章節 22: Zodiac Assassins
Zeus floated above the sea and watched as Merry was lit on fire and burned to ashes, He silently shed a tear for the ship and muttered "I'm sorry, I couldn't save you." he heard a wispy voice "It's okay! I had fun, you took great care of me!" Zeus cried and rubbed his eyes before saying "Good bye Merry. I will remember you forever." he had the feeling of getting smiled at before the person disappeared and drifted away with the wind.
Zeus took a deep breath before floating up to the cloud with the agents and flying back to Water 7. The agents looked at Zeus' back and Blueno said "What about Spandam?" Zeus said "Weren't you watching? He's crippled. He'll probably live the rest of his life in a bed, but he still pushed all the blame to all of you."
The agents were silent before Kaku said "Who are you really?" Zeus chuckled and said "You'll know in time. Not now, especially not when you can easily burn me. I don't trust you and you don't trust me." he looked over his shoulder and said "If it come to the point where we have trust in each other you will know. Or when I can force you to keep my secrets."
The agents were silent again and Jabra finally said "What do you want?" Zeus smiled mysteriously and said "You'll know soon. Just be patient." and with that, he kept silent the rest of the way.
When they got to Water 7 he went straight to a doctor with the agents. He paid the doctor to heal them before leaving the building to prepare.
1 day later
Zeus sat in an abandoned building, smoking on a chair with a box next to him. In front of him were the 6 CP9 agents. Lucci was sitting down in a chair and the rest were standing behind him, they all had bandages on their bodies and were silent.
Lucci said "Why did you save us?" Zeus smiled and said "I want you all, you see." he tapped his cigarette and crossed his leg before clearing his throat and continuing seriously "You 6 are extraordinary agents. Though some of you fell to tricks and unforeseen circumstances, you were misused by the government. I want to use you for my own purposes is all."
Lucci frowned and said "Why should be listen to you?" Zeus exhaled a mouthful of smoke and said "Well, disregarding the fact that I saved all of your lives as well as the fact that I can kill you anytime I want. You simply had no freedom to experience life in Cipher Pol."
He looked at the 6 and said "You were raised to be killing machines and you would've died killing machines. I'm giving you a chance to live a semi-free life." Lucci was silent and Zeus continued "Obviously if Lucci doesn't speak for all of you, I'm happy to hear your opinions."
They all looked at each other and finally Lucci, before keeping quiet. Lucci looked behind him and nodded, he turned to Zeus and said "What are the conditions and what do you want?" Zeus waved his finger and said "Slow down, Lucci. I'm not as stupid as Spandam, you're not burning me. I don't need the head aches for having to look behind my back every day just yet."
Lucci was silent for a moment before saying "If what you said is true, then we are targets for other CP units because of that rat." he gritted his teeth in anger at the end before continuing "For now we don't have a choice. I want to hear what you have to say before deciding, because of the life saving grace, I guarantee with my life that I won't remember this conversation if I happen to deny the conditions."
Zeus looked and Lucci silently and Lucci got serious and said coldly "But if the conditions are absurd or endanger any of my team I will not hesitate to kill you, even if I die." the 5 agents behind him trembled and felt warm.
Zeus clapped and laughed "Yes! I like you, Lucci!" he waved his hand and said "The conditions will not endanger your team. I don't want to put my people to death. You have my word." Lucci nodded and said "So tell me."
Zeus tapped on the table and said "It's very simple, I want you to be 6 of the 12 zodiacs in my future Assassination team." Lucci's face turned ugly and Zeus raised his hand and said seriously "Considering your talents, assassination and infiltration are among the best. I'm not the government, I don't want machines, I want people."
Lucci nodded and Zeus continued "The requirements are very simple. You will be on the same level as some one I appoint for you. You will deal in clearing obstacles for the underground forces. Other than that, you have free range to do whatever you want. Travel, live peacefully, start a business, I don't care but when you receive a mission I hope that you will execute the task efficiently. You will be paid according to every contract as well as a yearly salary and you have my guarantee that if you are threatened I will protect you and if need be avenge you."
Zeus knocked on the table and said "Nobody can touch my people, not even the government." Lucci was silent before saying "What kind of targets and what are the frequency between missions."
Zeus thought for a moment before saying "Mostly underworld targets. You won't be starting any wars or targeting innocents, no children, and depending on the situation, no elderly. The frequency... I can't say for sure, but the beginning of the organization with be a busy period. The missions will get less and less as time goes by and the organization gains a foot hold, until eventually it may be years between missions."
Zeus spread out his hands and said "A fair warning, you may meet other Cipher Pol agents and potentially meet Spandam again." they clenched their teeth at the thought and Zeus said "I don't care if you want to get revenge and kill him if he recovers. BUT I want you to wait a while before you do, stabilize your positions and refine your techniques before going after him."
Zeus drank water from the glass on the table and added "Like I said you won't be restricted and depending on your situations, you may take a break if you simply cannot make it for the mission. I hope you won't abuse this, as I am giving you the benefit of the doubt." He looked at Lucci and said "What do you think?"
Lucci was silent before saying "Can you provide shelter for our recovery?" Zeus nodded and said "Of course." Lucci looked behind him at the other 5 and said "Can I have a moment?" Zeus stood up and walked away.
Lucci looked at the 5 and said "Your thoughts?" Jabra said "We don't really have a choice right?" Kaku added "We could see how far we can run before the Government sends other CPs after us." the rest were silent at his words and Kalifa spoke up "It's better than how we were before. They made us pose as shipwrights for god sakes."
They nodded at her words and Lucci said "My only worry is that, we'll be disposed of when we're of no use anymore." He looked around and said "It sounds like a good deal now, but who's to say the conditions don't change in the future?"
Blueno said "I can make a door right now and we can leave, but I think he won't give us another chance." Kumadori hesitated before saying "We can raise conditions of our own. If we don't like it we can walk." Lucci nodded at his words and said "We'll see what he thinks about our conditions and if we can't agree I promise I'll get you all out of here safely." the 5 agents smiled slightly at his words and Lucci spoke up "We're done."
Zeus walked back in and sat down saying "What's the verdict?" Lucci looked extremely serious and said "We need conditions of our own." Zeus nodded and said "Please, help yourself."
Lucci raised a finger and said "If these conditions you've given us change, we're walking." Zeus nodded "Naturally. Everything I said will be for life, if you decide to retire I will protect you and give you enough money for you to live a stable life. If you have a family at that time, they will also be under my personal protection if something happens."
Lucci nodded and said "We reserve the right to decline missions if it conflicts with our personal morals." Zeus nodded and Lucci continued "We work as a team." Zeus frowned and said "1 moves, all 6 move? Isn't that a bit over kill?" Lucci said "Regardless, I don't want the possibility of any of my team being lured into a trap."
Zeus thought for a moment and said "You can have this but only for big missions AND if none of the others have taken missions themselves. I can accommodate you to a certain extent but I can't put the whole operation on hold. If there is any sort of trap going on, I will personally annihilate anyone involved no matter who they are."
Lucci thought for a moment and agreed before saying "Last one, the rest period between missions must be at least 3 days. If you cannot agree to this then we won't talk anymore." Zeus clapped and said "Done. Is there anything else?"
Lucci looked behind him and they shook their heads, he turned back and said "That's all." Zeus nodded and said "Perfect come with me." He picked up the box and left the building, the 6 followed behind him.
Zeus jumped on a cloud and said "Come." they got on and Zeus flew away from Water 7.
Lucci said "Where are we going?" Zeus said "I'm going to find you a temporary base, do you want an abandoned Island or an inhabited one? You won't be doing any missions for a while mind you, this is more vacation/training time." Lucci thought for a moment and said "Inhabited." Zeus nodded and flew away.
A while later
Zeus landed on an Island with a big city on it. The name of the Island was St. Poplar. They landed on the outskirts and Zeus put down the box in front of them before saying "You may leave the Island if something happens but other than that it's best of you stay here incognito. Do not make yourself suspicious, help out the people and stuff, you know the usual." as he spoke he opened up the box in front of them and pulled out a bunch of stuff.
The agents were curious and Zeus spoke at this moment "Unfortunately only Lucci has mastered the six powers to the point of Rokugan but even then its far from perfect." he handed out books to each of them. They opened the books and saw extremely detailed explanations of every six power and Rokugan, Seimei Kikan, and Haki. They were shocked and looked at Zeus.
Zeus nodded and handed out a mask to each of them. Lucci was 'Tiger', Blueno was 'Ox', Jabra was 'Dog', Kalifa was 'Rabbit', Kumadori was 'Rooster', and Kaku was 'Horse'. The masks were of the animals and he gave them cloaks as well, Kaku looked at his mask in dismay, it was square shaped too! Zeus naturally denied that he did it on purpose and they moved on.
Zeus spoke "Each of you has a book and your identities. It's a shame that most of you have devil fruits and I don't know if Kumadori wants one?" Kumadori shook his head and said "If they fall in water I will save them" Zeus nodded and finally pulled out 6 golden tokens.
He held them up and said "These are your identity tokens. Without these and a face check you will not be allowed to collect your reward, if you lose them call me immediately." they all nodded and received their corresponding tokens. Zeus gave them a single transponder snail and said "Call me with this and this only. When the organization starts you will all get a specific anonymous work snail."
Finally Zeus ripped off a piece of his vivre card and gave it to Lucci saying "Find me if you really get into trouble, AND only if you can't solve it. Make sure it doesn't leak out." he looked at Lucci in the eyes and said "I'm putting you in charge or the other 5. Don't let me down. You have almost no restrictions now, don't make me have you control you."
Lucci nodded and accepted the vivre card. Zeus nodded and said "Live comfortably and hone your skills. When I need you we will meet again." he jumped on the cloud and said "Live the way you want. That's the only way to be happy in this world we live in." he gave them a hard nod before flying away from the island back to Water 7.
Lucci and the other 5 watched him go. Kaku said "Pretty trusting guy." Lucci sneered and said "Keep your thoughts. The tokens have his power in them, he can track us from anywhere with it. It's a warning." Jabra frowned "That wasn't in the agreement."
Lucci held his hand up and said "It's not, but its for his safety as well as ours. If we need help we can find us and if were escaping the same is true. It also proves that he probably used the same method on our bodies. I wouldn't be surprised with we go awol and he finds us even if we throw the tokens away. It's a smart move, he's very careful."
The rest were silent and Lucci added "It's better than that retard. I like dealing with smart people. Let's go, don't lose those books, they are extremely precious." the other 5 nodded and followed Lucci towards the town, ready to start their new lives.
Zeus smiled and reappeared after they all left. He looked in the direction they left in and said to himself "Very good, Lucci. I wasn't disappointed after all." he finally left and flew back to Water 7 for real this time. In the distance, Lucci grinned as he saw a cloud leaving. It was such a good deal, how could he not accept it?
A while later
Zeus finally got back to Water 7 and slipped into the building where the rest of the crew was. It was already dark so everyone was sleeping, Zeus decided to stay and laid down on the roof, looking up at the stars before slowly falling asleep.
The next morning
Zeus was sitting at the table and reading the news paper while the rest of the crew ate. He felt like something bad was about to happen, he put down the news paper and looked around, everything seemed fine to him. What was that bad feeling I'm getting? He looked more carefully and saw that Luffy was sleep-eating, he chuckled before freezing up.
His eyes widened in horror and he started trembling uncontrollably, the crew noticed the strangeness and Robin said "Are you okay?" Zeus didn't answer and ran to the window to escape but the wall burst open and a shadow was seen before a "Urk!" was heard.
The dust settled and revealed a big man grabbing Zeus by the back of his neck. Zeus struggled to escape in his hands but it was to no avail, the crew tensed up and looked at the man. He was wearing a dog mask and had a marine jacket on, he walked over to Luffy and punched him in the back of the head saying "Wake up brat!"
Luffy smashed head first into the ground saying "Ow!" he rubbed his head and looked up before, he too, started trembling in fear. The man laughed and took off his mask, Luffy said "Grampa!?" before shaking even more. Zeus opened his mouth and only made choking sounds but he did in fact say 'Old man'.
Garp laughed and shook Zeus saying "What the fuck were you thinking?!" as he punched Luffy and throttled Zeus. Zeus really couldn't breathe at all, in fact. Luffy flared up and said "Hey! You smelly old man! Let Kurama go! He's my friend!"
Garp stopped and looked at Zeus before saying "Friend?" Zeus turned white and Luffy said again "Yeah! He's been with me from the beginning!" Garp glared at Zeus and said "The beginning?!" Zeus started to sweat and Garp loosened his hand slightly. Zeus took heavy breaths of air, finding a new outlook on life after his near death experience, but apparently he wasn't out of the clear yet as Garp continued "Mind telling me what you've been doing?"
Zeus said quickly "Well, you see. Actually, I was, then I just, you know? AND THEN! You know what I mean?" Garp felt 47 veins pop up on his head and he hit Luffy with Zeus, sending them both flying.
Zeus popped back up and snapped "You shitty old man! I'll fight it out with you!" he charged at Garp and his fist crackled with red lightning before his fist and lightning turned black and his arm changed into a dragon arm. This was a full power punch.
Garp raised his eye brows and caught the fist with a haki covered hand, he was pushed back a single inch and Zeus couldn't get his hand out but said arrogantly "Hmph, you must be getting old. You went back a full inch this time!" Zeus reverted to normal and held his head up high as he said "You lose old man." Garp grinned and threw him through a wall.
The crew was shocked, the lightning monster was stopped?! They just couldn't believe their eyes really, after all for them Zeus was like an invincible existence, they never saw him make a serious move before. It really grounded them, they all thought of a sentence 'There's always a higher mountain'. They shivered, that's right! They all realized that Zeus wasn't going to be with them forever and that he wasn't invincible. They needed to get stronger and fast if they wanted to survive.
Luffy stood up and said "What do you want you smelly old man!?" Garp sighed "I thought you and your brother would be marines." he shook his head and sighed, Luffy perked up and said "Brother?" Nami said "Ace?" Garp waved and said "Not that brat, the other one." they looked at Luffy and said "You have another brother?!"
Luffy smiled warmly and nodded "He's my blood brother. His name is Zeus.." he got sad and said "I haven't seen him for 10 years though." Nami said quickly "What's he like?! Does he have a lot of money?"
Sanji said "What does he look like?"
Chopper said "Does he like blue noses?"
Robin, however, was silent.
Luffy looked happy and said "I don't know. I don't even know where he is. I only remember that we're twins. We made a promise a long time ago but I don't know if he remembers.."
Zeus watched and pain flashed through his eyes, of course he remembered. He wouldn't be here if he didn't.
Nami said "What kind of promise?" Luffy smiled and said "We agreed that when we saw each other again he would be my first mate on my ship and we would be pirates together. He wanted the One Piece and I wanted to be the Pirate King!" he slowed down and sighed "I hope he's okay.."
The crew felt bad for asking so many questions and apologized. Luffy smiled and said "Don't worry, it's okay. I know he's alive, I can feel it!" the crew smiled and Robin looked over at Zeus with suspicion.
Zeus was about to rip off his mask and hug Luffy but he held back and said to Garp "Why are you here Old man? Don't tell me it's because I'm more handsome than you and you came to ruin my face!" he backed away from Garp slowly, covering his mask, shadowing his eyes and secretly looking at the crew.
He secretly let out a breath of relief when he saw the crew roll their eyes and not look at him suspiciously. He looked at Robin and saw her looking at himself with a smile, he didn't like that.
Garp laughed and smashed him into the ground saying "I came to get you back! Also two of my marine trainees wanted to see Luffy!" Garp dragged Zeus off to the side, making way for Luffy, when a commotion happened. Zoro came back and started fighting against the marines.
Garp dragged Zeus to the side and said angrily "Brat! What are you doing!?" Zeus was confused and said "What do you mean?" Garp smacked him and said "You trying to get yourself killed?!" Zeus was even more confused and said "I don't understand." Garp really wanted to throttle him and said "You show up everywhere Luffy is. Do you think, nobody suspects a thing?! Such a big event and you didn't stop him! Even from a family standpoint, why didn't you stop him from storming Enies Lobby!"
Zeus said seriously "Gramps, Robin is part of his crew and family. They all are, he would've have done the same for any of them. Even if he had to storm Mariejoie he would've done it! Hell! Even if he had to storm Marineford, he will go without hesitation!"
Garp was silent and grit his teeth before pulling on Zeus' ear "Listen to me, you're coming with me back to Marineford! It's too risky right now! Get a few promotions then go back!" Zeus clenched his fists and said "So stupid! If I can't protect them then what's the point!?"
Garp slapped him and said "How is he going to get stronger if you keep protecting him?! Only after surviving dangers does someone get stronger! You see how strong you are?! You know how many times I threw you into the forest!?"
Zeus nodded and said "3,567 times" Garp nodded and said "Exactly! Now listen to me and come back obediently!" Zeus struggled for a bit before finally saying "Fine! But I need to do something first!" Garp nodded and said "I'm going to talk to Luffy about Yonkos and The New world." Zeus nodded and they split up.
Zeus went into the building and called his cloud. He pulled out 3 books and labeled two of them 'Robin' and 'Franky', he left the last one blank but it was specifically for Brook. He turned around and was startled when he saw Robin's face up close, analyzing himself.
Zeus chuckled and said "Did you fall in love with my charms?" Robin smiled slightly and said "That depends, am I talking to Kurama? Or Zeus?" Zeus panicked on the inside but pretended to be confused and said "Zeus? Luffy's brother?"
Robin smiled and narrowed her eyes as she said "Yeah. That's him." Zeus shook his head and laughed "I think you're tired from the last few days. How could I be his brother, I would have black hair and black eyes. Also, wouldn't I protect him from harm? I haven't made a move once. I think you think too much." he knocked on her head and chuckled before leaving the three books in her hands and leaving.
Robin watched him go with narrowed eyes, she looked down at the books and saw her name, Franky's name, and an unnamed one. She opened her own and was stunned at what she read, it had all the six powers with specific recommendations for Shigan, Soru, and Geppo. It even showed how to get a flying Shigan. She kept reading and saw the haki explanations and then at the end there was a whole 10 pages explaining how she could use her devil fruit in the future, from clones to giants and how it was excellent coupled together with Haki.
The more she read the more shocked she was. She flipped open Franky's and saw almost the same thing but with robotic stuff along with ideas for machines. She had a hard time calming down and thought to herself, anyone of these books, if they were sold, would cost a fortune.
It was so detailed and precise and she noticed that in both books Haki was emphasized as most important to learn second only to the six powers and devil fruit stuff. It was literally saying to learn all of these if you want to survive.
She looked at the last book and opened it as well, it had the same thing as the others but the devil fruit was different. She didn't quite understand but there was a detailed explanation about projecting a soul out on a body and emphasizing that it could be combined with attacks and music. There was also a part that made her confused 'As a skeleton, Haki can harden the bones to an extreme level and be even more deadly than normal'
She felt weird, like she was looking into the future. She remembered that Zeus told her when Observation haki is practiced enough, it was possible to look into the future. She closed the book and assumed he saw the future and they would have a skeleton with them.
This made her distressed, not because of the future with a skeleton, but because it meant that he was leaving. She didn't know how the others would react but she decided to keep her thoughts to herself about his identity as she wasn't sure and Luffy didn't need false hope.
Actually this action was deliberate, Zeus knew that Robin could potentially find out, who he was and distracted her with Brook's book. Knowing that she would think that it was him looking into the future with Observation Haki.
Robin left the building and saw that the marines were gone and only the crew was left. She smiled wryly and said "Where did Kurama go?" The crew looked around and saw that he wasn't here, she spoke again "It seems that he left." she held out the three books and added "Probably for good." the crew shook and looked at her before exchanging wry smiles.
Luffy waved and said "Don't worry. We're fine on our own. We can't get stronger with his watching us all the time!" Robin smiled and felt that his words were ironic, if she was right, he was a part of them already. She sighed to herself and decided to keep it to herself.
(Author's Note)
Mhm how ya like that?! Getting closer and closer to the juicy meat of the story! Uh next time a little bit of marine stuff probably, before jumping back into the cannon for a bit. Lmk what you think of the zodiac assassins!
You can check out my OTHER books while you wait:
One Piece: Another Chance (Completed)
Saiyan in Marvel (Completed)
My Hero Academia: Quirkless
One Piece: Price of Freedom
One Piece: Shadow King
Another Dragonball Adventure
DISCORD LINK: https://discord.gg/VUJYbRX7Ej (IT NEVER EXPIRES)
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