Deni woke up on the couch, alone, and was treated by Ravil to a breakfast of dry toaster waffles and orange juice with a suspect aftertaste. Ravil sat across from her, sipping from his cup of cheap, dark, scarcely sweetened coffee.

Deni devoured her breakfast with startling efficiency. This was to be expected, as Ravil had heard many stories of the legendary Saiyan metabolism.

"Sooooooo," Deni said, looking around, and trailing off, as Ravil sliced into his fried egg.

"Yeah," Ravil said, chewing and swallowing. "If you want to stick around, we need to get rid of that tail."

"Why? It's not like it's hard to hide or anything."

"Not the problem. If a Saiyan with a tail is exposed to the full moon, they'll be transformed into a giant, destructive, uncontrollable Great Ape."

"Yeah, sounds about right, considering all the other shit you've told me. I could just rip it off right now if you want…"

Deni popped the tail out of her pants, and reached behind her to grab it, but every time she got close to grasping it did, it involuntarily swished out of her grasp.

"Fucking pain in the ass," she said.

"Yeah, I was afraid that something like this would happen."

Ravil rose from his seat, and grasped Deni's tail tightly in his calloused hand.

"Looks like I can get a good grip on it. I could probably rip it out myself, but I'm not nearly as strong as you, so this could get pretty messy. And it might hurt quite a bit too."

"I'm pretty used to pain at this point," she said.

"Well, either way, we should take this into the bathroom. My maid doesn't get paid enough to wring blood out of my carpet. You should get in the bathtub on your own, and take off every bit of clothing that you don't want ruined."

Deni did just that, and by time Ravil entered, she was face-down in the bathtub, and completely nude. Ravil, meanwhile, was wearing a pair of faded, ripped jeans, and an old, stained tank-top, covered up by a "kiss the cook" smock.

"You sure you don't want something to bite down on?" Ravil said, as he stood over her, planting one foot on the small of her back and the other on the bathroom floor.

"Yeah, I'll be fine. Just get this over with."

Ravil dried his hands against his smock, and then, wrapped his hands firmly around Deni's tail. He proceeded to yank hard against it, like a farmer trying to pull a radish from the earth.

The tail seemed to be pretty firmly stuck in there, but there was still an encouraging creaking, tearing sound as Ravil pulled.

"Man, this thing's stubborn," Ravil remarked, as he continued to tug. Deni winced slightly, but besides that, she didn't seem to have much of a reaction.

There was a snapping sound, like a tree branch breaking off, as Ravil finally seemed to be making some progress. Her tail detached slightly from her backside, but it was still hanging on by several sinewy strands. Naturally, there was a forceful spray of blood, which spattered against Ravil's smock and the lower part of Deni's naked body.

"There, almost done," Ravil said.

Ravil really planted his foot down on her, and then, wrapped the tail around his hand several times, to get a solid grip on it. With one final yank, the tail came off, but Ravil had underestimated his own strength. He went flying back, hitting the sink, with the tail still firmly in his hand.

There was a second uncontrollable spurt of blood. This one was aimed in Ravil's direction again, coating the mirror, the sink and Ravil's entire upper body, including his face. The tail squirmed twitched briefly in his hand, before falling down limply.

"Well, that could've gone a lot worse, right?" Ravil said.

"Yeah, didn't even hurt that much," Deni said, reaching out and rubbing the bleeding stub on her tailbone.

"I bet. Let me bandage that up, stop the bleeding."

Ravil wrapped the bandage tightly around her waist. Clearly, he had done this many times before.

"So, what do you want to do with this?" he said, holding up the dismembered tail.

"I dunno. I kind of want to keep it, if that's okay."

"Yeah, I'm sure I could find a little box for it or something."

After Deni and Ravil both had a pair of clean clothes, and the bathroom was thoroughly scrubbed, they returned to the table to finish their breakfast.

Ravil took the last few bites of his egg, and finished off his coffee.

"So," he said. "Apparently someone in North City has a potential lead for me, but they want to meet in person. Now, it'd lose my job if I just left you alone in my apartment while I made the trip there, so you're going to have to come with me."

"Yeah, no problem," she said. "I always wanted to go to the big city. And if you need me to beat the shit out of someone while I'm there, I'm your gal."

Ravil loaded up his Capsule Corp van, which was more than big enough for the two of them, plus a few other passengers. He loaded up the trunk with spare clothes, cigarettes, booze, instant coffee, water, pillows, and some extra cash. The drive from East City to North City wasn't that long, but these mysterious tips always seemed to lead to something pretty involved, and Ravil figured he should pack a few days worth of supplies, just in case.

With the trunk packed, and Deni in the passenger's seat beside him, Ravil drove off, just early enough to miss the morning traffic.