Majiatsuka Kingdom, Southland—the shattered Royal Capital.
Collapsed houses, cracked streets, and leaning buildings were everywhere, still bearing the marks of the collision between the Tremor-Tremor Fruit and the Press-Press Fruit.
Crowds flowed endlessly through the streets. Vendors had set up temporary stalls and shouted their wares, while residents busied themselves repairing their homes. The bustle of everyday life had ultimately overwhelmed the devastation left by war.
Amid the teeming crowd, three figures walked side by side at an unhurried pace.
Dawn walked in the middle, dressed in loose black casual clothes. The exhaustion from days of bitter fighting still lingered between his brows, but the sharpness in his eyes had not diminished in the slightest. At this moment, though, there was a rare hint of relaxation in him.
On his left, Uta wore her hair in a high ponytail, her red ribbon swaying gently with each step. She clutched a bag of freshly bought tropical fruit candy, her cheeks puffed out as she chirped away about something. Her sparkling eyes were full of unconcealed anticipation, and every so often, she shook Dawn's arm like a clingy little sparrow.
On his right, Perona held a pink parasol trimmed with lace, shielding herself from the blazing tropical sun.
She occasionally complained that Uta's plans were far too fanciful, her tone dripping with disdain, yet she could not help chiming in with a few details of her own. Her twin pink ponytails bounced as she walked. For once, she was not being difficult, and beneath her tsundere manner was a trace of excitement.
With the two of them surrounding him from either side, Dawn listened to their chirping argument, a thoroughly relaxed smile curling across his lips.
The tension of his life-and-death battle with Whitebeard, and the calculations behind his struggle against the