"What? You want us to help you escape?"
Cain looked at Loki before shaking his head.
"Jarul already made it clear that we're not supposed to release you. Besides, we don't even have the key. Even if we wanted to help, there wouldn't be much we could do."
He decided to establish that boundary immediately, just in case Loki suddenly came up with some ridiculous demand.
Loki, however, simply grinned.
"Your names are Cain and Uta, right? Relax. As much as I'd love to get out of this miserable place, that's not what I'm asking."
He tilted his enormous head toward the weapon behind him.
"See that hammer? Could you get it out from under these chains? If you're really as strong as you seem, something that simple shouldn't be a problem."
"That hammer?"
Cain tilted his head and looked past Loki.
Sure enough, an enormous hammer was wedged between several chains, effectively tangled up with Loki himself.
Cain didn't know much about the weapon. All he remembered was that Loki had apparently used it to strike Treasure Tree Adam at some point.
"Yeah, that one."
Loki shifted irritably.
"Being tied up like this is bad enough, but having that damned thing constantly digging into my back makes it even worse."
"Just to be clear, you only want me to remove the hammer? You're not asking me to free you?"
"I ALREADY SAID THAT!"
Loki sounded thoroughly exasperated.
"I'm not asking some random brat to do something like that!"
"Then why haven't you asked someone else?"
"Because hardly any giants have come down here in years!"
Loki's irritation immediately returned.
"Those little guys who help me aren't strong enough to pull it out, and that old bastard Jarul couldn't care less about something like this!"
He tried shifting his shoulders again.
"Try sitting in this position yourself! It's unbearable!"
Cain and Uta took another careful look.
The hammer really was just awkwardly lodged between the chains. Any reasonably strong giant could probably pull it free without much difficulty.
Loki himself was a different matter. His limbs were secured with restraints, and enormous chains wrapped tightly around his body.
The hammer wasn't nearly as thoroughly bound as its owner.
"Don't underestimate the favor I'm asking," Loki continued. "If you help me, I'll owe you one. In return, I'll wipe out any pirate crew you want."
"No thanks."
Cain waved dismissively.
"Most of the biggest pirate crews around these days are either my friends or people I know. I don't particularly need anyone wiped out."
He glanced at the hammer again.
The request sounded simple enough, but Cain wasn't entirely convinced Loki had revealed his true intentions.
He turned toward Uta.
She smiled, apparently having reached the same conclusion.
"Well, being chained up with a hammer digging into your back certainly sounds uncomfortable."
She tilted her head.
"But we can't exactly be stupid enough to remove it without taking precautions, can we?"
Then she began humming.
Even Shamrock, who was still concealed in the surrounding darkness, found himself unconsciously listening.
The song was completely different from Uta's usual style.
Let those thorns grant me a single wish.
Let them leave their scars upon this fragile, fleeting dream.
"What the hell is she doing?" Loki muttered.
Click! Clack!
Several mechanisms suddenly activated around him.
Loki looked down.
An additional set of heavy wooden restraints had appeared around his already imprisoned body.
Then he looked up.
An enormous guillotine blade was suspended directly above his head.
"HEY!"
Loki stared in disbelief.
"ARE YOU TWO TRYING TO KILL ME?!"
Uta gave him a wicked little smile.
"Only if you try anything funny."
She casually drew one finger across her throat.
Loki went rigid.
"Come on, Uta. That's going a little too far."
Cain immediately intervened.
Loki breathed a sigh of relief.
Finally, someone with a little common sense.
"He's still a prince of this country, after all," Cain continued.
The next instant, his Conqueror's Haki wrapped around the guillotine blade.
The pressure was so immense that Loki's entire body seemed to sink beneath it.
"Something of this level is much more appropriate for someone of his status."
"ARE YOU OUT OF YOUR DAMN MIND?!"
Loki nearly exploded.
"ALL I'M ASKING IS FOR YOU TO REMOVE IRON THUNDER! DO YOU REALLY NEED TO THREATEN ME WITH DECAPITATION?!"
"AND YOU'RE EVEN USING THAT RIDICULOUS POWER OF YOURS?!"
Despite his furious complaints, Loki's mind was already racing.
As long as Iron Thunder was released, that guillotine probably wouldn't pose much of a problem.
With that thought in mind, he stopped struggling and obediently remained seated, allowing the two of them to do whatever they wanted.
…
Cain finally got to work.
Bella transformed into a ribbon and wrapped herself comfortably around his body.
He rolled his wrists and prepared to lift the hammer.
He was genuinely curious about what made this weapon so important to Loki.
In the next instant, under the astonished gazes of both Loki and the hidden Shamrock, Cain's body expanded dramatically.
Within moments, he stood nearly a hundred meters tall.
"So that's how you do it!"
Loki stared at his enormous figure.
"No wonder you can become that big. You're borrowing power from something else!"
He glanced toward Bella, who had transformed into a ribbon, and immediately understood the situation.
"Can you stop talking for five seconds?"
Cain settled Uta comfortably near the base of his neck, then crouched down and reached beneath Loki's chains.
His enormous hand closed around the hammer.
Once he had it, Cain lifted the weapon and casually weighed it in his palm a couple of times.
"Not bad."
He sounded genuinely impressed.
"This is an excellent weapon. You're making me want to keep it."
"DON'T EVEN THINK ABOUT IT!"
Loki immediately shouted.
"IRON THUNDER! NOW!"
The hammer suddenly struggled in Cain's grip, attempting to break free and fly straight toward the guillotine suspended above Loki's head.
Unfortunately…
Nothing happened.
"…"
Iron Thunder remained completely motionless.
It couldn't escape Cain's hand.
"Huh."
Cain examined the weapon with renewed interest.
"So it's actually a living hammer."
The next instant, Iron Thunder suddenly transformed.
An enormous squirrel appeared in Cain's palm and immediately wriggled free.
With one powerful sweep of its tail, it unleashed a wave of freezing cold that instantly encased every guillotine and restraint Uta had created in ice.
Then it transformed back into a hammer.
CRASH!
The frozen instruments shattered beneath its strike.
Loki threw back his head and burst into triumphant laughter.
"DOGYAHAHAHAHA!"
"FINALLY!"
"YOU ACTUALLY FELL FOR IT!"
Originally, Loki really had considered entrusting Iron Thunder to someone else.
Even if he had to wait until he eventually regained his freedom to retrieve it, that would have been preferable to leaving the weapon trapped alongside him.
Unfortunately, Cain had managed to leave a particularly memorable first impression.
First, he'd treated Loki like some exotic animal on display.
Then he'd asked that humiliating question about how Loki went to the bathroom.
The bastard had practically driven him insane within minutes of their first meeting.
There was something about Cain that reminded Loki of Shanks.
That infuriating, permanently smiling expression, followed by some completely unexpected remark that struck exactly where it hurt.
At least, that was how Loki remembered Shanks.
By the time Cain had finished making fun of him, Loki's original intentions had completely changed.
Now he simply wanted revenge.
All that nonsense about being the bigger man and forgiving Cain had been nothing but empty words.
After all, Cain wasn't nearly as gullible as Luffy, and he'd repeatedly managed to infuriate Loki from the moment they met.
There was no way Loki intended to let him get away with that.
"IRON THUNDER! GET HIM!"
"SKREE!"
The enormous squirrel bared its teeth viciously and lunged straight toward Cain.
"YES! EXACTLY!"
Loki shouted with delight.
"SHOW THAT BASTARD WHAT YOU CAN DO!"
"THAT'S WHAT HE GETS FOR TREATING ME LIKE SOME MONKEY IN A ZOO! IGNORING ME! PISSING ME OFF!"
His triumphant shouting abruptly stopped.
Although the bandages made it impossible to see Loki's eyes, the way his jaw suddenly went slack made his disbelief perfectly obvious.
Cain had casually reached out and scooped Iron Thunder straight into his arms.
No matter how many times the squirrel transformed, its current size was still roughly comparable to the original hammer.
Cain, meanwhile, stood nearly a hundred meters tall.
The difference was simply ridiculous.
And with Bella amplifying his abilities, every one of Cain's physical attributes had increased by a hundredfold.
Iron Thunder didn't stand a chance of overpowering him.
"Oh, so you're actually a hammer that ate a Devil Fruit."
Cain looked down at the struggling squirrel.
"No wonder Loki had so many tricks up his sleeve."
Then he started scratching its belly.
After that came its head.
Then its fluffy tail.
Cain thoroughly rubbed and squeezed the enormous squirrel as though he'd just discovered the world's most entertaining pet.
"It's actually pretty cute."
Uta leaned over from her comfortable position near Cain's collar and smiled down at the creature.
Iron Thunder finally lost its patience.
An intense wave of freezing energy erupted from its body as it attempted to freeze the enormous man holding it completely solid.
"YES!"
Loki's excitement immediately returned.
"THAT'S IT! FREEZE HIM!"
Then, once again, he went completely silent.
Every bit of freezing energy released by Iron Thunder was being absorbed by the ribbon wrapped around Cain's body.
Or, more accurately—
Bella was eating it.
"Nom!"
Bella happily swallowed another mouthful of icy energy.
"Ooh! Bella's never tasted this flavor before!"
She smacked her lips.
"It's pretty good!"
Then she suddenly shivered.
"Huh?"
Something felt different.
Bella looked down at herself in surprise.
"Wait a second…"
"What's this feeling?"
Her voice became increasingly curious.
"Bella thinks she just gained some kind of strange new ability!"