Author's Note:
This arc, "Shin Tot Musica," will obviously break from the Original Work, and I plan to go full throttle with fabrication, personal interpretation, and all sorts of other runaway creativity. Please assu there's virtually no resemblance to the Film RED version. Probably. The author has an incurable condition where they can't help but write down whatever pops into their head...
---
The next morning. Things moved fast.
"Hey, Lady, got a minute? So, um... a request for a eting ca from Uta-chan first thing this morning, through Gordon-san. Any idea what that's about?"
"...I do."
"You do?!"
Honey seed thrown. Uta-chan had been shut up in her room refusing all visitors for the past few days, short as that was, and now she was asking to see soone of her own volition.
On top of that, the person she'd asked for was , and the fact that I, the one she'd specifically requested, had just said "I do" seed to cause a bit of a pileup of surprises.
But what could I do? I really did have an idea. Obviously.
'Nine tis out of ten, it's about yesterday's "dream"... No, that probably wasn't just a regular dream after all.'
Showing up at the crack of dawn would've been a bit much, so I at least had breakfast first before visiting Uta-chan's room.
And when I heard what she had to say... just as I'd expected, Uta-chan had the sa dream I did yesterday.
No, it wasn't just that the content of the dreams happened to match. We really were in the "sa" dream. Both of us, Uta-chan and .
Most likely... inside Uta World.
But for Uta-chan to pull soone else into Uta World, she needs to make them hear her sing. I certainly had no mory of hearing her sing that day, and since Uta-chan had been shut up in her room, there was no way I could have heard it. And of course, Uta-chan herself said she had no mory of doing anything like that.
Now, the "shut up in her room" part alone could potentially be worked around. Apparently Uta-chan's singing can take effect even through a Den Den Mushi, as long as the audio quality is maintained to so degree. But since Uta-chan herself denied it, that wasn't it.
She'd been feeling down for so reason and had shut herself in her room, and apparently she'd been in a state of mind where she didn't even want to sing. That's what she'd just murmured, her words trailing off in quiet fragnts.
So it really wasn't Uta-chan's doing. That much was clear. But more than that, what hit harder was what she'd just said.
'She didn't want to sing? Uta-chan, of all people...?!'
As far as I knew, this girl in front of , with her red-and-white two-toned hair styled up in a butterfly shape, truly loved singing from the bottom of her heart. She loved to sing, she loved listening to songs. And of course, she absolutely loved seeing people smile because of her music. A girl you could genuinely call a born Songstress. That was Uta-chan. ...Or so it was supposed to be.
For soone like her to say she "didn't want to sing"... that shouldn't be possible unless sothing truly terrible had happened. What on earth happened to her?
...No, it was probably... related to that mysterious Monster from the dream.
Maybe that's what I was thinking, and maybe it showed on my face. Uta-chan, who had been looking downcast with her eyes lowered, murmured,
"...You're curious, aren't you? About that Monster..."
"Yeah, well... honestly, yes. Would you maybe be willing to... tell about it?"
"..."
Silence. Gordon-san, sitting beside her, must have grown worried, because he spoke up.
"Uta, if it's too painful, you don't have to push yourself... I can explain to Sue-dono..."
"No, it's okay, Gordon. ...If I were just keeping a secret, that'd be one thing, but I'm the one who dragged her into this. I have to... tell her properly."
With that, Uta-chan stood up and disappeared into the back room. She returned almost imdiately.
In her hand, an unfamiliar Den Den Mushi.
"Sue-san, I've told you before, right? That I'm the daughter of Red-Haired Shanks... and that one day, in a certain country, I was suddenly abandoned."
"And you also said you had no idea why and it ticked you off. Then a few years later you t Tesoro and everyone, and ended up coming here, right?"
"Yeah. ...But, you see... just recently, I was able to... find out."
"? 'Find out' what...?"
"Why Shanks abandoned . And what really happened that night, in Elegia... the whole truth. All of it."
As she spoke, Uta-chan's complexion grew worse and worse. She looked like she might collapse, bad enough that watching her made worry.
And it wasn't just Uta-chan. Gordon-san too. His color was terrible, and he was breaking out in a cold sweat.
Wait... the way she said "that night" and "Elegia"... Oh, could she an that incident? The one where the Red Hair Pirates supposedly attacked and destroyed a country called Elegia?
It was quite a while ago, but I rembered it well. I happened to read a top story in World Economic News about it, and knowing what kind of pirate he actually was, the content was utterly unbelievable.
I rembered not believing it at all, being more exasperated than anything.
'Co on, Morgans, what are you even writing?' I'd assud the World Governnt had pulled one of their signature information manipulation stunts and Morgans had lent them a hand or sothing.
But what did these two know about that incident? And it was connected to this "dream"?
Uta-chan, forcibly suppressing what must have been a deeply unsettled feeling, activated the Den Den Mushi in her hand. It turned out to be a Visual Den Den Mushi, and moreover, one that had recorded so kind of video data on its own. A type that could both record and play back was fairly rare, but... well.
What in the world was on this thing?
----Viewing in progress----
"..."
...As always, "backstories" in the One Piece World tend to be heavy.
Having finished watching what was on the Visual Den Den Mushi, that thought hit anew with painful clarity.
Fortunately, just about everything I'd wanted to know was now clear. But this was a bit much...
"It was all my fault. That Elegia was destroyed... that Shanks abandoned . It was all because of ..."
"Uta, that's not true! If only I had disposed of Tot Musica's Sheet Music... As soone involved in music, the fact that I couldn't bring myself to destroy it even after what happened, all the way up to now... it's my fault..."
So. A Song Demon King, huh... What a thing to co crawling out of the woodwork.
Like the Seven Star Sword that was now my beloved blade... no, clearly on a larger scale... one of those rare occult elents even by One Piece World standards.
Impossible to control. It wouldn't stop until it had destroyed and slaughtered everything in sight. And in fact, that's exactly what happened to Elegia. No rcy, no discrimination, no questions asked... Scary stuff. What is this, so kind of Dark Dream?
For the record, to be precise and technically accurate, the Demon King itself doesn't have a na. "Tot Musica" is strictly the title of the piece written on the Sheet Music. When a Sing-Sing Fruit Ability User sings it, the Demon King revives and goes on a rampage. ...Well, since singing it causes the Demon King to appear, the two are more or less treated as one and the sa, and the Demon King has co to be known by the na Tot Musica.
So Shanks, not wanting Uta-chan to bear the guilt, took the bla himself and left Uta-chan there... Sounded about right.
However, the truth had been exposed, because soone had recorded the tragedy that night in Elegia on this Visual Den Den Mushi. And just as Shanks had feared back then, once she learned the truth, she blad herself and sank into depression.
This wasn't sothing an outsider could casually toss empty words of comfort at.
...That aside, though... while listening to Uta-chan's story just now, sothing had suddenly occurred to ...
"Uta-chan, Gordon-san... hey, could it be that..."
---rustle---
"This Sheet Music for 'Tot Musica'... is this it?"
"...?!"
The ancient set of four sheets of music that I suddenly pulled from inside my body and placed on the table. The two of them nearly jumped out of their seats.
"That's... th-there's no mistake... Why do you have this?!"
"Sue-san, that... Gordon was panicking a while back saying he'd 'lost it!' But... wait, why does Sue-san have this?!"
You lost it? Don't lose sothing this dangerous!
Well, I suppose without a Sing-Sing Fruit Ability User around, it's just old sheet music. Sure.
And as for why I had it...
"...Sorry, I don't know."
"Huh?"
"No, I really don't know... Before I realized it, it was inside my body. I just noticed it now."
Not a lie. This was the honest, genuine truth.
Just now, when I heard Uta-chan and the others talking about Tot Musica... I suddenly felt a strange presence inside my body.
It felt exactly like the sensation I got from the Seven Star Sword, which I normally kept stored inside . That thing has a will of its own, after all. So I was able to recognize it. Right now, sothing other than the Seven Star Sword was inside . No, not sothing. Soone was "there."
Maybe it was because Uta-chan and the others talked about Tot Musica and I beca aware that such a being existed, which let finally notice it. If that was the case, did that an this Sheet Music had been lurking inside since long before? Now that's scary.
...Could this have been the source of that strange presence in the middle of last night, too?
"Tot Musica's Sheet Music possesses its own will... and can move freely on its own to a certain extent. That night was the sa... it slipped out of storage on its own and appeared before Uta..."
"Wait, this paper moves by itself? ...Let's test it."
I left the Sheet Music on the table and stepped back a bit. Waited.
Then, after a few dozen seconds, the Sheet Music floated gently upward... and fluttered through the air toward like a dancing butterfly. I dodged on reflex, but it tracked and kept coming... then went right inside . I hadn't even tried to absorb it. It just went in on its own.
"It went in... Oh right, Sue-san is a Paper Human, so..."
"The Sheet Music was drawn to that and flew in of its own accord, you're saying...?"
"...No, I don't think that's all there is to it. Just now, when the Sheet Music entered ... there was sothing I noticed. Sothing I felt."
This Sheet Music was connected in so way to my Paper-Paper Fruit Powers themselves. It wasn't just because it was paper. There was so kind of bond, so kind of fate tying us together, and that was what drew it to . I couldn't put it into concrete terms like "it's specifically this," but intuitively... that's what I felt.
And besides, the Demon King itself awakens through the song of a Sing-Sing Fruit Ability User. That's a clear connection right there. So it stood to reason that there was sothing between the Sheet Music and the Sing-Sing Fruit's Powers as well.
The Song Demon King.
The Sing-Sing Fruit.
The Paper-Paper Fruit.
The Sheet Music.
Sothing was definitely going on between these four...
Information from the past, important information, that even Gordon-san and Uta-chan didn't know about. Or rather, it might be more accurate to say it was never passed down to them.
The Song Demon King was apparently a legend from Elegia, so maybe if I went to Elegia, there'd be historical records or sothing...?
...Actually, more pressing than that was sothing else on my mind.
"Hey, Uta-chan. About that 'dream'... let ask again, but you really didn't do anything to cause it, right?"
"Huh? Oh, right... I didn't do anything, I truly have no idea what caused it."
"But yesterday, both you and I were pulled into a world that was most likely Uta World. And we were able to wake up by passing through the Sheet Music Door..."
If what happened yesterday was deliberately triggered to target Uta-chan, the Sing-Sing Fruit Ability User, and , the Paper-Paper Fruit Ability User who also happened to possess the Sheet Music... or if it was sothing that was simply fated to "happen"...
"That dream... there's a chance, just maybe, that we might have it again tonight, you know? And not just tonight... from now on, maybe forever."
"...ah..."
Uta-chan went completely white.
The realization hit her. That she might have to face the Demon King that destroyed Elegia every single night after falling asleep. That she might be attacked by it. Fear and despair visibly welled up inside her.
And honestly, it was a real possibility. If Uta-chan and I had been drawn there for so reason, and we didn't know why we'd been called, then we had no way of knowing whether it would end after just one ti, or if it didn't end, what we'd need to do to make it stop. We knew nothing.
If whatever called us had a purpose, then maybe it would continue until that purpose was fulfilled, or sothing like that.
If there was no particular purpose and we were simply being summoned as an inevitable consequence of certain conditions being t... that might be even worse.
But either way, the only way to find out what would happen was to actually go to sleep. It didn't have to be nightti; even a nap would work. What do you think? Want to try it?
...Oh, scared but willing. OK, I'd go along with her.
Gordon-san, could we borrow that long sofa or sothing?
...Yep, just as I thought.
Good morning, giant Clown. Long ti no see, about six hours or so.
To be continued...
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