Something About Reincarnation
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Disclaimer: Dragonball Z is not mine. I make no profit from this. Only a lot of fun and a chance to hone my writing skills.
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"You."
The ogre pointed at Celipa. The female saiyan was faintly startled, as she'd never warranted any extra attention before.
"Yes?"
"King Yemma wands da see you."
This was new. She felt the stirrings of interest. She rose to her feet, stretching her muscles.
"Why?"
The ogre shrugged and grunted, having exhausted whatever meagre intelligence it had giving the order.
"Someding aboud reincarnation."
"Reincarnation?" She thought she was entitled to the shocked tone of her voice. She'd been in hell for nearly twenty years – not long at all, in terms of the afterlife. Some of Hell's inhabitants had been here for centuries.
"You gonna talk or you gonna walk?" The ogre asked. It pounded it's fist into it's meaty palm expressively.
Celipa regarded him flatly for a moment. She stood a fair chance against the ogre, and a fight would be invigorating. She hadn't had a good one in years. But that would mean she wouldn't get to talk to King Yemma and find out what all this was about.
So she turned and walked towards the boundary of hell. The ogre hurried in her wake, scurrying ahead of her. It opened up a door that she could have sworn wasn't there a minute ago, and waved her through.
Inside was an office. Celipa didn't blink. She'd already been here once before, when she died.
King Yemma scowled down at her from his desk.
"Celipa?"
"Yes, sir." She straightened to attention. Yemma might not be a saiyan, but here in the realms of the dead, he was the equivelant of her commanding officer. An exacting, anal-retentive, paper-work-obsessed commanding officer true, but one that was quite capable of pounding her head into the floor. Saiyans respected that sort of thing.
Yemma scowled down at her.
"I'll make it short, saiyan. You've been selected for reincarnation. Congratulations. You will shortly be reborn as a female infant on…"
"Wait just a second!" She blurted the words out without thought.
She caught sight of Yemma's thunderous scowl, and quickly moderated her tone.
"Not that I'm not grateful, sir. But aren't I…isn't it a little…soon?"
Yemma shuffled his papers.
"Well at least you aren't a complete idiot," he muttered, and Celipa fought the urge to knock his teeth in, comanding officer or no. "Under ordinary circumstances, yes. Unfortunately, you came through at a time when there's a great built of dead coming through – many of which, may I add, were by your own hand."
He gave her a dark look. She tried to look repentant. It didn't really work. Saiyans didn't really do repentance.
"To make matters worse, I have an entire race of dead saiyans picking fights and scaring my ogres."
Celipa tried very hard not to smirk. Her people weren't exactly the most cooperative of races.
"We need to relieve numbers somewhat, and you're one of the lucky numbers." He jabbed the file with a meaty thumb. "Granted, you participated in a few world purges, but all of you saiyans seem to have at one point or another, and you appear to be the most psychologically ready. You display compassion, insight, and a reluctance to torment your prey before finishing it off…"
Celipa steadily grew redder and redder. She was absolutely mortified. She was very, very glad that none of her comrades were around to hear this, since there was no way to kill them for it, them being already dead and all.
Of course, so long as that file existed, anyone could open it up and see what was written about her. She wondered if there was a way to burn it without completely screwing up her chances at reincarnation…
She realized King Yemma had finished talking.
"Thank you, sir." She forced the words through gritted teeth. A thought occurred to her. "Sir, if I may ask…"
"You may."
"Since the homeworld was destroyed, and there are no more saiyans, what am I going to be re-born as?"
Knowing her record, it was probably going to be some powerless blob of ectoplasm on some third-rate world. If that was what lay ahead of her, she'd take her chances and burn the file.
King Yemma smiled, and it was a particularly nasty smile. Celipa felt her courage slide into her shoes.
"Oh we found a place." He opened the file and flicked through it. Slowly, tauntingly. Her fingers itched. Just one little ball of ki, and that embarrassing record would be gone forever…
"The people bear a very close resemblance to saiyans. Not as powerful, no. Nowhere near as powerful. I doubt your chances of ever becoming a warrior of note. Maybe a scientist. Or a doctor. Maybe even a teacher."
Celipa wanted to scream. Instead she forced the words out;
"Which world. Sir."
King Yemma smirked evilly, in a manner truly worthy of a saiyan.
"Earth."
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Author's Notes: Don't worry. There's more coming; this isn't a one-shot by any means! Take a guess at who she's going to be re-born as.