DragonBallZ: When Dreams Become Reality

Chapter 9 written by Noble....

The start of a new week at school and unlike every other day in the life of Piccolo had this week been the darkest in his entire life. The terroists had been cuffed and arrested 3 days ago and were thrown into jail, convicted for holding the innocents within the school walls hostage, using and destroying half of the school grounds with illegal fire arms and for the untimely death of the school headmaster Victor Torez. They would at least get 40- 50 years in prison, if not life. It was indeed a dark day for all, but no darker for the young warrior suffering from his own guilt and the now arousing problem of his identity crisis. The start of the week, Monday came and went like a summer's breeze. Piccolo held his head down through most of the day in shame, the guilt he was feeling from failing to save the headmaster of their school. To him it was guilt and remorse but perhaps to the others it was betrayal. He could have done something about it before the gun was fired and before the blood started falling all over the ground....but he didn't...why?

He did as he sworn he would though, he did avenge Mr. Torezs' death but why did it feel so shallow and empty when he was no longer numbered among the living? No one could possibly understand feeling the iron grasp of responsibility that Piccolo had, that he should have lived up to. He had the power and the strength to save lives and when it was needed the most all he did was stand by and let it happen. In a way Piccolo felt responsible for ending his life, the terroists had come looking for him and they killed the headmaster because he wouldn't step forward. If he knew who he really was before they came and started making threats and firing guns at innocent bystanders, then perhaps he could have prevented anyone from dying. One life to Piccolo was just as important as the many millions that populated the entire planet and it was his duty, his own sworn selfless act to protect and save lives with the gifts he was bestowed with.

Only now does he truly understand what his powers should be used for. Not just to fight but to protect those that needed protecting, people who had little or no strength to protect themselves. But learning from his mistake, he would swear to his dying day that he would protect and fight for those that needed saving, no one would die again not while air still filled his lungs. But....the terroist leader, he was the killer...he ended Mr Torezs' life not him...and yet as he continues to brood on this as days go by....to Piccolo it felt like he was the one holding the gun, pulling the trigger and ending the life of another that should have continued to live out his days until his life ended naturally, not by a cold bullet to his chest and skull!

To this day, school had more or less returned to normal. No more hostage situations, no terroist demands just simple educational life which all 300 students returned too. Things however were just not quite the same, the atmosphere about each lesson and lunchtime was so thick that it hung in the air like smoke from a fire, it felt heavy but no more heavier than the burden that was on Piccolo's shoulders. Although by saving the students, they were grateful for his help and appreciated it but in turn they now respected his views and his wanting to be left alone and as such did as they thought they should. Not just out of respect however, more over it was out of fear.

He had finally exposed himself to the entire student body, revealing his powers and the dangers of them and him. Piccolo didn't exactly have a choice in the matter however. They already knew he wasn't even human, that he was just a lab experiment created by the government from the DNA of two alien species that were in some ways almost human and yet not. If the people knew the truth then he might as well have come out fully revealing everything about him then deny it, but then again what was there to deny? What the rebel leader had stated was true. He was the governments answer to the perfect soldier, the ultimate killing machine and even though he was granted the knowledge that he so desperately searched for, it came to him at the worst time possible and in front of everyone that he didn't want to find out. But no matter what he was or is, he would never be a servant or merchant of death for anybody. He denied the terroists that fact and swore he would never kill despite the actions of others. Killing was just not an option, especially not for him.

True, Piccolo was no killer but the others students however thought otherwise and feared him for his undeniable power and his inner burning anger that they all got a personal display of at the same time when he went Super Saiyan right before their very eyes. But perhaps in his time of remorse and despair, Piccolo would finally find the peace that he so often craved. The students were no longer staring or gawking at him and he was left alone to be his own man without people wanting to rush in to get to know him better. The females had all stopped trying to hint that they wanted his body and the males were no longer sending angry glares at him, just keeping out of his way when he walked down the school halls again out of a joint mixture of fear and respect. But Piccolo didn't have to be a rocket scientist to figure out that he was still the talk of the school, his highly sensitive hearing proved that. No matter what distance he was away from others, he could still pick up on their conversations and read their lips as they endlessly talked away. Although he did tire being the centre of attention it was not for him to decide what they could say or talk about. He was his own person like any other attending at his school and they were free to talk about whatever that interested them, freedom of speech was never taken lightly and people often speak their mind when they have something to talk about.

Likewise it was now the same with the teachers, they went to their own personal lounge and drank their coffee and talked endlessly about him also. At times when lessons would end they would ask him to stay behind briefly so that they could question his abilities and how he was coping now with the difficulties placed before him, but at the same time giving their condolenses for being a lone child with no parents or family that he could go home to. Normally when humans are confronted by something quite not human, like the sort of things you see in horror movies and in your own personal nightmares, people tend to scream in fear because it's the first thing that comes to your mind. It's not rational to do that really, screaming your lungs out the minute you see something that scares the living daylights out of you, but it's instinct...human nature...and possibly if the students or teachers saw Piccolo as a green skinned namek instead of looking almost human thanks to the saiyan dna of his counterpart then they might have very well screamed in fear and shunned him out of the school doors like he was an outcast. But because he looked human and they had grown accustomed to his being around the school, perhaps they never saw him to be any different then the other pupils that attend the school. In all retrospect he looked human and was numbered among them as a human despite his dangerous ablilites.

But accepting the harsh reality of it all was going to be hard for the young warrior. They all knew what he really was and still as the years would pass, they would still continue to avoid and fear him none the less after seeing first hand what he could do, what he tried so hard to hide. It looked like his 5 years in school would be fruitless, he would probably return to the wilderness like he always did and once he graduated would Piccolo return to the baren wastelands that he called home and never step foot in the gracious cites created by man ever again? It's hard to say at this point in time, he had only attended the school for a month which meant that left him with 4 years and 11 months of studying to do. Plently of time for him to think over his options of what he would do.

No matter what action he would take in the near future, what was important was here and now and it's Tuesday. The only day in the school grounds to be a mourning one, which sadly Piccolo didn't want to experience. It was just another brief reminder of his guilt and his failing to save the life of one that he should have saved, that should still be living. Piccolo never knew much about Victor Torez, infact he knew little about him like he knew little about the 300 students he attended classes with. His first impression of the former headmaster was a good one though; He was friendly, understanding and willing to help the students with whatever problems they had, regardless if it was important or not. The school was his life and being in charge must have come with a heavy responsibilitly to make sure that students were safe and looked after. To Piccolo, Mr Torez had the makings of a great father. It was the first thing about him that he noticed straight away other than his appearance that time had been kind enough to age him well. 51 years old and he didn't look a day over 30. I guess being in charge and being qualified as a headmaster you need to have vast wisdom behind you and knowledge of how the school and it's students act. That's probably why Victor Torez was the headmaster in the first place: Wise, friendly, father like and caring. Truly it was a sad day for all and no harder was it on Piccolo when the deputy headmaster handed him a letter for him to personally attend the headmasters funeral.

You would think by now that the young warriors head couldn't be any more jumbled with questions, fears and doubts he had like any other growing teenager. But this new revelation hit Piccolo harder than anything else that had bothered him previously. Seeing the Mr Torez murdered on the spot was bad enough, making his stomach lurch at the sight of blood flying everywhere but attending his funeral was even worse. Why should he attend his funeral when the guilt inside of him for his failure to save Mr Torez was eating away at him? He was responsible for him dying, he could have saved him easily and yet he didn't. How could attending the funeral make things any better when it would only make things worse? The terroists came looking for him, he didn't step forward and so they killed the headmaster. If he attended the mourning service it would all go to hell literally, but he had too....as an obligation to the school and its students and more over to face his guilt and accept it, no matter what it might do to him emotionally. The service would begin the very next day and that left Piccolo very little time to get prepared or to find a black suit, fitting to the occassion. What would he do?

The answer came on Wednesday, a day filled with grief and heavy rain as heaven prepared to accept the dead to the pearly gates of peace. Family and relatives of Victor Torez attended church sobbing and mourning the loss of one close to them as a friend and family. Silently whispering their prayers and telling him that he would always be with them in heart and mind. Teachers and a select few of the students who knew him well came also to pay their last respects as flowers and bouquets were laid beside his grave. Tears streaming down the faces of each and everyone of them and as Piccolo stood in the far back of the crowd of mourners, he watched them intently, silently, never speaking nor sharing a few breif words of what he felt or should have said. Words would never really ease the loss each of them felt nor would it comfort them. Would they cast the blame all on him? Would they acuse him of being his murderer? Whatever they would say, Piccolo would accept it and understand, after all it was the terroists that came looking for him and they killed the headmaster to make him step forward. Piccolo could have saved him but didn't. That's all there was to know.

An hour passes and friends and family begin to make their leave. Leaving only Piccolo standing before the grave of the man who died of an unclean death. The rain continued to beat down heavily on his training gi and weighted cape, the turban feeling heavier as the raindrops are soaked up in the cloth. It all weights down on him adding to the invisible burden on his shoulders that continues to grow and bother him even more. Piccolo had never been responsible for the death of another before, he never experienced it when he was younger and he certainly didn't like it now. The emotional pain, the guilt, the remorse that came with it hurt more than knowing his origins. His origin meant little compared to this. He didn't care anymore about it or how he was created. All he could do or understand is that with all the emotional baggage that he was feeling scared him, death scared him. We all die someday, but knowing that you live only to die scares Piccolo even more. We are at death's door the minute we are born and nothing in the entire universe can change that. No matter how much Piccolo wants it to change.

(When I die....who will mourn me? Who would grieve for me when I go?)

These were the thoughts that circled in his mind over and over again in an endless cycle. Admitting your scared is one thing, but denying it is another thing completely. No matter how strong he was, no amount of will power that he had could stop the fear growing in his heart and his mind. He knew one day he would die and on that day no one would mourn him, because he had no one that he cared for or cared for him...no family and no relatives that he could confide in, no friends that he respected and cared for, true friends that would feel the same as he did. And even as the rain batters his strong frame harder it only adds to the fear, the guilt and pain that he feels all over and defeatedly Piccolo falls to his knees, his hands clenched in dirt and soil, just as his teeth were equally clenched, to the point it hurt.

He was trying to deny it, he didn't want to show how he felt in the open because he felt weak in committing such an act that seemed so childish and as much as Piccolo wants to deny those feelings forever, he can't hold them back any longer. For the first time in a long while, tears began to slowly break free from his eyes, slowly sliding down his now cold cheeks, mixing in with the rain from the heavens and his own. That's the only good thing about the rain when your crying, no one can really tell if those tears are real or if it's just the rain running down your cheeks. At least it was okay for some, but a little bit more comforting to Piccolo all the same as he was the only person in the empty graveyard that could see him crying. The only one that could bare witness to this act of emotion was the heavens and mother nature herself and they could never say a word. Yes, he could cry freely and no one would catch him in the act of doing something that wasn't normally him, being emotional of all times.

However....one person saw everything that was happening. A lone mourner who had stayed in the shadows of the crowds until the very end that didn't leave. She didn't want to leave because he was still there, grieving silently in his own way without anyone seeing him doing so. Slowly but steadily she approaches him and places a soft hand on his shoulder, gently squeezing it as he looks up from the ground to face a young girl dressed all in black and white. He again was exposed to revealing a side of him that he would not let anyone see and again she had caught him out in the act, the tears on his face recognisable and impossible to hide as they continue to flow down the cheeks of the young warrior.

She see's the grief and the pain in his eyes and understands it, knowing that her presence there will not change it and all she can do is comfort him in her own way, removing the hand from his shoulder and kneeling beside him wrapping her arms around his shaking and emotionally tortured frame. She didn't know what made her do that, but it was all she could do to help and repay him for his saving her life that day. And in return Piccolo wraps his arms around the one that now comforts him, that mourns with him as he hides his emotions no longer. Even if it was her that saw him in this state at least it was alright, she would never speak a word of what happened this day and he would trust her with that as he continues to shudder and cry endlessly on the shoulders of Nioki Hiroshi....

Author's Note: Evenin peeps, this story seems to have everything in it doesn't it? Action, angst and yet I have yet to show much romance don't I? Well even in this small time of mourning for Piccolo it appears only one is there to help and comfort him and not fear him at the same time. Just what exactly is the deal with Nioki Hiroshi and why is she there for Piccolo when they once argued against one another bitterly that would cause her to change this quickly? Well maybe we might find out in chapters to come. Anyway please keep those reviews coming in, all so far are greatly appreciated and I am glad that you readers and authors alike are enjoying it. I will try harder to make the upcoming chapters to be more enjoyable for you all..

Send all questions and comments to: Noblekaleomnislash1@hotmail.com or either review the fic. Either is fine as I'll get to hear what you think. On a lighter note I've been recently been playing Final Fantasy X and it's very VERY good. I recommend any FF lovers out there to get it for the PS2 as I know you won't be dissapointed I know I wasn't. So far I've played 32 hours into the game and nearing completing it heh. Also if anyone could speculate on the rumoured remake of FINAL FANTASY VII for the PS2 to be true please tell me because I don't want to get my hopes up if it's false. Until chapter 10 people...later

signed Noble....