~~Later that Night~~
Usagi had just finished taking her nightly bath as she walked out of the bathroom with damp hair hanging down to her lower back. She wasn't sure how she was going to approach her father about Hotaru's training. Though she had told him that everything had gone smoothly, she had also failed to tell him about how well her progress had been in one day.
As she was shutting the door behind her, she noticed that her father was just getting up from watching television. 'Better now or never.' "Daddy, wait."
Goku stopped in his place and turned to face his daughter, who was approaching him. "What is it?" He could tell that by the look on her face that she had a question for him, so he sat down, knowing that it was probably going to be somewhat important.
Usagi threw herself down by her father and tried to collect her thoughts. She hadn't at all known exactly what she had wanted to say to him. "Umm…I wanted to talk to you about Hotaru's training."
"Oh? Didn't you tell me already that everything was going fine? Is there something wrong?"
"No, nothing's wrong. It's quite the opposite, actually. It's just that…well…how long did it take before Minako and Makoto, and Rei learned how to control their Ki?"
Goku tired to think back the when he first started to train the girls. He hadn't really kept track of the time it took for them to learn things. "Well, I'm not sure. I think it was somewhere around three days for them to fully control themselves. Why? Is Hotaru having trouble with controlling it? You shouldn't be upset, it takes a while for humans to learn, even though your friends didn't take very long." That little fact still puzzled him.
"No. It's not that either, daddy. Actually, I was wondering, would it be really strange for a human to learn to use their Ki say after, oh I don't know, only about a half hour of training?"
Goku wasn't sure if he had heard his daughter right, but he wouldn't doubt Hotaru's ability. She did seem to have a strange and powerful aura around her from what he could feel the night before. "A half hour?" Usagi nodded. "Only a half hour? Wow, that's strange. I don't think that I've ever met a human who could use their Ki in such a short amount of time. Was that what the strange energy we were feeling today was?"
Usagi once again nodded. "You felt it too? Wasn't it big for a human who is just starting out?"
"Yes, it was."
"I think it's kind of cool."
"It's definitely something to be proud of."
"Do you think there's something wrong with her?"
Goku frowned. "Just because people are different, doesn't mean there's something wrong with them. You of all people should know that."
"I didn't mean it in a bad way." She hoped that she wouldn't get a lecture for that one.
"Ok, but no, I don't think there's anything wrong with her. She just learns fast." 'I thought there was something odd about her. I'll have to keep a close eye on her.' "Is that all?"
Usagi thought about anything else that she could have possibly wanted to ask her father. "One more thing, when Hotaru becomes a better fighter, can you teach her how to teleport?"
"Usagi, I thought we had a deal of sorts. You were going to expand your training by training Hotaru, your way. Shouldn't you be the one to teach her how to teleport?"
"Come on daddy. I can't teach her. I know how to do it, I just don't know how to explain it. Please? You tell how to do it the best way. Better than I could ever do."
Goku sighed. She would have him beaten before the night was out, no matter how much he protested. She had a certain charm about her that always made him give into her in times like this. "All right. All right. I'll do it. But only if you go to bed now."
Usagi turned her head to the clock that was sitting atop the television. "It's only 8:55."
"It's only five minutes until nine."
I have five minutes until I have to go to bed. My bed time isn't until nine. So there!" She stuck her tongue out at her father and giggled as she had, once again, proven her point to him.
"Fine, five minutes. But no later. I know how you are when you don't get enough sleep."
"And how's that?"
"Cranky!" Chi-Chi walked into the room with a basket full of cloths. "You're always complaining and snapping at everyone if you don't get your sleep. I don't want to put up with it."
Usagi sighed. "Yes mom."
~*~*~
~~Two days later~~
(Monday)
School had just ended and the girls had also just changed from their school uniforms, to their Gi's. The girls couldn't wait until they could meet Hotaru.
Usagi walked out into the main court yard with her friends, who were busy talking about their day at school. "Hey, guys, why don't you come by Hotaru's school after me. Just wait close by until I send you the message to come."
Minako looked to her other friends with half confusion, but nodded. "Ok, why?"
"We're working on trying to get her to sense other people's Ki today. I was thinking that if you guys fly there when I tell you to, that she might be able to try and sense you guys coming."
"Oh, I get it. That's a great idea. We'll follow you there but stop half way. What school does she go to anyways?"
"That new infinity school or whatever." Usagi let herself slowly rise into the air with her friends soon to follow.
Ami became somewhat jealous as she turned to face Usagi. "She actually GOES to Infinity College?"
Usagi opened her mouth to reply but soon shut it to let the last word of Ami's sentence sink in. "Wait a minute, college? She goes to college? As in SMARTER than us?"
Ami shook her head, still in wonder, but ended up nodding to agree with Usagi. "It's not JUST a college. It's just sort of the name. That school is for the gifted. For people who are smarter than their age group. You only get accepted after many, MANY tests of all sorts. Hotaru must be very smart to have been accepted into that school."
"What about you, Ami? Why don't you try to get in. You're WAY smarter than all of us."
Ami turned her attention to Minako and took the compliment quietly. "I don't want to go there. I mean, I wanted to go before I met you, I was even in the process of completing some of the tests. But after I met you all, I decided to stay here so we could, as you all say, 'hang out'."
Usagi smiled as she started to inch her way towards Hotaru's school. "And you're the one who told us to away when we first met you. My, my, how things have changed. But that's ok Ami, we're glad to have you here. But anyways girls, we have work to do. FUN work to do, actually. One of you go and get Rei from her school and then come meet us."
"I'll do it." Makoto interrupted. "It sure would be a lot easier if Rei just went to our school. Does anyone know what the story is with her coming here? She said something about asking her grandpa about coming here."
"I remember her telling me that he almost said 'yes' one night, but then something happened and they had to leave. I think he's going to let her transfer really soon." Minako picked up her pace as she began to fly towards Hotaru's school faster with Usagi and Ami, leaving her own school, and Makoto behind. "See you there!"
~*~*~
Half way to Hotaru's school, Minako and Ami stopped and awaited for Usagi's signal while she went on further to the school. She flew at a leisurely pace. She wasn't in a rush. She hoped that if she waited long enough, Hotaru would start to wonder where she was and she would try to feel out for her Ki, since she knew what it felt like already.
When Usagi did finally arrive at the school, an excited Hotaru, dressed in her purple Gi, sat on the edge of a fountain and waved up at her best friend. "USAGI!"
Usagi smiled as she descended to the ground. "Hotaru! I'm so happy to see you!" She couldn't wait to begin training her again. She wanted to see how much she would learn during this next session. She let herself lightly land on the ground and looked down at Hotaru. "Ready?!"
"YEAH!" Hotaru jumped up with eagerness and darted out for Usagi. But she couldn't quite make it without tripping over a crack in the concrete and stumbling onto Usagi, causing both girls to topple backwards and burst out with laughter. "Oops!"
Usagi gently pushed Hotaru up to a sitting position sat up herself. "I guess everyone has their off moments."
Hotaru turned up to Usagi with curious eyes. "You mean you do clumsy stuff too?"
"Sure. Everyone does stuff like that all the time. One time, when I was in second grade, I was leaning back in my chair and laughed so hard at something that I fell back. Everyone in the whole class laughed at me. I was SO embarrassed."
Hotaru couldn't help but giggle at her friend's bad luck. "I guess me tripping isn't as bad as that, huh?"
"Yeah, just don't try to hold it against me later."
Hotaru let her giggling go to a stop. "Ok. Let's just forget about it then and start training."
"You've got it, Hotaru. You're just like me. Always wanting to train."
"Fighting is fun. Well, it looks fun anyways, I don't know much about it yet."
"Key word in there would be yet. But that will all change when me, my friends, and my dad get through with you. Today will be a little different than Saturday. We're going to begin with the run again, though. Dad says that you need good en…endur…endurance? I think that's what he said it was. Anyways, he said you need to run to get en-dur--ance so you can run long distances and be able to fight for a long time without getting really tired. And to tell the truth, I think it works. After that we'll work on your upper body a little bit. I'll show you some fighting moves and you can try them out and practice them a little bit."
Hotaru got her same excited grin on her face. "Can we fly too?!"
A group of older kids, who were about the age of Usagi, overheard Hotaru's excited outburst of wanting to fly. The kid who appeared to be the oldest, led his friends to the two girls. He ignored Usagi and turned his attention straight to Hotaru. "Hey look, it's the freak. Now she thinks she can fly?" He turned to Usagi with concern. "You shouldn't hang out with her. She's bad news. She's such a loner. Never talks to anyone else. She's always feeling sorry for herself because her mom got slaughtered." He cocked his head back and laughed along with his friends.
Usagi looked empathetically upon her friend. She knew exactly what kind of torment that Hotaru was going through. She could still remember being picked on when she was younger. Though it was rare, she was still picked on by people to that day.
Usagi wasn't just going to sit by and let Hotaru be picked on. Though she couldn't stop it when she was younger, she could definitely do something now that she was older and Hotaru was the one being picked on. "You retards! She's not a loner. You guys are just BULLIES who don't have lives! Why don't you leave her alone and leave other kids who are younger than you alone! Now shut up and get out of here!" 'I guess there's one in every school.'
The boy stopped laughing and glared into Usagi's eyes with hatred. "No one talks to me like that and gets away with it."
Usagi wasn't about to back down and glared right back into his eyes, minus the hatred. "Well it looks like I just DID." She ignored the group of kids and turned back to Hotaru. "Now what was I talking about? Oh yes, you wanted to fly."
Hotaru wasn't exactly listening as she was paying more attention to Usagi as she was more paying attention to the angry faces of the kids who stood in front of her. Her face told of her horror as she coward behind Usagi so as to not be in reach of any attack. "Usagi…I don't think that you should have talked to that guy like that. He looks really mean."
Usagi smirked as she swiftly turned around to the boy, who had his hand right above her neck and ready to attack. But Usagi was all too fast for him. She grabbed his arm and twisted it behind his back, though not enough to REALLY hurt the boy. She put her mouth close to his ear and proceeded to speak quietly to him in quite an intimidating tone of voice. "Don't underestimate me because I'm a girl with a tail. You should actually kind of be careful around people you don't know. You never know who is strong, and who is not." She let go of the boy's arm and pushed him into his friends. "Anyone else wanna try me?"
Hotaru just stared in awe as the other kids high tailed their way outta there. "Wow, Usagi! No one's ever done that for me before."
Usagi smiled as she looked down to Hotaru. "That's what friends are for. We have to look out for each other. But let me tell you one thing that my dad always tells me. Don't hit anyone unless they hit you first. Now you see what I did wasn't exactly wrong because I didn't hit him. I just kept him from hitting him. That doesn't count does it?" Hotaru just shrugged. "Oh well, can't do anything about it now. Just don't tell my dad and everything will be ok. So, about flying, we'll see about that. We still have lots to cover before than. Like getting on with our run. Shall we?"
Hotaru nodded. "Yup!" She readied herself for her run as she looked over to Usagi, who was also getting herself prepared. "Are we running until I can't go any further again today?"
Usagi shook her head. "No, one and a half miles flat. We have things we have to do today and not much time to do it in. Yesterday we had like five hours and today we only have three. Plus I still have to get you that ice cream that I promised you."
"OK! ICE CREAM! I forgot about that! READY LET'S GO AND GET THIS DONE! I want ICE CREAM!" Without even waiting for Usagi, she bolted out at an incredibly fast pace. Faster than the first time that she had done it, which only left Usagi puzzled.
~*~*~
Makoto arrived with Rei not too long after the other two girls stopped and waited for Usagi to give them the signal to move out. Rei walked to Ami, who seemed to be busy with some of her homework, of course. "Ami, can't you leave your homework for later? We're out here to have fun."
Ami giggled. "I know, but I'm working on a this science project for our school's science fair and I want it to be perfect."
"Ami Puhleeze. You're going to win no matter what. You're a genius. But, that's also cool. You can really give those teachers a run for their money since they're not nearly as smart as you, as least not at our level they aren't."
"Ha! I never thought of it that way. Oh Rei, we were wondering about what was going on with the situation of you transferring to our school. Has your grandfather said anything about it yet?"
The other two girls, who were listening, were now more interested in what was about to be said than ever. Rei smiled as she remembered what he grandfather had told her only one night before. "Well as a matter of fact, he did say that he would make his final decision tonight."
That sent Minako and Makoto jumping for joy. Though Makoto quickly regained herself soon after. "REI! You SO have to call us ALL tonight and tell us the verdict!"
Rei could barely keep herself from squealing in happiness. "I KNOW! And what's better is that when he said it, he said it in a way that just HAD to mean something good. I think you all know the tone I'm talking about."
Minako nodded. "Oh yeah. That would be the one when you want something from your parents and they say maybe but you KNOW they mean, yes."
"Definitely. That's how grandpa said it." Rei turned her head as she felt Usagi approaching them at a rather slow speed. "Is she doing that thing that Goku made us do when we first started out? You know, the running long distances?"
Ami nodded. "I think so. On the way here, she said that she was only going to have her run for about a mile and a half. That's about two miles from here. She's going to try and have her read our power levels as we fly there."
Rei grinned. "One of the only smart things that she's ever thought up."
"Hey. She's come up with other stuff. Remember that shield improvise she thought of? She just used her technique from the other attack and used that for it. She got us out of our bind."
"Well I take that back then. She's pretty smart when it comes to fighting. When it comes to other stuff, she's well…you know."
Ami didn't answer back at that, neither did any of the other girls. She just nodded and continued to work on her science project.
~*~*~
Once Hotaru had run her mile and a half for the day, Usagi began to walk towards a park, letting Hotaru know that she was through. "You did good today, Hotaru." 'Wow, she's good. How did she get so good?' "So, are you tired enough yet?"
Hotaru slightly nodded. "Not really. I mean, I'm a little short of breath but I'll be ok. Running is kind of fun."
"Now it's time for you to meet my friends. They should be getting here soon." She raised her power level a bit so she could have more energy to call in her friends. 'Hey! Guys! Get your lazy selves out here! But come slowly. At a REALLY slow pace. I want her to have plenty of time to feel you.'
~*~*~
Minako laughed as she stood up and looked at her friends. "That would be our signal from our very own Usagi."
Ami began to put her notebook and plans for her project away into her bag. "That would be correct, Minako."
~*~*~
"Ok, Hotaru. My friends are officially on their way here now." She noticed that Hotaru looked a bit uneasy all of a sudden. She sighed as she knew that the youngest fighter was still quite nervous. "Don't worry. These are my best friends. The ones I told you about. You have nothing to worry about."
Hotaru looked to the ground as she put her hands behind her back. "I'm sorry. I know I don't have to worry about anything if they're YOUR friends."
Usagi smiled as she took that as a compliment. "While we're waiting, why don't we start exercising a bit. We'll start with push-ups. These get your arms strong. Here, I'll show you the RIGHT way to do it."
Hotaru watched as Usagi got down on the ground and held her body totally straight with no part any higher than the other. She watched carefully as Usagi let her chin almost touch the ground along with he chest. "Do you HAVE to go down THAT far? It looks painful."
Usagi nodded to the best of her ability. "Yep! It is painful too because you're pushing up your full body weight with pretty much just your arms." She leaped back up to her feet after she felt that her demonstration was finished and wiped some tiny pebbles off of her hands. "Why don't you try now? I'll even help you. You know, act as a coach. My dad used to help me with this all the time when I first started out. He says if you don't do it the right way, then it's not worth doing at all. So that's why you're going to do it that way."
Hotaru opened her mouth to protest but soon closed it as she knew there was no way of getting out of it. "Ok." She got down to the ground and tried to imitate Usagi's position exactly. "Is this good?"
Usagi examined Hotaru's posture and tried to find anything wrong with it at all so that Hotaru wouldn't learn to do pushups the wrong way. "Almost. Try to keep your legs as straight and in line with your head as possible." She kneeled down next to the girl and put one hand on her back and the other on her stomach as Hotaru adjusted her legs. "Ok, let's start."
Hotaru took a deep breath before she started. "Ok." She began to let her arms flex out as her body dropped closer to the ground. She found that it became somewhat harder for her to breath as she went down further. "Is this far enough?"
"Is your chin almost touching the ground?"
"Yes."
"Then it's far enough." She began to slightly push on Hotaru's stomach to help her up as she knew that the girl would have some problems supporting her own weight at first. 'Now see? This is how daddy should have taught. It's better to learn the stuff first and then try it out in the field. Won he be surprised when he sees how I trained her.' Her mind left that point as she went in search of her friends' Ki. 'Hmm…they still have a mile and a half before they're going to be here. There's still time to do a little bit more.' "You're doing good, Hotaru, you've already done a couple. If you can get at least five done today you'll be doing good. This builds muscle in your arms. This is even something easy enough to practice at home."
Hotaru's body got the feeling of being hot as she lowered herself for the third time. "This is harder than it looks." Her arms shook as she tried to push herself back up.
"I know. It's a pain for everyone. It gets even harder when you start adding weighted clothing and what not."
Hotaru gasped. "WEIGHTS?!"
"Yeah, you get stronger with them. You'll have an easier time with weights than I did though. I was first trained with weights by this guy, Vejita. He was SO mean to me. He yelled at me because I couldn't stand up with them. But that's ok. I know he was only doing it so I would learn." She pushed on Hotaru's stomach again so she could complete her fifth and final pushup for the day. "That was great!"
Hotaru sat up and let her arms shake with a lack of energy. "Are you sure? My arms are shaky now."
"That's ok. That just means that you shouldn't do anymore right now. Safety comes first when it comes to training." She sensed for her friends' energy again. "Ok Hotaru. We are moving on. I want to try to get you reading Ki's again. Try to do it like you did with mine on Saturday. First feel your own energy."
Hotaru closed her eyes as she continued to sit on the ground. She did as her Sensei told her and felt around for her own energy. It wasn't too hard to find as she knew what she was looking for. In doing this, a dark purple aura began to form around her small frail body. The strength of the aura alone left Usagi amazed. "Now, I want you to reach out and feel my energy, like you did on Saturday. This time it will be harder since I'm not moving. Just let your own energy act as your senses for this. Imagine it as a hand trying to feel around in the dark for it."
"Like a blind person does?"
"Yeah. Kind of like that."
Hotaru did as she was told and began to let her energy take over. She let her energy move freely out towards Usagi and, as a result, she felt a brilliant golden aura that was more powerful than she could ever wish to be. "I can feel it. I can almost see it. It's a bright gold light."
"Good, good. Now do the same thing and search around for my friends. They should be close by now."
Hotaru concentrated harder and let her energy/senses flow out to scan the entire area. Once she had found Usagi's energy, she pretty much knew what she was doing. She soon found the four energy signatures that she was supposed to be searching for. "I can see them too. They are warm, just like yours. They are red, green, orange, and blue."
'Wow! She's good. How can she do that?' "That would be Rei, Minako, Ami, and Makoto. Now here's where the tricky part comes in. Tell me any changes you feel with them." She quickly rose her power level again to get more energy to talk to them. 'Fly around a little bit. Do whatever you want. Land, spin around in circles, dive. Just do something BIG so that Hotaru can detect it.'
No answer came from Hotaru as she was too busy concentrating to answer. Though she did hear the words of her sensei. In her mind she could only see dark except for the five power levels that she was detecting, which showed up as little balls of energy in their respective colors. "The blue one is landing behind me. Yours keeps getting brighter."
Usagi smiled as he raised her power level again. 'Minako, Rei, land on opposite sides of the park.' "Very good. I'm raising my energy, that's why mine is getting brighter."
Hotaru concentrated harder as she saw two of the energy balls moving together. "The orange and red one are landing on opposite sides of us."
Usagi grinned as she turned to her friends and saw the looks that they were giving Hotaru. They were looks of astonishment. She knew that they could feel her incredible power. "Ok Hotaru, focus on he green on and look towards it with your eyes open."
Hotaru opened her eyes as a girl with a flaming green aura landed down next to three other new girls who were Usagi's age. All of them had friendly smiles planted on their faces. She stood up as she just continued to stare at the girls in curiosity. She hoped that they would like her.
Usagi walked to her friends as she pointed to Hotaru. "Girls, this is my new friend Tomoe Hotaru. We're going to be training her for a while. Hotaru, these are my best friends. Let me introduce them to you." She walked to Ami. "This is Mizuno Ami. She's a girl genius and a great friend. She's a bit on the shy side, though. I'm currently trying to break that."
Ami blushed as she gave Hotaru a gently smile. "It's a pleasure to meet you, Hotaru."
"You have to watch out for her though, she uses big words all the time. Ones I can't hardly understand." She walked to her next friend. "The tall one with the lopsided grin is Kino Makoto. She's a LOT stronger than she looks but makes GREAT cookies."
Makoto's grin became even more lopsided as she addressed Hotaru by extending the girl her hand. "Hi Hotaru, and if you know Usagi at all, you know who eats most of them."
Hotaru giggled at that and Usagi's facial pout as she grabbed Makoto's hand and shook it with a firm, yet gentle shake.
Usagi continued to pout as she went onto he next friend. "This is Minako. You gotta watch out for her too. She wants to be an idol and is always practicing her new material for us. She's pretty good."
Minako smirked at her recognition. "Yep, I'm going to be world famous. But don't worry , I won't forget my friends." She gave her wink and V sign with her fingers. Hotaru giggled again at this group's diversity.
Usagi walked to the last person to be introduced. "And this would be Rei. She's a great friend, but has a temper that is easily set off."
"Hey, I do not." Rei growled, as she stuck out her tongue.
Usagi responded in kind and an all famous tongue war engaged. "Do too!"
Rei's concentration of the 'war' was broken as she heard yet more giggles coming from Hotaru. "Pleased to meet you Hotaru. Don't mind Usagi. She's just like this all the time."
Usagi playfully scowled at her friend as the rest of her friends, including Hotaru, laughed at her. "Fine. Just make fun of me. I don't care."
"Usagi, I think I like your friends."
Usagi smiled. She loved to make Hotaru happy. "I told you that you'd like them. I told you that they would like you back. Now if we're all done, let's continue training."
Hotaru calmed down just to immediately become excited again. "FLYING!?"
Usagi groaned as she had to dish out disappointment to the beginner once again. "Not exactly. My friends and I are going to start our training again today. What you're going to do is float three feet off the ground and maintain that. Also, if you want to do more than just float, you can use your Ki to sense and look at how our power levels change back and fourth during the fight."
Hotaru's eyebrow quirked as she became more interested in the rest of her day's training. "I GET to see a REAL fight?!"
"That's right, Hotaru. And if we're lucky, maybe Usagi and Makoto wont turn it into a hair pulling fest." Minako laughed as both Makoto and Usagi stuck their tongues out at her.
(Well that's about it for now. Sorry I got it out SO late. Anyways, what did you think? Good or bad? Gotta go. It's late. Ja! ^_~ )
Usagi had just finished taking her nightly bath as she walked out of the bathroom with damp hair hanging down to her lower back. She wasn't sure how she was going to approach her father about Hotaru's training. Though she had told him that everything had gone smoothly, she had also failed to tell him about how well her progress had been in one day.
As she was shutting the door behind her, she noticed that her father was just getting up from watching television. 'Better now or never.' "Daddy, wait."
Goku stopped in his place and turned to face his daughter, who was approaching him. "What is it?" He could tell that by the look on her face that she had a question for him, so he sat down, knowing that it was probably going to be somewhat important.
Usagi threw herself down by her father and tried to collect her thoughts. She hadn't at all known exactly what she had wanted to say to him. "Umm…I wanted to talk to you about Hotaru's training."
"Oh? Didn't you tell me already that everything was going fine? Is there something wrong?"
"No, nothing's wrong. It's quite the opposite, actually. It's just that…well…how long did it take before Minako and Makoto, and Rei learned how to control their Ki?"
Goku tired to think back the when he first started to train the girls. He hadn't really kept track of the time it took for them to learn things. "Well, I'm not sure. I think it was somewhere around three days for them to fully control themselves. Why? Is Hotaru having trouble with controlling it? You shouldn't be upset, it takes a while for humans to learn, even though your friends didn't take very long." That little fact still puzzled him.
"No. It's not that either, daddy. Actually, I was wondering, would it be really strange for a human to learn to use their Ki say after, oh I don't know, only about a half hour of training?"
Goku wasn't sure if he had heard his daughter right, but he wouldn't doubt Hotaru's ability. She did seem to have a strange and powerful aura around her from what he could feel the night before. "A half hour?" Usagi nodded. "Only a half hour? Wow, that's strange. I don't think that I've ever met a human who could use their Ki in such a short amount of time. Was that what the strange energy we were feeling today was?"
Usagi once again nodded. "You felt it too? Wasn't it big for a human who is just starting out?"
"Yes, it was."
"I think it's kind of cool."
"It's definitely something to be proud of."
"Do you think there's something wrong with her?"
Goku frowned. "Just because people are different, doesn't mean there's something wrong with them. You of all people should know that."
"I didn't mean it in a bad way." She hoped that she wouldn't get a lecture for that one.
"Ok, but no, I don't think there's anything wrong with her. She just learns fast." 'I thought there was something odd about her. I'll have to keep a close eye on her.' "Is that all?"
Usagi thought about anything else that she could have possibly wanted to ask her father. "One more thing, when Hotaru becomes a better fighter, can you teach her how to teleport?"
"Usagi, I thought we had a deal of sorts. You were going to expand your training by training Hotaru, your way. Shouldn't you be the one to teach her how to teleport?"
"Come on daddy. I can't teach her. I know how to do it, I just don't know how to explain it. Please? You tell how to do it the best way. Better than I could ever do."
Goku sighed. She would have him beaten before the night was out, no matter how much he protested. She had a certain charm about her that always made him give into her in times like this. "All right. All right. I'll do it. But only if you go to bed now."
Usagi turned her head to the clock that was sitting atop the television. "It's only 8:55."
"It's only five minutes until nine."
I have five minutes until I have to go to bed. My bed time isn't until nine. So there!" She stuck her tongue out at her father and giggled as she had, once again, proven her point to him.
"Fine, five minutes. But no later. I know how you are when you don't get enough sleep."
"And how's that?"
"Cranky!" Chi-Chi walked into the room with a basket full of cloths. "You're always complaining and snapping at everyone if you don't get your sleep. I don't want to put up with it."
Usagi sighed. "Yes mom."
~*~*~
~~Two days later~~
(Monday)
School had just ended and the girls had also just changed from their school uniforms, to their Gi's. The girls couldn't wait until they could meet Hotaru.
Usagi walked out into the main court yard with her friends, who were busy talking about their day at school. "Hey, guys, why don't you come by Hotaru's school after me. Just wait close by until I send you the message to come."
Minako looked to her other friends with half confusion, but nodded. "Ok, why?"
"We're working on trying to get her to sense other people's Ki today. I was thinking that if you guys fly there when I tell you to, that she might be able to try and sense you guys coming."
"Oh, I get it. That's a great idea. We'll follow you there but stop half way. What school does she go to anyways?"
"That new infinity school or whatever." Usagi let herself slowly rise into the air with her friends soon to follow.
Ami became somewhat jealous as she turned to face Usagi. "She actually GOES to Infinity College?"
Usagi opened her mouth to reply but soon shut it to let the last word of Ami's sentence sink in. "Wait a minute, college? She goes to college? As in SMARTER than us?"
Ami shook her head, still in wonder, but ended up nodding to agree with Usagi. "It's not JUST a college. It's just sort of the name. That school is for the gifted. For people who are smarter than their age group. You only get accepted after many, MANY tests of all sorts. Hotaru must be very smart to have been accepted into that school."
"What about you, Ami? Why don't you try to get in. You're WAY smarter than all of us."
Ami turned her attention to Minako and took the compliment quietly. "I don't want to go there. I mean, I wanted to go before I met you, I was even in the process of completing some of the tests. But after I met you all, I decided to stay here so we could, as you all say, 'hang out'."
Usagi smiled as she started to inch her way towards Hotaru's school. "And you're the one who told us to away when we first met you. My, my, how things have changed. But that's ok Ami, we're glad to have you here. But anyways girls, we have work to do. FUN work to do, actually. One of you go and get Rei from her school and then come meet us."
"I'll do it." Makoto interrupted. "It sure would be a lot easier if Rei just went to our school. Does anyone know what the story is with her coming here? She said something about asking her grandpa about coming here."
"I remember her telling me that he almost said 'yes' one night, but then something happened and they had to leave. I think he's going to let her transfer really soon." Minako picked up her pace as she began to fly towards Hotaru's school faster with Usagi and Ami, leaving her own school, and Makoto behind. "See you there!"
~*~*~
Half way to Hotaru's school, Minako and Ami stopped and awaited for Usagi's signal while she went on further to the school. She flew at a leisurely pace. She wasn't in a rush. She hoped that if she waited long enough, Hotaru would start to wonder where she was and she would try to feel out for her Ki, since she knew what it felt like already.
When Usagi did finally arrive at the school, an excited Hotaru, dressed in her purple Gi, sat on the edge of a fountain and waved up at her best friend. "USAGI!"
Usagi smiled as she descended to the ground. "Hotaru! I'm so happy to see you!" She couldn't wait to begin training her again. She wanted to see how much she would learn during this next session. She let herself lightly land on the ground and looked down at Hotaru. "Ready?!"
"YEAH!" Hotaru jumped up with eagerness and darted out for Usagi. But she couldn't quite make it without tripping over a crack in the concrete and stumbling onto Usagi, causing both girls to topple backwards and burst out with laughter. "Oops!"
Usagi gently pushed Hotaru up to a sitting position sat up herself. "I guess everyone has their off moments."
Hotaru turned up to Usagi with curious eyes. "You mean you do clumsy stuff too?"
"Sure. Everyone does stuff like that all the time. One time, when I was in second grade, I was leaning back in my chair and laughed so hard at something that I fell back. Everyone in the whole class laughed at me. I was SO embarrassed."
Hotaru couldn't help but giggle at her friend's bad luck. "I guess me tripping isn't as bad as that, huh?"
"Yeah, just don't try to hold it against me later."
Hotaru let her giggling go to a stop. "Ok. Let's just forget about it then and start training."
"You've got it, Hotaru. You're just like me. Always wanting to train."
"Fighting is fun. Well, it looks fun anyways, I don't know much about it yet."
"Key word in there would be yet. But that will all change when me, my friends, and my dad get through with you. Today will be a little different than Saturday. We're going to begin with the run again, though. Dad says that you need good en…endur…endurance? I think that's what he said it was. Anyways, he said you need to run to get en-dur--ance so you can run long distances and be able to fight for a long time without getting really tired. And to tell the truth, I think it works. After that we'll work on your upper body a little bit. I'll show you some fighting moves and you can try them out and practice them a little bit."
Hotaru got her same excited grin on her face. "Can we fly too?!"
A group of older kids, who were about the age of Usagi, overheard Hotaru's excited outburst of wanting to fly. The kid who appeared to be the oldest, led his friends to the two girls. He ignored Usagi and turned his attention straight to Hotaru. "Hey look, it's the freak. Now she thinks she can fly?" He turned to Usagi with concern. "You shouldn't hang out with her. She's bad news. She's such a loner. Never talks to anyone else. She's always feeling sorry for herself because her mom got slaughtered." He cocked his head back and laughed along with his friends.
Usagi looked empathetically upon her friend. She knew exactly what kind of torment that Hotaru was going through. She could still remember being picked on when she was younger. Though it was rare, she was still picked on by people to that day.
Usagi wasn't just going to sit by and let Hotaru be picked on. Though she couldn't stop it when she was younger, she could definitely do something now that she was older and Hotaru was the one being picked on. "You retards! She's not a loner. You guys are just BULLIES who don't have lives! Why don't you leave her alone and leave other kids who are younger than you alone! Now shut up and get out of here!" 'I guess there's one in every school.'
The boy stopped laughing and glared into Usagi's eyes with hatred. "No one talks to me like that and gets away with it."
Usagi wasn't about to back down and glared right back into his eyes, minus the hatred. "Well it looks like I just DID." She ignored the group of kids and turned back to Hotaru. "Now what was I talking about? Oh yes, you wanted to fly."
Hotaru wasn't exactly listening as she was paying more attention to Usagi as she was more paying attention to the angry faces of the kids who stood in front of her. Her face told of her horror as she coward behind Usagi so as to not be in reach of any attack. "Usagi…I don't think that you should have talked to that guy like that. He looks really mean."
Usagi smirked as she swiftly turned around to the boy, who had his hand right above her neck and ready to attack. But Usagi was all too fast for him. She grabbed his arm and twisted it behind his back, though not enough to REALLY hurt the boy. She put her mouth close to his ear and proceeded to speak quietly to him in quite an intimidating tone of voice. "Don't underestimate me because I'm a girl with a tail. You should actually kind of be careful around people you don't know. You never know who is strong, and who is not." She let go of the boy's arm and pushed him into his friends. "Anyone else wanna try me?"
Hotaru just stared in awe as the other kids high tailed their way outta there. "Wow, Usagi! No one's ever done that for me before."
Usagi smiled as she looked down to Hotaru. "That's what friends are for. We have to look out for each other. But let me tell you one thing that my dad always tells me. Don't hit anyone unless they hit you first. Now you see what I did wasn't exactly wrong because I didn't hit him. I just kept him from hitting him. That doesn't count does it?" Hotaru just shrugged. "Oh well, can't do anything about it now. Just don't tell my dad and everything will be ok. So, about flying, we'll see about that. We still have lots to cover before than. Like getting on with our run. Shall we?"
Hotaru nodded. "Yup!" She readied herself for her run as she looked over to Usagi, who was also getting herself prepared. "Are we running until I can't go any further again today?"
Usagi shook her head. "No, one and a half miles flat. We have things we have to do today and not much time to do it in. Yesterday we had like five hours and today we only have three. Plus I still have to get you that ice cream that I promised you."
"OK! ICE CREAM! I forgot about that! READY LET'S GO AND GET THIS DONE! I want ICE CREAM!" Without even waiting for Usagi, she bolted out at an incredibly fast pace. Faster than the first time that she had done it, which only left Usagi puzzled.
~*~*~
Makoto arrived with Rei not too long after the other two girls stopped and waited for Usagi to give them the signal to move out. Rei walked to Ami, who seemed to be busy with some of her homework, of course. "Ami, can't you leave your homework for later? We're out here to have fun."
Ami giggled. "I know, but I'm working on a this science project for our school's science fair and I want it to be perfect."
"Ami Puhleeze. You're going to win no matter what. You're a genius. But, that's also cool. You can really give those teachers a run for their money since they're not nearly as smart as you, as least not at our level they aren't."
"Ha! I never thought of it that way. Oh Rei, we were wondering about what was going on with the situation of you transferring to our school. Has your grandfather said anything about it yet?"
The other two girls, who were listening, were now more interested in what was about to be said than ever. Rei smiled as she remembered what he grandfather had told her only one night before. "Well as a matter of fact, he did say that he would make his final decision tonight."
That sent Minako and Makoto jumping for joy. Though Makoto quickly regained herself soon after. "REI! You SO have to call us ALL tonight and tell us the verdict!"
Rei could barely keep herself from squealing in happiness. "I KNOW! And what's better is that when he said it, he said it in a way that just HAD to mean something good. I think you all know the tone I'm talking about."
Minako nodded. "Oh yeah. That would be the one when you want something from your parents and they say maybe but you KNOW they mean, yes."
"Definitely. That's how grandpa said it." Rei turned her head as she felt Usagi approaching them at a rather slow speed. "Is she doing that thing that Goku made us do when we first started out? You know, the running long distances?"
Ami nodded. "I think so. On the way here, she said that she was only going to have her run for about a mile and a half. That's about two miles from here. She's going to try and have her read our power levels as we fly there."
Rei grinned. "One of the only smart things that she's ever thought up."
"Hey. She's come up with other stuff. Remember that shield improvise she thought of? She just used her technique from the other attack and used that for it. She got us out of our bind."
"Well I take that back then. She's pretty smart when it comes to fighting. When it comes to other stuff, she's well…you know."
Ami didn't answer back at that, neither did any of the other girls. She just nodded and continued to work on her science project.
~*~*~
Once Hotaru had run her mile and a half for the day, Usagi began to walk towards a park, letting Hotaru know that she was through. "You did good today, Hotaru." 'Wow, she's good. How did she get so good?' "So, are you tired enough yet?"
Hotaru slightly nodded. "Not really. I mean, I'm a little short of breath but I'll be ok. Running is kind of fun."
"Now it's time for you to meet my friends. They should be getting here soon." She raised her power level a bit so she could have more energy to call in her friends. 'Hey! Guys! Get your lazy selves out here! But come slowly. At a REALLY slow pace. I want her to have plenty of time to feel you.'
~*~*~
Minako laughed as she stood up and looked at her friends. "That would be our signal from our very own Usagi."
Ami began to put her notebook and plans for her project away into her bag. "That would be correct, Minako."
~*~*~
"Ok, Hotaru. My friends are officially on their way here now." She noticed that Hotaru looked a bit uneasy all of a sudden. She sighed as she knew that the youngest fighter was still quite nervous. "Don't worry. These are my best friends. The ones I told you about. You have nothing to worry about."
Hotaru looked to the ground as she put her hands behind her back. "I'm sorry. I know I don't have to worry about anything if they're YOUR friends."
Usagi smiled as she took that as a compliment. "While we're waiting, why don't we start exercising a bit. We'll start with push-ups. These get your arms strong. Here, I'll show you the RIGHT way to do it."
Hotaru watched as Usagi got down on the ground and held her body totally straight with no part any higher than the other. She watched carefully as Usagi let her chin almost touch the ground along with he chest. "Do you HAVE to go down THAT far? It looks painful."
Usagi nodded to the best of her ability. "Yep! It is painful too because you're pushing up your full body weight with pretty much just your arms." She leaped back up to her feet after she felt that her demonstration was finished and wiped some tiny pebbles off of her hands. "Why don't you try now? I'll even help you. You know, act as a coach. My dad used to help me with this all the time when I first started out. He says if you don't do it the right way, then it's not worth doing at all. So that's why you're going to do it that way."
Hotaru opened her mouth to protest but soon closed it as she knew there was no way of getting out of it. "Ok." She got down to the ground and tried to imitate Usagi's position exactly. "Is this good?"
Usagi examined Hotaru's posture and tried to find anything wrong with it at all so that Hotaru wouldn't learn to do pushups the wrong way. "Almost. Try to keep your legs as straight and in line with your head as possible." She kneeled down next to the girl and put one hand on her back and the other on her stomach as Hotaru adjusted her legs. "Ok, let's start."
Hotaru took a deep breath before she started. "Ok." She began to let her arms flex out as her body dropped closer to the ground. She found that it became somewhat harder for her to breath as she went down further. "Is this far enough?"
"Is your chin almost touching the ground?"
"Yes."
"Then it's far enough." She began to slightly push on Hotaru's stomach to help her up as she knew that the girl would have some problems supporting her own weight at first. 'Now see? This is how daddy should have taught. It's better to learn the stuff first and then try it out in the field. Won he be surprised when he sees how I trained her.' Her mind left that point as she went in search of her friends' Ki. 'Hmm…they still have a mile and a half before they're going to be here. There's still time to do a little bit more.' "You're doing good, Hotaru, you've already done a couple. If you can get at least five done today you'll be doing good. This builds muscle in your arms. This is even something easy enough to practice at home."
Hotaru's body got the feeling of being hot as she lowered herself for the third time. "This is harder than it looks." Her arms shook as she tried to push herself back up.
"I know. It's a pain for everyone. It gets even harder when you start adding weighted clothing and what not."
Hotaru gasped. "WEIGHTS?!"
"Yeah, you get stronger with them. You'll have an easier time with weights than I did though. I was first trained with weights by this guy, Vejita. He was SO mean to me. He yelled at me because I couldn't stand up with them. But that's ok. I know he was only doing it so I would learn." She pushed on Hotaru's stomach again so she could complete her fifth and final pushup for the day. "That was great!"
Hotaru sat up and let her arms shake with a lack of energy. "Are you sure? My arms are shaky now."
"That's ok. That just means that you shouldn't do anymore right now. Safety comes first when it comes to training." She sensed for her friends' energy again. "Ok Hotaru. We are moving on. I want to try to get you reading Ki's again. Try to do it like you did with mine on Saturday. First feel your own energy."
Hotaru closed her eyes as she continued to sit on the ground. She did as her Sensei told her and felt around for her own energy. It wasn't too hard to find as she knew what she was looking for. In doing this, a dark purple aura began to form around her small frail body. The strength of the aura alone left Usagi amazed. "Now, I want you to reach out and feel my energy, like you did on Saturday. This time it will be harder since I'm not moving. Just let your own energy act as your senses for this. Imagine it as a hand trying to feel around in the dark for it."
"Like a blind person does?"
"Yeah. Kind of like that."
Hotaru did as she was told and began to let her energy take over. She let her energy move freely out towards Usagi and, as a result, she felt a brilliant golden aura that was more powerful than she could ever wish to be. "I can feel it. I can almost see it. It's a bright gold light."
"Good, good. Now do the same thing and search around for my friends. They should be close by now."
Hotaru concentrated harder and let her energy/senses flow out to scan the entire area. Once she had found Usagi's energy, she pretty much knew what she was doing. She soon found the four energy signatures that she was supposed to be searching for. "I can see them too. They are warm, just like yours. They are red, green, orange, and blue."
'Wow! She's good. How can she do that?' "That would be Rei, Minako, Ami, and Makoto. Now here's where the tricky part comes in. Tell me any changes you feel with them." She quickly rose her power level again to get more energy to talk to them. 'Fly around a little bit. Do whatever you want. Land, spin around in circles, dive. Just do something BIG so that Hotaru can detect it.'
No answer came from Hotaru as she was too busy concentrating to answer. Though she did hear the words of her sensei. In her mind she could only see dark except for the five power levels that she was detecting, which showed up as little balls of energy in their respective colors. "The blue one is landing behind me. Yours keeps getting brighter."
Usagi smiled as he raised her power level again. 'Minako, Rei, land on opposite sides of the park.' "Very good. I'm raising my energy, that's why mine is getting brighter."
Hotaru concentrated harder as she saw two of the energy balls moving together. "The orange and red one are landing on opposite sides of us."
Usagi grinned as she turned to her friends and saw the looks that they were giving Hotaru. They were looks of astonishment. She knew that they could feel her incredible power. "Ok Hotaru, focus on he green on and look towards it with your eyes open."
Hotaru opened her eyes as a girl with a flaming green aura landed down next to three other new girls who were Usagi's age. All of them had friendly smiles planted on their faces. She stood up as she just continued to stare at the girls in curiosity. She hoped that they would like her.
Usagi walked to her friends as she pointed to Hotaru. "Girls, this is my new friend Tomoe Hotaru. We're going to be training her for a while. Hotaru, these are my best friends. Let me introduce them to you." She walked to Ami. "This is Mizuno Ami. She's a girl genius and a great friend. She's a bit on the shy side, though. I'm currently trying to break that."
Ami blushed as she gave Hotaru a gently smile. "It's a pleasure to meet you, Hotaru."
"You have to watch out for her though, she uses big words all the time. Ones I can't hardly understand." She walked to her next friend. "The tall one with the lopsided grin is Kino Makoto. She's a LOT stronger than she looks but makes GREAT cookies."
Makoto's grin became even more lopsided as she addressed Hotaru by extending the girl her hand. "Hi Hotaru, and if you know Usagi at all, you know who eats most of them."
Hotaru giggled at that and Usagi's facial pout as she grabbed Makoto's hand and shook it with a firm, yet gentle shake.
Usagi continued to pout as she went onto he next friend. "This is Minako. You gotta watch out for her too. She wants to be an idol and is always practicing her new material for us. She's pretty good."
Minako smirked at her recognition. "Yep, I'm going to be world famous. But don't worry , I won't forget my friends." She gave her wink and V sign with her fingers. Hotaru giggled again at this group's diversity.
Usagi walked to the last person to be introduced. "And this would be Rei. She's a great friend, but has a temper that is easily set off."
"Hey, I do not." Rei growled, as she stuck out her tongue.
Usagi responded in kind and an all famous tongue war engaged. "Do too!"
Rei's concentration of the 'war' was broken as she heard yet more giggles coming from Hotaru. "Pleased to meet you Hotaru. Don't mind Usagi. She's just like this all the time."
Usagi playfully scowled at her friend as the rest of her friends, including Hotaru, laughed at her. "Fine. Just make fun of me. I don't care."
"Usagi, I think I like your friends."
Usagi smiled. She loved to make Hotaru happy. "I told you that you'd like them. I told you that they would like you back. Now if we're all done, let's continue training."
Hotaru calmed down just to immediately become excited again. "FLYING!?"
Usagi groaned as she had to dish out disappointment to the beginner once again. "Not exactly. My friends and I are going to start our training again today. What you're going to do is float three feet off the ground and maintain that. Also, if you want to do more than just float, you can use your Ki to sense and look at how our power levels change back and fourth during the fight."
Hotaru's eyebrow quirked as she became more interested in the rest of her day's training. "I GET to see a REAL fight?!"
"That's right, Hotaru. And if we're lucky, maybe Usagi and Makoto wont turn it into a hair pulling fest." Minako laughed as both Makoto and Usagi stuck their tongues out at her.
(Well that's about it for now. Sorry I got it out SO late. Anyways, what did you think? Good or bad? Gotta go. It's late. Ja! ^_~ )