Disclaimer
I do not own Dragon Ball Z. This is a work of Fanfiction using the Dragon Ball Z world. Dragon Ball Z is owned by Akira Toriyama.
Mercenary Tao was sitting in a hotel room in the middle of a desert reading over a series of contracts he'd received that night.
"Hmm… That one sounds interesting." He said as he found one that sent him after a high-ranking military officer.
Mercenary Tao was an assassin, a very good one, in fact he was considered the best in the world by some. He wasn't, however, very intimidating on first sight. He was of average height and build, with a large nose, small beady eyes, and black hair in a braid. He wore a long pink coat, outlined in red, with long black sleeves, black pants, and black shoes.
"Where is that room service?" He wondered as his stomach growled. "I ordered it around an hour ago, if it's not up here in ten minutes I-"
He was cut off as he heard a roar from outside, and a tremor went through the ground.
"What in the blazes was that?" He wondered as he opened the window and looked outside. What he saw caused him to gape in astonishment.
Outside there was a giant ape, wreaking havoc throughout the town. The thing was roaring with fury as it smashed buildings and people into the ground, completely destroying them.
Tao had never seen anything like it before. He'd traveled through most of the world throughout his long life, but he'd never seen anything like that.
Once he got over his initial astonishment, he sat back down and went back to his contracts. Serves them right for being late with my room service.
After a few minutes, he looked up and the beast was right in front of his window. He met the things enormous red eyes calmly, and stared at them for a moment. Then the monster punched the hotel, demolishing it.
Tao was saved by leaping out of his window when he saw the monster raise it's arm for the punch. The other people inside the hotel weren't so lucky.
Tao glared at the monster. "You destroyed my reports. For that you have to die." "Dodon Ray!"
He shouted as he raised his finger above his head, then brought it down aiming at the spot where the beast's massive heart should be. A yellow energy ray flew out of his finger and slammed into the beasts chest.
Tao mouth dropped, when the beam simply left a burn mark, rather than going clean through the way he'd intended it to.
The beast roared in pain attempted to smash it's fists down on Tao's head. Tao dodged rather easily. The beast was strong, there was no denying that, but it was slow. Tao could easily evade it's attacks until it got tired and left an opening.
That's precisely what the assassin did. The beast chased him around town, attempting to smash him to pieces, while Tao dodged every blow. It was so slow Tao even had time to watch as the villagers ran around, wildly attempting to escape the monsters rampage.
He chuckled as he watched the villagers run. It was amusing to see them terrified, and dying, especially dying. Tao enjoyed killing, and causing others pain. That was one reason for his success as an assassin.
Eventually, the beast either wiped out all the villagers, or they escaped into hiding, as it was now just Tao and the beast. Tao was bored dodging, so he decided to put an end to it.
He raised up his finger, just as he'd done at the start of the fight, but this time a yellow orb appeared above his fingertip.
"Dodon Ray!" He yelled as he took aim at the creature and fired a much bigger yellow bean at it.
It never struck it's target, however. Something had happened to the creature while Tao was charging up his energy beam. The creature had stopped, and stood there for a moment, then began to change. Not into something bigger and more horrifying, but it had begun to shrink. As it shrunk it's hair had retracted, and it's muzzle was shrinking to form a mouth.
When Tao fired his beam it was aimed at the creature's chest, but it passed through thin air as the monster changed. Tao watched with narrowed eyes as the thing finished transforming, then he went to go see what it was.
When he reached the spot where the giant ape had once stood he was amazed to see a naked little girl laying unconscious in the middle of the rubble.
He would've dismissed the girl and continued searching if he hadn't seen her tail. The girl had a brown monkey tail. He lifted her up and stared at her curiously.
"What should I do with you girl?" He wondered aloud.
The girl was small as all toddlers were, but she had a full head of hair. Tao didn't know much about kids, but he was fairly sure they didn't have hair when they were born. Her hair was black, wild, and spiky.
"I'm not going to kill you." He decided. "That would be a waste. No, I'm going to take you to my idiot brother, and take you in as my pupil." He smiled. "Then one day we will show my brother that I am superior to him in every way. Even in my teaching."
He tucked the little girl under his arm, took a column that was still standing, hurled it in the direction of his brother's home, and school, then jumped onto the column, allowing it to carry him to his destination.
He arrived at his brother's school, after an hour of flying on the column, and walked inside, going straight to his brother's rooms. He opened the doors without a knock. Tao's brother, Shen, turned around.
"Tao, you're back." Said Shen as he walked towards Tao. "I wasn't expecting to see you for a while."
The Crane Master Shen had a face much like Tao's own, except it was older, far older. Shen had wings of white hair, a thin white mustache, and he wore a pair of black sunglasses despite being inside. He wore a green robe outlined in red, with long yellow sleeves, with the crane kanji in the center, white cuffs, a pair of purple pants, black shoes, and he wore a hat that had a crane on the top.
"Why did you return? I don't think even you could have cleared all of those contracts that fast." "I found something far more interesting." Replied Tao as he held up the girl.
Shen looked at the girl incredulously. "Have you taken up babysitting brother?"
Tao glared at him. "No, I found a giant ape destroying the town I was in. I guess it would be around dawn when I was about to kill it, it transformed into the girl you see before you."
Shen looked at the child with new interest. "And you didn't kill her?"
Tao shook his head. "I thought I could train her personally until she can control it. She could be a very valuable asset if we can learn to control her in her giant ape form."
Shen nodded thoughtfully. "Agreed, good work Tao. You may train her personally. She'll be housed here of course, and can work with the other trainees when you're not available." Tao nodded his assent.
"And what are we to call her?" asked Shen as Tao was leaving.
Tao turned back and looked at the girl thoughtfully for a moment. "We'll call her Riki." He replied.
Riki turned out to be wild and nearly uncontrollable. They eventually were able to beat that uncontrollable nature out of her. She always had a rebellious streak, unless it was training.
Shen and Tao took her in because they saw the potential of her ape form. What they had failed to see was her potential with no transformation.
They quickly learned of her potential when she beat some of Shen's student's in a sparring match. She didn't do it out of skill, she simply punched them and they went flying. So they started training her at three years old.
They were harsh with her, especially Tao. They trained her until she had to be picked up and carried to her bed. That was partly her own fault however, because when they didn't train that hard she'd do it on her own, and injure whatever unfortunate trainee happened to be her punching bag at the time.
They learned she had a natural talent at martial arts very quickly, they learned she killed with extreme ease almost equally as quickly. They were encouraged to kill those that showed weakness at the Crane School, to push them on their paths to becoming killers.
She made her first kill on a fellow trainee who was angry at her for beating on him a few days earlier. Tao and Shen had arrived to late to save the trainee, but they'd seen the corpse, and heard that she'd killed him without hesitation.
She only had one rival in the entire school. This rival was none other than Shen's pupil, Tien Shinhan. They hated each other. Every time they were in a room together they ended up fighting. Shen was forced to constantly separate them after one occasion that saw them both in the infirmary for weeks.
Tao had been gone for three years clearing some built up contracts, when he returned Riki was ten years old. He approached his brother to claim her as his personal trainee, as he'd always intended to do.
"Hello brother." Said Tao as he entered his brother's rooms. "I've come to claim the girl."
Shen looked at him curiously. "The girls been acting strange lately."
"How so?" Asked Tao curiously.
"She hasn't been killing her opponents unless they come close to killing her." Shen replied, sounding dissatisfied. "Which, because of her talent, means unless they are amazingly skilled and have a weapon."
Tao frowned, that was odd. Usually she killed without remorse. Occasionally they sent students on the easier contracts for training, and she always delivered the best of results. The only one that ever bested her was Tien, and that was rare.
"Where is she?" He asked. "I'll speak to her, and get to the bottom of this nonsense."
"She'll be in the training room." Replied Shen. "She never leaves it except to eat or sleep. Kami knows she eats enough for twenty or thirty other pupils on average."
Tao left, followed by his brother, and headed for the training room. They got to the door and were forced to dodge, as a trainee was sent flying through the door and the wall behind them.
They looked inside, and saw Riki standing there looking bored.
"Anyone else?" She said, looking around the room.
She had changed a lot from the little girl Tao had found in the ruins of a town nine years ago.
She was still young, and hadn't finished growing yet, but she wasn't tall. She was around average height, with a slender build. She had a light skin tone, with black eyes, and thin eyebrows. She was wearing a green gi with a yellow undershirt, a red sash and sweat bands, and black shoes, with red socks.
She always had a somewhat feral, maybe even insane air about her when she was killing. Every other time though, she simply looked confident. She had a confident, even arrogant air.
She noticed Tao standing at the doorway and turned to him.
"Will you fight me?" She asked, smirking at him.
"No, I came to ask you a question."
She raised an eyebrow for him to continue.
"I heard that you have been refusing to kill unless your life is seriously threatened, why?"
She cocked her head, still smirking.
"Killing them would be a waste."
"What?!" Exclaimed Tao.
"I said killing them would be a waste." She replied. "Killing you, would not."
Tao actually laughed at this statement. "I think you're just being soft. And you couldn't kill me even if you tried, girl."
Shen was frowning worriedly. He had no clue how strong she actually was. He had made an error in not keeping up with her training.
"I don't kill them, because they can train and get stronger. Then come back to challenge me later. You won't train to get stronger. You'll throw a temper tantrum because you're being beaten. I have no more use for you anymore, so you're going to fight me, and you're going to die." She said.
Tao laughed. "I'll fight you. But I will be fighting to kill, and you will be the one to die, girl."
She smirked, and motioned for him to attack.
Tao rushed at her and tried to punch her in the face. She leaned her head to the side, dodging the punch.
"Oh, so you can dodge now." He taunted. "Lets see if you can keep it up."
He started to throw punches and kicks so fast the other students couldn't follow them. Riki was dodged every one without even trying. Tao tried a sweep kick, but Riki jumped over it and kicked him in the face, sending him crashing to the ground.
"That's the best you can do?" She asked mockingly. "I'm wasting my time. I think I'll just kill you quickly and get it over with." She said as she started to walk towards him.
Tao sat up bolt right aiming a finger at her. "Dodon Ray!" A beam shot out of his finger, heading for her right eye. Riki smirked and swatted the beam to the side, where it flew out the window.
"You do realize Tien throws stronger hits than you right?" She asked as she continued to walk towards him.
Tao stood and rushed at her. His punch went through an afterimage. Then her knee slammed into his face. Then she slammed a barrage of punches into his gut, ending with a kick to the face, which sent him flying backwards through another wall.
Tao lay there unable to move. He could barely even breathe. He watched as she stalked towards him, that monkey tail of hers lashing in a somehow satisfactory manner as she stopped standing over him.
"The great Mercenary Tao." She said mockingly. "Brought down by a child. How will that look when it gets out I wonder. To think that I used to be afraid of you makes me sick."
Tao looked at her in fear as she grasped his throat.
"I've been wanting to kill you for a long time." She said smiling at the fearful expression on his face. "Be glad I'm grateful enough to make it quick."
She then ripped out his throat. Blood went everywhere. It quickly pooled on the ground under Tao's body, Riki stood there enjoying the feeling of warm blood on her hands, and soaking into her shoes. That was something she enjoyed. The feeling of blood, it didn't matter whether it was hers or someone else's, she simply loved the feeling.
The Crane Hermit was staring in shock at Tao's body. After several minutes he spun on his heel, and stormed off.
Riki stood there for a while simply basking in the feeling of being free of Tao. He'd beaten her nearly everyday he'd been there, had kept her sleep deprived, had nearly killed her everyday whether she told him she couldn't go on or not. Now he was dead.
She didn't realize her shoulders were shaking slightly, or that tears had built up in her eyes, but the people still in the room did.
"She finally realized what she's done." Said one. "Hopefully she'll go die somewhere and leave us in peace." Said another. Then they stopped, staring at her in amazement.
She was laughing. She'd thrown back her head and started to laugh. It wasn't a laugh of mirth, or anger, or realization. It was the laugh of someone that had lost their mind, the laugh of someone that was insane, the laugh of a maniac.
Riki couldn't stop laughing, anymore than she could stop the tears that accompanied it, anymore than she could stop the elated feeling that she felt, anymore than she could stop another feeling that she had.
The feeling that this had been the start of something amazing.
So she laughed, an insane laugh, not knowing, or caring about the repercussions of what she had done.