Although Somers had dealt with the Roger Pirates long ago, from the bottom of his heart, he did not want to run into those people again.
For one thing, their punches hurt.
For another, even the immortality he prided himself on would be suppressed by them.
After all, this mission was only supposed to be about capturing a woman from some little pirate with a bounty of ten million Beli.
There had been no need to directly clash with Rayleigh.
That was why, early in the morning, he had taken Killingham, who was extremely prone to falling asleep and arriving late at crucial moments, and left the Holy Land.
At the same time, he secretly sent CP agents to follow them.
That also meant they had not seen the newspaper that morning at all, and Cain's bounty had already been updated.
But Somers had never expected that the original target was supposed to be some insignificant little pirate, so why were more and more people showing up?
Besides, forget the fact that the brat had Conqueror's Haki.
What was with that monstrous appearance?
The intelligence clearly stated that his upper limit was only at the level of a Jailer Beast, so why was his actual power so fierce?
Even more absurd was the fact that the attack had clearly come from the front, yet his Observation Haki told him that the other party's strike was aimed at his backside.
Saturn : 'tee-hee!'
…
"Now that I think about it, your target this time is still the same as before."
Rayleigh pressed a hand to the hilt of his sword, ready to draw at any moment.
"We've beaten you people back so many times, yet you still don't learn."
"Don't get cocky, Rayleigh. After all these years, I've grown stronger too! Thorn Hunt!"
Several thorny vines suddenly shot out from behind Somers, piercing straight toward Rayleigh with sharp force.
"Higanbana!"
A flash of sword light passed.
With one strike, Rayleigh sent Somers flying again, slicing his body cleanly in half at the waist.
"Who hasn't?" Rayleigh said calmly. "My stamina may not be what it used to be, but my strength hasn't stopped progressing."
He raised his eyes toward the figure charging straight at him.
It was "Roger," sent by Killingham to support Somers.
"A fake that can't even use Haki shouldn't come out and embarrass itself!"
…
On Cain and Uta's side, they were currently on Luffy's battlefield.
The fake "Rayleigh" and "Gaban" had nearly been smashed into paste.
Without Haki as a core support, no matter how flashy their swordsmanship and battle experience seemed, they could not withstand Cain's brute-force output.
After temporarily suppressing the situation around Luffy, Cain used his senses to check Sabo's side.
There was nothing serious over there.
Sabo could elementalize, and those fakes could not use Haki, so avoiding them was enough for him to handle the situation.
As for Jinbe and Katakuri, they were dealing with things even more smoothly.
…
Seeing this situation, Killingham continued sweeping wide-range hypnotic beams down below.
Even if the victims would be woken quickly, it did not matter. What he wanted was more powerful nightmare monsters.
Cain had already sensed all of this.
Haki suddenly erupted around him as he rapidly cleared away the fakes in front of him, resisting the hypnosis while shouting to Uta on his shoulder,
"UTA, NOW!"
"Okay!"
Uta tapped her headphones.
The accompaniment started in response, and she opened her mouth to sing "Backlight," the melody carrying the pain of bitter memories, resentment, and feelings left behind.
Because there were no speakers or other amplification tools, only Luffy and Hancock's consciousnesses were pulled into Uta World.
Almost at the same time, Killingham's sleep ray swept over Luffy.
He touched the soundproof earplugs in his ears, looked at the monster refreshed from the Nightmare Den, and nodded in satisfaction.
"As expected of the Sing-Sing Fruit. Sending me here really was the right choice. It seems my Kirin Fruit has higher priority after all?"
Killingham spoke disdainfully.
"The monster has already been summoned. Controlling these things, that's supposed to be my ability? Those old bastards kept saying, 'Your Fruit can threaten the whole world,' but in the end, all it does is control the bodies of people who are asleep. What a weak ability."
Killingham could see other people's dreams.
From his perspective, dreams often existed in the form of clouds, and the vast cloud mass where Uta World existed was still clearly visible to him.
Although he did not know what it was, he could be certain that there was something extremely interesting inside.
With that thought, he transformed into his human-beast form and charged downward.
He had no need to worry about being attacked himself, because those nightmare monsters would block everything for him.
But what Killingham did not know was that dream creatures were fundamentally born from people's minds.
He was merely materializing what existed within their spirits.
And at this moment, the minds of the people creating those nightmare monsters had already been pulled into Uta World ahead of time by Uta.
In other words, those nightmare monsters were born inside Uta World before being summoned out by him.
Even if the summoning priority was higher than the Kirin Fruit, the priority for control belonged to the Sing-Sing Fruit.
Sure enough, before he could react, a massive iron fist had already smashed toward his head.
Cain froze when he saw it.
"Grandpa? No…"
This should have been the object of Luffy's fear!
He looked toward Luffy, who was asleep and being controlled by Uta to attack elsewhere, and nodded in understanding.
After all, in this world, the only person who could truly frighten Luffy was probably old man Garp.
With that thought, Cain looked up at Uta on his shoulder.
Uta smiled and said, "I did it. How was that? I only just discovered that if those things are born inside my World, then even if they're pulled out, control over them still belongs to me…"
As Uta spoke, her expression gradually became blank, and strange notes began leaving her mouth.
Cain froze at once and immediately sensed something was wrong.
When he turned to look, Luffy and the others had already woken up and left Uta World.
Or rather, Uta World itself had developed a problem.
'What's going on?'
Cain swept his gaze around, trying to find the source of the issue.
The reason he had been so comfortable letting Uta use her Devil Fruit ability was precisely because Uta's current emotional state was far better than it had ever been before.
There was no way she should lose control like before.
Law's judgment had also confirmed that.
In Uta's current state, using her Devil Fruit ability should have been the same as before.
Under those circumstances, that sneaky bastard Tot Musica should not have been able to do anything.
But then, from the corner of his eye, Cain saw Killingham, who had been knocked down by "Garp."
Killingham's hand had already been inserted into a strange cloud.
"What the hell did you do?!"
Cain was instantly alarmed and cursed himself for making a complete miscalculation.
If the Sing-Sing Fruit could affect the Kirin Fruit, then the Kirin Fruit would naturally be able to affect the Sing-Sing Fruit as well.
That had been his oversight.
At this moment, a corner of Uta World had already connected to the outside world.
Or rather, Killingham's hand had directly inserted itself into that world, and he was using his Devil Fruit ability to pull that world outward.
This change seriously destabilized the Sing-Sing Fruit's ability.
As a result, Uta subconsciously sent back all the minds of the people who had entered Uta World.
And Tot Musica, which had always longed to be summoned, seized the opportunity at that exact moment.
Using that incomplete score, it guided Uta into singing it.
In order to fully manifest, it even borrowed the power of the Kirin Fruit, firmly grabbing Killingham's hand that had entered Uta World, trying to pull itself out of that world.
It was not only happening on this side.
Even in the Nightmare Den, Tot Musica's enormous hand gradually appeared, dragging at Killingham.
Almost instantly, a large area of Uta World was directly torn into the real world!