If there was one place where pirates gathered in ridiculous numbers, Cain didn't even need to think about where to go.
Hachinosu.
With S-Bear accompanying them, the replicated power of Kuma's Paw-Paw Fruit made travel absurdly fast. Cain, Uta, and the others simply rode on Bella while S-Bear propelled them forward, allowing them to reach Hachinosu tens of thousands of times faster than they ever could have by ordinary sailing.
The moment Cain set foot on the island, he greeted everyone with Conqueror's Haki.
An invisible shockwave erupted outward from him, black-and-red lightning crackling through the air as pirates collapsed across a huge section of the island.
Then Cain deliberately went after the ones who had remained standing.
After all, anyone strong enough to withstand his Conqueror's Haki was almost certainly worth more money.
Cain swept his weapon through the crowd, blasting groups of pirates away at once and leaving them too badly injured to stand. Bella followed right behind him, freezing one target after another into solid blocks of ice.
S-Bear then stepped forward and casually slapped each frozen pirate away with the Paw-Paw Fruit.
To keep anyone from realizing he was a Seraphim, Bella had also covered S-Bear in Mirage, disguising his appearance.
Uta, meanwhile, sat quietly off to the side with her legs swinging, perfectly content to watch the show.
The disturbance spread across Hachinosu almost immediately.
Once the surrounding pirates had been cleared out, Uta looked around the island and couldn't help marveling at the sight.
"I still can't believe Golden Lion actually lifted this entire island this high. It's practically a Sky Island now!"
Cain looked over the empty stretch of ground they had just created and nodded.
"Well, he was one of the monsters from Roger's era. This island probably has some kind of special—"
He stopped halfway through the sentence.
Something suddenly clicked in his head.
Cain straightened.
"Wait."
Then his eyes widened.
"Ah! Damn it, I almost forgot!"
"There's a gold mine on this island!"
That was one of the reasons Rocks had occupied Hachinosu in the first place.
So why the hell was Cain going through all this trouble capturing pirates, hauling them back, and collecting their bounties from the Marines?
Was any of that really necessary?
He could just dig up a few chunks of gold and call it a day.
Still, since they were already here, there was no harm in capturing as many pirates as possible.
He could consider it his contribution to making the seas a slightly better place.
Just as that thought crossed his mind, two flying sword slashes tore through the air without warning.
Bella instantly moved in front of Uta.
But the attacks weren't aimed at them.
They were coming straight for Cain.
Cain casually knocked both slashes aside, gave Uta a reassuring look, then finally saw who had attacked.
Golden Lion Shiki.
He had rushed over the moment he heard about the commotion, arriving far faster than Blackbeard and his crew.
And when he saw Cain, there wasn't even a trace of anger about the intrusion.
Instead, Shiki looked delighted.
"So it's you causing trouble on my island!"
He flew straight toward Cain, grinning excitedly.
"Cain! You finally came to deliver my swords, huh?!"
"I've been waiting so damn long I was starting to lose patience!"
Cain's heart immediately sank.
'Oh, shit.'
He had almost completely forgotten about that.
Over the past year, he had been so busy traveling with Uta that he hadn't done a damn thing about forging Shiki's promised swords.
And Cain had made that promise to Shanks.
If Shiki got angry enough over this to complain to his future father-in-law and somehow caused trouble at Cain and Uta's eventual wedding…
No.
Absolutely not.
Cain could never admit he had forgotten.
Keeping his expression completely calm, he began rummaging through the pouch at his waist while desperately trying to think of something convincing.
After a few seconds, Cain seemed to make a decision.
With a solemn expression, he placed two objects into Shiki's outstretched hand.
Shiki looked down.
Then froze.
Resting in his palm were two absurdly short objects.
Strictly speaking, they consisted of nothing more than guards and hilts.
That was it.
Where were the blades?
Even if these were supposed to be daggers, this was ridiculous.
The anticipation on Shiki's face slowly stiffened, cracked, and finally collapsed into disbelief.
He somehow restrained himself long enough to hear Cain's explanation.
"I waited all this time…"
Shiki stared at his hands.
"…and you brought me two sword handles?"
Cain blinked innocently.
"They're not sword handles."
"They're swords."
Shiki's eyebrows twisted together.
His voice became dangerous.
"Swords?"
"What kind of swords?"
Cain immediately realized he had better explain before things became fatal.
He reached over and pressed a small, inconspicuous button on one of the hilts.
Buzz.
Both weapons activated.
From one hilt, a solid purple beam suddenly extended outward with a humming sound, forming a brilliant energy blade.
The other one…
A pathetic little sliver of pale light flickered weakly from its tip.
It wasn't even as long as a finger.
Beside the impressive purple blade, it looked unbelievably miserable.
Cain immediately launched into his sales pitch before Shiki could react.
"This is cutting-edge Marine technology I secretly got my hands on!"
'From Egghead's garbage dump.'
"It even incorporates Kizaru's laser technology!"
He hesitated slightly.
"There's just one tiny side effect."
Shiki narrowed his eyes.
"What?"
"…It might attract bugs."
The words had barely left Cain's mouth when a swarm of moths and mosquitoes buzzed toward Shiki as though summoned.
Within seconds, they had completely surrounded him.
Silence.
Absolute silence.
Shiki's expression went through an astonishing series of changes.
Expectation.
Confusion.
Disbelief.
Then—
pure rage.
A vein bulged violently across his forehead as his entire face turned red.
"I WAITED THIS LONG…"
"AND THIS IS THE GARBAGE YOU BROUGHT ME?!"
Shiki roared.
"GO TO HELL!!!"
Cain reacted immediately.
The instant Shiki's expression changed, he instinctively raised his guard.
Cain knew perfectly well that he was the one who had screwed up here.
So, if possible, he would rather not beat up the old man over it.
Unfortunately—
Shiki had no intention of fighting fair.
He suddenly threw an enormous net over Cain.
It wrapped around him from head to toe.
Seastone.
Against an ordinary Devil Fruit user, the net would have left them completely helpless.
Cain could still break free, but even for him it would take a few seconds.
And those few seconds were enough.
Cain tried to activate Observation Haki and look ahead—
too late.
Shiki moved.
But instead of attacking Cain directly, he chose something far more terrifying.
Still smiling with fury, Golden Lion placed one hand against the ground.
The entirety of Hachinosu trembled.
Then—
Shiki manipulated the island itself.
The enormous landmass floating ten thousand meters above the sea suddenly lost altitude.
Hachinosu plummeted.
Everyone on the island froze in shock.
For one horrifying instant, gravity seemed to vanish beneath their feet.
Bodies floated upward.
Then the falling island dragged everything with it, twisting stomachs and crushing organs under the violent change in momentum.
Before most people could even scream—
Hachinosu reached the surface of the sea.
And just before impact—
Shiki yanked it upward again.
The sudden acceleration smashed everyone against the ground so hard they could barely move.
Then the island dropped again.
And rose.
And dropped.
And rose.
Again and again.
Golden Lion had turned the entirety of Hachinosu into a tool for venting his anger.
The island repeatedly plunged between ten thousand meters in the sky and the ocean surface below like some gigantic death-defying bungee ride.
This was one of Shiki's favorite methods of threatening Blackbeard.
After all, Avalo Pizarro's Island-Island Fruit allowed Hachinosu to withstand an absurd amount of abuse without simply falling apart.
Blackbeard's crew hated this trick more than almost anything else.
Which, naturally, only encouraged Shiki to use it more often.
And since these insane free-fall sessions almost always happened because Blackbeard had somehow pissed Shiki off, most of Hachinosu's pirates had gradually chosen to side with Golden Lion instead.
Nobody wanted to challenge the man who could turn their entire home into a vertical amusement ride whenever he got annoyed.
And now—
Shiki was using that same technique on Cain.
Screams echoed across the island.
Some pirates desperately clung to nearby rocks, only to be ripped away by inertia during the next violent shift.
Others grabbed one another and worked together to keep themselves from being thrown off entirely.
At this point, the people still living on Hachinosu fell into two categories.
Those who had already learned how to survive Shiki's madness—
and those who hadn't, because anyone in the second category had either fled the island long ago or already been flung into the sea.
On the opposite side of Hachinosu, Blackbeard's crew was having an absolutely miserable time.
These terrifying pirates, feared across the seas, could barely even stay upright.
"What the hell is that old bastard doing now?!"
Teach repeatedly slammed into the ground with every change in momentum.
His already ugly face quickly swelled until it looked like a pig's.
"Forget why he's doing it! Just wait until he calms down, Captain!"
Burgess tried to anchor himself through brute strength.
The next upward acceleration ripped both him and the massive boulder he was holding straight into the air.
"Pizarro! Get outside and figure out what's happening!"
"Sanjuan Wolf fell off again!"
"NOT AGAIN!!!"
…
At the center of the chaos, Golden Lion Shiki floated proudly in the sky.
Below him, the entire island danced according to his will.
He looked down at the devastation with his anger still nowhere near extinguished.
Fortunately, Uta had Bella and S-Bear protecting her. The moment Hachinosu first dropped, they had already retreated into the air beyond the island's edge and were now hovering at a safe distance while watching everything unfold.
Cain was less fortunate.
He had only just finished breaking free of the Seastone net when the sudden shift in gravity dragged him downward.
Then he was hurled upward.
Then down again.
Then up.
He endured the full Hachinosu Death Bungee experience before finally managing to activate his Devil Fruit ability.
Flame Clouds formed beneath him.
Cain immediately escaped the island's effective range and hovered safely in the sky.
His hair and clothes were a complete mess.
He stared at Shiki.
Then sighed.
"…I should've just fought him properly."