Chapter 26

Anger Unbound, Tears Released, Fate Remains

Monday, around 10:30 p.m.

"Damn girl, do you LIKE fighting in your underwear?"  Tee exclaimed.

There was a moments worth of total and absolute silence as the four of them registered what was said.  Suddenly, Ichigo screamed out like a banshee and leapt at Tee.  At the same moment, Roshi tried to jump between her and Tee.  Tee tried to jump to his left, and Boxers just tried to jump out of the way. 

"AAARRRRHHH!!! WHY YOU!!..."

"Kin... Ichigo NO!..."

"Oh, SHIT!"

SMACK!!!  SMACK!! Thud! 

Normal disrespect for physics aside, when four bodies all attempt to occupy the same spot, Newton's Laws still apply.  Tee slammed into Boxers, throwing the two of them forward into Roshi who was spun sideways into Ichigo.  When she slammed into Roshi the impact knocked both Tee and Boxers to the ground.  Roshi was left looking face to face with her in a position that implied that they had been hugging or something.

"DON'T TOUCH ME!"  Ichigo screamed before kneeing Roshi in the groin. 

Roshi went down whimpering as Ichigo turned and swept the legs out from under the now rising Tee.  Tee fell to the ground and tried to roll away as Ichigo kicked him in the side and then jumped on him driving her elbow into his gut.

"Guuuaaahhh!!"  Tee gasped before fading into unconsciousness.

Ichigo got up and turned to look at Boxers.  Boxers held his hands up defensively and tried to calm her down, "Hey now, I didn't do anything..."

Ichigo glared at Boxers and then turned to look down at Tee.  "Strip him, I need something to wear until I can get some new clothes."  She said as she turned and walked to the other side of the big Oak tree they were under and sat down.

"Ummm...  Okaay," was all that Boxers could say as he shook his head and started to do what she said.  'Tee buddy, I hate to do this to you, but I would have to say that you deserve it.'

* * *

Roshi heard the words come out of Tee's mouth.  'Oh! That MORRON!'  He jumped up and tried to stop her from ripping Tee to pieces.  Then he realized that all four of them were going to slam into each other.  An object in motion will stay in motion until acted upon by an external force.  Not even Roshi's reflexes could get him out of the way at the speed that he was moving.  He tried twisted to his left letting his right shoulder absorb the blow of slamming into Tee and Boxers.  Then the punch that Ichigo had been throwing at Tee slipped past his left cheek and she slammed into him.

Roshi looked down into her eyes trying to get a read on just how angry she was at Tee.  What he saw surprised him.  When she realized that she was going to slam into Roshi, her pupils dilated.  Then like it always seems to do, time slowed down.  Roshi felt her slam into him and he felt the impact throw Tee and Boxers off of him.  He saw her mouth slowly open into a startled O.  Then her eyes flashed from their normal Grey-blue to Silver. 

In fighting, Roshi knew never to focus on the person's eyes, because focusing on a person's eyes causes one to stop watching what the rest of their body was doing.  However, eyes function on reflex and never lie.  They show anger, shock, hate, love, and many many other emotions far better than any other means of judging.  Roshi didn't see anger, or hate, or vengeance.  Roshi saw fear.  Pure unhinged fear.

Then she kneed him in the crotch. 

"Ahhhh ooooooooohhhhh ieeeeeeeeeeeahhhhhh"  'Oh, Kami! I need to remember that frightened women fight dirty.  If I can ever stand up again that is...'  As he was attempting to regain some of his composure, he saw her knock Tee out.  Roshi half expected her to kill him then.  When she did not, Roshi almost started laughing when he heard what Ichigo wanted Boxers to do, but that hurt too much.  'Tee, Tee, you poor idiot.  After what has happened tonight you are lucky she didn't feed you your balls.'

* * *

A few minutes later, Ichigo had put on Tee's gi.  Luckily for him, he had been wearing a spandex bodysuit under his gi, so he was not in an overly compromising position.  Roshi was back up, and trying to wake Tee by slapping him gently on the face.

"Tee, if you don't wake up, I'm going to drop you into the lake over there."  Roshi said knowing Tee couldn't hear him.

"Ki...Ichigo, you really didn't need to knock him out quite so deeply."  Roshi said to the tree Ichigo had hidden behind.

"Um, Roshi, what's with you calling her Ichigo?  I thought her name was Kinomi."  Boxers stated.

Roshi sighed and looked up at Boxers.  "Long story, suffice it to say Ichigo has been less than forthcoming about herself."  Roshi got up and lead Boxers over to the other side of the tree where Ichigo was glaring off into space ignoring them.  "Allow me to introduce you to Ichigo Kudamono, Princess of all Saiyans."  Roshi finished with just a bit of sarcasm in his voice.

Ichigo jumped up and glared at Roshi.  "I AM the Princess of all Saiyans!  How dare you question me!"  Tears were streaking out of her eyes as she launched herself at Roshi.  "How dare you call me a liar!"

Boxers watched as Roshi flew backward to avoid her blows, all the while making her madder and madder.  'What on Earth happened to piss her off so much?'

* * *

For the second time of the night, Ichigo cracked.  'HOW DARE HE!?!?!'  Ichigo thought as she lit the sky with fire from her Blaze attack.  "You bastard!! You JERK!! How dare you question me!!  I'M the PRINCESS!  You can't EVER TAKE THAT AWAY FROM ME!!"  She shot at Roshi like a bullet.  "You have besmirched my honor and I demand restitution!!"  She screamed as she slammed her fist into Roshi's side right over his kidney.  "You will never be King!!  MY family is the rightful leaders of all Saiyans!!"  She screamed as she shot a Star Ripper down at him.  "You will die by my hand before I allow you to take what is rightfully mine!!"  Another ki blast shot in Roshi's direction.  "You have mocked me for the last time!  I will not be toyed with and mocked like a helpless child!"

Blinded with fear and rage Ichigo attacked relentlessly.

* * *

'She is out of her fricking mind!'  Roshi thought as he dodged another attack.  'She isn't rational'  "What the heck are you talking about!?!"  He shouted at her  "I DON'T WANT to be king!"

This only made her madder.  "I'm NOT GOING TO FALL FOR THAT YOU JERK!!  NO MORE TRICKS NO MORE LIES!  I WILL KILL YOU FOR WHAT YOU HAVE DONE TO ME!!!"  She shouted at him as she charged and then fired her version of the Kamehameha at him.

'I need to keep going higher.'  Roshi thought looking down at her as he dodged the incoming beam.  'If I let her get above me right now, she could destroy the Planet!'

"FIGHT ME!! You JERK!  I DEMAND YOU FIGHT ME!"  Ichigo yelled up at him as he dodged several more ki blasts.

'No, I won't fight you.  Dende was right.  Fighting you will only make you believe you were right.'  Roshi thought as he continued to fly away.  'Kami this sucks!  She is so irrational right now, if I fight her it will only make her retreat further into her delusions.'

"Stop running away you coward!!!"  She yelled from below.  "Fight me!"

"No!  I will not fight you Ichigo!  We have nothing to fight about."  Roshi called back to her.

"NOTHING!!! YOU CALL ME AND MY PEOPLE AND MY PEOPLE'S AND MY HONOR NOTHING!!!!  HOW DARE YOU!!!!"

'Kami what do I do?  I can't beat sense into the senseless, but she won't let me reason with her either.'  A sudden thought of inspiration caught Roshi.  'Damn why does it always seem that the good ideas are so hard to do?'

"Fine, I'm not running anymore.  I don't want to fight you, but if you won't see reason I will have to!"  Roshi shouted at her as he stopped to hover near a cloudbank.

Ichigo charged her right fist and hit Roshi in the chin with an uppercut.  Roshi didn't even try to block.  The hit slammed his head back and the influx of ki from her punch burned its way through his head.  Roshi let the force of the blow knock him into a back flip as he flipped around to face her again.

"THERE!  Did that make you feel any better?  Did it?  Where is the honor in this fight?  I don't want to be king.  Why can't you see that?"  Roshi yelled at her.

"I HATE YOU!! YOU STUPID JERK!!  I HATE YOU!! I HATE YOU!! I HATE YOU!!!  Ichigo wailed as she rapidly punched and kicked Roshi.  He took every blow, not even flinching away from any of them.

"WHY?!?!? WHAT DID I EVER DO TO YOU?!?!"  Roshi shouted back at her though bloody lips.

"I HATE YOU!! YOU'RE JUST LIKE THE REST OF THEM!!  I WON'T LET YOU MOCK ME AGAIN! I HATE YOU!!!"  Ichigo hoarsely screamed as she nailed him in the face with a roundhouse kick.

"Just like the rest of Who?!?!"  Roshi spat blood from his broken nose and tried to clear his eyes.  'Dende! Let her see reason.  I can't take much more of this.'

"ALL OF THEM!! EVERYONE!  THEY ALL EXPECT ME TO FAIL!!"  She yelled as she sung her right fist around to smash Roshi in the side of his face.  Roshi caught her fist moments before it would have slammed into his eye and looked Ichigo in the eyes. 

"Who?  Who expects you to fail?"  He asked calmly expecting her to start calming down.  He saw and sensed the sheer wave of fear coming off of her.  Roshi sensed her foot start to move as her mouth fell open in an infernal scream.  Releasing her arm, Roshi barely managed to turn his body enough to cause her foot to slam into his hip with enough force that it jammed the joint.  Roshi gasped in pain as his left leg went numb.  'Note to self... THAT COULD HAVE REALLY HURT!!!  Grabbing, hitting, or otherwise touching her is NOT a good idea!'

"DON'T TOUCH ME YOU PERVERT!!!"  She yelled as she cupped her hands and brought them down by her side.

Roshi saw the tell tale blue light of a Kamehameha forming two feet in front of his face.  'Oh SHIT!'  Roshi thought as he quickly dodged to the left and up.  Roshi did a front flip and let the beam pass millimeters above him.

"NO ONE TAKES ADVANTAGE OF ME!!!"  Ichigo screamed as she caught Roshi's foot and started to swing him around in circles.

'Ok, this has got to stop' Roshi thought as he let his ki flare and brought her spin to a stop.  Looking down at her where she was struggling to force him to keep moving, Roshi once again asked, "Who expects you to fail?"

Ichigo ignored him and continued to attempt to force him to move.  Roshi just used his ki to keep himself firmly stationed. 

"Ichigo?  Are you even listening to me?  Please, tell me why you are so mad.  I can't help you if you won't let me."  Roshi said calmly.

"PERVERT! YOU DON'T WANT TO HELP ME! YOU JERK!!!"  Ichigo screamed giving up on forcing Roshi to move, she used his foot as and anchor to lunch herself up at him.

The moment she started to move, Roshi knew where that fist was headed.  'Oh no you don't' He thought as he folded at the waist and brought his arms down to catch and throw her away from him.

"BASTARD!"  She screamed as she righted herself and flew back at him.

'Agh, this is going nowhere and getting there really fast!' Roshi thought as she slammed into his stomach with an upper cutting Ki Punch.  "Kuah... ack...  Ichigo, please listen to me.  I don't want your kingdom.  I'm not Banana, and I certainly don't have anything but respect for you.  Think for a moment! Why are you doing this?"  He asked as he once again started leading her cat and mouse through the clouds.

"Liar!  YOU'RE ALL THE SAME!!!  I'M NOT GOING TO TAKE IT ANYMORE!!!"  She yelled back at him.

Roshi had been concentrating on Ichigo so much, that he had not detected Boxers, and Tee approaching until it was too late to do anything about it.  'No, Don't attack her...  To late.'

BLAM!!!  A Masenko slammed into Ichigo diverting her attack.

"What the heck is your problem bitch?!"  Boxers yelled out from where he was flying up to join Roshi.

'Ah no, nothing good can come of this' Roshi thought before rapidly positioning himself between her and Boxers.  "You're not helping you two.  Please let me handle this." 

"No Roshi, I've had about enough of her attitude.  It is time we showed her who's the boss.  Who does she think she is?"  Tee shot back.

"AAAHHHHH WHY YOU PATHETIC WORM!! HOW DARE YOU CALL ME NAMES!!!"  Ichigo yelled as she spun around to face Tee.  "AAAAAAHHHHHH" She yelled out as she started charging an attack.  Pink energy crackled around her body as she splayed her fingers in front of her slightly cupping her hands.  Pink bolts shot between her hands and a large red ball started to grow.

'Oh no!'  "Tee, move your ass!"  Roshi yelled as he flew in front of him and started to charge a Kamehameha.

"KA...ME...HA..." Roshi called out while his aura suddenly flared red.

"PLASMA BEEEAAAMMMMM!!!!"  Ichigo shouted.

"ME..." Ichigo's huge red-pink beam slammed into Roshi.  The beam pushed him down towards the Earth several hundred meters as the ball of energy slowly engulfed him.

"HAAAAAAAA!!!!"  Roshi shouted as the red ball of energy that surrounded him suddenly turned purple and started to move in the opposite direction.

Sensing Ichigo's ki drop, Roshi let his Kamehameha die away so that both beams faded to wisps of smoke at the same time.

Tee never being the brightest bulb in the world took advantage of the situation and flew in to hit Ichigo in the face.  "WHAT the heck are you thinking?  Are you TRYING to blow up the EARTH?!?!"  Ichigo took the blow and slowly turned her head back around to look at Tee.  The look of feral anger on her face was enough to make his blood run cold.  'I am so dead...'

Ichigo pulled her right fist back and charged a Ki Punch.  Tee watched frozen as her fist closed with his face.  At the last second, Roshi flew in and hooked his arm between her side and her elbow, catching her arm and causing her to flip around as his momentum carried her with him.

Ichigo used the momentum to spin herself around and slam her knee into Roshi's back.  She then latched onto his back and put him in a strangle hold.

Boxers had had enough.  He flew up to hit her as hard as he could.  However, when he saw Roshi shaking his head no, Boxers stopped.  He had to do something though.  "Kinomi, or Ichigo, or whatever you name is, what do you think you are doing?  Haven't you killed enough people tonight?"

Ichigo glared at him for a moment.  She then went back to trying to break Roshi's neck, or strangle him, whichever happened first.

"Roshi, what are you doing?  Why are you letting her get away with this?  What is so important that you aren't fighting back against her?"  Tee said as he flew up.

Ichigo had also had enough.  She loosened her hold on Roshi a bit and then shouted in his ear.  "FIGHT ME!!! FIGHT ME OR I WILL KILL THEM!!!"

Roshi coughed a few times and then answered.  "No, you won't.  You would never be able to live with yourself if you did."

"Roshi are you insane?  She murdered almost 5,000 people tonight!"  Tee exclaimed.

Roshi felt her grip loosen immediately.  "HOW DARE YOU CALL ME A MURDERER!!!"  She yelled at Tee.  "EVERY ONE OF THE BASTARDS I FAUGHT TONIGHT DESERVED TEN TIMES WHAT THEY GOT!!!"

Tee lost his voice.  Boxers, however, didn't.  "What about the people who were on the moon when you blew it up?  What about what you just about did to the Earth?  WHAT ABOUT THE FACT THAT YOU ARE TRYING TO KILL THE ONLY PERSON HERE WHO DOESN'T WANT YOU DEAD?!?"

"WHAT PEOPLE ON THE MOON??!"  Ichigo screamed.

"There were almost 5,000 people who died on the moon when it blew up.  Those people on the moon.  What about them miss high and mighty, what did they do to deserve to die?  What did I DO?  WHAT DID ROSHI HERE DO?  HUH?  WELL?!"  Boxers yelled right back.

Ichigo actually looked like she heard what he said.  "I had to.  I Had no choice."  She spat back.

Boxers was on the offensive and he didn't know, or care how close to the breaking point he pushed her.  "What do you mean you had no choice?  There is always a choice.  To fight or to not fight.  To live or to let die.  To save or to destroy.  Did you even try to rip off their tails?  No, I suppose some stupid honor code prevented that.  What made you so important that you can value yourself over so many others?  And you claim you came here to find help to save your people from the Changelings.  You're no different then they are.  You place yourself and your own honor above that of others.  You kept shouting at Roshi about honor.  Where is the honor in NOT doing what you can to save lives?  Where is the honor in letting innocent people die?  Well tell me, where is the honor in killing the helpless so you can survive?"

"I... I..."

Boxers wasn't about to let her think about it.  "And don't even try to devalue those lives because they were humans, cause not all of them were.  Several of my cousins died by your hand tonight.  But I guess you don't care.  They just got in the way of you and whatever it is you saw fit to do, Huh?  So you're a Princess so what!  I hope your father lives a very long time, for the sake of your people that is.  Are their lives as easy to dismiss too?  You sure didn't seem to have any problem fighting those men that followed you here tonight?"

Roshi realized that Boxers was hitting the fears and pains that Ichigo had bottled up and was more or less twisting the knife.  "Boxers! Stop this!"

"You... You're... j ju...just...like th...the r...r...re...st o of them."  Ichigo stuttered quietly through tears before starting to fall in a lazy tumble back towards the Earth.

Boxers looked at Roshi questioningly.  "Roshi?"

Roshi just shook his head.  "Long story..." He said before diving after her.  If she continued to fall the entire way back down to the earth, the impact would kill even her.

Roshi caught her with plenty of time to spare and then quickly landed near a lake in the middle of a forest they had flown over.

Her entire body tensed up the moment he caught her and she was shivering by the time he had landed.

"Put me down."  Ichigo managed to say.

Roshi didn't need to be told twice.  He quickly kneeled and set her down next to a large rock.

"I'm sorry Ichigo.  Do you want to talk about it?"  Roshi said quietly.

* * *

Ichigo was furious.  She was hurt and it was all HIS fault.  The JERK was going to pay.  During the entire fight, all she could think about was all the ways Roshi had belittled her, and mocked her, and threatened her.  And all the reasons she had to hate him.  Then when Tee and Boxers had shown up, she had included them in with the rest of her anger.  Then they had dared to attack her and she reacted completely on instinct.  She was lost in her thoughts.  Lost in her fears, and her worries, and it was all their fault.

Then reality had hit her in the face.  She had killed innocent people.  Part of her didn't care, they were not important.  But part of her remembered how her father had welcomed refugees from other planets overrun by Changelings or plagues or famine.  She remembered why she was really fighting.  Not for herself but for her people's very lives.  She realized just how much of a failure she was.  Both to herself, and to her father, and to her people.  Not even aware that she was falling to her death, she felt Roshi catch her and images and memories of Banana and his goons leering at her and touching her flashed through her mind.

He put her down quickly enough.  Then he did more for her then she could do for herself.

"Do you want to talk about it?"  He asked. 

'Why?  Why did he care?  Why should anyone care?'  Ichigo curled herself into a ball and cried.

* * *

Roshi watched her.  He remembered how she had been crying earlier in the night.  Before Banana and his goons had arrived.  'Dende, I fear I will never understand women.  She is about as stable as a canoe in a hurricane.'

Tee and Boxers landed near by.  Roshi walked over to greet them.

"Long story huh?  Well, looks like we have time."  Boxers said as he looked over at Ichigo.

"Um, Roshi, Boxers, is it just me, or is she bawling her head off right now?"  Tee said loud enough to get a reaction from Ichigo.

Roshi glared at him.  "Is it just me or are there times when you are about as intelligent as an average donkey?"

"You just call me an ass?"  Tee said sounding hurt.

"When the name fits, use it."  Roshi said with a glare.  "Now, come over here, I don't really want to disturb her at the moment."

Boxers looked over at Ichigo.  "Ah, yeah.  Look man, I just wanted her to stop trying to kill you.  I didn't expect her to do this!"

"Well duh!"  Only a cold hearted jerk likes seeing people cry."  Roshi said as he led the two of them down to the lakeshore.  He didn't know about the rest of them, but he was fully intending to catch a fish for his supper before he started to explain a darn thing.

* * *

Twenty minutes later, three large fish were cooking over three equally large bonfires.

"Ok, so are you going to tell us what is going on now?"  Boxers asked as he watched his fish cook.

"I can tell you what I know.  It may explain some of her behavior."  Roshi said as he pulled part of his fish off of the branch he had used to hold it over the fire.  "First off, She is a princess.  I would guess from the way she acts, and from what Banana, which is the name of the leader of the group of Saiyans that attacked us, said, that her family and Vegeta's family once fought over the right to rule the planet Saiya.  Vegeta's family lost."

"The next thing is that the changelings have her father held captive and she feels responsible.  That coupled with the fact that the six Saiyans who came here today came specifically to kill her so they could take over, causes her to be very touchy about her Royalty.  When I stupidly was a bit snide about the fact that she had lied, she took it that I was being snide about her being a Princess and took offense.  That is what set her off.  Well, that and the fact that I claimed that I was rightfully King."

"WHAT?!!"  Both Tee and Boxer's yelled as one.

"Well, I had overheard what they had been saying to her via the communicator that Slip had given her.  So I heard Banana claim he was king because he was the strongest and by ancient law or something that is how they chose the king.  Since I was a good deal stronger then him, I flew in and used the same reasoning to try to intimidate him.  Unfortunately, all that happened was I intimidated her."

"Smart one!"  Tee sneered, happy to have even the smallest verbal jab to send at Roshi.

His comment only reminded Roshi to tell the rest of the story.  "You want to know about smart comments?  You are lucky to still be alive after your stupid comment tonight."

"What do you mean by that!?!"

"Well you were trying to be funny, I know, but when you asked her if she liked fighting in her underwear, I was sure she was going to kill you."

Tee cut Roshi off.  "WELL Sorry, but she didn't look like she had been in a ki blast or anything that would have burned off her gi.  I mean, sure, her bra was cut up and had blood on it, but really, she still had all her hair and stuff, so I just assumed that she had been swimming again or something.  Pardon me for hitting a nerve."

"Tee would you shut up!  This is important!  Actually it is one of the reasons why I was so mad during the fight with Banana and his men!"  Roshi practically yelled in Tee's face to shut him up.  "When I got to where Banana and his men had caught K..."  Roshi rolled his eyes, "Ichigo, they were trying to rape her."

"WHAT!  THOSE FITHY PIGS!"  Tee yelled.

Boxers for his part looked unnerved but didn't say anything right away.  "That's why you weren't attacking her.  She was in shock and attacking her would have only made it worse!  Oh Kami! I'm an idiot!  I just took a girl who was in shock and asked her to question the very things that were driving her nuts in the first place!  No wonder she's bawling her head off."

"Don't beat yourself up over it, you meant well, you just didn't do well on her part."  Roshi said back consoling his cousin.

"I need to go apologize."  Boxers said as he got up to walk back to where they had left Ichigo.

"No, don't" Roshi said.  "Kami talked to me right after the fight.  Right now, what she needs is time to think and find her own peace.  Once she comes around, then you can apologize.  It will actually be heard that way."

"And if she doesn't?"  Boxers said.

"Then we give her more time.  Besides, Dende also said there is a Changeling coming here.  Ichigo's problems are truthfully not our greatest concern right now.  If we can help her we will, but right now, we need to prepare for the worst fight of our lives."  Roshi said with just a bit of finality.

* * *

AN:  Sorry for the delay.  Please Review, your comments are appreciated.

The Smooster

P.S.  This chapter is dedicated to BigPimpinGohanDbZ  because you thought the last chapter was too heavy on the psychology.  I hope you just LOVED this one… ;) 

Oh on Mr. BigPimpinGohanDbZ's Flame.  I laugh at flames.  I find them funny.  If they are Crude, grotesque, in poor taste, and completely irrelevant I will have them removed.  Otherwise.. Do your worst!! HA HA HA.  

On that, a legitimate review where someone says… "Hey Smooster!  I don't like how you have character A!"  Or " Hey, In the Anime, Buu is dead so why do you have Buu?" (Several of you have commented on Buu.. he will be explained.. give me time.. I'm not to that chapter yet…. ;)  )   Anyway, these are not flames.  These are critiques.  I can't laugh at critiques, but I like them almost as much as a good flame.  Why you may say?  Cause they help me to see stuff that I may have forgotten, or overlooked.  They also help me to fix my writing and make a better story for all of you wonderful readers.  So anyway I guess who knows.  If you can give me a good critique, I may dedicate a chapter to you!