Tamashii no Unmei
by Sageseeker777
Author's Notes:
Argh! I had this done on Wednesday, but I rely on the library for internet, so here it is on Friday from my friend's house. Damn the library for being closed, and damn my friend for not letting me release chapters two and three at the same time.
To all my reviewers, thank-you. I wish I could write faster, but I'm trying to make sure I have no plot holes and keep mostly IC. Three to four days to a chapter is a fairly decent timeframe, ne? Especially in comparison to some others, but I don't really care to be compared. I plan on taking this all the way to the end no matter what, so don't worry about that. I'm not sure how long I can keep going at three days to a chapter, but chapter three is already half-done.
Anyone who cares to may host this thing, just tell me so I can explore your archive. My addy is in my profile. If you want me to tell you when I plan to have chapters out or any of the mostly indefinite info on future chapters, just mail me.
Also, 'tamashii no unmei' means 'My soul's destiny'. What I do is look at all of my lyrics and try to pick out certain phrases that I can understand- then I put them together. The title came from 'My Soul's Refrain' and 'Cruel Angel's Thesis'.
To all who enjoy sweet PWP WAFF, the reason I make it so dark is because I want them to find solace only in each other, *wink*.
I've gotten several mails. Apparently, some are wondering what exactly happen to Videl's power in the prologue. Well, like the eldest Namek, Gohan was able to release Videl's potential power. Except that he did it by giving her his own strength.
I figure that the higher your power, the easier it is to gain more power, since it wouldn't be efficient if you only raised yourself one hundred points a day when your max is twenty million, and that's how I plan on making her one of the strongest Z senshi.
Before I reach the Buu saga there will be a point where Videl gets another jump, but because the potential has already been achieved, and training is the only way up now, it will be rather painful. No more spoilers for you!
Besides all this, I'd say she was about the level of the androids from mirai trunks' timeline now. By the time Buu gets here there will be lots of enemies on the way, maybe the room of S&T, and the four years until that point (Gohan was eighteen, remember? Eleven plus seven more years...). Please don't bug me about how Goku was able to train in one hundred times gravity before he reached SS and how even though Videl's stronger she isn't past fifty-five. Remember her minimal muscle growth and the fact that she is still human, no matter how many Saiyan characteristics she's adopted.
Lastly, there was someone who mailed me to say that he was wondering if Gohan went SSJ3, whether Videl was living at Bulma's, and if that was the case, then were they going to meet through Bulma?
This is just an example of how horribly unclear my writing is. I'll have to work on it.
Chapter Two
"Violence is the last refuge of the incompetent"
-Asimov
"Why," said he, "they are men who hired working-girls, and paid 'em' five or six dollars a week to live on. Are you one of the bunch?"
"Not on your immortality," said I. "I'm only a fellow that set fire to an orphan asylum, and murdered a blind man for his pennies."
-O. Henry
"It isn't evil you're defeating. The ones that you defeated are the epitomy of evil."
-Master Long
October brought the beautiful fall colors into wonderful bloom, evidenced by the oak and ash trees lining most city thoroughfares. Yellow and red and orange and brown, a swirl of color to comfort those rushing home to get out of the cold. The temperature was already dropping this early in the year.
Today happened to be the eighteenth. Videl's birthday morning was spent traipsing around the house in what she had worn to bed the previous night.
Her father had graciously left an envelope with her name on it in plain sight; inside was two hundred dollars. However, in his rush to find her a present he'd forgotten that last year he had set up an unlimited expense account for her. Plus, he probably thought that she wouldn't recognize one of the envelopes his accountants use for bills.
But at least he had remembered, right?
Videl sighed.
Nowadays, everything was simply... breezy. She had gone to school looking far less attractive and far less noticeable. On the second day she was pleased to find that those punks hadn't come into school. Then they didn't come in the third day. Or the fourth. A few weeks later one of them did, and towards her he was way quieter than he had been. But she still kept the style because of the perverted eyes she knew were out there. Pigtails and baggy clothes. Icky.
Nothing else changed, really. School passed the time between books and training sessions. One teacher had understood the quality of her work and asked her to do an extra credit fiction work. This led her into writing more in her spare time. Eventually she started carrying a tiny notebook around with her to jot down the random ideas that came to mind.
So here she was, traipsing, wandering around her huge home humming some forgotten tune.
Eventually the day just became too inviting and she got showered and dressed to spend the cash somewhere in the city. Maybe she would go to the park and write something about autumn, something about how nice it is to take a stroll in the nippy weather.
By the time noon rolled around, she was eighty bucks lighter and had seven books in a bag. Home wasn't too far away, so she dropped off her parcel and began the trip to the park.
Soon she got bored, though. Videl wanted to do something different today. The park
was more boring than school at the moment. Even the city itself wasn't too lively, and had an exceptionally low crime rate. Too many old people moving in, probably. Although, there was that noticeable jump in the number of muggings recently. It had started in some other city a month ago and spread to three others, Satan City included. People wake up afterwards without the strength to even get up, and the ones the coroners had to examine always had a tiny puncture mark with an 'M' logo. They had shown it in the paper, a big black thing with spidery curves. Strange. But Videl trusted that she could take care of herself. Besides, the numbers had only gone up on the ones that occurred after dark.
Then, she had an idea. It took a few minutes to find a train to the outer part of the city, but she was aboard as soon as it arrived. Videl wanted to do some exploring on her official day off from everything, since she had never been too far from her home near the center if the city.
This was fun!
Here she was, swathed in some clean overclothes that were probably intended for the poor and homeless, just because it made a great disguise. No one would ask if she should be in school or something, anyway. Videl had been walking around and an inconspicuous street corner had caught her eye. It interested her for a while as she made up fantastical pasts for the passersby, but now she was on the trail of a boy who had one of those 'M's' tattooed on his forehead.
It wasn't her problem, but she figured on giving the police a hand with her above average abilities. So far, Videl had tracked him across the southeast district and all the way to an alley on the edge of the middle district, where her home was.
Before he did whatever he was planning on doing, he looked around carefully, ignorant of the little rag-girl with her eyes downcast near the mouth of the alleyway. Then the guy moved a dumpster forward and was gone.
Videl's eyes swept the sidestreet and the windows above it. There was a presumably abandoned warehouse on one side and an unidentifiable brick wall on the other. No one was watching. The street outside was empty, and there was no one else in the sight.
She was worried that this might just be a small place, or that he might come out any second now, but it was all or nothing at the moment. He could have even been onto her and be tricking her into revealing herself.
Well, that was too bad. She found herself in a black tunnel moments later, and started to follow it at faster-than-normal speeds until a light in the distance signaled deceleration. It was a pallid light, one designed obviously for those who don't normally encounter such things. The kind that wouldn't hurt the eyes but might make you feel like you were in a bad horror flick.
Her sharp eyes could see that there was a crowd of people filling the entrance the light was shining from. She decided to blend in. There was wailing and moaning to some unseen force, as though these people had chosen a deity to worship. They smelt like garbage and feces, and their clothes were far worse than the ones Videl had casually picked up. It made her feel a little guilty, but if they wanted the clothes, they could just go up and take them.
Videl was so far affected only on the level of being amazed at what these people were doing, until she realized that they were all children, somewhere between ten and twenty, and the level rose to "weirded out."
She knew, positively knew that whatever the object of their worship was it wouldn't be pretty or very kind to strangers. This could get ugly. But she could take them, right?
Suddenly a platform appeared, and it hovered slightly in front of the pack of 'worshipers' who turned from wailing to an animalistic rage. They were jumping up and down, screaming and howling, calling out to the man on the platform. He must have been older than everyone in the group hiding Videl, but really he was just a kid himself.
And it was the guy she had chased here. If he was so high in this hierarchy, how had he led someone right into the den? Unless he wasn't. That meant that this sort of thing barely scratched the surface. She'd find out, one way or another.
It as though a megaphone enhanced his voice. "Greetings from your new lord and master, who will raise you up from the filthy fringe of humanity, and bring you with him on his rise to glory!"
The guy really knew how to work an audience; even Videl was feeling as though she wanted to start chanting. It was probably mind control of some sort.
"Join us, release to the great Babidi," his voice boomed like thunder as he reverently spoke the name, "all of the pain you've ever felt, release the dark so that you will be free! Bow down to him now, praise him as lord and you shall be raised up!" In his right hand was an orb. He raised it so that the unholy green glow from within could shine on the bunch.
'And the crowd roared'. It was a horrible noise, like the laughing of hyenas mixed with the howling of wolves.
One and all they bowed down in their worship, leaving Videl the lone person still standing. She could admit to feeling the incredible urge to kneel, but fought it with all her will.
The man hissed, and the crowd followed. "An infiltrator! Get him!" His mistake made Videl later appreciate the uses of the genderless clothing she had taken.
She noticed in the pale light that 'M's' were now inscribed on the foreheads of these pathetic examples of life. With hollow eyes, sunken cheeks, and empty stomachs they attacked her. The whole mob must have been two hundred something strong and they quickly swarmed Videl with more strength than they could ever really have. She lost her footing and began drowning in the sea of despairing souls.
Releasing a roar of anger she burst from the crowd sending a dozen people flying. The man on the platform was still there, but he was talking to himself. Or rather, to the orb that he had been presenting. She couldn't make out the words, but he turned around to make good his escape. His job was done, apparently.
Videl decided that he was the only person who could lead her to the source of this disgusting mess, or at least the next level up. She broke through the crowd and hit a speed she probably hadn't ever reached before jumping with all of her considerable strength. She landed so that her fingers were gripping the lip of his floating pedestal, which was still rushing along at around fifty miles per hour.
The man turned and shouted something before attempting to grind her fingers off with his heel. However, before he could take a single step she was already on the platform and had him by his neck. She raised him into the air and in his surprise he dropped his little orb. Videl witnessed the shock written all over his face as four mini-explosions echoed the one that announced the destruction of his tool. Maybe he would be in trouble with his 'lord and master'.
Videl smacked the control panel with a free hand, crushing most of the controls. They descended rapidly and she lost her grip on one of the bounces. Her prisoner seemed ignorant to the harsh pain of impact and escaped into the shadows without her. A few seconds later and he would be gone; Videl knew that she had to act. She stamped the obsolete flying device with one of her feet, causing it to slam against the floor and bounce up, rebounding off the wall in the direction of the escapee.
Videl jumped and began to run. Eventually she found herself in the sewers where light shined from above at intervals of thirty feet or so. She could just barely make out the figure of her prey, and hurried to catch up to him. Soon, she was upon him, and she slammed him into the wall of the tunnel as she screamed, "Who the hell are you and what are you doing to those kids?!"
All she could get out of him was stuttering, so she rephrased the question in a way that was a tad more friendly. Videl was hoping that she wouldn't have to deal with the crowd again, so she decided to keep her voice a little lower.
"Who is Babidi?"
"My master! Babidi is the only master!"
Videl smirked. Her first interrogation was going somewhere.
"What did you do to those kids back there?"
"I showed them the wisdom of Babidi!"
"Why?!"
"So that they may serve him for the rest of their lives! They will lounge in the comfort of the house of our lord!"
It sounded mostly rote. Maybe they pounded propaganda into the heads of these people.
"How long have you been serving him?"
"A full month!" He grinned stupidly. He sounded proud, and his eagle-like features reflected it.
"What have you done for Babidi so far?"
"I was taking the light from the blind, until I took command of my pack and Babidi promoted me for it! He raised me from the filthy fringe of humanity like he promised. I am one of his own."
"Where is your pack?"
"Southeast Thirty-fourth Street..." He began to look tired. The man seemed to be dying before her eyes. Videl threw him away and jumped back when he started to turn brown and just... decay before her eyes. Dust was all that remained, and it made her wonder, contrary to her memory, if he had at all. Except that there were those scribbles in her notebook she had just made: "Babidi," and "SE 34th."
She knew where she had to go and what she had to do. She couldn't go to the police without proof, so she had to find it on her own. And maybe stop what parts of this cult crime ring that she could. Not that she wanted to play hero, but her sense of responsibility said that her distinct physical advantage might play a key difference, and she had to use it.
-*-
Gohan had heard and seen others whose parents had allowed them to skip school on their birthdays. He honestly didn't want to. Hadn't wanted to. There was no need, because he was a kind of boring guy who led a rather boring life.
Except that he got sick. Not too sick, just to the point where he didn't want to crawl out of bed and go to school. Why not stay here? And the perfect excuse: it was his birthday! October twenty-first, like it had been for the last fifteen years, with the exception of those parts where time was less than relativistic.
His mother and brother called to wish him a happy birthday. Him mom could tell right away that he was sick, and told him to stay home and get some rest.
"And relax, Gohan. Have a nice day off. I love you, call soon!"
That was nice Gohan lay down on the couch for a bit, telling the Desk to switch to one of the music channels he'd programmed in. Oh, joy, a bit of soft rock. Blues. Whatever.
Eventually he decided that a shower might make him feel better, and it did give him a boost of energy. He decided to go to the store for some headache medicine, and maybe some of that stuff that helps coughs, just in case.
It was a nice day, if a bit drab. Gray skies. Overcast. A chance of rain. Gohan walked along the street admiring the beauty of the trees. It was a lovely contrast, the trees to the sky. He always loved the autumn colors, but it hadn't gotten this cold at home in any of the winters he had experienced. At least, so early in the year. And it never lasted all that long. Gohan sighed and smiled softly. It was that kind of day.
The cashier smiled as she handed him back his medicine in a bag.
"Sick?"
"Yeah." He covered his mouth as he yawned.
"Tired too, eh?"
"Ugh."
"You have a nice day, you hear? Get some sleep. Get better soon!"
"Thanks. Bye." He smiled and gave a little half-hearted wave as he exited, still holding his wallet in his hand.
That was nice. It was good to know there were such thoughtful people out there. Especially when he had encountered some of the most un-good beings out there.
Smack! Gohan was caught unawares and found himself on his back, staring confusedly at the bleak sky. Blinking, he got up to find the woman from the store at his side.
"Are you okay?" she asked.
"I'm fine... What hit me?"
"That boy, up there, and he got your wallet! Look," she pointed, "See, he's still running. Maybe you can catch him!"
He smirked. "I'm sure I can. Thanks again." and in a flash of his ki, he was running towards the kid like a beastie out of the Pit. His sickness was mostly forgotten, as was the medicine clutched tightly in his left hand.
The kid looked turned to look back for a second, and must have recognized a ki flare for what it was because he lit his own and burned faster than Gohan could see. It was as though he was drawing from a source of energy that wasn't his own, because the kid's actual power was just a little higher than Earth normal.
Gohan got an idea and shot straight up into the air, completely enveloped in the quest for the stolen wallet. This was like playing hide-and-go-seek with Goten, who wouldn't be able to fly for a while yet. It wasn't really cheating, just using all of your pieces in the game.
The boy thought that he'd lost Gohan, and didn't slow, just became a little less wary. Stopped looking around so much and seemed to be on autopilot. Gohan watched him navigate the streets like a maze in a vain effort to evade what pursuers he might still have. It ended in an alleyway, where the boy moved a dumpster and hopped down a hole.
Like the white rabbit, Gohan mused. What am I getting myself into?
He launched himself towards the alley that the kid had disappeared in. It looked undisturbed, but Gohan moved the dumpster and looked in. It was like a slide, and he didn't want to be caught unawares again, so he dived in headfirst. The hole soon was a steel-plated tube that slid down and down until it reached a room full of people. Gohan stayed in the air and moved along the ceiling until he found a niche along the back wall that seemed completely inaccessible. There was likely a ladder that was used to get up here. Unless you could fly, like he suspected most of these guys knew how to do, if that punk thief was any example.
He peered over the lip of the 'balcony'. There were maybe thirty or forty guys, all rather young, all with decently high power levels themselves, even without an outside force. And they all had 'M's' on their forehead, like that one report in the paper... He spotted the thief and decided that since it was only cash he wouldn't worry about it. A bigger fish was right in front of him.
Light emanated from a white screen maybe forty feet long by twenty feet high. The crowd was talking among itself, and Gohan's interest was piqued because there was something here... It was something that was just on the edge of his senses. Like that girl's energy. He had tried to sense her at school, and knew that she was there, but because her energy was so like his own for some reason, he had trouble. It was like trying to see yourself when your self keeps telling you that 'you are here'.
Suddenly, the screen exploded in a flash of color and sound, and every person in the room but two quickly bowed at the waist towards the screen. Both remained unnoticed
A squat, orange creature was sitting on a throne, holding a staff. He began to speak. The large blue creature behind him stood at attention like a good lieutenant.
"I have gathered you here, my greatest warriors- so far- from Satan City, because you are being hunted. In the last three days we have found that four gangs have been disbanded by the actions of a single person. Whoever it is, they must be stopped! With utmost haste! Now, I say!" Spittle rained from his mouth as he screamed in a tantrum, and his whiskers jiggled.
Someone, presumably the speaker for this entire group, said, "Lord, we are trying as hard as we can. You know all that we know, and of course far more. With the knowledge that your strength is behind us, we shall prevail."
The creature reveled in its ego waxing, yet shouted, "I know that! But I am telling you to be on higher alert, be more careful, more watchful. Now, you sent word that all of your energy lamps are full, so here are the directions for your first dump. This will progress my plans to the next phase, you know. No other city has been able to fill even an eighth of their lamps yet. It must be because of all those dojos. But... No, we should wait. If you go to the same place as last time you will find more lamps for yourselves."
The orange thing raised his hand and muttered something that might have been 'fools', but ritually said, "My power go with you."
Gohan heard then, for the first time, the name of this uncloaked enemy. "Hail, lord Babidi!" And just as suddenly as this knowledge came to him, all hell broke loose.
-*-
This was going almost as good as Videl had hoped.
She hadn't gone to school in three days, but she had taken about twelve hours or more each day to track down these groups. Maybe if she got enough they'd be scared away.
Except now they had revealed to her the strongest warriors they had, if this gaggle of scum could be called 'warriors'.
It was enough to make her want to laugh, that her ability had finally made a difference in something. And here it would mean all that much more.
When Babidi's picture began speaking, she tried once again to put it all together in her head. They were controlling street kids to control other street kids to gather energy for what? What energy could they be talking about, the soul's?
As soon as Babidi shut up, she took a rock out of her pocket and hurled it at the screen with all her strength. The thing cracked, and cut off the picture. Everyone in the room started to go nuts, and the speaker for the group hit a box on the wall that Babidi said to hit if something like this were to happen.
Videl began fighting her way through the group, but it was harder than ever before. Even with all her strength, even though some of her blows completely twisted heads around, bodies in half, and whatnot, they kept coming. And some had weapons that were unseen until this point. Staves, bludgeons, and those things she had come to know as 'lamps'. Soon, they had encircled her, and she was trapped with this one other guy, apparently the strongest of the bunch.
Videl jumped towards him with a flurry of attacks, yet the upper half of his body rebounded and he dodged to the left before striking her back at the ground. His face was messed up, but she could make out the sneer of his lips in the emergency lights. This disfigured man came at her with an attack intent on cracking her neck, but just before it could strike and just before Videl could move with a speed they didn't know, she found a warmth rather close to her for a single second. Looking up, she found a golden-haired warrior glowing with his own light. This surprised her, and her hand went straight for her locket. Opening it, she found that the black hair had turned gold and was glowing as well.
So this was the guy. Like a guardian angel, almost.
He was blocking the elbow with a forearm. Quickly, he jabbed his knee into the man's gut and began tormenting his opponent's kidneys with fists of iron. Blood dripped from the side of the poor guy's mouth. Seeing that he had it under control, Videl began to take out the crowd one by one, making sure each guy was down for sure before moving on. These people were able to get up sometimes after assuredly crippling blows unless they were dead or knocked out and unable to function. And those weapons were a doozy to keep away from in the right hands.
With a pile of fighters surrounding her, Videl struck out at the lone guy standing in the center of the circle. Her roundhouse seemed to loose a wave of energy that blew the bodies of the downed men away. Safe to say it struck solidly. So far, every one of her blows she had ever landed, as expected, had been taken with the amount of resistance one would think would result. They would fly into a wall, or get hurt really bad or something. Even these half-dead zombies who could take any pain were still knocked away and hurt, they just came back for more. So it was surprising to her to find that she couldn't break through this guy's defense in a single kick. Looking down the length of her leg, still held against a blocking forearm, she realized that it might have something to do with the glowing gold hair.
-*-
Gohan just stood there watching her.
Videl just stood there watching Gohan.
"They'll be back, and in stronger numbers, if they've come this far."
"They should know that they won't be here for long."
"They'll be stronger, too. Whatever was raising those kids' power so high can make them go higher. It's probably dependant on the person."
"Maybe."
"Surely. And you should have waited. We might have found where that little orange guy, Babidi? Where that place he was talking about is. And maybe get to him. Cut off the head and maybe all of these extensions of the head will just drop."
If Videl cared about the reprimand, she didn't show it. But she nodded in understanding.
All of her questions had been forgotten when she looked into his blue eyes.
"Good-bye."
Before Gohan could ask her name or anything about herself, she was gone, and he was having just as much trouble sensing her as before.
Looking around, he found that all of their enemies were gone, and there was a significant amount of dust on the floor.
He powered down and headed home.
-*-
Videl was feeling floaty. She had actually met the man of her dreams. Literally.
Until this point she had only a single hair that was any claim to his existence. Now she knew that he did.
It was a nice feeling. She sank lower into the tub and sighed air bubbles. The bubble bath she had used was nice, and the cushiony lining of the extra large tub made for a nice headrest. Altogether, a relaxing bath.
It couldn't completely get rid of bad thoughts, however, and she continually wondered what had happened to those guys after they were taken out. There wasn't enough time to look around in the dim light. She hadn't been able to go to the police so far because on some the 'M' just disappeared, while others faded away, and yet others just slinked into the cracks nursing their wounds, not planning on ever coming out to play again.
These guys might come back if they didn't go to prison. And she couldn't count on gold-boy to do that for her. Unfortunately, by the time she realized this it was too late, and they would have had enough time to get out.
Tomorrow she would watch the news for something about that. If they were still out there, she might have to waste a perfectly good Saturday.
-*-
Gohan was happy that he had done something positive.
It had all been chance, really, but he felt that this was the start of something new. City protector or something. Maybe. Just against evil monsters that liked to take over the minds of children, or something like that.
And that girl. After all this, he still didn't know her name or anything about her except that she went to Orange Star High School. And had black hair. And eyes of just the most beautiful color blue... He could probably look for her in the school database, but it probably wasn't allowed.
So he would keep living life the way he had, and be on the watch for more life-sucking teenagers. And for a girl whose beauty surpassed all others. In his humble opinion anyways. Maybe it had something to do with the air of mystery surrounding their whole relationship. They meet in the woods when they're eleven, then again in the basement lair of the city's gang-lords after defeating all the bad guys.
He called his mother and told her about his day. She asked him to come back home for the weekend so they could celebrate his birthday.
"Of course," he said.
She smiled and replied, "We'll be waiting."
-*-
Somewhere deep in the mountains there lay a mysterious cabin. This cabin is actually the entrance to a rather strangely designed starship capable of taking the life energy of any being who fought within its walls.
Deep in the bowels of this strangely designed starship sat a squat orange creature on a throne, staring in deep thought at something only he could see. Behind him stood what might have been a man if it wasn't blue, seven feet tall, and of pointy ears. His attire might make one think of a movie about an Arabian legend, complete with the pointy shoes and bare chest. The 'M' on his forehead was more pronounced than any other seen so far by Gohan or Videl, and his power is beyond any thusfar as well.
With suddenness, Babidi looked up from his musings to speak. The blue, pointy-eared giant was instantly at attention, and looked for the first word from his master.
"We have an enemy. Or even two. The sensor I told those bumbling idiots to strike in the case of an attack gave me the power levels of one rather strong warrior. But whoever it is can't protect their city forever. We have all the time in the universe and all the life on this world to go forward with our plans. Buu will be revived, and I am patient. You will go to Satan City, taking the strongest of warriors from the other cities we've trampled. There you will train more men than before, and you will crush this fiery upstart who dares interfere with my plans."
"Yes, sire. I am at your bidding."
"Now, Arush."
"I am already gone, my master." He turned on heel and exited the room.
"This is very interesting..." Babidi whispered to himself, thinking of the power of all of his men together. They'd all been defeated. Moreover, the power of this one was considerable, for a human.
"Very interesting indeed."
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