This chapter is my favorite. So dramatic! Luffy and Zoro... oh. Review! Enjoy~
Once the other masters entered, their food was put on the table like usual the the slaves bowed. "Master, may I speak?" Luffy asked politely, still bowing.
"What is it?" he asked shortly. He was still pissed about the bugs.
"I have talked to some of the others, and we'd like to do the extermination tomorrow morning. It is as soon as we can do it. Is that acceptable?" Luffy asked respectfully.
"Yes, do what you must," he said curtly, putting the napkin in his shirt like a fancy bib. "But we will not be helping and will wait outside. We are too good to be around these bugs.
"As you wish," Luffy said and walked over to the table with the kids, his back to the table the masters were sitting on. He wore a dark smirk. It was almost over. By tomorrow afternoon, they'd be far from this place. Far from the abusive master, the entitled mistress, and… Zoro.
Though Luffy looked to be in a good mood, he was terrified. They way he was going to pull off the fire was very dangerous. He could burn to death easily. He told everyone that, if the castle exploded and Luffy was still inside, they were to flee anyways. Even if they stayed, they couldn't save him if he was trapped in the burning building. The others grudgingly agreed. They were afraid for Luffy, but it was too late to change the plan. Luffy was the designated pyromaniac.
All the slaves were nervous as they slept in the slaves quarters. Luffy wasn't there that night. They knew where he was and found nothing wrong with it. He was going to be with Zoro as much as he could. The time left was passing quickly. Too quickly for Luffy's liking, but at the same time, he wanted to get it over with already.
He sat on Zoro's bed as Zoro changed into his night clothes. Luffy looked around the room he'd come to love. All the pictures of pets on the walls, the knickknacks on the dresser, the discarded dirty clothes thrown around the room and the drawings Luffy had made that he framed. These things would no longer be here by tomorrow afternoon. All of this room would not exist anymore. It made him very sad.
When Zoro came out of his bathroom, Luffy was smiling at him.
"Can I sleep with you tonight? It's not a work night tonight. I'm stressed about the whole thing tomorrow," Luffy said truthfully. Zoro turned a bit pink at the thought of sleeping with Luffy. He also had some other activities he was unwillingly thinking about that they could do during the night the was much more intimate than just cuddling while they slept.
"Of course," Zoro said. Luffy smiled at him and started taking his shirt off. To walk over to Zoro and sit on the bed.
"Shirt off," Luffy commanded. Zoro knew what Luffy was doing and gladly undressed and threw the clothes onto the ground, pouncing on Luffy with a devious grin.
"You sure?" Zoro asked, worried Luffy would change his mind. Zoro was more than ready for a certain activity, and it was obvious Luffy was as well.
"Yes. I want tonight to be special," Luffy said softly. It was the complete truth.
"Alright," Zoro whispered. "I love you."
"And I'll love you for forever," Luffy told him as Zoro lowered his body to meet Luffy's.
Luffy woke up on his stomach with Zoro snoring next him, both of them still naked under the blankets. Luffy couldn't help but have tears trail down his face as he watched Zoro sleep. He smiled in amusement with all the drool coming from Zoro's mouth. He wasn't as sexy asleep as he was last night. But Luffy loved it. He looked at the window and saw it was very light out, and the day had started. The final day, but also the starting day.
"Zoro," Luffy whispered, waking him up with a light shake. He woke up startled and looked at Luffy. "I have to go get ready for the operation." Luffy was only telling the truth the moments before he said goodbye to Zoro.
Zoro yawned and stretched. "I bet it won't be pleasant to get rid of the bugs like this." He yawned again.
"No… I'm not looking forward to it, but it's necessary." They had to leave today.
"I wish I could help," Zoro replied somewhat sadly. Luffy told him kindly that he'd just get in the way. Or burn to death.
"I'm going to get dressed now," Luffy said and shamelessly got out of the bed and was no longer covered. Zoro blushed at the sight of Luffy's naked butt, but stared anyway. Luffy knew he must have been staring, but didn't really care. He was numb at the moment with thinking about what he was about to do. What hurt the most was that he felt no intention of not following through with the plan. He felt no shred of regret or hesitation to burning the place down and escaping. He only regretted that he betrayed Zoro and kept this a secret for over a month. Part of him hoped he'd be reunited with Zoro some day in the future, but he never wanted to see Zoro look at him in hate or anger.
"I have to go. Don't worry, we'll get rid of them. I don't know how long it will last, but you should be fine outside. Master would make a problem if he stayed inside. He'd probably order everyone around and ruin our plan about it. I'll see you later, okay?" Luffy said, his voice miraculously not cracking with the lie he wished was the truth. He smiled at Zoro and left the room.
By the time he was down stairs, lawn chairs and a standing umbrella had been put out on the concrete party area. There was a bonfire in the middle, but no one ever used it. Well, today would be a bonfire. A massive one.
The slaves all bowed at the door as the masters exited. The three couldn't see the glee and dark smirks of revenge on all of their faces. Even Zoro couldn't see it. Once the three sat down and Zoro started to read, the front door closed forever, and one of the large slaves locked it behind them.
Immediately everyone was in action. Luffy ran to the locked stairway and kicked the old wooden door open, the wood cracking loudly. He ran to the wine cellar and got help from others getting the alcohol out. They helped Luffy station and put alcohol soaked rags inside the neck of the bottle and ran to set up where the bottle would be. Luffy had spent days measuring the halls that wrapped around the castle, marking on his hand drawn map diagram of the first floor where each bottle would be prepared.
The glass bottles were each set up in the corner of the hallways and in the doorway of every single room. Luffy then ran up to the third story and broke that door, pulling the bags of flour out and cutting them with a pocket knife, dragging the powder around. He kept the lines thin so the bags would stretch far enough to wrap around the castle and a few bigger piles of flour every here and there, blowing it to smithereens. Hopefully. That was the plan.
Once that was done, Luffy ran to Master's den and pulled the lighter out of the desk drawer. The room was already ransacked and messy with torn paper and objects thrown about the room carelessly while the others had taken all the money and maps in a bag carried on the back.
By the time Luffy had set everything up, the slaves had already fled and were waiting at the treeline behind the house, but in the shadows so if one of the masters came over, they were unseen. How they hoped none of them would come to the back of the house.
The two men who were going to catch Luffy after he jumped from the window hid behind a bush so they werent seen. They all knew there was a chance Luffy would be seen jumping out of the window, but they just had to deal with that possibility.
Luffy had ordered everyone to take Zoro's things besides the fancy outfits and furniture to behind the house, far enough where they wouldn't be touched by the flames. They left a little something for master too, as well as something for Mistress. Goodbye presents, you could say.
Luffy said goodbye and good luck to the last of the slaves who werent to help Luffy near the end.
The soon to not be slave stretched in the corner of the house, farthest from the stairs he'd be running up, a wet rag already wrapped in front of his mouth and nose to help with the smoke. Then he began to run.
Luffy lit the first bottle on fire and threw it at the corner wall, shattering it and causing the first burst of flame to rise up. He immediately ran to the next room and the next, throwing two bottles at the entrance door so no one could come in as he continued. He became increasingly worried at the speed of the flames. He just hoped he could reach the third story on time before the fire caught up to the flour and blew the house up. He ran faster and faster, the smoke finally reaching him and burning his eyes. But he couldn't afford to stay low while he ran because that would make him slower.
Bottle after bottle erupted in flames, following him on his frightful journey through the castle. He yelled in worry once he saw that the flames had burned through the thin wood and reached to the hallway leading to the hidden stairs. Now he was in trouble. The flames were getting closer to the main stairway, but that was his only other option now. He sprinted up the stairs, getting ahead of the fire as it quickly licked up the walls. He was panting by now. This was taking too long! He screamed when he saw that the trail of flour was closer to the stairway that he thought.
By the time Luffy was near his escape window, the flames were feet away from the trail of flour. He was pumping adrenaline, but that didn't calm the overwhelming fear and worry. But he had to keep moving or he really would die.
Once he finally got to the window, he leaped as far as he could to the men who caught him. He told them to "get down!" as the fire finally reached the flour, and the third story blew up in a terribly loud explosion that caused the roof to collapse and shambles to fly up in the air.
Luckily, Luffy, nor the other two, were injured, though the explosion hurt their ears a bit.
"Run!" Luffy shouted as they ran across the grounds to their escape route. Then they heard Zoro shouting at them.
Zoro was reading when he noticed something smelled like smoke. He couldn't see the fire yet, and it took another thirty seconds for him to see the flames wrapping around the side of the castle and to the front. Then the front door caught on fire and the wood began to sizzle. The castle was on fire! He stood up quickly, his book falling to the ground. His parents stood and looked at the burning building in horror. Their home!
But Zoro found something strange. He heard no screams. Surely the slaves would be afraid and screaming. But then things clicked in his mind.
"I want tonight to be special."
"And I'll love you forever."
"I'm not looking forward to it, but it's necessary."
"You'll just get in the way."
Zoro's eyes widened in shocked understanding. Then he saw something leap from the third story wall before an explosion blew the upper story up. He ran to the back of the house as fast as he could, calling Luffy's name. He heard a panicked voice shout "Run!" Zoro sprinted faster, rounding the side quickly. He never ran like this. He wasn't running away from something. He was running because he didn't want to lose someone.
He finally saw Luffy and two bigger men sprinting towards the fence, a dead clump of shrubs on its side, revealing a deep hole dug under the gate. He knew Luffy heard him because he ran even faster.
"Go! Go!" he shouted at the two men. They reached the gate and crawled under, but the second man's foot got caught and it took an extra long five seconds for him to get through. Luffy was the last to go in and crawled under the manmade ditch as Zoro was getting closer. The second before Zoro reached the gate, the three slaves that werent slaves anymore rolled a thick tree trunk that had been chopped down into the ditch, blocking someone from crawling after them.
The two made eye contact as Zoro reached the fence and grabbed the bars. "Don't go!" Zoro shouted at Luffy. Luffy stared at him for a few seconds, his face showing absolute despair and regret. But he turned around and ran off after his friends, into the woods and out of sight. "Luffy!" Zoro shouted louder. But Luffy didn't come back, and Zoro had no way to follow them. He felt tears go down his face. He looked down at the giant log and saw Luffy's small notepad. The first few pages were orders of food, but as he turned the pages, he saw proof that this had been planned long ago.
There were tally marks for each type of alcohol, the names of each kind written next to them. He saw three marks next to the word "flour". Then there were diagrams of the castle's halls, with x marks every few centimeters, along with a drawing on the castle from the side view that had flames marked on the first and third story.
There was a drawing of a cockroach since Luffy didn't know how to write that word. There were two tally marks there too. Words saying "three in each room" were on the pages with the drawing. He couldn't believe how much planning this must have taken. And he hadn't caught on at all.
There were notes about things found in the castle. Then there were numbers. The time that he and Luffy had recorded for him running around the castle.
He looked at the last page that read "say goodbye to Joshua" with double stars next to it, and "tell Zoro I love him" with three stars next to it.
As Zoro looked at the proof of mutiny, he felt no anger. Based on Luffy's face, and the things he had said last night, this was very hard for him. Yet he couldn't feel any shred or anger or hate for the slaves who were now free.
He knew it must have started when his dad carelessly killed one of their family members. He thought it was impressive the mutiny hadn't happened long ago. He couldn't blame their need to make revenge. He knew that if someone killed Luffy and didn't care, he'd kill them. But Luffy had only destroyed "master's" life and dream. Zoro's family lost all of their money, and Zoro couldn't care less. He just wanted Luffy. Even if that meant living on the streets, he'd be with the person he loved.
Zoro put the notebook into his pocket and turned around to look at the destruction. He had to give it to them; this was clever. He looked to the side and saw a large bundle on the ground near the fence. He walked over to see his bed sheets covering a lump and found most of his belongings had been brought outside, away from the fire. What broke his heart even more was the piece of paper pinned to the blanket with a sewing needed. It read, "I love you," and on the back, "You are free."
There were dots of dried liquid on the small sheet, obviously Luffy's tears. Zoro looked to the right and gave a small smile. There was a pile of their chokers sitting next to Zoro's bundle, and a single bottle of wine and a glass next to his father's present. He couldn't help but laugh at this, letting out a sob at the same time. There was also a face mask laying on Zoro's books. He put it on to try and keep the smoke inhalation to a minimum.
His father and mother finally came to the back of the ruined home and looked at what was left for them. His father growled in anger at the boldness of his slaves. His mother immediately poured her wine and chugged it down, crying while she did so. Her home… it was gone. The money was gone as well. What would they do?
But Zoro knew where he was going. He was free, after all.
Tah Da! Hope you enjoyed this chapter! Next one is pretty short and the last one.