"I'm going to arrest you."
Uta suddenly turned around and said seriously to Luffy,
Her words made everyone behind Luffy freeze. For some reason, they felt a dangerous pressure closing in around them.
Thinking back, Luffy had said earlier that he could hear her voice.
And that voice was the song that had driven them wild before, wasn't it?
In other words, it was the song of this cute little girl?
They slowed down considerably. Aside from Sanji, everyone else also showed a hint of caution in their eyes.
Luffy, on the other hand, looked unwilling and said, "I refuse too. I don't want you to arrest me."
That sounded nothing like something you would say to a person who had just declared, "I'm going to arrest you." But Uta wasn't angry. Instead, she laughed happily.
"You're still the same as before."
"So are you." Luffy put both hands behind his head and pouted. "We finally get to meet again, and you still didn't come in person?"
"You noticed again." Uta suddenly laughed, the corners of her mouth lifting.
The next moment, her body turned into countless Utakata, and the entire island began to break apart.
Everyone behind Luffy was shocked. The ground beneath their feet became extremely soft and slightly transparent, as if it were about to disappear.
Nami hurriedly touched the surface of the sea with her hand. A wave of cold spread outward, and the sea beneath them was instantly frozen solid.
Nami's Blood Demon Art was said to control the weather, but after absorbing more of Muzan's blood, it had evolved once again.
Her main strength was still controlling lightning, but her control over other weather phenomena had also greatly improved. Otherwise, Nami would not have been able to freeze such a wide area of sea in an instant.
Because the sea had been frozen, everyone was spared from falling into the ocean.
If they fell into the sea, Luffy would lose all his fighting power at once, while the others would also become much weaker.
Even though they had not fallen into the ocean, they could only stare in shock as everything around them broke apart and slowly faded away.
Uta also transformed into countless Utakata and disappeared before their eyes, leaving them without even a target to attack.
All around them was an endless sea. The limitless sky stretched into the distance, with no end in sight. There was nothing around them. Nothing existed at all.
They were trapped in this world, and a feeling of loneliness, as if they would never escape, welled up in everyone's heart.
"Luffy, what's going on?" Nami asked first.
"Uta ate the Song-Song Fruit. She can use her singing to hypnotize people and control them. She can even pull them into her virtual space. I knew as soon as I saw her that it wasn't the real Uta. This is a virtual space created by her singing," Luffy explained.
"So we were affected by the Song-Song Fruit when we fought among ourselves earlier." Zoro looked around at the empty surroundings with a grin and tightened his grip on the sword at his waist. "So is she planning to trap us in this virtual space?"
"No. Only our minds are trapped here. Our bodies are still outside." Luffy shook his head. "She's probably already arrested our bodies."
?!
"What?!" Everyone was shocked. Didn't that mean they had already been captured?
"What the hell is this Song-Song Fruit? It's way too overpowered!" Usopp couldn't help shouting. "Just hearing her sing leaves us completely helpless and lets her capture us! Isn't that even stronger than Muzan?"
Luffy said nothing. As someone who had grown up playing with Uta, he knew her abilities very well.
Even Zephyr had been surprised by the power of the Song-Song Fruit back then, and he had made Uta train with it many times.
Luffy had suffered quite a lot during that period. Uta had toyed with him using her Devil Fruit power, sending him running around in circles. Because of that, he was somewhat familiar with this virtual space. The moment he entered this "Loguetown," he knew that Uta had pulled him into her virtual space.
She had probably planted a seed in their minds with her singing when she made them fight among themselves earlier, then slowly guided them into her territory.
There was no denying that the Song-Song Fruit was incredibly powerful. In the movie, Uta effortlessly pulled the entire Straw Hat crew and a large number of other pirates into her virtual space. Within that space, she possessed almost unlimited power.
The Song-Song Fruit could also summon the Music Demon King through a special musical score. That creature was absurdly powerful. As long as Uta did not fall asleep, and nobody attacked the same part of its body in both the virtual and real worlds at the same time, it was practically invincible.
The Straw Hat Pirates and the Red Hair Pirates had to join forces, along with Katakuri and the others from the Big Mom Pirates, before they could defeat the Music Demon King.
They were only able to win because Usopp and his father could synchronize the real and virtual worlds using Observation Haki. Otherwise, even such a ridiculous and powerful group might not have been able to defeat the Music Demon King.
Still, this was the world of a movie.
The movie could exaggerate things as much as it wanted, but the main story probably would not give Uta such an outrageous level of power. At least, she had not gained that kind of strength yet after eating the Song-Song Fruit.
Perhaps she simply had not trained her Devil Fruit to the same level as her movie counterpart.
At present, she could hypnotize people with her singing, control them to a certain extent, and amplify the emotions in their hearts.
She could still create virtual spaces, but she could not yet pull enemies into one instantly. She needed to guide them to some extent. Just like Luffy and the others, the "Loguetown" they entered had appeared because Uta's singing influenced them.
Now that they had entered the virtual space, Uta could do whatever she wanted.
Of course, this did not just apply to their minds. It applied to the physical world as well.
At that moment, Uta was watching the members of the Straw Hat Pirates lying unconscious on the ship. She hummed a song while ordering the Marines to tie them up.
She had come to the East Blue after hearing that Luffy had gone out to sea and become a pirate. Uta hated pirates deeply. She was not only a Marine—she was also a famous idol singer.
After leaving the East Blue, Uta trained with the Marines while also beginning her career as an idol. Whenever she held a concert, she often received requests from ordinary people.
The wish shared by most of her fans was to wipe out all pirates. In the eyes of most people in this world, pirates were the source of all disorder. Their murder, robbery, and destruction gave rise to the darkness in people's hearts. That darkness became nourishment for demons, allowing them to emerge from Hell and make the world even worse.
There was even a reason for people to think this way. In their understanding, demons had existed since ancient times, but they had only begun truly harming people across the world around the time Roger became the Pirate King.
Roger became the Pirate King and ushered in the Great Pirate Era. As the number of pirates increased sharply, large numbers of demons also began to appear. In the eyes of the public, that made pirates the root of all evil.
Uta had seen too many people lose their spouses, families, and homes because of pirates. So she wanted to create a world without pirates—not only because it was her duty as a Marine, but also because she was the idol those people looked up to.
Therefore, when she heard that Luffy had gone out to sea and become a pirate, she immediately decided to arrest him.
She had known since they were children that Luffy wanted to become a pirate, but she had never expected him to actually do it.
In that case…
She had to stop Luffy!
She could not let Luffy become an evil pirate. She did not want the whole world to curse him, so…
Even if she had to put him in a Marine prison, she would do it without hesitation!
"Sorry, Luffy. But you should go back to Marine Headquarters and see Vice Admiral Garp."
At those words, Uta felt a little resentful.
She had seen Garp's methods of raising children herself. It was his completely irresponsible approach of letting children run wild, combined with his iron-fist training, that had allowed Shanks to trick Luffy with just a few words. Although…
When she thought of the red-haired man, Uta lost herself in thought for a moment.
As pirates, the Red Hair Pirates really did seem different from other pirate crews.
Luffy and the others' minds were still trapped in her virtual space, so they naturally could not resist the Marines she had brought. They were tied up without much difficulty.
However, just as the Marines were preparing to sail the Going Merry back to Loguetown, they discovered something.
"Reporting in! This ship can't be steered!"
The Marine at the helm had turned red in the face, but no matter how he tried to control the ship, the Going Merry would not move.
Uta remembered how, earlier, when her singing had caused Luffy and the others to turn on each other, the ship had somehow produced a protective barrier that blocked her song and brought them back to their senses.
She became interested in the ship.
Not only did it have some kind of defensive ability, but it also refused to let anyone else sail it?
[The novel app that has run smoothly for years, and is just as good as the old Chasing Insects app. Everyone is using this source-switching app.]
Uta said to the Marine, "This ship really is strange. But since it won't move, we can have a warship tow it back."
They had, of course, arrived on a warship. Loguetown was not far away, only about a kilometer from their current location. Even with the warship towing the ship, they would be back soon.
However, the instant she gave the order, her expression suddenly changed.
At that moment, her Observation Haki picked up a message traveling through the Marine network.
"Rob Lucci has arrived."
"Little girl, could you hand these people over to me?"
At the same time, a fairly deep voice sounded beside her ear. Uta spun around and saw a man suddenly appear on top of the ship.
The man wore a black suit and sunglasses. Uta could still recognize some of his features. She quietly said,
"Rob Lucci…"
"Looks like you know who I am. Then could you stop wasting my time?"
Rob Lucci's body vanished instantly. The next moment, he appeared on the deck. The surrounding Marines excitedly raised their guns and aimed them at him.
Of course, Lucci did not care about having guns pointed at him. Weapons that were extremely deadly to ordinary people were nothing more than toys in front of him.
Would anyone get angry just because a child pointed a toy at them?
During his years in Wano Country, Lucci had received professional training.
That was why he did not attack the Marines. Instead, the moment he spoke, he sent a massive wave of telekinetic force crashing toward Uta.
Uta's pupils shrank. The telekinetic force was invisible, but she could still sense it because she was also a superpowered person.
"I may not be a history-making genius of Pandora Island like my senior, but I've achieved quite a bit in telekinesis."
An invisible wall made of telekinetic force appeared in front of Uta. It suddenly blocked the power Lucci had released.
The collision between the two forces caused the deck beneath them to crack apart.
Boom!
The next moment, Uta was forced back several steps. Her expression was grim, but she had not suffered any serious injuries.
"Impressive. You can't call that merely 'achieving quite a bit,'" Lucci said calmly. "Before the two of us, there probably wasn't anyone on Pandora Island who could match you."
Lucci and Monet were geniuses who had appeared once in a generation. Before them, if the superpowered people called geniuses were rated at ten, the two of them would be rated at one hundred.
Uta could not compare with either of them, but she was probably somewhere around forty or fifty.
She possessed not only a powerful Song-Song Fruit, but also a strong talent for telekinesis. As expected of Zephyr's adopted daughter.
Lucci had naturally gathered information on someone like Uta. After all, he was Wano Country's chief spy and knew the basic information of every Marine officer of commander rank and above by heart.
He also knew that after reaching Marine Headquarters, Uta had spent three years on Pandora Island undergoing intense superpower training. However, he had not known how skilled she was in telekinesis. After testing her strength, he had reached a conclusion.
She was strong, but not especially important.
In the New World, there were countless strong people at her level.
If Lucci wanted to kill her, he probably would not even need a minute.
However…
He could not kill Uta!
Seriously, Uta was a woman that no power in the world wanted to provoke. They would rather offend a Marine Admiral—or even Marine Fleet Admiral Sengoku—than have anything to do with Uta, because her adoptive father was practically a mad dog.
Once Zephyr set his sights on someone, he would truly risk everything to fight them head-on. Anyone who touched Uta…
Had better be ready to clash directly with Zephyr, a Marine instructor with enormous influence within the organization.
Even the Marine Fleet Admiral could not afford to ignore Zephyr's influence!
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