Just something to think about.
Chapter 4: Listless
It had taken nearly two weeks travel to reach what the magic knights believed to be their next destination. They couldn't be too sure however, because there was something of a language barrier between them and their guide.
"Okay you little fuzz-bag! We're at the top of this god-forsaken Mountain, and I have yet to see ANYTHING that even closely resembles a temple! I swear if this is another joke I'll..."
Hikaru looked on in amazement as Umi continued her rant before turning to Fuu and saying, "Wow, I had no idea that she had the ability to shout for over twenty minutes without stopping... is she ever going to breathe?"
"Indeed, the lung capacity to be able to do so must be amazing, especially since we just finished climbing a mountain," Fuu replied.
"God Damn You Mokona!" Umi yelled as she lunged toward the unsuspecting... thing. Right before she made contact with the animal, and thus rendered it lifeless, Mokona jumped up slightly, so that it landed on her head. It then made a 'pupupupu' sound which sounded almost like a laugh. Umi sighed loudly before taking out a bottle labeled 'Happy Pills'. After swallowing a handful, she sat down quietly and smiled.
Fuu laughed, "I knew it was a good idea for Mokona to conjure up those pills."
Umi smiled at Mokona, " So, where do we go now?" Mokona pu'ed and created a magic bubble around all of them, which then lifted them and flew them to the mountain in the sky that they had seen upon their entry to Cephiro.
If one was to visit the inner recesses of Zagato's Lair, they would find, besides a sub-par name for a castle, Ascot playing with his friends, the summoning monsters. Their bond had grown exponentially since their encounter with the magic knights.
One person was around to be treated to the sight of a content child, a rarity in this world.
"Hey Ascot, hold down the fort for me sugar, I got explicit orders from Lord Zagato to intercept the magic knights at the Temple of the Wind God." So spoke a young woman with pink hair and tan skin, dressed as an exotic dancer. (1)
Ascot dispelled his friends, and turned to look at her. He then spoke with a resigned, but happy demeanor.
"Don't fight them Caldina, you won't win." This seemed to irritate her.
Is he doubting me, I'll show that kid. "Don't worry kid, I'll take care of them, then Zagato will pay us and we can go whereever. we want." She ruffled his hair, eliciting a groan of indignation from him, "Then I can be free, and you can have a place where you and your friends can be happy."
With that, Caldina headed towards the exit, only showing hesitation as Ascot's next words.
"Gohan Daimo is back"
At the moment, Hikaru and Umi were waiting outside while Fuu was inside the Wind Temple. Fuu had entered the same half-concious state that Umi had been in only days before.
"Is that really how I was back at the water temple?" Umi asked Hikaru while they waited.
"Yeah, it's kinda scary seeing you two like that; monotonous and dull, when you two are always full of life and emotion. However homocidal that emotion may be." Hikaru said this with a slight shiver at the images, of her friends dead, that this train of thought created.
"Which reminds me, where's Mokona?" At the lack of any sight of the white marshemallow, Umi sighed again and popped another couple of pills. This simple act, however, brought forth old memories of Hikaru's.
Flashback
Hikaru was sitting atop a building in Tokyo. It was a tall building, twenty floors tall, twenty one if you counted the lobby. She was watching the large swaths of people that littered the streets, many of them drinking, singing, or cheering. Or some combination of the three.
The world was safe. All the demons that had previously held power over all of the inhabitants of earth had finally been eradicated from the planet. This included the notorious Buu, who was known for his ruthless acts of destruction. Nearly the entire global population spent the following week in what seemed to be a never ending party.
The party was due to the fact that, unlike many other times in which the world was in peril, no one had wished for the memories of the people to be wiped of the events, nor had they wished for everything to return to normal. It would be the first time since the Red Ribbon Army that the people had to rebuild everything themselves.
One thing that was forgotten, or rather, never known was that their saviour, the one that was seen fighting Buu and his dragons, had died.
Gohan was dead.
Gohan is dead, Hikaru thought, tears coming to her eyes quickly as she watched others celebrate in the streets before they had to start rebuilding. Gohan is dead and no one cares. This wasn't exactly fair, it was well known amongst her and her brothers and all the people Gohan had known, that Goten had taken it extremely hard. Arguing for about ten days that his brother couldn't die. Then he had turned into a sobbing wreck before Goku was able to comfort him. Still, he was never quite as energetic as before. But even this knowledge didn't make Hikaru feel any better. If anything, it only made things worse. She sighed and stood up.
Hikaru was standing on the ledge of a large building, and briefly wondered if she would feel all twenty floors if she fell.
"Impossible to believe isn't it? That he could die." Hikaru turned to the talking green giant that she had met only a month beforehand. She nodded at him while wiping her tears. Picolo sighed before landing on the ledge next to Hikaru.
"He always seemed so strong, even just by being near him I felt safe. I'd be lying if I said I never worried for his safety, but to be truly honest, the thought that he wouldn't always be there never even crossed my mind." Hikaru said this while shifting her gaze back down to the streets below.
"Always strong?" Picolo said barely holding back his laughter. "When I met him the first time, he was a crying scared brat." He smirked when the young Shidou turned her head so sharply it was miraculous that she didn't get whiplash.
"Wh... what?" She said incredulously. At this, Picolo actually laughed.
Picolo spoke, as soon as his laughter subsided, "It's wasn't his fault really... he was only five and he had just seen his father killed in front of him." Hikaru gasped. While she and Gohan had become close in the short amount of time that they had know each other, and had shared their worst and darkest secrets with one another, they hadn't exactly had enough time to really get to know their pasts. "Of course, this was still when he viewed his father as the greatest and strongest man in the world. He thought his father could do no wrong and that his father was invincible. Did you know that he used to idolize his father?" He asked the red ruby-haired girl.
"No, I didn't." She paused, "How'd his father die?"
"I killed him." At this the girl was so startled she nearly fell off of the ledge, but Picolo grabbed her, and brought her back to steadily standing on the ledge.
"Why?"
"His uncle was an evil man named Raditz, Gohan had been kidnapped and in order to save him Goku had to ho.ld him while my attack killed them both. Afterwards, I took him to be trained in the wilderness. He cried and whined so much that I picked him up and threw him at a mountain. Unexpectedly, he learned how to fly to save himself in the process. So I used training as my excuse for throwing him, and he was none the wiser." Picolo stopped his story at the loud laughing of Hikaru.
"Hahaha... you threw him at a mountain? And then called it training? Hahaha..." When her laughter started to ease up, the namekian continued.
"What I'm trying to say is that he's done the impossible before. Even as a child, scared and alone with the man that killed his dad, he managed to learn flying, a technique that takes some people years to figure out." Picolo paused, "...Even if... even if he's not here, even if the dragon himself can't find the dimension he's in, I have no doubt he lived through the fight." Though to be honest, the chances he's still alive are very slim, Picolo thought. "And that whereever he is, or even if he died, he wouldn't want us to lose ourselves." At this he gave the girl a pointed glare.
"What am I supposed to do without him?" She asked the tall man, her eyes downcast.
"Whatever it takes." Sighing, he replied mysteriously, before leaving.
Whatever it takes? Hikaru was alone, standing on the ledge of a twenty story building, wondering how bad a fall would hurt... and took the elevator.
End Flashback
Hikaru wondered if that was how she had acted before talking to Picolo. Was she so lifeless when she wasn't crying?
She was brought out of her musings by the odd feeling of having a rapier piercing her stomach.
"Ow. Umi, what do you think you're doing?" Hikaru asked, forcing the rapier out of her body by pulling on it and noting the dull look on Umi's eyes, more so than the drugs had ever done.
Maybe she overdosed. Hikaru briefly wondered.
"Please Windam, I need your strength in order help my friends and this world of Cephiro!" Fuu was, at this point, trying to coerce the giant to accept her.
So far she had had no luck.
"What makes you worthy of using my power?" The booming voice resonated throughout the temple. "How strong is your will to do these things?"
"I will never back down in helping my friends or saving this world."
"Prove it."
The next thing Fuu knows, she's in front of her two friends outside of the temple. Umi standing over a fallen and unmoving Hikaru.
"Oh my God! Hikaru!" Fuu yelled before rushing forwards to heal her. "Who did this Umi?"
Umi stepped in front of her, blocking her from helping Hikaru. It was at this point that Fuu noticed the blood dripping off of the blue haired girl's blade.
"Sorry, Sugar, but Umi can't hear you right now"
2:05 AM 7/8/2007
(1). Exotic, not Erotic
AN: Guess who hasn't updated in over a year? Yes, yours truly. Since I haven't written anything in so long, I fear my style may have suffered. And it wasn't that good to begin with.
AN: Just wanted to let everyone know that my former offers stand.