I bet you didn't think it would be out this quick.
And thank you, Dania-san, for reminding me just why I am a Namek fan. *grin*
Disclaimer: *snuggles her Burger King toys* They're about all I own of DBZ, that and some manga and taped episodes.
Chapter Twenty-Four
Goku caught up with Piccolo underneath the tree. The Namek had his back to him and was shaking his head, as though he was confused. Well, he's not the only one, the Saiyan thought, mentally preparing himself for the worst. "Piccolo," he asked, "what happened back there?"
The Namek did not respond. Was he ignoring him?
He tried again. "Are you all right?" he asked.
Again, there was no answer.
Goku then put a hand on Piccolo's arm, wincing as the Namek jumped at the contact. "What's going on, Piccolo?" he questioned. "You're not acting like yourself, and it's starting to worry me."
The other warrior shifted away from Goku's hand. "Feh. Even if I knew, do you think I would tell you? It is none of your business."
"Well, I'm making it my business," the Saiyan replied, stepping around the tree so he stood in front of Piccolo. "You're the second-strongest guy on the planet, Piccolo, and if something's wrong with you, we need to help you."
"There is nothing wrong with me," Piccolo insisted, narrowing his eyes at his former enemy. "Ask Gohan if you do not believe me. He would tell you the same thing." The confidence he exuded was enough to convince Goku of it, though shakily indeed, and the Saiyan began to calm down bit by bit. I only wish I was half as confident about it as I must look, he thought. That…was not pleasant.
"Well, if you say so," Goku said, shrugging. "But that was really scary, Piccolo. You looked like you were going to tear Chi-Chi's head off!"
I almost did. "I have more control than that," the Namek growled. "Besides, you would have stopped me even as I extended my hands to kill her."
The Saiyan shrugged again, and Piccolo gave him one of those Don't-give-me-that-nonsense-you-know-you-could-have-if-you-wanted-to looks. I don't know about that, Goku thought to himself. I couldn't even move until after he was done speaking! But why? He regarded the Namek with a frown of his own. You're hiding something, Piccolo, and I don't know what it is. I don't even know where to begin.
"You know, Piccolo," Goku said finally, after several minutes of an uncomfortable silence, "if something like this happens again, everyone's going to think you're turning back into Daimao."
"I never was Daimao. You and I both know that." Piccolo regarded him coolly, noticing how the Saiyan refused to shrink away from his gaze. What he said was true; Piccolo had only had the misfortune of being born with all of the Demon Lord's memories, desires…and hatred. Kami, how long it had taken him to get over it all, and even now he still felt his sire's hold over him. Not even Gohan, for all the good he'd done him, had been able to undo all the damage wrought by Daimao.
Goku stood his ground against the Namek's searching gaze. He was right, of course. Piccolo was rarely ever wrong. Even at the Tenka'ichi Budokai he had known the demon (as he thought his only heritage was) was not completely evil, like his sire. He had also known that despite Piccolo's claim of being Daimao, he was not the same creature. Son Goku, as with everyone he had ever fought, had given him a chance at life, and the way Piccolo had spent it proved he was not the Demon Lord himself.
"Just promise me that you'll see Kami if anything else happens," he said after a while.
Piccolo lifted one eye ridge. "And if I don't?" he questioned.
"If something happens again, I – we – will make sure you don't harm anything." The expression on Goku's face told Piccolo that the man was neither fooling around nor bluffing.
Piccolo did not doubt that for an instant, though he was shocked at the other man's behavior. Is this really coming from his Super Saiyan transformation, as I thought before? he wondered. Is he becoming more…responsible? Or has he been like this all along? "All right," he mumbled. He did not feel like being flattened for not giving an answer.
"Promise me, Piccolo," the Saiyan pressed. "Swear it. Say it, so I know you're not lying to me."
The green man felt his eyes widen. Where is all this coming from? "Fine," he growled. "I…promise…to see Kami if something goes wrong."
Goku suppressed a smile as Piccolo stumbled over his words; it would only piss him off more. That, and the situation was very grave. This promise had to be made. He needed the reassurance, and Piccolo was an honorable man. If he said he would do something, he would do it. Well, at least the delivery was consoling. King Kai would have fallen over laughing. The Great and Mighty Piccolo, forced into a promise like that.
Then again, if he knew the circumstances behind it, the blue god would not be so amused.
"Is that good enough for you?" the Namek grumbled.
"Yes, it is," Goku replied, rubbing the back of his head. "But I still have another question for you."
Kais above, Piccolo swore, this will not turn into an inquisition! "What?"
The Saiyan jumped at the sharpness of his voice. "Well," he began, but much quieter now than he had been, "back there, when you were leaning over the table and all, your eyes – they changed color, Piccolo."
If Goku had been surprised before, he was shocked now. He felt his own eyes widen in sympathy as he watched the blood drain from Piccolo's face. He would have thought the Namek had fried something in his brain was it not for the fact he was still breathing. "What…color were they?" he said after a moment, speaking slowly as if still trying to digest the information.
"Red. A really bright red. Or maybe the light just hit them funny, but yeah, they were red. Was it some kind of new technique, Piccolo?" Goku tilted his head to the side in anticipation of the answer, hoping that he was right but knowing the chances of that happening were slim.
"Shit." Piccolo closed his eyes and shook his head slowly. "You really were desperate to get me to see Kami, weren't you?" he asked. Goku found himself waiting with baited breath for the Namek to open his eyes so he could see what color they would be this time, but he was disappointed…and relieved. The whites of his eyes were still white.
"No, why?" he asked. "I take it having red eyes is not a good thing, then?"
"No, it is not."
"Care to explain?"
"No."
"Any particular reason?"
Sure. Perhaps because I do not wish to be locked up in a rice cooker for the rest of my life? That I do not want to be hunted down for being unstable? That should be it. Oh, and while I'm at it, I can go into the intricacies of being a demon, all the perks of the job, and how wonderful it feels to hear screams in your sleep. Should I add the bit about Daimao's various legacies, too? "Don't you have anything else to do with your time?" Piccolo growled.
"Right now? I should be finishing my lunch. And I'm probably going to get whacked for walking out on Chi-Chi and Gohan."
Piccolo smirked. "It would serve you right, following me out here just so you could harass me."
The green man did have a point there, the other man admitted to himself, but he was not about to tell him that. "I am not harassing you!" Goku replied indignantly, folding his arms across his chest. "I'm just making sure you're okay!"
"I said it before: ask Gohan. He will know if something happens to me." Piccolo turned his back to the Saiyan and sighed. "You should not be concerning yourself with me. Get back to your friends and family and convince them that I am not going to blow up the island."
A puzzled look crossed Goku's face, until he noticed how rapidly Krillin's and Gohan's ki was fluctuating, spiking and dropping like they were in the midst of a battle. "Oh," he said simply. "Okay."
Goku brushed past the Namek on his way back and ducked his head in apology. He felt he was forgetting something, but what? He stopped in his tracks – practically hearing the green man's long-suffering sigh – as he ran through his last few thoughts, tallying the count on his fingers. Lessee here, he thought, getting back to Krillin and Chi-Chi an' Gohan, finishing lunch, telling Piccolo I wasn't harassing him, lunch, red eyes, making a promise, lunch, the last Tenka'ichi Budokai – oh, yeah, that's it!
Again, Piccolo feared the worst when Goku whirled on him, but the man's countenance was anything but threatening. In fact, he looked downright cheerful, and for some reason that chilled the Namek more than a blatant threat would have. "Oh, yeah, Piccolo," the man began – Piccolo made a valiant effort not to let any emotion leak onto his face – "Gohan said you told him you could beat both me and him in a few days. Care to give it a try?"
Despite himself, Piccolo relaxed his stance and smirked. The look in Goku's eyes was challenging, and expectant…and there was no way he would resist such an offer. "I think I will. You'll regret it," he told the man.
"Doubtful, but I'll be looking forward to it." With a slight wave of a hand, the Saiyan trekked back to the Kame House, leaving Piccolo alone with his thoughts.
The Lookout
"And what are you thinking about doing with this situation, Kami?" Uranai Baba asked, sipping at the glass of tea Mr. Popo had provided her with. "It could very well turn ugly, and then where would we all be?"
"In all likelihood, dead," the Guardian replied bluntly. "That ki spike was most assuredly him, and it worries me. Not so much that he powered up, but that I could find no reason behind it. It's disturbing."
"I don't blame you," the witch said. She shook her head slowly before continuing. "You didn't exactly feel what was going on…seventeen days ago, was it? I was lucky I was able to bind whatever it was to its own realm. If it could see now how unstable Ma Junior is, I guarantee that it would have grabbed him. Then you would have another Daimao on your hands."
Kami sighed and massaged his temples gently. "Which would be disastrous. Goku had trouble with him last time. What would he do now against not only Daimao, but a friend? He couldn't kill me during the last Budokai to kill Piccolo. Would he be able to kill Piccolo to destroy something controlling him?"
"Probably not," Baba added thoughtfully, running her fingers along her new crystal ball. "Goku is not that type of person, Kami. He'd just as soon try convincing whatever-it-is to leave Ma Junior alone and out of the fight as he would try figuring out how to force it out of him. At least we know you will not have to deal with that situation now. Ma Junior is almost well again, and he won't be vulnerable at all then. I've tested his shielding. Nothing will be getting by him."
"At least that is good news." Kami smiled weakly at the witch. Inwardly, he doubted her wisdom on the matter, because he knew, just knew that something was not right with Piccolo. Uranai Baba, as expert as she was in matters of the supernatural, so to speak, did not have the ability to sense what happened to Piccolo. No matter what she said, there were too many signs pointing toward its direct opposite.
For instance, the younger Namek's eyes turning red.
The Guardian only knew about that in particular because he had felt the ki spike and Piccolo's very unusual loss of control and had peeked in on his nephew. Reflecting back on it based on what he had seen both in Piccolo's and Goku's minds, the only reason he had not actually lunged for Chi-Chi was that the other warriors were around. And that was a very near thing.
But red eyes…
Kami had not had to deal with the likes of that for well over a century, and even then he was not completely sure of what it meant. He had seen many an evil soul with red eyes, but it might just be that it was through some quality of theirs that this was so. Then why would it have happened to Piccolo? There were plenty of reasons, of course; the boy was a demon, for one, but he was also a Namek. He did not know for sure. What he did know is that the last being he had come across with red eyes had been a demon.
He had already accounted for that, though, and it still made no sense to him.
The Guardian blinked.
"Are you done daydreaming yet, Kami?" Baba asked with a smile. "Would you mind telling me what is on your mind?"
Kami sighed. "If you wish to know…I fear that Piccolo is reverting back into what he once was. He has been unstable enough for it lately, and I would not be surprised to wake up tomorrow morning to find him at my throat with his claws."
"A regression that great would not be happening overnight, Kami," Baba interjected, "or even over a few weeks. Changes along those lines take months, even years."
"Very true," the Guardian conceded, "but it still irks me, not knowing for certain what is happening to the being my very life is connected to." He sighed again. "I believe that these problems all stem from him being a demon as well as a Namek – and believe me, demons attract many problems – but just where the connection lies, I do not know."
"Has your library told you anything?"
The aging Namek smiled then, and responded. "I have learned much about a human 'custom' called exorcism, which removes a demon from a body with holy symbols and a few other items."
Baba snorted in amusement. "So you have learned how to tear your own soul from your body."
"It's fairly useless. Piccolo is a demon, and this ritual would probably harm or kill him, and me."
"Indeed it is. Any other ideas, for now?"
Kami grunted an affirmative. "The best option, it seems, is to speak with Piccolo and find out from him what is going on. Nigh impossible, but most likely my only hope of dealing with the situation."
Uranai Baba nodded. "Then I wish you luck in your little adventure, Kami. I must be off again, but don't hesitate to call for me if you need something."
"Thank you, Baba."
And Kami was left alone on the Lookout with a wisp of smoke, attempting to figure out how he would get to Piccolo before anything else could happen.
* * * * *
For once, I almost have the next chapter done. Thank you all for reading – and a Happy Halloween to you.
~Dreamwraith