Author's Note:
Before the "two years" are over, I'm squeezing in one more arc. Well, I don't think it'll be that long...
---
Um... what is this situation?
Where am I? Why am I in a place like this?
I was supposed to be at Gran Tesoro just a moment ago.
After watching the trial performance of the stage play I'd written the script for, I had dinner, went back to my room in the True Suite, lay down on the fluffy bed, and closed my eyes thinking 'Alright, time to sleep'... or so I thought...
Next thing I knew, I was standing on some island I'd never seen before...
And strangely enough, despite the island having proper houses and even a Town, there wasn't a single soul around. Even when I probed with Observation Haki, nobody was there, except for one person.
On top of that, right in front of us stood... some kind of giant Monster? Something like that had appeared and was looking down at us.
A clown-like face with a long nose, wearing a top hat. Three skulls floating on its chest, and its arms were... piano keys? Only the upper half of its body existed. There was no other word for this 'something' but Monster.
Facing that 'something,' there was me... and one other person.
"No... way...!? That thing... is...!"
Known as the number one Songstress of Gran Tesoro... but right now standing there in her casual off-duty clothes: Uta-chan.
I'd been standing there frozen, unable to make sense of anything... or so I thought, but she seemed to know something? She looked shocked at the sight of that giant Clown Monster. Looking more closely, her body was trembling in tiny shivers.
The kind of reaction you'd have when a bad memory, some kind of trauma, came rushing back.
...Could that Monster have something to do with the story I'd heard about her being unwell these past few days and not taking the stage?
'...Oh no. An attack's coming.'
It happened almost simultaneously with Uta-chan's expression shifting to open terror.
The Monster raised its keyboard arm high and brought it swinging down straight at us...
***
Rewinding a bit...
Earlier today, after watching the trial performance of the stage play I'd written the script for, I was eating dinner while taking in one of Gran Tesoro's signature shows.
No matter when I see it, no matter how many times, it really is spectacular... That's what I was thinking as I watched, but toward the end, one thing caught my attention.
"Hey, Honey. Wasn't today supposed to be Uta-chan's day as the grand finale act?"
I asked while glancing at the program sheet in my hand.
Based on what I'd heard beforehand, today's grand finale was supposed to be Uta-chan... but the name listed there belonged to a different artist.
This person was also incredibly talented with a wonderful singing voice, so I quite liked them too.
So it wasn't that I was dissatisfied or anything... I was just curious, so I asked. Hoping it wasn't something like her being sick and resting.
"Ah... as for Uta-chan, I heard she suddenly fell ill and is resting for a bit."
Wait, sorry, did I just raise a flag?
"Um... did she catch a cold or something?"
"The thing is, I haven't been told the details. I heard she's been feeling unwell since about three days ago and is resting as a precaution... but nothing specific. Apparently even the Owners don't know?"
Wait, what? So the cause is unknown?
She hasn't even told Tesoro... now I'm worried in a different way.
"Has she seen a doctor? This place has multiple dedicated physicians on standby at all times, right?"
"No... apparently she hasn't had an examination either. Something about it not being the kind of thing a doctor needs to look at... Also, Gordon-san said he'd like everyone to 'leave her be for now.'"
...Uta-chan is fundamentally a very responsible girl. She has a tendency to get carried away and run wild sometimes, not unlike a certain childhood friend of hers, but she properly understands the importance of managing her health.
While dedicating herself to daily training, she was always careful not to let fatigue carry over to the next day, to rest without pushing herself when she felt unwell, and to see a doctor when needed and get things properly treated.
For that same Uta-chan to be resting but not seeing a doctor, and for Gordon-san to say 'leave her be'... was this a mental health thing?
Had something bad happened... something shocking that left her feeling down?
There was a good chance this was the kind of thing you shouldn't pry into carelessly... but I couldn't help being worried...
"Hey, Honey, can I at least visit her?"
"No can do. Like I said, Gordon-san has shut things down. No visitors allowed."
Yeah, figures... given what I've heard.
"Well, everyone around her had been a little concerned that she was overworking herself to begin with, so a bit of a break shouldn't be a problem at all. Even though she loves singing, she was constantly being told to rest more. Oh, but if you ask Gordon-san, I think he'd at least deliver a get-well gift or message for you... Want to do that?"
"...I think I will. It's already late today, so... maybe tomorrow."
"Got it. I'll arrange it."
As I asked Honey to handle it, a thought crossed my mind that maybe Uta-chan would bounce back by tomorrow and the whole thing would be a wasted effort... but if that happened, so be it. In fact, that would be something to celebrate. It would mean she didn't need a get-well visit anymore.
Well then, with that decided... I should properly enjoy tonight's show.
Thinking that, I turned my gaze back to the stage.
The third performer was just exiting, handing things off to the fourth.
After that, I went back to my room...
Took a shower to wash off the sweat, lay down on the bed still in my bathrobe... and the moment I turned off the lights, my eyelids started getting heavy...
And that brings us to now.
***
CRASH!!
The Monster's arm slammed right into the spot where Uta-chan and I had been standing just an instant earlier, caving in the ground spectacularly and turning it into a crater.
That was close! The power was every bit as devastating as it looked... Seriously, what on earth is that Monster?
And... something had been off about Uta-chan for a while now.
Like her mind was somewhere else, like the light had gone out of her eyes... Even a moment ago, despite being in a situation where she'd have been killed if she just stood there, she didn't budge.
Even now, after I'd scooped her up under my arm and flown away, she still wasn't moving at all. Completely dazed. Lost in a stupor.
She'd been like this ever since she saw that Monster, so they were definitely connected. Some kind of trauma bad enough to reduce Uta-chan to this state...?
If I could just ask her about it, that would be great, but she wasn't responding no matter how many times I called out to her.
'Wait, could this place not be reality at all, but a dream... Uta World...?'
I was mulling this over while fleeing from the Monster as it tried to press its attack.
Just as the thought had crossed my mind earlier, I should have been sleeping in my room...
For someone to slip past Gran Tesoro's security and my own Observation Haki danger-detection to kidnap me, that should be... impossible. I think.
So this probably wasn't a case of being abducted and brought here while I slept. I'd been sent here all at once. ...My consciousness alone.
Uta-chan possessed a power that could make that possible... but...
'Even that shouldn't activate unless she makes the target hear her singing in some form... And Uta-chan herself seems caught off guard, surprised and confused... So she didn't do this? But if not, then who did, and how...'
There were several Devil Fruits with powers related to manipulating dreams, showing illusions, or teleportation, but none of them quite fit the current situation... And even if that mystery were solved, it still wouldn't explain what that Monster was. Oh, crap.
The Monster swept its arm in a wide arc, demolishing the houses that had been standing nearby, and the debris, the rubble, came flying at us in a hail. Like shotgun pellets, saturating the area with suppressive force.
If it were just me, fine, but there was no way to dodge all of that while carrying Uta-chan.
Well, in that case, blocking would do the trick.
"Feels like it's been a while since I used this... Wall Paper!"
I produced a sheet of Paper large enough to completely cover both me and Uta-chan with room to spare, using it to block every piece of incoming rubble.
Even a thin sheet of Paper, once I reinforced it with my Powers, could handle something like this easily. My defensive strength had increased even further since the Summit War, so at this point I could probably even block some of Kizaru's Laser.
But while I'd managed to block the attack, the question remained: what to do next?
This island we were on didn't seem very big, and there was nowhere to run or hide. On top of that, the Monster was so enormous that it would catch up, or rather corner us, in no time.
On a whim, I tried, and sure enough, I was able to pull the Seven Star Sword out from inside my body.
As a last resort I was prepared to fight with it, but doing that while carrying Uta-chan... I was just thinking about that when it happened.
"I'm... sorry...!"
"...? Uta-chan?"
In a tiny, barely audible voice, Uta-chan murmured something.
...Wait, what did she mean by that? Why was she apologizing?
"Sue-san... please leave me behind. I'm... someone like me doesn't need saving. Just run away on your own, Sue-san..."
"No, no, no, what are you saying, Uta-chan? There's no way I could do that. It's not like I'm struggling or in trouble here, so don't go worrying about weird things, okay? I am a Shichibukai, after all. Something like this is a piece of cake."
I said that trying to reassure Uta-chan, who seemed to have lost her nerve, but her expression didn't change.
Within that hollow, vacant look, despair, dejection, and all sorts of other things were faintly surfacing. That was the impression I got.
Wasn't this some seriously deep emotional wound? For someone as bright and cheerful as her to make a face like this... What in the world was that Clown Monster?
"Uta-chan? That Monster..."
"I'm... someone like me...! Because of me... I'm sorry, I'm sorry...!"
"Hellooo, Uta-chaaaan. Can you hear meee? ...Right, this is..."
...Writer brain, activate.
- Uta-chan definitely knows something about that Monster.
- But there's no sign she'll answer no matter what I ask.
- My voice probably isn't even reaching her. She's consumed by her own emotional wounds.
- Which means she'll mutter vaguely suggestive things to herself but won't say anything beyond that.
- These kinds of situations won't progress to the next event... er, the next stage of the story until she calms down first.
...Right. Let's set her aside for now and focus solely on getting through this situation.
That said, doing that just brought me right back to the problem of having no clear plan for what to do next... when, at that moment.
"...Huh?"
A strange sound escaped my lips involuntarily.
Something bizarre and inexplicable had appeared right in front of me as I was running.
It was...
"...What is this? An Anywhere Door?"
The main road running through the middle of Town.
Right in the center of it stood... a door.
Not a door attached to a building. Just a door, standing there all by itself.
The sight was reminiscent of that iconic gadget belonging to that Blue Raccoon-Dog Robot, the one that lets you go anywhere.
That alone would have been impactful enough, but there was an additional element that made this mysterious door look truly bizarre.
Fortunately (?), it wasn't a solid pink, but the surface of the door had a pattern... wait, was this even a pattern? It looked exactly like...
"...Sheet Music?"
"...! Ah...!!"
A pattern that resembled Sheet Music... or rather, Sheet Music literally engraved onto it as a pattern...
No, it might be more accurate to say that actual paper Sheet Music had been turned into a door, had become a door. Frankly, the incongruity was terrible.
If an elementary schooler had used random flyers and scrap paper lying around the house to build an Anywhere Door for a summer break arts-and-crafts project... would it look something like this?
And on top of that, this Sheet Music door was oddly yellowed... like it was made from really old paper...
And ever since laying eyes on this Music Score Door, Uta-chan's complexion had gotten even worse. Uh-oh... did this hit a trauma switch? Was this door something dangerous?
But strangely, for my part... my intuitive sense wasn't detecting any particular danger from this Music Score Door. If anything, I felt a mysterious intuition telling me I should go through it.
Rather than fighting the Clown Monster chasing us from behind, rather than running around aimlessly... I should go through here. That was the right move.
After a split second of deliberation, I stored the Seven Star Sword back inside my body.
Then I reached my free right hand toward the doorknob, turned it, and plunged through.
Sensing by sound the Monster's massive hand closing in from behind... Uta-chan and I made it through the door by a hair's breadth... and then...
"...?"
I woke up on the bed.
...Wait, what... a dream?
Sitting up and looking around, I found myself unmistakably in the True Suite room, exactly matching the last thing I remembered before falling asleep. The bedroom.
I was wearing the fluffy bathrobe. That matched my memory too. ...The night sweat was making me feel kind of gross, though.
So that scene from before was... just a dream that ended when I woke up? Or was it Uta World...?
"The fastest way to confirm would be to ask Uta-chan... no, I can't do that."
I glanced at the time displayed on the clock and sighed.
Dead of night. Not the kind of hour to go barging into someone's room. And besides, Uta-chan was resting due to feeling unwell, no visitors allowed. All the more reason not to.
I'd just go back to sleep and deal with it tomorrow morning. Whether I'd even be able to see her was uncertain, but... I'd have Gordon-san pass along a message.
...But before that, another shower. The night sweat was gross.
Even wearing a terry cloth bathrobe with high absorbency, the discomfort wasn't completely gone. ...Must have sweated buckets.
I quickly stripped off the bathrobe. With nothing on underneath, I was immediately stark naked.
The cool night air felt pleasant against my skin, damp with a fine sheen of sweat. Oh, but the hair sticking to my moist skin was a little unpleasant.
I crossed the room heading for the shower. Oh wait, first, my throat was dry, so I poured a glass of Water from the pitcher and drank it down. ...Ahh.
Walking around like this might look indecent from the outside, but this was my room with nobody else in it. It wasn't like anyone was watching, so there was no reason to care...
"...?"
...There was nobody here... right?
No, of course there couldn't be... I didn't sense any presence or gaze, and nothing was registering on my Observation Haki, but...
...What was this uneasy feeling? Like someone was there, but wasn't... like I was being watched, but also not...?
If someone really was watching, that would genuinely be embarrassing, but... no, there really was no such presence. ...Was it just my imagination?
...I'd chalk it up to overthinking.
Alright, time to hop in the shower and get back to sleep.
To be continued...