Chapter 35 – Hell's borders
Author's note: Yus, you guessed it, a streak of lazyness again. Not to mention homework/driving school/forgetting to write the fic. But the story is nearing its end, there won't be more than two or three chapters left so enjoy it while it still lasts...
Haruka grabbed the steering lever and held it very tight as soon as she saw from the corner of her eye that Goku concentrated. She forced her eyes open. After all, she was responsible for them all. The azure sky behind the windscreen flashed white, sparkled for a mere second and then the scene changed. The others opened their eyes but Haruka was already maneuvering between huge puffs of yellow clouds in the pink sky.
"So, what exactly did you mean with…" Seiya started.
"Ladies and gentlemen… and Seiya, please take your seats and fasten your seatbelts, we're going down," Haruka interrupted with a vague grimace. "We have a long way to go so don't try to play acrobats here, instability will only take us there faster." Now the grimace turned into a grim grin.
Yellow clouds whizzed by. Trunks started humming "Highway to Hell". The Three Lights glared at him.
"Why so nervous?" Vegeta asked them. "It's just the Hell."
"Whadda you mean with "just"?" Michiru asked, being just as nervous.
"Cool down, all of you," Haruka suggested from the wheel. "You're too stuck in stereotypes, you know."
"Yeah, it's just a nice place where bad guys go after they die," Goku supported. "Just like Heaven is a nice place where good guys go after they die. Don't crash now, Haruka. We're almost there."
Haruka pulled the plane a little, it smashed through the clouds and a wide colorful landscape, mainly red and yellow under the pink sky stretched out in front of their eyes. The girl stabilized the vehicle and it slid down, horizontal again.
"It's a lot… less red than I imagined," Michiru admitted.
"Do they have shopping centers?" Bulma asked curiously.
"There is one, but it doesn't restock often because people don't go there often," Vegeta replied, standing up and going to the window. "Shrouds don't have pockets as you know and most people who land in Hell come here with no money whatsoever. The main customers are ancient Egyptians as I heard… smart folk, really. And anyone who's strong enough to beat the security guards up."
Bulma's eyes widened. "There was nothing like that in Heaven!" After Maijin Buu blew the Earth up, she had been to Heaven for a short while, but never in Hell.
"Because Heaven is mainly filled with do-gooder sissies who prefer picking flowers to shopping," Vegeta agreed, pointing at a plain near a blood pond. "Land there, Haruka."
"What about all the blonde chicks whose lives consist of shopping only?" Taiki asked, looking up.
"When they die young enough to still be interested in shopping, that's usually because of drinking and driving or an overdose, and then they end up here," the Saiyan prince replied and shuddered. "It was creepy, I tell you. They had a sale once when I was down here. Nothing I'd like to witness again."
"Dad has died twice and been here often," Trunks explained to the earthers with a wide grin.
"Where did the chicks get the money?" Yaten asked after a short pause of silence.
Vegeta shrugged. "They shoplift. It is the Hell, you know… not much to scare them with, and those security guards are hopeless softies when it comes to puppydog eyes."
Bulma grabbed his arm and grinned widely. "Cool! Will you take me shopping then, huh, huh?"
"Maybe after we've found Shenlong," the prince snorted. The plane bumped against the ground and stopped after a short while.
"Where are you planning to find that dragon?" Haruka asked when they got out of the plane and looked around. The trees were green, flowing softly in the wind, the blood fountains were singing quietly and the air was pretty fresh.
"What right do they actually have to call this place the Hell?" Yaten asked, looking around curiously. "I should become a bad guy, really."
"It's not the landscape that makes this place a Hell, but the locals," Goku replied. Vegeta nodded in agreement.
"Why do you think the Eternal Dragon is here?" Bulma asked her husband.
The Saiyan prince glanced at her. "He needs a place that's spacious, well lit, away from mortals and advanced enough to produce everything a gigantic dragon needs on vacation. Shall we compile a list of all the vacation resorts that are good enough?"
"Where should we start?" Haruka asked, leaning against the side of the plane. "Does this place have a beach?"
"Not that I've heard of, but things may have changed since my last visit," Vegeta replied.
"Let's just ask someone," Bulma suggested. "It's a gigantic dragon, surely someone has seen him."
"Yeah, those funny guarding ogres may know something," Trunks agreed. "Hey! Anyone here? We're trespassing here, someone get over here to throw us out!"
"Coming, coming." They turned around to see a massive ogre trot towards them. "Hey, I know you! Are you really trying to get me fired here? Sheesh!"
"Hi, Mezu!" Goku greeted him. "We're just looking for the Eternal Dragon Shenlong, have you seen him anywhere?"
"Yeah, he's on vacation on the shores of the Sea of Void over there," the ogre pointed towards the sharp mountains in the distance, "but you're not allowed to go there and I'm gonna have to show you out…"
The plane took off.
"Now," Mezu finished grimly. "This is depressing…"
"What's the Sea of Void?" Hotaru asked when the plane accelerated and turned towards the mountains.
"Never heard of it," both Saiyans replied.
"But we'll probably find it out soon enough," Goku added.
"Probably just another blood ocean with a fancy name," Goten guessed. "If I had to name places in Hell, the Sea of Void would be high on my list, really."
"If Hell was run by little brats with overwhelming fantasies then I'd agree with you but as it's run by boring and slow-witted bureaucrats then fancy names are out of the question," Vegeta said. "Kakarot, do your dimension-bending trick. I have a feeling that the sea is very far away."
Goku nodded, something twitched in the scenery before them though the mountain peaks kept whizzing by like before. Haruka's eyes narrowed, she bowed closer to the screen and then took the plane a little higher to see what's behind the peaks.
They saw it.
Silence fell on the plane.
Haruka slowed down and turned the vehicle, now it was still flying over the mountains but diagonally. She really didn't feel like losing the ground, or even the sharp peaks under the plane.
"The Sea of Void," Hotaru said, breaking the silence. Her voice was just as good as the silence though. Had always been.
The Hell floated in the lower regions of the Afterworld and even though it had no seas, it still had to be surrounded by something, the Sea of Void for that matter. The pink sky faded darker and darker until it became fully black, the yellow shore was washed by the waves of the Sea that were just as black. But the Sea itself had no horizon. It was void. Black, empty cosmos with thousands of glittering stars piercing it.
Haruka landed the plane and after short hesitation they all stood on the shore, looking out over the end of the Hell. Vegeta floated up in the air and above the Sea. He looked down.
"Looks like the real deal to me," he said.
Michiru crouched down and touched the waves that were rolling on the yellow ground – not exactly sand but some harder, tougher substance.
"It's not wet," she said, standing up again. "It just… feels like nothing."
Bulma was biting her nails. "Vegeta, get back here… I don't want you to fall into nothingness for ever and ever and ever!"
"Yeh, okay," Vegeta flew back and landed. "So that's the end of the Hell. Nice. So where's that dragon?"
"Somewhere on this shore that's most likely millions and billions of miles long," Bulma predicted.
"That'll take a short while," Yaten commented.
"Maybe not even too long as Mezu pointed somewhere in this direction," Trunks remarked. "It's a seven-mile dragon, how hard could finding him be?"
"He's over there," Goku interjected, pointing to the right. The others stared at him for a moment.
"Right…" Vegeta then said thoughtfully. "Now I can feel it too. Shenlong's aura. He's indeed powerful. And not that far away."
"Aura?" Goku's eyebrows raised. "I just thought that a where's a humongous banana split, there's also a humongous dragon. My stomach's logic never lies."
"Let's just go," Haruka suggested with a sigh as the others were glaring at Goku.
The girl had seen a lot during her racing career but driving a plane down the shore of the Hell with spiky mountains to the right and empty cosmos to the left was really a challenge for her nerves. Though the Hell was usually crowded, nobody was to be seen on this lifeless beach. That part of the Afterworld was really depressing, even if quite interesting… until Goku, who was standing next to the windscreen, let out a cry.
"See? Over there! Whoa, look at the size of this thing!"
"So that's the eternal dragon we've been looking for?" Seiya asked, stepping up to the windscreen too.
"No, that's a banana split," Vegeta replied with a frown. "Shenlong is right behind it. Calm down already, Kakarot…!"
The beach was a bit wider in that place, the mountains were farther away and there was more room. And on the shore there he was – seven miles of dark green scaly body, curled up on several square kilometers, huge paws, though tiny compared to the body, scratching the ground, yellow gummy stomach shining in the light of whatever the Hell's source of light was.
One tiny correction: curled up on several square kilometers of a striped blanket.
Haruka landed the plane and got out, looking up at the gigantic dragon, or actually his equally gigantic sunglasses.
"Imagine the price of those things, eh?" Seiya commented, looking up too.
Shenlong grunted, moved his huge head a little, yawned widely, showing his set of sharp fangs and then quickly grabbed the glass of banana split that was the size of a house. Goku pouted and landed again.
"Mortals?" he asked then with vague surprise, peering at them over his sunglasses. "Didn't I clearly ask for some peace and quiet?"
Now the travellers noticed a bunch of ogres on the other side of Shenlong's big tail. They all seemed a bit nervous – but then again, ogres of the Afterworld usually seem nervous. Mainly because they are nervous.
"We're only here for a minute," Taiki claimed, stepping up too.
"Though that mainly depends on you," Michiru added grimly.
Shenlong sipped the banana split and looked down again with a frown. "I'm the Eternal Dragon Shenlong, set to live forever in seven magical crystal balls and fulfill the wishes of anyone who manages to gather the balls together. Don't you think that I deserve a vacation once in a while?"
"Have you any idea what we've been through gathering those stupid crystal balls of yours?" Yaten demanded.
"If I started to make exceptions, I'd have to make them all the time and I do not want that," the dragon remarked.
"Not everyone would be able to force you to make an exception," Trunks replied.
Shenlong nodded. "Are you forcing me then?" he asked and his red eyes gleamed brightly for a second.
"Don't mind if I do," Vegeta grumbled, forming a bright blue fighting aura around him.
"Vegeta, he's fully able to turn you into a frog," Bulma warned.
"I'd still be able to kick his scaly hiney as a frog," the Saiyan prince replied with a scowl.
"Besides, it'd be an awfully bad pun," Haruka added, grinning vaguely. "Listen, Shenlong, we just want to go home. It wouldn't take you more than a minute, why do you need to be so picky?"
"Everything I do takes me a minute but it's tiring," the dragon remarked.
"What if we gave you something in return?" Hotaru asked.
Shenlong's huge head turned a little. Something glanced at the bottom of one red eye. "Really? You'd give me something in return? Me, the fulfill-my-wish-and-get-lost-dragon?"
"Of course," Hotaru smiled. "Just name it."
"Hey, but he's a magical dragon, is there anything he couldn't get by himmmmppfff," Trunks stammered as Bulma whacked him over the head very quickly.
"You see," the dragon explained at the same time, "I've always really wanted the Golden Crystal."
Haruka's, Michiru's and Hotaru's mouths fell open at the same time. The others seemed clueless.
"Sounds good to me, where do we get the crystal?" Goku asked, wiping his face. The huge glass of banana split was empty.
"Crack Pegasus's horn off and voila," Haruka replied grimly. "The Golden Crystal is the most important item in the world of dreams and thus also in our world, as the two cannot exist without one another." Her eyes narrowed as she looked up at the dragon. "Why would you need that crystal?"
"There's only one thing anyone besides Pegasus could do with the crystal," Michiru said with her eyes narrowing too. Her fists clenched and she slowly slid into a fighting pose, though there wasn't much she could do against that gigantic dragon.
Hotaru nodded and even if she didn't transform, the Silence Glaive appeared. The Saiyans and the Three Lights (plus Bulma) looked at them with concern.
"What gives?" Goku asked.
"The crystal is only good for taking the world of dreams over," Haruka grumbled. "Taking over, destroying and completely annihilating our world as well once things get that far."
"Sounds promising," Vegeta muttered, then looked up at the dragon. "Okay, speak! Why do you want that crystal?"