Son Piccolo Part 3: New World Order
Without the light of the moon, the night has become a thing of horror. Outside the cities, few dare venture out into the dark. In such places, the night is either filled with the cries and shrieks of unseen beasts, or filled with nothing at all. At the foot of Fire Mountain, the villagers cower from something in between.
The thumping of feet. Three sets. One among them louder than the rest, a large man, covered in wrappings. Glimpses of the strangers are seen as they pass lantern light. Beside the one in wrappings, a tall and slender winged devil and a scrawny vampire.
"The fortune teller's warriors," an older man says, as quietly as he can.
The moment doesn't last long. The figures pass without paying the villagers any mind. Up the mountain they go, wordless as they do.
Fear continues to grip the villagers, not of the strangers, but of the wrath they may unleash.
"Never disturb the lord on the mountain," a child murmurs to himself.
"That's right, son," his trembling father affirms him.
Thump, Thump, Thump.
The largest one stops at the gate of the mountain's castle, as do the rest shortly after. Not a single light shines from within.
"What a revolting place," says the vampire. "Why do we have to do this dirty work? All for a stinking chair. Invisible man, I bet even you could have handled this one."
"He's not here. You would be wise not to underestimate the Ox King. He trained under the turtle, same as that monkey tailed man," says the mummy. He turns his head to the devil opposite of the vampire. "Do you feel it, Devilman?"
"Baba's never wrong, it's here," the devilish man responds. A smirk covers his face in smug confidence.
With a wham, the gates burst from their bolts. They drop with an echo. The whole lot of them enter and traverse the lightless hallway. Half a minute of their reverberating footsteps, and they reach their objective.
The devilman stops his comrades with his arm. "Stand back, I want to see this for myself. It's a rare chance to sit on the seat of a demon king."
"We're not here to play, devilman. We're here to take it," The mummy tells him with a dash of annoyance.
Ignoring the mummy, the devilman takes to the air with the use of his wings. With a downward dash, he lands upon the throne.
"The great demon king." He tells the rest, his back turned away from them. "So great you are now, put in the ground by that little runt. Your throne belongs to me now."
The devil spins around and plops down on the chair.
"Quit messing around," the mummy groans his response.
There is no reply. The devilman sits unmoving, drops of nervous sweats drip from all over his body. His heart pauses, awaiting his mind to unfreeze.
"Hmph. What's wrong?"
"There's someone. Someone's sitting here," he says in a frightened whisper.
A second later, a thousand candles flicker on throughout the room. Devilman leaps out of the chair like a roach caught in the light. He flails his arms and legs as he races to his comrades, terrified screeches trail from his mouth.
The candlelight is only half effective at unveiling the room. They still cannot see who sits upon the throne.
"Devilman, who is it? Is it the Ox King?"
"N-No, too small to be him. Who are you? Speak!"
A pair of eyes become visible as they open. Their glossy reflection shimmers in contrast to their black silhouette.
"You make yourself comfortable on a woman's lap, and you don't even know her name?" A woman's voice, a snicker at the end.
"Hmph, just a girl." The devil drops his guard. "Get down from there. I don't want my throne covered in your disgusting human grease."
"Hmm…" She tilts her head. Her eyes squint.
This time the mummy speaks to her. "Alright, girl, maybe you could tell me why the throne of a demon king is sitting in your foyer?"
She springs to her feet. Something about her attitude changes drastically. "Friends of his? Tell me where he's hiding, and I'll make your deaths quick."
She leaps down to the center of the room. Her long black hair trails after her for a moment. Now visible, the red of her gown shines with a certain terrifying mystique.
"The demon's dead, girl." The scrawny vampire tells her. He leaps up to her. "And if you stay in our way-"
Wham. Flattened in an instant.
In the woman's hand is a massive flyswatter previously unseen. The mummy and the devil's jaws are hung low.
"Annoying." She raises her eyes from the pancaked vampire to see the others. "I am the daughter of the Ox, Chi-Chi. You've trespassed on my home. If you won't talk, I'll make you suffer greatly."
Cold sweats drop from the mummy and devil. They hesitate to take her on.
"Hmm, what's this? Frozen in fear?" She mocks them without a grin.
"Not quite!" Overcoming his mind's warnings, the mummy charges toward her.
Chi-Chi launches the bloody flyswatter into the air, high above her head. As the mummy's fists and feet come flying, she evades each strike. While he's busy wasting his time, Chi-Chi's mysterious weapon descends. It no longer takes the shape of a household item.
"Look out!" The devil shouts, just in time.
The mummy leaps back just as a five foot axe slams into the ground where he stood.
"A magic weapon. This woman is more dangerous than I thought." The devil tells his ally.
"We should dispose of her quickly then." They nod to each other.
Chi-Chi pulls the axe from the ground. She swings it over her shoulder with ease despite it being twice her size.
"Hurry up and come at me," she tells them.
The mummy starts first. He thrusts his bandages out from his body. They surround her and tighten.
"Hm? Where'd that axe go?" The weapon vanishes under the bandages, leaving no impression of its presence.
"It doesn't matter." The devil takes a posed stance.
Chi-Chi watches the devil as he charges his odd attack. She seems little-bothered by the binds around her.
"Devilmite beam!" The devil shouts.
"Hmph." Chi-Chi chooses now to act. The mummy's binds burst with a shockwave, cut into a thousand shreds. Her axe reveals itself, taking a much smaller form.
Chi-Chi tosses the small weapon at the devil. Devilman's beam of certain death collides with the axe. It shrieks, manifested into a mirror at the instant of contact. A single second of struggle, and the devil's ultimate attack is reflected right back at him with twice its intensity.
Watching death race toward him, Devilman's eyes bulge nearly out of their sockets. His instincts save him. His back arcs back 90 degrees by his straining knees. The beam nearly grazes the sweat on his pointy chin as it passes.
Shaken, and rattling, the Devilman makes himself right again. He nearly tumbles forward as he does. "You're inhuman!"
When the mirror begins to fall, Chi-Chi thrusts her arm into it. Her hands clasp a boney hilt. In the blink of an eye, the tool takes it's true shape, a simple sword. She pulls her hand to the level of her face, allowing the blade to see at her level.
"It ends here."
Chi-Chi vanishes from sight. She reappears face to face with Devilman, when the wind catches up, it nearly blows him over. He tries to cry out in horror. Nothing arrives but pain. With a leap, Chi-Chi kicks the devil as if he were a sports ball. His body rockets through the air like it was launched from a cannon.
When Chi-Chi's toes touch the ground, she kicks off alongside him. The devil's body spirals in a collision course with the mummy.
The bandaged deadman's eyes see only a blur come his way. Then, a sudden moment of clarity. The woman's beautiful, hateful face, staring him dead-on. Her long black hair flows over her shoulders in slow motion. The face burns itself into the part of his mind that holds his deepest horrors.
The clarity is lost. Another blur he cannot perceive. Chi-Chi thrusts the devil by the back of his head cleanly into the mummy's chest. The two smack into the ground with a quake. In Chi-Chi's other hand, the metallic thrust of her sword carries overhead. It chases the opportunity to skewer her opponents together, sealing them in death.
"Hold it! Don't you dare!" a bodiless elderly female voice cries out to Chi-Chi.
She slows her blade until it comes to a stop. The tip pokes where the back of the devil's head meets his neck.
"That's quite enough, young missy! Kill my warriors, and I'll see that you regret it."
"Hm?" Chi-Chi looks up, her eyes wide and curious beneath her hair. She darts her eyes around in search, but finds nobody. "Where are you?! Show yourself, or I'll finish them!"
"You little brat!"
Chi-Chi pulls her victims back against the blade.
"Tch! Fine, have it your way."
Not far from Chi-Chi, a tiny old witch begins to manifest.
"What nerve, Honestly- wha!"
The manifestation is blown away by the sword launched from Chi-Chi's hands.
"Oh…" Chi-Chi responds apathetically, if not a bit disappointed. "An illusion. Just my luck."
"My word! If I were really here you coulda killed me, you moron!" The witch huffs and puffs as her form re-manifests.
"A shame I didn't." Chi-Chi cracks her neck. "Get out of my castle. Take your garbage with you."
"Do you have any idea who you're speaking to?"
"No." Chi-Chi walks back to the throne. She leaps up and slumps into a bored lounge.
"I'm the great fortune teller Baba! I deserve some respect!"
"Never heard of you. You've got ten seconds. I'll start by killing the... " Her eyes roll toward the flattened vampire. "...My bad, I think he might be dead."
"Hm?" Baba looks at the splatter. Her eyes are blank, then fill with a jolt of surprise. "Wha-wha-what!" With a furrowed brow, she turns to Chi-Chi in a fit. "You pig-faced half-wit! Curse you! I'm not leaving until I have what I came for. Hand over the throne at once!"
"Not a chance. It stays here."
"Did you hear me?!"
"I couldn't stop hearing you, you're so annoying that it's giving me a headache." She lets out an exaggerated sigh.
"Why, you! Brat! Dummy! Dullard!"
Baba's apparition is blown apart again, this time by nothing more than the girl's bullet-speed spit. When the apparition reforms, Baba growls. This time, she makes an effort to control her temper.
With a final huff, Baba continues. "This is going nowhere. Tell me, why is that chair so important to you?"
"Hm? If you've come here for it, then you know who it belongs to."
"Of course I do, The demon king Piccolo."
Piccolo.
The word echoes in Chi-Chi's mind. She covers her face with one hand. Her distressed eyes poke through the gaps in her fingers. The woman's whole body trembles.
"My little boy…" she says with a shaky voice.
Dead.
A voice in her head, but not her own. Whether it's haunting or a hint of her own insanity, it makes no difference. It's an evil voice, Piccolo's voice. It laughs up a storm in her mind. Her breathing doubles.
That's right. The brat is dead, and I killed him. What are you going to do about it?
Baba watches the woman become frail. Her brow drops, intently observing the situation.
"Calm down. Clear your mind, before it breaks."
Baba waves her hand across. A snap goes off on Chi-Chi's forehead, almost like she'd been flicked. The voices in her head begin to drift. Chi-Chi stares back at Baba. The poor woman's face is enveloped in momentary confusion, looking lost and disoriented.
When Chi-Chi gets her bearing, she leaps back to the center of the room, hair trailing after her. It's then that Baba notices the symbol on her chest. The same symbol adorned by the demon king himself. She darts her eyes to the sword lodged in the wall behind her, the same symbol embedded in it's hilt.
"This magic sword…" She examines it closely. "Hm?"
Baba's eyes dart to the throne. It's texture and color is a perfect match for the blade. One of it's largest spikes is broken off. Baba pulls the sword from the wall. A rush of evil energy hits her instantly, forcing her to drop it.
"What is this? You've got to be a lunatic to use something as dangerous as that!"
"He gave it to me, to kill him with." Chi-Chi drops to her knees. "He taunts me, daring me to cut him. For five months I've tried. Never once has he bled. Never once have I not." Chi-Chi clutches her sides and hangs her head low.
Baba looks down on the girl, almost with pity, but not quite. Then, she notices something that makes her sick. A hue of red brighter than the rest begins coloring around where Chi-Chi grabs herself.
"That dress..." It's red, not by design. Stained by her own blood, one cut at a time.
"Pathetic child. Five months you've tortured yourself like this. What was it all for?"
Chi-Chi keeps her head down, staring at the ground. "It was for him."
She cradles herself hard, pressing her forehead into her knees.
"I don't care what anyone says, he was my son. I just wanted him to be happy. My little Gohan..."
"Hm? Gohan? You mean Thee Gohan? The twerpy brat that nearly blew the planet to smithereens?"
"He was a handsome young lad!" Chi-Chi snaps out of her depression. She sprawls into a stance that's wide and low, ready to pounce. She growls back at the witch as a warning.
"Fine, fine! Handsome lad, whatever!"
Chi-Chi calms down, returning to her state of mild irritation she'd started with. She swings backward, pulling her body up until her legs are standing propper.
Baba begins to steer the conversation. "It's not a big deal to me anyway. What's important to me is what you do."
"Why the interest?"
"You're quite a valuable catch. It's not every day I run into someone who can take down my fighters. Speaking of which…" Baba glares at the flattened mess of what was once a vampire. "I seem to be down a man thanks to your little stunt earlier."
Chi-Chi turns her head and eyes to the puddle of Baba's attention. She groans a little, showing a hint of embarrassment on her face.
"I'm a fair woman, Chi-Chi. All I want from you is to repay what you've cost me."
"We're even. You invaded my home unannounced, this was the result."
"Tch! Fine. There's something you want then."
"There's only one thing I want." Chi-Chi summons the blade back to her hands with the flick of her wrist. "I want to stain this blade with the blood of all those who've murdered my little boy!"
"The only skin that sword will ever pierce is your own."
Chi-Chi frowns at the sword. No part of her mind even tried to hide from it, nor does any part of her mind have the will to protest it.
"Let's make a deal, Chi-Chi."
"I doubt you could offer me anything, but go on." Chi-Chi glares back with disinterest and doubt.
"I offer you my knowledge of magic."
"Ha," Chi-Chi scoffs Baba off. "I'm not interested. This blade serves me well enough."
At this, Baba is the one laughing. Chi-Chi scowls in return.
"Dear girl, you sweet little thing." Baba snaps her fingers.
Darkness fills Chi-Chi's vision. The dark, smokey image of Piccolo fills the space around her.
"Stop it!"
She charges the grinning fiend with a battle cry. Her sword swings, but only gets halfway.
Snap.
It feels like being flicked in the forehead. Chi-Chi finds herself doing something she doesn't remember doing. The tip of the blade pokes her belly, and it's her own hands that claps the handle.
"You're a fool if you think that blade serves you, Chi-Chi. If it weren't for the spell I put on you earlier, you'd already be lying in a pool of your own blood."
Chi-Chi lowers the sword with terror in her eyes. After sheathing the blade, she turns to Baba. "Witchcraft. You're more than a simple fortune teller. You're a wicked hag."
"You're damn right."
"Then, this is what you offer me?"
Baba giggles, having successfully taken the upperhand. "The power to control that blade, yes, but not for free. If you accept my offer, you will replace the fighter you killed today."
Chi-Chi hesitates. Her mind is struggling to think clearly. She takes some deep breaths until her composure is restored. With a strong and determined look, she gives Baba her answer.
"If you allow me to kill Piccolo, then I accept your offer."
"It's a deal." With that, Baba's image fades away like the illusion it was.
"Father, I leave the castle to you."
From the shadows, a massive hulking man nods, half hidden behind a pillar. Chi-Chi walks up to Baba's fighters and prods them with her foot.
"On your feet," she demands of them. They obey with a startled jump. With a sharp glare, she gives them further instructions. "Take me to her."
"R-Right away, ma'am!"
Chi-Chi leaps up onto the mummy's back and the three of them run out of the castle and into the night.
A/N: Just uploading this chapter to confirm that part 3 is actually being written. I won't be uploading the rest of the series until I've finished writing the arc.