Chapter 19 Clothes and stuff.

Monday, June 16 7:40 AM

Slip walked slowly out of the house. She didn't want to have anything to do with Roshi's plan. But she also realized that his plan was probably the best for all of them. Even IF it put her into danger by forcing her to talk to and spend time with that Saiyan bitch.

Slip walked out into the yard. "Now where is she?" She asked herself. She put the scouter on. Even though she couldn't read what it said, it indicated that the girl was close and to the south. Slip started walking down the path that lead to Son Beth's flower gardens. While Slip didn't really think much of Roshi's mother, she had to admit that her gardens (Beth actually did the gardening herself!!!) were some of the most impressive she had ever seen.

After several minutes of looking around, Slip spotted the Saiyan girl sitting on a patch of grass in the middle of one of the rose gardens. She was re-braiding her hair and had braided several of Beth's prized blue roses into her hair. Slip found this to be somewhat funny. For some reason, she had not thought the Saiyan girl as the type to do something so very 'feminine.'

"You realize that if Roshi's mother caught you picking her roses, she would probably find a way to kill you?" She said as she walked into the girl's view.

For her part, the girl had very fast reflexes. Slip had barely started her comment and the Saiyan was already in a defensive stance.

"Oh it is just you," She said. "What do you want?"

The way the girl had jumped up and looked like she was prepared to strike had shocked Slip. She jumped back, and slipped on the wet grass and of course, fallen on her butt.

The girl started laughing at her. "I thought you were supposedly smart. The dew hasn't burned off the grass yet. I haven't seen anyone wipe out like that in a long time. You have the coordination of a one year-old, you know." She said.

Slip got up and brushed herself off. "I am glad you find it funny, but if Roshi's mom finds out you picked some of her prized blue roses she will go nuts."

The girl looked somewhat surprised and then looked back at the roses. "We do not have flowers like this were I am from. There are gardens that have flowers only the royal family can touch, but I have never seen a flower so lovely. I could not resist picking several of them." She said while straightening out her gi.

Had Slip been listening to what Ichigo had been saying she may have learned something, but Slip had been ignoring the words as she looked at the gi the girl was wearing.

"Where did you get that?" She asked.

"Get what?" The girl asked.

"That gi, it is obviously not yours, it doesn't fit you." Slip replied.

Ichigo looked herself over and then replied. "I thought it fit me fairly well, I got it from the guest house. Why? Is there a problem with me wearing this as well?" She stated sarcastically.

"Well, it must have been Pan's. She would have been quite a bit shorter then you. It is supposed to go all the way down to your ankles, not stop mid calf. Anyway, I don't care, but there are some people that would get upset if you damaged anything from that house. Some people in my family seem to think of the place as some sort of museum."

"Oh, and here I thought you just kept that house arranged just like it would have been several hundred years ago because you had nothing better to do. Roshi has already gone over the sentimentality issue with me." Ichigo replied nonchalantly.

"Well, Roshi was always more of a family historian then me, but from what I know, Pan outlived her husband, and all of her children. As an old woman, she came back to live in that house and restored it to how it was when she was a child. Since the new house had been built by then, everyone sorta just left it alone after she died." Slip told her.

"Um, I already know this, Roshi said all that last night. Now I don't think you came to find me in an attempt to bore me half to death with your family's history, so why are you bothering me? If you don't have a good reason go away before I do something we will both regret." Ichigo said while stretching out a bit.

"Regret? As if you have any regrets. That would require a conscience." Slip said snidely.

Ichigo glared up at her. "You cannot believe that that quip hurts. Coming from a barbaric scientist who has been doing immoral unethical debased research on my tail and who knows what else. I would say that you would need to have a conscience before you can judge others." She returned with contempt.

"My research is not immoral, unethical, OR debased! It has never hurt anyone! And by Kami it has never killed anyone either. You can't say that about yourself!" Slip yelled back at her.

Ichigo straightened out. "No, I cannot. However, for me lives were and are at stake. What you have done will gain people little or nothing. Don't judge me when you have nothing to base your judgment on."

"You're not even sorry you killed them! You excuse it because it was a mistake and you were wrong, but you are not even sorry you did it!" Slip said flabbergasted.

Ichigo took five rapid steps and grabbed Slip's shoulders. "Actually, I AM sorry I made that mistake. To answer your original quip, I have many many regrets. If I were not sorry about killing those innocent people, your remarks and slighting of my honor would be cause enough to kill you where you stand. But I was wrong, so I deserve some of your contempt. Some of your contempt does not mean I will continue to let you verbally abuse me. You have not shown any remorse for what you have done and had your cousin actually killed me you would probably be still dissecting me like a lab specimen, is that not what you called me last night? Now unless you want me to actually take offense to your comments, I think we can leave this conversation where it is and count it as a moral victory to me. Now, why did you come into this garden? It wasn't to bother me or harass me or cause me problems. You appear to be smarter then that. Which means Roshi sent you. So, what is going on now?" Ichigo said letting her threatening tone soften to a more amicable tone of voice.

"Ah... Ah... Ah... actually, you are right. See, Roshi wants me to fix your scouter so that he can use it to talk to you, then he can at least tell you what he wants to tell you while you train at Capsule Corp." Slip said after getting her shaking body back under control.

"What is the Capsule Corp?"

"Oh, ah well, ah it is my mom and dad's business. Well actually the whole family, even Roshi owns part of it, but my parents run it. We make just about everything there." Slip said.

"Ah so what good will going there do me?" The girl asked.

"Look, Kinomi, your name is Kinomi right?" Slip said.

While Ichigo had been determined to stop using the name Kinomi, admitting to oneself that you made a mistake is one thing. Admitting it to another and that you had lied, is another. Ichigo couldn't bring herself to admit she had lied, and she wasn't about to admit it to Slip. Since she really didn't like Slip much, she saw no reason to tell her otherwise.

"Yes, why?" She said.

"I just wanted to know what to call you, sheeesh, you get rather testy over nothing. Anyway, there are facilities that you can use at the CC."

"Fine" Ichigo, said sullenly.

* * *

Ichigo followed Slip out of the gardens and over to the landing pad.

"Where are we going?" She asked Slip.

"To the landing pad so that I can get my plane and fly home." Slip said as if that should have been obvious.

"I see the pad, but I don't see a plane." Ichigo said.

"Duh, I have it in my capsule." Slip said back while waving a little blue thing that looked like a bottle.

"What are you talking about? That thing can't possibly be an aircraft.!" Ichigo stated rather flabergastedly.

"Yes it is. See." Slip said as she threw the capsule into the air.

POP!!

There standing in the middle of the landing pad was Slip's jet.

"How in the heck did you do that? I have never seen anything like that before in my life!" Ichigo said awed.

"Yes you have. Were did you think that house you and Roshi used right after your fight came from?"

"I... I don't know, I wasn't paying attention. It was just there." Ichigo admitted

"Well, these are called capsules. They are what we make at Capsule Corp." Slip said as she showed Ichigo several more capsules.

"So you can put just about anything into one of these capsules?" Ichigo said while thinking about how useful that would be.

"Almost everything can be," Slip said as she climbed up into the plane. "Just get in the plane so we can get this over with. I don't have all day to explain every technical thing in the world to you."

Ichigo smiled inwardly. 'I may get used to her. Momo always said I needed someone other then her that would talk back to me. Even if this Slip person is a moron, she may have her uses.'

Slip started the jets up and then revved them a few times to shake Ichigo out of her thoughts. Ichigo jumped into the plane and sat down in the co- pilot's seat.

"So how long will it take to get to this Capsule Corp?"

"Well, if I wanted to break every regulation in the book, we could be there in about an hour. But since I don't want to push it this morning, we will be there in about 2 and half hours." Slip replied as she eased the plane into the air.

"Good, I am going to go sleep in the back." Ichigo said as she got out of the chair.

"That is so unfair!" Slip called back as Ichigo closed the door between the cockpit and the rest of the aircraft. "Fine, have it your way. I have a computer system with every song ever made at my disposal." She said silently to herself. She shook her head and then reached over and locked the cockpit door. 'You can have your little moral victory bitch. I'll pay you back every time.' She then set the computer to play the most horrendously terrible German opera. (AN: Germans don't do opera... ;) ) She then smiled at the fact that this plane was "Vegeta" proof, and cranked it only in the back.

* * *

Ichigo had just sat down on the couch in the back of the plane when the worst sounding noise-music she had ever heard in her life started blasting into her ears.

"What the heck is this? She can't possibly like this noise." She said to herself as she got up and ran for the door. It was locked. The door was also protected by some sort of energy field. Ichigo was fairly certain she could beat it down, but she was not going to take the chance of having something backfire on her. "HEY OPEN THIS DOOR YOU ARE REALLY STARTING TO MAKE ME MAD!" Ichigo screamed at the door for all she was worth.

The noise cut out and she heard Slip talking over the intercom. "What can't sleep? Here on Air Bitch Travels we do everything in our powers to make your flight enjoyable for us, not you. Is there anything you may want before I turn the music back on?"

"Yes, I want to tell you that if you think this is some sort of game you will learn soon that I am a very poor loser." Ichigo smiled to herself. "Oh, and to tell you that if you turn that noise back on I will not stop until you have died a very very slow and painful death."

"Are you threatening me? Are you threatening me?" Slip said in a really corny accent.

Ichigo stared at the door. "She's nuts, that has to be the answer."

"HEY, that isn't what you are supposed to say! You are supposed to say some thing like, You'd better believe it." Slip said as she started laughing.

"Yeah well, if you turn that noise back on I will take that threat and actually do it." Ichigo said back as she sat back down on the couch.

"Ha, sorry but you are rather fun to make mad. It is way too easy. Anyway, why should you get to sleep while I have to fly this plane?" Slip said back.

Ichigo rolled her eyes. "Simple, you know how to fly it, and you are the one who wanted to fly it back with me in it rather then letting me fly there myself. So if you won't let me fly, I might as well really save my energy by sleeping. Simple logic if you ask me. Oh, and incase you have not figured it out, the universe is anything but fair. If it were, I would be home and happy. Not here and miserable."

Slip flipped the music back on. "There, NOW you're miserable!" She said as she laughed over the intercom for a minute or two before turning the music off again.

* * *

Slip knew that she was getting dangerously close to setting the Saiyan girl off, but she didn't really care. If Roshi was going to force her to put up with the bitch, she was at least going to have some fun and make it as miserable for her as it was for herself.

The closer to Capsule Corp. they got, the more nervous Slip became. She was worried that Kinomi would do something rash and end up blowing something up. Also, she did not really want to be there when the girl saw her tail. Slip had done a rather extensive dissection of it. Slip shuddered realizing just how bad she felt about that now that she had actually met and talked with the girl a bit. The girl's comments had hit home and stuck. She was definitely regretting her actions now. Not that she liked her, but now she actually was a person, not just some lab experiment. One doesn't experiment on people; it just wasn't morally or ethically allowable.

That of coarse didn't change the fact that she had done just that. And now she was going to have to face the consequences. "This is going to be a very long day." She said to herself.

Slip suddenly got a bright idea. Turning on her vid-phone, she called up both Boxers and Tee for a conference call. "Rise and shine sleepy heads!" She said cheerfully as soon as they picked up the phone.

"Roshi already called us Slip, he said we had to be at Capsule Corp by 9 or he would kill us the next time he saw us." Tee said groggily. Slip could see that he looked like he had just gotten out of the shower.

"Yeah Slip, what's up?" Boxers said. "Why does Roshi want us at Capsule Corp?"

"Well, to make a long story short, Roshi's mother grounded him. I am transporting our visitor to the Capsule Corp, and you two get to keep her from killing us."

"What? Are you mad? I'm not getting anywhere near her!" Tee said.

"What, you afraid that she might hurt your purty little face?" Boxers said mockingly.

"No, it is just that you saw that fight last night! Neither one of us can stop her if she gets mad! Slip what are you thinking taking her to Capsule Corp without Roshi? When she gets her tail back, she is going to tear us up like tin foil!" Tee exasperated.

"Which is exactly why you guys have to be there, so super bitch doesn't go ballistic!" Slip said back.

"Um I hate to be a voice of reason here, but Tee is right. If she goes off, there is little or nothing either of us could do to stop her." Boxers said calmly. "Have you called Yoshi? Maybe he could help a little."

"Yuh? How is he supposed to help? Yoshi is an old man, he can't do anything." Slip pointed out.

"Slip, he is only fifty! Besides he was trained by Master Roshi before he died.

Son Yoshi was a descendent of Goten. None of his children had learned martial arts, but he was almost as good at martial arts as Roshi's father. The only problem was that he was a hermit that lived out in the middle of nowhere and was very hard to find.

"Fine! If one of you wants to try to track him down, be my guest. But I want both of you at Capsule Corp in twenty minutes when I land!" Slip said to finish the conversation. She hung up before either of them could answer back.

* * *

Twenty one minutes later, Slip landed in the Capsule Corp's overly large private hangar. She got up and went to wake "Kinomi" up. To her surprise she was already awake.

"So first things first, you are going to give me back my tail. Oh, and don't try to claim that it is someplace else. Roshi said it was at this Capsule Corp." She said as she got up from the couch.

"Ah, um yes. It is here. If you could just wait a bit I will get it ah for you." Slip said while trying to suppress her fear.

'She is going to kill me. I am going to die. Roshi this is all your fault.' Slip thought as she led Ichigo into the building.

Slip led her away from where her lab was and over to an off-limits area of the newer dome. Slip had only learned the keycode to get into this area of the buildings a few months ago. Within was stored some of the most advanced technology humans had ever seen. Some made by Bulma, or Teddy, or Boxers the first, or any of the other great scientists who had come from the family. Some of it was the creations of mad scientists like Dr. Gero, and was here for the protection of the planet. Some of it, however, was alien.

Slip had spent days wandering around in these rooms, so she was not the least bit surprised to see the girl she knew as Kinomi gawking like a tourist.

"What is this place?" She asked Slip.

"We call it the vault. We keep stuff that is too dangerous or advanced to be allowed to fall in the wrong hands in here." Slip said, as they passed the rebuilt but never reactivated Android 16.

"So why are we here?"

"Because we also keep some prototypes and other older equipment in here and there is a machine in here that I need." Slip said quickly.

"So my tail isn't in here?" The girl said with a tone of warning as she stopped walking.

"No, it is not, but this is on the way. Besides, the sooner we get this taken care of the sooner you can do whatever the heck Roshi wants you to do."

"Fine but you had better make it fast." The girl replied.

The two of them were now walking through row after row of filing cabinets. Each one filled with thousands of capsules. Most of the stuff stored in the vault was actually stored in these capsules. Only the few things that would be dangerous or possibly damaged by encapsulating were stored out in the open.

After a few minutes of looking for the right drawer, Slip found what she was looking for. "Ah here we go, Automated Saiyan Armor Lab." She read off the capsule.

After walking to a large open area, she threw the capsule. After the smoke cleared, a large domed building with a computer terminal beside the door stood waiting to be used.

"The fabric used to make that gi you are wearing is extremely hard to make. This building is actually a factory just for the manufacture of clothing like that. Since I can't let you damage any of Pan's stuff, and you don't have anything of your own to wear anymore, I decided to bring you here." Slip said.

"You brought me here for some stupid clothes? I don't have time for this nonsense!"

"Well if you would stop arguing with me every chance you get, we would be done here and you would have more time. Now get in there!" Slip said.

"What reason is there for having me go inside some stupid clothes factory? Turn the stupid thing on and get it over with."

"You need to be measured by the factory that it can make stuff that fits you."

Images of the last time she had been fitted for a new set of armor filled Ichigo's head for a few moments. "That's it, I am leaving. Good bye." The girl said as she turned around to leave."

"Fine, leave. But you aren't going anywhere with in those clothes. You could have had nice new ones, but I guess you would rather go around butt naked then be bothered with spending a little bit of time getting something THAT ACTUALLY FITS YOU AND DOESN'T LOOK TOO SMALL FOR YOU!" Slip screamed back.

"Fine. Fine. You win. Don't know why you think some stupid outfit is going to make any difference to anything. Stupid waste of time but hey why not? You want me smelling like some flowers too?"

"Just tell the computer what color to make it and get in there." Slip said back ignoring the comment.

"Fine!" Kinomi said. She went over and looked at the screen for a little while. "What all this thing makes is clothes EXACTLY LIKE WHAT I AM WEARING NOW?"

"YES NOW GET YOUR BUTT IN THERE BEFORE I FIND A WAY TO HAVE ROSHI COME KICK YOUR ASS!"

"FINE! Light Storm Blue, Black and Heather Gray." She told the computer. She then walked into the building and slammed the door.

"BITCH!" Slip screamed at her after she was out of earshot.

* * *

Ichigo had walked into a blank white room. A black dot on the ceiling was the only thing there was to break up the glowing whiteness.

"Whoever designed this must have been one boring person." She said out loud. "Must have been Slip."

"Please relax." A monotone computer voice said.

Ichigo looked around the room. 'I am in a white room that has nothing in it and for all I know might be some sort of death trap and I am supposed to relax? Not going to happen.'

"For proper fit you must relax. Please take a deep breath and exhale slowly."

Ichigo looked around the room as if expecting some surprise attack.

The voice repeated it's request several more times.

Ichigo finally took a deep breath and exhaled slowly.

Suddenly, a red beam of light shot from the black dot tracing over her.

It surprised Ichigo and she jumped out of the way.

"Error in measurement. Please return to the center of the room and remain calm."

"It could have warned me." Ichigo said to herself. Since the red beam had not hurt, she stepped back into the center of the room and let the beam play across her once more.

"Please bring yourself to your maximum power for best fit." The voice said.

'This thing is more demanding then my father' Ichigo thought for a moment.

"Please bring yourself to your maximum power for best fit." The voice repeated.

Ichigo used her anger to boost her power level up as high as she could.

One again she was scanned by the red light.

"Thank you." The voice said. "Please select styles of garments you wish to be manufactured." As it was talking a wall opened up to reveal a large computer panel.

'That's it? Huh, that was a lot easier then the normal way.' She thought as she approached the panel. She was surprised to see a life-sized hologram of herself appear beside the panel. She soon realized that this was to allow her to see what the various clothes would look like on her. She was also surprised to find that while there was nothing that could be considered to be actual armor, there were several different types of bodysuits and gi's to choose from. There was also a count down timer showing how long it would be until the chosen fabric colors were done being manufactured. Obviously it took the machine some time to make the fabric of certain colors. Which explained why she had had to tell it the colors before she went in.

"Stupid dumb clothes anyway." She mumbled to herself.

Ichigo spent less then a minute to choose the cut and style of gi she wanted. She chose a traditional kimono styled blue gi with full-length pants like what she had on now. Under that she chose a gray Vest and Black bodysuit that stopped mid-bicep and mid-thigh. Last but not least, she had several black bras shorts, and other items made. Once she was done selecting her outfit, all she had to do was wait for the factory to make it and the several bodysuits and other items of clothing she needed.

After about forty minutes a panel opened and there in nice neat stacks was four of her new gis.

She dressed quickly. The new black bodysuit fit much better then the old one and the storm blue gi was very close to her eye color, so she liked that too. Grabbing the gray belt, she tied it around her waist and grabbed the rest of the stuff.

"Ok lets go." She said as she walked out of the door.

Slip didn't even argue. She just led the way to her lab.

Ichigo finally realized what she had been stalling for when the got to the door of what must have been the lab. Boxers and Tee waited outside the door. Ichigo decided that it was a slight salve on her ego that Slip had wanted to wait for protection. Even if it was just the two idiots.

"Now don't touch anything! There are some very important experiments going on in here." Slip told her before she walked in.

The first thing Ichigo saw when she walked in was a large hologram that was displaying her tail. Slip was headed in that general direction when the hologram changed to show a picture of a highly dissected tail.

"AHHHHHH AHH AHH YOU YOU YOU AH!" Ichigo was at a loss for words.

"AHHHHHH" She screamed as she threw a ki ball at the general area of the lab.

BOOM! Half of the lab blew up. Slip was thrown backward against the wall next to the door. Tee ran over to help her up. Boxers just looked at Ichigo like he didn't know what to do.

"There, you mutilated part of me. I destroyed something that makes you who you are. We are now even." Ichigo said to Slip. Ichigo then grabbed Boxers by the arm, "show me where the training facilities are. I am tired of putting up with her."

Boxer's swallowed and a huge sweatdrop appeared on his face. "Ah ok, um right this way."

* * *

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