Chapter 29: About ten years ago, Birth ?
After the incident with the pirates, Zephyr had moved his entire family to a rather populated island that was relatively near Marineford. He at first thought that it was a good idea to drive them far away from the Navy's business, he wasn't entirely wrong about that but after the incident, he changed his view and decided to bring them closer to him.
He even decided to resign his position as an admiral and leave the Marines to be closer with his family but his wife and mostly the Marine persuade him otherwise.
He then instead became an instructor who began to train nearly every Marine's soldier whose name would or has shaken the current Era.
And even though he wasn't an admiral anymore, his popularity didn't decreased in the least but soared even more than before.
He came to be surnamed " The professor " or even the Founder of all the Marine itself as he was the one who trained most those who became important pillars of the Navy, and that wasn't without basis. We could say that if the Navy's troops was what it was today, it was because of him.
And like that, years and years passed while Zephyr and his family began to forget about this incident.
Life continued its course, Zaph became a marine soldier while they were now living a peaceful life.
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Today should have been a normal day like the others for Z, where he would get up, dress up and go to train some marine's soldiers...
However fate seemed to have other plans for them today, because he and Rubie saw "something strange" happening in their house.
And as this "something strange" was related to a dear friend of his, he obviously decided to call him.
He took his Den Den Mushi and called his dear friend.
" Old monkey, come to the island quick..."
"Hah...Why... ?" a lazy voice replied. Obviously it was Garp.
"There is something strange happening right now...just come..."
" I have a mission right now, I can't-..."
"Just get your damn ass here, I know you don't have any mission right now !"
"Tch...alright...alright...crunch,crunch..." Garp replied unwilingly while eating his rice cracker.
Zephyr hang up and raised his head to look at the front.
What he currently saw really did left him perplexed and curious.
For years now and from time to time since the pirates incident he had tried to interact with it several times but without the thing responding a single bit.
He could shake it, throw it in the air like a baby or pat it, the thing wouldn't respond at all, as if it was dead like a stone or an unfertilized egg.
And so for years he used it as a decoration for his house and had even thought of making it a family heirloom if the thing was really "dead" like he thought it to be, but now...
Before him his "family heirloom" was actually floating while releasing a faint green light that illuminate the whole room.
From it's center, the green light was expanding slowly, so slowly that even after waiting for three entire hour, the light had only filled about half the sphere.
Time passed and one hour had gone by.
Garp finally arrived as he opened the door with a big smile but immediatly show an amazed face in the next moment when he saw the sphere.
Zephyr who saw him asked nervously with a touch of curiosity and anticipation. " Oy Garp now explain me what the hell is happening right now."
"It's...uh...I think that a baby should come out of this sphere if I'm correct." Doubt was all over Garp's face when he said that while scratching his head like an old monkey.
"What ?! a baby ?! And what do you mean by "I think", its yours, damnit !" Z said pissed off.
"Uh no...In the first place, it's not really mine, someone asked me to take care of it..." Garp replied casually.
"What...?!" Zephyr had no idea of what was happening anymore.
"Someone asked me to take care of this thing..." he repeated.
"Why didn't you tell me about that ? Do you even know what is this thing ?"
"How would I, it's not mine and it has never show sign of awakening, that's why I gave it to you in the first place..." said Garp that as if it was normal.
"Oh, Someone asked you to take care of it and you just say " Yes of course, no problem", are you fuc*ing dumb ?!"
"It was her dying wish, did you really think I would say no to her...?!"
"You could have at least asked "her" what the hell it was before taking it, damnit ! What if it is a damn bomb huh ?!"
"No problem, if that is the case I will just throw it far away and we would be done with it, that's all..." Garp said swinging his right arm with his usual smile that made Z even more pissed off.
"Oh, and what if it has the power of Dyna Stone huh, you know those things that can blow up an entire island easily..." Z said in a sarcastic tone. He didn't know how sarcastic it was for him to talk about it.
"Then...then we just have to evacuate the island before it explode, simple... bwahahaha..." Garp who was at first stunned by the sphere was now completely relaxed and rubbed the back of his head while laughing a lot.
Seeing him laughing like an idiot, Zephyr shouted " Bakayaro...!( idiot)"
But then he realized something...
That he was as dumb as Garp !
All these years he too had taken care of this thing without really asking what it was before but here he was telling Garp how dumb he was.
He fell a little stupid and didn't say anything afterward.
But it wasn't really the same case. Garp was his friend so...
As Z had already made his wife evacute to a ship, Garp and him were the only one in the house right now, looking at the U.F.O in front of them.
" Wait... so you're telling me that you gave me this thing even though you didn't know a single things about it ?!" After pondering a bit he came to this conclusion and asked in a rather calm voice.
"Uhh...cough, cough..." Garp in response just cough a bit and looked to the side with a dumb look.
" You..." Now Z really didn't know if he should be grateful or angry.
On one hand, the fact that Garp gave him the sphere saved his family and yet on another hand the fact that he gave him something that could have possibly endangered his family pissed him off a bit.
"What should we do then ?" Z said quietly as he observed the sphere calmly.
"I don't know, let's wait, what do you think ?" Garp suggest.
"Hum...alright."
As they didn't know what to do, the duo just wait for things to happen, a dangerous things to do normaly but not for them.
Even though they were old, they could probably survived the explosion of a Dyna stone that was reputed to be as powerful as certains ancient weapons.
One was really nervous while the other was completely relaxed so much that he even ate the rice crackers he brought.
They then wait and wait and wait till something finally happened.
The floating sphere that was shining the whole day like a christmas tree finally stopped itself and began to float slowly to the ground.
When it touched the ground, a piercing sound echoed loudly in the room for a minute as the entire sphere then glowed a bright green light along with a loud pulsing sound that projected Garp and Z outside of the house breaking it by the way.
"What the-..." the two of them didn't have time to react.
As they were standing up, they heard beating sounds emanating from the black ball.
BA-DUM...
BA-DUM...
BA-DUM...
In the entire house and even the whole island, only the powerful and really striking pulsing sound of a beating heart could be heard and nothing else. The beating sounds were nor slow nor quick, they were steady but still powerful.
BA-DUM...
BA-DUM...
BA-DUM...
Everytime it would pulse, the house would shake, destroying it a little more. Fortunately Z had already made Rubie evacuate the island.
They did tried to get closer but the sphere would send some kind of waves everytime it would pulse, pushing both of them to where they were standing before.
Seeing this, Zephyr's eyes narrowed and he said.
"Looks like the sphere is trying to make us stay where we are, it is acting like a sort of self defense system..."
"Hmm..." Garp just nodded in agreement.
"It seems that something will really come out of this thing after all..."
BA-DUM...
BA-DUM...
BA-DUM...
SWINNNNNNG...
...
When the ninth and finally last pulsing sound rang out, the sphere glowed so brightly that the two of them had to close their eyes. It was as if a thousand of suns were shining in front of them, everything became white for a moment.
SWOOSHHHHH...
...
Waaahhh...
Along with them opening their eyes, the cry of a baby entered their ears, a sound that they had anticipated hours ago but still couldn't prevent themselves from being surprised about it.
Waaahhh...
"What the..." The two of them said at the same time as they looked at what seems to be a human baby.
Indeed, in front of them was a baby, a human baby that would have been all normal at first sight if it wasn't for the monkey tail in its back.
That would have been a shock for anyone to have a baby getting of an unknown "Iron egg" but those two old men were people who had already seen the world and knew just how crazy the world could be sometimes.
A human with a monkey tail ? Why not...? They had already seen Fishman's people, half human half beast people and much more... so a human baby with a monkey tail was something that they could still accept.
What surprised them was that the baby was actually floating in the air while it was surrounded by a faint and fiery golden-red sphere that was burning like a little sun.
However the "Shield" as they assumed it to be, was flickering like a dying candle on the verge of disappearing at any time.
"Oy Garp why is it flying in the air like that ?" Z asked still looking at the strange baby.
"How would I know...?" Garp respond dumbly.
"And what is this thing around it ? It's kind of warm... " He say as he extended a hand toward the baby feeling the warm heat coming from it as he slowly approached it.
"Who know..." he too approach the baby slowly.
By now the black sphere in which the floating baby previously reside in till now, was open in half. The outside of the shell was now a deep and vivid green colored color and a strange looking green liquid flow out.
As they neared the baby the sunny and burning shield suddenly vanished with a 'poof' like sound as the baby fell off from the air.
Garp was the first to react, he quickly caught the baby as gently and carefully as possible.
As Garp looked at it in the eyes, the baby boy also looked at him straight in the eyes while blinking his eyelids rapidly and innocently.
"Bueh...?" as if trying to say something the baby made a strange sound as it pulled Garp's beard curiously.
"Hah...?" Garp looked at it with a funny face.
"Babuih, hehehe Dabu hihihi..." the baby laughed happily and gesticulate weirdly clearly happy for who know the reason it was that made him happy.
Hearing its laughter, Garp too also laughed heartily.
"Bwahahaha... this little guy is a funny one huh Bwahaha..."
Looking at the baby closer, it already had a lot of hair for a baby. It was really a cute and healthy baby boy to say the least.
However Garp's attention was draw elsewhere as he noticed a nasty scar on the left of its chest where his heart was situated and another one on the top left of his forehead that was well hidden by some strands of his hair.
Looking at the two nasty scars Garp's face frown deeply as he asked in a strange tone.
"Did you see that...?" In his voice there was clearly a growing anger being brewed quietly somewhere.
"Hum...An accident maybe...?" Z nodded as he then said.
"Accident...? Do you even believed that ?" Garp said as he eyed Z while holding the baby.
Of course Zephyr didn't believed that, after all the scar on the head could be an accident however the one on the chest couldn't possibly be an accident. They have seen all kind of scars and injuries throughout their life and couldn't possibly mistake a accidental scar from a "murderous" scar on someone without talking about this sort of scar on a baby.
It was too much apparent that someone had attempt at this baby life.
"Anyway what do we do now ?" Zephyr asked trying to change the topic.
"I will raise him !" Garp said abruptly in a firm tone.
"Uh...Are you sure about that...?"
"Of course I am, I've already made a promise that I would look after this boy and yet I've failed a first time, but now I will make sure that this kid live on till he can survived on his own in this world. His training will maybe be harsh but hopefully fruitfull." Garp said as he looked at the little guy climbing his arms.
"Alright then how will we called him ?" Zephyr asked arms crossed.
"Hum..." As Garp was reflecting on this question his eyes fell on the once black sphere that was now completely green colored.
"Then how about...how about... Edam ?" Garp said while holding his chin.
"Why this name ?" Z asked curiously.
"Look it's as if he has come out of an Edamame." He said as he point out the now green pod with his finger.
"Oh, now that you said that, you're right but what is this green liquid flowing out...?" Zephyr said as he examined the liquid.
"I don't know, anyway what do you think little monkey ?" He lift the baby as he somewhat tried to communicate with it as if it would understand.
"Bueh ? Abibuh ? Hihihihi..." The boy as if to confirm laughed out loud while clapping his hands joyfully.
"Bwahaha, it seems that you like it huh..."
Without knowing it Garp found himself playing with baby Edam just like how a gramps would.
The poor Garp would never have imagined that the baby he took in this day would cause him so much trouble in the years and even days to come.
And that's how Edam became a member of the monkey family.