Disclaimer: For the last time, it's in chapter two.
Reluctance and anxiety… these exist when an ending approaches. But, with these, also exists a relief that it's finally over.
Things calmed down eventually, and the trials for General Atsarute's hand in marriage had been renewed. As predicted, several more suitors than normal had come, but very few could find themselves get past the prerequisite trials. These trials had been meticulously designed by both Aikanefi, who wanted nothing less than the perfect husband for her daughter, and Atsarute, who simply disliked the institution of marriage all together. When going through these trials, which seemed to Piccolo to be a mix of the Labors of Hercules and the entrance exams for a high-profile school, he remembered Atsarute's joke from months ago that she had considered having no pulse being a test, but she feared that the undead would start to enter. He had before chuckled at this thought, thinking it ironic when many had considered her undead not long ago. Now, he'd prefer such a test to these unusual games and esoteric questions.
In fact, there seemed to have been only three to pass the trials well enough to do the battle with Atsarute. Piccolo frowned at Kenturion and Sanatoasu.
"I find it interesting that you're in this when the plan was to get Sanatoasu to marry her, Kenturion."
The prince frowned back at him. "I could say the same thing to you, but there seems to have been a change of plans…"
"A change of plans?" Piccolo's brow rose. "How?"
"I told Atsarute about what we were going to do," Sanatoasu began with a sigh, "She wasn't very happy about it, and said that blocking marriage with marriage was an imbecilic idea. In fact, she said that she'd do whatever was in her power to thwart it. So, I told Kenturion to come as well, to have more backing in case she does something too drastic."
"And I wasn't contacted about this?" Piccolo returned, his scowl getting that much deeper.
"Well, I guess it doesn't matter, now," Sanatoasu replied with a shrug, "You are here, even though we didn't tell you."
Piccolo was fully prepared to loudly retort that the two were conspiring to get Atsarute for themselves with this move when someone else entered the room. The three of them whirled around from their argument to see the Queen Aikanefi coming towards them in the chamber.
She stopped before them and looked the three down for a few moments, an unimpressed frown on her face as she inspected them without a word. Finally, she huffed and shook her head. "Only three pass out of so many, and, when I should be able to expect the highest quality suitors to survive from this elimination, I get these! A pompous prince, an over-celebrated lord, and a disrespectful Namek!"
Piccolo frowned at the insult. "What did I do?"
Sanatoasu sighed. "She just gets it into her head to hate people. Once, she lured me into a box and trapped me, then threw the box into a black hole."
"What?" Piccolo blinked. "That's damn harsh. How did she lure you into the box anyway?"
"I, uhh, don't want to talk about it…"
Kenturion answered for him. "She put a thimble in the box."
"A thimble?"
"I… uhh… collect them…"
"By the gods, Kenturion's right. You are naïve."
Aikanefi didn't seem to enjoy being ignored by the likes of these men, and she shouted for their attention again. "This is what I mean by disrespect! All three of you are so inflated by your positions that you lack any manners whatsoever!"
"Cool down your insults, Mother," another voice called, "As it so happens, I'm not marrying any of them."
Atsarute had now entered the room, looking to be in a foul mood as she glared at all about her, seeming as if every creature nearby was performing a heinous crime by simply breathing in her presence. A large, luminous yellow belt with a red star in the center encircled her waist, gaudy and unlike the rest of her more somber dress. The court minstrels rose to begin a fanfare for her arrival, but she quickly barked an order and they quickly, nervously sat back down, fidgeting with their trumpets.
The woman was known to be surly, but not with such spiteful temperament as she now exhibited in her mere demeanor, so the queen was easy to pick up upon her daughter's unusual attitude. "What has put you into such an anger, Atsarute?"
She sneered. "I just lost in one-on-one combat."
A silence charged into the room. The queen, obviously shaken, asked first, formally, "Umm… who has beaten my daughter alone on this day… so that I might know their name for the next generation?"
Atsarute shook her head. "It's not like that, Mother. This wasn't a battle for marriage. I was simply having a fight of goodwill with someone and lost." She hissed the last word and her frown deepened. "Damn, that Son Goku… I didn't imagine that he'd be able to surpass me like that…And so suddenly."
A smile crept across Piccolo's face. Son did it again… he beat another almost impossibly strong person in battle. Damn him and his strength, he thought, the beginnings of a chuckle in his throat.
"Then… why do you announce that you will not be marrying any of these men?" Her mother was quick to the point. "The trials demand that you must fight them before that can be announced, and they have not entered the battle stage yet."
"Not if I'm excluded from the institutions of marriage, Mother."
"But you are not excluded! You are well of age for marriage and your not yet married, so you are still eligible!"
A little bit of smugness and victory managed to come into Atsarute. "In order to strengthen alliances with the Namekku-sei-jin, I have made an agreement with Katatsu. I have assumed the position of one who guards an artifact of their people. This position is usually held by men, but the laws for it does not exclude women or foreigners. It does, however, require the protector to not be bound in an institution of marriage." She allowed a brief grin to grace her lips. "In other words, I've dodged the matrimonial bullet, Mother."
As Atsarute had explained this, the queen seemed to be in shock, but by the time she had finished, Aikanefi was pulling out of it and working herself into a fury, and immediately burst into a shout. "You do such subversive things to avoid marriage? How long will you wait until you bring grandchildren to secure the seat that I now reserve for you! And why have you not discussed this with me before? Where is Katatsu? I must speak with him and his vulgarity in this matter!"
"He's in the castle, along with Resuma." As if on cue, there was a distant explosion and a slight rumble in the ground. "They're… discussing the matter as we speak. Resuma didn't seem pleased with his involvement, either."
Aikanefi stormed off in the direction of the explosion, still hissing scorn and abuse, so furious that she didn't even notice that some of her sarashi-like wrapping and unraveled slightly and was now trailing behind her, making her appear even more disheveled in her anger. Atsarute seemed amused slightly by her mother's loss of patience, but the grin fell away and she looked at the three men before her. "Well, what are the three of you standing around for? You've got no reason to be here any more! The marriage trials have been canceled!"
The three of them would have all wished to yell at her in turn for their various frustrations, not the least of which including the work they had put in to pass the other trials to get to this final point. But, seeing that Atsarute was in a volatile state herself, swallowed their disdainfulness and found themselves spouting more diplomatic words before excusing themselves from her presence. Even Sanatoasu, who knew that he could best Atsarute in battle, found himself unwilling to press her too far this time. He knew from experience that she wasn't the most pleasant of company when she was defeated, and now she seemed to have something else bugging her on top of that. They might call him naïve, but he knew a short fuse when he saw one.
But Piccolo had not fully exited the chamber when Atsarute left through another door, and his curiosity got the best of him. After all, he had been beaten by Son Goku himself, and he never had been able to climb and hold power over him again. If nothing else, he could offer a spot of convergence on the matter and use that to shield himself from whatever other angers she might have had. He followed her out the chamber and up the staircase and into a sitting room.
She sat down upon a reclining couch and clasped her hands between her knees, leaning forward with a derisive grin on her face. "If I hadn't watched the recording of your defeat by Son Goku, I would not have allowed you to follow. But, of course, you knew that, otherwise you wouldn't have attempted." She gave a scoff. "At least I have the luxury to know that my defeat will not be so publicized."
"Son Goku has that ability to surpass you when you never thought it possible," he returned with a grin just as spiteful. "But what else bothers you? You weren't this unapproachable after I saw you defeated by Sanatoasu. I doubt you would have snapped at your mother even then."
"I might've, if only for amusement," she replied and stretched out on the couch. For a moment, he remembered Jin Uotsuka, lounging upon the couch in the old apartment, as she was wont to do years ago. The inclination passed as quickly as it came, however, and he did not linger on the thought.
"I guess these is something else bothering me," she answered, then worked out a kink in her shoulder as she lay on the cushions, "I've been in a weird… eh, I guess you could call it a 'funk', ever since I saw Suraku's fiancée this morning."
"Didn't like her?"
"No, she was, eh, nice enough, and pretty enough, I guess…" Atsarute frowned. "I can't really explain it. When I first met her, I was just a bit proud for Suraku, you know? I knew he was old enough to get married, so I really just thought I should be happy for him. And I was… I still am. But, something… When they started talking to each other, something they said made me feel… well…suddenly old. That's the only way I could put it."
Piccolo chuckled. "Nevermind that you'll live for many years to come."
"It's more complicated than that," she retorted with a grimace, "Or maybe it's not. It's hard to explain, damnit."
He decided to let the subject drop. "And the artifact that you agreed to protect for my grandfather? What is it?"
"I'm wearing it."
He raised a brow, then looked squarely on the belt. "That thing? You agreed to watch that? What is it?"
She smirked. "You really don't know?"
"All I know is it appears to be an absurd champion belt… and it looks terrible on you."
"You of all people don't recognize it?" She said again, a laugh coming into her. "I would have thought… you being in the royal family, connected to a set on Earth, and resurrected with a set on Namekku-sei. But maybe you're fooled into thinking that they must be spherical in shape."
Piccolo blink, and it took him several moments to digest the implication. "You're wearing a dragonball! It's a belt shaped dragonball!"
"Bingo." She winked. "This is the one-star ball from Katatsu's set. He had the foresight and skill to make the balls into different shapes… making them much more difficult to find, you see. Especially when they turn to stone… One's made into the shape of a bowl, as I recall. Probably in some unassuming antique shop on Katatsu-sei at this moment, under an old doll and covered with dust."
"And, to protect them with knowledge, you must be unmarried?"
"That's the rule. Not sure why, to be honest, but I agreed to it. As I understand it, you can still have bindings and even children, just not marriage. It probably has something to do with protection from greedy in-laws, but I'm not about to question it when that restriction actually grants me a freedom."
"You certainly dislike the idea of marriage."
"What can I say?" She smiled. "The very concept of commitment scares me shitless."
"Says the woman with the responsibility of an entire army."
"Meh, if they were such a responsibility, I wouldn't be thinking of a long vacation and leaving command in the hands of my officers for a while." Atsa seemed to have enough of reclining on the couch and sat erect, working out stiffness in her neck and shoulders again for a moment before rising to her feet. "But I do have to put some preparations before I leave. Not many… most of the big work has already been done. By the way, I think your protégée and his girl had just come in through the Three Twenty-Two. They're waiting upstairs in the ambassador area we made in the room beside the device. Something about some news to give you." She laughed and went to leave. "I'll bet you'll feel old by the end of the day, too."
"Unlikely," he said with a shake of his head, "but one last question."
She looked over her shoulder, as if annoyed, but she did not bother to hide her growing mirth. "Insufferable. Speak your question quickly, Namek, before I drag you before your elders and gut you."
"You're not forbidden to have children? So, do you plan on dismissing your promise to your brother again?"
She turned from him, looking ahead and out the door, but she spoke her answer. "I can have children and not put myself in the danger that my brother fears for me." She tapped the dragonball around her waist. "It just so happens, this thing makes wonderful armor, and it quite easily covers my ovaries."
He smiled and did not ask the obvious question to follow that, knowing that what she'd already answered had already satisfied the thought, and he didn't stop her from leaving this time, alone in the room for long moments, contemplating what kind of future this promised and remembering how it lead up to this.
Gohan and Videl were waiting, though, and he had to curb his thoughts. He had plenty of time to think of such things later. He still hadn't memorized the layout of the castle to know where the Three Twenty-Two was immediately, so he picked up their ki and went through the corridors, being careful not to get himself lost in the halls along the way. He was able to make out their voices long before he reached the doorway, but didn't stop his advance until almost right outside the door. They were currently having a discussion that seemed about two steps away from a full-blown argument, and he didn't have any wish to intrude on such matters.
"I can afford a place easily, Gohan," Videl huffed, looking away from him, "I just don't feel like I can live in Satan City with my father for any longer. He knows that I'm not his little girl anymore, but he still tries to lay down rules on me. I think I should live… alone for a while."
"But, with Goten getting older, and the house getting more crowded since Otou-san's lived with us again, I've already been making myself a place nearby for myself… one to hold my books and such. I don't have a lot of furniture yet, but you know that I'll have room. I can sleep on the couch, and you could have the bedroom; or the other way around if you like. Until I get another bed."
"I… can't impose on you. Besides, I need to live alone for a while… make sure that I'm ready to live with a boy, you know?"
Gohan pursed his lips. "I'd rather you were with me. You've been trying to avoid me lately, and I want to know—"
"Is that why you've brought me here to see Piccolo? Do you think that just because he's a big, green alien that has a lot of power in another world that I'll listen to what he says for you?"
"No, but he is pretty wise, and I've always respected him as much as my—"
"Yes, I know! You respect him as much as your O-tou-san! I've heard you say it again and again, among other things, and all I can think about is getting some space! You're nice and everything, but it can be too much, and you won't force me to live with you!"
He was silent for a long while. "I can, and not through force. I actually have the solution… I have it in the form of a ring in my pocket."
Her eyes widened. "That… you actually have a…" A thick blush seized her face and she looked to the ground shyly. "To be so upfront and brash about something like that… and you haven't even been hinting around it before. You're usually careful and transparent in these kinds of things…" Her eyes rose to find his again. "Why, without any warning? It's so unlike you to be so sudden."
Piccolo knew Gohan's next words so well as if they had come out of his own mouth.
"Maybe I just want to do something out of character."
The Namek shook his head and walked away from the door, shutting his ears to Videl's subsequent gasps of overwhelmed and confused joy, suddenly feeling quite old.
That was The End, my friends. It's finally over. The three-part epic is finally done. Anything else that I might do would be prequels. But I'm not extending this story of Atsarute and Piccolo anymore. A long wait for an ending, I know, but it's an ending.
Sayonara.