"Mother!!!"
Urrutia's voice trembled as the word burst out from her lips.
Mist welled up in her beautiful eyes, blurring her vision as a surge of emotion overwhelmed her.
An unprecedented mix of shock and joy seized her heart completely.
When she was just a child, she had been forced to separate from her mother because of her fragile body.
She had escaped from the research institute on her own—but because of a tragic misunderstanding, she and her mother, Ulu, missed each other forever.
After that fateful parting, she never imagined their reunion would come to this.
Until the Sirius Island incident…
When she fell into the sea, Urrutia finally learned the truth.
But by then, it was far too late.
She had long believed she would never again see her beloved mother.
Never imagined that in this vast New World, her mother—the one she'd thought of every single day—would suddenly appear right in front of her.
Not only Urrutia—Ulu herself felt the same shock.
Because of the lies of Brian, the director of the Bureau of Magical Development, Ulu had believed that Urrutia was long dead.
Later, to seal the Demon of Zeref—Deliora—Ulu used the forbidden spell Absolute Freeze, sacrificing herself in the process.
She never thought she would one day live again.
And she certainly never dreamed she'd find her daughter here, in this strange new world.
The daughter she thought she'd lost forever now stood before her—grown, graceful, and strong.
Even though she had never seen Urrutia's adult face before, the moment she laid eyes on her, she knew—
This was her daughter.
"Mother…!"
Urrutia could no longer suppress the flood of emotions in her chest. She leapt forward.
"Urrutia!"
Ulu stumbled a step, then rushed forward as well—throwing her arms around her daughter.
"I'm sorry! I'm so, so sorry, Urrutia! It's all Mother's fault!"
"No, it's not! It's my fault, Mom! I should've trusted you!"
Tears streamed down their faces as mother and daughter held each other tightly, sobbing openly.
In the world of Fairy Tail, this reunion had never been possible.
But here—
In the world of pirates—
Mother and daughter were finally reunited.
Watching them, Sugisawa Yuuto couldn't help but smile softly.
Even he hadn't expected that the new companion summoned this time would be Gray's mentor—
The great Ice Sorceress Ulu herself.
Although her exact power level had never been clearly defined in Fairy Tail, Yuuto could feel it—
Ulu possessed the strength of a top-tier mage, perhaps among the Ten Wizard Saints.
In this world, that meant she had the might of an Admiral.
With Ulu joining Fairy Tail, their strength had just risen to another level.
And more than that—she was Urrutia's mother.
Now there were two mother-daughter pairs within the guild: Ulu and Urrutia, and Irene and Erza.
Perhaps Ulu's presence could even soften Irene's cold temperament.
Since they were all part of the same guild now, Yuuto naturally hoped they would all get along.
"Hey, hey, what's going on here?!"
"Big Sister! What are you doing?!"
"These intruders—if you don't deal with them, the children will be in danger!"
"Don't you care about those kids?!"
The prisoners under Caesar's command shouted in confusion, breaking the beautiful moment between mother and daughter.
Yuuto's expression darkened.
He turned toward them—his eyes flashing coldly.
Boom!
Boom! Boom! Boom!
The air shook. The sky itself seemed to fall.
Under the sudden pressure of his overwhelming gravity, the floating "balloon soldiers" crashed down like broken dolls, wiped out in an instant.
At first, Yuuto had wondered if his newly summoned ally might be someone dangerous—perhaps another villain.
If she had truly sided with Caesar, he wouldn't have hesitated to strike her down.
But now, seeing that the new partner was Ulu, his worries vanished.
He knew her heart. Ulu would never side with someone as twisted as Caesar.
And judging by what had just happened, Yuuto could already piece the situation together.
Lightning flickered.
Yuuto's body disappeared in a flash.
Punk Hazard – Research Institute, Monitoring Room.
"Damn it! Shit!"
Caesar's voice broke as he stared at the monitor feed—at the image of Ulu embracing her daughter.
His eyes went wide with disbelief. It took him several seconds to even process what he was seeing.
That woman…
The one he thought he had easily deceived—
She was a member of Fairy Tail!
No—worse than that.
He'd been wrong from the very beginning.
Ulu had never trusted him. She had only been stalling for time—waiting for her allies to arrive.
Realization turned into raw terror. Cold sweat poured down Caesar's face.
"Now—release the gas! Release the Death Kingdom! Hurry!"
"But Master M, the Death Kingdom gas isn't ready yet—"
"I don't care! Just do it!" Caesar screamed.
If he wanted to live, there was only one option: flood Punk Hazard with poison gas again.
Only then might he have a chance to escape Fairy Tail's grasp.
But the next instant—
Crackle!
Electric sparks exploded across the control panels.
Every circuit burned out in an instant under the surge of lightning.
A calm voice came from behind him.
"Where exactly do you think you're running, Caesar?"
Caesar froze.
Then turned—his face twisting in terror as Sugisawa Yuuto stood there, smiling faintly.
"You… you…!"
Lightning flared—
Chi-chi!
Thunder roared.
Even though Caesar was a Logia-type user, the power of Yuuto's lightning left him scorched and trembling, unable to resist.
"It's really wonderful, Sister Tia—you finally reunited with your mother."
Bonney wiped the tears from the corners of her eyes, her expression gentle.
For a moment, the memory of her own father flashed across her mind—Bartholomew Kuma's face, smiling faintly.
Just then—
Thud!
Something blackened and charred fell from the sky, landing near them.
"President! Did you take care of everything already?" Bonney gasped.
"Yeah."
Yuuto nodded calmly.
Bonney glanced at the scorched figure of Caesar, twitching on the ground.
"What about Vegapunk? Isn't he supposed to be here?"
"There's no Vegapunk here," Ulu said solemnly. "Only this man—Caesar Courant—who's been experimenting on children."
"Children?" Urrutia quickly pulled out a small file. "Mom, do you know where the missing kids are?"
"As I thought." Ulu nodded.
From the start, she had never trusted Caesar's words.
In the Fairy Tail world, she had once been deceived by Brian—because he was the respected director of the Bureau of Magical Development.
But here, in this strange world—
Faced with someone as obviously untrustworthy as Caesar—how could she ever believe him?
The only reason she'd played along was to protect the children, to wait for the right moment.
She could have easily defeated Caesar—but she needed a way to restore the children's bodies, not just stop his experiments.
In the Fairy Tail world, she hadn't been able to protect her own daughter.
This time, she refused to make the same mistake.
Under Ulu's lead, Yuuto and the others headed to a small "biscuit house" where the children were held.
Terrified cries echoed from inside.
When Ulu appeared at the doorway, light from the torches spilling behind her, the frightened children froze—then ran toward her as if she were their savior.
"Sister Ulu… who are these people?"
A young black-haired girl asked in a trembling voice.
"Don't worry, children," Ulu said gently. "This man here is my guild master. He's come to take you all home."
"Really?"
"Are you serious?"
"We can go home?"
"Yes," Ulu smiled. "You're safe now."
The children burst into tears—laughing and crying all at once as hope finally returned to their faces.
A few hours later, Sugisawa Yuuto and his team had gathered all the rescued children aboard their ship.
"President, where are we going next?" Bonney asked.
"Their bodies… they've been changed," Urrutia said worriedly. "Some of them are still gigantic. How can we fix that?"
"Don't worry," Yuuto replied, smiling faintly. "I already have someone in mind who can help."
"President," Ulu added, "a few days ago, that Caesar tried to gain my trust by mentioning a government contact—a Marine base commander who backed his research."
"That's perfect," Yuuto said, his eyes narrowing. "That's exactly who I'm going to find next."
While Erza's team was already moving against Doflamingo and the Donquixote Family, Sugisawa Yuuto, as guild master, would open the next front—
by taking down one of Doflamingo's top men first.