A/N: Wow, three reviews in two days! Thanks so much. You guys (and girls)
rock!
Jumper Prime: Sorry about the short chapter, I just couldn't think of anything else that should go in there. Oh well, I try and update fairly frequently, so hopefully that will make up for the occasional short chapter.
Ladybugg: I'm glad to hear that you enjoy the story enough to stay up so late reading.
Metal Dragon 1: Don't forget that this is after GT so the Earth's dragonballs are gone. I guess they still should have had better memories, but hey, in the show there were a couple of occasions where they forgot they could fly, so it's not too much of a stretch for them to forget. As for bringing Akira back I'd say that it's a safe bet he'll make another appearance (I like him too much to kill him off for good).
Chapter 23
The line seemed to stretch on forever. Hundreds of thousands of little, fluffy white clouds were floating in a straight line, waiting to get into what looked like a large castle. Akira looked around in surprise, he hadn't remembered getting into line, yet here he was; then he noticed that he seemed to be the only non-cloud in the line. For a moment he considered getting out of line and trying to find some real people to tell him what was going on, but for some strange reason he resisted the urge. Something told him to stay were he was.
~Well,~ he thought taking another look around; ~it's not like there's anywhere else to go around here.~ And it was true, besides the castle there wasn't another building to be seen. So he stayed in line, which he happily noted was moving fairly quickly.
~As long as it keeps moving like this I might make it inside before I die of old age,~ as the words ran through his brain it hit him. He WAS dead. Though not of old age, the alien Xellos had killed him. It all came back to him in a rush: the explosion, the fight, the goodbye, and then the line. The fast moving, yet seemingly never-ending cloud line. It occurred to him that now that he was dead, he didn't exactly have any pressing engagements that he needed to get to. Akira sighed and twiddled his thumbs as he walked.
In a surprisingly short period of time, he found himself being ushered into an enormous room. In front of him was an exasperated looking gigantic demon, with a mountain of paper stacked on either side of him, the name on his immense desk said: King Yemen. Akira chuckled to himself, being dead was kind of funny.
"State your name please," the huge demon requested.
"Akira Masako."
The demon looked through a large book, then turned and flipped through some files on his desk. He pulled at his tie and then looked back at Akira in confusion.
"Masako you say? Are you sure you don't have another name?"
"Um, as far as I know that's the only name I have," Akira said, enjoying the sight of the fearsome-looking demon squirming in his suit and turning funny shades of red.
"Well... you know you are only the second person in over a thousand years that has come in here with no file. At least with Goku I knew where I was supposed to send him, but what am I supposed to do with you?" Yemen was clearly not pleased with the whole situation.
Suddenly an aid rushed in and handed him a slip of paper, whispering an explanation into his ear. Yemen read the paper, then shrugged and turned back to Akira.
"It would appear that you have a lot in common with Goku today. You're going to be heading to King Kai's place to train. Just step through those doors and follow Snake Way until you reach the end, you'll know it when you see it. Oh, and be careful not to fall off the path." Akira walked through the doors the big demon had pointed to, wondering what Yemen meant by "Snake Way."
The answer was a little simpler than he'd expected. Snake Way was called that because it was a road that looked like a snake. Akira stared at it for a while, for all he knew, the thing might be a billion miles long. It might take him an eternity to walk it. Then he realized that with the whole being dead thing, he had an eternity or two to spare. He started walking. After less than twenty minutes, he got bored and began to fly; after all, he might have plenty of time, but that didn't mean that he wanted to spend his entire after-life walking along a snake-shaped road.
He flew until he was too tired mentally and physically to stay in the air anymore. He figured he'd probably covered several hundred miles and deserved a nap. When he awoke, he again shot into the sky and continued his journey.
---------------------------------------------------------------------------- -----------------------------------------
Pan had been in her room all day. Her parents hadn't bothered to bug her with stupid questions or lame clichés about how everything would be okay. Because of her Akira was dead, things would never be okay ever again.
It had been three days since the tournament; Pan had neither slept nor ate in all that time. She had no appetite, no desire for sleep, no desire for anything; all she wanted to do was sit in her room and feel sorry for herself. She hadn't even cried since the day that he'd left her.
Deep down, part of her knew that it was stupid to act like this, stupid to punish herself for what had happened to Akira. But Pan didn't care that it was stupid, she didn't care about anything anymore.
There was a soft knock on the door. Gohan came in and sat down next to her on the bed. "Are you ready to talk about it yet?" he asked carefully.
Pan mumbled something unintelligible and shrugged, not looking at her father.
Gohan sighed, "You can't keep this stuff bottled up, you have to let it out. You'll feel better if you talk about it with someone."
Pan glared at him, "I don't want to feel better, I don't deserve to feel better. Because of me, my friend is dead and without the dragon balls; he'll stay that way. It's all my fault. If I hadn't been there Akira would still be alive. He shouldn't have stepped in front of that attack, he should have just let it hit me."
Gohan's eyes were moist, but his voice was strong, "Akira sacrificed himself to save you. He did it because he cares about you, because your life was more important to him than his own. Do you think he'd want you to sit in your room and feeling sorry for yourself for the rest of your life? Refusing to eat, trying to punish yourself for his heroic actions? I didn't know Akira as well as you, but I know he wouldn't want you to act like this."
"Get out." Pan said, her voice a low growl. Gohan got up, looked at her sadly and then left the room without another word. Pan curled up in a little ball and cried herself to sleep.
---------------------------------------------------------------------------- -----------------------------------------
Vegeta was in the gravity room, working his body past the point of exhaustion, he wasn't sure what exactly was coming, but he knew that he had to be ready for it. Still he found that he was having difficulty focussing, his thoughts kept going back to Akira. The boy was an unsolved mystery. Bulma had run some tests on a sample of the young man's blood taken from the arena and compared it with Vegeta's and Gohan's, Akira had been a full-blooded Saiyan, but not related to Vegeta or Kakorrot.
It was too bad the boy had not lived. He would be missed, especially with the looming threat of Ammit bearing down upon all of them. It would have been nice to have another Super Saiyan there for the fight.
Then a thought hit the Saiyan Prince. Why couldn't Akira be there for that fight? Just because there were no dragon balls on Earth didn't mean that they couldn't be found anywhere. He turned off the gravity machine and went to discuss his idea with Bulma, if she thought it could be done before Ammit arrived, he would talk it over with Gohan.
Jumper Prime: Sorry about the short chapter, I just couldn't think of anything else that should go in there. Oh well, I try and update fairly frequently, so hopefully that will make up for the occasional short chapter.
Ladybugg: I'm glad to hear that you enjoy the story enough to stay up so late reading.
Metal Dragon 1: Don't forget that this is after GT so the Earth's dragonballs are gone. I guess they still should have had better memories, but hey, in the show there were a couple of occasions where they forgot they could fly, so it's not too much of a stretch for them to forget. As for bringing Akira back I'd say that it's a safe bet he'll make another appearance (I like him too much to kill him off for good).
Chapter 23
The line seemed to stretch on forever. Hundreds of thousands of little, fluffy white clouds were floating in a straight line, waiting to get into what looked like a large castle. Akira looked around in surprise, he hadn't remembered getting into line, yet here he was; then he noticed that he seemed to be the only non-cloud in the line. For a moment he considered getting out of line and trying to find some real people to tell him what was going on, but for some strange reason he resisted the urge. Something told him to stay were he was.
~Well,~ he thought taking another look around; ~it's not like there's anywhere else to go around here.~ And it was true, besides the castle there wasn't another building to be seen. So he stayed in line, which he happily noted was moving fairly quickly.
~As long as it keeps moving like this I might make it inside before I die of old age,~ as the words ran through his brain it hit him. He WAS dead. Though not of old age, the alien Xellos had killed him. It all came back to him in a rush: the explosion, the fight, the goodbye, and then the line. The fast moving, yet seemingly never-ending cloud line. It occurred to him that now that he was dead, he didn't exactly have any pressing engagements that he needed to get to. Akira sighed and twiddled his thumbs as he walked.
In a surprisingly short period of time, he found himself being ushered into an enormous room. In front of him was an exasperated looking gigantic demon, with a mountain of paper stacked on either side of him, the name on his immense desk said: King Yemen. Akira chuckled to himself, being dead was kind of funny.
"State your name please," the huge demon requested.
"Akira Masako."
The demon looked through a large book, then turned and flipped through some files on his desk. He pulled at his tie and then looked back at Akira in confusion.
"Masako you say? Are you sure you don't have another name?"
"Um, as far as I know that's the only name I have," Akira said, enjoying the sight of the fearsome-looking demon squirming in his suit and turning funny shades of red.
"Well... you know you are only the second person in over a thousand years that has come in here with no file. At least with Goku I knew where I was supposed to send him, but what am I supposed to do with you?" Yemen was clearly not pleased with the whole situation.
Suddenly an aid rushed in and handed him a slip of paper, whispering an explanation into his ear. Yemen read the paper, then shrugged and turned back to Akira.
"It would appear that you have a lot in common with Goku today. You're going to be heading to King Kai's place to train. Just step through those doors and follow Snake Way until you reach the end, you'll know it when you see it. Oh, and be careful not to fall off the path." Akira walked through the doors the big demon had pointed to, wondering what Yemen meant by "Snake Way."
The answer was a little simpler than he'd expected. Snake Way was called that because it was a road that looked like a snake. Akira stared at it for a while, for all he knew, the thing might be a billion miles long. It might take him an eternity to walk it. Then he realized that with the whole being dead thing, he had an eternity or two to spare. He started walking. After less than twenty minutes, he got bored and began to fly; after all, he might have plenty of time, but that didn't mean that he wanted to spend his entire after-life walking along a snake-shaped road.
He flew until he was too tired mentally and physically to stay in the air anymore. He figured he'd probably covered several hundred miles and deserved a nap. When he awoke, he again shot into the sky and continued his journey.
---------------------------------------------------------------------------- -----------------------------------------
Pan had been in her room all day. Her parents hadn't bothered to bug her with stupid questions or lame clichés about how everything would be okay. Because of her Akira was dead, things would never be okay ever again.
It had been three days since the tournament; Pan had neither slept nor ate in all that time. She had no appetite, no desire for sleep, no desire for anything; all she wanted to do was sit in her room and feel sorry for herself. She hadn't even cried since the day that he'd left her.
Deep down, part of her knew that it was stupid to act like this, stupid to punish herself for what had happened to Akira. But Pan didn't care that it was stupid, she didn't care about anything anymore.
There was a soft knock on the door. Gohan came in and sat down next to her on the bed. "Are you ready to talk about it yet?" he asked carefully.
Pan mumbled something unintelligible and shrugged, not looking at her father.
Gohan sighed, "You can't keep this stuff bottled up, you have to let it out. You'll feel better if you talk about it with someone."
Pan glared at him, "I don't want to feel better, I don't deserve to feel better. Because of me, my friend is dead and without the dragon balls; he'll stay that way. It's all my fault. If I hadn't been there Akira would still be alive. He shouldn't have stepped in front of that attack, he should have just let it hit me."
Gohan's eyes were moist, but his voice was strong, "Akira sacrificed himself to save you. He did it because he cares about you, because your life was more important to him than his own. Do you think he'd want you to sit in your room and feeling sorry for yourself for the rest of your life? Refusing to eat, trying to punish yourself for his heroic actions? I didn't know Akira as well as you, but I know he wouldn't want you to act like this."
"Get out." Pan said, her voice a low growl. Gohan got up, looked at her sadly and then left the room without another word. Pan curled up in a little ball and cried herself to sleep.
---------------------------------------------------------------------------- -----------------------------------------
Vegeta was in the gravity room, working his body past the point of exhaustion, he wasn't sure what exactly was coming, but he knew that he had to be ready for it. Still he found that he was having difficulty focussing, his thoughts kept going back to Akira. The boy was an unsolved mystery. Bulma had run some tests on a sample of the young man's blood taken from the arena and compared it with Vegeta's and Gohan's, Akira had been a full-blooded Saiyan, but not related to Vegeta or Kakorrot.
It was too bad the boy had not lived. He would be missed, especially with the looming threat of Ammit bearing down upon all of them. It would have been nice to have another Super Saiyan there for the fight.
Then a thought hit the Saiyan Prince. Why couldn't Akira be there for that fight? Just because there were no dragon balls on Earth didn't mean that they couldn't be found anywhere. He turned off the gravity machine and went to discuss his idea with Bulma, if she thought it could be done before Ammit arrived, he would talk it over with Gohan.