AN: It's still daylight during the assault. They attacked at dawn.
The Next Dimension Over
Chapter Fifty-three
Initially, chasing after the fleeing puppet wasn't particularly difficult. The hole it left in the roof would have fit about three of her, and the attic that the man with the dragonballs had originally escaped into was barely large enough to stand in. Even if she weren't particularly good at leaping high, probably any genin with any sort of training at all would have been able to make the jump after it.
Getting up to the roof was, thus, quite easy. Jumping after it when it flew higher into the sky...also wouldn't have been that difficult. The difficulty did increase the higher it flew, though, and the further away from a vertical leap it made its position...but she could probably do it. The problem was, it was staying up there, and she couldn't just...float up to fight it where it was. She'd have to jump up and hit it, and then repeat the process until it exploded or she could knock it out of the air and keep it down.
More importantly, though, it wasn't just waiting around for her to find a way up to it. It spun in the sky, flipping upside down toward her, and a large compartment on its back popped open.
Sudden increase of distance, angry words, huge and awkward compartment on its back? She didn't need experience with puppets to know it was about to use a particularly unpleasant weapon.
Bulma gave a sudden shriek as the weapon fired. "That's a giant bomb! It'll take out this whole place!"
The entire base? That fit with what the man had said before he flew into the sky. It also made it particularly difficult to protect Bulma - or even Goku and Yamcha - from the blast when it went off. Would she be able to knock it away if she hit it? Or would the impact immediately trigger the explosion? Even if it didn't, how far would it go before it exploded? Clearly the blast wouldn't be big enough to do damage to the puppet in the sky, but that said little about its width.
Damn...
She sprinted forward, and Goku collided with her on the Nimbus, sweeping her immediately off of her feet and into the air. It was a bit disconcerting to be carried in arms as short and small as Goku's, but it was at least an easy solution to the problem with the size of the explosion.
"Goku!" Bulma gave a pleased shout. "You're here!"
The voice from her chest made her immediately look down toward where Yamcha should have been with Goku. From the way that she'd impacted into his chest, that little rescue should have collided with Yamcha as well, possibly hurting him or...worse. But, when she looked where he should have been...nothing. Certainly not any sign of a small, injured man. And she trusted Goku enough to assume he didn't allow the man to accidentally go flying out at some point.
"Where's Yamcha?"
Goku looked over his shoulder as the Nimbus spiraled away from the falling bomb and started to arc back. "He's fighting the rest of the soldiers!"
Bulma gasped in horror. "Back there?"
She turned her attention up to the falling missile. In only a moment, maybe two, it'd contact with the roof. Almost certainly, it would then explode, and take most, if not all of the military base with it. And Yamcha. Especially if, somehow, he'd gotten himself anywhere near that main building while he fought those soldiers.
She grabbed her own passenger with as much care as she could, and placed her in Goku's hand. On the Nimbus both of them would probably be fine, considering the distance they already were. She vaulted over his shoulder, and took the two steps left of the cloud before she leaped into the air.
"Sakura?!" The wind rushing by her ears nearly downed out the voice, but...she was fairly certain it had been Goku who shouted. Bulma would just have to be smart enough to keep him from doing what he did last time, and jumping after her.
The bomb. Would it go off if she hit it? Would it go off the moment it impacted the building? Either way, Goku and Bulma would be safe enough when it did. But if it didn't go off just then, she still had a chance to knock it far enough away to protect everyone, including the one missing from the cloud. A chance was...better than no chance.
If it didn't, at least she'd tried. She couldn't just...not.
Air swirled around her as she plummeted down to the falling weapon. Her fist clenched, drew back, and then crashed into the metal object. Metal twisted and creaked, and the object spiraled away from the base. And exploded.
Too close to where it would have landed anyway.
She lifted an arm protectively just before fire and light washed over her.
(*)
The force of the explosion sent the Nimbus cloud pinwheeling through the air, and then set it bouncing off of trees, fragments of buildings, and even the ground a few times. Considering the massive difference in size, the sound of the explosion shook every bone in her body, even as it was protected by the larger one between herself and it.
Unable to control the Nimbus, even Goku eventually crashed, and the violent spinning and tumbling sent her flying out of his shirt and onto the ground. If the ground weren't so worn down by the foot traffic of the army before, she'd probably have broken her neck or worse. Even as it was, when she stumbled up to her feet with all of her bruises, she felt sick and almost too dizzy to stand.
Fire and smoke mushroomed up into the sky where the Red Ribbon Army base had been, where Yamcha and the girl who'd tried to save him should have been, and she almost collapsed anyway.
"N-No...no!" She took a shaky step toward the smouldering remains of the base.
Yamcha...
She'd just been fighting with him not long ago. It was stupid. She'd fought with him for stupid reasons, and they never officially made up.
She didn't thank him for helping her up that stupid tower instead of leaving her alone in that burned village for almost a week.
She didn't...
Hadn't even...
Fingers dug into her cheeks, raking down her face as if the pain could somehow wake her out of the nightmare she'd fallen into and let her start the day again.
The anguished scream that tore through the air didn't even sound like her own voice.
(*)
In retrospect, he'd gathered up way too much treasure. 'Couldn't figure out what to do with it for the rest of his life' too much. Once he'd had some time to think about what to do with all of the valuables (because none of what he took was really just zenni sitting around waiting to be directly spent) he'd picked out a shiny looking gem and snuck into town to see how much it was worth.
The man behind the counter nearly suffered a heart attack.
He, too, almost suffered from one when the man insisted he didn't have enough money in the entire store to pay for the gem. It actually took a couple of days to find somewhere that actually could pay for it...and once the excitement died down about it...he wasn't sure what to do with roughly ten billion zenni.
Boy didn't it keep him from trying, though. He bought himself the coolest looking house he could find, moved to the bigger island (when his old cranky master refused to move his dinky little house off somewhere into the sea so that there'd be room), and spent money on everything he could think of to spend it on.
Last count, he still had several hundred million zenni. And that was one gem. It was almost as daunting to be unbelievably rich as it was exciting to be so well off. He didn't have any worries, except 'how do I spend it', and that was a surprisingly difficult conundrum.
Of course, he was a truly worthy and clever man. He'd earned the money all on his own against the word of unbelievers, he could definitely handle all that money. It was a difficult, grueling, dirty duty to have. He was the man for the job.
Although his master certainly seemed determined to help, given how often the man dropped by to ask for money to buy 'resources' and 'games' and...girl magazines. The last time he'd visited old Master Roshi, the old bedroom Sakura had used was stuffed full of magazines.
Really, though.
He sat down at his porch and crossed his arms, staring out at the horizon. Fabulous riches were a much better thing to worry about all day than dragon's balls and stupid wishes.
Somewhere out there, Sakura was probably...
A chill breeze blew through the warm, sunny day, and he shivered in a sudden, inexplicable dread.
"What the...?" He frowned, and then shook his head.
Just...what was that about...?
(*)
Everything...
Everything hurt.
Her body burned from the inside, as it slowly rebuilt the things damaged in the explosion, and the red hot metal around her sizzled against her skin when she moved. And there was plenty of skin to burn. Fresh and new, her pink hair was soaked in her own blood, and red smeared and smudged across unmarred skin.
She gasped and choked in pain, dislodging dust from her throat. One hand lifted and pushed away a sheet of rock that collapsed on her. It had done its own damage...but it helped shield her from the blast somewhat, as well. Or, maybe that was all in her head. There was plenty of evidence around her to show how much damage she'd taken from that blast anyway.
She felt a bit woozy. Healing so much, so quickly, had been a significant drain on her reserves. If she hadn't most of a year to build them back up without the need to use much of it herself...the situation might have played out differently.
Around her, every building had been leveled. The portion of the fortress nearest to the bomb was missing entirely, along with a huge chunk of ground. Smoke filled the sky from fires that had died out by the time she'd regained consciousness.
Surprisingly, a few scraps of her clothing actually remained on the ground near her. There wasn't anything intact enough to even attempt to wear, and that meant when she got her hands on the general, she'd tear him apart.
Except...
He wasn't there.
The sun had almost completely vanished in the sky, and he was gone, too. Either he'd left, or...Goku had dealt with him. Of course Goku dealt with him. Judging from the condition of the stone buildings (or what was left of them) around her, those two were far enough away to have survived just fine. He'd have done the job for her once he recovered from the shock of the explosion itself.
The further she walked, the steadier her steps became. The ground itself was uneven, split and cracked, covered in debris and ruins. Every once in a while, she could spot charred remnants of what had been soldiers not-quite hidden under the rubble.
She craned her neck slightly and scanned the skies for a sign of the Nimbus cloud. But...that was a silly thing to worry about. Goku and Bulma were fine. Certainly they were. She'd made sure of that by going after the explosive object on her own.
As for Yamcha...
Her gaze panned across the destruction.
If he survived...did they find him already? Could he be trapped somewhere still? Would she be able to find him on her own here before it was too late, or should she seek out Goku and see if they'd already found him first?
...Ugh.
Her head still felt rattled and her thoughts were jumbled up. That'd been a hell of an explosion.
Okay. Focus.
She closed her eyes for a moment, cleared her mind of all the jumble and mess, focused. After fighting the general...where would they have gone? After the remaining dragonballs. It had to be the remaining dragonballs. And Bulma said...to the East.
She gave a firm nod, and started...opposite the direction of the setting sun. The ground shifted, remains of a mighty fortress slid from precarious positions under her feet, and she summoned chakra to keep herself steady as she walked.
A quiet voice filtered through the haze of the smoke and approaching nightfall. "...Sakura?"
Her response was only delayed a moment, before she turned in the direction of the familiar voice. A few yards away from where she stood, having apparently just flown out from behind a pile of rubble taller than he was...Goku sat on the cloud, eyes wide with surprise. Or hope. Well, maybe he was pleased. It was a nice feeling to have someone happy she was alive, so she settled on that response for her own vanity's sake.
He jumped off of the cloud and sprinted across the debris, as if the cloud couldn't have gotten him across the distance faster. "Sakura!"
For the second time in the day, Goku crashed right into her.
It didn't feel nearly as disconcerting that time.
Shame that she'd have to go and murder him for doing it when she was naked.