My Secret- 6. Can't Sleep

Bulma was still admiring her gift when the door suddenly opened and Vegeta walked in. He closed the door and leaned against it.

She smiled at him. "Finished so soon?"

"I have to ask you a question."

"Oh? And what would that be?"

"What did you tell Chichi when you went over to her house this afternoon?"

Darn. She hoped he would forget. "Oh that. Nothing important. You know, gossip and stuff."

He wasn't expecting a dead end. He had to think fast. "You don't expect me to believe that, do you?"

She released a sigh. "No, I guess not. But what I said was true, Vegeta. What I've told her... it's not that important."

"I'll still like to know."

"Fine. I just told her that."

"That? What are you talking about?"

"You know, the thing I told you about the other day."

"Which other day?"

"The day I told you to baby-sit Trunks." She smiled mischievously.

"Refresh my memory."

Bulma was taken aback by his perfect calmness. He wasn't kidding. He really did forget. "I didn't know you store such a miserable memory in your short term bank."

A wrong move. "Oooh, that day. Of course I remember it." He knitted his eyebrows together in disgust.

"I knew you were just pulling my leg." Bulma stated, sarcastically.

"So what was her reaction?"

"She was very sympathetic, that's for sure."

A dead end. He turned around and opened the door.

"Where are you going?"

"Back to training."

"Wait!" Bulma cried. "Before you go, I have a question, too!"

"What?"

"Does this thing mean anything?" She held up the necklace she has been fumbling with all this time. "I know the symbol inside means Saiyan royalty."

He walked over to her bedside and picked the object up, examining it under the light. When he saw what it was, his hand shook, and his pupil grew small.

"This... this means..." his voice shook uncontrollably. I have to get a grip on myself. "Yes, it does." He looked at her, and she looked back, obviously waiting for more.

"Amulet is the closest word I can use to describe it, although I'm not sure if the definition is precise. Unlike an Earthling amulet, this is real. It's not just a good luck charm. This, this holds great power... Saiyan magic. It's called tsukemono. They usually come as the round metal itself, without the plastic. It unleashes a protective shield when the possessor of this amulet is in danger. It only protects the one it belongs to, however, so thieves would find it useless. The shield, which this creates, feeds off power from the one given to you, so the shield is as strong as the person himself."

"Or herself."

Vegeta chuckled. "That would be an insult, won't it? This amulet is almost a device for one to protect someone he loves when he can't be there for her. That's why it's most commonly passed between couples. Of course, there are some rare cases in which the mother gives it to her newborn child, but the chances of that is one in a million."

"What would happen if the guy... dies?"

"Then all the ki from him will be trapped within this amulet, and the only person who can unleash it will be the one he has given it to."

She looked at her amulet with a whole new prospective.

"Treasure it." And Vegeta left.

I will, Vegeta. I will.

---

Trunks rushed to the window. He saw his father's figure from the window in the Gravity Room. Trunks half wanted to rush in and demand an explanation, but decided against it, not wanting to risk getting in trouble. He went back to lie on his bed.

---

"Chichi, I can't sleep."

"I can see that, Goku." She grumbled from under the cover.

"Why didn't Vegeta have a ki?"

Chichi gave up, and pulled her head out of the cover. She reached for the overhead lights, and the fluorescent light came flooding over them blindingly.

"For goodness sake, Goku. It's two o'clock in the morning. So, what seems to be keeping you up again?"

"Tell me, was Vegeta acting stranger than normal to you today? I mean, normal for him?"

"Hmm... Let's see now. I don't think so. He was a monstrosity like he always was."

"Well, he felt strange to me."

"Then it must be just you. Really, Goku. This is no time to be playing detective."

"The thing that bothers me the most is the fact that he has no energy signal. It wasn't like low like suppressed. It was... almost as if there was nobody there. Like a projection."

"What are you saying? That you fought an image of Vegeta today? Then where could you have gotten your black eye?"

"No, I definitely fought him today. I can feel my energy depleting. And I could hear Vegeta breathing really hard near the end."

"So what possible explanation could there be?"

"I don't know."

---

2:00

The neon red digits glowed from the control panel. Dripping a trail of sweat, Vegeta walked over to it and turned the machine off. Time to call it a quit for the day, he decided. When he stepped outside, he was greeted by a gust of wind blowing from the garden. With his delicate eardrums, he caught a sound of a twig snapping. It came from the row of cherry trees. He figured it was just a small animal lurking around, and gave it no second thought.

Looking up, rather, Vegeta easily jumped and landed on the balcony. Once he slid the glass doors aside and slipped through the heavy curtains, the bright room and warm air took him by surprise. He expected Bulma to have fallen asleep hours ago.

Upon hearing sounds from the windows, Bulma looked up. "Hi Vegeta."

Humph. He walked past the bed and headed towards the bathroom.

"Thanks for the tsukemono."

He stopped in his tracks.

"What's wrong?"

Vegeta turned and walked back to her bedside. "How did you know?"

"Huh? Why, you told me!" She was confused.

"I did no such thing."

"Yes, you did. You came in here a little while after you said you have to continue training."

"Woman, I have been training ever since I left you here."

"No, you came back saying you had a question to ask me."

At first Vegeta thought she suffered a memory loss, but he realized she was telling the truth... as much as he was telling the truth.

"Something's really wrong here. Whoever that came in here while I was training wasn't me. I've been in the GR all this time. Tell me what happened, and don't leave anything out."

---

Yes, the plot is thickening, isn't it? Now that Vegeta and Bulma realizes something is just beyond the horizon, and Goku (unbelievably) also has his doubts, how are they going to react? The building onto the climax is almost to the end, but I haven't written the actual climax yet, and I'm getting nervous. At this update rate, I won't be able to catch up. I know I should start writing more, but I have so many stuff to do. And I do admit the number of reviews are a bit disappointing, but as I said in my diary, I won't dwell too much on it.