DragonBallZ: When Dreams Become Reality
Chapter 14 written by Noble....
(How bad is he?)
(It's bad, I've never seen so much blood on one man).
(I...I can't believe this is happening. He's supposed to be unstoppable, how--?)
(There's no how about it, nobody is unstoppable because everyone has a weakness, as does he).
Voices.....so faint, I can barely here them. My hearing feels so numb, are they whispering? Am I dead? I'm not so sure....Everything is dark, blackness all over me. I'm actually having trouble opening my eyes, the slightest movement only rewards me with pain...so much pain that never in my life have I felt. Did I hear someone say they thought I was unstoppable? It's a nice thought and I'd like to smile at that but my body only sends a signal to my brain telling me that it hurts to even try that too. Great....don't I get all the luck?
Wait....perhaps I'm not dead, the pain I feel all over is proof of that. Then where am I? Hospital? What happened before...? Nioki? THE SCHOOL!!
"Will he...be alright then?" a voice asks worriedly.
"In a month's time perhaps, maybe longer. Your friend is very lucky to even be alive if you want my opinion. The injures, the blood loss and bruises....it looks like he was run over by a runaway train or stomped on by at least 30 people".
"N-not....not...30....twenty-s-six" comes the hoarse reply.
"Piccolo!"
"P-please....not..too loud, i-it hurts".
"Oh...I'm sorry, how do you feel?" replies a female voice, soft and sincere.
"I-if I told you that....I felt great, I'd be lying".
"Piccolo...." a tight squeeze on his hand is felt as he feels the warmth spread upwards and around, again a strange feeling in the pit of his stomach and even stranger emotions that accompany it...just what was she doing to him that made him feel so uncertain of himself or of her? Piccolo was sure that he knew what the answer was, it was on the tip of his tongue and yet as he tried to put it in words it simply dissappeared, leaving him questioning again and very frustrated.
"The...school what--?"
"The school is fine Piccolo...minor injures to some students at best, no fatalaties...needless to say everyone is just a little shook up about another terroist attack"answers Nioki relief in her voice.
"They didn't destroy...anything?" questions the youth again, groggy but still curious.
"No, nothing. They did however suprise us all and decided to pay us a visit....Idiots...they were grinning from ear to ear like a pack of wolves and snickered alot, always chuckling low and slyly. I can't believe Simon joined them! He's a traitor to the entire school and this country...what could have he been thinking?!"
"...Revenge...power...it's all he wanted..."
"Power I can understand, Simon has always loved being the one in control of other students but revenge? That I don't get".
"He doesn't want revenge on the entire school....but he blames his hatred solely on me....I am the one that humilated him completely infront of the student body remember? After that incident...before the beatings, they told me how they recruited him and that he's wanted me dead ever since that day, when I first enrolled in school".
"Well that makes sense, but that's when we first met too y'know?" smiles the girl proudly.
"...Yeah....I know..."
"Piccolo....what did they do to you? I always thought that you were invincible, guns couldn't harm you, not even thugs bigger or supposedly stronger than you...how did they do this?"
"They...created me remember? They had all the information needed from our first encounter when their scouters got my power reading. They've been keeping tabs on my ki signature ever since....used some sort of weapon created soley to cancel any living thing with saiyan or namekian DNA...in short....I'm just as human as you are now..."
"Human?! But your eyes, your hair...you still look like your in your Super Saiyan form, are you sure they just didn't knock you on the head or caught you off guard or something?"
"Nioki....I wish it were true, but I wouldn't be in this much pain if that weapon of theres didn't work. But...it worked alright, sapped me of all my energy, my strength. I never felt so weak before, so helpless...and because I was in my Super Saiyan form, the affect from the gun worked all the better. My powers are gone...for how long I don't know, maybe permanently".
"Piccolo, you could always train again? Try to get back all that you lost?" whispers Nioki, smiling slightly, reassuringly.
"I....can't. Even If I did try, it would take years maybe even a whole decade of training to get back all that they took but for what? Those bastard terroists will keep coming back and use that weapon of theres to drain me of my powers and beat me to within an inch of my life until I'm no longer breathing...."
"I'm sorry to interrupt you both...but may I ask who your parents are young man? We need to get in contact with them and alert them of your condition within the hospital" questions a nurse.
"I....don't-"
"He's staying with me and my family until he recovers, his parents are on holiday in Japan. We have no way of reaching them" answers Nioki hurridly.
"Is this true young man?" asks the nurse looking from Nioki to Piccolo and back again.
Unsure of what to say and speechless at Nioki's comment, he is unsure of what to say and yet what she was saying was true in a sense. He didn't have any family or loved ones so there was really no way of reaching anyone he could contact. This Nioki obviously knew but the nurse did not.
"Yes...it's true, I don't know how to reach them" he answers finally.
"Very well" the nurse replies sighing before turning from the two and walking out of the room down the many corridors of the hospital walls.
"Why did you say that?"
"...Well...what could have you or I really have said? That you were a lone teenager without a single family member to go home to? If you said that she might have contacted several agencies and you would have been taken into the care of a foster home....and I would never have been able to see you again...."
"Noiki?"
"You don't understand do you Piccolo? I...care about you a lot, (more than you realise). When those terroists left I ran outside, I looked everywhere frantically for you until I found you lying there in a heap of blood. I was devastated when I saw you...I...I thought you were dead" she answers bowing her head, a single tear escaping unnoticed by the injured teenager lying before her.
"....."
"I really didn't want to believe that you were dead, I prayed with all my soul that you were still breathing as I ran to your side, you can't imagine how relieved I was to find out that you were breathing, if only barely. I've felt scared in my life about many things but never more scared for anyone other than me and....if you were dead...I know that I couldn't go on living without you".
"My parents know about the condition your in and that you have no one to look after you until your healed. That's why your staying with me. The doctor said it would take you a month to recover, maybe longer and the deputy headmaster gave me the go ahead to stay by your side till you recovered fully".
"But your studies..." croaks the boy, trying to get a word in edgeways.
"....CAN WAIT! I can't go back to school, knowing that every single day that I try to focus on my studies that you will always be a constant worry on my mind. Knowing that your at home, injured and helpless to anyone that would try and kill you. Please....you have to let me do this....you protected me once with your life and spared me from death, let me return the favour....I need to be by your side" whispers the girl sincerely, emotion and deep meaning in her voice breaking through.
Sighing, he knows that she is right. There is very little he could do alone in his weakened and battered state, not without someone to watch over him. Even if he would try to argue his point of trying to do things alone as he has always done, would he really be willing to go through all that amount of agonizing pain without finally acknowledging the help of another who would offer it freely? Not many people in this world would be so generous to help an injured other, nor would people care any less for the pain one person feels from such a brutal beating and yet sitting beside him was one would does understand and feels his pain, who wants to stay by his side and share it through all the rough times ahead.
But silently and for once Piccolo has to admit, he can't handle this pain alone. But the young warrior never wanted to share the pain or hard times that he faces with anyone other than himself, it's just too hard to share that sort of pain with anyone you can't really trust. There are so many people in the world who would just use that one time of weakness against you and use it for their own personal use to spread to others. But he knows Nioki, he doesn't know her completely but with the friendship they have between one another, there is enough of bond between them for him to entrust her with his pain and his worries because he knows she would never speak a word of it to anyone and keep the knowledge they share between the two of them alone and to no other.
"....Alright...." he answers finally his voice hoarse and unable to open a single eye to look at her.
The tightening of her fragile hand on his is the only answer he needs to know that she is happy with him putting his trust and friendship in her. He can actually feel the heat from her hand radiating through his fingers as she remains by his side, never moving nor letting go of his hand, because if she did....she feared he would dissappear from her view if she looked away if only for a second. The feel of his flesh on hers is all she needs to know that he's still there with her and Nioki is never going to leave his side...never...
The day ends and its time for Nioki to leave, visiting hours ending sadly and much to her dissapproval and curses thrown to the nurses telling her relentlessly that she has to leave. Her parents are the only reassuring ones that stay by her side, sad smiles on both but with knowing glances understand how she feels. They know even in her rage of been torn away from the injured warrior that she has found a partner, a soulmate in Piccolo and even though she at times wants more than anything to admit it, Nioki will have to wait until she feels ready, when the time was right to tell him....but not now.
With a last fleeting glance to Piccolo's almost pale like form and a firm but gentle hand on her shoulder she leaves, praying that he will be safe until tommorrow morning. Once morning comes Nioki will never be torn from his side again once he is safely transported to her home, where she and her parents alike can watch over him until he is ready to return to a somewhat normal life.
The night starts and ends rather quickly and as the morning of the next day looms ahead, before anyone other than the loved ones of other patients can walk into the hospital to visit the injured, Nioki is already through the door running with every step she takes to the dormitary of where Piccolo lies. Nurses and doctors alike move aside as she runs past them, not even giving a care in the world for a second glance to them for her barging past them like a raging bull in a china shop, Piccolo is all that is on her mind and she refuses to worry or think of anything else.
Before long she is by his bedside again, breathing in heavy gasps, fatigue registering on her beautiful features indicating of the restless night before that of depraved sleep that would not claim her. Sleep was just a constant reminder or worry that even in her dreams she would continue to worry for him and so she got what little sleep she could until Nioki was up in the early hours of the morning and out the door already making a b line for the hospital.
The next couple of hours later once her parents arrive, Piccolo is painstakingly transported to the back of the car, forever by the undaunted side of Nioki, who helps him every step of the way to the car and into her home with a firm but gentle grip on his arm and side. Once inside the house the parents close the doors behind them and watch smiling knowingly as Nioki carries Piccolo ahead to her room, knowing that her every care and waking thought will be to care and watch over him. They know that the weeks ahead will only inturn be nothing more than sleepless nights for their little girl, but they too know that she does not or will not care. She wants to be by his side and nothing more...
*****
An entire week passes and Mr and Mrs Hiroshi's suspisions are confirmed. Yes Nioki did have many sleepless nights, she refused sleep like she didn't even need it. Her strength lied with the one lying on her bed beside her. Piccolo had healed but now as a human being, he healed just as slow as everyone else that had lived through a vicious beating. The only significant part of Piccolo that had healed somewhat were infact the bruises that once refrained his swollen eyes from opening, he now for some part could see but his line of vision was a little blurred but nonetheless at least he could finally lay eyes on Nioki again and this both made Piccolo and her very happy.
Another week passes by and finally Nioki sleeps a little easier, clung to Piccolo's waste with her head on his chest, listening to his strong heartbeat as she rested, his chest rising and falling alot easier than before when his breathing was short and shallow. There were no more grunts of disapproval or aggitation neither, he was healing just fine by normal standards....it wouldn't be long now till he was fully healed.
Finally with another week and day passing again Piccolo is almost healed and at 100%, the bruises almost completely gone and all that was left on his body as a brief reminder of his encounter some weeks ago were several scars that showed up mostly on his chest and back. Nioki's worry for him had also calmed somewhat too, relief and a genuine smile plastering her trim figure and elegant smile. Yes, she was finally relieved that his pain had ended and soon he would be able to return to his life with her within the school grounds. The physical and torturous pain had subsided, but the mental pain from the former saiyan/namekian hybreed forever remained embedded in his physcie, memories of the events past washing over him even in his dreams. The punches, the kicking, his own blood flowing over his eyes and down his body over and over again. Even though this episode of pain had ended, he was more than sure that the scuffle with the terroist faction was far from over. One day they would return....and what scares the young man most, is that what could he do about it? When all the power he had was now and possibly forever lost to him.
As with all things, with time no one can really tell what the future holds, be it good or bad...this was a waiting game Piccolo hated very much...
Author's note: there ya go, ch 14 uploaded. I'll start ch 15 soon enough and thats when things get a little steamy shall we say? I'm not a man of many words any more as resent events have left me...thinking too much and well....I'm not one to say what I can do about it but rather deal with it. I'm done caring anyway...Be a responsible reader and be kind enough to review my fic, it means alot to me to hear what you think. Other than that send any other questions or comments to: Noblekaleomnislash1@hotmail.com
signed Noble....