~Chapter 27: The Waiting~

It's strange to look at Trunks now. He looks so much like the future Trunks did when he first came back in time. I guess that Trunks must have grown up in the shadow of that resemblance. However, they really aren't the same person, even though they technically are. Our time's Trunks is a good man, but he's very different from our savior from the future. That Trunks we can only remember.

I remember waking up at his feet after being hit by Perfect Cell. Of course, the hit I'd taken was nothing to Cell, but in those few moments of close proximity to him, I'd sensed his power, and I knew that the ki that Cell was showing was just a mask to disguise his horrible true power. Upon waking up, though, I was alarmed to discover that the same was true for Trunks - the power he was showing was just a ruse, he was really a lot more powerful. But why would he hide it?

I wasted no time in exposing Trunks; he admitted that he had reached a new level. He said that the form that he and Vegeta were in was beyond the limits of the Super Saiyan, but that he had overcome even that form's limits.

"So what are you waiting for?" I said. "Power up and kill Cell!"

"Vegeta can't know," said Trunks.

"What?"

"He's too prideful. He can't know that I'm stronger than he is," said Trunks. I was amazed. The kid was still trying to do right by his father.

Vegeta and Cell had begun to fight. Cell looked as if he were barely trying.

"Damn you!" shouted Vegeta. "Quit messing with me!"

Vegeta kicked Cell in the face. It had about as much impact as my punch.

"Trunks..." I cautioned.

Trunks appeared to be in physical pain. "Dad would rather die than be helped," he said, "That's just the way he is."

Cell promptly began to beat the crap out of Vegeta; this seemed to make Trunks very angry. I decided that if Trunks wouldn't make a move just to defeat Cell, maybe I could play on how much he obviously cared for his father.

"Vegeta's going to get killed, Trunks," I told him. "If you don't help him, then he will die."

Trunks faltered. "I'll... help him after he's knocked out," he said. I sighed. Trunks was almost as stubborn as Vegeta himself.

Speaking of Vegeta, it was about then that he started to set up his big attack. He prepared an enormous ki blast and dared Cell not to dodge it. Trunks and I got the hell out of the way. I became very frightened as I realized that the blast Vegeta was preparing would destroy the Earth, and that was the direction that he was aiming it in. Cell seemed to accept Vegeta's challenge.

Vegeta's attack was a bright burst of ki that was very powerful. However, at the last moment Vegeta narrowed the attack's scope to just hit Cell and mess up a bit of the terrain behind him. I'd forgotten just how clever Vegeta was. His attack destroyed Cell's right arm and most of his chest.

We couldn't believe it: Vegeta had actually done it! He'd defeated Cell! You just couldn't underestimate that Saiyan. Vegeta was so proud of his victory that he began to laugh out loud.

He didn't laugh for very long.

Cell regenerated his wound. We'd forgotten that since he had Piccolo's DNA, he could regenerate wounds like the Namekians. Vegeta threw everything he had at Cell, but it had no further effect. Cell beat Vegeta without much effort. Within a few blows, Vegeta was unconscious and no longer a Super Saiyan.

"Well, Trunks," I said, "Now's your chance."

"Hai."

Trunks screamed. His already ridiculous Super Saiyan hair broke out of any remaining restraint and stood straight out in all directions. His muscles were drastically augmented to the point of absurdity, and he was surrounded by a crackling ki field that made it impossible for me to even approach him. What was most noticeable to me, though, was the fact that his ki shot up more quickly than anything I'd felt before. When he was done, his ki was even huger than Cell's - I'd known that he was hiding more power, but how could I have guessed that it would be that much? It was frightening, to tell the truth. How strong could a Saiyan get?

Trunks told me to take Vegeta away. He seemed very sure that he would beat Cell. It took me a moment to snap out of my fear and awe, but I told him that that would be fine. Once I'd gotten my head again, I was glad that Trunks had become so strong. Better he than Vegeta.

While Trunks and Cell fought, I picked up Vegeta's limp body and took him away to a place that looked safe. I still had a couple of senzu, but I didn't give Vegeta any yet. He didn't look like he was dying, and there was no telling what he'd do when he awoke. Almost immediately after I landed, though, I felt Trunks' ki sink like a rock. Cell's ki wasn't doing a thing. I panicked and fed Vegeta the senzu. We flew back to where we'd left Trunks and Cell immediately.

When we got there, Cell was gone. There was only Trunks, back in normal form, standing there looking totally despondent.

"Trunks!" I shouted. "You're all right!"

He didn't look up. "There's going to be a martial arts competition," he said.

He explained to us what had happened. His new form had been powerful, but his augmented muscles had made him too slow.

"I could have told you that, idiot," snorted Vegeta. I guess that Trunks had also underestimated Vegeta.

According to Trunks, Cell had noted how much stronger they had become in such a short time and offered them more time to get even stronger. In ten days, Cell was going to hold a martial arts tournament in which he would be the only opponent. I couldn't believe my ears - a martial arts tournament! It was then that it really set in that Cell definitely was made from our genetic material. It sounded just like something that Goku or even Vegeta would do.

Not surprisingly, Vegeta and Trunks expressed intentions to return to the Room of Spirit and Time for another day. What was surprising was that, at that moment, Number 16 limped up to us.

"Take me and get me fixed," he said, "I'll probably come in handy."

Trunks spat at him. "Don't be stupid!" he said. "You're one of Gero's creations! We should destroy you!"

"No," I said.

Trunks was incredulous. "Kuririn!"

"It's okay," I told him. I could tell that 16 was not bad. He wasn't as human or as pretty to look at as 17 or 18, but he had a good soul. I was even bold enough to tell Trunks that 17 and 18 weren't evil either - they must have been different from the ones in his time. Trunks and Vegeta fumed at me, but they let me pick up Number 16 (Which wasn't exactly easy - his weight didn't bother me, but he was almost twice my height) and carry him off.

I took 16 to the Capsule Corporation Headquarters. The security there was somewhat alarmed to see me approach carrying 16, but they didn't stop me. They probably realized that they couldn't.

I asked the front desk for Bulma.

"Who are you?" they said.

"I'm Kuririn, and I don't have time for this. Hurry up!"

"I'm sorry," stammered the man I was talking to, "But Miss Briefs left over an hour ago..."

Just then, Bulma's father, the inventor of the Hoi-poi Capsule, came out into the room.

"Oh, hello there," he said cheerfully, "Kuririn, right? What's that you've got there?"

I was taken a little aback by Dr. Briefs' prominence in combination with his odd manner, as I usually am. "Um, it's an android, sir."

"Looks like it needs fixing, huh?"

"I'd appreciate it if you could help me," said 16. "I can't function for much longer in this state."

Dr. Briefs was visibly startled by 16's speech. "Oh, sure... sure!" he said. "Right this way."

He led us into a sort of workshop and motioned at a table, where I set 16 down. Dr. Briefs said that he'd have to deactivate him in order to work. 16 helpfully deactivated himself.

"I'll probably have to study it for a few hours before I can do anything," said Dr. Briefs. "Very intricate craftsmanship, this stuff - it's too bad Gero couldn't have used his genius for something good. I wonder if he has a bomb in him, like 17 and 18."

He kept saying more stuff, but he'd hit a nerve with me on that point. "17 and 18 had bombs inside of them?"

"Oh, yeah, sure," he said. "It was right there in the plans. If we find a bomb in this one, we might have to take it out... it can't be a good thing to be walking around with a bomb in you like that."

I nodded, still reeling. What a terrible thing, to have a bomb inside of you.

I watched him work for several minutes before Bulma arrived. She came in running, and shouted her father's name, followed by mine, followed by "What's THAT?"

I explained 16 to Bulma. I started to explain what had happened with Cell, but she already knew.

"What happened to the remote?" she said. I began to feel sick. It wasn't that I regretted my choice, but I didn't relish having to face its consequences, and Bulma's reaction was, in my view, probably the foremost of those.

"I destroyed the remote," I said.

"Why the hell did you do that?"

I winced. "I understand why you're angry, Bulma, but I couldn't kill the cyborg. She wasn't evil, and it's wrong to kill innocent people."

Bulma frowned furiously at me.

"I'm sorry," I said, and cast my head down, ready to receive my punishment. Probably she would never want to speak to me again; at any rate, she would stop helping Muten Roshi and me out with money - but I haven't mentioned that yet.

After several seconds, Bulma sighed. "You're a good person, Kuririn," she said.

I blinked. That was hardly the reaction I'd anticipated.

"Dad and I will do all we can. You should probably go back home. I bet they're worried about you there."

My mouth would not form words. "I- I... Right. Right!" I shook her hand enthusiastically. "Thank you, Bulma!"

She smiled faintly. "Sure... don't mention it..."

I returned to the Kame House, and everyone was happy to see me and to receive my explanations. I got some bewildered frowns about the remote, but I was quickly forgiven as I proceeded to tell what Vegeta had done. Yamucha and Chichi were still there, so the sleeping arrangements were still a bit unusual that night. Personally, I didn't get a lot of sleep. I was worried about Cell, and I couldn't stop thinking about 18. She was inside of that monster... Was there any way to get her out? Was she gone forever now? As I thought about this, I bit my fist to keep from crying and turned on the TV to try and keep myself distracted. I watched it the most of the night through before finally falling asleep.

When I woke up, the news was on. Yamucha was asleep a few feet away, so I treaded carefully as I fixed myself some early breakfast. I was sitting in front of the TV again when another famous moment occurred - Cell appeared on the set and killed the anchor!

I got everyone and we watched Cell's terrible announcement. He said that he was the monster that had killed all of the people who had been disappearing and announced the Cell Game, to take place in nine days.

"Unlike the Tenka'ichi Budokai," said Cell, "I will be the only opponent. Send lots of fighters against me, and you may just win through sheer numbers. However, if I defeat all the fighters, then I will kill everyone on Earth."

Cell underscored his point with a ki blast and flew away.

There was nothing to say. Cell was so terrible, and there didn't seem to be any hope. I tried to have faith in Goku, but I wasn't sure that even he would be able to do anything against Cell. The future of the Earth looked very dark. I'm sure that everyone who's old enough remembers the ensuing days... the panic, the demand for action. As for me, I just hung around the Kame House all day. It practically killed me to do so, but there was nothing I could do.

The day after Cell's announcement, Goku and Gohan came to the Kame House. They were both Super Saiyans. It didn't really surprise me that Gohan had achieved that state in the Room of Spirit and Time. That kid had potential that just had no parallel.

I asked them if they'd heard about Cell. "Yes," said Gohan, "It's terrible..."

"It'll work out," said Goku. I was stunned by his confidence. It wasn't like Goku at all to underestimate an opponent. His ki had increased to an amazing level, but it still didn't seem like enough to beat Cell... They picked up Chichi and left us again.

The next day was one of the worst. The King's royal military launched an unannounced attack on Cell. We saw it on television. The whole force of the army and the air force came down upon Cell, and it was impressive, but I never had any hope for that effort. The attack was powerful, maybe even powerful enough to harm Piccolo, but not Trunks or Vegeta, and certainly not Cell. Cell killed them all. It was terrible to watch, and it filled me with anger, both at Cell and at my own powerlessness.

There was an announcement after that by the poor King. He took responsibility for what had just happened, and tried to inspire the people with the hope of the possible arrival of a savior. He even mentioned Goku - not by name, but as "the boy who saved the world from the Demon King Piccolo". How many people had already forgotten about that!

Yamucha looked pale all the way through the King's announcement. When it was over, he moved to the window and began staring outside. After a couple of minutes, Pu'ar and I went up to him.

"How are you holding up, Yamucha?" I said. "Damn that Cell..."

He nodded, but didn't really look at me.

"Are you feeling okay, Yamucha-sama?" asked Pu'ar.

"I'll never fight again," he said.

That comment was certainly unexpected. I asked him what he was talking about.

"I don't want you to think I'm a coward or anything, but I can't do it anymore. It's all too far beyond me. I can't do anything but get in the way anymore..."

I was stunned. I had never expected this from Yamucha. We were supposed to be in this together. I started to get a little angry. I'd had the same concerns, but I wasn't quitting.

"I'm-I'm glad, Yamucha," said Pu'ar.

"What?" I said.

They both looked at me questioningly.

"I mean..." I struggled with my words. "I mean, I'm way weaker than everyone else too, but..."

"Kuririn, even you're on a level that I can't touch. I can't even keep up with you when you fly."

I felt the blood drain out of my face. I promptly turned and walked in the opposite direction.

I couldn't believe that Yamucha had done that - separated us! It wasn't right. We were both humans, he had always been one of my closest friends - we were supposed to be in this together! It was like a silent pact that had been made those months when he was training under Muten Roshi, when we sat in the evenings and ridiculed the rest of the world.

However, I alternated between being angry and confused and being guilty. How could I blame Yamucha for not wanting to fight anymore, when we had enemies as terrible as Cell? What's more, I scolded myself, I had noted that we had passed Yamucha up in training - I had even felt relief when he left the battle with the androids. Why was I upset with him now? I didn't lose my anger; it just lost its direction. I spent most of it hating Cell - he was a good target.

Yamucha came to me several minutes later and apologized for what he'd said. I told him that it was okay - that no one would think any less of him if he gave up fighting. I meant it, too. I felt a little ashamed of myself for being angry with him before, and I even questioned my own status as an active fighter, but I decided that I would keep trying until it really became impossible for me to do anything. Still, I sympathized with Yamucha, and within minutes, we'd resumed our friendship as before. Pu'ar, anyway, was very happy to hear that Yamucha didn't want to fight anymore. She was worried sick every time he went out to battle, she said.

Within a couple of hours, the savior that the King had told the world to hope for appeared to have already surfaced. The television broadcast trumpeted the idiot champion of the 24th Budokai, Mr. Satan, as the hero who would save the world. He claimed that he would "make mincemeat" out of Cell, and the world bought it. We sighed at his antics at the Kame House. It wasn't nice of him to give the people false hope like that. The weird part is that he actually believed that he was going to beat Cell. I mean, could anybody really be that stupid?

I turned the television off after that. They wouldn't stop talking about Mr. Satan.

Almost immediately after that, Goku knocked on the door of the Kame House - it was nice of him to knock, when his habit had been simply appearing in the foyer. He was still a Super Saiyan; I think that he was trying to get used to that form so he'd be able to use it better when fighting Cell.

"Hi, Yamucha... Roshi-sama... everybody," said Goku. "Kuririn, I need you to come with me."

Goku told me that he was going to take me to see "the new Kami". I didn't quite know what he was talking about.

Gohan (also still a Super Saiyan) was waiting for us outside. Goku put his arm around both of us and put the first two fingers of his other hand to his forehead. Suddenly, we were at Kami's lookout. I had expected there to be some kind of intermediary dimension, but we just went straight from one location to another. I'll never figure out how that Shukdan Idou works.

We were shocked and elated to find that the new Kami was no other than Dende. He was really happy to see us, too; he'd specifically requested to see Gohan and I. I could scarcely believe that the little Namekian that Gohan and I had saved on Namek was going to be Earth's new God - what a strange universe. I was happy, though. I knew that he would do a good job, and it was cool to see Dende again.

Someone asked Dende if he could make dragon balls. I guess that was inevitable - it was probably the reason he'd been brought there.

"I can probably make some dragon balls in 100 days," replied Dende cheerfully.

Well, obviously we didn't have 100 days. There was a lot of complicated discussion about the dragon balls - how many wishes they'd have, what they'd be able to do. Dende did come up with the solution of using the rocks that used to be Earth's dragon balls to make new ones right away.

Mr. Popo brought a case with a little model of Shenlon in it to Dende. He put his hands above it for a couple of seconds, not doing anything that we could see. However, a powerful light like a ki blast emerged from the case and split in seven different directions, going all over the Earth. It was a very impressive sight.

"Okay," said Dende. "I think that should do it."

I was astounded by Dende's power. I guess that it was then that I finally realized what I should have known all along - ki is more than just a weapon. Just because Dende is not a fighter doesn't make him weak in ki. He uses his power to create and to heal. When I think about it, he's the best of us in that way - it takes so much more talent and effort to create than it does to destroy.

Goku left to gather the renewed dragon balls. We didn't see him again until the day of the Cell game. He looked and spoke as if he was very confident. The rest of us couldn't figure it out. Goku had said that he didn't think he was strong enough to beat Cell. That had to mean that he had some sort of plan... right?

I went back to the Kame House and brought everyone up to date, and then I returned to Kami's-well, Dende's lookout. I spent the rest of the time until the Cell games there. Staying overnight at the lookout was not a new experience for me. After all, I'd stayed there for almost six months while training to fight the Saiyans.

Mr. Popo, Gohan, Piccolo, Trunks, and Dende were there at the lookout with me. Vegeta was still training in the Room of Spirit and Time - still too stubborn to accept not being able to defeat Cell himself. Piccolo had also trained in the Room, but although he'd gotten a lot stronger, he was still nowhere near a level where he would be useful against Cell. Piccolo had no delusions - he pointed out this fact himself.

I had the opportunity to train in the Room of Spirit and Time. Seriously, when Vegeta finally gave up on it, Gohan asked me if I wanted to go in. I declined. I didn't like the idea of spending a year inside of a place where there's nothing to do but train and the gravity is higher than normal. Nor did I like the idea of aging a year while a day passed outside. I guess I could have gone in with Tenshinhan - that wouldn't have been so bad. It wouldn't really have done much good, though. I think that both Tenshinhan and I have hit our limits by now, and still neither of us is strong enough to equal even the cyborgs in skill. I doubt if we could have become any stronger than we are now, unless we discovered some kind of "Super Human" transformation. In my dreams, right? Even if we had, it'd probably be only about half as powerful as Perfect Cell. That sounds like my luck.

The time passed quickly. I didn't worry too much. I chatted with Gohan and Dende. I tried not to think about Cell, and about 18 being inside of him.

The 26th of May 767 AD arrived with alarming speed. Of course, that was the day of the Cell Game.

--END OF CHAPTER TWENTY-SEVEN--