Chapter Two
Kinira sleepily trudged down the stairs to the kitchen, still wearing her flannel pajamas. "*yawn* G'morning, Auntie Bulma." She took her usual seat, rubbing sleep from her eyes.
"Morning, Kiki." She said her nickname playfully as she came in with a mammoth sized breakfast that could probably even be too much for Goku(I only said probably). She set down the plate in front of her, "What's wrong, hon?"
She looked up at Bulma, picking at her pile of food, being careful not to pick something out of place to make it spill over. "Is my Dad healed yet?" Bulma cast her eyes down and shook her head. "...It's been almost a week since the Cell Games and he's still not better?" Bulma nodded as she sat down with a cup of hot coffee; Kinira slowly started taking small bites from her plate and chewing slowly. This was extremely unusual for her.
Like Goku, almost all Saiyans had endless appitites, especially Vegeta and Goku. Kinira had taken that trait from her father easily. Besides both being Super Saiyans, that was practically the only thing that the two had in common. Bulma took Kinira's hand, "Hey, it'll be alright. I know that having your Dad spend a week in the hospital is hard, but you've gotta be not only physically strong, but mentally strong as well." Kinira looked up from her still very full plate. "Yeah, you know, like... You know that old saying, 'Strong body, strong mind'?" Kinira shook her head. "Oh... Well, let me put it this way: You can have all the brute strength in the universe, but it won't mean a thing of value if you haven't gotten the mind to back it up! If you have a strong body, that's great. But a strong mind is the most powerful thing you could ever have."
Kinira looked shocked. She had never EVER heard someone say that before... "B-But... Being strong is everything!" she cried.
Bulma shook her head, "Nope, not physical strength. You know why your Dad got so banged up back in the Games?" Kinira shook her head, now extremely interested in what her 'Auntie' had to say. "He got so banged up because he didn't have a strong enough mind. Oh sure--he was definately the strongest physically, but mentally? Nope! You were the one to think fast enough to lend your strength to Gohan, rather than just blast away like Vegeta did. That took guts, kiddo, real guts."
Kinira hesitated before speaking, and when she did speak, it was slow so as not to mess up what she wanted to say. "So... You're saying that... When I used my mind as well as body... I became stronger than my father...?"
Bulma nodded. "That's right, much stronger!" Kinira stared at Bulma, wide-eyed as if she had just been told where to find the greatest treasure of all time. Bulma smiled as she got an idea. "Listen, Kinira, how would you like to get enrolled into a nice school here? That way you could balance out your physical training with your mental training!"
"School...?"
"Yeah--you know--back on your planet, did they teach you how to read and write and add and subtract and all of that stuff?" Kinira nodded. "Good! We have that too, only it's got a much bigger pallet of things to choose from. Y'know, I think I'm going to enroll you right now. In the best school in the district! How does that sound." Kinira smiled brightly and nodded. "Great, I'll enroll you now," said Bulma, laughing through her words. Kinira laughed too as she wolfed down her breakfast in her usual manner.
About three minutes later, Bulma returned with a smile on her face. "Hey--guess what? I just enrolled you in the Red Dragon Institute, the finest in the country!"
"Really??? That's great! Oh--but you didn't spend too much money on it, did you?" she asked in concern.
Bulma shook her head, "Nah--don't worry about it." Kinira smiled and shoved the last few scraps of food in her mouth. Bulma walked up behind her and began playing with her thick black spiky ponytail that trailed down passed her waist. "You know, Kinira, if you're going to start a new life, then why don't you get a new hairdo, too?"
Kinira gagged and coughed on her blueberry pancakes and swallowed hard, "Wh-What?! But-- I've always worn my hair like this!"
"Exactly--it's time for a change! I'll be right back--meet me in the Living room, okay?"
Ten minutes later, Kinira was already dressed in her usual blue mini-skirt and white tank-top and sitting on the couch in anticipation. What is she planning on doing to me...? Nothing drastic, I hope...
"Oh Kinira...!" called Bulma affectionately. Kinira turned around and saw that Bulma was carrying a ton of makeup, clothes, and hair-care products. "Let's get busy!"
Bulma set a giant mirror on the coffee table so she could see just what she was doing, and began laying out the hair stuff first. "First, let's wet that mop-top of yours down," she said as she took of the head to a spray bottle of water and dumped it on Kinira's head. "Good, now for some--y'know, this'll be easier in the bathroom, come on!" she said as she grabbed Kinira's wrist and dragged her into the bathroom.
An hour later, they both emerged and went into the living room, Kinira's hair dripping wet. They sat down in front of the couch, Bulma behind Kinira. She took a brush and grabbed a clump of spiky, black hair. She grunted as she tried to pull the brush through her hair, "RRRRRRR...! I--THOUGHT--WE--WASHED--THIS!!!"
"We--ow--did--OW!" yelped Kinira. Bulma sighed, This is going to be harder than I thought...
After two hours of detangling Kinira's hair, Bulma dried it well and tried to smooth it. No avail to that, though. It was still long and bushy and spiky, but at least she had gotten most of the tangles out. The doorbell rang some moments later and Bulma came back with Kinira's school uniform, books, schedule, and brocure about the Red Dragon Institute.
The uniform was just like any other Japanese school uniform with its little white miniskirt and blue and white sailor shirt with a cute little red bow in the center of the chest. The sleeves were long and cuffed with little blue buttons, and it even included black flats in the package.
"This is so cute!" said Bulma. "Try on your uniform--I wanna see how it looks!" Kinira nodded and slipped into the uniform. "You look so great!" And she did; the uniform fit her perfectly. "We just have to do something with your hair..."
Kinira looked down at herself and looked up at Bulma, "I feel so ridiculous..."
"Hey, don't worry about that--you're just used to seeing all of that armour and spandex your dad wears. Why don't you sit down in front of the couch so I can fix your hair. You can ready your books and look at the brocure while I do it," she said, a bit temptingly. Kinira nodded and sat down with all of her school things.
As she skimed through her books, she became very fascinated in the cultures of other countries. "...There's a mountain bigger than Mt Fuji?" she thought aloud.
"That's right, it's called Mt. Everest. I think it's over 29 miles high, and the winds up there can get up to 100 miles an hour. That's pretty fast, huh?"
She nodded and flipped through all of the books at the same time, seemingly being able to read them all ver fast. Must've taken speed-reading back on her planet... thought Bulma. "This stuff is so cool!" Kinira said as she flipped through the last pages of all her books. "Done!" she cried happily.
"Wow! You're a fast reader," said Bulma, trying to smooth out some spikes in her hair. "Why is your hair so hard to deal with?"
"Daddy said it's because a true Saiyan's hair never chanegs from the day they're born. I think it has to do with that old myth about hair being strength. I guess it means that a true Saiyan will always have certain strengths, no matter what the outside circumstances are. And I guess--if you cut your hair--you take away your strength!"
"You're pretty smart for such a beginner in this."
"I read that myth in my Cultural Arts book. By the way, when does school start?"
"Tomorrow," said Bulma. "It'll be a little tough since you're going in right in the middle of September, but you should be fine."
"I can't wait!"
Kinira's first week of school went great. She aced all of the surprise quizes, and was especially good in her art class. Everyone was very happy for her, and I'm sure that Vegeta would be proud, too(then again, this is Vegeta we're talking about...), if he knew about it...
"I hope you know how much Kinira missed you," said Bulma to Vegeta as she drove her air car through the sky. "I didn't tell her that you were coming home today, you know. It'll be a nice surprise for her."
Vegeta said nothing and crossed his arms over his chest, keeping his usual frown on his face. He didn't seem to be too interested, even though he truly did care about his daughter.
"Are you even listening?" Vegeta still said nothing. "Okay... Oh--did I tell you that she got the highest mark in her Art class? It was based on really a beautiful painting that she did. It's gorgeous--it looks like something from a dream!"
Vegeta looked over at Bulma, "... ... ... Art class...?" Vegeta repeated in confusion. "What are you talking about, woman?"
"Duh--I'm talking about the Art class she takes at her school. She's really enjoying herself there!"
"What?! You enrolled my daughter into a human school?!!!" Vegeta yelled.
"Hey--don't yell at me. She was the one who wanted to get an education."
"Don't lie to me, woman! My daughter would never want to waste her time with school!"
"Well, Vegeta, she isn't wasting her time with school. In fact, she loves going to school! She's so proud of herself for getting such good grades, and she loves painting. She's much stronger than ever, Vegeta, even without her training."
"That's ridiculous!" insisted Vegeta.
"Hey, think what you want, but she's never been happier. I don't want you bringing her down like that, she'll be so crushed that she'll lose her will to fight--and you wouldn't want that, would you?" Vegeta said nothing. "Thought so." Bulma brought her hover car to the ground and they both got out. "Now when you go in, I want you to at least give her a hug."
"What???"
"You heard me! She's been worried sick about you for weeks. You do care about your daughter, don't you?"
Vegeta paused, seemingly unable to say anything. "*sigh* I know it's hard for you to express your emotions, but I know that you care about her. Just show her for once in your life!"
Vegeta looked down, "... ... ...You may be right... I suppose I might as well, once..."
"Great!" said Bulma, clapping her hands together. "I know you're new at this, so I'll go slow. All you have to do is just walk through that door, call her name, she'll come running, and you hug her. Think you can remember that?" Vegeta nodded. "Good--go get her!"
Vegeta sighed in frustration and opened the door. "Kinira!!!" he called out into the house. No answer. "Kinira--where are you?!" he shouted angrily.
He then heard the sound of hurried footsteps coming down the stairs. Kinira appeared, "Daddy!!!" she shouted in surprise. "You're home!!!" She happily jumped up and ran up to her father, wrapping her arms around his waist.
Vegeta didn't know what to do. He just stared down at the little Saiyan girl, not diong anything to show that he cared about her. He looked back at Bulma, who gave him her favorite 'Don't-just-stand-there-do-something-you-jerk!' look. He looked down, Kinira was still hugging him tight. He still couldn't think of anything to do, but just decided that the best thing to do was to just put his hand on her head as if she were some sort of adorable puppy, so he did.
She looked up to her father with a bright smile. Vegeta frowned, "What on earth did you do to you hair?!"
"Huh?" Kinira felt her head for a moment, and then looked up. "Oh--I just put it up in pig-tails for a little change."
He slapped his forehead in frustration, "And what's this I hear about you going to school?"
"Isn't it great?!" said Kinira. She ran off and grabbed a sheet of paper and ran back. She pushed the paper into Vegeta's hand. "Look! I aced that pop-quiz in math," she said as she pointed out the high 100% mark. "I know you probably think that it'll take too much time away from my training, but I can easily maintain them both! You are going to let me stay in school, aren't you???" She put on her big puppy-dog eyes. "Pleeeeeeaaaaaaasseee???"
Vegeta sighed in frustration, "Fine."
~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~
Well? How was that one? I know it didn't have too much of a plot line, but that'll come up soon. I think it'll be up in the next chapter... Well, you can't say for sure! Merry Christmas every one!!! ;*
Much love,
Kayli