Once Goku had taken Minako, Makoto, Ami, Rei to train them with gravity, Hotaru approached Usagi with a question that she thought was pretty important.
She slowly emerged from behind a tree to see Usagi washing out some of her wounds with the lake's water. "Usagi…" Hotaru made sure that she had her newly found spear in her hand as she ran to her friend.
Usagi looked away from the lake to the voice that was calling out to her. Hotaru had almost as many cuts and wounds on her body as she, herself, had. She let her eyes wonder to the spear in which Hotaru was carrying. "Hey Hotaru, Whatcha got there?"
Hotaru looked down to the rusted spear and then back up to Usagi with pleading eyes. "We found this in the woods when we were playing the game. It's a spear and I thought it would be kind of cool if I could learn how to fight with it." Hmm what are my true intentions?
Usagi smiled at the young fighter. "I think it's a great idea, Hotaru. That would be even cooler if we had to fight against someone with a weapon. Just like Trunks has is sword, even though I never spar with him. I think dad used to fight with a stick or something. Maybe he can teach you how to use it, cause I for sure don't know how to teach you how to use something like that."
"Cool! Do you think he would teach me how to use it…without hurting me?"
"I don't know. We'll have to ask. I'm sure he will though."
"Yay! That would be so cool if I could learn how to fight with a weapon. But don't worry, I'll still learn how to fight with my body. I still wanna learn that too. All we have to do is sand this rust off of it and…"
"Change it a little bit."
Hotaru curiously looked up to Usagi. "How?"
"Well, just the blade part of it. We should make it the knife part longer, and then add another, small blade on it that kind of curves down and in on itself at the bottom of where the long blade starts. And if we really want to make it cooler, we should make it double sided."
"I don't want to hurt anyone. What if one of my friends is standing behind me and I try to jab my opponent and then they BOTH get hurt? That would be bad." Hotaru smiled when she said the words, 'my friends'. She never thought in her life that she would have the pleasure of saying something like that.
"Maybe you're right. Maybe we should just leave it one sided. But anyways, it's a really good idea. You know what would be cooler?"
"What?"
"Is if somehow we could find a way to put Ki energy into that thing and make it even stronger. I don't mean like a shield, but to attack with. Like, if you put energy around it and hit someone with it, not only would they be hurt by the being hit with it, but they would also be hurt with the energy around it too."
"COOL!"
Usagi looked down to her watch and noticed that they only had about an hour and a half before she Hotaru was to be home. "We should get training with that gravity before it's too late."
Hotaru nodded as she set her new weapon down. "You're right." She dug into her pocket and pulled out her amulet, which had her name engraved on it. "Here it is."
"Great." Usagi reached out and grabbed the trinket from her friend, who smiled happily up at her. "I'll set it to the lowest possible gravity since it was hard for me to even get twenty. I'm still having a hard time moving fast with it, but I'm almost there." She turned a small dial on the side of the amulet to the word 'ten', which stood for ten times earth's normal gravity. "Here." Once it was set to the correct settings, she fell to the ground, unable to hold her own body with the added gravity. "Take it QUICK!" She couldn't move a single muscle for she was still too tired and weak from the night before and from the fight with Rei.
Having a better idea of what to expect with the gravity, she prepared herself for the force that would be placed on her body as soon as she were to take the amulet from her Sensei. She stiffened her whole body for impact as she reached out and grabbed the amulet.
As soon as it was within her grasp, she had trouble holding her body up. It took all of her strength to keep from bending her knees. Though, even that didn't hold up very long before she gave up and let herself fall to the ground. "Wow, this IS hard." Her lungs felt as if they were being pressed together, which only made it harder for her to breath.
Usagi stumbled back to her feet ever so slowly as she recovered from thirty times earth's gravity, back to only twenty. "Yeah…it gets harder." Usagi wasn't sure how she was going to go about training Hotaru with the gravity. There really wasn't a 'safe' way to do it without making her walk around with it for a while. "We're supposed to keep the gravity on unless we're sleeping to get ourselves used to it."
Hotaru pulled her arms against the gravity and let her hands crash into the ground to get a grip on it so she could try to push herself up. "How are you supposed to walk around?"
"I have an idea on what we can do without really making you train the way I had to last night. And I'm going to be nice about it. Until you get your body fully used to the new gravity, we will only have it on while we're training."
Hotaru smiled with appreciation. "Thanks, Usagi. So what are we going to do?" She once again fell face first into the grass beneath her.
"Simple exercises." To show the puzzled child what she meant, she walked behind her and grabbed her by the chest. "First we'll start with your legs since you need to walk above anything else." She picked her up and placed her in a sitting position, while she dragged her over to the accused rock and placed her against it. "Here, what you do is you lift your legs against the gravity as much as you can. When your begin to feel tired, and I mean REALLY tired, stop, rest for a few minutes, and then do it again. When you get better at that, then we can have you do it without leaning against something."
"Cool! That makes it a lot easier. It's just like if I were at a gym and started working on the weights there, huh, Usagi?"
"Yep. So why don't you go ahead and give it a try? I'll just sit here and watch while I try to regain some of my energy so I can fly with you home."
"K!" Hotaru did as she was told and began lifting her legs, one after the other as if she were walking. It was a hard strain on her, but she wasn't about to give up.
While Hotaru did that, Usagi walked to a tree that sat kitty-corner to the boulder that Hotaru sat against. Usagi just kind of let herself drop without effort as she yawned. "Don't let me fall asleep, Hotaru. I already did that in school today and got busted for it."
Hotaru giggled as she continued to exercise her legs with the gravity. "Ok, I wont." Usagi let her head fall to the side as she closed her eyes. "Don't fall asleep, Usagi."
"I'm not. I'm just resting my eyes."
"Usagi, that's what I tell daddy when I'm tired and I don't want to go to bed. I always end up falling asleep. So OPEN YOUR EYES!" Usagi didn't do anything. She didn't move, nor did she say anything. "Usagi? Usagi?" Still no answer. "Great…she fell asleep. Now what am I supposed to do? I can't move." She stopped moving her legs and struggled to pick up a small rock to throw at the sleeping Usagi. It didn't get too far since Hotaru could barely move. "USAGI WAKE UP!"
Usagi jumped to her feet from being startled awake. "WHA…?!" She looked around to see what the danger was and giggled when she saw that it was only Hotaru keeping her word. "Oh…heh, heh, I guess I fell asleep, huh? Sorry about that."
"That's ok. I just didn't want to be stranded here with you asleep."
"Well, you always could have called the girls out here. But, they're probably having their own problems with dad and the gravity."
Hotaru began moving her legs to get used to the gravity again as Usagi walked around her. "Yeah, I know. But waking you up was more fun."
"Gee, thanks." Usagi with sarcasm. "How are your legs feeling?"
"TIRED!" Hotaru smiled. "But I'm not stopping. Not until I can't move them anymore."
~*~*~
On the way home, Hotaru was actually the one to be watching Usagi just in case she lost concentration, instead of the other way around. The day's activities seemed to be wearing on her more than they had both expected.
Hotaru couldn't wait until she got home to tell her father all about her day. Well, there was one part of the day that she didn't really want to tell him about, but she would because it was probably the most important part. She hoped that he wouldn't be too terribly angry with her. It wasn't the first time that she had slipped up in school, but she couldn't help it. She would allow the kids to make fun of her, but not her mother. Her mother couldn't help it. She had been in danger ever since she was born. "Usagi! We're almost there I think!"
Usagi looked up to Hotaru, who was flying directly over her. "Yep! We are! I can feel your dad. He just got there."
"I know. Let's go faster!"
"Alright!" Both girls increased their speed to their max as they were fast approaching Hotaru's home, where Professor Tomoe was just coming out of his car.
"Daddy!"
Professor Tomoe already knew that it would be pointless to look for his daughter on the ground so he looked up into the air, and sure enough, she was flying to him. "Hi Hotaru!" He waved up to her as she waved back.
Hotaru and Usagi slowly let themselves drop to the ground, once they arrived the house. Hotaru, of course, ran to her father and gave him a giant hug with a hello. "Daddy! Look at what I found!" She held her rusted weapon up for her father to see.
Professor Tomoe was surprised to see that Usagi would let Hotaru bring home such a thing. "Don't hurt yourself with that, Hotaru."
"I'm fine, daddy. Usagi's going to ask her daddy if he can train me how to use it since he used to fight with a weapon."
"Only if it's ok with you, sir." Usagi could see his hesitation. "It may be all rusty now, but we can take it into a place and get it all fixed up nicely. We even have a plan to alter the blades a little bit."
"We'll see, Hotaru. I'll think about it."
"Yay! Thank you daddy! And guess what else? We played this really neat hunting game today and I learned how to fight with my hands and feet, and also, I got this really cool gravity enhancer from Bulma yesterday and we tried it out today to make the gravity around me ten times earth's normal gravity. Isn't that cool?"
"Oh…yes…very cool, honey. I'm glad you're having fun with Usagi." He looked up to Usagi with grateful eyes. "Thank you."
"You're welcome sir. But, I really have to be going. I'm going to go home, take a LONG bath, and then go to bed. I'm beat. I'll see you guys tomorrow." Usagi jumped into the air and turned around to wave goodbye to her friend and her father.
"Bye Bye Usagi! See you tomorrow!" Hotaru turned to her father. "Usagi has to train with twenty times gravity. Isn't she cool?!"
"Very. Now why don't we get inside and get you all cleaned up for dinner?"
"Good thinking, daddy? So are you really going to think about letting me use this weapon? Don't you think it would be cool? I think it would."
Professor Tomoe laughed as he guided his daughter into the house. 'So much like her mother.'
~*~*~
~~Two hours Later~~
Hotaru, the little sister that she had come to be thought of in only five short days by her friends, was happier than she had ever been. She had great friends who accepted her. She knew they accepted her because of the link. Though her happiness could never cover up her sorrow for her mother as she would never forget her mother, but she was finally letting go of the pain that came with the loss.
Hotaru sat on her bed in her room and thought about the day's activities. Well, more like the main thing that happened that day. She couldn't stop beating herself up over what had happened that day after school. She had totally let her anger override her sense of what was right, as her mother had told her she would. But her mother also told her that she could fight it, because she was special. She had the best of both worlds, and then some.
After a long hour of thinking of what took place after school, something her father still did not know about, she had come to a hard decision that she knew would alter her life forever.
Hotaru approached her father with what she needed to tell him, as well as a request. After a quiet dinner, which had become abnormal over the past five days because Hotaru had been going on and on over and over about her new friends, the father daughter duo made their way outside to relax and watch the sunset to wind down from their hard days. Hotaru stared up at the red and purple sky, trying to come up with a way to bring up the subject that was weighing on her mind. After minutes of thinking of a satisfactory way to bring it up, she heard her father clear his throat, unknown to her for the third time. She looked up and noticed a worried look on his face. "Is something wrong, papa?"
"Actually, little one, that's what I was going to ask you."
Hotaru was startled by her father's question, of sorts, and stammered her reply. "What do you mean?"
The Professor chuckled as he did not mean to scare her with his question. "Well, you've been distracted all evening. You hardly touched food except to play with it. Is something wrong? Did something happen at school again?"
Hotaru's eyes widened as she looked deeper into her father's worried eyes and then hung her head, sheepishly. "Well, as a matter of fact, papa, something did happen at school today."
Professor Tomoe sighed as he rubbed his daughter's face for comfort. "Tell me what happened. Was it the same kids again?"
Hotaru nodded as she thought back to the day, which only made her want to cry into him. "Yes, it was. They started picking on me and made fun of mom. I tried to tell them that she wasn't a fighter, but they just didn't understand."
"They wouldn't."
"I know, but I wanted so badly to think that they would. I lost control of myself again, just like mommy said I would. I was going to hurt a boy weaker than me. I even attacked my best friend."
Tomoe pulled his daughter in closer to him and wrapped his arms around her. "Did your friends ask any questions about you?"
"No. Luckily. I was scared, daddy. But I don't regret getting angry. I just regret loosing control and acting so…so…savage, like a monster." The tears started to flow out at that point.
"There, there, now my little firefly. Don't cry. The children just don't know."
"I don't care, daddy. They hurt me all the time. They pick on me. No one picks on Usagi and her friends at her school."
"What are you saying?"
Hotaru hesitated to go on, but knew it was for the best. "You see, I've been thinking…"
Trying to lighten the mood a bit, the professor grinned and interrupted. "Uh-oh, not that's dangerous."
Hotaru giggled as his plan worked on her, for now. "Papa."
"Sorry." Though the grin on his face made it to be a lie.
Hotaru took a deep breath to start again. "Well, you know how I had to take all those special tests to get into Infinity College?" Her father nodded, curious as to what she was getting at. "You know how if I were at a regular school I would be in the fourth grade range?" Her father nodded again, this time knowing a little more what she was going to try and ask him. "Well I don't want to go to Infinity College anymore. The people there are mean, even the teachers make fun of me. I want to go to a school where no one knows about my past. So…CANIGOTOSCHOOLWITHMYFRIENDSANDBEINFOURHTGRADETHATWAYTHEYWOULDONLYBEONEGRADEAHEADOFME, PLEASE?!"
Here it is: can I go to school with my friends and be in fourth grade that way they would only be one grade ahead of me, Please?!
The Professor tried to decipher the sentence that was said in one breath, but since he had already suspected what she wanted, he managed. He observed his child's hopeful intent and sighed. He knew that she had never been happy at school. She had always been shunned by the others in her school because they could sense and knew her secret.
He thought about the past five days and how she had come out of her shell so much. It was the obvious love for her friends. Her only real pain came from being shunned at school. Then he thought of his meetings with Usagi. He saw how she protects, cares, and loves his daughter as if they were sisters.
He grinned slightly, knowing that he had already come to a decision. "So, what's it worth to you?"
Hotaru stared into her father and realized at that moment that he was going to say yes. She hugged him as tightly as she could as she showered him with kisses. "Thank you! Thank you! I'll give you kisses and kisses for it, and the more kisses than that!"
Professor Tomoe laughed as he hugged her back. "I already get that. Darn, nothing new." He slowly pulled himself from his daughter and continued to smile at her. "We have a lot of work to do to get this set up, though, you know."
"Yep, but its worth it."
"Says you. You're not the one who has to do all the paper work. You also don't have to tell the principle of Infinity College that you're leaving. I do."
"PAPA. Live with it." She let out a small giggle as her father tickled her.
"Ok, ok. You win. I'll start the paper work tomorrow. I'll get you in school with your friends as soon as possible."
"YAY. Um, Papa?"
"Uh-oh. Yes dearest?" He was slightly afraid of what she would ask him next.
"Can we save this as a surprise for the rest?" Her father chuckled as he agreed to keep it on the down low. "Also…"
He stopped laughing and quirked his eyebrow in interest of what her next question would be. "Yes, my inquisitive firefly?"
"What about the spear!? Have you thought about it yet?! Have you made your decision yet!?"
He grinned as he looked down into his child's excited eyes. "Well…I have thought about it. And well, I've decided to let you do it because I know that Usagi would never let you do something unless she knew that you would be trained safely."
Hotaru smiled wide and bright as she jumped up with joy. "YAY!"
"I'll take it to a specialist tomorrow to get it fixed up. Just tell me how you guys wanted to modify it and I'll get it done."
"YAY!"
~*~*~
~~The Son House~~
When Usagi had gotten home, her parents were no where around. She just figured that they were still out training. She took a quick bath and then it was off to bed with her. She couldn't stay awake another minute if someone had offered to pay her to do it.
~*~*~
Goku and Chi-Chi walked into, to their surprise, a quiet house with all the lights turned out. They had not expected Usagi to be home alone, and have the house so…quiet. Normally when they would leave her home alone, which was VERY rare, she would have all the lights turned on, as well as the T.V. and the kitchen would be a complete mess due to her Saiyan appetite. But this was strange.
Chi-Chi could feel her anger rise as she turned on the light in the family room. "She's not home, is she Goku?"
Goku proceeded to walk down the hallway. "She's here. I think she's in bed though."
"What? It's only seven-thirty. She would have only gotten home an hour and a half ago. Why is she going to bed this early?" She followed her husband down the hallway and to her room.
"She didn't get much sleep after her workout last night, remember. She's just worn out." He opened the door and peeked into his daughter's room to make sure she was there. "See?" He moved aside.
Chi-Chi let her eyes wander into her daughter's room to see her asleep and nearly falling out of her bed with her legs hanging off the side. She giggled as she walked into the room. "She can fight, yet she can't get a little thing like sleeping in a bed. Who does she remind me of…"
"Hey now. I can sleep in a bed. It's just other things I have trouble with. But I'm getting better about it." He walked over to Usagi's side and lifted her feet back onto the bed and recovered her up.
"Mom…?" Usagi groggily opened her eyes to see both of her parents standing over her and looking down at her. "What time is it?" She looked over to her clock, which sat right by her Dragon Ball. "It's only seven-thirty?"
"Yeah. You must have been tired to go to bed before your bedtime." Chi-Chi sat down on the foot of Usagi's bed. "Are you hungry?"
Usagi nodded. "Sort of." She looked up to her father and tried to smile.
Goku grabbed his stomach as it started to growl. "I'm STARVING!"
Chi-Chi laughed as she stood up and walked to the door. "Ok, I'll make dinner then." She left the room.
"Daddy?" Usagi asked as she stood up. "Can I ask you a favor, please?"
"Sure, what's on your mind?"
"Well today, when we were playing our game, Hotaru found a spear and we were all kind of wondering if you could teach her how to use it, since you used to fight with that pole or what ever it was. It's all rusty but we're going to get it fixed up."
Goku pulled his daughter's chair from her desk and set it down next to her bed. He then proceeded to sit in it. "You want me to train her? I thought that was your job."
"Yeah, I know, but, none of us know how to use a weapon and we all think it's a good idea to do it. It would be fun sparring with her. Please? You let Vejita train me sometimes."
"Well…" He grinned at his daughter as she impatiently awaited his answer. "I don't know…yesterday you told me that it was YOUR job to train her and not mine."
Usagi playfully frowned at her father. "Daddy, that isn't fair. This is TOTALLY different. This time I'm asking you to help."
"Well you hurt my feelings." Goku immediately changed his expression to that of a sad person, though he wasn't doing a good job of it. "I don't think you love me any more. You just shoot down my offers to help." He let out a wail of *fake* cry as he dropped his head into his hands. "My baby hates me now! What could I have done to deserve this?"
Usagi sighed as she laid back down. "Daddy!" Her sighs soon turned to giggles. "Now you're sounding like mom."
Goku smirked as he stopped his fake crying and looked up at his daughter. "Hey, you're right. That did sound and awful lot like mom, didn't it?"
"Yes, now daddy, for real, seriously, can you PLEASE teach her how to fight with a weapon?"
"Sure, why not? It might be interesting. I'll give it a try. But we'll wait until after the tournament to do that since she should be ready to fight with just physical attacks."
"Thanks!"
"Speaking of the tournament, do you think she's going to be ready in time?"
Usagi nodded. "Definitely. She's making GREAT progress. I just wish I knew what happened with her today. It was scary."
"Strange things happen all the time. That's just the way our lives go. We expect it. Don't stress yourself trying to figure it out."
Usagi became curious about her father's words. "What is that supposed to mean?"
Goku didn't exactly expect her to understand, but he would be happy to explain himself. "Well if you think about it, we, as fighters, live the most interesting lives. We meet all sorts of strange people. Like us for instance, we have to be the strangest. We aren't exactly normal ourselves."
"Because we're Saiyans, right?"
Goku nodded. "Correct. We have met many bizarre people, like Frieza and Majin Buu. Those aren't everyday people."
Usagi was still puzzled. "Are you saying that Hotaru is an enemy?"
"No. Not at all. What I'm saying is that when you should expect to meet people unlike yourself. Hotaru is different than you, yes. But she is not an enemy. And I suspect that the reason why she acted the way that she did today was just because she has some deep feelings for her mother. She just doesn't know how to control them, much like you couldn't when you were younger. Teach her how to keep her feelings under control and how to ignore the taunts, like you have learned to do."
"I will, daddy."
Goku stood up and proceeded to walk to the door. Before he left, he stopped and turned around. "Just think about what I said about meeting 'strange' people. You'll find that they really aren't all that strange, in the end."
( Ok, there's another part finished. What did you think? Is it ok? Is it horrible? See ya later! )
She slowly emerged from behind a tree to see Usagi washing out some of her wounds with the lake's water. "Usagi…" Hotaru made sure that she had her newly found spear in her hand as she ran to her friend.
Usagi looked away from the lake to the voice that was calling out to her. Hotaru had almost as many cuts and wounds on her body as she, herself, had. She let her eyes wonder to the spear in which Hotaru was carrying. "Hey Hotaru, Whatcha got there?"
Hotaru looked down to the rusted spear and then back up to Usagi with pleading eyes. "We found this in the woods when we were playing the game. It's a spear and I thought it would be kind of cool if I could learn how to fight with it." Hmm what are my true intentions?
Usagi smiled at the young fighter. "I think it's a great idea, Hotaru. That would be even cooler if we had to fight against someone with a weapon. Just like Trunks has is sword, even though I never spar with him. I think dad used to fight with a stick or something. Maybe he can teach you how to use it, cause I for sure don't know how to teach you how to use something like that."
"Cool! Do you think he would teach me how to use it…without hurting me?"
"I don't know. We'll have to ask. I'm sure he will though."
"Yay! That would be so cool if I could learn how to fight with a weapon. But don't worry, I'll still learn how to fight with my body. I still wanna learn that too. All we have to do is sand this rust off of it and…"
"Change it a little bit."
Hotaru curiously looked up to Usagi. "How?"
"Well, just the blade part of it. We should make it the knife part longer, and then add another, small blade on it that kind of curves down and in on itself at the bottom of where the long blade starts. And if we really want to make it cooler, we should make it double sided."
"I don't want to hurt anyone. What if one of my friends is standing behind me and I try to jab my opponent and then they BOTH get hurt? That would be bad." Hotaru smiled when she said the words, 'my friends'. She never thought in her life that she would have the pleasure of saying something like that.
"Maybe you're right. Maybe we should just leave it one sided. But anyways, it's a really good idea. You know what would be cooler?"
"What?"
"Is if somehow we could find a way to put Ki energy into that thing and make it even stronger. I don't mean like a shield, but to attack with. Like, if you put energy around it and hit someone with it, not only would they be hurt by the being hit with it, but they would also be hurt with the energy around it too."
"COOL!"
Usagi looked down to her watch and noticed that they only had about an hour and a half before she Hotaru was to be home. "We should get training with that gravity before it's too late."
Hotaru nodded as she set her new weapon down. "You're right." She dug into her pocket and pulled out her amulet, which had her name engraved on it. "Here it is."
"Great." Usagi reached out and grabbed the trinket from her friend, who smiled happily up at her. "I'll set it to the lowest possible gravity since it was hard for me to even get twenty. I'm still having a hard time moving fast with it, but I'm almost there." She turned a small dial on the side of the amulet to the word 'ten', which stood for ten times earth's normal gravity. "Here." Once it was set to the correct settings, she fell to the ground, unable to hold her own body with the added gravity. "Take it QUICK!" She couldn't move a single muscle for she was still too tired and weak from the night before and from the fight with Rei.
Having a better idea of what to expect with the gravity, she prepared herself for the force that would be placed on her body as soon as she were to take the amulet from her Sensei. She stiffened her whole body for impact as she reached out and grabbed the amulet.
As soon as it was within her grasp, she had trouble holding her body up. It took all of her strength to keep from bending her knees. Though, even that didn't hold up very long before she gave up and let herself fall to the ground. "Wow, this IS hard." Her lungs felt as if they were being pressed together, which only made it harder for her to breath.
Usagi stumbled back to her feet ever so slowly as she recovered from thirty times earth's gravity, back to only twenty. "Yeah…it gets harder." Usagi wasn't sure how she was going to go about training Hotaru with the gravity. There really wasn't a 'safe' way to do it without making her walk around with it for a while. "We're supposed to keep the gravity on unless we're sleeping to get ourselves used to it."
Hotaru pulled her arms against the gravity and let her hands crash into the ground to get a grip on it so she could try to push herself up. "How are you supposed to walk around?"
"I have an idea on what we can do without really making you train the way I had to last night. And I'm going to be nice about it. Until you get your body fully used to the new gravity, we will only have it on while we're training."
Hotaru smiled with appreciation. "Thanks, Usagi. So what are we going to do?" She once again fell face first into the grass beneath her.
"Simple exercises." To show the puzzled child what she meant, she walked behind her and grabbed her by the chest. "First we'll start with your legs since you need to walk above anything else." She picked her up and placed her in a sitting position, while she dragged her over to the accused rock and placed her against it. "Here, what you do is you lift your legs against the gravity as much as you can. When your begin to feel tired, and I mean REALLY tired, stop, rest for a few minutes, and then do it again. When you get better at that, then we can have you do it without leaning against something."
"Cool! That makes it a lot easier. It's just like if I were at a gym and started working on the weights there, huh, Usagi?"
"Yep. So why don't you go ahead and give it a try? I'll just sit here and watch while I try to regain some of my energy so I can fly with you home."
"K!" Hotaru did as she was told and began lifting her legs, one after the other as if she were walking. It was a hard strain on her, but she wasn't about to give up.
While Hotaru did that, Usagi walked to a tree that sat kitty-corner to the boulder that Hotaru sat against. Usagi just kind of let herself drop without effort as she yawned. "Don't let me fall asleep, Hotaru. I already did that in school today and got busted for it."
Hotaru giggled as she continued to exercise her legs with the gravity. "Ok, I wont." Usagi let her head fall to the side as she closed her eyes. "Don't fall asleep, Usagi."
"I'm not. I'm just resting my eyes."
"Usagi, that's what I tell daddy when I'm tired and I don't want to go to bed. I always end up falling asleep. So OPEN YOUR EYES!" Usagi didn't do anything. She didn't move, nor did she say anything. "Usagi? Usagi?" Still no answer. "Great…she fell asleep. Now what am I supposed to do? I can't move." She stopped moving her legs and struggled to pick up a small rock to throw at the sleeping Usagi. It didn't get too far since Hotaru could barely move. "USAGI WAKE UP!"
Usagi jumped to her feet from being startled awake. "WHA…?!" She looked around to see what the danger was and giggled when she saw that it was only Hotaru keeping her word. "Oh…heh, heh, I guess I fell asleep, huh? Sorry about that."
"That's ok. I just didn't want to be stranded here with you asleep."
"Well, you always could have called the girls out here. But, they're probably having their own problems with dad and the gravity."
Hotaru began moving her legs to get used to the gravity again as Usagi walked around her. "Yeah, I know. But waking you up was more fun."
"Gee, thanks." Usagi with sarcasm. "How are your legs feeling?"
"TIRED!" Hotaru smiled. "But I'm not stopping. Not until I can't move them anymore."
~*~*~
On the way home, Hotaru was actually the one to be watching Usagi just in case she lost concentration, instead of the other way around. The day's activities seemed to be wearing on her more than they had both expected.
Hotaru couldn't wait until she got home to tell her father all about her day. Well, there was one part of the day that she didn't really want to tell him about, but she would because it was probably the most important part. She hoped that he wouldn't be too terribly angry with her. It wasn't the first time that she had slipped up in school, but she couldn't help it. She would allow the kids to make fun of her, but not her mother. Her mother couldn't help it. She had been in danger ever since she was born. "Usagi! We're almost there I think!"
Usagi looked up to Hotaru, who was flying directly over her. "Yep! We are! I can feel your dad. He just got there."
"I know. Let's go faster!"
"Alright!" Both girls increased their speed to their max as they were fast approaching Hotaru's home, where Professor Tomoe was just coming out of his car.
"Daddy!"
Professor Tomoe already knew that it would be pointless to look for his daughter on the ground so he looked up into the air, and sure enough, she was flying to him. "Hi Hotaru!" He waved up to her as she waved back.
Hotaru and Usagi slowly let themselves drop to the ground, once they arrived the house. Hotaru, of course, ran to her father and gave him a giant hug with a hello. "Daddy! Look at what I found!" She held her rusted weapon up for her father to see.
Professor Tomoe was surprised to see that Usagi would let Hotaru bring home such a thing. "Don't hurt yourself with that, Hotaru."
"I'm fine, daddy. Usagi's going to ask her daddy if he can train me how to use it since he used to fight with a weapon."
"Only if it's ok with you, sir." Usagi could see his hesitation. "It may be all rusty now, but we can take it into a place and get it all fixed up nicely. We even have a plan to alter the blades a little bit."
"We'll see, Hotaru. I'll think about it."
"Yay! Thank you daddy! And guess what else? We played this really neat hunting game today and I learned how to fight with my hands and feet, and also, I got this really cool gravity enhancer from Bulma yesterday and we tried it out today to make the gravity around me ten times earth's normal gravity. Isn't that cool?"
"Oh…yes…very cool, honey. I'm glad you're having fun with Usagi." He looked up to Usagi with grateful eyes. "Thank you."
"You're welcome sir. But, I really have to be going. I'm going to go home, take a LONG bath, and then go to bed. I'm beat. I'll see you guys tomorrow." Usagi jumped into the air and turned around to wave goodbye to her friend and her father.
"Bye Bye Usagi! See you tomorrow!" Hotaru turned to her father. "Usagi has to train with twenty times gravity. Isn't she cool?!"
"Very. Now why don't we get inside and get you all cleaned up for dinner?"
"Good thinking, daddy? So are you really going to think about letting me use this weapon? Don't you think it would be cool? I think it would."
Professor Tomoe laughed as he guided his daughter into the house. 'So much like her mother.'
~*~*~
~~Two hours Later~~
Hotaru, the little sister that she had come to be thought of in only five short days by her friends, was happier than she had ever been. She had great friends who accepted her. She knew they accepted her because of the link. Though her happiness could never cover up her sorrow for her mother as she would never forget her mother, but she was finally letting go of the pain that came with the loss.
Hotaru sat on her bed in her room and thought about the day's activities. Well, more like the main thing that happened that day. She couldn't stop beating herself up over what had happened that day after school. She had totally let her anger override her sense of what was right, as her mother had told her she would. But her mother also told her that she could fight it, because she was special. She had the best of both worlds, and then some.
After a long hour of thinking of what took place after school, something her father still did not know about, she had come to a hard decision that she knew would alter her life forever.
Hotaru approached her father with what she needed to tell him, as well as a request. After a quiet dinner, which had become abnormal over the past five days because Hotaru had been going on and on over and over about her new friends, the father daughter duo made their way outside to relax and watch the sunset to wind down from their hard days. Hotaru stared up at the red and purple sky, trying to come up with a way to bring up the subject that was weighing on her mind. After minutes of thinking of a satisfactory way to bring it up, she heard her father clear his throat, unknown to her for the third time. She looked up and noticed a worried look on his face. "Is something wrong, papa?"
"Actually, little one, that's what I was going to ask you."
Hotaru was startled by her father's question, of sorts, and stammered her reply. "What do you mean?"
The Professor chuckled as he did not mean to scare her with his question. "Well, you've been distracted all evening. You hardly touched food except to play with it. Is something wrong? Did something happen at school again?"
Hotaru's eyes widened as she looked deeper into her father's worried eyes and then hung her head, sheepishly. "Well, as a matter of fact, papa, something did happen at school today."
Professor Tomoe sighed as he rubbed his daughter's face for comfort. "Tell me what happened. Was it the same kids again?"
Hotaru nodded as she thought back to the day, which only made her want to cry into him. "Yes, it was. They started picking on me and made fun of mom. I tried to tell them that she wasn't a fighter, but they just didn't understand."
"They wouldn't."
"I know, but I wanted so badly to think that they would. I lost control of myself again, just like mommy said I would. I was going to hurt a boy weaker than me. I even attacked my best friend."
Tomoe pulled his daughter in closer to him and wrapped his arms around her. "Did your friends ask any questions about you?"
"No. Luckily. I was scared, daddy. But I don't regret getting angry. I just regret loosing control and acting so…so…savage, like a monster." The tears started to flow out at that point.
"There, there, now my little firefly. Don't cry. The children just don't know."
"I don't care, daddy. They hurt me all the time. They pick on me. No one picks on Usagi and her friends at her school."
"What are you saying?"
Hotaru hesitated to go on, but knew it was for the best. "You see, I've been thinking…"
Trying to lighten the mood a bit, the professor grinned and interrupted. "Uh-oh, not that's dangerous."
Hotaru giggled as his plan worked on her, for now. "Papa."
"Sorry." Though the grin on his face made it to be a lie.
Hotaru took a deep breath to start again. "Well, you know how I had to take all those special tests to get into Infinity College?" Her father nodded, curious as to what she was getting at. "You know how if I were at a regular school I would be in the fourth grade range?" Her father nodded again, this time knowing a little more what she was going to try and ask him. "Well I don't want to go to Infinity College anymore. The people there are mean, even the teachers make fun of me. I want to go to a school where no one knows about my past. So…CANIGOTOSCHOOLWITHMYFRIENDSANDBEINFOURHTGRADETHATWAYTHEYWOULDONLYBEONEGRADEAHEADOFME, PLEASE?!"
Here it is: can I go to school with my friends and be in fourth grade that way they would only be one grade ahead of me, Please?!
The Professor tried to decipher the sentence that was said in one breath, but since he had already suspected what she wanted, he managed. He observed his child's hopeful intent and sighed. He knew that she had never been happy at school. She had always been shunned by the others in her school because they could sense and knew her secret.
He thought about the past five days and how she had come out of her shell so much. It was the obvious love for her friends. Her only real pain came from being shunned at school. Then he thought of his meetings with Usagi. He saw how she protects, cares, and loves his daughter as if they were sisters.
He grinned slightly, knowing that he had already come to a decision. "So, what's it worth to you?"
Hotaru stared into her father and realized at that moment that he was going to say yes. She hugged him as tightly as she could as she showered him with kisses. "Thank you! Thank you! I'll give you kisses and kisses for it, and the more kisses than that!"
Professor Tomoe laughed as he hugged her back. "I already get that. Darn, nothing new." He slowly pulled himself from his daughter and continued to smile at her. "We have a lot of work to do to get this set up, though, you know."
"Yep, but its worth it."
"Says you. You're not the one who has to do all the paper work. You also don't have to tell the principle of Infinity College that you're leaving. I do."
"PAPA. Live with it." She let out a small giggle as her father tickled her.
"Ok, ok. You win. I'll start the paper work tomorrow. I'll get you in school with your friends as soon as possible."
"YAY. Um, Papa?"
"Uh-oh. Yes dearest?" He was slightly afraid of what she would ask him next.
"Can we save this as a surprise for the rest?" Her father chuckled as he agreed to keep it on the down low. "Also…"
He stopped laughing and quirked his eyebrow in interest of what her next question would be. "Yes, my inquisitive firefly?"
"What about the spear!? Have you thought about it yet?! Have you made your decision yet!?"
He grinned as he looked down into his child's excited eyes. "Well…I have thought about it. And well, I've decided to let you do it because I know that Usagi would never let you do something unless she knew that you would be trained safely."
Hotaru smiled wide and bright as she jumped up with joy. "YAY!"
"I'll take it to a specialist tomorrow to get it fixed up. Just tell me how you guys wanted to modify it and I'll get it done."
"YAY!"
~*~*~
~~The Son House~~
When Usagi had gotten home, her parents were no where around. She just figured that they were still out training. She took a quick bath and then it was off to bed with her. She couldn't stay awake another minute if someone had offered to pay her to do it.
~*~*~
Goku and Chi-Chi walked into, to their surprise, a quiet house with all the lights turned out. They had not expected Usagi to be home alone, and have the house so…quiet. Normally when they would leave her home alone, which was VERY rare, she would have all the lights turned on, as well as the T.V. and the kitchen would be a complete mess due to her Saiyan appetite. But this was strange.
Chi-Chi could feel her anger rise as she turned on the light in the family room. "She's not home, is she Goku?"
Goku proceeded to walk down the hallway. "She's here. I think she's in bed though."
"What? It's only seven-thirty. She would have only gotten home an hour and a half ago. Why is she going to bed this early?" She followed her husband down the hallway and to her room.
"She didn't get much sleep after her workout last night, remember. She's just worn out." He opened the door and peeked into his daughter's room to make sure she was there. "See?" He moved aside.
Chi-Chi let her eyes wander into her daughter's room to see her asleep and nearly falling out of her bed with her legs hanging off the side. She giggled as she walked into the room. "She can fight, yet she can't get a little thing like sleeping in a bed. Who does she remind me of…"
"Hey now. I can sleep in a bed. It's just other things I have trouble with. But I'm getting better about it." He walked over to Usagi's side and lifted her feet back onto the bed and recovered her up.
"Mom…?" Usagi groggily opened her eyes to see both of her parents standing over her and looking down at her. "What time is it?" She looked over to her clock, which sat right by her Dragon Ball. "It's only seven-thirty?"
"Yeah. You must have been tired to go to bed before your bedtime." Chi-Chi sat down on the foot of Usagi's bed. "Are you hungry?"
Usagi nodded. "Sort of." She looked up to her father and tried to smile.
Goku grabbed his stomach as it started to growl. "I'm STARVING!"
Chi-Chi laughed as she stood up and walked to the door. "Ok, I'll make dinner then." She left the room.
"Daddy?" Usagi asked as she stood up. "Can I ask you a favor, please?"
"Sure, what's on your mind?"
"Well today, when we were playing our game, Hotaru found a spear and we were all kind of wondering if you could teach her how to use it, since you used to fight with that pole or what ever it was. It's all rusty but we're going to get it fixed up."
Goku pulled his daughter's chair from her desk and set it down next to her bed. He then proceeded to sit in it. "You want me to train her? I thought that was your job."
"Yeah, I know, but, none of us know how to use a weapon and we all think it's a good idea to do it. It would be fun sparring with her. Please? You let Vejita train me sometimes."
"Well…" He grinned at his daughter as she impatiently awaited his answer. "I don't know…yesterday you told me that it was YOUR job to train her and not mine."
Usagi playfully frowned at her father. "Daddy, that isn't fair. This is TOTALLY different. This time I'm asking you to help."
"Well you hurt my feelings." Goku immediately changed his expression to that of a sad person, though he wasn't doing a good job of it. "I don't think you love me any more. You just shoot down my offers to help." He let out a wail of *fake* cry as he dropped his head into his hands. "My baby hates me now! What could I have done to deserve this?"
Usagi sighed as she laid back down. "Daddy!" Her sighs soon turned to giggles. "Now you're sounding like mom."
Goku smirked as he stopped his fake crying and looked up at his daughter. "Hey, you're right. That did sound and awful lot like mom, didn't it?"
"Yes, now daddy, for real, seriously, can you PLEASE teach her how to fight with a weapon?"
"Sure, why not? It might be interesting. I'll give it a try. But we'll wait until after the tournament to do that since she should be ready to fight with just physical attacks."
"Thanks!"
"Speaking of the tournament, do you think she's going to be ready in time?"
Usagi nodded. "Definitely. She's making GREAT progress. I just wish I knew what happened with her today. It was scary."
"Strange things happen all the time. That's just the way our lives go. We expect it. Don't stress yourself trying to figure it out."
Usagi became curious about her father's words. "What is that supposed to mean?"
Goku didn't exactly expect her to understand, but he would be happy to explain himself. "Well if you think about it, we, as fighters, live the most interesting lives. We meet all sorts of strange people. Like us for instance, we have to be the strangest. We aren't exactly normal ourselves."
"Because we're Saiyans, right?"
Goku nodded. "Correct. We have met many bizarre people, like Frieza and Majin Buu. Those aren't everyday people."
Usagi was still puzzled. "Are you saying that Hotaru is an enemy?"
"No. Not at all. What I'm saying is that when you should expect to meet people unlike yourself. Hotaru is different than you, yes. But she is not an enemy. And I suspect that the reason why she acted the way that she did today was just because she has some deep feelings for her mother. She just doesn't know how to control them, much like you couldn't when you were younger. Teach her how to keep her feelings under control and how to ignore the taunts, like you have learned to do."
"I will, daddy."
Goku stood up and proceeded to walk to the door. Before he left, he stopped and turned around. "Just think about what I said about meeting 'strange' people. You'll find that they really aren't all that strange, in the end."
( Ok, there's another part finished. What did you think? Is it ok? Is it horrible? See ya later! )