Chapter 17 Examining Oneself

Monday 12:15 AM

Ichigo silently followed Roshi to a large estate in the woods with three large houses on it. The largest was by no means as large as the King's Palace on Saiya, but it was larger then some of the smaller palaces that her father kept for when he wanted to get away for a while.

Ichigo had been brooding over what Roshi had said to her, what she had thought about him. He was right, she had judged him even before she had met him or any of the people on this planet. 'What was it he said to me? When he threw me into that tree?'

"I dare because less then two hours ago, you were trying to kill me. I dare because you mercilessly killed at least five defenseless innocent people on your way here. I dare because you carelessly threw a ki blast that would have wiped out an entire village during our fight. I dare because of all the people on this planet when I saw you broken; twisted, and mangled bleeding body at the bottom of that pit, I alone chose to heal you. Anyone else on this planet would have just let you bleed to death and you would have deserved it. Get this and get this now. You are in no condition to be making demands of anyone. You have clamed that you are better somehow then my ancestors, well it probably wouldn't take much, but you have yet to show me anything that makes me believe you are any better then Vegeta was the first time he came to Earth!"

'He was right. I have not acted any better then the image I had preconceived for him. I have not been myself. I have fallen back into my old mission routine. My father had almost broken me out of such bad habits.' Ichigo thought as she watched Roshi punch a code into the door lock and open the door to the house.

"This is more or less our guest house. Goku's son Gohan built it after he got married." Roshi said to her as he led her up the stairs past numerous old family pictures and relics. After opening a door near the top of the stairs, he entered a large bedroom. "You can stay here. Make yourself at home. I doubt there is any food in the Refrigerator, but the pantry will have canned and dried food."

Ichigo pushed her thoughts to the back of her mind and looked around the room. Ichigo glanced around at the various stuffed animals and posters on the walls. 'This is not a warrior's room. It is too soft and too cozy. However, this house seems to be built for comfort rather then elegance.' "Is this your sister's room?" She asked after deciding now was as good a time as any to attempt to be more diplomatic and civil.

Roshi laughed, "ah no, It is my umm great great great great great... well just say it is Pan's room. She was Goku's granddaughter. She died almost 400 years ago."

This startled Ichigo. There were numerous shrines and memorials to people on Saiya, but this room was clean, and had not collected the dust of neglect. "Oh, ah I see. Why is everything still like this? I would have thought that other people would have used this room since then."

Roshi thought for a while and then replied. "Ah well, we do, occasionally we have guests that don't stay in the main house, but mostly this room is just left this way out of respect."

Ichigo picked up a large stuffed teddy bear that was dressed in an orange gi. "This Pan must have done something remarkable to earn such great reverence."

Roshi walked to a large bay window, which had a built in circular couch in it and opened a window blind. "Well, she did, but there are other reasons. You see, this was Gohan and Videl's house. After Pan got married, she lived in Satan City for a while. After Chichi, who was Goku's wife, died, Ubuu and Pan built the big house over there." He said as he pointed to the Son family mansion. "The first Goten who was Gohan's brother built that house over there." He said as he pointed to another big house on the family estate. "My cousin Gotan and his wife live there now. He is 14 years older then I. He is a lawyer but does fairly well with martial arts. His son Gomen is two now. Anyway, I am getting sidetracked. Pan lived an extremely long time. She outlived her husband and both of her children. After Ubuu, her husband passed away, Pan moved back into this house. I guess from the stories that are passed down, she became fixated with her past and restored the house to what it was like when she was a child. Since she was the last person to actually live in this house, we have not changed anything since she died."

Ichigo glanced around. "How strange."

"Why do you say that?" Roshi asked inquisitively.

"Well, we have shrines to great people on Saiya as well, but we would never preserve something like this. Senility at the end of an excessively long life is nothing to be proud of." After realizing what she had just said Ichigo quickly held her hand up. "Wait, I did not mean to demean you or her. I just..." She trailed off when she realized that there was no believable thing to say, and that Roshi did not seem overly upset.

"You were just speaking your mind. I actually prefer that to dealing with someone who carefully chooses their words." Roshi paused, and then continued. "Kinomi, at least I know you were being honest a moment ago."

Ichigo mentally kicked herself and made a note to stop using her Grandmother's name. Eventually, at least. There was no point in being deceptive and the current situation was being highly disrespectful to the memory of a great woman. Even if she had died before Ichigo's birth and therefore, Ichigo had never met her.

"Anyway, Pan's senility is a topic of some debate in my family. I have read some of her later diary entries, and I honestly do not think she was senile. She just longed for connection. Her children were dead, and her grandchildren had their own lives. As for leaving the house the way it was. Humans have a phrase that goes: History repeats itself. Those who forget the past are doomed to repeat it."

Ichigo shook her head. We have a phrase that means much the same thing: He who forgets will be forgotten. It is always linked to a story about the civil war between the Vegeta Tra... the followers of the Vegeta family and the followers of... of the true King. But I understand. This house is a link to your past so regardless of how it came to be it has become important in and of itself."

Roshi blinked a few times before answering. "Yes, that is it exactly."

Ichigo sat down on the bed and looked back at Roshi. "Tell me something, this has bothered me this entire week. Where are all the warriors?"

I'm not exactly sure what you mean by that question." Roshi replied.

When the Vegeta... When those who followed the Vegeta family left, they took almost half of the warriors on the planet. In fact, from the histories, they took only warriors. No scientists, no farmers, no laborers, only warriors. Why is it that only you, a boy no older then myself was the only one to come to fight me? Where are all the veteran warriors?"

* * *

The question surprised Roshi. Not because it wasn't something that was a logical query, but because he was wondering much the same thing. If the Saiyan home planet was truly under attack why send only one girl? From what stories had said about Vegeta's opinions about Bra, women were generally thought of as too valuable to risk, and were not normally thought of as being overly great warriors. 'I can worry about that later,' he reminded himself.

"Well Kinomi, to be honest, there has not been a warrior in the traditional Saiyan sense of the word on Earth since Vegeta died about 470 years ago."

"Then what do you call yourself?"

'Good question.' "I would guess I would call myself a martial artist. The term Warrior denotes someone trained for war. Until you came along I had never been forced to fight for any purpose other then fitness or fun."

Ichigo gawked at him as if he had just grown a second head. "Fun? You just about killed me and you claim that your training was mostly for fun? What about the people who actually train for real? What kind of monsters are they?"

'I don't know if I should be telling her this, but...' "Ah well, to tell you the truth, I am one of the people who trains for real. Like I said, there are no more warriors. Most of the Saiyans on the planet are like Slip. They might know how to fly, but that is about it."

"What?!?! And you call yourselves Saiyans? This is... is... outrageous! You don't even have enough Saiyan blood pumping in your veins to take training seriously?" Ichigo yelled jumping up and pumping her fists.

"I beat you didn't I?" Roshi said while he picked up and replaced a stuffed tiger she had knocked off the bed.

"But! Ah... You... ARRGGHHHH! Ok, so what about your instructor. There has to be someone better or at least older then you to teach you what you know. Why were you the only one to come fight me? Where are the adults?"

"Kinomi, calm down. My father is on his way to Namek. The reason I knew about you and was somewhat prepared for your arrival was because Slip's parents are also on their way to Namek, and they left her in charge. When you killed those researchers, she panicked, and then when you fought Piccolo on Namek we started really preparing. Now whether you can accept it or not, my father, myself, and possibly one or two uncle's are the only people that could have even stood a chance at beating you. There are no adult warriors. There are not even really any adult martial artists that compare to you or I. That is why none of them became involved."

Ichigo sat down on the bed in shock. Roshi watched her calmly for several minutes before she spoke again.

"And your cousins. What about them? How many hybrids are living on this world?"

'Hmm, our ways are too alien to her. She can no longer accept us as actually being Saiyans. Well, just because she won't claim us, does not mean I won't claim to be both Saiyan and Human. Especially after what Slip told me last week.' "I guess you have met all of the cousins my age. For some reason we really don't have very large families so there are not that many descendants from Goku or Vegeta. It is really hard to explain all the relations. Anyway both Tee, and Boxers are around 24,000 but they are really the only two close to my age who train. All in all, I would say there are about 70 or so living Saiyans on Earth. And of those, there are probably about oh 12 or so with any appreciable training in Martial Arts."

"This is a lot to absorb. However, from the way you talked, I take it your family is by far the strongest." She said to him inquisitively.

"Ah well, yeah I guess. My particular branch of the family is descended from both Goku and Vegeta. Throw in Gohan and Ubuu, and you have the four strongest people to have ever lived." Seeing her reaction Roshi quickly added "at least to my knowledge."

Ichigo thought for a little while and then commented. "I want to know something."

"Ah ok, what?"

"The humans, as you called the people who live on this planet, who I ran into are incredibly weak. Not one of them has a power level of over 50. From what I can infer from your commentary, your family has almost completely lost its Saiyan heritage. How is it that interbreeding with such weaklings has not caused you to become just as weak as them?"

Roshi took offense to the comment. But, he realized that she had not meant to be so crude with her comment, however, at the same time there would have been more eloquent ways to ask that question.

"Humans in general have no ki training. They as a people however contain great heart. They are also very intelligent and quite able to adapt to various conditions. They are also innately skilled in the use of ki. My ability to sense you and control my ki are both traits that humans never learn, they just have. That is, if they can manipulate ki, they have those abilities. Krillan, Videl and Tien all had power levels of close to or greater then 1 million. Ubuu was not a normal human, he had the soul of a demon, but he was in the end even without transformations every bit as powerful as Goku. Please do not judge anyone because of their blood." 'You may think less of me because of my hybrid heritage, but to think less of my abilities is a mistake I cannot allow you to make without penalty.'

Ichigo chewed on her lip for a few seconds. "Not what I expected at all." She said to herself almost to softly for Roshi to hear. "Good night." She said suddenly as she started moving stuffed animals and things onto a shelf.

Roshi was surprised at the sudden harshness in her voice after she has seemed so amicable earlier. "Ok," he said as he turned to leave. "Be ready to train at seven, or you can train in you night clothes. Good night." He said as he closed the door. 'I think the only consolation I have is the fact that she seems just as confused about me as I am about her.' Roshi thought as he slowly walked back to his house.

Roshi had known that his mother was not home several minutes before they had gotten to his house. This worried him even more then Kinomi did.

'She must have gone to look for me,' he decided. 'Great, now what am I going to do?'

He found his mother's cell phone sitting in the recharger. "Man the cell in the car is broken! Can't mom ever remember to take her cell? Well guess I can't call her and tell her I am home. I suppose I will just have to writer her a note."

Roshi wrote out a note to tell her that everything was fine and he was home. He then went up to his room and shed his clothing. Walking to the bathroom he took a quick shower to attempt to relieve some of his tension.

It didn't work. After drying himself and putting on a pair of shorts he flopped onto his bed. "1:36 and I can finally get some sleep. Only problem exhausted but not the slightest bit tired. La la la la this sucks." He said to his empty room.

Looking around he saw that a light indicating that he had messages was blinking on his computer. 'Well, might as well at least see the messages.' Roshi thought to himself as he slowly got out of bed.

"You have 128 video messages, three emails, and one quick note." His computer informed him as he opened up the message center.

'128?!?!' Roshi thought before he looked at the directory and saw whom the messages were from. Slip had left 125 of the 128 video messages.

"Ha, that girl is obsessive. I bet every single one is wondering where the heck I am." He said as he looked at the time index for the calls.

Scrolling down he found one from Mariah and one from Kit. He quickly opened the one from Mariah.

"Hi Roshi. I hope your thing at Capsule Corp went well. You left so quickly I didn't even get to ask you what was up. Anyway, It is now 5:30 and I was wondering if you were free tonight. If you are call Kit and she can track me down. It would be nice to go do something."

Mariah smiled and then took a breath. The look in her eyes changed. "Roshi, I feel sort of funny saying this, but you know you can trust me. You don't have to run away. I just, well, I just wanted you to know I'm here if you wanted to tell me something."

"Anyway, later man! Hope to see you soon!"

'Well, seeing as it is now almost 2 a.m. I don't think we are going to be able to do anything.' Roshi thought feeling a bit cheated and slightly disappointed. "I wonder what she meant about telling her stuff. She was at Kit's. If Kit is going behind my back and telling Mariah things about me I'm going to strangle her. And Mariah looked well what was that look in her eyes?" Roshi said aloud to himself.

Deciding that pondering the minds of women would only lead him into senility, he played Kit's message.

"Hi Roshi, how are you? Anyway, I just wanted to gloat a bit. I don't get to do that with you much. I warned you. I tried to help, but NO! You had to go and brush my words aside like they didn't mean anything. Well guess what. You messed up. You messed up and Mariah is worried."

Kit rolled her eyes and laughed. "Knowing you, you are probably totally lost and completely confused about what I am saying so I will spell it out. You hugged Mariah today. She came over to my place and asked me if I had noticed any odd behavior from you lately. Well, since you have been less then good at returning messages this past week when you are normally almost anal about returning them I told her yes. She then went on to tell me about how you practically ran away from her and seemed almost inconvenienced to see her today. She also said that you hugged her. She wanted to know if I thought you were on drugs Roshi. Did I or did I not tell you that you looked like you had hooked yourself up to a steroids pump and selected inflate? She's worried about you, and I don't want to get into the middle of it so I told her to talk to you."

"Now, since I don't want to be the go between, between the two of you forever, I want you to repeat after me."

"Kit is always right. If Kit tells me to do something, I will do it because Kit is always right."

"In the absence of Kit, I will seek out any other female with the possible exception of Niko and she will be right. I will then listen to her because she will be right.

"In the future, I will not try to think for myself because as a male, I am totally clueless to the female sex, and I will seek out opinions from Kit or other females on every given chance I have."

"Now, if you repeat that saying and actually do at least some of what I have just said, you may have a chance. Anyway as the next installment of wisdom from Kit, I am telling you that if you don't want this problem to get bigger, you had better call me back before 8 p.m. tonight. Got that? BEFORE 8 p.m."

Talk to you later Ape!"

'I shouldn't be laughing. This isn't funny.' Roshi thought as he tried desperately to stop laughing.

After a few moments he wiped the tears from his eyes and shook his head. 'Well, Kit had better start looking for a guy so I can give her some advice or I don't know what I will do with her.' His mood suddenly sobered. 'Shit, Mariah is worried over nothing. Now I am sure the two of them will want an explanation as to why I never called back. What am I supposed to tell them? Ah yeah I was fighting to protect the earth from this Saiyan girl. Yeah, that would go over well.'

Realizing that no matter what he did it would probably be wrong, he decided to just watch the next message. This one was from Tee and it was left only a half hour previous.

"Hey Roshi.

So, you lucky dog you. Did you really grab that girl's chest in your fight? Common, I need to know. What did it feel like? Oh, and her ass to. Did you notice she has a really nice ass? I bet you grabbed that too. How did you get so lucky? Anyway you can tell me about it later." Tee made a face and ended the message.

Roshi just looked at his computer in shock. "Tee you are one hormonal 15 year old." He said as he shook his head. Looking down at his offending right hand, he cupped it slightly. 'It felt...' Roshi stopped, slapped himself on the forehead and shook his head.

"Computer record reply to last message."

"Recording"

"Tee, you are one hormonal bastard you know that? If you are so desperate to find out I can suggest a lot more receptive people then Kinomi. I have a feeling she would rip off your balls and use them as a floor mat if you even suggested or hinted at the questions you just asked me in your message."

Roshi realized whom he was talking to and what he was talking about.

"Wait a minute. You mean to tell me that you have been dating Miss model for a year and have yet to get a feel? You are either more pathetic or more honorable then I thought. To be honest I have spent more time then I would like to think of AVOIDING girls who practically fling their bodies at me. I would think you would have it even worse... Anyway grow up. I didn't mean to grab her there and you know it so drop the subject."

Roshi sent the reply and climbed back into bed. "I didn't even realize what I had grabbed until after she had head butted me. All I knew was it definitely was not a well muscled shoulder."

Turning his mind back on his problems with Mariah, Roshi thought on in silence.

* * *

Ichigo tried, but did not feel like sleeping. Saiya had 36-hour days and she was truthfully just not tired. She decided to explore the house a little bit. She saw that there was a private bathroom attached to the bedroom. She found the walk-in closet to be quite large and stuffed with a huge amount of clothing. However, the only things that seemed to have ever been worn were some overalls and a few red shirts. Walking back into the bedroom, she looked at the photos on the dresser. "Ha, this girl was a lot like me. Found something she liked to wear and stuck with it." She said as she looked at the various pictures of Pan with family and friends taken while she was wearing the same outfit.

Walking out into the hallway, she opened the upstairs doors to see what she could find. The next-door down was a nursery with pink walls and a neat little crib. Even though Ichigo had never seen baby stuff of this nature, she knew what it was on sight. It left her with a somewhat hollow feeling. The nursery had a door that lead into the Master bedroom and then that lead back out to the hall. Walking to the end of the hall and down the stairs, Ichigo actually looked at the various pictures hung there. Pictures of from when Gohan was young. Pictures of Ubuu and Pan. Pictures various people's weddings. "Everyone is so happy here." Thinking of the grim faces that are always on her family's portraits Ichigo was somewhat jealous. A closet at the base of the stairs contained numerous portraits. Ichigo spent nearly an hour looking at the various portraits and in the back annuals. It seemed that Roshi's family used this room as a storage room for old family heirlooms they did not want in the main house. Her family had a similar room, but she had never looked spent time in it. Now looking at all the portraits from Goku on down to Roshi every generation, every member of the family documented, she realized how much she missed her people. More over how much she had taken her father for granted. "Son Roshi, I envy you. The Vegeta Rebels left Saiya looking for power." She said, as she looked at a picture of Gohan, Vegeta, and Goku all Super Saiyans. The back of the picture read: One day prior to Cell games. "You found that, but you found something my people seem to have forgotten to look for. You found peace."

Looking over her pile of pictures, she sighed. "These people are the descendants of some of the worst villains in our history. Yet, looking at these pictures, and talking with Roshi, I cannot continue to think of them as the Rebels they were. Roshi's actions earlier tonight were actions I myself would easily have done were our situations reversed." She shook her head. "He claims that he is not a warrior, but I cannot deny he has a warrior's heart."

An old grandfather clock rang out. It was now 3 in the morning. Realizing how late it was and how early she would have to wake the next morning Ichigo rushed upstairs to sleep.

* * *

Slip had gotten back to the Capsule Corp shortly after midnight. She had decided to do as much possible research on the infamous tail as she could. So was busy looking at some nerve fibers in an electron microscope when someone had started continuously buzzing the main gate buzzer.

Slip looked at her watch. "1:51 who would be here at this time of night?" She asked herself as she hurried to the video screen. Turning the security screen to the gate camera she almost fell over when she saw Roshi's mother banging on the buzzer button.

Slip rushed to let her in. "Ah Mrs. Son! Ah, what can I do for you?" She asked.

"Where is Roshi? Is he ok? What happened to my baby?!?! Where is he?" Roshi's mother screamed at Slip.

Slip looked out the front door and saw the Son family hovercar smashed into a tree on the front lawn. Doing the math in her head she realized that Mrs. Son had been driving most of the day and was now to the point well past being rational.

"AHHH he is fine Roshi is fine he is probably home now. Why don't you come in and have some tea? UM I can..."

"He said he was going to fight a murdering beast woman! IF she hurt my baby I am going to mess her up something fierce!" Mrs. Son continued cutting Slip off.

Slip knew that Roshi's mother knew absolutely nothing about martial arts, and any attempt by her to attack that Saiyan bitch would probably end up getting Roshi's mother killed. If that made Roshi come to his senses and get rid of the bitch... well no, that would probably not be a good way to get rid of the Saiyan girl.

"CALM Down! He is ok. I have some experiments running that I cannot allow to spoil, but I can take you home as soon as I clean them up. Ok?" Slip said.

"He is ok? You are sure? He didn't get hurt. Oh, he is always running off to do all that fighting, one of these days he is going to get hurt. Children these days! They have no respect for other people's feelings!" Mrs. Son said.

Tell me about it! Slip thought to herself. If Roshi had half a brain he would realize that he is harboring a known criminal who should be at the very least locked up before she kills again!

Slip got Roshi's mother some tea and hurried to shut down her experiments. A few minutes later they headed for the hanger. Slip choose the fastest VTOL jet in the Capsule Corp hanger and prepped it for flight. Slip would have Roshi's mother home by four. Then she would just sleep in Pan's old room, and fly back here in the morning.

* * *

"It is 3:15 in the morning and I still can't get to sleep." Roshi said aloud. "I should have put the girl in the guestroom down the hall. That way I would at least be able to tell what she was doing. She keeps moving around over there. Well at least she hasn't tried to sneak away."

Roshi stared at the ceiling for a few minutes and then decided that he had had enough. He was going to go over and see what the girl was doing.

Walking into the guesthouse, he found a bunch of the old family portraits pulled out and piled up at the foot of the stairs. He moved them so that they would not be stepped on and headed up the stairs. He looked at his watch. It was 3:31. The light was still on in her room. What could she be doing in there? He knocked lightly on the door.

No answer.

Trying not to make any noise, he slowly opened the door an inch and looked in just in time to see her walk out of the bathroom drying her huge tangle of hair.

'SHIT!!!!' *THUNK!* *CLICK!!*

He closed the door so fast it could have been heard by a deaf man.

'DAMMIT!!!! Please don't break the door down! Oh Kami let her think it was the wind.' He thought as he flew down the stairs to hide.

SLAM!!! "YOU PERVERT!!!! I KNOW YOU ARE DOWN THERE!!!" Two ki blasts slammed into the hardwood floor a few feet from Roshi splintering the wood.

"NOOOO NOT THE HOUSE MY PARENTS WILL KILL ME!!!! PLEASE I DIDN'T MEAN TO SEE YOU LIKE THAT!!! PLEASE IF YOU WANT TO VENT YOU ANGER FINE BUT NOT HERE!!!!!!!!" Roshi screamed as he ran to the front door of the house.

Standing at the top of the stairs arms crossed over her chest with the towel wrapped around her body rather then her hair, the girl glared at him through her scouter. Steam was boiling out of her wet hair as her ki rose with her rage.

"PERVERT!!! IF YOU WANT TO KEEP YOUR ANATOMY INTACT YOU WILL NOT DO THAT AGAIN!!!!!!"

"I'm Sorry... I didn't mean to..." Roshi replied meekly. "Ah sleep well." He said as he ran out the door.

'Idiot!!! Great way to win her trust there Roshi!' I can't believe my luck.

Roshi got to his room and tried to calm his racing heart. 'I need to talk to Slip in the morning. The sooner Kinomi gets a ship and leaves the better. That girl is a powder keg just waiting to blow up. Man how am I going to explain this to mom?'

"AHHHHHHHHHHHHHH............!!!!"

* * *

Ichigo stood there at the top of the stairs for several minutes. She was very slowly calming down. She had wanted to kill him in a most unpleasant way. The sight of all of those family portraits stopped her. It would be a travesty to destroy such things. He would pay, just not tonight.

'Ugh how humiliating. Not only did he nearly blow all of my clothes off fighting. Not only did he watch me on that beach for who knows how long earlier. Not only did he grope me during our fight, but also now he just happens to catch me totally nude! Either his timing is perfect, or absolutely terrible.' She thought to herself as she stood there looking at the doorway that he had just ran out of. Which, Ichigo had not decided yet. 'And to think I was beginning to actually respect him somewhat.'

Using some calming techniques her father had once taught her she calmed down and started to actually relax. Returning to the bedroom, she paused in front of a three-paneled mirror. Looking at herself, she saw a slight bruise on her neck from where he had twisted her collar when he slammed her into the tree. 'No wonder I couldn't breathe. I cannot forget how strong he is.' A sudden chilling thought struck her. 'If he wanted to force himself on me, I doubt I would be able to stop him. Kicking him in the groin only made him worse during our fight. Our fight in which he stopped to apologize for grabbing me. Our fight where he broke my back, jaw and both arms.'

Letting the towel drop to the ground She looked herself over. "With the exception of a barely visible burn mark and pock where my tail should be I don't have a single bruise, or scrape, or scar or mark from that fight. He healed me from what was certain death and did it quickly and better then a Regeneration tank could."

Wrapping herself in the towel again, she went in search of clothing. She soon realized that the girl, Pan obviously was smaller framed then she was, but she eventually found stretchy sports bra and some panties that actually fit halfway decently and a silk nightgown.

"I misjudged his motivations earlier because I expected him to behave like a rebel. Perhaps I have misjudged him more then I thought. I have taken personal offense to his actions as though they were planned slights to my personal honor. Yet, at the same time, he was so shocked at his own actions he opened himself up to attack. It is obvious that that his grabbing of my person was an accident. He then heals me, which is far more then any Saiyan I know of would do if the situations were reversed, but on top of that he covered me so that I would not be exposed. He then provided me with clothing as soon as he got into that domed house he conjured up." She crawled under the covers and hugged herself.

"I cannot forgive him for removing my tail, that is an unforgivable offence, but I have judged his subsequent actions poorly I think. Had we been on Saiya, and had he been a warrior raised under the same traditions as I my earlier thoughts about his death would not have been wrong." 'Or would they have been? Men have always been more hesitant to attack me in my sparing matches then women. Could it be that it is not simply lack of respect as I thought, but fear over what they could loose should they anger me?'

Cursing a Universe that thrived on double standards and inequities, Ichigo rolled over and tried to sleep. 'Change and uncertainty indeed father. Should I live through this mission, I will have certainly learned far more then your lessons have ever taught me.'

A few moments later she was fast asleep in the bed. Lately her dreams had been nightmares. Tonight however, in a room next to a nursery complete with crib, her dream had a calm feeling of peace. She saw herself about ten years older. Holding a cute little baby girl. She couldn't recognize anything else in the dream. Just the baby with uncontrollable hair and a feeling of connection.

The fading light of the moon fell on her smiling face.

* * *

Slip landed the plane and shut down the engines. Dense clouds had moved into the area in the past half-hour and it was almost pitch black outside. Slip was exhausted. Thankfully she was here.

"Mrs. Son wake up! You're home!" Slip said as she started to get out of the plane.

"Yaaaaawn oh ok. Thank you for bringing me back. I hope Roshi is ok." Mrs. Roshi said. Her eyes cleared with purpose and she was suddenly wide- awake. "I need to go talk to my son. Goodnight!"

Slip watched as Son Beth ran up to the house. She could hear her yelling for Roshi. "Yawn, Ah I'm soo tired. I am glad I am not Roshi." She said as she walked towards the guesthouse.

'Huh, I wonder why the front door is open?' Slip thought as she walked into the house. She saw the portraits stacked on the floor and smelled the burned wood. "Huh, they must be doing some remodeling." 'Oh well, off to bed for me.'

Slip walked into Pan's room and without even turning on the lights or changing clothes more or less fell into bed. Right onto Ichigo.

"What the hell?" Slip gasped.

"Go away Momo, need more sleep." Ichigo mumbled before realizing where she was. "YOU!!!"

"YOU" Slip screamed as she jumped out of the bed and stumbled falling onto the floor in a sprawl.

"Lights!" Ichigo said. Seeing the sight of Slip sprawled on the floor was just too funny to stay mad about. She started laughing.

Slip on the other was not finding it very funny. "What the hell are you doing in here? You bitch!"

Upon being called a bitch Ichigo stopped laughing. Flying out of the bed she grabbed Slip's arm and yanked her to her feet. "I was told to sleep here. What are you doing here you barbarian? What got a bit of a consciousness and decided to return my tail? Or were you just coming for another sample?" She said while putting considerable pressure on Slips arm.

"OOUUUUUWWWWWWCH that hurts!!! Let me go you murderer!" Slip howled.

"On my world, the penalty for coming into my room uninvited is death. Your perverted cousin I can almost forgive but you on the otherhand are worthless to me." Ichigo said realizing suddenly that she was sounding a bit harsher then she had intended, even if she still spoke the truth.

"That is enough Kinomi!" Roshi said from the doorway. "This is not your world, and if you ever want to go back to your world, you will need Slip's help."

Ichigo shuddered. "Get her out of my sight. She interrupted a good dream. That alone is almost enough reason for me to kill her." She said as she threw Slip at Roshi."

Roshi and Slip left quickly. Ichigo looked at the clock on the wall. "4:30 I need my sleep. Ah, first he catches me at the worst possible time, and then she climbs in bed with me. I really don't know if I can survive here. I can only adapt so quickly to change."

* * *

Roshi escorted Slip out of the house. "I need you to promise to be nicer to Kinomi. You are lucky to be alive!"

Slip looked at him in disgust. "Well, if you had just killed the bitch, this wouldn't have been a problem! What is wrong with you Roshi? Can't you tell that she is dangerous? She killed five of my people and who knows how many others!"

"Yeah, and Vegeta killed millions, but Goku forgave him!" Roshi protested.

"OH PLEASE!!! Mr. ego! You are not Goku! This is not Goku's time. In Goku's time we could wish people back from the dead with the Dragon Balls! Don't even try to compare the current situation with Goku and Vegeta! It has nothing to do with them!"

"Yes it does! Now, I will explain everything to you but right now we need to be quite because my mother does not know that Kinomi is here. Since I don't want set either of them off I would like to avoid a confrontation if at all possible so please don't mention her OK?" Roshi said

"Fine, but you owe me mister!" Slip replied.

"Ok, first if you want those five people back, just send a message to Namek and ask the Nemekians to wish for them back. Their Dragon is the real first one, so it does not have the problems ours did."

"Oh, good point. Alright so we can get the people back, but why does this have anything to do with Goku or Vegeta?" Slip asked.

"Well, um, promise me you won't laugh." Roshi said.

"Maybe."

"UGH women! You are all impossible. Ok fine!" Roshi said flabbergasted. "At the end of our fight, both of us had been knocked unconscious. While I was unconscious I had this dream. Anyway, in my dream, I saw and talked to Goku."

"So you had a concussion and your mind focused on your greatest hero. Proves nothing."

"Exactly what I thought until later. See Goku told me to swallow and that caused me to eat the senzu bean that I had put into my mouth as I passed out. I found the girl mangled to the point were she shouldn't have been alive. I gave her the senzu because it would not have been right to just execute her without knowing why she did what she did."

"Oh so this is where you compare yourself to Goku and make it all better RIGHT?" Slip remarked.

"No, this is where I took her into the dome house and gave her something to wear. She put on my old orange dogi and came out telling me that it was the same outfit as the dream guy."

"Huh?" Slip said.

"Exactly! I questioned her and she gave me an exact description of Goku! She even described him going Super Saiyan! Now, Gohan told everyone that he heard Goku talk to him after he died in the Cell games. I don't know how or why but Goku talked to both of us. There is something important going on. Until I figure out what that something is, I have to trust her and hope that she opens up and gives me something to go on. Besides you heard her reason for coming here! Her people are being killed. This I believe. She is being completely honest about that. Put yourself in her shoes. You if you had no options left, you would do the same things she has done."

"Well I don't like her. And I don't think I would ever act the way she is acting. She acts like she can order us around like puppets. She doesn't have the right." Slip said.

"Well, if you want to argue rights, what gives you the right to do any research on her tail without her permission? You yourself have nothing on her for ethics. I believe that she thought she would be saving lives by searching for us. What can we possibly gain by your research on her tail?" Roshi demanded.

"Not you too! Boxers and Tee said the same thing! Understanding, Science! I already explained this stuff to you last week!"

"Don't lie Slip, that kind of research can be done with a drop of blood or a hair or a few skin cells. What you are doing is wrong. Admit it."

"Oh alright! I'll give it back! Not that it will do her any good!" Slip said.

"You're right, but at the same time it might put her at a little bit of peace so she will be easier to work with." Roshi said.

"Fine! Fine! You won, now can we go inside it is cold out here?"

Roshi chuckled and lead her inside.

"What was all the screaming I heard?" Roshi's mother asked as soon as they walked in.

Roshi knew he was standing there like a deer in the headlights. "Ah well..."

"Oh it was nothing Mrs. Son Roshi and I were just fighting about something and he said that if I came over here we could discuss it over some food." Slip said. She gave him a look that just broadcast the "You owe me big" look.

"Ah yeah." He finished.

"I thought is sounded like two girls?" She said while giving Roshi that knowing look all parents think will cause their children to spill the beans.

"ACK AH, no I just had something caught in my throat!" Roshi said while trying to sound as squeakily feminine as he could.

"Ok, well right now you and Slip are going to come to the kitchen and tell me everything that happened in your fight with that terrible horrible beast girl from space that you fought today." Mrs. Son said as she walked into the kitchen.

Roshi gave Slip a knowing look. "Well, hope you weren't planning on sleeping tonight."

"You better just hope that I don't spill the beans on you." She whispered to him as she turned to walk into the kitchen.

Roshi and Slip entered the kitchen. The kitchen was for all intents and purposes the largest room in the Son mansion. Most families as well off as they were would have had a separate dinning room and kitchen. This was not true of the Sons. Saiyans tended to want the food as close to the table as possible. The shear size of the pots, pans, refrigerator and other appliances would have shocked most people. Indeed, according to Roshi's father, it had taken his mother a very long time to get used to the idea of the family eating as much as it did.

Mrs. Son was no cook and did not even pretend as though she had any inkling to learn how to. She had originally wanted to hire a maid and several chefs. She had not expected to have to do menial chores after marrying into one of the richest and most famous families in the world.

So a compromise had been struck, Goshu had become the family cook. Roshi was left fending for himself in his father's absence. Also, several maids were hired to come and do occasional cleanings. Roshi found if rather funny when his father picked on his mother for becoming an average housewife.

Son Beth sat down at the large table and stared at her son. "Alright, you are going to sit down and tell me exactly where you have been and what is going on, or so help me!"

Roshi gave Slip a glance and took a deep breath. "Ok, I am not going to lye to you. This Saiyan girl named Kinomi was searching for other Saiyans and she ended up killing a bunch of people while looking for us. She landed here on Earth this afternoon and well to make a long story short, I got into a little disagreement with her and we ended up fighting and we almost killed each other. Anyway, I brought her home with me and she is over in the guesthouse and that is why you heard Slip fighting with another girl cause well, she was. Anyway, Kinomi won't tell me much about her, but I am going to try to figure out more about her to see if she is trustworthy, so I am going to be pretending to teach her how to fight better in the morning. Any questions?" Roshi said in one breath as fast as he could talk.

"You... what? Girl? Almost died... teach to fight better..." Beth stammered before slumping back in her chair and almost falling on the floor.

Roshi quickly grabbed his passed out mother and turned to Slip.

Slip was staring at him mouth-hanging open.

"You can pick your chin off the floor. I think she will be out for a good couple of hours. I can leave her a note in the morning, and hopefully she will think the whole thing was a dream or something."

"WHAT!?!?! YOU? Are going to lie to your mother?!?!!" Slip looked at him incredulously.

"No, I just told her the truth. I just won't tell her any more unless she asks. Trust me, she hates to make a fool of herself. Her own pride will keep her from asking the questions in more depth. Now if you don't mind I need to get some sleep. You can stay in the second guest room across the hall from my room." Roshi yawned. "Good night." He said as he carried his mother to the master bedroom.

Slip stood there in the kitchen for several minutes before she could accept that she had seen what she just saw. "So, mister goodie goodie isn't so honest after all." She said as she climbed the stairs to the guestroom.

* * *

Ichigo stared at the ceiling of the room. "I hate this!" She finally said before climbing out of bed. "Too much adrenaline to sleep at the moment."

She looked around the room once more. "I feel very out of place in this room." For a few moments her mind played over her earlier thoughts and she worried that she may be loosing her edge. Becoming too soft was one of the worst things a warrior could do. If they could no longer detach themselves from the situation, they would begin to question their actions.

'Who am I kidding, as my father has said many a time, I am not a warrior and I must question my actions. Which is exactly what I have been doing my entire life. This is no different. Just more extreme.'

Deciding that she needed to stretch a bit, Ichigo walked out into the hallway to explore the house in more detail. She decided to explore the master bedroom. It was large and quite finely furnished. A large picture of a man and woman with a spunky looking little girl hung above a fireplace. Nearby were a lounge chair and a bookcase. A small silver label drew her attention.

"The journals of Son Gohan." She read aloud. "Who keeps their journals out in the open where anyone could read them?"

A particularly ragged looking book seemed to call to her. Ichigo grabbed it and it opened up to a page in the middle.

Ichigo started reading. "May 26, 767: It is my fault. I should have listened. I let my pride get in the way. I did it. I made it to the next level. I had so much power, I could do anything. Anything but save him. I saved the entire Earth. I saved everyone but my father. I feel so empty. I can't believe he is gone. He was always there for me. He was there for everyone. He was just there when we needed him. Then today, when he needed me. When everyone needed me. I couldn't shoulder the burden. I know you don't blame me dad. I know I was forgiven even before you disappeared with Cell. But why do I feel so empty knowing this?"

Ichigo was surprised to find herself weeping. She empathized deeply with this Gohan person, for she was thinking many of the same things about her own mission.

Ichigo put the book back and grabbed another on that was somewhat beat up. 'Hmmmm, he had a journal for every year of his life. Few Saiyans would even think to allow their personal thoughts to touch paper like this. Such dedication is to be admired, but I wonder why they are all here on display?' She thought to herself as she opened it up.

"June 15, 779; This has been one of the best most happiest most frustrating most challenging most inspiring most tiring days of my life. Oh, what a day. My daughter who Videl and I have decided to name Pan was born today. I don't know who is more excited, myself, or my father."

'Father?!?! I thought he was dead? Something is really really strange here. Ichigo looked at the earlier journal.' "Well, it is the same handwriting. I will just have to ask Roshi about it." She said to herself before continuing to read.

"He can be such a child at times. Anyway, back to my earlier thoughts. Thanks to Videl's father, Pan's Birth was a media circus. I practically had to kill some of the reporters to keep them out of the delivery room. Thankfully, Bulma had found a way to remove Pan's tail before she was born. I can only imagine the headlines. 'Granddaughter of Mr. Satan World's Savior born with Tail!' It would be a nightmare. Fame is a curse. We couldn't have just had the baby born in the CC's medical lab. NO, we had to have her be born at the Satan City Memorial Hospital so that Mr. Satan could have his media. I have to love the guy. He tries so hard to stay famous. I just wish I didn't have to live in the spotlight. My conscience is reminding me that I would be directly in the spotlight if he had not claimed to have beaten Cell. So I guess I owe him that. Anyway, my mind seems to be wandering. Even with the cameras and all the commotion, when the nurse put Pan in Videl's arms today, the world was perfect.

Videl is sleeping now. She is so beautiful. Even when she sleeps, she has that happy peaceful smile on her face. Pan on the otherhand, is most notably not sleeping. I can hear her crying now. I would go to her, but she is in the newborn room thing and the nurses won't let me enter it. Even after she knocked three of them out and broke two of the cribs. I get the feeling Pan is going to be just about all the spunk Videl and I will be able to handle. Anyway, I need to stop writing now and go see if I can calm Pan down. It is not like the nurses will be able to stop me, although, I am sure they will try." Ichigo read.

"Ah, that is so... sweet." She said finally finding the right word and then realizing the moment she said it how Un-Saiyan it sounded. "I bet Roshi keeps a Journal as well. I think I am going to have to steal it and see what he is keeping from me." She said to herself while pondering whether or not to keep reading. After stifling a yawn, Ichigo decided to go back to bed. It would most likely be a busy day tomorrow.

* * *

Well there be 17. Thank you for reading. I would be greatly appreciative if you would take the time to review.

(P.s.) This is a long chapter again for all of you people who were begging for a longer one. ;)

Once again, If you review and leave your email, I will add you to my mail list and you will be informed when the next chapter is out and so on.

Thanks all!