Much shorter chapter this time. After this one is part 2, which was never posted. So finally new content for those who read the story 2 years ago! Enjoy~
Luffy and Ace sat at one of the tables in the busy dining room, eating sandwiches that had been cooked for everyone instead of the nymphs rummaging in the massive kitchen for whatever they wanted to eat.
Makino was sitting across from the two, looking sad. When Luffy asked if she was okay, Makino said that she was fine. She just read a sad story that she couldn't get out of her head. Luffy bought it, but Ace looked at his other sister strangely. She kept looking up at Luffy.
By the time it was time for bed, Luffy was jittery and excited about her new life starting tomorrow. She bounced on the balls of her feet as the three siblings walked to their rooms. Makino didn't ask why Luffy was so happy. They bid goodnight to each other and went into their rooms, closing and locking the doors behind them.
Luffy created a plastic backpack and put sentimental belongings into it to prepare for leaving early tomorrow. She put in a framed picture of her, Ace and Makino standing in front of the ocean behind them. It was taken with a stolen human camera, so it was pretty good quality. She put in some jewelry that Nami might like, her diary, her stuffed bear she'd had since she was a baby. And a picture of home. It showed the nymphs house, the cove, and the rocks in the distance. Even if she was willingly leaving, she wanted to be able to look back at her previous home.
She finally fell asleep after staring at the picture of her, Ace and Makino, a few tears falling from her eyes about leaving them behind. She hoped Ace got together with Marco. How much she wished that.
Though she'd miss Ace greatly, she did not change her mind about setting sail with a new family. She didn't have any dreams the last night at her home.
Luffy woke up to the sunlight coming through the small round window in her room. It was the day she was excited for. She was going to go on adventures with the person she loved! She could be whatever she wanted. More than just a nymph. She'd be starting over, and she'd make sure it was fun, and had Zoro there to help have fun, too. She could be carried by him everywhere, and kissed anywhere.
She could finally show him her other powers, too, after they all left. She looked to the clock on her wall, seeing it was 10:45. She grinned. She'd get there early if she left now. And she couldn't fall back to sleep with how excited she was. What was it like on the sea? Were there big waves? Was it always sunny? Was it beautiful? She couldn't wait to find out.
She went to knock on Ace's door to tell him that he should walk her there, but when she opened the door, she was greeted with a cement wall. 'What the hell?' It was hard, and did not break when she punched it, which was unusual. If she couldn't break it, that meant it was made by another nymph. Who could it be? Who knew she was leaving?
"Hey! Who locked me in here?! Let me out!" she shouted through the thick cement. Then she heard a voice she wasn't expecting to hear.
"I can't let you go, Luffy. It's not right. Nymphs can't be pirates and be with humans," Makino said through the wall. Makino?! How did she know? Why was she locking her in here? Makino wasn't nosey, why did she know?!
"How do you know about this?!" Luffy asked angrily, but surprised and slightly hurt Makino would do this.
"I know you've been seeing a human, and are going with them. I followed you once. I saw you kiss a human!" Makino replied, sounding very angry with Luffy. Luffy scowled.
"That is none of your business! I won't ever be happy if you do this! LET ME OUT NOW!" Luffy screamed at her. She punched the wall again, but it didn't even crack. Luffy was panicking. The window was too small to climb out of. What was she going to do?
"I am doing this for you! If I keep you here all day, they will leave without you and things would go back to normal. You'll see. You don't really want to go, you just have a crush on him. That's all! You can't leave your life behind to go away with someone you just met. And you can't leave with the knowledge of what we can do! No more than you already have exposed," Makino said. "So you will stay here."
Luffy ran to her closet and pulled a giant axe from the corner of the small room. "I WILL NOT STAY HERE!" Luffy screamed as she began to destroy the wall in her room that had the window. She would escape. She would not miss this. She would not be stopped. She would make it to the ship! She had to!
It only took two minutes for the wall to have a big enough hole for her to escape through. She put on her plastic backpack and leaped out of the hole, running as fast as she could through the home area and to the exit. She could make it. She was faster than Makino, and she had a head start.
Nymphs asked her if she was okay on her way out. She just called them that she was fine. Just going on a run. Thankfully, none of them looked at her strangely. Luffy did random things often. No one followed her, and she soon made it to the entrance and out into the forest.
"Wait! Luffy!" Makino called from not far behind her. Luffy pumped her legs faster, cutting down the trees she passed by with sword-arms, trying to make it harder for Makino to follow. Luffy was not heading to the docks. That would be too predictable. She'd lead Makino far from the harbor, and then turn back around somehow and get to the ship before Makino even caught up.
It had started to rain. The storm was coming faster than it was supposed to. But she had four hours at least. She ran even faster through the woods and into meadows. She could still hear Makino calling her name. Luffy needed to lose her already! She was getting too far and too uphill to get back very quickly. At least an hour run back down the other side of the mountain, and two hours walking.
Rain was pouring down the mountain, making the dirt and grass swampy mud. Getting to the top and running down the other side should work.
She couldn't stop before she landed on a pile of rocks. It hurt her arm to land on them like that, but it wasn't broken thank goodness. It took a long time to heal broken bones. But, as she stood up, the rocks gave way and tumbled down, her with them. She was hit multiple times, and if she could scream out loud, she would.
She landed hard on the ground between two trees, the rocks piled behind her and one of her legs trapped. She pulled away, but her leg was stuck badly. Makino was screaming her name from the top of the mountain, but she had a long walk down.
Luffy created a shovel and pushed the heavy rock up and yanked her broken leg out. She was panicking. She didn't have time to heal her leg! And she still needed Makino off her back. Then she came up with the worst idea that was also the best.
She'd fake her death.
Luffy quickly created a fake leg and made it as realistic as possible, though it would be easy to tell it was fake once Makino had calmed down, which would probably take awhile. Luffy stuffed the fake leg with one shoe into the pile of rocks, using thick glue to keep the rocks from parting. 'I'm so sorry, Makino!' Then she walked away. Limped away. She created a brace and tightly wrapped her leg where it had broken in her lower leg.
The limping was too slow for her liking, but it was all she could do. She tried running with it, but it was so painful she couldn't do it.
Luffy heard a devastated wail of her name from where she had come from. She closed her eyes momentarily and let tears fall from them. She'd made her sister believe she had died. And that it was Makino's fault. How cruel. But she had to.
The rain got harsher and heavier as she limped through the woods. 'Wait for me, wait for me! I'm coming! I'm coming, don't leave without me!' she pleaded. Dark clouds were forming over the island.
Luffy finally stopped after an hour and tried healing her leg even a little bit. She needed to be faster. She was able to run slowly, but had wasted fifteen minutes!
Luffy was sad she was unable to say goodbye to Ace. But… he would understand once he went to Makino and discovered Luffy's fake leg wasn't his sisters. It was just a realistic decoy.
The injured nymph heard thunder overhead, and began to think she was too late. But she had to keep going! She could hear the loud sloshing of heavy waves as she got closer to the harbor. But she stopped running when the docks came into view. Every ship had left. Including the Going Merry.
Luffy ran to the end of the dock, and saw a small ship sailing into the distance. It had to be the Going Merry! Luffy waved her arms, tried creating flashlights to signal she was there, she was there and wanted to go with them! When that didn't work, she tried making as loud noises as she could. But the ship didn't stop. It was getting further away as she watched it leave her behind.
They left her behind.
The nymph stood there and cried silently, the pouring rain making her shiver.
Zoro waited nervously as the storm came closer than it was supposed to. Luffy was really pushing it. He watched the end of the dock for her to come running over excitedly. The other ships were all leaving in a hurry as the storm got closer.
Nami was biting her lip, knowing they needed to leave soon or the ship might get damaged, and Merry couldn't handle even more damage as she had now.
When the clock came to two thirty, Nami told everyone to get the ship ready to sail with a sad and disappointed voice. No one wanted to leave without Luffy, but they had to.
"No! We have to wait until three! We can't leave her behind!" Zoro shouted from the back of the ship, where Nami was watching him sadly. He knew she was coming, and that something had just stopped her.
"Zoro… I'm sorry, but we have to leave. The ship will get damaged if we stay any longer. I'm so sorry," Nami told him. She bit her lip as Zoro said nothing but started shaking, and not from the cold of the storm.
"No…" Zoro said, too quiet for Nami to hear him. "Luffy, where are you…?" Zoro sounded devastated. They were supposed to go on adventures together.
The others looked at Zoro sadly, and the dock one last time, before they got the ship ready to sail away, leaving what would have been their newest nakama. Zoro couldn't help but close his eyes as one tear fell. Then, in devastated resignation, he went to help get the ship ready to leave.
After they began to sail away, he turned to look at the island one more time. And then he saw a small figure. It was light blue, and that was really all he could see through the rain. It was standing at the end of the dock, just looking at the ship as it sailed away.
"Luffy!" Zoro shouted. He ran to Nami in the galley, yelling at her Luffy was there and they needed to turn around. The crew hurried out onto the deck and saw Luffy getting smaller the further they went away.
"We can't turn around, Zoro!" Nami shouted over the pounding rain. Zoro didn't hesitate to toss his precious swords to the deck and dive into the water. "Zoro! You idiot!" Nami shouted as the others either were in shock, or yelling at him to come back. "Damnit! Everyone, stop the ship!"
The boys hurried to pull up the sails and drop anchor. Then they all went to see Zoro getting further away, ignoring the strong waves and pounding rain. Nami ran out of the storage room to get the waver and go pick up the green idiot and the woman he loved.
Zoro got surprisingly far away from the ship before Nami came up in the waver, angry with his rash actions. He climbed onto the waver and Nami sped them the rest of the way to the dock.
Luffy was standing at the edge, crying, her leg purple and swollen and with a black brace on it, both legs and feet covered in mud. She had a clear backpack on, and only had one shoe. She gave a watery smile to Zoro, who grinned at her.
"Let's go on an adventure," Zoro said kindly, reaching out for Luffy. She nodded her head and took his hand.