I waited patiently for my match with Goten. I had no doubts we would meet in the ring. All of the children save for Trunks were insects compared to us. Shin came to see me earlier; he wanted to see how I was. I smiled at him and unnerved him with my angrily glinting eyes.

"Shin-kun, why didn't you tell me I was fighting the son of my murderer?" I asked him sweetly. Shin felt a weight drop into his stomach. "What did she say? Son Goku never killed anyone who wasn't deserving of it! It was all in his file! Unless… unless Enma Daioh erased all mention of Shinigami's murder for the sake of her privacy!" Shin realized this with a growing horror.

"What? But how?" Shin obviously had no idea and that was fine with me. Either way, I'd have my revenge. Even Shin could not deny me my right to retribution.

"It's okay, Shin-kun. I'm not mad at you. I'm happy actually." I admitted. Shin's uneasy feeling started to grow when I smiled up at him with tears running down my face.

"I can finally get revenge. I'm sorry, Shin-kun, but I don't think Goten-kun will be of any use to you as back up." Shin looked sadly at me. He knew how I died and understood my anger. Had he known that Goku was the one to commit such an act, he would never have brought me with him. Killing a child is a very serious offense in Otherworld and Goku was just as guilty as Gohan Sr. for ignoring his grandfather's crime. Normally retribution was frowned upon in Otherworld. Only with the most perverse crimes is it allowed to be carried out by the victimized soul. My case was such a time when it was allowed. I was denied retribution on Gohan because he was already claimed by the witch Baba. No one in Otherworld is allowed to touch souls claimed by her without her permission as stated in their treaty. But Goku was free game, and I intended to strike while the opportunity was mine.

"Are you sure this is what you want, love?" Shin asked me gravely. I nodded my head wordlessly. Shin sighed and relented.

"If it's what you want, I won't stop you. It's your right. Is it presumptuous of me to ask you to keep Goku alive until Majin Buu is dead?" I thought about it, and agreed to his request.

"That's fine. But Goten dies today. I was denied old man Gohan's blood, but Goten should do just fine instead. If nothing else it will serve as further punishment for Goku and maybe even Gohan will feel a twinge of pain from Baba's place." Shin winced in sympathy for the poor boy. Killing children is a serious offence in Otherworld, but like I said, my case is special. Not only was I killed as a child by an old man as another child let it happen, but the child was my friend. Betrayal was another serious offence though not as serious as killing a child. But combined the two were the most sickening of crimes. And since I was denied Gohan, I could choose someone to be punished in his stead. I had lots of leeway when choosing my scapegoat since my case was so special and strange. No one would blame me or condemn me for choosing the child of one of my murderers.

Shin nodded and left me to my thoughts. It's been an hour since then. It was surreal when my fight with Goten was announced. Robotically I stood and walked out to the outdoor ring.

"Show time." I thought absently. I faced my victim and waited for the signal to start. Goten was smiling happily at me. He crouched into his stance and waited for me to do the same. When seconds ticked by and I hadn't moved, Goten called out to me.

"Hey, Shinigami! Aren't you going to get into your stance?" I ignored his question and continued to stare at him. This unnerved the boy and the urge to fidget was strong. He clamped down on the urge and kept his guard up until I asked him a question.

"Goten-kun, do you still want to know my name?" Goten blinked in confusion, but answered yes. I smiled slowly and deliberately.

"My name is Sakuya Hanarou. I was seven years old when your daddy watched old man Gohan bury me alive." Goten felt a cold shiver run down his spine. "Since old man Gohan is off-limits, you will be punished in his stead."

All Goten had time to do was gasp before I was across the arena with my elbow digging into his back. He was knocked down, but not knocked out. Good, this shouldn't be too easy after all.


yay! crankin' out chapters one at a time is fun~ i feel so giddy right now! and at the same time i feel like a really horrible person for hurting poor Goten. XD;;;

Notes about the chapter:

you might be thinking to yourselves, 'wait, i thought you said Sakuya was pure of heart? why is she so angry?' well yea, but i also said she could get REALLY angry when she thought about her life. (and death) she's usually too busy to sit around and think about it most of the time though. she never really had an opportunity to let the anger and hatred fester and eventually just kind of went 'oh well can't do anything about it now' and moved on. but that's changed now. she has a target to focus on and all of the anger and hate just kinda burst free all at once. that's normal with trauma victims too, so don't tell me i'm being dramatic! i'd think it would be pretty traumatizing to be BURIED ALIVE while your friend just shrugged it off and went to take a nap, wouldn't you? oh goku... i love you, but i also love love picking on you. XD;; it's just too easy.

and you're probably wondering, 'wait, why didn't the supreme kai tell her what's going on?' well honestly, i think the supreme kai is the type to keep so many secrets it backfires. i mean really, at the WMAT before the buu saga shin just kinda grinned and let everything happen because it was 'all part of the plan' and when shit didn't go as plan, it was because he didn't give anyone a heads up. and he freaked the fuck out. i mean really, anyone who is in vegeta's presence for five seconds would figure out he's a stubborn bastard who won't listen to what you say unless there's a VEEEEERY good reason. sometimes not even then. but shin just kinda sat there and told vegeta 'you gotta do it like this and if you do that we're doomed.' without explaining HOW they were doomed. obviously vegeta would flip the fuck out and he did! that's how majin vegeta came about. this whole thing is probably one big miss communication brought on by shin's cloak and dagger personality. names were never mentioned, so sakuya just shrugged and went with it. she didn't know the powerful 'warriors' were goku and his friends.

and to all you people who are offended by my reasoning behind why sakuya went after goten, stop it. i myself feel horrible about putting goten through this and i agree with you. you are only going to be preaching to the choir and i don't wanna hear it. i just had to give a reason why she wasn't going after Gohan Sr. and it kinda went from there.