NOW...
"Cana? Cana?! What's wrong?"
The Saiyan girl felt herself being shaken, the movement awakening phantom pains from her dreams and memories. She clawed herself back to consciousness, gulping in a huge breath of air. "No!" she screamed, bolting upright. Her hands raised, ready to attack or defend from whatever was threatening, and she grabbed at something fleshy, still in a blind panic.
"It's me, Cana!" the voice that had woken her shouted. So familiar, but her nightmare-addled brain couldn't make the connection. Where was she? Where were Lenti and Letta? Chard...
Her vision finally cleared enough to make out the other figure in the room: Uru. The fight went out of the Saiyan girl in an instant, and she released the pink child's arm. "I'm sorry, I'm sorry," she said in a rush. "Did I hurt you, kid?"
Uru stepped back and rubbed at her arm where Cana had grabbed it. "No, you didn't do anything to me," she said. "But you were talking in your sleep, tossing and turning. I came over to check on you, and... Are you okay?"
"I'm... I'm fine," Cana said bringing one hand up to her head to massage her temples, feeling the scar on her cheek burning. Wine-red eyes closed as she came back to the present. She was still in the capsule house. Uru had followed her the previous evening, catching up faster than Cana had given her credit for, but the little girl had gotten stuck in the storm that had been raging outside. The Saiyan had let her in and dried her off, allowing her to stay the night in the little dome of a house. She had even let the kid have the bed while Cana sacked out on the couch.
The pink girl was still looking at her uncertainly. "It sounded like you were hurt real bad," she said, her voice very small.
Cana swallowed past the lump in her throat. "I was," she admitted. "But I'm better now."
"Is it something I did?" Uru asked, taking a seat across from her, hands clasped between her knees, looking down.
"Of course not," the Saiyan answered with an attempt at a smile. "Now why would you think that?"
The bubblegum girl pursed her lips. "Sometimes people were scared of me," she said. "That's why I was living by myself. They'd look at me like I was going to hurt them. Maybe I was. I didn't want to, but they sent me away."
"Listen to me, little-" Cana froze in mid-thought, realizing in horror that she had about to call Uru "little one", the same pet name that Letta had used for over a year when referring to the Saiyan girl. She closed her eyes, pushing the memory away, reaching out one hand to squeeze the kid's shoulder. "Uru... you didn't do anything to me. And you don't seem like someone who would willingly harm anyone." She sighed. "I was just having a dream about something that happened to me a long time ago."
"Must have been really bad guys if they were able to hurt you," Uru said. "You should go and beat them up."
Cana laughed. "I wish it were that easy," she said.
At the sound of her laugh, Uru looked up with a grin on her face. Cana stared at the girl, seeing something different about her. The Saiyan's blood went cold. Uru had irises now, set in the sable sclera that had been the entirety of her eyes yesterday. They were the same shade of red as Cana's own eyes. The pink girl's grin faded upon seeing Cana's expression change.
"What'd I do?" she asked, sounding worried.
The Saiyan girl shook her head. "Nothing, kiddo. It's fine." She forced herself to smile again and glanced out the window at the lightening sky. "What do you say we get something to eat?" Uru's face brightened again and she nodded enthusiastically. Cana rose and went into the little kitchen, the girl following behind. Maybe she just hadn't seen the child's eyes properly the day before. There wasn't anything sinister about the change – if change it was – the discovery was just unsettling.
One of the food-bearing capsules had been produced, and Cana was about to use it when a thought occurred to her. She glanced at the fridge that stood in one corner of the kitchenette. Is it possible? She opened the refrigerator, and – sure enough – it was fully stocked. Cana smiled and shook her head. Incredible. All this in a tiny capsule. It turned out to be a fortunate discovery, because Uru gave the Saiyan a run for her money in the eating department. Between the two of them, they cleaned out the fridge.
Uru was still stuffing her face with croissants and other pastries – she seemed to have quite the sweet tooth and Cana wondered how she had managed in the forest for so long scavenging for food – and the Saiyan girl was eating the last of the fruit when the Dragon Radar vibrated on her wrist. A trilling tone came from the device and Cana frowned. It had never done this before. Was there another Dragon Ball nearby?
"What is that?" Uru asked, half-rising from her seat.
Cana looked at the radar and read the words "Incoming Call". She raised an eyebrow and pressed one of the buttons on the left side of the watch that had lit up.
"... hasn't contacted us since she left," Gatta's voice came from the radar. On the small screen, an image of the bespectacled girl was visible, looking away, talking to someone else. Probably Bockser. "I just want to make sure she's all right."
"She's a full-blooded Saiyan," Bockser said from off-screen. "I'm sure she's fine."
Gatta rolled her eyes. "Well excuse me for being concerned. It's not as if I was ready to chase her down like -" the older girl finally turned back to face whatever camera was transmitting her voice and image. "Cana!" she said, a big smile splitting her face.
The spiky-haired girl smiled back, bringing up her other hand to wave with her fingertips. "Hey there, Gatta. Bock." The younger sibling crowded into the shot to wave back. "I didn't know this thing could make calls," Cana said.
Gatta's smile turned into a frown. "Really? I could have sworn I showed you that function." Cana's own grin transformed into a smirk. She was already familiar with how absent-minded the other girl could be. "And here I was," Gatta continued, "worried sick about you because you never called or sent a message. You didn't even know you could! Guess I can't be too mad at you for it, but still... how are you doing? Is everything okay? Have you found any more Dragon Balls?"
"Slow down and let her answer, sis," Bockser said, shaking his head.
Cana had taken a big bite as Gatta had begun speaking, knowing how the older girl would talk until she ran out of breath. She had enough time to chew and swallow before answering. "I'm fine, no major problems," she said. "I... kind of found one of the Dragon Balls, the five-star ball."
The Briefs siblings blinked, the same confused expression on their faces. "What do you mean 'kind of'?" Bockser asked.
Removing the Dragon Radar from her wrist, Cana turned it to face Uru. The pink girl stared in wonder at the moving image of the two humans for a moment before blushing and giving a shy wave. "This little girl owns the ball," Cana said, turning the watch back to her own face. "So I found it, but I didn't take it."
"Is that a Majin?!" Gatta asked.
Cana frowned and glanced up at Uru, who seemed to have turned a deeper shade of pink. "Maybe," the Saiyan said. "What's a Majin?"
"Oh boy," Bockser said, patting the back of his head. "Well that's hard to explain." He crossed his arms and looked up at the ceiling. "They're not aliens or demons, but they're not human either. They're something... else."
Gatta leaned closer to the camera. "This isn't well-known, but it's been passed down in our family," she said. "There was only one Majin at first: A terrifyingly powerful creature called 'Buu'. He actually succeeded in killing almost all life on Earth before he was defeated. The Dragon Balls were used to bring everyone back and also erase their memories of what Majin Buu had done."
"Why?" Cana asked, noting that Uru had stopped eating and was staring down at the counter. "Why make everyone forget what he had done?"
"This is where it gets complicated," Bockser answered. "Majin Buu had split into two forms: Good and bad. When the bad one was defeated, the good Buu chose to remain on Earth with the friends he had made, but he couldn't very well have any kind of normal life if everyone was scared to to death of him."
"Right," Gatta continued, picking up the thread of the story. "So the evil Buu is gone, the good Buu is living on Earth, but he's the only one of his kind. Eventually he got ideas..." the older girl's face darkened in a faint blush. "I'll skip over the details and just say that he made a female Majin from his own body. The two of them started creating more children, and it just went on from there."
Cana looked across the counter and pointed at Uru with the banana she was now eating. "Does this sound right to you, kiddo?"
The Majin girl looked uncomfortable. "Yes, it's true," she said quietly. "I don't know who... 'created' me, but I've heard the stories." She glanced up at Cana, her new, red eyes sad. "They're wrong about one thing, though. A lot of people are still scared of Majins."
Gatta sighed over the video link. "The first couple generations of Majin were still very powerful," she explained. "And not all of them knew how best to use that power. There are still some bad feelings from those days."
"Is that why I've never seen one in West City?" Cana asked.
"We have a few," Bockser said with a shrug. "A lot more of them live around Satan City, south of East City. Some kind of ancestral home or something."
Cana leaned back against the fridge and crossed her arms, looking at the little pink girl across from her. "Maybe they'd take Uru in if I brought her there," she said. The Majin's eyes widened at the words.
"I don't really know how Majin families work," Gatta said. "Is she all alone?"
"That's right," the Saiyan said. "She was living in a forest when I found her. She followed me after I left, says she wants to come with me." Uru nodded firmly and Cana grinned. "You said that Majin used to be powerful..."
Bockser fielded the unspoken question. "They're not much stronger than a normal human these days," he said. "At least, not without training."
Cana tilted her head, considering. "She's fast, though," she said, almost to herself. "And she survived on her own. I bet that the power is still in there."
There was a moment of silence on the other end of the line. "Maybe," Bockser said. "What are you thinking?"
"Not sure yet," the Saiyan answered with a faint smile. "But I appreciate you guys calling and checking in on me, and for everything else you've done. I'll make it up to you both one of these days... somehow."
Bockser blushed and Gatta smiled. "Just be sure to keep in touch, Cana," the older girl said. "I know you can take care of yourself, but we still worry." She reached out and hit a button, turning away from the camera, but the call didn't end. The corner of Cana's mouth quirked upward. The other girl had hit the wrong key. "Oh boy," Gatta said, looking up at her brother. "A Saiyan and a Majin... we didn't pack them nearly enough food."
As she spoke those last words, Bockser leaned forward and hit the correct button, and the video feed blinked off.
Cana looked up to find Uru staring at her expectantly. "Did you mean what you said..." the Majin began. "About taking me with you?"
She didn't answer right away. Cana pushed off from the refrigerator and stretched, looking past the girl to see blue skies out the window. "I do some exercises early in the mornings before I set out," the Saiyan said. "I want you to train with me. You up for it, kiddo?"
The Majin grinned and pumped one fist into the air. "Yeah!"
The first day was both better and worse than Cana had hoped. Uru didn't show signs of incredible strength or endurance right off the bat, but her enthusiasm was encouraging. Her exhaustion and discomfort with the various exercises and strength training that Cana put her through was clear, and yet the girl kept pushing on and through the pain, showing almost immediate signs of improvement. The Majin didn't want to let her new friend down.
Things were better when they packed up the capsule house and started moving towards the next Dragon Ball. While Uru couldn't fight and had no concept of ki, she could run pretty fast. Cana still had to slow her pace to accommodate the younger girl, but not as much as she had feared the previous day. Despite her constant awareness of the draining away of time, that she had less than three months to find the remaining five Dragon Balls, she was happy to slow down for Uru's sake. It allowed her to enjoy the landscape more and to talk to the Majin.
Uru hung on to her every word, which was gratifying and flattering, but not obsequious or ingratiating. She was just interested and in awe of Cana's strength and knowledge, and the Saiyan ended up telling the Majin even more about herself and her past than she had told Jesi. Uru didn't judge or look disappointed in her when the Saiyan skirted issues like her fear of Letta and Lenti or her complicity in the Grayne massacre.
It helped Cana more than she could have guessed.
She had spent the last two years arguing in her own head, running over the same ground again and again, spinning in circles and exhausting herself. Nothing had been resolved, Cana had just grown weary of the thoughts and memories that had haunted her. Saying the words out loud brought the failures and minor victories into the light and in a different perspective. It didn't absolve her of her guilt, but face to face with the innocence of the Majin girl, it was difficult to drown in her own depression.
The following days, Uru showed significant improvements. She would come out to train with Cana before the sun rose and showed no signs of aches or pains or tiredness from the day before and lasted much longer before she gave up. So improved was she that the Saiyan began to show her the basics of ki control. The look on the Majin's face when she formed that first ball of violet energy was priceless and kept them both smiling for hours.
"You're a natural, kiddo," Cana told her over dinner that night. Feeling good, the Saiyan had decided to fish for their dinner instead of using a capsule, and she had gotten a real monster of a catch, a giant blue and purple one that was nearly as tall as she was. She had told Uru to create a fire using a blast of energy and cooked the fish for the two of them.
While Uru preferred chocolates, candies, and pastries, she ate the marine beast ravenously, much as Cana herself did. "It's easy when I watch you do it," the Majin said between bites.
The older girl tilted her head back to laugh. "Keep it up and you'll get even stronger than I am."
"Yeah, right," Uru said. Then she tilted her own head back and laughed in the exact same way that Cana had.
The Saiyan's smile faded, and she watched the girl across the flickering flames of their cooking fire closely. She realized that Uru was sitting in the same way that she was, eating the same, and now laughing the same. Not to mention the eyes, she thought. The Majin was clearly a gifted mimic, which might also explain how she was learning Cana's techniques so quickly. Whether that was something intrinsic to her race or not, the Saiyan didn't know, but it gave her pause.
"Hey, Uru," she said after a moment's thought. Cana brought her knees up to hug them against her chest. The younger girl imitated the motion. "Are you... copying me?"
"Well... yeah!" the Majin said as if it were the most obvious thing in the world. "You're like the coolest person ever, Cana. I want to be just like you!"
The praise felt good, but it also made her blood run cold. She had to nip this in the bud and fast. "Listen..." she began, gathering her thoughts. "You're fine the way you are, kiddo. It's okay for you to learn from me, to be influenced by me or by anyone else you want, but you don't need to become someone else." Cana smiled, remembering Jesi's words to her the day before she had left on her journey. "You're Uru. That's good enough for me. Do you understand?"
The Majin girl nodded slowly. "I think so," she said. "I should be Uru, not Cana."
"Right," the Saiyan said.
There was a long moment of silence. "Sorry if I did something wrong," the girl said.
Cana rose to move over to Uru's side of the fire and sat down next to her, putting an arm around the Majin. "You don't need to apologize. There was someone I idolized when I was younger, too." The older girl shivered. "But when I started becoming like her, I realized I didn't want to be the same as she was."
The younger girl leaned her pink head against Cana's shoulder. "Can I keep the eyes?" she asked. "They're... pretty." Cana almost cringed, hearing Letta in her head, but she couldn't keep living in the past, she had to move out from under the older Saiyan's shadow.
"Sure," she said. She forced herself to smile. "I think they look pretty on you, too."
As the third week of Cana's journey wore on, she and Uru reached the shore of the ocean. The blue sea stretched in front of them for an unguessable distance, sunlight glittering on the rippling water and lighting the sand with gold. Uru laughed and charged forward into the surf, enjoying her first visit to the beach with childlike glee. Cana smiled watching her, but wondered what her next step should be. According to the Dragon Radar, the next Dragon Ball was somewhere out in that vast ocean.
The answer was in the case of capsules that the Briefs siblings had given her. One of the dyno-caps contained a rowboat, a vehicle that Cana figured was primitive enough not to go against Master Tien's directives or her own. At the very least, the Saiyan could row Uru and herself to the location of the ball. If it was on an island, great, if it was somewhere under the waves, well... she would go under that bridge when she reached it.
With strong, steady strokes of the oars, Cana pulled the boat holding the duo into the deep blue of the ocean, Uru watching in wonder as the shore slipped away. Time slipped away with it. The Saiyan consulted the radar often, not wanting to go off course or row in circles. As she drew closer to her goal, she saw with some relief that the ball was indeed on a small island. Her brows drew together in a frown. A very small island. Little more than a sandbar, really.
It came into sight not long afterwards, revealing that it was just as small as the radar had shown, but it was not empty. Instead, to Cana's surprise, there was a little house on it, with pink walls and a red roof. The words "Kame House" were painted in red on one side of the dwelling, which rested in the shade of a few palm trees.
"Ooh, who lives there?" Uru asked after having Cana read the words to her.
"No idea," the Saiyan answered. "'Kame'... that could mean a couple different things, but seeing as we're out in the ocean, I'm guessing it means 'turtle'."
The Majin looked at her, skeptical. "Turtle House?"
Cana could only shrug. They reached the tiny island and jumped off the boat. According to the radar, the ball was inside the small building. Another Dragon Ball that's in someone else's possession, Cana thought. I have all the luck.
They approached the building at a slow walk, alert for anything else unusual. Before the two girls reached the house, the door opened and a bizarre person stepped out. The sunlight reflected brightly off the small figure's bald head, forcing Saiyan and Majin to throw up their arms to protect their eyes from the glare. As their eyes adjusted, they could see that it was an old man wearing dark glasses, shorts, and a patterned shirt. He carried a wooden staff and a purple turtle shell strapped to his back.
"Well, well," the old-timer said. "It's been a long time since I've had a young girl visit this island, much less two of them." He smiled widely. "Fortune smiles upon me at last." He raised his arms grandly. "Welcome, pretty ladies," he said. "Welcome to the island of the Turtle Hermit, Master Sheru!"
I have all the luck, Cana thought.