Chapter 086 – Majin vs. Majin
Buu shovelled the gigantic Dabura-cookie into his mouth all in one go; cheeks puffed out from the sheer size. He forced the cookie to break down with his hands, munching and munching until finally with one large gulp he'd eaten it. Pleased and feeling slightly fuller, the Majin began to chuckle and wander around aimlessly chanting some sort of song to himself.
Nearby an injured and tired Corset looked on in disbelief. Nothing she'd dealt against this monster had worked. She'd lost all her resolve; she'd just seen her opponent turn someone into a snack!
Suddenly, Piccolo and Krillin's ki signals appeared. Confusion briefly clouded her mind until logic seeped through. '... Of course; Buu's just killed Dabura!' She realised after a while. Kaioshin had said earlier in order to turn their friends back to normal they'd have to kill Dabura. At least some of her friends were now safe.
"Alright Buu, turn Kaioshin into cake, or maybe another cookie!" Babidi sniggered, leaning over the shorter, leaner fighter; his father's murderer. "Eat him up, Buu!"
Kaioshin was still unconscious. Corset had to move in! Against her better judgement she jumped forwards into the fray and charged her ki, gathering as much energy as she could into one limb as she kicked Buu away from Kaioshin, following him and charging energy into her fist once more. Corset knew this was a lost battle but she'd promised Gohan she'd protect Kaioshin, she'd promised she'd stay alive!
Buu jumped off the ground and was suddenly inches above Corset, catching her off-guard. Two heavy, thick fists slammed into her spine and knocked her through the ground, winding her as she slammed into the rocky surface. Corset choked and spat up some blood, screaming in agony as Buu suddenly jumped on her. She couldn't feel her legs; they felt numb. Her body was wrecked; it felt every bone in her body had just been crushed.
"That brat is getting on my nerves! Kill her first Buu, then turn Kaioshin into a treat and eat him!" Babidi ordered.
"Ok!" Buu grinned.
Corset felt the world spin as Buu grabbed her by the ankle and tossed her into the air, no longer able to defend herself against his might. His speed was too much for her to follow now; a blow to the solar plexus knocked the wind out of her lungs and Corset momentarily lost contact with her surroundings. Something grabbed her by the hair and started slugging her repeatedly in the stomach, beating her around. All she felt was pain and cold slipping down from her nose and down her jaw. Her body ached to the point where she felt numb, yet every strike reawakened her senses, every strike more and more painful that the last.
The wind brushed past her; she was falling.
A kick to the chest knocked her backwards; Corset rebounded several times across the ground before scraping to a stop, one of the bounces against the ground knocking her out from her Super Saiyan Two transformation straight down to her normal state. For a while she lay on her stomach in a heap unable to find the energy to rise once again. She stared absentminded, eyes barely open. Her transformation had gone, her energy was gone. Gohan was gone; her dad was her enemy; Goku had his hands full; Kaioshin was at Babidi and Buu's mercy, as was she.
Corset felt herself slip; the world went dark. 'I'm... sorry...' She apologised, the world around her finally falling into a greyish, then black world of nothing, though every-so-often she'd catch glimpses of colour and sounds. She entered a bizarre world surrounded by nothing but trees, tall thick trees which towered over her. She had no idea where she was and why but knew she was far from the battle against Buu. The world around her grew louder and louder, the noise starting to grow on her nerves and she clasped her hands over her ears, head pounding with each and every sound she could hear.
Then suddenly it was gone. Corset reluctantly removed her hands from her ears, spotting a figure almost hidden behind one of the trees. Curious as to who it was, she stepped forward and approached them, grabbing hold of their shoulder in a somewhat familiar fashion. Then suddenly the person wasn't there; Corset found her hand to be grasping onto a notch of the tree. Disappointment hit her and she turned around once again to look at her surroundings, surprised to see the forest behind her was burning. Alarm quickly grasped hold of her as she heard some familiar screams, she could hear her mother and brother were somewhere in the direction of the fire, both their screams sending chills down her spine. Then as suddenly as the fire had come, it had gone. There were no trees left, only strange swirling colours, colours that were dark and lifeless. Where were her mother and Trunks? Were they ok? She didn't know.
Shadows moved. Her mind floated around, thoughts coming and going, growing louder and then quieter. She wasn't sure if the loud noise she was hearing was real or a dream. She felt like smoke was brushing past her face and coughed; was this another hallucination or was it real? She faded again, the feeling vanished...
The world was now growing brighter, almost too bright for her liking. Corset peered through her fingers shielding her eyes, noticing another figure walking towards her. The angle was strange, she was seeing them from a ninety-degree angle as if she were laying down across the floor. Was this real? She wasn't sure. The light vanished, as did the figure leaving her in nothing but darkness. This wasn't right, this had to be a dream. Was she already dead yet? Had Buu killed her?
Something was in her mouth; it was small and tasted bad. Was the sensation real? It was one of the strongest sensations she'd had so far and it felt familiar to her. Corset reluctantly chewed, unsure whether she was conscious or just dreaming. She felt herself spin slightly. Which way was she facing? Then she felt sensation come back. Her body felt energetic. She was facing up towards the sky. She was on her back; it felt like she was laying on rock. Her eyes fluttered open, the shadow leaning over her becoming clearer...
Panic and fury led to her slapping the person beside her across the face as she jumped about ten feet back, hunches up and heart pounding. Adrenaline had jumpstarted her and her anger had exploded to the surface as soon as her eyes had fallen upon him. Nearby and leaning on one arm from the force of the slap with the other hand tenderly placed upon his now sore cheek, an unfazed Vegeta glared back at her; the M on his forehead reminding her of what had happened, what he'd done.
"What do you want?" She snarled. "Stay away from me!"
Vegeta tutted and rose to his feet, "Next time I won't bother with a senzu..." He muttered ignoring her tone of voice.
Corset glared furiously at him. Every part of him repulsed her; looking just brought back those feelings of betrayal and hurt. She hated him for it, she hated how he'd hurt her. She hated how he'd thrown her, Trunks, and her mother away like they were worthless vermin. What angered her right now was how he was suddenly helping her as if nothing had happened. It made no sense to her! "Why did you heal me? Did you come to fight me now that you're done? What happened to Goku?" So many questions buzzed around her head, his actions were conflicting and had been doing so ever since they'd arrived at the ship.
"Kakarrot's busy taking a nap... and I came here to fight," Vegeta turned away. "There, I healed you and answered your questions, now I suggest you beat it; you'll just get in my way!"
"What the hell is wrong with you?" Corset yelled, fists shaking furiously irked with his answers. His actions were so bizarre and conflicted amongst themselves. He was with them originally, then against them and now he was on their side again? No, there had to be something deeper going on; perhaps it was still his selfishness wishing to fight a powerful opponent, since apparently Goku had not lasted the match. Was he still chasing after thrills as he had done before, or was it a change of heart and a slap to the head which had knocked some sense into him? Corset didn't know what to think; he was too unpredictable to her now. "You wanna fight Buu? Fine, I hope he does what Goku didn't manage to do and pounds you to the ground!" She turned and took a couple of steps. She was not in the mood to be talking to him or seeing him after what he'd done. The wound was still raw and he may as well have been rubbing salt and chilli into it.
"... I know about Gohan... Buu killed him, right?"
Corset stopped in her tracks, eyes closing as a long and deep breath seethed through her gritted teeth and slowly filled her lungs.
That one hurt.
"... Are you trying to piss me off?" She spat glaring at him over her shoulder before turning away, face softening a little as the memory played in her mind once again. "... Buu caught him off-guard. At least Gohan was protecting the planet and trying to stop Buu being revived unlike someone else! Yours and Goku's stupid battle revived him; you revived him with your stupid need to be an evil bas-"
"Do you ever stop talking?" Vegeta sneered growing tired of the needless chatter. "Enough, you're wasting time. Go and hide somewhere; I'll take care of Buu myself."
"... He'll kill you," Corset muttered spitefully, taking to the air. She spotted a nearby mountain and landed safely on top of the tallest peak, peering over the edge back to the battleground. She hadn't noticed it before but Babidi's ship lay in ruins, dark smoke pouring from the large crater once hiding it. Nearby was Kaioshin; he was still unconscious. With luck her father could at least distract Buu from hurting Kaioshin; right now that would be the only useful thing he could do.
Corset didn't understand him. He'd been so happy to hinder everyone else with his selfishness and now he wanted to fight Buu? Did he really care or was this just his Saiyan behaviour, needing to fight a strong opponent for the sheer pleasure of it? Was he still being selfish? She couldn't be sure. What did it matter? It didn't change what he'd done, it didn't change him at all in her eyes. The damage had already been done and if this was his strange way of making up for it, he had a long way to go. She would not make this easy for him.
Buu began to release steam from his body again. Vegeta began to charge up his power. Sure enough the spell Babidi had cast had greatly increased her father's ki, yet it had that tainted feel to it; the same as Spopovich and Yamu had.
The battle started.
Vegeta quickly seemed to hold an advantage – or at least all his blows connected and Buu was being slapped around like a punching bag!
'That won't work...' Corset realised what she was doing and shook her head with annoyance.
Buu was knocked back across the ground, body dented where Vegeta's strikes had hit him. As he had done with Corset's attacks, Buu's indentations popped out and his body returned to normal. Her father seemed to be going through the same thoughts as she had. Vegeta charged up his energy and sent a bolt of ki straight through Buu's body. Buu crashed to the ground with a thud and a gaping hole in his stomach.
Corset knew all too well what was about to happen.
He wasn't down for long. Buu rose to his feet, closing the hole in his stomach.
The atmosphere changed.
Buu began to charge up his ki; the ground around her shuddered; Corset noticing the mountain she was on was starting to give way to the pressure. She watched Buu, unsure of what was going on...
With a terrific expulsion of air, Buu screamed. Corset gasped and hurriedly put up her defences as the shockwave hit her and the mountain she stood upon. It was way too much; Corset was knocked backwards clean off her feet as the mountain finally crumbled, vanishing in a bright purple light. The deafening howling of the wind knocked her senses along with the blinding light. She crashed against something solid and felt other sold things hit her. Struggling to keep her attention she crouched in a defensive position and rode it out...
The noise quietened down. The brightness faded to daylight. Corset opened her eyes. There were a couple of large boulders in front of her which had been scattered and taken from their original location. With little effort she floated up into the air and landed on one of them. Her eyes widened in shock when she saw what had happened, panic quickly gripping her.
There was a large crater before her; in the middle of it floated Buu. She noticed another round thing nearby glimmering a little in the light; it looked like Babidi had unfortunately survived.
Where was her dad? Where was Kaioshin?
"... Piccolo!" Corset recalled Krillin and Piccolo were supposedly somewhere nearby! She quickly found their ki and sighed in relief... then noticing there were two other ki with them. Could it be?
Corset glanced over to her left, searching out Piccolo's ki. She spotted it and levitated up into the sky, keeping an eye on Buu. As she floated through the air she spotted Vegeta crouched down on the ground; it looked like he'd taken a few injuries from that explosion.
'... What's wrong with me? Don't care about him; he doesn't care about you!' Corset scolded herself, the sight of the warrior as injured and outmatched as he was indeed seemed pitiful but she shared little empathy deliberately. She spotted the group down below; sure enough she had sensed right.
"Big Sis - down here!" Trunks' voice carried on the wind as he appeared from behind a displaced boulder. Corset landed amongst the group, Trunks rushing up to her eagerly. "You're ok! You fought really well against that Buu guy!" He grinned.
Corset blinked in surprise and slight embarrassment as a light blush came to her face, "You saw that?" She asked awkwardly.
"Yeah, me and Goten got here just before Buu turned that Dabura guy into a cookie and ate him!" Trunks nodded, Goten nodding alongside him. "This guy's really something else... Dad's looking a little rough. He can beat him though, right Corset?"
Corset frowned. Trunks didn't know what their father had done earlier today; she guessed he hadn't been at the tournament if he wasn't frantically asking why their father had killed innocent people. Perhaps she could get around this by not telling him; Trunks wouldn't understand why their father'd done what he'd done. He'd never known him to be evil, just a little reluctant to show emotion and show nothing but pride and strength. He emulated their father, she couldn't shatter that image even if her's had been broken.
"What's been going on here? Where's Goku?" Krillin asked.
"Tell us everything that's happened!" Piccolo demanded.
"I'm not sure where Goku is," Corset replied answering Krillin. "Sorry..."
"Dad'll be here; he's not a coward!" Goten protested. "Big Brother too!"
Corset felt her heart lurch in her throat. Apparently they hadn't seen Gohan being blasted away. She didn't have the strength or the heart to tell Goten his older brother was no longer among them.
"Dad!" Trunks' cry caught everyone's attention and all eyes turned back to the fight. Vegeta was slowly approaching Buu, holding one of his arms, which was covered in blood. "Dad's not gonna lose, is he Piccolo?" Trunks asked, glancing towards the Namekian when he did not receive an answer, then to his sister. "... Piccolo? ... Big Sis?"
"... Just keep watching, Trunks." Corset mumbled.
Buu grabbed his stomach and began to pull...
Corset raised an eyebrow in disgust as Buu suddenly tore part of his stomach away from his body, completely separating it from himself. It looked so jiggly and fatty it brought a small feeling of nausea over her just to look at it. It was even worse when Buu started to stretch it out in front of him!
The Majin quickly went on the attack. He started shooting energy balls from his mouth, all fast-paced and keeping her father on his toes. The Saiyan prince confidentially dodged them one by one, leaping up into the air-
Buu tossed the loose skin towards him. Suddenly Vegeta was caught up in a bind as the skin wrapped around him and constricted! The Saiyan fell to the ground, unable to break free.
"Dad!" Trunks gasped, leaning forwards on the small rock he was peering over.
Buu approached Vegeta waltzing with some sort of bizarre dance. The Majin's mood changed; Buu kicked the trapped warrior several metres through the air; the constricting skin not giving way in the slightest. Buu jumped up high into the sky and landed, crashing straight on top of Vegeta, pinning him to the ground further and starting to repeatedly punch him around the face.
Corset watched as Buu continued to beat down her dad, continued to slowly kill him. She was angry. She was angry at her dad still but she was angry at Buu. Conflicting feelings started stirring inside of her.
"He'll be killed!" Krillin stuttered. "Where are Goku and Gohan?"
"Hey, they'll be here Krillin, just you watch!" Goten yelled.
Corset stood confused, her own thoughts conflicting in her mind. Every punch made her all-the-more angry but she hated the guy receiving the beating. One part of her wanted to rush in rashly and attack Buu with everything she had; another wanted her dad to suffer after what he'd done. What was she meant to do? He'd disregarded his family and quite happily let them hurt. Was she supposed to forget it happened and care for him again? She couldn't forgive him for what he'd done, she found it so hard to swallow her anger over what had happened.
Part of her couldn't help but wonder had this been how her father had felt towards Goku all of these years? Was she as stubborn as he was in struggling to let it go?
"No, Trunks! You'll only die in vain and cause Vegeta more pain!" Piccolo's yell brought her back to reality; Trunks was looking ready to charge.
Vegeta's face was becoming bloodier by the minute.
Trunks' scream echoed through the wrecked mountains as he transformed into a Super Saiyan, bolting forwards before anyone had the chance to stop him.
"TRUNKS - COME BACK!" Piccolo yelled. "STOP!"
"I'm coming too, Trunks!" Goten powered up and charged – Piccolo grabbed the young boy by his wrist.
"Goten, I won't let you go down there; you'll just make things worse!" Piccolo warned.
"Let me go, Trunks needs my help!" Goten protested anxious to help; he knew Trunks couldn't do this by himself. "If I were Gohan I bet you'd let me go, wouldn't you?"
The last jab caught Piccolo off-guard; Goten broke free of Piccolo's weakened grasp and chased after his friend.
Corset watched nervously as both boys dashed past Babidi; Trunks decking Buu in the back of the head and sending him shooting through several mountains in the distance.
"... Aren't you going too?"
Corset turned at Krillin's question.
"... No. Trunks and Goten are ok..." Corset shook her head, quickly glancing over as Piccolo took off.
"Corset, that's your dad down there," Krillin pointed taken aback with her answer. "... What's wrong? Normally you're the first to rush in when he's in trouble!"
"... Yeah," Corset frowned.
"Then what's holding you back? Go." Krillin looked at her searching for something more, Corset had the feeling the short warrior she'd come to see as an uncle could tell she was hiding something. He knew there was more to this than met the eye. "... Something happened while Piccolo and I were stone. I can feel it; I can't sense Goku and Gohan anywhere and you're acting strange."
Corset sighed and closed her eyes momentarily. "... If we survive this, I'll tell you."
With that she took off, passing Piccolo and Babidi without as much of a glance. Her attention was placed elsewhere and she knew Piccolo would take care of the little insect. She landed beside the two children who were currently freeing Vegeta from the coils of Buu's skin. She joined her brother and Goten and the trio freed him at last, Goten dumping the heavy lump of fat to the side.
"Dad? ... Come on Dad, wake up!" Trunks began to nudge Vegeta; he wasn't responding. "Please wake up! Dad! Come on! Wake up!"
Corset felt heartbroken watching her brother plead like this. She could sense their father's ki had dropped significantly since the start of the battle. Even looking at him was a dead giveaway; he was beaten. Buu had won.
"Why didn't you help?"
Corset almost jumped at her brother's question; the boy had fury in his eyes and confusion on his face. "Why didn't you jump in to help Dad?" Trunks demanded furiously, "Why did I have to do it? You're stronger than I am; you can do far more than I can!"
Corset didn't answer, just looked away.
"...Is he alive?" Goten asked concerned.
"Of course he is!" Trunks bellowed, tears forming in the corner of his eyes. "My dad's the toughest guy in the whole world!"
"Yeah but... but he got hurt real bad." Goten frowned.
"Goten, clean out your ears and listen, ok? My mum told me that my dad used to be the prince of every single Saiyan!" Trunks snarled glancing down at his father.
"Wha? He's a prince?" Goten spluttered with amazement.
"That's right, he's a prince, Goten – a prince!" Trunks responded feverishly.
Corset noticed her father's cheek twitch, a small twinge of hope bursting through and relieving her stomach of tension.
"There's no way a prince can lose to a stupid monster!"