Tell No Tales
CHAPTER EIGHT: The Bigger They Are . . .
It was just too much. First, he had been killed. Then, his files weren't in order, so he got sent to the Relegation Room. Then he concocted some insane plane to get to Judgement before it was ready for him. He was willing to admit that the whole episode with Goz and Mez was actually kind of fun. But this, being hunted down by a giant that looked as though it would step on you or eat you as soon as it would look at you was just not something that he wanted to deal with.
But since when did he ever get to deal with things that he wanted to deal with? His whole existence was a polar opposite to such a concept.
Kuririn tore his gaze away from the giant for a moment to check on Gohan Senior. The old man was on the other side of the giant, and was slowly climbing to his feet. He looked unhurt, if a bit dazed, and Kuririn managed a smile at this. At least his friend was all right. Now all he had to do was figure out a way to take care of this giant who did not exactly look very happy to see them.
"So you are the tiny ones that escaped," the giant said, his voice echoing for surely miles across the landscape of Hell and in Kuririn's ears, and he longed to cover them, but he knew that he could not spare the time. It was too valuable. "I would suggest that you run away no longer. I've had quite a time looking for you, and it has been very frustrating."
Kuririn calmed down a hair. This thing was not as rampagingly angry as it had seemed at the start. Maybe he could reason with it. "Well, that's really unfortunate, sir. You know, we'd actually . . ."
"It was merely my job to bring you back before, to face Lord Enma," the giant interrupted. "But the search had been so frustrating that I've just decided to smash you without permission."
Kuririn gulped. What was with this guy? He didn't seem especially perturbed in any way, yet he was still planning to kill them? Or not kill, but . . . Augh, forget about it. The question of whether something that was already dead could be killed again was one that he did not exactly have the time to contemplate at the moment. There were far more pressing issues at hand.
"Hey, look," Kuririn said, though his voice was a little shaky. Maybe he could still get Gohan Senior off the hook. "My friend here didn't do anything willingly. I made him come here. Why don't you just take him back to Judgement, and you can come after me." This time, the words were much braver sounding, even though he did not feel any braver in his heart. But he felt honourable at least.
"Hold on a second son!" Gohan Senior called out. "Just what do you think you're –"
"I know what I'm doing!" Kuririn shouted back before his companion could finish the protest. He had to move quickly. "Just relax!"
Not exactly a lie, but not really the truth either. The real truth was that he knew what he wanted to do, but he was unsure of how to go about it. He couldn't risk shouting for Gohan Senior to escape, at least not yet. The giant would surely track him down easily and destroy him, so he had to hope that this would work.
The typical response to his hopes greeted him; the giant laughed. "You are a funny creature, tiniest of ones. But Kyojin, the greatest of the Otherworld's enforcers, does not become swayed by his sense of humour. One out of two is no deal. It must be both."
Great. Well, that plan was shot. Now was the time for the secondary plan. Either luckily or unluckily, the giant, Kyojin, set it in motion for him.
"But I will grant you part of your request, tiniest of ones," Kyojin continued at last. "I will simply smash you first."
Well, that was a relief. Sort of. He had been afraid for a moment that the giant was going to go after Gohan Senior. Or was this turn of events really so fortunate? After all, had the giant turned around to make a strike at Gohan Senior, Kuririn could have launched a sneak attack from behind . . .
Oh, well. More important things to worry about now.
Kyojin's fist came at him again, and he hopped backward to evade it. With surprising speed, the giant lifted his arm out of the ground and lunged at him once again. Kuririn scarcely managed to leap into the air to evade this one, and he barely had time to sigh in relief before he looked up into the face of yet another oncoming attack.
With a gasp of alarm, Kuririn twisted his body minutely to evade the edge of Kyojin's other fist, and cupped his hands to form a small ki blast. He had not the time, nor truly the energy for anything major. The power built in his hands for a few seconds . . .
Kyojin's hand shot toward him again, open-palmed this time, and on pure instinct he let out a cry and fired the ki blast that he had been forming.
The blast exploded into the giant's palm, and Kuririn heard Kyojin cry out in mild pain as the blast struck, and pulled his hand away. With his opponent thus distracted, he flew behind Kyojin's head and gathered ki around his fist. His gloved hand glowed with the varying intensity of blue- white light and he drove it forward, right into the back of Kyojin's skull.
It was a particularly skilful blow, similar to the one that he had used to knock out Gohan Senior a few weeks prior. And it seemed that Kyojin might have fallen victim to it just the same; the giant swayed unsteadily on his feet before toppling forward onto his face. The ground trembled and gave way under his weight, the full force hitting all at once. A tremendous dust cloud rose from this impact, and Kuririn was not quite high enough for it to avoid reaching him. He placed a hand over his mouth and coughed a little, trying to see through the cloud.
But a sudden thought struck him, and he inadvertently took his hand away from his mouth. Immediately, he began to cough, but his mind was elsewhere. Where was Gohan Senior? He'd been standing near the base of Kyojin's feet the last time that he'd checked . . . He might still be . . .
Suddenly, Kuririn did not feel quite so proud of his move. He may have just gotten his companion squished flat. Ironically – and he had no idea why this thought came to mind – it was the very same way that Gohan Senior had ended his true life. Ironic, yes, but he failed to find it very funny at the moment.
"Gohan!" he called through the dust cloud. He was using whatever free breaths he could manage between fits of coughing. "Gohan? Are you okay down there?"
He flew closer to the ground as the dust began to clear, searching over and around in any direction he could think of. He came upon Kyojin's unmoving leg and paused for a moment. Like it or not, his companion could well be lying under that leg, in Kami only knew what kind of condition. And it was all Kuririn's fault. If only he had been smarter, actually done a little thinking before he rushed into this crazy plan . . .
"Kuririn." A hand on his shoulder and the sound of his name startled him, and with a scream, he jumped and turned.
But the sight that greeted him clamed his nerves immediately. "Oh, geez, there you are. Don't ever do that to me again."
Gohan Senior just chuckled. "My apologies, son. But have you forgotten that I am not so fragile or frozen as to need constant attention in battle? I thought I was supposed to be the forgetful one around here."
"Well, I just haven't caught up to you yet," Kuririn returned, his relief putting him into somewhat of a joking mood. "And it doesn't look like I will. Considering where I'm probably going to end up for this stunt, though . . ."
He didn't get a chance to finish his thought. Predictably, or it should have been for Kuririn, Kyojin's foot twitched. First once, then many times in succession. The legs followed suit, and sure enough, the motion had travelled throughout the giant's body, right up to its massive head. And that head raised, the red-slitted eyes narrowed in fury, and Kuririn was almost too resigned to feel any terror at this.
He had just knocked out the giant for a few seconds. Then it woke up, and looked bent on ripping him to pieces. Yep, that sounded like his luck all right.
Kuririn pulled Gohan Senior down to his level. "Look. I'll draw this guy away and you make a break for it."
"You've lost you mind, son, if you think that I would just –"
"Do it. I think I can handle this guy one more time." Kuririn glanced at his companion, noticing the dubious expression on his face. He smirked ruefully. "Not convincing, huh?"
Gohan Senior shook his head. "I'm afraid not, son. You were almost there, though."
"Well, better luck next time, I guess." Kuririn's smile widened in spite of everything. "Now go!"
He did not wait for Gohan Senior's response; he merely leapt forward with his leg extended, and struck Kyojin right between his huge eyes. The blow caused the giant's head to rear back slightly, but moreso only served to make him angry. Which had been the plan anyway. Kyojin rushed to his feet, swinging out his fist once more in an attempt to catch Kuririn, but Kuririn hopped straight into the air to avoid the blow. He took a quick glance down at Gohan Senior, and sighed in irritation. The old man wasn't moving. He guessed that he should have expected as much, but it was still not an encouraging sight to see. Looked like he was going to have to play the role of kamikaze again, just as he had done to save the younger Gohan from Frieza.
"Hey, Kyojin!" he called out tauntingly. He stuck out his tongue. "Come over here and see if you can catch this!"
Kyojin roared in anger and swung a fist at him again, and Kuririn dodged this, albeit just barely. He turned in his flight, racing toward a set of high mountains. This had better work.
A quick glance over his shoulder told him that it indeed was working. One of his rare successes then, though when he taunted an enemy it rarely happened that they did not follow after him in a blind rage. He sure knew how to pick his spots sometimes. He just wished that it was more often than getting an extremely dangerous person to be hunting him down. Something a little less frightening would do him just fine.
He dropped slightly to evade Kyojin's knee, which had come out of nowhere, probably in mid-stride. And he had to move again quickly as the other knee came up – stupid, stupid move; he had dodged to the inside. He dove at an angle so as to not have to get out of the way of a constant barrage of knees.
Instead, a foot shot out, this time obviously an intentional attack. Kuririn dropped to the ground for a second to get under the blow, then took off again.
All of this dodging was doing him little good. He was going to have to start attacking this monster again if he expected to get out of here in one piece. But right now, he did not have the room, did not have the time. He needed to buy it somehow, and maybe those mountains would be able to help him.
Long shots, long shots. His existence was just chock-full of them.
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They moved out of his sight quicker than he had expected. For a moment, Gohan Senior just stood there, patting dust out of his clothing and watching as Kuririn and Kyojin disappeared into the distance. He felt left out somehow, as if he could provide some significant help were he still present. It might have seemed a strange thought to anyone else, considering that the power of Kyojin far outstripped his own, but power was not everything. He had been about equal in power with Goz and had defeated him easily. Skill and technique made a big difference, as he had proven just there. And Kyojin did not seem to be a great deal brighter than Goz. The giant had a one-track mind and was quickly incited to anger and thus easy to exploit in battle, as Kuririn was already proving.
Before he even realized it, Gohan's legs were moving, not away from the battle but toward it, following the instinct to help. Kuririn was a good boy, and did not deserve to get rent limb form limb by that creature. The boy's methods to get him to come along here were questionable – outright dishonest, in fact – but his heart had been in the right place. Yes, he was a good boy, and good boys did not deserve to get crushed by giants. Perhaps he could give him a hand.
But they had gone so far out of sight, were so far away, that his legs began to tire and his lungs to burn. He stopped, breathing hard, and cursing himself for a lack of endurance. If he could not reach the battle then Kuririn might . . .
Wait. Gohan reached into his pocket and pulled out something that he had just taken for emergency. He had not expected to actually need it, but a wise person took every precaution that he could get, and he was indeed a wise person.
He stared at the piece of fruit in his hand for a moment. Just a simple looking peach, but to have heard the demons Goz and Mez talk about it, this was the greatest wonder of nature. An increased endurance at least, and who knew what else? Mez had stopped Goz before he could say anything more about the fruit. If it was sacred to the lord of the dead, then it must be special indeed. Perhaps it could give him the boost that he needed.
With no more hesitation, Gohan popped the fruit into his mouth. It tasted just as any typical peach would, though how he could have remembered that he was not quite sure. The dead tended not to eat anything, so the last time he had in fact eaten was probably back when he was alive. Being away from the Relegation Room must really have been helping his memory.
And the fruit began to suddenly live up to its reputation. A new strength flowed through his limbs. His tiredness vanished. Even his head seemed to be clearer than it had been before. This was the best that he had felt since . . . Well, ever. Or at least in his memory, shaky as that still was.
He smiled for a moment, flexed his hand. The new sensations flowing through him were quite invigorating and he caught himself marvelling at them for a while.
But a distant crash, and a rising could of dust dragged him back into reality. Oh, yes. Kuririn. That was the reason that he had eaten the fruit in the first place. It was time to go.
Gohan's legs pumped harder than he had previously imagined, and he took off at greater speed. Hopefully, Kuririn could last long enough for him to be able to help him defeat Kyojin.
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Kuririn ducked under an outcropping as Kyojin's fist crashed into the side of a mountain, bringing rocks raining down in front of him. He turned his head away to avoid getting dust in his mouth. If he started coughing, he would give away his position.
Just as the rocks stopped raining down, Kuririn charged forward, leg extended toward Kyojin's gut. The blow, unexpected completely by its recipient, landed perfectly, and the giant staggered back a few steps before swatting at Kuririn like he was a fly.
"Whoa!" Kuririn cried as he shot up a bit to avoid the giant's hand. But he was not entirely successful; the tip of one of Kyojin's fingers caught him in the back and knocked him out of the sky.
His shoulder hit the side of the mountain first, but did not give way under the pressure. He tumbled down the mountain on his side, jarring loose chunks of rock to fall down with him.
He had bearings enough to grasp hold of another outcropping just as he tumbled over it. The rocks and dust cascaded over him, continuing on their one way trip to the ground. He sighed in relief, but did not allow himself to be relieved for long. He climbed onto the outcropping and looked up.
Kyojin stood as always, one fist embedded in the mountainside. His head swung this way and that in a clear search for him. The giant did not know where he was. Perhaps he could get another sneak attack in, just one with a little more power this time. He needed to keep the giant out for longer, but he did not want to kill him. Killing was not exactly a very fun thing as far as he was concerned. He just bet that Kyojin would disagree with him on that one.
"Where have you gone, tiniest of ones?" Kyojin called out, as Kuririn rose behind him. The giant no longer seemed angry at all. More like playful, as if this whole ordeal was a game to him. It probably was. "No matter how small you are, you cannot hide from me forever!"
Not that he would need forever. Just another minute or two would do him just fine right now. He floated behind Kyojin's neck, keeping in time with his head movements, as he once again poured ki into his hand. The same place as his last good hit would suffice; it just need to be more powerful. Just another minute more. He had to hope that Kyojin would not notice him for another minute more.
He almost got his wish.
Just as he decided that he had enough power channelled into his fist and was pulling it back, Kyojin turned, swinging an open palm with him. There was no time to dodge.
The palm struck Kuririn full force, dissipating the ki in his hand and knocking him across the landscape. He tried to right himself in the air, but the pain from the blow was too distracting. And it was soon accompanied by a new one as his back slammed into a mountainside. The rock crumbled a bit under the force of his impact, and he began to roll down the mountain. He was still conscious at this point, though he did not know how that was possible. And he wasn't particularly thrilled about it. At least if he were knocked out, he would not be feeling this pain right now.
He stopped rolling, finally, and he assumed that he had hit the ground. He let this thought relax him somewhat, and he lay there for a few seconds for his head to clear.
When it did, he found that he was not on the ground as he had thought. Not unless the ground here was yellow and had calloused fingers. He would have shot up in shock if he'd had the energy for it. No, this certainly was not the ground. He was in Kyojin's hand. And slowly, terribly, the hand began to close.
CHAPTER EIGHT: The Bigger They Are . . .
It was just too much. First, he had been killed. Then, his files weren't in order, so he got sent to the Relegation Room. Then he concocted some insane plane to get to Judgement before it was ready for him. He was willing to admit that the whole episode with Goz and Mez was actually kind of fun. But this, being hunted down by a giant that looked as though it would step on you or eat you as soon as it would look at you was just not something that he wanted to deal with.
But since when did he ever get to deal with things that he wanted to deal with? His whole existence was a polar opposite to such a concept.
Kuririn tore his gaze away from the giant for a moment to check on Gohan Senior. The old man was on the other side of the giant, and was slowly climbing to his feet. He looked unhurt, if a bit dazed, and Kuririn managed a smile at this. At least his friend was all right. Now all he had to do was figure out a way to take care of this giant who did not exactly look very happy to see them.
"So you are the tiny ones that escaped," the giant said, his voice echoing for surely miles across the landscape of Hell and in Kuririn's ears, and he longed to cover them, but he knew that he could not spare the time. It was too valuable. "I would suggest that you run away no longer. I've had quite a time looking for you, and it has been very frustrating."
Kuririn calmed down a hair. This thing was not as rampagingly angry as it had seemed at the start. Maybe he could reason with it. "Well, that's really unfortunate, sir. You know, we'd actually . . ."
"It was merely my job to bring you back before, to face Lord Enma," the giant interrupted. "But the search had been so frustrating that I've just decided to smash you without permission."
Kuririn gulped. What was with this guy? He didn't seem especially perturbed in any way, yet he was still planning to kill them? Or not kill, but . . . Augh, forget about it. The question of whether something that was already dead could be killed again was one that he did not exactly have the time to contemplate at the moment. There were far more pressing issues at hand.
"Hey, look," Kuririn said, though his voice was a little shaky. Maybe he could still get Gohan Senior off the hook. "My friend here didn't do anything willingly. I made him come here. Why don't you just take him back to Judgement, and you can come after me." This time, the words were much braver sounding, even though he did not feel any braver in his heart. But he felt honourable at least.
"Hold on a second son!" Gohan Senior called out. "Just what do you think you're –"
"I know what I'm doing!" Kuririn shouted back before his companion could finish the protest. He had to move quickly. "Just relax!"
Not exactly a lie, but not really the truth either. The real truth was that he knew what he wanted to do, but he was unsure of how to go about it. He couldn't risk shouting for Gohan Senior to escape, at least not yet. The giant would surely track him down easily and destroy him, so he had to hope that this would work.
The typical response to his hopes greeted him; the giant laughed. "You are a funny creature, tiniest of ones. But Kyojin, the greatest of the Otherworld's enforcers, does not become swayed by his sense of humour. One out of two is no deal. It must be both."
Great. Well, that plan was shot. Now was the time for the secondary plan. Either luckily or unluckily, the giant, Kyojin, set it in motion for him.
"But I will grant you part of your request, tiniest of ones," Kyojin continued at last. "I will simply smash you first."
Well, that was a relief. Sort of. He had been afraid for a moment that the giant was going to go after Gohan Senior. Or was this turn of events really so fortunate? After all, had the giant turned around to make a strike at Gohan Senior, Kuririn could have launched a sneak attack from behind . . .
Oh, well. More important things to worry about now.
Kyojin's fist came at him again, and he hopped backward to evade it. With surprising speed, the giant lifted his arm out of the ground and lunged at him once again. Kuririn scarcely managed to leap into the air to evade this one, and he barely had time to sigh in relief before he looked up into the face of yet another oncoming attack.
With a gasp of alarm, Kuririn twisted his body minutely to evade the edge of Kyojin's other fist, and cupped his hands to form a small ki blast. He had not the time, nor truly the energy for anything major. The power built in his hands for a few seconds . . .
Kyojin's hand shot toward him again, open-palmed this time, and on pure instinct he let out a cry and fired the ki blast that he had been forming.
The blast exploded into the giant's palm, and Kuririn heard Kyojin cry out in mild pain as the blast struck, and pulled his hand away. With his opponent thus distracted, he flew behind Kyojin's head and gathered ki around his fist. His gloved hand glowed with the varying intensity of blue- white light and he drove it forward, right into the back of Kyojin's skull.
It was a particularly skilful blow, similar to the one that he had used to knock out Gohan Senior a few weeks prior. And it seemed that Kyojin might have fallen victim to it just the same; the giant swayed unsteadily on his feet before toppling forward onto his face. The ground trembled and gave way under his weight, the full force hitting all at once. A tremendous dust cloud rose from this impact, and Kuririn was not quite high enough for it to avoid reaching him. He placed a hand over his mouth and coughed a little, trying to see through the cloud.
But a sudden thought struck him, and he inadvertently took his hand away from his mouth. Immediately, he began to cough, but his mind was elsewhere. Where was Gohan Senior? He'd been standing near the base of Kyojin's feet the last time that he'd checked . . . He might still be . . .
Suddenly, Kuririn did not feel quite so proud of his move. He may have just gotten his companion squished flat. Ironically – and he had no idea why this thought came to mind – it was the very same way that Gohan Senior had ended his true life. Ironic, yes, but he failed to find it very funny at the moment.
"Gohan!" he called through the dust cloud. He was using whatever free breaths he could manage between fits of coughing. "Gohan? Are you okay down there?"
He flew closer to the ground as the dust began to clear, searching over and around in any direction he could think of. He came upon Kyojin's unmoving leg and paused for a moment. Like it or not, his companion could well be lying under that leg, in Kami only knew what kind of condition. And it was all Kuririn's fault. If only he had been smarter, actually done a little thinking before he rushed into this crazy plan . . .
"Kuririn." A hand on his shoulder and the sound of his name startled him, and with a scream, he jumped and turned.
But the sight that greeted him clamed his nerves immediately. "Oh, geez, there you are. Don't ever do that to me again."
Gohan Senior just chuckled. "My apologies, son. But have you forgotten that I am not so fragile or frozen as to need constant attention in battle? I thought I was supposed to be the forgetful one around here."
"Well, I just haven't caught up to you yet," Kuririn returned, his relief putting him into somewhat of a joking mood. "And it doesn't look like I will. Considering where I'm probably going to end up for this stunt, though . . ."
He didn't get a chance to finish his thought. Predictably, or it should have been for Kuririn, Kyojin's foot twitched. First once, then many times in succession. The legs followed suit, and sure enough, the motion had travelled throughout the giant's body, right up to its massive head. And that head raised, the red-slitted eyes narrowed in fury, and Kuririn was almost too resigned to feel any terror at this.
He had just knocked out the giant for a few seconds. Then it woke up, and looked bent on ripping him to pieces. Yep, that sounded like his luck all right.
Kuririn pulled Gohan Senior down to his level. "Look. I'll draw this guy away and you make a break for it."
"You've lost you mind, son, if you think that I would just –"
"Do it. I think I can handle this guy one more time." Kuririn glanced at his companion, noticing the dubious expression on his face. He smirked ruefully. "Not convincing, huh?"
Gohan Senior shook his head. "I'm afraid not, son. You were almost there, though."
"Well, better luck next time, I guess." Kuririn's smile widened in spite of everything. "Now go!"
He did not wait for Gohan Senior's response; he merely leapt forward with his leg extended, and struck Kyojin right between his huge eyes. The blow caused the giant's head to rear back slightly, but moreso only served to make him angry. Which had been the plan anyway. Kyojin rushed to his feet, swinging out his fist once more in an attempt to catch Kuririn, but Kuririn hopped straight into the air to avoid the blow. He took a quick glance down at Gohan Senior, and sighed in irritation. The old man wasn't moving. He guessed that he should have expected as much, but it was still not an encouraging sight to see. Looked like he was going to have to play the role of kamikaze again, just as he had done to save the younger Gohan from Frieza.
"Hey, Kyojin!" he called out tauntingly. He stuck out his tongue. "Come over here and see if you can catch this!"
Kyojin roared in anger and swung a fist at him again, and Kuririn dodged this, albeit just barely. He turned in his flight, racing toward a set of high mountains. This had better work.
A quick glance over his shoulder told him that it indeed was working. One of his rare successes then, though when he taunted an enemy it rarely happened that they did not follow after him in a blind rage. He sure knew how to pick his spots sometimes. He just wished that it was more often than getting an extremely dangerous person to be hunting him down. Something a little less frightening would do him just fine.
He dropped slightly to evade Kyojin's knee, which had come out of nowhere, probably in mid-stride. And he had to move again quickly as the other knee came up – stupid, stupid move; he had dodged to the inside. He dove at an angle so as to not have to get out of the way of a constant barrage of knees.
Instead, a foot shot out, this time obviously an intentional attack. Kuririn dropped to the ground for a second to get under the blow, then took off again.
All of this dodging was doing him little good. He was going to have to start attacking this monster again if he expected to get out of here in one piece. But right now, he did not have the room, did not have the time. He needed to buy it somehow, and maybe those mountains would be able to help him.
Long shots, long shots. His existence was just chock-full of them.
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They moved out of his sight quicker than he had expected. For a moment, Gohan Senior just stood there, patting dust out of his clothing and watching as Kuririn and Kyojin disappeared into the distance. He felt left out somehow, as if he could provide some significant help were he still present. It might have seemed a strange thought to anyone else, considering that the power of Kyojin far outstripped his own, but power was not everything. He had been about equal in power with Goz and had defeated him easily. Skill and technique made a big difference, as he had proven just there. And Kyojin did not seem to be a great deal brighter than Goz. The giant had a one-track mind and was quickly incited to anger and thus easy to exploit in battle, as Kuririn was already proving.
Before he even realized it, Gohan's legs were moving, not away from the battle but toward it, following the instinct to help. Kuririn was a good boy, and did not deserve to get rent limb form limb by that creature. The boy's methods to get him to come along here were questionable – outright dishonest, in fact – but his heart had been in the right place. Yes, he was a good boy, and good boys did not deserve to get crushed by giants. Perhaps he could give him a hand.
But they had gone so far out of sight, were so far away, that his legs began to tire and his lungs to burn. He stopped, breathing hard, and cursing himself for a lack of endurance. If he could not reach the battle then Kuririn might . . .
Wait. Gohan reached into his pocket and pulled out something that he had just taken for emergency. He had not expected to actually need it, but a wise person took every precaution that he could get, and he was indeed a wise person.
He stared at the piece of fruit in his hand for a moment. Just a simple looking peach, but to have heard the demons Goz and Mez talk about it, this was the greatest wonder of nature. An increased endurance at least, and who knew what else? Mez had stopped Goz before he could say anything more about the fruit. If it was sacred to the lord of the dead, then it must be special indeed. Perhaps it could give him the boost that he needed.
With no more hesitation, Gohan popped the fruit into his mouth. It tasted just as any typical peach would, though how he could have remembered that he was not quite sure. The dead tended not to eat anything, so the last time he had in fact eaten was probably back when he was alive. Being away from the Relegation Room must really have been helping his memory.
And the fruit began to suddenly live up to its reputation. A new strength flowed through his limbs. His tiredness vanished. Even his head seemed to be clearer than it had been before. This was the best that he had felt since . . . Well, ever. Or at least in his memory, shaky as that still was.
He smiled for a moment, flexed his hand. The new sensations flowing through him were quite invigorating and he caught himself marvelling at them for a while.
But a distant crash, and a rising could of dust dragged him back into reality. Oh, yes. Kuririn. That was the reason that he had eaten the fruit in the first place. It was time to go.
Gohan's legs pumped harder than he had previously imagined, and he took off at greater speed. Hopefully, Kuririn could last long enough for him to be able to help him defeat Kyojin.
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Kuririn ducked under an outcropping as Kyojin's fist crashed into the side of a mountain, bringing rocks raining down in front of him. He turned his head away to avoid getting dust in his mouth. If he started coughing, he would give away his position.
Just as the rocks stopped raining down, Kuririn charged forward, leg extended toward Kyojin's gut. The blow, unexpected completely by its recipient, landed perfectly, and the giant staggered back a few steps before swatting at Kuririn like he was a fly.
"Whoa!" Kuririn cried as he shot up a bit to avoid the giant's hand. But he was not entirely successful; the tip of one of Kyojin's fingers caught him in the back and knocked him out of the sky.
His shoulder hit the side of the mountain first, but did not give way under the pressure. He tumbled down the mountain on his side, jarring loose chunks of rock to fall down with him.
He had bearings enough to grasp hold of another outcropping just as he tumbled over it. The rocks and dust cascaded over him, continuing on their one way trip to the ground. He sighed in relief, but did not allow himself to be relieved for long. He climbed onto the outcropping and looked up.
Kyojin stood as always, one fist embedded in the mountainside. His head swung this way and that in a clear search for him. The giant did not know where he was. Perhaps he could get another sneak attack in, just one with a little more power this time. He needed to keep the giant out for longer, but he did not want to kill him. Killing was not exactly a very fun thing as far as he was concerned. He just bet that Kyojin would disagree with him on that one.
"Where have you gone, tiniest of ones?" Kyojin called out, as Kuririn rose behind him. The giant no longer seemed angry at all. More like playful, as if this whole ordeal was a game to him. It probably was. "No matter how small you are, you cannot hide from me forever!"
Not that he would need forever. Just another minute or two would do him just fine right now. He floated behind Kyojin's neck, keeping in time with his head movements, as he once again poured ki into his hand. The same place as his last good hit would suffice; it just need to be more powerful. Just another minute more. He had to hope that Kyojin would not notice him for another minute more.
He almost got his wish.
Just as he decided that he had enough power channelled into his fist and was pulling it back, Kyojin turned, swinging an open palm with him. There was no time to dodge.
The palm struck Kuririn full force, dissipating the ki in his hand and knocking him across the landscape. He tried to right himself in the air, but the pain from the blow was too distracting. And it was soon accompanied by a new one as his back slammed into a mountainside. The rock crumbled a bit under the force of his impact, and he began to roll down the mountain. He was still conscious at this point, though he did not know how that was possible. And he wasn't particularly thrilled about it. At least if he were knocked out, he would not be feeling this pain right now.
He stopped rolling, finally, and he assumed that he had hit the ground. He let this thought relax him somewhat, and he lay there for a few seconds for his head to clear.
When it did, he found that he was not on the ground as he had thought. Not unless the ground here was yellow and had calloused fingers. He would have shot up in shock if he'd had the energy for it. No, this certainly was not the ground. He was in Kyojin's hand. And slowly, terribly, the hand began to close.