~~The Next Morning~~
Usagi was exceptionally fast the next morning in getting herself ready for school. She had wakened up earlier than normal and everything. In the past couple of months, she had fallen into the habit of waking up with just enough time to take her morning bath, get herself ready for school, and eat breakfast. She would barely have enough time to make the flight from home to school, which only lead to angering her parents. But on this particular morning she had, for some unknown reason, wakened up at 6:30, a more suitable time to get up.
Though, she hadn't just gotten up early to please her parents. She had gotten up for a more, in her words, 'practical' reason. Once she was finished with her morning bath and getting dressed and putting her hair up, she snuck into the family room and picked up the phone. She looked around to make sure her parents weren't in the kitchen. She didn't smell breakfast so she was pretty sure that her mother wasn't in there, and if her mother wasn't in there, then her father definitely wouldn't be in their either. But, still, she wanted to make sure. 'Perfect.' She dialed the number to Bulma's private home phone when she saw that neither of her parents were around.
~*~*~
~~Capsule Corp.~~
Vejita woke to the screaming phone that lay next to his bed. He groggily turned onto his side and shook his wife awake. "Woman…answer the damned phone."
Bulma groaned as she slightly opened her eyes. "Answer it yourself. You're closer."
Vejita forced himself to sit up as he grew angry with his wife. "I'm not answering that stupid thing! It's never for me! Why should I waste my time with it?!" He placed his hand on his wife's head and pulled her up by her hair. "Answer the phone!"
Bulma violently yanked her head away from her husband's grasp as she glared at him. "Damn it, Vejita! You're just not happy unless everyone suffers as much as you do! Hand me that damned thing!" Vejita smiled evilly as he reached over and picked up the phone to hand to Bulma. Bulma grabbed the phone from him as she continued to glare at him. "You're just too lazy for your own good."
"Hello?!" She asked with anger in her voice, which only startled the child on the other line.
~*~*~
~~The Son House~~
"Bulma?" Usagi cautiously watched the hallway to make sure that neither of her parents were coming.
"Oh, hello Usagi. Sorry about the wait. Vejita is just being incredibly PIG-HEADED AGAIN!" Laughter coming from Vejita was heard in the background. "Yeah. Laugh now, but you'll get your payback sooner or later."
Usagi began to get nervous. She wasn't sure how much time she had before her parents showed up. "Bulma, I don't have much time."
"Sorry, kid. What can I do for you? Is something wrong?"
"No nothings wrong. I just wanted to ask you if you could make me something." She turned her back to the hallway so her voice wouldn't travel down it. She knew that she wouldn't be on long so she wouldn't have to worry about her parents coming. If they weren't already coming now, they wouldn't be there very soon.
"Make you something? Like what?"
"Well, you know that I'm training Hotaru, right?"
"Yes. Your father told me all about it."
"Hotaru is almost at the stage where she is going to have to start using weights. But I was doing some thinking. Weighted cloths are expensive and I don't have enough money to keep buying her new Gi's every time she wants to go to a higher weight level and I don't think mom will let dad buy them for her like he does me."
"I think I know what you're getting at. You want me to make her weighted training cloths, right?"
"No, not really. I was thinking, you know those wrist bracelets that you made to go along with the time machine? Is there a way that you could remake those only instead of making that time field, maybe change the field to a gravity one? But maybe not make it as ugly as a wrist band."
"I think I get it. I'll try to see what I can do, Usagi. Why don't you drop by with Hotaru after school today and see if it's done."
"Thanks Bulma." Usagi perked her head up when she heard an almost silent creek in the floor behind her. "I have to go."
"Bye, Usagi. I'll see you later today."
Usagi quietly and gently placed the phone back on its base and turned around. She froze in her spot as she saw the face of her father starring back at her. "Uh-oh…" She cocked her head to the side to see if her mother was behind him or not. To her relief, she was not.
Goku grinned. "What were you talking to Bulma about?" He casually walked over to the chair that sat by the opening of the hallway, giving off no indication as to whether he was angry or not. "Seemed kind of important to me. You were looked like you were trying to be inconspicuous about it."
"I…uh…how did you know that I was on?" 'I was too into asking her if she could make it. I shouldn't have turned my back like that and shut down my senses.'
"Usagi, tell me you didn't forget that I can hear just as well as you can. I heard your little feet sneaking around out here. I heard your voice. Sound carries easily when the house is quiet. I thought there was something strange about you getting up this early. You're just lucky that I was the one to come out here and not mom."
"You mean you're not going to get mad because I used the phone without permission?"
Goku forced himself not to burst out in laughter. "Get mad? Of course not. It's your mothers rule that you have to ask to use the phone and can't answer it when it's ringing. I could care less. I know nothing's going to happen to you. But your mom just doesn't want to accept that. Don't worry, I'm not telling her."
Usagi let out a long sigh of relief. She was glad that she had him on her side. He always had ways of looking out for her. "Thanks. Didn't you already hear what I was asking Bulma though?"
"I said I heard your voice. I didn't eavesdrop."
"I just want her to make a device for Hotaru that is can control the gravity around her instead of having to keep buying her weighted cloths over and over again."
"Good idea. Maybe we should have Bulma make you girls one too. It could actually help your training."
"How so, daddy?"
"Well, if we add that little device to you guys while you already have your weighted Gi's on, then it will be even more weighted. You can only put so many weights into one Gi before it becomes impossible to add anymore. You may want to think about still getting Hotaru a weighted Gi."
"But I don't have enough money for that."
"Don't worry about that. Don't tell your mom, but I'll give you some money for it."
Usagi's face brightened up as she stood to her feet just as he mother was walking into the room. "Thanks, daddy!"
~*~*~
~~School~~
As a result of Usagi getting up earlier, she also arrived at school before it started. She smiled as widely as she could once she felt the energy signature of Rei. "This is going to be SO cool!" She landed in the middle of the playground in front of her classroom, where a group of younger kids stared at her, almost in fear. 'Whoops, maybe I should have landed in the parking lot like I usually do. Most of these kids don't know that there are people that can fly.'
She decided to ignore the younger kids and walked into the outside entrance of he classroom to see her friends, all of them, sitting at their table in the back of the room. The teacher was at his desk. "Rei! You made it! You're finally here in school with us!"
Rei looked up to Usagi with a huge smile planted on her face. "I know! This is going to be SO cool. Grandpa made sure that I was in you guys' class. He wouldn't have transferred me if I wasn't."
"We're going to have so much fun together. We're all going to be in the same class for the rest of our school careers. I just love that. Once you've been placed in a class, you stay in it until school is over."
Rei turned to Ami with even more excitement. "You mean you don't switch classes at the end of the year?"
Minako shook her head. "Nope. That would be a negative there, Rei. This isn't like private school. I've been in the same class as Makoto and Usagi ever since we were in kindergarten. We've all had the same classmates too."
"WOW! It is different than private school. But at least we know that we get to stay together forever. All we have to worry about now is those nasty entrance exams that all the older kids talk about."
Usagi slammed her head on the table. "Don't mention that. I hate exams."
Ami turned to Usagi, who now had a big red spot on her forehead. "Why? You're improving a lot in school."
"I HATE, I DESPISE, studying. I don't care if I'm improving. Just because you can be good at something, doesn't mean that you have to like it." She looked up to the clock to see how much time was left before school started. There were still about one minute before the morning bell would ring. "Oh, listen, meet me and Hotaru at Bulma's today after school. I'll call for you when we get there and then you can fly there. I have something that we need to pick up."
Her friends nodded. "Ok."
The five girls turned to the door as they heard their screaming classmates pilling into the room to take their seats since the bell was ringing. They then turned to face their teacher, who stood in the front of the room. "Students, please take your seats so we may begin. I have a few announcements that need to be made before we start our day of learning." He motioned for Rei to join him in the front of the room.
Usagi, Minako, Makoto, and Ami all took their seats as directed. They were lucky enough to sit at the same table as each other, something that they had worked hard for. They had had to proved to the teacher that they could handle sitting together without disrupting class, something that proved to be a challenge for Minako and Usagi. But somehow, they had proved themselves as being able to handle the responsibility.
"Class…" The teacher put his hand on Rei's shoulder as his students quieted down. "This is our newest student, Hino Rei. She transferred from a private school on the other side of the city. Please make her feel welcome. I know you will all treat her with the greatest respect." He looked down to Rei. "Please take your seat in the back of the room."
Usagi leaned over to Makoto, who sat to her right. "She even gets to sit by us?"
"Yep. Before you even got here, we asked if she could sit back here. He said that if she is as quiet as we are, she can sit back here. Isn't that cool?" They both turned their heads back to the front of the class to see that their teacher was going to add another message to the class while Rei was walking back to her table.
"I also have some more news for those that are interested. Seems as though our savior, Mr. Satan, is going to be holding a tournament for youngsters of all ages. There will be three champions. A beginner level, an intermediate level, and an advanced level. It just reached the press yesterday. It will be held One week from Saturday. I urge all of you who love to fight, to take part in this once in a lifetime event. The winners will be able to have a chance to fight Mr. Satan himself." He paused long enough to hear a chorus of 'oohs' and 'ahhs' fill the room. "Yes, I know, it's a very spectacular thing indeed. I hope to see you all out there. I'll be out there myself watching the fun."
Minako put her head down on her table and whispered a reply that only her friends could hear. "The only spectacular thing about it is that he doesn't know that Usagi is entering. I can't wait to see the look on his face when Usagi has to fight him." She smiled when she heard the muffled giggling of her friends.
~*~*~
~~Lunch~~
Lunch was the same as it had been for the past five years for the girls, even with Rei. Though, Rei just made lunch more interesting. Especially since it was her first day. A group of girls from a sixth grade class, who were playing basketball, noticed Rei walking out to the designated eating area of the playground with her friends. These were the kind of girls who were beginning to think of themselves as better than everyone else.
The oldest girl of the group walked in front of the younger group and stopped them from going any further. "Hey, I haven't seen you around." She said as she pointed to Rei.
"That's because I just transferred here." She pushed past the girl with long black hair and continued walking forward with her friends.
The black haired girl frowned. "Hey you! I wasn't through talking with you. I just want you to know that you probably shouldn't be hanging out with those kids. They do freakish things like fly and shoot things out of their hands. Before they could even do that they were just a bunch of loners. Why don't you come hang out with the cool kids? We'll forget that we even saw you hanging out with those trash."
Rei stopped in her spot while her friends kept walking, but soon stopped when they noticed that she was no longer walking with them. The black haired girl smiled. "That's more like it. Come on over here kid, we'll teach you to have some REAL fun."
Minako frowned as she realized who was actually talking to them. "Give it up, Emiko. You aren't any better than the rest of us. Just because you're in sixth grade you think you're all high and mighty now. But you're not, you aren't anything. Come on Rei, let's keep going."
Emiko smirked. "Whateva, trash. You can't talk to me like that and get away with it. Come on, bring it if you're so tough!"
Rei grinned as she got an idea and raised her power level to open up the link. 'No, I'll go along with them. I know what I'm going to do. Just watch me. They'll learn what happens when they talk about my friends like that.' "I'll go. I don't want to hang out with the likes of them, anyways. They were just making me angry." 'I don't mean any of that you guys.'
'We know. We'll be standing by to see what you do.' Usagi grabbed Rei's lunch bag from her and backed away from the area that Rei and Emiko and her friends were in.
"So, Emiko is it?" The girl nodded. "Well I'm Rei. Nice to meet you." She shook hands with Emiko and put on a fake smile. "Hey, do you fight?"
"Hey girls, she asked if I fight." She slightly tipped her head back to her friends who laughed at the question. "Of course I fight. I'm entering that tournament that Mr. Satan at the advanced level. I'm going to win. But I'll probably loose to Mr. Satan. No one is as strong as he is. But it will still be a treat to fight him. I'm going to get his autograph. Do you fight, Rei?"
Rei grinned. She couldn't decide how she wanted to handle the situation. "Yes."
Emiko's brow tweaked a bit with fascination. "Oh really? Are you entering the tournament?"
'Might as well just do it in the most fun way.' "No, it would be boring. I would win to easily. But Usagi over there is entering just so she can beat Satan once and for all."
"Thinking very highly of yourself there, Rei. Wanna try me and see if you're really as good as you think you are?"
"Of course. It would be my pleasure." She lowered herself into her fighting position, not even raising her power level the slightest bit. She knew that she wouldn't have to for the fact that she was fighting a human with a low power level. She posed no threat. "Now watch closely." She curled up all of her fingers except for her index and slapped Emiko in the face with it, causing the poor girl to fly into her friends. "Wow, I thought an advanced fighter would have been more challenging than that. I guess I'll just still have to keep fighting with the REAL strongest man in the world, Usagi's dad. Keep in mind the fact that I beat you with my index finger the next time you want to mess with me and my friends." She laughed as she turned back to her friends, who too were laughing. "Man guys, this is a great school to be in."
Emiko jumped back to her feet as quickly as possible. "Come back here you double crossing piece of shit! I'm going to kick your ass! What the hell did you do to me!?" She noted that blood that ran from her mouth down to her chin. "I'll get you back. Mark my words, I'll get you all back!" Rei and her friends just continued to laugh as the ignored Emiko and walked away.
~*~*~
~~After School~~
Hotaru changed as fast as she could after school ended. She couldn't wait until Usagi would arrive so they could get training again. She especially couldn't wait to start flying again, and to do the mind link. She hoped that she would be able to accomplish the task of the mind link. From what she heard, it was a hard thing to do, but she was determined to become a part of it.
She grinned as she turned her head to see the same group of kids walk by that had made fun of her yesterday. "Hey! You!"
The same boy who Usagi had scared just the day before looked to Hotaru with fear. But the fear soon disappeared when he noticed that Usagi was nowhere in sight. "Hey look! It's the loner!"
"Don't make fun of me anymore! I'm strong now! I can FLY!"
The kid snorted. "Yeah right!"
There came no reply from Hotaru. Her only response was a slight lift of her body into the air, which only frightened the boy. "I can go higher. Wanna see?" The boy shook his head, but she didn't care. She wanted to show him what she was capable of. She let herself float higher into the air until she reached about fifteen feet. "Look! I told you I could…" Her sentence was cut short by a sensing of Usagi's energy just above her. She looked up to the source of the energy and smiled. "Usagi!"
Usagi laughed at the boy's surprise. 'Looks like two bullies got showed today.' "Let's go Hotaru, I think Bulma has something for you."
Hotaru's smile became brighter at the mention of a gift. "FOR ME!?" She let herself shoot out towards Usagi, without even knowing that she controlled her power to bring her forward. She looked down to the kid, who stood with his jaw wide open. "I have to go now! You just stand there and think about how much of a meanie head you were." She looked back up to Usagi and smirked. "Let's go."
"Right. We should get going. We have a lot to do today." She looked down to the boy, who was STILL, in awe. "Yeah. Do as Hotaru said. Think about how you're going to treat people who are different from now on." She took Hotaru's hand and urged her forward. "Shall we go? We don't have time to waste. We have to get you ready to enter that tournament. Once we get this link thing done, we're going to try and teach you some fighting moves and a basic fighting stance."
"I can't wait!" She ripped her hand from Usagi's and burst forward with GREAT speed. "I don't want to go slow, Usagi. I want to have fun! Come on!"
Usagi smiled as she chased after Hotaru and left the bully down on the ground to collect his thoughts of what just happened. He still stared up into the, now, empty sky. He still couldn't believe what he had just seen.
The boy was not the only one in awe. Usagi, too, was in awe. Though for a completely different reason. She couldn't believe how fast Hotaru was. Yes, she, herself, had gotten very fast the first time she flew to school with her father, but she had a reason. She was Saiyan. Hotaru was not. Hotaru had no reason to be so fast. Not that she was complaining. She was quite happy with Hotaru's progress. "Let's see how fast you can go. Try to raise your speed by putting more energy into it."
"Ok, Usagi!" She obeyed with Usagi's wishes and dug around her body for as much energy as she could, causing her to have an amazing boost of energy. "WHOA!" She was going so fast that she could barely keep her eyes open.
Usagi was so surprised at Hotaru's speed that she nearly lost control of her own body, nearly letting herself fall to the ground. 'She's going almost as fast as Nimbus. What's up with her?' "Hotaru, we're almost there already!"
"Huh?" Hotaru looked forward and down to the ground. To her own surprise, Usagi was right. They were almost there. "But Capsule Corp. is about ten miles from my school."
"That just means you're going REALLY fast." She abruptly stopped her energy flow and let herself fall to the ground. "COME ON!" She shouted up to Hotaru.
Hotaru complied and discontinued her own energy supply and fell to the ground, only not as nicely as Usagi. Instead of landing on her feet, she began falling backwards with he back facing the ground. "WHAAAA!"
Seeing this, Usagi jumped into the air and pulled Hotaru up by her leg. "Pull your energy out, I'm going to teach you to fall."
"Huh? You have to be taught how to FALL?" She concentrated her energy back into her body and pulled her leg away from Usagi's grasp, brining herself to be face to face with her friend.
~*~*~
Little did either of the girls know that Goku, Vejita, and Chi-Chi, who had been training together, watched them from a window of the building. They had felt the duo approaching just moments ago. Vejita was especially curious as to know where the younger one had gotten her power. But not only that, for some reason, the way her energy felt seemed oddly familiar to him.
They were all curious as to see what Usagi had planned for Hotaru to do since she pulled her back into the sky.
~*~*~
"Yes, there is a correct way to fall without really letting yourself get hurt. I learned it the hard way. Vejita made me figure it out for myself, but I'm going to just tell you. What you do, is fall with your feet facing down. But don't tense them otherwise they'll break when you hit. If you keep them relaxed your body will just kind of collapse. But since you already know how to use energy, try to use your energy to guide your landing. The only time you should use an unguided landing is one, if you want to hide your Ki from someone, or two, if you don't have enough time to pull out your Ki and stop yourself from falling this way. Like when you're in the middle of a fight and you've been hit."
Hotaru stayed silent as she engraved all of Usagi's words to memory. "Ok. I'll make sure I do guided falls from now on."
"Now, do as I do." She stopped her energy flow and fell fast to the ground. "NOW SENSE WHAT I'M DOING!" Right before her feet touched the ground, she let her energy come out and stop her from hitting hard, allowing her to fall safely.
"I get it." With that Hotaru once again let her energy flow stop as well and she too fell to the ground. She mimicked what Usagi did and concentrated her energy to stop from hitting the ground hard. "I DID IT!"
Usagi smiled. She loved to see Hotaru happy about her progress. "There now, you've just learned something big in a small amount of time. Now let's go see if Bulma is finished with what I had her make you."
"Ok!" She followed Usagi's lead to the front door of the living part of Capsule Corp. "Are we allowed to be here? This is Bulma's house."
Usagi looked down to her curious friend. "Haven't you ever been here before? I always come here. I've known Bulma since as far back as I can remember."
"No, I've only been to the business part."
"Oh, well now you can come here all the time with me." She reached out and rang the doorbell. Immediately after, the door swung wide open to reveal the angry face of Vejita. "Hey Vejita, what's shakin?" She slightly raised her power level to open the link again. 'Ok. We're here. You can come now.'
Hotaru perked her head up. "Usagi, I just felt the others power up."
"Good job, Hotaru. I just told them to come, through the mind link."
Vejita growled in annoyance. "Shut up, brat. I don't want any of the congratulation crap here. You know I hate you and your cheery people! What do you want?!" He scowled down at Hotaru.
In return to Vejita's scowl, Hotaru cowered behind Usagi for protection. "Who is HE?"
Vejita emerged from the door and got into Hotaru's face. "I am Vejita! Learn to respect me, brat and get off of my property!"
Usagi pulled Hotaru to the other side and smiled at Vejita, something he hated. "Hotaru, this is Bulma's husband. He may appear to be mean, but he's really just a sweetie pie." She playfully winked at him as she led Hotaru into the house. "I'm going to marry him when I get older."
Vejita slammed the door shut and grabbed Usagi by the back of the neck and, violently turning her around when he got a good enough grip on her. "Listen here, GIRL! I'm not marrying YOU! I'm not…" He paused to shudder. "Sweet. Don't ever refer to me as…" He paused to shudder again. "Sweet again."
Usagi led Hotaru over to the sofa, where her parents were looking quite worn out as they sipped on cold drinks. "What are you guys doing here?"
"We were training with Vejita today. We just stopped about ten minutes ago to take a quick break."
Usagi looked over to her mother in disbelief. "Mom? You trained with…VEJITA?!"
"Yes. I'm getting pretty good at it too. Vejita is tough, but your father thinks that's what I need. He seems to have trouble with being tough on me. Don't sound so surprised. You're the one who had the most confidence in me."
"I know." She sat down on the floor with Hotaru and looked up at her parents. "I just know how rough Vejita can be. He still hurts me even."
"That's because you deserve it brat. You're the most annoying of Kakkorotto kids."
Hotaru glanced over her shoulder at Vejita. "I thought Goku was Usagi's daddy."
Vejita picked up a vase and threw it on the ground, letting it shatter. "DAMN YOU KAKKOROTTO! QUIT BRINGING YOUR BRAT AND HER FRIENDS HERE!" He turned around and stormed out of the room. "I'M TIRED OF ALL THEIR DAMNED QUESTIONS!" He yelled from down the hall.
"Hotaru, Kakkorotto is my Saiyan name. But I don't consider myself nor do I consider any of my kids to be Saiyan."
"I thought I heard voices out here." Bulma walked out of the opposite hallway, the one that led to the business part of the building. She was carrying something silver in her hands. She walked to Hotaru and kneeled down in front of her. "This is for you. Usagi wanted me to make it for you." She held out her hands to reveal a beautiful silver amulet that could be worn around the neck with Hotaru's name engraved on it.
Hotaru's eyes glimmered with amazement as she reached out and carefully took the gift from Bulma's hand. "Wow, thanks. It REALLY pretty."
Before Hotaru could ask any questions about it, Usagi began talking. "Not only is it pretty to look at, but it also works to raise the gravity around your body. When me and the girls first started training, we had to wear these ugly weights to help increase our strength."
Bulma took this time to interrupt the young Saiyan. "That is correct, Hotaru. This amulet can increase the gravity around your body from ten times the normal gravity to a hundred times. And as Goku requested when he got here…" She reached into a small back that was tied around her waist and pulled out yet another silver amulet. "Usagi, this one is for you. I've made one for all of you kids."
Usagi reached out and grabbed the amulet from Bulma. "Cool. Look Hotaru, now we both have one."
Hotaru traced the edges with her fingers to find a very small button on it. "Is this how you turn it on, Mrs. Bulma?"
"Yes but don…"
Before Bulma could finish, Hotaru pressed the button and immediately fell face first on the ground. "Owe…" She struggled to lift her arms just enough to be able to attempt to push herself up. But her attempt soon failed as she couldn't lift a single inch of her body off of the ground. "This is HARD."
Usagi giggled as she looked over at the fallen fighter. "Well get used to it because that's what you're going to have to learn to use weights. But not today, today we have things that we need to do."
Goku laughed at Hotaru as she still struggled with all her might to get up. "You're having about as much trouble as Usagi did when she first started out with weights. Maybe we should have you do the same exercise that I did when I had my first experience with ten times gravity."
Usagi frowned as she looked up to her father. "NO! This is MY job. Remember?! You said that I had to train her so let ME decide how to do it."
Goku jerked away. "Whoa, gees, it was just a suggestion."
"Don't talk to your father that way."
"She's fine, Chi-Chi. I don't mind. She's right." Goku and the rest of the fighters turned their heads to the door, where they felt the energy signatures of Rei, Makoto, Minako, and Ami. "Usagi, your friends are here."
Usagi grabbed Hotaru's amulet out of Hotaru's hand, relieving the child of her pain, and turned it off. "Let's not turn that on until tomorrow when we're ready to work with it." She handed it back to Hotaru, who put it in a pocket on her GI.
"Usagi…" Goku grinned. "When you get home tonight, we're going to try that little thing out."
Usagi turned to her father in protest. "What? Why can't I do it on my own?"
"For the same reason why you wont let Hotaru mess with it. You don't want her to hurt herself, I don't want you to hurt yourself. Working with gravity is trickier than working with weights. Remember that. Now go run along and teach Hotaru whatever it is that you want to teach her."
Usagi stood up and help Hotaru up as well. "Yes, daddy." She looked down to Hotaru, who seemed to want to take off. "Let's go see if the mind link works with you. Then we're going to teach you the basics of fighting."
Hotaru smiled as she skipped ahead of Usagi to the door, where Bulma was just letting in the others. "Hey guys! Guess what!? Bulma made us this really cool thing!" She held out her amulet to the others. "It can control gravity."
Bulma pulled out each of the other girls' amulet and handed them their new gift. "You can thank Usagi for this. It was her idea. I just took the challenge to make it for you girls. It should help you all with your training. But you shouldn't use it without someone else being there with you at first, just in case something goes wrong and the gravity gets turned up higher than you can handle. It's just not exactly safe. I haven't tried these things out, that's why." Each girl reached out and took their gift from Bulma and thanked her with a smile.
Minako kneeled down to Hotaru to look her in the eyes. "So, are you ready to see if this thing works or not?"
Hotaru nodded with much enthusiasm. "I can't wait. Can we leave now?!"
Usagi emerged from the building and leapt into the air. "Yeah, we should get going. Let's go to the lake where it's totally quiet and there wont be any disturbances. It's the perfect place to go, really. You better watch out for Hotaru when you're flying there, though. She's pretty fast for a beginner. I'm thinking that it will take us about ten minutes to fly there with her speed."
"Ten minutes? That's it? That's over twenty miles!" Makoto looked up to Hotaru, who was now in the air next to Usagi. 'Man that kid is going to pass us all up soon. It took us forever to get as fast as she did.' "Alright. Let's shove off then."
~*~*~
The six friends landed at the clearing by the lake. The five original girls turned down to look at Hotaru. Hotaru only smiled and opened her mouth for reply. She knew what they were wanting to know. "I wanna join. I thought about it last night and I really wanna do it."
Usagi smiled. She knew that Hotaru would want to do it. She had expressed her enthusiasm for wanting to do it the day before. "What about you guys? Did you all think about it last night? Minako?"
"Yeah, she's a great kid, I don't mind." Minako giggled at Hotaru's obvious added happiness from her reply.
"Rei?"
"Yes."
"Makoto?"
"Yes, It'd be cool."
"Ami?"
"Affirmative. I believe she will enhance our bond with her intellect since she does go to Infinity College."
Everyone, including Hotaru, groaned at Ami's reply. She just HAD to bring school into everything she did.
Usagi smiled as she placed her hand on Hotaru's shoulder. "Well everyone knows I love her like a sister already, so… YES. Hotaru, what's your decision after hearing all of ours?"
Hotaru jumped up and down. "YES, YES, YES!"
Everyone laughed. "Then it's official. We try the bond."
~*~*~
Everyone sat in a circle at the edge of the lake, with Hotaru in the very center. The girls all held hands to ensure that the bond would work. The bond was stronger when they held hands, too.
Rei remembered exactly how to perform the 'ritual' from the times that they had tried to bring in Chi-Chi and Goku, both failures. "Ok, Hotaru, I want you to concentrate your Ki so your aura surrounds you, like when you fly, and hover above the ground. Everyone else will form a chain around you and float and spin around you, letting our Ki to mix with yours. Then all of us need to open our minds and we'll try forming the bond."
Hotaru complied with Rei as she began to call upon her energy to create a dark purple aura around her body. Once it was clearly visible to the world around, the girls began to open their bond, creating their clear aura around their bodies. The clear aura represented the purity of their friendship. It held within it each and every unique aspect of the girls' energies, showing that they were one.
The circle of girls, along with their aura, picked up off the ground and began spinning around Hotaru, who was also hovering. She wasn't even concentrating to hover, a true sign was that the link was working. She watched as her dark purple aura began to mix, with ease, with the others' clear aura. She knew it was working because her own aura was becoming colorless. A dead give away that it was working was the fact that she could begin to hear some of the others' thoughts as they could hear hers. Though, she kept once hidden and very secret from this link. She had to hide it deep within her heart, somewhere that not even the link could penetrate.
Once Rei saw that there was no longer any of Hotaru's purple aura in sight, she concentrated on sending the message to the others. 'Girls, she's in.'
'YAY! I HEARD YOU REI!' Hotaru's eyes began to tear up with happiness from being accepted and loved by her FRIENDS.
Slowly, the aura around each and every one of the girls stop and they all went crashing down to the ground. Hotaru stood up and ran to her friends, which she knew were for real. "I love you all like you were my own sisters!" She dropped to the ground and pulled them all in for a hug.
(Hmmm…. I guess I wrote a little more than I normally do with this part. Oh well, what did you think? That bond thing was pretty cool huh? I thought it was. All the credit for that goes to my very good friend,
Comet Moon. Anyways, what did you think? Gotta run, Ja ne. )
Usagi was exceptionally fast the next morning in getting herself ready for school. She had wakened up earlier than normal and everything. In the past couple of months, she had fallen into the habit of waking up with just enough time to take her morning bath, get herself ready for school, and eat breakfast. She would barely have enough time to make the flight from home to school, which only lead to angering her parents. But on this particular morning she had, for some unknown reason, wakened up at 6:30, a more suitable time to get up.
Though, she hadn't just gotten up early to please her parents. She had gotten up for a more, in her words, 'practical' reason. Once she was finished with her morning bath and getting dressed and putting her hair up, she snuck into the family room and picked up the phone. She looked around to make sure her parents weren't in the kitchen. She didn't smell breakfast so she was pretty sure that her mother wasn't in there, and if her mother wasn't in there, then her father definitely wouldn't be in their either. But, still, she wanted to make sure. 'Perfect.' She dialed the number to Bulma's private home phone when she saw that neither of her parents were around.
~*~*~
~~Capsule Corp.~~
Vejita woke to the screaming phone that lay next to his bed. He groggily turned onto his side and shook his wife awake. "Woman…answer the damned phone."
Bulma groaned as she slightly opened her eyes. "Answer it yourself. You're closer."
Vejita forced himself to sit up as he grew angry with his wife. "I'm not answering that stupid thing! It's never for me! Why should I waste my time with it?!" He placed his hand on his wife's head and pulled her up by her hair. "Answer the phone!"
Bulma violently yanked her head away from her husband's grasp as she glared at him. "Damn it, Vejita! You're just not happy unless everyone suffers as much as you do! Hand me that damned thing!" Vejita smiled evilly as he reached over and picked up the phone to hand to Bulma. Bulma grabbed the phone from him as she continued to glare at him. "You're just too lazy for your own good."
"Hello?!" She asked with anger in her voice, which only startled the child on the other line.
~*~*~
~~The Son House~~
"Bulma?" Usagi cautiously watched the hallway to make sure that neither of her parents were coming.
"Oh, hello Usagi. Sorry about the wait. Vejita is just being incredibly PIG-HEADED AGAIN!" Laughter coming from Vejita was heard in the background. "Yeah. Laugh now, but you'll get your payback sooner or later."
Usagi began to get nervous. She wasn't sure how much time she had before her parents showed up. "Bulma, I don't have much time."
"Sorry, kid. What can I do for you? Is something wrong?"
"No nothings wrong. I just wanted to ask you if you could make me something." She turned her back to the hallway so her voice wouldn't travel down it. She knew that she wouldn't be on long so she wouldn't have to worry about her parents coming. If they weren't already coming now, they wouldn't be there very soon.
"Make you something? Like what?"
"Well, you know that I'm training Hotaru, right?"
"Yes. Your father told me all about it."
"Hotaru is almost at the stage where she is going to have to start using weights. But I was doing some thinking. Weighted cloths are expensive and I don't have enough money to keep buying her new Gi's every time she wants to go to a higher weight level and I don't think mom will let dad buy them for her like he does me."
"I think I know what you're getting at. You want me to make her weighted training cloths, right?"
"No, not really. I was thinking, you know those wrist bracelets that you made to go along with the time machine? Is there a way that you could remake those only instead of making that time field, maybe change the field to a gravity one? But maybe not make it as ugly as a wrist band."
"I think I get it. I'll try to see what I can do, Usagi. Why don't you drop by with Hotaru after school today and see if it's done."
"Thanks Bulma." Usagi perked her head up when she heard an almost silent creek in the floor behind her. "I have to go."
"Bye, Usagi. I'll see you later today."
Usagi quietly and gently placed the phone back on its base and turned around. She froze in her spot as she saw the face of her father starring back at her. "Uh-oh…" She cocked her head to the side to see if her mother was behind him or not. To her relief, she was not.
Goku grinned. "What were you talking to Bulma about?" He casually walked over to the chair that sat by the opening of the hallway, giving off no indication as to whether he was angry or not. "Seemed kind of important to me. You were looked like you were trying to be inconspicuous about it."
"I…uh…how did you know that I was on?" 'I was too into asking her if she could make it. I shouldn't have turned my back like that and shut down my senses.'
"Usagi, tell me you didn't forget that I can hear just as well as you can. I heard your little feet sneaking around out here. I heard your voice. Sound carries easily when the house is quiet. I thought there was something strange about you getting up this early. You're just lucky that I was the one to come out here and not mom."
"You mean you're not going to get mad because I used the phone without permission?"
Goku forced himself not to burst out in laughter. "Get mad? Of course not. It's your mothers rule that you have to ask to use the phone and can't answer it when it's ringing. I could care less. I know nothing's going to happen to you. But your mom just doesn't want to accept that. Don't worry, I'm not telling her."
Usagi let out a long sigh of relief. She was glad that she had him on her side. He always had ways of looking out for her. "Thanks. Didn't you already hear what I was asking Bulma though?"
"I said I heard your voice. I didn't eavesdrop."
"I just want her to make a device for Hotaru that is can control the gravity around her instead of having to keep buying her weighted cloths over and over again."
"Good idea. Maybe we should have Bulma make you girls one too. It could actually help your training."
"How so, daddy?"
"Well, if we add that little device to you guys while you already have your weighted Gi's on, then it will be even more weighted. You can only put so many weights into one Gi before it becomes impossible to add anymore. You may want to think about still getting Hotaru a weighted Gi."
"But I don't have enough money for that."
"Don't worry about that. Don't tell your mom, but I'll give you some money for it."
Usagi's face brightened up as she stood to her feet just as he mother was walking into the room. "Thanks, daddy!"
~*~*~
~~School~~
As a result of Usagi getting up earlier, she also arrived at school before it started. She smiled as widely as she could once she felt the energy signature of Rei. "This is going to be SO cool!" She landed in the middle of the playground in front of her classroom, where a group of younger kids stared at her, almost in fear. 'Whoops, maybe I should have landed in the parking lot like I usually do. Most of these kids don't know that there are people that can fly.'
She decided to ignore the younger kids and walked into the outside entrance of he classroom to see her friends, all of them, sitting at their table in the back of the room. The teacher was at his desk. "Rei! You made it! You're finally here in school with us!"
Rei looked up to Usagi with a huge smile planted on her face. "I know! This is going to be SO cool. Grandpa made sure that I was in you guys' class. He wouldn't have transferred me if I wasn't."
"We're going to have so much fun together. We're all going to be in the same class for the rest of our school careers. I just love that. Once you've been placed in a class, you stay in it until school is over."
Rei turned to Ami with even more excitement. "You mean you don't switch classes at the end of the year?"
Minako shook her head. "Nope. That would be a negative there, Rei. This isn't like private school. I've been in the same class as Makoto and Usagi ever since we were in kindergarten. We've all had the same classmates too."
"WOW! It is different than private school. But at least we know that we get to stay together forever. All we have to worry about now is those nasty entrance exams that all the older kids talk about."
Usagi slammed her head on the table. "Don't mention that. I hate exams."
Ami turned to Usagi, who now had a big red spot on her forehead. "Why? You're improving a lot in school."
"I HATE, I DESPISE, studying. I don't care if I'm improving. Just because you can be good at something, doesn't mean that you have to like it." She looked up to the clock to see how much time was left before school started. There were still about one minute before the morning bell would ring. "Oh, listen, meet me and Hotaru at Bulma's today after school. I'll call for you when we get there and then you can fly there. I have something that we need to pick up."
Her friends nodded. "Ok."
The five girls turned to the door as they heard their screaming classmates pilling into the room to take their seats since the bell was ringing. They then turned to face their teacher, who stood in the front of the room. "Students, please take your seats so we may begin. I have a few announcements that need to be made before we start our day of learning." He motioned for Rei to join him in the front of the room.
Usagi, Minako, Makoto, and Ami all took their seats as directed. They were lucky enough to sit at the same table as each other, something that they had worked hard for. They had had to proved to the teacher that they could handle sitting together without disrupting class, something that proved to be a challenge for Minako and Usagi. But somehow, they had proved themselves as being able to handle the responsibility.
"Class…" The teacher put his hand on Rei's shoulder as his students quieted down. "This is our newest student, Hino Rei. She transferred from a private school on the other side of the city. Please make her feel welcome. I know you will all treat her with the greatest respect." He looked down to Rei. "Please take your seat in the back of the room."
Usagi leaned over to Makoto, who sat to her right. "She even gets to sit by us?"
"Yep. Before you even got here, we asked if she could sit back here. He said that if she is as quiet as we are, she can sit back here. Isn't that cool?" They both turned their heads back to the front of the class to see that their teacher was going to add another message to the class while Rei was walking back to her table.
"I also have some more news for those that are interested. Seems as though our savior, Mr. Satan, is going to be holding a tournament for youngsters of all ages. There will be three champions. A beginner level, an intermediate level, and an advanced level. It just reached the press yesterday. It will be held One week from Saturday. I urge all of you who love to fight, to take part in this once in a lifetime event. The winners will be able to have a chance to fight Mr. Satan himself." He paused long enough to hear a chorus of 'oohs' and 'ahhs' fill the room. "Yes, I know, it's a very spectacular thing indeed. I hope to see you all out there. I'll be out there myself watching the fun."
Minako put her head down on her table and whispered a reply that only her friends could hear. "The only spectacular thing about it is that he doesn't know that Usagi is entering. I can't wait to see the look on his face when Usagi has to fight him." She smiled when she heard the muffled giggling of her friends.
~*~*~
~~Lunch~~
Lunch was the same as it had been for the past five years for the girls, even with Rei. Though, Rei just made lunch more interesting. Especially since it was her first day. A group of girls from a sixth grade class, who were playing basketball, noticed Rei walking out to the designated eating area of the playground with her friends. These were the kind of girls who were beginning to think of themselves as better than everyone else.
The oldest girl of the group walked in front of the younger group and stopped them from going any further. "Hey, I haven't seen you around." She said as she pointed to Rei.
"That's because I just transferred here." She pushed past the girl with long black hair and continued walking forward with her friends.
The black haired girl frowned. "Hey you! I wasn't through talking with you. I just want you to know that you probably shouldn't be hanging out with those kids. They do freakish things like fly and shoot things out of their hands. Before they could even do that they were just a bunch of loners. Why don't you come hang out with the cool kids? We'll forget that we even saw you hanging out with those trash."
Rei stopped in her spot while her friends kept walking, but soon stopped when they noticed that she was no longer walking with them. The black haired girl smiled. "That's more like it. Come on over here kid, we'll teach you to have some REAL fun."
Minako frowned as she realized who was actually talking to them. "Give it up, Emiko. You aren't any better than the rest of us. Just because you're in sixth grade you think you're all high and mighty now. But you're not, you aren't anything. Come on Rei, let's keep going."
Emiko smirked. "Whateva, trash. You can't talk to me like that and get away with it. Come on, bring it if you're so tough!"
Rei grinned as she got an idea and raised her power level to open up the link. 'No, I'll go along with them. I know what I'm going to do. Just watch me. They'll learn what happens when they talk about my friends like that.' "I'll go. I don't want to hang out with the likes of them, anyways. They were just making me angry." 'I don't mean any of that you guys.'
'We know. We'll be standing by to see what you do.' Usagi grabbed Rei's lunch bag from her and backed away from the area that Rei and Emiko and her friends were in.
"So, Emiko is it?" The girl nodded. "Well I'm Rei. Nice to meet you." She shook hands with Emiko and put on a fake smile. "Hey, do you fight?"
"Hey girls, she asked if I fight." She slightly tipped her head back to her friends who laughed at the question. "Of course I fight. I'm entering that tournament that Mr. Satan at the advanced level. I'm going to win. But I'll probably loose to Mr. Satan. No one is as strong as he is. But it will still be a treat to fight him. I'm going to get his autograph. Do you fight, Rei?"
Rei grinned. She couldn't decide how she wanted to handle the situation. "Yes."
Emiko's brow tweaked a bit with fascination. "Oh really? Are you entering the tournament?"
'Might as well just do it in the most fun way.' "No, it would be boring. I would win to easily. But Usagi over there is entering just so she can beat Satan once and for all."
"Thinking very highly of yourself there, Rei. Wanna try me and see if you're really as good as you think you are?"
"Of course. It would be my pleasure." She lowered herself into her fighting position, not even raising her power level the slightest bit. She knew that she wouldn't have to for the fact that she was fighting a human with a low power level. She posed no threat. "Now watch closely." She curled up all of her fingers except for her index and slapped Emiko in the face with it, causing the poor girl to fly into her friends. "Wow, I thought an advanced fighter would have been more challenging than that. I guess I'll just still have to keep fighting with the REAL strongest man in the world, Usagi's dad. Keep in mind the fact that I beat you with my index finger the next time you want to mess with me and my friends." She laughed as she turned back to her friends, who too were laughing. "Man guys, this is a great school to be in."
Emiko jumped back to her feet as quickly as possible. "Come back here you double crossing piece of shit! I'm going to kick your ass! What the hell did you do to me!?" She noted that blood that ran from her mouth down to her chin. "I'll get you back. Mark my words, I'll get you all back!" Rei and her friends just continued to laugh as the ignored Emiko and walked away.
~*~*~
~~After School~~
Hotaru changed as fast as she could after school ended. She couldn't wait until Usagi would arrive so they could get training again. She especially couldn't wait to start flying again, and to do the mind link. She hoped that she would be able to accomplish the task of the mind link. From what she heard, it was a hard thing to do, but she was determined to become a part of it.
She grinned as she turned her head to see the same group of kids walk by that had made fun of her yesterday. "Hey! You!"
The same boy who Usagi had scared just the day before looked to Hotaru with fear. But the fear soon disappeared when he noticed that Usagi was nowhere in sight. "Hey look! It's the loner!"
"Don't make fun of me anymore! I'm strong now! I can FLY!"
The kid snorted. "Yeah right!"
There came no reply from Hotaru. Her only response was a slight lift of her body into the air, which only frightened the boy. "I can go higher. Wanna see?" The boy shook his head, but she didn't care. She wanted to show him what she was capable of. She let herself float higher into the air until she reached about fifteen feet. "Look! I told you I could…" Her sentence was cut short by a sensing of Usagi's energy just above her. She looked up to the source of the energy and smiled. "Usagi!"
Usagi laughed at the boy's surprise. 'Looks like two bullies got showed today.' "Let's go Hotaru, I think Bulma has something for you."
Hotaru's smile became brighter at the mention of a gift. "FOR ME!?" She let herself shoot out towards Usagi, without even knowing that she controlled her power to bring her forward. She looked down to the kid, who stood with his jaw wide open. "I have to go now! You just stand there and think about how much of a meanie head you were." She looked back up to Usagi and smirked. "Let's go."
"Right. We should get going. We have a lot to do today." She looked down to the boy, who was STILL, in awe. "Yeah. Do as Hotaru said. Think about how you're going to treat people who are different from now on." She took Hotaru's hand and urged her forward. "Shall we go? We don't have time to waste. We have to get you ready to enter that tournament. Once we get this link thing done, we're going to try and teach you some fighting moves and a basic fighting stance."
"I can't wait!" She ripped her hand from Usagi's and burst forward with GREAT speed. "I don't want to go slow, Usagi. I want to have fun! Come on!"
Usagi smiled as she chased after Hotaru and left the bully down on the ground to collect his thoughts of what just happened. He still stared up into the, now, empty sky. He still couldn't believe what he had just seen.
The boy was not the only one in awe. Usagi, too, was in awe. Though for a completely different reason. She couldn't believe how fast Hotaru was. Yes, she, herself, had gotten very fast the first time she flew to school with her father, but she had a reason. She was Saiyan. Hotaru was not. Hotaru had no reason to be so fast. Not that she was complaining. She was quite happy with Hotaru's progress. "Let's see how fast you can go. Try to raise your speed by putting more energy into it."
"Ok, Usagi!" She obeyed with Usagi's wishes and dug around her body for as much energy as she could, causing her to have an amazing boost of energy. "WHOA!" She was going so fast that she could barely keep her eyes open.
Usagi was so surprised at Hotaru's speed that she nearly lost control of her own body, nearly letting herself fall to the ground. 'She's going almost as fast as Nimbus. What's up with her?' "Hotaru, we're almost there already!"
"Huh?" Hotaru looked forward and down to the ground. To her own surprise, Usagi was right. They were almost there. "But Capsule Corp. is about ten miles from my school."
"That just means you're going REALLY fast." She abruptly stopped her energy flow and let herself fall to the ground. "COME ON!" She shouted up to Hotaru.
Hotaru complied and discontinued her own energy supply and fell to the ground, only not as nicely as Usagi. Instead of landing on her feet, she began falling backwards with he back facing the ground. "WHAAAA!"
Seeing this, Usagi jumped into the air and pulled Hotaru up by her leg. "Pull your energy out, I'm going to teach you to fall."
"Huh? You have to be taught how to FALL?" She concentrated her energy back into her body and pulled her leg away from Usagi's grasp, brining herself to be face to face with her friend.
~*~*~
Little did either of the girls know that Goku, Vejita, and Chi-Chi, who had been training together, watched them from a window of the building. They had felt the duo approaching just moments ago. Vejita was especially curious as to know where the younger one had gotten her power. But not only that, for some reason, the way her energy felt seemed oddly familiar to him.
They were all curious as to see what Usagi had planned for Hotaru to do since she pulled her back into the sky.
~*~*~
"Yes, there is a correct way to fall without really letting yourself get hurt. I learned it the hard way. Vejita made me figure it out for myself, but I'm going to just tell you. What you do, is fall with your feet facing down. But don't tense them otherwise they'll break when you hit. If you keep them relaxed your body will just kind of collapse. But since you already know how to use energy, try to use your energy to guide your landing. The only time you should use an unguided landing is one, if you want to hide your Ki from someone, or two, if you don't have enough time to pull out your Ki and stop yourself from falling this way. Like when you're in the middle of a fight and you've been hit."
Hotaru stayed silent as she engraved all of Usagi's words to memory. "Ok. I'll make sure I do guided falls from now on."
"Now, do as I do." She stopped her energy flow and fell fast to the ground. "NOW SENSE WHAT I'M DOING!" Right before her feet touched the ground, she let her energy come out and stop her from hitting hard, allowing her to fall safely.
"I get it." With that Hotaru once again let her energy flow stop as well and she too fell to the ground. She mimicked what Usagi did and concentrated her energy to stop from hitting the ground hard. "I DID IT!"
Usagi smiled. She loved to see Hotaru happy about her progress. "There now, you've just learned something big in a small amount of time. Now let's go see if Bulma is finished with what I had her make you."
"Ok!" She followed Usagi's lead to the front door of the living part of Capsule Corp. "Are we allowed to be here? This is Bulma's house."
Usagi looked down to her curious friend. "Haven't you ever been here before? I always come here. I've known Bulma since as far back as I can remember."
"No, I've only been to the business part."
"Oh, well now you can come here all the time with me." She reached out and rang the doorbell. Immediately after, the door swung wide open to reveal the angry face of Vejita. "Hey Vejita, what's shakin?" She slightly raised her power level to open the link again. 'Ok. We're here. You can come now.'
Hotaru perked her head up. "Usagi, I just felt the others power up."
"Good job, Hotaru. I just told them to come, through the mind link."
Vejita growled in annoyance. "Shut up, brat. I don't want any of the congratulation crap here. You know I hate you and your cheery people! What do you want?!" He scowled down at Hotaru.
In return to Vejita's scowl, Hotaru cowered behind Usagi for protection. "Who is HE?"
Vejita emerged from the door and got into Hotaru's face. "I am Vejita! Learn to respect me, brat and get off of my property!"
Usagi pulled Hotaru to the other side and smiled at Vejita, something he hated. "Hotaru, this is Bulma's husband. He may appear to be mean, but he's really just a sweetie pie." She playfully winked at him as she led Hotaru into the house. "I'm going to marry him when I get older."
Vejita slammed the door shut and grabbed Usagi by the back of the neck and, violently turning her around when he got a good enough grip on her. "Listen here, GIRL! I'm not marrying YOU! I'm not…" He paused to shudder. "Sweet. Don't ever refer to me as…" He paused to shudder again. "Sweet again."
Usagi led Hotaru over to the sofa, where her parents were looking quite worn out as they sipped on cold drinks. "What are you guys doing here?"
"We were training with Vejita today. We just stopped about ten minutes ago to take a quick break."
Usagi looked over to her mother in disbelief. "Mom? You trained with…VEJITA?!"
"Yes. I'm getting pretty good at it too. Vejita is tough, but your father thinks that's what I need. He seems to have trouble with being tough on me. Don't sound so surprised. You're the one who had the most confidence in me."
"I know." She sat down on the floor with Hotaru and looked up at her parents. "I just know how rough Vejita can be. He still hurts me even."
"That's because you deserve it brat. You're the most annoying of Kakkorotto kids."
Hotaru glanced over her shoulder at Vejita. "I thought Goku was Usagi's daddy."
Vejita picked up a vase and threw it on the ground, letting it shatter. "DAMN YOU KAKKOROTTO! QUIT BRINGING YOUR BRAT AND HER FRIENDS HERE!" He turned around and stormed out of the room. "I'M TIRED OF ALL THEIR DAMNED QUESTIONS!" He yelled from down the hall.
"Hotaru, Kakkorotto is my Saiyan name. But I don't consider myself nor do I consider any of my kids to be Saiyan."
"I thought I heard voices out here." Bulma walked out of the opposite hallway, the one that led to the business part of the building. She was carrying something silver in her hands. She walked to Hotaru and kneeled down in front of her. "This is for you. Usagi wanted me to make it for you." She held out her hands to reveal a beautiful silver amulet that could be worn around the neck with Hotaru's name engraved on it.
Hotaru's eyes glimmered with amazement as she reached out and carefully took the gift from Bulma's hand. "Wow, thanks. It REALLY pretty."
Before Hotaru could ask any questions about it, Usagi began talking. "Not only is it pretty to look at, but it also works to raise the gravity around your body. When me and the girls first started training, we had to wear these ugly weights to help increase our strength."
Bulma took this time to interrupt the young Saiyan. "That is correct, Hotaru. This amulet can increase the gravity around your body from ten times the normal gravity to a hundred times. And as Goku requested when he got here…" She reached into a small back that was tied around her waist and pulled out yet another silver amulet. "Usagi, this one is for you. I've made one for all of you kids."
Usagi reached out and grabbed the amulet from Bulma. "Cool. Look Hotaru, now we both have one."
Hotaru traced the edges with her fingers to find a very small button on it. "Is this how you turn it on, Mrs. Bulma?"
"Yes but don…"
Before Bulma could finish, Hotaru pressed the button and immediately fell face first on the ground. "Owe…" She struggled to lift her arms just enough to be able to attempt to push herself up. But her attempt soon failed as she couldn't lift a single inch of her body off of the ground. "This is HARD."
Usagi giggled as she looked over at the fallen fighter. "Well get used to it because that's what you're going to have to learn to use weights. But not today, today we have things that we need to do."
Goku laughed at Hotaru as she still struggled with all her might to get up. "You're having about as much trouble as Usagi did when she first started out with weights. Maybe we should have you do the same exercise that I did when I had my first experience with ten times gravity."
Usagi frowned as she looked up to her father. "NO! This is MY job. Remember?! You said that I had to train her so let ME decide how to do it."
Goku jerked away. "Whoa, gees, it was just a suggestion."
"Don't talk to your father that way."
"She's fine, Chi-Chi. I don't mind. She's right." Goku and the rest of the fighters turned their heads to the door, where they felt the energy signatures of Rei, Makoto, Minako, and Ami. "Usagi, your friends are here."
Usagi grabbed Hotaru's amulet out of Hotaru's hand, relieving the child of her pain, and turned it off. "Let's not turn that on until tomorrow when we're ready to work with it." She handed it back to Hotaru, who put it in a pocket on her GI.
"Usagi…" Goku grinned. "When you get home tonight, we're going to try that little thing out."
Usagi turned to her father in protest. "What? Why can't I do it on my own?"
"For the same reason why you wont let Hotaru mess with it. You don't want her to hurt herself, I don't want you to hurt yourself. Working with gravity is trickier than working with weights. Remember that. Now go run along and teach Hotaru whatever it is that you want to teach her."
Usagi stood up and help Hotaru up as well. "Yes, daddy." She looked down to Hotaru, who seemed to want to take off. "Let's go see if the mind link works with you. Then we're going to teach you the basics of fighting."
Hotaru smiled as she skipped ahead of Usagi to the door, where Bulma was just letting in the others. "Hey guys! Guess what!? Bulma made us this really cool thing!" She held out her amulet to the others. "It can control gravity."
Bulma pulled out each of the other girls' amulet and handed them their new gift. "You can thank Usagi for this. It was her idea. I just took the challenge to make it for you girls. It should help you all with your training. But you shouldn't use it without someone else being there with you at first, just in case something goes wrong and the gravity gets turned up higher than you can handle. It's just not exactly safe. I haven't tried these things out, that's why." Each girl reached out and took their gift from Bulma and thanked her with a smile.
Minako kneeled down to Hotaru to look her in the eyes. "So, are you ready to see if this thing works or not?"
Hotaru nodded with much enthusiasm. "I can't wait. Can we leave now?!"
Usagi emerged from the building and leapt into the air. "Yeah, we should get going. Let's go to the lake where it's totally quiet and there wont be any disturbances. It's the perfect place to go, really. You better watch out for Hotaru when you're flying there, though. She's pretty fast for a beginner. I'm thinking that it will take us about ten minutes to fly there with her speed."
"Ten minutes? That's it? That's over twenty miles!" Makoto looked up to Hotaru, who was now in the air next to Usagi. 'Man that kid is going to pass us all up soon. It took us forever to get as fast as she did.' "Alright. Let's shove off then."
~*~*~
The six friends landed at the clearing by the lake. The five original girls turned down to look at Hotaru. Hotaru only smiled and opened her mouth for reply. She knew what they were wanting to know. "I wanna join. I thought about it last night and I really wanna do it."
Usagi smiled. She knew that Hotaru would want to do it. She had expressed her enthusiasm for wanting to do it the day before. "What about you guys? Did you all think about it last night? Minako?"
"Yeah, she's a great kid, I don't mind." Minako giggled at Hotaru's obvious added happiness from her reply.
"Rei?"
"Yes."
"Makoto?"
"Yes, It'd be cool."
"Ami?"
"Affirmative. I believe she will enhance our bond with her intellect since she does go to Infinity College."
Everyone, including Hotaru, groaned at Ami's reply. She just HAD to bring school into everything she did.
Usagi smiled as she placed her hand on Hotaru's shoulder. "Well everyone knows I love her like a sister already, so… YES. Hotaru, what's your decision after hearing all of ours?"
Hotaru jumped up and down. "YES, YES, YES!"
Everyone laughed. "Then it's official. We try the bond."
~*~*~
Everyone sat in a circle at the edge of the lake, with Hotaru in the very center. The girls all held hands to ensure that the bond would work. The bond was stronger when they held hands, too.
Rei remembered exactly how to perform the 'ritual' from the times that they had tried to bring in Chi-Chi and Goku, both failures. "Ok, Hotaru, I want you to concentrate your Ki so your aura surrounds you, like when you fly, and hover above the ground. Everyone else will form a chain around you and float and spin around you, letting our Ki to mix with yours. Then all of us need to open our minds and we'll try forming the bond."
Hotaru complied with Rei as she began to call upon her energy to create a dark purple aura around her body. Once it was clearly visible to the world around, the girls began to open their bond, creating their clear aura around their bodies. The clear aura represented the purity of their friendship. It held within it each and every unique aspect of the girls' energies, showing that they were one.
The circle of girls, along with their aura, picked up off the ground and began spinning around Hotaru, who was also hovering. She wasn't even concentrating to hover, a true sign was that the link was working. She watched as her dark purple aura began to mix, with ease, with the others' clear aura. She knew it was working because her own aura was becoming colorless. A dead give away that it was working was the fact that she could begin to hear some of the others' thoughts as they could hear hers. Though, she kept once hidden and very secret from this link. She had to hide it deep within her heart, somewhere that not even the link could penetrate.
Once Rei saw that there was no longer any of Hotaru's purple aura in sight, she concentrated on sending the message to the others. 'Girls, she's in.'
'YAY! I HEARD YOU REI!' Hotaru's eyes began to tear up with happiness from being accepted and loved by her FRIENDS.
Slowly, the aura around each and every one of the girls stop and they all went crashing down to the ground. Hotaru stood up and ran to her friends, which she knew were for real. "I love you all like you were my own sisters!" She dropped to the ground and pulled them all in for a hug.
(Hmmm…. I guess I wrote a little more than I normally do with this part. Oh well, what did you think? That bond thing was pretty cool huh? I thought it was. All the credit for that goes to my very good friend,
Comet Moon. Anyways, what did you think? Gotta run, Ja ne. )