By animeninjaNIPPON

I was still baffled by the alleged secret meeting held by Hao and the Upper Deck executives, even though the "conference" had been held well over a week ago. I talked to Pirika about it, but she had no idea what was going on, either. We went back to Viz headquarters without the mystery being solved.

On the way to my room, I passed a dark-haired guy (I can't recall his name, but I do believe it had a number in it) yelling "You took my gun!" and a good deal of obscenities at one of the execs. I figured it had something to do with a recent censorship and darted into my little area to avoid being caught in the crossfire.

Suddenly, Kororo popped up in front of me, indicating that something was wrong. "What's the problem?" I asked, continuing to step forward. I followed her into an unlit area, accidentally tripping over Manta. He screamed.

"Oh no!" I cried. "Are you all right?"

"FAUST IS AN IMPOSTER!" he yelled, then ran out of the room faster than Yoh during one of Anna's infamous training sessions.

Before I could respond to what he said, Faust emerged from the shadows, attached to an IV.

"Hello," he said in a small, mellow voice. Kororo disappeared behind me.

I felt a chill run down my spine. I could tell that this was not the real Faust VIII.

"What have you done with Faust?" I demanded.

"What do you mean?" the phony replied. "I am he."

"You liar!" I was ready to oversoul Kororo, but then I saw someone in unmistakably unique pants step out of the shadows next to the fake Faust.

"Hao," I muttered.

"Faust VIII is dead," Hao replied. "4Kids owns his soul now."

"What do you know of 4Kids?"

"4Kids works for me now." He smiled smugly. "Do you know why they call me 'Zeke'?"

"No..." I began to back away.

"'ZEKE' is an acronym," he replied. "Do you know what that is?"

"No," I answered. He proceeded to explain that an acronym is a series of letters that spell out a word but also abbreviate a name or saying. "And do you know what 'ZEKE' means?" he asked. Before I could answer, he gave me the definition:

"Zonula extremum, karpe equilibrio."He smiled smugly again. "That's Latin. Roughly translated, it means I'll take over, one space at a time."

End of part eleven


Side Note:

"Zonula extremum, carpe equilibrio" means something to the extent of "to the extremities (boundaries) of a small zone, enjoy (or improve) equal balance." I changed the C to a K because Latin doesn't have any K's (I don't think), and it went with the acronym.