Chapter 2:
Who did you say you were?
Chi-Chi woke up to the morning sun hitting her entire body. She sat up and tried rubbing the sleep from her eyes.
RING! RING! RING! The phone buzzed. She reach her arm out and picked it up.
"Hello," she said in a groggy voice.
"Please don't tell me you are still sleeping. Get up! Your going to be late." An unfamiliar voice said on the other end of the line.
"Who is this?" Chi-Chi asked in utter confusion.
"Are you drunk? Is that why you didn't answer me last night? Because you were out partying?"
"What? No. Last night I was..." The sentence faded away as Chi-Chi remembered what had happened to her yesterday.
"Amaya?" The caller questioned with concern.
"Excuse me? What did you just call me?" Chi-Chi asked as she tried to wrap her mind around what was happening. She combed her free hand through her hair and was shocked to find that it was only up to the length of her earrings.
"Amaya, are you okay? I think I should come over," The caller said with evermore concern.
"No, its just...its just...," She could not think of a single good excuse. "I have to go," she finally said and hung the phone up.
She jumped out of the bed, and for the first time noticed that she was not in her room. This room had double glass doors leading out to a small balcony, and a king sized bed in the center of the room. Paintings were placed all over the walls, which happened to be painted a very light yellow. There was a flat screen 40' inch TV in front of the bed, and a wooden framed closet to the right of the bed. This was definitely not her room.
"Oh my Kami, is this really happening?" Chi-Chi whispered to herself.
She ran out of the room in search of a bathroom. She found one and ran inside to take a look in the mirror. She stared at herself in disbelief. She placed her hand all over her face to make sure what she was viewing was really her body. She took a step back in shock once she discovered the image was truly of her.
Chi-Chi continued to stare at the pale women, with short black hair, dark brown eyes, and a very thin body. She was a little to skinny to be considered healthy, and was nearly flat chested, with a small bump as a butt.
"How's the new body treating you?"
Chi-Chi turned around to find Usire leaning against the door frame.
"Whats going on? Who's body is this?"
"You don't remember? We had a deal." All of the nights events came back to Chi-Chi in a flash. She had already known why this was happening, but she had just seen it turning out in a different way. A way in which she may have at least remotely similar attributes that she had in her original body.
"As for your new body, her name is Amaya Fukushima. She is the daughter of two wealthy bankers. Unfortunately, they passed away in a terrible accident and left her, I'm sorry, you, all of there money. You never have to work again in your life. Now, last night the real Amaya, not wanting to carry on life with no family, attempted suicide. She took over four dozen different drugs and medication and planned on taking her final nap. So I slipped your soul in her body."
Chi-Chi looked at him baffled. This was a lot to take in all at once.
"I also came up with another idea," he continued, "Since I was such in a giving mood, I decided to add one more detail to our wager. If you succeed in getting your body back, then the real Amaya can get her body back, so she may live to see another day as well."
"Wait, What?" Chi-Chi exclaimed somewhat confused. "So you mean to tell me that not only does my life depend on me, but her life as well?"
"Oh yes. And she wanted me to tell you to try your best, because she has seen the error of her ways, and realized that hell really isn't a very comforting place after all. Good luck Chi-Chi." With that said, he vanished.
The pressure was on now. Chi-Chi was not sure if she could do this anymore, but what other choice did she have? She took a deep breath, took one last look in the mirror, and looked at the time on her new watch. 7am, perfect! She had the whole day to find who she knew would fall in love with her. Her confession, however, would have to wait until she gets her real body back.
An hour later Chi-Chi stepped out of her new two bedroom apartment in a bright yellow sundress, and a matching sun hat. She was pretty sure that she owned a car somewhere, but she would have rather walked. The sun was warm and welcoming, and felt really good against her skin. Chi-Chi recognized the area quickly, and realized that she only lived a block or two over. Chi-Chi thought it over and realized that it wouldn't be such a bad idea to go back to her own place.
She walked the two blocks over to her very small apartment. When she got there she rang the doorbell and anticipated what would happen next. It took a few minutes, but eventually the door was heard being unlocked. It swung open, and Bulma stood on the other side. Chi-Chi almost ran into her arms with a bear hug, but she reminded herself of what she looked like before she could do so. That would have caused a lot of unnecessary problems.
"Yes, how may I help you?" Bulma asked as polite as she could muster. Her voice was wavering, and you could tell she had been crying.
"Ah, yes! I am looking for my friend Chi-Chi." Chi-Chi answered.
"I'm sorry Ms., but who did you say you were agin ..."
"Amaya, my name is Amaya." It felt weird for Chi-Chi to be calling herself someone else, especially to her best friend.
"Well, Amaya, I'm sorry to have to inform you, but Chi-Chi is not here, and I don't know when she'll be back," Bulma said as new tears formed in her eyes.
"I'm sorry, but I still don't know what you mean? Whats going on? Where is she?" Chi-Chi asked. She was desperate to know what had happened to her body.
The tears started flowing down Bulma's face as she explained. "We don't know. Nobodies heard from her, or seen her in the past 24 hours. This is just so unlike her, she'd never do anything like this. I know she wouldn't." Bulma slowly began falling to the floor crying; she was falling apart.
The sight of Bulma in such pain made Chi-Chi want to die. Her legs felt weak, and she almost lost her balance. She held on to the wall, and tried to regain some strength. The tears had started pouring down her face as well. She had to fix this, she had to see Bulma smile again, she could not lose her body, not yet.
Chi-Chi got down to Bulma's level and placed a comforting hand on her shoulder. Bulma looked up at her, a waterfall of tears staining her face. "Don't worry Bulma, she'll be back, I promise you she will." There eyes locked for a moment as they both tried to understand each other.
"Bulma?" The moment was lost as someone from inside yelled to Bulma.
Chi-Chi stood up quickly, her heart racing a hundred beats a minute.
A tall, muscle toned man, with jet black hair soon appeared standing behind Bulma.
"Goku," Chi-Chi said in a whisper only she could hear.
Goku leaned down to examine Bulma. "Hey, are you OK?" He asked.
She slowly got up nodding. "Yes, I'm fine. I was just talking to Chi-Chi's friend Amaya," she explained.
"Who?" Goku asked confused.
"Amaya," Bulma said and turned towards the door to introduce Chi-Chi, but was shocked to see there was nobody there. "Never mind," she said taken aback, and closed the door.
Chi-Chi ran from her apartment, not knowing where she was gong, with tears running down her face. She had not expected on seeing Goku there, nor did she expect to react in such a manner when he appeared. She could not see him like this. Everything was happening too fast, too suddenly. She felt like she was slowly losing herself. 'Why did this have to happen to me,' she thought as she ran a little faster.
Not paying attention to where she was going, or even caring, she kept running. She ran until she bumped into something hard. Her Head thumped where she had hit it. She rubbed it trying to ease the pain.
"WOMEN! WHAT THE HELL IS YOUR PROBLEM!"
Chi-Chi recognized that yell, and tried blinking away some tears so she could see. Once her vision was clear she looked up at the man she had bumped into. The face of Vegeta stared back at her.
"What the Hell are you staring at?" He demanded an answer. He was getting extremely angry with the whole situation.
"Vegeta," was the only thing Chi-Chi could muster before losing herself again, and throwing her arms around Vegeta in a tight embrace. If she would have been in the right state of mind she would have never dared look at Vegeta too hard, much less touch him. But for the moment, she could not care. She buried her face deep into his chest and cried harder, ignoring the protest and shouts Vegeta was barking at her.
"Get off me women, or so help you, I'LL BLOW YOUR HEAD OFF!" He threatened. When she did not respond the way he wanted her too, he continued with his threats. He threatened her until he was blue in the face, and only stopped when she spoke.
"Why did this have to happen? Why did it come to this? Everyone is so sad. And its all...my..." The sentence was lost as more sobs escaped Chi-Chi's mouth. "I'm so sorry. For everything, and to everyone. I'm so very sorry."
Vegeta slowly lifted her off of him, and held both her shoulders. Chi-Chi looked at the pavement in slight embarrassment. She wiped her nose, hoping to stop it from running.
"Look woman, from the looks of it, your talking about the other women, Chi-Chi. All of you seem to be blaming yourself, but you have to stop being stupid and realize that it wasn't your fault. If the women wanted to leave then we should just let her be. If she wants to come back, she'll come back," Vegeta explained with a failed attempt at a sympathy talk.
Chi-Chi felt her tears stop and her fist clutch in anger. 'What does he mean "we should let her be",' she thought to herself. What if she had been kidnapped, or worse, killed! This was how he was going to react? As if she had wanted to disappear.
"Woman?" Vegeta said after a long period of awkward silence.
Chi-Chi lifted her head up to face him, and before Vegeta could stop it, punched him in the jaw. Vegeta landed on his back in a patch of grass. The force that was put into that punch actually had an impact on him, and left his jaw stinging.
"You have no heart, you know that! How dare you even say such things about me!" Chi-Chi realized her mistake a little to late. She had proclaimed that she was Chi-Chi, and she wasn't, at least not in their eyes.
Vegeta groaned from the floor, and slowly rubbed the side of the jaw that she attacked. Chi-Chi grew even paler when she realized what she had just done to Vegeta. She was a dead woman now.
"Woman, you're-"
"I'm so sorry! Please forgive me. I don't know what had come over me. I...I have to go," She said to Vegeta and ran off as quickly as she could before he could get up and pay her back in full.
The sound of birds rustling through the trees awake Chi-Chi from her slumber. She fluttered her eyes before opening them fully and taking in her surroundings. As she looked around the evenings events came flooding back to her. She was laying in the park, under the grand oak tree. This is where she had ended up after running away from Vegeta, the Yomoto park. Her feet had lead her to the same exact spot she would always come when she needed to clear her head. She sat up and positioned herself to lean against the tree. She then proceeded to close her eyes, take a deep breath, and try to figure out what she was going to do next.
"What am I doing? Where do I go from here?" She questioned herself.
She thought for a long time, but could come up with nothing. Feeling lost and dazed, she got up from the grass and started walking out of the park. She did not know where she was heading, but she knew it wasn't back to the two bedroom townhouse, and she couldn't go back to her apartment. So she just walked. She had been sleeping under the trees for a few hours, and had not figured that out until she saw the sun going down. But even with the rest she had gotten, she still felt drained and restless. She walked out of the park and into a part of town she didn't quite recognize. The sky was getting darker as she walked down the street looking for a street sign that would help her figure out where she had ended up. The street lights turned on one by one as she passed by them. At the corner of the street, the last street light came on and lit up the only street sign on the block. Chi-Chi walked up to it and read what it said.
"56th street and Nebo drive," she read out loud. Her eyes suddenly grew wide as she registered where her feet had taken her.
"Oh no. I cannot be here."
Chi-Chi had ended up in a bad neighborhood. It was a district where most of the crime in Japan took place. Only thugs and mobsters lived in this area, and a crime was committed every night, most of them deadly. Everyone knew better than to wonder the streets in this area, especially at night. Chi-Chi quickly picked up her pace. She only knew one way out of the neighborhood, and it was under a very dark bridge where the river flowed under. It was only a few blocks away on 50th street , but even walking a few steps on these streets would get you killed.
"Just keep calm and keep walking, I'll be fine," she kept telling herself.
Chi-Chi made it it past 55th street, then 54th and 53rd without any trouble. There was no one in sight, and the streets were deathly quiet. As she approached 52nd street a car whizzed by going 60 miles over the speed limit. It startled Chi-Chi for a moment, and made her heart race. It disappeared around a corner, and Chi-Chi went about her way. Finally, after twenty minutes, she made it it to 50th street. Chi-Chi smiled and let out a breath she didn't even know she was holding in. She could see the bridge just up ahead. She started running towards it. She was just meters away from it when she heard a horrifying laugh. She stopped as soon as she heard it, and stood frozen to that spot. The laugh was heard again.
"Looks like fresh meat tonight fellas," a voice in the shadows of the bridge said.
A man wearing baggy jeans and a red plaid t-shirt, with his hair slicked back in a long pony tail came from under the shadows of the bridge and revealed himself.
"Oh, and she's beautiful too," the man said, and laughed that sickening laugh that Chi-Chi had heard earlier.
"Oh yes! She is beautiful." Another voice said from the shadows. He emerged moments later with three other men.
Chi-Chi felt her knees buckle and shake. She wanted to drop to the ground and curl into a ball and disappear, but she knew better than to do that. They would rip her apart limp by limp like the savages that they were. She could not let that happen, she had to try and get away.
"Are you lost sweetheart? Cause the five us can help you find your way," The one with the slicked back hair, who seemed to be the ring leader said, and licked his lip as if he was a predator looking at his prey.
Chi-Chi took a tiny step back, but said nothing.
"Don't even think about it precious," The leader told her as he raised his hands and snapped his finger. The other four men made a run towards Chi-Chi.
Chi-Chi didn't wait from him to snap his fingers before she started running back down the way she had come from. She made it to the corner of 51st street before they caught up to her. A man in a white undershirt grabbed her by her arm and twisted her around so roughly that it burned, and she lost her balance and fell on the pavement. The men surrounded her and breathed heavily.
"End of the road sugar," the man in the undershirt said.
"NO!" Chi-Chi yelled as two of the men yanked her up from the floor. "LET GO OF ME!"
"No such luck darling," one of them said. They started forcing her back towards the bridge. Chi-Chi twist and turned but there grasp only got tighter.
"Stop Fidgeting," the man in the undershirt demanded.
"STOP," She screamed, and to her surprise, they did.
Chi-Chi looked at all of the men. They had confused looks on there faces as they stared ahead. Chi-Chi looked past them and spotted the same car that had zoomed past her earlier parked in the middle of the street blocking there path. In front of the car the leader of the pack was hovering near the ground, his hand in a breakable twist. Holding his arm in that position, with the angriest look Chi-Chi had ever seen before, was Vegeta.
"Who's next?" Vegeta barked angrily as he twisted the leaders arm until it made a popping noise and threw him to the side.
