Disclaimer: The characters of Sailor Moon and Dragon Ball Z are not mine, nor will they ever will be.
Author's Note: Thanks to all who reviewed, I'll hopefully have semi-regular updates with this story so we shall see how much time I have! Enjoy!
The Catalyst
Chapter Two
I followed Trunks as he led me away from the front of the Business and Economics building and towards the campus parking lot, likely seeking refuge of a place that was away from unwanted eyes and ears. His sleek, expensive-looking black sports car stood out from the rest of the vehicles line up within the lot, its recent wax job reflecting the mid-morning sun just like an ebony mirror. He unlocked it by remote before instructing me to get inside so that we could talk more, and I obeyed him without a word. I slid into the front passenger seat of his car, the distinct smell of the newer vehicle consuming my senses immediately. I softly closed the door behind me after I settled into the seat as Trunks dropped himself into the driver's seat beside me before shutting his own door a bit more carelessly than I.
I introduced myself and began telling him my story. He listened attentively as I explained to him that I had been a normal human being prior to the age of twelve, but everything had changed after that one visit with my father. I told him that this power of mine was like living with a demon inside of my body that I constantly struggled with to keep under control, and I lived with an ever-present fear that I would one day kill someone due to my inability to further tame the beast inside of me. I expressed to him that I could feel that the power inside of me was growing stronger, that it was getting to a point that I knew containing it for much longer would probably be impossible. I also told Trunks how I had learned about him and his friends from the Cell Games, leading me to try to find a solution to my problem through him or whoever else would be able to help me.
Trunks remained silent as I spoke, and he never once even glanced towards me as I relayed my story to him. He just sat in his seat, his fingers sliding over the steering wheel as he stared off into the space in front of him. A few strands of his lavender hair danced just over his narrowed blue eyes, his brows drawn down slightly as his lips remained pressed in a tight thin line. The expressions of hatred and annoyance were no longer present on his face as they were now replaced by a look that I could not entirely read. I was sure that he was listening to me even though he did not acknowledge anything that I had said thus far, but I couldn't tell what he thought of it or what he thought of me.
My words eventually drifted off to quietness and I turned to fully look at the young man beside me, feeling uncertain and unnerved by his continued silence. Why was he saying nothing? I wondered if there was something I had mentioned that he did not appreciate and maybe he was regretting bringing me here. Was he mad that I had invaded his privacy by figuring out his connection to the Cell Games? I know I probably wouldn't have been too happy if someone had approached me from out of the blue after being researched on the internet.
This was a terrible idea. I was a fool.
Trunks's fingers slowly wrapped themselves around the steering wheel before he removed his hands from it completely, leaning back and folding his arms over his chest as he stared downward. "I don't understand…" he murmured, his voice quiet and confused.
I wanted him to look at me. I wanted him to elaborate more on what he was thinking. "Don't understand what?" I pressed, feeling a little bit relieved that he had finally found the words to speak.
I could see the hesitation on his face before he finally turned his head to me, his eyes sweeping over my body again before—at last—meeting my gaze. "It's so…different. I've never felt a power like this before."
Felt? He could feel it? "How is it different? How are you able to tell that it's different?"
With a small sigh, Trunks ran a hand through his hair and said, "Every living thing on this planet has energy; people, animals, and even plants. My friends and I, we've learned a technique that allows us to feel that energy—well, we call it ki—with our minds. While we can sometimes distinguish each other's individual energy signatures, mostly because we have a lot more of it than ordinary humans, it generally has the same feeling to it. Your ki, though, is so vastly different from any energy I've ever encountered. I didn't even notice it until you drew my attention to it, and even then I had to focus so incredibly hard on your energy to really understand what it was. It's almost like it's on a different frequency from everyone else's, and I don't understand how that's even possible. Now that I can sense it more clearly, it feels so raw, untamed, and—I'm not going to mince words with you—it feels pretty damn dangerous."
Oh great, so not only was I different from normal people, but I was also different amongst others who had higher than normal energy. I wondered if the danger in my power that he spoke of meant that I was truly a hopeless cause, that even someone knowledgeable about my affliction couldn't do much to help someone that was an enigma even to them. I could feel the beast inside of me chuckle a bit at my disappointment, pulling again at its shackles as it reminded me that it was still there and thoroughly enjoying this conversation so far.
"You said you weren't born like this?" Trunks asked.
I shook my head, depression surely visible on my face and speaking words filled with the tone of sadness, "Like I said, I was normal before all of this. My best guess is that my father did something to my body and that's why I'm the way I am now. I'd love to ask him what he did, but he's nowhere to be found."
"That could be part of the problem," Trunks stated, though he didn't sound entirely sure. "You see, I've only known a handful of ways that people are able to ascertain power on the level of yours. The human body is able to sustain only so much energy, and even through intense physical training, human beings' ki inevitably hits a cap that prevents them from getting any stronger. There are other people—people such as I—that are able to bypass that cap because we aren't fully human. My body can take a lot of abuse, so the sky is pretty much the limit when it comes to energy.
"And now we have you, who's an anomaly when it comes to this stuff," Trunks continued with a slight smirk on his lips. "You've not trained a day in your life and you weren't born with this energy; it's just there for whatever reason. Basically what I'm saying is you've skipped most of the necessary steps to get this type of power and—because of that—you don't have the slightest idea of how to handle it. When most fighters reach this level of ki, they generally have full control and understanding of it. You're completely clueless."
Thanks for stating the obvious, I thought with a roll of my eyes. "So what, then? Are you going somewhere with this or am I just wasting my time here?"
"Nah, you've come to the right place," Trunks informed me with a small snort of amusement. He grabbed on to his keys and slid it into the ignition of his car, turning it until the engine roared to life. "You're like a balloon that's at maximum air capacity and it's just a matter of time before you pop. So, the best solution for you is to let out some of that air in a controlled manner so that no one gets hurt."
What Trunks said made sense, but I didn't know how much that was going to help as that "air" had already been let out several times on accident and had done me absolutely no good. I opened my mouth to question his logic, but before I could even form the sounds of the first word I wanted to say, Trunks lowered his foot on to the gas and peeled out of the campus parking lot at a speed that I was certain was way above the legal parameters. He drove his expensive-looking vehicle through the downtown West City traffic, not sparing a visible care as other drivers honked at him either because of his dangerous speed or because he had noticeably broken some other traffic law. Fearing for my life, I grabbed the seatbelt and strapped myself in, sending a prayer to whatever higher power was listening that the both of us wouldn't end up in a morgue before the day was over with.
"Don't you think this is too fast?" I asked him with uneasiness in my voice, leaning my back up against the seat as far as it would allow me as I gripped on to the armrests until my knuckles appeared even whiter against my pale skin.
Trunks snorted, replying to me with a moody voice, "This isn't fast enough."
If I wasn't so terrified, I probably would have laughed at the audacity of his words. Not fast enough? Maybe Trunks was certifiably insane; after all, weren't most rich people considered eccentric at the very least? I stared out of the window beside me, watching as the world outside began to blur together with the ever increasing speed of the car. It was by some sort of miracle that we hadn't crashed into anything yet, I was sure, but what was even more astonishing was that Trunks seemed to be in perfect control over the car regardless of the speed he traveled at. He would dodge cars that would seemingly pull out of nowhere, moving his vehicle around them with unbelievable ease. He made turns that I was certain would normally be impossible to perform at this speed without an accident.
It then occurred to me that maybe his extreme control at these speeds weren't a matter of luck, and instead was just a matter of Trunks not being completely human. I wasn't exactly sure what he was capable of, but I knew just from this reckless car ride that his reaction times were far beyond normal. Trunks saw incoming cars long before I did and reacted to them instantaneously, and the entire time that he drove there was a bored and disinterested expression on his face. I began to think back to the words he had just said moments ago, and I found myself believing that maybe they weren't so ridiculous. Maybe this wasn't fast enough for him.
That begged the question; what was fast enough?
The towering skyscrapers and busy traffic of downtown were soon behind us, and our surroundings had become filled with more residential buildings and some of the greenery of nature. Trunks did not yield in his speed even in the slightest as we shot through this district as fast as the one before it, and as dwellings of all types began to become more occasional, we arrived at the outer limits of West City. We passed the massive sign that told us, "You are Now Leaving West City, Hope to See You Soon!" and continued on the main highway for several more miles before Trunks abruptly turned the car on to a rough-looking two lane road that had various signs indicating that there was a park and national forest not far off in that direction.
I guess I probably should have been a bit fearful at this point, considering I was going out to a desolated area with a guy I had just met. It was this kind of scenario where a girl like me would likely end up dead, but I didn't believe for a moment that Trunks was bringing me out here to do anything like that to me. While I didn't know him, and while my initial impressions of him weren't all that great, I didn't think he was a bad guy. He seemed troubled, more troubled than me even, but that didn't necessarily mean he was an evil person. I had seen the crude side of humanity once before, and that had been enough for me to recognize when others had ill-intent for me.
Worst case scenario, I could always hope that my power would do as it always did and strike back if he tried to hurt me, but Trunks looked like he was physically much stronger than I and I didn't know how effective my powers would be on him being that he wasn't wholly human.
Trunks finally began to relent on the gas as the area around us began to fill up with more and more trees as we traveled further down the road. Eventually, both sides of the road became thick with nature's growth, making it feel as if we had entered a world that was entirely separate from artificial man-made one that we had left behind. He turned the car once again, traveling a few more miles down yet another poorly maintained road before pulling into a parking lot that was completely deserted of all other vehicles. There was absolutely no one else here except for Trunks Briefs and me.
Trunks removed his key from the ignition and abruptly got out of the car. I watched him walk away from his vehicle for only a few moments before I removed my seatbelt as well, stepping out of the car and shutting the door behind me. I half-ran to catch up with Trunks, filled with curiosity as to where we were going now. I followed the lavender-haired man off of the smooth pavement of the lot as we began traversing over the ankle-high grass and the uneven ground beneath it. Before long the grass began to stretch higher, soon reaching the tops of my knees and making walking through it without difficulty a near impossibility. I stumbled frequently, and I was no longer able to maintain a speed that even remotely kept up with Trunks as he began to put more and more distance between us.
Although I frequently felt like he was trying to leave me behind, Trunks would only get so far ahead of me before he would slow down or stop entirely, halfway turning towards me as he stared at me impatiently. I never quite caught up with him, because anytime I came within a few feet from him, he resumed his former hasty pace. He had gone back to being moody and silent, and I grumpily wondered if it would so much trouble to pretend to be nice. He had to of known that I wasn't comfortable with this situation at all and that I was having a hard time moving around, but it didn't seem like he cared. It was more than probable that he didn't.
After about a good twenty minutes of walking, we eventually reached the tree line of the forest and crossed into it. There was little grass growth under the canopy of leaves that blanketed the sky above us which made walking on the ground easier, but now we were weaving our bodies through trees of all shapes and sizes as well as trying to dodge low-hanging branches. On occasion there would be a random root that had grown itself out of the ground, providing an excellent obstruction to catch my foot on and nearly causing me to stumble to my hands and knees several times. I was pretty happy that I didn't actually fall once, but I was sure I looked anything but elegant. Trunks, meanwhile, seemed as unfazed by our surroundings as ever, expertly avoiding everything that I managed to trip on.
Finally, we reached a point where the trees briefly parted around what looked to be a narrow part of the river that stretched through the forest. At first I wondered if he was going to make me cross it; although it was small, it was still a bit too wide for me to move over it without getting at least a little bit wet. However, Trunks finally came to a stop and turned to me, folding his arms over his chest and looking at me expectantly.
"Release it here," he commanded in a voice that wasn't to be argued with.
"Here?" I asked breathlessly, glancing around at the area around us. I was still panting from our lengthy walk, pressing my hands against the tops of my knees as I leaned over, gasping for breath.
"We're far enough away from the popular trails for you to release your energy without someone noticing," Trunks explained in an annoyed tone. "If you release a bunch of energy here, it should make you feel like you're in a bit more control when you go back home—at least for a little while."
As my breathing normalized, I stood straight and took another hard look around at my surroundings. I wondered how far away we really were from other people; we had traveled such a long way on foot and even further in the car, after all. Certainly, if my power was released here, the risk of harm coming to anyone was minimal at the very best. Trunks seemed to know a bit of what he was talking about, so I trusted his assessment that maybe this could help me. Perhaps releasing my power in a controlled manner instead of it seeping out whenever I couldn't control it would be the best, if not the only, solution to my problem?
Yet, there was one tiny issue to be had with Trunks's idea. I turned to him, folding my hands behind me nervously as I looked down to the ground in front of my feet. "…So, how do I do it?"
A dumbfounded look appeared on Trunks's face almost immediately. "How? For the love of…" he shook his head before glaring at me angrily, his tone turning to severe annoyance. "Just let it go! Do you even know how much ki you've got built up inside of you?! I'm surprised you didn't let any of it out while you were tripping all over yourself out in the woods!"
I didn't appreciate his tone with me. Not. At. All. "I've never done it on purpose before!" I nearly shouted at him, stomping one of my feet against the ground like some angry child. There was plenty else that I wanted to yell at him for, such as his god-awful attitude and how it would have been so lucky to have such privileges in life, but I kept mute on that and other matters. "I'm always so concerned with keeping this power locked up inside of me that I've never even considered trying to use it!"
"I can't believe this," Trunks muttered as he placed a hand against his forehead, releasing a frustrated groan. Honestly, I don't know what he was expecting of me. I had told him that I didn't have any idea what this power was, so I would have thought he had assumed that I hadn't the slightest clue of how to use it. I understood that he had literally grown up around ki and using it was probably as easy as breathing for him, but I hadn't had the same luxury. I didn't have teachers or parents that could tell me what this was inside of me; all I had was the wonderful internet and half of the articles telling me that I was some spawn of the devil.
"Okay, whatever, I'll teach you," Trunks sighed in exasperation as he lowered his hand from his face to look at me again, still not looking very pleased with me. "First thing I want you to do is put your hands in front of you like you're holding on to an imaginary basketball."
Even though the request sounded a little ridiculous, I just nodded and did as he told me to, awkwardly bringing my hands in front of me and pretending that I was holding on to a circular ball of some sort. I looked up at him, waiting for his next command with quiet uncertainty.
"Now visualize your energy," Trunks told me. I must have given him some look that mirrored the confusion that I felt, because he sighed again and explained further, "Just stare in-between your hands and flow your energy into the center. Picture it in whatever way that helps, maybe something girly like a butterfly if that helps, and just try putting your energy into it."
"Oh-kay…" I murmured, greatly enunciating the two syllables. I focused my stare at the center of my hands, my eyes narrowing as I tried to untie the bounds of my control and let it my energy out. I didn't know what to imagine that would make it come out easier, so I just pretended that there was a ball in the center of my hands that needed to be filled up with my power. For several moments I stood there, doing nothing but staring and trying to make my energy appear. Apparently, my ki did not want to make a voluntary appearance.
"You're trying to force it," Trunks stated in a grumble. He suddenly brought his hands in front of himself, mirroring the same pose that I had but with much more comfort and familiarity. "This is how you do it."
Instantaneously and with no effort applied at all, a baseball-sized orb of energy with a blue tint formed within Trunks's hands. I could hear the gentle hum of the ki as it hovered in the space between Trunks's hands, and even though its light was very bright, I could stare at the core of it without needing to shield my eyes. That was Trunks's ki? It did not seem at all as frightening as I thought it would, and it didn't seem like the weapon I had seen the golden-haired fighter use against Cell back in the videos of the Games. It just seemed like a gentle light, a small glimpse into the type of power that Trunks had concealed within him.
It was beautiful.
The light of the energy ball soon dimmed before it faded completely, and Trunks dropped his arms to his sides and stared at me with a waiting look. "Just let it flow out of you. You have all of this power already, so all you really need to do is let the dam break and set it free."
Okay, set it free—as scary as it sounded, I was determined to do it. I stared back to the area in-between my hands once more, focusing again, bidding my energy to flow out and into my awaiting hands. Instead of imagining it as simply as a ball, I altered my vision and began to picture my energy as softly floating tendrils. In my mind the tendrils were reaching towards the center of my hands, gathering together to form a collection of energy similar to what Trunks had just shown me. It wouldn't be scary, I told myself. It was just energy—it was just my energy. For the first time in the past five years, I was hoping that my energy would show up; I wanted to meet it and see if it was as breathtaking as Trunks's own light.
A small crack of violet electricity appeared, wrapping around my hands and fingers before reaching towards the center that I focused on. Moments later, a purple orb that was no larger than a size of a marble flashed into existence within the formally empty space between my hands, and it scared the living daylights out of me. I jumped back, yanking my hands towards my chest as if I had just touched something that was blazing hot and watched as the small ball of energy slowly fell to the ground.
"Idiot!" I heard Trunks bark at me. Within half a second he had moved from where he once was and was at my side, his arms wrapping around my body and quickly carrying me away. Seconds later, there was an explosion that was nearly deafening and my hands reached up to protect my ears from the sound several seconds too late. A sudden wind picked up, blowing a cloud of dust and dirt into the air and spreading it all around us. As the particles of earth entered our lungs, both Trunks and I began to cough uncontrollably, and I had to shut my eyes as they began to water from the invasion of more small specs that had been kicked up from my carelessness.
After the cloud passed and the wind faded, I dared to open my eyes to see what exactly had just happened. We were now a good fifty feet or more away from where we original stood, and in the area where we had originally been was now a freshly made crater that was about ten feet wide and three feet deep. The leaves in the trees all around us still were shaking from the force of the explosion, and the air around us was still somewhat darkened from the dust and dirt that continued to linger.
I had known for years that my power was capable of doing some pretty nasty things, though looking at that crater and knowing that was from just a small fraction of my energy, I felt even more frightened of myself than I had been before. I knew absolutely nothing about energy, and even though Trunks had seemed resigned to only telling me what I needed to know and next to nothing about the full proficiencies of ki, I had a sinking feeling that this type of damage from such a small amount of energy couldn't be normal—well, in whatever normal parameters there were with ki. I had every bit of respect of how damaging my powers could be, but today was the first time that I really knew that someone could literally die from any carelessness on my part.
I was a walking time bomb.
"You—you have to be careful!" Trunks growled at me in a low voice, and I could tell without even looking at his face that he was beyond angry with me. I couldn't exactly blame him; I could have done some serious damage to the both of us if not killed us outright. He removed his grasp upon my body and took a step away from me, and I could feel his infuriated gaze upon me. "Understand what you're capable of before you do anything."
"I do understand," I weakly protested, still afraid to turn my head and meet his gaze. I knew that I had screwed up and Trunks was the reason why we both weren't likely dead by now.
"You're going to do this again, and this time, don't drop it. If you do, I'm just going to leave you out here and you can find your own way back to West City."
As much as I wanted to believe that Trunks was just trying to scare me so that I wouldn't mess up like that ever again, I didn't doubt that he probably would leave me out here. He really didn't give a damn about me in the first place, so if I seemed to be a lost cause—a waste of his time—there would be no reason to bother with me any longer. At the same time, I wondered if his anger was the result of having been as frightened and taken aback as I was, but I wasn't about to ask him about his true feelings on the subject. He would probably just bite my head off again.
"I'm sorry," I apologized in a quiet voice before repeating my stance from earlier. I took a deep breath and tried to calm my jump nerves, and then tried to summon my power once again. My power seeped out of me more easily this time, gathering up in the center of my slightly trembling but waiting hands. The entire time I did nothing more than repeat in my mind "Do not drop the damned thing again!" as I didn't want to put either of us in the ground or get chastised like a child once more by the angry man next to me. I really wanted to prove to Trunks that I could do this, that I wasn't a lost cause worth abandoning out in the middle of nowhere.
I had stopped the flow of my energy once my ki ballonce was no larger than the size of a pea. Although the power which remained inside of me was no longer pushing so hard against my control, I knew that between the ki I had dropped earlier and the tiny orb within my hands, this was not going to be nearly enough to sate the beast. I was just too damn scared to make it any larger than that, fearing another repeat scenario of what happened earlier. I figured baby steps were better than nothing, and certainly better than making more mistakes.
Trunks noticed that I had stopped growing my ki immediately, his senses likely tipping him off that I was beginning to hold back. "You're going to make it bigger than that," he told me in a firm voice, though his anger seemed to have dissipated slightly. "The point of this is to deplete enough of your ki so you don't feel so full of power anymore."
You can do this, I told myself as I began to open the gates of my power once more and allow more of it to flow in the floating orb within my hands. As the orb received more of my ki, a nucleus appeared in the center of it with the color of a violet so dark that it almost looked black. A hue many shades closer to a truer violet surrounded the nucleus like an aura, encompassing it as purple electricity crackled all around it. The heat of the orb against my skin was beginning to teeter on the borderline of painful, so I moved my hands out ever so slightly to allow the orb more room to grow. I continued to remain vigilant and careful, determined not to drop this orb no matter what.
I began to feel lighter than I had moments ago as the weight of my energy finally began to ease up on me. I felt like I could breathe, the presence of my overwhelming energy no longer pressing against the deteriorated walls of my control. It was almost exactly like Trunks said; I didn't feel so full of power anymore, and there was finally room for me to do something more than worry about constantly maintaining my control. Even though my tension had eased only somewhat, it was such a different feeling—a good different—that it caused a small smile to tug at the corner of my lips.
I looked over to my moody teacher, not bothering to conceal from him my relief. "I feel okay now. So, what do we do with this?" I asked him, jerking my head towards the direction of the now golf-ball sized orb within my hands.
"It needs to be detonated—safely," Trunks told me, quickly adding on the last word with a slight glare directed towards me. He then glanced about the area, explaining, "Normally when wedon't need to use our powers, we just take the energy back into ourselves. Though, I think that would be a bit counterproductive in your case."
The thought of detonating my orb reignited my feelings of fear towards my power, casting a weary look towards the center of my hands. This orb was much larger than the last, so I wondered how we were going to pull off getting rid of my ki without leveling the entire forest. I remained hopeful that Trunks would come up with something that wouldn't result in widespread devastation as he seemed to have a bit more expertise in this field than I. There were no helpful suggestions that I could offer him without being scoffed at due to my ignorance of the subject, so I remained silent and let Mr. Moody Heir do all of the thinking.
"Okay, I have an idea," Trunks suddenly announced as he walked behind me until he was completely out of my line of vision, leaving me with just the sound of my humming orb and his swift steps. I could feel him lingering behind me, and not knowing what he was planning as he was standing back there was making it difficult for me to concentrate on holding my ki in place. As if sensing my uncertainty, Trunks offered a quick and stern reminder, "Don't drop it. You will blow this place to kingdom come if you do."
Then, I felt one of Trunks's arms snake around my waist and lock around it tightly, and my entire body tensed up in response to his touch. While he had held on to me earlier as he got us both out of imminent danger, this time was different in that I actually had time to register in my mind that Trunks was touching me. Physical touch was something that I had strayed away from since I was twelve, mostly out of fear of what I could do than what others could do to me, and even my own mother rarely touched me knowing that it was something I was no longer comfortable with. I had to bite down on the urge that I felt to instinctively move away from the close proximity of this man, reminding myself that there was an object akin to a bomb floating in my hands and I could endure his body touching mine for as long as was necessary.
Moments later, I felt the ground fall away from my feet and glanced down to notice that we were rising up into the air at a fast and steady speed. I had known flight to be one of the abilities of the fighters involved with the Cell Games, but I hadn't even entertained the notion that Trunks could probably do it as well. I felt uneasy and uncomfortable as we rose higher into the air, knowing that someone I barely knew and hardly trusted was the only thing preventing me from plummeting back to the earth and to a certain death. Still, I felt in awe that it was within the realm of possibility that people could actually fly, and the wonder of this amazing ability left me more breathless than the anxiety I felt before. Furthermore, being able to look down on to the forest canopy was a sight that I would never forget; it was as if a sea of various shades of green and browns and every other earthy tone was stretched out underneath us.
We stopped elevating into the air, and now the two of us simply hovered within the sky. The air was degrees cooler up here than it was on the ground, causing a chill to attack my legs from the knees downward. Even though I had my destructive little orb floating around in my hands, was fighting the discomfort of being held on to Trunks, and I was quickly becoming cold, I still couldn't get over how amazing and beautiful the sights below and around me were. If this was the last time that I would ever experience anything like this—and I was certain that it would be—I wanted to commit it to memory as one of the very few happy moments I had experienced in recent years.
"You can drop it," Trunks told me suddenly, causing me to snap out of my reverie and glance back to him in utter surprise at his command.
"But you told me not to drop it!" I tried to reason, not entirely understand where this sudden change in heart came from. Did he want me to really blow up the whole forest? I thought the whole point of whatever idea it was that he had yet to confide in me was not to cause any more devastating explosions!
Trunks sighed and rolled his eyes at me. "Trust me. Just let it go, and I'll do the rest."
I hesitate, glancing between my orb and Trunks, waiting to see if the lavender-haired man would eventually change his mind and tell me what he was really planning. When he continued to just stare expectantly at me, and it became obvious he was starting to lose his patience with my reluctance, I sent a small prayer to the heavens above and pulled my hands apart, letting my dangerous little ball descend towards the forest far below us.
I felt Trunks adjust himself behind me and soon I saw him extend out a single hand, his fingers pressed together and their tips pointed up to the sky. In front of the palm of his hand a blue ki ball about the size of a softball materialized, and half a second later, it shot from his hand and sped towards the orb I had dropped only moments earlier. Trunks's ki collided with my own in a massive explosion that lit up the sky so brightly that it was blinding, and the force of the blast caused us to be blown back into the air. Trunks maintained control quickly enough, wrapping his other arm around my body to make certain that I didn't drop and soon balanced us again in the air.
Once the bright light faded, it allowed us to see what little destruction was caused to the ground from the aerial explosion. Several trees located directly under the blast had been knocked to the ground, and for miles around the leaves of the forest's canopy waved and hissed in response to the force of the explosion. I was sure that the blast was loud enough to be heard from a distance, so I hoped that anyone who heard it would just disregard it as a sonic boom or something of the like. Being that it was a largely cloudless day, we couldn't exactly blame the sound on a roaming storm.
Trunks remained in the sky for a short time later before taking us both back towards the direction of where he parked his car.
X
Too soon did the familiar sights of my neighborhood come into view, and I suddenly felt reluctant to return back to a life that now felt so different from who I was now. I had an understanding about myself that I didn't have before, and while so many questions remained in regards to how I got this power and why, I knew that there was a way that it could be maintained and eventually controlled. I felt uplifted and optimistic for once, but I knew that everything that had happened today had to be kept a secret from Mom. She wouldn't like the fact that I was using this power willingly no matter the reason for it, and I didn't doubt that she would likely freak out if she had known I had spent the last few hours with a boy that I really didn't know.
Mom could never know about today, which meant I had to continue going to those meaningless doctor's appointments and pretend that I didn't already have a solution.
Trunks and I really didn't speak on our way back to West City, but I was relieved to see that he seemed to have a newfound respect of traffic laws on our way back to the city. He only sped a few miles over the speed limit instead of driving like a maniac as he did earlier, allowing me to think about whatever else I wanted to and not just his insane driving. He had turned on his radio shortly after we began our trip back home, his speakers blaring alternative rock at a volume that I didn't exactly care for. Still, it was his car and I guess he had done me an extreme favor today, so I was determined to not complain about it.
I noticed that Trunks's moodiness had made a triumphant return as he wore an expression on his face that made me believe that he was far less enthusiastic in returning home than I was. I was a little surprised when he soon turned down the radio and asked for directions to where I lived, as I had expected him to take us back to his campus where I would walk home from there. I decided not to be difficult in this respect, being that my legs were still aching from our trek through the forest earlier, and softly gave him the directions of how to get to my apartment. Admittedly, I felt a little uncertain as Trunks would now know where I lived, but I figured that after today he would no longer be bothered with my existence and go back to whatever troubles his privileged life could offer him. For reasons that I could not understand, I felt a little sad knowing that this would probably be the last time that I would see Trunks Briefs.
He's spoiled and his attitude is awful, I reminded myself. It was no great loss for me if this was the last time I ever saw him…right? I mean, he had taught me a bit about ki and how to handle whenever I became too full of it, but did I really want to put up with Trunks and his royal moodiness for much more than part of the morning and afternoon? I guess I felt reluctant to part with him because that meant I would be, once again, alone with this power and needing to deal with it. It felt nice that, even for a few hours, I was in the presence of someone who understood what not being normal meant.
Trunks soon arrived at my apartment building, sliding his expensive car into a vacant spot in front of the complex before shifting the gear into park. We both sat there for a time longer than was necessary, Trunks sitting silently in his seat as he stared directly in front of him while I drummed my fingers nervously against my thighs, only daring to stare at him out of the corner of my eye. I wondered if he just expected me to get out. I should thank him, I thought, express my appreciation that he did take time out of his day to help me out. I probably should tell him that I wasn't going to spread the word that Trunks Briefs was a superhuman that could fly and make balls of energy—not that anyone would believe me, anyway.
"Thanks for-"
"Hotaru, I-"
We had both started speaking at the same time, and when we both effectively cut each other off, we simply sat there and stared at each other. His lavender brows were furrowed ever so slightly over his blue eyes, but he didn't seem mad like he so soften appeared today. Instead he seemed…unsure? That had to be it, though I wasn't sure why. Maybe he was concerned that I had a big mouth and was going to start spreading around a bunch of rumors about the world's most rich and famous heir? Or maybe it was something else; I honestly didn't know. He was so freaking hard to read.
"I won't say anything about today to anyone," I assured him, keeping his gaze for only a second before dropping my stare down towards my lap. "I don't really talk to anyone besides Mom, and like I told you before, she likes to pretend that this energy-thing is no different than a disease that can be cured. Telling her about today would just upset her, and she's better off not knowing that I blew a crater into a ground and created a huge explosion in the sky."
"Oh, not going to tell her about flying around with some strange guy, either?" Trunks jested, amusement thick in his voice. The fact that he was cracking some sort of joke made me smile ever slightly.
"No, not going to tell her that either," I responded with a slight laugh in my voice, daring to look back up to him again. One of his lavender brows were arched upward and I could see the amusement glimmering in his eyes. It was nice to see another side of Trunks than his god-awful attitude; it made him seem more personable, making me feel a little bit more uncomfortable in his presence. How unfortunate it was that this was probably the last time I would ever see him.
Trunks nodded slightly, pressing his back against his seat and looking away from me once more. "…Hotaru, this is by no means a permanent fix. What energy you expended today is going to come back, and judging by what you've told me, it'll probably return with the same strength if not more than that."
I wasn't surprised by his words, having had the feeling that today wasn't going to be the end of my problems with my energy. "What should I do then?" I asked him.
"Ideally, learn to control the power itself instead of trying to keep it contained. I would say take up some martial arts classes or something, but…" his words trailed off and he gave me a knowing look.
"Yeah, I'm not a fighter," I acknowledged. "I would probably make more of a fool myself learning to fight than what I did today."
Trunks was quiet for a few seconds before saying in a very soft voice, "You didn't do that badly today."
I really didn't know what to say to that. Was he actually giving me a compliment? I couldn't for the life of me understand why; I had messed up royally once, and he had been the one to bail me out. All I had done was follow his instructions as he gave them to me, but I had nearly killed us both by making that one stupid mistake. Perhaps I was being too hard on myself for it, but I had sought Trunks out to prevent killing someone and I ended up almost doing that anyway. The fact that Trunks was apparently trying to be nice to me was a little disturbing and completely opposite to the snobbish person I had already pegged him as, and it was making me feel a little uncomfortable.
People being nice to me when they normally shouldn't be—that had gotten me into a hairy situation before.
"I should go," I announced suddenly, unbuckling my seatbelt and opening the door, stepping out of his all too expensive-looking vehicle. His attitude change had spiked my anxiety terribly, memories of the time I had nearly been burned as a witch and nearly killing a group of girls pushing to the forefront of my mind. Deep down I knew that my sudden fear was entirely misguided, knowing that if Trunks wanted to hurt me then he wouldn't have helped me as much as he had, terror rarely gives way to logic or reason. All I could think of was to get away before something bad happened, and I promptly shut the door to Trunks's car and flee into the entrance of my apartment building before he could say anything more.
I realized much later that I never even properly thanked him.
To be continued…
