OP: My Aircraft Carrier Evolves#114+115: A Devil Fruit Awakens! The Demon Emerges! A Clash of Wills, A Battle of Rules!

On the simple stage, Uta was radiant.

Ever since Shanks and his crew had left, music had been her closest companion. Gordon hadn’t taught her much, but her innate talent was undeniable. She had slowly learned to weave the words in her heart into song.

Tonight, she finally had an audience. She sang with pure joy, a musical sprite sharing her gift with the world.

Kuma, Robin, Nami, Carina, Tashigi, Gordon—all were captivated, lost in the sound of her voice.

But it was more than just a beautiful song. As Uta sang, Jin felt a strange vibration in the notes, a special frequency that resonated on a spiritual level, touching the will of the listener. You couldn’t help but be drawn into the song’s embrace, to feel what she felt.

Her joy, her sorrow.

Even Jin was moved.

"If Uta, the Revolutionary Army's Belo Betty, and the Supernova Apoo ever formed a band..." he mused.

"The Sing-Sing Fruit, the Pump-Pump Fruit, and the Tone-Tone Fruit, all working in concert. What would that even sound like? Unimaginable."

If they played something high-energy... Even a stray dog would probably jump on the nearest person and ride them into battle. And if they played a dirge? Would everyone just take a page from Aura the Guillotine's book and order themselves to fall on their own swords?

Gordon and the others didn't notice that Jin was using a subtle application of the Scream-Scream Fruit's power to broadcast Uta's song across the entire island.

He wasn't trying to get himself killed by awakening the music demon. He was about eighty percent sure he could handle it.

Especially after his latest evolution.

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Deep beneath the royal palace, in a dim stone chamber, a pentagram was carved into the floor—a magic circle, a seal.

A closer look revealed similarities to the seal on Asuka Island. Some of the symbols were identical.

Clearly, in some long-forgotten era, the ancients had known of these "demons"—these amalgams of desire and will.

And they had a way to deal with them.

Seals.

Many of Imu's techniques were likely related to this.

The seal in Elegia was even more advanced than the one on Asuka Island—it had somehow managed to separate the "demon" from the fruit itself, using cheerful songs to suppress it.

But Uta's arrival had shattered that balance. As the host of the Sing-Sing Fruit, she had become the link.

As her song drifted through the air, a faint red light, like seeping blood, began to emanate from the seal, stirring a faint breeze.

The seal and the island were one.

When the wind began to blow in the secret chamber... it blew across the entire island.

But Gordon, Kuma, Nami, Robin, and Carina were all lost in the spell of Uta's voice.

No one noticed.

Except for Jin.

He saw it instantly—a red light spreading out from Uta's body, carried on the wind.

And then, one by one, everyone who could hear her song began to collapse, falling into a deep sleep.

The Paramecia Sing-Sing Fruit... had Awakened.

Through her song, Uta had pulled their very souls into the domain where the "demon" was sealed—the Sing-Sing Space.

Including her own.

—————————

Robin opened her eyes.

She was in a magnificent city, but the streets were empty. Something was wrong.

"Huh?" Nami gasped. "Where are we?"

Carina also realized something was off. Tashigi looked around, bewildered.

"This is Elegia!" Gordon said, his eyes shining with a fervent light. "Elegia, before it was destroyed... Elegia as Uta remembers it..."

His kingdom. How could he not love it?

This wasn't the first time Gordon had witnessed Uta's power. It had begun to manifest as she'd grown older, in small, manageable ways. He explained the situation.

"A Devil Fruit?" Nami, Carina, and Tashigi were all shocked.

"The Paramecia Sing-Sing Fruit, in an Awakened state," Robin clarified. She had learned a great deal from Jin—about Haki, about Devil Fruit Awakenings.

Nami was the first to notice the glaring omission. "Hey... where's the King?"

He was gone.

"Why isn't he here?" Carina asked, looking around frantically. "Did he go somewhere else?"

In this situation, the King was the one who made her feel safe.

The silent Kuma finally spoke. "Do not be alarmed. I will protect you. The King has other business to attend to."

"Eh?" Carina, Nami, and Tashigi all turned to look at him.

Suddenly, Tashigi cried out, "The Tyrant... Bartholomew Kuma!" She instinctively drew her sword.

Nami's jaw dropped. "You... you're the Tyrant from the wanted posters?! Kuma?!"

Kuma looked down and realized that in the Sing-Sing Space, his bear-like coat was gone.

Carina was also stunned. She and Nami scrambled to hide behind Robin. As treasure hunters, they knew the value of information. They never skipped on buying a newspaper. Nami was the only one on the Straw Hat crew who had a subscription, and even when the price went up, she had grit her teeth and paid. For their favorite little miser, that was the ultimate compromise.

And the World Government's wanted poster for Kuma, which had been spread all over the world, depicted him as an irredeemably vicious tyrant.

Of course they recognized him.

"Don't be afraid," Robin said, her voice calm. "Kuma is not the tyrant the World Government makes him out to be. He's actually very gentle."

"Really?"

Robin's words were reassuring. Nami and Carina clutched their chests, their breathing slowly returning to normal.

Tashigi was still skeptical, but after a moment's hesitation, she sheathed her sword. She had spent enough time with these people to know they weren't evil. And though she was a Marine, she was not without a heart. She was not some blind fanatic.

"You mean," Gordon said, stepping in front of Kuma, his gaze stern, "—that the King had another motive for being here?" He knew something was wrong.

Robin, Nami, Carina, and Tashigi all looked at Kuma.

Another motive?

Kuma shook his head. "I do not know. The King only told me to protect you if something unexpected were to happen."

The color drained from Gordon's face. "Damn him... his goal... it couldn't be... We have to wake Uta, now!"

"Why?" Nami asked.

"Tot Musica!"

"What's that?" Carina asked.

A look of pure agony crossed Gordon's face. "The true culprit behind Elegia's destruction," he said. "The sealed 'demon'!"

"A demon?!" Nami and the others were terrified.

"Is... is it real?" Tashigi asked.

Gordon nodded.

"Do not be afraid," Kuma said, his voice a low rumble. "A 'demon' is just a collection of human desires and beliefs. Once you understand that, it is possible to defeat it. The more you fear it, the more you suffer, the stronger it becomes."

He paused. "The King told me that."

Uta's song continued to echo through the dream city.

A massive stage rose from the center of the city, and Uta stood upon it.

As she sang, musical notes appeared out of thin air, swirling around her in a beautiful, ethereal display. Her voice seemed to transcend dimensions, and everyone's hearts were filled with an involuntary joy.

<><><><><><><><>

The world outside fell silent.

Jin leaped into the air, using Moonwalk to ascend to the spot he had pinpointed earlier.

"Meteor Fist!" he shouted, throwing a punch that sent a powerful shockwave crashing down, shattering the palace and leaving a massive crater.

The force of the blast blew away the debris, revealing the seal below. A red, flame-like light was spreading out from it, burning the sky, twisting space.

In the next second, a deafening cacophony assaulted Jin's ears—a mixture of whispers, shrieks, and ferocious roars.

Illusions and sounds erupted from the broken seal.

It was the roar of a monster.

A chilling, oppressive terror washed over him.

In an instant, a surge of green flames erupted from his body. He entered his half-beast form, a fiery cloud swirling around him.

A massive, flaming serpent appeared behind him, its coiled body taller than the island's mountains.

Mythical Zoan: Hell's Red Serpent!

It opened its massive, flaming jaws and "swallowed" the cacophony, the illusions, the roars.

Paramecia: Munch-Munch Fruit!

The combination of the two fruit abilities allowed him to ignore the negative spiritual pollution released by Tot Musica.

Jin was now a "snake-man," his lower half human, his upper half a serpent with two arms. His already powerful physique, amplified by the fruit, was now even stronger. He raised his fist and punched the seal again.

Elegia shook.

The island trembled as if in an earthquake, and massive fissures spread out from the point of impact.

The seal shattered, and a black space was revealed—a space that was like hell, like a twisted version of reality, a bizarre, mottled landscape.

The sky changed. Dark clouds pressed down, and the sea churned violently.

In the palace library, the tremors sent books tumbling from the shelves, revealing the sheet music for Tot Musica.

The "demon's" power, clinging to the pages, was carried on the wind, and a strange music began to play through the trees and the rocks.

Uta's body began to glow red. As the link between the Sing-Sing Space and reality, she was pulling the two closer, unleashing the monster within.

She was twisting, changing, becoming the "demon."

At the same time, in the identical locations in both the real and the dream versions of Elegia, something opened its eyes.

Sorrow, anger, despair, oppression... a torrent of negative emotions erupted like a volcano.

Uta's song had, without anyone noticing, become Tot Musica. She was under its control.

The frenzied music resonated with everything in the space, emitting an endless wail of anguish, an infinite malice.

Robin and the others felt an extreme pressure, as if they couldn't breathe.

"The demon! It's out again!" Gordon fell to his knees in terror.

"UTA!" he cried, trying to wake her.

"Look!" Nami screamed. "What is that? Is that the demon?"

A massive, twisted, grotesque shadow blotted out the sky.

It was impossible to describe its form. It was a chaotic amalgamation of broken musical instruments, a blurry, indistinct monster, glowing with the dark-red light of a dying soul.

It was the physical manifestation of sorrow, pain, and despair, coalesced into a single desire: "destroy the world."

BOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOM!

A massive bear paw slammed into it, shaking the monster and shattering a part of it.

Kuma had made his move.

And he had actually damaged Tot Musica.

It wasn't just because Kuma was strong. It was because of his spirit, his will.

What sorrow, what pain, what despair had Kuma not already experienced?

And what was his answer?

'I will bear it.'

'I will bear all the pain, all the sorrow, all the despair... But my heart will still hold light, kindness, and hope.'

"Paradise is seen in the eyes of those who look up at the night."

"Even in the darkness, you must look to the stars and search for the light."

That was Kuma.

You could call him a coward. You could call him a fool. You could say he made the wrong choices.

But you could not say he lacked courage.

A man like Kuma, with a fire of self-sacrifice burning in his heart, would always be willing to give his own life to light the way for others.

And that spirit, that belief—like Luffy's unshakeable optimism—was the perfect counter to the negative emotions of despair and sorrow.

Kuma's attacks dealt massive amounts of true damage.

"He... he blocked it!" Nami and the others were stunned, watching Kuma stand before the "demon" and shatter a part of its form.

But he could only damage it, not destroy it.

—————————

In reality, Uta had become Tot Musica.

She walked, and an impassioned symphony echoed from her "body," a strange vibration that warped space and time. The sorrowful, angry, desperate song was like the whisper of a demon, assaulting the mind, polluting the soul.

The out-of-control Uta was like one of the Jailer Beasts, radiating an immense pressure.

Her power was not in her physical strength, but in her insidious ability to corrupt.

Any life, any matter affected by her became a part of her.

It was similar to how Luffy's Gomu-Gomu Fruit had awakened into Nika.

Long ago, the one who had composed Tot Musica... he must have written it in a state of extreme despair, sorrow, and anger. And he had poured his own soul, his own will into it, transforming it into the awakened ability of the Sing-Sing Fruit.

Jin used his Calm-Calm Fruit to create a massive zone of silence, neutralizing Tot Musica's effect on the surrounding environment.

His earlier attempt to swallow it had failed, and now he knew why.

"I have to swallow both the real and the virtual versions of Tot Musica at the same time to completely destroy it."

The two were one and the same—one part in a virtual space, the other in reality. The proof was that Uta existed in both spaces.

But in reality, Uta had become Tot Musica. In the dream world, she had not yet completed the transformation. This meant that the Tot Musica in the dream world was the original host's soul. If the two were allowed to merge, to complete the "possession," Uta would, in a sense, die.

It was a similar situation to Luffy and Nika. Luffy had been beaten to death by Kaido, his heart stopping, and only then had Nika emerged.

"In that case..." Jin's eyes glinted.

The demonic carrier let out a roar, and a magic circle appeared at his feet.

It locked onto Kuma's spiritual form in the other space.

Teleport!

The furnace roared, steam surged. A golden flame of soul energy ignited within the array, piercing through the fabric of spacetime.

In an instant, Jin's will appeared in the Sing-Sing Space.

"Your Majesty!" Nami and the others cried out, overjoyed.

Jin ignored them.

In both reality and the dream world, he charged toward Tot Musica, unleashing the power of the Munch-Munch Fruit.

A massive mouth, larger than the island itself, opened and swallowed Tot Musica, attempting to fuse the two into one.

"He... he swallowed it!" Robin, Nami, and the others were all dumbfounded. The King had swallowed the "demon"?

A cacophony of music, an endless torrent of negative emotions, slammed into Jin's will.

He endured it.

The Munch-Munch Fruit could make anything a part of itself, including a "demon."

It was an awakening against an awakening, a clash of abilities, of rules.

As he swallowed it, Jin was also being corrupted by the deathly music. It was a battle of wills.

Conqueror's Haki erupted from Jin's body.