Author's note: Sigh. I'm really sorry that I could not put up this chapter earlier. I know, the effect is lost. The story would not be as powerful unless the story had a faster, continuous flow. But several things happened since the last chapter.
First, I had the IB exams and the finals.
Second, my hard disk crashed on me. I have a useless computer on my desk right now. I'm using my mum's laptop to type.
Third, school holidays began, and I was traveling (U.S is a very nice country!).
Fourth, I'm back in my home country with a very much useless ISP. We're about to subscribe to a new one where one could be connected 24 hours instead of logging on at one in the morning or something like that. J
Sigh, but there is no excuse.
And another thing. Thank you so much for the reviews and the encouragement. I couldn't have done it without you. You know who you are. I really appreciated it all.
Twenty Days:
The news reporter on the TV shifted here weight uncomfortably in her ridiculously high heels. She waited patiently until the cameraman had finished hooking up his equipment or something like that. He had explained to her carefully and with almost loving care about his equipment, or what he had referred to was his baby. She pretended she was interested but the truth to the matter was that she was bored to tears. It didn't matter to her what happened off-screen. What mattered to her and what mattered to the whole world was what happened on-screen. And what was happening on screen was the hottest news of the decade. And SHE was covering it.
The cameraman nodded and gave her the thumbs up.
She straightened herself and gave a huge smile as she raised the mike to her lips.
"And in 5, 4, 3, 2 and we're on!"
She gave a look of concern and she began speaking in a slow, low but melodic voice.
"It is day 3 in the case of the State vs. Capsule Corporation. A recap on the current case. Capsule Corps is accused of being involved in many unspeakable acts that has shocked the world. Capsule Corp the most powerful company in the world faces charges ranging from bribery to money laundering and even to breaking regulations concerning worker safety. These charges come as a shock to many as Capsule Corps had been regarded as the company in the world, with its generosity to the poor and its high standard and quality were simply unbeatable. But it seems there is more that meets to the eye when it comes to big corporations such as Capsule Corps."
***
Bulma switched the T.V off, utterly disgusted. Her lawyers say that she might even be facing monopoly charges. The government was under a lot of pressure from certain members of the public.
"I'm sorry Bulma," her dad said wistfully.
Bulma sighed. Her dad had only recently turned the company over to her. And it was only now, the problems that her dad had surprised from her and from the world through whatever means was slowly resurfacing. Capsule Corps was a changed company now. The accusations were from almost twenty years ago.
"Bribery dad? What made you resort to that?" she asked.
"You know the plant in the East?" he asked.
"Yes, the one that's giving all sorts of problems. We're planning to shut it down."
Her dad sighed and petted the little cat on his shoulder. The little cat blinked his big eyes and purred.
"It's one of our biggest, that plant has given a lot of people jobs and that plant is a source of living."
"Dad," Bulma interrupted. "It's me you're talking, not politicians."
"Well…the plant's problems were it's filtering in the beginning. It could not clean up it's own waste and so…we decided the most economical way would be to dump the waste in the nearby river. Hence the bribery."
Bulma glared at her father.
"We cleaned it up later." her father defended himself. "And you can't deny that you aren't involved in any of the charges. I admire your boldness though. Big, open donations to certain parties."
"It's legal," she muttered.
"It sure is. Legal bribery."
"Dad, I don't have to argue with you the difference between your bribery and mine. All I know is, this is going to cause us a lot of money. This thing is also giving me a big headache. And I'm not the kind of person to cry over this matter. I'm going out. I need to see the lawyers."
Her dad nodded as though dismissing her. It disappointed her that the sweet, absentminded man that she knew was actually a ruthless businessman underneath. He had hidden so many things from the family. Perhaps her father was disappointed too. She knew her father expected her to change the company to a better one.
Well, she thought. At least I don't pollute.
But she was kidding herself. She bribed her way around…sometimes. She had compromised worker safety by allowing that stupid plant back East to continue to work.
She put on her sneakers, something she rarely wore and walked out of her house. In the compound, there was this huge garden which she had explored every nook and cranny of the place. Even in the dead of the night she wouldn't be afraid of the garden. It had from before been her friend and she knew that it would always be her friend.
She walked around in the darkness for a while until she found what she was looking for. It was a big, old tree. When she was younger, when she wanted to hide from people she would climb this tree. As she got older, she would climb higher. Until she was a teenager. She stopped. She came there often but she would sit beneath the leaves, on the ground. She had thought she was too old for that kind of thing.
But today…she climbed the limbs of the tree carefully, wanting to reach the top. She had never reached the top before because the top was always something she wanted to keep for something special. When she was either extremely happy or extremely sad. Today, she had decided. She was sad enough.
At the peak, she could see the whole of her home. And parts of the city. It was really a tall tree, she thought. The city is a beauty at night, she thought. Too bad that most of the city's citizens thought she was a crook. She balanced herself carefully and pulled out a packet of cigarettes.
She pulled out a cigarette and lit one up. She inhaled deeply and sighed.
When she was much smaller, her dad didn't want to smoke in front of her. Each time he wanted to smoke, he had said he needed to see the lawyers and he went out. When she was eight, she caught her dad smoking. From then on, lawyers was the slang for smoking in the family.
She could see Vegeta training in the Gravity room from the height she was at. She hadn't spoken to him since the last time she met him. The last encounter had been…messy to say the least. And since the beginning for this wretched problem, she hadn't even seen him. It didn't matter. Although…she was beginning to miss the fights they had. At least they were ridiculous compared to the arguments presented in court.
"Bulma."
Bulma almost dropped her cigarette and looked around her nervously. Craning her neck to look down, she saw Yamcha with a megaphone. She almost smiled.
"Bulma, can I come up?"
"No." she yelled.
"Come on, Bulma. Right now, what you need is a friend. Let me come up." he said speaking through the megaphone.
"What I need right now is to be left alone." she yelled.
There was a pause. "You don't have to get angry." he replied. The megaphone emphasized his hurt.
"I'm not angry. I just need to be left alone," she yelled. Idiot, she thought. She needed to yell for him to hear her. She wasn't 'yelling' yelling.
"Bulma, are you still mad at me?" he asked.
This is not the time to ask, idiot.
"No, I'm not, Yamcha… I have other things to be concerned over."
There was another pause. "It's just that you haven't returned my calls."
"I don't have time," she yelled back.
"Bulma…you know I'm sorry. Come on, let me come up. You need a friend."
"Please leave me alone!" she yelled back annoyed. She lit up another cigarette.
"Geez, Bulma. Why can't you forgive me? I said I was sorry. It's not like I don't mean it. Please Bulma."
Now, Bulma was really pissed. She wished for something to pop up to help her forget the horrid break up between her and her longtime boyfriend. She got what she wanted. Capsule Cops was plunged into hell. Her thoughts had only been focused on Capsule Corps. Her heart was put on hold. Everything was for Capsule Corps right now. If she was in pain, it was for Capsule Corps.
"Enough, Yamcha."she yelled. Her throat was getting sore anyway.
"So, I can come up."
"No. This whole thing is not about you. Get it? The reason why I don't want you up here with me is because of Capsule Corp. Nothing about you. Now, put this somewhere in your selfish, self-centered brain of yours that I want to be left alone because I am angry about the things going on at Capsule Corps. I want you to realize that not everything is about you. There are other things I care about. And right now, you're not one of them. Leave."
That whole speech, she was certain, would cause her to loose her voice.
"But…"
"No buts. Leave."
Bulma forced herself not to cry as she watched him walk away. Not sore, eh? She was damned sore of the break up but she refused to think about it. She didn't care about him anymore and she damned well knew she was no longer in love with him. But it had hurt her, because she had trusted him with her life. She still did and he had betrayed her trust. She felt used and she felt extremely hurt. Was she not worth it to him?
She took out another cigarette and shifted her weight. She lost her balance and fell.
She opened her mouth to scream but decided not to. She could see the headlines of tomorrow's newspaper. President of Capsule Corps commits suicide. She almost grinned bitterly.
But…she should have died by now. She thought of too many words than possible. She opened her eyes.
She was in the arms of the Prince. Prince Vegeta. She sighed gladly and threw her arms around his neck, extremely glad that the headlines of tomorrow's newspaper would not be of her suicide but her murder.
Vegeta landed on the ground. "You can let go now, woman," he said gruffly, but gentle in a way.
She stood up and released her neck.
"Trying to kill yourself, weakling?" he asked.
Bulma sat on the ground, still shocked and surprise that she was alive. It hit her then. "You saved my life!" she breathed out.
"So I did. Perhaps it wasn't worth it." he muttered and began to walk away.
"No, it was entirely worth it! I fell! It was an accident. I wasn't trying to kill myself! I'm still alive! I just lost my balance and all I knew was that the press definitely was going to think that I killed myself! I'm sure even my parents would question whether I killed myself or not…perhaps only Goku would think that I wouldn't do that…."
Bulma realized that she was babbling and that Vegeta was walking away. She got up and ran up to him.
"Stop!"
Vegeta stopped and turned around. She ran up to him and kissed him ecstatically. "Thank you…thank you, for saving my life."
Vegeta was stunned. "I thought you hated me," he said weakly, saying the first thing that came to his head. Idiot, he thought. That was the slickest move he had made.
Bulma looked amazed. "No, I thought you hated me. I don't hate people, Vegeta. I may be very angry when I say those things…but that's it. I say things that I don't quite mean at times." she smiled.
Was she referring to the last time they talked?
"Well, good." he said and began walking.
"No…no, Vegeta, where are you going?"
"To train, bake."
Bulma shook her head and waved her finger. Vegeta wondered why, if he didn't listen Freeza, to his dad, he was about to listen to what she was about to say. Something had happened whatever it was.
"I'm really glad you don't hate me," she said slowly. "I would have died tonight and no one would know that it was an accident."
"If you die, who is going to fix my gravity room?" he said arrogantly.
She smiled. "My dad."
He came up with what was almost a smile. He wanted to insult her and insult her dad, her family, but it seemed he couldn't. Bulma seemed shaken.
He shrugged.
"If you had enough intelligence, weakling, you would know it was too dangerous to sit up there by yourself."
Bulma gritted her teeth. "Intelligence, I have enough."
Vegeta knew he got her there. What she did, climbing up there at night, knowing she could get herself injured was absolutely stupid. And she was smarting (pardon the expression) from her bad decision.
"And, for one, I'm not weak."
"Really? Hurt me." Damn, he seems to be fond of that expression. Usually, she had managed to hurt me. Score 1 for Bulma, zero for Vegeta.
"Did you really think I was going to allow Goku and the rest to go out at you guys without any insurance? If they had lost I wasn't about to let Earth surrender." she said hotly.
"And how were you going to stop me?" he questioned. "By that loud voice of yours?"
"I don't think you watch the news very much…. I don't think you have the brain power…" Bulma began slowly. She was about to do what she does best. Showing off.
"Humans and their petty news." he muttered.
"I suppose, you do know that I'm in court with an array of charges. One of them…is for," she licked her lips seductively. "One of them is for biological weapons creation."
Vegeta raised his eyebrows with mild interest.
"Raditz was an excellent specimen for me to test on."
"Raditz was dead woman."Vegeta replied, bored.
"His many clones were not," said Bulma. She sighed and looked at the stars. "I'm not proud of what I did. Using his many pieces lying on the ground we cloned him."
"And you tested on him."Vegeta said, his admiration for this blue eyed, blue haired human growing.
"Well, kinda…problem was that the virus had some minor ill-effects on humans." Bulma looked away, half-embarrassed, half-proud.
"You tested on Raditz." Vegeta repeated.
"His clones!"
"They were living creatures."Vegeta said.
"You destroy whole planets. For the evilness you had done, I was only cloning and destroying a monster and that's all. I disapprove of what I did but it was necessary."
Bulma said, tears growing in her eyes. She sat down on the ground.
Unsure of what he was doing himself, Vegeta sat down beside her, to her surprise. "In that case, I did what I had to do. It was necessary."
Bulma looked at him. "But you approved."
"I did."Vegeta agreed. "It was necessary to approve then. It is necessary to agree now. It would be necessary for me to agree in the future."
"But why?" It was a question of curiosity.
Vegeta smirked, his voice bitter. "Because it had been part of my culture for thousands of years. And I'm the last of it." He was quiet for a moment, and shifted himself away from her, stopping himself from wallowing in the melancholy and loneliness, which threatened to wash over.
Bulma looked away.
"Perhaps I should put you out of your misery." she suggested.
Vegeta couldn't tell if she was serious or if she was simply trying to break the air of uncomfortable ness between the both of them. Either way, women he knew just loved to threaten him. Or. it seemed like everyone else also
He looked at her in the eye squarely. She looked at him defiantly.
"I doubt…anything you could do would ever stop me." he said slowly, his tone arrogant and dangerous.
She looked at him in the same dangerous and arrogant stare.
"I could." she murmured.
They kissed passionately under the cool, dark sky.