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Jin let the chaos play out a moment longer, then turned to Uta instead.
She'd been giggling at first, but when she saw him watching her, she snapped upright, heart racing.
"Um…" she started.
Jin cut her off.
"Let me guess," he said. "That incident in the paper. Shanks suddenly destroying Elegia."
Uta froze.
Gordon's face tightened, guilt surfacing.
"After that," Jin said, "there was no more trace of you on Shanks' ship.
"I know that red-haired idiot. Whatever else he is, he's not the type to just randomly level a country. He's a drifter. If someone pisses him off, he smacks them around a bit and calls it a day.
"Which means…"
Jin tapped his cigarette against the ashtray.
"It was that thing inside the Sing-Sing Fruit that did it, wasn't it?"
"…You knew!" Uta stared.
Jin shrugged.
"I'm not stupid. If you want to stay, then stay. I've got bowls and chopsticks to spare."
He leaned back.
"Live here. Sing with Brook. Hold concerts. Whatever you want."
"Really?" Uta shot to her feet, eyes sparkling.
Jin snorted.
"You think I'd lie to a kid?"
Her smile trembled.
"Just don't let that thing inside you run wild again," he added. "Learn to control it. If it tries to take over, shut it down."
Uta nodded so hard her hair-buns bounced.
"I will! I don't… I don't ever want to go through that again."
After Elegia, after Shanks left her behind, she'd wandered with Gordon from place to place, never quite belonging anywhere.
Then she saw a picture of Brook in a newspaper.
Soul King.
A man whose music could move people's very souls.
Gordon had brought her here, chasing that distant dream.
They'd nearly been captured by slavers more than once. Each time, luck and stubbornness dragged them through.
By some miracle, they'd made it to Sabaody Archipelago.
They'd found Brook just as he was about to perform.
When he heard their story, the skeleton had quietly felt something inside him twist.
All his old crewmates were gone.
He knew better than anyone what it meant to be truly, bone-deep alone.
So he'd agreed, just like that.
"Let's sing together."
He'd brought Uta and Gordon here. When they weren't practicing, they stayed with Stella.
The first joint concert had exploded.
Uta's sweet voice, boosted by the Sing-Sing Fruit, and Brook's showmanship made for a performance that left audiences dazed.
She'd become a star almost overnight.
Which, of course, attracted all sorts of people.
People who looked at the cute, talented little girl on stage and only saw numbers.
One hundred million Berries on the black market for a live, healthy, famous singing slave.
They'd prepared an ambush, waited for her to leave rehearsal.
When they made their move…
They died.
Their bodies went into the sea, piece by piece.
Shortly after, a rumor spread across the grove:
"The little singer on Sabaody? She's under White Ghost's protection.
Think very carefully before you reach for her."
Most of the human traffickers went quiet.
But there were always a few who thought they could be clever—hit once, vanish with the payout, and never be caught.
Now that Arakaki Jin was back…
They were about to find out just how wrong they were.
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