"Seriously. I finally got to have a decent reunion with Luffy, and you went and ruined the whole thing!"
Ace's figure slowly descended onto the deck of the Merry.
His gaze locked onto Cain without the slightest politeness, and only after that did he turn to Luffy, greeting him with familiar ease.
"Yo, Luffy. Long time no see."
"Yo, Ace."
After Cain's little stunt, the initial joy of their reunion had already faded by more than half.
What remained was just a simple, ordinary greeting.
Ace then turned toward the rest of the Straw Hat crew and bowed politely.
"Thank you all for taking care of my two little brothers."
"Not at all, not at all!" everyone hurriedly replied, returning the gesture.
"And also—"
Before he even finished speaking, Ace suddenly spun around and drove his fist straight toward Cain's face.
"I STILL CAN'T LET THIS GO!"
Faced with the sudden punch, Cain shifted slightly to the side, dodging it as effortlessly as if he were taking a casual stroll.
"Idiot, your target's over here!"
Ace's punching motion paused for only an instant before he twisted with the momentum, his elbow cutting through the air as it shot toward the back of Cain's head.
"Ugh!"
Cain stumbled half a step.
With his defense, that level of attack was basically nothing more than a tickle, but it still made a spark of irritation flare up in his chest!
"You're the one who attacked first, so don't blame me for getting rough!"
He glared fiercely at Ace, then launched a brutal strike straight at Ace's face.
Ace did not use his elemental transformation. He only turned sideways and raised his arm, blocking the attack steadily.
"Huh? You've got the nerve to say that? What kind of little brother throws his big brother into the sea the moment they meet? And besides, you still haven't called me 'big brother' even once!"
Cain kept attacking as he shot back,
"You've got some nerve complaining! When we were kids and Grandpa came after you two for causing trouble, who was the one who took the blame every single time? Me! And you, the so-called big brother, had already dragged Luffy off and disappeared without a trace… That precious 'big brother' image of yours shattered into pieces a long time ago!"
"That's because you were stupid!" Ace's cheeks flushed red in frustration, and he immediately fired back, neck stiff with stubbornness.
"The old man had a temper like a volcano, and you still went up to him on your own. Isn't that just asking to get beaten?"
"Hah. So I cleaned up your messes, and somehow that became my fault? As grandsons, shouldn't we at least try to understand Grandpa's good intentions?"
Cain laughed in disbelief.
"Every time you guys caused trouble, who was the one following behind to wipe your asses?"
"Nonsense!" Ace grew even more flustered and blurted out without thinking, "By the time we first met, I already didn't need anyone wiping my ass for me!"
"WHAT THE HELL IS WRONG WITH YOUR BRAIN, YOU IDIOT?!"
Cain pressed a hand to his forehead, looking utterly exhausted by Ace's stupidity, then threw another punch.
The two of them were already tangled together.
Their punches and kicks were filled with that unique roughhousing energy only brothers had.
There was no real killing intent in it at all, but the irritation behind it was absolutely genuine.
"Those two are exactly like Luffy when it comes to this kind of thing," Nami and the others helplessly commented.
Their previous impressions of Cain and Ace as calm, mature people had been smashed into dust!
"They've got so much energy! I'm joining in too!"
Luffy laughed loudly and lifted his foot, about to charge toward them.
"Idiot, don't make it worse!"
Zoro reacted quickly, grabbing Luffy by the back of the neck and dragging him back by force.
In the middle of their scuffle, Cain suddenly wiped the smile off his face.
He stepped back twice, looked at Ace, and his tone abruptly became serious.
"Sorry, Ace. This time, no matter what, I'm going to stop you."
"What?"
Ace looked utterly confused, completely unable to understand what Cain meant.
And at that very moment, Uta, who stood in the center of the group, had already begun to sing.
"Kono kaze wa… doko kara kita no to~"
"Ah, it's Uta's singing. I haven't heard it in ages!" Luffy said with a grin, pressing a hand to his straw hat.
"Her voice is so beautiful. I didn't expect her singing to be this amazing," Nami said, her eyes full of admiration.
"Strange… why does my head feel so dizzy…" Usopp muttered, rubbing his forehead weakly.
"T-This familiar feeling…"
Ace's heart tightened the moment he heard the song. He wanted to cover his ears, but it was already too late.
His eyelids sank uncontrollably.
In the blink of an eye, aside from Uta, who was still singing, everyone in the Straw Hat Pirates collapsed to the ground and fell into a deep sleep.
"Ōunabara o kakeru… atarashii kaze ni nare…"
After Uta finished the song, she controlled everyone's bodies and carefully settled them into comfortable positions.
Then she turned her attention to the situation inside the music world.
…
The Music World
In a dazzling, colorful music world where countless notes floated through the air, Ace slowly opened his eyes.
When he had previously been dragged in by Uta's singing, he had also fallen into this space.
Back then, no matter how much he shouted, he had heard no response at all.
The Marines who had been pulled in with him, however, had not forgotten to chase him down relentlessly.
He could only keep running while searching for a way out, until he finally woke up in the sea and realized Cain had been behind it.
"Cain! I know this is your doing! Where the hell is this place? Let me out!"
He raised his head and shouted at the countless musical notes overhead.
"Ace?"
A familiar voice rang out.
"That's weird. Weren't we just on the ship?"
Luffy rubbed his eyes and stood up.
Only then did Ace realize that the rest of the Straw Hat crew had also been pulled in. One after another, they were getting up from the ground.
"Stop wasting your strength, Ace."
Cain's voice came from within the swirl of drifting notes.
"Without Uta's permission, none of you can get out of here."
In the next moment, Uta appeared in midair with Cain beside her.
"Uta? What exactly happened?" Nami asked with a frown. "I remember we were listening to you sing. How did we suddenly end up here?"
Uta flicked her finger, and a gigantic roasted drumstick, even bigger than a person, appeared out of thin air and smashed down with perfect accuracy toward Luffy.
Only then did she leisurely explain.
"This is the music world created by my Sing-Sing Fruit. Your bodies are still perfectly fine back on the ship. Just think of it as a lucid dream and relax."
"But why did you pull all of us in here?" Nami's tone grew more serious.
"Yeah, yeah, munch munch—why?" Luffy asked, hugging the drumstick and taking huge bites from it as he looked at Uta.
"This was Cain's idea."
Uta gave a light laugh and snapped her fingers.
Countless pieces of fresh meat rained down from the sky, landing neatly in a gigantic plate that appeared right in front of Luffy.
"He said he had to drag Ace in here no matter what. The space on the ship is too small, and only here can they really cut loose. As for the rest of you, you were just dragged in along the way… This is between the two of them. It seems very important to Cain."
"But from the way things look over there, doesn't it seem like they're about to fight?" Nami pressed.
At that moment, the tension between the two of them was extremely sharp, completely different from their earlier horseplay.
Luffy, however, was already fully immersed in the mountain of food and had no interest whatsoever in the standoff beside him.
Ace clenched his fists.
His gaze swept over Cain, who stood not far away with a calm expression, and he shouted gravely.
"Cain, let me out. I don't have much time. I still have to go find…"
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