Chapter 5: Another Saiyan?
Trees, dark lampposts, houses, dumpsters, vending machines, all of these things swept past Akane faster than she had ever even dreamed of them going past her as she ran towards the Tendo Dojo. She had run on this street many times before when she went jogging, but not even at her fastest sprint had she ever gone this fast.
She jumped up and caught a branch in a tree, and using the velocity from the run and catch, she launched herself and Goten towards a distant rooftop. She quickly tucked in her legs until she was in the shape of a ball, Goten now forgotten in the moment. She flipped, then landed on the rooftop with only the slightest of hits, and took off on another jump towards another distant rooftop. The glow around her was intensifying, as her own energy started to mix with Goten's shared energy and became one. Using only a single foot, she leapt from roof to roof, closing in on the Dojo with astonishing speed.
Goten was flying above her, watching as she continued her pace. "Wow…she's doing a lot better than I thought she would. Wish Dad were here, he'd know if my transfer idea was a good one or not." He gazed at Akane's form as it gracefully hopped from roof to roof, enjoying the moment to the fullest. Smirking, he took off towards the dojo, a blur marking the spot he was just at.
Akane could finally see the lantern lights from the Dojo, and launched herself into the air, arms outstretched to the sides, legs straight back, her head held high as her now dirty-blondish hair fluttered. As her momentum slowed, she started to drop down towards the inside of the Dojo walls. Moving quickly, she tucked in again, and did several rolls before unfurling and landing on the balls of her feet. A small crater had appeared when she landed, but she didn't feel it. Breathing deeply, she released it with a flourish.
"Wow Akane, that was some great stuff you pulled!" She heard Goten's voice to her right. She started, now realizing that she had forgotten completely about him! When she looked over though, she saw a grin on his face; none the worse for wear from the jostling trip she just gave him, although she didn't know that he had flown there himself. Everyone else in the Dojo simply stared at her.
"What happened to Akane?" Ranma thought, still in girl-form. She had been fighting her father since before Akane left, and had still been at it when she felt a strong force approaching from above. When she looked she saw a glowing being in a white and blue dress tucking and rolling. Now that she saw Akane, and acknowledged that it was she, her jaw dropped. "She wasn't like this before she left! How did she change like this?" Most everyone else's thoughts were along the same lines, except for Trunks.
He walked up to Goten and asked, "Hey…what's with her? I didn't know she could transform." Goten smiled in reply, "I gave her some of my energy."
Trunks stared wide-eyed at his friend. "Goten…I always thought you could be kinda dumb, but now it's official! That was incredibly stupid!"
"Well…how…how come?" Goten pouted, feelings hurt.
"Ahh…well," Trunks thought, realizing that he had no idea what to say now. He thought long and hard, while Goten looked at him, still hurt.
"Well…you didn't know what would happen, that's why!" Trunks finally said.
"I did so! Sorta…" Goten amended. Akane walked between them before something else could be said. She kneeled, and grasped Goten by the shoulders, tears of joy in her now light-blue eyes.
"Goten, I have to thank you." She said, as she looked deep into Gotens' eyes. "You took a risk and tried it anyways, without knowing what would happen, just so I could know what it was like to have your power. I may not keep it, but I'll cherish this moment." And with that said, she leaned forward, and kissed Goten on the cheek. Goten simply blushed, and scratched his head.
Most everyone, minus Trunks, was nearly knocked down by the gesture. She was more tomboyish than this. Ranma even felt a little jealousy, not that he…er…she would admit it at the time.
Trunks blinked at everyone's reaction, then turned back to the two in controversy. "So how did ya give her your energy? I didn't know that you could do that."
"All I did was transfer some of my energy from me to her. It's temporary, and I think it'll be gone in a couple hours if she doesn't relax her energy. If she does, it should last her awhile longer….I think." Goten still wasn't certain about how long the transfer would last, but was willing to make a guess.
"Whaddya mean? Transferred energy?" Ranma asked, confused. She hadn't heard of the idea of transferring energy to another person before. She knew that every single being on Earth had an inner energy, also known as ki, and some were stronger than others. The energy of a person becomes stronger and useable when someone is trained to find it and implement it. It can make a person hit harder, move faster, and have better stamina than if they merely worked out, or ran a lot.
"Well, she asked me what felt like to be a Super Saiyan. To have a Super Saiyans' power that is." Goten explained as everyone either looked at Goten, or at the still glowing Akane. "I really didn't know how to explain it. I've always just 'had' it. So I came up with an idea to transfer some of my energy to her."
"And that brought about…this?" Ranma gestured to Akane.
Goten nodded. "Yea, I think so. There was some weird guy though…." Akane interrupted with a snarl.
"It was Happosai. He tried to jump on me when he saw me. Goten caught him and I nailed him into the sky. I was so angry with him…I don't know what came over me. As I stood there I started to remember all that he had done…and then…other things that angered me. Next thing I knew…this happened." She gestured to herself.
Everyone just looked at her, not sure what to say. Ranma spoke first.
"So…just how much stronger are you?" Akane faced her and smirked. "Care to find out Ranma? Maybe I should relax a bit before I loose too much of Goten's energy."
Recovering her surprise at Akanes' reaction, Ranma smirked confidently, saying, "Nah, I wanna see what you can do now." She took up a ready stance, left leg forward, right arm low and close to her body. Akane put her right arm up with her hand in the shape of a blade, left arm low.
The glow around Akane intensified, as she became intent, yet excited. She wanted to know what she could do as well. Ranma stared her down with an intent stare and a smirk. Before anyone could say anything, she rushed Akane, and placed a hard punch to her solar plexus. She quickly followed it up with a foot sweep, intending to end this quickly. Akane, for her part, didn't even feel the hard punch, and saw the sweep coming. She decided now to get to it. She jumped high, throwing Ranma off when she didn't connect with Akane's legs. Flipping over the still lowered Ranma, Akane quickly landed, turned, and charged the pig-tailed redhead. Faster than Ranma expected, Akane planted a hard punch into the cursed martial artists' face, knocking her into the dirt. The white and blue dress clad fighter started. She didn't know she would move so fast. "Whoa…" was her only thought.
This was Ranmas' thought as well. "Wow…she's fast. Lots faster than usual. I didn't even see her move! And her punch is several times harder than before." Ranma looked up at Akanes' startled face. "She wasn't holding back either. Maybe this energy transfer thing has more benefits than I thought."
She grunted as she lifted herself up from the dirt. Brushing herself off, she squared off against her opponent. "Round two, and this time, I won't hold back." Akanes' eyes narrowed as she squared off. "Fine. Then I won't either."
They rushed each other at the same time, red-hair contrasting with the golden glow. Ranma got in the first attack, "KACHU TENSHIN AMAGURIKEN!" Hundreds of high speed punches flew at Akane, who blocked some, others either missed, or connected. She replied with several fast jabs and kicks. Again, some were blocked, others missed, and a few connected. Ranma grunted when a kick connected with her abdomen, knocking the wind out of her. Quickly composing herself, she launched herself off of Akanes' foot, and countered with a sharp spin kick. Akane pulled back, but the front of her skirt became torn from Ranma's heel. "You jerk!" She cried, becoming angry now. The glow around her increased, as did her strength. She launched herself at the pig-tailed fighter, tossing a clump a dirt and grass behind her. Moving faster than before, she threw punch after punch and kick after kick at a now reeling Ranma. "Her movements are becoming sloppy now, just like usual. But she's too fast for me to counter! She throws more at me before I can exploit the holes in her defenses. I have to end this soon, or she'll wear me out!" Ducking under an extended arm, Ranma slipped in and landed several punched at Akane…or thought she did. Her hands only caught more of her dress, leaving more tears in it as Akane outmaneuvered Ranma's counterattack. They both heard the tearing sound, and they quickly backed off, mostly to catch their breath.
Akane looked herself over, and found several cuts and tears in her dress, with a long gash leading down her skirt, exposing a strong looking leg from the knee down. Ranma looked herself over and found that Akane had gotten in more hits than she though. There were a few bruises on her arms, and her stomach felt like a steel rod had hit her. Her legs arched a bit, and her clothing was as torn, if not a bit more so, than Akanes'.
"Oh my!" Kasumi said, amazed at the fight.
"Wow…she's giving Ranma trouble." Nibiki said aloud, "Not sure who I should bet on though…" she thought to herself.
"This is some incredible fighting! They move too fast for my eyes to follow!" This from Genma, now back in human form, and who was watching the fight closely. Soun Tendo grunted and nodded, tears flowing down his face. "I'm so proud of my little Akane!" Genma glared at Soun, who kept going on, "Why, if we had known sooner, we would have done this a long time ago!"
"How could we? Goten and Trunks arrived here only today." Nibiki pointed out. Soun chuckled, embarrassed.
Trunks turned to Goten, saying, "Hey, Ranma's not bad at all."
"Yea…Akane's pretty good too." Trunks nodded.
"She's not bad, but she's getting sloppy. She's lucky that the other girl hasn't been able to counter yet." A new voice mused. Everyone, including Akane and Ranma, turned to the new voice. A dark form walked into the light of a lantern, exposing blue boots and orange legs first.
"DADDY!" Goten cried, rushing the still mostly hidden stranger. He jumped up and tackled the man, knocking him to the ground. In the lantern light, his features could be plainly seen now. He looked like an older version of Goten, with a grin and a laugh on his lips.
"Hey you made it! You're here to take us to Mom?" Trunks said, smiling. The smile on Goku's lips faded, and he looked at Trunks with a blank look on his face.
"Bulma? She's not here. I barely managed to make it to this dimension myself." He continued on, even though Trunks looked crestfallen. "Right now, I'm too weak to even get back by myself." Everyone's hopes dimmed a bit.
Goku picked up on this, and said, "Don't worry, within a day or so I should be back up to full strength." Trunks raised an eyebrow.
"Uh, sir…" Trunks reverted to when he had trained with Goku.
"What is it Trunks?"
"Why is it going to take you a day to recover? You're the strongest guy here." The Nerima locals gazed at Goten's father with a new look of awe. "He's stronger than them?? How much stronger can a person be!?!?" Ranma thought to herself.
"Well, it's because that, compared to the last time I passed through a dimension to another, there wasn't any interference. It took a lot of my strength just to even pick up on you here. I lost more when I used the Transmission technique to get me here. There seemed to be something in the middle that managed to siphon off a bit more in the process. I'm not strong enough to fight someone who's powerful, but other than that, I'm fine."
Nabiki tried to get Gokus attention, but he was distracted by the happy Goten. Finally, frustrated, she yelled, "GOTEN'S DAD!!"
He looked up with a blank look. "Hmm?"
"If you don't mind me asking, what's your name? We can't just go around calling you 'Goten's Dad' all the time." Nibiki said, leaning against a wooden pillar.
"Oh, yea, I guess you're right." He laughed. "My name's Goku." He held out a hand to her. She took it, and noticed how gentle he was when he shook her hand. "Nabiki."
Introductions followed quickly, while Akane and Ranma still stood off from each other. "I'd wish they'd hurry up. I wanna see if I can beat her now!" Ranma thought, waiting impatiently. Akanes' thoughts where along the same lines. "Common…I'm actually winning!"
Goku stood up, and walked towards the two combatants. The looked up at him, curious. He turned to Akane and asked, "I thought I felt Goten in two places. You're using some of his energy aren't you?" She nodded. "I see, I guess I should have known. For a moment I thought I had lost my mind hahaha!" Everyone but the two boys looked at him strangely. He quickly became semi-serious again, and this time looked at Ranma.
"You're pretty strong too, although you don't need to bring out your energy. You've got some excellent skills!" He walked a little further until he stood between the two. What he said next surprised everyone, including the two boys, although for different reasons.
"Attack me. Use everything you have when you do it." He stood, relaxed, between the two.
"Huh?" Akane looked at him incredulously.
"What?" Ranma said, also incredulous.
"Consider it a test. I noticed something earlier and I wanted to see it again up close."
"Ah…Dad?" Goten called.
"What is it son?" He replied.
"Are you sure you want to do that? I mean…won't you…hurt them?" If golden eggs were splattered all around the area and kept falling in a downpour, it wouldn't have equaled the surprise that the three newcomers felt.
"No way. I'll be fine son." Goku said with a smile.
"Alright then. Here goes!" Akane came at Goku with a rush of air past her dirty-blondish bangs. Ranma also launched himself at Goku a moment later, his eyes locked on the Saiyans' gut. Akane quickly flipped and came at the orange-clad fighters head, heel extended. Both martial artists passed through the Saiyans' after-image, and landed in a heap. As the turned around, they saw Goku back where he was, sweating profusely. "Heh…well, guess that leaves out any special tricks."
"I'll show you tricks! KACHI TENSHIN AMAGURIKEN!" Ranma lashed out with his best Chestnut Fist attack, actually hitting Goku most of the time. He looked at the pig-tailed girl in surprise. Before he could do anything else, Akane landed a hard punch to his kidneys, following up with a hard kick to his head. He didn't budge. Both fighters looked at Goku in surprise. "I put everything into that Chestnut Fist attack! Did it hurt him?" Ranma still held a fist against Goku's chest. "I used everything in both attacks! What's this guy made of?" Akane thought as she flipped backwards.
Goku laughed. "Common…I know you guys can do better than that! I saw you really going at it a minute ago!" He looked serious again. "You're both holding too much back. Dig deeper."
"You want all out?" Ranma ground out, annoyed. "I'll give you all out! MOKO TAKA BISHA!" She fired a blue energy blast at Goku, who merely batted it into the air to explode harmlessly. Akane leapt over Ranma's still crouched form, and landed a hard kick to Goku's face. She continued attacking, using everything she had, and then some. "I'll beat you yet even if I lose all of the energy!" Goku merely looked at her as her hits bounced off.
"Not at that rate. I know there's more there, but you're not using it." This infuriated Akane, who thought she was using everything she had. Her rage was returning, and with it, the fuel for the combined energies inside her. She leapt backwards as Ranma made an attempt. She was angry now, as angry as when she first brought out her energy. The glow around her was intense, and her hair now stood straight up. The blue had returned, but was still streaked with blond. Ranma nailed Goku in the face, then flipped over him to land near the others, who stood transfixed.
"Man…I don't have anything else against this guy. He's too much, and he hasn't even struck back!" Ranma stood by while Akane attacked again.
Air swished as her bladed hands cut the air, now missing Goku more than hitting. Her strength was depleting, but she didn't care. She was too angry to stop. Goku frowned, then finally made a move. Moving faster than she could, he landed a light punch into her gut, then, his hand also a blade, he made to swipe her in the face. She barely saw it coming and jumped to avoid it. Another tear formed in her now ruined dress, going across her left shoulder, exposing the musculature that was there now. She landed some ways away, huffing. Goku looked at her sternly.
"I know there's more to you than that. I felt it earlier. You're holding back, but you don't see it. Goten's energy gave you the means to finally bring out your strength, but you're failing to tap it." Ranma had no idea what he was getting at, but he had noticed that she wasn't going at Goku like she did her. "Maybe he's on to something?"
"YOU WANT EVERYTHING! THEN HERE IT COMES!" Leaping at Goku, she pulled her mallet out and headed right for him. With a loud cry, she heaved it over her head, and with all her strength started to bring it down.
"HiyaaaAAAHH!!" Goku launched a golden energy blast at the head of the mallet, holding the mallet in place from coming down any further. Yet, it didn't push it away either. He kept pouring energy into the blast, energy he didn't have to spare, and she kept pushing, also with energy she didn't have to spare. It was a contest of wills, and the strongest one would win.
Finally, she let up, and the mallet flew from her hands and landed with a loud sound of wood in water as it landed in the pond. She collapsed onto the ground, and her hair finally landed back in its usual mop shape, although blond streaks were still in it. The glow dissipated as she finally relaxed, conserving what little energy she had left. Goku still stood, panting hard from the exertion, sweat pouring down his brow. He staggered over to her where she sat panting, and extended a hand. She looked at it, then at him. He smiled warmly, and she smiled in kind, taking the hand.
"You're stronger than you think Akane. You had already managed to rebuild some of the energy Goten gave you with your own. It was that energy that you were fighting with, not Gotens'." He looked deep into her eyes. "That was why I was testing you. I wanted to see how far you would go before stopping. You stopped at the right time, and I think you'll be able to recover a good portion of Goten's energy on your own."
She blinked, not totally understanding. Neither did anyone else for that matter, least of all Trunks and Goten, who where scratching their heads in unison. "What's he talking about Goten?"
"I dunno."
Ranma walked up to Goku, and asked, "And what where you testing me for?"
He looked at her with a knowing smile. "I was testing you to see how skillful you really were. You're very good. Maybe you can teach me some of your techniques?" She blinked in surprise.
"Uh…sure. I can do that."
"Great! Maybe tomorrow, we'll do some training!" Goku said, looking forward to learning new techniques.
Kasumi had gone in the house earlier to check on the dinner she had been cooking on the propane-powered cooking stove. She returned at this moment to announce, "Dinner's ready! You three are welcome to join us!"
"ALRIGHT!" Goku nearly plowed everyone over, including Kasumi in his haste to the food.
To be continued….