Disclaimer: Ranma 1/2 is owned by Rumiko Takahashi and Viz video. I don't
own Dragonball Z either! If any of the situations described below mirror
those of actual events then you're living in a fantasy world.
A Chance Love Productions
Is proud to present
A Human Saiyajin
Chapter Five: Iron Monkey, Drunken Cat
Punch, punch, punchpunchpunch.
After a month of training, Vegita's fighting style was starting to get predictable, very predictable. He was obviously more accustomed to fighting people weaker than himself. Vegita could plow through anyone's defense by sheer force of strength and will. Not only that but he had the tenacity of a badger.
With such a straightforward style, Ranko countered with a lot of movement. She did not stand in one spot, nor did she attempt to match her strength with his. It would be foolishness, beyond arrogance to think that she would go down that easy. Her body bending in all sorts of ways and angles, Ranko evaded and parried through Vegita's attacks, tapping the overextended arm, twisting the convenient wrist. She was teaching him form, but it would be a long time before Vegita had her skill, just as it would be for her to gain his power, if ever.
Training in the Chamber of Space and Time dragged on for eternity and passed by far too quickly for Ranko to catch her breath. She'd never strained her muscles so hard before to simply stand, but it was all beginning to pay off. When she first entered the Chamber with Vegita it had taken everything Ranko had and more to simply spar with the Saiyajin for ten minutes, moving not even at half her normal speed. Of course, the bastard took full advantage of this to beat on her until she was black and blue all over. She had to take half the second week in the chamber just to recover from the first.
Though she was losing each sparring session, Ranko was having the time of her life. It was the thrill of sparring someone that pushed her far beyond her means at a time when she always had to restrain herself lest someone gets hurt. She felt no pain as her system flooded with adrenaline; beads of sweat form coursed down her brow. Her body raged with hormones in an attempt to overcome the insurmountable. To Ranko, this was the forbidden fruit. This was Saffron and Herb and Kirin to the 100th degree, and she was taking it in like fine wine.
By the time a month had passed, Ranko had regained her lost speed and strength and was bounding about the white space as she would normally in the real world. Vegita's training in the Anything Goes style had started long before, but without her learning curve for such things, Vegita was still a beginner in her estimates. Albeit a monstrously strong beginner capable of tearing her limb from limb if he wanted to, but a beginner none the less.
During this time, Ranko learned a lot about the Saiyajin fighting style, which wasn't really that much at all. Mainly straight attacks, evasions, and ki blasts. There was no subtlety to their Art; the style had the subtlety of a freight train and was just as easy to steer. The style was based on brute strength alone, understandable considering the amount of ki every Saiyajin is supposed to be able to generate. The ki was supposed to make up for any lack of skill by making the Saiyajin warriors tougher and faster than anything else. And for the most part it worked.
Ranko, however, demanded more. She was going to turn the untrained brute into a real fighting machine even if it killed her, which might not be too far off from the truth. At the moment, Ranko was collapsed on the ground after another few hours of sparring, having finally lost when Vegita used his ki. If ki wasn't a factor then Ranko could usually knock the Saiyajin around without much trouble. Unfortunately providence would not side with her on this one either. Vegita had to hold back a lot on his ki in order too learn, but his Saiyajin pride would never allow him defeat. So he would power up towards the end and leave Ranko battered and broken on the floor until she got up enough strength to crawl back to the temple.
At the moment, Vegita was crouched over her in a horse stance, the veins on his forehead starting to show. His hair flickered gold then black and his eyes swirled green until he reached some peak and the power washed over the area, leaving the transformed Saiyajin to glory in his greater power.
Sitting on her butt, Ranko put her head on her knees to study the transformation. "Why do you have to struggle so hard to go Super?"
"Your spirit has to be in perfect harmony in order to excite the change." Vegita was delivering the answers to her questions quicker once he began to learn from her. The suggestions she made had already improved his natural speed. She'd taught him how to begin to tighten his blasts, which had been wasting energy before. They were little things, but each piece was building a better whole.
Ranko snorted, "Your spirit is hardly harmonious."
Vegita grinned for a moment then scowled, responding in a more gruff voice. "Of course it is. My spirit only burns hatred for Kakorotto!"
"If you say so, but it looks like you just need to go to the bathroom." Vegita's face started to turn purple. Some things were forbidden territory, like his Saiyajin pride, were not to be joked over, a taboo, which Ranko liked to break frequently. Ranko was tired after the last few hours of training and sparring and looked for something to distract Vegita. "It looks more like an aura trigger."
It worked. Vegita's face cleared and he turned to face her, expecting to learn something new that he hadn't noticed. He could see all the same things Ranko did in a person's aura, but he didn't have the experience that came with her ki manipulation techniques to understand it all. He dropped out of Super. "What do you mean, girl?"
Staring hard, beyond Vegita's physical form, Ranko tried to explain. "Each time you go Super you are pooling energy into certain places in your body like you were flexing a muscle." She stood up to take a closer look at his aura. "Change over and let me take a look." He did so and Ranko was almost tossed onto her back. She flipped neatly in the air to land on her feet, grimacing at the new smirk on Vegita's face. She'd get him for that later. "Leave your power at the minimum you need to remain Super like Goku and Gohan were doing."
Again, Vegita did as he was told and tried to figure out what Ranko was getting to. His thoughts turned to Goku and Gohan from when the exited the Chamber of Space and Time. He barked in laughter, "That is what they were doing!" He turned a haughty sneer on Ranko to say he had figured everything out on his own. "Kakorotto and his brat were staying in their Super Saiyajin forms to decrease the amount of energy they need to cross over! Why hadn't I thought of that?!"
Ranko didn't respond, but continued to examine his aura as if he had never spoken at all. When she was finished, Ranko stood up and snorted in disgust. These Saiyajins were stupid. "That's what I thought, fools." She whispered to herself. "Because they got it wrong," she said out loud so Vegita could hear.
"What?" Vegita growled.
Ranko rapped Vegita on the head. It was a very Cologne thing to do that Ranko had gotten used to doing herself when teaching Vegita. It didn't help Vegita any, but it made it easier to deal with her stupid student. "Goku and Gohan were only half right. Staying in the Super form will reduce the amount of power you need to crossover and allow you to get used to that level, but they are also leaking power." As if to agree with her analysis, a golden flame leapt off of Vegita's shoulder. He still didn't get it and was starting to look a little irate. Ranko forged ahead before Vegita started ranting about women and their places. "Think of a straining muscle, like you were doing a half curl and then keeping it there."
Vegita crossed his arms over his chest and glared at her. "Becoming a Super Saiyajin is hardly comparable to a curl."
Again, Ranko tuned him out. "When you lift a new weight for the first time it feels heavy and it takes energy to hold it there until eventually your arm goes numb and you have to drop it."
"Kakorotto and his brat didn't look sore."
"You Saiyajins have a lot of strength to go through before reaching that point," Ranko pointed out. "Now take that same weight and start practicing those curls every day. Eventually you'll be able to pick it up and do a curl without feeling the weight anymore."
Vegita had to pause in his anger to consider this. It made some sense to him. Even before he became a Super Saiyajin he had to take a few moments to power up in his normal form until by the time he was ready to fight Freiza when it just came to him in an instant without trying. "So . . . you believe that the change can become like a reflex without a significant drop in power?" Ranko's analogy, though crude in respects to the might of a Super Saiyajin, seemed rather apt. Some practice and he will be able to keep most, if not all, the power he would normally drain in the transformation to Super. "That foolish Kakorotto. Once I've defeated Cell I shall defeat him as well. I will be the strongest of all Saiyajins!"
Ranko sighed and bopped Vegita on the head. "There's only four of you, ya dip."
~
Sitting by herself, Ranko flexed her hand and tried to imagine the ki claws sprouting out of her fingertips. Twice they had appeared when fighting with Cell, but the definitive 'how to' seemed to be fleeting. Although they couldn't do much against Cell's complete form, Ranko wanted to bring them out to see if she could somehow increase their strength.
So far nothing had come of her effort. There was something here she was missing and she knew it wasn't a fear of cats this time.
Blue wisps like strands of hair sneaked past her gaze.
She never stopped thinking about them.
While she trained, while she fought, when she ate, and when she slept, Ranko could see each and every one of her friends and family just outside of her perspective. The quiet pleas in their eyes, they looked so . . . so disappointed with her.
Ranko was working on new techniques to use against Cell when next she fought him. And she would fight him. She couldn't rely on things like the Hiryu Shouten Ha if they took so long to create. Cell's power, she wasn't likely to get that much time to pull off any technique, especially one that had proven as useless as the Dragon Ascension Punch. What she wanted was something that didn't rely on the opponent to create. It wasn't likely to do much damage, but it might give others some time to attack.
Off in the distance, somewhere as his mind was in a rage, Vegita was practicing the katas she had taught him. His control and precision were getting better, but he was not yet fluid.
The area burned with intense flames.
Ranko's area was a wasteland of her depression and solitude. She tried to keep up her spirits, hold onto her anger and determination to destroy Cell, but there was too much time to think in this place. Ranko tried to use the time constructively to improve upon old techniques and create new ones. Her ki reserves have already grown after all the time she spent training. She was stronger, more powerful than she'd ever been before, but she could feel something was holding her back. She could feel a whole new tier of power waiting at her finger tips but somehow unable to bring it forth. She could see it in her eyes, taste it in her lips, it was waiting for her and her only, begging her to be the instrument of her revenge. No matter how much it wanted to be used, and her wanting to use it, there was some sort of block barring her from it. Only then would she be able to keep the people she cared for safe.
But there wasn't anyone left to care for.
Ranko let the ki fade from her arms and stared at her own hand. With this hand she could defeat kings and princes, she could destroy the gods themselves if she wanted to. But against Cell, it wasn't enough, nothing she had would ever be enough. A memory of holding Akane hand in hand flashed through her mind which she quickly killed. If she concentrated too much her hatred would consume her. But wasn't that what she needed to do? Would it burn the cinders in her soul or would it eventually devour her very being. Thoughts like that were dangerous. Ranko longed for the time where she didn't have to think.
If things had gone differently, if Cell had never arrived, she'd still be a man, living with the Tendous. Ranko wanted to think that she would have given up and finally told Akane how she felt. It was all just stupid pride. It only got in the way of her happiness, destroyed other people's lives. Really, life was too short to waste on such trivial things. She should have known to grab onto the good things in her life and enjoyed them for as long as she could.
Better not think about it.
The area became colder. Ranko's arms shivered and she rubbed them to fight off the chill. Her breath came out in a white cloud that took its time to disappear. Her eyes downcast, Ranko could just make out the ice building up around her feet.
Locked away in ice. That would be as good as anything else she could do to fight Cell.
"HA!!!"
The ice fell away as Ranko dived to one side and avoided Vegita's sneak attack. "What the hell do you think you're doing?!" The power in his punch could have knocked her head off if he connected.
Vegita grunted, "You're getting stronger, faster than I expected."
"Whatever," Ranko muttered dejectedly, "just leave me alone."
"Why?" Vegita sneered at her. "So you can start crying like a girl? If you're going to be useless you might as well serve as my punching bag."
Ranko's blue eyes hardened to ice and she screamed, "Shove it, you jackass!" Ranko's form disappeared from sight, not even the emptiness of the white zone could single her out. She'd gotten much better at hiding.
Vegita was left there, staring at nothing. He expected her to attack, to start a new sparring session, but this time she was just gone. He tried to feel for her, but Ranko could best this detection now. She couldn't enter his corona of power, but anywhere else she was as good as gone.
Brushing aside the curtain to the room she used as her bedroom, Ranko let go of the invisibility technique and shambled over to the bed. Outside she could hear Vegita's cursing and the quicker ascension to Super, but pushed it aside and buried herself beneath the sheets.
Heartache came when life lost direction. Ranko curled herself up and squeezed a pillow against her chest. Staring at the blank wall in her room she thought of walking down a long corridor with the door shut at the end of the hall. There was nothing to walk towards. All of this training wasn't going to do her any good. Sure she could train Vegita to defeat Cell, but she questioned whether or not he could actually do it. Training herself seemed like an even bigger waste of time the more she did it. Her power was really insignificant in this battle. At the rate she was going it would take her a million years to get up to a level that could even challenge Cell. Just being as good as Herb wasn't going to do much since she could defeat the Musk prince before any of this training had started.
What was she fighting for anyway? Even if she did somehow win, what would that get her? Everyone would still be dead, she would still be a girl, and she would still have failed in her duties as a martial artist.
Anger, depression; Ranko had been pulling off Shi Shi Hokodans with ease since this training had begun. On other days she was tossing around ki balls made with anger. The change in her aura from day to day was sometimes so rapid that it would throw off her senses. Ranko didn't need Dr. Tofu around to tell her that this was not good. This instability was eventually going to wear down on her body and mind. She would start losing control of her own aura and likely end up burning herself out. Or maybe up?
Ryouga had done this to himself, Ranko thought.
She felt bad now about teasing Ryouga even if he deserved it for being an asshole. The taunting had been part of her fighting style to blind her opponents with rage, but now she knew the Lost Boy truly had been suffering because of it, even outside of the fights. Every time he returned to Nerima he looked wasted and then he would need to camp out somewhere and work on just his rage to steady himself. The focus on one emotion was what led Ryouga to attacking Ranma blindly the first chance he got, but it was also a temporary fix for a boy who had been going through hell.
Ranko blinked. Was this somehow like a drug she was addicted to? That Ryouga was addicted to? As long as you feed on your own depression, in a sick twisted way it made you feel good because at least it was something that was feeding you. Ranko shook her head. Maybe this was something to think about later?
Ranko needed something to focus on now. She needed something or she was going to fall apart either mentally or physically. Maybe both.
Vegita pulled aside the curtain to look into her room. "What do you think you're doing?" he demanded.
Rather than answer, Ranko curled herself up further and closed her eyes.
The sound of someone snorting and then her blanket being pulled away brought her back.
"Hey! What if I had been naked?!"
"That would have been your problem. You're wasting more of my time with this childish behavior. You're supposed to be training me because you're too weak to fight Cell yourself."
Ranko glared at the older man. "You can't tell me what to do!"
"And what are you going to do?" He smirked. "Whine at me?"
Screaming with hatred, Ranko launched herself at the Saiyajin. He dodged backwards until they were standing in the middle of the white zone. She was so angry at the obnoxious asshole. Couldn't he see that she was upset? She hadn't even been able to bury the bodies of her loved ones! Their souls were probably hungry ghosts wandering around the ruin that used to be Nerima. And all this jerk could think of was his stupid training?! Vegita was a bastard just like her father was! 'No matter whatever else that might happen, there is always the training, the art.'
The fight that followed went on for a long time. Ranko decided to forego the usual build up method of their sparring matches and went straight to her best techniques. She wanted to make the Saiyajin warrior suffer. Kicks and punches, throws and shiatsu points, ki blasts and her father's forbidden techniques, Ranko used them all. She had the satisfaction to see a good number of them slice or paralyze Vegita as they fought. Ranko vowed that his blood would flow like a broken faucet. He'd be sorry he messed with her then!
The temple grounds shuddered from time to time, lit up with the glow of battle auras. Chairs tipped over when some of the larger blasts Ranko and Vegita were tossing around struck the floor of white space. Both were moving fast, not blindingly so, but they were moving at Ranko's top speed. The Chestnut Fist moved beyond the sound barriers causing sounds like thunder to ripple across the area.
In a final moment, Vegita yelled and the area went golden. It lasted only a moment and then it was all over.
Vegita returned to Ranko's bedroom again. Her body was slumped over unconscious on his shoulder. Vegita carelessly tossed her onto her bed and turned to leave. Glanceing back, Vegita carefully pulled the covers back up to her neck pulled back the sheets, before turning to leave her room once again. Without saying anything, the Super Saiyajin smirked and returned to the white space to continue his training.
~
Their fight was beginning to escalate again.
Vegita came in with a higher ki level intending to land some faster punches against Ranko's face.
Their sparring session had been going like this for the past few weeks. They began with pure skill, an area in which Ranko always took the lead. Slowly the power would begin to build in a crescendo, as Vegita's frustration would grow. After Ranko stood on his head and punched down into his face while still skipping out of the way of his retaliation, Vegita finally had enough. His aura exploded outwards and he attacked anew.
Ranko could still keep up fairly well. Vegita certainly got in more hits after a while, but so far she was giving as good as she got. If she chose to open up her truly powerful techniques, like those used against Cell, then Ranko might still be in the lead, but this was only sparring. That, and Vegita might decide he could use his powerful techniques too. Ranko's arms still hurt from trying to block one of the Saiyajins ki blasts the day before, and that had been one of the smaller ones.
Vegita tossed one just then. Standing on his head must have made him angrier than Ranko thought it would.
It sped across the area fast, but Ranko was able to twist out of the way in time and roll across the ground to come up with an overhead lob of her own ki blast. Vegita must not have been expecting it because it smacked him right across the face.
Hadn't he learned to expect the unexpected yet? It was a precept of the Anything Goes style.
Wanting to catch him before he could recover, Ranko rushed across the area to follow up with a flying sidekick and maybe catch a paralysis point on passing. Unfortunately Ranko's foot passed straight through what must have been Vegita's after image.
Ranko rolled out of her fall to glare at the man floating in the air. "Hey! That's not fair!"
Raising his hand and forming another ki blast, "Anything goes." Vegita said with a smirk, before firing off the blast of ki.
God he pissed her off.
The ki blasts exploded in light that temporarily blocked Vegita's view of what would be his unconscious sensei. As he made his superior smirk, the energy began to dissolve and open up the empty white space. "What?"
"Oh, Vegita-kun."
He turned to the voice that came from above him in time to catch a small heel right between the eyes. "Dammit, girl." He scowled and fell back a few feet in the air.
Ranko smiled nicely while she pummeled Vegita's unprotected stomach with her Chestnut Fist. He grunted and bent over a ways in discomfort.
Flying, Ranko discovered, was more complex than she thought. Back when she was fighting against Herb, Ranko suspected it took a great deal of energy to keep a person up in the air since Herb could only float for a little while at a time as his aura blazed about him.
Though Ranko was nearer to Herb's level of power now, the ability to fly did not require as much energy as he or the Z fighters used. They used it like controlled explosion hurling them forward.
Ranko had thought of it while practicing with her ki blasts. She pooled a ball of energy together in her hands and tossed it off. With enough will, comparable to the distance it, the ki blast, had traveled Ranko could control the attack and even direct it around objects. It was much easier to do at close range, like less than a foot when she tried juggling it without her hands. Taking that into account, Ranko imagined a ball of energy inside her body and then thought of it lifting into the air. This must also have been how everyone else thought of it. While leaving to fight Cell with Trunks, the boy's aura had flared like a ball until he took off and then it gained a tail like a comet.
The problem with this was the excess area a ball had and thus extra energy bleed off and wind resistance. Ki, apparently, could act as both energy and semi-solid. Semi-solids like Akane's mallets.
Not wanting to wait for the extra power she needed, Ranko looked for a better way to fly. What she ended up with was a new technique she liked to call the Slipstream. While flying she would push two vacuum blades ahead of herself. The tail of the traveling vacuum would act like a tunnel and all Ranko needed to do was use enough ki to fit the tunnel and then slide across the sky. Her speed depended upon how fast she pushed at the vacuum, which would drag her along. In essence, Ranko was siphoning herself through a ki-vacuum.
Of course, it was only good for straight-aways, but she was working on that. But the advantage was that she could go VERY fast if she wanted to.
It took Vegita several seconds to get over the surprise and then bring up his guard. By that time Ranko had delivered a dozen hard blows and a few paralysis points. He was lucky that they were mostly all she could do considering they were the easiest to see without training. His arms had been slowed down enough that he would need to raise his power rating to keep up with the speeding redhead.
A long time ago, months really, but it felt like longer, Vegita had discovered that Ranko's particularly style of martial arts was devoted to mid air combat. He hadn't thought much of it considering he could fly. Even before she had learned this ability, Ranko had nearly dominated the fights in the air as well. Vegita wanted that skill. With his power, the new focus Ranko was training him in for his ki, and that skill, Vegita would be unbeatable. The only problem was the training. He'd trained hard before, but never quite the way Ranko's Anything Goes Style demanded.
Things got a little more difficult for the Saiyajin as he discovered what a master of the Anything Goes style can do with the ability to fly.
Ranko swiveled in the air to avoid a kick to end up with her knee planted in Vegita's face. She forced him back onto the ground with that hit. "Tell me when I'm too much for you, Vegita, and we'll take a break," Ranko said with false sweetness.
Vegita returned with an uppercut that came close to connecting with Ranko's stomach as she slid to one side. She moved outside of his reach when he threw a front kick and then turned it into a sliding sidekick. Growling, "Like a weak little girl could hurt me."
"That's right," Ranko nodded sagely and ducked a knife hand strike, "the great Vegita is better than the average monkey."
Eye twitching, Vegita lost sight the redhead as she went under a turning kick to strike upwards at another paralysis point on his thigh. He floated backwards, right leg hanging uselessly for the moment. "Just tell me when you want me to stop holding back," he grinned as she started to steam. "Women like you are delicate and I wouldn't want you to chip a nail."
"We'll see who chips a nail!" Ranko shouted back and zipped into the air while launching an angry ki blast ahead of her.
Smirking, Vegita batted the blast aside with one hand and threw a punch with the other.
Ranko struck down on Vegita's temple from the side, having anticipated the Saiyajin's counterattack. "That was pathetic, Vegita. You only use that maneuver every time and it's only worked once!"
Shaking his head, Vegita turned to Ranko and glared at her while powering up a little bit more. Mock his fighting prowess will she?! "You are so uncute!"
". . ." Ranko blinked and missed the incoming fist to her gut. She flew backwards several meters before she could stop herself in the air. "PREPARE TO DIE, VEGITA!"
The courtyard shook again as volleys of ki blasts were shared between the combatants. Moving faster than before, Ranko began to blur from view as she flew about the area. Vegita kept up, ducking, blocking, and attacking. Like other times, he began to build up more power, his aura held as tightly as he could keep it. Vegita hated losing, and though he yet to lose in their sparring sessions, he knew the number of attacks Ranko was still getting in at this faster pace meant she could have finished things with her deadlier techniques. He had to get better, to have that skill!
"RAAH!" Vegita's blue aura flamed about his body. Separating from the close-quarters battle he was having with Ranko, Vegita began shooting off another dozen ki blasts, stronger than before.
Ranko barely dodged out of the way of a few of them and had her shoulder grazed by the last. Angry at being struck, Ranko growled back at the older man, "We can both play that game, monkey!" Making sweeping gestures with her arms, Ranko sent of a number of vacuum blades in retaliation.
Jumping high, then skipping to the side, Vegita wound his way around the more advanced ki attacks. He was quickly getting closer to the stationary Ranko, then charged her from the side after blurring from in front, a vacuum blade cutting his afterimage in half. "Now I win!"
Seeing the fist coming at her from the left, Ranko twisted in the air until she was upside down with her hands on either side of Vegita's head. He looked up at her and she smiled, "Now you're dead."
Vegita didn't like that at all.
"HA!" Vegita's golden aura exploded outward and knocked Ranko backwards. He struck her from behind before she could get too far, sending the girl plummeting into the ground. Without thinking, Vegita followed through with a number of his Super Saiyajin strength ki blasts that knocked the frantically dodging Ranko about the white zone.
Ranko flew once more through the air after the last blast and was, by this time, feeling a little disoriented. Her back hurt from the hammer fist Vegita had given her, and a bruise was growing over her left cheek from hitting the floor. Dazed, Ranko blinked at the sky as she flew backwards, it was all white, a dream-like peacefulness.
That is, until Super Vegita appeared above her and struck down into her face to send her barreling into the ground once again.
How dare she say that, Vegita thought angrily. Call him weak?! Belittle the Saiyajins?! Tell him he was DEAD?! I think NOT!!
Vegita was intent on driving home the idea that he was unbeatable into the redhead's pretty face. He sped behind her to strike with a knee in her back that made her grunt. Taking a hold of the pigtail, Vegita swung the small body over his shoulder and slammed her face down into the ground.
As he stood and waited for her to move, Vegita swore vile oaths against the redhead. He'd take her skill and add it to his power and then nothing would stand in his way! "Get up already, girl! We don't have time to sleep all day long!"
No response.
Vegita growled impatiently and then reached down to pull Ranko up by her pigtail. Her face was bruised and blood was running out of her nose and mouth. Some of her clothing was scorched from the ki battle. Ranko simply hung in his grip, useless and unresponsive. The smooth tanned skin bore patches of black and blue. One of her eyes looked to be swelling slightly. Her pouting red lips had a cut on one side, and the blood was rolling down over her chin to drop onto the floor.
"Weak," Vegita thought haughtily and then powered down. He was still holding her by the pigtail when her hands suddenly burned with ki, she moved her fingers through her hair burning through the means of her captor. Vegita looked stupefied that anyone would do such a thing to them self as a vicious roundhouse kick met his unguarded ribs.
Vegita stepped back and grunted as Ranko followed up with punch after punch. "Weak, am I? A little girl, am I," Ranko yelled out. "I'm sick and tired of people telling me what I am and am not capable of." Ranko sent another roundhouse kick to Vegita's head, which was caught by the Saiyajin in mid-strike.
"Yes, little girl, you are weak." With that, the Saiyajin gave Ranko a right hook that spun her around in mid air a few times before she fell to the ground beaten, battered, and unconscious.
Vegita picked Ranko up and held her under his arms for a moment before realizing just how small and light she really was. He'd never thought about it before. He just knew she was a good fighter, but here she was half his size and age, and so fragile looking, yet so powerful in her own right.
He scowled again and started walking for the temple grounds. It was Ranko's own fault for losing so quickly. Her body wasn't strong enough to fight someone like him. All the extra weight in her chest and then so skinny around the waist; it was a wonder he hadn't broken her already.
Vegita paused a moment as he walked up the temple steps when Ranko rolled more to her side and rested her head against his shoulder. So . . so . . He'll go easier on her next time so he can get more out of their sparring matches.
Yeah.
~
In this world there exist uncountable numbers of dualities. Here is life that moves and breathes, lies and rests, brings about creation and obliterates obstacles. Here is the ethics of beings, to cherish and obey, to scream and shout, honor and howl, hate, love, sex, infanticide. So many bright things have their darker faces that can influence the evils of others, but often so much more simply and carelessly.
Bipolar disorder, maniacal and melancholy with momentary peaks of kindness like a record that sometimes skips. Like all things, there are two directions to go at any time, all of which can be effected by outside forces.
To promote the darker fantasies in our dreams only requires a nudge in the right direction over the edge of the cliff. The rest is just enjoying the trip down as you scream for everything to just stop but the feeling you get as your heart pounds and pounds inside of your chest coaxing you into going just a little bit faster.
Ranko woke from her impromptu sparring break with a painful groan that circulated her body, settled in her toes, and then screamed up her spine to riot inside her head. The soft cotton sheets were abrasive against her raw skin. The pillow under her head seemed determined to strike at every accessible bruise at one time. Even the air that sliced through the healing cut in her lip was intent on boring holes through her lungs. Ranko coughed up something nasty as she attempted to get up.
Cell had struck her once in his complete form and if that mountain hadn't stopped her she might be feeling like this, but that was a hard thing to measure. No bones were broken, but her jaw could be fractured. No organs were perforated and bleeding into her body cavity, but they were certainly bruised. And on top of all of that, the scalp that was directly attached to her pigtail was sore and bleeding a bit.
Flexing her fists, Ranko grit her teeth and pulled herself out of the bed with a growl. She'd been beaten, utterly. Not some simple sparring match where she could blissfully convince herself that she could, at any time, end the fights she had with Vegita. Ranko was the greatest martial artist in the world and that meant little to nothing to a fighter of universal repute. She'd been beaten, and not by some amazing martial artist with a strange, arcane form of fighting, but by a common brawler, someone who looked as fighting as a means to an end.
Ranko breathed heavily through her nose as she glared at everything that crossed her eye. She ripped off the shredded Chinese clothes like they were offensive filth and donned one of the flexible Saiyajin armor suits that Vegita wore. She didn't care how snuggly it fit against her body or how well it held everything in place. There was no time to concern herself with the modesty the dead Tendou and her dead mother tried to instill within her. Instead, Ranko stepped into a pair of boots and got ready to find Vegita, forgetting for the moment her body should not have been able to leave the bed when it was so sore. Bruises and cuts heal. Bones mend with time. But the ignited fighting spirit within her required release NOW! Death maybe but a few steps away, maybe she would like a cup of tea?
"NO ONE CALLS ME WEAK, BASTARD!!"
With a negligent swipe of her hand, four clean cuts appeared in the door of her bedroom, which fell away in the same neat slices. On the other side, Vegita had stopped the hand holding a spoonful of food from entering his mouth to examine the tips of his hair, which had suddenly broken free and now rested on the ground behind him. He looked up to see Ranko. She donned one of his extra armors, what was left of her hair looked like a dead muskrat on her head, a large abrasion on the left side of her forehead that was still bleeding, as she was walking into the dining room, and he sneered, "Enjoy your beauty sleep?"
Ranko rushed towards him flinging the kitchen table out of the way and Vegita suddenly found himself clutched by the throat and lifted over the redhead by one of her dainty hands and the slammed painfully, against the kitchen wall. The once pigtailed redhead was now snarling at him with a feral grin on her face. Her eyes subtly grew a bit more yellow as her pupils were no longer the spherical shape it once was. There was a low rumble in her throat as she answered, "Yes, thanks for asking."
Ranko hissed, "Don't think you'll ever get a chance like that again." Her hands still on Vegita's throat with one hand, she dragged the fingers of her free hand over Vegita's right cheek, shallow cuts following her ki claws. "For the next eight months you will suffer like a newborn in a world of pain. This is my promise to you." With that, she dropped the Saiyan prince and walked to the corner of the kitchen.
The Saiyajin fell on his ass and stared up at the redhead across the room for a moment with a lost look on his face. "What was-"
As she stared down at the prince of a dead race, she felt her body tense up waiting to pounce at her victim. It had made her feel good to see Vegita surprised and then hurt. Impulsively, she brought her blood-covered fingertips to her mouth and licked them clean while staring straight into Vegita's eyes. Despite what had happened, he did not seem frightened or angry. He just lay there, unblinking, staring back up at her. His breathing became a metronome while he was sizing up the girl. Her muscles, obviously worn out were taught, while her eyes were narrower with a feral look as her pupils became a little more slit. Both locked in a stare of death waiting for the other to make his or her move.
She stood up. Ranko took a look around the room and noted the upended table and a few dishes filled with food scattered across the ground. It looked unsanitary. The pain deciding to take over for now, she walked over stiffly, Ranko kicked at the . . . stuff Vegita had been eating. "You call this food?" There looked to have been more than Vegita would normally eat.
Vegita didn't answer except to stand up and look over the mess.
"Asshole," Ranko muttered, limping towards the kitchen. "I can't eat that crap and I hurt too much to cook something decent." She walked over to the fridge for a moment and looked to see what there was to eat. She then returned with a package of raw shredded meat and a pitcher of water.
Vegita was still standing there, watching her, as blood from the raw meat covered her face and her hands, his eyebrows trying to furrow. She then took the whole pitcher and brought it to her mouth like an oversized mug and drank as water dribbled down the sides of her cheeks. While she was several minutes into her slow feast, Vegita spoke. "What did you mean, 'I'm dead'?"
Without slowing down, Ranko brushed the back of her hand over her mouth, feeling better with food in her stomach. "Just that."
His face became sterner. "How?"
Ranko raised both hands still bloody with bit of raw meat dripping from them, and formed a ball of energy so tightly compact that it resembled a solid red marble rather than the less substantial energy.
Vegita looked entirely unimpressed. "That little spark couldn't do anything."
"All I need is a spark," Ranko said with bloody grin. "I put my hands on either side of that thick skull of yours and send a thin stream of ki through your defensive aura, letting it gather in the back of your head."
Vegita still seemed unconcerned about the significance.
Leaving for the kitchen, Ranko returned with one of the watermelons she'd seen. Ranko grabbed it and headed for the edge of the temple. "A friend of mine had a similar technique except it only worked on rocks. With a finger, he directs a bit of ki into the stress lines of the rock and lets go. The rock explodes."
Vegita could see the potential of something like that.
"But since something like that can't be used against Cell, I had to think of a way to modify it." Ranko picked the watermelon up with both hands and held it in front of her. "Now imagine this is your head." She eyed the Saiyajin then looked back. "Only much fuller."
Vegita bristled slightly, but he wanted to see what Ranko was talking about.
Without saying anything more, Ranko let the thin strands of ki enter the watermelon, passing unhindered through its natural chi, and gather in the center. In a second, the back of the watermelon blew out, the soft fruit inside spraying across the white space floor.
"Why use brute strength," Ranko continued, slipping a hand inside the hole she'd made in the back of the watermelon and pulling out some of the fruit, "when I can kill with precision?"
Vegita watched the red liquid, either watermelon, or perhaps blood drip off Ranko's hand while she lifted the fruit to her mouth and ate. The symbolism was a little more disturbing now as he headed out into the white space.
"Leaving?"
Grunting, Vegita walked further off, mumbling to himself about needing to train harder.
Ranko smirked as she watched him leave. When she noticed she was still licking at her hand, she pulled it away and flexed it a bit. "Great. Sticky." She purred as she continued to lick her bloody hands. "Time for a bath!"
-
Hot baths were pure bliss after a long day of training. Ranko lounged against the rim of the furo and blessed the person who created this magical bath that always had warm, clean water. Holding in a short breath, Ranko sank into the water and rose back out slowly examined what was left of her hair. Not much, a bit long in the front, the ends were a bit singed. It was completely uneven though. She got up from her bath, not bothering to cover up and walked over to mirror.
She was a complete mess, bruises and gashes everywhere. Her hands started glowing with ki as she put it to her head and began burning off more hair until it looked like some of those guys her father made her fought wearing fatigues while on the training trip. Still dripping with water she walked back into the furo and dunked her head in again. It had gotten long, almost to her waist, over the months. She'd taken to braiding the whole thing and tying the end off with a shred of her red silk. She missed her hair, but she couldn't afford it being used against her again like that.
Still simmering in the bath, Ranko reflected on their training.
Recently, Vegita's training had been going pretty well. After suffering through all the beginning katas and learning a number of holds, throws, and tactics it was finally time to start learning the more advanced forms of Anything Goes. Vegita knew tactics, hell; Vegita was a master of finding a person's weakness and exploiting it for all it's worth. Ranko unconsciously rubbed her bruised forehead. But Vegita's main problem was his patience and his temper it took for advanced strategy.
He could still use some help with his flexibility, but she stopped pushing after the last time he attempted to do the splits. Ranko had never laughed so hard in her life.
In order to assess Vegita's level in the martial arts, some of the sparring session they had was kept to virtually no ki. Those sessions were probably the most brutal matches they had together. It was a mixture of hand-to-hand strikes coupled with grappling and using each other's momentum against themselves. Holds that would cripple even the strongest of fighters were used without remorse as they twisted and bent each other's limbs in ways limbs were not supposed to. Vegita has certainly come a long way since they started, but he was still focusing on brute strength rather then turning his opponent's strength upon themselves. As such, Ranko continuously exploited this fault.
"You're getting better," Ranko grudgingly admitted during their fight. Vegita didn't know any pressure points since they would be useless against someone like Cell, but he was making good use of joint locks and controlled blocks. "You might be able to take on some Girl Scouts." She added a few quick strikes to his floating rib, armpit, and then tossed him over her shoulder when he flinched at the hits.
Bouncing back up to his feet, Vegita jumped upwards, arcing back into a heel strike that Ranko only just side-stepped. "Not getting tired already, are you girl?"
Ducking under the follow up punch, Ranko grabbed a hold of Vegita's stationary left hand and pressed down in a Hapkkido lock that sent the man onto his butt. "Just fighting off the boredom."
Turning his hand, Vegita broke the lock and twisted until he was on top, kneeling between Ranko's legs and pinning her arms down by the wrists.
Ranko hadn't thought about it at the time, but Vegita's frame was quite large with all of his muscle that he nearly encompassed her small body completely. Hands on her wrists, face inches from her own, she could smell his sweat and feel the heat radiate off his body as they struggled against each other. Ranko lifted as high as she could with her arms, getting only an inch, then quickly pulling them to her sides.
As expected, Vegita fell forward without his arms to support him. Ranko struck his sides and then cursed herself. Unable to get in a good punch from her position, the blows to Vegita's side probably felt like baby taps. She could see if he was ticklish, but somehow Ranko doubted that.
So that's how it happened that Ranko ended up with Vegita lying between her spread legs, breasts mashed up against his chest.
Vegita cleared his throat and lifted himself back up, pulling his groin away from hers, "Finished?"
Blinking, Ranko stared up at Vegita and placed both hands against his chest. "Moko Takabisha."
"Wha-?!
Ranko looked back to where Vegita lie on his back, clothes smoking. "Stupid, never let up until you are sure the fight is finished." She then flew off for the temple to get some food. She felt unusually hungry.
--
Sighing at the memory, Ranko calmed herself down, her body slowly coming down from the adrenaline. Ranko felt a little dizzy as her senses still seemed hyper acute. Ranko closed her eyes, studying the world around her. She smelled her own scent mixed with Vegita's on her discarded battle armor. She smelled the blood that lingered when she first entered the room that was being flooded out by the steam. She heard impact collisions as Vegita practiced in the distance. She felt another barrier broken as she was drifting further and further into the Neko-ken. Despite the pain she was feeling, her body was on fire like it never felt before. She felt, she saw, she heard, she smelt, she tasted it in every single pore of her body and she reveled in it. This is what she needed to be.
She felt it beneath her skin, she was no longer a defender of the weak at the moment. She was a predator, a killer. It was a release of responsibility, a freedom that she never thought she would ever have or want.
She opened her now pit-shaped eyes with a hungry grin on her face. It was time for some fun!
Ranko stepped out of the bathtub once again. Her aura burned a blood red as steam rose from her glistening body. She yawned as she wrapped a towel around herself and absently grabbed the armored chest plate. She yawned lazily. "Maybe a nap first." And headed for her bedroom, dragging the armor wearing nothing but a towel.
~
The next morning, or whatever passed for one in the Chamber, Vegita was practicing a kata while thinking about the night before. What was going on with the girl? She shouldn't have been able to stand after what he did to her, and that power that she was radiating. What was it? She should have been completely drained from earlier. Maybe it was a new technique? Her ferocity made his blood boil. Vegita had to reevaluate the girl. He had to do that with her more then he ever had to with anyone else. Just when he thought he figured out the meaning behind the woman, she would completely catch him off guard. Perhaps this is the true power behind her style? One cannot hope to adapt to a style that is in constant state of flux, then how can one hope to conquer it? HA! Complete brilliance. But how does she do it? The style she used the night before was so unlike the style that she was using earlier. More, the two styles haven't even been blended with each other. They were two separate styles. The one before had dozens of styles that she blended to work together. But of the little that he saw last night was nothing he had seen before.
Vegita continued to think. He hadn't seen Ranko since the previous night; lost in thought he suddenly got a very bad feeling. He stopped what he was doing, expanding his senses. All around him was the never-ending whiteness of the room. His senses telling him nothing, but his body tensed in anticipation.
Vegita heard a low rumble behind him, but when he turned around he saw nothing. He knew he was about to be attacked, but he couldn't tell from where. Sweat beaded from his brow as he bared his teeth waiting for the initial attack. "WHERE ARE YOU GIRL?" Vegita yelled out into the white emptiness. "I KNOW YOU ARE HERE, SHOW YOURSELF." Again, nothing answered back.
"How does it feel?" asked a throaty voice from his left.
Vegita turned around to find nothing.
"How does it feel to be the one hunted, instead of the hunter?"
Vegita sent a blast of ki toward the direction of the voice to hit nothing.
"How many people died by your hand? How many begged for mercy on their knees before they were silenced forever?"
Vegita sent another powerful blast of ki only to hit more nothing.
"You have boasted that you have silenced whole planets, yet their voices speak to me. They scream out for vengeance."
Vegita was now sweating profusely. "Show yourself to me girl, this is no longer funny!"
In an instant, Ranko, or what he thought was Ranko appeared before him. She was wearing one of his spare suits, but her face was different. No longer the long red braid to waist, her hair was short, almost a red fuzzy fur-like orb. Her ears seemed almost pointed while she was crouched on the ground. "This was NEVER meant to be funny," she said in an almost quiet, raspy voice just before she leaped up at him and slashed with her hands at his face. Vegita felt blood drip from his cheek as Ranko was gone again.
"What is this that you are trying to prove?" cried out Vegita.
"I could you ask the same question," whispered a voice in Vegita's ear. "What is it that you are trying to prove?"
"I AM THE GREATEST WARRIOR EVER!" Vegita roared.
Vegita was suddenly pushed and landed on his back. On his chest was the crouching figure of the cat girl with her ki claws at his throat. "How can you be the greatest warrior, if you're dead?" Ranko purred as she stuck one of her claws deep into his shoulder. "Are you such a fool to think of yourself as the best? If you are so great, then what are you doing here with me?" Ranko whispered as she moved closer to Vegita's face, "what are you doing under me for that matter?" Her teeth seemed somehow longer and sharper to Vegita as she smiled. She leaned in close and licked the blood from Vegita's cheek. As quickly as she appeared, she disappeared, leaving Vegita alone with his thoughts.
~
Ranko appeared in the empty white void lost in thought. 'Why did I do that? How did I do that?' were among the questions she asked herself. For as powerful as she was, as quick a healer as she was, by all right she should have been laid up recovering for a few days. She should have been completely drained too. What was so different now? She looked at her callused hands, with a mere thought she brought her ki claws out. They weren't exactly what she expected them to be. They were of an ivory color with almost a solid consistency. She lifted up her left arm, and dragged one of her claws across it. A thin line of red appeared. Ranko seemed transfixed upon it. Instinctively she licked away of the blood, reveling in the metallic taste, and she realized, she didn't care. She was free.
The temporary fuzziness and confusion was lifting again and she purred. All she had to do was let go. Ranko had never even realized she was the one holding herself back before. The Neko-ken came so easily when she stopped trying to bottle it up.
Vegita was still resting on his back after she left, lost in deep thought. A slight wind blew, ruffling his hair though he didn't notice it. Something was going on with Ranko, she was more vicious than she usually was. Something Vegita could respect, but something just didn't seem right. Where did the girl get all of that power? She shouldn't have even been able to even walk, much less pull off what she just did. Things are definitely becoming more interesting.
Vegita got up off his ass and smiled to himself. 'So the girl thinks herself the huntress, eh? Let's see how much the kitty cat likes the hunt!' Vegita's aura exploded as he propelled himself up searching for the girl.
Ranko just finished developing the first kata of the nekoken for the Anything Goes School of Martial Arts and was currently cleaning the sweat off her brow. She arched her back as far as it would go and stretched out her claws. Ranko suddenly found a craving to lie down somewhere warm until her senses picked up a large ki signature heading her way.
~
Vegita looked down at the girl, her hands rubbing against her elven face before she turned and looked at him. Then she went back to rubbing her hand against her face in a most erotic, err... erratic way.
Sure, she may look cute and cuddly, but Vegita came here on business. Of course, his business dealt with pain.
"Well well, little girl, shall we dance this dance again? We both already know the outcome. Unfortunately I'm getting tired of dragging you carcass back to your bed every day. Oh well, what's one more time?"
Ranko was kneeling down on the ground, with her knees together and her feet spread apart. She lifted her head sideways to look at him from the corner of her eye. "If you're getting tired of dragging me back everyday, perhaps it should be my turn to return the favor?"
Vegita growled as he initiated the attack. He raced forth intending to let this drag out a little to repay her earlier actions. The fool girl was probably still weak from just a few hours ago. She shouldn't have been able to sustain as long as she did now.
Ranko just watched as Vegita's fist was heading straight towards her face not moving a single muscle. Before, there was always tenseness in her as she fought with Vegita, but now her body was relaxed. On the outside she may have appeared to be calm, but a fire, a power she had been grasping for within herself had awakened.
Deep inside, buried by her own fears, Ranko found her true calling. The cat craved to be free of her restraints and all she needed to do now was open the cage completely. Vegita had given her the clues with his transformation and now it was her turn. Before the punch could land, Ranko screamed in anger and ecstasy.
Vegita was hurled back as he felt the red and gold energy wash over him. He'd been unprepared for so much power from the little girl. But now, covered with red and gold flames, stood Ranko. Or rather, what should have been Ranko. She still wore the Saiyajin armor, but her ears were more pointed now, her hands were clawed with what seemed to be like tan fur growing on her forearms. Vegita blinked again. Since when did she have a tail?
End chapter Five
* * *
Author's notes-Kaz:
This has probably been the most difficult chapter to date, granted, some parts might be difficult to understand and perhaps even a bit gaudy in some other parts.
Some of you my turn your heads and say "Oh My" to this chapter, and pretend it doesn't exist if only so you can sleep soundly tonight and hope to wake up tomorrow morning as if nothing ever happened. Go on with your day as if the madness never touched you. But my friend, it is now apart of you. In your head screaming to get out, all you need is a nudge in the right direction to send you over the edge.
Wanna stop the ride and get off? Or do you want to go just a little bit faster?
Michael's Notes:
I don't know what Kaz is on, but the doctors assure me that he will get the help he needs.;)
I thought this chapter was a bit strange after all of the editing and rewriting, but I have to hand it to Kaz for coming up with this new twist. You may not see it yet, but we're adding depth! Seriously . . . okay, stop laughing. I know this is a DBZ crossover, but it can still have depth!
Send C&C to Michael at jehtek@hotmail.com or
Kaz at kazblah945@aol.com
Or Visit 'Temple of the Creative' at www.geocities.com/jehtek
Ja ne.
.
singing in the rain, just singing in the rain,
what a glorious feeling I'm happy again.
I'm laughing at clouds so dark up above.
The sun's in my heart and I'm ready for love.
Let the stormy clouds chase
Everyone from this place
COMEON WITH THE RAIN, I got a smile on my face
I walk down the lane, with a happy refrain
Just singin', singin' in the rain...
Just dancing in the rain,
I'm happy again
Just singing, dancing in the rain
A Chance Love Productions
Is proud to present
A Human Saiyajin
Chapter Five: Iron Monkey, Drunken Cat
Punch, punch, punchpunchpunch.
After a month of training, Vegita's fighting style was starting to get predictable, very predictable. He was obviously more accustomed to fighting people weaker than himself. Vegita could plow through anyone's defense by sheer force of strength and will. Not only that but he had the tenacity of a badger.
With such a straightforward style, Ranko countered with a lot of movement. She did not stand in one spot, nor did she attempt to match her strength with his. It would be foolishness, beyond arrogance to think that she would go down that easy. Her body bending in all sorts of ways and angles, Ranko evaded and parried through Vegita's attacks, tapping the overextended arm, twisting the convenient wrist. She was teaching him form, but it would be a long time before Vegita had her skill, just as it would be for her to gain his power, if ever.
Training in the Chamber of Space and Time dragged on for eternity and passed by far too quickly for Ranko to catch her breath. She'd never strained her muscles so hard before to simply stand, but it was all beginning to pay off. When she first entered the Chamber with Vegita it had taken everything Ranko had and more to simply spar with the Saiyajin for ten minutes, moving not even at half her normal speed. Of course, the bastard took full advantage of this to beat on her until she was black and blue all over. She had to take half the second week in the chamber just to recover from the first.
Though she was losing each sparring session, Ranko was having the time of her life. It was the thrill of sparring someone that pushed her far beyond her means at a time when she always had to restrain herself lest someone gets hurt. She felt no pain as her system flooded with adrenaline; beads of sweat form coursed down her brow. Her body raged with hormones in an attempt to overcome the insurmountable. To Ranko, this was the forbidden fruit. This was Saffron and Herb and Kirin to the 100th degree, and she was taking it in like fine wine.
By the time a month had passed, Ranko had regained her lost speed and strength and was bounding about the white space as she would normally in the real world. Vegita's training in the Anything Goes style had started long before, but without her learning curve for such things, Vegita was still a beginner in her estimates. Albeit a monstrously strong beginner capable of tearing her limb from limb if he wanted to, but a beginner none the less.
During this time, Ranko learned a lot about the Saiyajin fighting style, which wasn't really that much at all. Mainly straight attacks, evasions, and ki blasts. There was no subtlety to their Art; the style had the subtlety of a freight train and was just as easy to steer. The style was based on brute strength alone, understandable considering the amount of ki every Saiyajin is supposed to be able to generate. The ki was supposed to make up for any lack of skill by making the Saiyajin warriors tougher and faster than anything else. And for the most part it worked.
Ranko, however, demanded more. She was going to turn the untrained brute into a real fighting machine even if it killed her, which might not be too far off from the truth. At the moment, Ranko was collapsed on the ground after another few hours of sparring, having finally lost when Vegita used his ki. If ki wasn't a factor then Ranko could usually knock the Saiyajin around without much trouble. Unfortunately providence would not side with her on this one either. Vegita had to hold back a lot on his ki in order too learn, but his Saiyajin pride would never allow him defeat. So he would power up towards the end and leave Ranko battered and broken on the floor until she got up enough strength to crawl back to the temple.
At the moment, Vegita was crouched over her in a horse stance, the veins on his forehead starting to show. His hair flickered gold then black and his eyes swirled green until he reached some peak and the power washed over the area, leaving the transformed Saiyajin to glory in his greater power.
Sitting on her butt, Ranko put her head on her knees to study the transformation. "Why do you have to struggle so hard to go Super?"
"Your spirit has to be in perfect harmony in order to excite the change." Vegita was delivering the answers to her questions quicker once he began to learn from her. The suggestions she made had already improved his natural speed. She'd taught him how to begin to tighten his blasts, which had been wasting energy before. They were little things, but each piece was building a better whole.
Ranko snorted, "Your spirit is hardly harmonious."
Vegita grinned for a moment then scowled, responding in a more gruff voice. "Of course it is. My spirit only burns hatred for Kakorotto!"
"If you say so, but it looks like you just need to go to the bathroom." Vegita's face started to turn purple. Some things were forbidden territory, like his Saiyajin pride, were not to be joked over, a taboo, which Ranko liked to break frequently. Ranko was tired after the last few hours of training and sparring and looked for something to distract Vegita. "It looks more like an aura trigger."
It worked. Vegita's face cleared and he turned to face her, expecting to learn something new that he hadn't noticed. He could see all the same things Ranko did in a person's aura, but he didn't have the experience that came with her ki manipulation techniques to understand it all. He dropped out of Super. "What do you mean, girl?"
Staring hard, beyond Vegita's physical form, Ranko tried to explain. "Each time you go Super you are pooling energy into certain places in your body like you were flexing a muscle." She stood up to take a closer look at his aura. "Change over and let me take a look." He did so and Ranko was almost tossed onto her back. She flipped neatly in the air to land on her feet, grimacing at the new smirk on Vegita's face. She'd get him for that later. "Leave your power at the minimum you need to remain Super like Goku and Gohan were doing."
Again, Vegita did as he was told and tried to figure out what Ranko was getting to. His thoughts turned to Goku and Gohan from when the exited the Chamber of Space and Time. He barked in laughter, "That is what they were doing!" He turned a haughty sneer on Ranko to say he had figured everything out on his own. "Kakorotto and his brat were staying in their Super Saiyajin forms to decrease the amount of energy they need to cross over! Why hadn't I thought of that?!"
Ranko didn't respond, but continued to examine his aura as if he had never spoken at all. When she was finished, Ranko stood up and snorted in disgust. These Saiyajins were stupid. "That's what I thought, fools." She whispered to herself. "Because they got it wrong," she said out loud so Vegita could hear.
"What?" Vegita growled.
Ranko rapped Vegita on the head. It was a very Cologne thing to do that Ranko had gotten used to doing herself when teaching Vegita. It didn't help Vegita any, but it made it easier to deal with her stupid student. "Goku and Gohan were only half right. Staying in the Super form will reduce the amount of power you need to crossover and allow you to get used to that level, but they are also leaking power." As if to agree with her analysis, a golden flame leapt off of Vegita's shoulder. He still didn't get it and was starting to look a little irate. Ranko forged ahead before Vegita started ranting about women and their places. "Think of a straining muscle, like you were doing a half curl and then keeping it there."
Vegita crossed his arms over his chest and glared at her. "Becoming a Super Saiyajin is hardly comparable to a curl."
Again, Ranko tuned him out. "When you lift a new weight for the first time it feels heavy and it takes energy to hold it there until eventually your arm goes numb and you have to drop it."
"Kakorotto and his brat didn't look sore."
"You Saiyajins have a lot of strength to go through before reaching that point," Ranko pointed out. "Now take that same weight and start practicing those curls every day. Eventually you'll be able to pick it up and do a curl without feeling the weight anymore."
Vegita had to pause in his anger to consider this. It made some sense to him. Even before he became a Super Saiyajin he had to take a few moments to power up in his normal form until by the time he was ready to fight Freiza when it just came to him in an instant without trying. "So . . . you believe that the change can become like a reflex without a significant drop in power?" Ranko's analogy, though crude in respects to the might of a Super Saiyajin, seemed rather apt. Some practice and he will be able to keep most, if not all, the power he would normally drain in the transformation to Super. "That foolish Kakorotto. Once I've defeated Cell I shall defeat him as well. I will be the strongest of all Saiyajins!"
Ranko sighed and bopped Vegita on the head. "There's only four of you, ya dip."
~
Sitting by herself, Ranko flexed her hand and tried to imagine the ki claws sprouting out of her fingertips. Twice they had appeared when fighting with Cell, but the definitive 'how to' seemed to be fleeting. Although they couldn't do much against Cell's complete form, Ranko wanted to bring them out to see if she could somehow increase their strength.
So far nothing had come of her effort. There was something here she was missing and she knew it wasn't a fear of cats this time.
Blue wisps like strands of hair sneaked past her gaze.
She never stopped thinking about them.
While she trained, while she fought, when she ate, and when she slept, Ranko could see each and every one of her friends and family just outside of her perspective. The quiet pleas in their eyes, they looked so . . . so disappointed with her.
Ranko was working on new techniques to use against Cell when next she fought him. And she would fight him. She couldn't rely on things like the Hiryu Shouten Ha if they took so long to create. Cell's power, she wasn't likely to get that much time to pull off any technique, especially one that had proven as useless as the Dragon Ascension Punch. What she wanted was something that didn't rely on the opponent to create. It wasn't likely to do much damage, but it might give others some time to attack.
Off in the distance, somewhere as his mind was in a rage, Vegita was practicing the katas she had taught him. His control and precision were getting better, but he was not yet fluid.
The area burned with intense flames.
Ranko's area was a wasteland of her depression and solitude. She tried to keep up her spirits, hold onto her anger and determination to destroy Cell, but there was too much time to think in this place. Ranko tried to use the time constructively to improve upon old techniques and create new ones. Her ki reserves have already grown after all the time she spent training. She was stronger, more powerful than she'd ever been before, but she could feel something was holding her back. She could feel a whole new tier of power waiting at her finger tips but somehow unable to bring it forth. She could see it in her eyes, taste it in her lips, it was waiting for her and her only, begging her to be the instrument of her revenge. No matter how much it wanted to be used, and her wanting to use it, there was some sort of block barring her from it. Only then would she be able to keep the people she cared for safe.
But there wasn't anyone left to care for.
Ranko let the ki fade from her arms and stared at her own hand. With this hand she could defeat kings and princes, she could destroy the gods themselves if she wanted to. But against Cell, it wasn't enough, nothing she had would ever be enough. A memory of holding Akane hand in hand flashed through her mind which she quickly killed. If she concentrated too much her hatred would consume her. But wasn't that what she needed to do? Would it burn the cinders in her soul or would it eventually devour her very being. Thoughts like that were dangerous. Ranko longed for the time where she didn't have to think.
If things had gone differently, if Cell had never arrived, she'd still be a man, living with the Tendous. Ranko wanted to think that she would have given up and finally told Akane how she felt. It was all just stupid pride. It only got in the way of her happiness, destroyed other people's lives. Really, life was too short to waste on such trivial things. She should have known to grab onto the good things in her life and enjoyed them for as long as she could.
Better not think about it.
The area became colder. Ranko's arms shivered and she rubbed them to fight off the chill. Her breath came out in a white cloud that took its time to disappear. Her eyes downcast, Ranko could just make out the ice building up around her feet.
Locked away in ice. That would be as good as anything else she could do to fight Cell.
"HA!!!"
The ice fell away as Ranko dived to one side and avoided Vegita's sneak attack. "What the hell do you think you're doing?!" The power in his punch could have knocked her head off if he connected.
Vegita grunted, "You're getting stronger, faster than I expected."
"Whatever," Ranko muttered dejectedly, "just leave me alone."
"Why?" Vegita sneered at her. "So you can start crying like a girl? If you're going to be useless you might as well serve as my punching bag."
Ranko's blue eyes hardened to ice and she screamed, "Shove it, you jackass!" Ranko's form disappeared from sight, not even the emptiness of the white zone could single her out. She'd gotten much better at hiding.
Vegita was left there, staring at nothing. He expected her to attack, to start a new sparring session, but this time she was just gone. He tried to feel for her, but Ranko could best this detection now. She couldn't enter his corona of power, but anywhere else she was as good as gone.
Brushing aside the curtain to the room she used as her bedroom, Ranko let go of the invisibility technique and shambled over to the bed. Outside she could hear Vegita's cursing and the quicker ascension to Super, but pushed it aside and buried herself beneath the sheets.
Heartache came when life lost direction. Ranko curled herself up and squeezed a pillow against her chest. Staring at the blank wall in her room she thought of walking down a long corridor with the door shut at the end of the hall. There was nothing to walk towards. All of this training wasn't going to do her any good. Sure she could train Vegita to defeat Cell, but she questioned whether or not he could actually do it. Training herself seemed like an even bigger waste of time the more she did it. Her power was really insignificant in this battle. At the rate she was going it would take her a million years to get up to a level that could even challenge Cell. Just being as good as Herb wasn't going to do much since she could defeat the Musk prince before any of this training had started.
What was she fighting for anyway? Even if she did somehow win, what would that get her? Everyone would still be dead, she would still be a girl, and she would still have failed in her duties as a martial artist.
Anger, depression; Ranko had been pulling off Shi Shi Hokodans with ease since this training had begun. On other days she was tossing around ki balls made with anger. The change in her aura from day to day was sometimes so rapid that it would throw off her senses. Ranko didn't need Dr. Tofu around to tell her that this was not good. This instability was eventually going to wear down on her body and mind. She would start losing control of her own aura and likely end up burning herself out. Or maybe up?
Ryouga had done this to himself, Ranko thought.
She felt bad now about teasing Ryouga even if he deserved it for being an asshole. The taunting had been part of her fighting style to blind her opponents with rage, but now she knew the Lost Boy truly had been suffering because of it, even outside of the fights. Every time he returned to Nerima he looked wasted and then he would need to camp out somewhere and work on just his rage to steady himself. The focus on one emotion was what led Ryouga to attacking Ranma blindly the first chance he got, but it was also a temporary fix for a boy who had been going through hell.
Ranko blinked. Was this somehow like a drug she was addicted to? That Ryouga was addicted to? As long as you feed on your own depression, in a sick twisted way it made you feel good because at least it was something that was feeding you. Ranko shook her head. Maybe this was something to think about later?
Ranko needed something to focus on now. She needed something or she was going to fall apart either mentally or physically. Maybe both.
Vegita pulled aside the curtain to look into her room. "What do you think you're doing?" he demanded.
Rather than answer, Ranko curled herself up further and closed her eyes.
The sound of someone snorting and then her blanket being pulled away brought her back.
"Hey! What if I had been naked?!"
"That would have been your problem. You're wasting more of my time with this childish behavior. You're supposed to be training me because you're too weak to fight Cell yourself."
Ranko glared at the older man. "You can't tell me what to do!"
"And what are you going to do?" He smirked. "Whine at me?"
Screaming with hatred, Ranko launched herself at the Saiyajin. He dodged backwards until they were standing in the middle of the white zone. She was so angry at the obnoxious asshole. Couldn't he see that she was upset? She hadn't even been able to bury the bodies of her loved ones! Their souls were probably hungry ghosts wandering around the ruin that used to be Nerima. And all this jerk could think of was his stupid training?! Vegita was a bastard just like her father was! 'No matter whatever else that might happen, there is always the training, the art.'
The fight that followed went on for a long time. Ranko decided to forego the usual build up method of their sparring matches and went straight to her best techniques. She wanted to make the Saiyajin warrior suffer. Kicks and punches, throws and shiatsu points, ki blasts and her father's forbidden techniques, Ranko used them all. She had the satisfaction to see a good number of them slice or paralyze Vegita as they fought. Ranko vowed that his blood would flow like a broken faucet. He'd be sorry he messed with her then!
The temple grounds shuddered from time to time, lit up with the glow of battle auras. Chairs tipped over when some of the larger blasts Ranko and Vegita were tossing around struck the floor of white space. Both were moving fast, not blindingly so, but they were moving at Ranko's top speed. The Chestnut Fist moved beyond the sound barriers causing sounds like thunder to ripple across the area.
In a final moment, Vegita yelled and the area went golden. It lasted only a moment and then it was all over.
Vegita returned to Ranko's bedroom again. Her body was slumped over unconscious on his shoulder. Vegita carelessly tossed her onto her bed and turned to leave. Glanceing back, Vegita carefully pulled the covers back up to her neck pulled back the sheets, before turning to leave her room once again. Without saying anything, the Super Saiyajin smirked and returned to the white space to continue his training.
~
Their fight was beginning to escalate again.
Vegita came in with a higher ki level intending to land some faster punches against Ranko's face.
Their sparring session had been going like this for the past few weeks. They began with pure skill, an area in which Ranko always took the lead. Slowly the power would begin to build in a crescendo, as Vegita's frustration would grow. After Ranko stood on his head and punched down into his face while still skipping out of the way of his retaliation, Vegita finally had enough. His aura exploded outwards and he attacked anew.
Ranko could still keep up fairly well. Vegita certainly got in more hits after a while, but so far she was giving as good as she got. If she chose to open up her truly powerful techniques, like those used against Cell, then Ranko might still be in the lead, but this was only sparring. That, and Vegita might decide he could use his powerful techniques too. Ranko's arms still hurt from trying to block one of the Saiyajins ki blasts the day before, and that had been one of the smaller ones.
Vegita tossed one just then. Standing on his head must have made him angrier than Ranko thought it would.
It sped across the area fast, but Ranko was able to twist out of the way in time and roll across the ground to come up with an overhead lob of her own ki blast. Vegita must not have been expecting it because it smacked him right across the face.
Hadn't he learned to expect the unexpected yet? It was a precept of the Anything Goes style.
Wanting to catch him before he could recover, Ranko rushed across the area to follow up with a flying sidekick and maybe catch a paralysis point on passing. Unfortunately Ranko's foot passed straight through what must have been Vegita's after image.
Ranko rolled out of her fall to glare at the man floating in the air. "Hey! That's not fair!"
Raising his hand and forming another ki blast, "Anything goes." Vegita said with a smirk, before firing off the blast of ki.
God he pissed her off.
The ki blasts exploded in light that temporarily blocked Vegita's view of what would be his unconscious sensei. As he made his superior smirk, the energy began to dissolve and open up the empty white space. "What?"
"Oh, Vegita-kun."
He turned to the voice that came from above him in time to catch a small heel right between the eyes. "Dammit, girl." He scowled and fell back a few feet in the air.
Ranko smiled nicely while she pummeled Vegita's unprotected stomach with her Chestnut Fist. He grunted and bent over a ways in discomfort.
Flying, Ranko discovered, was more complex than she thought. Back when she was fighting against Herb, Ranko suspected it took a great deal of energy to keep a person up in the air since Herb could only float for a little while at a time as his aura blazed about him.
Though Ranko was nearer to Herb's level of power now, the ability to fly did not require as much energy as he or the Z fighters used. They used it like controlled explosion hurling them forward.
Ranko had thought of it while practicing with her ki blasts. She pooled a ball of energy together in her hands and tossed it off. With enough will, comparable to the distance it, the ki blast, had traveled Ranko could control the attack and even direct it around objects. It was much easier to do at close range, like less than a foot when she tried juggling it without her hands. Taking that into account, Ranko imagined a ball of energy inside her body and then thought of it lifting into the air. This must also have been how everyone else thought of it. While leaving to fight Cell with Trunks, the boy's aura had flared like a ball until he took off and then it gained a tail like a comet.
The problem with this was the excess area a ball had and thus extra energy bleed off and wind resistance. Ki, apparently, could act as both energy and semi-solid. Semi-solids like Akane's mallets.
Not wanting to wait for the extra power she needed, Ranko looked for a better way to fly. What she ended up with was a new technique she liked to call the Slipstream. While flying she would push two vacuum blades ahead of herself. The tail of the traveling vacuum would act like a tunnel and all Ranko needed to do was use enough ki to fit the tunnel and then slide across the sky. Her speed depended upon how fast she pushed at the vacuum, which would drag her along. In essence, Ranko was siphoning herself through a ki-vacuum.
Of course, it was only good for straight-aways, but she was working on that. But the advantage was that she could go VERY fast if she wanted to.
It took Vegita several seconds to get over the surprise and then bring up his guard. By that time Ranko had delivered a dozen hard blows and a few paralysis points. He was lucky that they were mostly all she could do considering they were the easiest to see without training. His arms had been slowed down enough that he would need to raise his power rating to keep up with the speeding redhead.
A long time ago, months really, but it felt like longer, Vegita had discovered that Ranko's particularly style of martial arts was devoted to mid air combat. He hadn't thought much of it considering he could fly. Even before she had learned this ability, Ranko had nearly dominated the fights in the air as well. Vegita wanted that skill. With his power, the new focus Ranko was training him in for his ki, and that skill, Vegita would be unbeatable. The only problem was the training. He'd trained hard before, but never quite the way Ranko's Anything Goes Style demanded.
Things got a little more difficult for the Saiyajin as he discovered what a master of the Anything Goes style can do with the ability to fly.
Ranko swiveled in the air to avoid a kick to end up with her knee planted in Vegita's face. She forced him back onto the ground with that hit. "Tell me when I'm too much for you, Vegita, and we'll take a break," Ranko said with false sweetness.
Vegita returned with an uppercut that came close to connecting with Ranko's stomach as she slid to one side. She moved outside of his reach when he threw a front kick and then turned it into a sliding sidekick. Growling, "Like a weak little girl could hurt me."
"That's right," Ranko nodded sagely and ducked a knife hand strike, "the great Vegita is better than the average monkey."
Eye twitching, Vegita lost sight the redhead as she went under a turning kick to strike upwards at another paralysis point on his thigh. He floated backwards, right leg hanging uselessly for the moment. "Just tell me when you want me to stop holding back," he grinned as she started to steam. "Women like you are delicate and I wouldn't want you to chip a nail."
"We'll see who chips a nail!" Ranko shouted back and zipped into the air while launching an angry ki blast ahead of her.
Smirking, Vegita batted the blast aside with one hand and threw a punch with the other.
Ranko struck down on Vegita's temple from the side, having anticipated the Saiyajin's counterattack. "That was pathetic, Vegita. You only use that maneuver every time and it's only worked once!"
Shaking his head, Vegita turned to Ranko and glared at her while powering up a little bit more. Mock his fighting prowess will she?! "You are so uncute!"
". . ." Ranko blinked and missed the incoming fist to her gut. She flew backwards several meters before she could stop herself in the air. "PREPARE TO DIE, VEGITA!"
The courtyard shook again as volleys of ki blasts were shared between the combatants. Moving faster than before, Ranko began to blur from view as she flew about the area. Vegita kept up, ducking, blocking, and attacking. Like other times, he began to build up more power, his aura held as tightly as he could keep it. Vegita hated losing, and though he yet to lose in their sparring sessions, he knew the number of attacks Ranko was still getting in at this faster pace meant she could have finished things with her deadlier techniques. He had to get better, to have that skill!
"RAAH!" Vegita's blue aura flamed about his body. Separating from the close-quarters battle he was having with Ranko, Vegita began shooting off another dozen ki blasts, stronger than before.
Ranko barely dodged out of the way of a few of them and had her shoulder grazed by the last. Angry at being struck, Ranko growled back at the older man, "We can both play that game, monkey!" Making sweeping gestures with her arms, Ranko sent of a number of vacuum blades in retaliation.
Jumping high, then skipping to the side, Vegita wound his way around the more advanced ki attacks. He was quickly getting closer to the stationary Ranko, then charged her from the side after blurring from in front, a vacuum blade cutting his afterimage in half. "Now I win!"
Seeing the fist coming at her from the left, Ranko twisted in the air until she was upside down with her hands on either side of Vegita's head. He looked up at her and she smiled, "Now you're dead."
Vegita didn't like that at all.
"HA!" Vegita's golden aura exploded outward and knocked Ranko backwards. He struck her from behind before she could get too far, sending the girl plummeting into the ground. Without thinking, Vegita followed through with a number of his Super Saiyajin strength ki blasts that knocked the frantically dodging Ranko about the white zone.
Ranko flew once more through the air after the last blast and was, by this time, feeling a little disoriented. Her back hurt from the hammer fist Vegita had given her, and a bruise was growing over her left cheek from hitting the floor. Dazed, Ranko blinked at the sky as she flew backwards, it was all white, a dream-like peacefulness.
That is, until Super Vegita appeared above her and struck down into her face to send her barreling into the ground once again.
How dare she say that, Vegita thought angrily. Call him weak?! Belittle the Saiyajins?! Tell him he was DEAD?! I think NOT!!
Vegita was intent on driving home the idea that he was unbeatable into the redhead's pretty face. He sped behind her to strike with a knee in her back that made her grunt. Taking a hold of the pigtail, Vegita swung the small body over his shoulder and slammed her face down into the ground.
As he stood and waited for her to move, Vegita swore vile oaths against the redhead. He'd take her skill and add it to his power and then nothing would stand in his way! "Get up already, girl! We don't have time to sleep all day long!"
No response.
Vegita growled impatiently and then reached down to pull Ranko up by her pigtail. Her face was bruised and blood was running out of her nose and mouth. Some of her clothing was scorched from the ki battle. Ranko simply hung in his grip, useless and unresponsive. The smooth tanned skin bore patches of black and blue. One of her eyes looked to be swelling slightly. Her pouting red lips had a cut on one side, and the blood was rolling down over her chin to drop onto the floor.
"Weak," Vegita thought haughtily and then powered down. He was still holding her by the pigtail when her hands suddenly burned with ki, she moved her fingers through her hair burning through the means of her captor. Vegita looked stupefied that anyone would do such a thing to them self as a vicious roundhouse kick met his unguarded ribs.
Vegita stepped back and grunted as Ranko followed up with punch after punch. "Weak, am I? A little girl, am I," Ranko yelled out. "I'm sick and tired of people telling me what I am and am not capable of." Ranko sent another roundhouse kick to Vegita's head, which was caught by the Saiyajin in mid-strike.
"Yes, little girl, you are weak." With that, the Saiyajin gave Ranko a right hook that spun her around in mid air a few times before she fell to the ground beaten, battered, and unconscious.
Vegita picked Ranko up and held her under his arms for a moment before realizing just how small and light she really was. He'd never thought about it before. He just knew she was a good fighter, but here she was half his size and age, and so fragile looking, yet so powerful in her own right.
He scowled again and started walking for the temple grounds. It was Ranko's own fault for losing so quickly. Her body wasn't strong enough to fight someone like him. All the extra weight in her chest and then so skinny around the waist; it was a wonder he hadn't broken her already.
Vegita paused a moment as he walked up the temple steps when Ranko rolled more to her side and rested her head against his shoulder. So . . so . . He'll go easier on her next time so he can get more out of their sparring matches.
Yeah.
~
In this world there exist uncountable numbers of dualities. Here is life that moves and breathes, lies and rests, brings about creation and obliterates obstacles. Here is the ethics of beings, to cherish and obey, to scream and shout, honor and howl, hate, love, sex, infanticide. So many bright things have their darker faces that can influence the evils of others, but often so much more simply and carelessly.
Bipolar disorder, maniacal and melancholy with momentary peaks of kindness like a record that sometimes skips. Like all things, there are two directions to go at any time, all of which can be effected by outside forces.
To promote the darker fantasies in our dreams only requires a nudge in the right direction over the edge of the cliff. The rest is just enjoying the trip down as you scream for everything to just stop but the feeling you get as your heart pounds and pounds inside of your chest coaxing you into going just a little bit faster.
Ranko woke from her impromptu sparring break with a painful groan that circulated her body, settled in her toes, and then screamed up her spine to riot inside her head. The soft cotton sheets were abrasive against her raw skin. The pillow under her head seemed determined to strike at every accessible bruise at one time. Even the air that sliced through the healing cut in her lip was intent on boring holes through her lungs. Ranko coughed up something nasty as she attempted to get up.
Cell had struck her once in his complete form and if that mountain hadn't stopped her she might be feeling like this, but that was a hard thing to measure. No bones were broken, but her jaw could be fractured. No organs were perforated and bleeding into her body cavity, but they were certainly bruised. And on top of all of that, the scalp that was directly attached to her pigtail was sore and bleeding a bit.
Flexing her fists, Ranko grit her teeth and pulled herself out of the bed with a growl. She'd been beaten, utterly. Not some simple sparring match where she could blissfully convince herself that she could, at any time, end the fights she had with Vegita. Ranko was the greatest martial artist in the world and that meant little to nothing to a fighter of universal repute. She'd been beaten, and not by some amazing martial artist with a strange, arcane form of fighting, but by a common brawler, someone who looked as fighting as a means to an end.
Ranko breathed heavily through her nose as she glared at everything that crossed her eye. She ripped off the shredded Chinese clothes like they were offensive filth and donned one of the flexible Saiyajin armor suits that Vegita wore. She didn't care how snuggly it fit against her body or how well it held everything in place. There was no time to concern herself with the modesty the dead Tendou and her dead mother tried to instill within her. Instead, Ranko stepped into a pair of boots and got ready to find Vegita, forgetting for the moment her body should not have been able to leave the bed when it was so sore. Bruises and cuts heal. Bones mend with time. But the ignited fighting spirit within her required release NOW! Death maybe but a few steps away, maybe she would like a cup of tea?
"NO ONE CALLS ME WEAK, BASTARD!!"
With a negligent swipe of her hand, four clean cuts appeared in the door of her bedroom, which fell away in the same neat slices. On the other side, Vegita had stopped the hand holding a spoonful of food from entering his mouth to examine the tips of his hair, which had suddenly broken free and now rested on the ground behind him. He looked up to see Ranko. She donned one of his extra armors, what was left of her hair looked like a dead muskrat on her head, a large abrasion on the left side of her forehead that was still bleeding, as she was walking into the dining room, and he sneered, "Enjoy your beauty sleep?"
Ranko rushed towards him flinging the kitchen table out of the way and Vegita suddenly found himself clutched by the throat and lifted over the redhead by one of her dainty hands and the slammed painfully, against the kitchen wall. The once pigtailed redhead was now snarling at him with a feral grin on her face. Her eyes subtly grew a bit more yellow as her pupils were no longer the spherical shape it once was. There was a low rumble in her throat as she answered, "Yes, thanks for asking."
Ranko hissed, "Don't think you'll ever get a chance like that again." Her hands still on Vegita's throat with one hand, she dragged the fingers of her free hand over Vegita's right cheek, shallow cuts following her ki claws. "For the next eight months you will suffer like a newborn in a world of pain. This is my promise to you." With that, she dropped the Saiyan prince and walked to the corner of the kitchen.
The Saiyajin fell on his ass and stared up at the redhead across the room for a moment with a lost look on his face. "What was-"
As she stared down at the prince of a dead race, she felt her body tense up waiting to pounce at her victim. It had made her feel good to see Vegita surprised and then hurt. Impulsively, she brought her blood-covered fingertips to her mouth and licked them clean while staring straight into Vegita's eyes. Despite what had happened, he did not seem frightened or angry. He just lay there, unblinking, staring back up at her. His breathing became a metronome while he was sizing up the girl. Her muscles, obviously worn out were taught, while her eyes were narrower with a feral look as her pupils became a little more slit. Both locked in a stare of death waiting for the other to make his or her move.
She stood up. Ranko took a look around the room and noted the upended table and a few dishes filled with food scattered across the ground. It looked unsanitary. The pain deciding to take over for now, she walked over stiffly, Ranko kicked at the . . . stuff Vegita had been eating. "You call this food?" There looked to have been more than Vegita would normally eat.
Vegita didn't answer except to stand up and look over the mess.
"Asshole," Ranko muttered, limping towards the kitchen. "I can't eat that crap and I hurt too much to cook something decent." She walked over to the fridge for a moment and looked to see what there was to eat. She then returned with a package of raw shredded meat and a pitcher of water.
Vegita was still standing there, watching her, as blood from the raw meat covered her face and her hands, his eyebrows trying to furrow. She then took the whole pitcher and brought it to her mouth like an oversized mug and drank as water dribbled down the sides of her cheeks. While she was several minutes into her slow feast, Vegita spoke. "What did you mean, 'I'm dead'?"
Without slowing down, Ranko brushed the back of her hand over her mouth, feeling better with food in her stomach. "Just that."
His face became sterner. "How?"
Ranko raised both hands still bloody with bit of raw meat dripping from them, and formed a ball of energy so tightly compact that it resembled a solid red marble rather than the less substantial energy.
Vegita looked entirely unimpressed. "That little spark couldn't do anything."
"All I need is a spark," Ranko said with bloody grin. "I put my hands on either side of that thick skull of yours and send a thin stream of ki through your defensive aura, letting it gather in the back of your head."
Vegita still seemed unconcerned about the significance.
Leaving for the kitchen, Ranko returned with one of the watermelons she'd seen. Ranko grabbed it and headed for the edge of the temple. "A friend of mine had a similar technique except it only worked on rocks. With a finger, he directs a bit of ki into the stress lines of the rock and lets go. The rock explodes."
Vegita could see the potential of something like that.
"But since something like that can't be used against Cell, I had to think of a way to modify it." Ranko picked the watermelon up with both hands and held it in front of her. "Now imagine this is your head." She eyed the Saiyajin then looked back. "Only much fuller."
Vegita bristled slightly, but he wanted to see what Ranko was talking about.
Without saying anything more, Ranko let the thin strands of ki enter the watermelon, passing unhindered through its natural chi, and gather in the center. In a second, the back of the watermelon blew out, the soft fruit inside spraying across the white space floor.
"Why use brute strength," Ranko continued, slipping a hand inside the hole she'd made in the back of the watermelon and pulling out some of the fruit, "when I can kill with precision?"
Vegita watched the red liquid, either watermelon, or perhaps blood drip off Ranko's hand while she lifted the fruit to her mouth and ate. The symbolism was a little more disturbing now as he headed out into the white space.
"Leaving?"
Grunting, Vegita walked further off, mumbling to himself about needing to train harder.
Ranko smirked as she watched him leave. When she noticed she was still licking at her hand, she pulled it away and flexed it a bit. "Great. Sticky." She purred as she continued to lick her bloody hands. "Time for a bath!"
-
Hot baths were pure bliss after a long day of training. Ranko lounged against the rim of the furo and blessed the person who created this magical bath that always had warm, clean water. Holding in a short breath, Ranko sank into the water and rose back out slowly examined what was left of her hair. Not much, a bit long in the front, the ends were a bit singed. It was completely uneven though. She got up from her bath, not bothering to cover up and walked over to mirror.
She was a complete mess, bruises and gashes everywhere. Her hands started glowing with ki as she put it to her head and began burning off more hair until it looked like some of those guys her father made her fought wearing fatigues while on the training trip. Still dripping with water she walked back into the furo and dunked her head in again. It had gotten long, almost to her waist, over the months. She'd taken to braiding the whole thing and tying the end off with a shred of her red silk. She missed her hair, but she couldn't afford it being used against her again like that.
Still simmering in the bath, Ranko reflected on their training.
Recently, Vegita's training had been going pretty well. After suffering through all the beginning katas and learning a number of holds, throws, and tactics it was finally time to start learning the more advanced forms of Anything Goes. Vegita knew tactics, hell; Vegita was a master of finding a person's weakness and exploiting it for all it's worth. Ranko unconsciously rubbed her bruised forehead. But Vegita's main problem was his patience and his temper it took for advanced strategy.
He could still use some help with his flexibility, but she stopped pushing after the last time he attempted to do the splits. Ranko had never laughed so hard in her life.
In order to assess Vegita's level in the martial arts, some of the sparring session they had was kept to virtually no ki. Those sessions were probably the most brutal matches they had together. It was a mixture of hand-to-hand strikes coupled with grappling and using each other's momentum against themselves. Holds that would cripple even the strongest of fighters were used without remorse as they twisted and bent each other's limbs in ways limbs were not supposed to. Vegita has certainly come a long way since they started, but he was still focusing on brute strength rather then turning his opponent's strength upon themselves. As such, Ranko continuously exploited this fault.
"You're getting better," Ranko grudgingly admitted during their fight. Vegita didn't know any pressure points since they would be useless against someone like Cell, but he was making good use of joint locks and controlled blocks. "You might be able to take on some Girl Scouts." She added a few quick strikes to his floating rib, armpit, and then tossed him over her shoulder when he flinched at the hits.
Bouncing back up to his feet, Vegita jumped upwards, arcing back into a heel strike that Ranko only just side-stepped. "Not getting tired already, are you girl?"
Ducking under the follow up punch, Ranko grabbed a hold of Vegita's stationary left hand and pressed down in a Hapkkido lock that sent the man onto his butt. "Just fighting off the boredom."
Turning his hand, Vegita broke the lock and twisted until he was on top, kneeling between Ranko's legs and pinning her arms down by the wrists.
Ranko hadn't thought about it at the time, but Vegita's frame was quite large with all of his muscle that he nearly encompassed her small body completely. Hands on her wrists, face inches from her own, she could smell his sweat and feel the heat radiate off his body as they struggled against each other. Ranko lifted as high as she could with her arms, getting only an inch, then quickly pulling them to her sides.
As expected, Vegita fell forward without his arms to support him. Ranko struck his sides and then cursed herself. Unable to get in a good punch from her position, the blows to Vegita's side probably felt like baby taps. She could see if he was ticklish, but somehow Ranko doubted that.
So that's how it happened that Ranko ended up with Vegita lying between her spread legs, breasts mashed up against his chest.
Vegita cleared his throat and lifted himself back up, pulling his groin away from hers, "Finished?"
Blinking, Ranko stared up at Vegita and placed both hands against his chest. "Moko Takabisha."
"Wha-?!
Ranko looked back to where Vegita lie on his back, clothes smoking. "Stupid, never let up until you are sure the fight is finished." She then flew off for the temple to get some food. She felt unusually hungry.
--
Sighing at the memory, Ranko calmed herself down, her body slowly coming down from the adrenaline. Ranko felt a little dizzy as her senses still seemed hyper acute. Ranko closed her eyes, studying the world around her. She smelled her own scent mixed with Vegita's on her discarded battle armor. She smelled the blood that lingered when she first entered the room that was being flooded out by the steam. She heard impact collisions as Vegita practiced in the distance. She felt another barrier broken as she was drifting further and further into the Neko-ken. Despite the pain she was feeling, her body was on fire like it never felt before. She felt, she saw, she heard, she smelt, she tasted it in every single pore of her body and she reveled in it. This is what she needed to be.
She felt it beneath her skin, she was no longer a defender of the weak at the moment. She was a predator, a killer. It was a release of responsibility, a freedom that she never thought she would ever have or want.
She opened her now pit-shaped eyes with a hungry grin on her face. It was time for some fun!
Ranko stepped out of the bathtub once again. Her aura burned a blood red as steam rose from her glistening body. She yawned as she wrapped a towel around herself and absently grabbed the armored chest plate. She yawned lazily. "Maybe a nap first." And headed for her bedroom, dragging the armor wearing nothing but a towel.
~
The next morning, or whatever passed for one in the Chamber, Vegita was practicing a kata while thinking about the night before. What was going on with the girl? She shouldn't have been able to stand after what he did to her, and that power that she was radiating. What was it? She should have been completely drained from earlier. Maybe it was a new technique? Her ferocity made his blood boil. Vegita had to reevaluate the girl. He had to do that with her more then he ever had to with anyone else. Just when he thought he figured out the meaning behind the woman, she would completely catch him off guard. Perhaps this is the true power behind her style? One cannot hope to adapt to a style that is in constant state of flux, then how can one hope to conquer it? HA! Complete brilliance. But how does she do it? The style she used the night before was so unlike the style that she was using earlier. More, the two styles haven't even been blended with each other. They were two separate styles. The one before had dozens of styles that she blended to work together. But of the little that he saw last night was nothing he had seen before.
Vegita continued to think. He hadn't seen Ranko since the previous night; lost in thought he suddenly got a very bad feeling. He stopped what he was doing, expanding his senses. All around him was the never-ending whiteness of the room. His senses telling him nothing, but his body tensed in anticipation.
Vegita heard a low rumble behind him, but when he turned around he saw nothing. He knew he was about to be attacked, but he couldn't tell from where. Sweat beaded from his brow as he bared his teeth waiting for the initial attack. "WHERE ARE YOU GIRL?" Vegita yelled out into the white emptiness. "I KNOW YOU ARE HERE, SHOW YOURSELF." Again, nothing answered back.
"How does it feel?" asked a throaty voice from his left.
Vegita turned around to find nothing.
"How does it feel to be the one hunted, instead of the hunter?"
Vegita sent a blast of ki toward the direction of the voice to hit nothing.
"How many people died by your hand? How many begged for mercy on their knees before they were silenced forever?"
Vegita sent another powerful blast of ki only to hit more nothing.
"You have boasted that you have silenced whole planets, yet their voices speak to me. They scream out for vengeance."
Vegita was now sweating profusely. "Show yourself to me girl, this is no longer funny!"
In an instant, Ranko, or what he thought was Ranko appeared before him. She was wearing one of his spare suits, but her face was different. No longer the long red braid to waist, her hair was short, almost a red fuzzy fur-like orb. Her ears seemed almost pointed while she was crouched on the ground. "This was NEVER meant to be funny," she said in an almost quiet, raspy voice just before she leaped up at him and slashed with her hands at his face. Vegita felt blood drip from his cheek as Ranko was gone again.
"What is this that you are trying to prove?" cried out Vegita.
"I could you ask the same question," whispered a voice in Vegita's ear. "What is it that you are trying to prove?"
"I AM THE GREATEST WARRIOR EVER!" Vegita roared.
Vegita was suddenly pushed and landed on his back. On his chest was the crouching figure of the cat girl with her ki claws at his throat. "How can you be the greatest warrior, if you're dead?" Ranko purred as she stuck one of her claws deep into his shoulder. "Are you such a fool to think of yourself as the best? If you are so great, then what are you doing here with me?" Ranko whispered as she moved closer to Vegita's face, "what are you doing under me for that matter?" Her teeth seemed somehow longer and sharper to Vegita as she smiled. She leaned in close and licked the blood from Vegita's cheek. As quickly as she appeared, she disappeared, leaving Vegita alone with his thoughts.
~
Ranko appeared in the empty white void lost in thought. 'Why did I do that? How did I do that?' were among the questions she asked herself. For as powerful as she was, as quick a healer as she was, by all right she should have been laid up recovering for a few days. She should have been completely drained too. What was so different now? She looked at her callused hands, with a mere thought she brought her ki claws out. They weren't exactly what she expected them to be. They were of an ivory color with almost a solid consistency. She lifted up her left arm, and dragged one of her claws across it. A thin line of red appeared. Ranko seemed transfixed upon it. Instinctively she licked away of the blood, reveling in the metallic taste, and she realized, she didn't care. She was free.
The temporary fuzziness and confusion was lifting again and she purred. All she had to do was let go. Ranko had never even realized she was the one holding herself back before. The Neko-ken came so easily when she stopped trying to bottle it up.
Vegita was still resting on his back after she left, lost in deep thought. A slight wind blew, ruffling his hair though he didn't notice it. Something was going on with Ranko, she was more vicious than she usually was. Something Vegita could respect, but something just didn't seem right. Where did the girl get all of that power? She shouldn't have even been able to even walk, much less pull off what she just did. Things are definitely becoming more interesting.
Vegita got up off his ass and smiled to himself. 'So the girl thinks herself the huntress, eh? Let's see how much the kitty cat likes the hunt!' Vegita's aura exploded as he propelled himself up searching for the girl.
Ranko just finished developing the first kata of the nekoken for the Anything Goes School of Martial Arts and was currently cleaning the sweat off her brow. She arched her back as far as it would go and stretched out her claws. Ranko suddenly found a craving to lie down somewhere warm until her senses picked up a large ki signature heading her way.
~
Vegita looked down at the girl, her hands rubbing against her elven face before she turned and looked at him. Then she went back to rubbing her hand against her face in a most erotic, err... erratic way.
Sure, she may look cute and cuddly, but Vegita came here on business. Of course, his business dealt with pain.
"Well well, little girl, shall we dance this dance again? We both already know the outcome. Unfortunately I'm getting tired of dragging you carcass back to your bed every day. Oh well, what's one more time?"
Ranko was kneeling down on the ground, with her knees together and her feet spread apart. She lifted her head sideways to look at him from the corner of her eye. "If you're getting tired of dragging me back everyday, perhaps it should be my turn to return the favor?"
Vegita growled as he initiated the attack. He raced forth intending to let this drag out a little to repay her earlier actions. The fool girl was probably still weak from just a few hours ago. She shouldn't have been able to sustain as long as she did now.
Ranko just watched as Vegita's fist was heading straight towards her face not moving a single muscle. Before, there was always tenseness in her as she fought with Vegita, but now her body was relaxed. On the outside she may have appeared to be calm, but a fire, a power she had been grasping for within herself had awakened.
Deep inside, buried by her own fears, Ranko found her true calling. The cat craved to be free of her restraints and all she needed to do now was open the cage completely. Vegita had given her the clues with his transformation and now it was her turn. Before the punch could land, Ranko screamed in anger and ecstasy.
Vegita was hurled back as he felt the red and gold energy wash over him. He'd been unprepared for so much power from the little girl. But now, covered with red and gold flames, stood Ranko. Or rather, what should have been Ranko. She still wore the Saiyajin armor, but her ears were more pointed now, her hands were clawed with what seemed to be like tan fur growing on her forearms. Vegita blinked again. Since when did she have a tail?
End chapter Five
* * *
Author's notes-Kaz:
This has probably been the most difficult chapter to date, granted, some parts might be difficult to understand and perhaps even a bit gaudy in some other parts.
Some of you my turn your heads and say "Oh My" to this chapter, and pretend it doesn't exist if only so you can sleep soundly tonight and hope to wake up tomorrow morning as if nothing ever happened. Go on with your day as if the madness never touched you. But my friend, it is now apart of you. In your head screaming to get out, all you need is a nudge in the right direction to send you over the edge.
Wanna stop the ride and get off? Or do you want to go just a little bit faster?
Michael's Notes:
I don't know what Kaz is on, but the doctors assure me that he will get the help he needs.;)
I thought this chapter was a bit strange after all of the editing and rewriting, but I have to hand it to Kaz for coming up with this new twist. You may not see it yet, but we're adding depth! Seriously . . . okay, stop laughing. I know this is a DBZ crossover, but it can still have depth!
Send C&C to Michael at jehtek@hotmail.com or
Kaz at kazblah945@aol.com
Or Visit 'Temple of the Creative' at www.geocities.com/jehtek
Ja ne.
.
singing in the rain, just singing in the rain,
what a glorious feeling I'm happy again.
I'm laughing at clouds so dark up above.
The sun's in my heart and I'm ready for love.
Let the stormy clouds chase
Everyone from this place
COMEON WITH THE RAIN, I got a smile on my face
I walk down the lane, with a happy refrain
Just singin', singin' in the rain...
Just dancing in the rain,
I'm happy again
Just singing, dancing in the rain