Disclaimer: I own Dragonball. Don't let that Akira guy tell you different. It's mine, all mine!!
Chapter Three:
Long ago, in the woods that would surround Choutzu's palace centuries later, a god named Hotei was walking through the trees, singing to himself in his loud, happy voice. He wore only loose fitting pants and a silk robe, which was open in front, showing his large gut. He looked for all the world like the most happy man alive.
He was jumping over streams, walking through the grass, running through the trees, and generally playing around. He was one of the seven gods of luck. His realm, specifically, was prosperity. He helped humans become successful. But being a luck god, he could dabble in the realms of the others as well, as long as he brought good luck to whomever he was helping at the moment. He was always helping someone. He loved it.
Suddenly, as he had just come upon a small stream, he heard the cry of a child.
Of course he stopped right away. There were no villages around here, so he could only assume that the child had been abandoned by a mother who did not want it. The thought brought sadness to his kind heart. As many times as it happened, as many times as he saw it, he would never understand why so many mothers abandoned their little children. Why, who would not want a little baby, no matter how expensive the food for one extra mouth was?
He began to look around the underbrush, now and then pushing aside branches or fallen leaves with the large wooden staff at his side. And soon, under a large bush, he found the child.
It was only a little boy, no more than a week old, and it certainly had not been here for long. It still looked healthy. When Hotei leaned his old, ugly, kindly face over the baby and smiled, the cries stopped, and then turned to laughter.
"Now, now, my little one." he said, and scooped up the little child, "I know the place for you. I feel that you are a special one. You will do wonders for the people." he didn't know how he knew this. He just did.
Close by, in this forest where wonders still happened, and few mortals would step, there were a few gods who still lived in isolation, not desiring to live in the heavens, as most other gods had done.
"I will take you there. You will be fed, and cared for as only the gods can do, my child." then he laughed, and ran off into the....
"Trees..." Choutzu said dreamily. Suddenly he jerked his head up. He had been dreaming while he ran. As soon as he had stepped into this forest, he had felt his body sort of slip... he had been much more tired than he should have been. The feeling was gone now, replaced by wonder that he had been sleeping and running at the same time, and more wonder that he had not fallen.
"Tien, how long have we been running?" he asked now, really wanting to know how long he had been in that trance like state. It had felt like hours.
But Tien looked at him with confusion. "We've only just started running. About a minute and a half."
Choutzu shook his head rapidly to clear it. This was getting weirder and weirder.
He decided to take his attention away from the strange dream and looked over at the other who had escaped. It was Yamucha, of course. Every now and then, Tien would look at him crossly. The flying cat that he had conversed with in the throne room now zoomed along beside him at speeds that Choutzu had not thought a small creature could even reach. It was strange. Tien could get airborne for a few seconds, and Choutzu could float using telekinesis, but he had yet to meet someone who could really fly like that. Then he noticed why. Somehow the cat had grown wings.
"Do you think..... we've run far enough?" Yamucha panted. He was starting to get tired. Tien noticed this, and it brought a small smile to his lips. At least the desert bandit had tired first. He wasn't even feeling winded yet. And apparently, neither was Choutzu. The emperor was looking at Yamucha with raised eyebrows, as if questioning how someone could be a warrior, but tire so easily.
They all stopped, without a word. Once they weren't running anymore, the other two could see why Yamucha was having trouble. Apparently, advisor Black had used some kind of knife on him. There was a cut across his ribs on the left side. His shirt was already soaked through, and blood was beginning to drip off of it.
"That looks bad." Tien said, a note of pity in his voice. He didn't like Yamucha, but he did believe in returning favors. "Let me get a look at it."
At first the desert bandit looked hesitant, but then he shrugged and began to peel back the blood soaked cloth.
Tien drew in breath sharply when he saw the wound. It wasn't a cut, it was a stab, and quite deep. As he wiped away a bit of the blood, he could just see that it had missed the lung by about an inch.
"You're lucky to be alive." Tien said mildly, and pulled a couple herbs out of his pocket. As a bodyguard for the emperor, he always kept a few of these around. You never knew when you could get hurt in an unexpected fight.
"He had a punching dagger. You know, the kind that you hold the handle in a fist, and the blade comes between your fingers." he looked down at the heavily bleeding wound and grimaced. "He got me once. I guess I'm sort of lucky."
Tien apparently didn't think so. "The bleeding's starting to slow, now that we're not running, but if we don't get some sort of bandage on this soon, you could bleed to death."
He glanced around, but there was nothing. His own shirt had bee ripped to shreds during the battle with Tao, and what was left of Yamucha's was soaked.
"Here." Choutzu said, yanking off his small green gi top, toppling the combination hat/crown that he wore in court from his head. He handed the light jacket to Tien, who began to tear it into strips. He glanced down at the crown thing, but he let it lie. It didn't look like he would need it anymore.
Tien was trying to get the strips of bandage to stick with some water in a small brook that ran almost at their feet. He was doing quite well, actually. He tied one strip all the way around Yamucha's waist, and that held it in place. He mixed a bit of the herb with some water, and made a kind of paste, which he began to put on the underside of the bandage. Yamucha looked like he was in quite a bit of pain, but said nothing. Puar, the cat, floated at his side.
A cold wind blew by, and Choutzu rubbed his well muscled but starkly white arms, hoping to keep warm. It was going to get cold later. For something to do, he began to glance about in the trees.
He was looking at a squirrel sitting on a branch when he saw a face.
For a flash, only an instant, and then it was gone. But there had been no question about it. After the shock earlier, he would have recognized that ugly, yet kindly smiling face anywhere.
It was Hotei, the god of luck from his dream.
The palace was in turmoil. Advisor Black, the Crane Master, and Tao Pai Pai had lived through the ordeal, but Dr. Gero was dead. His heart had been completely ruptured, and there was no way to bring him back.
All over the room, there were bodies. Tien and Yamucha had managed to kill quite a few soldiers, and knock more unconscious.
It seemed that everyone in the palace was in a panic except fot the three aforementioned martial artists. They stood around Gero and looked down at him.
The doctor was dead. Without him, they could not complete their plan of world domination. If he was gone, who would command the army?
"I believe we are in a bit of a predicament." Tao said with a grimace. "Yes, we definately are."
Black showed no emotion whatsoever. He was more of a soldier than a martial arts master, and it was obvious. He behaved as any soldier was taught. He showed nothing. He even fought in a cold, detached manner.
The Crane Master looked angry, but it wasn't because Gero was dead. He was more angry with himself. He could not understand why he had bothered to teach Choutzu those psychic attacks. If the emperor had not known how to use the attack that had ruptured Gero's heart, he and Tenshinhan would be their prisoners right now.
But none of them could come to a conclusion about who would run the army. The predictable thing that would happen in a situation like this was that all three would have fought for the position of power. But just the opposite was most likely to take place.
Because none of them wanted to be in charge. Things had run just fine with Gero at the helm. He alone had known the full details of his plans, so he alone knew how to execute them. If he was gone, what would happen?
None of them knew.
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Nothing much to say this time. Hotei is really a Chinese god of luck. Thought someone might be interested.
Ja ne
The Rev.