CHAPTER SEVENTEEN
Final atonement
Miko found herself before a red man with a strange horned hat. He looked down on her calmly
"Who the hell are you?" her voice sounded eerie and distant. He frowned
"I am King Yamma, the judge of your soul" She smirked
"Good luck finding it" she saw no point in acting now
"Just a question"
"Shoot"
"Am I dead?"
"Not exactly" she scowled
"Make up your mind, if I'm dead I have a lot of work to do in hell and if I'm alive I have a lot of work to do on earth" he smiled
"What makes you think you'll go to hell?"
"Have you seen what I am?" she said annoyedly
"There is still hope" she snorted
"Yeah right, am I dead or not" suddenly she felt a sharp pain right through her rib cage she gasped
"No, looks like you're not dead" suddenly a purple man appeared beside her. He looked oddly familiar
"Come with me" he instructed
"Who the hell are you?" he frowned
"The Supreme Kai" he said hurriedly, the pain in her mid section was increasing. He somehow dragged her along some sort of path and up an escalator. She blinked, remembering
"Oh so you think killing me will make me tell you?" her voice still sounded distant and echoey. He sighed
"Your soul has transported itself along with your consciousness to the other world, I can restore you to life" She snorted
"You expect me to believe you, after all, isn't time meant to have no meaning here, which means there is no rush" He suddenly smirked
"You are certainly very clever, and yes we do have some time, at this point your body is going through massive cardiac arrest, the fact you are feeling pain points to the fact you are still alive" half way through his sentence she had doubled up, coughing blue blood into her eerily glowing hand and onto the steps they stood on, he tapped her shoulder, she looked up, her nose now bleeding freely
"I can restore you to life" he said invitingly
"If it hurts this much then no thanks" she choked
"Well then I guess it's the home for infinite losers for you then, your soul is as twisted as I have seen" she smirked a little, bringing up more blood
"Well I was always headed for hell anyway" she croaked
"And if I'm gonna live like this" she indicated her face
"I would rather die" Shin thought fast, she did not want to live, this was a problem, he had lost his bargaining chip
"Think of the people who will miss you" she laughed mirthlessly, his planet was nearing
"They are scared of me, and with good reason, I would have killed them all had I had the chance"
"I doubt that somehow, you have feelings for one, Tien I believe he is called" her face paled slightly, though he could not tell if it was loss of blood or actual fear
"I don't give a dam about him" she said unconvincingly
"You forget that up here, you are no longer in your element, you cannot lie as well as you could on earth"
Miko, now blinded by pain just wanted it to stop, her knees buckled and her leaned on the rail
"If you live, the pain will stop" she would have laughed had it not hurt so much
"Liar" she croaked
"It will get worse if I go back" he smiled
"But only until Kipeto heals you, then it will all go away"
Shin knew her reasoning was going, he wondered why her soul had not yet left her, maybe it's grip on life was stronger than he realised, maybe she was playing him for a fool now. Suddenly he heard a strangled gasp
"What do you want in return" she gasped, he smirked and knelt down beside her, she was clutching her ribs and her grip on life was slipping
"Your story, and the truth of it" She choked
"I-no" she gasped, he frowned
"But it will make the pain go away, and you will be able to atone for your crimes" he said invitingly, she smirked
"You got your guard to kill me, for my story" she laughed, splattering blood over his boots
"Not exactly, your own blast did that, he would have just subdued you" she snorted, causing her nose to bleed even further. He frowned
"Surely you want to live" she was lying on the steps now, her blood draining all the way back down to snake way
Miko knew her death was near, he was searching for a reason to make her want to live
"What about the little boy?" he asked, fear coursed through her
"Sheme" she whispered
"Do we have a deal?" she tried to nod but could not, her, last heart beat faded and her hand fell against the rail, covered in her blood
Authors note: So I killed her, get over it. Maybe she'll get wished back, hint, hint
Chou!
The (weak stomached) storyteller of ages
CHAPTER EIGHTEEN My heart breaks-my soul withers
Miko opened her eyes to unimaginable pain
"Welcome back" she blinked and sat bolt upright, this caused a large amount of pain to her midsection, she swore loudly as a hand pushed her back down
"Lye still, Kipeto did not have enough energy to heal you completely" she cursed
"Then I don't hold up my end" she spat
"Oh he will soon enough, but I am afraid you could miss the second round" She scowled, she had been planning some fun for her next opponent
"I will fight without his help then" she said, sitting back up again. There was a chuckle
"Oh I don't think you will be fighting for a while, you managed to crush your own ribs and puncture your lungs. Kipeto came round just in time, though a good deal of the evil in your soul was wiped, you were so close to death, then we never would have known"
"Known what?" she panted, still trying to sit up, his hand still held her down
"You story my dear" she scowled
"If you value your life you will not call me that" there was a chuckle
"We have twenty minutes before the next round, I suggest you start talking"
"Where am I?"
"In the medi bay, they couldn't believe you were alive, the story the public knows seems to contradict what I have picked up from your friends"
Miko groaned, the pain finally forcing her to lie back down. She realised there were a lot of bandages around her middle and she was covered by annoying blankets, and her boots had been removed
"You may begin your story now"
*
For the most part Miko skipped quite a bit, she never mentioned her thoughts on any of the many events that marked the past weeks, she laid the depressed-little-girl-deeply-scarred-and-hiding-her-emotions-but-breaks- down-after-some-prodding act extra thick.
Shin listened as she went through the motions of holding back tears
"You are certainly a very gifted actress. You almost had me believing you more than once" She blinked at him, her face twisted in anger, then going limp. She turned her head away. Then went to stand up, he stopped her but was reward with a ki bolt that burnt his ear painfully. He took her wrist and was startled to find it ice cold. He could not even feel a pulse. He listened carefully and found her heart was not beating. Yet she was whacking him repeatedly with her fists, and it was starting to hurt. He forced her to lie back down. She did not speak or even look at him. After perhaps five minutes her heart started to beat again, but so slowly he could have sworn she was in some sort of Zombie like state.
Tien glanced nervously at his watch; 18, Miko, Piccolo, Goku, Gohan, Vegeta, Hercule and Videl were all in the second round, he scowled, it had been pretty easy for them all really, since none of them really had to fight the strongest of the group. Shin had pulled out before his match, apparently to see to his companion, he himself had fought Goku, and had lost spectacularly after twenty minutes. He glanced at the time again, she had five minutes he noticed Kipeto get up from where he had been meditating and leave the room. He shrugged to himself then went to find her
Miko had been trying to get up for nearly five minutes but with the Supreme Kai in the way it was proving difficult.
Shin sighed as she whacked him, it did not hurt but it was annoying
"Calm down before you injure yourself" he told her sternly. This had no affect whatsoever. Suddenly Kipeto entered
"Heal her quickly before she kills herself" he ordered
Miko did not like the sensation of being healed but she desperately wanted to fight so she allowed the big man to lay his hand on her. She jumped up a second later and ripped away the bandaging, the red man looked as if he would pass out, he was breathing heavily
"I could only partially heal her" he panted
"She cannot fight" she scowled and left the room with the Supreme Kai following her
"If you fight you will most likely injure yourself even worse, and then there will be no one to heal you"
"Shut up!" she told him exasperatedly. She heard footsteps and Tien came into view
"There you are! Are you ok? He wasn't bothering you was he?" She smiled and walked past
"No, not at all" she said warningly, more to the purple man than Tien, he blinked for a second as she strode back to the fighter's waiting area
Vic looked up and saw a rather battle weary looking Nokia emerge
"AND IT LOKS LIKE WE HAVE FOUND OUR MISSING FIGHTER!!! NOKIA WILL BE COMPETING!!" she grinned and jogged up the steps holding her ribs, he covered the microphone and whispered to her
"You ok?" She nodded, though her face was pale, and he could have sworn he saw blue on the corner of her mouth.
Nokia blinked as she saw her opponent. None other than Mr Hercule himself. He looked her up and down and smirked
"You're too pretty to be a fighter, models have no place in the ring, but you would look good on my arm" he said pompously. She smirked, answering with a right hook to his jaw as soon as the gong sounded
Hercule blinked in surprise as he skidded back a few yards. She was panting a little, still holding her ribs. He wondered how she had managed to hit him so hard, he had not seen her at the Cell games, there had been no females at all there. He blinked again and realised she was behind him. There was a crunching pain and he flew forwards
Nokia continued to play cat and mouse with him for a while longer. She got bored eventually and decided to give him more dignity than he deserved. She charged slowly, favouring her ribs; they were still killing her
Vic watched as Nokia matched the champ blow for blow, almost too fast for the eye to see. He yelled about the fight of the century
Nokia was well and truly bored now, taking the occasional hit simply from not being focused. She sighed and caught his fist as it came at her. She wondered how to end it as she blocked his next twenty moves. The perfect idea came, not too much effort and everyone would think it was a spectacular stroke of luck for her, and therefore she would not be harassed by media any more than usual. She ducked under his arm and swung around, he tripped forward and she shoved hard, sending him over the edge. He landed with a thud and the stadium went silent. She suddenly realised there was blood in her throat again, more to add effect than because she actually had to she crumpled there and then
"Miko!" several voices called in unison. She winked at the Z fighters before closing her eyes. She was transported from the ring and back to the medi bay for the second time where she was surprised to find they had never seen her before, she supposed the Supreme Kai had mind wiped them. She was treated for bruising and pretty much everything Hercule had managed to worsen with his feeble blows. Several of the others followed, she smiled at Tien
"Tell Sheme I'm ok" she whispered. He nodded and disappeared
Authors note: Ok so didn't kill her, but I like to inflict pain upon my characters, it makes me the god of my world. Anyways, next time, Hercule has some explaining to do, Nokia has some hiding to do, and the tournament goes on
Chou!
The (weak stomached) storyteller of ages
CHAPTER NINETEEN: I return-to face my own wrath
Hercule nursed his bruises, when he had been fighting he got the feeling the girl was toying with him. He sighed miserably, he had been exposed, though it looked like a real fluke. He sighed again, even Videl had gone down, though she had come of with basically no injuries at all, the man she fought was the former champion. He had simply dodged everything she gave him and just knocked her out of the ring, he hadn't even broken a sweat. Neither of them had even made it to the third round, he smirked at the thought of the girl's clothing, she had been wearing tattered gi pants, a tank top with a gi shirt over the top, both being fitted to her size they revealed her powerful shoulders and obvious strength, but they also showed off her figure, though her hair didn't look that great, half shorn off, pretty roughly done.
Miko sighed. The next round would be coming up soon. Tien had told her that herself, Vegeta, Goku and Piccolo had made it through, Vegeta and Gohan had squared off, Piccolo and 18 had fought next. Videl went down to Goku, though he had been careful not to hurt her, Miko was disappointed about this, she had wanted to be the one to take down the cocky girl. She shrugged and wondered who was next, she knew whoever she went up against she would not be able to pull off a victory without a miracle, all those in the third round were experienced far beyond her and when she had trouble walking she could not pull off any of her more wily combinations. She would fight anyway. Nobody would stop her.
Tien looked at his watch
"Miko, just stay where you are, you can't expect us to let you fight in your condition" She scowled and continued walking, he knew she was bruised in so many places trying to stop her would hurt her even further.
"Who am I fighting?" she snapped. Tien winced
"Vegeta" he whispered. He could have sworn she winced but it was too indistinct
Vegeta looked up and smirked as Miko appeared, he was up against her, but it would be rather boring considering she was badly injured, but then again he had seen the rather confusing ordeal with the blast, her power would rival his own, but since super saijin transformations were out of the question it would come down to skill. He had not seen her fight before unless you counted the pathetic first matches
"So you decided to show" he sneered, noticing she was still holding her ribs. She did not answer.
"AND NOW!! THE FIRST MATCH OF THE THIRD ROUND!!! WE HAVE GOKU VERSUS MA JUNIOR!!!" Piccolo glanced at Miko and saw her ki was down to a dangerous low, after the first round it had fluctuated a lot which was unusual for her, he knew after the tournament the others would have a few questions for her, and since he had a job to do as well it could be a tricky one to get out of. He smirked at Goku as they walked out to the ring; he could power up, and Goku could not without risking his identity.
Miko watched lazily, her ribs were still killing her, she doubted there was much anyone could do for those, but she would not pull out because of injury. She tore her attention away from a fight she knew would take a long time and went to sit to the back of the room. She saw more than one pair of eyes follow her. She slumped down against the wall and willed her body to stop hurting.
Authors note: Since this story focuses more on Miko and her battles, I'm gonna cut out the other battles, I mean we both know how scintillating it is to see Goku and Piccolo fight. So I'll leave that to your imagination, besides we all know who's gonna win
Chou!
The (weak stomached storyteller) of ages
CHAPTER TWENTY: The demon within stirs
Miko fought the rising urge to cut her own throat, she knew the stress of her plans were starting to get to her, just a little longer, she consoled her darker side. She smirked and almost laughed as the announcer announced Piccolo out of the ring, they had taken an hour to get it over with. And she was next. Tien came over and offered his hand
"You know he won't go easy on you" he said, she grinned and got up slowly
"I know, but I won't go easy on him either"
Vic jumped as an attendant tapped him on the shoulder, after brief whispers he grinned and nodded
"LADIES AND GENTLEMEN!!! I HAVE JUST BEEN IN FORMED THAT NOKIA WILL BE FIGHTING!!!" the stadium was silent in collective awe, so many strange things had happened, but fighting after a match against the former world champ was really something.
Nokia limped out next to Vegeta, he kept smirking at her
"AND WE HAVE TWO REAL CROWD PLEASERS HERE!!! VEGETA AND NOKIA!!" She smiled weakly to ignore her aching ribs and headed up the steps, Vegeta was in a battle stance by the time she got to the top. She wondered vaguely how she was going to beat him, if she was going to beat him, she was more than a little afraid to use ki, she had no idea what it would do.
Vegeta smirked as she sank into an awkward battle stance, she really was injured, he decided to make it easy on her and just knock her straight out of the ring. The gong sounded and he shot forwards.
Nokia took a chance and dropped, landing hard on her front, Vegeta shot straight over her, she used the opportunity to shoot up into the air. He pursued her quickly, she knew this would be a quick fight.
Vegeta shot after her, preparing to body slam her to put her off balance, she was known for her pathetic flying. Of course he wasn't expecting her to take to the air anyway. He blinked as she disappeared, he scowled, Kakkarot had taught her a few tricks, or maybe it was the other way around, he scouted about for her energy and found her waiting by his left shoulder, he turned as her fist hit his jaw, he was propelled backwards a yard or two, she slowly descended, panting, one hand clutched around her ribs. He charged and a hit and counter routine flared into life. He smirked to himself, her hits were slow and she could not avoid his for much longer, she backed her against the edge, she ducked under his arm and tripped him, he saved himself from falling and spun around, she was waiting, he realised she was too injured to attack any more. He scowled, rather disappointed.
Nokia braced herself as he charged, she was certain this would end it, she ducked anyway, rolling onto her back and kicking upwards. He shot into the air as she rolled away.
Vegeta flipped over and brought his fist down where she had been a split second ago, she was struggling to her feet across the arena, he waited until she was standing then charged. This time she was too slow, he sweep kicked her and grabbed both her ankles, throwing her with brutal force that demonstrated his annoyance out of the ring
Nokia yelped as the ground leapt up to meet her, jarring the breath out of her. She ignored the offers of help from attendants and got slowly to her feet, she limped back up into the arena and extended her hand to the saijin prince. He blinked then took it, smirking widely
"You lasted a while for such a weakling" he hissed, she smirked and shook her head. Still refusing help to leave the arena
Piccolo took her arm as she stepped inside, scowling at the attendants, the crowds were half way between booing and awe, they settled for cheering instead. She blinked at him as he pulled her away
"Dende wants to see you" she scowled
"Get off me" she growled
No amount of convincing would make her come and forcing her did not seem like the best idea, at least not when there were so many people to see it. He gave up
Authors note: just fillin' in time here, we all know the fight against Vegeta and Goku will be spectacular so I'm gonna skip to a few weeks later now, k?
CHAPTER TWENTY-ONE Matters of the heart
Miko sat on the Capsule Corp lawn with Sheme sitting on her lap, three weeks after the tournament which had been real fireworks show in the final round ending in a rather anti climatic tie, for the first time she was allowed to go outside. She had decided to stay with Bulma now that she was no longer scared of Vegeta (not that she had ever really been, she told herself) She had spent basically all her time escaping, but always getting caught, normally be Vegeta, it was not a pleasant experience to be hauled back into a room that was slowly driving you insane by a man of easily ten time your strength who thoroughly enjoyed beating the crap out of her. She smiled as Sheme shifted slightly; they had often spent afternoons just gazing at the clouds before the Z fighters invaded on their plans. She grinned at the picture her little brother had done for her
"It's great Sheme, but maybe you should give Mr Hercule some more muscle, I don't think sticks count as arms" Sheme was actually a highly advanced drawer, being able to draw, sketch and shade better than a trained nineteen year old, but when he did not like some one he was drawing, he chose to make them look like anorexic cows, or worse.
"He hurt you though" he said stubbornly, Miko laughed
"No I was faking, it's not nice to humiliate people, so I decided to make it look like it was hard for me"
"Trunks said you were evil" she blinked then grinned
"Why did he say that?" he wriggled around to face her
"Because you did this weird black blast thing" she grinned, not wanting him to know the truth of it
"It was an accident, I made a mistake, I didn't know it was going to do that" He smiled
"I knew Trunks was wrong" with that he went back to drawing a bone thin dog with a purple mushroom cut.
Bulma smiled, it was good to see Sheme spending more time with Miko after so long. She spent her days spending time with him, mostly like this. And when she went back to work no doubt she would find a way to spend just as much time with him. She smiled again. Sheme was really a very sweet boy, and Miko was a different person around him, so much quieter, more mature, and definitely happier, she still avoided Vegeta though when he was dragging her back from another escape attempt it was not a pretty sight. Bulma grinned again, Vegeta was so afraid he'd hurt her, (not that he cared if she died or lived, it was just Bulma had him on orders, and no one, no one, crossed her when she had her mind made up) that he end up taking blows from all sides because usually if he caught a fist or a hand he risked breaking it with even a tiny grip. She grinned as Sheme suddenly came sprinting inside, grinning so much like Miko when she truly smiled I was hard to believe they were not biologically related.
"BULMA!! LOOK WHAT I MADE FOR YOU!!" Bulma backed away from the door frame to avoid being bowled over, Sheme was a lot stronger than the average kid, she had a feeling Miko had a lot to do with that. He skidded to a halt brandishing a few pages. She took them curiously
"Miko said I should show them to you" he said breathlessly, Bulma glanced at Miko and saw she was lying stretched out on the grass
Sheme handed "aunty Bulma" the papers, she gasped as looked at them, then collapsed laughing as she got to the last one
"These are brilliant Sheme" she told him
"I especially like the dog" he grinned; she didn't know, he thought gleefully. Bulma smiled again as she regained her balance
"Let's put these on the fridge"
Miko felt herself drifting off to sleep, she was jolted awake by something digging into her side, she blinked as Vegeta's face came into view, he was shoving her as gently as was possible for Vegeta with the toe of his boot
"Wake up woman!' he growled, she grinned, seeing the night sky
"Let me guess? You aren't allowed to start without me?" she was answered by a loud rumbling. He scowled as she got up as slowly as she possibly could, partly because any sudden movements still hurt, but more because she wanted to annoy Vegeta. He growled and stalked away
Bulma looked up as Miko entered slowly. She grinned as Vegeta eyed the food, Trunks' hand were already heading for the nearest bowl. Miko took her seat and half the food on the table disappeared as if by magic. Bulma smiled as Miko paled, the girl had thrown up every time she had eaten with them, at first Bulma had been worried about some sort of eating disorder, but Miko had clarified it was the saijins' eating habits, something about seeing a bread roll half chewed in an unhinged jaw with several unrecognisable eatables that made her feel queasy. Bulma later found out that in he time chamber with Goku and later Gohan she had barely eaten at all, growing bone thin because she could not bring herself to eat something with a pair of saijins with front end loaders for mouths.
Miko picked at her food, trying to ignore the sounds of eating coming from all sides. Sheme's table manners weren't great, he still ate without his fork on the occasional copy-cat session when he was looking at Trunks or Vegeta but she could at least stand to look at him when he ate. She grinned weakly when he grinned at her through a full mouth. She could feed her face as disgustingly as the next human but the saijins took it to a whole new level.
Sheme frowned as Miko took small mouthfuls, it was not like her to not eat much he knew she was a model now and Robert kept telling her to watch her figure but she had never listened to him before.
It was an uneventful evening by Miko's standards, Tien came around to check on her as had become his bi weekly custom, they would always spend an hour catching up, things had eased up between Yamcha and her, which had not been her intention. She was currently curled up in an armchair in her room reading with Sheme, the kid was bright, very bright. He could read as well as Trunks and was at the head of his class, which just happened to be one below Trunks and Goten, even though biologically he was two grades down. He and Goten were good friends, sharing in their good-natured play, but Trunks on the other hand was less of a friend. Miko knew they got along but she did not particularly like the boy, he had an attitude problem, she didn't blame Vegeta though there was no one else it could have come from, she simply did not like it, but since they lived in the same house and she was not too motherly in these areas she just kept reinforcing decent values and spent as much time as she could with him, she was trying to make up for the three months they lost.
Bulma smiled as she passed Miko's door, it was amazing how tender she was with Sheme, her fiery temper and general delinquent attitude she saw when she first met Miko was nowhere to be seen, she not once heard Miko swear around Sheme, though he picked it up in the end.
Miko felt her ribs healing every day and gradually got back into training, she used the gravity room, building up from one to a hundred over a few weeks, she had another three weeks off, Robert said he did not want to see her if she looked as much of a mess as she had when she fought in the tournament. She still found herself thinking of Tien and wondering what might have happened had she not been the person she was. She closed her eyes and rose into the air, landing with a thud on the Capsule Corp. It was night and there was a slight chill in the air. She blinked and realised Trunks was already there
"Going somewhere?" he said accusingly, his eyes narrowed. She smirked
"Up here actually" he scowled
"Yeah right, prob'ly off to kill some innocent people" she frowned
"What are you talking about?" he jumped to his feet
"You're evil!" he hissed
"I know it!" she started to laugh, quietly at first, then so much she fell over, hitting the roof with a thud she knew would wake Vegeta. She couldn't stop herself, all the while he was pointing at her. She dried her eyes and looked as him
"Is this because I scared you with the flies? I've been doing that for years" she chortled. He scowled
"No" even in the dark she could see him blush
"I was just messing with you" she told him. He grinned in a way that reminded her strongly of Goku
"Yeah well, you're pretty scary, so you must be evil" she giggled, hearing thuds that could only be Vegeta's
"Only when I'm mad"
Trunks wondered if she was just lying, but he had always been able to tell if some one was lying, like the time he asked his mother about the birds and the bees when he was four and she had told him a pack of lies, he then went to his father, who told him straight, which had surprised his mother greatly, they had gotten along better all week. He sat down again as she drew up her knees
"You like to be tough don't you?" she asked, her voice was quiet, he could still hear his father's cuss words at being woken
"Yeah, I am tough. Dad says when he dies I'll be the greatest warrior in the universe" he smiled at this, a step away from belittlingly, just a step
"I bet you will be, I can barely keep up with you now" he grinned
"Yeah but I sensed your power at the tournament, everyone did, it was as big as Gohan's, no one talks about it, why would you hide a power like that and why can you shoot black energy" he said the last sentence threateningly. She frowned
"Was it that big? Well to be honest Trunks I wasn't actually in control of myself when I shot it, it wasn't my energy, I don't have dark ki, I have blue ki" she turned her palm upwards and a small sphere of ordinary blue ki grew out of it
"See, and I have no idea how to power up, Goku told me I did once before then passed out, but I have no memory of it at all, I think it has something to do with emotions, ki is linked to emotion, I didn't want to kill all those people, so I guess I kinda called on something without thinking"
"But who was controlling you?"
Miko grinned, this kid was smarter than he looked, she did not want to go telling him the full story but then again to put him at ease would mean most of the Z fighters
"An evil force, who is coming to destroy earth, Goku and your Dad decided they wanted me to help, that's why they found me in the first place" The kid scowled
"My dad could beat anybody without any help at all"
Vegeta smirked and went back to bed
Miko heard a single footstep and grinned
"I know" she then went to bed.
More content than she had been in a long while
*
Miko awoke to find a smiling face staring at her. She blinked as Sheme whacked her with a pillow
"WAKE UP!!" He yelled, jumping up and down on the bed beside her, she groaned and shielded her face from the onslaught that was quickly joined by Trunks, who thoroughly enjoyed this game. She started to shriek, dodging and trying to get past them, they had surrounded her. Sheme used to play this game with her when she told him they had to get up early, he would always get up long before he was meant to and beat her awake with her own pillow. She yelped as one caught her braised from Sheme, who happened to be a master in such areas, she grabbed another pillow and began to clout them both, chasing them off her bed and out of her room. The door opened just as they ran for it and they both ran headlong into Vegeta. Miko groaned and shut the door.
Vegeta scowled and caught each of the boys before the scruff of the neck and hauled them off their feet. He took the squirming pair and threw them both outside and went back to bed.
Trunks giggled and started beating Sheme with the pillow still in his hands. A rather loud war that resulted in a still sleepy Miko tipping a bowl of water on them from the third floor. Trunks was surprised to find Sheme beat him hands down, the boy was as much of a strategist as Miko, he had seen Miko fight and through his father's training could see her brilliant strategies, obviously her little brother took after her. He also knew that Miko was no match for his father, he had seen her get her butt whooped at the tournament, though it had been fun to see her beat Hercule, but she could have humiliated him a lot more. He pulled his sopping hair out of his eyes to see Sheme climbing the side of the house to get to Miko who was still leaning out the window, laughing her head off. Sheme climbed like a monkey, and had yet to find anything besides the smoothest of the most vertical he could not scale.
Miko grinned as Sheme approached, she leapt back from the window as he jumped inside, soaking wet and dying to make her the same. She laughed and jumped right out the window, dodging around him, at odd moments mostly in the mornings they were more like brother and sister, playing like the kid he was and the child she had never been. She heard him descending after her, she shrieked as Trunks tackled her, it hurt a bit
"Oh so you want to join the fun too eh?" she chuckled and grabbed both his wrists and pinned him, at that exact moment Sheme jumped on her from behind, locking his arms around her neck. She could only shriek as they ganged up on her.
Tien landed to see what he thought was Trunks and Sheme wrestling, but the shrieks and protests alerted him Miko's presence, that and her bare feet sticking out from where Trunks had pinned her. He laughed and freed her, only to have them attack him as well
"Ok, ok enough" Miko choked out through her giggles. Trunks and Sheme whined a bit
"Go inside before you make the rest of us soaking wet too" She indicated her clothing, it was very wet and clung to her. Her long thin pyjama pants were sticking to her and half way back to front from her tousle in the mud, her shorn hair was pretty much plastered all over her head with water and mud and her thin shoestring top was revealing more than she would like. She folded her arms at Tien, who was blushing as well as grinning stupidly
Tien averted his eyes as she led him into the house, leaving him with Trunks and Sheme who were now dry and tucking into breakfast while she got cleaned up. He was careful to avoid getting jumped on; they were both spoiling for a good Saturday morning brawl. H grinned as Miko reappeared in less revealing apparel. She had on long dark blue jeans that hung off her hips and flared at the knee and a strapless top with a light shirt over that. She grinned as his glaze flicked over her. He blushed but she did not mention it, normally she would hit a guy or scare the hell out of him. He wondered why She sat down at the table opposite him and grinned
"So what's been happening?" He recounted odd bits of news for a while a while before going outside for a while
"Hey listen, maybe you should come back to Kame house in a little while" her face darkened a little
"I mean, because here, well, you see, here, you have to deal with Trunks and Vegeta, and even Sheme, so training would slow down, and we need you in peak shape" he knew she understood
"Yeah, I see your point, but I don't want to leave Sheme again. It isn't fair on him, I'm practically never around anymore. And besides, Yamcha" her voice tailed away
Miko was busy contemplating the pros and cons of such an action, she did not yet have Vegeta's household in her grasp but she somehow doubted whether it would be worth it. She also knew it would cut down her time with Sheme. She looked up to see an odd expression on Tien's face
"Ok, in a few weeks" she said. His face lit up for a second
"Great!"
They spent the day mucking around, playing with Sheme and Trunks and in Miko's case, trying to annoy Vegeta. Tien was unsure as to why he found himself so drawn to Miko, she was seventeen, though she never gave that impression, and even though he was certain she was not who she appeared he could not fight his emotions. He often wondered if she felt the same way. Certainly they spent time together, and it could be considered intimacy of a sort but it could also be a brother-sister sort of relationship. He just did not know, Miko was unreadable and unpredictable
Miko sighed as she leaned on Tien, she was now certain he had feelings for her that were more than physical. Suddenly she felt a jolt
"Gods, what is it I'm feeling?"
*
Tien sat on the roof of Kame house thinking about Miko, he thought of all the times he had seen her in moonlight and smiled. She was so unpredictable, one minute it was as though she was on the verge of, he wasn't sure, and the next she was as if nothing at all had happened, as if she had felt nothing. He sighed; he could not get over her and doubted he ever would. He wanted her so badly it was intoxicating
"You drive me crazy Your touch makes me want you Like I've never wanted anything in my life I hate the way you make me feel Scared of what you would say If I told you Would you love me too?
Tell me please before I go insane If you love me Tell me so Don't push me away Just let me know
You put me through hell Your face shines to me Through the hell you reserved especially for me What must I do? To prove that I love you
Are you really the person I know?
Are you really that cold hard emotionless person? I only see her ever now and again
Is it you?
How can it be? But you make all things possible
To save the world To save your soul Let me keep you
Let me put you away in the little cell of my heart And keep you safe for all eternity Do you have a heart room for me? Or is it a prison waiting for me To wander blindly in So you can lock me away for all eternity In my own personal hell Just for me
Do you hate me enough to hurt me like this? Do you love me enough to show me your soul? Tell me please
Do you even have a heart? I can't find it Please let me in Let me see you To see the real you I can't love a shell I can't love a porcelain doll I can only love you
Give me your love Give me your heart
I won't break it in two"
~~~~~~~~
A?N: time flies when you're having fun does it not. And now I feel I must make mention of a certain author. Gotenks. Being the one and only person to review me so far. As telling as this is about my story. I would like reviews so I know what I'm doing wrong. So, if you want to be a nice and cool person like Gotenk_4_ever.. REVIEW!!!
Miko found herself before a red man with a strange horned hat. He looked down on her calmly
"Who the hell are you?" her voice sounded eerie and distant. He frowned
"I am King Yamma, the judge of your soul" She smirked
"Good luck finding it" she saw no point in acting now
"Just a question"
"Shoot"
"Am I dead?"
"Not exactly" she scowled
"Make up your mind, if I'm dead I have a lot of work to do in hell and if I'm alive I have a lot of work to do on earth" he smiled
"What makes you think you'll go to hell?"
"Have you seen what I am?" she said annoyedly
"There is still hope" she snorted
"Yeah right, am I dead or not" suddenly she felt a sharp pain right through her rib cage she gasped
"No, looks like you're not dead" suddenly a purple man appeared beside her. He looked oddly familiar
"Come with me" he instructed
"Who the hell are you?" he frowned
"The Supreme Kai" he said hurriedly, the pain in her mid section was increasing. He somehow dragged her along some sort of path and up an escalator. She blinked, remembering
"Oh so you think killing me will make me tell you?" her voice still sounded distant and echoey. He sighed
"Your soul has transported itself along with your consciousness to the other world, I can restore you to life" She snorted
"You expect me to believe you, after all, isn't time meant to have no meaning here, which means there is no rush" He suddenly smirked
"You are certainly very clever, and yes we do have some time, at this point your body is going through massive cardiac arrest, the fact you are feeling pain points to the fact you are still alive" half way through his sentence she had doubled up, coughing blue blood into her eerily glowing hand and onto the steps they stood on, he tapped her shoulder, she looked up, her nose now bleeding freely
"I can restore you to life" he said invitingly
"If it hurts this much then no thanks" she choked
"Well then I guess it's the home for infinite losers for you then, your soul is as twisted as I have seen" she smirked a little, bringing up more blood
"Well I was always headed for hell anyway" she croaked
"And if I'm gonna live like this" she indicated her face
"I would rather die" Shin thought fast, she did not want to live, this was a problem, he had lost his bargaining chip
"Think of the people who will miss you" she laughed mirthlessly, his planet was nearing
"They are scared of me, and with good reason, I would have killed them all had I had the chance"
"I doubt that somehow, you have feelings for one, Tien I believe he is called" her face paled slightly, though he could not tell if it was loss of blood or actual fear
"I don't give a dam about him" she said unconvincingly
"You forget that up here, you are no longer in your element, you cannot lie as well as you could on earth"
Miko, now blinded by pain just wanted it to stop, her knees buckled and her leaned on the rail
"If you live, the pain will stop" she would have laughed had it not hurt so much
"Liar" she croaked
"It will get worse if I go back" he smiled
"But only until Kipeto heals you, then it will all go away"
Shin knew her reasoning was going, he wondered why her soul had not yet left her, maybe it's grip on life was stronger than he realised, maybe she was playing him for a fool now. Suddenly he heard a strangled gasp
"What do you want in return" she gasped, he smirked and knelt down beside her, she was clutching her ribs and her grip on life was slipping
"Your story, and the truth of it" She choked
"I-no" she gasped, he frowned
"But it will make the pain go away, and you will be able to atone for your crimes" he said invitingly, she smirked
"You got your guard to kill me, for my story" she laughed, splattering blood over his boots
"Not exactly, your own blast did that, he would have just subdued you" she snorted, causing her nose to bleed even further. He frowned
"Surely you want to live" she was lying on the steps now, her blood draining all the way back down to snake way
Miko knew her death was near, he was searching for a reason to make her want to live
"What about the little boy?" he asked, fear coursed through her
"Sheme" she whispered
"Do we have a deal?" she tried to nod but could not, her, last heart beat faded and her hand fell against the rail, covered in her blood
Authors note: So I killed her, get over it. Maybe she'll get wished back, hint, hint
Chou!
The (weak stomached) storyteller of ages
CHAPTER EIGHTEEN My heart breaks-my soul withers
Miko opened her eyes to unimaginable pain
"Welcome back" she blinked and sat bolt upright, this caused a large amount of pain to her midsection, she swore loudly as a hand pushed her back down
"Lye still, Kipeto did not have enough energy to heal you completely" she cursed
"Then I don't hold up my end" she spat
"Oh he will soon enough, but I am afraid you could miss the second round" She scowled, she had been planning some fun for her next opponent
"I will fight without his help then" she said, sitting back up again. There was a chuckle
"Oh I don't think you will be fighting for a while, you managed to crush your own ribs and puncture your lungs. Kipeto came round just in time, though a good deal of the evil in your soul was wiped, you were so close to death, then we never would have known"
"Known what?" she panted, still trying to sit up, his hand still held her down
"You story my dear" she scowled
"If you value your life you will not call me that" there was a chuckle
"We have twenty minutes before the next round, I suggest you start talking"
"Where am I?"
"In the medi bay, they couldn't believe you were alive, the story the public knows seems to contradict what I have picked up from your friends"
Miko groaned, the pain finally forcing her to lie back down. She realised there were a lot of bandages around her middle and she was covered by annoying blankets, and her boots had been removed
"You may begin your story now"
*
For the most part Miko skipped quite a bit, she never mentioned her thoughts on any of the many events that marked the past weeks, she laid the depressed-little-girl-deeply-scarred-and-hiding-her-emotions-but-breaks- down-after-some-prodding act extra thick.
Shin listened as she went through the motions of holding back tears
"You are certainly a very gifted actress. You almost had me believing you more than once" She blinked at him, her face twisted in anger, then going limp. She turned her head away. Then went to stand up, he stopped her but was reward with a ki bolt that burnt his ear painfully. He took her wrist and was startled to find it ice cold. He could not even feel a pulse. He listened carefully and found her heart was not beating. Yet she was whacking him repeatedly with her fists, and it was starting to hurt. He forced her to lie back down. She did not speak or even look at him. After perhaps five minutes her heart started to beat again, but so slowly he could have sworn she was in some sort of Zombie like state.
Tien glanced nervously at his watch; 18, Miko, Piccolo, Goku, Gohan, Vegeta, Hercule and Videl were all in the second round, he scowled, it had been pretty easy for them all really, since none of them really had to fight the strongest of the group. Shin had pulled out before his match, apparently to see to his companion, he himself had fought Goku, and had lost spectacularly after twenty minutes. He glanced at the time again, she had five minutes he noticed Kipeto get up from where he had been meditating and leave the room. He shrugged to himself then went to find her
Miko had been trying to get up for nearly five minutes but with the Supreme Kai in the way it was proving difficult.
Shin sighed as she whacked him, it did not hurt but it was annoying
"Calm down before you injure yourself" he told her sternly. This had no affect whatsoever. Suddenly Kipeto entered
"Heal her quickly before she kills herself" he ordered
Miko did not like the sensation of being healed but she desperately wanted to fight so she allowed the big man to lay his hand on her. She jumped up a second later and ripped away the bandaging, the red man looked as if he would pass out, he was breathing heavily
"I could only partially heal her" he panted
"She cannot fight" she scowled and left the room with the Supreme Kai following her
"If you fight you will most likely injure yourself even worse, and then there will be no one to heal you"
"Shut up!" she told him exasperatedly. She heard footsteps and Tien came into view
"There you are! Are you ok? He wasn't bothering you was he?" She smiled and walked past
"No, not at all" she said warningly, more to the purple man than Tien, he blinked for a second as she strode back to the fighter's waiting area
Vic looked up and saw a rather battle weary looking Nokia emerge
"AND IT LOKS LIKE WE HAVE FOUND OUR MISSING FIGHTER!!! NOKIA WILL BE COMPETING!!" she grinned and jogged up the steps holding her ribs, he covered the microphone and whispered to her
"You ok?" She nodded, though her face was pale, and he could have sworn he saw blue on the corner of her mouth.
Nokia blinked as she saw her opponent. None other than Mr Hercule himself. He looked her up and down and smirked
"You're too pretty to be a fighter, models have no place in the ring, but you would look good on my arm" he said pompously. She smirked, answering with a right hook to his jaw as soon as the gong sounded
Hercule blinked in surprise as he skidded back a few yards. She was panting a little, still holding her ribs. He wondered how she had managed to hit him so hard, he had not seen her at the Cell games, there had been no females at all there. He blinked again and realised she was behind him. There was a crunching pain and he flew forwards
Nokia continued to play cat and mouse with him for a while longer. She got bored eventually and decided to give him more dignity than he deserved. She charged slowly, favouring her ribs; they were still killing her
Vic watched as Nokia matched the champ blow for blow, almost too fast for the eye to see. He yelled about the fight of the century
Nokia was well and truly bored now, taking the occasional hit simply from not being focused. She sighed and caught his fist as it came at her. She wondered how to end it as she blocked his next twenty moves. The perfect idea came, not too much effort and everyone would think it was a spectacular stroke of luck for her, and therefore she would not be harassed by media any more than usual. She ducked under his arm and swung around, he tripped forward and she shoved hard, sending him over the edge. He landed with a thud and the stadium went silent. She suddenly realised there was blood in her throat again, more to add effect than because she actually had to she crumpled there and then
"Miko!" several voices called in unison. She winked at the Z fighters before closing her eyes. She was transported from the ring and back to the medi bay for the second time where she was surprised to find they had never seen her before, she supposed the Supreme Kai had mind wiped them. She was treated for bruising and pretty much everything Hercule had managed to worsen with his feeble blows. Several of the others followed, she smiled at Tien
"Tell Sheme I'm ok" she whispered. He nodded and disappeared
Authors note: Ok so didn't kill her, but I like to inflict pain upon my characters, it makes me the god of my world. Anyways, next time, Hercule has some explaining to do, Nokia has some hiding to do, and the tournament goes on
Chou!
The (weak stomached) storyteller of ages
CHAPTER NINETEEN: I return-to face my own wrath
Hercule nursed his bruises, when he had been fighting he got the feeling the girl was toying with him. He sighed miserably, he had been exposed, though it looked like a real fluke. He sighed again, even Videl had gone down, though she had come of with basically no injuries at all, the man she fought was the former champion. He had simply dodged everything she gave him and just knocked her out of the ring, he hadn't even broken a sweat. Neither of them had even made it to the third round, he smirked at the thought of the girl's clothing, she had been wearing tattered gi pants, a tank top with a gi shirt over the top, both being fitted to her size they revealed her powerful shoulders and obvious strength, but they also showed off her figure, though her hair didn't look that great, half shorn off, pretty roughly done.
Miko sighed. The next round would be coming up soon. Tien had told her that herself, Vegeta, Goku and Piccolo had made it through, Vegeta and Gohan had squared off, Piccolo and 18 had fought next. Videl went down to Goku, though he had been careful not to hurt her, Miko was disappointed about this, she had wanted to be the one to take down the cocky girl. She shrugged and wondered who was next, she knew whoever she went up against she would not be able to pull off a victory without a miracle, all those in the third round were experienced far beyond her and when she had trouble walking she could not pull off any of her more wily combinations. She would fight anyway. Nobody would stop her.
Tien looked at his watch
"Miko, just stay where you are, you can't expect us to let you fight in your condition" She scowled and continued walking, he knew she was bruised in so many places trying to stop her would hurt her even further.
"Who am I fighting?" she snapped. Tien winced
"Vegeta" he whispered. He could have sworn she winced but it was too indistinct
Vegeta looked up and smirked as Miko appeared, he was up against her, but it would be rather boring considering she was badly injured, but then again he had seen the rather confusing ordeal with the blast, her power would rival his own, but since super saijin transformations were out of the question it would come down to skill. He had not seen her fight before unless you counted the pathetic first matches
"So you decided to show" he sneered, noticing she was still holding her ribs. She did not answer.
"AND NOW!! THE FIRST MATCH OF THE THIRD ROUND!!! WE HAVE GOKU VERSUS MA JUNIOR!!!" Piccolo glanced at Miko and saw her ki was down to a dangerous low, after the first round it had fluctuated a lot which was unusual for her, he knew after the tournament the others would have a few questions for her, and since he had a job to do as well it could be a tricky one to get out of. He smirked at Goku as they walked out to the ring; he could power up, and Goku could not without risking his identity.
Miko watched lazily, her ribs were still killing her, she doubted there was much anyone could do for those, but she would not pull out because of injury. She tore her attention away from a fight she knew would take a long time and went to sit to the back of the room. She saw more than one pair of eyes follow her. She slumped down against the wall and willed her body to stop hurting.
Authors note: Since this story focuses more on Miko and her battles, I'm gonna cut out the other battles, I mean we both know how scintillating it is to see Goku and Piccolo fight. So I'll leave that to your imagination, besides we all know who's gonna win
Chou!
The (weak stomached storyteller) of ages
CHAPTER TWENTY: The demon within stirs
Miko fought the rising urge to cut her own throat, she knew the stress of her plans were starting to get to her, just a little longer, she consoled her darker side. She smirked and almost laughed as the announcer announced Piccolo out of the ring, they had taken an hour to get it over with. And she was next. Tien came over and offered his hand
"You know he won't go easy on you" he said, she grinned and got up slowly
"I know, but I won't go easy on him either"
Vic jumped as an attendant tapped him on the shoulder, after brief whispers he grinned and nodded
"LADIES AND GENTLEMEN!!! I HAVE JUST BEEN IN FORMED THAT NOKIA WILL BE FIGHTING!!!" the stadium was silent in collective awe, so many strange things had happened, but fighting after a match against the former world champ was really something.
Nokia limped out next to Vegeta, he kept smirking at her
"AND WE HAVE TWO REAL CROWD PLEASERS HERE!!! VEGETA AND NOKIA!!" She smiled weakly to ignore her aching ribs and headed up the steps, Vegeta was in a battle stance by the time she got to the top. She wondered vaguely how she was going to beat him, if she was going to beat him, she was more than a little afraid to use ki, she had no idea what it would do.
Vegeta smirked as she sank into an awkward battle stance, she really was injured, he decided to make it easy on her and just knock her straight out of the ring. The gong sounded and he shot forwards.
Nokia took a chance and dropped, landing hard on her front, Vegeta shot straight over her, she used the opportunity to shoot up into the air. He pursued her quickly, she knew this would be a quick fight.
Vegeta shot after her, preparing to body slam her to put her off balance, she was known for her pathetic flying. Of course he wasn't expecting her to take to the air anyway. He blinked as she disappeared, he scowled, Kakkarot had taught her a few tricks, or maybe it was the other way around, he scouted about for her energy and found her waiting by his left shoulder, he turned as her fist hit his jaw, he was propelled backwards a yard or two, she slowly descended, panting, one hand clutched around her ribs. He charged and a hit and counter routine flared into life. He smirked to himself, her hits were slow and she could not avoid his for much longer, she backed her against the edge, she ducked under his arm and tripped him, he saved himself from falling and spun around, she was waiting, he realised she was too injured to attack any more. He scowled, rather disappointed.
Nokia braced herself as he charged, she was certain this would end it, she ducked anyway, rolling onto her back and kicking upwards. He shot into the air as she rolled away.
Vegeta flipped over and brought his fist down where she had been a split second ago, she was struggling to her feet across the arena, he waited until she was standing then charged. This time she was too slow, he sweep kicked her and grabbed both her ankles, throwing her with brutal force that demonstrated his annoyance out of the ring
Nokia yelped as the ground leapt up to meet her, jarring the breath out of her. She ignored the offers of help from attendants and got slowly to her feet, she limped back up into the arena and extended her hand to the saijin prince. He blinked then took it, smirking widely
"You lasted a while for such a weakling" he hissed, she smirked and shook her head. Still refusing help to leave the arena
Piccolo took her arm as she stepped inside, scowling at the attendants, the crowds were half way between booing and awe, they settled for cheering instead. She blinked at him as he pulled her away
"Dende wants to see you" she scowled
"Get off me" she growled
No amount of convincing would make her come and forcing her did not seem like the best idea, at least not when there were so many people to see it. He gave up
Authors note: just fillin' in time here, we all know the fight against Vegeta and Goku will be spectacular so I'm gonna skip to a few weeks later now, k?
CHAPTER TWENTY-ONE Matters of the heart
Miko sat on the Capsule Corp lawn with Sheme sitting on her lap, three weeks after the tournament which had been real fireworks show in the final round ending in a rather anti climatic tie, for the first time she was allowed to go outside. She had decided to stay with Bulma now that she was no longer scared of Vegeta (not that she had ever really been, she told herself) She had spent basically all her time escaping, but always getting caught, normally be Vegeta, it was not a pleasant experience to be hauled back into a room that was slowly driving you insane by a man of easily ten time your strength who thoroughly enjoyed beating the crap out of her. She smiled as Sheme shifted slightly; they had often spent afternoons just gazing at the clouds before the Z fighters invaded on their plans. She grinned at the picture her little brother had done for her
"It's great Sheme, but maybe you should give Mr Hercule some more muscle, I don't think sticks count as arms" Sheme was actually a highly advanced drawer, being able to draw, sketch and shade better than a trained nineteen year old, but when he did not like some one he was drawing, he chose to make them look like anorexic cows, or worse.
"He hurt you though" he said stubbornly, Miko laughed
"No I was faking, it's not nice to humiliate people, so I decided to make it look like it was hard for me"
"Trunks said you were evil" she blinked then grinned
"Why did he say that?" he wriggled around to face her
"Because you did this weird black blast thing" she grinned, not wanting him to know the truth of it
"It was an accident, I made a mistake, I didn't know it was going to do that" He smiled
"I knew Trunks was wrong" with that he went back to drawing a bone thin dog with a purple mushroom cut.
Bulma smiled, it was good to see Sheme spending more time with Miko after so long. She spent her days spending time with him, mostly like this. And when she went back to work no doubt she would find a way to spend just as much time with him. She smiled again. Sheme was really a very sweet boy, and Miko was a different person around him, so much quieter, more mature, and definitely happier, she still avoided Vegeta though when he was dragging her back from another escape attempt it was not a pretty sight. Bulma grinned again, Vegeta was so afraid he'd hurt her, (not that he cared if she died or lived, it was just Bulma had him on orders, and no one, no one, crossed her when she had her mind made up) that he end up taking blows from all sides because usually if he caught a fist or a hand he risked breaking it with even a tiny grip. She grinned as Sheme suddenly came sprinting inside, grinning so much like Miko when she truly smiled I was hard to believe they were not biologically related.
"BULMA!! LOOK WHAT I MADE FOR YOU!!" Bulma backed away from the door frame to avoid being bowled over, Sheme was a lot stronger than the average kid, she had a feeling Miko had a lot to do with that. He skidded to a halt brandishing a few pages. She took them curiously
"Miko said I should show them to you" he said breathlessly, Bulma glanced at Miko and saw she was lying stretched out on the grass
Sheme handed "aunty Bulma" the papers, she gasped as looked at them, then collapsed laughing as she got to the last one
"These are brilliant Sheme" she told him
"I especially like the dog" he grinned; she didn't know, he thought gleefully. Bulma smiled again as she regained her balance
"Let's put these on the fridge"
Miko felt herself drifting off to sleep, she was jolted awake by something digging into her side, she blinked as Vegeta's face came into view, he was shoving her as gently as was possible for Vegeta with the toe of his boot
"Wake up woman!' he growled, she grinned, seeing the night sky
"Let me guess? You aren't allowed to start without me?" she was answered by a loud rumbling. He scowled as she got up as slowly as she possibly could, partly because any sudden movements still hurt, but more because she wanted to annoy Vegeta. He growled and stalked away
Bulma looked up as Miko entered slowly. She grinned as Vegeta eyed the food, Trunks' hand were already heading for the nearest bowl. Miko took her seat and half the food on the table disappeared as if by magic. Bulma smiled as Miko paled, the girl had thrown up every time she had eaten with them, at first Bulma had been worried about some sort of eating disorder, but Miko had clarified it was the saijins' eating habits, something about seeing a bread roll half chewed in an unhinged jaw with several unrecognisable eatables that made her feel queasy. Bulma later found out that in he time chamber with Goku and later Gohan she had barely eaten at all, growing bone thin because she could not bring herself to eat something with a pair of saijins with front end loaders for mouths.
Miko picked at her food, trying to ignore the sounds of eating coming from all sides. Sheme's table manners weren't great, he still ate without his fork on the occasional copy-cat session when he was looking at Trunks or Vegeta but she could at least stand to look at him when he ate. She grinned weakly when he grinned at her through a full mouth. She could feed her face as disgustingly as the next human but the saijins took it to a whole new level.
Sheme frowned as Miko took small mouthfuls, it was not like her to not eat much he knew she was a model now and Robert kept telling her to watch her figure but she had never listened to him before.
It was an uneventful evening by Miko's standards, Tien came around to check on her as had become his bi weekly custom, they would always spend an hour catching up, things had eased up between Yamcha and her, which had not been her intention. She was currently curled up in an armchair in her room reading with Sheme, the kid was bright, very bright. He could read as well as Trunks and was at the head of his class, which just happened to be one below Trunks and Goten, even though biologically he was two grades down. He and Goten were good friends, sharing in their good-natured play, but Trunks on the other hand was less of a friend. Miko knew they got along but she did not particularly like the boy, he had an attitude problem, she didn't blame Vegeta though there was no one else it could have come from, she simply did not like it, but since they lived in the same house and she was not too motherly in these areas she just kept reinforcing decent values and spent as much time as she could with him, she was trying to make up for the three months they lost.
Bulma smiled as she passed Miko's door, it was amazing how tender she was with Sheme, her fiery temper and general delinquent attitude she saw when she first met Miko was nowhere to be seen, she not once heard Miko swear around Sheme, though he picked it up in the end.
Miko felt her ribs healing every day and gradually got back into training, she used the gravity room, building up from one to a hundred over a few weeks, she had another three weeks off, Robert said he did not want to see her if she looked as much of a mess as she had when she fought in the tournament. She still found herself thinking of Tien and wondering what might have happened had she not been the person she was. She closed her eyes and rose into the air, landing with a thud on the Capsule Corp. It was night and there was a slight chill in the air. She blinked and realised Trunks was already there
"Going somewhere?" he said accusingly, his eyes narrowed. She smirked
"Up here actually" he scowled
"Yeah right, prob'ly off to kill some innocent people" she frowned
"What are you talking about?" he jumped to his feet
"You're evil!" he hissed
"I know it!" she started to laugh, quietly at first, then so much she fell over, hitting the roof with a thud she knew would wake Vegeta. She couldn't stop herself, all the while he was pointing at her. She dried her eyes and looked as him
"Is this because I scared you with the flies? I've been doing that for years" she chortled. He scowled
"No" even in the dark she could see him blush
"I was just messing with you" she told him. He grinned in a way that reminded her strongly of Goku
"Yeah well, you're pretty scary, so you must be evil" she giggled, hearing thuds that could only be Vegeta's
"Only when I'm mad"
Trunks wondered if she was just lying, but he had always been able to tell if some one was lying, like the time he asked his mother about the birds and the bees when he was four and she had told him a pack of lies, he then went to his father, who told him straight, which had surprised his mother greatly, they had gotten along better all week. He sat down again as she drew up her knees
"You like to be tough don't you?" she asked, her voice was quiet, he could still hear his father's cuss words at being woken
"Yeah, I am tough. Dad says when he dies I'll be the greatest warrior in the universe" he smiled at this, a step away from belittlingly, just a step
"I bet you will be, I can barely keep up with you now" he grinned
"Yeah but I sensed your power at the tournament, everyone did, it was as big as Gohan's, no one talks about it, why would you hide a power like that and why can you shoot black energy" he said the last sentence threateningly. She frowned
"Was it that big? Well to be honest Trunks I wasn't actually in control of myself when I shot it, it wasn't my energy, I don't have dark ki, I have blue ki" she turned her palm upwards and a small sphere of ordinary blue ki grew out of it
"See, and I have no idea how to power up, Goku told me I did once before then passed out, but I have no memory of it at all, I think it has something to do with emotions, ki is linked to emotion, I didn't want to kill all those people, so I guess I kinda called on something without thinking"
"But who was controlling you?"
Miko grinned, this kid was smarter than he looked, she did not want to go telling him the full story but then again to put him at ease would mean most of the Z fighters
"An evil force, who is coming to destroy earth, Goku and your Dad decided they wanted me to help, that's why they found me in the first place" The kid scowled
"My dad could beat anybody without any help at all"
Vegeta smirked and went back to bed
Miko heard a single footstep and grinned
"I know" she then went to bed.
More content than she had been in a long while
*
Miko awoke to find a smiling face staring at her. She blinked as Sheme whacked her with a pillow
"WAKE UP!!" He yelled, jumping up and down on the bed beside her, she groaned and shielded her face from the onslaught that was quickly joined by Trunks, who thoroughly enjoyed this game. She started to shriek, dodging and trying to get past them, they had surrounded her. Sheme used to play this game with her when she told him they had to get up early, he would always get up long before he was meant to and beat her awake with her own pillow. She yelped as one caught her braised from Sheme, who happened to be a master in such areas, she grabbed another pillow and began to clout them both, chasing them off her bed and out of her room. The door opened just as they ran for it and they both ran headlong into Vegeta. Miko groaned and shut the door.
Vegeta scowled and caught each of the boys before the scruff of the neck and hauled them off their feet. He took the squirming pair and threw them both outside and went back to bed.
Trunks giggled and started beating Sheme with the pillow still in his hands. A rather loud war that resulted in a still sleepy Miko tipping a bowl of water on them from the third floor. Trunks was surprised to find Sheme beat him hands down, the boy was as much of a strategist as Miko, he had seen Miko fight and through his father's training could see her brilliant strategies, obviously her little brother took after her. He also knew that Miko was no match for his father, he had seen her get her butt whooped at the tournament, though it had been fun to see her beat Hercule, but she could have humiliated him a lot more. He pulled his sopping hair out of his eyes to see Sheme climbing the side of the house to get to Miko who was still leaning out the window, laughing her head off. Sheme climbed like a monkey, and had yet to find anything besides the smoothest of the most vertical he could not scale.
Miko grinned as Sheme approached, she leapt back from the window as he jumped inside, soaking wet and dying to make her the same. She laughed and jumped right out the window, dodging around him, at odd moments mostly in the mornings they were more like brother and sister, playing like the kid he was and the child she had never been. She heard him descending after her, she shrieked as Trunks tackled her, it hurt a bit
"Oh so you want to join the fun too eh?" she chuckled and grabbed both his wrists and pinned him, at that exact moment Sheme jumped on her from behind, locking his arms around her neck. She could only shriek as they ganged up on her.
Tien landed to see what he thought was Trunks and Sheme wrestling, but the shrieks and protests alerted him Miko's presence, that and her bare feet sticking out from where Trunks had pinned her. He laughed and freed her, only to have them attack him as well
"Ok, ok enough" Miko choked out through her giggles. Trunks and Sheme whined a bit
"Go inside before you make the rest of us soaking wet too" She indicated her clothing, it was very wet and clung to her. Her long thin pyjama pants were sticking to her and half way back to front from her tousle in the mud, her shorn hair was pretty much plastered all over her head with water and mud and her thin shoestring top was revealing more than she would like. She folded her arms at Tien, who was blushing as well as grinning stupidly
Tien averted his eyes as she led him into the house, leaving him with Trunks and Sheme who were now dry and tucking into breakfast while she got cleaned up. He was careful to avoid getting jumped on; they were both spoiling for a good Saturday morning brawl. H grinned as Miko reappeared in less revealing apparel. She had on long dark blue jeans that hung off her hips and flared at the knee and a strapless top with a light shirt over that. She grinned as his glaze flicked over her. He blushed but she did not mention it, normally she would hit a guy or scare the hell out of him. He wondered why She sat down at the table opposite him and grinned
"So what's been happening?" He recounted odd bits of news for a while a while before going outside for a while
"Hey listen, maybe you should come back to Kame house in a little while" her face darkened a little
"I mean, because here, well, you see, here, you have to deal with Trunks and Vegeta, and even Sheme, so training would slow down, and we need you in peak shape" he knew she understood
"Yeah, I see your point, but I don't want to leave Sheme again. It isn't fair on him, I'm practically never around anymore. And besides, Yamcha" her voice tailed away
Miko was busy contemplating the pros and cons of such an action, she did not yet have Vegeta's household in her grasp but she somehow doubted whether it would be worth it. She also knew it would cut down her time with Sheme. She looked up to see an odd expression on Tien's face
"Ok, in a few weeks" she said. His face lit up for a second
"Great!"
They spent the day mucking around, playing with Sheme and Trunks and in Miko's case, trying to annoy Vegeta. Tien was unsure as to why he found himself so drawn to Miko, she was seventeen, though she never gave that impression, and even though he was certain she was not who she appeared he could not fight his emotions. He often wondered if she felt the same way. Certainly they spent time together, and it could be considered intimacy of a sort but it could also be a brother-sister sort of relationship. He just did not know, Miko was unreadable and unpredictable
Miko sighed as she leaned on Tien, she was now certain he had feelings for her that were more than physical. Suddenly she felt a jolt
"Gods, what is it I'm feeling?"
*
Tien sat on the roof of Kame house thinking about Miko, he thought of all the times he had seen her in moonlight and smiled. She was so unpredictable, one minute it was as though she was on the verge of, he wasn't sure, and the next she was as if nothing at all had happened, as if she had felt nothing. He sighed; he could not get over her and doubted he ever would. He wanted her so badly it was intoxicating
"You drive me crazy Your touch makes me want you Like I've never wanted anything in my life I hate the way you make me feel Scared of what you would say If I told you Would you love me too?
Tell me please before I go insane If you love me Tell me so Don't push me away Just let me know
You put me through hell Your face shines to me Through the hell you reserved especially for me What must I do? To prove that I love you
Are you really the person I know?
Are you really that cold hard emotionless person? I only see her ever now and again
Is it you?
How can it be? But you make all things possible
To save the world To save your soul Let me keep you
Let me put you away in the little cell of my heart And keep you safe for all eternity Do you have a heart room for me? Or is it a prison waiting for me To wander blindly in So you can lock me away for all eternity In my own personal hell Just for me
Do you hate me enough to hurt me like this? Do you love me enough to show me your soul? Tell me please
Do you even have a heart? I can't find it Please let me in Let me see you To see the real you I can't love a shell I can't love a porcelain doll I can only love you
Give me your love Give me your heart
I won't break it in two"
~~~~~~~~
A?N: time flies when you're having fun does it not. And now I feel I must make mention of a certain author. Gotenks. Being the one and only person to review me so far. As telling as this is about my story. I would like reviews so I know what I'm doing wrong. So, if you want to be a nice and cool person like Gotenk_4_ever.. REVIEW!!!