neatly, and displayed with great ceremony.
Shakky touched her cheek, her voice carrying a faint trace of sadness.
"Did something happen to Ace and Luffy while we were away?"
It was difficult to blame her for reaching that conclusion.
The photographs alone might have been acceptable.
Even putting them in frames could perhaps be explained away.
But why was Roger's portrait sitting beside them?
And worse—
Why was there a plate of fruit placed in front of the pictures?!
It looked exactly like a memorial altar.
Koala, who had been helping decorate the venue, walked over with a helpless expression.
"Well, none of the people we originally planned to bring ended up coming."
"So this was supposed to stand in for Luffy and Ace."
Cain clutched his head and wiped away cold sweat.
He glanced at the three framed portraits again.
"…There really isn't a single trace of 'living person' energy coming from this setup."
"Agreed."
Rayleigh folded his arms and nodded solemnly.
"Almost anything else would've been less terrifying."
"I actually know an excellent wax sculptor," Shakky added. "His work is so realistic you can barely tell the difference."
"Unfortunately, he's in the New World. There's no way we could bring him here in time."
"That won't be a problem."
Koala smiled.
"We already found a solution."
Right on cue, Sabo walked in with Crocus.
"Yeah. Those pictures just haven't been removed yet."
"The things we actually plan to use are already finished."
"I guarantee everyone's going to be surprised."
Rayleigh immediately walked over to greet Crocus.
Cain, meanwhile, hurried toward Sabo, threw an arm around his shoulders, and sighed.
"You'd better make sure it's a good surprise, Sabo."
He jerked his chin toward the three portraits that looked suspiciously like funeral displays.
Well…
Roger's one actually was a memorial portrait.
"Relax."
Sabo laughed and patted Cain on the head.
"Back when we were on the sky island, I saw a few devices invented by Dr. Vegapunk—or rather, Lilith."
"One of them can shape special materials into predetermined forms according to a preset design."
Cain blinked.
Then realization struck.
'Isn't that basically 3D printing?'
"So I asked Dr. Lilith for a favor and had her rush a few things for us."
Sabo continued,
"Then we used Kuma's ability to transport them here."
"We now have life-sized statues of Luffy, Ace, and Pirate King Roger sitting in storage."
"So these pictures can finally come down."
Cain's eyes lit up.
"As expected of you, Sabo. You're ridiculously reliable."
"It was nothing."
Sabo smiled.
Then he leaned closer to Cain and lowered his voice.
"Oh, right."
"Uta didn't want bounty hunter Kuzan getting involved, and she didn't want him noticing anything strange either."
"So she had another statue made using the same technology and asked Kuma to place it on a certain island."
"We used that as bait to send Kuzan away."
"Judging by the timing, he should already have reached the island and found the little 'surprise' we prepared for him."
Cain's expression immediately became strange.
…
At that exact moment, on an unnamed deserted island somewhere in the East Blue…
Kuzan had spent three full days and nights pedaling his bicycle before finally reaching the uninhabited island.
"So this is the place Uta mentioned…"
He was breathing heavily as he recalled what Uta had told him.
'Apparently she secretly overheard it from Red-Hair.'
'Roger once visited this island, and something extremely important to him is supposedly hidden here.'
'If that information is true, then whatever it is must have held enormous significance to Roger himself.'
'If something like that became public, it could cause an uproar throughout the pirate world.'
'I need to find it before anyone else does.'
'She said it was hidden in the middle of a lake.'
Kuzan searched all across the island.
Eventually, he found the lake.
Something stood in the very center.
He raised one hand and froze the surface before calmly walking across.
Then—
He stopped.
Standing in the middle of the lake was a statue of Gol D. Roger.
The Pirate King was digging one finger deep into his nostril while staring directly toward Kuzan.
Beside the statue was an engraved plaque.
Roger in Deep Thought.
That bold, carefree grin somehow looked even more ridiculous while the man was picking his nose.
Kuzan stared at the statue.
The statue stared back.
"…This thing was really important to Roger?"
Silence.
One man.
One statue.
Four eyes.
Dead silence.
…
"PUHAHAHAHAHAHA!"
Back at the wedding venue, Rayleigh was laughing so hard that tears had gathered in his eyes.
"Little Uta really hasn't changed!"
"She actually came up with something like that just to lure that Marine—"
He paused.
"Right, former Admiral—away from here?"
"Why didn't any of us old guys ever think of something like this?"
Cain turned toward Sabo with a speechless expression.
All right.
Apparently Sabo had contributed quite a bit to this scheme too.
After all, anything teleported by Kuma's Paw-Paw Fruit would leave behind the imprint of a paw.
So Sabo had helped pick the exact location and deliberately chosen the middle of a lake, allowing the water to conceal any marks.
He had even suggested weathering the statue before transport.
A little artificial erosion.
A bit of moss.
Anything that would make it look older and prevent Kuzan from becoming suspicious too quickly.
All of that had been Sabo's idea.
Sabo laughed awkwardly and immediately changed the subject.
"You probably haven't seen the latest arrangement of the venue yet."
"I'll show everyone around."
"And since this is a wedding, we obviously can't dress the way we normally do."
"We need to get formal clothes tailored for everyone as quickly as possible."
Cain nodded and started walking with the others.
Then he suddenly remembered something.
"Where did Buggy go?"
"He was still here when we got off the boat."
"Oh, Little Buggy?"
Shakky smiled.
"I asked him to go out."
"He grew up with Shanks, after all."
"He couldn't possibly attend empty-handed."
"So, as one of his elders, I ordered him to buy Shanks a wedding present."
"I even made sure to tell him exactly which bottle of alcohol Shanks likes."
"That's right."
Rayleigh sighed.
"We old folks don't want to see those two remain at odds forever either."
"Hopefully Buggy understands what we're trying to do for them."
As if summoned by his name, Buggy came jogging back moments later and handed the bottle he had purchased to Shakky.
Cain immediately narrowed his eyes at it.
He would not put it past Buggy to secretly add something unpleasant and leave Shanks with a stomachache on the day of the wedding.
That would be a disaster.
But Buggy was not nearly that petty.
When it came to requests from the old seniors he genuinely respected, he was surprisingly obedient.
Or rather—
his respect for them was sincere.
They told him to buy alcohol.
So he bought the alcohol.
Even if it was for Shanks, Buggy would never tamper with it.
That was Buggy's own code.
Shakky carefully inspected the bottle.
Once she confirmed that it was authentic and the seal had not been touched, she nodded in satisfaction.
Cain finally noticed the name printed on the label.
Rokujūnana Sake, No. 5.
He paused.
A strange sense of nostalgia suddenly surfaced.
That particular bottle had once appeared in a scene where Shanks was drinking.
Back in Cain's previous life, some fans had even analyzed the reference.
There really had been a sake named Rokujūnana in the real world.
And the brewery that produced it was called—
Makino Shuzō.
Makino.
Written and pronounced exactly like Makino's name.
The alcohol Shanks drank…
Makino…
Makino…
Cain could only shake his head.
What an incredible coincidence.