Uta stared blankly at Yuuki, who stood within that snow-white, dreamlike world.
Her lips parted slightly as she murmured in a daze,
"What is this…? It's beautiful."
"Not all pirates are the same."
Yuuki spread his hands and spoke seriously.
"And to be honest… I actually dislike pirates too."
At those words—
"Hmph!"
The anger on Uta's face softened slightly.
Even so, she still maintained her sulky expression as she suddenly charged forward, golden spear in hand.
Bang!
A dull thud rang out.
It was as if Uta had slammed into an invisible, unyielding wall.
She came to an abrupt stop right at the boundary where Uta World and the Dream World met.
No matter how hard she pushed, she simply could not force herself into the dream realm.
Even so—
Bang! Bang! Bang!
"I hate pirates… I hate pirates…"
Uta continued to strike the unseen barrier with her golden shield and spear.
Again and again.
But as time passed, the force behind her attacks gradually weakened.
Tears welled up in her pale violet eyes and slipped from the corners, scattering through the air.
It was as though she was finally venting all the grievance and pain she had carried for so many years.
At this moment, Yuuki simply watched quietly.
He did not interrupt.
He waited for Uta to finish releasing the emotions in her heart.
However—
Yuuki slowly raised his head, his gaze falling upon the Uta World behind her, a realm filled with floating sheet music, dolls, and musical notes.
His brows furrowed slightly.
There was something wrong with this Uta World.
Originally, his plan had been to use the power of Dream Magic to forcibly overwrite Uta World and drag Uta back into reality.
But now—
the Dream World and Uta World had formed two completely separate domains, clearly divided like black and white.
It was not that Yuuki had stopped using Dream Magic to erode Uta World.
Rather—
he had been forced to stop.
Because Yuuki had already realized that if he forcibly overrode Uta World—
Uta would die.
He had always assumed that Uta World had been created by Uta using the power of the Sing-Sing Fruit.
But that was not the case at all.
No—
that wasn't entirely accurate either.
Uta was more like an administrator, not the creator of Uta World.
More precisely—
she had merely used the power of the Sing-Sing Fruit to log into Uta World.
If Yuuki forcefully assaulted the realm with Dream Magic, whether Uta World itself would collapse was uncertain.
But one thing was certain—
Uta's consciousness would collapse first.
Silver magical light flickered in Yuuki's eyes.
His magical perception, combined with Observation Haki, continuously poured into Uta World.
The world was enormous.
In terms of sheer size alone, it had already surpassed Elegia, the Island of Music.
Within this world, Uta could effortlessly recreate environments identical to reality.
She could even create physical objects born from her imagination.
Logically—
even if Uta possessed extraordinary mental strength, she should not have been capable of something like this so easily.
This was already astonishingly similar to the power of Dream Magic.
Previously, Yuuki had not paid it much mind.
But now that he examined it carefully, the problem became obvious.
Still—
it was not difficult to infer the truth.
The power system of the world of One Piece was, at its core, no more than Haki and Devil Fruits.
No matter how bizarre or incomprehensible something seemed, it could usually be traced back to a Devil Fruit.
Uta was obviously not the first user of the Sing-Sing Fruit.
That meant every previous user of this fruit had also been capable of entering Uta World.
In that case—
this "world" was very likely something unconsciously built up by successive generations of Sing-Sing Fruit users.
And as for Tot Musica—
there was an eighty percent chance that it too was a byproduct born from the influence of the Sing-Sing Fruit.
More than ten years ago—
the reason Tot Musica had awakened once more was likely not because of Uta's singing itself.
Rather—
it had been because of the power of the Sing-Sing Fruit.
Suddenly—
Yuuki came back to himself.
He realized his consciousness had already returned to reality.
The golden attire around Uta had vanished as well, and she had returned to normal.
Seeing Uta's swaying, exhausted body, Yuuki moved instantly.
In the blink of an eye, he appeared before her and caught her as she collapsed toward the sand.
Her soft waist fell naturally into his arms.
Her body was so light that it required almost no effort to support her.
"Are you alright, Uta?"
Yuuki looked at her weary face and asked gently.
Maintaining Uta World consumed both stamina and mental strength.
With her physical condition, she could never sustain it for long.
"I'm sorry."
"I shouldn't have taken my anger out on you."
Uta looked up at him.
Her pale violet eyes were filled with guilt and shame.
Yuuki smiled warmly.
"It's alright."
"We're friends, aren't we?"
A faint blush appeared on Uta's delicate cheeks.
Yet there was none of the shy hesitation one might expect from a young girl.
Her gaze did not waver in the slightest.
"Can I… hug you?"
Yuuki was momentarily taken aback.
Then he smiled.
"Of course."
A light, elegant fragrance drifted toward him.
Uta's pale arms wrapped around his waist.
Her cheek rested gently against his chest.
Her arms tightened slightly, as if afraid he might suddenly disappear.
For a while—
the entire beach fell silent.
Only the sound of the sea breeze and rolling waves remained.
Before long—
Yuuki felt the breathing against his chest become slow and even.
Lowering his head, he saw that Uta had already fallen asleep.
The warm expression on his face did not change.
He gently loosened the slender arms wrapped around his waist and carefully laid Uta down on the soft sand.
Throughout the entire process, not the slightest ripple of romantic feeling stirred within him.
At his current level of existence, he was fundamentally no longer the same kind of being as an ordinary human.
Simply being beautiful was not enough to particularly attract Yuuki.
Hm?
Yuuki suddenly noticed a crumpled ball of paper lying where Uta had previously been standing.
He extended his hand forward in a grasping motion.
The paper instantly flew into his palm.
Opening it, Yuuki's brow twitched slightly.
It was his bounty poster.
"So since you're already here, why keep hiding?"
Yuuki looked at the bounty poster in his hand and let out a faint laugh, speaking without even turning around.
Though his voice was soft, enhanced by magic power, it carried swiftly into the distance behind him.
Soon—
heavy footsteps sounded across the sand.
Shff… shff…
With a flick of Yuuki's fingers, the bounty poster shattered into pieces and scattered into the wind.
Only then did he turn around.
Standing not far behind him was a tall, gaunt middle-aged man.
He wore a visibly worn teal-green overcoat.
The top of his head was bald, with only withered white hair remaining around the lower sides.
His face was expressionless, and together with the narrow sunglasses he wore, he gave off a gloomy presence.
"Captain of the Magic Eye Pirates…"
"'Magician' Yuuki."
Gordon spoke in a hoarse voice.
Yuuki answered with a relaxed smile.
"Uta's adoptive father…"
"And the sole surviving resident of Elegia, the Island of Music—"
"Gordon."
The moment those words fell—
Gordon's voice turned instantly cold.
"So, you really did come here with some ulterior motive."
(End of Chapter)
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