Gohan dodged as Mia aimed a punch to his left.
"So let me get this straight, you're a Saiyan, from another world," Gohan said as he aimed a side kick to Mia's head.
"That is correct," Mia replied as she ducked under his kick.
"And you got here how?" he asked jumping away from her to avoid getting hit with a kick of her own.
"I told you, it is my job to look after all worlds," answered Mia as she kicked out towards Gohan, who jumped back to avoid the hit.
"Er right, but how did you get here?" he asked as he landed from his jump after Mia decided to attack with a side sweep, to knock him off of his feet. Mia stood up and smiled as she pulled her hair behind her ear.
"I don't know, I don't get to chose where the Void sends me," she said sadly.
"The Void?" Gohan whispers as he noticed the change in Mia's tone.
"Yes, the Void is the only connection to all worlds, my home," answered Mia with a small smile.
"So you live in the Void? And that sends you to all these different worlds to protect them," said Gohan summoning up all he had heard.
"Yes, and once I am done, I get pulled back into the Void," Mia answered briskly haven gotten annoyed with all the questions.
"Seems like a lonely life," commented Gohan staring her straight in the eye.
"I do my job and save peoples' lives, I may be all alone in the Void, but I-I-I," she snapped though she trailed off as she thought of something to say.
"I know what it feels like to be alone," said Gohan sadly, Mia looked at him, when she didn't say anything Gohan continued. "My mother isolates me in my room, giving me nothing but studying to do, my father only ever sees me when he needs a training partner or a fishing partner, and my friends, my friends only ever come round to train too," finished Gohan bowing his head, the two sat down as Gohan told Mia about his past, from his kidnapping by Radditz to his father transforming into the legendary Super Saiyan.
Mia looked at Gohan with a mask hiding her pitying feelings towards the boy, knowing that he doesn't want her pity.
"So I guess we were pretty much made for each other," she said as she looked up to the sky, taking a deep breath before looking back to Gohan, "But you know, protecting is our life, we need to train and besides, we are Saiyans we can handle it," she said giving him a pat on the back causing him to smile and laugh.
"So Gohan, you interested in helping me catch this demon?" Mia asked looking away from him.
"We are Saiyans like you said, I'm in," replied Gohan looking forward to the thrill of the fight.
"I knew you were this world's protector Gohan, time to show me what you've got," thought Mia as she silently went over her real reasons for being in Gohan's world.
"So Gohan you ready for a demon hunt?" Mia asked as she walked alongside the Saiyan boy
"You make it sound like a game," Gohan remarked with a hint of seriousness in his voice. From what he knew of Demons, they weren't to be taken lightly.
"Sorry, I know it's nothing to laugh at but, I've met hunters before, it's a grim life. You need to let the stress out in some way, I know Dean likes to drink and fornicate whereas I like to make witty remarks that make me sound like a total ass, as well as beat the crap out of myself during my training sessions," Mia replied in a deadpan voice that Gohan wasn't sure whether to laugh or throw her into a psychiatric ward. Honestly he had never met anyone who sifted moods like she did. It was then that Gohan realized that Mai was already charging on head without him.
"Hey wait up!" he called as he ran to catch up.
"Gohan we're on a hunt, there is no time to hang around," Mia reprimanded to him, earning a splutter of confusion from Gohan at which she smirked. The two walked through the forest in silence until Gohan voiced a question that had been on his mind since the journey began
"Erm how exactly are we supposed to deal with a demon?" Mia stopped to look at him before pulling something out of her top. It looked to be a small necklace of some sort.
"Well we need to exorcise it, but we don't want to get possessed so you should wear this, it will stop that from occurring," she explained as she handed Gohan the necklace. Gohan looked at the pendant, it looked like a horribly drawn sun.
"How exactly is this supposed to stop that?" he asked with scepticism.
"Gah do you know nothing? The symbol Gohan! They can't break through. Just like a devils trap or a circle of salt," she said with annoyance, not one for dealing with newbies.
"Devils trap?" Gohan asked ignoring her tone.
"It's a... Erm.....A pentagram that's big enough for a demon to enter, though once inside. They can't get out," she explained as she pushed past the trees, stopping to wait for Gohan to emerge. "Don't worry about it, I got it covered. Oh it looks like Iago's back from his scouting mission," she said just as a patch of red emerged down from the trees.
"Huff huff, so how'd it go?" the parrot asked not realizing that they had company.
"Well you've managed to blow your cover in an hour this time, and the demon got away but other than that, s'all right," she said indicating to the boy behind her.
"Oops," he muttered, though from his tone it was plain to see that he didn't care. Mia rolled her eyes at the parrot.
"So glad to see your concern for our identity," she said addressing the bird. "Gohan this is Iago. Like me he also is not from this world," she said indication to the bird, "Loud mouth this is Gohan, try keeping the fact that you're not a normal parrot from anyone else," she finished turning her head to her shoulder to look at the bird.
"What am I a stool pigeon?" he asked sarcastically. "Who's this kid anyway, don't we have a job to do. I unlike you actually want to go home!" Iago screeched into her ear causing her to wince.
"Iago! Not so loud," she moaned trying to swat the now flying bird. Gohan chuckled as he watched the pair but couldn't help think that Mia was down playing her situation.
"What do you have against hanging out with me?" she asked playfully with a pout.
"The same thing I have with Al," he muttered under his breath.
"Ah your cowardliness at putting yourself in danger for the sake of others," she replied with a hint of mirth.
"You know better than that," he snapped back earning a laugh from the girl.
"Relax Iago," she said with a smile. Iago huffed before taking off from her shoulder and landing on Gohan's.
"So kid, what she tell you about us?" he asked into Gohan's ear.
"Not much, she's......" he paused trying to find the right words.
"Crazy? A nutcase? Daffy? Mental? Yeah well with what she's been through... we're lucky she ain't full out insane. The kids lost a lot, if you hurt her I'll....Hey where'd she go?" Iago said as he noticed the girl was no longer in front of them.
A noise above put them on guard.
"Boo," Gohan jumped back as Mia suddenly appeared right before him having dropped in from the tree, her tail keeping her held upwards making the pair eye level.
"I'm not crazy, I just don't give a darn, now come on we have a job to do," she said jumping down from the tree and gracefully landing on her feet.
"Of course that year she spent with Daffy Duck didn't help her mentality," Iago said as Gohan stood.
"I hear murmuring back there," Mia's voice called out from ahead of them.
Ahead of the two Mia smiled, Iago never really liked to show his caring side, but it was there. Her eyes held a hint of sadness in them, he was right, she had been through a lot. She survived her own execution, the slaughtering of the people she considered family and she survived ruining others lives with this thing we call destiny. God only knows that she's dead inside, but she wouldn't trade this life for anything, she couldn't let anyone else suffer this way. This was her job just like it was Iago's job and now Gohan's job. She just hadn't told Gohan yet. But when she does, she'll survive just like he will. They have no choice in the matter.
Gohan watched Mia from behind. He could feel the sadness and dedication radiating off her. He felt pulled to this girl, he just wanted to hold her and tell her it would all work out. She was like him, lost and alone but so filled with spirit, and the will to go on and even make friends. A squawking from behind caught all of their attention before Gohan was tackled by a purple blur, Iago thrown from his shoulder and landing hard on the dirt.
"Icarus!" Gohan shouted in joy as the purple dragon began licking his face. Mia watched with a smile before walking over to the pair. All the while Iago was muttering about having to babysit annoying children from his spot on the floor.
"So Gohan, who's you're friend?" Mia asked once the dragon had given him enough space to stand.
"This is Icarus. Icarus this is Mia and Iago, say hi boy," Gohan replied as Mia began petting the dragon.
"He's a lovely looking dragon Gohan," Mia said before turning towards Iago, "Come on ya old fraidy cat, come and say hello."
"No way, dragons are defiantly on the to avoid list," Iago replied crossing his arms.
"Iago I promise that Icarus won't hurt you," Gohan said. Icarus squawked feeling a little bit offended and upset. Iago looked towards Icarus, his squawking reminded him of Abu, and the fact that he was a dragon reminded him of Genie. He sighed before reluctantly making his way over to the three, landing on Mia's shoulder.
Lick!
"Aw gross, dragon slobber," Iago said as he was licked by Icarus in a show of friendship. He could feel Mia's smirk even though he couldn't see it. "You're a jerk," he said to her flying over to sit on Gohan's shoulder.
"Me? Now what ever gave you that idea?" she asked playfully earning a chuckle from Gohan.
"So much for sticking with the nice one," Iago said earning a laugh from both Gohan and Mia.
The four continued their journey through the forest in companionable silence. Every now and then the silence was broken to ask or answer questions. They enjoyed the beauty of nature and kept at a slow pace, neither were in a rush to fight some evil force. It was then that Gohan stopped as his Saiyan hearing kicked in.
"Is that music I hear?" he asked hoping to see the others agree, telling him that he hadn't indeed gone mad.
"Yep," Iago replied as Mai seemed to be walking in sync to the beat.
"Where's it coming from?" Gohan asked before he heard Mia mumble a few words to the tune.
"Walking down the boulevard, their shadows searching in the night, streetlight people, living just to find emotion hiding, somewhere in the night," she sang as the sound of drums, pianos and guitars ran throughout the forest.
"Where is that coming from?" Gohan asked Iago who was now sitting on his shoulder.
"It's from her kid, just go with it," Iago said rolling his eyes though Gohan could feel his talons moving with the beat.
"Working hard to get my fill, everybody wants a thrill, paying anything to roll the dice just one more time," Gohan felt the music flow through him, it gave him a feeling of friendship and immortality, he couldn't explain why. He had never even heard the song before. He opened his mouth as the two sung.
"Some will win, some will lose, some are born to sing the blues, whoa the movie never ends it goes on and on and on and on, strangers waiting, walking down the boulevard, their shadows searching through the night, streetlight people, living just to find emotion hiding, somewhere in the night," at some point during the song the two had stopped, standing by each other. The music radiating from both of them. Iago flew over by Icarus as the pair began to slowly yet unknowingly dance to their own voices, to their own music. Her doing main with him turning into backup.
As the song came to an end the two shared a glance, each looking into the others eyes before they both quickly looked away blushing madly. Mia winked.
"You're not a bad singer," she complemented him. Gohan mumbled out a small thanks as he tried to will the blush on his face away.
"Hey where did that music come from?" he asked, repeating his earlier voiced question.
"From me Doc, the void provided it," she said before turning away from him.
"Huh?" he voiced still confused.
"The void, me and it share a bond, in a way, I am the void," she said looking thoughtful. Gohan nodded dumbly having absolutely no clue as to what she just said.
"Oh brother, she means kid that the voids power is her power, it's sort of a comprise see, it makes her life miserable but it unconsciously locks in on her thoughts giving her all the information she could need as well as providing her with jobs," Iago said as he landed on Mia's shoulder, trying to explain more about the girl to the boy.
"Yeah like that, but it can also be a tad bit annoying sometimes by making it so that I can't access my abilities, you ever try flying off of a cliff only to learn that your 'wings' are disabled," she said referring to her ki as wings. Gohan blinked even with his intellect he still had trouble understanding that.
"It's a lot to take in I know but you won't need to understand it," she said adding a silent "yet," at the end.
"Shouldn't we have found the demon by now? He can't have gotten too far, can't we just fly?" Gohan moaned from behind Mia as he watched the sun begin to set. He had been out all day, his mum was not going to be happy.
"Sorry Gohan, I can't fly here, not unless I want a massive headache. Which I don't, why do you think I had Iago scout by air. Besides that demon is long gone from here, don't forget that that person was being possessed, Demons can transfer between hosts in a cloud of black smoke," she explained looking at him.
"Then what are we doing?" Gohan snapped annoyed that his day had been wasted, he regretted his tone as he saw an instant flash of hurt in Mia's eyes before she quickly smothered it.
"Well I guess we were dancing," she replied before scowling at the boy, "I'm sorry that I wasted your time, but then again I could have had that demon if you had kept your trap shut letting me lead it to the already set devils trap," she said harshly causing Gohan to wince. "But hey it was nice meeting you, Iago lets go, we need to find some shelter for the night," she said before storming off only to be stopped by Gohan as he grabbed her wrist.
"Wait, I'm sorry, I didn't mean it like that, I had a great time with you, really I did. You're the first person I ever danced with," Gohan said rubbing his head. Mia stared at Gohan, she knew he didn't mean it like that, she just found it fun trying to push his buttons.
"That's ok apology accepted besides, I had a great time with you too, but isn't it about time for you to go home, from what you told me your mother will be awfully steamed at how long you've been gone," she replied as she turned to where the sun was setting.
"Yeah, I'll defiantly get the frying pan for this, but it was worth it," he said with a smile earning a bright smile from his companion. "Would you like to spend the night at ours, I'm sure my mother would allow you to stay," Gohan said though he was ready to insist that the pair join him if she refused, but as Mia opened her mouth a different voice bet her to it.
"We'd love to kid, finally a night in the warmth for little Miss it's so great sleeping under the stars even though you can't see them through this rain," Iago said impersonating her voice at the end of the sentence.
"Guess it's settled then," Mia said though she was glaring at the bird. A choke of thunder let them know that a tropical down poor was about to be unleashed. Without thinking Gohan jumped onto Icarus's back, pulling Iago and Mia on with him on his lap.
"Take us home Icarus," he said. Mia looked at Gohan with a deadpan face from his lap, watching with a smirk as Gohan turned red at the sight of the position he had put them in. He shifted allowing her to sit up, but because Icarus was still small she had no choice but to sit in his lap. Both were thankful that Gohan was taller than her.
Iago watched with a knowing smirk as the pair reminded him of Aladdin and Jasmine. If it wasn't for the fact that Iago didn't do nice or fun, he would take the time to push the two as close as possible. In fact he could practically hear the Genie's voice in his head reply.
"I know but it's going to be tricky,"
"Tricky is good. Tricky I can do," he heard his own voice whisper back at the voice.