After hearing the doctor's diagnosis, Cain and Uta were both speechless.
The food might not have been poisoned, but anyone capable of feeding a Mythical Zoan like Yamato into both indigestion and malnutrition was probably one of a kind in all of Wano.
Fortunately, it wasn't anything serious. All Yamato needed was to go back to eating properly cooked meals prepared by an actual chef.
With the important matters temporarily settled, Yamato took Cain and Uta out to wander the streets of the Flower Capital.
"What…? No fireworks festival? No courage test either?"
Cain began counting off on his fingers all the standard summer-festival activities he remembered from his previous life.
"What about goldfish scooping? You've at least got candied apples, right?"
Yamato scratched her head.
"We have goldfish scooping. I've never even heard of the other stuff."
"As for fireworks, Wano does have the Fire Festival, but that isn't happening now. You'd have to wait several more months."
"…Right. That makes sense."
Cain immediately understood.
This was a country where people were still using fundoshi instead of underwear. Something resembling a fireworks festival might exist, but an organized courage test was probably far too specific to appear by coincidence.
"Cain, I think I understand the fireworks part, but what's a courage test?" Uta asked curiously.
"It's basically a game where you see who gets scared first while walking through someplace creepy. Usually it's a forest at midnight, an abandoned mountain path, something like that. Then every so often, a 'ghost' or 'monster' jumps out to scare you."
Cain had barely finished explaining when Uta grabbed his arm with both hands.
Her fingers tightened immediately.
"Cain… you aren't actually thinking of making me—"
She was already frightened.
The sight instantly reminded Cain of what happened when they went after Byrnndi World.
Perona had been nearby at the time, and Uta had accidentally seen the ghosts floating around her.
She had nearly cried on the spot.
Cain gently rubbed Uta's head and softened his voice.
"Relax. Those places are all deliberately set up as attractions. There aren't any real ghosts involved. Everything I'm talking about is just a game, and the monsters are people in costumes."
"But even if they're pretending…"
Uta still hadn't loosened her grip on his arm.
"Oh, are you talking about ghosts?"
Yamato suddenly leaned in from behind Uta, delighted to have found a new subject.
"Wano has real ghosts, you know!"
Uta stiffened.
"There used to be all kinds of stories about them. Most were just rumors people spread around, but lately there have genuinely been reports from Kuri about masked monsters appearing at night!"
"AAAAAH!!"
Uta jumped.
THUMP!
Her fist came down squarely on Yamato's forehead.
The punch was mostly an instinctive reaction to being startled, but there was definitely some resentment behind it too.
"Please don't scare me with things like that, Yamato."
Yamato crouched down with both hands over her head.
"Got it…"
Then her expression brightened again.
"But this courage-test thing sounds really fun. I definitely want to organize one in Wano someday."
"Huh?! Seriously?!"
Uta stared at her in disbelief.
Cain lightly patted Uta's hand.
"You don't have to be that scared. I'll stay with you the whole time."
"I never said I was going…"
Uta muttered quietly.
"Though if Cain's there, I guess I wouldn't be nearly as scared."
Bella suddenly poked her head out from inside Yamato's clothes, then launched herself into Uta's arms.
"It's okay! Bella will protect Mama!"
Uta hugged the cool little cloud against herself and couldn't decide whether she wanted to laugh or complain.
Bella really was too sweet.
The problem was—
Uta's gaze drifted toward Yamato.
Yamato was adjusting her clothes after Bella's escape had loosened the front enough that she had nearly exposed herself.
Uta's eyes lingered for a brief moment before she looked away.
"…That size really is ridiculous."
She muttered it under her breath.
Then she remembered Yamato's completely oblivious attitude whenever Ace came up and couldn't stop the corner of her mouth from curling upward.
'That guy is going to eat very well someday.'
Then Uta suddenly stiffened.
She slowly turned toward Cain.
'He… didn't notice anything, right?'
Fortunately, Cain had already turned in the opposite direction and was talking to an apple vendor nearby without even glancing toward Yamato.
Uta quietly relaxed.
Then she followed his gaze and found Cain staring suspiciously at the vendor.
The man held up an apple and shouted enthusiastically,
"Hey, young man! Are you buying or not? Apples! Fresh apples!"
Cain looked around.
Yes.
This was definitely Wano.
Then he carefully studied the vendor's clothes again.
For one strange moment, Cain felt like he had transmigrated all over again.
'Why am I suddenly getting such strong Re:Zero vibes?'
"Well, I'll take some. I can make candied apples for Uta later…"
Cain reached for his money.
Then stopped.
He turned toward Uta.
Uta looked back.
Both realized the same critical problem at once.
Wano was a closed country.
They didn't use Berries.
And neither Cain nor Uta had brought any local currency.
Fortunately, having the shogun herself accompanying them solved the problem quickly enough.
Cain accepted the bag of apples, weighed one in his hand, then remembered something else.
"Wait. Isn't Wano supposed to be isolated and heavily polluted?"
"Where are you even getting fruit this fresh?"
Yamato paid the vendor while answering.
"I don't really know why, but after Grandpa Garp came here, huge plants started sprouting everywhere around Wano."
"A bunch of enormous trees grew too. They cleaned up the wastewater from several factories."
"Kuri had the most dramatic growth, but that's also where all the ghost rumors have been getting worse."
"I was planning to investigate eventually, but since you're here now, we'll deal with Kaido first."
"…I see."
Cain nodded solemnly.
"Nature's ability to recover really is incredible."
Internally, however, he couldn't shake the feeling that something about this was suspicious.
Under normal circumstances, Wano definitely shouldn't have changed like this.
Still—
if Garp was somehow responsible, then it suddenly became much easier to accept.
Thank you, Grandpa.
Thank you, mysterious forces of nature.
Cain lifted the bag.
"Want candied apples later? I'll make some."
"Oh! Yeah!"
Yamato immediately raised a hand.
"I want one too!" Uta added.
"Bella wants one!"
…
"How did walking around town somehow end with us at a hot spring?"
Cain sat in the water with a towel wrapped around himself, only his head and shoulders visible above the surface.
He looked like he wanted to pull the towel another two inches higher.
"And it's mixed bathing too."
"Even if Yamato reserved the whole place, this is still a little…"
Bella had absolutely no concerns.
She lay comfortably on a wooden tray floating across the water, spinning lazily in circles and having the time of her life.
The bath really was mixed.
Yamato had reserved it in advance, so there were no outsiders around.
Which somehow made Cain feel even more awkward.
It wasn't as though he had never bathed with Uta before.
But still…
the atmosphere and the progression of events somehow felt suspiciously fast.
Meanwhile, inside the changing room—
Uta had just finished undressing and wrapping herself in a bath towel when something caught her eye.
Yamato was already completely naked.
No towel.
Nothing.
She was cheerfully heading straight toward the mixed bath while shouting,
"Hot spring, here I come!"
Uta's brain went blank.
Cain was inside.
Bella was inside.
And Yamato was seriously planning to run in there completely naked?
Absolutely not.
Uta launched herself forward on instinct, grabbed Yamato by the ankle, and yanked her backward.
"WAIT!"
"You're going to the women's bath!"
"Huh? Why?"
Yamato landed on her backside and stared up at Uta in genuine confusion.
"It's a mixed bath. Everyone's allowed in."
Technically, she wasn't wrong.
And given Yamato's own complete lack of concern about conventional gender boundaries, she genuinely didn't understand why this was supposed to matter.
Uta didn't care.
She grabbed another towel and wrapped it around Yamato.
Or at least—
she tried.
The towel fit around most of her.
The problem was the chest area.
It stretched so tightly that properly covering everything was nearly impossible.
Uta unconsciously placed both hands there while trying to hold the towel in place.
"…Even bigger than Cain was when he was En-chan."
Yamato blinked.
"Wait, Uta. What are you doing?"
Uta did not let go.
If anything, she squeezed harder.
"This is a threat."
"A warning. Understand?"
She narrowed her eyes.
"Never appear in front of Cain looking like this."
"Got it?"
Yamato's face turned slightly red under Uta's hands.
"I think I understand."
What Uta failed to realize was that Yamato's mind immediately returned to what she had said earlier about learning how Cain and Uta interacted so she could raise that little sun together with Ace.
So while Uta continued her very physical demonstration, Yamato began taking mental notes with complete sincerity.
'A naked body can only be shown to that one special person.'
'Okay.'
'So for me… that would mean Ace.'
'Right. I understand.'
Thousands of kilometers away—
Ace abruptly sneezed.
He rubbed his nose.
"Why does it suddenly itch so much?"