--CHAPTER 12
"Ow!" Ryoko cried as Chichi finished wrapping her bandages.
"See! This is why I didn't want you fighting! I tried to keep you away from all of this!"
"I'll go get you some sensu beans." Trunks said, kissing her forehead then leaving the room. The battle had taken most of the day, and Ryoko was only able to kill one demon on her own. She could tell her father was disappointed in her for going on her own and putting herself in danger, but she didn't feel guilty, she was more angry because she knew he knew something that he wouldn't tell.
"Are you okay?" Goku asked, placing a hand on her shoulder. Ryoko quickly pulled away and stood up, then started feeling guilty after she threw him a glare and he looked surprised and hurt.
She sighed, "yeah, dad, I'm fine. I just… need some rest. I'm gonna go to bed."
She hugged her parents, then went into her room and laid down.
Ryoko fell asleep almost instantly, and began to have another one of her nightmares. She was standing in a completely white room, shivering from the intense cold.
"I'm coming for you."
She spun around, and behind her a tall, dark haired man was standing there smiling. His hair was long and black, he had a very pale complexion. His eyes were striking, and to Ryoko they were beautiful and terrifying at the same time. He was wearing a long red trench coat, and black gloves.
"Who are you?" She asked, staring into his black eyes. He began to laugh maniacally, showing his razor-sharp teeth, making Ryoko step back in surprise. He walked toward her, Ryoko was unable to move.
"You're mine," he whispered in her ear, then quickly reached forward and his hand plunged through her chest, then he reached back with her heart in his hand as he began laughing again.
The last thing she saw was those eyes before she threw herself from her bed. An overwhelming feeling of nausea came over her and she ran to the bathroom and began vomiting, still hearing his laugh in her head. After, she sat back and wiped her mouth with her hand, the laughter finally fading, then moved her hand back to look at it; blood was smeared on it. When she saw that she had thrown up blood, she fell back against the wall, suddenly feeling very dizzy as she started crying.
"Ryoko, are you alright?" Gohan asked the next morning in homeroom. Ryoko shook her head, breaking herself from the daze she had been in. "You don't look so good."
"Yeah, just didn't sleep too well last night," she said with a sincere smile.
"Yeah, Trunks came back last night with the sensu beans, and mom went to go see if you were awake, and she said you were tossing and turning and didn't look like you were sleeping too good, but she decided not to wake you."
"Oh, I forgot Trunks was bringing me those. I would've waited up."
Gohan shrugged. "You needed to sleep. Besides, you didn't really need the sensu beans, he was just being too worried, as usual."
Ryoko smiled, then grabbed her head and bent over in pain from a horrible, sudden head ache.
"Ryoko?"
"I-I'm fine," she stuttered, "just feeling kinda sick. I'll be right back." She got up and went to the bathroom, locking the door behind her.
After she finished throwing up more blood, she splashed some cold water on her face, then stared at herself in the mirror. "What the hell is wrong with me?" She asked herself, splashing more water on her face to keep herself from crying.
As a result of not sleeping well the night before, Ryoko unintentionally fell asleep during class. She dreamt that she was in Trunks' room kissing him. She pulled away and looked him in the eyes with a smile, then grabbed his sword from behind his back and drove it through his stomach, pinning him to the ground. "I do love those eyes," she whispered, then stuck her nails in them, causing him to scream out in pain as blood ran from his eyes.
She woke up screaming, everyone in the room staring at her.
"I know you always fall asleep in class, Ryoko, I don't mind because it doesn't affect anyone's but your own grades. But if you're going to cause a scene when you wake up then I won't allow it." Her teacher said, causing everyone in the room except Ryoko, Trunks, and Gohan to giggle.
"I'm sorry, sensei." Ryoko said, gathering her things. "I need to go."
Ryoko immediately recognized the room as the living room. Someone was sitting in a chair, their back to her and facing the wall. She recognized him as Trunks, and started walking over to him. He stood up, and revealed a horrifying sight.
The front of his muscle shirt was torn, and half of his face's skin was missing. He was coughing up blood, which was spilling down onto his chest. His chest's skin was bubbling and melting away, revealing his ribs and lungs. He coughed, his ribs rattling.
Ryoko stood, transfixed from fright, as Trunks came toward her with a clawed, bone hand. His claw grabbed her throat, and started tearing it, ripping away her skin, exposing her trachea and other internal throat organs.
She again awoke with a scream. She had gone home, no one was there and she had fallen asleep again while watching TV.
"Okay, well, then I just won't sleep." Ryoko decided, getting up and pouring herself a cup of coffee. The first few sips made her gag, she was never much of a coffee-drinker.
Two days passed, she hadn't slept at all and she had already been through at least a dozen coffees.
"You're gonna get cancer or something." Mai said, admiring a shirt then pushing it away when she saw the price.
"You don't get cancer from coffee." Ryoko said quickly.
"You can get cancer from anything these days. Come on, let's go to another store, this one's too expensive."
They walked back to the center of the mall, and Mai stopped to fix her make up in a mirror.
"Come on come on come on let's go go go I need to move!" Ryoko said, jumping up and down. "God this is REALLY annoying! Come on come on! I'm getting tired, oh no I can't get tired. I need more coffee!" She turned around and walked into someone, then jumped back. "Oh, I'm sorry I'm sorry! I'm sorry- Kotori?!" She hadn't seen him since the day he apologized in the cafeteria. He smiled, and looked away from her eyes.
"Ryoko, hi…"
"How- how've you been?"
"Alright, and you?"
"Kotori!" Mai cried, running over and hugging him. "I haven't seen you in so long! Where have you been?"
"Around…" He said, rubbing the back of his head.
"Why haven't you been hanging out with us?" Mai asked angrily. Ryoko and Kotori both looked at the ground, both knowing the answer.
"So, uh, how're things?" Ryoko asked.
"Okay… Listen, um, Ryoko, I think we should talk." He said, finally looking up into her eyes, which caught her off guard making her look away quickly.
"Oh, alright, well-" A loud crash came from behind them, and screams were heard as people started running in the opposite direction, violently pushing Ryoko, Mai, and Kotori out of there way. "Oh shit." Ryoko muttered, hearing the screeches of the demons.
"What the FUCK are those?!" Kotori yelled, staring in horror as the demons tore apart the people who hadn't managed to get away quickly enough.
Ryoko threw her shopping bag at Mai, "you guys, get out of her, quick. Go call my dad, tell him that the demons are at the mall and I'm alone."
"Demons?! What the fuck?!" Kotori yelled before Mai dragged him away, frantically pressing numbers on her cell phone.
Ryoko watched them go, and kind of regretted telling them to leave so quickly, she was afraid to face them alone again.
"Everyone, get out of here, NOW!" She yelled to the remaining people, then ran to the demons and started firing chi blasts at them, hoping that she could hold them off long enough for her father to get there. But after a few minutes, she didn't think she had the strength to be constantly firing chi blasts, her energy was draining quickly. Her blasts became less and less powerful and slower and slower, until finally one was able to get around it and sliced her arm with its claws. She cried out in pain, then jumped into the air and resumed sending the chi blasts. She hadn't gone high enough to stay out of range of their tails, and one of them threw its tail into the air and hooked the blade into her ankle. Ryoko screamed as it slammed her on the ground, and tried as hard as she could to keep it from ripping her throat out when it jumped on her.
A chi blast from Goku arrived just in time, and he helped her up. With Ryoko in his arms, he sent a powerful Kamehameha at them, then left through the hole in the roof that they created.
"I didn't go after them this time, I swear they just showed up here." Ryoko said.
"I know." Goku said.
"Where are we going?"
"To Korin, to get some sensu beans for your ankle."
It wasn't long before they reached the long pole extending through the clouds. When they reached it, Goku started flying up, then they came to the large circular dome. He set her down and she leaned against the edge, then quickly sat on the floor after she looked down and felt a little nauseas.
"Hello, Goku!" Korin said with a smile. "Here for sensu beans? For whom, what happened this time?"
"My daughter, Ryoko." He said. The smile faded from Korin's face as he glanced toward her. "She was attacked by some demons."
"Ryoko…" He just kept staring at her, "she's so… young." He shook his head, turned around and got a bag on sensu beans, then handed them to Goku. "Here you go. You take good care of her, okay?"
"Yeah, of course." Goku said. He walked over and helped Ryoko up, gave her a few beans, and flew home in silence.
--CHAPTER 13
"Maybe you've just had too much coffee and not enough sleep." Gohan said the next morning during homeroom. Ryoko had just confessed her suspicions about their father in a matter of a few seconds, Gohan was surprised that he even understood her babbling.
"No, Gohan! I've been thinking this since way before I started drinking coffee."
"Yeah, you're right. He has been acting differently lately. I have no idea why, though. But I do still think you need to lay off the coffee and get some sleep."
"No, can't sleep. Won't sleep. Coffee's good." Gohan laughed and shook his head.
"Whatever, sis. You're gonna just pass out at a really bad time one of these days."
"No, I'll be fine if I just keep drinking coffee." Ryoko got up and walked away, not wanting to argue with him because she knew he was right, but she didn't want to think about sleeping. She ran into Trunks, who asked her to go over after school to study, and she agreed. She realized that her attention span was very short, and her grades were going to drop drastically.
As soon as she got to Trunks', he started on her about sleeping just as Gohan did.
"You don't look good, Ryoko. You need sleep."
"I can't."
"Why not?"
"I… have nightmares. Bad ones." She admitted.
"Well… it's probably because you're not used to this… kind of life. Fighting, seeing dead bodies. That whole experience with Heroki. Of course all those things would give you nightmares. But that's all they are, nightmares. They can't hurt you."
"You wouldn't want to sleep if you've seen what I have."
Trunks sighed, knowing her mind was made up. "Alright. I'll go get you some coffee, wait here." Ryoko nodded and sat on the couch. Trunks went into the kitchen and poured a cup of coffee, then discretely opened a sleeping pill and put the powder in and mixed it. He sat down with her and handed her the mug, she was asleep shortly after.
"Oh no, Trunks," she whispered, "what did you do to me?" She was in a dimly lit hallway, behind her, where she guessed the hallway went on, was pitch black. She cautiously started walking to a dank room in front of her, where she heard muffled sobs. On the other side of the door, there was a blue haired little girl, crying into her knees.
"…Heroki?" Ryoko asked, tears springing into her eyes.
"It's your fault." Heroki mumbled.
"…What? What's my fault?"
Heroki lowered her knees, still looking down at the floor.
"It's all your fault!" She lifted her face to Ryoko, who let out a shrill scream. There were deep, bloody sockets where her eyes should have been, dried blood covered her face.
Ryoko closed her eyes, "this isn't real, this isn't real, you can't hurt me!"
"You don't even know who I am." Ryoko opened her eyes and the man with the dark eyes wrapped his hand around her throat. Tears streamed down her face as she clawed at his hand, gasping for breath. Heroki was humming in the corner, staring at Ryoko with a satisfied grin. He pulled her closer, and whispered softly in her ear, "Ryuukaze."