Uta had already used her Devil Fruit ability at noon, and now she had recklessly activated it again.
After accidentally summoning so many strange soldiers, her body could no longer hold out.
She glanced at the soldiers that had appeared out of nowhere around her, then gradually began to destabilize, but she did not care about them at all.
She only stared fixedly at Cain's face and instinctively asked,
"Why?"
Before the words had fully left her mouth, her vision went black, and she fainted.
The clothes on her body and the soldiers around her scattered into points of light and disappeared.
Cain's heart lurched.
He hurried forward and caught her firmly in his arms.
Shakky also noticed the disturbance and quickly put down the Den Den Mushi in her hand, rushing over.
Cain's heart sank.
Only now did he belatedly remember that this girl had always been extremely sensitive when it came to the people and things around her.
It was his own carelessness that had caused her emotions to spiral this far.
Looking down at Uta in his arms, he felt something strange.
He brushed aside the loose strands of hair covering her eyelashes, then pressed his fingers to her forehead.
Even with his powerful defenses and his duller sense of temperature, Cain could clearly tell that Uta's body was frighteningly hot.
"Shakky-nee, Uta… please look after her for a moment. I'll go find a doctor right now!"
As Cain spoke, he carefully handed Uta over to Shakky, then turned and rushed out the door.
Uta's temperature was far too abnormal.
She needed to be seen by a doctor as soon as possible.
And if there was any doctor who could help in this urgent situation, then across the entire Sabaody Archipelago and the nearby sea, there was only one person Cain could think of.
Trafalgar Law.
With that thought, Cain pushed the door open and transformed into his giant dragon form, charging outside.
What he did not expect was that Rayleigh was standing right outside the door.
The dragon-form Cain slammed straight into him, and Rayleigh ended up stuck right on Cain's mouth!
Cain did not care about that at all. He shot straight into the sky and shouted urgently at him,
"UNCLE RAYLEIGH! SOMETHING HAPPENED TO UTA! THAT PIRATE CREW WHO TALKED TO ME EARLIER—WHERE DID THEY GO?"
Rayleigh was being carried in Cain's mouth, his body swinging uncontrollably.
Hearing this, he hurriedly shouted back, "THEY SHOULD'VE ALREADY LEFT THE SABAODY ARCHIPELAGO! I REMEMBER THEY HEADED TOWARD THE HARBOR AT GROVE 18…"
As Rayleigh spoke, his tone grew increasingly serious.
"So it really appeared again… during the Summit War broadcast earlier…"
"WHAT EXACTLY HAPPENED?!"
Cain's voice carried an anxiety he could no longer suppress.
Rayleigh stopped holding back and told Cain everything he had observed earlier, one detail at a time.
As Rayleigh's explanation went on, a name suddenly flashed through Cain's mind.
Tot Musica, the Demon King of Songs.
That thing already had the ability to cross between Uta World and reality.
If Uta's current abnormal state was truly related to it…
But the score that summoned the Demon King should have been destroyed long ago.
'Wait.'
Cain suddenly remembered that he had entered Uta's subconscious many times before to search through her past memories.
And when Uta was little, she had indeed seen that score.
Although she had never sung the song completely, the melody and notes had already been quietly buried deep in her subconscious.
Because they were only fragments of memory hidden in her subconscious, she had not been able to fully summon the Demon King.
Instead, she had unintentionally grafted that thing's ability to cross between the two worlds onto the manifestation power of her own Uta World.
And the price for triggering this phenomenon was Uta's stamina.
"That's… probably what happened."
After Rayleigh finished, he belatedly patted Cain's sharp tooth.
"Kid, where exactly are you taking me?"
"TO FIND THEM!"
"HEY, HEY! THEY'RE PROBABLY ALREADY OUT AT SEA AND DIVING BY NOW! DON'T TELL ME YOU'RE REALLY PLANNING TO DRAG THESE OLD BONES OF MINE STRAIGHT INTO THE DEEP SEA?"
"UTA'S FEVER WON'T GO DOWN. RIGHT NOW, THE ONLY PERSON WHO CAN SAVE HER IS THAT GUY!"
Before Cain had even finished speaking, he had already carried Rayleigh down toward the harbor at Grove 18 and plunged straight into the cold sea.
"FIND A YELLOW SUBMARINE!"
That was Cain's final roar before he fell into the water.
The icy seawater surged wildly around him, and the immense pressure soon made Cain feel weak.
His pink dragon form could no longer be maintained and instantly disappeared.
He and Rayleigh sank heavily toward the seabed together, but Cain did not dare panic.
He quickly spread out his Observation Haki, sensing every bit of movement around him.
Rayleigh was being dragged downward by Cain, who was holding him tightly.
Seeing the boy so frantic with worry, Rayleigh stopped complaining and immediately activated his own Observation Haki to help search for the yellow submarine.
It was only then that Rayleigh suddenly remembered something.
He had forgotten to take a breath.. And Cain was still strangling his neck!
…
"Hey, Bepo. Stop staring outside."
Trafalgar Law leaned against the cabin wall and spoke calmly.
"But Captain, Uta was taken away by Cain. Are we really… really not going to do anything?"
Bepo's ears drooped, his voice full of worry.
"Did you even understand what happened? Those two clearly know each other."
Law helplessly rubbed his forehead.
"Huh?!"
Bepo's round eyes widened, his face full of shock.
"Seriously. Enough nonsense. Keep descending."
Law impatiently waved a hand.
"Captain, I feel like something is approaching in the sea. Could it be… could it be a Sea King?"
Bepo's voice began to carry a trace of fear.
"Stop scaring yourself. We're still in shallow waters. How could a Sea King possibly—actually, someone jumping into the sea in a place like this would be even more ridiculous, wouldn't it?"
Law scoffed and did not take it seriously at all.
"CAPTAIN! CAPTAIN!"
Bepo suddenly shouted excitedly.
"Enough. Be quiet."
Law frowned, a little irritated.
"No, Captain, I mean… look outside!"
Bepo pointed toward the submarine's porthole.
Law followed the direction of his finger and looked over.
His pupils suddenly shrank.
Cain was dragging Rayleigh toward the submarine with everything he had, completely ignoring the bubbles constantly spilling from Rayleigh's mouth and the obvious fact that the old man was running out of oxygen.
"CAIN-YA! HURRY UP AND SAVE HIM!"
The moment Cain was dragged into the submarine, he did not even bother coughing up the seawater.
He immediately shouted at the top of his lungs.
"HURRY UP AND SAVE SOMEONE!"
Beside him, Rayleigh lay on the floor, violently coughing up seawater while still complaining,
"Honestly… I nearly got solo-killed by you, you damn brat…"
…
At last, after Cain's explanation, Trafalgar Law followed him and hurried back to Shakky's bar to diagnose the unconscious Uta.
Cain stayed right beside them, not moving an inch, his eyes fixed tightly on Law's every movement.
A short while later, Law gave his diagnosis.
"Her Devil Fruit ability was overdrawn. Her stamina has been consumed to an extreme degree. She'll recover after resting quietly for a while. During this period, remember to cool her body down."
"But just like you described earlier, based on my judgment, her ability may lose control at any moment. So the best option right now is to stop her from using her ability."
"But Uta clearly didn't… She didn't actively sing to trigger her ability…"
Cain's voice was full of confusion and anxiety.
"Exactly. That's where the problem lies."
Law nodded, his tone calm.
"You said her ability comes from the Sing-Sing Fruit. Normally, singing should be the condition for activation. But right now, her emotions are extremely unstable. Even unconscious humming might trigger her ability."
"In other words, her ability is already in a state where it can lose control very easily."
"So the only way now is to… stop her from singing?"
"No…"
Cain was about to say more when Bepo suddenly spoke from the side, causing everyone to freeze.
Bepo immediately panicked and kept bowing in apology.
"I'm sorry! I'm sorry!"
"What I mean is…"
Law's tone shifted, still calm.
Almost at the same time, Cain suddenly realized what he meant. His pupils shrank as he looked at Law.
"You… you're not thinking of using your ability, are you?"
"That's right."
Law nodded openly.
"My ability can swap personalities. So, from a certain perspective, we need to find someone who is tone-deaf and sings off-key, then temporarily swap their personality with Uta's."
"Once her emotions are completely stable and she no longer risks triggering an ability rampage, we can swap them back."
Law's gaze swept across everyone present and finally landed on the only woman there—Shakky.
Shakky immediately understood, but only shook her head lightly.
Rayleigh explained with a smile,
"Back in the day, she was a popular idol herself. Singing is something Shakky can do with her eyes closed."
"If they really swapped bodies, her singing foundation might still accidentally trigger the Sing-Sing Fruit's ability. Then the exchange would be pointless, wouldn't it?"
"I'll do it."
Cain looked at Uta lying on the bed, still burning with fever even with an ice pack on her head.
His voice was low, but utterly firm.
"I really can't sing well, and I go off-key all the time. I'm the most suitable choice."
"And besides, this whole thing started because of me. I should be the one to take responsibility until the end."
He gently held Uta's burning-hot hand, his eyes full of self-reproach.
"The pain she's suffering right now… I'll carry it for her."