"In the Impel Down arc?"
Robin murmured it under her breath. Of course she knew exactly what Rowan meant.
In the Impel Down arc, Luffy infiltrated Impel Down with Boa Hancock's help in order to rescue his sworn brother Ace, turning the prison upside down in the process.
In the end, with the power of protagonist luck on his side, he broke through Impel Down and brought out a large number of imprisoned pirates.
Sure, some of those pirates had been falsely imprisoned.
But most of them were genuinely vicious criminals.
And among them were some monsters with terrifying reputations—Red the Aloof, Douglas Bullet, and others like them.
Once those monsters returned to the seas, no one knew how many innocent people would suffer because of it.
To be fair, Luffy didn't do it on purpose.
But his actions unquestionably led to that outcome.
That was why people's opinion of him took a sharp turn after that arc.
Robin had seen plenty of online comments too. Quite a few of Luffy's fans lost interest in him after that, saw him in a new light, or even stopped liking him altogether.
Some people even dropped the series entirely.
So the Impel Down arc became a permanent black mark on Luffy's record.
A lot of people even saw it as a turning point for him.
It marked the moment he went from being an adventurer flying a pirate flag to becoming a genuine pirate in every sense of the word.
Of course, Luffy himself probably wouldn't care about that in the slightest. He was simple-minded and one-track to the core—he just didn't think about complicated things like that.
"Wouldn't it be a good thing if he never left the East Blue?" Robin asked with a smile after adjusting her mood. "At least then the Impel Down arc would never happen."
Rowan shook his head. "Not necessarily. He's still the protagonist of this world, the child of destiny, the user of the Sun God Nika power, the future Joy Boy. With someone like him, all kinds of ridiculous things can happen."
"Even without Nami, he might still run into some other navigator."
Robin smiled and asked, "So? Are we going to Cocoyasi Village or not?"
"We're going."
After thinking it over, Rowan made up his mind.
"Since we've already come to the One Piece world, beating Arlong and saving Nami is basically one of those must-do events. It's like going into the Fourth Holy Grail War to crush the worms and save Sakura. What transmigrator wouldn't want to try that at least once?"
Robin tilted her head. She understood beating Arlong and saving Nami, but the second half…
"'Crushing the worms to save Sakura'… that wouldn't happen to be from another manga too, would it?"
"Yep." Rowan nodded.
Robin asked, "Can I see it?"
"Of course."
Rowan found a door, went back to his own world, downloaded Fate/Zero onto a tablet, then returned to the One Piece world and handed it to Robin on the ship.
Robin started watching it with great interest.
Even Hashirama came over and watched along with her.
A few hours later, the story of Fate/Zero came to an end.
Hashirama said excitedly, "Heroes from all different eras gathering together to fight over a Holy Grail that can grant wishes—this really is fascinating."
"I honestly wish something like this could happen in the ninja world too. I'd love the chance to fight Asura from a thousand years ago."
He really wanted to see which of them was stronger.
Even though Hashirama knew perfectly well that he carried the reincarnated chakra of Asura, he didn't believe that made him Asura, nor did he think everything he had achieved came solely from Asura's chakra.
That was the confidence of a true powerhouse.
"What a pitiful child."
Robin, on the other hand, saw what happened to Sakura Matou and couldn't help sighing.
Compared to Sakura, Nami had it much better.
Both of them had tragic childhoods, but at least Luffy saved Nami, defeated Arlong, and rescued Cocoyasi Village.
But Sakura…
Even though Kariya Matou fought with everything he had, he still failed to save her in the end.
"I wonder what happened to Sakura after that."
Hearing that, Rowan said, "That depends on which ending you're talking about."
Robin looked puzzled. "What do you mean?"
Rowan pulled over a chair and sat down.
"To explain that, I need to talk about the concept of parallel worlds. The One Piece world doesn't really have that concept, so let me give you a quick explanation."
"For example, in this world, Shanks made it to Foosha Village, met Luffy, and because of that Luffy ate the Nika Fruit and decided to become a pirate under Shanks's influence."
"That's the main timeline."
"But maybe in some other world, Shanks never made it to Foosha Village at all. Luffy never met him, and under Garp's guidance, he became a Marine instead—maybe even a Fleet Admiral."
"That would be what we call a parallel world."
"Each one is just another possibility."
"Of course, in some parallel world, Luffy might become neither a pirate nor a Marine, but instead follow his father Dragon and throw himself into the revolution. That would also be a parallel world."
Robin understood. "So what you mean is that Sakura's ending is different in every world."
Rowan nodded. "Exactly."
"In some worlds, the person Sakura loves dies, and she spends her whole life waiting alone for someone who will never come back, guarding her own fragile dream."
"In some worlds, Sakura ends up together with the person she loves."
"In some worlds, Sakura spends her whole life by her brother's side."
"And in some worlds, Sakura just turns into some random purple-haired side character and gets killed by an Assassin who tears open her chest."
"So basically, Sakura's ending is different in every world."
"That's what parallel worlds are—countless possibilities."
Robin fell silent.
Parallel worlds really were vast.
Every world had its own possibilities.
But she knew very well that now was not the time to think about parallel worlds.
Rather than worrying about all those chaotic, unreachable worlds, it was better to focus on her own.
No matter how many parallel worlds existed, no matter how beautiful they might be, they were still like the moon in the water or flowers in a mirror—visible, but impossible to touch.
Her own world, on the other hand, needed saving.
The three of them chatted and laughed along the way, and after a full day of sailing, they finally reached Cocoyasi Village.
Arlong's crew had already spotted their ship through a telescope long ago.
So when Rowan and the others came ashore, a group of fish-men had already surrounded them.
Leading them was one of Arlong Pirates' top officers.
Kuroobi.
Rowan remembered that this guy was a cartilaginous fish-man and a master of Fish-Man Karate. His finishing move, Thousand Tile True Punch, was powerful enough to shatter a thousand roof tiles underwater.
Of course, compared to Jinbe, the Warlord who was also a master of Fish-Man Karate, he was nowhere close.
But among ordinary people, he was already an exceptional fighter.
If he were dropped into Rowan's world, even someone like Mike Tyson would be nothing more than a roadside nobody standing in front of him.
~~~
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