"OWWW! MY HEAD! Which asshole has so little common decency that they're throwing garbage around in here?!"
Cain held the barrier-covered ice ball up with one hand and rolled his neck, which had nearly been twisted from the impact.
He glanced through the ruined doorway.
Nobody was coming.
His eyes immediately narrowed as he turned toward Shanks.
"Shanks, you did that on purpose, didn't you?! You smashed the damn thing straight into my head!"
"I couldn't exactly let it keep bouncing around the room."
Shanks slid Gryphon back into its sheath as he hurriedly defended himself.
"I needed something to cushion the impact, and you're ridiculously tough. Who better?"
"Besides, whether I did it deliberately or not… shouldn't you be able to tell?"
Cain glanced at Shanks' enormous electrified afro.
Makino was standing behind him, patiently combing through it strand by strand.
"…Looks pretty deliberate to me."
Before Cain could say anything else, a muffled noise came from inside the frozen sphere.
"Mmmph! Mmmph!"
Cain looked up.
Then froze.
"This is… Kuzan and…"
His eyes widened in realization.
"No wonder this thing didn't break after taking hits from both me and Shanks!"
Even if Cain had technically blocked one of those hits with his head.
Inside the ice, Bartolomeo was still frozen in his original position.
His eyes were wide open.
Although his entire body was trapped in solid ice, tiny tears were still gathering at the corners of his eyes.
'Mmmph… it's Cain-senpai!'
'I screwed everything up!'
'I'm so sorry!'
Cain sighed helplessly and waved Bella over.
Whatever had happened, they should probably get those two out first.
At that moment, Shanks expanded his Observation Haki and checked what was happening outside.
The situation had grown even more chaotic.
Large numbers of Marines were rushing toward the area, and unrest had already begun spreading through the audience.
Shanks frowned.
His earlier relaxed expression disappeared almost instantly.
"Things are getting worse out there."
"We can't let this interfere with Uta's concert."
Cain's expression became serious as well.
He carefully lowered the ice ball onto the floor and left it to Bella.
"So you're going out there personally?"
"Yeah."
Shanks turned toward Makino.
The gentleness returned to his smile.
"I think they'll give me some face."
Then his voice softened slightly, as though the next words were meant only for her.
"Leave it to me."
"I'll be back."
"Mm. Wait a moment."
Makino nodded.
The comb in her hand stopped moving, but she did not step away immediately.
Instead, she carefully reached up and smoothed down the few stubborn locks around Shanks' temples that were still sticking out from Sabo's electricity.
Only then did she withdraw her hand, clasp both hands behind her back, and smile up at him.
"There."
"Now you actually look presentable enough to go calm everyone down."
Shanks smiled and nodded.
Then he walked toward the door.
After taking two steps, he stopped and looked back at Cain.
"I'll leave them to you."
Cain blinked.
Then he clicked his tongue.
"So I'm not allowed to go?"
"Fine."
"I wanted to ask those two what the hell they were doing anyway."
He watched Shanks' cloak disappear through the doorway before turning back toward the frozen sphere.
Fortunately, Cain had reacted quickly earlier.
While Shanks and Makino were talking, he had quietly asked Bella to create a wall of ice around the strange ball, completely blocking it from view and muffling the sound.
Some moments between those two really did not need additional witnesses.
Their relationship could not be made public yet.
Cain walked over to the sphere.
Bella dismissed the surrounding ice wall and began absorbing the cold trapped inside.
Once Kuzan saw that Cain was handling things, he stopped worrying about the rest.
"Ah, well…"
He lazily breathed out a cloud of white mist and released the ice.
Almost simultaneously, Bartolomeo's barrier vanished.
Without anything supporting them—
Thud!
Thud!
Both men collapsed onto the floor.
Cain had not even managed to ask a question when his pant leg suddenly became heavy.
Bartolomeo had already crawled over and wrapped himself around Cain's calf.
Tears and snot poured down his face as he wailed.
"CAIN-SENPAI! I'M REALLY, REALLY SORRY! I SWEAR I DIDN'T MEAN TO! WAAAAAH!"
The more emotional he became, the farther up Cain's leg he started climbing.
Cain immediately grabbed his waistband.
"Hey! Hey! Stop pulling down my pants!"
"And somebody explain what the hell happened!"
…
"So this guy is…"
Kuzan leaned sideways against the sofa, supporting his head with one hand as he lazily stared across the room.
Bartolomeo was currently hovering around Sabo with a huge ingratiating smile on his face.
A moment later, he turned toward Uta and began enthusiastically waving at her too.
Cain followed Kuzan's gaze and helplessly waved a hand.
"As you can see, he's a fanatic."
"More specifically, a fanatic of the Straw Hats."
"Or really, just an enormous Luffy fan."
"OF COURSE I AM!"
Bartolomeo's ears immediately perked up at the word Luffy.
He spun around, puffed out his chest, and proudly declared,
"Luffy-senpai is the man who's going to become the Pirate King!"
"Of course I'm going to follow in Luffy-senpai's footste—"
His voice abruptly died.
A cold gaze had landed on him.
Kuzan had merely shifted position and glanced over with his half-lidded, sleepy eyes.
Bartolomeo's hands instantly crossed.
A green barrier flashed into existence.
He immediately crouched behind it.
"I-I'm warning you!"
"I'm not even a pirate yet!"
"So even if you beat me up, you won't get a single Berry in bounty money!"
Kuzan stared blankly at the barrier for two seconds.
Then he silently turned toward Cain.
His expression said everything.
'Deal with him.'
After all, Kuzan was no longer a Marine.
Even if he caught pirates for bounties now, Bartolomeo did not have one.
There was little reason to beat the guy senseless and hand him over to the Marines.
And even if he tried, it was questionable whether the Marines would bother accepting him.
On the other hand, Kuzan could not exactly stand by and watch Bartolomeo become a pirate who went around causing trouble either.
Cain understood Kuzan's expression perfectly.
Having such an enthusiastic little fan around sounded harmless enough, but if Bartolomeo caused a serious incident someday…
Cain knew Luffy's reckless personality far too well.
When everything inevitably went wrong, who would end up cleaning up the mess?
Cain and the rest of the crew.
And besides…
Bartolomeo's future reputation after setting out to sea was definitely not great.
If nobody corrected him now, the idiot might someday sail into Shanks' territory, trash the place, burn the Red Hair Pirates' flag, and start promoting Luffy merchandise without even caring whose territory he was standing in.
Even if Cain tried to mediate afterward, Shanks would never let something like that slide easily.
Cain sighed.
Then he stepped forward, grabbed Bartolomeo by the back of his collar, and dragged him off to the side.
Lowering his voice, he began a very serious session of "ideological education."
Trying to talk sense into Luffy—the natural-born troublemaker who practically treated disasters like entertainment?
Cain had zero confidence in that.
But Bartolomeo was different.
The guy worshiped Luffy.
Cain understood him perfectly.
As long as every lesson somehow became, This is what Luffy would do, Bartolomeo would swallow it without question.
So Cain explained which kinds of things Luffy would do…
and which kinds of things Luffy absolutely would not.
Naturally, Cain filtered out every example involving reckless property destruction, unnecessary fights, or accidental disasters.
What remained was a carefully curated collection of Luffy's finest acts of kindness and heroism.
"So if you really want to follow in Luffy's footsteps—"
"Then I need to become just like Luffy-senpai!"
Bartolomeo answered before Cain could finish.
His expression had become solemn beyond belief.
He treated every word Cain said like sacred scripture.
He even pulled out a small notebook and began writing everything down with tremendous care.
To Bartolomeo, every sentence and every written word seemed to transform into the glorious image of Luffy himself.
This was no longer a notebook.
It was holy scripture.
Bartolomeo silently swore that once he got home, he would build a shrine for it.
Kuzan leaned against the doorframe and watched for a while.
The conversation had somehow transformed into an enthusiastic seminar on "Examples of Good Deeds Performed by Luffy-senpai."
Bartolomeo listened with clenched fists and burning eyes.
Kuzan gave a faint nod.
Then he turned and walked out.
He still needed to check what was happening outside.
…
Meanwhile, Shanks' side of things went surprisingly smoothly.
The confrontation was successfully brought under control.
Issho might have been blind, but he had no intention of needlessly prolonging the conflict and was willing to give Red-Hair some face.
As for Katakuri—
He had never wanted to fight in the first place.
The Red Hair Pirates were the ones who had suddenly come after him.
For reasons Katakuri still did not entirely understand, they had started chasing him around as though he had committed some unforgivable crime.
He had only fought back because he needed to stall them long enough for Brûlée to escape.
His clash with Issho had simply been the result of several unfortunate circumstances overlapping.
Now that Shanks himself had appeared and wanted to talk, that suited Katakuri perfectly.
Once the situation settled, Issho led the Marines back toward the stage to calm the audience.
Lola was taken away to meet Cain.
Katakuri, meanwhile, was escorted somewhere else entirely.
The room was dim.
Only a few thin beams of light slipped through gaps in the walls, dividing the space into sharp bands of brightness and shadow.
Shanks sat in the center.
Gryphon rested horizontally across his knees.
On either side behind him stood members of his crew.
Vice Captain Benn Beckman had a cigarette between his lips, the glowing ember brightening and dimming in the darkness.
Lucky Roux was still chewing on a piece of meat, though his other hand rested firmly on the grip of his gun.
Hongo leaned against the wall on the left with his arms folded, expressionlessly studying Katakuri with visible caution.
Beside him stood navigator Building Snake, his arms relaxed at his sides but his fingers flexing slightly, ready to draw his weapon at any moment.
Limejuice stood near the doorway, faint arcs of electricity crackling across his weapon.
Musicians Bonk Punch and Monster stood side by side on the right side of the room, their faces difficult to make out in the gloom.
Howling Gab occupied the opposite side, glaring fiercely at Katakuri.
And in front of him stood the crew's newest—
Well, not exactly new anymore—
member, Rockstar.
Enemies on every side.
Every eye in the room was fixed on Katakuri.
Hostile.
Suspicious.
Prepared to attack at any moment.
The sheer pressure hanging in the room made the air feel heavy enough to crush someone.
Katakuri remained standing in the middle of it all.
Only one thought crossed his mind.
'So this is the Red Hair Pirates.'
No wonder they were known as an exceptionally balanced, ironclad crew.
Though…
They did seem to be missing someone.
Katakuri crossed his arms without changing expression.
His scarf concealed the lower half of his face, leaving only his calm eyes visible as he stared directly at Shanks.
Finally, Shanks spoke.
His voice was quiet.
Yet the pressure behind it weighed heavily on the room.
"So tell me…"
"Katakuri."
"What did you come here for?"
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