"So let's see what this kid has got to show." Goku was surrounded by his daughter and her friends as they all looked down upon the youngest of the group, who was being put to the test. Goku was reminded of the times when Usagi was first learning as he looked down to Hotaru.
Hotaru timidly walked away from the group. She hoped that she wouldn't forget how do use her energy like Usagi had shown her. She hoped that she would be able to do everything well enough for Goku. She wanted to impress him with how much she had learned like she had with her new friends. "Here I go."
Hotaru closed her eyes as she visualized her energy being spread around her body. Usagi grinned up at her father as Hotaru did that. She knew that Hotaru would do great, and even prove her father wrong at the same time. She would prove to him that you learn just as much when you train gently as you do when you train rough. She could tell that he didn't quite agree with the method, but he would soon find out just what Hotaru could do in just two days of training. "Looking good, Hotaru."
Hotaru opened her eyes and looked DOWN to Usagi. "Huh?" She took her eyes off of her Sensei and looked down to the ground. "I did it again! And this time I didn't even loose concentration when I got startled."
Usagi laughed when she saw her father's face. It told of his astonishment. "What's wrong, daddy? You look a little surprised." She turned back to Hotaru and brought her hands around her mouth to act as an amplifier. "Hotaru! Do what you did on our way here. Try to do it without landing."
"K!" Hotaru brought her hands in front of her stomach and began to concentrate a portion of her energy between them to build up a small Ki ball. "Look! I did it!"
"Make it as big as you can."
Goku looked down to his daughter with concern. "What are you doing? She's just starting out. You don't want her to pass out, do you? Don't forget that she isn't Saiyan."
Usagi listened to her father and took into consideration that she might be making Hotaru do too much. After all, she was doing something new, what with using her energy to fly AND make an energy ball. "Hotaru, if you're feeling dizzy, stop."
"I'm ok, Usagi." She concentrated more and more of her energy into her ball of energy, causing it to become larger and larger.
Goku focused his senses onto the small child and her attack. Her power was amazingly high for such a young girl. 'Where did that come from? I've never seen a human with such strength. These guys worked fast, but not as fast as this one. She's learning things just as fast as Usagi did.' "Usagi, is this what you were talking about?"
Usagi nodded. "Yep. I told you she was strong. She even felt the power from the others. You know, the power you guys can't feel."
"Ah yes, that mysterious power you girls keep talking about. She can already feel power levels too, huh?"
"Yep. She's getting good too. You should see her running. She can run almost two miles. Already."
"Usagi! What do I do with this?!"
Usagi and Goku turned their heads to look back to Hotaru to see her with a Ki attack the size of a beach ball in her hands. "Whoa! That's huge!" Usagi deviously grinned as she looked up to her father. "Daddy…"
'Uh-oh. This could be bad.' Goku turned to his daughter and feared the worst. He knew that she had something planned. "Yes?"
"He, he…Can Hotaru fire that at you? Pleeeease?"
Goku looked down to his daughter as if she had gone nuts. "Are you crazy? I'm not taking a free hit from something THAT strong."
Usagi frowned. "Are you chicken? CHICKEN! CHICKEN! DADDY IS A CHICKEN!"
"Why don't you take the hit?" Usagi shut up with that one. "Just as I thought. Now WHOSE the chicken?" Goku grinned. "Chicken, chicken, Usagi is the BIGGEST chicken of them all." Goku yelled in a mocking voice. Minako and Rei broke out in laughter.
Usagi crossed her arms as she continued to frown. "Daddy that's NOT funny."
"Someone! A little help! What do I do with this thing?!" Hotaru could hardly hold onto the attack anymore. It was becoming more than she could handle as her energy grew weaker and weaker, which made the ball of energy seem a lot heavier than it really was.
Usagi quickly turned her head in response to her friends plea for help and smirked as she glanced over at her father. "Ok. Fire it at daddy here."
"What?!" Before Goku had a chance to do anything a dark purple ball of energy was bouncing at him. "Whoa!" He tried jumping to the side, but wasn't quite fast enough. Before his attempt to flee was successful, he was hit from the side and throw down to the ground, unable to get up.
Usagi snickered as she rolled her eyes at her father's antics. "Give me a break, daddy. Her attack couldn't have hurt you THAT much. Now come on and get up." When he didn't move, she walked on over and peered down.
Hotaru let herself drop to the ground and ran over to see how much damage she had caused. "Goku! Goku! Did I hurt him really bad, Usagi?
Usagi had a slight grin on her face as she looked up to the scared little girl before her. "No. He's just faking. If he was really hurt, he would be wheezing or something."
"I don't know Usagi…look at his arm." Ami pointed to a tiny pool of blood that was beginning to form on his side where he had been hit. "I don't think he's faking, Usagi. I think it really DID hurt him."
Horror took over Hotaru's face as she began to feel dizzy from the shock of actually hurting her best friend's father. "I DIDN'T MEAN TO!" Tears began to form in the child's eyes. She knew that Usagi would hate her forever because of this. There was no way that she would be forgiven for doing such a horrid thing.
Seeing the fear that had risen in Hotaru, Minako ran to her and wrapped her arms around her as she pulled her away from Goku. "It's alright, Hotaru. We know you didn't mean to hurt him. It's just something that happened. Don't kick yourself for this. Usagi isn't mad." She pulled the child's face away from her own and wiped some of the tears away from her cheek. "Don't cry, Hotaru. This happens all the time. It's normal for all of us to pass out every now and then."
Aside from Hotaru, Usagi was having a crisis of her own. "Daddy wake up! Wake up! This isn't funny!" She kneeled down next to Ami, who was using some of her knowledge about medicine to examine the wound, which spread from his under his arm all the way down to his waist. His arm was completely covered in blood. "Is he gonna be ok, Ami?"
"I think he'll be ok, just as long as we have something to fix him up with. Makoto, run inside and get
Chi-Chi. Tell her to get us something to stop the bleeding."
Usagi shook her head in disbelief as she felt the tears coming on. "This is all my fault. If I hadn't have told Hotaru to fire it at him than none of this would have happened. IT'S ALL MY FAULT!"
"It's not your fault. It's no one's fault. No one knew that this was going to happen. Now snap out of it." Rei frowned down at her friend as she walked towards her with her hands on her hips. "Come on Usagi, instead of just sitting there and crying about it, DO SOMETHING!" She became more aggravated when nothing came out of Usagi's mouth. Not a single sign of movement was implied either. "USAGI SNAP OUT OF IT!" She raised her hand and slapped Usagi across the face.
Usagi slowly looked up to Rei with tears streaming down her face. "You don't understand, do you? If he dies…" Usagi's face became pale with the thought. "If he dies…" She can't even get any further than that before she starts to choke. "If he dies…" She finally gets out with a whisper. "We can't bring him back, even with the Dragon Balls."
After a long struggle, Hotaru finally broke free of Minako's protective grasp and ran back to where Goku was lying, unconscious, on the ground. "GOKU!" She tripped over her own feet with and, with great frustration, dragged herself to be by Usagi's side, who seemed to be in a world of her own. "I'M SORRY!"
At that moment, Makoto ran out of the house with Chi-Chi, carrying a first aid kit and a pile of towels.
Chi-Chi didn't waste any time dashing to her husband's side. "Goku…" She looked up and around at the girls with fear and anger written in her eyes. "Who did this?"
Everyone became silent as Hotaru coward behind Usagi, not wanting to be seen by Chi-Chi. In her short time of knowing the woman, Hotaru knew that she had a short fuse. She had witnessed that when she was first yelling at Usagi when they first arrived at the house and when Chi-Chi became angry with Makoto for messing with her food. "I did it." She barely whispered.
Usagi was the only one who heard Hotaru speak for Hotaru spoke at an interval that a Saiyan could pick up. She quickly wrapped her hand around Hotaru's mouth and opened her own mouth to speak. "I did it, mom, it was an accident. I'm sorry."
Hotaru gasped as she slowly let her eyes rise up to Usagi's. "Huh?" She looked up to Rei, who was standing above her, and then to Ami, who was busy wrapping Goku's wound with the towels. She turned her head to Minako, who was once again pulling her away from the crowd. 'What's going on? No one is telling the truth. They are all lying…for me?!'
Chi-Chi stood up and stepped closer to Usagi. "You did this, young lady? You can not call this an accident. Your father has never, EVER had any accidents like this with you and he is MUCH stronger than you!"
Usagi hung her head low. She couldn't look her in the eye. She glanced over to Ami, who looked back at her with great sympathy. "I know." She didn't regret taking the heat at all. She wouldn't let her mother ever find out that it was actually Hotaru who had done this to her father. Usagi leaned over her father's face. She hoped that he would be alright. "I think daddy has some Senzu in the house, mom." She laid her head on his chest. "I'm sorry this had to happen, daddy, it's all my fault." 'I just HAD to tell Hotaru to fire it at him.'
"WHAAAAAA!" Usagi screamed as she felt something wrap itself around her body. She tried desperately to pull herself away from her father, but whatever had a hold of her wasn't about to let her go. "HELP ME!"
"Whatever for, Usagi? You're the one who got yourself into this whole mess."
Usagi stopped struggling as she widened her eyes to their fullest. She could hear the gasps of her friends around her. "DADDY!?"
Goku sat up as he laughed at his daughter's surprise. "Looks like I got you back pretty good this time." He continued to hold her in his lap, she didn't seem to have a problem with this though.
Usagi glared at her father. "HOW COULD YOU!?" Without even thinking about what she was doing, she proceeded to punch him, somewhat softly, in the chest. "We were worried about you and everything!"
Chi-Chi crossed her arms as she scowled down at he husband. "The next time you want to play a game, Goku. Tell me first." Without any further care or worry, Chi-Chi walked back into the house.
Goku chuckled as his wife left the scene, but his laughing soon stopped when he turned back to the angry face of his daughter. "What can I say? You had your fun, I wanted to have mine, just like the time I tied you to that tree. Remember that? You thought you were pretty sly, tricking me like that. You should know better than to mess with the master."
"That WASN'T funny. You scared us ALL. You owe us all an apology."
"Oh I owe you all an apology? I don't think so. I think you owe ME an apology for trying to pull a fast one on me."
"FINE! I'm sorry." She clenched her teeth as she said it. She hated to be called out on a mistake like that in front of her friends.
"Getting kind of temperamental, are we?" Goku laughed as his daughter began to tense up. "Calm down, sweetie. I know what I did was wrong. I'm sorry. I shouldn't have worried you all like I did." He turned to Hotaru, who was still pale with fear. "I guess I should apologize to you most of all, Hotaru. I didn't mean to pull you into this. I'm sorry. But that attack was amazing. It actually cut into me." He reached into his pocket and pulled out a Senzu bean.
Hotaru leaned forward to see what Goku was doing. "Are you sure I didn't hurt you too bad? You looked really hurt just a minute ago."
Goku chuckled. "Don't worry about me, Hotaru. I've been through a lot worse. I'll be fine." He popped the Senzu in his mouth and his wound was immediately healed. "You should enter that tournament with these guys. You have great potential. Especially for a human."
"You think so?"
"Hotaru, you broke my skin open. That's not the easiest thing to do unless you're, well, to put it frankly, you have to be strong, which is definitely something you are."
Hotaru smiled widely. "THANKS GOKU! Usagi, can I enter the tournament with you?"
"I don't see why not. I'm only entering so I can beat Satan." Usagi giggled as she thought about what the face on Satan would be when she finally beat him once and for all in front of his fans.
"Well there you have it, you can both enter the tournament. It will be a good learning experience for Hotaru, and…well…just something fun for you kiddo." Goku turned back to Usagi and grinned as he rubbed to top of her head. "Oh how your mother freak out if she knew that you lied to cover up the truth just now."
Fear took Usagi over once again as she thought of how BOTH of her parents felt about her lying. "Don't tell her, daddy. Please. I'm sorry. I…I…I…"
Goku put his finger of his daughter's mouth to stop her from worrying about it. "Don't stress it. I'm not going to tell her. I know why you did it. I don't mind good lies like that."
Usagi was confused. "Good lies?"
"Yes, good lies. Lies that keep you or someone else safe."
"Oh. Ok. Like we did when I was younger."
Goku nodded. "Exactly." He turned to Hotaru, who was slowly pulling away from Minako to walk towards them. "How much time until you have to be home, Hotaru?/"
Hotaru timidly looked down to her watch. She was still scared from what previously happened. "We have five minutes."
Usagi stood up from her father's lap, completely happy that he wont tell her secret to her mother. "Ok, I think we should leave now. We can teleport to the city by your house and I'll let you fly for a while."
"Usagi, I'm tired right now. Can we just let me fly until Papa gets home?" She rubbed her eyes as she walked closer to Usagi. The recent up stir on top of using her energy to fly AND fire a Ki attack had worn her out more than she would have thought it would.
"Ok. I don't mind. We can work more on flying tomorrow then. Shall we get going?" She extended her hand to her friend, who, in return, reached out and grabbed a hold of her hand. Usagi looked around to her friends. "Sorry about this, guys."
"That's alright. It was quite an…exhilarating day. We all had fun, right girls?" Ami looked to her friends for agreement.
Usagi smiled. She appreciated the fact that Ami was trying to ease the tension. "I guess it was kind of fun. And Hotaru learned a lot too. But we really should be leaving now. The Professor will be home soon."
Goku stood up just before his daughter and her friends departed. "Don't be home too late, Usagi. Your mother will have a cow if you do." He turned his attention onto the youngest of the group, who seemed to be starring back at him with great interest. "Can I help you?"
"Can I ask you something?"
"Sure."
"Why are you all bulgy and Usagi, Minako, Ami, Rei, and Makoto aren't?"
Goku chuckled at the girl's inquisitiveness. "That's because I have muscles."
"What do they have?"
"Well, they have muscles too, but you see, in girls, muscle doesn't show as much. So that's why girls can be really strong, like these guys here, but they don't look like it. But they have it."
"Oh."
"Usagi, you better get her home now if you want to teach her to fly. I'm counting on you to be home on time. I'm HUNGRY and mom wont let me eat until you're home."
"K!" With that, the six girls teleported back to the city near Hotaru's home.
~*~*~
~~The City~~
"Are you ready to fly, Hotaru?" Rei could see the excitement building up in little Hotaru's eyes. She couldn't help but giggle for the child looked as if she were going to explode from being so happy.
"Do I really need to answer that again?"
"Well then go ahead and knock yourself out doing it." Usagi let herself float three feet into the air. "Try to fly higher than this. I'll fly below you just in case you fall or something."
"Ok." Hotaru barely had to concentrate to get her float up above Usagi. She was beginning to become more familiar with hovering and it was at the point where it felt somewhat natural for her to lift up into the air.
Once she was above Usagi, she looked down in wonder. "What do I do now?"
"Well, flying is just as simple as hovering. You know how you concentrate your energy as lifting you up?" Hotaru nodded. "Instead of concentrating it as lifting you up, concentrate it as moving your body forward."
"I think I get it. It IS almost just like hovering." Nothing happened for a few seconds. When she did start moving, however, she shot forward faster than everyone had expected with a dark purple aura to accompany her. "WOW!" She spread her arms out to her side and flew almost as fast as Usagi had when she first learned. "THIS IS GREAT!"
Usagi hadn't expected to have to power up AT ALL, but she had had to just to keep up with Hotaru's speed. She couldn't just fly at a normal pace. Hotaru was flying like it was nothing. 'This girl is amazing. Of course, she was pretty good at hovering before we started her out on flying. Gohan and daddy started us out with flying almost immediately after we learned to hover.' "Lookin good, Hotaru."
Hotaru laughed as she looked down to Usagi right after adjusting herself to fly upside down. "I feel like I'm a bird!" She slowed her speed down when her senses picked up one of her friend's power levels behind her. "Minako is right behind me isn't she?"
"That would be correct." Minako opened her arms and caught Hotaru. "Isn't flying great?"
"YES! I can't wait until I can fly as fast as you guys!"
"That may take a little while." The duo's attention was caught by the sound of a car door slamming shut below. "Look Hotaru, it's your dad."
Hotaru smiled as she watched her father start talking to the other girls, who were on the ground. "Hey Minako, you're right. Come on." She pulled away from Minako's grasp and grabbed her by the hand. "I want you to meet him."
"Alright."
"PAPA!" Hotaru yelled as she, Minako, and Usagi came falling from the air.
Professor Tomoe took his attention from the three girls in front of him and looked around, but couldn't see his daughter anywhere. He began to worry, until he heard giggling right above him. 'Huh?' He looked up with great curiosity and dropped his mouth. He couldn't believe what he saw, his daughter floating in the air all by herself with no one holding her up. "Hotaru?"
"Yep! It's me, papa." She gently let herself float down into his arms. "I had a GREAT day! Usagi taught me to fly, and shoot Ki blasts, and I even learned how to read Ki signatures so I know when someone is coming close to me. And I even made MORE friends."
Professor Tomoe smiled as he was again overwhelmed with hearing about his daughter's activities. "I thought there were more people here than there was yesterday. Why don't you introduce me to all of your new friends?"
"Ok. The one in green is Makoto. And the one in orange is Minako, the one in red is Rei and the one in blue is Ami. They're all REALLY nice. They're even going to try to let me join in on their mind link."
The Professor's eyebrow quirked with half fascination have with doubt. "Mind link?"
Before Hotaru had a chance to try and explain, Usagi interrupted. "Don't worry sir, me and my friends have had it for two years now. Though we're not sure it will work, for some reason, we think it may work with her so we're going to give it a try. We want her to think about it tonight to make sure that it's something that she REALLY wants to do."
Hotaru pleadingly looked up to her father and began to beg for his approval. "Please Papa, Please?! I really want to do it! PLEASE!"
The Professor sighed as once again, he has been defeated. He didn't mind though. "Ok my little firefly. But like Usagi has stated, think about this tonight. If you still want it by the time they come to pick you up, you have my permission."
"YYYYAAAAYYYYYYY."
Usagi and her friends grouped together to say their goodbyes. Professor Tomoe set his daughter down and took his opportunity to talk business with Usagi as he tapped her on her shoulder. "Umm…Usagi, I forgot to pay you on Saturday. Why don't I pay you now for today and Saturday."
Usagi had totally forgotten about the paying part of her agreement to watch and train Hotaru. She thought about what she might want to do with her pay. The first thing she thought of was challenging Minako to a game at the arcade. She would call her mother and beg her for a later curfew, just for that night. But then she looked down to Hotaru and how happy she was. 'Hmm…What to do, what to do. I still have allowance from mom.'
Usagi raised her hand and placed it on the hand that Tomoe was pulling money out for her from his wallet. "That's ok Professor. Why don't we make Fridays payday? That way, we can take Hotaru somewhere on Saturday with it and take a day off from Training."
Tomoe warmly smiled as proceeded to pull out his money to pay Usagi with. "You don't have to spend your money on her. You earned it, you should spend it on yourself."
Usagi only replied with more protest. "Professor, I always wanted to have a little a little sister and Hotaru has pretty much fitted into that slot. I WANT to spend some of it on her. Besides, I'm going to have fun with her."
Tomoe reluctantly put his money back into his wallet as he continued to smile down at Usagi. "If that's what you want, I wont stop you. Just make sure you don't spoil her with it."
"Thank you, sir." She looked down to Hotaru and waved to her. "See you tomorrow. Come on girls, we have to be leaving. Rei, don't forget to ask you grandpa about coming to our school." She leaped into the air.
"You think I would be so crazy as to NOT ask him?!"
Professor Tomoe rested his hand on his daughter's shoulder as the two of them watched the five girls fly away as they wandered off into their own conversation. "I think we have found some true friends for you, my little firefly."
Hotaru looked up to her father with tears of happiness. "I think you're right."
Her father's face grew serious as he continued to look into her eyes. "But you must never tell the truth about yourself."
Hotaru's eyes saddened as she looked onto the ground for she knew that if she had told the truth of her herself that she would loose her newly acquired friends, something she definitely didn't want to happen. She allowed herself to be gathered into her father's arms for a comforting hug.
~*~*~
~~The Son Household~~
Goku sat at the table with his eating utensils at hand, waiting desperately for his daughter to return home anytime so he could dig into the dinner in which his wife had prepared. "She needs to hurry up."
Chi-Chi angrily scowled at her husband from across the table. "You don't deserve any food."
"What? Oh come on, you can't tell me that you're still mad about earlier. I wasn't seriously hurt."
"You let those poor kids believe that you were dying, you even had me fooled. That was a sick, SICK joke to play on your family."
"Don't freak out, Chi-Chi, I apologized to them."
"And to do something like THAT in front of company. Honestly Goku, what was going through your head?"
"Hey, hey, I had my reasons for doing that." 'Hotaru is way too strong to be a human. She can't be human. But she has to be. What else could she be? I know she's not an alien. I can feel her human energy running through her body.'
"You just make sure you don't ever do that again or you may find yourself in trouble with more people than just me."
~*~*~
~~Rei's Temple~~
When Rei arrived home, she ran directly to her grandfather's room, where she knew he would be. She couldn't wait to find out if she was going to be able to go to school with her friends or not. She had been asking him for two years now, ever since she came back from the past. "Grandpa!" She threw her school bag into her room while she ran past it. "Grandpa!"
"In here, Rei."
Rei poked her head into her grandfather's room as he sat at his desk and read a book of sorts. "Grandpa, have you made your decision yet?"
"What decision would that be, Rei?"
Rei groaned. He always had to play games when she wanted something from him. "You know what I'm talking about?"
"Really? I don't recall anything that I was supposed to decide."
"GRANDPA!"
Mr. Hino grinned as he turned around to look into the anticipating eyes of his granddaughter. "Ah yes. You wanted to know if you could go to school with your friends."
"Yes. Did you decide yet?"
Mr. Hino turned to his side and pulled a packet of papers out of his desk. "Do you know what these papers are, Rei?" Rei shook her head. She wished that he would just get on with it. "These are your report cards. They show that your grades are almost as high as you can get."
"That's all very nice, grandpa, but can you please tell me your decision?"
"Don't you want to know why I have all your past report cards out?"
"Because you wanted to see if I deserved to go to school with my friends and now that you see that I do, you're going to do it, right?"
"That would be incorrect. I hold here, in my hands, your transfer papers, which just happen to hold all of your past grades on them."
"What? Are you serious? YOU'VE ALREADY TRANSFERRED ME?!" Rei couldn't believe it. She had expected that he would make his decision and she would start at her new school the next year.
"Yes, I've been working on it ever since the beginning of the year. You start tomorrow."
"Tomorrow?"
"Yes."
Rei couldn't help but throw herself into her grandfather's arms. "THANK YOU SO MUCH!"
(Ok, there you have. Yet again, another part. So what do you think? Is it good or bad? Gotta go, ja )
Hotaru timidly walked away from the group. She hoped that she wouldn't forget how do use her energy like Usagi had shown her. She hoped that she would be able to do everything well enough for Goku. She wanted to impress him with how much she had learned like she had with her new friends. "Here I go."
Hotaru closed her eyes as she visualized her energy being spread around her body. Usagi grinned up at her father as Hotaru did that. She knew that Hotaru would do great, and even prove her father wrong at the same time. She would prove to him that you learn just as much when you train gently as you do when you train rough. She could tell that he didn't quite agree with the method, but he would soon find out just what Hotaru could do in just two days of training. "Looking good, Hotaru."
Hotaru opened her eyes and looked DOWN to Usagi. "Huh?" She took her eyes off of her Sensei and looked down to the ground. "I did it again! And this time I didn't even loose concentration when I got startled."
Usagi laughed when she saw her father's face. It told of his astonishment. "What's wrong, daddy? You look a little surprised." She turned back to Hotaru and brought her hands around her mouth to act as an amplifier. "Hotaru! Do what you did on our way here. Try to do it without landing."
"K!" Hotaru brought her hands in front of her stomach and began to concentrate a portion of her energy between them to build up a small Ki ball. "Look! I did it!"
"Make it as big as you can."
Goku looked down to his daughter with concern. "What are you doing? She's just starting out. You don't want her to pass out, do you? Don't forget that she isn't Saiyan."
Usagi listened to her father and took into consideration that she might be making Hotaru do too much. After all, she was doing something new, what with using her energy to fly AND make an energy ball. "Hotaru, if you're feeling dizzy, stop."
"I'm ok, Usagi." She concentrated more and more of her energy into her ball of energy, causing it to become larger and larger.
Goku focused his senses onto the small child and her attack. Her power was amazingly high for such a young girl. 'Where did that come from? I've never seen a human with such strength. These guys worked fast, but not as fast as this one. She's learning things just as fast as Usagi did.' "Usagi, is this what you were talking about?"
Usagi nodded. "Yep. I told you she was strong. She even felt the power from the others. You know, the power you guys can't feel."
"Ah yes, that mysterious power you girls keep talking about. She can already feel power levels too, huh?"
"Yep. She's getting good too. You should see her running. She can run almost two miles. Already."
"Usagi! What do I do with this?!"
Usagi and Goku turned their heads to look back to Hotaru to see her with a Ki attack the size of a beach ball in her hands. "Whoa! That's huge!" Usagi deviously grinned as she looked up to her father. "Daddy…"
'Uh-oh. This could be bad.' Goku turned to his daughter and feared the worst. He knew that she had something planned. "Yes?"
"He, he…Can Hotaru fire that at you? Pleeeease?"
Goku looked down to his daughter as if she had gone nuts. "Are you crazy? I'm not taking a free hit from something THAT strong."
Usagi frowned. "Are you chicken? CHICKEN! CHICKEN! DADDY IS A CHICKEN!"
"Why don't you take the hit?" Usagi shut up with that one. "Just as I thought. Now WHOSE the chicken?" Goku grinned. "Chicken, chicken, Usagi is the BIGGEST chicken of them all." Goku yelled in a mocking voice. Minako and Rei broke out in laughter.
Usagi crossed her arms as she continued to frown. "Daddy that's NOT funny."
"Someone! A little help! What do I do with this thing?!" Hotaru could hardly hold onto the attack anymore. It was becoming more than she could handle as her energy grew weaker and weaker, which made the ball of energy seem a lot heavier than it really was.
Usagi quickly turned her head in response to her friends plea for help and smirked as she glanced over at her father. "Ok. Fire it at daddy here."
"What?!" Before Goku had a chance to do anything a dark purple ball of energy was bouncing at him. "Whoa!" He tried jumping to the side, but wasn't quite fast enough. Before his attempt to flee was successful, he was hit from the side and throw down to the ground, unable to get up.
Usagi snickered as she rolled her eyes at her father's antics. "Give me a break, daddy. Her attack couldn't have hurt you THAT much. Now come on and get up." When he didn't move, she walked on over and peered down.
Hotaru let herself drop to the ground and ran over to see how much damage she had caused. "Goku! Goku! Did I hurt him really bad, Usagi?
Usagi had a slight grin on her face as she looked up to the scared little girl before her. "No. He's just faking. If he was really hurt, he would be wheezing or something."
"I don't know Usagi…look at his arm." Ami pointed to a tiny pool of blood that was beginning to form on his side where he had been hit. "I don't think he's faking, Usagi. I think it really DID hurt him."
Horror took over Hotaru's face as she began to feel dizzy from the shock of actually hurting her best friend's father. "I DIDN'T MEAN TO!" Tears began to form in the child's eyes. She knew that Usagi would hate her forever because of this. There was no way that she would be forgiven for doing such a horrid thing.
Seeing the fear that had risen in Hotaru, Minako ran to her and wrapped her arms around her as she pulled her away from Goku. "It's alright, Hotaru. We know you didn't mean to hurt him. It's just something that happened. Don't kick yourself for this. Usagi isn't mad." She pulled the child's face away from her own and wiped some of the tears away from her cheek. "Don't cry, Hotaru. This happens all the time. It's normal for all of us to pass out every now and then."
Aside from Hotaru, Usagi was having a crisis of her own. "Daddy wake up! Wake up! This isn't funny!" She kneeled down next to Ami, who was using some of her knowledge about medicine to examine the wound, which spread from his under his arm all the way down to his waist. His arm was completely covered in blood. "Is he gonna be ok, Ami?"
"I think he'll be ok, just as long as we have something to fix him up with. Makoto, run inside and get
Chi-Chi. Tell her to get us something to stop the bleeding."
Usagi shook her head in disbelief as she felt the tears coming on. "This is all my fault. If I hadn't have told Hotaru to fire it at him than none of this would have happened. IT'S ALL MY FAULT!"
"It's not your fault. It's no one's fault. No one knew that this was going to happen. Now snap out of it." Rei frowned down at her friend as she walked towards her with her hands on her hips. "Come on Usagi, instead of just sitting there and crying about it, DO SOMETHING!" She became more aggravated when nothing came out of Usagi's mouth. Not a single sign of movement was implied either. "USAGI SNAP OUT OF IT!" She raised her hand and slapped Usagi across the face.
Usagi slowly looked up to Rei with tears streaming down her face. "You don't understand, do you? If he dies…" Usagi's face became pale with the thought. "If he dies…" She can't even get any further than that before she starts to choke. "If he dies…" She finally gets out with a whisper. "We can't bring him back, even with the Dragon Balls."
After a long struggle, Hotaru finally broke free of Minako's protective grasp and ran back to where Goku was lying, unconscious, on the ground. "GOKU!" She tripped over her own feet with and, with great frustration, dragged herself to be by Usagi's side, who seemed to be in a world of her own. "I'M SORRY!"
At that moment, Makoto ran out of the house with Chi-Chi, carrying a first aid kit and a pile of towels.
Chi-Chi didn't waste any time dashing to her husband's side. "Goku…" She looked up and around at the girls with fear and anger written in her eyes. "Who did this?"
Everyone became silent as Hotaru coward behind Usagi, not wanting to be seen by Chi-Chi. In her short time of knowing the woman, Hotaru knew that she had a short fuse. She had witnessed that when she was first yelling at Usagi when they first arrived at the house and when Chi-Chi became angry with Makoto for messing with her food. "I did it." She barely whispered.
Usagi was the only one who heard Hotaru speak for Hotaru spoke at an interval that a Saiyan could pick up. She quickly wrapped her hand around Hotaru's mouth and opened her own mouth to speak. "I did it, mom, it was an accident. I'm sorry."
Hotaru gasped as she slowly let her eyes rise up to Usagi's. "Huh?" She looked up to Rei, who was standing above her, and then to Ami, who was busy wrapping Goku's wound with the towels. She turned her head to Minako, who was once again pulling her away from the crowd. 'What's going on? No one is telling the truth. They are all lying…for me?!'
Chi-Chi stood up and stepped closer to Usagi. "You did this, young lady? You can not call this an accident. Your father has never, EVER had any accidents like this with you and he is MUCH stronger than you!"
Usagi hung her head low. She couldn't look her in the eye. She glanced over to Ami, who looked back at her with great sympathy. "I know." She didn't regret taking the heat at all. She wouldn't let her mother ever find out that it was actually Hotaru who had done this to her father. Usagi leaned over her father's face. She hoped that he would be alright. "I think daddy has some Senzu in the house, mom." She laid her head on his chest. "I'm sorry this had to happen, daddy, it's all my fault." 'I just HAD to tell Hotaru to fire it at him.'
"WHAAAAAA!" Usagi screamed as she felt something wrap itself around her body. She tried desperately to pull herself away from her father, but whatever had a hold of her wasn't about to let her go. "HELP ME!"
"Whatever for, Usagi? You're the one who got yourself into this whole mess."
Usagi stopped struggling as she widened her eyes to their fullest. She could hear the gasps of her friends around her. "DADDY!?"
Goku sat up as he laughed at his daughter's surprise. "Looks like I got you back pretty good this time." He continued to hold her in his lap, she didn't seem to have a problem with this though.
Usagi glared at her father. "HOW COULD YOU!?" Without even thinking about what she was doing, she proceeded to punch him, somewhat softly, in the chest. "We were worried about you and everything!"
Chi-Chi crossed her arms as she scowled down at he husband. "The next time you want to play a game, Goku. Tell me first." Without any further care or worry, Chi-Chi walked back into the house.
Goku chuckled as his wife left the scene, but his laughing soon stopped when he turned back to the angry face of his daughter. "What can I say? You had your fun, I wanted to have mine, just like the time I tied you to that tree. Remember that? You thought you were pretty sly, tricking me like that. You should know better than to mess with the master."
"That WASN'T funny. You scared us ALL. You owe us all an apology."
"Oh I owe you all an apology? I don't think so. I think you owe ME an apology for trying to pull a fast one on me."
"FINE! I'm sorry." She clenched her teeth as she said it. She hated to be called out on a mistake like that in front of her friends.
"Getting kind of temperamental, are we?" Goku laughed as his daughter began to tense up. "Calm down, sweetie. I know what I did was wrong. I'm sorry. I shouldn't have worried you all like I did." He turned to Hotaru, who was still pale with fear. "I guess I should apologize to you most of all, Hotaru. I didn't mean to pull you into this. I'm sorry. But that attack was amazing. It actually cut into me." He reached into his pocket and pulled out a Senzu bean.
Hotaru leaned forward to see what Goku was doing. "Are you sure I didn't hurt you too bad? You looked really hurt just a minute ago."
Goku chuckled. "Don't worry about me, Hotaru. I've been through a lot worse. I'll be fine." He popped the Senzu in his mouth and his wound was immediately healed. "You should enter that tournament with these guys. You have great potential. Especially for a human."
"You think so?"
"Hotaru, you broke my skin open. That's not the easiest thing to do unless you're, well, to put it frankly, you have to be strong, which is definitely something you are."
Hotaru smiled widely. "THANKS GOKU! Usagi, can I enter the tournament with you?"
"I don't see why not. I'm only entering so I can beat Satan." Usagi giggled as she thought about what the face on Satan would be when she finally beat him once and for all in front of his fans.
"Well there you have it, you can both enter the tournament. It will be a good learning experience for Hotaru, and…well…just something fun for you kiddo." Goku turned back to Usagi and grinned as he rubbed to top of her head. "Oh how your mother freak out if she knew that you lied to cover up the truth just now."
Fear took Usagi over once again as she thought of how BOTH of her parents felt about her lying. "Don't tell her, daddy. Please. I'm sorry. I…I…I…"
Goku put his finger of his daughter's mouth to stop her from worrying about it. "Don't stress it. I'm not going to tell her. I know why you did it. I don't mind good lies like that."
Usagi was confused. "Good lies?"
"Yes, good lies. Lies that keep you or someone else safe."
"Oh. Ok. Like we did when I was younger."
Goku nodded. "Exactly." He turned to Hotaru, who was slowly pulling away from Minako to walk towards them. "How much time until you have to be home, Hotaru?/"
Hotaru timidly looked down to her watch. She was still scared from what previously happened. "We have five minutes."
Usagi stood up from her father's lap, completely happy that he wont tell her secret to her mother. "Ok, I think we should leave now. We can teleport to the city by your house and I'll let you fly for a while."
"Usagi, I'm tired right now. Can we just let me fly until Papa gets home?" She rubbed her eyes as she walked closer to Usagi. The recent up stir on top of using her energy to fly AND fire a Ki attack had worn her out more than she would have thought it would.
"Ok. I don't mind. We can work more on flying tomorrow then. Shall we get going?" She extended her hand to her friend, who, in return, reached out and grabbed a hold of her hand. Usagi looked around to her friends. "Sorry about this, guys."
"That's alright. It was quite an…exhilarating day. We all had fun, right girls?" Ami looked to her friends for agreement.
Usagi smiled. She appreciated the fact that Ami was trying to ease the tension. "I guess it was kind of fun. And Hotaru learned a lot too. But we really should be leaving now. The Professor will be home soon."
Goku stood up just before his daughter and her friends departed. "Don't be home too late, Usagi. Your mother will have a cow if you do." He turned his attention onto the youngest of the group, who seemed to be starring back at him with great interest. "Can I help you?"
"Can I ask you something?"
"Sure."
"Why are you all bulgy and Usagi, Minako, Ami, Rei, and Makoto aren't?"
Goku chuckled at the girl's inquisitiveness. "That's because I have muscles."
"What do they have?"
"Well, they have muscles too, but you see, in girls, muscle doesn't show as much. So that's why girls can be really strong, like these guys here, but they don't look like it. But they have it."
"Oh."
"Usagi, you better get her home now if you want to teach her to fly. I'm counting on you to be home on time. I'm HUNGRY and mom wont let me eat until you're home."
"K!" With that, the six girls teleported back to the city near Hotaru's home.
~*~*~
~~The City~~
"Are you ready to fly, Hotaru?" Rei could see the excitement building up in little Hotaru's eyes. She couldn't help but giggle for the child looked as if she were going to explode from being so happy.
"Do I really need to answer that again?"
"Well then go ahead and knock yourself out doing it." Usagi let herself float three feet into the air. "Try to fly higher than this. I'll fly below you just in case you fall or something."
"Ok." Hotaru barely had to concentrate to get her float up above Usagi. She was beginning to become more familiar with hovering and it was at the point where it felt somewhat natural for her to lift up into the air.
Once she was above Usagi, she looked down in wonder. "What do I do now?"
"Well, flying is just as simple as hovering. You know how you concentrate your energy as lifting you up?" Hotaru nodded. "Instead of concentrating it as lifting you up, concentrate it as moving your body forward."
"I think I get it. It IS almost just like hovering." Nothing happened for a few seconds. When she did start moving, however, she shot forward faster than everyone had expected with a dark purple aura to accompany her. "WOW!" She spread her arms out to her side and flew almost as fast as Usagi had when she first learned. "THIS IS GREAT!"
Usagi hadn't expected to have to power up AT ALL, but she had had to just to keep up with Hotaru's speed. She couldn't just fly at a normal pace. Hotaru was flying like it was nothing. 'This girl is amazing. Of course, she was pretty good at hovering before we started her out on flying. Gohan and daddy started us out with flying almost immediately after we learned to hover.' "Lookin good, Hotaru."
Hotaru laughed as she looked down to Usagi right after adjusting herself to fly upside down. "I feel like I'm a bird!" She slowed her speed down when her senses picked up one of her friend's power levels behind her. "Minako is right behind me isn't she?"
"That would be correct." Minako opened her arms and caught Hotaru. "Isn't flying great?"
"YES! I can't wait until I can fly as fast as you guys!"
"That may take a little while." The duo's attention was caught by the sound of a car door slamming shut below. "Look Hotaru, it's your dad."
Hotaru smiled as she watched her father start talking to the other girls, who were on the ground. "Hey Minako, you're right. Come on." She pulled away from Minako's grasp and grabbed her by the hand. "I want you to meet him."
"Alright."
"PAPA!" Hotaru yelled as she, Minako, and Usagi came falling from the air.
Professor Tomoe took his attention from the three girls in front of him and looked around, but couldn't see his daughter anywhere. He began to worry, until he heard giggling right above him. 'Huh?' He looked up with great curiosity and dropped his mouth. He couldn't believe what he saw, his daughter floating in the air all by herself with no one holding her up. "Hotaru?"
"Yep! It's me, papa." She gently let herself float down into his arms. "I had a GREAT day! Usagi taught me to fly, and shoot Ki blasts, and I even learned how to read Ki signatures so I know when someone is coming close to me. And I even made MORE friends."
Professor Tomoe smiled as he was again overwhelmed with hearing about his daughter's activities. "I thought there were more people here than there was yesterday. Why don't you introduce me to all of your new friends?"
"Ok. The one in green is Makoto. And the one in orange is Minako, the one in red is Rei and the one in blue is Ami. They're all REALLY nice. They're even going to try to let me join in on their mind link."
The Professor's eyebrow quirked with half fascination have with doubt. "Mind link?"
Before Hotaru had a chance to try and explain, Usagi interrupted. "Don't worry sir, me and my friends have had it for two years now. Though we're not sure it will work, for some reason, we think it may work with her so we're going to give it a try. We want her to think about it tonight to make sure that it's something that she REALLY wants to do."
Hotaru pleadingly looked up to her father and began to beg for his approval. "Please Papa, Please?! I really want to do it! PLEASE!"
The Professor sighed as once again, he has been defeated. He didn't mind though. "Ok my little firefly. But like Usagi has stated, think about this tonight. If you still want it by the time they come to pick you up, you have my permission."
"YYYYAAAAYYYYYYY."
Usagi and her friends grouped together to say their goodbyes. Professor Tomoe set his daughter down and took his opportunity to talk business with Usagi as he tapped her on her shoulder. "Umm…Usagi, I forgot to pay you on Saturday. Why don't I pay you now for today and Saturday."
Usagi had totally forgotten about the paying part of her agreement to watch and train Hotaru. She thought about what she might want to do with her pay. The first thing she thought of was challenging Minako to a game at the arcade. She would call her mother and beg her for a later curfew, just for that night. But then she looked down to Hotaru and how happy she was. 'Hmm…What to do, what to do. I still have allowance from mom.'
Usagi raised her hand and placed it on the hand that Tomoe was pulling money out for her from his wallet. "That's ok Professor. Why don't we make Fridays payday? That way, we can take Hotaru somewhere on Saturday with it and take a day off from Training."
Tomoe warmly smiled as proceeded to pull out his money to pay Usagi with. "You don't have to spend your money on her. You earned it, you should spend it on yourself."
Usagi only replied with more protest. "Professor, I always wanted to have a little a little sister and Hotaru has pretty much fitted into that slot. I WANT to spend some of it on her. Besides, I'm going to have fun with her."
Tomoe reluctantly put his money back into his wallet as he continued to smile down at Usagi. "If that's what you want, I wont stop you. Just make sure you don't spoil her with it."
"Thank you, sir." She looked down to Hotaru and waved to her. "See you tomorrow. Come on girls, we have to be leaving. Rei, don't forget to ask you grandpa about coming to our school." She leaped into the air.
"You think I would be so crazy as to NOT ask him?!"
Professor Tomoe rested his hand on his daughter's shoulder as the two of them watched the five girls fly away as they wandered off into their own conversation. "I think we have found some true friends for you, my little firefly."
Hotaru looked up to her father with tears of happiness. "I think you're right."
Her father's face grew serious as he continued to look into her eyes. "But you must never tell the truth about yourself."
Hotaru's eyes saddened as she looked onto the ground for she knew that if she had told the truth of her herself that she would loose her newly acquired friends, something she definitely didn't want to happen. She allowed herself to be gathered into her father's arms for a comforting hug.
~*~*~
~~The Son Household~~
Goku sat at the table with his eating utensils at hand, waiting desperately for his daughter to return home anytime so he could dig into the dinner in which his wife had prepared. "She needs to hurry up."
Chi-Chi angrily scowled at her husband from across the table. "You don't deserve any food."
"What? Oh come on, you can't tell me that you're still mad about earlier. I wasn't seriously hurt."
"You let those poor kids believe that you were dying, you even had me fooled. That was a sick, SICK joke to play on your family."
"Don't freak out, Chi-Chi, I apologized to them."
"And to do something like THAT in front of company. Honestly Goku, what was going through your head?"
"Hey, hey, I had my reasons for doing that." 'Hotaru is way too strong to be a human. She can't be human. But she has to be. What else could she be? I know she's not an alien. I can feel her human energy running through her body.'
"You just make sure you don't ever do that again or you may find yourself in trouble with more people than just me."
~*~*~
~~Rei's Temple~~
When Rei arrived home, she ran directly to her grandfather's room, where she knew he would be. She couldn't wait to find out if she was going to be able to go to school with her friends or not. She had been asking him for two years now, ever since she came back from the past. "Grandpa!" She threw her school bag into her room while she ran past it. "Grandpa!"
"In here, Rei."
Rei poked her head into her grandfather's room as he sat at his desk and read a book of sorts. "Grandpa, have you made your decision yet?"
"What decision would that be, Rei?"
Rei groaned. He always had to play games when she wanted something from him. "You know what I'm talking about?"
"Really? I don't recall anything that I was supposed to decide."
"GRANDPA!"
Mr. Hino grinned as he turned around to look into the anticipating eyes of his granddaughter. "Ah yes. You wanted to know if you could go to school with your friends."
"Yes. Did you decide yet?"
Mr. Hino turned to his side and pulled a packet of papers out of his desk. "Do you know what these papers are, Rei?" Rei shook her head. She wished that he would just get on with it. "These are your report cards. They show that your grades are almost as high as you can get."
"That's all very nice, grandpa, but can you please tell me your decision?"
"Don't you want to know why I have all your past report cards out?"
"Because you wanted to see if I deserved to go to school with my friends and now that you see that I do, you're going to do it, right?"
"That would be incorrect. I hold here, in my hands, your transfer papers, which just happen to hold all of your past grades on them."
"What? Are you serious? YOU'VE ALREADY TRANSFERRED ME?!" Rei couldn't believe it. She had expected that he would make his decision and she would start at her new school the next year.
"Yes, I've been working on it ever since the beginning of the year. You start tomorrow."
"Tomorrow?"
"Yes."
Rei couldn't help but throw herself into her grandfather's arms. "THANK YOU SO MUCH!"
(Ok, there you have. Yet again, another part. So what do you think? Is it good or bad? Gotta go, ja )