Inside the iron cage at the human auction house, Rayleigh woke up from his nap and glanced over at Cain, then lightly shook his head.
He had originally wanted to test the boy's persistence, but who would have thought that while practicing, this brat would actually fall asleep.
Walking closer, he noticed that Cain was clutching a Sky Island Tone Dial in his hand.
Looking at the Tone Dial, and then recalling that Cain's bounty poster identified him as a member of the Straw Hat Pirates, Rayleigh immediately understood that he and Luffy's crew had already gone to Sky Island.
They must have seen the message the Roger Pirates left there.
For some reason, that thought gave him a quiet sense of satisfaction.
Hearing the song looping from the Tone Dial, Rayleigh listened with interest.
It was Uta's song.
But the next second, Rayleigh was pulled straight into Uta's music world!
Uta's fruit had a compulsory effect.
Normally, Haki could break Devil Fruit powers, but with Uta, that didn't work so simply.
To avoid being affected, one method was to block out the sound entirely.
The other was to already be fully channeling Haki at the exact moment her song was heard.
Once someone had been pulled into the music world, their real body would no longer be under their own control, so they couldn't use it to activate Haki and break free.
In that sense, the power of Uta's Sing-Sing Fruit was practically invincible.
Rayleigh landed in the music world and found himself facing a fantastical landscape, nothing like any real place.
At a glance, he could tell it was some sort of illusion-like realm.
Combined with what Shanks had told him earlier about Uta's power, he quickly grasped what kind of place this was, then stepped forward and soon found Cain lying on the ground.
…
That night, Shakky lay on her bed and looked at Uta, who had suddenly frozen in place.
"What's wrong, Uta-chan?"
"No, it's nothing."
Uta had clearly sensed that Rayleigh had also entered the music world.
She assumed Cain wanted to train inside it, so she simply pulled Rayleigh into another layer—Cain's dream world—and then continued chatting with Shakky.
…
The moment Rayleigh stepped into this space, he saw enormous books placed all around him.
Soon after, Cain was popped out of one of those huge books, his head covered in lumps, though all the injuries healed in an instant.
He stood up and sighed at the book in front of him.
Rayleigh walked over and greeted him.
The constantly changing scenery around them only deepened the questions in his mind.
So he asked Cain, "What exactly is this place?"
Seeing Rayleigh, Cain looked surprised.
He thought to himself that maybe the old man had listened to the Tone Dial by accident and gotten dragged in.
He didn't dwell on it.
Instead, he explained the general situation to Rayleigh, though he hid quite a few important details.
"With Uta's ability, and by using my own memories, I can construct enemies I imagine."
Rayleigh looked at the giant book spread open in front of Cain.
There was no way he reveal to Rayleigh that he was a transmigrator.
After a quick thought, he simply grabbed Rayleigh and jumped with him into the book, while using his authority in this place to make the Whitebeard Pirates withdraw from the scene altogether.
Now, only the full Roger Pirates remained on the island, along with Cain and the newly arrived Rayleigh.
"HEY, THAT GUY'S OVER THERE!" Buggy cried out the moment he spotted Cain.
Earlier, during the fight with the Whitebeard Pirates, this guy had appeared and provoked them.
After they beat him off, he had now come back again.
Although the Whitebeard Pirates were gone, none of them paid it much mind.
As for the extra old man standing beside Cain, he somehow looked familiar. But little Buggy didn't think too much about it and just assumed he was an enemy too.
"I didn't expect that brat to bring reinforcements, but this old geezer looks strange. Just looking at him makes me irritated for some reason," the younger Rayleigh said with a frown.
"Yeah, yeah, he feels kind of familiar, but somehow also really lame," Shanks immediately chimed in.
At that moment, Roger had already rushed out first. He could tell the old man was strong, and he shouted back to his crew,
"LET ME GO FIRST! DON'T BULLY AN OLD MAN!"
"Honestly, here we go again," the younger Rayleigh said, pressing a hand to his forehead in exasperation.
The real Rayleigh looked at those familiar faces, and a trace of emotion flashed through his eyes.
Then he saw his younger self complaining in exactly the same way he used to, and instantly felt annoyed.
Cain hurriedly made something up.
"Now that you're here, their personalities are closer to the Roger Pirates as you remember them. But they're only constructs based on memory—they aren't the real people. And besides, in here, you can't get hurt or die."
Rayleigh turned to look at Cain, his expression sinking slightly.
"I think I understand now where all your tricks came from."
The moment he finished speaking, Rayleigh drew his sword and charged directly at Roger.
Seeing that, Cain also lifted his weapon and followed him into battle.
Roger attacked first, casually swinging out a strike.
"Divine Departure—"
"That really brings back memories, Roger! Then I'll use your technique too. Divine Departure—"
Two identical techniques collided head-on.
Conqueror's Haki smashed into Conqueror's Haki, black lightning stretching hundreds of meters in every direction.
Wind and dust exploded outward, the ground collapsed, and the violent pressure of their clashing Haki battered everything nearby.
Even the clouds above were torn apart by the shockwave.
"I KNOW YOUR TECHNIQUES INSIDE AND OUT, YOU IDIOT ROGER!"
While blocking Roger's attack, Rayleigh wrapped Conqueror's Haki around his leg and kicked straight at Roger's face.
Roger hurried to block with one hand, but ended up blocking empty air.
It was only Rayleigh's sandal.
Rayleigh's bare toes shot straight toward Roger's nostrils, forcing him back two steps.
"I'VE WANTED TO DO THAT FOR AGES, YOU BASTARD HAHAHAHA!" Rayleigh laughed loudly.
That kick had felt incredibly satisfying, a tiny bit of revenge against his unreasonable captain.
Though Roger had a beard right now, so Rayleigh honestly couldn't tell whether what he had just touched was nose hair or beard.
Remembering how it had felt on his toes, Rayleigh grimaced and rubbed his foot against the ground in disgust.
"HEY, HEY, STOP WORRYING ABOUT YOUR IDIOT CAPTAIN AND COME SAVE ME ALREADY!"
Cain shouted from the side.
Scopper Gaban and the younger Rayleigh were attacking him at the same time, and Cain had become a full-on human punching bag, taking one hit after another.
The younger Rayleigh and Gaban could easily break through his defense.
Buggy and little Shanks had even climbed onto his legs and were punching and kicking him!
Their hands hurt from striking Cain's hard scales, so they simply threw down their swords and started biting him with all their might.
Rayleigh let out a helpless sigh and quickly rushed over to help, only to be intercepted head-on by his younger self, who attacked without a word.
"I don't know why, but just seeing that messy hairstyle of yours makes me irrationally annoyed."
That irritation came only because the two of them were the same person.
The difference in age and the instinctive familiarity between them made the feeling arise for no reason.
"Hey, hey, it's perfectly normal for a man's sense of style to change when he gets older. I don't remember being this bad-tempered before.... I really don't know how Shakky ever liked you back then. Obviously, the current me is better!"
Even while facing his younger self, Rayleigh stayed perfectly calm and casually mocked him.
The moment Shakky was mentioned, it was as if he had instantly drawn the wrath of the entire Roger crew.
Every single one of them turned and glared at Rayleigh.
"WELL, WELL! SO THAT'S IT—YOU OLD MAN HAD YOUR EYES ON SHAKKY! BROTHERS, GET HIM!"
"GET HIM!" ×99
The whole crew immediately swarmed him.
Roger also enthusiastically tried to join in, only to be kicked aside by one of his own crewmates and nearly lose his beard to a stray slash in the process!
That left only Buggy, Shanks, and Cain staring blankly at one another.
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