"What's the matter Gig? SURPRISED???"
*!!!!!!!!!!!!*
~Z~X~Z~X
Episode 14: "Zaven; A Messenger of Beethoven"
~Z~X~Z~X~
He ran as fast as he could, out of breath, but still running. He could not stop for anything. And finally, beyond his belief, he could stop.... Because, although the old man said it would take them 4 days (or 30 hours + average speed and rest) took Frank Dekata 1 1/2 hours to get here from half way of the island (they had already traveled for 2 days and were on their 3rd when stopped by the assassins.)
Frank breathed heavily. He placed the still unconscious Rika down and collapsed to the ground. "..... *pant* I think..... *pant*...... I might..... *pant* ..... have over done it..... *pant* *pant*...."
"WOOHHOOOHOOO! I'll say boy! You're hear about a day earlier than expected!" Frank, still laying down, tilted his head up to see the old man that was at the other side of the island when they arrived. He had a scraggly beard and seemed to be missing a few teeth and was very skinny (he looks mostly like the stilt man in One Piece when they first met Aokiji) as he sat on the side rails of their boat. It was there, just like the man said it would.
The old man jumped down from the boat and walked over to Frank. "Say, weren t there 3 of you? Where is he? And why did you run over here? Why is that girl unconscious?" He became more concern and serious with each observation and question he made.
Frank stood up, still panting, "We were attacked..... *pant*.... Zeke stayed to fight them *pant*."
The old man blinked, "Zeke?...... OOH!!!! That was Roronoa Zeke with you!?!? Damn it! Why didn't I ask for you names!?!?! Crap! We must hurry and help your friend! Hopefully Zaven is helping him!!"
Frank became very confused, "What are you saying Osan? Did you know this was going to happen?"
"There's no time to explain!"
Frank got serious and nodded his head, "Right! Let's go!"
The old man shook his head, "No, you won't beagle to keep up with me."
Frank blinked.
"But, I suppose, even though I advise against it, I can do it this once."
Frank was even more confused, "What are you talking about?"
"Here, trust me, it's the only way to get to Zeke-san in a matter of minutes." The old man reached out his hand and touched Frank. And suddenly, the 14ft giant started to SHRINK.
"Wha-!?!?"
"Don't worry, it shouldn t be too bad since it'll only be for a few minutes and this'll be you're first and only time.
Finally, Frank stopped shrinking to the size of about 3 inches tall. The old man picked him up and put him in his pocket. "Now, as for the girl, I think I can carry her. She's probably weaker than you, so if I shrunk her, she most likely could feel the side effects more." He picked Rika up and started to head toward Zeke's location. "Man, she heavier than I thought, or I'm so weak in my old age. Either way, it'll take about 10 minutes to get there now."
Then, with amazing speed, the old man started jumping and dashing trough the island, they truly would be there in no time.
~Z~X~
".....Gah........Ah...ah........" Blood and rock flew off/out of Giggy's body as the Shatter impact form Zaven hit him at full force and point blank range.
Zaven smiled, "Guess you can't handle being shattered either, like real rock."
Giggy was now in his normal state, Zeke pulled the sword out of him and he collapsed to the ground. ".... Is he dead?"
"No, I don't think so. But I doubt he's getting up anytime soon."
There was an awkward silence for a moment, then Zeke spoke, "So... do I have to worry about you?"
Zaven gave away a small smile, "Like Gig said, I don't have to put up the act anymore." He extended his hand for Zeke to shake it, "My name is Zaven Kilo, MASTER BEETHOVEN has told me about you. Pleased to meet you. I must say, you've done a lot today, you must be an EXCEPTIONAL fighter."
Zeke gave out a small gratified chuckle, then fell unconscious to the ground.
*THUD!*
~Z~X~
Zeke woke up, he was out for about 10 minutes. He was lying against a rock pillar, all 5 swords, his and Frank's were next to him in their respected sheaths. The sun started coming down, there was still plenty of light left though, it was probably about early afternoon. "Ah, you're up. You recover pretty fast."
Zeke laughed lightly, "Nay... I'm just not tired."
Zaven looked at him like he was ridiculous "And how about your leg? Where did you pick that up?"
"Oh, I once fought a guy named Oden, and he had the ability to prolong the worse effects of an injury until he was done fighting to fix it. But that's another story(WINK WINK)."
Zaven chuckled almost doubly at this as he sat across from him against another rock with his arm on his knee looking out to the sun.
Zeke once again broke the silence, "So.... what is all this about? I get Wolfgang. I expected this to happen. But what's up with Beethoven?"
Zaven looked at him, "Beethoven has a message for you."
Zeke rolled his eyes, ("Here we go. Another Yonkou wanting me to join his stupid crew.")
"He does not want you to join him and hopes that you stay out of the upcoming events as he will, no matter what."
Zeke went beady-eyed, "........Really...."
"Yes. He wishes to meet you one day as well. He says he has a lot to talk to you about."
Zeke rolled his eyes again, ("Oh, so he still wants me to hear something stupid that will have me join his 'cause.' ")
"What about?"
"...... He just wants to talk. Nothing else. And he doesn't care when you do it."
Zeke went beady-eyed again, "...... That sounds..... bleak."
"Hmhmhm, Master Beethoven is not a man who seeks any form of power. He could care less about ruling something."
"Why do I have a hard time believing that."
"You remember the others calling Wolfgang LORD."
"... Yeeeah."
"Lord is what people call their tyrant, their ruler. Not someone they respect, but fear and accept as stronger than them. But me and my crewmates, we call Beethoven MASTER. Master is someone who you have the UT-MOST respect for and look at him as a father. Like pirates you to call WhiteBeard "Pops". That's how most of us feel about MASTER Beethoven."
Zeke pondered this for a moment, "Hmmmmmm. Interesting. So, what about this SPY thing, and who's his daughter."
Zaven closed his eyes. "Jasmine. She's his 17 year old daughter. She looks older, most of the brainwashed fools in Wolfgang s crew think she's 23. And many believe they have a RELATIONSHIP."
"..... Dude, that's sick. Isn't he like, old enough to be her dad?"
"Yes, he is. But for Master Beethoven's sake, I hope they haven't. She was taken from him when she was 10, and he's been looking for her ever since. We finally found the man who bought her from the men that originally stole her. Wolfgang. But Beethoven sadly knows better than to fight another Yonkou, at least for now anyways. When Beethoven told me about you and Wolfgang's plans for you, I asked him what about his daughter, shouldn't I stay with my cover and find her. He sighed and told me, even thought he hated the fact of where she was, she would be safe with Wolfgang until he could find a way to get her. And he was right that I would be on the mission to come kill you. It's most likely because Giggy was my partner."
Zeke thought of all of this, it intrigued him more and more to see this Beethoven, he sounded like he knew a lot of things he wanted to know. Especially if.... "Zaven,"
"Hm?"
"Is Beethoven.... someone my father knew? Was he there for all the wars?"
"......... Yep. He also did a few more things that no many civilians know about. And only the older pirates have heard wishers about him being the one to do it. Almost the entire world thinks he's dead because of one of his last most notable incidents. Because the Marines think he died during that incident. But that's ALSO another story (WINK WINK, again)" Zaven stood up with a smile on his face, "But I won't tell you his true identity. I think it'll be much more fun when you finally meet him."
Zeke nodded in agreement.
Then they heard someone coming, the old man.
"HeheheHOOOO!!! Here we are!" The old man leaped to a few feet away from Zeke and Zaven and put the still unconscious Rika down and took Frank out of his pocket and returned him to normal size.
Zeke was astonished, "Wow! It that how you carry ships to the other side old man!?"
The old man nodded and then he looked at Zaven and all the damage done around him, "You boys sure made a mess."
Zaven looked very surprised, "Kito? What are you doing here? I thought you went back to your home in South blue and retired?"
"You know this guy?" Zeke asked.
"Yes! He was part of our crew a long time ago."
The old man known as Kito chuckled, "Aheheheheah! I decided to be kind of a tollboother on this island. It's quite easy livin'. I just shrink pirates boats down, within minutes take it across the island and stay there and the food and sleep in the beds till they get there! Plus a simple 100 beri doesn't hurt. I store it up and one day I'll leave here and buy a BIG mansion somewhere! Ehahahahaha!"
Zeke only caught the 'most important thing'. "YOU EAT OUR FOOD!?!?"
"Oh, that reminds me.... you're out."
"WHAT!??!"
*WHAM!*
"THAT'S OUR FOOD YOU DIRTY OLD BASTARD!!" At that time.... Rika had woken up.
".... Ouch! That hurt!"
"I hope it did!!"
Frank, once again assumed the role of trying to control her.
Zaven laughed, "I guess Master told you to keep a look out for Roronoa, but you missed him, didn't you?"
Kito collected himself from the attack, ".... Yes.... I'm so ashamed."
Zaven only laughed some more. "Its fine, everything worked out."
"Yeah.... I guess it did Zaven."
Everyone became alarmed, they looked over to where the voice was coming from. It was Boochiga, and he had Mary and Giggy in his hands.
Everyone prepared themselves for a fight........ except Zeke, he couldn't move. "Man this sucks!!!"
Boochiga smirked, "Tch, don't flatter yourself. I will NOT waste my time fighting scum like you. Especially you Zaven. Here I thought regardless of our arguments, we were comrades. But you're nothing but betraying shit. You deserve what s coming to you the most."
Zaven spoke back to him, "My loyalty was always to MASTER Beethoven. I would never call "Lord" Wolfgang my captain!"
Boochiga only smirked more, "Good, then you can die in his name." He kicked over a small object and began jumping up the rock pillars.
Zaven became horrified, "NO! SHIT! The BLACK DEN-DEN MUSHI!!!"
Everyone looked at him.
"What is that?" Rika asked.
"It's a last resort tactic....... They're going to BLOW UP the entire island."
Everyone became shocked and panicked.
"OH GOD! WHAT DO WE DO!?!? I DON'T WANNA DIE!!!" Rika began crying.
Zeke still could barley move, "Oh this is bullshit!"
Frank looked at Zaven, "How are they going do it!?"
Zaven looked up, and the others did as well.
A giant shadow flew over them. The shadow of an enormous giant-sized eagle, with a giant BOMB in its claws.
"........Arcus."
Suddenly, the eagle dropped the bomb and flew away, it seemed Boochiga made it on to him.
Everyone started screaming.
But Kito.... just started laughing, "AHAHAHAHAHAHHA! Don't you worry young'ns! You must have already forgot what I can do!"
He stuck his hands out to the sky and the bomb.... started shrinking.
Shrinking and shrinking and shrinking and shrinking, until it got so small, you couldn't even see it as it fell into Kito's hands.
"See? Heeheeheehee!"
They all looked into his hands as a small mushroom cloud came from his hands, the explosion was barely noticeable.
"OW! That hurt!"
They all started to laugh at Kito.
~Z~X~
After another day of traveling and relaxing, they all made it to the end of the island, where their ship waited. Zeke, Frank and Rika thanked Kito and Zaven for everything.
"Thanks again you guys." Zeke shook their hands. "You sure you don't want to come with us Zaven?"
Zaven nodded, "Yeah, I'll get a ride eventually, till then, I'll report everything to Master Beethoven. You guys be on your way, I have a feeling, despite my Master's best wishes, you'll have some part in the coming event due to fait." (And the fact that I'm gonna write it that way, MUHAHHAHAHAHA!)
Zeke nodded reluctantly with a smile, "Yeah, I feel it too."
With that, they got on their ship and headed off.
~Z~X~Z~X~
Somewhere in the Grand World, on a desolate and seemingly uncharted island, a man sits in front of a cross, having a drink. "..... So my friend, what do you think will happen soon?"
The cross said nothing.
"Ah, I agree. I guess I can't hide forever."
"Master Beethoven! Master! We just go a report from Zaven." A young pirate ran up the hill in where the man and the cross were.
The man put his drink down, "Ah? What did he say?"
"The defeat of the assassins was successful. But that Sir Zeke did ALL of it and he didn't even help but in the end to defeat Giggian "Giggy" Rousuous."
"Heh, so the boy is THAT powerful eh? Boochiga Polio, Mary Halpart, Zaven himself I assume AND Giggian. Outstanding. He and that GIRL are both becoming so strong. I have no doubt that the Marines will ask for them. I hope they BOTH say no, but they'll push harder for Roronoa than Wolfgang did. And SHE will say yes just for the chance to kill a powerful pirate. And give ME a piece of her mind.... I wonder how her little girl is doing. She has none of YOUR personality my friend." He looked at the cross.
"Sir? What do we do now?" The young man asked.
Beethoven stood up, finishing his drink. "Nothing for now, tell everyone across the Grand Line that calls them a follower of mine to come here. We are having a meeting. And if the Yonkou ask for my presence at the next meeting in a week again.... Tell them the same thing as before, to buzz off."
"YES SIR!"
To Be Continued.......