Intertwined Destinies
DISCLAIMER: I don't own DBZ or Elfen Lied.
CHAPTER 8: Teenage Lusts
Gohan had never experienced a more uncomfortable night in his life. After chasing after Yuka, to try and explain somehow, to try and get a chance to tell his side of the story and make sense out of everything that had happened, the fiery girl retreated into her bedroom, slammed the door shut, and hadn't come out for the entire night. And now the Saiyan hybrid was left all alone with his penitent thoughts.
Damn it! he thought angrily. Why does all of this have to be so... so complicated? He sighed as he entertained a notion he had been toying with since she caught him. Perhaps they'd all just be happier if I left. I'll leave Goten here with Yuka and Kouta and he can have the normal life that I want him to have; the normal life I wish I could have had.
However, before he could ponder more on this idea...
"What are you doing?" a strong feminine voice asked him.
Gohan turned to find Yuka standing there, a stack of towels folded neatly in her arms, and Gohan practically drooped from the sadness as he realized he had let her down, betrayed her confidence, and taken advantage of the kindness she and Kouta had shown toward him.
"Nothing," Gohan said, shaking his head.
Yuka could instantly sense that that was a lie, and deep down, she wanted to get closer, to find out what was bothering him, even though Yuka had the sneaking suspicion that it was due to her actions. Once she'd locked herself in her room last night she had spent hours tossing and turning with nothing to do but reflect on everything she had said. And she finally came to realize that she was wrong, she had taken her frustration with the situation with Kouta, Nyuu, and her own feelings of shameful attraction to Gohan out on him, and she knew she shouldn't have done that. But what could she say?
"How are... how are you feeling?" Yuka asked tentatively.
Gohan sighed, rubbing at his forehead wearily. "I don't know, to be honest."
Yuka squirmed embarrassedly inside at the thought that she had caused the boy in front of her pain, no matter how small. Deciding to take the bull by the horns, Yuka set the towels down and and sat down next to Gohan. An awkward silence descended over the two, and for a couple of minutes, neither said anything, but the deeply uncomfortable moment seemed to be stretching deeper and deeper like a bottomless chasm, and Yuka was hard-pressed to know how to deal with that.
Finally, in a small, cautious voice, Gohan said, "I'll leave if that's what you really want."
Startled, Yuka turned to face him. "What do you mean?"
Being this close to him, she could see Gohan was trembling and she felt a renewed surge of intense guilt and shame at seeing him looking like this. The formerly strong self-assured young man he was before now seemed to be almost like a child, small, scared, helpless, seeking reassurance, and Yuka reminded herself now that apart from Goten, Gohan was alone in this world, no parents, no home, nothing besides the kindness of strangers to help him get past, and she felt a strong wave of pity overtake her at the tailed boy's plight, and her problems from before all suddenly felt so worthless, so petty and meaningless.
"I'm sorry," Gohan said, now looking absolutely crushed under the weight of sorrow and despair. "I know I let you down, and if it wasn't for you, me and Goten would be living rough on the street now. Damn it, I hate this! I know I wasn't thinking and I'm sorry if I'd hurt you in any way, Yuka. But don't worry, I'll make it easy on you. I'll just leave quietly. I'm a burden to you all anyway. My only request is for you to take Goten-chan in, to try and love him and give him the home which he deserves. Please don't let my actions interfere in his happiness."
Gohan's words, spoken so calmly and matter-of-factly but filled with tons of self-loathing, tore at Yuka's heart, and now she felt even more guilty than she had a minute ago. No matter what her troubles were, no matter what he'd done, she had still taken him in, and she couldn't just let him leave to bear the brunt of it all by himself. She couldn't.
"G-Gohan, listen to me," Yuka said, her voice emotional.
Gohan jumped, startled. He had noticed the change in tone too, and when he glanced up, it looked like Yuka was going to cry! And now the brown-haired girl spoke softly to him, her voice rough with emotions as she laid her heart to bear for him to see.
"Gohan, I'm sorry," Yuka said, and Gohan was utterly stunned by it. Yuka was apologizing to him? "I know I can be tough and demanding at times, but I... I-I've never been like this. I'm not cruel and mean. At least, I don't think so. But I wasn't until last night. There's a lot on my mind and I'm going through a lot of issues in my life, but I know now that I was wrong to take them all out on you. You're not the one who should be sorry, I am. I hardly even know you, and yet, I can feel you're a good person, and I'm sorry for having treated you so badly."
And upon hearing her heartfelt confession, Gohan reached out and tenderly patted her on the shoulder. Yuka glanced back up and to her complete surprise, she saw Gohan smiling! A genuine, honest smile.
"Aw, hey, that's okay," Gohan said earnestly. "You don't have to be sorry, Yuka-san. I was acting a bit like an idiot, but it's all right. Let's forget the whole thing really happened and move on with our lives."
Yuka felt a smile tug at the corners of her lips, and as she sat there, staring into Gohan's deep, soulful charcoal eyes, she felt like she had known him all her life, an old friend who had come back to visit her.
"Thank you... Gohan-kun," she said.
Gohan was floored. Yuka, a girl he'd known only two days, now referring to him by such an intimate title? And, not for the first time, Gohan found himself mesmerized by the gentle curves of Yuka's heart-shaped face, those strong-but-tender chestnut-brown pupils, the way the sunlight now filtering in from the nearby windows hit the Japanese girl at just the right angle to give her a beautiful glow that seemed to shine from within and spread out through her body, highlighting every aspect of her smooth, porcelain peach skin, that full bosom, and her oh-so-adorable figure...
She's gorgeous, Gohan thought.
"Thank you, Yuka-chan," Gohan said as he stared deep into her eyes.
Yuka, for her part, found herself to be getting lost within those clear, innocent, simply joyful charcoal-hued eyes. It was like they contained all the happiness and purity and good, noble decency which had ever existed in the world and wrapped them all up together in one package — a genuine nice boy, who cared for life and everything around him. And not for the first time, Yuka also focused on how adorable that tail was — something truly special and unique which she had never seen before in her entire life but how it seemed to be such an integral part of Gohan and who he was as she longed to reach out and touch it...
He's very cute, Yuka thought with a faint blush appearing on her cheeks.
"Gohan?" Yuka ventured tentatively, sounding more like a child than a full-fledged independent woman.
"Yes?" Gohan asked, wondering what on Earth could be behind this sudden change in a girl he thought he knew well.
What's bothering her? the Saiyan hybrid thought, tilting his head to the side in his puzzlement. What's on her mind? Maybe... maybe, it's something I can help her with to make up for my behavior the past few days.
"Do you ever think about touching my breasts too?" Yuka said plaintively. "The way you did with Nyuu?"
Why the hell did I just say that? Yuka seethed inside. What about Kouta... Kouta... Kouta...
But she knew it was pointless to resist it; a burning fire had ignited within her chest, and she couldn't fight it, and someplace down in the furthest recesses of her soul, Yuka knew she didn't want to fight it.
And Gohan just sat there, now feeling completely flabbergasted. He hadn't expected such a bold, blunt question coming from this normally circumspect woman! And yet, deep down within his heart, something had taken hold of him as his body seemed to once again be acting out of its own accord and he felt himself speaking the words that were in his soul instead of what he thought was appropriate.
"Only... all the time," Gohan confessed honestly as faint tears slowly shimmered in his eyes, so certain was he that he was going to alienate Yuka now, but he just didn't have the heart to lie about this anymore. "And not just your breasts... but your face... your hips... your legs and your butt too. Nyuu... N-N-Nyuu may be an exotic beauty, but you're the classic beauty and any man would be stupid not to notice you."
Words could not adequately describe how Yuka felt in that moment. Flattered was the closest she could think of, but even that flimsy word couldn't do justice to the emotions Yuka was feeling there. For a long time, the pretty brunette had been lusting after Kouta hoping he would be the one paying her such beautiful compliments, but instead, it was the tailed young man in front of her, but unlike she had before, now Yuka felt no confusion, no regrets, only a wonderful emotion billowing up in her like a warm updraft of hot air. Never before had the strong and independent woman felt so... so loved. So beautiful and attractive and all because of someone she had not expected to care for but felt herself doing anyway.
Slowly, ever so slowly, as though testing out the waters, unable to control her body's actions but beyond caring about it anymore, Yuka inched ever so closer to Gohan, caught up in the tidal wave of pure happiness that the messy-haired boy had given her.
Catching sight of what Yuka was doing, Gohan moved forward, very slowly, as though he sought the same thing she wanted but a second later, he glanced down, clearly wondering if he should proceed, and Yuka's answer was to gently place her finger underneath his chin and tenderly lift his head back up, so that he was facing her. As Yuka's lips descended closer, something passed between them; it was as though they both were connected together into one mind and in the oceans of each other's eyes the two saw all the love and passion and happiness that they ever felt before in their lives, calling to them, beckoning to them, urging them to consummate their growing, changing bond with one another as, finally, in a fiery explosion of emotions, sensations, and passion, their lips met.
And in that single, wonderful, long, breathtaking, eternity-spanning second that their lips finally touched one another, there were no more doubts, no more fears, no more guilt or petty worries, it was just the two of them, and this moment shared between two people now joined together into into one, and instantly all the barriers between the two were gone, and it was like they were no more Yuka and Gohan than a person was separate from their own arms, as without having to hear her even speak it, Gohan immediately knew what this sensational girl in front of him really wanted as he slid his arms around her waist as their tongues battled furiously for control within the two mouths.
"Hmmm..." Gohan moaned through the kiss. "Hmmmmm..."
Seizing the initiative, Yuka wrapped her arms around Gohan's neck while she nibbled tenderly on his lower lip. This close to Yuka, Gohan could smell the sweet aromas of her lovely perfume, enticing him to even greater levels of passion as he burned a path of fire through her mouth, sucking eagerly on her full, succulent lips, as their silk, linen tongues touched one another in a furious, wild display of passion and longing unfulfilled.
As one, Gohan let his body fall back with the outrageously gorgeous brunette guiding him to the floor, as she tightened her hold around his neck. Bodies aching, their hearts were racing, blood was burning, and it still yet was not enough, they wanted more, they wanted each other, what deep down inside their soul and bodies they knew their instincts were telling them to do, spurring them, urging them on, directing them, instincts buried beneath layers of lies, deceits, and the image most people saw them as, but here, now, there was only this moment, and the two of them, and no else in the world existed but these two parts now linked together into one whole.
Responding to the primal smells now coming off the girl before him, Gohan reached his hands down and slid them over the clothed, mushy mounds of flesh that was Yuka's behind amid loud giggles while she intensified their kiss as the two thrashed about like wild animals.
"I want you..." Yuka moaned.
"Ohhhhh, Yuka..." Gohan called longingly.
His moan was like a siren's call to her while Yuka now pressed her crotch up against his leg, stirring a thousand flames of fiery love all throughout his body as he slipped his hand beneath her sundress, grasping one of her buttocks within his palm as he cupped it gently, teasing it, caressing it, and he squeezed it firmly between his fingers, pulling forth even more fevered moans of frenzied passion from the beautiful brunette locked in his embrace.
With one swift fluid motion, Gohan reached out with his other hand, undoing the strap that held her sundress up as with trembling fingers Gohan now laid purchase upon the tender, springy, warmly yielding fleshy rump of her bare left breast while Yuka groaned, hungry, aching, burning, starving for more; hearing Yuka's pleas unspoken, Gohan gently clasped his hand around the mound of skin, caressing it, tickling it and teasing it while his fingers worked across the sensitive areas, aerola, nipple, all her folds, running them over the smooth silk velvet of flesh, massaging it beneath his grasp as Yuka perked up in reply, equal portions lust and love now burning with a fierce intensity throughout her emotionally charged, sexually overstimulated body.
Deepening the kiss between them, Gohan squeezed Yuka's two most private, intimate zones with renewed vigor as Yuka slid her leg around his own, now rubbing her groin area back and forth over Gohan's leg, the grinding friction blazing a searing trail of love between their nether regions, strengthening the furious wild desire which had so suddenly overcome the two teens.
"Gohan..." Yuka giggled, as she kicked her shoes off, ready to take it to the next level...
When, instantly, without warning and totally unwanted to the two teens now burning for release, for an escape from their lives and all the problems they were facing, hard reality chose this moment to come banging on their front door.
"NII-CHAN!" a loud voice cried from nearby. "ONEE-CHAN!"
Instantly, Yuka scrambled away from the boy that she'd almost given herself to as the wild, hypnotic, sensual wavelength which the two had been connected by was now irrevocably broken; the frenzied, burning wave of passion which had so suddenly consumed came crashing down as the two youths wildly, desperately, quickly tried to regain their wits and their sense of dignity and humility for appearance's sake as both knew with total, complete certainty that they just could not be seen in this fashion by anyone else who was currently residing in that house.
"G-G-Goten-chan..." Gohan stammered as he forced himself into an upright position to try to somehow make it appear that what had just been going on mere seconds away was really not what it seemed to be.
"Wh-Wh-What are you doing here?!" Yuka demanded, trying to calm the beating of her thundering heart, and keenly aware of how hot and flushed her body was and also how messy and straggly her normally well-groomed hair had to appear.
Please don't ask anything, please don't ask anything, please don't ask anything... Yuka prayed to the heavens above.
She might as well have tried to stop a tornado bare-handed.
"Hey, why do you guys look so messy and embarrassed?" Goten inquired.
Gohan could have kicked himself... hard — only mere minutes after reconciling with Yuka over losing his control, not once, but twice, and he had to go and do the same thing which he had promised himself he would not do all over again for the third time, and not only that, with the very woman who had spotted him the first two times!
Oh God, what does Yuka think of me now? he moaned inside his head. I won't blame her if she doesn't ever want to speak to me again.
"J-J-J-J-Just never mind, G-G-Goten-chan," Gohan said, stammering like Yuka was.
"I-I-It's not important... just forget about it," Yuka said in a clearer, stronger voice as she turned to face the tailed child, attempting to get her hair straightened up, so it wasn't sticking out every which way.
Goten just stared innocently at the two for a while, as though he were trying to see if they were lying, then he pointed towards Yuka.
"Hey, Onee-chan, what is that?" he chirped curiously.
Gohan and Yuka both looked into the direction Goten had indicated, and to their horror, both saw the strap of her sundress which had been loosened, leaving Yuka's bare breast now flopping from her clothes.
"Nothing!" Yuka yelped in mortification as she turned her back on the little boy, doing her best to get it back within her shirt.
"Are those your breasts, Onee-chan?" Goten inquired innocently.
"Never mind, never mind, never mind..." Yuka said, now completely embarrassed to find herself in such an awkward situation.
How could I have let this happen to me? she raged inside her head. Gohan-kun made me weak in the knees... why? Why does he have to be so damn handsome and cute and utterly insatiable, and... no, no, STOP THAT! Stop it right now, Yuka! You... You can't be falling in love with the wrong man! You can't... you just can't... you can't be, Yuka. You... you gave your heart to somebody else... and he... he promised me. He'll remember. He has to. If you ask him, he'll remember. Yes, that's it. Just ask him. Surely those happy times meant something to him, something more, strong enough to build a relationship with...
"They look much bigger than Mommy's," Goten went on.
Gohan gritted his teeth in frustration... the force of which could have leveled mountains. How could I have been so damn stupid? he berated himself severely. Goten doesn't need to know about this stuff, and he never would have if you'd just kept your feelings to yourself! You have bigger concerns than falling in love. You have a duty to your brother. He's all that's left of your family.
"Goten, just forget it!" Gohan said, his voice coming out much more hoarsely than usual from a combination of guilt, rage, and pent-up lust that had been brewing since he'd seen Nyuu naked the night before.
"Hm, okay!" Goten said with a rather casual, carefree shrug.
Yuka sighed as she realized that her panties were now completely soaked wet from — I... I just can't believe it, Yuka thought, shocked beyond all belief. Gohan... Gohan actually made me cum a little... The brown-haired girl sighed. Looks like I'll need to change clothes now.
"Goten, why are you here?" Gohan demanded of his sibling.
"Oh yeah!" Goten said as he remembered his entire reason behind seeking them. "Kouta-san is sick!"
"What?" Yuka piped up, now totally forgetting her embarrassment in the face of such news.
"Yuka-chan, we need to go see him!" Gohan said he rose up into a standing position. "Right now!"
And with that, the Saiyan hybrid took off down the hallway towards Kouta's room.
"Wait, Gohan-kun!" Yuka protested, as she weakly rose to her feet, chasing after the half-Saiyan teen at a very slow rate of speed due to her ruffled clothes and her wet undergarments. "Slow down! Wait!"
Further down the hallway Gohan burst into Kouta's room to see the human boy laying sprawled out within his futon. He briefly noticed that Nyuu was kneeling close to him, looking miserable, and there seemed to be an assortment of odd items in the room, but then the half-Saiyan shrugged, dismissing it as something unimportant — at the moment, attending to Kouta was the more pressing matter.
"Kouta-san, what's wrong?" Gohan asked as he knelt down next to the teenage youth.
"Water!" Nyuu squealed nearby. "Water, Water!"
Gohan looked at her in confusion. "What's she talking about, Kouta-san?"
"Nothing, just forget it," Kouta murmured. "Boy, I'm burning up..."
"Nyuu, Nyuu!" the pink-haired girl shared, jumping up and down with a sad but thoughtful frown upon her face; it was as though she wanted to help them out, but could not figure out the correct way in which to interact with the people she now found herself stuck with.
Gohan ignored her and turned to his baby brother. "Goten-chan, please get Kouta-san a glass of water, now."
Goten nodded very cheerfully. "Okay, whatever you say, Nii-chan!"
He sped out of the room, narrowly missing the tall brunette who followed Gohan inside a few seconds later.
"Kouta-kun, what's wrong?" she asked, now really worried about her cousin.
"Yuka-chan, Kouta-san is really ill," Gohan informed the beautiful woman.
Kouta blinked twice, wondering if he had really heard Gohan refer to his cousin by a very intimate title, as a powerful wave of... something welled up inside him, hot and burning, like a volcano, yet he also felt something deeper, too... but, what was it? It made him want to reach forward, grab Gohan, and warn him to stay away from... and then it finally hit him.
I'm jealous, he thought in complete amazement. Angry and hurt and confused and... and jealous! But why? Why should I be jealous?
Now sidling up next to Gohan, Yuka laid a cool hand across Kouta's forehead that ignited an even more intense, hot, burning sensation in the boy's body... something he suspected didn't have to do with his fever, and he wriggled underneath her ministrations.
"You're really sick," she said, now definitely worried for her cousin. "You should go to the hospital."
"Please, I'm not going to a hospital," Kouta objected weakly.
At that moment, Goten returned, carrying a glass of water in hand.
"But why, Kouta-san?" Gohan demanded. "If you're really sick, going to the hospital will make you feel better."
"Yes, you should listen to Gohan-kun," Yuka added, glancing at the tailed boy.
And the use of the intimate title used to refer to Gohan by his cousin had Kouta's blood burning and his body tightening.
"Well, I'm sorry if I'm not the perfect man you think I should be," Kouta said in a low tone.
"But... but, Kouta-san, why —?" Gohan wondered.
"I said I'm not going!" Kouta yelled.
Now shocked at Kouta's loss of control, Yuka and Gohan glanced around the room as Goten handed Kouta his glass of water, where they noticed a ton of miscellaneous items scattered in the room; umbrellas, a sandal, toilet paper, random kitchen instruments like spoons, knives, forks, articles of clothes, and so on and so forth.
"Kouta...what's all that stuff?" Yuka asked uncertainly. "Were you unpacking or something?"
"Yuka," Kouta began, now in a softer, gentle tone. "I'm sorry."
Yuka and Gohan turned back to face the bedridden boy.
"What are you talking about?" Yuka inquired.
"I said I'm sorry," Kouta said miserably. "I'm sorry for yelling at you two. I'm sorry that you're stuck here with me. I know you're unhappy, Yuka-chan. I... I can feel it and I'm... I'm sorry... I'm sure you have better things to do with your time than tend to your sick cousin..."
Yuka laid a soft hand across Kouta's chest. "No, please don't say such things, Kouta-kun! I don't mind it! Really!"
Goten nodded excitedly. "Yes, you don't have to worry! We're your friends, Kouta-san!"
"Thank you," Kouta breathed.
Yuka smiled tenderly down at the still youth, hoping to try to reclaim one of the beautiful moments they share as children. Should I ask him now? No, no, he's so sick... it would be wrong... but if I don't do this now, I'm never gonna be brave enough again. Okay, here goes!
"Hey, Kouta..." Yuka said tentatively.
"Huh, what?" Kouta asked, turning his head back up.
"Do you remember that day at the festival... eight years ago?" she prompted.
"Huh?" Kouta said. "Sorry, but... I don't really remember much about those days..."
And now Yuka's countenance changed within an instant as the fiery brunette smacked Kouta's chest.
"Ouch!" Kouta complained, rubbing the sore spot. "Hey, what do you think you're doing?!"
Hearing him say that was just too much for the pent-up girl; eight years... eight goddamn years she had spent waiting for him, longing for him, waiting for him to come in and reenter her life and sweep her off her feet, and not only was that not coming true, not only were all the feelings and lusts she had sought from him being now satisfied by a stranger, a boy she barely knew, but he didn't even remember those times? He had forgotten?! Did they really mean so little to him that he could treat her like this, like a common rag to throw off to the side?
"YOU'RE AN IDIOT!" she yelled at the top of her lungs as she jumped her feet, turned on her heel, and left the room.
A couple seconds later, they heard the door slamming.
"Um... what just happened?" Goten asked, blinking in confusion.
"I'm... just as lost as you are, Goten-chan," Gohan said, feeling just like his brother.
"Nyuu...?" Nyuu purred from nearby, staring at the people around her as though they were aliens. "Nyuu? Nyuu!"
Gohan sighed and looked down to face his younger brother. "Did you take your bath yet?"
Goten shook his head. "Uh-uh! I want you to give me a bath, just like old times, Nii-chan! Please? Pleeeeeeeeeeaaaaaase?"
And he stared up at his big brother with the biggest, most adorable puppy dog eyes which were practically guaranteed to get people to do what they sought of them every single time that they were used on someone.
"Well, okay, I suppose so," Gohan allowed with a gently soft smile.
"YAAAAAAAAAY!" Goten cried. "Thank you, thank you, thank you, Nii-chan!"
Gohan chuckled while he turned back to face the bedridden Kouta.
"Are you going to be all right on your own, Kouta-san?" Gohan asked him.
Kouta, however, was now distracted by what he had seen. It was obvious that, for as mysterious as the two tailed boys were to Kouta and Yuka, that they clearly were brothers; in fact, he hadn't seen such a strong bond since... since... since Kanae-chan and himself, and he now felt himself reminiscing helplessly on days long past...
Two kids, a boy and a girl, splashed around in their bath together.
"Watch me, Onii-chan!" Kanae squealed happily as she dove beneath the sudsy surface of the water.
A few seconds later, she popped back up, now sopping wet as the happy little girl gazed lovingly at her older brother.
"Yeah, that's nothing, look how long I can manage!" Kouta said as he, too, dove underneath the soapy water.
Seconds passed, which soon turned into minutes, and Kanae was starting to get worried.
"Onii-chan!" she called. "Onii-chan, are you all right?!"
Still Kouta wasn't surfacing, and now Kanae was starting to get very frantic.
"ONII-CHAN!" she screamed. "ONII-CHAN!"
And Kouta now burst up in a splash of foam, bubbles, and water spraying everywhere, laughing.
"Hahaha, scared you, huh?" he said, sticking his tongue out at her.
"Ohhhhh... you!" Kanae said angrily as she stuck her hands under the water and threw a huge splash of water at Kouta.
Instantly, Kouta found himself being drenched by the excess water. Blinking there for a couple minutes, he suddenly got a devious smirk on his face as he reached below the water and splashed toward his little sister too.
"No, come on, that's not fair!" Kanae squealed as he got her even more wet than she already was.
"All's fair in love and war!" Kouta teased as he continued splashing his sister.
And with a mischievous grin, Kanae pointed to the side. "Look over there, Onii-chan!"
And hook, line, and sinker, Kouta fell for it as Kanae now unleashed a massive surge of water on her helpless brother.
"Aww, hey, you tricked me!" Kouta protested, sounding annoyed.
"All's fair in love and war!" Kanae said as threw his own words back in his face.
"That does it!" Kouta said as he now splashed bucketfuls of water at Kanae...
Kouta sighed, feeling his mind slowly drift to memories he held deep within his own subconscious...
Kanae-chan... he thought, melancholy. Has it really been that long? he asked himself.
Wanting to recall more of his deceased little sister Kouta's thoughts grew foggier as he slowly fought, struggled, and clawed his way to try and draw more memories from his forgotten childhood back into his mind.
It was eight years ago... he realized. Kanae and father... they both died back then...
Suddenly...
An explosion of blood and guts, spraying red everywhere as far as the eye could see, as a single, hoarse whisper could be heard...
"You liar..."
Kouta whimpered as he felt his mind suppressing the memory he'd just now managed to retrieve from his subconscious... and the world surrounding him grew hazy and stained with darkness as he felt his body shudder from the sheer efforts of trying not to remember what deep down in his heart... he knew he should not be trying to recall.
"Kouta-san?" a voice suddenly broke in on his thoughts. "Kouta-san! Are you all right?"
Kouta felt himself return to his environment with a jerk of his body.
"What?" he said, blinking rapidly to keep up with what was happening around him. "No, no, I'm fine."
"Are you sure you're gonna be all right down here?" Gohan pressed.
"Yeah, you looked kind out of it for a moment," Goten agreed.
Kouta gave a weak laugh. "I'll be fine with Nyuu here to keep me company."
"Nyuu!" the horned girl shared cheerfully.
"Okay," Gohan said as he took Goten's hand and led the boy upstairs. "We'll return in a half-hour."
Kouta sighed as he laid his head back on the pillow with only one thought now in his head to guide him through his illness.
Kanae-chan, I'm sorry.
As he was leading Goten to their bathroom, Gohan felt a little better than he had thirty minutes ago; trying to sort out his feelings for both Yuka and Nyuu was a really hard thing to do and it made the Saiyan hybrid feel so confused. But now, in this moment, there was only him and Goten, and he'd always greatly enjoyed the time which they spent together. With enough concentration and by just attending the needs of his little brother, he could put all the concerns and worries and thoughts of the future out of his head and focus on something which had always made him happy; family bonding with Goten, who was just so like his father in appearance and personality that it made Gohan's heart ache sometimes.
This is the way it should be, he thought. No distractions, no confusing feelings, just me and my little brother. He is all I have left.
Just then, he heard something coming from the other room.
"... estimates say that there are perhaps sixty or seventy people still trapped in the burning building," someone said in an official voice that sounded a lot like a TV news castor. "All exits are blocked by the fire, and firefighters are hard-pressed to deal with the situation..."
Gohan blinked as he stuck his head around the corner, glancing in to look at the TV someone left on.
The set showed images of a building on fire with people running around screaming as the firefighters desperately tried to contain the blazing inferno, and prevent it from spreading to other buildings nearby.
Gohan could only stare in horror at what he was seeing. On the one hand, he just wanted to have a normal life for once and getting himself involved in firefighting and crime-fighting operations could seriously put a damper on that.
But on the other...
So many innocent people are gonna die there, he thought. Innocent people that I could have saved... people I had the power to keep from dying... and if I have the power to act, but don't ever use it, then I'm just as guilty as everyone else with the power to make the world much better than it is, but don't ever act on it, and there is already way too much suffering and lost lives as it is right now. The black-haired boy shook himself. Come on, Gohan, do you really need to think about it? It's obvious what your choice is now — I mean what would Dad do?
Well, when the voice of his conscience put it like that then what else could he do?
Suddenly, he felt Goten tugging at his sleeve, and he turned to glance into the charcoal eyes of his younger brother.
"Hey, Nii-chan, are we gonna take a bath now?" Goten whined, like the little boy he was.
Gohan smiled tightly down at the perfect carbon copy of Goku.
"Sure thing, little man," he said, ruffling his hair. "Just go up to the bathroom and I'll be there in a few minutes, okay?"
"All right!" Goten chirped happily as he flew up the stairs with the exuberance and energy of youth.
Gohan chuckled after him, and then shut his eyes as he focused his thoughts inward. For several minutes, the half-Saiyan just stood there in the entrance hall, glowing with power in a very familiar technique, with the sweat breaking out all across his body and the air around him shimmering from the sheer intensity as finally another, identical copy to Gohan split from his body, turning to face his doppelganger.
"You know what to do," the first one said to the second one.
"Yes," the other Gohan said. "I'll go under the alias of the Gold Fighter. I doubt people have forgotten about him so soon."
"Better change your clothes first," the first copy told him. "That way, no one will recognize you."
"Good idea," the second Gohan said. "I'll go right now."
The second Gohan raced up the stairs as up above he heard Goten calling. "Nii-chan, are you coming?"
"Yeah, be right there, Gohan!" the first Gohan said as he headed back up the stairs now.
And the two Gohans set about their separate business for the day; one, to spend some time with his little brother.
The other, into the fray to save the citizens of Kamakura.
Just like back home.
"... and then that brat did something freaky with his hair!" Private Takenouchi growled. "It stuck up and turned golden as hundreds of electric sparks surrounded his body, and you could feel the power coming off him."
The two fallen soldiers — Sergeant Bando and Private Takenouchi — were still being treated in the Diclonius facility's infirmary. Just twenty minutes ago, Dr. Minamino reported that he had finally been able to stabilize Takenouchi, although Sergeant Bando was still in very critical condition and he wasn't sure if he'd ever be able to walk again. Chief Kurama had taken the news in stride and headed down to the medical lab to interrogate Takenouchi; as he spoke Sergeant Bando could be seen to the side, heavily drugged as Dr. Minamino worked on him.
"Interesting," Kurama said, writing the information Takenouchi had revealed down on a notepad. "And he had a tail, you say?"
Takenouchi spat. "Yes, motherfucking freak! You guys are the experts here. Was that thing a Diclonius?"
"Possibly, yes," Kurama allowed tentatively. "But please, continue."
"Well, realizing what I was fighting, I began blasting away at the goddamn beast!" Takenouchi swore. "All of them were heavy rounds too, tungsten bullets — they had always fucking worked on those mutants before!"
"But not this time?" Kurama inquired.
"No," Takenouchi said, gritting his teeth against the pain the SAT soldier still felt even now. "Somehow, he caught them all faster than the eye could follow! I didn't even see him catch them until the fucking freak opened up his fists and let all those bullets drop to the ground. That goddamn brat was mocking me!"
"Calm yourself," Kurama intoned coldly. "You'll accomplish nothing with this attitude."
"Damn little brat..." Takenouchi muttered as he trailed off into a string of foul curses.
"Good," Kurama said, straightening his spectacles. "What happened then?"
"Sergeant Bando shot at the Diclonius girl to try and distract him," Takenouchi continued. "But that damn boy just sped over to her and knocked her to the ground before she could get hit. Then he tried shooting him again, but he caught all the bullets with his tail."
"Interesting, very interesting," Kurama mused as he scribbled on his notepad. "Go on, please."
"That's when that damned freak got up, and hit Bando right in the chest," Takenouchi said. "I don't know what he did, but Bando went down like a ton of bricks — that, however, was when I'd found our rocket launcher, and I fired a shot directly at the monkey."
"And what did he do?" Kurama asked.
"He used some kind of wall of force to propel the rocket launcher back at me," Takenouchi growled. "I couldn't get away in time."
"So that was how you'd sustained those injuries," Kurama noted. He finished jotting the information down on his notepad and glanced up at the helpless soldier now confined to a sick bed. "And... is this all you have to say? Nothing further to add?"
Takenouchi shook his head. "Nothing I can think of."
Rising smoothly and silently from his chair, Kurama said, "Call me if you think of something else."
And then he left the infirmary, leaving a very pensive and furious Takenouchi behind...
Once he'd exited the infirmary, he ran into Shirakawa.
"The golden-haired hero has appeared again!" she said breathlessly; from the way she was holding herself over, it was clear she had run to deliver him this truly important news. "The TV says he helped to put out a fire and he's going around Kamakura helping out the police."
"Obviously, this must be further investigated," Kurama said with his customary emotionless tone. "But we cannot afford mistakes from this venture; if the boy is indeed a new breed of Diclonius, he is a highly lethal and cunning specimen."
Shirakawa glanced up. "What do you mean, Chief Kurama?"
Kurama adjusted his glasses. "I've come from interrogating Private Takenouchi and I have the feeling the boy is far more formidable than we first suspected him to be. He has super strength, super speed, he can catch bullets in the blink of an eye, and he is capable of deflecting rocket-propelled missiles with ease. Those are substantially stronger feats than anything the Diclonii are capable of. But the fact that he was near the Queen is telling. Perhaps we looking at the king of their race; while the females have horns, this boy has a monkey's tail — perhaps the same as other male Diclonius."
Shirakawa's eyes widened behind her own spectacles. "The Director must be informed of this right away."
Kurama nodded. "Good. Go tell him. Meanwhile, I must attend to Number Seven now and prep her for combat."
And Shirakawa watched him go with trepidation. Is the Gold Fighter really the King Diclonius? I hope not. The Queen herself has given us so much trouble over the years. Imagine if she had the power this boy apparently does. She shivered at the thought, imagining whole cities being laid to waste. We can't afford to be careless with this. Too many lives have been lost due to reckless mistakes already. She shook her head. First things first, I must inform the Director.
And she turned on her heel and sped off.