Shanks has not moved from the Red Force's bow. Behind him, Hongo clutches his medical bag. Beckman pulls on a cigarette. Law leans against the railing with Kikoku propped against his shoulder, and Bepo stands near the mainmast, ears flat. Eliane bounces on the balls of her feet. Sanza perches on the rail, legs swinging. Jannali stands apart, arms crossed, headscarf adjusted.
"The girl is holding her own," Shanks says.
Jannali shakes her head. "Yeah, nah. She won't last long."
Law pushes off the railing. "That's our cue."
Beckman looks over the group. "Everyone good?"
Hongo tightens the strap of his satchel. "Yeah. Let's go."
Shanks gives a single nod.
Law flicks a handful of stones in a long arc over the beach, toward the island's heart. At the top of the arc they hang there, suspended and gleaming. "Room." A thin blue dome blooms from his palm and swallows the deck.
"Shambles."
The entire group vanishes in a shimmer of blue. Where they stood, a scatter of stones clatters across the planks.
-----
On the deck of the Dreadnought Thalassa, Marya stands at the rail. Luffy bounces beside her. Galit coils his neck. Atlas rolls his shoulders. Ember and Jelly ping-pong across the deck. Bō-Zak smokes his pipe. Penguin and Shachi trade nervous glances. Lucky Roux devours a drumstick. Bonk Punch, Howling Gab, and Rockstar stand at attention.
Luffy yells, "Whoa! She's strong!"
Galit glances at Marya. "She won't be able to keep going much longer."
Marya nods. Her gaze stays on the Red Force, where the last blue shimmer is fading.
She steps to the deck's edge and draws Nisshoku. Pale light thins along the obsidian blade; beneath it, crimson runes beat their slow, red measure.
"Let's move this along, shall we."
Luffy yells, "Hey, what are you—"
Marya lifts the blade and waits.
-----
On the beach, the Uta and Gordon clones stand apart from the chaos. The Sing-Sing Soldiers are winning. The coyotes are falling one by one, dissolving into sparks of light.
Gordon calls out across the sand. "You almost have them! She can't last much longer. You are stronger than her!"
Hovering above the sand, Uta keeps singing. Her voice swells into a scream, an orchestra, a collision of guitars.
🎵
Stand up, my sing-sing soldiers, stand up!
Hands that are mine though they aren't yours
Carry me home through a song with no doors
I'm scared of the quiet, so sing till I'm gone!
Sleep in my chorus, and don't ask who's singing
It's me, it's me, it's… gone.
Stand up, my soldiers, don't let me be alone.
🎵
Her voice fades. The music-box returns, soft and distant.
🎵
Who's left to count me… who's left to call…
🎵
A faint, flat hum rises beneath it. The demon, waiting.
-----
On the Pluton, Vesta is breathless, her wings trembling, and she does not slow down. Her voice drops to something close to speech.
🎵
Uta, I know the quiet where nobody answers back
I know how to rebuild from a burnt-down map
You wanted a world with no more tears, so did I
But tears you lock away still drown the sky
🎵
On the sand, one soldier lifts its head.
🎵
There's a voice beneath your voice, I can hear it breathe
That isn't you, that isn't you, that isn't you, so please
Sing the first song, the real one, sing it back to me
🎵
The dance break erupts, chanted, the beat dropping out.
🎵
Left, right, lock, drop
Chain, chain, chain, stop!
🎵
The final chorus hits: key change, full band, gang vocals from every coyote on the beach.
🎵
Break it, break it, break YOUR chain (hey!)
Break it, break it, sing YOUR name (hey!)
Not my echo, not my shadow
Free, free, free the flame
Sing it, Uta, no cage, no shame!
🎵
The outro comes, spoken, over a single guitar.
🎵
Now sing me yours.
🎵
Out on the sand, the coyotes peel away from the soldiers all at once, as if they have heard something no one else has. The beach opens like a clean page.
-----
Marya swings.
A devastating arc of Haki erupts from the blade, a wave of pure will, of Conqueror's fury, of something older and darker and more absolute than mere strength. It races across the water, a crescent moon of destruction aimed at the beach.
Luffy lunges forward and clamps a hand on her shoulder. "HEY! WHAT ARE YOU DOING?"
Marya's eyes never leave the beach. "Relax. That isn't Uta. Watch."
Luffy blinks. His brow furrows. His grip loosens.
Marya calls out across the water, her voice cutting through the chaos.
"I TOLD YOU I WOULD BE BACK!"
-----
On the beach, the Sing-Sing Soldiers stand unopposed in their rows, and Gordon is grinning. "Well done! Send them a message—"
He stops. His mouth freezes mid-word. His body goes rigid.
The Haki wave is rushing toward the shore, a wall of will made visible, a pressure that bends the air and shatters the silence. Gordon's Adam's apple bobs. The water is pulling back from the beach, receding like a tide before a tsunami.
Uta's feet touch the sand. Her brow furrows. She sees Gordon's face. "What is it?"
Then she hears it, Marya's voice, carried across the water.
I TOLD YOU I WOULD BE BACK.
Uta blinks. A small smile forms on her face, fragile, uncertain, almost real.
Then it is gone.
The demonic smile of Tot Musica replaces it. Her eyes change, the left becoming a red cross, the right a black void. Her voice deepens, layered, inhuman.
"This is all a dream. You have been forgotten. There is no hope for you…"
The Haki wave arrives. It crashes into the clones of Uta and Gordon, and their bodies shatter, not into blood, not into bone, but into particles. Fragments of light. Dust on the wind. They float away. They are gone.
The trees sway. The foliage quakes. The island itself shudders under the wave of will. An ominous roar echoes across the beach, a sound that is not quite sound but response. Something deep beneath the surface has felt the blow.
-----
On the deck of the Dreadnought Thalassa, Marya looks over her shoulder. Her golden-ringed eyes sweep across the crew. "Everyone ready?"
Luffy punches his fist into an open palm. His grin spreads wide, bright, fierce, utterly Luffy. "Let's do this! Let's save UTA!"
Marya smirks. Nisshoku pulses against her back.
"Let's move."