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(But sometimes it's worth it when your receive great strength after your defeat)
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Episode 5: "Defeatists and Realists: The beginning of getting stronger"
[Alabasta] Zeke- Age 17
The wind, the sand, even the rain, Alabasta was much different than when the great Pirate King Luffy and his crew came here. The most noticeable change was Queen Vivi and King Koza. Zeke decided not to see them even though he knew what his father's crew had done for them here. So he just looked around and stopped into a bar for something to eat. "Yeah that's right! Squeal in fear you sand pigs!" Zeke had just walked into the bar as the commotion go louder and louder. A very large bald man was slinging around innocent citizens.
Zeke couldn't stand it, no one who can't defend themselves should be allowed to be attacked like that.
"Hey!"
That quickly got the attention of EVERYONE in the room. The large man looked at him, "You talking to me, Punk?"
There was no fear in Zeke's eyes, "Yes."
The man gave off a wicked laugh, "HHAHHAHHAHHA!! You idiot! You must not know who I am. That is the only way to explain your utter stupidity to DARE speak to me in such a way." he came closer to Zeke, now towering over him.
Zeke didn't back down, no fear came over him, no regret, nothing of such a nature, only annoyance of the pursed amount of bullshit this guy seemed to be covered in. He continued looking at him unmoved, "I don't give a damn who you are. Or who you THINK you are."
This shambled the man's ego, "!!!!!!!!!?????????? YOU LITTLE FUCKER!!!!! I AM TAEKO MACHITA!!!!! YOU DIE FOR YOUR DAMNED IGNORANCE, PATHATIC SHIT!!!!"
The man known as Taeko drew his large sword and swung it in an amateurish, simple, down thrust. Zeke just scoffed and stepped aside from the blow. His speed was average and unenthusiastic as Taeko's sword made a big hole in the wooden floor. Taeko couldn't believe his eyes, neither could his men. "D-Did you see that!?"
"No one's ever side stepped Taeko-donno like that!"
"That guy's not human!!!"
The fear of missing vanished from Taeko now, and was replaced with extreme anger and frustration.
"Taeko-sama! What are we going to do!?!?"
"QUIET!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!" All of his men shrunk at the earth shattering boom of his voice. He faced Zeke again and swung down his sword once again. Zeke was going to side step it again, but he didn't count on the increased force.
*WWWHHHAAAAABBAAAMMM!!!**CRUNCH!!*
Some of the impact caught Zeke this time, but he dodged enough that it didn't cause major damage, not even blood was drawn... yet. Another whole was made in the floor, this one was quite larger. Slight burses were showing on Zeke's now lightly tatter shirt. Taeko grinned evilly, "How do you like that punk!? You shouldn't underestimate me, I have a 150,000 bounty on my head! I'm "Killer Ox" Taeko! No man can match my natural strength! All those pussies that have devil fruit, they have it cause without'em they'd all be useless and weak! I am the strongest "normal" man in the world!"
A small chuckle escaped from Zeke's mouth.
Taeko went ballistic again, "You dare laugh, trash!?!"
Zeke just continued to smile, "You think you're so strong?" He looked up at Taeko, "Then come at me again. Ok, I'll take you seriously."
Taeko gritted his teeth, "YOU SHIT!!!" and swung down again. Only one,
Zeke pulled only one sword out of it's sheath and used it to defend himself. The large sword clashed against Zeke's, emitting a high *clink*ing sound. Taeko's teeth gritted more, the force could practically crack and break them. Zeke pushed his sword up, it was now a power struggle to who now would have the upper hand, Zeke or Taeko.
Zeke was winning. Taeko's inner self was throwing a fit, ("NO! I CAN'T LOSE TO THIS BASTARD!!!") Zeke threw Taeko's sword off of his, Taeko went backwards, and Zeke came at him with a forward slash. "GAAAAAHHHH!!!!" The slash tore at Taeko's skin. And Zeke kept coming.
His next swing knocked Taeko's sword out of his hand. "YOU DAMNED BRAT!!-guu...!" Zeke had punched him in the stomach, knocking the breath out of him. Zeke then pushed his punch deeper, making Taeko soar through the air. He crashed into the bar wall and landed on the other side out in the street, unconscious.
"BOSS!!" "Taeko-donno!" "Holy shit man!"
The fearful henchmen ran to his side. Still freaking out, they picked him up and ran off as another carried his sword followed behind them. Zeke put his sword back in its sheath, "And THAT is real strength."
"REAL strength!??? Don't make me laugh. What, just cause you're ZORO'S son makes you think you're so much better?..." Zeke spun around to see another man in what remained of the bar. He was drinking beer from a very large mug (bigger than his head), guzzling it down. He acted like everything within the last 10 minutes had be so normal. He wiped his mouth and stood up, "If you think like that, you're no better than that big loser." He looked at Zeke with such disrespect, almost of disgust.... AND, he wore an all black outfit.
Zeke was so bewildered by this man's sudden speech, more importantly, "How... How did you know my father is Zoro?!??"
The man sneered, "You walk, you talk, you LOOK, you even fight like him. Daddy give his little boy special training? Make him better than all the over little kids cause he was taught by the "best"!?!??"
All this teasing and bad mouthing of his father and his own name angered Zeke, "I didn't even grow up with him.... My MOTHER raised me!"
"Oh, so sorry, boo-hoo. A FUCKING sob story." He got directly into Zeke's face, "It's pampered fuckers like you that make me sick to be a swordsman myself. You think you're so great !? HUH!?! You even, what!?, carry 4 swords around so you can 'one-up' your old man? You think his NAMESAKE will carry you!? You even have his old sword!"
(You can sooo tell they hate each other)
Zeke griped Sandi, AND Faasuto, "My father does NOT, DEFINE me. I am PROUD to be 'The Son of Zoro'. But I will never EVER accept being proud of being "Zoro's son"."
The man in black smiled wickedly, their foreheads were practically touching now, "Oooo, Jr. has some fight in him. Why don't you prove all your damn talk. Let's go ju~~st outside the town, and REALLY fight. Not some push over 'brawl' you just did here. If you are who you think you are... then you may ACTUALY be a challenge for me."
"You got it."
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Zeke was the first draw his swords, he placed Faasuto and Rasuto in his mouth, and gripped Sandi and Makezuotorazu in his hands. This would be the first fight were Zeke could truly test out his 4 swords style. Although he had trained for 4 sword as a child, he never had real swords to use.
{6 years ago} Zeke- Age 11
"2 swords!"
*CHING!* *CLANK!* *SLICE!*
"3!!!"
*WOOSH* *SWOOP*
"4!!!"
*SWING* *SWING* *CHINK!* *CHING* *CHING!* *DING!*
"5!!!"
"Wha- 5!??"
*WHACK!*
"Don't back talk boy! I said five!"
"But, but, but... I don't know how to do five!"
"....Well, figure out how son."
Zeke sat down on a stump to rest for a moment. He looked at his mother Perona, panting to catch his breath. "I *pant* don't even have any REAL swords *pant*. What's the point of practicing now?"
Perona squatted next to him, "You may not have any swords now, but when you set out on your journey, you'll find some and it maybe more than one. You need to be ready so you know how to fight on ANY level you find yourself on."
{Present Day}
She gave him Sandi Ketsu the day he left, and now he has 4 in his position. Today, Zeke will find out if he can truly use 4 swords to his advantage as a swords man.
The man in black drew his sword. It was almost as long as his body, and had black imprints of a dragon on one side, and a rose on the other. "Are you ready... Jr?"
Zeke gripped his swords, "Let's go!"
Zeke was the first to charge, he came at the man with everything he had.
*CLING!!*
The man stopped him in his tracks. Zeke pushed harder, wide eyed as he could not believe the man halted him with such ease. A smirk appeared on the man's face, "This is Roronoa? Is this actually, 'ALL THAT YOU HAVE?'."
*SHING!!*
He broke off their connection, then came back with a simple horizontal slash. Zeke went to block it with one sword, but the man was too fast.
*SLICE*
Zeke was taken off guard by the force and his one sword used for the block wasn't enough. The man's sword was at least half an inch into his ribs. Zeke kept back the pain. ("Damn it. I can't let him get me again.") He jumped back and recovered from the blow, but the man in black was already charging for another assault. Zeke decided to block the oncoming attack, with an attack.
As both men ran forward, they both knew something was going to give.
*WO-WINGG!* *TING!* *CLANK!*
Both of Zeke's mouth-swords flew into the air as the men connected. The man in black had connected with Zeke's Sandi, pushed it to the right, gave a swallow diagonal slash on Zeke's chest, then hit Zeke's jaw with the handle with his sword, all before Zeke could even react with his Tachi.
Zeke staggered backwards, his mouth now bleeding from the inside thanks to the jaw shot. He spit out some blood and wiped more off, and tried to recover a stance.
The man laughed, "So, hahahaha! It looks like you are EXACTLY what I thought you were. Nothing. So weak. You must be one of the type that think "the more swords you have, the better you are" am I right!? Hahahahahha!"
Zeke's anger quickly returned from the aw-struck nervousness he just had. "We're not done! I'm still standing!" The man put back on his serious face, "Hmmm, I guess you're right..." he put both hands on his sword and put it up, with the handle near his face, "You ARE still standing."
"GrrrrrrRRAAAWW!!!" Zeke was making an amateur mistake now, he charged in with full blind force. Not paying attention to his opponent's stance, not realizing how wide open he was, and NOT realizing he was attacking with now form or thought of how he would strike.
*WOO**WOO**WINGH!*
The man had come up with his sword, swung in a curve and come back down, knocking Zeke's Sandi out of his hand, slightly crimping the muscle, then giving him another, little deeper cut on his chest. Zeke feel to his knees and blood spattered out, having his Tachi hold him up. The man looked back at him, a small, amused smile on his face, "Heh, NOW you're not standing."
A some more blood came out of his mouth, "We're not done! Let's go again." He didn't even say this to the man's face, he couldn't stand up, his Tachi was the only thing keeping him from falling to the sand beneath him. The man in black walked over to him and bent down to Zeke's face. "Not giving up? Really? Well I guess you should get some kind of merit. Guess it means you're 'SORT OF' proud to be a swords man."
"FUCK YOU!" Zeke barked, barely breathing properly, his wounds were getting worse with each pant. The man smiled, and punched Zeke as hard as he could in the face.
*WHAM!*
"Look kid, you suck. But not like that moron earlier. I'll give you this much, you have heart, I should have seen that when you cringed at being compare to your dad like that's the only way you could ever do good. So you want to be one of the best huh? Without ever lurking in daddy's shadow? Ok, get better then. But right now, anyone who's even HALF my strength... could KILL you right now. So, good luck." With that the man began to leave.
"WWWAAAAIIITTTTT!!!!!!!!!" A TEARFUL cry came from Zeke. He couldn't stand, blood and tears mixe all over his body, he called out to the man as he laid in the sand of Alabasta. "What is your name?!?! I must know! We will meet again! I swear it! And I will beat you! So what is your name! So I can challenge you!"
The man smiled, "It's Tatum... punk. Remember it well, cause it will be a LONG time till you can beat me."
"Tatum... *pant*.... I'll remember.."
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"There you are you trash!"
Zeke's eyes opened in fear as he recognized that voice. He was still in the desert, ressting his body and not moving. He slowly sat up... only to have a knee knock him back down, and hard.
*WHAM!*
"Looks like Air gave you a good beating." the 10 foot Taeko smirked evilly, "Now I get to pick off the bones. Hehehehehe, AHAHAHAAHAAHAHAHA!"
*FFFFWHAM!!"
He stomped violently on Zeke's abdomen, Zeke screeched in pain, but not for too long as air in his lungs disappeared, and he had now voice to scream with. Taeko picked him up and threw him by the head. Zeke crashed, he couldn't move, especially not know. He noticed Sandi, it was so close to him, he struggled to crawl for it.
*CRACK!!*
Taeko stepped on it, right before his eyes. Sandi-Kestu, Zoro's old sword, had shattered before his son's eyes. Zeke's eyes began to water. He was too weak and injured to do anything.
*WWWWHAM!!!*
Taeko's kick sent him flying. Zeke landed and rolled down a dune. Taeko jumped down and landed on top of him. Bones could be heard cracking, Zeke's pain couldn't even be expressed in screams.
"You!" Taeko pointed to one of his men, "Bring me this piss ant's other swords, they're all gonn break before his eyes, and then I'm gonna KILL him with the sharded metal bits of their remains."
"Yes sir!" the henchman ran up the dune to go get the other 3 swords.
Taeko looked down at the crippled Zeke, his wheezy and short breaths showed how close to death he really was. "Don't worry trash, it'll all be over soo."
"WWWWAAAAAAAA!!!!!!!!!!!" the man Taeko sent up to fetch the swords now fell from the top of the dune and crashed near Taeko's feet, he was unconscious and had a swollen face.
Taeko roared, "What!??!?! WHAT THE HELL IS THIS!?!?!" He and all his men looked up, so did Zeke.
"Leave. And don't EVER harm Zeke-sama again."
The 14 footer Frank slid down the dune, Zeke's sword's in hand. He pulled out his own sword, 10 feet long at least, a simple broad long sword, a look Zeke had never seen, of intent to kill in his eyes.
Fear over took Taeko, "L-Let's get outta here! Everyone retreat!!!"
They left with their tails between their legs, and as they vanished from sight, Frank's kind hearted nature returned to his face. "Zeke-sama, what happened to you."
Zeke began to cry, his pain stopped him from trying to prevent it. Frank put him on his back and began to walk back to town. "I'm a failure Frank. I can't do anything right. I lost, and then almost died. I even had to be saved, I'm pathetic."
Frank simply kept looking forward and Zeke ranted self-loathingly. "Don't be ridiculous Zeke-san. Everything will be fine. You'll get stronger. Everyone has ups and downs. You'll get better, trust me, you are Zeke Roronoa, and there will never be anyone like you again."
Zeke didn't hear much of what Frank said, he had passed out from his wounds.
To Be Continued....