Disclaimer: I do not own Dragonball, Dragonball Z, or Dragonball GT. Those and the characters were created by Akira Toriyama, so please do not sue.
Chapter 13 - Confessions
Bulma took a seat, a hint of apprehension on her usually calm face. Reaching for the remote, she clicked the t.v. off, plunging both of them into silence. Sashima sat directly opposite her, still as a stone while the grandfather clock in the room chimed seven o'clock.
Bulma was the first to break the uncomfortable silence. "The person they were talking about on the news tonight…that was you, wasn't it?"
She sighed, getting up from her spot on the couch and headed to the patio doors, where she stood, gazing out at the darkness. "Of course the person was me. Who else has red hair and red eyes, in her twenties that you know of?" she suddenly snapped.
Slightly taken aback, Bulma rose to her feet as well, getting defensive. "Apparently not many, though the number of those people who would use that power is even less!"
Sashima turned to face her, expression unchanged, yet the voice had on a less harsh quality. "I'm sorry Bulma--I didn't mean to snap at you like that, but…I don't know…there's just another person inside of me it seems…"
"Huh? Another person? What do you mean?" asked Bulma, sitting down once again and motioning for Sashima to do the same.
"I guess I should start from the beginning," she hesitated, her voice hardly above a whisper.
Patiently, Bulma sat, waiting.
"I am not human."
Silence.
"You're…you're…not?" Bulma finally spoke, Sashima's words sinking in rapidly.
"No I'm not. A thousand years ago an angel was banished from Heaven for being careless and losing a sacred lamp. She was sent down to Earth for some time as her punishment, and during that time she met with a demon. She fell in love with the demon, thus ensuring her fate, and soon a child was born to them, half-angel, half-demon. That child was me. The angel was my true mother; the demon, my father."
'There--I said it,' the thought echoed over and over again. 'I told Bulma what I am, now she knows…' Hanging her head and burying her face in her hands, she waited for Bulma's next words.
For about a period of five minutes, neither spoke. The tick-tock of the clock, the soft hum of traffic outside the Capsule Corporation grounds, the hesitant shuffling of Bulma's feet seemed all the more accentuated in the stillness.
"What happened to…your parents?" Bulma held her breath, anxiously awaiting the answer.
"The gods eventually found out, and so did the demon kings. The intimate contact of an angel and a demon was forbidden, and war was waged on both sides. They fought for hundreds of years, but eventually the angels won, and my angel mother and demon father were slain. After the hundreds of years, I had grown up by then, and as punishment, my soul would be trapped in a human's for all eternity, unless the gods deem so otherwise."
Bulma could not believe her own ears at what this…this…woman…was telling her. Angels? Did they really exist? She had believed in them when she was young, yet that belief had worn itself down over the years. And demons? Were they prowling about somewhere in the world? And Sashima herself--if what she said were true, she would be hundreds of years old. With the combined power of an angel and one of a demon, plus her own strength…
She shuddered at the mere thought. A sideways glance at Sashima revealed that she, too, was gazing intently on Bulma, waiting for another word.
"If your soul was trapped in a human's hundreds of years ago," Bulma began, carefully choosing the words, "would not the human have died?"
Sashima bit her lip, bitterness on her face. "You're right. I would be born into a human, live a human life with an angelic-demon soul. Somewhere along every life I would find out what I was. Even though I was technically a human and in a human body, I would still have my powers, just as if I was not in a human body--they would be at the same strength, nothing different. Living a human life, I was born over and over again, and died at the right moments. I have been born and died sixteen different times."
"How…how do you remember all this? Do you remember any of your past lives?" Moving closer to the woman, Bulma no longer felt any more fear, but a kind of dull sadness and pity.
Scoffing, she threw back her fire-colored hair and laughed, almost hysterically for several seconds. At last calm, her face was solemn. "No, I never remember any of these things. It was when I was sixteen I had an unusual dream. In the dream, a high angel spoke to me. She told me that I was born as an angel-demon, and relayed the past to me. Once I die in this life, I would not remember a thing until I would be born again and the cycle would continue unless the gods break it, she told me. When I woke up the next morning, I knew it had been a dream, but I couldn't help but want to believe it. I pointed a finger at the vase on my table and told it to move. It did, and it shocked me so much. I tried so many things that day…and I was finally convinced. From that day on, it was like I was another person--more confident, more sure of myself. My captain back at the police station, David, knew about all this…he wanted me to stay because I had the power to keep the people of the city in check."
"But with your powers, you can do many things, right?" asked Bulma, images of the world getting destroyed in her mind's eye. Quickly, she banished them.
"A lot of things, yes, but I'm only a small angel-demon for Heaven's sake--I can never go against the other angels or demons," she heaved a sigh, suddenly hovering up from the couch, causing Bulma to leap back a few feet.
"You know the news was talking about you today," Bulma stated, arms across her chest.
"I saw it, didn't I?" she said, hovering in midair, legs crossed in the lotus position.
"Well…what happened to those gang members?" asked Bulma, curiosity taking the best of her.
Sashima snorted, wrinkling her nose in disgust. "Some members of their gang killed my sister some two hundred years ago."
Bulma gasped. "You finally found out what happened to her?"
"Yes, I did. Shot twenty times because she killed a bunch of their gang members. The gang been hunting down descendents of the bloodline and found me while I was shopping. For a moment, I wanted to murder them, but then the police came and I decided not to. But for some reason, it seems as if I didn't feel any sadness even though I had finally found out what had happened to my sister. If you can even call her my sister…"
"What do you mean you didn't feel any sadness? Did you not care?" inquired Bulma. She could not believe anyone who would not feel the least bit dismayed over his or her own sibling.
"It was like another voice in my head was arguing me not to feel anything, to deny my current family, and all that…it's really confusing and I don't know what it is, but I'm sure there's another person inside of me, but it's not…it's me as well…just another side of me. I don't know, maybe that's the demon side of me and this is the angel side? I'm so confused over what is what now…" Floating steadily higher, she took a seat on the railings surrounding the second floor, leaning precariously forward.
"That may be it Sashima--your demon side is struggling to get out," replied Bulma, searching for appropriate comments. "By the way, I hate to ask so many questions, but do angels and demons have wings?"
"They are supposed to. But I'm in a human body, remember?" She sighed. "I'm going to bed now. I'll talk to you later Bulma." With that, she slid off the railing and walked along the hallway, rounding the corner to her room and disappearing out of sight.
Bulma was left standing in the center of the living room, mouth slightly open. For a couple of minutes she stood, motionless, the thoughts swirling through her brain like a thick stew poised to boil over.
After awhile, Bulma too went up to bed, shutting her door tightly closed behind her. Much tossing and turning gone by, eventually a heavy sleep overcame her.
She did not hear the alarms at midnight.
_____________________________________________________________________________________
AN: Never expected this, did you? Hehe, shortest chapter ever. From now on, I'll try for less in each chapter--make it a little less wordy or something…
Chapter 13 - Confessions
Bulma took a seat, a hint of apprehension on her usually calm face. Reaching for the remote, she clicked the t.v. off, plunging both of them into silence. Sashima sat directly opposite her, still as a stone while the grandfather clock in the room chimed seven o'clock.
Bulma was the first to break the uncomfortable silence. "The person they were talking about on the news tonight…that was you, wasn't it?"
She sighed, getting up from her spot on the couch and headed to the patio doors, where she stood, gazing out at the darkness. "Of course the person was me. Who else has red hair and red eyes, in her twenties that you know of?" she suddenly snapped.
Slightly taken aback, Bulma rose to her feet as well, getting defensive. "Apparently not many, though the number of those people who would use that power is even less!"
Sashima turned to face her, expression unchanged, yet the voice had on a less harsh quality. "I'm sorry Bulma--I didn't mean to snap at you like that, but…I don't know…there's just another person inside of me it seems…"
"Huh? Another person? What do you mean?" asked Bulma, sitting down once again and motioning for Sashima to do the same.
"I guess I should start from the beginning," she hesitated, her voice hardly above a whisper.
Patiently, Bulma sat, waiting.
"I am not human."
Silence.
"You're…you're…not?" Bulma finally spoke, Sashima's words sinking in rapidly.
"No I'm not. A thousand years ago an angel was banished from Heaven for being careless and losing a sacred lamp. She was sent down to Earth for some time as her punishment, and during that time she met with a demon. She fell in love with the demon, thus ensuring her fate, and soon a child was born to them, half-angel, half-demon. That child was me. The angel was my true mother; the demon, my father."
'There--I said it,' the thought echoed over and over again. 'I told Bulma what I am, now she knows…' Hanging her head and burying her face in her hands, she waited for Bulma's next words.
For about a period of five minutes, neither spoke. The tick-tock of the clock, the soft hum of traffic outside the Capsule Corporation grounds, the hesitant shuffling of Bulma's feet seemed all the more accentuated in the stillness.
"What happened to…your parents?" Bulma held her breath, anxiously awaiting the answer.
"The gods eventually found out, and so did the demon kings. The intimate contact of an angel and a demon was forbidden, and war was waged on both sides. They fought for hundreds of years, but eventually the angels won, and my angel mother and demon father were slain. After the hundreds of years, I had grown up by then, and as punishment, my soul would be trapped in a human's for all eternity, unless the gods deem so otherwise."
Bulma could not believe her own ears at what this…this…woman…was telling her. Angels? Did they really exist? She had believed in them when she was young, yet that belief had worn itself down over the years. And demons? Were they prowling about somewhere in the world? And Sashima herself--if what she said were true, she would be hundreds of years old. With the combined power of an angel and one of a demon, plus her own strength…
She shuddered at the mere thought. A sideways glance at Sashima revealed that she, too, was gazing intently on Bulma, waiting for another word.
"If your soul was trapped in a human's hundreds of years ago," Bulma began, carefully choosing the words, "would not the human have died?"
Sashima bit her lip, bitterness on her face. "You're right. I would be born into a human, live a human life with an angelic-demon soul. Somewhere along every life I would find out what I was. Even though I was technically a human and in a human body, I would still have my powers, just as if I was not in a human body--they would be at the same strength, nothing different. Living a human life, I was born over and over again, and died at the right moments. I have been born and died sixteen different times."
"How…how do you remember all this? Do you remember any of your past lives?" Moving closer to the woman, Bulma no longer felt any more fear, but a kind of dull sadness and pity.
Scoffing, she threw back her fire-colored hair and laughed, almost hysterically for several seconds. At last calm, her face was solemn. "No, I never remember any of these things. It was when I was sixteen I had an unusual dream. In the dream, a high angel spoke to me. She told me that I was born as an angel-demon, and relayed the past to me. Once I die in this life, I would not remember a thing until I would be born again and the cycle would continue unless the gods break it, she told me. When I woke up the next morning, I knew it had been a dream, but I couldn't help but want to believe it. I pointed a finger at the vase on my table and told it to move. It did, and it shocked me so much. I tried so many things that day…and I was finally convinced. From that day on, it was like I was another person--more confident, more sure of myself. My captain back at the police station, David, knew about all this…he wanted me to stay because I had the power to keep the people of the city in check."
"But with your powers, you can do many things, right?" asked Bulma, images of the world getting destroyed in her mind's eye. Quickly, she banished them.
"A lot of things, yes, but I'm only a small angel-demon for Heaven's sake--I can never go against the other angels or demons," she heaved a sigh, suddenly hovering up from the couch, causing Bulma to leap back a few feet.
"You know the news was talking about you today," Bulma stated, arms across her chest.
"I saw it, didn't I?" she said, hovering in midair, legs crossed in the lotus position.
"Well…what happened to those gang members?" asked Bulma, curiosity taking the best of her.
Sashima snorted, wrinkling her nose in disgust. "Some members of their gang killed my sister some two hundred years ago."
Bulma gasped. "You finally found out what happened to her?"
"Yes, I did. Shot twenty times because she killed a bunch of their gang members. The gang been hunting down descendents of the bloodline and found me while I was shopping. For a moment, I wanted to murder them, but then the police came and I decided not to. But for some reason, it seems as if I didn't feel any sadness even though I had finally found out what had happened to my sister. If you can even call her my sister…"
"What do you mean you didn't feel any sadness? Did you not care?" inquired Bulma. She could not believe anyone who would not feel the least bit dismayed over his or her own sibling.
"It was like another voice in my head was arguing me not to feel anything, to deny my current family, and all that…it's really confusing and I don't know what it is, but I'm sure there's another person inside of me, but it's not…it's me as well…just another side of me. I don't know, maybe that's the demon side of me and this is the angel side? I'm so confused over what is what now…" Floating steadily higher, she took a seat on the railings surrounding the second floor, leaning precariously forward.
"That may be it Sashima--your demon side is struggling to get out," replied Bulma, searching for appropriate comments. "By the way, I hate to ask so many questions, but do angels and demons have wings?"
"They are supposed to. But I'm in a human body, remember?" She sighed. "I'm going to bed now. I'll talk to you later Bulma." With that, she slid off the railing and walked along the hallway, rounding the corner to her room and disappearing out of sight.
Bulma was left standing in the center of the living room, mouth slightly open. For a couple of minutes she stood, motionless, the thoughts swirling through her brain like a thick stew poised to boil over.
After awhile, Bulma too went up to bed, shutting her door tightly closed behind her. Much tossing and turning gone by, eventually a heavy sleep overcame her.
She did not hear the alarms at midnight.
_____________________________________________________________________________________
AN: Never expected this, did you? Hehe, shortest chapter ever. From now on, I'll try for less in each chapter--make it a little less wordy or something…
