One Piece: SSS-Rank Haki at Age Seventeen

Gordon's hands trembled slightly as he handed Uta a scroll wrapped in dark leather so deep in color it was nearly black.

"Uta… take this."

Uta lowered her head. The instant her fingertips touched the leather, an indescribable sensation surged through her body—icy cold, yet strangely alluring.

Dark golden patterns flowed across its surface.

They wriggled and shifted on their own like living things, forming melodies that ordinary people could never comprehend—

Yet somehow resonated directly with the soul.

"This is…?!"

Uta's pupils contracted sharply.

The flowing dark-gold markings reflected in her amethyst-like eyes as a violent dizziness washed over her.

Her breathing became uneven.

The hands holding the score began trembling uncontrollably.

The music sheet did not feel like an object.

It felt like a living abyss whispering to her.

[Sing it…]

A magnetic voice, seductive and corrupting, seemed to whisper directly into her mind, provoking the deepest instinct of her identity as a diva.

[Sing it… and you shall obtain incomparable power…]

[Your songs will truly 'create' everything…]

The temptation was overwhelming.

It perfectly matched the longing she had once held for a perfect musical world.

Her fingers almost moved uncontrollably along those patterns.

Her throat began to itch faintly.

Even her vocal cords had already started resonating subtly.

"This is the summoning score of the Song Demon King, Tot Musica!"

Gordon's old, hoarse voice crashed down like a basin of icy water in midwinter, instantly extinguishing that dangerous desire before it could ignite completely.

Uta felt cold from head to toe.

Even her bones seemed frozen solid.

She abruptly looked up at Gordon, her eyes filled with delayed horror.

"It contains the 'melody' and 'rules' needed to directly contact—and even summon—the Demon King itself."

Gordon's voice was so heavy it sounded like he was reading a eulogy.

He stepped forward. Though age and obsession had clouded his eyes, they now burned with scorching intensity as he stared at Uta.

His thin yet surprisingly powerful hands gripped her shoulders tightly, his fingers nearly digging into her clothes.

"Uta, listen carefully. Remember every single word I'm about to say!"

He spoke rapidly, but every syllable was sharp and absolute.

"The moment Tot Musica is successfully summoned through that score, what descends will not merely be its power—"

"—but also its will. A will accumulated over countless years, twisted by endless corruption and devouring desire!"

"It will immediately begin invading your soul with everything it has, trying to seize your body and turn you into its perfect vessel and instrument in the real world!"

His grip tightened.

What he conveyed through those hands was not only force—

But desperation.

And pleading.

"The instant your consciousness falters under the Demon King's corruption—even for a moment—and it takes control…"

"…everything will become irreversible!"

"You could become the Demon King's puppet!"

"You might even become the accomplice that helps it devour the real world!"

"Our entire plan… Luffy and the others' journey…"

"…will all fall into the deepest abyss!"

Blood vessels filled Gordon's eyes.

This was the utmost seriousness and sincerity that could be shown by an old man who had guarded this secret for eleven years while carrying endless guilt.

Uta could feel her heart hammering violently against her chest, as though it might burst out entirely.

Gordon's words struck her like heavy blows, dragging her fully back from the edge of that terrifying temptation.

Coldness.

Fear.

The crushing weight of responsibility.

All layered over her like chains.

Yet when the corner of her eye caught sight of Luffy's unconscious body lying nearby—his consciousness already deep within the Sing-Sing World—

And when she saw Rayleigh standing there calmly with sword in hand—

Uta slowly inhaled a deep breath.

As though she were drawing every ounce of fear and hesitation into her lungs before exhaling them all away.

"…Okay."

Her voice trembled slightly, yet remained crystal clear.

She nodded heavily and raised her face to meet Gordon's anxious eyes, forcing out a smile.

It was strained—

But resolute.

There was fear within it.

But even more than fear, there was determination.

"I understand, Gordon!"

She spoke word by word, each syllable sounding like an oath sworn with her soul itself.

"I'll hold onto myself. For Elegia, for everyone…"

"…and for Luffy."

After speaking, she no longer hesitated.

Her gaze returned to the writhing cursed score in her hands.

Her lips parted.

This was no longer the soft, probing melody from before.

Instead—

It was a deep, obscure symphony that seemed to come from an ancient abyss.

Every note carried ominous, cursed power.

A melody of nightmares.

The eerie tune flowed from her throat.

The surrounding air itself seemed to distort and freeze.

The sound was not loud.

Yet it felt capable of piercing through matter itself and reaching some indescribable dimension.

The dark golden markings on the score writhed frantically, emitting a dim sinister glow as they resonated with Uta's song.

The summoning—

Had begun.

And Uta's soul had officially stepped onto the most dangerous tightrope imaginable:

A direct confrontation against the will of the Demon King itself.

Centered around Uta, a gigantic inverted musical staff formed across the ground, writhing like molten black notes.

Broken stones and ruins around her began floating against gravity, vibrating violently in deadly resonance with the silent summoning.

Gordon staggered backward while clutching his chest.

Even though he could not hear the song, the contamination at the level of pure law still made his soul tremble.

At the same time—

Inside the Sing-Sing World!

"Oh? So it's finally here? That sure took forever!"

Luffy had been poking a giant crystal flower that chimed "ding-dong" noises for fun.

But suddenly, strange red light flickered in his eyes, and his expression slowly turned serious.

The moment those words fell—

The flowing rivers of musical notes froze midair.

The swaying cloud meadows stiffened like iron.

The wind stopped.

The songs ceased.

Absolute silence descended.

All colors rapidly faded, blackened, and rotted away.

The beautiful floating notes twisted and stretched into writhing black tentacles, releasing shrieks no human ear could perceive—sounds that scraped directly against the soul itself.

The "sheet-music clouds" overhead cracked apart piece by piece, peeling away to reveal endless void beneath them, filled with chaotic swirling colors.

The entire world rang with ultimate dissonance—

Mad laughter.

Despairing cries.

And wet, greedy sucking sounds echoing endlessly.

And then—

From the center of that dissonance—

It manifested.

It possessed no fixed form.

It was a grotesque monster forcibly stitched together from the corpses of music and the embodiment of noise itself, endlessly writhing and shifting.

Dozens of meters tall, it loomed over the now black-and-white ruins of the Sing-Sing World like a blasphemous singularity of living noise.

—The Song Demon King, Tot Musica, had descended.

The laws of the entire Sing-Sing World began groaning under unbearable strain as they were rewritten around its existence.

The remaining fragments of beautiful melodies were rapidly corrupted, covered, and devoured by the dissonance radiating from its body.

Luffy looked up at the incomprehensible monster before him.

His rubber fists slowly clenched, joints cracking sharply.

The smile on his face vanished.

But there was no fear there either.

Only intense concentration—

And excitement at facing an unprecedented enemy.

"So you're the one…"

Luffy bared his teeth as battle intent blazed from him like fire.

"…the noisy bastard who ruined Uta and this country."

The countless "eyes" covering the Demon King's body simultaneously turned toward the tiny human radiating overwhelming presence.

In an instant—

An even more violent flood of noise erupted forth.

A black tidal wave capable of shredding souls surged toward Luffy!

The battle between music and noise was about to begin.

BOOM—!!!

The dark tsunami of noise slammed into an invisible wall and exploded less than three meters away from Luffy, bursting into twisted black soundwave fragments like splattered ink.

Luffy stood motionless.

Even the corner of his clothes had not moved.

He merely tilted his head slightly with a look that practically said:

"That all you got?"

"Your voice…"

He dug lazily at his ear as though merely annoyed by a mosquito.

"…is super annoying."

Then he grinned.

A grin filled with pure disgust.

"AND IT SOUNDS TERRIBLE!!!"

Before the final word even finished—

Armament Haki spiraled around his fists, radiating an abyss-like pressure.

BZZZT—!

His rubber arm shot forward like a cannon shell!

"GUM-GUM—!"

As the arm stretched outward, terrifying force accumulated within it.

The corrupted air ahead split apart as Luffy's pure rage and battle intent exploded forward straight toward the center of Tot Musica's body made of shattered instruments.

"GATLING!!!"

BOOM! BOOM! BOOM! BOOM! BOOM—!!!

In a single instant, hundreds upon hundreds of fists crashed down like a berserk metallic storm, black lightning crackling wildly around them!

Violins, trumpets, and cymbals shattered into dust beneath the relentless barrage.

Corrupted sheets of music were torn apart.

The greasy ribbons of soundwaves were ripped to pieces by overwhelming shockwaves.

The Demon King's gigantic body trembled violently and staggered backward, unleashing a horrifying screech like countless panes of glass grinding together.

However—

Luffy's fists had merely punched through "matter."

It felt more like striking a swamp of endlessly regenerating noise.

The shattered portions did not disappear.

Instead, they rapidly reassembled under the surrounding dissonance—

Returning in forms even more twisted and grotesque than before.

Worse still—

The scattered fragments of noise moved like living parasites, attempting to crawl upward along Luffy's rubber arms and infect him!

"Tch! So smashing it apart isn't enough after all!"

Luffy clicked his tongue.

His arms instantly snapped back while Conqueror's Haki burst forth, blasting away the clinging black corruption.

That overwhelming barrage of attacks had seemingly only achieved visual destruction.

The Demon King's true core had barely been affected at all.

Clearly—

The right moment had not arrived yet.

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