So A Hunter's Forbidden Promise comes to an end. I had a lot of fun writing this and am considering making it a trilogy if anyone is up for reading a trilogy of this. Some parts of this chapter I am not proud of but this is my favorite chapter. As a side note: I hope this chapter doesn't ruin your day, but I got emotional writing it.
Hope you enjoy the last installment of A Hunter's Forbidden Promise :)
Luffy woke up with a start, breathing and sweating heavily. He move a hand to his head, laying on the hardwood floor. He didn't register that, though. He needed to find Zoro.
Now.
With major trouble, Luffy managed to stand. He wobbled over to the door, leaning against the wall for support. With one foot out the door, he struggled to call out to his friend as his panting continued full force.
A loud noise tortured his eardrums, and he almost fell over. Luffy dug into his pants pocket with an unusual amount of struggling, and pulled out his phone. The bright screen killed his eyes as he squinted to read the caller ID. He was one second too late in reading 'Robin' and it cut to his voicemail as his sight slowly adjusted and he read through his missed calls. 4 from Usopp, 7 from Nami, 16 from Robin, and 9 from Sanji. What's their problem? He thought warily as he continued to stumble throughout the house, finally reaching the kitchen, pulled out a water bottle, and downed its contents.
He felt mildly better, and not like he was going to throw up, so he called Robin back. She answered on the first ring.
"Luffy-san?"
"Hi Robin. Why'd you and the others keep calling me?"
"We have something urgent to show you."
"Okay…where are you?"
"In the abandoned warehouse by the movie theater."
"The one in the forest?"
"Yes, that is the one."
"Alright, I'll come as soon as I get Zoro."
"No need. He's already here."
"Oh." Luffy furrowed his eyebrows, now noticing that the house he was in was quieter than before. "Alright then."
"Please hurry. We shouldn't wait much longer."
A startled cry emitted from Robin's end of the phone, and she hung up with no warning. Luffy froze and nearly dropped his cell.
He ran out of the house, not bothering to lock the door behind him.
"What are you guys doing?"
This is what Zoro said as Robin and Sanji hooked up a tenth shotgun to the wall. Said vampire was currently chained to the opposing wall, hands cuffed behind his back, a short enough chain attached to the wall so that he couldn't up and leave.
To be fair, the room Zoro was chained up in looked more like an experimental laboratory room than a room in a warehouse, and an abandoned one at that. The walls were a grey concrete, as was the floor. Across the wall that Zoro was on, had a giant two-way glass window, right above the hanging shotguns. There were buttons and levers and dials and the like on a panel in the upper floor, and Zoro didn't even want to know what those did.
The effects of the blood moon had worn off a while ago, leaving Zoro vulnerable for a few moments. The group took that time to capture the woozy greenette and drag him to the warehouse. Chopper had yet to show, leaving the other four to set up.
"Tell me again," Usopp asked from the upper floor. "Why we need Luffy to be here?"
"Because," Robin replied, looking up through the glass window at the curly-haired teen. "We need to make sure this works."
"But-" Usopp started to say, but was cut off by Nami as she walked into the room. "Luffy didn't answer his cell. Robin, you should try again." The ravenette nodded and strode out of the room with the blonde, leaving the vampire to his thoughts.
While Robin held the phone to her ear, waiting to see if their friend would answer, Chopper peeked his head around the doorframe and looked at Zoro. When he was sure no one was looking, he ran over to the green-haired man.
Robin sighed as Luffy didn't answer again. Was something wrong? She sighed, clutching the phone a bit tighter.
Usopp crossed his arms and frowned deeper. "This is the right thing to do…right?"
Sanji lit another cigarette and patted the long-nosed teen's back comfortingly. "Yes, yes it is. Don't worry Usopp. Everything will turn out fine."
Usopp inhaled deeply. I sure hope so.
Just then the cell phone in Robin's hand rang, a loud obnoxious ringtone that made them all jump. It sounded like nails blending in a blender while Luffy's laugh played in the background. Luffy had gone and custom changed his ringtone in everyone's phones as a prank. Robin hadn't bothered to change it. In fact, she kind of liked it, found it unique.
Robin answered the phone after it rang, eager to continue on with her experiment. "Luffy-san?"
"Hi Robin. Why'd you and the others keep calling me?"
The woman frowned. He sounded hurt, as he was breathing heavily. Something was up. "We have something urgent to show you."
"Okay…where are you?"
"In the abandoned warehouse by the movie theater."
"The one in the forest?"
"Yes, that is the one."
"Alright, I'll come as soon as I get Zoro."
"No need. He's already here."
"Oh." There was a pause. "Alright then."
"Please hurry. We shouldn't wait much longer."
A cry from the lower floor made Robin quickly press 'End Call' and put the phone down before Luffy could question her on it. Chopper was trying to pry open Zoro's cuffs, and he fell backwards in the process, making him cry out.
"Chopper?" Usopp asked, peering into the lower floor. "What are you doing? Hurry and get up here!"
"Yeah, what are you doing?" Zoro hissed to the boy on the ground, who was currently rubbing his head. Chopper stood up and faced the glass window, face serious. "I don't think we should do this! I changed my mind!"
"We already have everything set up!" Sanji yelled back. "And Luffy-san is already on his way here," Robin added. Chopper paled and continued to protest with stuttered mumbles. "I-It's wrong! We shouldn't do it!"
"We're doing this for Luffy, you know that Chopper," Nami said calmly, despite the doubt in her eyes.
Zoro stared at her. Doing it for Luffy? What does she mean by that?
"Yeah, but…" Chopper trailed off, playing with his hands. He opened his mouth again but wasn't able to speak as a door slammed open elsewhere in the building. Robin nodded to Sanji, who nodded and quickly ran down to steal Chopper away from the room. He left with the protesting teen, with the chained vampire watching his every move, and bolted the door shut behind him. The only way you could see through it was a medium-sized space with vertical bars running through it. Footsteps echoed throughout the building, but stopped at some point. All was quiet until-
"Zoro?! Nami?!"
Luffy started yelling out to them. It was Zoro who responded after a minute.
"Luffy!"
A gasp. "Zoro!" Accompanied by more footsteps. They got louder as the teen got closer, and Robin was thinking over the last parts of the plan. She smiled as she found no flaws, just as Luffy slammed into the barred metal door leading to the vampire. "Ow…"
"Luffy-san."
Luffy looked towards the voice, peering through the bars on the door and through the glass window as well. "Guys?" he asked as if they weren't there. He gained a confused look on his face as he turned toward the other side of the room, where the vampire was staring at him with concern. "Zoro?"
Luffy saw the chains connecting his friend to the wall, and tried to open the bolted shut door. When he realized that he couldn't, his eyes turned into twin blue burning coals. "What's going on here?"
"We're aware of your problem, Luffy-san," Robin replied instead of directly answering the question. Luffy looked over to her. "What problem?"
"It's simple. You are being possessed by this vampire."
The two on the lower deck froze. Zoro snapped his head up to look at Robin so quickly that he probably would've gotten whiplash. "What?!"
"You're a vampire, and you are possessing Luffy-san, Zoro-san."
"Why would I do that?!" Zoro yelled back with a disbelieving stare at the raven-haired woman. Robin shrugged. "Perhaps for personal reasons? I'm not about to poke into your personal life."
"Well, it seems like you've already done a lot of that," Zoro retorted as Luffy looked at Robin.
"What do you mean, I'm possessed?"
"Your actions are being influenced by him," Robin said as she pointed to a scowling Zoro. "Therefore you are being possessed."
"Wha- I'm not possessed!"
"We have proof that you are possessed, though," Nami said shakily, arms crossed.
Luffy narrowed his eyes. "What proof?"
"You knew about Zoro before any of us." Usopp quivered as Luffy turned his gaze onto the long-nosed boy.
"And you two seemed quite familiar with each other when you first met," Robin pointed out, frowning. "That's quite a lot of proof."
Zoro growled. "That doesn't prove anything."
"Quite a statement, considering it's coming from you, Zoro-san."
He sighed. "Let's say I did possess Luffy, even though I didn't, what are you planning to do?"
Robin smiled cryptically. "Well, it is common knowledge that the only two ways to unpossess someone is if the vampire does it themselves…" she trailed off.
"…or if the caster is killed." Sanji finished for her in a mutter, and, although quiet, it echoed throughout the whole room. Luffy's head snapped up.
"No! You can't kill Zoro!"
"W-we only want to help you, Luffy," Nami claimed, and looked as if she was about it say something else, but she was interrupted by Chopper, who had broken out of Sanji's grip.
"Please don't do this, guys!" He yelled, unshed tears in his eyes. "There isn't any reason to!"
"The damage has already been done," Robin said as she looked over to a blue button on the panel.
"What's going to happen?" Luffy asked, seriousness shown tenfold.
Robin looked back to Luffy. "When I press this button, the shotguns will go off simultaneously." She then turned to Zoro and stared him straight in the eye. "Killing Zoro-san instantly."
Zoro froze. So that's what those are for.
Luffy gasped in shock. "What?!" He shrieked, grasping the metal bars blocking him from crawling into the room. "Why would you kill Zoro!?"
"We're only trying to help you," Robin said, her calm composure slipping a bit. Chopper intervened with the woman's speech.
"Stop it Robin!" he yelled, grabbing and clinging onto the older woman's leg. "This isn't right!"
"We are too far into the plan to just stop."
The reality of that statement struck the other three by the panel harshly.
"B-but we can't do this!" Chopper still insisted, some tears escaping their prison behind his eyelashes.
"We have to."
Luffy was watching their every move in there carefully. When he heard that sentence, he froze, and in a steely voice, said, "Robin." Said female stopped and looked over at him.
Zoro clenched his fists together in tension. He let out a quiet growl that no one else heard. This is inevitable, it will happen either way! He sighed. I should've seen it coming…shit!
"You can't do this." The steel in Luffy's voice showed, his gaze boring into the dark-haired girl's corneas.
Only showing the slightest bit of wavering, she replied. "Of course I can. You just don't want me to."
Luffy narrowed his brow and froze. Robin did the same and they stayed like that for a minute. Finally, she sighed. "You leave me no choice. Luffy-san, you keep defending him, and this raises my suspicion."
"You're wrong! I'm not possessed!" Luffy tightened his grip on the metal bars. "We're all friends! You shouldn't do this! It doesn't matter if Zoro is a vampire!"
"It matters quite a lot, actually." Robin pointed out, putting her hand next to the blue button. "We're hunters. He's a vampire. We're supposed to kill him."
"That doesn't MATTER!" Luffy screamed, royally pissed, and he punched the door as hard as he could, determined to break through the barrier. Alas, the door didn't have a dent in it, much less break. Robin stood tall in the room, while everyone else was having second thoughts. Was this really okay to do?
Robin sighed. "Alright. I'm ending this."
And with that, she slammed her hand down on that small blue button.
Panic spread through every inch of Luffy's body, as he froze and looked over to Zoro, who didn't do anything but stare at the hand crushing the life out of the button. A disembodied voice came from somewhere, counting down.
Commence fire in tee minus 10 seconds
10
"Oi."
9
"Zoro?" Luffy and everyone else stared at him.
8
I can't help it.
7
This will be the last ti-
6
-me I can say it to him.
5
"Zoro?"
4
Zoro closed his eyes.
3
He let a fond smirk grace his face.
2
Time seemed to stop.
1
"I love you, Luffy."
Fire
Gunshots rang throughout the room, echoing in their ears. No one heard the cry of a person with a shattered heart.
"ZORO!"
The shooting seemed to last forever, with no way to stop it. Luffy screamed, and desperately tried to get to Zoro, his best friend, and save him from the release of death. He knew it was hopeless, but he kept trying.
"ZORO!"
Finally it stopped, the silence more ear-shattering than the gunshots. It was broken when a raspy, gasping sound emitted from the vampire at the end of the room.
The others all did a double take as they saw him standing, and breathing. His legs wobbled a bit, and he pushed himself off the wall. Blood covered his body from head to toe, dying his once colorful hair a burgundy. He moved across the room slowly, blood pooling out of the gunshot wounds, squelching and splashing when they hit the concrete, marking the path of the dead Zoro.
He headed towards Luffy, not caring what the others did.
Robin was shocked. She knew that vampires could stay alive for a minute or two after being shot or stabbed through the heart, but she hadn't heard of one lasting this long, and still moving. He does have a stronger will than most, though, she thought. She wasn't worried about him inflicting damage on Luffy, however. In this small period of time, vampires could not do anything - possess, move quickly, nothing. The worst he could do was bite Luffy, and even then his fangs should've been dull by now.
By the time he was close enough to touch the door, it had been a full minute of silence, and everyone was surprised that he hadn't fallen yet.
Luffy had tears streaming down his face in waterfalls. He reached out to the small bars, and stuck his arm through, grasping at what was left of his friend. He tried to stutter out his name, but it proved fatal as his hiccuping sobs wrecked his voice and wracked his body. Zoro grabbed his hand and pulled himself closer to Luffy, until he was right up against the door. Luffy held him up, praying to whatever God he could think of that Zoro wasn't dead.
The greenette pulled himself up, grabbing onto the bars that Luffy held onto, putting his hands over Luffy's. Everyone waited on bated breath.
Finally after a moment of silence, Zoro took one of his index fingers to push Luffy's chin upwards-
-and he placed his blood-coated lips on top of Luffy's tear-stained ones.
Luffy's eyes widened, surprised and shocked, and it took him a second to register what was happening before he snaked a hand through the bars and pushed himself closer to Zoro.
The kiss was short, and passionate, conveying Zoro's message loud and clear:
"I'm sorry. I couldn't keep my promise. I love you, Luffy. More than anything else."
And then, at last, he fell.
Zoro's lips fell away from Luffy's as his legs gave out, no longer able to work. His hands fell from the bars, leaving only Luffy's pale ones to clutch the metal tightly. Luffy took in a shaky breath, eyes pooling with newly made tears. He didn't move, didn't speak, barely breathed. A soft thud, and all hell broke loose.
"ZORO!"
Luffy slammed his head against the door and screamed. He let his tears fall freely, not caring that four other people were watching him. Why did they kill him? There was no reason to! He was shaking so badly (with sadness and anger) at this point he was in danger of falling.
"ZORO!"
After this single cry, filled with desperation, a hand was placed atop his mess of raven-colored locks. Luffy jerked his head up, and breathed in deeply. He whirled around, careful to not let the hand fall off his head, and what did he see but Zoro.
Except, it wasn't Zoro. Zoro didn't glow green. Or went blurry at the edges of his frame. Or was translucent.
Luffy set his own hand on the one that was casually sitting on his head, eyes glassy and wide. "Z-Zoro?"
The Zoro-thing gained a look of despair, grief, sorrow, and something else in his eyes, as he frowned a bit. He removed his hand from Luffy's head and placed it on his cheek, stroking away tears that had nearly dried on his face. He rested the hand on his cheek for a moment, and Luffy wished he had never taken it off. It felt like a cool breeze on a warm day, pleasing to the touch.
The Zoro-thing let his hand drop to his side, and smiled the biggest smile Luffy had ever seen placed upon Zoro's face. It reached up to his eyes and lit them up. It looked like Luffy's trademark smile.
Except it wasn't. It was Zoro's.
It was a shame it left just moments after it came.
A bright white light flooded everything in its rampaging glory. It blinded Luffy momentarily, making him grasp at his face with his hands as if something were in his eyes. The light pulsated behind his eyes as it subsided, shrinking down into a small sphere that could fit in Luffy's hands. Actually, there were many spheres, all glowing a green-tinted white. They hung around for a bit, floating in midair as Luffy stared quizzically at them. Then they suddenly all dispersed out, all in different directions, as if in a hurry, seeming to know exactly where they were going, despite the fact that Zoro got lost when he took two steps out his front door.
All but one.
That single one stayed, hovering just in front of Luffy and his shaking form. It moved, but only after waiting for a moment, as if observing or analyzing something. It decided to circle around Luffy's head like a housefly, promptly ignoring the bedhead of hair. Luffy tried to watch its trail around his head, but to no avail.
It finally settled down to floating in front of Luffy's chest, bouncing a bit, like it was waiting for him to do something. The raven-haired male cupped his hands under the glowing ball of light, letting it rest in his hands with mesmerized eyes.
Suddenly, the glowing sphere leaped up out of his hands and rushed at him. Luffy jumped and scrambled backwards, falling on the floor in the process. The ball was still hovering in the air where he was standing. Luffy stood up slowly, not taking his eyes off the mysterious ball.
Once he stood, the ball hovered around his face again before flying over to his cheek and touched it ever so lightly. Like…
…like it was pecking a kiss on his cheek.
The ball shook a bit after looking at Luffy's face, which conveyed a look of shock and surprise, with a hint of sorrow, as if chuckling. It flew back to where it hovered when Luffy held it. He reached his hands out again.
"Z-Zoro?"
The sphere did a little twirl as if replying. Then it vanished into thin air.
Luffy started at the vacant space for a minute, not moving. Multiple footsteps from the upper floor snapped him out of his trance as he inhaled sharply through his mouth. Tears welled up in his eyes, blocking his vision with blurry shades of gray and red. Hiccuping sobs rose in his throat. Now no one could block out the heart-wrenching cry escaping Luffy's mouth.
"ZORO!"
~Owari~
