Chapter 19 – No more fame

"And what will happen to our concerts?" Yaten asked Seiya and Taiki as they were finishing breakfast. Bulma had told them that they were welcome to stay for as long as they wanted but apparently the three guys didn't even have a free hour in their schedule.

"Well, we obviously can't do anything until we're back on Earth," Taiki replied. "Could someone pass the coffee?"

"You drink a little too much coffee for someone your age," Bulma remarked, giving him the coffee pot.

"I'm used to it," Taiki replied. "Sometimes it's the only thing that helps me stay up 23 hours in a row."

"Your life must be awful," Trunks said. "Why are you doing this anyway?"

"We have our reasons," Seiya replied quietly. Trunks blinked in surprise but didn't ask any more questions. He concentrated on eating with his left hand instead.

"Man, this is hard!" he complained. "If everything else disappeared with that nightmare, my wound should've gone too!"

"I'm surprised that your hand didn't fall off," Haruka remarked. "You slammed it right into the Space Sword."

"Is the sword okay?" Michiru asked. Haruka smiled vaguely.

"What could possibly happen to it? It's my talisman. Hard to imagine that something would be able to harm it."

Hotaru looked up. She had been staring at her plate for most of the time and hadn't eaten much. "Even your talismans aren't unbreakable, try to take good care of it. Trunks, show me your hand, I can cure it."

Haruka and Michiru both leaped forward over the table, grabbing her hand. "Have you really lost it?"

"Hey, easy on the milk jug!" Goku shouted, grabbing the milk jug Haruka had almost landed on and drinking all the milk; just in case. The Three Lights blinked.

"You just lost a lot of energy, you can't try to heal him now!" Michiru stated. "He'll be fine. But you have to be careful. You know you have a weak health."

"What she said," Haruka agreed. "Please, no foolish things until you at least feel a little better!"

Hotaru sighed and nodded. "You're right. I just feel sorry for him…"

"He's half Saiyan, he has been through worse things," Vegeta remarked.

That afternoon Goku and his sons left and Bulma sent the others to the mall. Including the Three Lights. "This is your chance to get some fresh air without getting chased by screaming fans, enjoy it while it lasts," she had suggested and the three had agreed that it was quite a good idea. There wasn't much to do indoors anyway. Only Hotaru stayed home, she was still feeling unwell.

"This time I'll drive," Vegeta announced to Haruka, pushing the car out of the garage – for him it was easier than driving it out.

"Fine, but I'll take the other front seat," the girl replied fast. The others were packed on the backseat. Trunks had to curl up in Michiru's lap because there simply wasn't any room.

"This is really weird… nobody screaming "Look! The Three Lights!" even though there are hundreds of people on the streets," Seiya remarked as the car passed the inhabitants of the city. The day was beautiful and there were no clouds in the sky. The nightmare was over.

"Enjoy it while you can," Haruka suggested, "we'll all get back home in a few days. It's nice to be unnoticed, isn't it?"

"Hey, look!" a man suddenly shouted. "Isn't that the girl who won the League's race last Thursday?"

Haruka blinked. "Vegeta… step on it."

The Saiyan prince grinned and gave gas. By the time they reached the mall, everyone but Haruka and Michiru were feeling a little woozy.

"Hey, I like your style!" Haruka remarked to the prince as they stepped out of the car. Vegeta grinned and took the grocery list out.

"Wow, that's one heck of a mall!" Yaten admired as they were cruising between the isles. Michiru had taken the lead and was now throwing all sorts of cans and packages into the cart. Haruka had explained Vegeta that it was pointless to argue with Michiru about what was in the list. She always did what she wanted.

"DinoSteaks?" Seiya asked, looking at a package. "What's that?"

"Dinosaur steaks," Trunks explained. He had spent five minutes by the ice cream counters, holding his burnt fist in the freezer. Now he was in a bit better mood and was leading the three newcomers around the mall. "They taste pretty well but they cost a lot so Mom only buys them at Christmas or when my birthday is coming."

"What about Vegeta's birthday?" Michiru asked over her shoulder. Trunks shrugged.

"Nobody knows when exactly it is."

"And her own birthday?" Seiya wondered, putting the package back very carefully and blinking in surprise.

"She never tells anyone how old she actually is," Trunks explained with a grin. "Hey look, marshmallows!"

Haruka frowned. "How can you eat those? They're the grossest things I've ever tasted."

"But I love them!" Trunks declared.

"Hey, little lady, nice to see you again!" a voice suddenly called. Haruka turned around to see the same men that had talked to her before and after the race. Now they were wearing jeans and leather jackets.

"Yeah… Jake, wasn't it? You've just had a race as I see," she said. The guy walked up to her with a wide smile on his face and shook her hand. His clothes were muddy and he had a bike helmet in his hand; that's why Haruka could tell.

"You're the most famous girl in the city right now, d'you know that?" he asked. "Yeah, I just bought a new bike. I had to check how well it rides."

"A smart thing to do," Haruka nodded. "It's always essential to become at one with your bike if you really want to win."

"Say…" the man hesitated a bit, "you're a proffessional, aren't you…?" Haruka nodded. "Could you… do me a favor… and check my bike? I'd just like to have your opinion."

"Hrm…" the girl scratched her head, "I'm not sure if I have the time…" She looked at the others. Michiru smiled. She could clearly see that Haruka was really eager to see the bike. New bikes were just a challenging for her as new races.

"We have plenty of time; don't we guys?" she asked the others. Everybody nodded. Why not? Bulma had asked them to be back as soon as possible but hey, a chance to see Haruka racing once again?

"The ice cream is gonna melt by the time she's finished," Trunks remarked as they were heading towards the car.

Vegeta glanced at him. "There was no ice cream on the list."

"Yeah, well… I think Mom just missed that," Trunks claimed.

"Wow, Haruka, it looks like you became friends with the Hell's Angels!" Michiru pointed out as they were all sitting in the car and Trunks was digging the ice cream out of the bag to eat it before it melts. The guys really seemed to be a bike gang of some sort. Their dirt bikes were all painted black, with orange, blue and neon green flames on them. The guys started their bikes and passed the car. Jake, apparently the leader, shouted: "C'mon, to the track!" and they were off. Vegeta started the car and followed them.

"She just keeps getting weird admirers, or what?" Trunks chortled. "First Dabra, now this…" Haruka pushed the ice cream box straight into his mouth and frowned.

"Quit fooling around," she said. "I just want to see if that fancy bike has something good hidden under those nice flames. It sure doesn't sound like a good bike."

"Must be one of those tuned-up pieces of junk someone sold that guy to get a few bucks," Yaten said. Haruka nodded in agreement.

They stopped by the same old racetrack Haruka had practiced on before the big race. The girl got out of the car and went to the gang.

"It sure sounds like you've been fooled with that thing," she said, "but I'll ride it first and then I can say for sure. Gimme that thing." The bike gang's leader got off the bike and Haruka started it.

"Practically dead," she said. "I hope you didn't pay much for it. Let's see now…"

"Haruka," Michiru called, getting out of the car, "be careful. Remember the last time you tried to ride one of those pieces of junk?"

Haruka nodded. "Don't worry. I won't even try getting more than seventy miles out of it." She drove on the track and disappeared in a few minutes.

"What happed the last time she tried riding a piece of junk?" Taiki asked Michiru. The girl shrugged.

"It fell apart when she reached hundred miles per hour. I'm surprised that she didn't break her head back then. It will take a while before she returns so Trunks… let me have some of that ice cream."

But it didn't take even five minutes before Haruka boomed out of the forest; from the same direction she had entered it. She stopped in front of the gang and declared:

"Almost, but not completely hopeless. Does anyone have a screwdriver?"

"Does she actually know what she's doing?" Seiya asked as Haruka was examining the bike's engine. Trunks laughed.

"Are you kidding? She's the best!"

"Perhaps not the best but at least I can tell when someone's trying to sell me a piece of old junk," Haruka snapped, getting up again. "There. That should do the trick. I suggest you to take it to a car repair shop of some sort though. That bike is ancient. It has probably spent years in someone's garage before you got it."

Jake nodded. "Thanks a lot. Really. I owe you one."

Haruka nodded too. "No problem. By the way… that guy who kicked me out of the road during that race…"

"Don't worry about him." The gang grinned. "He will race again. Eventually."

"Lynch laws really seem to be common around here…" Michiru said with a smile as Vegeta started the car and headed towards home.

"Not my problem any more," her friend shrugged.

Bulma was shocked when she heard what had happened. "That gang? With flaming dirtbikes? They've been terrorizing the neighborhood for years. People living in the uptown are afraid to go to gas stations at nights because they usually hang out there and bother people."

"They probably thought that Haruka was one of their kind," Seiya grinned. Haruka snorted and ignored him.

That same evening they were all getting along just fine though. They had managed to find a TV show everyone was fine with and so they were sitting on the couches, watching TV, chatting or just staring at the ceiling.

"We should probably be at some photo shooting at this same moment," Yaten remarked and curled up on a stack of pillows. "Ahh, that sure is life!"

"You could always take some time off when you want to," Michiru said. Yaten shook his head.

"It's not as easy as you think. We depend on a huge network of producers, managers and all sorts of little people in their offices. Fail on them once and you get dozens of cancellations."

"You'll probably get a hundred after these few days here," Bulma said.

"Most likely, but we won't lose our jobs, that's one thing for sure," the guy grinned.

"Say Haruka, don't you think you need a manager?" Trunks asked, throwing a pillow at Haruka who was sitting on the floor with her back against the couch and looking out of the window. The girl caught the pillow with no trouble and stuck it behind her head.

"Me? A manager?" she asked. "What for? I go to the track, I race, I win – once in a while…"

"Mostly, that is," Michiru interjected. Haruka laughed.

"If you wanna put it that way… and I get my prize, ride back home and get on with my life until I feel like racing again. No interviews. No screaming fans. No annoying people asking stupid things about my private life. Why on earth would I need a manager?"

"Yeah, I don't like the idea of cameras behind my window 24/7 either," Hotaru said.

"That was at least the whole Tokyo would know in five minutes when some demon scum decides to show up again," Vegeta grinned. Hotaru smiled slightly.

"Not all of them warn me," she said.

"Still… when exactly can we go back?" Seiya asked. "The longer we stay here, the more questions we'll get when we return."

"Two, maybe three days, I'm not sure," Bulma replied. "The radar will show."

Seiya sighed. "Guess there's nothing we can do about it. Who has the remote?"

"What radar?" Taiki asked. Bulma opened a drawer and threw the Dragon Radar to Taiki who looked at it with a frown.

"It's nothing but a screen and a button," he said.

"It's not supposed to be more," Bulma replied.

Taiki clicked on the button. "Doesn't seem to work either… no wait, now some blinking spots appeared."

Everyone looked up and gasped. "Say what?" Haruka and Michiru dashed forward, grabbing the radar straight from Taiki's hands. Their heads bumped together but they didn't mind it. They were both staring at the screen.

"It works!" Haruka shouted with joy. The others stared at her; they had never seen her in such a good mood. "That darn thing works!"

"Does that mean we can get out of here now?" Seiya asked. Haruka nodded frantically.

"Tomorrow, not today," Bulma announced. "It's already quite late and we can't go searching for the Dragonballs at night."

Michiru blinked. "Dear me, I need to finish my painting when I still have the time!" She rushed out of the room.

"She's still painting it?" Trunks asked. Haruka nodded.

"She likes perfection. Okay people, I'm off to bed and I suggest you to do the same. Tomorrow's probably going to be a busy day."

"She got that right," Yaten nodded, getting up. "It's been ages since I last had 8 hours of sleep."

Before Haruka went to her room, she knocked on the door to Michiru's room. "Come in," the girl's voice called and Haruka pushed the door open.

"You should rest," she said. "You already have the picture; you can elaborate it when we're back home."

Michiru sighed. "You're probably right. It's just that… last days were so intense. Painting is my way to relax, you know."

Haruka nodded. "I know. We've been through a lot here. But right now you need to sleep."

Michiru nodded as well and put the paintbrush away. "Good night, Haruka."

"Good night…" The girl closed the door.

Author's Note: Actually the next chapter was supposed to be the last but after reading this chapter here before uploading it, I thought that things would end a bit too fast if I did that. After all, the Three Lights don't get to see the Dragonball World every day, especially with Haruka and Seiya under the same roof :3 So if i have the time and boredom (mostly boredom) I think I'll write another chapter or two... or four or five or twenty... o.O depends on the inspiration... featuring a huge Dragonball hunt. And perhaps a few demons and monsters and stuff, or it would be too boring. Let's see what I can up with...

As for the darkness demon thing, I really don't know if it's completely gone yet. I can always find another way to resurrect it, I have enough fantasy for that... it would be very hard to find a way to destroy it again though. Coming up with something even tougher than Death Reborn Revolution is not that easy. Not that impossible either. So, my dear readers (or actually Suuki-Aldrea 'cause there doesn't seem to be anyone else... but still something, thanks Suuki... and Aldrea :3), wait for another long and pointless epic that has nothing to do with the original demon any more but is still gonna be there thanks to my everlasting boredom.

And yeah, I'm only gonna write that because I feel sorry for letting go of that story so soon. Haruka, Seiya and Vegeta have altogether too much potential for blowing things up and getting on each others' nerves. A chance I won't miss... x3