Chapter 7 – Daughter?
Unknown to Juuhachigou, Juunanagou had been watching the Budoukai and had overheard the conversation with Piccolo as well. He also noticed the remarkable resemblance between him and Kiare. If the girl was indeed his daughter, he was very proud of her skills. There were few humans who could beat a Saiyajin in a fight. He now hovered over her as she walked along the street, waiting for a cab. The more he watched her, the more she reminded him of himself. The jet-black hair, slanted eyes, her way of walking and lithe movements. Could she really be his daughter?
As if she had sensed his thoughts, Kiare abruptly looked up, staring straight at him. It was too late to hide now. He had been covertly following her, and having no ki, found it easy to hide from her. Now he saw that he had been too careless while involved in his thoughts. His shadow had fallen across her path. Juunanagou descended smoothly to land in front of the girl. If she was impressed, she showed no sign of it. Some passersby were staring curiously at them and a couple of schoolgirls were ogling at the handsome Jinzouningen. He ignored them all irately. Kiare was regarding him with narrowed eyes and arms tightly crossed.
Her eyes! They were a beautiful dark brown. Where had he seen those eyes before? He delved deep into his memory. He recalled faint images of twinkling brown eyes, swirling scarlet hair, and a young woman's musical laughter. Kiare's question snapped him back to the present. "W-what?" he stuttered.
Kiare rolled her eyes and repeated her question. "I just said, why have you been furtively following me?"
"Well, I er… wanted to find out why you left the Budoukai so suddenly." He knew it was a lame excuse, but it was all he could come up with at the moment. "Did you know that you won 10 million dollars?"
"If you are so interested in the prize, why don't you dress as me to collect it?" she said this glibly; however, she soon saw the similarity between them herself. Her eyes widened in disbelief. "You… how… Who are you?"
"Someone who wants to teach you how to fly." Being in control of the situation boosted his confidence. "If you're interested, meet me at Lone Hill tomorrow at 5 p.m. sharp. If not," he shrugged, then said, "don't show up."
He turned around and was hovering above the ground when Kiare called out, "At least let me know your name."
"Just call me Juu," he said without glancing back, then he zoomed off into the blue sky.
Moments later, Kiare was still musing about the young man's offer when another flying shadow fell across her path. Again, she felt no ki. "Now what?" she muttered, whirling around.
Facing her was not the same young man, but a coldly beautiful blond woman. She was dressed in a shirt and jeans, like the boy, but did not have his orange bandanna. Her shining golden hair was parted on her left and hung down the sides of her face in a similar fashion as the boy's had been. The both of them also appeared to be around the same age. The woman looked her up and down, scrutinising her closely, muttering, "The Namekkuseijin was right. You do resemble us. However, those brown eyes must belong to your mother. "
In a louder tone of voice, she addressed a bewildered Kiare, "You live rather far away, right? So, I guess you could stay with us for the time being. I will have to prepare the spare room in the Kame house for you."
She grasped Kiare's hand without any resistance from the startled girl and said, "Hold on tight, unless you want a premature lesson in flying."
"But…, who are you?" she asked, dumbfounded.
Juuhachigou looked down at her niece, puzzled. "You mean they did not tell you? Those idiots." She frowned briefly, then smiled at the younger girl. "Ah well, let me introduce myself, then. I am Juuhachigou, your obaasan."
Chapter 8 – Saiyajin!
As they flew towards the ki source, Bra wondered about this guy called Brolli. Her niichan told her that he was extremely powerful and had nearly beaten them thrice. She found that rather hard to believe, since her tousan and Son Goku were the most powerful people in the world that she knew of. Probably Trunks was just exaggerating the facts to scare her. He often did that; especially when he did not want her to go somewhere. Well, this time she wasn't going to be scared so easily; she was much too curious about another fellow Saiyajin, no matter how powerful he was. She had to admit that this time her brother's acting was really good. He looked like he was really apprehensive about this Brolli. Gohan-san and Piccolo-san had just joined them and the two of them also seemed quite scared. Only Goku-san looked excited about the fight. Ubuu-kun was as confused as they were.
It seemed that the first time they met Brolli and fought him, Gohan-san was only nine years old. The other two times were when her niichan and Goten-kun were only kids about her age. She wondered why they hadn't told Pan or her about this before and if Brolli was handsome. Bra wanted to ask Pan's opinion about how he would look like, but as she glanced on her left, she saw that the younger girl was much too geared up about fighting a powerful opponent that was not someone they knew. If she asked now, Pan might not even hear her. Bra rolled her eyes and sighed mentally. They would soon know anyway.
"Look, there he is!" Goten-kun shouted. They flew over the crest of a hill and landed there, watching. There was a huge crater in the middle of the plain. At the edge of the crater, a small figure in Super Saiyajin stood, making no move to attack, although he must have sensed their ki already.
For a while, both sides just remained as they were, then, irritated that she could not see his face clearly, Bra started forward. Trunks pulled her back forcefully and scolded her in a sharp whisper, "Baka! What do you think you're doing? Do you want to get us all killed?"
Angrily, Bra retorted, close to tears, "What is wrong with you people? Why are you so afraid of this guy? He is only one man, anyway."
Seeing her speak up, Pan piped, "Bra-chan is right! I want to see for myself how strong this guy really is."
The two girls nodded at each other, then blasted off towards the super Saiyajin, leaving behind the stunned adults. They landed at a distance of about five metres away from him, but he still remained in the same position, unmoving. Bra noticed that he was quite good-looking, though he looked a little too fierce. The others arrived, but there was still no response from the Saiyajin. There seemed to be some internal struggle going on in his head, for he suddenly grabbed it with both hands and screamed. Abruptly, he stopped and collapsed unconscious on the ground, his hair and eyes turning black.
Initially, the others thought it was a trick of some sort, but as they warily moved nearer to him, they saw that he was really unconscious. Now they had to decide what to do with him. Trunks, Goten and Gohan wanted to send him back into space with his space pod, but the others wanted to wait until he regained consciousness then fight him. "Don't you think he looks too young to be Brolli?" Goku pointed out.
"Since when did you become so discerning?" Vegita skeptically asked.
"Well, he does look young," commented Gohan. "And he certainly does not wear the same clothes as Brolli."
The Saiyajin was dressed in typical Saiyajin armour, with his tail wrapped firmly around his waist. They continued staring down at the youth for a while. "Maybe we should investigate the ship to find clues about his identity," suggested Bra excitedly.
"That's a good idea, Bra-chan," said Goten. "Let's go, Trunks-kun!"
The two young men walked into the crater and went into the open pod. Piccolo, Goku and Ubuu stayed to watch over the unconscious Saiyajin, while Vegita, Gohan and the two girls went to the space capsule. The pod was not large enough to accommodate all of them, so only Vegita, Gohan and Trunks went in. Everything seemed to be in working order, but the life-support and preservation systems were showing weird symbols. Vegita was the only one who could read Saiyajin, so he examined the controls. Gohan and Trunks looked questioningly at him. The Saiyajin Prince looked shocked at what he discovered. "What is the matter, otousan?" Trunks asked anxiously. "A-according to these statistics," Vegita started saying, "This space pod has been in space for more than ten years. That means that boy outside has not aged in ten years!"
"What?!" Gohan and Trunks exclaimed simultaneously.
"What's happening?" Pan asked from outside the space pod.
"Tell us what's going on," said Bra, pushing Pan away from the doorway.
Goten pulled her away from the door so that the three men could exit the pod. "But I…," Bra said, struggling in Goten's arms. "Shh! We'll all know soon enough," hissed Goten.
"Well, Vegita? What have you found out?" Piccolo asked, seeing the three of them emerge ashen-faced.
"This boy is actually over thirty years old, but due to a prolonged period in space, he has not aged a single bit over ten years," said Vegita gravely. "Wait! Let me explain this first!" he said, seeing that the others had started muttering among themselves. "I'm not finished yet. A Saiyajin space pod has a preservative mechanism that kicks in whenever it travels in space for more than five light years. Thus, the occupant would not need to eat or defecate until planetfall. Both Nappa and I also went through this preservation during our trip to Earth, but we were only preserved for a few years so there was no harmful effect on us."
"Not if you call wanting to destroy a whole civilisation a harmful effect," Goten muttered, then was silenced by Vegita's cold stare.
"Anyway, as I was saying, if a person is preserved for too long, his brain may be damaged and he could go insane. Either that or he may be prone to hallucinations or even develop multiple personalities. This can cause him to commit wanton acts of destruction. With a Saiyajin of his power, this can be extremely dangerous. I suggest that we destroy him now," said Vegita.
"Wait," said Goku. "You said that his brain might be damaged, not that it would be. So, there is a chance that he may be fine."
"The chances are very slim," argued Vegita. "As far as I know, no one who came back from such a long trip remained unaffected. Most Saiyajin who journeyed for more than five years preserved were haunted by migraines that eventually killed them. You already saw how this fellow collapsed just now."
Goku thought for a while, then said, "I still think we should give him a chance."
"Y'know? I agree with him," said Gohan. "I don't want to kill an innocent person."
Vegita clenched his fists in frustration. "Innocent? No Saiyajin is innocent! Fine, do it your way. Just don't come crawling to me for help when he starts to destroy this planet."
With that, he blasted off into the horizon. The others watched him leave, wondering if they had made the right choice. They decided that the Saiyajin would stay at Goku's house, since there were five warriors, including Ubuu staying there. If there was trouble, they should be able to handle it. They left the space pod where it was, then flew back to their homes.
Chapter 9 – Settling In
Chi-Chi nearly had a fit when Goku brought the boy home. "Another Saiyajin!! Both Videl and I have our hands full with preparing meals for four Saiyajins and you just had to bring another one home, didn't you?!" she screamed.
Pan and Ubuu cowered behind Goku in fear as Chi-Chi rambled on about how thoughtless and inconsiderate they were, always leaving behind so many dishes for the two of them to wash while they went to train for who knew what purpose and came back only to eat. "Why don't you find a job like Gohan? At least he earns enough money to support us. And why didn't you stay at the Budoukai to win the 10 million dollars? If you had done that, I might have forgiven you, but no, you all had to run off for some reason and leave the money to a total stranger, who also disappeared. If I had taken part, I would have stayed for the money at least," she paused to take a breath. "And…"
"There, there, Chi-Chi." Goku said, patting her reassuringly on the shoulder. "I'll take part in it the next time, okay?"
"You'll probably run off again for some reason and leave us alone again!" she said, almost in tears. "The last time you left just like that," she said, snapping her fingers. "Did you know how much I missed you? I cried myself to sleep that night. Who knew when you were coming back?"
The older woman was now sobbing openly, and the others were getting uncomfortable. Fortunately, Videl saved the situation by gently pulling Chi-Chi away from the door, so that the others could enter. Pan approached her grandmother shyly and said, "Don't cry, obasan, I will help you with the cooking next time, okay?"
Chi-Chi wiped some of her tears with her handkerchief and smiled at her granddaughter, saying, "Pan, you are a good girl, if only your ojisan was as understanding as you are."
* * *
Juuhachigou and Kiare had arrived at the Kame house. Kamesennin was out on the beach, wading in the water with his turtle. He greeted the both of them politely, then called Kuririn. The old hentai had long discovered that it was unhealthy to mess with this Jinzouningen woman and whatever visitors she brought. The girl beside her had a disturbing resemblance to her, so he decided to stay clear of the house for a while. Kuririn came out of the house, wiping his hands on his trousers. "Juu-chan, you're back. This girl is…"
"She is Kiare, from the Budoukai, remember?" Juuhachigou told her husband in a slight reprimanding tone. "Piccolo told us that she is related to me, so most probably she must be my brother's daughter," she turned to Kiare and said, "What's your father's name, Kiare-chan?"
The dark-haired girl was looking extremely confused. "I- I do not know my father. My mother said that he died before I was born. I have lived in the woods near Mt. Paozu my whole life. The only man I know, is my old sensei."
"What?! That irresponsible jerk!" Juuhachigou exclaimed.
"Calm down, Juu-chan," said Kuririn anxiously. "It isn't any use getting mad now. You know how he is like."
"Of course I know how he is like! Still, I never expected him to abandon his wife and daughter just like that." Juuhachigou clenched her fists in anger, then slowly calmed herself down. "Your father is not dead, Kiare-chan. I just saw him a few days ago."
"B-but I…" Kiare stuttered, getting even more bewildered.
Juuhachigou continued as if there had not been an interruption. "I'll take you to see him in a few days time. Meanwhile, you can stay here with us. Is that okay with you?"
"Yes, but my mother is ill and she needs medication."
"I'm sure if we get your father to see her, she will be cured faster," the android said. "Now all you need to do is to write a letter to her, telling her that you are staying with us and that we will take care of you. Just leave everything else to me, all right?"
Kiare nodded mutely. "Come, Kiare-chan," said Kuririn. "I will show you your room, then you can fix it up whatever way you want. When you go to school, you will need to have a place to put all your books. Juu-chan, don't forget to register her at Marron's school."
"Yes, yes. I won't forget," she said as she flew off.
Kuririn let Kiare into the house and showed her to her room. "By the way, how old are you, Kiare-chan?" he asked.
"I am sixteen, Kuririn-san," she replied, still unsure of what was happening.
"You can call me ojiisan. My daughter, Marron, is seventeen this year. She went out with her friends after the Budoukai, but you'll have a chance to meet her later. Er… you don't understand what's going on, ne?" he said, seeing her confused expression. He sighed, then continued, "Well, it's kind of hard for a human like you to understand; I'll try my best to explain.
"Firstly, my wife and your father are siblings. That much you have guessed, I'm sure. Anyway, they are not… how do I put this… as fully human as we both are. They used to be but were subtly changed by an evil scientist. This man made them into very powerful fighters who were originally programmed to kill a person. Thus their names, Juunanagou and Juuhachigou. The scientists made a few other androids before them, but there were problems. Juuhachi and her brother were too rebellious and too powerful, so he animated them only as a last resort.
"They killed the scientist right after they were reanimated, then set out to kill the person. What happened after that, well, you will probably learn in your history lessons. Just try to take it with a pinch of salt, okay? Mr. Satan is not even as powerful as I am, let alone Juuhachigou. Son Gohan was the one who killed Cell, the most powerful creation of the evil scientist. Let's go back to our subjects now. After Cell's death, Juuhachi went to look for her brother and to travel the world. She told me that much anyhow. Later, she came back to look for me and we got married. Er… that's about it for Juuhachigou."
Clearing his throat, Kuririn continued, "As for Juunanagou, I'm not very sure about what happened to him, but these few years, he's been living in the woods on the nearby mainland. You must be wondering why Juuhachigou looks so young, ne? It's because she is an Artificial Human, a Jinzouningen. Both she and her brother have not aged since they were changed, and they probably never will. Juuhachi is actually thirty-nine years old, counting from the time when she was first animated. She doesn't know her birth date, or when and where she was born because her memory was erased when she was changed. Do you understand more now?"
Kiare simply nodded, overwhelmed at the new information. Kuririn quietly left her alone in the room to digest the facts about the father she had not even known existed.
The next afternoon, Juuhachigou and Marron took her to the city to shop for some new clothes, since she could not possibly wear Marron's clothes all the time. Kiare had visited her mother the day before, and the older woman told her that she was now feeling better and that she was glad that Kiare was in good hands. However, Kiare's mother did not wish to move to the city as she preferred the peace and quiet that the forest offered. Her mind now free from worry, Kiare intended to enjoy herself on this shopping trip. The three of them took a hovercraft, driven by Juuhachigou, to the mainland then rode to the city in a taxi. Kiare had only been to the city once before and that was when she attended the Budoukai, so Marron and her mother showed her around this time. They passed by Lone Hill on the way and Kiare took note of where it was, so that she could meet 'Juu' later.
If Kiare appeared rather inattentive, Marron just assumed that her cousin was just unused to being in a large city like this one. She herself enjoyed shopping, like her mother did, and did not realise that there would be others who did not. The two blonde women were so intent on their shopping that they did not realise that Kiare had disappeared until it was time for dinner.
Meanwhile, Kiare had escaped from the crowds at the shopping mall and soon found her way back to Lone Hill. She arrived just in time to see Juu fly down to meet her. "Well, I see you decided to turn up, after all," the young man said, smirking.
Kiare remembered what Kuririn had told her and knew that Juu could be her father. She kept silent. "What happened to your glib tongue? Did something shock you into silence?" Juunanagou asked, then realised that he had said too much.
"Are you…," Kiare muttered. "Are you Juunanagou?"
The Jinzouningen did not answer her. He folded his arms and looked uncomfortable with the question. "Well? Are you or are you not Jinzouningen Juunanagou?" she asked again.
"I can't tell you right now," he said finally. "I am not very sure myself."
"What? Why?" Kiare asked, puzzled. "Either you are or you're not. What's there to be sure about?"
"Enough questions!!" Juunanagou shouted suddenly. "Do you want to learn how to fly or not? If you don't want to, don't waste my time."
"If you are Juunanagou, you have a lot of time to waste," Kiare retorted. "All right! If you want to remain mysterious, it's fine with me. Just get on with the lesson."
"Fine!" Juu said, irritated with this rude, loudmouthed daughter of his that he did not even remember having. "You know what ki is, right? To fly, you just have to focus your ki…"
* * *
Meanwhile, Marron and Juuhachigou were still busy shopping. Time passed quickly and it was nearly eight in the evening. Marron felt her stomach grumbling and asked her mother if it was time for them to have their dinner. Juuhachigou glanced at her watch and nodded, saying, "Just call Kiare and we'll head for the food centre."
"Kiare? Wasn't she with you?" Marron asked. "I did not see her after I went into that shop over there and I thought she left with you."
"No, where could she have gone?" Juuhachigou wondered. "I can't sense her ki either, but she must be somewhere in the city. Marron, you search the mall, I'll fly around the city to see if I can find her ki. We'll meet here in half an hour."
Marron agreed and the two separated to search for Kiare.
Back at Lone Hill, Kiare had already learned how to float, but in order to fly, she still had some practice to go. "Well, you can learn the rest on your own now," said the android. "You just need to practice your ki control and you'll succeed. You're a fast learner."
"Thanks," Kiare said, gratified that he had actually complimented her.
"Um… I'll meet you here on the following Monday to see how much you've improved," he said thoughtfully. "See you then."
"Bye!" Kiare said as Juu flew off. She walked back to the shopping mall, reviewing what she had learnt. Was Juu really her father? Why did he want to teach her how to fly? She had caught him looking at her strangely a couple of times when she was concentrating on focusing her ki. It seemed that he himself did not really know if she was his daughter or not. Only her mother would be able to recognise him if she saw him, but how was she going to make him meet her mother?
"So that's where you are. We've been looking all over for you," came a familiar voice.
"Juuhachigou-san!" exclaimed Kiare, whirling around. "I'm sorry that I left like that, but I don't really like crowds and I just wanted to find somewhere quieter, so…"
"It's okay, Kiare, you don't need to explain," Juuhachigou said, placing a hand on her niece's shoulder. "Next time, just tell us where you are going first, all right?"
Kiare nodded, blushing as Marron approached. "You'll have to get used to the crowds when living in a city," Marron commented. "Come on, let's go home now. I'm tired and very hungry as well."
The three young women went back to the seaside house and Juuhachigou prepared dinner for all five of them. After dinner, Marron gave Kiare a brief description of Orange Star High so that she would not get lost so easily among the numerous lecture halls. They then went to bed early so that they could leave early the next day. The journey to and from the school would take at least three hours by plane.