___Chapter 46___
~~~-Five Centuries later-~~~
The forest was quiet that morning, but not for long, as a chorus of birds began singing, one by one adding their voices. The night was done, the sun was risen, what could be a better reason to rejoice?
Their calls were not welcomed by everyone, though. In a small, moss-colored room, a lump in the bead moaned, throwing a pillow out the window and yelling "SHUTUP!!!!!!"
Her aim was better than she'd thought, and a 'squawk!' echoed out from the tree beside the house. The shape pulled the covers away from it's head, revealing long raven hair and eyes. A smile crossed her face, and she jumped out the window.
The second story window.
But she hit the ground just right, and walked unhurt to the squawking quail that'd been trapped under her pillow. She plucked it out from underneath, fingering it's funny head-feather thing.
"'Kassan! I've got us some extra breakfast!" she called out as she ran into the house.
---
After finishing her bread, grapes, and toasted quail, the girl yawned, said 'Arigato (thank you)!', and went into her room to change.
Five minutes later she came back out, decked in a red kimono-esq. dress which split at the belt, revealing loose black pants trimmed with gold. Glancing in the kitchen, she saw the semi-short redheaded woman washing dishes, and called out "'Kassan, can I go for a walk?"
"If you get me some of those cassia berries while you're at it Yen, we're running out!" her mother called back.
"Arigato, 'kassan!" Yen laughed as she raced outside. Two seconds later, she ran back in. "Forgot my other bracelet!" she yelled as she ran up the stairs, coming down the steps as she fitted it on her wrist, racing back out. Before the door could even close all the way, she reached back in, grabbing the canteen from the rack by the door as she went back out. Her mother, in mid wash, blinked twice and started laughing.
---
The red-dressed girl nearly floated through the forest, across paths she had traveled a hundred times. But no cassia berries. With an irritated groan, she tapped her canteen on a tree, pouting. If she didn't come back with those berries, she'd be in trouble. But there WERE none....
Yen sighed, and walked off her trail. She had to find those berries, and knew she could find her way back.
---
After an hour she got aggravated again, and while swinging her arms out to yell "Why me?" her canteen went flying from her hand into the bushes.
"Shit!" Yen moaned, running after it.
The damn thing had flown pretty far, almost six yards, through thick bush, to land on a game trail that had long since gone unused, covered in vines and brambles, mosses and shrubs and groundcovers of all sorts.
Yen barely bothered to look around, focused on picking up her canteen and getting those berries, but something shiny caught her eye.
She glanced toward the distraction, but her pout disappeared behind a giddy grin as her hand darted down to pick up the bright, black hoop, pure onyx.
With sparkles in her eyes, she twirled the earring in her hand, absolutely elated. "So... pretty... I wonder where the other one is?" she said, glancing around.
When a first look check produced nothing, she narrowed her eyes, and looked again. Still nothing.
"Heh... so THAT'S the game you're playing... hiding under the plants!" she laughed to herself as she held out her left hand, producing a quick chi blade. "Well... take this!" and with that she grabbed the blade with her other hand and began cutting away the undergrowth.
---
It was tiring work. Forty five minutes, and she had barely made a dent in the stuff. Some of the vines were so old and tough, they had to be at least a hundred years old, probably older. It didn't take long for her to get pissed off and start blasting the stuff (only to weaken it, not enough to ruin the other earring)
A satisfied smile came to her face as she glimpsed a glittering in another pile of vines. She grabbed for it, but couldn't pull it loose of the green tangle. With a scowl she began pulling the vines away at rapid speed, her limbs blurring they were moving so fast. And when she'd gotten enough away to see the earring more clearly..........
"Oh holy SHIT!"
There was a GIRL there. A......... _green_ girl.
---
EEK.
Yen stared in fascinated shock as she cleared the rest of the plant material away from the body, which was a bit too much to have been put there recently. So it wasn't like someone had killed her and thrown her there, there was a SERIOUS amount of things growing over, under, across, and all around her- she'd been there for a while.
Besides being green and all, she was rather pretty, and looked about Yen's age. But Yen's eyes were locked on that earring. {{Should I.... or shouldn't I?}} Her hand moved toward the black hoop in the girl's ear, pausing. {{She obviously can't want it... But that would be stealing.... Ah damnit, who cares? It's obviously dead, so it can't worry about that silly thing}}
Reaching forward again, she latched her hand around the hoop, and pulled.
"AAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHIIIIEEEEEEEEEEKKKKKKK!!!!!"
---
Oboe felt a sudden jolt of pain and snapped her eyes open. The first thing she saw was a young girl, with pale skin and black hair. And three eyes.
Then they both started screaming.
But before long Oboe started choking, her throat as dry as dead wood.
Yen forgot all about earrings and was off and running immediately, but then she heard it, and turned around. The girl looked so.... pathetic. {{Ok... what now?}} she whispered to herself, on the verge of biting her nails. {{Damn conscience.....}}
"Hey, um...... you thirsty?" Yen asked, edging back with her canteen in her outstretched hand.
The girl only glanced up, perplexed, like she didn't understand, her antennae perking up on her head at an angle.
"Water. You want some?"
Still nothing.
Yen was about to go off when the girl made a frantic noise, and began talking in what sounded like a language, but not one the triclops could understand.
"Um...... I don't understand." Yen restated, shaking her head.
The green girl sighed, but then perked up, and pointed to her mouth, pretending to make a noise.
"Speak? you want me to talk?" Yen asked, mirroring the move.
The girl nodded, smiling.
---
Oboe closed her eyes as the three-eyed girl started babbling about whatever, searching her mind for what Ratal had taught her concerning languages. By twisting a mix of knowledge, ki, and psi, he's helped her set up a system where, if she just listened long enough, she could understand any tongue.
So, about fifteen minutes into Yen's one-sided conversation, Oboe asked in perfect Japanese "Ok. Where am I, who are you, WHAT are you, and am I alive or dead?!?"
---
Yen jerked up, shocked. "How'd you do that?"
"Something I learned." the girl said, stretching her arm and yelping when she felt how stiff it was.
"You're in the woods a couple miles from my village, my name is Yen, I'm a triclops, and I'm pretty sure you're alive. Same questions for you, minus the first and last, and how old are you? You look my age."
"14. My name is Oboe, I'm namekian."
"Huh? never heard of 'em. And 14?? Nah, you're 10."
"14."
"10."
"1- wait.... I don't know how long I've been here... And if my thoughts are correct, your year is three times as long as mine."
"So that makes you *counts on fingers* FOUR?"
"I think."
"NO WAY YOU'RE FOUR! *slaps self for being so loud- the Oboe girl had cringed* Ok, let's say you're ten and end it."
"*nods* ok."
"How'd you get here, anyway? Why were you laying there like that?"
Oboe fell silent.
".... did I say something wrong?"
"No, it's just...... I don't know what happened to my friend who was with me. We were landing in some 'Yunzabit' place when a storm started. We had to jump for it, and were separated. I haven't seen him since. *sighs* I hope Damaiou's alright...."
Yen nearly stopped breathing then, and stared in shock and.... fear?"
"What? What's wrong?"
"Y-you said-d D...Damaiou, right?"
"Yes. So?"
"That was the name of the *swallows* great demon king who nearly killed us all not too long ago. *thinks* Come to think about it, he had the same strange features as you."
"WHAT THE HELL????????!?!?" Oboe screamed, veins nearly popping out of her head. "I can't POSSIBLY believe that!!! He's not like that, he's-"
Then it struck her. What he had said a long time ago- '...Sanchiro said I have alot of evil in me. More than a normal person should. And I guess that's coming out now....'
A quick look at the plants that had been growing over showed her she'd been there for at least four centuries, maybe five. And since she doubted the same that had happened to her happened to him, he'd been awake all this time. Could knowing he'd lost all his friends and family, and thinking he lost her, have done the same to him as it had Rager? Could it drive him mad like the silver-eyed warrior?
.....
Yes.
---
With that realization, Oboe slumped down onto Yen's shoulder and cried.
Yen could kind of understand. How anyone could ever love... *shudders* that demon, she couldn't comprehend. But loosing a friend of yours, and then to learn they'd changed beyond your belief, that she understood. She'd been only four when her nine-year old friend went off without saying goodbye... When she's seen Tienshin next, he was older (too much to be natural), a warrior, fighting a demon.
So she could understand how her new friend was hurting. Everybody hurts.
---
Six years later, the girls had left home, and gone adventuring all over their area of the world, telling their tales to each other and coming across new ones to tell.
"It was business as usual when we saw ki-blasts in the air. I didn't know who it was back then, but now I can identify them as you Vegeta, and Son Goku.
"Yen and I were excited out of our minds, but then Goku went ssj and blasted Veggie with a kameahmeah that hit him at an awkward angle and sent him spinning into the ground. That's when we noticed the others.
"Yumcha, Chautzu, Krillan, and Gohan were standing and laughing. Goku landed next to the crater Veg made, asking if he was ok. And there were two people he plowed into when he crashed, but we couldn't see them 'till they got out.
"The first to do that was Tien, who laughed off getting hit. The other one was cursing Vegeta with every foul word I've ever heard, and a couple I hadn't." Oboe said, near the end of her story.
Privately, she added {{And I said to myself- this guy has an attitude problem! But I liked it. I was wishing I could meet him before I ever saw him.}}
"Then Piccolo pulled himself up, and that's when I first saw him. We never met face-to-face until about three months later. And you know the rest from there."
Oboe glanced around at the four of them, and added "I once heard Kami-sama say that in his youth he would often search Yunzabit for a sign of some sort." Blinking back invisible tears, she swallowed and finished- "He wasn't searching for a sign. He was looking for me. Damaiou still cared about me, even if he couldn't remember me."
-
---
_____END OF ACT 2_____
---
-
~~~NOTE- ok, on to act three now! I've decided, instead of doing like I did in the book and wrapping up quickly, I'm going to take time to get the dragonballs, because that'll give me the chance to work with the other two groups- the rest of the Z-senshi, and Piccolo + Kami's rendition of WW2. (Yup, as I said, your reviews really mean something to me- chikyuu's comment on liking the situation made me realize I hadn't done enough with it.) I'd put more Pic + Veggie stuff in here if could, but that's not really possible. *sweatdrops*
-
And a note to Sab-chan - Yes, we're on act three now, and...... MINE!!! *cackles, runs away with bishy* ~~~
~~~-Five Centuries later-~~~
The forest was quiet that morning, but not for long, as a chorus of birds began singing, one by one adding their voices. The night was done, the sun was risen, what could be a better reason to rejoice?
Their calls were not welcomed by everyone, though. In a small, moss-colored room, a lump in the bead moaned, throwing a pillow out the window and yelling "SHUTUP!!!!!!"
Her aim was better than she'd thought, and a 'squawk!' echoed out from the tree beside the house. The shape pulled the covers away from it's head, revealing long raven hair and eyes. A smile crossed her face, and she jumped out the window.
The second story window.
But she hit the ground just right, and walked unhurt to the squawking quail that'd been trapped under her pillow. She plucked it out from underneath, fingering it's funny head-feather thing.
"'Kassan! I've got us some extra breakfast!" she called out as she ran into the house.
---
After finishing her bread, grapes, and toasted quail, the girl yawned, said 'Arigato (thank you)!', and went into her room to change.
Five minutes later she came back out, decked in a red kimono-esq. dress which split at the belt, revealing loose black pants trimmed with gold. Glancing in the kitchen, she saw the semi-short redheaded woman washing dishes, and called out "'Kassan, can I go for a walk?"
"If you get me some of those cassia berries while you're at it Yen, we're running out!" her mother called back.
"Arigato, 'kassan!" Yen laughed as she raced outside. Two seconds later, she ran back in. "Forgot my other bracelet!" she yelled as she ran up the stairs, coming down the steps as she fitted it on her wrist, racing back out. Before the door could even close all the way, she reached back in, grabbing the canteen from the rack by the door as she went back out. Her mother, in mid wash, blinked twice and started laughing.
---
The red-dressed girl nearly floated through the forest, across paths she had traveled a hundred times. But no cassia berries. With an irritated groan, she tapped her canteen on a tree, pouting. If she didn't come back with those berries, she'd be in trouble. But there WERE none....
Yen sighed, and walked off her trail. She had to find those berries, and knew she could find her way back.
---
After an hour she got aggravated again, and while swinging her arms out to yell "Why me?" her canteen went flying from her hand into the bushes.
"Shit!" Yen moaned, running after it.
The damn thing had flown pretty far, almost six yards, through thick bush, to land on a game trail that had long since gone unused, covered in vines and brambles, mosses and shrubs and groundcovers of all sorts.
Yen barely bothered to look around, focused on picking up her canteen and getting those berries, but something shiny caught her eye.
She glanced toward the distraction, but her pout disappeared behind a giddy grin as her hand darted down to pick up the bright, black hoop, pure onyx.
With sparkles in her eyes, she twirled the earring in her hand, absolutely elated. "So... pretty... I wonder where the other one is?" she said, glancing around.
When a first look check produced nothing, she narrowed her eyes, and looked again. Still nothing.
"Heh... so THAT'S the game you're playing... hiding under the plants!" she laughed to herself as she held out her left hand, producing a quick chi blade. "Well... take this!" and with that she grabbed the blade with her other hand and began cutting away the undergrowth.
---
It was tiring work. Forty five minutes, and she had barely made a dent in the stuff. Some of the vines were so old and tough, they had to be at least a hundred years old, probably older. It didn't take long for her to get pissed off and start blasting the stuff (only to weaken it, not enough to ruin the other earring)
A satisfied smile came to her face as she glimpsed a glittering in another pile of vines. She grabbed for it, but couldn't pull it loose of the green tangle. With a scowl she began pulling the vines away at rapid speed, her limbs blurring they were moving so fast. And when she'd gotten enough away to see the earring more clearly..........
"Oh holy SHIT!"
There was a GIRL there. A......... _green_ girl.
---
EEK.
Yen stared in fascinated shock as she cleared the rest of the plant material away from the body, which was a bit too much to have been put there recently. So it wasn't like someone had killed her and thrown her there, there was a SERIOUS amount of things growing over, under, across, and all around her- she'd been there for a while.
Besides being green and all, she was rather pretty, and looked about Yen's age. But Yen's eyes were locked on that earring. {{Should I.... or shouldn't I?}} Her hand moved toward the black hoop in the girl's ear, pausing. {{She obviously can't want it... But that would be stealing.... Ah damnit, who cares? It's obviously dead, so it can't worry about that silly thing}}
Reaching forward again, she latched her hand around the hoop, and pulled.
"AAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHIIIIEEEEEEEEEEKKKKKKK!!!!!"
---
Oboe felt a sudden jolt of pain and snapped her eyes open. The first thing she saw was a young girl, with pale skin and black hair. And three eyes.
Then they both started screaming.
But before long Oboe started choking, her throat as dry as dead wood.
Yen forgot all about earrings and was off and running immediately, but then she heard it, and turned around. The girl looked so.... pathetic. {{Ok... what now?}} she whispered to herself, on the verge of biting her nails. {{Damn conscience.....}}
"Hey, um...... you thirsty?" Yen asked, edging back with her canteen in her outstretched hand.
The girl only glanced up, perplexed, like she didn't understand, her antennae perking up on her head at an angle.
"Water. You want some?"
Still nothing.
Yen was about to go off when the girl made a frantic noise, and began talking in what sounded like a language, but not one the triclops could understand.
"Um...... I don't understand." Yen restated, shaking her head.
The green girl sighed, but then perked up, and pointed to her mouth, pretending to make a noise.
"Speak? you want me to talk?" Yen asked, mirroring the move.
The girl nodded, smiling.
---
Oboe closed her eyes as the three-eyed girl started babbling about whatever, searching her mind for what Ratal had taught her concerning languages. By twisting a mix of knowledge, ki, and psi, he's helped her set up a system where, if she just listened long enough, she could understand any tongue.
So, about fifteen minutes into Yen's one-sided conversation, Oboe asked in perfect Japanese "Ok. Where am I, who are you, WHAT are you, and am I alive or dead?!?"
---
Yen jerked up, shocked. "How'd you do that?"
"Something I learned." the girl said, stretching her arm and yelping when she felt how stiff it was.
"You're in the woods a couple miles from my village, my name is Yen, I'm a triclops, and I'm pretty sure you're alive. Same questions for you, minus the first and last, and how old are you? You look my age."
"14. My name is Oboe, I'm namekian."
"Huh? never heard of 'em. And 14?? Nah, you're 10."
"14."
"10."
"1- wait.... I don't know how long I've been here... And if my thoughts are correct, your year is three times as long as mine."
"So that makes you *counts on fingers* FOUR?"
"I think."
"NO WAY YOU'RE FOUR! *slaps self for being so loud- the Oboe girl had cringed* Ok, let's say you're ten and end it."
"*nods* ok."
"How'd you get here, anyway? Why were you laying there like that?"
Oboe fell silent.
".... did I say something wrong?"
"No, it's just...... I don't know what happened to my friend who was with me. We were landing in some 'Yunzabit' place when a storm started. We had to jump for it, and were separated. I haven't seen him since. *sighs* I hope Damaiou's alright...."
Yen nearly stopped breathing then, and stared in shock and.... fear?"
"What? What's wrong?"
"Y-you said-d D...Damaiou, right?"
"Yes. So?"
"That was the name of the *swallows* great demon king who nearly killed us all not too long ago. *thinks* Come to think about it, he had the same strange features as you."
"WHAT THE HELL????????!?!?" Oboe screamed, veins nearly popping out of her head. "I can't POSSIBLY believe that!!! He's not like that, he's-"
Then it struck her. What he had said a long time ago- '...Sanchiro said I have alot of evil in me. More than a normal person should. And I guess that's coming out now....'
A quick look at the plants that had been growing over showed her she'd been there for at least four centuries, maybe five. And since she doubted the same that had happened to her happened to him, he'd been awake all this time. Could knowing he'd lost all his friends and family, and thinking he lost her, have done the same to him as it had Rager? Could it drive him mad like the silver-eyed warrior?
.....
Yes.
---
With that realization, Oboe slumped down onto Yen's shoulder and cried.
Yen could kind of understand. How anyone could ever love... *shudders* that demon, she couldn't comprehend. But loosing a friend of yours, and then to learn they'd changed beyond your belief, that she understood. She'd been only four when her nine-year old friend went off without saying goodbye... When she's seen Tienshin next, he was older (too much to be natural), a warrior, fighting a demon.
So she could understand how her new friend was hurting. Everybody hurts.
---
Six years later, the girls had left home, and gone adventuring all over their area of the world, telling their tales to each other and coming across new ones to tell.
"It was business as usual when we saw ki-blasts in the air. I didn't know who it was back then, but now I can identify them as you Vegeta, and Son Goku.
"Yen and I were excited out of our minds, but then Goku went ssj and blasted Veggie with a kameahmeah that hit him at an awkward angle and sent him spinning into the ground. That's when we noticed the others.
"Yumcha, Chautzu, Krillan, and Gohan were standing and laughing. Goku landed next to the crater Veg made, asking if he was ok. And there were two people he plowed into when he crashed, but we couldn't see them 'till they got out.
"The first to do that was Tien, who laughed off getting hit. The other one was cursing Vegeta with every foul word I've ever heard, and a couple I hadn't." Oboe said, near the end of her story.
Privately, she added {{And I said to myself- this guy has an attitude problem! But I liked it. I was wishing I could meet him before I ever saw him.}}
"Then Piccolo pulled himself up, and that's when I first saw him. We never met face-to-face until about three months later. And you know the rest from there."
Oboe glanced around at the four of them, and added "I once heard Kami-sama say that in his youth he would often search Yunzabit for a sign of some sort." Blinking back invisible tears, she swallowed and finished- "He wasn't searching for a sign. He was looking for me. Damaiou still cared about me, even if he couldn't remember me."
-
---
_____END OF ACT 2_____
---
-
~~~NOTE- ok, on to act three now! I've decided, instead of doing like I did in the book and wrapping up quickly, I'm going to take time to get the dragonballs, because that'll give me the chance to work with the other two groups- the rest of the Z-senshi, and Piccolo + Kami's rendition of WW2. (Yup, as I said, your reviews really mean something to me- chikyuu's comment on liking the situation made me realize I hadn't done enough with it.) I'd put more Pic + Veggie stuff in here if could, but that's not really possible. *sweatdrops*
-
And a note to Sab-chan - Yes, we're on act three now, and...... MINE!!! *cackles, runs away with bishy* ~~~