After an entire night of fooling around, the two of them didn't finally stop until nearly dawn, when the first pale light had already begun creeping across the horizon.
Uta was completely exhausted. She lay sprawled across the bedding, too drained to even lift a finger.
"Haa…♡ ah… water…"
Cain brought a straw to her lips, and Uta immediately bit down on it and gulped several mouthfuls.
"Gulp, gulp…"
"Haaah♡… I'm alive again!"
She shot Cain a weak, accusing look.
"You seriously went way too hard. My whole body feels like jelly, everything aches, and I can't even get up."
There wasn't any real anger in her eyes, though. If anything, her complaint sounded more like she was asking to be pampered.
"This one's on me," Cain admitted immediately. "I was trying to hold back, but I got a little too excited."
Uta didn't blame him.
She simply lay there lazily while Cain wiped her down, gave her water, and fixed the blankets around her.
For the first time in a while, a deep, steady sense of security settled over her.
Having Cain right there beside her like this…
felt safe.
Her eyes unconsciously drifted toward her stomach.
Cain was finally hers.
'Still… there are some things I absolutely need to do.'
Uta's fingers brushed against the diary hidden in the gap beneath the bedframe.
Then, worried Cain might notice, she immediately shook the thought away and went back to enjoying being looked after.
It wasn't long before exhaustion finally won.
Her eyelids grew heavy, and soon soft, even breathing filled the cabin.
Uta had fallen asleep.
Cain gently tucked the blanket around her and remained beside the bed for a long time, not leaving until the sun was already high in the sky.
Only then did he step outside, planning to wash and hang up the bedsheet bearing the "plum blossom" they had created the night before.
The moment he left the bedroom, however—
he found Merry and Bella already waiting in the ship's meeting room.
Bella was still sleeping soundly.
Merry, meanwhile, was sitting comfortably on top of her.
Cain stopped in surprise.
Uta had been so thoroughly drained that she barely had any strength left. How was Merry still maintaining a manifested form?
As though reading his confusion, Merry explained on her own.
She was appearing through her own power this time and no longer needed Uta to sustain her.
The manifestation couldn't last very long yet, but it was more than enough for a short conversation with Cain.
Realizing Merry had guessed exactly what he was wondering made the atmosphere suddenly awkward.
Cain cleared his throat.
"Merry… you didn't look inside last night, right?"
Don't worry, Cain. I wouldn't spy on your private moments.
Merry's voice was still bright and innocent, just like a child's.
Although… you two were really loud!
"All right, all right! Don't investigate that kind of thing!"
Cain hurriedly waved his hands, the tips of his ears turning bright red.
Then he escaped the cabin as quickly as possible to hang the sheets outside.
…
Over the next few days, Cain waited for Uta to gradually recover while contacting Sabo about the trip to Egghead they had discussed earlier.
Following the information Sabo provided, they slowly narrowed down the coordinates.
Cain handled most of the work.
After all, Uta still couldn't get out of bed.
A few times, Cain caught her lying over her diary and scribbling something inside it, but every time he moved closer for a look, Uta snapped the notebook shut immediately.
The two of them might already know practically everything about each other by now, but basic privacy still mattered.
So Cain didn't pry.
After another two days of sailing, they finally reached the designated intersection point somewhere in the New World.
The method of locating it was almost identical to finding Laugh Tale: the final position could only be determined by drawing intersecting lines between four separate islands.
When the Going Merry arrived, three people were already waiting.
Bartholomew Kuma.
His daughter, Bonney.
And Koala.
Inside the cabin, Uta had recovered some of her stamina over the past few days, but she still wasn't strong enough to leave bed.
Even so, she spared a little concentration to create a projection of herself and send it floating onto the deck.
"Koala! Bonney! It's been forever! I really didn't expect you two to be the ones coming!"
"Yeah, it has been a while."
Koala smiled.
"It was a shame we missed each other in Totto Land a few days ago. This time, though, I'm only here to escort them."
She gestured toward Bonney and Kuma.
"Mr. Kuma's body has been repaired as much as possible, and he's physically human again. The control commands that were implanted in him have also been removed."
Koala's expression became more serious.
"The problem is that once those commands were erased, he stopped responding the way he used to. He can't simply be ordered to use his ability anymore."
"He still seems to respond to Bonney, but getting him to consciously use his powers or understand where he needs to go is extremely difficult."
"So we thought…"
Cain rubbed his chin and immediately picked up the important part.
"So the reason we're going to Egghead is to restore Kuma's consciousness?"
"Exactly."
Koala nodded.
"There are Marines stationed around Egghead, though. We can't risk the World Government discovering Kuma, and we need someone strong enough to keep both him and Bonney safe."
She clasped her hands together.
"So we're asking you to take them."
"Besides, Dr. Vegapunk's main body apparently wants to see you too."
"Please."
Bonney, still in her childlike form, clasped her hands together as well and looked up at Cain pleadingly.
Uta immediately nodded in agreement.
Inside, however, an entirely different thought passed through her mind.
'Perfect.'
If Cain had to escort Kuma and Bonney to Egghead, then he wouldn't have time to think about anything involving the Straw Hats.
He would have no choice but to keep sailing with her.
That was excellent.
Cain himself had no intention of refusing.
Kuma had helped him plenty of times before.
So he agreed.
Everyone visibly relaxed.
Then Koala turned toward Cain again.
"There's something else."
Her expression shifted.
"We received a message from Mr. Ivankov this morning."
"Sanji left."
…
Sanji had left Momoiro Island.
And the entire reason—
was Pudding.
Not long ago, Reiju had taken Pudding to North Blue, where Germa 66's main forces were based.
Not long afterward, Charlotte Smoothie hurried toward North Blue as well, both to retrieve Pudding and to discuss the possibility of an alliance.
Naturally, the Revolutionary Army knew none of those details.
Almost nobody outside the parties involved did.
From the day Pudding disappeared, Sanji hadn't been able to relax.
Ever since Big Mom summoned her away, the two of them had failed to connect even once.
And Pudding had been just as worried about him.
Eventually, after a great deal of effort, she managed to borrow a Visual Den Den Mushi from someone else and finally found an opportunity to secretly contact Sanji.
The problem was that the two had always spoken through Visual Den Den Mushi before.
That meant the only communication number Pudding had memorized—
was the number for a Visual Den Den Mushi.
So that remained their only method of contacting each other.
Pudding deliberately found an empty corner before making the call, doing everything she could to hide her surroundings.
She didn't want Sanji to know where she was.
Even more importantly, she didn't want to stir up his painful memories.
But the instant the image connected—
Sanji took one look at the wall behind her.
And his mind exploded.
That architecture.
That cold, mechanical design.
He would recognize it anywhere.
North Blue.
Germa 66.
How was this "fine"?
How was any of this "normal"?
To Sanji, it was obvious.
Pudding had been detained by Germa.
Maybe he could have dismissed the first call as a mistake.
But then came a second call.
And a third.
Different rooms.
Different angles.
The same unmistakable Germa architecture.
By then, Sanji had no doubt left.
And during all of this, Pudding's clumsy attempts to hide the background only made him more certain.
Especially when he remembered what she had told him before—
Germa 66 had appeared in Totto Land.
'Was that when they took her?'
Memories of his childhood came flooding back.
That place with no warmth.
No compassion.
The place he had never been willing to call home.
And now it had somehow dragged Pudding into its grasp too.
'Damn it…'
'Damn it!'
Then Sanji remembered kneeling before Pudding.
He remembered the promise he had made her.
He had sworn that if she ever needed him—
he would come and save her.
That promise burned through his mind like fire.
Worry and anger consumed what little restraint he had left.
This time, he wasn't setting out to sea for his crew.
Not for adventure.
Not even for his dream.
This time—
Sanji went to sea for love.
He was going to rescue Pudding, exactly as he had promised.
Sanji found Ivankov, borrowed a ship, recruited a reliable navigator, and set a course directly for North Blue.
There were still five months before the date when Luffy and the others had agreed to reunite at Sabaody Archipelago.
Sanji believed that would be enough.
He had badly underestimated reality.
Momoiro Island lay on the opposite side of the Red Line.
No matter which route he chose, the geography itself was a nightmare.
Take the safe route?
He would need to cross the Red Line and then make an enormous detour around the outer seas. That alone would consume an unpredictable amount of time.
Try the shortcut?
That meant crossing the Calm Belt.
And without a ship equipped with Seastone propulsion or some other reliable means of movement, entering those waters in an ordinary wind-powered vessel was practically suicide.
Even with the greatest navigator in the world aboard, sails were useless without wind.
Reaching North Blue quickly was already extremely difficult.
Finding Germa 66, rescuing Pudding, and then turning around to race back toward Sabaody Archipelago within only a few months?
Possible, perhaps.
But the schedule would be brutally tight, with almost no room for mistakes.
Uta understood that better than almost anyone.
During her years aboard the Red Hair Pirates, she had learned navigation from Bendix Snake. Distances, ocean currents, weather patterns, travel times—she had a strong grasp of all of it.
She could even estimate Sanji's current strength, the speed at which he could potentially cross dangerous waters, how much time the journey would consume, and roughly what his chances of success might be.
Which was why—
the moment she heard the news—
Uta's real body, still lying in the bedroom below deck, immediately reached into the gap beneath the bedframe and pulled out her diary.
Its pages were densely filled with notes on every member of the Straw Hat crew—
their weaknesses, habits, vulnerabilities, and corresponding countermeasures.
Uta flipped to Sanji's page.
Then, beside his name—
she slowly drew a large X.
From here, all she needed was one tiny push.
A little interference in the right place.
And Sanji would never make it back to Sabaody on time.
Maybe he would never make it there at all.
Not that she intended to kill him.
But when Luffy finally began gathering the Straw Hats again—
their crew would already be one member short.
The thought brought a faint smile to Uta's lips.
It was soft.
Almost gentle.
And somehow deeply unsettling.
'That's enough.'
She thought quietly.
One more person who might interfere with her life with Cain—
gone.
Which meant the ones still left to "deal with" were—
Luffy.
Zoro.
Nami.
Usopp.
Chopper.
Nico Robin.
Franky.
And Brook.
Uta's fingertips slowly brushed across the pages of the diary.
There was warmth in her eyes.
Tenderness, even.
But beneath it lingered something dark enough to make anyone who saw it feel a chill.