Illia, Supreme Kai, and the Junior Tournament

On the way to the registry booth the group chatted about minor things. Illia and Mira had to jog to keep up with them. The two of them, in their excitement, didn't watch where they were going and, after falling several times, and accidentally, simultaneously, de-pantsing Krillin and Vegeta, much to the enjoyment of the others, it was decided they would be carried.

Gohan ended up carrying Illia as Piccolo carried Mira. Both girls were blushing furiously, along with Krillin. Vegeta had a murderous look on his face, and Illia had decided that it would be best to stay away from him for a while.

The group had registered for the fights and, much to Trunks' and Illia's annoyance, the four children had been forced into the junior division. As Goku tried to calm the two young fighters down, the others changed into their fighting clothes. Mira and Illia wore miniatures of Piccolo's fighting clothes, minus the turban, shoulder pads, and cape, and the others wore what the girls took to be their usual fighting clothes.

"I bet I could kick the butt of any fighter here," Trunks stated boldly, "Especially you two girls," he finished with a smirk.

Illia's eyes flashed at this. So this boy thought he could beat her, did he. Mira watched as her twin opened her mouth to say something, and decided it was time to intervene.

"Save it for the fights," Mira said before Illia could speak, "We'll see who's stronger then right?"

The two of them nodded, and Illia's eyes shone with confidence. She wasn't overconfident, just sure that this boy would learn his lesson in the arena.

At that moment the others exited the changing rooms and headed for the preliminary arena. Piccolo looked at his daughters, wondering what could have brought the mischievous twinkle into Illia's eyes.

"What happened while we were changing?" he asked Mira as they walked. He had picked her up again, in hopes of preventing another mishap.

"Trunks said he could beat Illia in a fight," the blond informed her father, "and by the tone of his voice, he thought it would be easy."

Piccolo winced. Telling Illia you could beat her in a fight would not go over well, and he found himself praying that Illia could keep her temper in check.

"You don't think she'll hurt him too bad, do you?" he asked Mira.

"No," the girl stated, "she'll humiliate him, sure, but the only permanent wound she'll leave will be on his ego."

Piccolo laughed at this. He'd met Trunks before and he knew that he needed a lesson in humility. If Illia beat him in front of a crowd, she certainly would take him down a notch. He looked around or Illia, to tell her not to take it too far, and realized she was missing.

"Has anyone seen Illia?" he questioned the group and they realized. Illia was gone.

(With Illia)

Illia had planned to stay with the group, but one of the fighters in the arena caught her eye. He looked familiar somehow, like she'd seen him in a dream. A dream... Her eyes widened as she realized where she'd seen the fighter. She took off after him, not bothering to tell anyone where she was going, because she needed to know WHY he was here.

She stopped and looked around. For a moment she'd thought she'd lost him, but she saw a flash of his white hair and hurried to catch up with him. As she rounded a corner and saw him and his ever present assistant walking down an empty path she yelled to stop him.

"Supreme Kai, Kibito, wait!" she cried, and the figures came to a stop.

She stopped her frantic pursuit and stood in front of the startled Kai. He looked at her with wide eyes, as he recognized the body of the little girl whose spirit had trained with him on the world of the Kais so many years ago.

"Illia?" The Supreme Kai asked, "What are you doing here?"

She stood on her toes and threw her small arms around the Kai's waist. He hugged her back reflexively and she ran over and hugged Kibito. She was the same as she had been when they had met her 20 or so years prior. She had appeared before them as a teenager then, not a child, but the air of innocence she carried around with her remained the same, and the two of them would have recognized her in an instant.

"Ir's so good to see you again," Illia told them as she stood back from the hugs, "I've missed you a lot."

"We've missed you too," Kibito told her, "but you still haven't answered our question. Why are you here?"

Illia told them of Piccolo finding her and Mira in the iceberg and raising them. She told them about her sister and the kind shopkeeper who had given them the necklaces. She spilled the entire story of her childhood to them, because these two were her closest friends.

As a half-and-half, as she called herself, she had the ability to use astral projection, or send her spirit from her body. While she and Mira were stuck in the iceberg, she had used the ability unconsciously, and traveled to the World of the Kais, where she had met Kibito and the Supreme Kai, or Shin as he preferred her to call him.

He and Kibito had trained her for fourteen years, until she had been forced to return to her body when Piccolo had woken her up. In those fourteen years, she had found that Shin and Kibito would be her closest friends. She had been sad to leave them, but now she was with them again and she couldn't get the smile off her face.

"Now I have to ask," she said to them, "Why are you here? I thought you didn't leave the World of the Kais unless it was an emergency."

"We don't," Kibito told her, "but this is an emergency. Babadi, the son of the man who created the evil creature Majin Buu, is trying to break the seal that my master placed on it. And he's trying to do it here on earth."

Illia's face paled. She had heard all about Majin Buu from Shin many years ago. He was a monster, with no heart or soul. He had killed all the Kais but Shin, who had sealed him up years ago.

"Are you sure?" her voice came out in a whisper. It took a lot to scare her, but she knew that if Majin Buu were to be revived, he could destroy earth, and everybody on it.

"Unfortunately, yes," Shin told her, "and we're going to do everything we can to stop it."

She looked up at him, and he could see the fear in her eyes. After a moment however, the fear hardened into determination.

"How can I help?" she asked. She knew what she was up against, but she wasn't going to go down without a fight.

"You can't." her two friends said firmly.

"You're going to stay here, win the tournament, and go home," Shin said, "leave the fighting to us."

"I won't!" Illia exclaimed, "I can't! I'm going to help you, whether you want me to or not. I can fight him, I'm strong enough! And if you two get into a tight situation, whose going to save you sorry butts? Not to mention..."

"Your going to be good and stay out of it," Shin's tone brooked no argument and Illia bit her tongue against the retort that had almost come out of her mouth. She looked pleadingly at the two of them, but they shook their heads. They weren't going to let her get involved.

"Now go back to your father,"Kibito told her, "and for Kai's sake, don't do anything stupid."

Illia sighed and stood up. With one last glance at her friends she trudged back to the main arena.

"It was for the best, sir," Kibito told his master, "You wouldn't want her to get hurt, would you?"

"No," Shin sighed, "but I have a bad felling she was right. She's going to get involved, wether we want her to or not."

(Back with the Z-fighters)

Illia got chewed out when she got back. She hadn't thought about it, and she'd been gone longer than she expected.

"I'm sorry everyone," she said as the looked at her with concern, "I didn't mean to make you worry, I just got distracted."

"Well be more careful next time, okay?" Goku said to the girl, whose head was lowered in apology, "And say something before you run off like that. You had us worried!"

"Okay, I will," Illia said.

The others looked like they wanted to say something more, but they were interrupted by the blaring of a horn over the loudspeaker.

"We will now begin the preliminaries," the man at the front of the arena said.

"All the children in the junior division, come here," said the man who had just walked up next to him.

"Looks like the four of you are on," Krillin said, hoping to take the ashamed Illia out of the spotlight, "Good luck to all of you."

Illia flashed him a grateful smile and hurried to the front with the others. The man looked more than a little shocked to see two six year-old girls among the boys, but he shrugged it off. They would probably be eliminated by their first opponents anyway.

The group headed off to the arena, and waited for the Junior Tournament to begin. As they waited, the men explained the rules and showed them the layout of the fights. Illia's was the first fight of the tournament, against a 15 year-old boy three times her size. As he looked at his opponent he sneered. She was going to be a piece of cake to defeat.

"Worried, little girl?" he taunted her as they waited for their match to begin.

When she didn't reply, he took it as confirmation, and laughed.

"I'll go easy on you little girl," he said, "I won't hurt you too bad."

She turned her gaze on him. She couldn't remember his name, but it seemed his arrogant idiot thought that he had a chance! It was actually funny.

"Unless you have a death wish," she told him in a dangerously low voice, "you will fight me with your full strength. Understand?"

"Fine," he said, "It'll be over in one punch!"

"You right," Illia muttered under her breath as her opponent walked off, "It will be."

The loudspeaker announced that it was time for the Junior Tournament to begin. Illia stood and walked over to the doorway that led to the arena. The boy, Hiroshi, that was his name, stood on the other side of the entrance sneering at her.

"Welcome everyone, to the Junior World Martial Arts Tournament!" the judge announced as he stood on the raised fighting platform. "Let's get these battles underway! Our first fight will be between 15 year-old Hiroshi, who is a student at the Satan gym, and six year old Illia, who was taught martial arts alongside her sister by their father Piccolo! Lets give them both a big round of applause!"

Illia and Hiroshi entered the arena, amidst the cheers of the excited crowd. Hiroshi was walking fast to stay ahead of her, but she thought that it was a waste of energy, and kept her own leisurely pace. When they stepped into the arena hear sensitive namekian hearing picked up the shouts of her father's friends. She acknowledged them with a nod and turned her attention to her opponent.

"Begin!" the judge shouted, and Illia wasted no time in ending the fight. This boy was unlucky. Her confrontation with Shin had made her angry, and Hiroshi's taunts had pushed her over the edge. She was angry, and he had given her something to take that anger out on.

She rushed forward and before he knew what hit him, she jumped high enough that her face was level with his and delivered a smooth yet vicious uppercut to his jaw. He flew three feet into the air, the crashed back down to the arena, knocked senseless.

Illia landed lightly on her feet and strode out of the arena, her anger not noticeably affected by knocking the boy senseless. The shocked silence at the older boy's defeat turned into cheers that followed her into the waiting area.