Chapter Text
Nami sat in the galley with the rest of the crew, anxiously awaiting the return of Chopper. When he had come in roughly an hour ago, none of them had missed the sight of darkened, damp fur around his eyes, showing that he had been crying at some point. They were all concerned and tried to push him, but he insisted that he was fine and that he would tell them later.
Well, it was “later” now, and Nami didn’t know how much longer they were expected to wait. They all had to keep their irritation close to their chests, anxiety making them downright mean—Nami’s outburst at Luffy earlier proving that. After she had stormed out, Usopp had tried to get her attention to talk to her about it, but she didn’t allow him any chance at conversation, fleeing to the library and hoping that Robin would be there. She was, of course—that’s always where you could find her on an ordinary day and especially a stressful time— and Nami had been relieved to take a seat next to her. Robin was good at knowing when to ask questions and when not, and that was exactly what Nami needed right then. She desperately craved the company, but was unsure of how she would react if someone annoyed her. She didn’t want to have another outburst. Robin only greeted her with a glance up from her book and a small smile. She was always good at keeping up the illusion of class, but the way her eyes were painted red and her hands slightly shook from exhaustion showed that she, too, was affected.
The food had gone cold a while ago, as they all half-heartedly pecked at their food—an array of sandwiches and soups, nothing too heavy—still trying to maintain the illusion of a jovial group dinner, any excuse to wait for Chopper’s return and to avoid being alone.
Even Sanji, who usually remained on his feet for the entirety of their dinners, bringing out new courses, seconds, running refills, or picking up plates to clean as he went, had taken a seat a long time ago. One of his legs bounced violently, a fidget Nami had observed on him any time he was sitting long enough for her to. Ordinarily, she would get onto him about it, but now she only stewed in silent frustration, eyeing him from her periphery, not having the heart or the motivation to call him out on it.
The only ones keeping up occasional conversation were Robin, Brook, and Franky, a surprise at first, but now the last remaining thing keeping any sort of ebullience in the room. From what she overheard, they were less than a day out from reaching their destination island, hopefully containing some sort of information on how to fix Luffy or what the Devil Fruit he had been hit by was. They were also hoping that the man who had attacked Luffy might be found on the island, or at least that someone would know information about him.
The man—dressed in a loose Hanbok and adorning a black, wide-brimmed hat to cover his face—had been sitting on the floor of the deck for the majority of their battle, seemingly unalarmed. None of them had been keeping too close of an eye on him, assuming he was a non-threat, unable to fight. It’s true that the other crew had attacked first, but they were not so cruel as to attack someone who seemed docile enough and hadn’t directly attacked him. But suddenly, while Luffy was preoccupied with his own fight—at least 10 other men—the man had stood up and taken the chance to do something to Luffy. None of them had directly seen it, but they all became suddenly aware as Luffy dropped unconscious on the deck. Even the men previously engaged in fighting him seemed startled, but not the mysterious man who stood all the way across the deck with one arm outstretched.
Then, before any of them could do anything to approach him, he turned and disappeared in a flurry of fabric, the other men on board calling out a distressed, “Captain!”
Even just thinking back to the memory made Nami shake in anger. They extended mercy towards that man—who turned out to be the captain , too much of a coward to even fight his own battles—and he took down their captain without a single word. They didn’t even know what his ultimate goal was, usually pirates attack each other for money or fame, but he had taken neither of those, not even telling them who he was. Her hands tightened dangerously around her cup, glass cracking minutely.
Before she could get herself too worked up, Chopper burst through the door to the galley. All of them were immediately alert, like a hound finding the scent of blood in the wind.
He seemed tired, but also much better than when he had appeared earlier, tear tracks absent. He walked his way up to the table and took a seat, Nami and Sanji moving aside to make room. As he got himself settled and gathered his thoughts, the crew quieted and waited with baited breath.
“Well, I learned a lot from Luffy today, but I don't think I'm any closer to finding a solution.” He began uncertainly. “His cognition seems perfectly fine, he's gotten his speech back and didn’t have any troubles understanding me. However…the biggest problem seems to be with his memory.”
The crew murmured, unsettled.
“Has he still not regained his memories?” Robin asked pensively.
“...Well, not quite.” They waited for him to continue, but when he didn't, Robin spoke up again.
“How do you mean, Chopper?”
He thought about how much he wanted to reveal. It was such an odd situation and he didn't know how much detail he wanted to go into about Luffy's “memories”, knowing that it would distress them further. But he figured, for transparency sake, he should at least tell them the main idea.
“It appears that he hasn’t regained his memories, but now has some…false ones.” Before any of them could interrupt after that, he pushed forward, “I think that man’s Devil Fruit somehow implanted fake memories, so now he has a whole other vivid life instead of his real one. I told him about all our adventures since I joined, and he didn’t recall any of it.”
“If he doesn’t remember his real life, then what does he remember?” Zoro asked around a glass of sake.
“That's the part I was putting off.” He sighed.
The crew raised inquisitive glances at this, nervous to hear what had Chopper so off-put.
“It seemed that the memories he had were that of…a slave.” Everyone at the table let out a litany of gasps and confused expressions.
“How-why? Why would that be…” Nami was the first to speak, desperate for answers that nobody would be able to provide with certainty.
“Like I said: my only theory is that it’s from that man’s Devil Fruit. If he can implant false memories, maybe he is able to choose what they look like. For Luffy, who values freedom so much, maybe this is the most painful reality he could imagine to put Luffy in.”
The temperature of the room dropped, frozen in the icy fury of one of the strongest rookie pirate crews in the New World. A lifetime ago, Chopper may have been frightened in the face of the enraged expressions painting the crew’s face, had he not been part of that very crew and sharing the very same anger.
“So what you’re saying is, regardless of what Luffy’s going through now, all we have to do is find that fucker and make him fix this?” Zoro grit out, hands grasped tight around his swords, almost as if already preparing for a fight.
“Yeah, that’s what it sounded like.” Sanji added, lighting up a cigarette pinched between his teeth. The one thing he and Zoro could ever agree on was matters involving their captain. In fact, the whole crew was now on the same wavelength, determined expressions taking the place of furious ones, although the same rage still simmered inside them.
Chopper was glad they didn’t ask too many questions, hearing all they needed to and making a plan based on that. After coming into the galley, he was incredibly nervous that they would want more details, and he didn’t know how he would convey everything Luffy had told him, having struggled to even listen without breaking down back in the infirmary. And while he was equally enraged as the rest of the crew, he was also deeply concerned, having been the only one to really see the changes in Luffy—though Franky and a couple of the others had seen a glimpse this morning.
Chopper was drawn out of his reverie by the sound of Robin speaking to him.
“The good news is that we’re not far from the island. Hopeful there we can find some information on that man and put this all behind us.”
“Yeah.” Chopper smiled up at her, before looking around to check that the others weren’t listening, having retreated to private conversations. “I’m just worried that even after we fix this, he might still have those memories. He told me what he remembers from his life and I couldn’t even…I’m just worried how it will affect him long term.”
Robin pondered that for a moment. “Hmm. There’s no point worrying about that now, we don’t know how it will turn out after all. And even if he does retain some unpleasant memories, he’s our captain isn’t he? He has a certain way of being resilient, after all.”
He let this console him, worry still bubbling under the surface, but being somewhat calmed by Robin’s reassurances.
For the rest of the evening, the crew slowly finished off their food—not as good as usual because of time passed making it cold, though nothing Sanji made could ever be truly bad. As it got later, their numbers slowly dwindled, all of them leaving to go to bed. They needed energy for any possible problems waiting for them on the island, after all. Their energy was nowhere near where it would usually be, but many of them had lost the anxiety from earlier, finally knowing more of what was happening and filled with determination to fix it—to fix Luffy.
While most of them wandered off to the sleeping quarters, Zoro headed to the infirmary. He had offered to watch for the whole night, though Chopper protested, saying that he wouldn’t be able to function the next day on no sleep. Bull-headed as always, however, he was able to convince Chopper to let him take the whole watch, insisting that he would be fine and that he was used to it.
He softly opened the infirmary door, seeing Luffy sleeping on the bed. He took a seat in the uncomfortable wooden chairs, settling in for a long night.
No matter the faith he had that Luffy would pull through this just fine, he still couldn’t stop himself from being a little worried in the moment—a worry that no amount of sake would be able to drown out. He didn’t like being useless, and having to watch his captain in this state with no enemy captain to take his anger out on made him antsy.
But he figured he would just have to wait and see what tomorrow had to bring.
—
Zoro’s eyes shot open when his Haki detected someone about to touch him.
Luffy was bent down in front of him, his hand reaching out towards his bad eye, a curious expression across his face.
“Oh, hey Zoro! What happened to your eye?”
Zoro paused in response, trying to gauge how to respond to Luffy now that he seemed the most normal he had in days.
“Morning, Luffy. How are you feeling?”
“Morning! I’m feeling alright.” He smiled, before looking a bit more concerned. “What about you? Does your eye hurt?”
Zoro was relieved to hear that he felt alright, and his attitude seemed much brighter than how Chopper and the rest had described it yesterday. It seemed like he was still missing his memory though.
“No, the scar’s old, I got it from an accident.” He quickly brushed past that topic though, “Chopper told you the situation yesterday, right?”
When Luffy didn’t deny that he kept going, knowing that Luffy’s behavior would still be a little weird, “Anyway, are you hungry for breakfast?”
Luffy’s confused gaze instantly morphed into one of excitement, and he suddenly jumped back from where he had remained in Zoro’s personal space, grabbing onto his wrist and dragging him towards the door. “I’m super hungry! Come on, Zoro!”
Zoro let his captain drag him along, although he corrected their course when Luffy seemed to have no idea where to go—the only time Zoro could reliably give directions was on his own ship. As Zoro became the one leading him, Luffy started to slow his pace slightly, confusion taking the place of hunger making his decisions.
“By the way, Zoro, where are we?” He asked, looking around and observing the winding halls that Zoro navigated without issue.
Zoro looked back at him, equally hesitant. “I thought Chopper told you yesterday.”
“Oh, huh…” Luffy looked off in thought for a second, before snapping himself out of it. He laughed and scratched his head sheepishly, “Well, maybe I forgot. Sometimes I forget important things, you know? Sabo always gets on to me when I do.”
Zoro paused at the name. Yesterday, Chopper hadn’t exactly gone into detail about the contents of Luffy’s memory, so while he had assumed that if Luffy had the memories of a slave that he would have forgotten all of them too, he guessed that wasn’t the case. Luffy at least knew him and Sabo, and he wasn’t sure if he actually knew Chopper or just remembered him from yesterday. He couldn’t help but let his mind wonder about what was going through Luffy’s mind right now. Usually he would say not much, but with the memories that had been implanted into his captain’s head he figured that might not be the case anymore.
And he was still a little jarred at Luffy’s bright disposition, but maybe he was just scared yesterday because he was in an unfamiliar place. Although he seemed to have forgotten where he was again and didn’t seem that concerned…
He would let Chopper deal with the medical analysis later.
They continued up to the deck and were met with the sight of the early morning sun having just cleared the horizon as the early morning deep blues of the sky shifted brighter and brighter. The usual rhythmic swaying of the ship had stilled as they had seemingly reached their destination overnight. On the island, Zoro could see the port they were docked in, a slight distance away from a waking city, and mountains off in the distance. Luffy looked around in amazement, reminiscent of the first morning right before he decided to take a sudden plunge. Zoro tightened his hand around Luffy’s wrist.
Luffy didn’t seem to notice however, still taking in the sight and smiling. “Wow, it’s so pretty! I haven’t been to the sea in ages.”
Zoro took a moment to appreciate the view as well, not usually one to revel in beautiful scenery, but even he had to take a moment and admit that it was nice. He still didn’t want Luffy out here for too long however, because though it seemed like he wouldn’t jump again—and his behavior was nowhere near what it was on the first day—he didn’t want to take his chances. He hadn’t slept much last night, and though he was somewhat used to it, he didn’t want to add jumping into freezing cold water to his morning.
“Yeah. Now are you hungry or not? I’m sure that stupid love-cook is making something already.” He said, pushing Luffy towards the kitchen. And he really was sure. That idiot had hardly left the kitchen since this whole thing started and especially since yesterday when Luffy had supposedly lost his appetite.
Luffy perked up and exclaimed excitedly, “Oh, Sanji’s here too?”
Zoro mentally checked off another person on the list of people who Luffy remembered. Luffy suddenly picked up his pace, seeing the direction that Zoro was punching him and figuring out that it was the kitchen.
Luffy burst through the kitchen doors with Zoro following behind him. The sound was familiar and surprising enough that it had Sanji—who previously had his back turned to the door, standing at the stove and cooking up some bacon—whipping around to face them.
“Sanji! Meat!” Luffy demanded, taking a seat on the counter, as comfortable as ever, already drooling.
After all these days of weirdness from Luffy—more so than usual anyway—Sanji could only stare frozen in place at the suddenly familiar routine. He turned to Zoro with a question, “Is he…”
He mouthed the words, though the ‘ …back to normal ?’ remained completely unspoken.
Zoro only shook his head in response. Sanji’s face fell, though when he turned back to Luffy he had already put a smile back on, still somewhat comforted by the more typical behavior of their captain and his demands for meat.
“Sure thing, Luffy.”
They waited there for a couple minutes more while Sanji finished cooking, in silence that was occasionally broken by Luffy kicking his legs against the counter and humming an unfamiliar tune. Luffy would also occasionally steal some meat off the stove when he thought Sanji wasn’t looking, although Zoro knew that the cook was always aware.
As the meal was almost complete, some of the early risers of the crew started to trickle in for a meal or a cup of coffee. Robin, who had been on watch in the crow’s nest the previous night, was instantly handed a cup of coffee from Sanji, who gushed his usual nonsense, slightly subdued by the early hour. She only chuckled in response, ever amused by his antics. But she quickly turned her attention to her captain.
“Good morning, Luffy. How are you feeling?”
“Morning, Robin! Man, you’re the second person to ask me that. I feel fine! I guess everyone’s here, huh?” He finished nonsensically.
Robin only hummed in agreement, still deciding not to question whatever Luffy’s perception was at this time. She could gather that her captain was still not fully back to normal even before looking at the hidden looks of disappointment shared by both Zoro and Sanji.
“I think we can do a check-in once Chopper wakes up, and everyone is here.” Zoro cut in from the table.
The next ones to make their way into the kitchen were Brook, Nami, and Usopp, in that order. They all stared at Luffy in apprehension, but Zoro told them that once Chopper woke up, they would hopefully be able to grasp the state of things. Luffy, too, seemed confused—staring especially hard at Brook when he first walked in, visibly restraining himself from saying something—but was reassured by Zoro’s words to the crew, figuring that Chopper would be able to answer any questions.
They ended up having to wait a good amount of time before Chopper finally came into the kitchen—the very last one, he was probably still exhausted after all the work he had done the past couple of days. It was now well into the morning, and the sun shone brightly through the galley windows. When he did walk in, he was surprised at the sight of Luffy sitting on the counter peacefully, chewing away, not a remnant of the fear that plagued him yesterday remaining.
He was also met with greetings from some of the crew, the whole scene a mirror from last night, though all of them seemed slightly eased having Luffy in the room in a parody of a normal morning.
“...Chopper?” Luffy asked, head tilted and brows furrowed. This was the first thing he had said in some time, and so all eyes turned towards the exchange between him and Chopper.
“Yes?” He answered immediately, eager to ease any concerns as well as to get a read on how he was doing today.
Luffy seemed to chew on his words, looking Chopper up and down with an analytic look. “Huh. You look…different.”
“Do I? Well, I guess that leads me to my first question. Though it seems a bit redundant at this point .” He muttered the last bit under his breath before raising his voice to be heard once again. “What do you remember?”
“Remember? Like from yesterday?”
Chopper nodded to confirm. The rest of the crew watched on in silence.
“Ehh, well yesterday was Sunday so me, Sabo, and Ace went downtown to go shopping. Wait, Sanji, I saw you yesterday because we went to your restaurant! Remember?” He yelled, pointing at Sanji like he was the one who was having memory problems. Meanwhile, every person in the room had dropped into dead silence at the mention of Ace. That was a name that was very rarely said on the ship, everyone always becoming slightly awkward whenever Luffy would drop it in casual conversation.
But now it seemed like the Devil Fruit was working its evil again. Did Luffy now think that Ace was alive? Chopper processed this, deciding that today’s Luffy was definitely different from yesterday’s, with him now holding new memories.
When Sanji finally got his bearings back, he answered, “Uhh, no. I don’t remember that.”
“Ehh?” The talk only seemed to be confusing him further. Chopper needed to get him back on track.
“Don’t worry about that right now, Luffy. What happened for the rest of the day?”
Luffy still looked at Sanji distrustfully, as if he was lying about not remembering yesterday. But eventually, he continued. “Well after that we went home. Sabo was helping me study for a test while Ace went to the gym. Ugh, I just remembered I have a test today! Or wait, maybe I don’t since I’m here now?”
He continued to ramble for a little while longer about some sort of test, grabbing his head as if even thinking about it was giving him a headache.
“Luffy.”
“Oh, right. Anyway, after that we just watched a movie and then I went to bed. And then I woke up here on a ship. By the way, where are we going? And what are you all doing here?” He finished, picking his nose with his pinky out of boredom, although he did seem more interested to know the answers to his questions.
“I’ll answer all your questions.” Again , he thought. “But promise to trust my words.”
“Hmm, okay, furry Chopper.”
Furry…? Chopper chose not to focus too hard on that.
“Okay, so basically we’re pirates. You’re our captain. A couple days ago you got hit by a Devil Fruit ability which seems to have changed your memories out for new ones. What you remember—the life that you remember— is actually not true. It's an illusion. Yesterday you had a whole different set of memories, for instance.”
Luffy stared at him blankly.
“I don’t believe you.”
Chopper sighed, although he couldn’t be surprised or upset at Luffy's response. “Well, it’s the truth.”
“How sure of that are you? Because I definitely remember my life, and it’s definitely not just an illusion .” He said with a bit of irritation seeping into his tone, but he continued more neutrally, “Besides…pirates? Are pirates, like, real? And what’s a Devil Fruit?”
“ Are pirates real? ” Nami cut in in disbelief. “You’ve gotta be kidding.”
Luffy looked offended. “Well, I dunno, we don’t learn that kind of thing in school. For all I know they’re like dragons or something.”
“I mean, dragons aren’t not real. There was that one in Punk Hazard.” Usopp added.
Luffy’s jaw dropped and he grabbed at his hair in disbelief. “Dragons are real !? That’s so cool!” He yelled, stars in his eyes. “I feel like I entered an alternate dimension or something.”
Suddenly, Luffy paused, his excitement at learning about dragons put on hold. They could all tell he was thinking hard about something, as he always had the same pained expression when he did.
“Hold on a second. You said that all my memories are fake, and that I actually lived an entirely different life. Also, apparently dragons are real here. And you said that yesterday, I had an entirely different set of memories, right?”
“Yeah.” Chopper said tentatively, curious to see where he was going with this.
“That sounds just like an alternate dimension thing. Like yesterday I was from one universe and today I’m from a different one. And I remember all of you, but some of you are…different. I watched a movie like that, you know? It was actually really confusing, but I got the gist.”
“What’s an alternate universe?” Robin asked.
“Well, I dunno the science behind it or anything. I didn’t even know it was real, but I guess it’s gotta be if I’m in a different universe right now. Anyway, based on the movies I’ve seen it’s basically like you live in one universe and I live in another where I’m the same person but things are completely different. Or I guess it doesn’t have to be completely different, because in a parallel dimension everything is basically the same except some small details. But I think our universes must be pretty different since pirates and dragons are real here. Do you get it now?”
He was met with mostly puzzled looks, trying to process all of that information, but as always, Robin seemed to be the quickest to understand. “Alternate realities, hmm? I think I’ve read about a similar theory.”
Everyone looked towards her as she took a sip from her coffee and thought.
“I guess it wouldn’t be the craziest thing we’ve encountered. Don’t you think it might be plausible, Chopper?”
Chopper jumped when all the attention was suddenly turned towards him. “Huh? I mean I don’t know much about this and I don’t fully understand how it works…but I guess it’s certainly a possibility. Devil Fruits can be pretty unpredictable after all.”
“Oh yeah, that reminds me.” Luffy cut into their conversation suddenly. “What is a Devil Fruit?”
“Devil Fruits are fruits that grant anyone who eats them with strange abilities. You and I have them, as well as Chopper and Brook.” Robin answered.
“Ooh! What kind of abilities? And is that why Chopper and Brook look so weird?”
“Weird?” Brook questioned. “What do we look like in your universe, Luffy?”
“Well in my universe you’re…alive. Or I don’t know if you’re alive or not, but back home you’re not a talking skeleton. You have, like, skin and stuff.”
“Yohoho! Interesting.”
“And Chopper,” He scratched his head, “I don’t know what you are right now, but in my universe you’re a human. Like a normal one. I don’t know if your abilities just made you small and furry or if you’re a racoon dog or something…”
“I’m a human?!” Chopper asked incredulously. “That’s so weird. I guess our universes are really different.”
Then, Chopper remembered the initial question Luffy had asked. “Oh yeah, as far as abilities go, I ate the Human-Human fruit. I was born a normal reindeer— not a racoon dog, by the way—but that fruit allowed me to change forms and develop human intelligence and speech. You ate the Gum-Gum fruit which gives your body the properties of rubber.”
“What!?” He exclaimed, drawing out the word. “That’s so cool! How do I use it?”
As he said this, he jumped off the counter in excitement.
“I mean I think you can just…” Chopper walked forward and grabbed hold of Luffy’s arm before walking backwards to stretch it. This was a familiar sight to the whole crew, but apparently not to Luffy (who apparently wasn’t their Luffy) who jumped in excitement, his arm snapping back when Chopper let go.
“Hahaha! So cool! Do it again!”
Chopper and some of the rest of the crew began to laugh along with Luffy’s excitement.
“Why don’t you try it yourself, Luffy? It can’t be that hard.” Nami chimed in.
Luffy took her advice and a determined look crossed his face. He threw his arm out a couple of times, failing in making it stretch more than a couple of abnormal inches, before he finally got it on his umpteenth try. His whole arm shot out—a move mirroring his usual Gum-Gum Pistol—but with much less control than usual. As his arm recoiled back, he managed to hit almost everyone gathered in the kitchen—Nami, Sanji, Franky, Brook, and Usopp. Only Chopper and Robin managed to avoid the hit, Chopper because he was too short and Robin because she always managed to elegantly avoid bad situations. Everyone was knocked down like a set of human bowling pins, most of them clutching at the places they had been hit. From the dining table, Zoro cackled out a laugh.
As Robin congratulated him on finally getting it, Nami and Sanji both came up behind him menacingly and hit him upside the bed at the same time. Of course it didn’t actually hurt him because he was made of rubber, though.
As they all finally cooled down, Luffy being content with his “mastery” of his abilities for now, the curiosity of the crew managed to get the better of some of them. Usopp was the first to ask.
“Wait, Luffy.” Luffy turned towards him intently. “If your world is “very different from ours”, then what’s it like?”
“Well, I don’t really know all the differences since I don’t know everything about your world. First of all, like I said earlier, there’s no magic fruit in my world so Chopper and Brook are just normal humans. And I wish I could do something cool like be a pirate, but I’m just a student right now. School sucks! It’s so boring!” He emphasized this point by banging his head against the table in anguish. “I bet pirates don’t have to go to school.”
As he said this, he looked up at them, curious on whether or not his assumption was correct.
It seemed that most of them were in agreement that they had never received proper schooling. For the most part, institutionalized schooling wasn’t even a thing like it seemed to be in this Luffy’s world. Education was mostly reserved for the nobles.
“I mean I never went to school, but Dr. Hiriluk and Doctrine taught me about medicine.”
“I had a private tutor for a little while when I was younger.” Sanji admitted, somewhat shamefully.
“It would have been a dream to attend institutionalized schooling, but I learned everything I could from books and the scholars in Ohara.” Robin reminisced.
Suddenly, Luffy laughed. “You haven’t changed much in this universe, Robin! In my universe, you love reading too and you work at the library.”
Robin smiled at that. “That sounds lovely.”
“Oh! Oh!” Usopp butt in, raising his hand to get Luffy’s attention. “What do I do in your universe, Luffy? Am I a super famous celebrity? A fierce warrior? The world’s greatest sharpshooter?”
He started getting lost in his own fantasies, carried away as usual.
“Nope!” Luffy laughed. “You’re just a student like me. We sit together in class.”
Usopp deflated at that, all illusions of how great he was in another universe cut short. If there really were multiple universes, there had to be one where he was super cool, right?
“You’re really good at art, though. You’re the head of the art club.”
“Head of the art club?” He muttered to himself. “That’s kind of like being a leader or a captain, right?”
“What do I do, Luffy-bro?” Franky asked, excitedly.
“You work at a mechanic shop, but I think you also do something with the robotics lab at the university. I don’t really get that stuff, but sometimes you show me some super cool inventions!”
“Hahaha! Super !” He yelled, striking his iconic pose.
“Don’t tell the other Franky I said this, but you look even cooler. I’ve never seen a real-life cyborg before! No one’s gonna believe me when I tell them.”
“Don’t worry, I’ll keep my lips sealed, lil’ bro.”
The rest of the crew continued to ask him what their alternate counterparts did. They found that Nami was some sort of entrepreneur trying to start her own business (and also frequented the local casino which kept getting in the way of her business ventures), Brook ran his own tea shop and was a frequent busker, Chopper had skipped multiple grades and was now attending university studying medicine, Sanji had recently opened his own restaurant—all without using his father’s money—and Zoro…
“You know, I don't really know what you do. You’re always just kinda hanging out at the dojo or around town. Which is great, because everyone is always busy, but not you!”
This was met with the perturbed gaze of Zoro and the chuckling of Sanji.
“So it sounds like you’re just an unemployed loser, huh Mosshead?” He said smarmily.
“Shut up!” He said pulling out his swords as Sanji’s leg heated up and they started to duke it out. As Nami and Usopp tried to pull them apart, Luffy laughed in the background.
“Shishishi! You guys are still the same here!”
—
As she took a break from the excitement of the rest of the crew, Robin finally pondered the odd situation they had found themselves in. Alternate universes—how interesting. She thought about the behavior of Luffy over the past few days. She had thought that it was just him acting strange, but now it seemed likely that it was two separate Luffy’s over the past couple of days. While she curiously wondered what universe the first Luffy was from, her mood became a little more grave when she thought about the Luffy from yesterday.
Chopper had said that he had the memories of a slave. And while they had all been furious yesterday—under the belief that that dreadful excuse of a captain had replaced his memories—in actuality…
The idea that in another universe, her captain, or at least some version of her captain, was living through such an awful reality. Robin had always found herself struck by the freedom that always exuded out of Luffy—every word he spoke, every decision he made. When she first joined his crew, she found herself disbelieving and then envious. But she was overjoyed when she finally reached the point where she could consider herself part of this crazy crew.
She couldn’t help but let herself wonder about what became of the rest of them in that universe as well. She knew what would have happened to her had she never found Luffy. But what about the rest of them? She didn’t know all of their backstories in full detail, but she at least knew that Luffy had saved many of them from cruel fates, and at times from themselves. She wished that she had taken the time to speak to the Luffy from yesterday. Maybe if they had known they would be able to give him hope for when he returns to his universe. She could only hope that whatever conversation Chopper had had with him was enough for him to keep fighting. Even in another universe, faced with impossible circumstances, Luffy would still be Luffy, right?
She would need to keep an eye on Chopper as well, since it didn’t seem like he had realized the implications like she had yet. And he had been the one to spend a whole day with that Luffy from yesterday. Even under the belief that all of those memories were false, he had still come back crying. He was always a sensitive soul after all, always eager to help. Her heart hurt thinking about it.
Thinking deeper about the implications of an alternate reality made her realize something. Although this Luffy was happy and was the closest in demeanor to their Luffy, he wasn’t their Luffy. Everyone had gotten swept up in the excitement of learning what was actually happening and then hearing about another reality, but what they needed to focus on was getting things back to normal. On getting their captain back home.
It also made her wonder about where their Luffy was. If the alternate versions were living in his body everyday, did that mean that he was living in all of their lives? It didn’t seem unlikely. And if that was the case, she wanted to get things back to normal before Luffy had to go through anything too bad. Him having to live in the shoes of a slave for a day was already dreadful, but what if there was something even worse?
“Hey, Luffy?” She asked, politely interrupting the conversation he was having with various members of the crew.
“Yeah, Robin?”
“You said you had seen…”movies” that were about people traveling to alternate dimensions?” Luffy nodded. “How did those people get back to their dimension?”
Luffy let out a breath, thinking hard. “Well, I guess it depends on the movie. Sometimes it’s just with, like, science-y space technology or magic. Sometimes I think they have to learn some sort of lesson—or actually wait, maybe that’s time loop movies? Anyway, maybe you need to find someone like Dr. Strange or do the thing they did in Infinity War. It was something like that, but I dunno for sure because I fell asleep, like, halfway through.”
“What does any of that mean.” Nami asked flatly.
“Oh hey, Franky! You’re good at making inventions. Maybe you can build some sort of portal to another dimension!” Luffy yelled as if he had just had a great epiphany.
Franky’s brows shot up in worry at the prospect. “Uhh, I’m glad you have faith, lil’ bro, but I’m not that smart. I didn’t even know alternate realities existed until this morning.”
Robin sighed in disappointment. It was worth asking at least.
“I think it might be best if we stick to the original plan and search the island for any clues about that man.”
“Yeah, I think that’s a good idea.” Zoro agreed, getting up from his spot at the table and dumping his glass in the sink. “Speaking of, we should probably get a move on and start exploring the island before we start losing daylight.”
Luffy was excited at the idea of exploring an island in another dimension (and “doing pirate-y stuff!”) and the rest of them agreed with Zoro. They decided to split into three groups of three to cover more ground, though the island was fairly small: Robin, Luffy, and Usopp together, then Brook, Sanji, and Chopper in another, and then finally Zoro, Franky, and Nami. They decided to leave no one on the ship since it seemed to be a pretty peaceful island and the Sunny was big enough that they would be able to see it from most places in town.
They all got off the ship, splitting up when they reached the town, hopeful that this island would hold some of the answers about how to get Luffy back to normal.
—
Thread wound around a finger, meticulously controlled.