The Black Dragon
Volume I
Star Fazed
Chapter Six – Flammable Hearts
By: Juki
Steam rushed to her face as the
scent of hot chilli numbed out all other scents. Much more civilized this time,
they sat around the table and made light conversations.
"Pan, how about a spar?" Goten asked as he dipped some crackers into the red
soup and picked up some beans, "I heard you sort of pounded Mirai Trunks until
he went SSJ."
Pan cleared her throat, "Fine, I'll spar you, but only in hand to hand."
"Okay." Goten said with his mouth full while he reached for the cracker bowl.
"I worked hard over the month with Piccolo, so you better watch out."
"That explains why you weren't raiding our fridge." Trunks stated blandly,
"What did you learn?"
"Tons of things! I got the same training as Gohan."
"Really? Same as my Otousan? Tell me more!" Pan put her spoon down and looked
at Goten, "Did he teach you how to read minds?"
"Uh…I never knew Piccolo could do that."
"Well, not read minds but communicate with the mind without talking. I've seen
Otousan do that with Piccolo, it's really neat. Ojiisan knows too."
"Hmmm, I'll make sure to ask him to teach me next time." Goten said, "The room
of spirit and time is real neat, I got to spar with Otousan." Goten said, "He's
too good though…someday, I'll be just as good as him, if not better!"
"You guys, what would Bra and me do when you guys go off and spar?"
"Well…" Trunks furrowed his brows, "I guess it's time you two learned how to
fight or at least…fly. I don't feel like carrying you home, Bra."
"So are you saying you're going to teach us?" Bra asked, "Teach me, Bra, the
one who never learns according to you, Trunks."
"I'm not teaching you!" Trunks made a face, "Uh…he can." He motioned to Goten.
"He teaches good, he'll teach you. I'll teach Marron!" He smiled, "To fly,
it'll save you a lot of gas money."
"What I want to learn is how to throw them ki blasts." Marron said and posed,
"Bam!"
"You've got to concentrate your ki first and learn to fly before you can do
anything else." Mirai Trunks' solemn voice came through, "If you don't know how
to use ki to propel your body, you can't control it."
"If you want hand to hand combat lessons, Pan's the one to go to." Goten said,
"Even Vejita said she might be good enough to match him up in H2H."
"No he didn't…" Pan muttered, "He just said I'm okay."
"Ooh, Pan, teach me how to do that cool diagonal kick thing you always seem to
get Trunks' eye with."
"I want to learn how to throw those shiny balls of light!" Marron wailed,
"Let's go, I want to learn now!"
Bra grabbed Pan up before she could finish eating and Pan stopped her. "Wait! I
need my shoes…" She slipped into her sneakers and then ran out the door. Mirai
Trunks followed and grabbed his sword, if he didn't need to help anyone, he
would go and practice using his sword.
She
took two long strides with her right foot first, left foot, then with the drawn
momentum, turned her body to the left and shot her leg up into the air then
whipped down quickly back to the front and slashed her heel down from left to right
diagonally across the air. Bra mimicked and tripped. "AH!" She fell onto her
back, winded, she blinked and looked up to Pan who extended her hand out and
helped her up again. "You've got to lift your leg higher than your opponent's
head."
"I'm not that flexible!" Bra said as she tried to lift her leg up.
"You can be if you stand on to the side and then lift your leg up sideways
rather than upwards." Pan positioned Bra, her right leg forward and her left
behind, and then with her hand, she slowly lowered Bra down and then said, "Now
slowly as you raise your leg, tilt down." Bra slowly lifted her leg while her
upper body slid down, "Hey! Cool, I'm kicking high!"
"HEY!" Goten ran towards Bra from behind, she turned
around and whipped her foot down backwards and almost sliced Goten across the
neck. "AH!" He jumped back, "Nice kick, want to learn how to fly now?"
"Uh, one more minute." Bra got back up straight, "What if someone does a
shoulder lock on me, what do I do?"
"Kick backwards in between the legs." Pan stated flatly, "Works like a charm."
"Okay, thanks." With that she ran off with Goten. Pan turned around, saw Marron
and Trunks sitting on the ground, him trying to explain to her on how to focus
while she sat there in frustration. "I can't!" She sighed and opened her eyes,
"This is stupid, just teach me how to fly."
"I am!" Trunks replied, "You can't just fly, you fly because your ki propels
you like an invisible jet pack, without ki, you don't fly." He said, "Here." He
cupped his hands together, inhaled deeply and closed his eyes. A small spark
ignited into the midst of his palm as it gathered into a whirling mass of blue,
gathering into a sphere of brilliant sparks. "Wow…" Marron reached out to touch
it to only have Trunks draw back. "Don't do that, it'll burn…trust me…that's
why ki blasts do so much damage…they burn everything else outside its
originator."
"So is that why all those big explosions happen? What if someone else has the
same ki as you?"
"It's impossible, it's like DNA, the only way anyone could have the same,
when I mean same, it's exact same, is if every speck of their DNA is identical
and symmetric to yours. I don't think there could be anyone alive right now who
could match the same DNA as yours, not even your own twin."
"What about you and Mirai Trunks? Do you guys have the same ki?"
"I doubt it." Trunks pushed his bangs back with his hand. "Exact same also
meant exact fighting ability. Everything has to be the same."
"I see." Marron nodded, "Okay, here, let's go again." She cupped her hands by
her abdomen, inhaled deeply and closed her eyes.
"Clear your mind…of everything and simply concentrate it on a colour that you
like." Trunks said.
Marron's brows furrowed as she thought the colour pink in her head. A tiny
tingling sensation came from her palm as a small spark ignited, then two, and
then little bright spheres of pink electrified within her palm as it gathered
and rotated in a massive yet small universe within the confines of her hand.
She opened her eyes and gasped at the small light energy inside her hands, felt
the warmth, the power. She separated her hands to find them disperse. "What
happened?" She asked him, looked for it.
"You've got to practice, it takes time to control it."
"But how come you can control it so easily as a child back then?"
"Because." Trunks smiled smugly, "It's in my blood."
Bra noticed and heard Trunks, "Is it true? If I set my mind to a colour, my ki
can turn that colour?"
Goten rubbed his head, "Uh…maybe? I don't know. I always thought that it's
determined by chance." He crossed his legs and sat on the grass.
"You try, think of the colour…" She looked around, "Violet and see if you can
make it turn violet!"
He sighed and rolled his eyes. Closing his eyes with his hands cupped and
extended, he cleared his mind as the colour of purple came into his mind. Blue
electricity gathered in the centre of his palm as Bra watched. "It's blue,
think of violet, violet!" Goten's mind still on purple, his ki flowed through
his hands in a long stream of indigo blue outlining transparent energy. "Is it
purple now?"
"No, it's still blue. But then if you can't control it, how come Marron thought
of pink and had hers go pink?"
"I don't know!" Goten gave up, "All I know is, it doesn't matter what colour
your ki is…it matters how strong it is."
"No, not true! I don't want my aura clashing with my clothes!"
"Trust me." Goten scratched his head, "no one's going to care what colour your
clothes are when your aura ignites."
"What if I'm wearing pink and get stuck with an ugly green…like garbage bag
green?"
"I don't know, I'm wearing green now and I have a blue aura, do you care?"
"Well…no…because…I never really paid attention to what you wear." Bra confessed
but did not confess the second part of being more interested when he's not
wearing anything.
"PAN!"
Bra waved Pan over, "Let's do an experiment." Bra patted the grass next to her.
Pan hesitated but came and sat down.
"What colour is your ki?"
"I think it's red…I don't know, why?"
"Just show me your ki."
Pan stuck out her hand, sighed and watched as a red spark
ignited into her hand like flames, "Yea, red."
"Okay, uh…try and make your ki turn…black…"
"Why?" Pan arched her brow, "that's stupid."
"Just do it!" Bra wailed.
"Fine, fine!" Pan cringed at the shrill voice, closing her eyes; she thought of
black…infinite black…no hope. Goten watched closely as the red darkened in her
palm…flickered out for a second then ignited in brilliance an opaque ebon
streamed with red.
"Whoa…" Goten breathed out while he moved back, "H-how'd you do that?"
"M-make it green!" Bra suggested.
Her mind shifted quickly…to the green swirl in the sky she had seen in that
kaleidoscope that night when she dreamed of his arrival. The massive white and
green swirl, brilliant. The black subsided as it simmered down to a soft swirl
of green, a lot like the picture she had in her mind.
"Pink?"
"No way!" Pan opened her eyes and watched as the green in her hand faded back
to red.
"Wow…Pan, how'd you do that?" Goten asked, "Change colours like that…?"
"I don't know." Pan shrugged, "It just happens."
"Make it the colours of the rainbow!"
"How about no…" Pan laughed, "I'll stick with good old red."
He looked up when he felt it, the wicked black flames flickering in her hand as it died down, for a moment, he felt…the confusion, the hatred…then it subsided as quickly as it came…as it turned to green. He walked over to the three sitting on the grass and watched them.
"The only time your aura switches it when you become Super
SaiyaJin." Goten stated, "Or when you hit Super SaiyaJin III, then it turns
back to your original ki colour because by then, it would collide with
yourself."
Pan simply listened. The word Super SaiyaJin was something people had learned
not to mention around her, yet Goten had forgotten and quickly stopped talking
about it once he realized who was there.
"Hey." Marron had moved to them, "Can I spar you, Pan?"
Trunks laughed, "Marron…that's not a good idea."
"Uh…are you serious?" Pan scratched her head.
"Totally! I want to see if I can beat you!" Marron rolled up her sleeve. "But
you know, when I meant spar, I meant you stand still and let me hit you."
"Uh…okay?" Pan stood up and dusted the grass off. She wanted to see what Marron
can do, just for the humour. Marron ran up and socked Pan on the face and
didn't even make her flinch or blink. She winced and waved her hand around and
blew at her knuckles, "Ouch!"
Pan scratched her face, "Uh…try again?"
Her foot came up and Pan squawked and moved out of the way. "Legs not allowed,
legs not allowed!" Pan threw her hands up and batted the leg away.
"I want to join!" Bra stood up and tried to kick Pan from
behind without notice. She side stepped and watched as her foot came across
Marron's extended arm and watched as both of them screeched in agony and turned
away.
"What'd I tell you?" Trunks gloated, "Never fight hand to hand with Pan…without
ki."
"Remember the time she socked you so hard in the balls you couldn't sit for a
day?" Goten reminded Trunks, "It was the first time you got her in a shoulder
lock…yea, I remember! You were laughing at her and then she swung her leg back
as hard as she could, and I heard a snap from where I was standing…"
Trunks shook his head and buried his face in his hand, "Don't…remind
me…please…" He said with a weak voice as if thinking about it brought back the
pain.
"We all had to learn it the hard way…" Trunks said, "You weren't better off
Goten, you put her in a head lock from behind and she somehow turned on you and
kneed you…" Trunks laughed, "I think any locks from the back is bad…or any lock
at all…keep her as far away as possible, that's my tactic."
"Hey Pan…how about the-"
One drop, two…three. Raindrops came down as Bra and Marron ran back inside to
avoid getting wet. Pan tucked her hand in her pockets, "Nah, not right now,
raining." With that, she walked in as well, leaving the three of them sitting
on the grass.
"Go,
go, go!" Bra encouraged Goten as he arm wrestled with Trunks. "Sock him! You
can do it! He's a wimp! You can get him!"
Trunks' arm strained as his muscles flexed more profoundly than before, both
with equal strength, Pan tiptoed over…snickered and then suddenly pushed
towards Trunks' side, helping Goten.
"Wahoo! I won!" Goten said as he stood up and raised his arms in victory.
"Moron! She helped you!" Trunks rubbed his numbing arm, "You
didn't win! I want a rematch!"
Pan took Goten's seat, "Alright, let's go!"
Trunks placed his elbow and arm back onto the table as he entwined his fingers
to her. "Prepare to lose!"
She linked on, her arm flat on the table as Bra counted them off. "Three, two,
one…GO!"
Their arms strained as Trunks' grasp on her pushed her about an inch from
centre. She gritted her teeth and managed to push it back into the centre, then
he pushed her back down again, two inches from centre. She saved up her energy,
then with one powerful boost swing, pushed it passed centre to one inch past.
It went quiet as she focused on winning, their cheering she couldn't hear, just
her own heartbeat thumping loudly in her ears accompanied by her own breathing.
Pushing onward, another inch to his side…three more inches until the table,
until victory was hers. Another inch…then another…then the jolt as she heard
the shattering sound of her own hand on the table. He…he had just…she was so
close…just another inch but he somehow backfired at her and shot her hand,
slammed it on the tabletop, shook it and snapped her out of her reverie.
"Good game." He smirked as he stood up.
She massaged her arm as she stood up with a frown, stood by the side as Bra arm-wrestled
with Goten. Victory was at the tip of her tongue…she almost tasted it…then at
the last second, had it snatched away from her.
"You did good." Mirai Trunks' consoling words came as she sat next to him in
the dinning room. She smiled politely to him, "Thanks, I tried…but oh well."
She rubbed her arm a bit more, "So, how do you like it so far?" She asked him.
"I like it here, it's so peaceful."
"I know what you mean, it's a perfect retrieve, and we're miles from
civilization it's a good place to meditate." She said and watched as Goten went
easy on Bra just to let her stay in the game longer.
"You guys, what should we do tonight?" Marron asked from the kitchen, over the
fear of mice for she hadn't seen any for a while.
"Let's see…" Trunks said as he rubbed his chin and leaned over the counter. "Mini
dance…?"
"Mini dance?" Bra looked up and had her hand immediately rolled off to the
side. She frowned and withdrew her arm, "What do you mean?"
"Well, I don't know, I got my CD player, I got some CD's…maybe we can just play
music, talk, dance, you know."
"That sounds like fun!" Goten said, "But it's getting late, Pan, start the
fire!"
She stood up and rubbed her hands together, "Gladly! I love fires!" She pushed
the netting over and sat down building the logs again. Mirai Trunks sat around
until he decided to help in the kitchen. "Could you get that iron pot out for
me?" Marron pointed to the highest shelf on the cupboard. "I don't know why
Goten put it all the way up there, the shelf might collapse you know." Mirai
Trunks levitated off a bit, grabbed the big black pot and then descended down
again and placed it on the stovetop. She started cutting when the water boiled.
"Could you take over?" Marron asked as she went to get the pasta.
Mirai Trunks walked around her and to the cutting board and the knife, started
cutting to discover this was good hand practice. Dicing everything into little
cubes, he finished before she got the pasta out. "Here you go." He said,
stepping away from the cutting board.
"What?" Marron tried to peer over the pasta and cans balancing over her hands,
slipped on a potato cube on the ground she slid forward and dropped all the
cans and packaged pasta. His arms came around her and caught her before she
bumped her head on the corner of the counter.
The ruckus caught her attention as Pan looked up from the fire that kindled to
the two in the kitchen area embracing each other. A small spark emitted from
her eyes as she saw this and quickly looked away again, back to the fire as it
hypnotized her with its warmth and prowess. Habitual twinge in her heart as she
threw in another log onto the fire, watched as it wilted and popped in the
source no man can live without, a source no man can live in. The
clinkering of plates sounded behind her and she simply threw in another log and
put the netting back on. Standing up, she brushed the ashes out of her clothes,
knowing she would have to wear it tomorrow and the day after when they leave.
She still couldn't figure out who or why would anyone take her clothes…she
supposed it was just one of those unanswerable questions in life…or until she
found the culprit. Walking over to the table she sat down deliberately away
from both Trunks and just sat on the single seat the head of the table. The hot
bowtie noodles floated in the steamy cream sauce. She supposed this would do
while she dug in, having missed most of her lunch. Half finished, he looked up
and greatly regretted that as she diverted her eyes back down almost
immediately. The vision ahead wasn't what she would like to see; when she ate…Marron
had spilt sauce on his shirt and now 'wiped' it with a napkin while they shared
a laugh. She looked over to Goten, found him completely engrossed in his food,
Bra, hungry as well from the work out, ate fast. Finished first, she stood up. "Where
are you going?" Bra asked.
"Washroom." Pan stated flatly while she walked over to her duffle bag and took
out a clean towel, her undergarments and then walked into the bathroom,
slamming the door shut afterwards.
"What's wrong with her?" Marron asked after the bang shook almost the entire
cottage. Goten shrugged, "Maybe it's her monthly…Okaasan always got that way
when she had hers."
Bra arched a brow, "Yea…right…" and looked in concern, she had known the secret…and
fate could never change…she finished eating and decided to go ask her later on
in the evening…if chances came…