Disclaimer: I don't own DragonBall Z, it's concepts, or any references to the actual anime/manga. Just the original characters.
Authors note: Okay, I'm re-uploading this story, and will be getting to the other stories I have posted on the site. I was pretty lazy and didn't realize that didn't space the story the same way I had in Word. That being said...enjoy :)
While many people considered the short, gray-haired, technological genius to be senile and slightly crazy, Elentill Jorn might actually be the smartest person within the Academy grounds. Because he's seen as extremely eccentric, most people tend to write off his observations as random foolishness, but the more observant people see the truth of the matter: what Elentill Jorn predicts, tends happen more than most would like to admit. And thus I stood in the arena, encircled by eight opponents, the top four fighters from two different teams. It was dusk at the Academy, and the last fight for team ranking matches was about to be concluded. My black aura of battle was pulsating around me as the group slowly walked around me, trying to find some sort of weakness in my generally laid back stance. It had grown far too easy for me to beat the academy students 1 on 1, so this was Master Essam's idea. My team would fight separately, and I would fight the stronger of two teams.
"Hopefully this will provide a challenge," I muttered to myself.
As if hearing my silent musings two of the students in front of me suddenly attacked. I leapt to the right, slammed my palms into his ribs, cracking several and thrusting him into his teammate. Then the other 6 all rushed in at once. Had Master Essam not taught me to sense rear attacks last year, I most likely would have had to get into a position where I could see them all at once. But this wasn't the case now, and I danced through the heavy storm with near ease. My smile grew wider and wider as I found myself barely avoiding near-hits and my breathing rate increasing steadily as I began to get tired.
"Now THAT is what I'm talking about!" I laughed as I began to return fire.
I snapped a thrust kick out behind myself, but I missed the alert girl. I let my body drop to the ground as a kick was launched over my head. Then I felt a spike of ki and the 6-man rush broke off, looking up in shock I saw two ki balls a mere foot away from me.
"Damn, he IS good." Janiko commented aloud as he sat with the rest of Team Halima.
The performance Déshawn was putting on was nothing short of spectacular. He avoided every attack, even ones from his blind area, with nothing more than minimal effort. But the two teams weren't mere drones and had been pressing their hopeless attack as a distraction. Janiko saw it, Abrihet may have, Chafulumisa had predicted it before the beginning of the fight, Samantha was simply watching, and Edana had hoped her lover would see it coming. But he hadn't, and the result was a nearly comical look of shock on Déshawn's face. Then the explosion erased all that. Somewhere near the bottom of the stands, where the teachers were sitting, Master Essam flinched imperceptibly. The smoke hadn't even begun to dissipate when the two teams simultaneously began to cut loose, determined to prove that Déshawn wasn't all he was hyped up to be. The bolts of ki poured into the smoke, the cloud grew, the noise level was astonishing, and the looks of horror on everyone's faces seemed to convey a single thought: even a Super Sayjin wouldn't have survived that. Finally the assault ended and the smoke hung in the air, as if to protect the audience from seeing whatever disfigured being lay within it. Then a gust of wind blew across the arena, willed into existence by a force nobody, but Essam Maysa and Elentill Jorn, could truly appreciate, and there in the very epicenter of the hailstorm of ki, stood Déshawn Jackson-Maysa.
"Holy…shit…" the voice of Team Chalet's leader was quivering very obviously. "We hit him with everything."
I slowly floated up, trying to let the pain all over my torso and arms subside. Once I pulled level with the stunned warriors, I smirked evilly. Then I zapped forward at Ermine Chalet, and slammed my elbow into his stomach. He doubled over immediately, saliva forcefully ejected from his mouth, as I lifted my leg in a slight curve raising it above his head. Then I slammed my heel down on his back, next to his spine as I wasn't aiming for permanent damage, sending him rocketing back to the ground. If Ermine was still conscious, the impact with the ground was enough to finish him off. Then I rocketed after the nearest contestant, who finally got the sense to defend his self. He aimed a hook at my face but I spun and whipped a backhand into the base of his neck, knocking him cold immediately. I flipped backwards, raising my altitude, as I sensed a sneak attack. The shocked fighter looked up just as dark purple energy blurred into existence on my outstretched palms.
"SHADOW BURN!"
The blast whipped off of my hands and flew down at the stunned fighter with a flagella-like tail trailing behind it. The larger student, even in his astonished state, still had the presence of mind and reflexes to dodge the attack. While slightly surprised I had planned for the exact response to the attack, and I simply grabbed the tail of the ki blast. Twisting in a circle, I whipped the attack around my body knocking my initial target into the ground, as well as catching two more unfortunate victims, all of whom yelled in pain, as the ki I used in the Shadow Burn was twice as hot as a normal ki attack. Turning around I counted four remaining opponents, three of them with a nice burn mark on their cheek, arm, or back. Smirking, my black aura flared up around me and I dove into the battle for a final burst of fighting. I ducked under the first hook, countering with an uppercut-elbow, and then I spun planting a thrust kick into his stomach, and then finally finished him off with a chop to his neck. As soon as I'd taken the next fighter out of the competition I dropped to the ground, landing in the crater that was generated from the energy blitz mounted on me. I was attacked as soon as the last three contestants landed. I ducked under a roundhouse kick, and stood back up quickly as soon as her foot was right above me. With a yelp she was caught off guard and dropped to her back as I knocked her off balance. Skipping the finishing blow, I flipped forward to avoid the ki blasts that exploded right behind me. Turning around quickly, my palms were already aimed at the last two standing fighters, as purple energy blazed onto my hands, electricity already surrounding it.
"SHOCKING FURY!" came my deep yell.
The blasts whipped forwards at them so fast they only had time to block it. But the electricity flowed through their bodies freely and soon muscular control was lost and their arms dropped, as the blasts finally pushed forwards, exploding, and knocked them out cold. Then I heard a groaning behind me, and whip around, my outstretched arms summoning another massive golden blast.
"SOARING-"
"No need," the girl's voice is shaky. "I'm throwing in the towel."
The energy dies from my hands and I shrug. "Don't blame you."
"The least you could say is thank you," Her voice drops in a conspiratorial tone. "Seeing as I'm letting you get back to Ayana a bit earlier."
My anger rockets and manifests itself as my eyes flashing green and golden energy reappearing on my hands. "SOARING HAMMER!"
"Déshawn! What the HELL was that about?" Essam yells at me, her fury just barely even with my own. Which was considerable.
"You didn't hear what that bitch said," my voice was crackling with barely controlled anger. Then I took a breath and remembered to bite my tongue, "did Ayana tell you what she did after you told her about my…mission?"
"She said she gave you a quick test to see if she could really trust your strength of character." Essam recalled, surprised at the question.
"Hmph, well she watered that version down, that's for sure." I growled, folding my arms. "She told me to kiss her."
"What does that have to do with Mollina?"
"Well, someone was watching us from the dorm's and decided it'd be funny to tell Edana that I was cheating on her with Ayana."
"Which naturally, should be a lie."
"And they bought the story like sheep normally do. So after I beat Mollina's team and whatever team was joining forces with them, she figures it'd be funny to say 'I'm letting you get back to Ayana' is the reason she's giving up." I said. "I don't care if she doubts my abilities, I had just proved them very clearly. But I do NOT need foolish propaganda being thrown in my face."
"Well tell me something. Did you kiss Ayana?" Essam looks me in the eye very seriously, as if there was a remote possibility that I had kissed her.
"Yes," my voice oozes sarcasm. "Because making out with the step-sister of my sworn enemy, who I've beaten into running away in sorrow, is exactly my idea of a pleasurable experience."
"No matter how a master illusionist covers his tricks, and locks away his secrets. People will still ask how he does it." Master Essam's riddle is poorly timed, in the middle of my verbal rampage.
"And what the hell does that even mean?" I roar in frustration.
"You can bullshit me all you want with sarcasm, I still want a straight answer from you," comes Essam's first explanation ever.
"That's none of your business! Only Ayana, Edana, and me should be worrying about that! Everyone else needs to stay out my fucking business!" I yell as I endured yet another interrogation about what happened in the courtyard.
"Déshawn…" Essam began.
But I had no ears for her anymore; I stormed out of her office slamming the door behind me, and stormed off back towards my room. Outside in the courtyard I heard a catcall from in the general direction of the arena and was considering firing one of my more potent attacks at it, but I heard a gentle voice from behind me.
"Hey sweetie," Ayana's soft tone sounds suggestive.
My teeth clench, "shut the hell up."
"Aw come on," her voice sounds, almost singsong. "It's me and you against the world, we can't be fighting each other as well."
"Do you even realize, what I'm considering doing to you right now?" My fists clench as well, my ki level shooting up. Ayana acted as if she didn't sense the impending death I wanted to deliver her.
"Ooh," her voice takes on a husky tone. "Nothing too rough I hope. You've got a lot of…power. We both know that, seeing as I've had it in me before."
The suggestive comments about the time she stole my ki only served to push my rage even further, and I simply walk off, my fists shaking visibly as I dig my nails into my palms. Heading towards the dormitory intent on escaping Ayana's farce advances in my room, or possibly Edana's. But she pursued, as expected.
"Deshy, why are you so upset?" She puts her hands on my shoulders and begins to massage them slowly. "Anything I can help with?"
I whip my hand around, knocking her arms off of my shoulders, and my other hand palms a ki blast into her stomach, which blows her through the air. She lands hard and she slides a few feet until her back hits the well-abused fountain in the middle of the courtyard. Either she gets the message, or she's through bothering me, but she finally stops following me and I continue into the dormitories where Jerek is found talking to Nani. Talking wouldn't be a very accurate term to use, as all he ever seemed to do was tell her how perfect she was. Another annoying habit he'd picked up was trying to make friendly talk with me. I'm not sure if it was from the beating I'd given him, or my fight with Dabir last year, or the fact it was common knowledge that none of the students could beat me alone, supposedly, but he never had any disrespectful words for me anymore. I simply wrote it off as a personal agenda he had that required me to drop my guard.
"Shawn! My comrade!" Jerek greets, turning his love-filled eyes off of Nani for a minute. "How did your fight go?"
"Get out of my face Damois. I respected you more when you didn't respect me." I growl pushing him from in front of me.
"Oh come on, a little friendship never hurt anyone."
"Wanna bet?" my fist glowed with energy as if to emphasize my point.
"Later, right now I must attend to my goddess," he smiled, almost genuinely, and turned back to Nani.
"And if you call me 'Shawn' again, I will write the story of your demise with the blood of your disemboweled body." I add as an afterthought.
"Don't you have your own goddess to be attending to?" I heard his sly reply overlap Nani's whispered protests. My ki level shot up, as I turned, ready to follow through on my threat. "I think Edana's in her room."
My mind was in a whirlwind of suspicions and questions towards Jerek. All this time, I had been figuring that Jerek was the rumor-starter, and here he was the only person who'd said anything that remotely made sense to me. I finally reached Edana's door, and knocked on it gently, as my thoughts were still unfocused. That is, until Edana answered the door, her eyes red and cheeks tear-stained. Immediately I reach my arms out and pull her into a deep embrace.
"Edana, what's wrong?" I ask. My voice laced with concern.
"Déshawn, you know that when I heal someone, I sometimes glimpse their future if I'm close to them?" she asked, her voice shaking almost as much as her body did.
"Yes," I lie, having never known she had rare clairvoyant experiences.
"I j-just woke up from a nightmare." She sobbed; her body suddenly began to seizure.
My eye's opened in shock as I tried to remember what I knew about helping someone with a seizure. I rushed her into her bedroom, and laid her on the bed quickly as I zapped back out, into the kitchen. I searched the drawers frantically as the springs of the bed continued to squeak under her constant shaking until I found my target. I tore back into Edana's room and placed the handle of the spoon on her tongue, pressing it behind her teeth so her jaw wouldn't clench down on it effectively biting through it. As well as keeping her tongue held firmly in place so she wouldn't involuntarily swallow it either. I watched in horror as the jerking slowly died down to a slight shaking, then finally a slight vibration. Removing the spoon from her mouth, I cradled her upper body in my arms and rocked back and forth gently, trying to calm her down from whatever horror her subconscious mind had subjected her to while she was asleep.
"M-my n-nightmare…" she breathed quietly.
"Don't worry about it," I touched my finger to her lips. "It can wait."
"No…it can't." Edana whispered. "It was…of you."
I stopped, fearful of what she might have seen about me. Then curiosity overrode my foreboding sense, "of me doing what?"
"…Dying."
Then her eyes dropped and her body went limp as she lost consciousness.