Kuraigana Island.
By the time Yuuki arrived on the island, an entire day had already passed.
To Yuuki, the speed at which Kuma had sent him flying was simply far too slow.
Whoosh!
A pulse of magic power burst from within him, halting his descent midair as he hovered above the island's dim, gloomy skies.
"So Mihawk still hasn't returned to this island. That saves me some trouble."
His senses spread across the entire island in an instant.
Immediately, he located Perona.
With a flicker of movement—
Down on the beach below, Perona, dressed in her signature Gothic-style dress with twin pink ponytails, floated in midair while surrounded by a group of aggressive humandrills.
Despite the dangerous situation, there wasn't the slightest trace of nervousness on her face.
Instead, she looked at the baboons with a haughty expression full of disgust.
"You ugly things, get away from me already!"
The moment those words left her mouth—
the humandrills instantly flew into a rage.
Clearly understanding what she had said, they all lunged toward Perona at once.
"Negative Hollows!"
Perona snorted lightly and waved her hand.
One after another, pale white ghosts were instantly created and rushed toward the attacking humandrills.
The ghosts passed effortlessly through their bodies.
Every baboon they touched immediately collapsed to the ground, letting out miserable whimpers, all their previous ferocity completely gone.
"Horohorohoro!"
Perona stuck out her rosy little tongue and laughed smugly.
Just as she was about to wave her hand and dismiss the Negative Hollows she had created, she suddenly froze.
The hollows were no longer responding.
Instead, they were floating obediently in the air, lined up neatly in formation.
"What's going on?"
Perona's black-and-white eyes widened in shock.
She had actually lost control of her own ghosts.
"Creating souls this easily…"
"Although they don't seem to possess any true self-awareness, and can't really be considered complete souls."
Yuuki had appeared at some point in front of the neatly arranged Negative Hollows.
Silver magical light flickered in his eyes as he carefully observed them.
"…even so, the ability to create souls so effortlessly already makes the Hollow-Hollow Fruit truly remarkable."
The reason Perona had lost control of the ghosts was naturally because Yuuki had used Soul Magic: Soul Abductor.
The power of the Hollow-Hollow Fruit—
in the world of Black Clover, this would absolutely qualify as Underworld-tier magic.
Creating souls and controlling souls were two entirely different concepts.
A flash of delight appeared in Yuuki's eyes.
The Hollow-Hollow Fruit's ability to freely create souls alone already surpassed the Shadow-Shadow Fruit and the Revive-Revive Fruit combined in terms of value to him.
"Who are you?!"
"Are you someone from this island?"
Perona looked toward Yuuki nervously.
There was actually someone capable of controlling the ghosts she had created.
"My apologies."
"But your journey ends here."
Yuuki withdrew his gaze from the Negative Hollows and looked up at Perona with a faint smile.
The next moment—
he vanished from Perona's sight.
Before she could even react, darkness swallowed her vision.
She lost consciousness instantly.
Holding the unconscious Perona by one arm, Yuuki cast a calm glance at the unconscious humandrills around them.
Then he stepped forward.
Space Magic activated—
and he disappeared from Kuraigana Island.
Gran Tesoro
At the very top of the Golden Hotel, inside a specially isolated secret chamber—
Yuuki casually tossed the unconscious Perona onto the floor with a dull thud.
Though it was called a secret chamber, the room itself was brightly lit.
Aside from lacking any furniture or decorations, it looked much like an ordinary room.
At this moment—
several other unconscious figures already lay inside.
The user of the Slow-Slow Fruit — Foxy
The user of the Revive-Revive Fruit — Brook
The user of the Shadow-Shadow Fruit — Gecko Moria
And now, the user of the Hollow-Hollow Fruit — Perona
Aside from those four—
several Devil Fruits had also been casually tossed into one corner.
The Sand-Sand Fruit
The Rumble-Rumble Fruit
The Gold-Gold Fruit
For the time being, Yuuki had no particularly suitable candidates for those fruits.
To be precise—
if he truly needed subordinates, he could simply use bestowal magic to create Warlord-level fighters in a short amount of time.
However—
with Yuuki's current strength, subordinates of that level were unnecessary.
Compared to raw strength, what he truly needed was utility.
Robin, for example, was exactly that kind of person.
"At present, the most easily obtainable special Devil Fruit users are all in place."
"The next crucial step…"
"…is Vegapunk's Green Blood technology."
Yuuki withdrew his gaze from Perona and the others and muttered softly to himself.
All of them had been put into a magically induced coma.
There was no need to worry about any of them suddenly waking up and causing trouble.
Elegia — The Island of Music
Uta sat on the beach where she used to practice singing.
Her gaze rested on the shimmering sea in the distance, her eyes carrying a trace of absent-mindedness.
A gentle sea breeze brushed past, lifting her red-and-white hair into soft disarray.
Her slender pale fingers idly traced lines through the sand.
It was obvious she was distracted.
Her mind was elsewhere.
That person hasn't come in quite a while…
The thought flashed through Uta's mind.
Immediately afterward, her face puffed up in irritation.
That awful man…
He's actually a pirate!
And yet—
Yuuki didn't seem anything like those vicious pirates.
Instead, he was more like Father—
Uta immediately cut off the thought.
A flicker of sorrow and conflicted emotion passed through her pale violet eyes.
She hugged her knees tightly.
Pirates are unforgivable.
"They say a great singer can't afford to slack off."
"Such a shame. I thought I might be lucky enough to hear your beautiful voice today."
Suddenly—
a familiar, gentle voice sounded from behind her.
Uta jerked her head up.
A bright light instantly flashed through her pale violet eyes as she quickly turned around.
There—
Yuuki, whom she hadn't seen in some time, was sitting atop the rock she usually used while practicing.
He was smiling at her.
For a moment, Uta's face instinctively brightened.
Then the smile was quickly buried beneath anger.
"You pirate!"
"Who said you could come here?!"
Uta sprang to her feet, her voice rising emotionally.
Yuuki was not surprised in the slightest by her anger.
After all—
he had been the one who personally told her he was a pirate.
Sometimes—
if you wanted to achieve a certain goal, hiding the truth was not the best choice.
Especially with a girl as innocent as Uta.
Being honest from the start was often far better than letting her hear it from someone else.
Besides—
Uta was not the only one living on this island.
There was also her adoptive father, Gordon.
Given the changes in Uta ever since she had met Yuuki, there was no way something like that could remain hidden from the man who had raised her.
"I came because I wanted to hear you sing."
Yuuki smiled gently.
The overly direct words made Uta's cheeks flush red.
At the same time, it made her emotions even more agitated.
"You pirate—leave!"
Uta stammered out, flustered and red-faced.
Yuuki still didn't move.
He simply continued sitting on the rock, looking at her warmly.
When a girl was this emotional, her words could not always be taken at face value.
Besides—
after spending this much time with her, Yuuki felt it was finally time to discuss Tot Musica.
Faced with this situation—
Uta felt both nervous and strangely happy.
But because she was never good at expressing herself—
she chose a far more direct method.
"Do~"
A peculiar note left her lips.
The next instant—
a special power that even masters of Observation Haki could not detect spread outward from Uta in an instant.
Deep within Yuuki's soul—
on the Kabbalah Tree of Life, the two spheres known as Fate and Soul trembled immediately, resisting the invading force.
So, this is the power of the Sing-Sing Fruit?
A power capable of guiding someone's consciousness into a world of awareness.
What surprised Yuuki even more—
was that it had actually triggered a reaction from the Tree of Life.
The last time this had happened—
was with Baccarat's Luck-Luck Fruit.
But even then, it had only affected the Fate sphere.
This time—
two spheres had reacted.
"As long as I sing, the darkness in my heart fades away~"
"No problem, I'm the strongest~"
"My voice sends the little birds soaring through the sky~"
"My fluttering clothes dance like a maiden's gown~"
As Uta's singing gradually rose—
the guiding force became stronger and stronger.
The power was strange.
But escaping it was not impossible.
For example—
one could use the Calm-Calm Fruit.
Or simply defeat Uta before she began singing.
With Uta's ordinary physical constitution, she would never be able to withstand that.
Of course—
Yuuki had no reason to do so.
He willingly released his resistance.
His vision did not change.
Uta was still standing on the beach, singing.
He was still seated on the rock.
Even the surrounding scenery was exactly the same.
And yet—
Yuuki knew clearly.
He had already entered Uta World.
Because of Uta's own will, Uta World perfectly mirrored reality.
That was why, in the movie, those who lost to her merely believed her Devil Fruit power to be extraordinarily strong.
Only much later did they realize—
they were no longer in the real world.
However—
the changes came quickly.
A brilliant light began to shine from Uta's body.
Her simple clothes rapidly transformed.
Her long red-and-white braids floated upward.
In the blink of an eye—
Uta appeared before Yuuki wearing a golden crown, wielding a golden spear and shield, with a jetpack mounted on her back.
Her previously delicate frame now radiated heroic brilliance.
"Hah!"
Uta let out a cry and thrust her golden spear toward Yuuki.
Countless colorful musical notes appeared out of thin air.
Each note bounced through the air while producing beautiful tones.
Then—
they came crashing toward Yuuki like heavy cannon shells.
In theory—
inside Uta World, no one could defeat Uta.
But—
"Dream Magic."
Yuuki's eyes flashed.
A milky-white magic power dotted with rainbow-colored light emerged from his body.
Likewise—
in theory, within the dream world created by Dream Magic, no one could defeat its user either.
BOOM! BOOM!
The heavy rainbow notes slammed down.
Yet the moment they touched the magic surrounding Yuuki's body—
they vanished completely.
Dream Magic possessed the ability to drag surrounding objects—or even people—into a dream world.
It seemed somewhat similar to Uta World.
But in truth—
the two were fundamentally different.
Seeing her attack fail, Uta's singing rose even higher.
Whoosh!
A massive musical score materialized in the sky.
It transformed into countless line-like threads that wrapped toward Yuuki without end.
But just like the earlier notes—
the moment they touched him, they disappeared completely.
"Feeling better now, Uta?"
Yuuki asked helplessly.
At the same time—
the milky-white dream magic around his body began to spread.
Like white paper dipped into ink—
the surrounding world began to be dyed by the power of Dream Magic.
It gradually transformed into a pure white space adorned with faint rainbow-colored lights.
And the spread was incredibly fast.
In just a few breaths—
the entirety of Uta World had split into two clearly divided realms.
One side belonged to Uta—
the sky glittering with vibrating notes and music sheets of every color.
Cute dolls leapt through the air, singing and dancing.
It looked like an enormous concert hall.
Meanwhile—
Yuuki's side, and the entire area behind him, had transformed into a world of pure white.
Soft light glowed everywhere, accented with delicate rainbow hues.
The entire place felt dreamlike and ethereal.
Though the two of them were not far apart—
under the interwoven clash of Uta World and the Dream World—
it was as if they now stood in entirely separate dimensions.
(End of Chapter)
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