One Piece: Dream of Immortality-Chapter 561: Marine Bait

Before the very shocked gazes of Kizaru, Shanks, and Shanks' crew, a sea beast of legend crawled forth from Cherry's back. The deep blue kraken held Saint Charlos aloft in one of its limbs as it looked back at its admirers with far too much intelligence in its eyes.

"Takako, take Saint Porkchop out to sea. If the marines stop following you or attack you, just drown him and come back." Drunk Cherry kissed the monster on the forehead and hopped down from its enormous body. "You can give Saint Porkchop back to them when I call for you."

The terrifying creature made a sound between a roar, a growl, and a gurgle before crushing its way over several buildings and into the sea.

"Well? Get a move on. For a guy made of light, you're awfully slow on the uptake!" Drunk Cherry clapped and gestured at Kizaru.

Kizaru sighed and went to gather enough of his marines to actually sail one of their ships after the kraken.

Shanks watched the admiral leave for a moment before speaking up. "You know, he's just going to come right back. There's no need for him to be on the ship according to what you told your, uh, pet."

"Takako isn't my pet, she's my friend! My bosom buddy!" Drunk Cherry insisted. "And it doesn't matter if he comes back because this'll allllll be over soon."

Drunk Cherry started to run further into the island, but slowly enough for Shanks to follow.

"What makes you say so? I reckoned this was going to be quite difficult," Shanks admitted.

"Simple. Uta will summon Tot Musica and we'll kick its ass from both sides! Then everyone wakes up; easy!"

"She's going to what?!" Shanks exclaimed.

...

Uta should have done this from the get go, she realized only now.

Why she couldn't see it before, she wasn't sure, but now that she was far more clear headed it was time.

The ancient pages felt strange in her hands. She had held them before, on that night so long ago when Shanks had betrayed her and slaughtered the people of Elegia. People who had been nothing but kind to her and to them, reduced to little more than meat. The art that they created through instrument, song, and dance forever destroyed.

"Uta!" the voice of a man who had taken her in despite all that he had lost called to her from below.

"Gordon. I'm glad you're here to see this," Uta smiled. She didn't understand why he flinched at the sight of it.

"Uta, we can still end this madness!" Gordon shouted at her. Why was he angry? She didn't do anything wrong! "Just let these people go!"

"Letting them go would not be a mercy, Gordon!" Uta growled back, unsure why she was getting angry. Had Gordon ever been anything but supportive and kind to her? "I will not do them the disservice of denying them a chance at real lasting peace!"

"Some things are more important than peace, Uta!" Gordon argued. "Among those things, freedom is the most precious! You cannot take their freedom away, Uta!"

"They will be as free in my world as they could ever be out there! You'll see soon!" Uta insisted. "Pirates like Shanks will never harm them again!"

"I... Uta, I've lied to you," Gordon said, his voice barely carrying over the sounds of her soldiers clashing with Cherry below her. "It was not Shanks who destroyed Elegia. It was the demon from those wretched pages! It tricked you, Uta, tricked you into summoning it that night! It wasn't your fault, but Shanks couldn't bear to let you carry the guilt in your heart, so he bore that burden in your stead."

Uta could hardly believe what she was hearing. Was that true, or was it just a lie to get his way? Another father trying to abandon her and leave her to face the cold world by herself?

"Please, Uta, you must believe me!" Gordon cried. "I should have told you when you had gotten older and mature enough to handle the truth, but I couldn't bear it. I couldn't break your heart again!"

All doubt was swept aside by his honest plea.

However, "I'm sorry Gordon, but that doesn't change anything. Even if Shanks is not the fiend I thought he was, there are still fiends a plenty roaming those seas."

Gordon sagged to his knees and Uta started to sing.

...

"You're a lot different than before," Shanks commented. "Granted, I don't know you that well to begin with, but I'd like to think I'm a decent judge of character."

"Yeah, well, why don't you try having your consciousness stretched between two worlds like the thinnest noodle you've ever seen and you can tell me that it doesn't make you grumpy!" Drunk Cherry complained. "Honestly, I thought it was going to be loads of fun, but it's starting to feel like a headache for my soul. A soulache."

"Er, what's she talking about, captain?" Yasopp asked, scratching his head.

"Are you suggesting that you're currently in both this world, and Uta's world?" Shanks asked in turn.

"Duh," Drunk Cherry enunciated. "I'm not sure that I'm even Drunk Cherry anymore. I think I'm just... Noodle Cherry, or something. I'd like to go back to being just Cherry again."

"Huh," Shanks grunted. "Is Uta this way?"

Noodle Cherry opened her mouth to answer, only for an explosion to interrupt and answer for her.

An enormous figure burst forth from the castle that once served as the royal residence and place of higher learning for the musicians of Elegia.

Noodle Cherry let out an impressed whistle. "That's a big boy! I can see how it murdered a whole country in one night."

"I'm afraid it's a bit more troublesome than that. I had hoped to try and convince her to stop this before something like this could happen." Shanks ran a hand through his hair in frustration. "But there's nothing for it, I guess."

Shanks leapt into action, both figuratively and literally. There were still marines and civilians wandering around, so he needed to act to keep them from harm. "Try to corral everyone out of the area! We don't need any more innocent blood spilled on this soil!"

...

"Oh my..." Cherry blocked the sunlight from her eyes to get a good look at the thing that suddenly appeared in the sky with Uta. "I've never seen a demon quite like that, but it's definitely a demon. Wow."

It honestly wouldn't surprise her a bit to learn that this thing used to be a user of the uta uta fruit. It would explain its connection with the devil fruit and why its subsequent users could release it and possibly seal it away.

Oddly enough, she could actually pick the thing up with her Life Sense. It was a bit like the way her own body felt at the moment, like a tunnel and/or window to a physical body. Which probably meant that it was present both here and in the real world like herself, as well, which tracked according to her information.

"Shanks is here?" Cherry blinked at the message she just received from her semi-self in her physical body. "Well, that makes things much easier. Assuming he can listen to directions, of course."