The victory banquet in Alabasta felt like a fever dream to Amine. While Luffy was busy inhaling mountain-sized piles of meat and Zoro was drowning himself in the finest ale the royal palace could offer, Amine stood on the balcony, staring at his hands. They felt... light. Too light. The violet ink that usually pulsed under his skin was flickering like a dying neon sign.
"Enjoying the view, Prophet?"
Amine didn't need to turn around to know it was Robin. Her voice had a strange, resonant quality, like a recording played from a long-lost archive.
"I'm looking at the stars, Robin," Amine said, his voice raspy. "But I don't see constellations. I see Grid Lines. I see the edges of the 'Canvas' where the sky ends and the 'Void' begins. Does that happen to you?"
Robin walked up beside him, her black hair swaying in the cool desert night breeze. "I see history, Amine. But you... you see the Mechanics. The Editor told me you were a virus, a glitch sent from another reality to corrupt the 'Grand Line Script'. But I've watched you. You didn't just corrupt the script; you saved it."
Amine gripped the stone railing. "At what cost? The system is giving me warnings I've never seen. [Warning: Narrative Overdrive.] [Status: User Presence is Destabilizing the Current Arc.]. It's like the world is trying to spit me out because I don't belong in the 'Final Draft'."
"Perhaps," Robin whispered, her eyes reflecting the moonlight. "Or perhaps the world is finally waking up. There's a ship coming, Amine. Not a ship of wood and sail, but a ship of Erasure. The Senior Editor isn't done with us. He's sending a 'Full Reset' to Jaya. If we stay here, Alabasta will be caught in the blast."
Amine looked at his system screen one last time before it dimmed. [New Objective: Reach Jaya. Time to Total Wipeout: 36 Hours.] "Then we leave tonight," Amine said, his eyes hardening. "Tell the crew. We aren't just sailing for the One Piece anymore. We're sailing to stay alive in a story that wants us dead."