"Devil Fruits… on the World Tree?!"
After listening to Luffy and the others describe the scene they had witnessed in Heaven World, Red and the rest immediately showed looks of astonishment.
Even Vegapunk was left with an indescribable expression by this sudden piece of news.
"How strange. It has already been confirmed that Devil Fruits immediately reappear after their users die, so why would Devil Fruits be growing on the World Tree?"
"And Heaven World was once a place where the giants worked for a long time. Why have we never heard the giant race mention anything about this?"
Vegapunk lowered his head, falling into deep thought.
Red, who was also pondering the matter, suddenly had a flash of inspiration when he heard Vegapunk's doubts.
"Doctor, is it possible that the number of Devil Fruits isn't fixed, but that a new batch appears every once in a while!?"
"Hm!?" Vegapunk abruptly raised his head, meeting Red's gaze.
In that instant, the two seemed to understand each other completely.
Vegapunk immediately continued:
"So the Devil Fruits Luffy and the others saw aren't any of the known Devil Fruits currently existing in the world, but newly born Devil Fruits that have never appeared in the world before!"
"Exactly!" A glimmer flashed in Red's eyes. "Perhaps the special environment that appears in Heaven World every once in a while is a mechanism meant to protect the normal birth of Devil Fruits."
"According to your research, Doctor, the powers of Devil Fruits come from the wishes of living beings in this world, and Sunstone just happens to possess the ability to realize wishes and thoughts…"
"There may be some connection between the two!"
"Mm… that line of thought is excellent!" Vegapunk gave Red's idea an approving nod.
"In other words, the World Tree—or rather, the top of the World Tree itself—is a gigantic wish-energy collector, and it can somehow transform that wish-energy into Devil Fruits with all kinds of abilities."
"And because wish-energy from the entire world gathers there, Heaven World also gave birth to Sunstone, a nearly all-purpose mineral resource."
"Furthermore, judging from the time when the giants recorded the abnormal changes in Heaven World, the World Tree may very well produce a batch of Devil Fruits every thousand years. During the long period before that, the World Tree merely absorbs this wish-energy…"
"Only in the final few years do Devil Fruits actually appear on the World Tree."
"At the same time, because the wish-energy collected over nearly a thousand years begins to leak out, Heaven World enters a special state, which is why no one has ever personally witnessed the birth of Devil Fruits!"
"No!"
At that moment, Red suddenly interrupted Vegapunk's muttering.
"The birth of Devil Fruits should have been witnessed by someone!"
As he spoke, Red's gaze shifted toward the protective suits Luffy and the others had thrown onto the ground.
"Since they were capable of manufacturing such precise machinery, I refuse to believe they never entered Heaven World while it was in that special state!"
"Do you remember that mural in Sun World!?"
Red looked around at everyone, the corners of his mouth suddenly rising.
During the ten days Luffy and the others had been away, Red and the rest naturally had not simply lain there doing nothing.
In fact, during those ten days, he had already completed the full subjugation of Elbaf in the name of the Straw Hat and loaded Pokémon templates onto all of the giant warriors.
The giant warriors, who already possessed terrifying physiques, would undoubtedly become a heavy blade under the Straw Hat's command in the near future, cutting through all obstacles in their path.
Of course, that was assuming there would still be obstacles ahead of the Straw Hat Pirates.
At the same time, Red had also brought Uta to reunite with Shanks, personally witnessing the famous scene where Uta slapped Shanks across the face before throwing herself into his arms and crying bitterly.
A thousand words dissolved completely within that single slap.
Although Shanks's handling of the matter back then had been full of flaws, he had truly protected Uta, preventing the sin of destroying a country and countless lives from being placed on her shoulders.
For the next few days, Uta remained with the Red Hair Pirates and did not return.
The Red Hair Pirates also held a banquet for several days straight. On one hand, they were celebrating Uta's growth. On the other hand, they were celebrating the fact that their boss had actually lost to the subordinate of one of Luffy's subordinates!
For a mighty Emperor of the Sea's pirate crew, this was clearly an utterly humiliating matter, yet during those few days, the laughter of the Red Hair Pirates rang throughout all of Elbaf.
In the end, it even attracted many of the Straw Hat's subordinates and Elbaf's giants, who joined in the celebration.
Although everyone had different reasons for celebrating, it quickly pulled all of Elbaf out of the gloomy mood caused by their defeat to the Straw Hat Grand Fleet.
It was also at that time that Red had thoroughly toured all of Elbaf, and naturally, he had seen the ancient children's mural that Elbaf regarded as a treasure.
The scene returned to the present.
After Red gave a simple explanation, everyone's faces fell into thought.
Three worlds. Three stories. Yet every one of them was strangely obscure.
One could only say that perhaps several hundred years ago in the pirate world, speaking the truth directly would have violated the laws of Heaven.
That was why things that could clearly be explained in just a few sentences had been recorded by every recorder, writer, prophet, and revolutionary as though they would lose the ability to speak unless they deliberately made everything mysterious.
Naturally, this also left later generations racking their brains, unable to guess what the true history had actually been like.
"The earth bathed in fire, the forest sent forth demons, the promised day…"
"Red, do you remember Kaido's subordinate?"
As though suddenly recalling something, Usopp abruptly raised his head and spoke to Red.
"You mean King, one of the All-Stars?" Red answered with a question.
Usopp nodded. "That's right."
"I remember you once said that King's race seemed to possess the power to control flames, and they even had a history of once being called 'gods'…"
"Do you think the First World mentioned in the mural could be referring to the period when that race ruled over humanity!?"
"The Lunarian race?" A thoughtful light flickered in Red's eyes. "If it's them, that should be very possible!"
"That matches the mural in the secret chamber of the giant race's castle!"
"Perhaps the Lunarians were one of the races of moon people who once descended upon this planet."
"And after they left this place, they relied on their powerful strength and technology to rule the entire human world."
"As for the 'forest sending forth demons' mentioned in the Second World…"
Red gazed into the distance at the thick branches of the World Tree.
"In this world, there should be nothing that represents a forest better than the World Tree, right?"
"In other words, the ancient saying of the 'forest sending forth demons' was actually referring to the Devil Fruits born from the World Tree…"
"As for the so-called Third World, it should be the era we are currently living in, shouldn't it?"
"Ahhh! What is all this messy nonsense?!"
Just as everyone was deep in heated discussion, Luffy, who had been completely unable to join in, suddenly shouted.
Then he scratched his head hard with both hands and said with a troubled expression:
"History this, prophecy that—it's way too complicated!"
"Anyway, Devil Fruits aren't that important to us anymore, right, Red!?"
"Why are we wasting time on this?!"
"We've already got the last coordinate, so let's hurry up and go find the ONE PIECE!!!"
Seeing Luffy's deeply troubled expression, Red and the others abruptly stopped their discussion.
Light flickered in Red's eyes. He opened his mouth as if to say something, but in the end, he stopped.
Of course he could sense it. How could Luffy possibly feel troubled just because his companions were discussing history?
He was probably… feeling irritated by that fate of his, one that had never truly appeared before him, yet had already been predetermined.
From the moment he set out to sea, Luffy had already decided that he wanted to become the freest person in the world.
But as their horizons broadened and they came into contact with the deeper layers of the world, more and more signs indicated that…
Many things about Luffy had already been written into prophecy.
If Red had not appeared, he might even have gone from being a "free person" to becoming "a free person controlled by fate"!
How could something so contrary to his original heart not make Luffy feel irritated?
He had clearly done everything of his own will, only to discover that all of his will had actually been written into prophecy long ago.
Miraculously eating the Nika Fruit disguised as the Gum-Gum Fruit, somehow developing the idea of becoming a pirate under Shanks's influence, coincidentally gaining a companion capable of reading the Poneglyphs and understanding the history of the Void Century…
Awakening the power of Nika, liberating Wano Country, becoming the enemy of the World Government…
Although many of these things had not unfolded according to prophecy because of Red's appearance, Luffy had heard Red talk about many of the things he foresaw long ago.
Luffy was not someone who never thought at all.
He and the other companions could all imagine that if Red had not appeared, everything mentioned above would have unfolded one by one according to prophecy!
A pirate whose goal was freedom was actually being shackled by something called fate. That went far too deeply against Luffy's original intention!
"Fine. Come to think of it, all this history stuff really is kind of lame."
In a flash of thought, Red suddenly cast aside the mindset of someone playing a mystery-solving script game. The corners of his mouth rose as he chuckled.
"No matter what miraculous and interesting things once happened in this world, with our current strength, none of it seems to matter much."
"Earthquakes? Tsunamis? Torrential storms?"
"Whether it's destroying the world or saving the world, for us, it seems to be only a matter of time, right?"
"Rather than exploring history, creating the future suits us better!"
"That's more like it!"
Zoro, who had not participated in the discussion at all, suddenly spoke up at this moment, expressing strong support for Red's idea.
History and all that? It was all something that had already happened.
Since those things had already occurred, what could digging into them bring them now?
With that time, they might as well train properly!
Among them, only Robin, as an archaeologist, was still rather interested in that period of history.
However, as the Straw Hats' horizons grew wider and wider, Robin's thinking had naturally long since stopped being limited to the mere Void Century.
Compared to exploring the history of human society, Robin wanted to investigate things from even more ancient times.
For example, why this world had given birth to so many races. Why some races had gone extinct while others survived to this day. Why the world, which had once been a single continent, had suddenly turned into an ocean…
These histories belonging to this planet itself were among the things Robin truly wanted to know now.
Why "among"?
Because compared to a mere planet, Robin was even more curious about the past hidden within the vast universe.
Without anyone noticing, Robin had long since transformed from an archaeologist filled with literary grace into a cosmic archaeologist who gazed upon the stars!
Compared to these things, a mere span of one hundred years, no matter what happened during that time, no longer seemed quite so important.
Soon, under the lead of Luffy and Red, everyone's topic suddenly took a sharp turn.
"Nami, now that we have the final Road Poneglyph, can we already determine the location of the Final Island, Laugh Tale?"
"Of course!" Nami gave a playful smile. "In fact, while you were all discussing those historical stories earlier, I already successfully found Laugh Tale's location."
"I just didn't interrupt because you were all having such a heated discussion."
"What?! You already found the Final Island?!"
This time, it was the rest of the Straw Hats' turn to be astonished by Nami's efficiency.
No matter what, the Final Island held enormous significance to this world—or rather, to this era.
Even the current members of the Straw Hat Pirates could not possibly remain unshaken by it.
"Then what are we waiting for?! Let's set off!"
Luffy directly stood up, his two round eyes shining brightly.
"I was waiting for you to say that, Captain!"
The smile on Nami's face remained as she suddenly snapped her fingers.
The next moment, the Going Merry, which had at some unknown point arrived near the Island Cloud region, slowly rose from beneath the Island Clouds and revealed herself.
Because the current Going Merry was far too enormous, she was not something the temporary Island Cloud region created by Vegapunk could support. Because of that, the Going Merry had previously remained docked at Elbaf.
Now that she had suddenly appeared, it was obvious that Nami had been in contact with her long ago.
"Good morning, everyone~"
"Did I hear someone say 'set off'?"
The Going Merry, now graceful and elegant, even carrying a hint of mature charm, suddenly appeared. Sitting on the ship's railing, she looked down at everyone from above.
"Merry!"
At the sight of Merry's appearance, Luffy instantly became even more excited.
Then, he immediately performed a second blooming of plum blossoms, threefold good fortune, fourfold blessings…
One of Luffy's arms suddenly stretched out and grabbed the Going Merry's railing, while his other arm moved like a nimble little snake, wrapping around everyone in a circle.
At that moment, the Straw Hats, who were already familiar with Luffy's habits, naturally guessed what he was about to do. Their expressions immediately turned ugly one after another.
But with Luffy's current strength, he was already fully capable of giving them no chance to react at all.
Whoosh!!!
In the next instant, the Straw Hats wrapped in Luffy's arm were directly bundled together and sent flying.
At the same time, Luffy revealed a broad, giggling grin.
"Merry, set sail!!!"
"As you command, Captain!!!"
Rumble, rumble, rumble…
The gigantic battleship, the Going Merry, suddenly started moving. Like a ship galloping across a sea of clouds, she swiftly set sail.
The endless energy from the Mother Flame provided the Going Merry with terrifying power.
Even with her gigantic body, her speed was not affected in the slightest.
So much so that Luffy, who had used his elasticity to board the ship, was actually left dangling behind Merry for a moment.
And the Straw Hats dangling behind Luffy could naturally only be dragged far behind in the sky in an even more miserable state.
"That bastard! I'm definitely going to cut him down / beat him to death!!!"
(End of Chapter)