anwhile, back in the real world.
"Huh? We're…back?" Carina opened her eyes, looked around, and furrowed her brow.
"It seems Uta ended her Sing-Sing Fruit space…" she remarked. "But where are Uta and Arton?"
Nami, standing on the deck, stood up and added, "Maybe they headed back to the cabin first. I'll go take a look."
Kaya glanced at Nami and Carina before they could start squabbling again, gave them a quick word, and walked off toward the cabins. Sure enough, right after she left, Carina and Nami glared at each other and launched into another argunt.
Kaya knocked on the door to Arton's captain's quarters. The unlocked door creaked open on its own.
"Excuse ," she called softly, stepping inside. She spotted Arton lying on the bed right away.
"…He fell asleep," she murmured. "I guess it's no surprise—using all those templates takes a lot out of you."
Smiling, Kaya thought perhaps Uta's singing hadn't fully relieved Arton's ntal fatigue, so she intended to use her dical ninjutsu to help him.
She assud Uta had helped Arton back to his room and then gone to her own cabin to rest after sustaining the Sing-Sing space.
Kaya began to slip off her shoes, but suddenly, she noticed sothing unusual about Arton.
"He's breathing…really heavily."
Frowning, she reached out to feel his forehead.
"He's burning up! Could he be sick? And his blood's flowing way too fast… he may be suffering aftereffects from using Shirou Emiya's power to fight Mihawk."
Alard, Kaya imdiately attempted to diagnose and heal him using her dical-nin techniques. But no matter how she tried to calm his condition with chakra, nothing worked.
"What in the world happened? Why is he like this?"
"This won't do—I should take him to the infirmary for a full exam."
Taking a deep breath, Kaya hoisted Arton up to carry him on her back.
"Huh?! W-what is that…?"
She felt sothing pressing against her from behind, and her brow furrowed. A mont later, realizing exactly what it was, her face went scarlet. Silently, she set Arton back down, and with blushing cheeks, she gave him a careful once-over.
There was no illness—no real discomfort at all. Arton was simply having a certain kind of dream he shouldn't be having.
"…Has Arton finally reached the point where he can't hold back his urges anymore?"
"I've read in dical books that holding back for too long can be unhealthy…"
"But in this state, there's no treatnt I can give him… Unless we do it like in those…um… comics he drew?"
Kaya bit her lip, head bowed, unsure what to do. In the end, she sat down quietly on the edge of the bed, gently stroking Arton's forehead.
It seed that doing so would lower Arton's body temperature sohow. Suddenly, Arton reached out and grabbed Kaya's arm—the one she'd placed on his forehead—and gave a light tug, pulling her into his embrace. At that mont, Kaya once again felt that sa thing she'd noticed earlier pressing against her body.
"Uta, I love you."
Just as Kaya was at a loss for what to do, Arton—still asleep—spoke those words.
"Uta?"
"He's dreaming about Uta?"
Kaya blinked. The next instant, her mouth fell open in shock.
"Uta's Devil Fruit ability… Could it be that Arton is still inside that space sohow—together with Uta? Are they…doing those things?!"
She gasped, pressing her hands to her flushed cheeks as her mind conjured up all kinds of images.
"Looks like you managed to guess it, huh."
A voice Kaya knew all too well suddenly spoke from the doorway. Turning around, she saw it was indeed Uta standing there. At this mont, Uta's face and neck were completely red, and from a single glance, Kaya could tell she had the sa heavy breathing and slightly elevated temperature as Arton.
"Uta…so you really were doing…that with Arton, weren't you?" Kaya pursed her lips, looking at Uta.
Uta entered the room, locked the door behind her, then strode over and gently pulled Kaya out of Arton's arms.
"I was hoping to keep it quiet, but I guess it was bound to be discovered," she said. "Oh well, might as well let you know. It's just a matter of ti anyway. Yes, I am with Arton—mm!"
Mid-sentence, Uta's entire body suddenly trembled like she'd been jolted by a surge of stimulation, and her voice got noticeably louder. Seeing this, Kaya's mind instantly flashed back to scenes from the Sing-Sing Fruit space.
After a while, Uta slowly cald down. Forcing herself to steady her breathing, she spoke to Kaya:
"Kaya, please don't tell Carina or Nami for now. I'd like so ti alone with Arton—is that alright? If you help out, then next ti you want so alone ti with him, I can use my powers to create a private space just for the two of you."
Hearing that, Kaya's face went bright red.
"S-sorry to bother you…"
Without another word, she vanished in a puff of smoke right there in the room, using the Body Flicker Technique in her hurry to leave. Uta couldn't help but chuckle at the sight.
"Heehee… His soul is doing that with inside the Sing-Sing Space, while his real body is asleep here. It's such a strange sensation," Uta said to herself, smiling as she kicked off her shoes and lay down beside Arton, wrapping her arms around his back.
Uta's vision shifted, and she found herself once again in that dream-like world of the Sing-Sing Fruit space.
anwhile, outside in the real world, Kaya leaned back against the captain's cabin door, struggling to calm her pounding heart.
"Haa… Uta has really beco that close with Arton. Soon enough, not only in the Sing-Sing space, but in the real world too, they'll be together. Maybe before long, there really will be a baby on the way…"
"That ought to be a happy thing," she thought. "But…why does my heart feel a little uncomfortable?"
Placing a hand over her chest, Kaya allowed a faintly bitter smile to tug at her lips. She wanted to leave, but that unexplainable pang kept her rooted to the spot. Glancing back through the crack in the door, she could see Arton and Uta lying quietly side by side. Kaya knew full well, though, that in the Sing-Sing Fruit space, they were definitely not this calm.
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