"Uta, she's…!"
Shanks was completely at a loss.
The Uta standing before him had changed so much that she almost seemed like a different person.
Gone was the familiar singer's image she usually carried.
Right now, she looked every inch a hardened female warrior.
No flowing dress.
Just fitted jeans, a plain white short-sleeved shirt, and the enormous golden sword she had created with the Sing-Sing Fruit gripped tightly in her hands.
Dust and grime covered her clothes, making it obvious she had already been through a fight.
But what truly shocked Shanks was what lay scattered around her.
His officers.
Men whose bounties routinely reached into the hundreds of millions.
And Uta had put nearly all of them down with frightening ease.
Cain took one look at the scene, immediately placed a hand on Shanks' back, and shoved him forward.
"You'll understand everything once you experience it yourself."
"Uta's still pissed off right now anyway."
He spoke with complete calm.
"Perfect chance for you to give her a few pointers on swordsmanship."
The moment Uta saw Shanks stepping forward, her expression sharpened.
She had already been carrying a mountain of rage over that ridiculous marriage tournament and desperately needed something to vent it on.
Now a perfectly good punching bag had delivered himself to her.
Uta raised the golden sword and brought it straight down.
Shanks didn't dodge.
Instead, he lifted Gryphon and blocked head-on.
The instant the blades met—
his arm jolted.
Uta hadn't sung a single note.
Yet a melody had somehow traveled directly into his head.
Shanks' eyes immediately closed.
Thump.
He fell flat on the ground.
Cain looked down at him, then leisurely walked over.
"Bone conduction combined with Uta's ridiculous 'I think it should work, therefore it works' power."
He shrugged.
"Even I wouldn't dare take that directly without Haki protecting me."
…
Once Uta released her ability and everyone returned from the Uta World, the Red Hair Pirates finally learned why she had been so furious.
Big Mom was preparing an enormous banquet.
Cain didn't know exactly what the event was supposed to celebrate, but he was certain it wasn't going to be anything ordinary.
If Linlin wanted to hold something on that scale, then she needed a spectacle large enough to attract attention from every sea.
And so—
En-chan, the "daughter" who had risen to fame alongside Uta, became the perfect centerpiece.
How could Uta possibly tolerate that?
Cain was En-chan.
And yet photographs of En-chan were being printed all over newspapers while the real Cain stood right here.
Cain knew immediately that the woman in the pictures wasn't him.
Once he noticed several familiar details, the answer became obvious.
Brûlée had most likely used her Mirror-Mirror Fruit to create a fake projection.
That was what Cain had meant when he called the whole situation "a mess we left behind."
After all, he really had spent some time in Totto Land under the identity of En-chan.
There was nothing strange about Brûlée having reflected that appearance before.
Katakuri had even contacted them to explain.
According to him, they only wanted to borrow En-chan's identity for something important.
They had no intention of bothering Cain or Uta personally.
Unfortunately—
Uta was still furious.
Creating a fake En-chan was already bad enough.
But using that identity to draw the entire world's attention?
Uta had held enough concerts to know exactly how many people were obsessed with En-chan.
And now all those people wanted to compete for the right to marry her?
They were trying to steal Cain from her.
Absolutely not.
There was no chance Uta would ever let Big Mom casually marry En-chan—meaning Cain—to someone else.
If anyone was going to marry En-chan—
it would be Uta.
Everything belonging to Cain belonged to her.
Even a single strand of his hair was non-negotiable.
So after talking with Katakuri for a while, Uta naturally arrived at her decision.
She was going to—
steal the bride.
There was one complication.
To keep Uta's ability from being exposed too early, she couldn't simply sing during the tournament.
So Cain had designed something specifically for her.
Using the principles of bone conduction combined with Uta's almost absurd ability to make things work simply because she believed they should, Cain devised a sword capable of producing vibration-based sound and connecting directly to the Uta World.
Every song carried by the sword came from Uta inside the Uta World.
All she needed to do was make contact with an opponent's weapon or body.
The tiny vibrations produced on impact would send the melody directly into their skull.
Even in a vacuum, where ordinary sound had no medium through which to travel, the sword could still drag someone into the Uta World.
And it did so without revealing Uta's true identity or ability.
Perhaps because Uta's strange intuitive power played such a large role, once Cain explained the rough principle to her, she simply created the weapon.
Its transmission efficiency was somehow better than any bone-conduction device Cain had used in his previous life.
The only real weakness was against enormous targets such as giants.
With bodies that large, the effect weakened noticeably.
…
That was the explanation Uta gave the Red Hair Pirates.
But it was only the surface reason.
There was another reason beneath it.
Over the past year, besides holding concerts across the seas, Cain and Uta had spent their free time visiting other members of the Straw Hat Pirates.
That was something they had agreed to do together.
Cain wanted to use the opportunity to become closer to his crewmates, especially since he had missed many of their training locations.
Uta, meanwhile…
had been conducting a thorough investigation.
She had compiled an entire notebook analyzing each Straw Hat's personality, strengths, weaknesses, and habits.
For the plan she had in mind later, she had done her homework very, very carefully.
Unfortunately, just when her Straw Hat research had finally reached a satisfying point—
news of En-chan's marriage tournament exploded across the world.
That only deepened the shadow already growing inside Uta.
She already hated sharing Cain with anyone.
How could she possibly tolerate people fighting over En-chan, especially after that identity had become so intimately tied to memories between the two of them?
At one point, Uta genuinely suggested that she and Cain simply destroy Totto Land.
Fortunately, Cain stopped her and spent a long time talking her down.
After all, aside from Big Mom and a few Homies, most of the people in Totto Land had actually treated Cain and Uta very well.
And if Cain really helped destroy the country, it would damage his reputation enormously.
To the outside world, he was still considered part of the Charlotte family.
If he suddenly annihilated Totto Land, rumors would spread everywhere.
Besides, the announcement about En-chan's marriage tournament had already been released.
There was no taking it back now.
So instead—
Uta settled on stealing the bride.
…
"Wait."
Shanks stared at her.
"Uta, you mean…"
"You're planning to turn into a man and enter the tournament?"
Behind him, the rest of the crew looked equally stunned.
"Yeah."
Uta nodded as though this were perfectly reasonable.
"Cain will go to Totto Land too."
"He'll secretly replace the fake En-chan, then sit in the audience."
"I'll defeat every challenger."
Her face gradually turned red.
She cupped her cheeks with both hands.
"And then…"
A dreamy smile spread across her face.
"I can announce to the entire world that En-chan is my woman!"
The Red Hair Pirates immediately became interested.
They dragged Uta aside and began enthusiastically discussing the whole En-chan situation with her.
Hongo gave an awkward cough, then quietly handed Uta several packets of suspiciously strong medicine together with an instruction sheet.
Yasopp, meanwhile, actually produced several Seastone bullets he had brought back from Wano.
Apparently, his brilliant suggestion was that En-chan—Cain—could first be weakened with Seastone and then…
well.
The rest of the crew's expressions made their intentions painfully obvious.
These bastards might still have mixed feelings about Cain getting together with Uta.
But the idea of male Uta winning En-chan in a marriage tournament?
Apparently they found that extremely entertaining.
"Hey!"
Cain's voice suddenly came from behind them.
"Enough already! I'm standing right here!"
He had clearly heard words like medicine and Seastone floating through the conversation.
Then Cain turned his head—
and saw Shanks standing nearby desperately trying not to laugh.
The barely concealed look in his eyes told Cain everything.
Cain's expression darkened.
"So you're thinking the same thing too, huh, Shanks?!"
"N-No!"
Shanks immediately waved his hand.
"Absolutely not!"
Unfortunately, the completely broken expression on his face had already betrayed him.
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