A/N: Enjoyed reading all your guy's reviews, so thanks for those! And glad jblockk that you like the Juunanagou inclusion since he will be in plenty of other stories.
Also, feel free to submit prompt ideas readers, since I could always use more of those.
And I feel I have to add that I have roughly 154 more prompts in varying degrees of completeness so there's plenty of more stories coming.
'Trying hard to fit among you, floating out to wonderland,
Unprotected, god I'm pregnant, damn the consequence.
Watch my temper, I go mental, I'll try to be gentle.
When I grow up, I'll be stable, when I grown up, I'll turn the tables.'
When I Grow Up, Garbage
101. Twin
"No, this is excellent, you dope. Didn't you hear her, that guy's her twin brother!"
Juuhachigou's increasingly angry face had killed off any joy that statement might have brought, regardless of Yamcha's enthused shout.
And now, fourteen months after her outburst, Krillin could safely say that even if Juunanagou was her brother instead of her lover, it didn't help much. Instead of imagining them in a lover's embrace, (an image that now made him shudder in revulsion) he now saw Juunanagou whispered in his sister's ear, her seated in perhaps a gold throne and boredly tapping her fingers on the arms, "Really, the midget one?"
She might not have deferred to him, but he had her ear and could influence her decisions. If he wanted to win Juuhachigou's heart, then he would at least need to have Juunanagou not rip his head off.
As little as he knew about Juuhachigou, he knew less about her brother. So when he finally, finally found them after searching and scouring the globe,
He'd brought a gun for Juunanagou, remembering the small laser pistol on his hip (why did he have extra bullets for it?), and a small gold necklace that he'd bought, thinking of his earlier girlfriend's love of jewelry. Krillin hadn't stopped sweating since he'd bought it, not knowing if Juuhachigou would see it as some romantic gesture, and not knowing if he wanted her to.
But, as he stared into a smiling, roughly hewn face that had opened the door, he hadn't realized that Juurokugou have been resurrected, and living with them as well. Behind the large man, he heard scuffling and saw Juuhachigou and Juunanagou rolling around, pinching and punching and pulling on each other's hair. Furniture, homely and already well scratched, tumbled over.
With a polite 'please excuse me,' Juurokugou turned around and yelled at them, sharply, then went to pull Juuhachigou off her brother after they ignored him. She tore a fistful of her 'little bastard' brother's shirt, and managed in a good kick to his face before being thrown across the room.
"Serves you right," Juunanagou yelled, coughing, before Juurokugou scooped him up and threw him into a backroom with a yelp from the smaller man.
And now, as the giant android came back and offered tea and making tiny talk, Krillin had a brief image of Juuhachigou, still seated in a decadent hall fit for a queen, only with Juurokugou bending down to whisper, "Really, he's not so bad."
102. Music
Everyone behind him began either to moan in fear, frustration and anger as soon as it was his turn. Which wasn't entirely fair, since none of them could sing. Surely, maybe Bulma could belt out a mournful, saucy theme song from ten years ago, but she was one in a herd of dying cats. So, really why should they complain when he stepped onto the stage
Krillin searched for the right song, one that would sum up anything he felt. She would smile and laugh, and not take it seriously, but maybe later…There had to be something in this catalogue. A thousand songs were at his fingertips with a press of a button, and he could fully reveal how he felt for the cyborg woman who had been roped into being in this bar after they spotted her entering the mall.
Juuhachigou was looking up at him. He nearly dropped his microphone; where had she come from? "Don't you dare," she mouthed. Her perfect mouth whispered threats and warnings.
His finger pressed down on the button.
103. Cross-dresser
Bulma was truly a horrible, horrible woman.
They all had known that, deep down. But never before was that such a prominent description. It was like Goku being an alien, or Chi-Chi being the daughter of a king who had horns, or Krillin not having a nose, or (she liked to think) her being a cyborg. Vegeta was excluded: he didn't let them forget anything. When reminded, they would shrug and say 'It didn't really come up,' or something similar.
Juuhachigou and Chi-Chi stared at her, awed and terrified.
Vegeta never had a chance, and when he met the cyborg's eye, she knew that he would have traded years off his life to be back at Gero's lab, being beaten into the dirt by her. A broken arm, a mocking smile, being knocked into his son, all by a woman that was his own height as well as much slimmer. And who made a better blonde. But what was any of that, compared to the state he was in now?
Pink was also an unfortunate color for him.
They were not drunk enough for this, and both the women took a deep sip of their wine while Bulma cackled. She turned to them, a gleam in her blue eyes.
"Now, you." With one heeled foot, she kicked open the mysterious trunk she'd brought out earlier, unexplained. Ruffles spilled out.
There was a brief second of inhaling from the others in the room, oh please, no, please, no.
Chi-Chi reached for the blue dress. "This will look good with your skin tone, Goku."
A darling black little number called out to her. Her grin must have been even worse than Bulma's, at least, to Krillin who went white at the sight of holding up the night dress. His eyes pleaded with her. What had he done to upset her so? Wasn't he a good husband? A good man?
Yes, she wanted to tell him, but that is irrelevant. How could she resist this opportunity?
"Are there shoes to go with this?"
And Krillin struck out with the only defense he had. "If you want us in that, you have to at least do the same and wear our clothes."
104. The future
Sometime, perhaps after finding a grey hair on Krillin's head during a sparring match, Juuhachigou found herself thinking about the future. It was all well and good to dismiss her brother's parting shot, "He'll be dead before you age a year," when all the hair on his head was black and youthful. But, even though he sometimes had the sense of humor as a juvenile, Krillin would get older. There would be a day when the grey hairs outnumbered the black ones.
Not just him, but what of Marron. The tiny thing that still sometimes crept into their bed for comfort or warm milk, or to yank at their hair. She would one day grow old as well.
While he slept, she found herself staying up all night, until the room turned golden with the streaming light that meant she could leave the bed without anyone worrying. Sometimes, she would press her head against his back or chest, just to hear his heartbeat. Then she would slip out of the room to check on her daughter.
Instead of finding peace, Juuhachigou found herself playing movies of them from earlier times. Peaceful times that would last only in her head that she was destined to spent the rest of her time on Earth, playing over and over again. Stuck in her own private hell, unable to let go of them because what would be left without them. A certain kind of hell that was experiencing now, with them still alive and young.
This is what your life will be like without them.
Eventually, Krillin woke up to her wide-eyed and listening to his breathing.
"Juuhachi? What, what are you doing?" He stared at her, his hair an absolute mess. The round, dear face that she loved even if she would never admit it to said face loomed above. So mortal. The android sighed into his chest. The sun would be up in a soon hours.
"Juuhachigou? You okay?"
Gero might have ruined her life, if inadvertently setting her down a path that would allow her to find a real life and reason to live. He had made her unaging, eternal, old facts that swam around her head and turned day to day life into a parody of normalcy. How could she act like nothing was wrong?
"Krillin. One day, you're going to die. Again. Permanently."
"Um. Okay. Right, right now? Is this because I left the dishes to soak?"
"No, Krillin. It's because you're not an android."
"Uuuuh. Okay." He fell back into the mattress. She caressed his stomach, this body she loved, had and would love, that would grow old and fall apart.
"You and Marron and all your friends will die. But I'll keep going on."
A purgatory she could never have imagined when first being awoken by the doctor.
"All of them. Even that troll. And his screeching wife. And-"
Screeching scientist wife. A sudden epiphany came to her.
"Juu? Huh? You still awake?"
Juuhachigou smiled in the dark at her husband. "I know what to do now."
"Wha?"
"I love you Krillin."
"What?"
"After you and Marron die, I'll just deactivate myself. Or blow myself up. Or have Bulma, if she's still alive, create some virus or device to kill me. She was able to create that remote control, afterall. Her, or maybe Trunks."
"What, what? What? That's horrible! C'mon, we're not going to just croak like that. Hey. It's okay."
"Yes. We still have many years together. All of us. I will appreciate that time. Especially in knowing that I won't be damned to spend years without you both."
"Jeez. That's so morbid. I never really thought much about growing old. And you not aging."
With that in mind, a plan, she found her eyes slowly closing. A peace came over her. Juuhachigou felt herself falling into the bed besides her husband, knowing that she was going to have the first good night's sleep in a week. His fingers found their way to touch her hair, stroke her forehead. In the morning, her daughter would be tiny and still struggling with fixing her shoelaces. Maybe tomorrow or the next day, she would get it and grow a little older. Krillin would make breakfast, teasing her with the 'Kiss the Chief' Apron he'd wear, and they might spent the afternoon in their bedroom making love or putting their recently cleaned laundry away or finally cleaning under the bed. Her husband would get grey hair and wrinkles. And Juuhachigou could accept that without any terror.
"Wow. I guess we are going to die one day. Permanently. Together. Or I guess I'll go first. Then Marron. Then you'll follow us. When we're both old.
"God. God. Damn."
And now Krillin stayed awake, watching the sun slowly rise while she slept contently, smiling into the pillow for what the future would bring.
105. Switch
A little voice whispered in his ear, if this was Juuhachigou, 'you would have thrown that remote away in an instant.'
No! Of course not! I would have…I would have…
But he didn't know, and maybe it didn't matter. Juuhachigou was not before him. His stomach twisted at the thought. Poor Juuhachigou. A wave of hatred for the green-skinned monster not far away rushed through him. She hadn't stood a chance against that creature.
He tortured himself with images of her being absorbed, stabbed with Cell's tail and slowly drained of life force. Her reaching out for help, towards her companions or even for the so-called heroes of Earth to stop this…
But they had failed and now, there was someone else hiding her instead.
Instead of a lovely, perhaps caring, if deep down, woman who had just had a terrible life with little choices before her. But deserving of so much more. Instead of a woman who he thought he was at least infatuated with, who he couldn't stop thinking about and reflecting on, who he couldn't get out of his head and couldn't stop focusing on just because of a small peck on his cheek. One that was almost certainly mocking, but in his defense, it was a nice kiss.
Instead of her, it was her boyfriend.
He stole another glance at his 'prey,' the dark hair; tan handsome features that even now in his torn clothing were still proud and arrogant. Story of Krillin's life that of course Juuhachigou would go for this guy. He'd tried not to think about it, since didn't Juuhachigou kiss him in front of the guy? But maybe that was part of their relationship? She could kiss other guys, and he could kiss other girls.
Or maybe the kiss was nothing more than mocking?
They probably laughed about it later, as they went about doing their nefarious deeds and harming people. But that was probably all Juunanagou's idea.
…It wasn't any of his business. He had to press this button, and shut the android down. Then blow him up, destroy that haughty face, burn the man that made wearing a handkerchief frightening, the guy who had managed to win the heart of the most amazing woman Krillin had ever seen.
Because if he didn't, the world would be destroyed.
The short man saw Juunanagou's face blessedly blank and silent, falling down to be at Krillin's (his nemesis) feet. The big guy wouldn't be able to stop him.
Then he saw Juuhachigou. After all this was through, wouldn't they wish back all the people who Cell had killed? And so Juuhachigou would come back. And she…she wouldn't be happy with the weak midget that had killed her boyfriend.
But he had to press the button. The entire world was at stake, more than a blonde homicidal maniac with a charming smile. He saw himself, holding a globe of the planet that weighed more than any turtle shell ever had in one hand, and the other arm wrapped around Juuhachigou's waist. She winked, and he felt himself leaning more towards her, his grip on the globe slipping.
Now it seemed like he was stuck in some sort of half-assed ("That was a half-assed shot.") love triangle with two people who didn't give a damn about him. Was it even a triangle? Did the sharks realize that there were bottom feeding fish stuck to their sides?
Could he use this remote? If Juuhachigou was innocent, then wasn't her boyfriend? He didn't even start a fight, just sort of lightly beat the others into submission when they disregarded his earlier comment about staying out of the fight. All three had been willing to go after Goku, Juuhachigou as well. In a way, he was even more innocent than Juuhachigou. She at least had egged Vegeta on and then sorely wounded him.
Juunanagou was just as much as a victim as she was. He as a product of a madman's insane design, just a once innocent teenage boy that now had Kami only knew what mechanical parts and wires.
He saw Juuhachigou leaning towards him, face angelic, expression teasing in its sincerity.
You know what has to be done.
You have to be calm and steady and do the right thing.
Forget about her, she's just an android!
He looked at Juunanagou's unnaturally calm face, just barely noticing the slightest sheen of sweat on his high forehead.
What did she see in him?
106. Open Door
Later, staring at her brother passed out in a pile of discarded popcorn, dressed only in his underwear and scarf, a brief flash of her memory came to her.
It was nothing important, or meaningful. Just the Son house, clothes scattered around a small plain bedroom, tables upturned, and looking at herself in a broken mirror inlaid in a half-closed door that led to the closet. But it was not the old-fashioned dress that stuck out in her mind; it was the shards of glass and an old superstition.
Behind her, on the TV, there were still humans chanting, counting down even though the two people in this tiny apartment were already done and finished.
Seven years of bad luck?
Juuhachigou stared at her still unconscious brother, at the cheese popcorn staining him, and thought, six more to go.
107. Car Wreck
Juunanagou was smirking again. Determined once again not to screw up, and more importantly, not to look in her brother's direction again, she turned back to the road.
Her hands did not shake. It was simply the vibration of the car. And as to why she wouldn't let Juunanagou turn the radio on, well, it wasn't a distraction that might cause her to drive into oncoming traffic, killing both themselves and the pedestrians that dotted the sidewalks of the crowded street. He just had bad taste in music.
She was a fine driver. Much better than him, no matter how much he showed off with being able to use the turn signal with one flick of a wrist, and swiftly turning rather than waiting until the cars behind them honked.
He had no right to smile as she cursed and tried to remember which pedal was the brake.
Juuhachigou looked at her feet, trying to make out the one on the left. It was the one on the left right? She pressed on the right one, and the car sped forward.
Not that one then. The blonde woman stared back down. Left then? Or, did she have to do something with the parking break. She had put it into the right place, right? And the car was in drive, right?
"Juuhachigou!" Her brother suddenly shrieked, "Stop!"
She hit the right pedal.
A body slammed onto the hood of the car.
It wasn't even a jaywalker. He'd been riding a bike, which probably meant he was into the environment, and a good one, which meant that he was a yuppie with a lot of money and could sue her. He even used the crosswalk. He turned his head, and despite the fact that there was a person plastered to her car, she breathed a sigh of relief. The man was still alive.
The bike rider was looking at her, dazed and uncomprehending. Juuhachigou saw him on the stand, the crutches besides him, '"I was just riding my bike, and she sped up to hit me!"'
Juunanagou was opening the door.
'"And her brother pulled me off the car, to shove me into the street, and then they drove off!"'
The jurors, appalled, would look at Juuhachigou and Juunanagou at their defendant table, both dressed in their nicest clothes, trying to look as respectable as possible. Clearly a mistake had been made; look at their clean shiny hair, no way were they capable of such a thing. "Don't look at them," their lawyer would advise.
Her brother was peeling him from the hood. "Are you okay?"
"What do you think?" His voice was as pained as it was nasally. He was at least six inches shorter than her twin. His shirt was tight, revealing gym muscles and a healthy diet, and, to her further horror, was emblazoned with the Capsule Corp design, a C in a circle. And an imprint of a turtle across the stomach, diagonally, which meant nothing to her, but probably wasn't a good thing.
…Was he missing his nose? Surely, surely it had been like that before she hit him, right? It wasn't possible to dent someone's face bad enough to make his nose becoming inverted, now, was it?
"Hey," Juunanagou patted his back, already too friendly. "Aren't you on Team Kame, the bicycle team?"
And he was a professional rich athlete, and now his career was over because of her. Which is exactly what he would tell the judge, the jurors, the witnesses, as tears ran down his round face from round eyes. '"I had a wonderful life ahead of me, before Juuhachigou decided to go racing down the street without a care."'
Juuhachigou pulled at the parking brake, while behind them cars honked and beeped and someone rear-ended another car.
108. Incomplete
Her brother was her other half. They had no only been designed to be one full unit, one whole person, but they had been born that way. Sharing a forgotten mother's womb and a missing childhood together and then an unknown amount of time together in Gero's lab. Now, as adults, they shared a home, and their bond had never been closer.
When she reached for the sugar, he would scoot the creamer she would use next towards her. He gave her space when she wanted it, and laughter when she needed it. His distractions and cruel remarks helped keep her sane.
Without him, Juuhachigou was lost.
Even their appearance was complimentary, tan where she was fair, dark where she was light. Although, Krillin assured her solemnly, she was the prettier one.
There was the crack in their perfection.
It not only had a name, but a face with a shock of dark hair that matched its eyes.
In this, she noticed she was different from her twin as well. He only seemed to see the humans as lesser beasts, and that was right in some way, but…she had a hard time saying that Krillin was lesser in some way than her brother. In what way was he lesser, besides strength, and maybe height?
Surely, her brother was more important to her.
No logic would exactly explain why and how she found herself seeking and spending her time with Krillin, laughing and moving closer to him. Keeping close to the small human, even as he blushed and pulled back. That when she imagined herself in the future, it always involved Krillin rather than her brother at her side.
It was her brother that was more important to her, wasn't it?
109. Weapons
The first thing out of their foster father, the man who had helped raise them, who had brought them up from small children to adults, was "Look on my works, ye mighty, and despair." Then he shook his head, grief written on his worn face. Unlike the last time, he did not rage and slam a fist against a wall before grabbing one of their strung out friends/acquaintances/other foster family members and throwing them either out or in a bedroom to yell at later.
'You know what those two are like! What are you doing, allowing this to go on?'
The Taco Bell wrapped crunched underfoot.
Now he looked at his two brightest, the two he had always expected the most from, the ones he had wanted to succeed more than anything else in the world. He gazed down at them from a great height, with disgust.
"Look at what thou has wrought." The large, grey-skinned man giggled and shook everyone on the couch with him.
"Shut up, Juuyon," Gero barked, stepping around a beer can filled with ashes.
Besides him, Juuhachigou looked at the old man with blurry eyes. Her dirty boots were resting on the coffee table that was already scuffed and tattooed with condensation circles from glasses and mugs and cans put down without a coaster. A pet peeve that drove Gero insane. She was blinking slowly, trying to decide whether or not this was actually happening in reality, or was just another hallucination that would drive her to hitting Juusangou with a bong and screaming that he was not her real father.
You could read the thoughts going through his head clearly. His disappointment, his sorrow. Where had he gone wrong? Had it been the horseback lessons, the lacrosse camp, the tutors that had spent hours filling these heads with different languages and advanced mathematics and Emily Dickinson?
Juunanagou was literally wearing a ratty shirt that said 'Fuck You' across the chest. He sunk further into the couch, almost glaring at his foster father. He was not so far gone not to see the posturing, the rebellion and aimless self-destruction meant nothing. At eighteen and about to be shipped off to college, the world was his oyster and all that. Anyone who didn't like his actions could suck it, and all that.
'When everything that ticked has stopped. And space stares all around. And…fuck.'
Still though, he hated his foster father. And rules put into place just to make little men feel more important always rankled at him. Who was this bastard standing before him whom taken him and his sister away from their parents, and what gave him the right to dictate laws that they had to follow? But he couldn't make them not throw parties when he turned his back and left town for another conference. He couldn't stop them from shoving whatever they wanted up their noses, or smoking whatever could be rolled up. Or sneaking out at night and seeing whomever they wanted.
Gero still hadn't said anything besides his initial disownment. Before, he would have locked the twins in the room with the bars on the windows and the six locks on the outside of the door, crying out that they made him do this. And why, why couldn't they just be good. He looked at the twins, both now glaring at him with hatred, asking wordlessly, what the hell did he plan on doing now? They glared at each other over the passed out, strung out people on the floor, the scuffed coffee table, the plumes of smoke and bass from the stereo system still hanging in the air.
'Without a chance, or spar, Or even a report of land. To justify despair.'
Yet that was nothing compared to what he would do if he knew they'd been spending time with a certain group of individuals that they were supposed to one day concoct the downfall of. Especially the little shrimp best friend of the man they were in particular supposed to harm. Juunanagou leaned further back, smirking. Raised a rolled cigarette and inhaled deeply with a restrained cough that made his foster father shake his head and leave the room. Victory.
But he just kind of hoped that Gero found the coke laid out on the bathroom counter.
110. Alive
With bleary eyes, Krillin watched Juuhachigou do a double-take. Then she nodded, jaw set and eyes steely.
The short man just stared at her, disinterested. Would she kill him, or make love to him? His dreams followed a pattern that only made him feel worse. Juuhachigou was often there, hurt or vengeful or pleased, and occasionally so was Goku's blonde, green-eyed smile before he disappeared. Followed always by that sense of nothing, a hole in their lives although they didn't quite realize it, as soon as Goku left them all and took Cell with him. They battled it out: the last moments of his best friend's life on earth, and the murderous woman he loved coming back to him.
This time though, she just circled the bed, eyeing him. Krillin yawned and rolled over, wishing his dreams weren't so vivid. He didn't want to see her sooty eyelashes so clearly or the light eyes that penetrated everything their gaze was laid on. His dreams seemed to be mocked him, showing him what he couldn't have, or what he couldn't change. Or was there no difference?
Juuhachigou tore back the sheets.
Her grip on his shoulders made him sigh and wait for the hand to bury itself in his chest. It was only after she dragged him merciless into the bathroom and threw him into the pitiless freezing shower. Krillin sat there, leaning partially against the tiled walls, until she came back and dragged him outside. His roommates watched, their mouths wide open, except for Master Roshi who appeared unsurprised behind his magazine.
If the shower was cold, it was nothing compared to outside the small pink house. Grey clouds were on forever overhead, and the water was dark. Sand crunched underfoot, making his head ache further. His clothes clung to him, simultaneously too heavy and too thin.
Juuhachigou pushed him, and he nearly fell over. "Fly."
He was ninety percent sure this wasn't a dream. But why else would she be here, touching him.
"Fly."
Krillin cleared his throat, and Juuhachigou's instinctive blow to his stomach tore out his breath.
"Fly."
"Why?"
Her next punch he was able to clumsily dodge, but the kick forced him to his knees. Juuhachigou loomed overhead, her eyes matching the color of the overcast sky. "Fly."
"I can't."
She grabbed him, pulling on his shirt so hard water dripped from beneath her fingers. Krillin could barely make out her clothes, something black and blue and white, while she flew and dragged him with her onto the roof. The roof he'd fixed and improved, during those three years while they waited for her and her twin to come kill them all. Juuhachigou let go, and he fell again to bruise his knees. "Fly."
"No!" He coughed, tasting blood. "What's wrong with you?"
"I could ask you the same. You're the one lying around like a corpse that needed to be buried. And," something malicious crept into her voice. "If no one else is going to do it, I will."
When she slammed her foot into his side strong enough to send him flying, watching the roof fly over him as he fell, he now saw that she was wearing boots. His back screamed when it hit the ground, and once there was a time when such a thing would have just made him jump up, laughing. Krillin laid there a moment in the sand, wondering what had happened to that man. Had he died along with Goku, or after? Or before?
He saw the boots again as she landed in front of him, and she lifted his chin on the toe of it. She was wearing a denim skirt not unlike the one she'd worn when they'd first met. The angle he was at made his eyes widen.
"I just need to make a grave now."
The sudden light burning from her hand made him flinch. He couldn't sense her at all. Krillin managed to roll to the side, his back yelling, as he narrowly avoided the blast. Then another, another, another, until he was up and dodging, a whisper of his old strength coming back to him. Wisps of his clothes and hair burned, and Juuhachigou looked pleased.
"What's wrong with you?"
When she came to him, in a split second, to stand over him, he understood that her earlier punches and kicks and blasts had been child's play. Her fight with Vegeta, at a level he couldn't match in a hundred years, had only been a playful sparring session to her. Now she would take off the kid gloves
Juuhachigou grabbed him by his ears, which were red and stinging from the cold. She pulled him up close, and whispering, "Now are you going to fly?"
"No," Krillin panted.
She grabbed his arm, and dragged him around the island. "You look like a girl with that hair. You look like my brother."
"Better than being bald."
His longish hair flopped into his forehead, and Juuhachigou laughed as she pulled him along further. "What, can't you fly?"
"Of course I can." His chest burned red-hot and stifling. Her grip never loosened.
He'd never felt the wind pulling at his hair, like fingers. It was nice.
"Then do it."
Ki burned through him, reminding him of his strength, and of Goku whom he'd never been able to beat. What was the point? Power up, fly, what for? Juuhachigou grabbed a hank of his hair, and reminded him of why he'd shaved it in the first place. She shook him.
Swinging at her was instinct and nothing more. Her grin was quick, pulling up the corners of her mouth and eyes. When he had still felt something, it might have made him happy. Her freezing hands wrapped around his biceps, and he managed to shove his fingers into the pressure points in her arms before his fingers went numb. If that was just his body defending itself, the kick to her legs that she blocked was something more.
"Aw," her voice was sickeningly sweet. "Are you crying? Are you sad because your big ape friend died?"
"You-" Then she drove a fist into his side, his stomach, his face, again and again.
Juuhachigou was laughing, and the sky above spilled water on his face. The rain was colder than his tears. "Do you think being sad will bring him back? Do you think if you're really sad, really pathetic and spend the rest of your life wishing you'd died instead, he'll come back?"
Krillin dodged left and right and left. "What do you care? You wanted to kill Goku."
She came at him, a black and white blur. "I still do."
His fingers dug into her clothes, pulling and yanking to get a grip. Damn her, damn her. "Then why do you care! Why are you hear, what do you want from me?"
Juuhachigou slipped away with a purr of ripped fabric. She laughed again, turning around. "Because I heard you died again and wanted to see your body."
Krillin threw another punch as the water began to blur his vision. "Well, I'm not dead."
"No, you're not."
111. Internet
Yamcha pleaded with him to turn the machine off, to walk away and go into public. "You can't find someone normal, and sane, to date? Someone real that won't try to scam and/or kill you?"
Krillin saw his reflection in the computer screen. "No."
His old friend stared at his hands on the keyboard, then back at him. At his absurd purple polo shirt and matching shorts and boat shoes. "I don't think you're going to find anyone this way."
The short man spent hours working on his profile. Going to tourist places with a camera and taking pictures in nice clothes. Made a few funny, harmless paragraphs telling about himself, and what he wanted in a partner.
He got a few replies, much to his amazement. Some of them were even from women. Some were even pretty, and seemingly sane. One in particular caught his eye. She was lovely, blonde, single and interested in a 'nice guy with a good attitude and a sense of humor.' What was Krillin, if not that? He emailed her back.
'Do you have any more pictures?'
'Sure.'
'Anything…revealing?'
And when he sent her a picture of himself shirtless and posing, ridiculously, she continued to contact him. She, Juuhachigou (a lovely, unusual name), only sent more dazzling pictures that didn't seem to be photoshopped at all. Then she wanted to meet him.
Her apartment was small, and hidden away in a dank part of town. Juuhachigou had said she was an artist, so he just chalked it up to that. Any time he grew a little daunted, sliding between crumbling buildings, he just recalled that pic of her in a tank top, or that cute denim skirt. None of his friends would ever believe she would even exist, so he didn't dare tell anyone.
If someone slid out from behind the falling-down fences and rotting boards and abandoned cars to hurt him, he might never be found.
Arriving at what he thought was the right address, Krillin knocked politely. The houses around there were faded and tired, but this one in particular was worn out. Windows broken, no welcome mat, door gouged, cracked and peeling paint. Music, something harder than he would ever have listened to, full of screaming guitars and a man roaring about how he was going to destroy someone. He could be slaughtered right here; no one would never know.
He knocked again with an unfeeling hand. All the neighbors were inside with the windows drawn. A tan, attractive young woman opened the door.
Krillin stared at her. "Did you dye your hair?"
She stared at him, definitely dark-haired and a little colder than her pictures had implied. A little flatter and more masculine as well, but still quite pretty. Her sudden, curiously wicked smile made Krillin blush, although he didn't know why. Juuhachigou turned back around, leaving the door open and allowing him to see the inside of the house. There were paints and stretched canvasses, and a roommate that looked exactly like her, except blonde. The right one?
"Juuhachigou?"
She stared at him, blonde and a match to the other woman. Except this was definitely the right one- Definitely not flatter. Her eyes flashed toward the flowers in his sweaty grip.
A temple bulged. She turned on heel, furiously clutching the door in one white knuckled hand. "Juunanagou!
"Did you put in another personal ad for me?"
112. Homesick
Krillin kept fussing, moving uncomfortable to the bed he thought was too soft to the couch that was too hard and back to the desk seat that was the worst of all for his back. The back that somehow started developing an ache as soon as they'd left. He picked up the phone again, before seeing the time and realizing how early or late it was on the other side of the planet. Then he would look at the clock, back at the phone, back at the clock. Weighing things. It tired her, just watching.
They'd only been there for a day, and rather than resting downstairs with a cup of cocoa besides her on the comfortable couch, or just passed out next to her before the minibar, he'd just paced the room and called home repeatedly. Her husband was really doing his best to ruin the mood.
"Do you think Marron's okay?"
Juuhachigou gazed outside the window, eyes dreamy. Snow. Lovely pale white, white snow with not a palm tree in sight. Not that she hated their tiny island. But she couldn't deny that after nearly a decade on it, it lost a little charm. The change in location wasn't all that made her smile, though; watching the skiers fall down had her smiling at their prostate forms, knowing she would never strap a board to her foot and slide down a mountain that way.
"Do you think she misses us?"
A molten core of a planet separated them from his friends. A thought she clutched like her daughter did a doll.
"I wonder if she learned how to color in the lines since we're been gone. Or how to hold a crayon."
All she wanted to do was lie on the bed and sleep in to ten. Without anyone trying to tunnel through the walls or install a camera in the smoke detector, or a crying child to wake her. No one to shake her away with a whine that their daughter was hungry, and oh they were out of diapers and also there were no clean bottles. Or hear a low thumb of a tiny motor, and wake up to a drill narrowly missing her head and a frightened snort as she grabbed and crushed the drill with one hand and one eye still shut.
What she wanted was just to nap with fear or shame. And she would do this, damn everyone, she would do that. Even if she got accusing stares for reaching towards the minibar's drinks.
Krillin just needed to relax.
Downstairs, when she finally dragged him down nursing an overpriced domestic beer, they ran into some of her least favorite people. Well, one of them. Bulma she didn't mind in small doses, and Trunks was potty trained and no longer teething. The short, spiky man besides the smiling two however, made her shoulders dropped and a frown settled on her once excited face.
He and Bulma were wearing matching sweaters, but even that didn't cheer her up.
Trunks began weeping into her shoulder. Krillin carefully his arms him up, after Bulma tossed her son into him. Then she pulled the blonde woman into her grasp. "So what's the first stop?"
Vegeta's frown was worse than hers.
Then it fully hit her. A week with these three, an entire week. At least on Kame Island, they were relatively left alone. There was no one that they knew here, and nowhere to escape besides a small hotel room. Snow on all sides, stretching out forever. Not unlike a desert, only one that would freeze anyone that tried to trek it.
This time, when they fall into their room, sore and covered in melting snow that trickled down their backs (a result of Vegeta really enjoying playing Snowball Fight against Krillin, and then Juuhachigou, and then Bulma and Trunks; it was the only time she'd seen him genuinely smile, and it was as horrifying as she'd expected), Juuhachigou was the one to reach for the phone for a chance to listen to her daughter chattering in her half-understood infant language. Nod and clutch the phone, tell me more about Rossi and Mistah Piggy.
She would listen very carefully to it all, and even deal with the old man's perverted remarks over the couple's 'honeymoon' for the chance to hear the ocean rolling onto the white, white beach.
113. Virtuous
Juuhachigou's jaw was set, and the hand holding her daughter's was clammy. Who would take care of Marron? Would someone watch her?
Marron was of course no warrior, but would they allow her to go to her father? She was an innocent little girl, and they would never allow her to join her mother in hell. When the time came, as more people ahead drifted away in line, she would hug her daughter and tell her that she loved her, and to look for her father.
Juuhachigou had never regretted more of her past than now. Her daughter was too young to understand, a blessing and a curse. How would she explain any of this to a child that only recently learned to run without falling? 'Mommy did some bad things, and now they're taking me away from you.'
'Mommy was hurt by a bad man, and now she has to leave you alone.'
After all they'd been through, being chased by a pink man with holes in his arms and collarbone, grinning horribly and exuding the smell of violence and death even a small child could pick up one. And then her father had thrown himself at this creature to give his wife and daughter time enough to escape. Which they weren't even able to do. At least she had shielded her baby from most of that, but of course she was partially aware of what was happening on some level (didn't all the books say that kids picked up on things?).
She would probably always remember being held by her frantic mother as they were chased, hearing her mother yell her father's name in desperation. After all that Juuhachigou had done to shield Marron from the perverts at home, now there was this. Another sign that she could never fully protect her child.
King Yemma barely spared her a glance. "Would have thought you'd be sent up with the other fighters?"
"I'm a mother now."
Her baby clung to her side, holding a fistful of her jeans with one chubby harmless, helpless fist. Juuhachigou stroked the soft light hair that she'd given her, if nothing else. Looking at her child and wondering if she'd ever see her again. But even now, she was so frozen into her usual silence that would trip her up and be only able to nod or say 'you too,' when her family told her that they loved her. She wished she could weep as Krillin did. She wished Krillin was here.
"Okay." The horned giant stamped something on a paper and then threw it into a cluttered tray, "The nursery's through the door, on the right. Have a nice stay in heaven, Missus Juuhachigou."
114. Concussion
He wondered what the other driver's around them must have thought. Juuhachigou flopped against him again, nearly causing him to go off the road. Juunanagou slapped her mercilessly, screaming at her to wake up. It was his entire fault, and maybe that's why he was so determined to keep her awake. He had been the one to throw her into that mountain as revenge when she claimed that Krillin's hair reminded her of his, and so now it was his job to make sure she didn't slip into unconsciousness and die.
Juunanagou pulled his sister out of Krillin's lap again, and after the shorter man tired of the yelling, and emptied his water bottle onto both of them. Juuhachigou snapped awake to yell at him for ruining her shirt, you asshole! allowing her to remain conscious until they got to Capsule Corp.
115. Unconscious
He still wasn't moving.
"Oh god, I think I killed him." She hadn't meant to say it aloud, but there it was, flying around in the world.
Juuhachigou had done her best not to truly hurt him. But it was possible she underestimated her own strength. Of course, none of this mattered since his friends would take that as an excuse. The dragonballs couldn't bring him back, so any reasoning wouldn't matter: the key witness would already be dead and gone.
The trial she would be given would last exactly long enough for Gohan to power up.
She poked at him. His skin was cold and clammy.
He'd been underwater for far too long. What had she been thinking, holding him under the surface of the ocean for so long? It had been fun, something cruel her brother would have done, and it was going to be her undoing.
That's what had done it. Maybe the lack of nose hadn't helped either? It didn't matter.
She slapped him. He didn't move.
She called his name. He didn't answer.
They would probably go after her twin right as soon as they killed her. To complete the set. Why had they let them live so long; poor Krillin. And of course they would be sent to hell, immediately.
She ripped his shirt, trying to allow him to breathe easier. He didn't seem to be breathing.
She listened to his chest. He still didn't seem to be breathing at all.
Some buried memory of her life from Before came to her. Lifeguards and orange vest and red bathing suits. That's what she would do.
Juuhachigou leaned back his head, trying to let in air. She pinched the skin on his face before realizing stupidly that he was still lacking a nose. Krillin still didn't appear to be breathing, and so the cyborg sighed once and weighed dignity against the literal threat of Hell. Gero was down there, and she didn't want to spend an eternity anywhere near that man.
So, she breathed into him, mouth to mouth. Breathed for him. It was not exactly his state that made her so determined, but instead for herself, for her brother, for not having to be stuck with the stupidest villains that had prowled the universe. She breathed life into him so she wouldn't have to continue the list of how terrible Hell would be for her as she headed downward.
His sudden, hacking cough was sweeter than any music. Juuhachigou pressed her face into his damp chest, hearing his heartbeat through his torn shirt. Thank Kami. Krillin's fingers touching her hair, was unwanted, but still brought another wave of relief. He could move, and any brain damage would probably go unnoticed.
"Juuhachigou, were you kissing me?"
Her blow to his chin took him out again. Only this time there was more blood.
"Oh god, now I think I really killed him."
116. For better, or worse
Krillin stared at his house, or his master's anyway, taking inventory.
The only toilet was plugged with a diaper, and three dirty kids ran underfoot. Thankfully, only one of them was his own.
Unfortunately, he was responsible for all of them until tomorrow.
Juuhachigou had given up. She just handed them more pudding cups, sans even spoons, and tried otherwise to avoid them. No matter how Goten tore the curtains down, and Trunks smashed another plate, and Marron knocked over another piece of furniture. She'd tried, but three kids were just too much for her to take. The blonde woman just read a book or watched TV, neither things he was sure she could actually do well in this disaster, keeping her back to the destruction, and the stained children.
It was supposed to be their honeymoon.
Krillin tried to corner at least one of the children. They all scurried away, and one of them knocked over a chair before scurrying up the stairs, giggling. Juuhachigou didn't even turn around while her husband ducked the falling furniture.
"Juuhachigou! Help me!" He glared at her and was met with her uninterested blue eyes.
Another child threw something wet, a soppy wet tangle of paper towels, and narrowly missed the short man. Then there was a knock at the door, and he saw a slim shape, dark-haired, a giant stuffed animal resting on his back. Marron's uncle.
Krillin's hands tangled with each other. His wife's twin would only egg them all on. Together, all of them, would race around the house, destroying what remained. "Not now, not now."
Then he turned to his wife. His question was mostly rhetorical. "Shouldn't marriage mean we're adults with our own lives, and can escape this?"
And Juuhachigou put down her unread book and laughed and laughed. "We're married now. There's no escape."
Krillin looked at her. "This is it?"
She nodded. "This is marriage." Upstairs, the children were fighting and rolling around. Krillin glanced up at the ceiling, then finally sat down by Juuhachigou as her brother jimmied the door open. They settled for turning the TV onto something for kids, while the kids and Juunanagou gathered around it, and together they all mocked the annoying sidekicks, ridiculous villains and badly drawn cartoons.
117. Tidal wave
It took her a full thirty seconds to realize what was happening. She was lounging on the couch, one hand on the remote and the other lying on the ground, when she realized that everything was moving to the right. Another wave of clear blueness shoved everything a little further, and she finally sat up.
"Does this happen a lot?" she asked to Krillin as he tumbled through the door, soaking wet, yelling that a storm was coming.
118. Sponge Bath
After Krillin spat up more blood and sand, Juuhachigou let him up. When he leaned against her, clung to her with weak fingers and hands, she let him since his expression was so pitiful. His smashed lips left a trail of blood on her once clean t-shirt.
She wrapped an arm around his shoulder, holding him up.
Thankfully, his roommates were gone for Bikini Fest #345, and would be gone all weekend. They were all alone now, and when she told him that, he just looked up at her, vaguely concerned. Only Krillin seemed to be able to make this unfamiliar nurturing side of her come out.
Unlike when her brother would stumble home from a chasing-bears-and-eating-honey-and-maple-syrup bender, she would just let him lay unconscious wherever he landed. The couch, living room floor, or the front porch, he could rot there for all Juuhachigou cared.
With Krillin though, if he had so much as a stomach ache from the maple candy her brother fostered on her and the short human found in her pockets, Juuhachigou would be there to pat his head and tell him that it wasn't so bad. After all, it wasn't like he was being slapped around by someone tail, or stepped on by a giant ape, or having his neck snapped like a chicken wing or stabbed by a horn, or exploded. When she was near him, the smiles came easier, and she found a measure of kindness and patience that she hadn't known existed.
And it was something she enjoyed, instead of resenting.
She would hold his hand, and maybe his hair if her brother had made sure to slip more candy than usual into her clothes like she was smuggling it out of country. "It's okay, at least you're not being bitten by a vampire, or forced to look for a tiny rock on a big island, or fight a giant robot."
It gave her a nice excuse to come back here for sparring, an excuse she told herself and only herself. She wanted to explore this suddenly caring, human part, and in order to do so had to be near Krillin. Sparring with Krillin was also otherwise more entertaining than staring at a wall, or fighting her sticky and bloody brother. He was weaker than her, of course, but had different tricks to pull that would surprised her. Or he would simply run around the building, trying to dodge her, and force her to simply chase him down and push him into the sand.
Juuhachigou would beat him, and then she would care for the wounds she'd given him.
He at first didn't seem to mind. But when she would force him to remove not only his shirt but also his pants to make sure he was alright, Krillin would become a little uneasy. "You didn't hit my thigh, Juuhachigou," he reminded her.
I will next time. "I guess you're fine then. Now pull up your pants."
Now she nearly nuzzled his neck, his limp form pressed into hers.
"Krillin, you really ruined your clothes.
"Blood all over you; it's getting on the rugs.
Juuhachigou kept her voice glum. "I think you need a shower."
"Oh. I suppose you can't make it there on your own.
"You'll probably need help cleaning, then, won't you?
"No, that's alright, I can take off your pants without your help.
"The bathroom's upstairs, isn't it?"
119. Happy Birthday
A yell was choked down by her self-control. Krillin looked up at her, his eyes huge and illuminated by a single candle. Juuhachigou stared at the small white cake held in the fighter's small white hands.
He was grinning.
"I wasn't sure how old you were, so I just used one candle."
"You're what, twenty?" His voice was casual poured over curious-as-hell. "Nineteen? Early twenties?
"Late teens?
"You should blow it out, before it melts into the cake." Krillin's eyes were innocent, and with something close to dread, she wondered what he'd done. Had he done something that required her forgiveness, and a cake to seal the deal with sugar?
She leaned into the side of the doorway, pulling away.
"Mid-twenties?"
After all this time, perhaps would have grown used to being jumped out by the short human. It was how she was greeted nearly every morning: with him popping up from beneath the stairs, or from a previously shut door, or behind the couch or sliding his head through an opened window and saying, "Man, some weather we're having, huh?"
Except, of course, when she awoke moderately early. Then he would jump out behind something in the kitchen, asking her cheerfully if she wanted breakfast.
"I know," Krillin's face was sheepish. "It probably isn't your birthday. But you've been here for a while now, and so I thought your birthday might have passed."
"Birthday?"
"Yeah." His face cheered. "Just don't be surprised if maybe it doesn't immediately blow out because maybe I used some of those leftover trick candles Master Roshi left around the house. Maybe."
Juuhachigou looked at him, wondering how he'd look if she pulled the cake from his grasp, and shoved it into his face. Her own vengeful, "Make a wish!" But hellishly, she imagined what his wish would entail and how it would involve her. And, quite possibly, frosting.
120. Stealing
Krillin adjusted the ribbons on their daughter hair, smiling absentmindedly while arguing with her over some dress they'd seen at the mall. The irony of Marron preferring red ribbons, going so far as to pick them out of the bin when she was a toddler, never escaped either of her parents.
She still felt like she had killed someone and taken her place.
A wife? A mother? Her? She was the eighteenth of Gero's creations, turned from a normal human woman into a cyborg using the finest technology available on the planet. Programmed solely for the destruction of Goku and only possessing the slightest remnant of humanity. If she was to spend any time with Earth's heroes, it was to kill those insects that were getting in her way of destroying all life on the planet.
Not to marry and procreate with them.
I'm sorry. There's been some mistake.
But even as she waited for things to change, for her to wake up in a lab to Gero's voice and familiar eyes, or in a cold sweat in her brother's hideous Winnebago, Krillin and Marron never changed or dissipated from her vision until she was forced to accept that they were hers. Red ribbons and all.
121. Graveyard
"This is stupid."
"What, have you ever seen a ghost before?"
"No," Juuhachigou finally said, after a moment of glaring at him. You know what I meant.
"Then how stupid could it be, to finally see a ghost?"
"There aren't any ghosts." She brushed off a speck of lint from her sweater. Underneath her, the warmth from the car's engine was a fleeting thing. Krillin didn't mean anything to her; she didn't have to stay here out of some misguided idea that she owed him anything.
She'd never asked for his help, no matter if he threw himself in front of Cell, or cared for her after that monster had spat her out. So what if he'd kept the others from murdering her while she lay there, helpless, on the sandy dry desert Cell had made them fight in. And then, to try and avoid making him disappointed, "You're acting like a child."
"Well, we'll see."
122. Forbidden
His friends were still cold to her, and her brother hated him.
Their looks would be at best unenthused, at worst outright antagonistic. Vegeta refused to do anything but insult her, and if he could not do that, then he would leave the room. Yamcha wouldn't sit near her, and Tien frowned at her more heavily than he normally did. Gohan was polite, but rarely seemed to leave his room, which was darkened so heavily with a pile of books that it blocked out the sun. Chi-Chi refused to be within thirty feet of her.
The other woman, Bulma, was hesitantly pleased to have another female join the group, one who enjoyed clothes and wasn't afraid to insult the other only made Juuhachigou more welcome. But she was only one person in a group of others that hated and feared her.
Once Juunanagou was sitting across from her at their breakfast table, and told her that if he ever caught her again with the cueball (who actually was cultivating a nice crop of perfectly black hair on his head), he would disown her. It was such an old-fashioned word, and what would he disown her of? Juuhachigou laughed so hard she hit her head on the nearby counter. He just frowned, warning her again, this time silently.
All of this…well, it made her want to spend more time with Krillin. Aside from their conversations taking a turn to being interesting once in a while, there was also the fact that her brother would blow a gasket if he saw her leaning against him while they walking in the park. That his friends would turn red in anger and frustration if they saw him holding her hand, or picking her a single, perfect flower even as she complained how foolish she felt holding it, and how about he put the damn thing in his own hair. Which he did with a jaunty grin.
Not to mention, if they knew, all of them, including her brother, that they knew what the other looked like naked, that she knew where he was ticklish and he knew how to make her squirm and lose her composure with a shuddering gasp that drew a smirk onto Krillin's face.
…they would all cough up blood.
123. Secret
Krillin was a goddamn Pandora's Box. It was something she learned as soon as she saw him again. Of course, she was aware that much of the short fighter was an open book. He could be painfully upfront with his emotions, even as he hid others beneath a façade of foolishness. An open book with many dog-eared pages and flaps.
She had met him, floating over a huge ocean with nothing in sight. So when she fled after his straight-forward confession, it was harder to disappear into the surroundings while he stood there, staring at her. Clearly he hadn't expected her to run away, and to be fair, neither had she. But what could she say, after him blurting out, "Yeah, of course I have a crush on you. I think I'm in love with you. Why are you asking?" The round face beginning to twitch into confusion and something that might have been happiness. Hope.
What, would she just float there besides him, and nod and say "That's what I thought. Nice day out here. No storms anymore?" No, Juuhachigou had to flee to save her sanity. Literally fly away like a coward, ashamed even as she gathered speed, but unable to see an alternative.
It didn't matter that she'd only met him three times, and yet he'd still managed to grow such a strong attachment to her. That was disturbing, when she stopped to think of it, turning it over in her mind gingerly since it burned it she held onto the idea for too long. But, discounting how many times they'd met, she knew Krillin.
He had a huge file dedicated to him on whatever Gero had implanted in her head. Movies, pictures, information from his childhood to teenage years to adulthood, all focused on him. She knew more about him than many of his friends did perhaps. Things that he'd done alone, without his pals, embarrassing moments that could reveal weaknesses, stuff he wouldn't tell anyone outside a psychiatrist's office.
But she knew it. She knew him.
And the only thing more disturbing than a man she'd met only three times claiming he loved her was that it was Krillin who was saying this. A man, who not only was one of the heroes of Earth she was partially created to defeat, but a man who was...strange?
-in addition, he was short, noseless, bald, lived with a bunch of perverts, had a weird sense of humor, and complained about not having dates like he'd never looked in a mirror. Who was as needy as a beaten and starved puppy. One of the saviors of the planet, and a bizarre one at that. Or maybe it was the other way around; a deeply flawed man who was also was a hero?
Either way, she wanted nothing to do with him.
I will never see him again. I swear it, on his life.
For the rest of his life, he will never catch so much as a glimpse of me.
The next day, she ran into him. Krillin nodded to her cordially. Like he wasn't an enemy, who had spared her life at least twice and used a wish from a dragon to improve (what he thought was improving) her life. He even handed her slice from an orange he'd plucked from a tree nearby. Juuhachigou flinched away from his hands, hating herself, hating him.
She couldn't hurt him, as his little friends would immediately suspect her. You didn't need to be a detective to put together the fact that maybe Krillin had talked to the android he had a crush on, who was known to have a temper and could crush him like a bug, and come to the conclusion that perhaps it was one of the homicidal androids that had burnt him to a crisp. A well-done crisp.
Right now, Juuhachigou was practically helpless. A punch or two could be slipped by, maybe, especially if she didn't leave bruises on his face. But nothing more.
And what if Krillin decided after being smacked around, that he didn't really like her and was willing to turn her into his group of fighters? He could, easily. No one would take her side. So they just sat there, at the benches by a small bistro, trees and grass of the tiny lawn that provided a view to the patrons of the restaurant.
He nodded again, as though in agreement to her wince over his orange. All big wet black eyes. "How've you been?"
"Fine." Voice icy. Let him make something of that.
The stupid small talk that, even with her inhumanity, she couldn't not answer to. Krillin appeared to really care, so at least there was that.
He slid another slice of orange against his lips thoughtfully before sliding it inside his mouth.
"Sure you don't want one?"
"Yes."
"You do want one?"
"No." She sounded petulant to her own ears. "I meant that I was sure I didn't want one."
"Ah."
She listened to him peeling the fruit a little more.
"I almost got married, you know."
There was an odd sensation of her mouth had shrinking down two sizes. Krillin had been going left, she'd thought, and then he suddenly buried himself into the ground and came out from the ceiling. "Good for you."
"We broke up a while back. I dumped her. She was a nice girl, very pretty."
"…okay."
The head that popped out of the ceiling had no face.
"Just in case you wondered. If I'd had a relationship before. Because I understand what I'm talking about."
"Um."
"That I do know that I love you."
The rest of the body slithered from the hole in the ceiling; it had no limbs in addition to any face, and was singing a version of a song that played often on the radio, high pitched.
Slack jawed disbelief.
Not a damn noise escape her throat.
"I'm nice too. I have a sense of humor. I can make you laugh.
"I do have some money tucked away, from working some jobs and from fighting in a couple of tournaments.
He pointed with a thumb behind them, at the restaurant. "I'm working as a waiter for awhile. Not bad pay. I mean, I don't get a lot of tips. Because…ah, never mind. But it's not so bad. It gives me free time on my hands."
"I can fight. I'm in good shape. Not as strong as you, but still. We could spar?
"And I understand that you have…some metal parts inside of you. I don't judge that. Or what you did when we were enemies. You don't have to hide that part of your life.
"I have a car."
"Is this," her breathe wheezed out of her chest. Horror had made her mind go flying away into the blue sky. "Your way of wooing me?"
Krillin's laugh made her flinch again. He was looking at her, suddenly, taking in her reaction. The humor was not receding. "Sure, you could call it that."
"What makes you think I want to," Juuhachigou sputtered. "To be wooed by you?"
"Well, I think we'd be good together. I don't see why you'd completely discount the possibility."
"My brother would kill you, if he knew that you were saying any of this."
Juunanagou would do nothing of the sort. He would laugh so hard he'd rupture something, give Krillin ridiculous tips, and make bets with his hunter friends who all were bearded, flannelled and splattered with runoff from their chew tobacco they spat out constantly. None of them, thankfully, hit on her. When they first met her, they'd asked Juunanagou what his little brother's name was. Clearly, the closest thing to a female they'd been near is a bear. Relief was the only think that kept her from blowing them up.
Thinking of them made the man besides her look a little better. His clothes weren't covered in sap and leaves and mud. They were actually rather nice, a white button up shirt and black slacks. She guessed he really was waiter. Imagine being served by him. 'Our special of the day is...' From a man strong enough to literally destroy the planet, had he been so inclined. But he probably was good at this job.
Juuhachigou could easily imagine him entertaining kids, joking with them and saying he needed a booster seat as well, recommending specials and things off the menu to couples and chatting comfortably with families. If she came in there, she could see him telling the cooks that it was her birthday and would bring her a cake and sing her 'happy birthday.'
Krillin was frowning, finally. "What could I do to convince you that I'm sincere?"
"Oh, I believe you," Juuhachigou assured him.
The small human perked up. "Really?"
"I just don't care."
"Oh. So what can I say that would make you care?"
Nothing. "Not much."
"There has to be something." He seemed so earnest. The dark eyes were shoving small blades into her stomach.
"Why?" Her legs were stiff and her shoulders sore and tense.
"Because there has to be."
"No, there doesn't. There isn't some way you can just make me like you. I don't care about your feelings. At all. And never will. You don't mean anything to me."
Krillin's expression was comically heartbroken. "Are you sure?"
"Yes."
He held up a balled fist, like this was a challenge he could try his hardest at and through the power of goodness and justice and blah blah, could somehow convince her. That everything would turn okay so long as you were good and brave. "What if-"
"No."
"But-"
"No. Never. I don't even think we can be friends."
"I don't think so either."
Now she was shocked. The faceless, singing man sprouted fifteen arms. "You aren't positioning yourself to be my friend."
"I don't want to just be friends with you." A sigh. "Maybe later, when I feel less strongly for you."
The matter of her broken, torn pride spoke up. She lived in a forest with her idiot brother rather than terrorizing the planet, but damnit, couldn't she at least make the shrimp be a little crestfallen for her saying no when he asked her out? "Will you?"
He stared at his shoes, scratching his forehead and looking crestfallen. "I guess. I have to."
Again, maybe pity made her want to spare him. Or she thought it would be another knife to twist. Pride again, if only for her ability to make someone hurt again.
"How about this," Juuhachigou offered. The tips of her fingers skimmed the top of his smooth head, making him gasp and pinkness rise to his cheeks. Quickened breath. So easy to get under his skin. "I'll agree to go out with you, if you can somehow, miraculously, grow a head of hair. And no wigs or plugs either."
And the poor guy, probably so shocked that she'd touched him without hurting him, looked immediately happy. Unfortunate, since he was permanently bald as his Master, Juuhachigou was sure.
She did know him.
124. Regret
Above them the world wept and screamed out. Krillin's voice could scarcely be made out over the sound of the storm. "I sacrifice my friend's life for you. I was willing to let you live, even if it meant that Cell would destroy the world."
Juuhachigou narrowed ice blue eyes while the rain pushed her hair into her face, and retorted, "Well, that was stupid of you, wasn't it?"
125. Don't cross this line... okay, this line... okay, THIS line...
He'd left his jacket in her room, again. Juuhachigou frowned at it, trying to remind herself to put it in her closet before her brother got home.
It was amazing, the little things that added up.
Him having to slip out of a window, leaving clothes behind, sometimes just socks that she would stare at and would weigh on the back of her mind until he would come back. Maybe a single flower in his hand, but always smiling.
She hadn't meant for any of this to happen. Often Juuhachigou found herself wondering how exactly any of this had happened. He got under her skin though. And pop into her head, refusing to leave. Then she couldn't stop thinking about him, and when he arrived, Juuhachigou found herself reluctant to let him leave and harder to snap at the things he said and did.
Maybe in time, she would tell herself, I'll get used to him and be able to scream insults at his bald head again.
His stupid bald head.
There was a tapping at her window.
126. Seeing You with New Eyes/ Second Look
When she realized there was someone else there, and that it was a human, she was shocked into silence. When she realized who the human was, she was frightened, because he was never far from his friends. When she realized what had fallen from his hand, she became petrified.
His face was creased in anger.
It just lay there as peaceful as a sleeping snake, closer to his right leg than his left, and as quick as she was, she would never make it in time to stop him.
She'd thought of the little human as barely an enemy, and now, faced with the Emergency Suspension Controller that would end all of this, her new found fear, the vision of her twin being defeated, dying, Juurokugou being destroyed as well, she found that he was still barely an enemy. After he pressed the button, there would be nothingness, and some version of peace for her.
The programming would fall silent. No more of Gero's voice, no more sensors to analyze strengths that now seemed meaningless. No more having to chase Goku as a dead man's pawn without a true purpose.
If she'd been a sentimental woman, she might have reflected that maybe in the next life she would be with her brother again.
"Nice day, huh. I came here to kill you."
Before her, the grim faced human was now her savior.