Back at the Son house, Goku was having a bit of a crisis...
"Get that thing away from me!" Goku clung to a branch high above in the treetops as an excited puppy happily yipped up at him. He looked down at the puppy, who had its two front paws on the trunk of the tree as if it were trying to get closer to him. "That thing is vicious!" He didn't even pay attention to the tail, which was happily wagging.
Minako laughed at the top of her lungs as she looked up to Goku. She couldn't even begin to think of any reason why Goku, the strongest person she knew, would be afraid of such a harmless puppy. "I think she's really taken a liking to you, Goku."
When Lucky jumped up to try and get closer to him, Goku freaked. He jumped to a higher branch in the tree. "She likes the way I taste, you mean. That's why she keeps licking me." Just before any of this had happened, the puppy had jumped from Rei's arms onto Goku. As if that wasn't bad enough, she started licking his face, her way of saying hello, but Goku didn't take it that way.
Makoto walked to the tree and picked up Lucky once she saw that Goku had been tortured enough. "Come on, Goku. You're being silly. She's not going to eat you. She likes you too much to eat you."
"I think I'll just stay right here. As long as that thing stays away from me, I'll be happy." Goku let out a nearly silent sigh of relief when he saw the girls begin to take the menacing puppy away. No matter how much they would tell him about how the puppy wouldn't do anything to him, he wouldn't believe them. His mind was just too stuck on the fact that sharp objects always mean bad news.
He looked forward once again when he felt the power levels of Hotaru as well as his daughter in front of him and sure enough, they were floating there in front of him, looking at him like he was an idiot. "What?"
Usagi laughed at her father's behavior. She had never seen anyone react in such a way towards anything so small. "You can fly."
Goku chuckled as he let go of the tree and joined his daughter and her friend in the air. "It was a reaction to that wild animal."
Hotaru frowned. "She's not wild, Goku. She's sweet. How come you aren't afraid to fight rough, but you're afraid of a lil ol puppy?"
Goku turned to Hotaru with embarrassment. He didn't exactly know how to answer that question. It was just the way he felt about it. He had been that way ever since he was a child. "You got me." He let his eyes trail down to the shining weapon that she held. "Hey, that's a nice staff you've got there. Do you mind if I take a look at it?"
Hotaru proudly held out her brand new staff for Goku to look at. "Papa had it fixed. It used to be all rusty."
Goku carefully took the staff from Hotaru and bounced it up and down a bit. "Whoever remade it did a very good job. It's got almost perfect balance." He barely looked up enough to see Hotaru's smiling face. "This is kind of heavy, are you sure you can handle it?"
Hotaru gave a confident smile in response. "Of course. I've been training with gravity, remember?"
Goku chuckled. "That's right." He let his hand glide over the smooth metal of the handle. "This is nice." He let his hand trail up to the blades, which were extremely sharp. 'Wow, this must have cost them a fortune to have done.' "Well Hotaru, you have yourself a great fighting weapon here. Now all we have to do is teach you how to use it. Are you ready to learn?"
Hotaru furiously nodded with excitement. "I sure am!"
Goku chuckled. "That's the spirit." He turned to Usagi with a smile. "Don't worry, I'll teach her how to use it before I just attack her. I promise. This is one of those things that you have to teach in order to really understand."
Usagi smiled. "Great." An evil smirk appeared on her face as she floated forward, which only created fear in her father's eyes. "And after this, I'll be your Sensei for a while."
Goku gulped as he looked down at Usagi. He wasn't sure he liked her tone of voice that she was using, let alone her smirk. "Uh, do I want to know what you're plotting?"
Usagi giggled. "Don't worry, daddy. It's for the best. I'm going to teach you how to play with Lucky." She couldn't help but laugh at her father's face, which could have dropped to the ground with fear right there and then. "I want to show you that she's not going to hurt you, K?!"
Goku backed away from his daughter. "N...no. It's not ok. I'm not getting near that thing. That thing will be the death of me yet. You'll see. She's going to eat you one of these days and then you'll understand what I was talking about."
Usagi just rolled her eyes. "You're funny."
"You'll see." Goku playfully pushed Usagi away from him and turned to Hotaru, who was laughing at the whole situation again. "I guess we should get started then, kid."
Usagi took that as a hint to leave and she didn't mind either. She still had to tell the others about Hotaru. That was something she was still trying to grasp herself. Without saying a word to her father and Hotaru, she turned around to join her friends.
Once she saw Usagi leave, Hotaru immediately became more nervous than she had ever been before. She didn't know if she would be able to keep her worries hidden from Goku now that she had been left alone. She hadn't expected Usagi to leave her alone with Goku like that. Alone to be nervous, to let that nervousness show. But she tried to keep in mind what Usagi told her, about how she should just try to act normal like she had been all along. "So! What are we going to do first?!"
Goku took one look at Hotaru and knew that she was hiding something. He had a hunch that she was hiding something big from him all along, he just didn't know what. As well of a job she was doing trying to hide it at that moment, it was hard to pass anything by him, but he decided not to call her out on it. He knew that it must have been something big or else she and Usagi would have told him when they arrived. He didn't want to push her into anything so he decided to just let it alone until she was ready. "Well, first I'm going to tell you about fighting with weapons."
Goku paused to let himself fall. Before he landed, however, he searched the area for the puppy, who could have been lurking anywhere. 'Good, they finally took it away.' When he saw that she wasn't around, he let his feet touch the ground as he relaxed himself.
Hotaru giggled as she dropped to stand in front of her new Sensei. "Still afraid of Lucky, huh?"
Goku shook his head. "Not afraid, just cautious. I don't want to get bitten or even tasted." He glared at her when she laughed at him more. "Yeah, yeah." He again grabbed her staff from her to begin his training. "First, there are some ground rules here. Fighting with a weapon is a serious thing, especially when your opponent doesn't have one. So, until you've become very skilled with this, I don't want you to try to spar with it outside of our training, ok?"
Hotaru nodded. 'At least he's not asking why we were late.' She began to calm her nerves. It was obvious that he wasn't concerned with them being late.
"Second, when I do allow you to fight others you must be extra careful around them. They could get very hurt." He paused when he saw a smile appear on Hotaru's face, which was accompanied by quiet laughter. "What's so funny?"
"You're going to be fighting me when I use that, aren't you?" Goku nodded. He still failed to understand what was so hilarious about that. "Why are you going to fight me that when it's so sharp but you won't let Lucky near you?
Goku groaned. He just knew that something like that would come up. "The blades aren't going to eat me!" He frowned down at the laughing child. He hated the fact that he was afraid of sharp pointy objects. "Do you want to learn or not?" Well that shut Hotaru up. She sheepishly nodded. "Good, then let's continue. Here are some basics that any good weapons user should know. First, never rely only on your weapon no matter how strong it may seem. You should use it, yes, but not all the time. You should always be prepared to get into some hand to hand combat."
"I know. Because if you only use your weapon, then your opponent will catch on to what you're doing and then they'll find a good defense for it as well as a way to attack without getting defended. If you always use a weapon then you leave yourself wide open for almost any attack."
Goku nodded down at her in complete awe. He didn't know that Hotaru knew so much about fighting. "That's exactly right, Hotaru."
Hotaru smiled. "The girls told me all about fighting. They told me that I should be diverse in the types of attacks I use so I don't get predictable."
'They taught her more than I thought.' "They're right. I guess we can move onto more important things then."
~*~*~
"SHE'S A WHAT?!" Usagi had just broken the news to the girls, all of whom didn't know how to take it. None of them had once ever thought for a moment that Hotaru could have been anything but a Human. She had hidden herself too well.
Rei tried to calm herself down after her little outburst. She hadn't meant to react the way she had, but she could hardly help it. She threw herself to Usagi and grabbed onto her shoulders, putting her face in Usagi's. "Are you positive that she's a Saiyan? Are you sure that she's not just trying to be like you?"
Usagi pushed Rei away from her and sat he down on the ground next to the rest of the girls. She herself also sat down. "Be quiet. If you yell like that my dad and Hotaru will hear. And yes, I'm certain that she's half Saiyan. She has a tail and everything."
Ami stroked Lucky's back as she stayed as calm as possible. But even she found it hard to believe what Usagi was telling them. "Usagi, she can't be a Saiyan. We would have known long before this because of the link. We would have known as soon as our thoughts became one with each other."
Usagi sighed. "I know that. I don't know how she hid it from us but it IS true. She IS part Saiyan. But she's not a normal Saiyan. She has the power to heal, like her mom. I think that her mom has something to do with Cell or his queen."
Makoto's eyes became wide at the thought of having to face his queen. That was something that they surely didn't want to go through, especially if she was stronger than Cell. He was a hard enough foe as it was. But, she knew that it would come up one day since she was still after Usagi. "What do you mean? Are you saying that Hotaru's mom is a bad guy?"
Usagi shook her head. "No. She's definitely on our side from what Hotaru told me."
"Wait, wait, wait, WAIT!" Everyone stopped what they were doing and turned their attention onto Minako, who seemed to be getting lost more and more with each second that past. "Before we get onto the Cell deal, how did her mom get here? How come she survived but no other Saiyans did besides your dad and Vejita?"
"I don't know. We both don't know. But I have a feeling that the reason why Hotaru's mom is here was because of Cell's queen."
Ami picked up Lucky and put her on the ground. Lucky immediately went about he business as she began eating the overgrown grass. "Why do you think that, Usagi? What did Hotaru tell you?"
"She said that her mom was running away from something or somebody all her life until she married the Professor. Then, right before she died, she told Hotaru that something big was going to happen. That was two years ago. Two years ago her mom died."
Minako's puzzlement began to dissolve into understanding as she put two and two together. "Of course. It makes sense. Cell attacked two years ago when Hotaru's mom was killed."
Usagi nodded. "Right. But Hotaru doesn't think that her mom was killed. She thinks that she was kidnapped by whoever she was running from. It makes sense."
Rei looked around the group. It was obvious that they were trying to contemplate their position and where they stood in this situation. "Girls, what are we going to do about this?" She let her eyes pause on Usagi. "Are we going to tell anyone else?"
"No way. Hotaru and her dad don't want us to tell anyone until later. Even though I think we should, I don't want to break my promise that I made to them. You guys have to promise not to let his slip."
Minako stood to her feet with a smile. She couldn't wait to see Hotaru again. "I think I speak for all of us when I say, you have our word." She turned back to Ami, Rei, and Makoto, who all nodded in agreement.
"Great. Hotaru is going to be so happy when she finds out that we're behind her one-hundred percent. She was so upset when I saw. She thought she was going to have to move. Now all we have to do is wait for her to get done with dad so I can learn to heal like her."
~*~*~
Meanwhile, back with Goku and Hotaru, Goku had already taught Hotaru the basic attack forms of a weapon. "Ok Hotaru, now that you know some basic attacks, let's talk about defense." Hotaru nodded without a single word. "Now then, you obviously know that you can defend with one of these babies, right?"
"Yep."
"Why don't you tell me how much you know so far then? I don't want to bore you with telling you stuff you already know."
"I don't know if this would work, but I was thinking that if I'm fighting against someone who can shoot energy attacks at me that I could deflect them with the blade if I need to."
Goku smiled. "Wow, you're a smart kid."
Hotaru confidently grinned at the compliment. "I don't go to Infinity College for nothing, Goku."
'I'll have to watch her. She knows her stuff. The girls taught her a lot for a beginner.' "That's great. Now I won't have to teach you as much. Something else that you can do to block is use the long metal staff-handle to block from physical attacks. If you're lucky, this thing will be strong enough to deal some damage if it's hit and you block just right."
Hotaru smirked. She couldn't wait to get more knowledge and then try it out. She wanted to feel what it was like to fight with a weapon. To her, it felt more right to have a weapon to fight with. It felt more exciting to have one as well. "So it works as a two in one, right?"
"Right. When you get more comfortable with it, you can block and the attack directly after the block. You can attack either physically or with the staff itself."
"Does it give you an advantage?"
Goku thought back to his earlier days of fighting for a moment. He tried to remember all the fights had had fought with his own Power Pole. Well there you have it. I don't remember the Japanese name for it "Sometimes it gives you the advantage in a fight, but other times it can just get in the way and lead to your defeat. That's why you have to know how and when to use it."
Hotaru nodded in awe as she let all of the information seep into her head. She had a momentary dip in her concentration when she felt the energy of her friends, as well as the puppy, walking up from behind. She couldn't help but giggle when she saw Goku's face turn completely pale. "Uh-oh..."
Goku let out a choked chuckle as he backed away from Hotaru after handing her back her staff. "Usagi...we're trying to conduct business here. Why don't you and that thing go somewhere else to play for a while? Take her to your tree house or something, away from me."
Rei took one look at the puppy in her arms and then up to Goku, who was once again getting frightened. She grinned as she went to sit against a tree not too far from where he and Hotaru were. "We'll just sit over here where it's nice and safe for both of you, Goku."
"Make sure you don't come any closer then." With that, he pressed his fingers to his forehead and left the area without a single word more only to once again appear before them with his Power Pole. "Why don't we have you practice what you've learned today, Hotaru?"
Usagi ran from the tree she was leaning against to her father with wide and curious eyes. "Cool! What's that, daddy?" She reached out and snatched it from her unsuspecting father.
Goku reached over his daughter's shoulder and pulled his orange Power Pole from her grasp. "Don't play with this, Usagi. It's not a toy. You could hurt yourself with it if you're not careful."
Usagi reached out for it again, but was stopped from getting again by a firm grip on her wrist. She fearfully gulped when she saw the angry face of her father. "I just want to look at it. I won't play with it."
"It isn't safe unless you know what it's capable of doing. This isn't just any normal pole here, Usagi. It was given to my by my Grandfather. It's a tool with special powers to be used only by those who have tamed its power." Goku released his grip on Usagi's wrist.
Usagi dropped her head in shame. "I'm sorry."
Goku changed his frown into a smile. He didn't want her to think that he was mad at her. That was the last thing that he wanted. "It's all right. Just don't be so quick to grab next time. Now why don't you go and sit with your friends while I finish up with Hotaru?"
Usagi smiled as she turned around. "Ok." Usagi got a devilish grin on her face as she walked back to her friends. 'I wonder what kind of power it has...'
~*~*~
Once Goku was finished with showing Hotaru a few moves, they were finished for the day and there was still an hour left before Hotaru would have to be home for the evening, an hour which Usagi had already pretty much planned out in her head.
"Come on, guys." Usagi stood up and stretched a bit as she walked towards Hotaru, who was more excited than before. "I have an idea."
Ami stopped in her place when she heard that. Usagi was using the same mischievous voice that she had used when she first found out about the time machine. "What are you planning?"
Usagi paused and grinned as she glanced over her shoulder. "Nothing...yet." She just laughed as she started up with walking towards her father and Hotaru with the puppy in her arms. Goku didn't say anymore than a goodbye before he hightailed it back to the house when he saw Usagi approaching with the tiny animal. 'He's so weird when it comes to Lucky.'
Hotaru happily smiled up at her friends, who looked down at her. She didn't even wait for them to ask her anything about he training before she started in. "Usagi your daddy is SO cool! He taught me a lot of cool stuff today! I can't wait for MORE!"
"I know, isn't he?" Usagi looked up to her house when she heard the door slam shut. "I'll be right back." She made sure she had a good grip on the puppy and began running at he fastest speed to the house, leaving her curious friends behind with Hotaru.
Minako was the first to take action. She kneeled down and looked into Hotaru's wide Violet eyes. "Hotaru, Usagi told us that you're part Saiyan. Is that true?"
Hotaru nodded as her expression filled with sadness. She slowly unwrapped her tail from her waist to show them that she was telling the truth once and for all. "Yes. It's true. I'm sorry I didn't tell you guys but we thought that it would be dangerous."
Ami gasped when she saw the tail. She hadn't really expected it to be true, but sure enough there it was. 'Two half Saiyan children.' "That's ok, Hotaru. We understand. But, we were wondering how you hid this from us when we created the link."
Hotaru slightly perked up. "I don't really know how I did it. I guess I blocked it out of my mind for that moment."
"Well we just want you to know that we're not going to tell a single person about your secret."
Rei nodded with the agreement of Ami's statement. "That's right. We won't tell anyone unless you want us to."
Hotaru couldn't help but smile at that. The last person who had seen her tail was back in Nagoya. She had spread it around the entire neighborhood in which they lived. The ridicules had gotten so bad that they had needed to move away, but Hotaru found herself to be extra lucky to have found such a city filled with people who didn't mind a person who had a tail. "You guys are great."
At that moment, Usagi rejoined the group, without the puppy. Without a single word, she grabbed Hotaru's wrist and dragged her away from the open field and into the forest where the trees would hide what they were about to do. The only sound that came from her was a soft giggle of joy.
Hotaru didn't resist being pulled away from the field, but she did wonder what was going on in her friend's mind. "Usagi? Where are we going?"
"It's the perfect time..."
Minako, who followed behind the two Saiyans as well as the others, was again confused by Usagi for the second time that day. "Time for what? What are you doing Usagi?"
Usagi only continued to giggle until she came upon a small pond that was deep in the woods in one of the most well hidden areas that Usagi knew of. Even her own father had never been there. "He's taking a nap while he waits for dinner. It's absolutely perfect." Usagi dropped Hotaru's wrist and turned to face her friends, who were still as confused as ever. She didn't say another word. She just stood there and stared into the air with a giant smile planted on her face.
With concern, Rei walked to Usagi and put her hand on her forehead. "Are you all right, Usagi? You're starting to scare us."
Usagi just turned to Rei and gave her a crazy smile. "I'm fine. I'm just so excited." She turned back to Hotaru, who was starting to understand what she wanted. "Dad's asleep. He won't be able to feel the healing power. You can teach me now. It's the perfect time. What do you say Hotaru? Can you teach me?"
Hotaru smirked as she walked to Usagi. "Sure. I'll give it my best shot. I'll teach you like my mom showed me. It's all I really know so it won't take long. I've only done this once, but I'm pretty sure that I can remember how to do it." Hotaru suddenly became shy as the others gathered around her to see what she was going to do.
Hotaru giggled before she proceeded. She liked the idea of having revered places with Usagi. Now she would be the Sensei and Usagi would be the student. "First, you have to understand everything is a form of energy. Wood, metal, tissue, air, water, everything."
Usagi nodded with actual understanding, something that was rare with her. "Ok, that makes sense."
"Then you have to focus your energy through your body to whatever your trying to heal, let the two merge as one. Then focusing on the patient, you use your energy to reform it into the way that it's supposed to. This is mostly natural to the body you're healing, a feeling of rightness as you correctly rearrange the structure to its proper shape. You can also use it to absorb the other's pain into yourself, but that hurts you just as much as the patient was hurting. But, you can use it to increase or change the structure. Like Mama and I did with my tail. We used our energy to reinforce it and deaden the nerve endings so while they can still feel sensations as good as ever, they wouldn't feel pain as easily."
Everyone, even Ami, was impressed at Hotaru's knowledge of such a complicated subject matter. But with Usagi being as excited and antsy as she was to learn this skill, spoke before anyone else. "Ok, Hotaru, lets try it out on my tail." She couldn't wait to get her tail to the point of feeling almost no pain. 'If only I knew about this BEFORE the tournament, I wouldn't have had to go through all of that pain.'
"Are you sure, it's hard to do at first and I only have done it a couple of times."
"We'll try together. Use the mind link to guide each other. That way I can learn from you as we go."
Hotaru nodded. "Good idea. Let's try it then." Hotaru pulled Usagi away from the others so they could have space to work freely. She sat down and directed Usagi to do the same, which she gladly did. "Pull your tail in front of you so we can focus our energy on it, K?"
Usagi nodded as she moved her tail to sit on her side. It was just long enough to sit in Usagi's lap. "Ok. Let's open the link now."
"Right." Both girls concentrated their energy into a double mind link so they wouldn't have to use all of their energy on the link. They needed as much energy as possible for the healing process. 'Start concentrating your energy, but not like you normally do. Here, follow my example.'
~*~*~
While Hotaru showed Usagi how to heal, Goku lay asleep in his bed. He was exhausted from a long hard day of training. Unknown to him, the tiny puppy that had been found only one day before crawled up into the bed with him. She began smelling around his face and licked it twice when she realized who it was. For the first time, he had not reacted with insensate screaming, but it was not because he liked her, it was because he was asleep.
Lucky took his quietness as an invitation to do nothing more than cuddle. Hey, it was a nice big fluffy bed with one of her favorite people. She turned around in a circle a few times. After about four turns, she finally decided to lay down, right next to Goku's face and excitedly wagged her tail. She nuzzled her nose under his chin and almost immediately drifted off to sleep.
~*~*~
Back in the woods, Usagi and Hotaru seemed to be making progress. Granted, it was their second time trying because Usagi had accidentally built up the wrong kind of power and overloaded the link, but that was something that they chose not to speak about in future conversations for the fact that both Hotaru and Usagi both had puffed tails as well as hair from the excessive energy running through their bodies all at once.
Hotaru slightly raised her power level to once again speak to Usagi. 'Now, raise your power again, just not the fighting kind. Raise your inner energy. Mama called in love energy.'
Usagi perked her head at that. 'I think I know what you're talking about now.' She once again raised her energy, but not her fighting energy. No, she didn't want to puff up even more. It was bad enough that she already looked like a scared cat, she didn't want to add to that.
Together, the two of them work to get her tail healed and fixed forever. As they went along, Usagi learned exactly what she was meant to do by feeling what Hotaru was doing inside her body. It was much easier to learn things through the link than it was learning by watching or being told how to do it.
Eventually, Usagi's tail twitched slightly, but no real pain was felt anywhere in her body. First, they changed the nerves that ran up and down it, which actually did cause her pain. Intense pain at that. Usagi had to bite her lower lip to keep from screaming in such pain. It felt as if each and every nerve was being individually ripped from her tail as if it were part of a licorice.
Soon, they began to enhance the nerve endings so she could feel sensations much better. They deadened the pain output from the nerve endings, though. They also used their energy to harden and strengthen the tail. Its dexterity was not lost at all, in fact, it was increased. The strength increased a hundred-fold.
"Usagi...Usagi...USAGI!" Makoto waved her hand in front of her tranced friend.
Usagi shook her head, coming out of her trance that she had fallen into halfway through the procedure. She really didn't have anything to say but, "Wow...!" She could feel a real difference in the way her tail felt let alone the knew knowledge she contained.
Minako looked down at Usagi's tail, which lay in front of her on the ground just to the side of Usagi. "Did it work?"
Hotaru nodded. "I think so. She's acting like I did when I first did this."
Minako grinned as she lifted her foot and stomped down as hard as she could on Usagi's tail. "Did that hurt Usagi?"
Surprised and acting purely on reflex, Usagi retracted her tail and jumped to her feet, grabbing Minako by the front of her GI when she could. "What are you thinki..." She stopped and looked down to her tail, which she could freely move with no trouble. She had felt the blow, yet she wasn't hurt. She was free to move with no energy loss. "It worked!"
Rei bent over to look at Usagi's tail and grabbed it. "Wow, I can't believe it. That really did work." She pulled on her tail as hard as she could. "Yep, you didn't yell at all. Hey Makoto, you gotta try this."
Makoto strutted over to Usagi and grabbed her tail from Rei. She dug her nails into the fur as hard as she could to feel the bone underneath. "Yep. It sure did work."
Usagi violently ripped her tail from Makoto and frowned. "Hey! Just because it doesn't hurt anymore doesn't mean it's a free for all with pulling my tail." Usagi quickly forgot about her friends testing out her new tail as she walked over to a rock. "I wonder how much stronger it is." She lifted her tail and smashed it down hard on a rock, shattering it on impact. "WOW!"
In almost near shock, Makoto turned to Hotaru, who was also in shock. "What did you guys to do her tail? That thing is dangerous now."
Usagi impishly grinned as she walked to Minako and wrapped he tail around her waist. Without a word from either, Usagi proceeded to pick Minako up. "AHHH! HELP!" Minako reached down to her waist and grabbed the tail that was tightly wrapped around it. "USAGI!"
"Serves you right. What if it hadn't worked? That would have hurt." Usagi laughed as she threw the surprised Minako into the pond, which scared a group of ducks away. "I think I can learn to like this."
"Oh yeah!?" Using all of her speed, Minako jumped out of the pond and grabbed Usagi by the legs, causing her to fall backwards. Minako jumped over Usagi and picked her up, immediately throwing her into the pond when she got her completely in the air.
"Hey!" Usagi jumped out of the water and grabbed Minako by the arm with a smirk. Right when she was about to throw her back into the water, she stopped and looked down at the obviously happy Hotaru. "Hey, why don't we make your tail stronger too? That way we can gang up on Minako."
Minako playfully frowned as she grabbed Usagi by the back of the neck with her free arm and threw her back into the pond. "That's what you get for even thinking about using her against me."
Usagi laughed as she floated out of the water. "Too bad." She landed next to her dry friends to make sure that she wouldn't be thrown back into the pond. "So what do you think, Hotaru? Do you want to make your tail stronger?"
"OF COURSE!"
~*~*~
Back at the Son house, Goku was awakened by the slamming of a door out in the other part of the house. Though, he wasn't too worried about it since it wasn't hard for him to fall back to sleep. Things would have been fine if he hadn't felt something under his chin. 'Uh-oh...' He gently pulled his head back just enough to see the other creature that was right by him. He immediately began to panic, but he didn't yell out. He didn't want to wake the sleeping beast. 'Oh god what do I do? It's got me cornered now. It's going to wake up and be hungry. It's going to want to eat me. But I can't be loud or wake it up either or else it will try to kill me with its sharp teeth.' Goku pulled away a little more, but stopped when he heard the puppy whimper as it shook its back leg. 'Maybe if I just stay here I'll be fine. Maybe I'll be lucky and it won't be hungry when it wakes up. Why me? Why does it want to eat me?' He moved his head back to his pillow and gazed down at the sleeping beast, as he thought it was. 'Well now that I look at it, she is kind of cute, but only when she's sleeping and not trying to eat me.'
(Ok, end of part. What did you think? Good or bad? See ya later. Bye. )
"Get that thing away from me!" Goku clung to a branch high above in the treetops as an excited puppy happily yipped up at him. He looked down at the puppy, who had its two front paws on the trunk of the tree as if it were trying to get closer to him. "That thing is vicious!" He didn't even pay attention to the tail, which was happily wagging.
Minako laughed at the top of her lungs as she looked up to Goku. She couldn't even begin to think of any reason why Goku, the strongest person she knew, would be afraid of such a harmless puppy. "I think she's really taken a liking to you, Goku."
When Lucky jumped up to try and get closer to him, Goku freaked. He jumped to a higher branch in the tree. "She likes the way I taste, you mean. That's why she keeps licking me." Just before any of this had happened, the puppy had jumped from Rei's arms onto Goku. As if that wasn't bad enough, she started licking his face, her way of saying hello, but Goku didn't take it that way.
Makoto walked to the tree and picked up Lucky once she saw that Goku had been tortured enough. "Come on, Goku. You're being silly. She's not going to eat you. She likes you too much to eat you."
"I think I'll just stay right here. As long as that thing stays away from me, I'll be happy." Goku let out a nearly silent sigh of relief when he saw the girls begin to take the menacing puppy away. No matter how much they would tell him about how the puppy wouldn't do anything to him, he wouldn't believe them. His mind was just too stuck on the fact that sharp objects always mean bad news.
He looked forward once again when he felt the power levels of Hotaru as well as his daughter in front of him and sure enough, they were floating there in front of him, looking at him like he was an idiot. "What?"
Usagi laughed at her father's behavior. She had never seen anyone react in such a way towards anything so small. "You can fly."
Goku chuckled as he let go of the tree and joined his daughter and her friend in the air. "It was a reaction to that wild animal."
Hotaru frowned. "She's not wild, Goku. She's sweet. How come you aren't afraid to fight rough, but you're afraid of a lil ol puppy?"
Goku turned to Hotaru with embarrassment. He didn't exactly know how to answer that question. It was just the way he felt about it. He had been that way ever since he was a child. "You got me." He let his eyes trail down to the shining weapon that she held. "Hey, that's a nice staff you've got there. Do you mind if I take a look at it?"
Hotaru proudly held out her brand new staff for Goku to look at. "Papa had it fixed. It used to be all rusty."
Goku carefully took the staff from Hotaru and bounced it up and down a bit. "Whoever remade it did a very good job. It's got almost perfect balance." He barely looked up enough to see Hotaru's smiling face. "This is kind of heavy, are you sure you can handle it?"
Hotaru gave a confident smile in response. "Of course. I've been training with gravity, remember?"
Goku chuckled. "That's right." He let his hand glide over the smooth metal of the handle. "This is nice." He let his hand trail up to the blades, which were extremely sharp. 'Wow, this must have cost them a fortune to have done.' "Well Hotaru, you have yourself a great fighting weapon here. Now all we have to do is teach you how to use it. Are you ready to learn?"
Hotaru furiously nodded with excitement. "I sure am!"
Goku chuckled. "That's the spirit." He turned to Usagi with a smile. "Don't worry, I'll teach her how to use it before I just attack her. I promise. This is one of those things that you have to teach in order to really understand."
Usagi smiled. "Great." An evil smirk appeared on her face as she floated forward, which only created fear in her father's eyes. "And after this, I'll be your Sensei for a while."
Goku gulped as he looked down at Usagi. He wasn't sure he liked her tone of voice that she was using, let alone her smirk. "Uh, do I want to know what you're plotting?"
Usagi giggled. "Don't worry, daddy. It's for the best. I'm going to teach you how to play with Lucky." She couldn't help but laugh at her father's face, which could have dropped to the ground with fear right there and then. "I want to show you that she's not going to hurt you, K?!"
Goku backed away from his daughter. "N...no. It's not ok. I'm not getting near that thing. That thing will be the death of me yet. You'll see. She's going to eat you one of these days and then you'll understand what I was talking about."
Usagi just rolled her eyes. "You're funny."
"You'll see." Goku playfully pushed Usagi away from him and turned to Hotaru, who was laughing at the whole situation again. "I guess we should get started then, kid."
Usagi took that as a hint to leave and she didn't mind either. She still had to tell the others about Hotaru. That was something she was still trying to grasp herself. Without saying a word to her father and Hotaru, she turned around to join her friends.
Once she saw Usagi leave, Hotaru immediately became more nervous than she had ever been before. She didn't know if she would be able to keep her worries hidden from Goku now that she had been left alone. She hadn't expected Usagi to leave her alone with Goku like that. Alone to be nervous, to let that nervousness show. But she tried to keep in mind what Usagi told her, about how she should just try to act normal like she had been all along. "So! What are we going to do first?!"
Goku took one look at Hotaru and knew that she was hiding something. He had a hunch that she was hiding something big from him all along, he just didn't know what. As well of a job she was doing trying to hide it at that moment, it was hard to pass anything by him, but he decided not to call her out on it. He knew that it must have been something big or else she and Usagi would have told him when they arrived. He didn't want to push her into anything so he decided to just let it alone until she was ready. "Well, first I'm going to tell you about fighting with weapons."
Goku paused to let himself fall. Before he landed, however, he searched the area for the puppy, who could have been lurking anywhere. 'Good, they finally took it away.' When he saw that she wasn't around, he let his feet touch the ground as he relaxed himself.
Hotaru giggled as she dropped to stand in front of her new Sensei. "Still afraid of Lucky, huh?"
Goku shook his head. "Not afraid, just cautious. I don't want to get bitten or even tasted." He glared at her when she laughed at him more. "Yeah, yeah." He again grabbed her staff from her to begin his training. "First, there are some ground rules here. Fighting with a weapon is a serious thing, especially when your opponent doesn't have one. So, until you've become very skilled with this, I don't want you to try to spar with it outside of our training, ok?"
Hotaru nodded. 'At least he's not asking why we were late.' She began to calm her nerves. It was obvious that he wasn't concerned with them being late.
"Second, when I do allow you to fight others you must be extra careful around them. They could get very hurt." He paused when he saw a smile appear on Hotaru's face, which was accompanied by quiet laughter. "What's so funny?"
"You're going to be fighting me when I use that, aren't you?" Goku nodded. He still failed to understand what was so hilarious about that. "Why are you going to fight me that when it's so sharp but you won't let Lucky near you?
Goku groaned. He just knew that something like that would come up. "The blades aren't going to eat me!" He frowned down at the laughing child. He hated the fact that he was afraid of sharp pointy objects. "Do you want to learn or not?" Well that shut Hotaru up. She sheepishly nodded. "Good, then let's continue. Here are some basics that any good weapons user should know. First, never rely only on your weapon no matter how strong it may seem. You should use it, yes, but not all the time. You should always be prepared to get into some hand to hand combat."
"I know. Because if you only use your weapon, then your opponent will catch on to what you're doing and then they'll find a good defense for it as well as a way to attack without getting defended. If you always use a weapon then you leave yourself wide open for almost any attack."
Goku nodded down at her in complete awe. He didn't know that Hotaru knew so much about fighting. "That's exactly right, Hotaru."
Hotaru smiled. "The girls told me all about fighting. They told me that I should be diverse in the types of attacks I use so I don't get predictable."
'They taught her more than I thought.' "They're right. I guess we can move onto more important things then."
~*~*~
"SHE'S A WHAT?!" Usagi had just broken the news to the girls, all of whom didn't know how to take it. None of them had once ever thought for a moment that Hotaru could have been anything but a Human. She had hidden herself too well.
Rei tried to calm herself down after her little outburst. She hadn't meant to react the way she had, but she could hardly help it. She threw herself to Usagi and grabbed onto her shoulders, putting her face in Usagi's. "Are you positive that she's a Saiyan? Are you sure that she's not just trying to be like you?"
Usagi pushed Rei away from her and sat he down on the ground next to the rest of the girls. She herself also sat down. "Be quiet. If you yell like that my dad and Hotaru will hear. And yes, I'm certain that she's half Saiyan. She has a tail and everything."
Ami stroked Lucky's back as she stayed as calm as possible. But even she found it hard to believe what Usagi was telling them. "Usagi, she can't be a Saiyan. We would have known long before this because of the link. We would have known as soon as our thoughts became one with each other."
Usagi sighed. "I know that. I don't know how she hid it from us but it IS true. She IS part Saiyan. But she's not a normal Saiyan. She has the power to heal, like her mom. I think that her mom has something to do with Cell or his queen."
Makoto's eyes became wide at the thought of having to face his queen. That was something that they surely didn't want to go through, especially if she was stronger than Cell. He was a hard enough foe as it was. But, she knew that it would come up one day since she was still after Usagi. "What do you mean? Are you saying that Hotaru's mom is a bad guy?"
Usagi shook her head. "No. She's definitely on our side from what Hotaru told me."
"Wait, wait, wait, WAIT!" Everyone stopped what they were doing and turned their attention onto Minako, who seemed to be getting lost more and more with each second that past. "Before we get onto the Cell deal, how did her mom get here? How come she survived but no other Saiyans did besides your dad and Vejita?"
"I don't know. We both don't know. But I have a feeling that the reason why Hotaru's mom is here was because of Cell's queen."
Ami picked up Lucky and put her on the ground. Lucky immediately went about he business as she began eating the overgrown grass. "Why do you think that, Usagi? What did Hotaru tell you?"
"She said that her mom was running away from something or somebody all her life until she married the Professor. Then, right before she died, she told Hotaru that something big was going to happen. That was two years ago. Two years ago her mom died."
Minako's puzzlement began to dissolve into understanding as she put two and two together. "Of course. It makes sense. Cell attacked two years ago when Hotaru's mom was killed."
Usagi nodded. "Right. But Hotaru doesn't think that her mom was killed. She thinks that she was kidnapped by whoever she was running from. It makes sense."
Rei looked around the group. It was obvious that they were trying to contemplate their position and where they stood in this situation. "Girls, what are we going to do about this?" She let her eyes pause on Usagi. "Are we going to tell anyone else?"
"No way. Hotaru and her dad don't want us to tell anyone until later. Even though I think we should, I don't want to break my promise that I made to them. You guys have to promise not to let his slip."
Minako stood to her feet with a smile. She couldn't wait to see Hotaru again. "I think I speak for all of us when I say, you have our word." She turned back to Ami, Rei, and Makoto, who all nodded in agreement.
"Great. Hotaru is going to be so happy when she finds out that we're behind her one-hundred percent. She was so upset when I saw. She thought she was going to have to move. Now all we have to do is wait for her to get done with dad so I can learn to heal like her."
~*~*~
Meanwhile, back with Goku and Hotaru, Goku had already taught Hotaru the basic attack forms of a weapon. "Ok Hotaru, now that you know some basic attacks, let's talk about defense." Hotaru nodded without a single word. "Now then, you obviously know that you can defend with one of these babies, right?"
"Yep."
"Why don't you tell me how much you know so far then? I don't want to bore you with telling you stuff you already know."
"I don't know if this would work, but I was thinking that if I'm fighting against someone who can shoot energy attacks at me that I could deflect them with the blade if I need to."
Goku smiled. "Wow, you're a smart kid."
Hotaru confidently grinned at the compliment. "I don't go to Infinity College for nothing, Goku."
'I'll have to watch her. She knows her stuff. The girls taught her a lot for a beginner.' "That's great. Now I won't have to teach you as much. Something else that you can do to block is use the long metal staff-handle to block from physical attacks. If you're lucky, this thing will be strong enough to deal some damage if it's hit and you block just right."
Hotaru smirked. She couldn't wait to get more knowledge and then try it out. She wanted to feel what it was like to fight with a weapon. To her, it felt more right to have a weapon to fight with. It felt more exciting to have one as well. "So it works as a two in one, right?"
"Right. When you get more comfortable with it, you can block and the attack directly after the block. You can attack either physically or with the staff itself."
"Does it give you an advantage?"
Goku thought back to his earlier days of fighting for a moment. He tried to remember all the fights had had fought with his own Power Pole. Well there you have it. I don't remember the Japanese name for it "Sometimes it gives you the advantage in a fight, but other times it can just get in the way and lead to your defeat. That's why you have to know how and when to use it."
Hotaru nodded in awe as she let all of the information seep into her head. She had a momentary dip in her concentration when she felt the energy of her friends, as well as the puppy, walking up from behind. She couldn't help but giggle when she saw Goku's face turn completely pale. "Uh-oh..."
Goku let out a choked chuckle as he backed away from Hotaru after handing her back her staff. "Usagi...we're trying to conduct business here. Why don't you and that thing go somewhere else to play for a while? Take her to your tree house or something, away from me."
Rei took one look at the puppy in her arms and then up to Goku, who was once again getting frightened. She grinned as she went to sit against a tree not too far from where he and Hotaru were. "We'll just sit over here where it's nice and safe for both of you, Goku."
"Make sure you don't come any closer then." With that, he pressed his fingers to his forehead and left the area without a single word more only to once again appear before them with his Power Pole. "Why don't we have you practice what you've learned today, Hotaru?"
Usagi ran from the tree she was leaning against to her father with wide and curious eyes. "Cool! What's that, daddy?" She reached out and snatched it from her unsuspecting father.
Goku reached over his daughter's shoulder and pulled his orange Power Pole from her grasp. "Don't play with this, Usagi. It's not a toy. You could hurt yourself with it if you're not careful."
Usagi reached out for it again, but was stopped from getting again by a firm grip on her wrist. She fearfully gulped when she saw the angry face of her father. "I just want to look at it. I won't play with it."
"It isn't safe unless you know what it's capable of doing. This isn't just any normal pole here, Usagi. It was given to my by my Grandfather. It's a tool with special powers to be used only by those who have tamed its power." Goku released his grip on Usagi's wrist.
Usagi dropped her head in shame. "I'm sorry."
Goku changed his frown into a smile. He didn't want her to think that he was mad at her. That was the last thing that he wanted. "It's all right. Just don't be so quick to grab next time. Now why don't you go and sit with your friends while I finish up with Hotaru?"
Usagi smiled as she turned around. "Ok." Usagi got a devilish grin on her face as she walked back to her friends. 'I wonder what kind of power it has...'
~*~*~
Once Goku was finished with showing Hotaru a few moves, they were finished for the day and there was still an hour left before Hotaru would have to be home for the evening, an hour which Usagi had already pretty much planned out in her head.
"Come on, guys." Usagi stood up and stretched a bit as she walked towards Hotaru, who was more excited than before. "I have an idea."
Ami stopped in her place when she heard that. Usagi was using the same mischievous voice that she had used when she first found out about the time machine. "What are you planning?"
Usagi paused and grinned as she glanced over her shoulder. "Nothing...yet." She just laughed as she started up with walking towards her father and Hotaru with the puppy in her arms. Goku didn't say anymore than a goodbye before he hightailed it back to the house when he saw Usagi approaching with the tiny animal. 'He's so weird when it comes to Lucky.'
Hotaru happily smiled up at her friends, who looked down at her. She didn't even wait for them to ask her anything about he training before she started in. "Usagi your daddy is SO cool! He taught me a lot of cool stuff today! I can't wait for MORE!"
"I know, isn't he?" Usagi looked up to her house when she heard the door slam shut. "I'll be right back." She made sure she had a good grip on the puppy and began running at he fastest speed to the house, leaving her curious friends behind with Hotaru.
Minako was the first to take action. She kneeled down and looked into Hotaru's wide Violet eyes. "Hotaru, Usagi told us that you're part Saiyan. Is that true?"
Hotaru nodded as her expression filled with sadness. She slowly unwrapped her tail from her waist to show them that she was telling the truth once and for all. "Yes. It's true. I'm sorry I didn't tell you guys but we thought that it would be dangerous."
Ami gasped when she saw the tail. She hadn't really expected it to be true, but sure enough there it was. 'Two half Saiyan children.' "That's ok, Hotaru. We understand. But, we were wondering how you hid this from us when we created the link."
Hotaru slightly perked up. "I don't really know how I did it. I guess I blocked it out of my mind for that moment."
"Well we just want you to know that we're not going to tell a single person about your secret."
Rei nodded with the agreement of Ami's statement. "That's right. We won't tell anyone unless you want us to."
Hotaru couldn't help but smile at that. The last person who had seen her tail was back in Nagoya. She had spread it around the entire neighborhood in which they lived. The ridicules had gotten so bad that they had needed to move away, but Hotaru found herself to be extra lucky to have found such a city filled with people who didn't mind a person who had a tail. "You guys are great."
At that moment, Usagi rejoined the group, without the puppy. Without a single word, she grabbed Hotaru's wrist and dragged her away from the open field and into the forest where the trees would hide what they were about to do. The only sound that came from her was a soft giggle of joy.
Hotaru didn't resist being pulled away from the field, but she did wonder what was going on in her friend's mind. "Usagi? Where are we going?"
"It's the perfect time..."
Minako, who followed behind the two Saiyans as well as the others, was again confused by Usagi for the second time that day. "Time for what? What are you doing Usagi?"
Usagi only continued to giggle until she came upon a small pond that was deep in the woods in one of the most well hidden areas that Usagi knew of. Even her own father had never been there. "He's taking a nap while he waits for dinner. It's absolutely perfect." Usagi dropped Hotaru's wrist and turned to face her friends, who were still as confused as ever. She didn't say another word. She just stood there and stared into the air with a giant smile planted on her face.
With concern, Rei walked to Usagi and put her hand on her forehead. "Are you all right, Usagi? You're starting to scare us."
Usagi just turned to Rei and gave her a crazy smile. "I'm fine. I'm just so excited." She turned back to Hotaru, who was starting to understand what she wanted. "Dad's asleep. He won't be able to feel the healing power. You can teach me now. It's the perfect time. What do you say Hotaru? Can you teach me?"
Hotaru smirked as she walked to Usagi. "Sure. I'll give it my best shot. I'll teach you like my mom showed me. It's all I really know so it won't take long. I've only done this once, but I'm pretty sure that I can remember how to do it." Hotaru suddenly became shy as the others gathered around her to see what she was going to do.
Hotaru giggled before she proceeded. She liked the idea of having revered places with Usagi. Now she would be the Sensei and Usagi would be the student. "First, you have to understand everything is a form of energy. Wood, metal, tissue, air, water, everything."
Usagi nodded with actual understanding, something that was rare with her. "Ok, that makes sense."
"Then you have to focus your energy through your body to whatever your trying to heal, let the two merge as one. Then focusing on the patient, you use your energy to reform it into the way that it's supposed to. This is mostly natural to the body you're healing, a feeling of rightness as you correctly rearrange the structure to its proper shape. You can also use it to absorb the other's pain into yourself, but that hurts you just as much as the patient was hurting. But, you can use it to increase or change the structure. Like Mama and I did with my tail. We used our energy to reinforce it and deaden the nerve endings so while they can still feel sensations as good as ever, they wouldn't feel pain as easily."
Everyone, even Ami, was impressed at Hotaru's knowledge of such a complicated subject matter. But with Usagi being as excited and antsy as she was to learn this skill, spoke before anyone else. "Ok, Hotaru, lets try it out on my tail." She couldn't wait to get her tail to the point of feeling almost no pain. 'If only I knew about this BEFORE the tournament, I wouldn't have had to go through all of that pain.'
"Are you sure, it's hard to do at first and I only have done it a couple of times."
"We'll try together. Use the mind link to guide each other. That way I can learn from you as we go."
Hotaru nodded. "Good idea. Let's try it then." Hotaru pulled Usagi away from the others so they could have space to work freely. She sat down and directed Usagi to do the same, which she gladly did. "Pull your tail in front of you so we can focus our energy on it, K?"
Usagi nodded as she moved her tail to sit on her side. It was just long enough to sit in Usagi's lap. "Ok. Let's open the link now."
"Right." Both girls concentrated their energy into a double mind link so they wouldn't have to use all of their energy on the link. They needed as much energy as possible for the healing process. 'Start concentrating your energy, but not like you normally do. Here, follow my example.'
~*~*~
While Hotaru showed Usagi how to heal, Goku lay asleep in his bed. He was exhausted from a long hard day of training. Unknown to him, the tiny puppy that had been found only one day before crawled up into the bed with him. She began smelling around his face and licked it twice when she realized who it was. For the first time, he had not reacted with insensate screaming, but it was not because he liked her, it was because he was asleep.
Lucky took his quietness as an invitation to do nothing more than cuddle. Hey, it was a nice big fluffy bed with one of her favorite people. She turned around in a circle a few times. After about four turns, she finally decided to lay down, right next to Goku's face and excitedly wagged her tail. She nuzzled her nose under his chin and almost immediately drifted off to sleep.
~*~*~
Back in the woods, Usagi and Hotaru seemed to be making progress. Granted, it was their second time trying because Usagi had accidentally built up the wrong kind of power and overloaded the link, but that was something that they chose not to speak about in future conversations for the fact that both Hotaru and Usagi both had puffed tails as well as hair from the excessive energy running through their bodies all at once.
Hotaru slightly raised her power level to once again speak to Usagi. 'Now, raise your power again, just not the fighting kind. Raise your inner energy. Mama called in love energy.'
Usagi perked her head at that. 'I think I know what you're talking about now.' She once again raised her energy, but not her fighting energy. No, she didn't want to puff up even more. It was bad enough that she already looked like a scared cat, she didn't want to add to that.
Together, the two of them work to get her tail healed and fixed forever. As they went along, Usagi learned exactly what she was meant to do by feeling what Hotaru was doing inside her body. It was much easier to learn things through the link than it was learning by watching or being told how to do it.
Eventually, Usagi's tail twitched slightly, but no real pain was felt anywhere in her body. First, they changed the nerves that ran up and down it, which actually did cause her pain. Intense pain at that. Usagi had to bite her lower lip to keep from screaming in such pain. It felt as if each and every nerve was being individually ripped from her tail as if it were part of a licorice.
Soon, they began to enhance the nerve endings so she could feel sensations much better. They deadened the pain output from the nerve endings, though. They also used their energy to harden and strengthen the tail. Its dexterity was not lost at all, in fact, it was increased. The strength increased a hundred-fold.
"Usagi...Usagi...USAGI!" Makoto waved her hand in front of her tranced friend.
Usagi shook her head, coming out of her trance that she had fallen into halfway through the procedure. She really didn't have anything to say but, "Wow...!" She could feel a real difference in the way her tail felt let alone the knew knowledge she contained.
Minako looked down at Usagi's tail, which lay in front of her on the ground just to the side of Usagi. "Did it work?"
Hotaru nodded. "I think so. She's acting like I did when I first did this."
Minako grinned as she lifted her foot and stomped down as hard as she could on Usagi's tail. "Did that hurt Usagi?"
Surprised and acting purely on reflex, Usagi retracted her tail and jumped to her feet, grabbing Minako by the front of her GI when she could. "What are you thinki..." She stopped and looked down to her tail, which she could freely move with no trouble. She had felt the blow, yet she wasn't hurt. She was free to move with no energy loss. "It worked!"
Rei bent over to look at Usagi's tail and grabbed it. "Wow, I can't believe it. That really did work." She pulled on her tail as hard as she could. "Yep, you didn't yell at all. Hey Makoto, you gotta try this."
Makoto strutted over to Usagi and grabbed her tail from Rei. She dug her nails into the fur as hard as she could to feel the bone underneath. "Yep. It sure did work."
Usagi violently ripped her tail from Makoto and frowned. "Hey! Just because it doesn't hurt anymore doesn't mean it's a free for all with pulling my tail." Usagi quickly forgot about her friends testing out her new tail as she walked over to a rock. "I wonder how much stronger it is." She lifted her tail and smashed it down hard on a rock, shattering it on impact. "WOW!"
In almost near shock, Makoto turned to Hotaru, who was also in shock. "What did you guys to do her tail? That thing is dangerous now."
Usagi impishly grinned as she walked to Minako and wrapped he tail around her waist. Without a word from either, Usagi proceeded to pick Minako up. "AHHH! HELP!" Minako reached down to her waist and grabbed the tail that was tightly wrapped around it. "USAGI!"
"Serves you right. What if it hadn't worked? That would have hurt." Usagi laughed as she threw the surprised Minako into the pond, which scared a group of ducks away. "I think I can learn to like this."
"Oh yeah!?" Using all of her speed, Minako jumped out of the pond and grabbed Usagi by the legs, causing her to fall backwards. Minako jumped over Usagi and picked her up, immediately throwing her into the pond when she got her completely in the air.
"Hey!" Usagi jumped out of the water and grabbed Minako by the arm with a smirk. Right when she was about to throw her back into the water, she stopped and looked down at the obviously happy Hotaru. "Hey, why don't we make your tail stronger too? That way we can gang up on Minako."
Minako playfully frowned as she grabbed Usagi by the back of the neck with her free arm and threw her back into the pond. "That's what you get for even thinking about using her against me."
Usagi laughed as she floated out of the water. "Too bad." She landed next to her dry friends to make sure that she wouldn't be thrown back into the pond. "So what do you think, Hotaru? Do you want to make your tail stronger?"
"OF COURSE!"
~*~*~
Back at the Son house, Goku was awakened by the slamming of a door out in the other part of the house. Though, he wasn't too worried about it since it wasn't hard for him to fall back to sleep. Things would have been fine if he hadn't felt something under his chin. 'Uh-oh...' He gently pulled his head back just enough to see the other creature that was right by him. He immediately began to panic, but he didn't yell out. He didn't want to wake the sleeping beast. 'Oh god what do I do? It's got me cornered now. It's going to wake up and be hungry. It's going to want to eat me. But I can't be loud or wake it up either or else it will try to kill me with its sharp teeth.' Goku pulled away a little more, but stopped when he heard the puppy whimper as it shook its back leg. 'Maybe if I just stay here I'll be fine. Maybe I'll be lucky and it won't be hungry when it wakes up. Why me? Why does it want to eat me?' He moved his head back to his pillow and gazed down at the sleeping beast, as he thought it was. 'Well now that I look at it, she is kind of cute, but only when she's sleeping and not trying to eat me.'
(Ok, end of part. What did you think? Good or bad? See ya later. Bye. )