After saying their final goodbyes to Cain and Uta, Kuma used the Paw-Paw Fruit to leave Egghead with Bonney.
Cain and the others were about ready to head for their next destination as well.
"You're leaving already?" Vegapunk asked.
"Of course. You gave me this thing because you wanted me to get moving, didn't you?"
Cain raised his left wrist, showing off the bracelet Vegapunk had made for him. After adjusting the Pyrobloin concentration to a level that still allowed him to use his abilities normally, he gave the old scientist a casual wave.
Uta was considerably less gentle.
She grabbed Vegapunk's exposed apple-shaped head with both hands and squeezed until it creaked.
"Exactly! Ever since I found out your Satellite Lilith played a trick on Cain, I've been dying to leave so I can track her down and tear her apart!"
Cold sweat poured down Vegapunk's face.
"That was Lilith! It had nothing to do with me! But please don't actually tear her apart. She really can be dismantled. Do you want me to tell you the proper technique?"
"Oh, relax. I'm kidding."
Uta released him with a cheerful laugh.
Cain smiled faintly.
"No need to take it that seriously. You said you needed combat data, right? I imagine you'll be getting plenty of that soon enough."
He deliberately left it there and simply waved goodbye.
Flame Clouds gathered beneath the Going Merry, lifting the ship into the air as Cain guided it away from Punk Records.
Vegapunk remained on the platform, watching them disappear into the distance before letting out a long sigh.
"Why did they have to leave so quickly? I still hadn't explained what happened with Bella."
Shaking his head, he pulled a Den Den Mushi from his pocket and dialed a number.
"Mm. I met him."
Vegapunk listened for a moment.
"It looks like his existence has helped you quite a lot… Yes. That's good."
Whatever came from the other end made him fall silent briefly.
Then he asked,
"But are you really sure you don't want to explain any of it to him?"
Another pause.
"…All right."
Elsewhere, inside the chamber where the Seraphim were stored, S-Bear stood alone before his sleeping companions.
Only the faint hum of machinery disturbed the silence.
He lowered his gaze to his palm, then slowly looked across the other Seraphim—each bearing the appearance of one of the former Warlords.
After standing there for a while, S-Bear took out the Den Den Mushi he carried with him.
Then he stared at it in thought.
…
The Going Merry sailed steadily across the sea, its helm adjusting direction all by itself even though nobody stood behind it.
Inside one of the cabins, however, the atmosphere still carried the lingering warmth of what Cain and Uta had been doing earlier.
"Ahem! Cain, this is your fault."
Uta threw her used toothbrush into the trash, rinsed her mouth from a cup, and wiped the corner of her lips with the back of her hand. Pulling the blanket up over her chest, she turned and glared accusingly at Cain beside her.
"Now my throat hurts, and I have to brush my teeth all over again. I need a new toothbrush too. Do you seriously have no awareness of your own size?"
Cain scratched his head awkwardly.
"Sorry. It's just that when I was brushing your teeth this morning, it was kind of…"
"What?" Uta raised an eyebrow. "Those few little touches were enough to make you lose control?"
"…A little."
Uta stared at his embarrassed expression for two seconds before bursting into laughter.
"Pfft! You really are hopeless. You only get away with acting like this when Bella's asleep."
Her amusement faded slightly as she looked toward Bella's small room.
"Speaking of which, why is she still asleep? If Bella were awake, we'd probably be in Wano already."
Bella had gone into her room voluntarily the night before and hadn't emerged since.
Cain frowned.
"I don't know. Do you think Vegapunk did something to her?"
The instant he said it, both of them froze.
Then panic hit at exactly the same time.
They scrambled into their clothes, rushed to Bella's room, and threw open the door.
The entire chamber had been sealed solid by ice.
Through the thick frozen layer, Bella could be seen sleeping peacefully inside.
Beside her lay a disk-shaped machine barely larger than a fist.
"What the hell is that?"
Uta leaned toward the ice, her breath immediately fogging the surface.
Cain extended his Observation Haki.
The device was constantly extracting heat from the room.
Whenever the temperature dropped enough to create more ice, Bella unconsciously absorbed the cold, causing the temperature to rise again.
Then the machine removed the heat once more.
Freeze.
Absorb.
Warm.
Freeze again.
The cycle had apparently continued all night.
"That's probably something Vegapunk gave her," Cain said. "It's basically turned this room into a refrigerator. Fortunately, its range is limited to this cabin, and Bella keeps unconsciously absorbing the cold, so we couldn't feel anything from outside."
Uta frowned at the disk.
"Still, leaving Bella trapped in here with that thing doesn't feel right."
Cain nodded.
"She still hasn't woken up. Maybe this thing is the reason."
Without thinking any further, he opened his mouth and gathered a small flame, intending to burn the device apart.
The instant the fire touched the ice—
his Observation Haki screamed a warning.
Cain reacted immediately.
He yanked Uta against his chest and shielded her with his body while reaching his other hand into the ice for Bella.
His fingers closed on nothing.
Cain froze.
The enormous mass of ice filling the entire room had vanished.
BOOM—!
White mist swallowed the Going Merry.
It wasn't ordinary fog.
It was icy cloud.
And that cloud was Bella.
Her body expanded several times over in only a few seconds, soft white clouds bursting outward until the mast, deck, railings, and nearly the entire ship disappeared inside her.
"Aaaah~! That was such a good sleep!"
Bella blinked sleepily and gave a deeply satisfied yawn.
Then she looked around.
And froze.
All she could see was open sea.
"Huh?"
Her eyes widened.
"Where did Papa and Mama go?"
"Where's Merry?!"
"Where did everybody go?! Why am I floating over the ocean?!"
Bella frantically looked in every direction.
Nothing.
Then Cain's muffled voice came from somewhere inside her.
"Bella! Make yourself smaller! You swallowed the entire ship!"
Inside the enormous cloud, Cain and Uta were pressed tightly together with white mist surrounding them on every side.
It wasn't actually cold—
but there was barely any room to move.
More importantly…
what were all those little arcs of electricity flashing through the clouds?
…
"So this is what Vegapunk gave you?"
Uta pointed suspiciously at the disk-shaped machine.
"Mm-hm."
Bella nodded vigorously, looking exactly like a child who knew she had done something wrong and was prepared to accept punishment.
"He said this can make Bella stronger. Lightning is created when ice collides, so ethically speaking, Bella should be able to make lightning just like Zeus. That's why he gave Bella this machine—to help Bella learn."
Cain covered his face.
"That's theoretically, Bella. Not ethically."
"Oh."
Bella nodded again with perfect seriousness.
"Bella might've remembered it wrong."
There wasn't even the slightest sign that she was lying.
The full truth, however, was a little more complicated.
Vegapunk really had analyzed Bella's unusual physiology.
Ordinary fire and simple thermal energy couldn't meaningfully harm her.
She was an ice-cloud Homie to begin with. From a purely physical standpoint, after absorbing enough energy, there was no reason she couldn't transform herself into a thundercloud similar to Zeus—and unlike Zeus, she could freely revert afterward.
So the device really could help Bella produce stronger ice abilities, while its energy-conversion process would gradually teach her how to generate lightning as well.
But that wasn't the main reason Bella had brought it aboard.
She simply wanted somewhere comfortable to sleep.
Uta never let her sleep inside the refrigerator, and Bella hadn't found any other place cold enough to satisfy her.
The disk continuously removed heat from its surroundings.
Put it inside a room, and she had her own private chilled bedroom.
Bella had taken one look at it the previous night, fallen completely in love, shut herself inside, and slept comfortably until now.
…
"So that's what happened."
Cain lowered the Den Den Mushi after finally getting the full explanation from Vegapunk.
It was basically identical to Bella's version.
The disk really had been designed to help train her ability to generate lightning.
Its name was apparently something along the lines of a Universal Energy Absorption and Conversion Furnace.
As for why Bella had suddenly expanded so violently that morning?
According to Vegapunk, Bella had simply eaten too much the night before, slept far too deeply, and lost control of her body when she woke up.
The machine itself had done nothing wrong.
Vegapunk very firmly refused to accept responsibility.
Once Cain and Uta confirmed that Bella was perfectly fine, both of them finally relaxed.
Only then did Bella remember to ask her papa why they were suddenly out at sea and what exactly had happened on Egghead.
Cain and Uta immediately froze.
Two days.
Two entire days.
They might not have properly toured Egghead, but they had at least walked around several times and dealt with all kinds of things.
Bella?
She hadn't set foot outside even once.
She hadn't even seen what Egghead looked like.
The more Cain and Uta thought about it, the guiltier they felt.
Without saying another word, they pulled Bella between them and hugged her tightly from both sides.
"This time, when we reach Wano, we'll make sure you get to have as much fun as you want."
Cain sounded genuinely apologetic.
"Exactly!" Uta agreed. "Whatever you want to eat, wherever you want to go—we'll make up for everything."
She rubbed her cheek against Bella's cool face.
Caught between the two of them, Bella looked back and forth in confusion, blinking repeatedly.
She had absolutely no idea why Mama and Papa had suddenly become so affectionate.
But—
she liked it.
Being squeezed tightly between them felt warm in a way that was different from ordinary heat.
Bella smiled brightly.
"Then Bella will help too!"
Her cloud body spread across the Going Merry's deck.
Defense.
Endurance.
Durability.
Bella multiplied every relevant property she could think of from bow to stern.
Then she announced proudly,
"Speed enhancement—one hundred times!"
The Going Merry shot across the sea like an arrow released from a bow.
Its prow lifted high as enormous curtains of water exploded outward on both sides.
Cain and Uta poked their heads from the cabin and watched the distant coastline rush toward them at astonishing speed.
They exchanged smiles.
At this rate, it wouldn't take long to reach Wano.
Of course—
Wano was a closed country.
Entering through the front door openly wasn't exactly an option.
And if they couldn't arrive quietly…
then they might as well make the entrance spectacular.
…
Meanwhile, in Wano—
the Flower Capital.
After more than a year under Yamato's rule, the struggle against Kaido had long since moved beyond quiet tension and into open confrontation.
The Flower Capital had become the center of the resistance.
Many samurai who once secretly remained loyal to the Kozuki family had gradually thrown their support behind Yamato, encouraged by the shifting political climate and Kyoshiro's constant maneuvering behind the scenes.
Naturally, plenty of people still resented the idea of this outsider suddenly becoming their shogun.
Kyoshiro had handled those people in his own way.
He sent them overseas.
Specifically—
into military service with the Marines.
Even so, quite a few managed to escape along the way, swearing never to set foot in Wano again.
Fortunately, Yamato had maintained steady contact with the outside world.
The renewed flow of supplies and information had restored some of the Flower Capital's former prosperity, while the destruction of several weapons factories had strengthened the resistance with every passing month.
Then, on what seemed like an otherwise ordinary day—
the sky changed.
Within only a few breaths, the clear blue heavens disappeared beneath enormous black clouds.
Heavy storm banks rolled inward from every direction.
Lightning rumbled deep inside them, low and oppressive.
The once-bustling streets of the Flower Capital gradually fell silent.
Merchants stopped shouting.
Samurai abandoned whatever they were doing.
Everyone looked upward.
Something enormous moved within the clouds.
A long body twisted through the darkness, its scales reflecting brief, cold flashes whenever lightning illuminated the sky.
Its enormous silhouette appeared and vanished between layers of cloud, every movement accompanied by a deep rumble.
"Hey…"
One samurai was the first to react.
He raised a trembling hand toward the sky.
"Look at that!"
"Those scales… and that size…"
"Don't tell me—"
His words vanished beneath a thunderous dragon roar.
Lightning split the clouds apart in a blinding white flash.
For one instant, the enormous creature was perfectly visible.
The winding body.
The enormous claws.
The colossal dragon swimming through a sea of storm clouds.
Everything pointed toward the name carved into the memories of every person in Wano.
"A dragon…"
Someone blurted it out instinctively.
"It's the Guardian Deity of Wano—Kaido!"
The words had barely left his mouth when the samurai beside him slapped him hard across the head.
"Idiot! Don't call him something that nice!"
"That was the last shogun's ridiculous title!"
The man pointed furiously toward the sky.
"Call him what Shogun Yamato does—the horned gorilla!"
His shout was so loud and confident that everyone nearby stared at him for a second.
Then nervous laughter erupted through the street.
After more than a year of Yamato's absurdly earnest influence, backed by Kyoshiro's much less gentle methods, the shadow left behind by Kurozumi Orochi's rule had steadily begun to fade.
A year ago, insulting Kaido as a gorilla while his dragon silhouette hung directly over the Flower Capital would have been unimaginable.
Now people could actually laugh.
But only briefly.
Because the enormous dragon circling above them was still very real.
"Why would he come here?!"
"Is Onigashima finally launching an all-out attack on the Flower Capital?!"
The initial shock vanished.
The trained samurai immediately became serious.
"Quick!"
"Notify Shogun Yamato!"