This story is written for entertainment purposes only. All copyrights belong to their respective owners.
Keep in mind that English is not my first language and so I do not claim to have written an error free story. If there are any inconsistencies in this story, let me know and I will correct them.
Chapter 14: Two ships
On the planet XZ-457, at the campsite of the Saiyans, a new morning had dawned. Chayandi had been the first one to awake. She had already left the camp while the others had still been sleeping. Right now, she was gathering fruits to supplement the ever diminishing food stock back at camp. With each day that passed, it became more difficult to gather new food. The trees near their camp were picked clean, and the animals in the area had begun to move out. This was why she had to go quite far to be able to find anything. Also, if she hadn't had a basket with her, she wouldn't have had an effective way to transport all the fruits she gathered. It was therefore a good thing that someone from an older generation, like Sorra, was with their group to make these kinds of things. Chayandi had a feeling that no-one of her age could have made such a basket. The new generation had become used to the imported goods and assistant personnel that had arrived in large numbers after Frieza had annexed planet Vegeta.
When Chayandi was flying back to camp, carrying a full basket, she unexpectedly encountered Tarnece, who approached from her left side. After both of them stopped in mid-air, it was immediately clear to Chayandi that something was going on. Tarnece had a very serious expression on his face and looked slightly pale. All he could say was that she had to come with him. Slightly doubtful of his intensions, Chayandi asked why. Tarnece insisted that she wouldn't believe it if he would just tell her. She had to see it for herself. This prompted Chayandi to ask if they were going somewhere dangerous. Strangely, Tarnece was hesitant with his answer. He soon admitted that he wasn't quite sure about it.
Intrigued by the mysterious situation, Chayandi decided to go with him. While flying, Tarnece let slip some clues as to what was going on. He asked Chayandi if she realized that Daika was getting better at speaking the basic language at an unusually fast pace. It appeared she was using more complex words and sentences every day. Chayandi fully agreed. She had never known another Saiyan who could learn as fast as her. Now, they could almost have a normal conversation with her.
But Chayandi then pointed out to Tarnece that despite being a quick learner, Daika never seemed to have anything interesting to say. She usually only gave lengthy comments on simple and random things, such as how the clouds looked, or how the ground smelled. Tarnece replied that the situation had escalated to a whole new level this morning. He believed she was now ready to tell them who she was and where she had come from. However, he also added that he wasn't so sure he wanted to hear the full story. This last sentence caused multiple questions to pop up in Chayandi's mind. For a moment, it seemed to her that Tarnece actually sounded scared. How exactly could Tarnece, who was ever proud of his manliness, become scared of a tame girl like Daika?
Before Chayandi got any answers, they arrived in an area full of large flat rocks. Normally, the rocks would not have been very noteworthy, but these ones were covered with strange and unnatural patterns. After they landed, she could see Daika standing near one such rock. The latter was busy applying brightly colored paint. Chayandi didn't know where Daika had gotten the paint, and guessed she had most likely made it herself. At first glance, it seemed the patterns Daika had created consisted of random patches of yellow, red, and black. However, if one let one's eyes get accustomed to the style and colors, it became possible to recognize faces and other Saiyan-like features. Soon, it became clear to Chayandi that nearly all paintings displayed the violent slaughter of multiple individuals, primarily of Saiyan males. They were gutted, beheaded or ripped apart in various ways by a tall shadowy figure. Blood and guts were everywhere. Not one of them seemed to have been able to put up a decent fight. The remaining paintings depicted a few Saiyan females suffering the same fate, while a large group of females was cowering in the background. They seemed to have been herded together by the shadowy figure as if they were cattle.
The final painting, the one Daika had finished while Chayandi had been preoccupied staring at the other ones, depicted the shadowy figure in more detail. The figure was sitting on the ground, with a severed limb in its claws. There seemed to be hundreds of snakes or large worms sprouting from its back. The figure was looking over its shoulder with yellow eyes. Judging from the red around the location where one would expect a mouth to be, it must have been ripping the flesh from the limb using its sharp fangs. However, something else had caught its attention, thus it was looking directly at whatever had disturbed it. The yellow eyes and the red mouth and chin were its only facial features.
After a long silence, Daika screamed at the top of her lungs that she hated 'Jijimaka' more than anything in the universe. She stomped the ground with her feet while she screamed, as a child throwing a tantrum would do. Then she fell limp to the ground. Tarnece was too stunned by the entire situation to do anything, while Chayandi was immediately alerted, and knelt down to help her. She was still breathing and Chayandi carefully sat her up with her back against the nearest rock. Daika then looked relieved as if a large burden had just been lifted from her shoulders. Startled, Chayandi asked if she was alright, to which Daika replied with a quick nod. Chayandi hoped that Daika meant it. If Daika had had a seizure or something like that, they would not have known what to do. Nevertheless, it looked like Tarnece had been right. Now it did seem like Daika was ready to explain her past to them. This was why Chayandi gently asked what the paintings were. Were they depictions of actual events or just fantasy? Daika began telling them what had happened to her.
She couldn't remember much of her childhood or early adolescent life. However, she did very clearly remember more recent events. She knew that the events related to the paintings had happened in a brief period time, but to her it had seemed to last forever.
From her perspective, it all began with two ships. These were two very old spaceships which were traveling to a distant world. Each ship carried one clan of Saiyans. No matter how much time passed, no matter how many stops they made, the elders and the elites always told everyone that they had not yet reached the end of their journey. At that time, no-one was more affected by this endless voyage than her very own father. His name was Jijimaka and he was possibly the tallest of all Saiyans on both ships. He had always been considered an outsider by both clans, not because of his height, but because of his tendency to blatantly go against both clans' customs. Whereas monogamous relationships were the norm for their people, Jijimaka forced the clan leaders to accept his claiming of two female mates at the same time. To top it off, his mates were from different clans. Any ordinary Saiyan would not have gotten away with this, but Jijimaka was not at all ordinary. Because of his great strength and unstable behavior, there was no-one who could really put a stop to his actions.
Daika remembered that the longer the journey to the next stop lasted, the more unstable his behavior became. She believed that this was why the ships stopped at nearby planets so often. All these stops made their ultimate destination seem even further away than it had already been. Eventually, the stops didn't have any positive effect anymore on Jijimaka's behavior. During the second to last stop that Daika could remember, Jijimaka had claimed three additional mates. By this time, nearly everyone from both ships despised him and the fact that he seemed convinced he had the divine right to claim this many females for himself. There were many who challenged him during this stop, but none managed to defeat him in a fight. He was becoming so powerful it was unnatural. Some even believed he was using magic to fuel his power.
Whatever the case was, when he defeated the challengers, Jijimaka had great difficulty stopping himself from delivering the killing blows. He deeply hated the challengers, but he did not want the spaceships to leave him behind, so he did not kill his own kind. However, by the time the ships resumed the journey again, he was keeping in so much anger that it was clear he was going to burst soon. Daika had never understood just where this anger was coming from, though. After all, he was taking what was simply not rightfully his, so all resistance against him was to be expected.
Just before the final stop which Daika could remember, Jijimaka had snapped completely. For some reason, he had become convinced that he was destined to mate with all females and kill all other males if they posed a threat. He also believed that this was his right for being the successor to the legendary 'Super' Saiyan. According to the myth the elders had once told her, the first Super Saiyan had supposedly been responsible for the destruction of their home world and had thus been the direct cause for the space journey their race was making. Although Jijimaka was abnormally strong, Daika did not believe he was a Super Saiyan. For one, the form of his transformation under the full moon wasn't different compared to the others. Also, he did not have any other special abilities that Daika had ever heard of, or had witnessed firsthand.
When the ships had finally landed again, Jijimaka forced a group of females to come with him so that he could start his own clan and colonize this planet. Naturally, there was a lot of resistance. Many males whose mate had been stolen by Jijimaka challenged him. They took him on together, but it didn't make a difference. One by one they were slaughtered by Jijimaka, who seemed to have a limitless supply of energy. He didn't just kill them; he delighted in making them suffer before he would kill them gruesomely in strangely creative ways. The females tried to help them out, but those who did suffered the same fate. The rest of the females in the group, including Daika herself, had no choice but to go with Jijimaka if they wanted to live. As a warning to everyone, he collected the tails from all the fallen Saiyans and forced several females to sew them together into a coat, which he would always wear from that point onwards.
As they were leaving the vicinity of the ships, Daika could hear the voices of several males shouting to Jijimaka that they would not give up until he was dead and every last female was returned to them. Although Daika couldn't see to whom the voices belonged, she had a feeling it were the princes who had made this bold statement. That was when she had started hoping that one of the princes would eventually come to save her.
After leaving the ships, the group trekked across the planet until they found an oasis which Jijimaka deemed suitable to function as their new home. After a few days at the oasis, Jijimaka began to behave even more strangely. He would disappear for hours and then suddenly show up out of nowhere. He started to relax his strict guarding of the females. In fact, some of those in the group seized this opportunity to escape. Daika didn't know what had happened to them, because this had taken place on the final day which she could remember before being rescued by 'prince' Korat.
On this final day, Jijimaka had gone to the edge of the oasis and had growled at the others to leave him alone. Daika admitted that it was only on this day she had finally worked up enough courage and strength to go and confront Jijimaka as daughter to father for once. Perhaps it had been foolish and even suicidal, but she had been fed up by the entire situation. She had slowly and carefully approached him, while he had been sitting on the ground by himself. Just when she realized he was ripping the flesh with his teeth from what appeared to be someone's arm, she stepped on a brittle rock. The resulting cracking sound made Jijimaka look over his shoulder, the entire lower half of his face covered in blood. She instantly froze; she had never been so scared in her entire life. Then something had happened, which she couldn't explain. Although she had frozen her movement out of shock initially, she quickly realized she was now physically unable to move. After that, everything had gone black. She believed that she might have had a few dreams and nightmares before awakening in a cloud of dust and finally meeting her savior Korat.
When Daika reached the end of the story she wanted to tell, she stared at the ground in silence for a moment. Chayandi immediately took the opportunity to walk over to her and give her a hug. Daika did not object. She rested her head on Chayandi's shoulder. Tarnece, who was still pale-faced, clearly shocked by all the things he just heard, noticed Chayandi winking at him. He promptly got up and awkwardly flung his arms around the two women. The effect was what Chayandi had been hoping for, though. Daika realized that she hadn't had to deal with the ordeal all by herself. She whispered to Chayandi and Tarnece that she was glad to have them as her friends.
Back at the camp, Ullicu had been wondering where the others had disappeared to. He thought he had told them yesterday that he wanted to start another training session early in the morning. Perhaps they didn't feel like training today. Ullicu was currently sitting atop a boulder and decided to stay right here until they would show up. To spend the time, he lighted his self-made smoking pipe with a flick of his fingers. He had been busy fashioning it from a piece of wood for a few days. Today, it was finally ready to be tested out. After a few draws, he concluded that his design was okay, but the leaves tasted excellent.
However, the others showed up sooner than he had expected. Sorra called his name from afar, and he turned his head to see what was going on. Then she shouted to him that Daika had revealed where she had come from. In astonishment, Ullicu accidently inhaled the smoke into his lungs. He nearly fell off his boulder in a coughing fit, before finally being able to speak again. He wanted to ask Sorra where Daika was now, but by that time the entire group had arrived.
To spare Daika from having to recount her story, Chayandi did it for her. Sorra and Ullicu listened attentively. While Chayandi talked, Daika clutched Tarnece silently. Her grip on his arm tightened every time Chayandi reached a part that frightened her. Ullicu continued smoking his pipe, even after Chayandi finished and no-one said anything for a moment. Sorra went over to Daika to comfort her, and soon led her away from the others, presumably to shield her from the unavoidable discussion that was about to take place.
Tarnece was the first to break the silence. He called it a sick story; he hadn't known Saiyans were capable of doing that to one another. Normally, such violence was directed at their enemies, not at their own kind. However, Ullicu responded that this story didn't surprise him at all. He called attention to the fact that Tarnece was too young to have a first-hand experience with the civil war, in which Ullicu himself had fought on the front lines. The violence in this tale wasn't what had caught his attention, though. He asked the others not to interrupt him while he would pour out everything currently on his mind.
What most intrigued him about this information were several aspects. Firstly, he believed that Daika's story confirmed his theory about her being at least seven to eight generations old. He had reached this conclusion because Daika couldn't remember ever having a home planet and because she had mentioned that the Super Saiyan of legend had been responsible for forcing them to start their journey. This scenario didn't fit anywhere else in their species' history, except in the time period from before they had arrived on planet Vegeta. This event had happened around seven to eight generations ago according to the oral history he was familiar with.
The second aspect that intrigued him was Daika explicitly mentioning two ships, while in the end only one ship had arrived at planet Vegeta according to the legends. Wherever the second ship had gone to, it had never arrived on Vegeta, nor had any trace of it ever been found during any Saiyan expedition into the far reaches of space.
The third intriguing aspect was that Daika was most likely not aware that she had been sealed into a statue. From her perspective, she hadn't been able to see what had happened to her during her final encounter with Jijimaka. Also unclear was who had been responsible for it. Daika's account pointed to Jijimaka as the one responsible, but Ullicu did not know how a Saiyan could have acquired such a skill. It had to be some form of hibernation, because right now Daika was still young and it seemed she was not aware that such a long period of time had passed.
The fourth aspect that intrigued him was Jijimaka's fate. Daika hadn't witnessed how it had all turned out. So where had he disappeared to? The only sources Ullicu knew of that described a 'creature' comparable to Jijimaka, were children's bedtime stories. But even those were open-ended, intended to keep children alert and sharp and prevent them from getting soft. Perhaps Jijimaka had hijacked the other ship, or maybe the other ship had been destroyed in a trap to kill Jijimaka. There were so many different ways this could have ended. Ullicu concluded his monologue by admitting that it might even be possible that Jijimaka himself had been sealed into a statue. This would mean that it was possible he was still somewhere on that planet.