When Robin first opened her eyes, she was surprised to see eight anxious heads staring down at her. She rubbed her eyes sleepily, slowly sitting up as she greeted the unwelcomed visitors.

"Good morning. Did something happen?"

Nobody said a thing and it wasn't until Usopp pointed to her wrists did she realised what they had been looking at.

Strings?

Her first instinct had been to remove them but imagine her shock when her fingers just passed through as though there was nothing there. That definitely woke her up.

"So you can't remove it too, huh?" Zoro clucked his tongue in disapproval. "These things sure are troublesome."

"Too?"

Her eyes quickly glanced through the strings. Sure enough, there were multiple red strings on her wrist but she noticed that there was only one on Zoro's. A closer look, however, pointed out that one of the strings on her had been the same one on his wrist. The woman tilted her head in confusion but she soon realised that both Luffy and Sanji had one on them too.

"This is…"

"Robin! Look!" Luffy's excited voice startled her out of her thoughts. The young man ran out of the room and she had widened her eyes in amazement when the string connecting to him had stretched longer. She felt no strain on her hands no matter how far he ran and Robin had marvelled at what the strings actually were. "It's so cool!"

"Luffy! Be careful!" Chopper cried out angrily. "We don't know what it is yet and you might hurt her!"

"Hurt?" Sanji drawled a little too happily. "I don't think I can ever get hurt from being this connected with Robin-chwan."

"What I don't get is why the strings are only connected to the three of them." Brook huffed in annoyance. "I wanted it to be me too. Then maybe I could see her panti-"

"This is a serious matter, you pervert!" Nami karate-chopped the skeleton by his head.

This time, Franky grinned. "Are you referring to me?"

The noisy chatters of the Straw Hats were tuned out as Robin inspected the strings a little more. She now at least know of a few things. First, there were multiple strings on her right wrist. Second, three different strings were connected to three of her crew members. Thirdly, the strings were intangible, although they could be seen. Lastly, the length of the string seemed to be infinite.

Putting it all together, Robin sighed.

"I wonder what this is…"

Nami heard the worry laced in the former's voice and she turned to her anxiously. It was plain to see that Robin was a little upset at not being able to remove the strings.

"Actually," Brook spoke up, earning curious stares from the rest of them. "I once heard of a situation like this before. It was said that when you passed a certain current in the New World, a random crew member will have red strings all over their hands and it is known to be a sign of fate."

He continued. "The strings leads you to a possible soulmate potential and will only disappear once the chosen person falls deeply in love with someone."

"Wait…" Nami frowned. "Wasn't that just a myth? I heard of this too but…"

"I'm not so sure of it being a myth but one of my old crewmates swore it happened to his friend from a different crew."

"You mean…" Both Chopper and Usopp now turned to Robin. "…Poor Robin."

"Super! Luffy, Zoro and Sanji are her potential soulmates?"

"HUH?!" The affected trio was flabbergasted at the sudden turn of events.

"But I don't want to get married!" Luffy whined.

"… The myth isn't real." Zoro huffed.

"Robin-chwan! I love yo-"

"You mean to tell me," Robin avoided Sanji's declaration of love as she pondered over Brook's earlier explanation seriously. "These strings represent potential soulmates? And there's others, excluding Luffy, Zoro and Sanji?"

"They're just stories I've heard." Brook admitted. "But you never know. There's no harm in finding and knowing who else are connected to these strings too, right?"

"Wait. If the potential soulmates could see the strings just like how Luffy and the rest can, does that mean they could follow the string and come to us as well?" Usopp furrowed his eyebrows together. "That's scary! What if there is a crazed, dangerous criminal out there somewhere?!"

Nami shook her head at that ridiculous statement. "We are the crazy, dangerous criminals."

"An adventure to find Robin's future soulmate!" Chopper's eyes seemed to sparkle. "That would be fun!"

"I guess…" Robin agreed but it was largely due to the fact that Chopper himself had been excited. If it had been any other person…

"Luffy!" Nami turned to her Captain. "Can we have permission to look for all of her potential soulmates?"

"Hmm… I don't know…"

"The faster we find her potential soulmates, the faster this string will disappear right?" Zoro pointed to his own string.

"Or I could just make Robin-chwan fall madly in love with me." Sanji danced over to the older woman. "Right, Robin-chwan?"

"Fine." Luffy finally gave in. "The sight of the string is beginning to annoy me. Okay, everyone! Let's go find Robin her soulmate!"

"Okay!"

At that, Robin smiled. Finding a soulmate hasn't once been on her mind but a little distraction wouldn't hurt. A quick look at the strings, however, turned her a little tense. If the story regarding the strings were true, then that would mean that she needed to fall in love for it to disappear.

Robin looked up to see Luffy, Zoro and Sanji staring down at her. It was in that moment that it finally sunk in how serious the situation could turn out. The four crew members averted their gazes, each lost on their own thoughts. Would the situation turn worse than it already is, or would it get better?

Nobody knows the answer.

"I mean… it is about time Robin got married." Usopp made an off-handed remark, thinking that Robin couldn't hear.

"…Dos Fleur…"

"R-R-Robin! I'm sorry!"