Happy Easter! There will be a little culture and a confusing throwing of hands in this chapter. Thank you for reading!

AnonymousDBZFan,

So happy you enjoyed it! Even as I wrote the AN that there would be 'no humor' in chapter 17 I thought, "well...there is that one part with the eye," lol.

I so love that the gladiator aspect is coming through! I really wanted to capture that ugly vibe of excitement, so it's great to get that affiramtion from you. Thank you! Yes, the Familia's toxic resentment blurs the line between good and evil. Very much like Touketsu Vegeta himself, they become the darkness that they allow into themselves.

I just glowed reading your comments about Remmnya and Vegeta. I have a terrible tendency to otherthink things, and your comments showed me I don't have to. I didn't delve too much in Remmnya's and Vegeta's relationship, there's little dialog between them, but the feedback you've given me about what you've gotten out of their quiet dynamic reminds me that I don't have to over-explain everything. 3

Hoo boy, yes the Zhernobog issue is a loaded and confusing one for sure. I was pretty vague about the nature of Zhernobog's "bond" with Touketsu Vegeta in the first story, but I did more exploration on it in this sequel. As Marenna had reminded Touketsu in "Consequences", it's his soul that Zhernobog is bound to. Vegeta's death won't liberate him from Zhernobog, but they're both facing annihilation from the kais if Vegeta WERE to die. I haven't nailed it down yet, but I've long felt that Touketsu Vegeta is only of value to Zhernobog so long as he has his body; In this form, Vegeta can move about between both the spiritual and physical planes. I feel that if he were to die, he'd be confined to Otherworld just like the next soul. Zhernobog can't conquer Creation that way.

I'm blown away by your lovely comments! I just love hearing your feedback and I'm always so heartened to hear what you're getting out of all the nuances in this story. I'm so grateful to have you as a reader!

Fugitive

He was cornered, injured prey, and the jackals had sniffed him out.

Touketsu lay on his back, his shuddering breaths quiet as he watched the vampiric goddesses evaluate his exposed, wounded body. His bare torso was almost entirely red with gore, the wrap wound about his right leg dark and sopping wet with his blood. He narrowed his left eye, the other destroyed and plastered shut with tacky, dark blood. This was his fate? Well, he wouldn't die without a fight. Never. Laying his left hand over the cauterized wound in his ribs, he pushed himself to his feet.

Likha raised an eyebrow. "No need to get defensive. We're not here to arrest you or anything."

Blood thirsty ghoul. He knew that. They were here to make good on their threats. Touketsu leveled the burned stump of his wrist at them for a ki blast.

"Do you really think you should be fighting in your condition?" Kuma asked blandly.

The dark light coursing through his markings, he gathered his dwindling strength. "I don't care what condition I'm in," he wheezed, "I'll fight until there's nothing left."

The teens looked at each other. They disintegrated into snowy energy and blasted right through him.

Touketsu let out an inaudible gasp as rime covered his entire body, his bloody wounds darkening and coagulating in the cold; it was as though his very soul had been submerged in arctic waters. The black spikes of his hair coated with white frost and looking like blades of grass on a chill autumn morning, his rigid body fell backwards.

Likha caught him from behind and lowered him to the subterranean dirt floor. She settled his head in her lap as Kuma moved to his right side, Zeema to his left. Likha's upside down visage appeared before him as she leaned over his face, her red hair falling around him like the curtains of a hearse.

"Finally found a way to shut you up," she smirked as she tapped him lightly on his nose. "Be grateful you're numbed. It will hurt less."

He wished his mind was numbed. He could barely feel, but he was fully aware of what was happening. Trapped in the frozen sarcophagus of his own body, all he could do was watch them eat him alive. His breath was coming out in shallow, racing pants, his single eye wide with horror. Not like this. Not like this.

"Come on, let's have a look," Kuma drawled patronizingly as she pried away the stiff, frozen hand that was still clutched protectively over his ribs. Zeema took his curled hand and gave it a gentle squeeze as Kuma grazed her fingers over the charred wound.

"Geh..getaway," he mumbled futilely through a tight jaw. Kuma ignored him. Her hand dissolving into a cold mist, it descended through the wound. His eye widened further when he felt the spearpoint in his body briefly heat up before the sensation disappeared altogether. The ghostly mist that was Kuma's hand had closed around the foreign object, immediately cooling the ki infused metal that had begun to heat up upon being disturbed. He felt the sharp metal pulling inside of him, his eye fluttering shut before screwing in pain.

Kuma pulled harder. "Hmm. It's as stubborn as you are." Touketsu gasped through his locked jaw.

"You're fine, big guy," Likha said as she ran a hand through his stiff locks. "Try turning it a little, Kuma."

"I don't want to tear him up too much."

Zeema clasped her other around his and rubbed it in comfort. "It'll be over in a minute," she told him encouragingly.

"Mmmph!" He stiffened when he felt the spearpoint shift inside of him. In the next minute it was ripped out from the inside. His mind screamed in pain though the sound he made was little more than a grunt. There was very little blood; much of the surrounding tissue had been incinerated.

"Yay!" Zeema crowed as she patted his hand.

Kuma regarded the spearpoint contemptuously before flinging it onto the dirt floor with a muffled clang. The immobilizing effects Touketsu was under held him still, but it was fast waning. Pain quickly flooding his being, he began forcing himself up to fight.

"No," Likha commanded as she brought his head back down to her lap. "Don't move yet."

Kuma turned to him. "You're going to die from those wounds."

He glared up at her through his left eye. "As if you would wait long enough for that to happen?" The brunette reached into her kimono and pulled out a vial roughly five inches long. His eye widened at the sight of the familiar milky liquid it contained.

"There's a search party out for your arrest," Kuma told him. "Zeygorn split up and is looking for you right now. Zarkala wants you to survive long enough for your public execution, so Mother gave a vial of this water to each of those three. I'm pretty sure Jozop hasn't noticed yet that he lost his after flying into that little snowstorm."

They intercepted him. He weakly made to grab the vial, but Kuma pulled it out of his reach.

"If you want this water, you have to agree to come with us to the Physical Plane."

He glared up at her from his supine position. "You…bitches," he hissed, "You're holding my life for ransom? Why bother giving me your 'help' at all? Why the Physical Pla-" he broke off coughing, his good eye squeezing shut.

Likha leaned over him, her hands cradling either side of his head. "Look, you ass. This is not enough water to help you survive for long. If you don't escape to the Physical Plane and get your wounds healed fast, you're either going to die right here or you'll be found and brought back for execution."

"Why do you care?" he growled up at her.

She scowled. "I don't."

"Mother has to enforce the law," Kuma told him, "but trust us when we say she doesn't want you to die." Her nose wrinkled. "For some reason."

"Must be this bod of yours," Likha smirked as she traced a teasing finger over his chest, "because it sure isn't your winning personality. You should take better care of it."

The situation too dire to be embarrassed, he flicked his gaze to Kuma. "Marenna put you up to this?" She shook her head. "Thought you said my death would be doing her a favor."

Kuma reflected on her mother's palpable grief. "I changed my mind," she said softly.

"Touketsu, please!" Zeema implored. "Just accept."

The princesses were right. The choices he had were pitiably few. But the Physical Plane? His pride flared up. He wouldn't go down like this, not dying like a dog or suffering a public execution, his remains desecrated and mocked. The Physical Plane was another step closer to the life he'd resolved to leave behind, but as he lay dying from his wounds, that was far from his mind. "Alright," he gasped. "Alright, I'll do it!"

"Finally, some sense from you," Kuma murmured as she opened the vial. She poured a third of the contents directly into the wound between his ribs, penetrating and healing a good portion of it. "Unwrap his leg," she ordered Zeema.

Zeema moved to his right and did as instructed. She held the gaping wound together with her hands as Kuma upended another third of the vial into the gash. Thick muscles stitched together to cover the bone, the bloody water trickling through the shaggy fur and onto the damaged tree roots beneath. The deep gash was still far from healed.

"Here," Kuma said as she extended the vial. "Drink the rest. It will help with the internal injuries."

Touketsu clumsily took the vial from her and gulped down the water. Almost immediately he could breathe a bit better, and the wound from the sword thrust to his midsection healed a bit from the inside. He pulled himself unsteadily to his feet, angrily pushing the girls away when they attempted to assist him.

The sisters watched Touketsu hop awkwardly on his good leg as he found his balance. "Let's get you off this plane already," Kuma drawled with a roll of her eyes.

The three girls disintegrated into their snowy forms and ascended up the tree roots topside. Taking a breath, Touketsu climbed up after them one-handed. He emerged from beneath the oak tree, its red leaves returning to gold after the roots inadvertently absorbed the Water of Life.

"Kuma, should I get it and meet you all at the Luna Mountains?" Zeema's snowy form asked.

"No, that will waste too much time. We're going straight to the Necropolis. Come on."

Touketsu balked at the idea of going right back to the kingdom, but it was actually safer; the dragons were still combing the rest of the planet for him, and with everyone currently at Susmir the streets would be empty. He levitated a few inches off his injured leg and followed the low flying snow.

It took effort. Although his body had ferried him to safety while in the fugue state of Demon Sign, it had obviously done so at a tremendous cost to his energy. He may not have been able to manage a flight to the mountains anyway. The open entrance to the kingdom walls soon came into view. As usual, there were no guards. He stopped just short of it, hovering above the ground as he watched the snows fly through.

"Come on, Touketsu," Kuma's voice whispered.

"The barrier could be back up." He told her.

The teens rematerialized, looking bewildered. "Back up?" Zeema echoed.

"We thought you just found a way to break in," Likha said, her brows drawing together.

"He'll have to now," said Kuma. Not a one of the princesses had ever been able to break their mother's magic barriers.

Touketsu grit his teeth. That woman kept secrets even from her own children. His body darkening with its protective shadow, he experimentally put his left hand through the open entrance. On contact a white, translucent film appeared, the magic lighting up and bending around his hand as though he was pushing against a wall of latex. He felt little pain, but it intensified the longer he pushed unsuccessfully against the shield.

He snarled with annoyance when his hand was pushed back out. He'd felt some give, though. Perhaps a form with greater gravity could punch through. His body darkened, blue light racing though his markings before he became flat black, and he barreled against the barrier with his left shoulder. It began to relent, and with difficulty he pushed his hand through. Zeema grabbed it and began pulling.

"You're not helping," Touketsu grunted as he leaned into the barrier. This was working, but it was taking too long and he was tiring. The intense gravity of this form was working against him to a degree; it pulled in some of the barrier's magic energy before expressing back out through his aura, thus cancelling out his effectiveness in getting through.

The Void Transformation should do it, then. In spite of its extreme receptive nature, it paradoxically didn't feed any energy into his body. He only needed it for a moment. He closed his eye, and the light left his body as his thin aura disappeared. A smoky shadow, he instantly pushed through the barrier-

-And landed heavily on his bad leg before crumpling to his knees.

He bit back his cry of pain as his body paled. He'd felt as heavy as a stone, his ability to levitate leaving him for an instant. Gods, is that what's been going on? Am I losing access to the Life Force? He was barely aware of the princesses' hands on him before he blacked out.

"Good morning, Sunshine."

Touketsu's eye cracked open to see Likha framed against a stormy sky. Zeema grabbed him by his left hand and pulled him into a sitting position, her other arm going around to support his back. Touketsu groaned and looked around. He was in the Necropolis, the snow melting to slush under the rain and the grave markers flickering about. Beyond, a trail of moss-covered stone stairs led up a short hill to a torii painted the brightest vermillion. Kuma was standing next to it.

"Come on," Likha said as she draped his right arm across her shoulders. Zeema did the same, and together they hoisted him to his feet. They led him limping along up the stairs to meet their sister.

"How are we going to do this?" Likha asked Kuma seriously.

Groggy, Touketsu's eye widened at the sight of the object in Kuma's hand. That doll. Son of a bitch, they caught it when they followed me that day!

"Are you sure Mama was watching him through it?" Zeema asked.

"Wha? Watching me!?-" He winced in pain when he raised his voice.

"Shh. Yes," she answered him. "Mother put an enchantment on it to keep an eye on the three of us. As long as any of us were holding it, she could see and hear everything. She probably did the same for you."

"I was right to throw the blasted thing away," he growled, his left eye twitching. "Is she listening in on us right now?"

"No. We each placed our own Obfuscation Charms on it, so we can safely handle it. Problem is, you're mortal. You have to hold the effigy in order to access and use a hotspot," she said as she gestured to the torii. She bit her dark lip in thought, and Touketsu was about to ask her what the hell a hotspot was when her eyes began to slowly wander down his body. His brows drawing together, he followed her line of sight.

She suddenly and none too gently pressed her hand into the bloody wound in his abdomen.

"Tch!" He flinched away. "What are you?-"

"It just occurred to me," she said as she wiped her bloodied hand on the effigy. "A custom charm is a combination of will and personal energy. Your blood should contain enough of your own energy to help me make a charm for you." Kuma whispered an incantation over the effigy, green energy enveloping it. They all looked on as the energy turned blue, then purple before going out. She smiled in accomplishment. "It worked."

She curled Touketsu's weakened fingers around it. "It better have," he grumbled weakly.

She lifted his limp arm up to hold the effigy out to the entryway of the torii. Instantly an undulating portal in the vague shape of a person appeared to him. They pulled him stumbling along with them, and in a flash the slush-covered ground changed to dark, purple grass. Touketsu found himself standing in what appeared to be a necropolis…a different one. He looked up at a sky that was a dusky violet and blanketed with stars, two planets in shades of green visible through the atmosphere.

"Wha…where are we?"

"The Physical Plane, dummy."

Too weakened, he let the insult slide. He was just grateful it wasn't Earth. He glanced over his shoulder at the mysterious gate only to find it wasn't there, a stone prayer temple in its place. His vision began to tilt again, the princesses' voices becoming echoey as they conversed around him in hushed tones. His fingers around the effigy loosened, and it fell from his grip.

"He needs energy fast."

"I can go find him someone."

"Shh! Shut up, you guys." Likha hissed. The three suddenly hunkered down behind a broad tomb, pulling him down with them. "We're in luck," Likha whispered to her sisters.

Zeema caught her breath. "Oh I sense them. Wow, they've got some blood on their hands."

"Oh my gods they all planned on killing each other after getting the loot," Kuma chuckled. "That's priceless."

Not far ahead were a small band of grave robbers. They were stealthily ferrying out stolen grave goods from a subterranean tomb. One was standing guard, keeping an eye out for the authorities as the rest descended back down below.

Likha transformed into whirling snows, and the small blizzard made its way to the graverobber to envelope him. In a trance, the man stumbled towards the three hidden behind the tomb as the snows whirled about him. He stopped right in front of them and Likha rematerialized, her mouth on the grave robber's as she cradled his face.

She broke the kiss and turned to them. "This one's yours, Touketsu."

The grave robber blinked out of his trance when Likha broke eye contact, and his eyes widened at the sight of the bizarre, bloodied creature flanked by two more of the ghostly women. He opened his mouth to scream, to try to get away, but he was frozen in place.

Touketu's eye widened with desperate need. He pushed away from the girls and got to his feet, dragging his bad leg behind him. He all but threw himself at the petrified man, knocking 30 silvery, ill-gotten coins out of his pockets upon impact; they glinted briefly in the night sky before being lost to the dark.

Touketsu pinned the man to the ground and clamped a hand over his mouth. His skin darkened to jet as the dark light pulsed through this body, his flowing aura quickly cooling to blue. "Kuroshimo."

The man's eyes widened before rolling back, his skin growing ashen on contact before blackness spread from his mouth beneath the demon's hand. The darkness crept over his entire face and neck down below the neckline of his shirt. He was dead within three seconds.

The siphoning attack automatically diverted the energy to the worst of Touketsu's wounds. His severely damaged lung was healed completely, but the wounds in his midsection and leg had closed only marginally. Breathing deep, he re-inflated his collapsed lung. His right eye and hand were still missing. "What a weakling," he gasped. "That barely helped at all."

Touketsu scanned the drained body, his eye becoming half hooded. He was suddenly struck by another need…a desperate, degrading, and lamentably familiar one. He grabbed the corpse's arm and ripped it off, tearing into it with a fervor that he hadn't experienced in ages. It was so good. His body must have been starving for real meat because it tasted so good. His victim's indigo blood dribbling down his chin, he chewed fervently.

"Finally you're eating!" Likha laughed, rubbing his back in mock encouragement as he ignored her. "Good boy!" He abruptly halted in his grisly meal, assaulted by memories of an ominous nightmare. Just then he glanced up to lock on three sets of horrified eyes.

Noticing that some of the loot was missing, the others had emerged from the tomb to look around for their missing comrade. Their eyes alighted on the three ghosts and the pale, hulking beast that was crouched over their dismembered partner. Screaming in horror, they turned and ran.

Touketsu tossed aside the arm and gave chase, the girls shrieking and whooping in glee behind him. Touketsu closed the distance to his quarry in two leaps, grabbing one of the men by the back of the head, his tail going around the neck of the other. Slamming them face first into the cold ground, his body went black as he siphoned away their energy, their muffled screams quickly dwindling to nothing. The wounds to his midsection were gone, his leg nearly healed.

The last man whirled around in terror as he drew a weapon. With a snarl Touketsu flung one of the dead men at him to knock him off his feet. Touketsu leapt on him, his left hand gripping the man's face to slam him into the ground. Flailing and kicking, the grave robber gazed up at the demon through its splayed fingers. Framed against the distant green planet behind it, the half blind, ghost white creature darkened as blue light snapped up and down the markings on its face before everything went dark.

Touketsu stood, sighing with relief as he put his full weight on his completely healed leg. The lesser wounds that had crisscrossed his torso were gone. He blinked before reflexively bringing a hand up to his now fully healed right eye, and he froze at what he saw. His lips pressed into a thin line at the sight of the smooth stump. Kuroshimo had its limits, it seemed; only the cauterized flesh had healed. If his ruptured eye had been plucked out completely, it wouldn't have regenerated either.

Zeema skipped up to him. "Feel better?" she asked brightly.

"Sure," he said dryly, dropping his arm to the side. That's when it hit him: He'd recovered from near death. Where was the power surge of the Zenkai Boost? He swallowed. He'd resorted to the dark ki three more times. In dread, he attempted to levitate.

He stayed rooted to the ground.

He gasped softly in disbelief, his heart dropping. It couldn't be. No. The Life Force…he couldn't feel it at all. The anemic trickle just enough to keep his heart beating, it was being trapped in the vessel of his body as Marenna had warned. The Life Force that should have given him his true ki signature was being immediately converted to dark ki.

Overcome with loss, he stared sightlessly into the distance. For all his efforts, his meditation, his rehabilitation, his studying, his practice, this blasted balancing act had brought him nothing. His left hand curled into a trembling fist.

"Why is he just standing there?" Likha whispered to her sisters, who shrugged and shook their heads.

Touketsu's body steadily descended into darkness, his mind fast drowning in rage. He'd been humiliated, brought low and put to rout. Now, he'd been pushed into a place where the dark ki was his only source of power. He was condemned to a sickly life, feeding on others' energy like some ghoul in order to maintain his strength. The dark light began to strobe through his markings, the stone in his chest lighting up with hatred. The light became blood red. What had he even been resisting?

This is what you are.

This is what I am.

He slowly brought the stump of his hand up to his increasingly furious eyes. That lizard has undone everything I've worked towards. Stolen my honor. SPAT on my pride! Both he and that silver skinned bitch! His pride was howling for revenge, demanding it. His eyes flashed purple. And I will have it. With that thought, the strumming dark light subsided, and his body faded back to white.

"Touketsu?" Zeema ventured as she stepped closer. "Are you all-"

"Give it to me," he demanded, abruptly turning to her.

"What?"

"The doll, damn it!" He scanned their expressions as they looked at each other before impatiently pushing past them.

"H-hey!"

He bounded back to the temple where he dropped it, the princesses on his heels. There it was, lying light side up on the dark grass. He snatched it up and held it out to the temple where they'd emerged. Nothing happened. He whirled around to face the princesses. "How do you use this thing?" he demanded.

"That's ours! Give it back!" Zeema yelled.

"Touketsu," Kuma frowned. "You said that-"

"Let's talk about what you said," he snapped. "You said that if I accept the water from you, I go with you to the Physical Plane. You said nothing about staying."

"What, you wanna to go back to Nav?" Likha said sarcastically.

"YES!"

Stunned, they gaped at him. "You idiot, you'll be executed!" Likha exclaimed.

"Like hell I will! This is a matter of Saiyan pride, NOW HOW DO YOU USE IT?!"

He went rigid when a wall of whirling snow hit him, icy magic freezing him in place. God…DAMN IT! He roared internally. Now healed, the princesses' magic didn't hold him long this time. His body darkened to charcoal and with a burst of his Berserker aura he freed himself. He looked to his hand, his mouth dropping open as his face fell. Where was the effigy?! Had his power disintegrated it?

"Looking for something?"

His head snapped up to see the princesses hovering in the air just ahead of him. Likha dangled the effigy teasingly at him like a cat toy. "Not everyone gets what they want," she smiled. She and her sisters disappeared into snow flurries, the effigy obscured amidst them.

"Get back here!" He roared, leaping up towards the blizzard like an animal. He realized his mistake when he went sailing through it to land unevenly on the stump of his wrist. "Gah! Fuck!" He went tumbling end over end before connecting with a headstone. Clutching his aching wrist, he sat up.

"Need a hand?"

There were scandalized gasps and giggles. He swung his head up angrily at the whirling snow in the sky.

"Geez, Kuma, low blow!" Likha laughed.

"You fucking bitches!" Touketsu raged from the ground as the delicate snow flakes scattered to the winds in a flash. He got to his feet, his body rapidly darkening. "I'm dragging you back here!"

He crossed his arms over his face, his gravity increasing and the energy whipping around him when he stopped; he didn't want to risk destroying the effigy. He then got a faint whiff of his own blood. Right. His blood was on the thing.

"You underestimate me," he seethed as he raced in the direction of the scent. "I'll track you down and get that blasted doll back. I'll return to Nav and kill that reptile once and for all! No arena, no fire-of-fucking-life to revive him, only his chopped up body at my feet. And then, I will obliterate that wretched Luscepian female!" he hissed with a purple flare of his irises.

The three sisters rematerialized within a metropolis bustling with nightlife. "That takes care of him." Kuma said smugly.

"Poor Touketsu," Zeema pouted.

"That nut's got a death wish," said Likha. "He's safe, and he's out of Mom's life. Everybody wins."

Zeema twisted the hem of her broad sleeve. "He's not out of Mama's life just because he's on another plane. She's sad. She probably thinks he died somewhere in Nav."

"Yes, but at least he wasn't really killed," Kuma said. "It would have been far worse for Mother if she had to look at his dismembered corpse rotting away for nights."

"Can't we tell her he's ok?"

"Absolutely not, Zeema!" said her raven haired sister. "If she finds out what we've been up to she'll never let us out of her sight again."

Zeema's rosy lower lip began to tremble. "But Mama's been sad ever since the trial," she whimpered. "She misses him, and now she's going to think he's dead."

"She'll get over him," Kuma shrugged.

"No she won't!" Zeema wailed as she burst into tears. "Mama's in love!" Her sisters looked blandly at each other. There she goes again.

"Zeema, honey, it's ok," Likha said as she gave her a hug. "Mom's tough, she'll be fine! And hey - it's giiiiirls niiiiight," she said in a sing-song voice as she pulled away. "Come on, let's skip to another planet for some fun."

She sniffled as she wiped the tears away. "Can we stay here?"

"Um, Zeemie, we really should go. Touketsu's looking for us."

"Please? This city is so big and there are so many pretty spots and handsome men. We barely got to explore it before it was dawn." The tears were coming back. "Please?"

Her sisters looked to each with some resignation. Zeema was very sensitive, and it was obvious she needed some cheering up. Likha sighed. "Oh, ok. If that dork manages to find us we'll just ditch him again."

Touketsu angrily prowled the bustling alien streets, not out of place among the myriad species that were milling about the open market. Preternaturally fast even on foot, he'd tracked the scent to the city in short time. However, his keen sense of smell was now being absolutely overwhelmed by the endless array of scents. He couldn't pick out his quarry in this chaos.

He also couldn't ignore the tantalizing smell of various street fare. Casually swiping food from unsuspecting vendors, he occasionally asked a resident if they had seen the three females. It was a complete long shot in a city as vast as this, but he may as well ask around while he ate.

"Seen three females?" he asked an old Snackian. "They-" The alien muttered in a foreign language before moving away. He asked several others with the same results. "Doesn't anyone speak Galactic Standard in this blasted city?" he muttered. Just then a Gulugian, a large, slug-like race he'd run into a few times in his day, shuffled past him. "Hey - hey you," he said as he stopped the person. "You speak any Galactic Standard?"

"Tuha?"

"Goddamnit," he muttered. Absent-mindedly gesticulating with the stump of his right hand, he dredged up his rusty Gulugese and repeated the question. "Uh…Galata Sicab uho cepa?"

Eyeing his severed wrist warily, it shook its neckless head. "Epo."

"Fuck." The language barrier was going to make things extra difficult. Gulugians were hermaphrodites and had no word for 'female'. "Um, uh…rehtap?" he ventured. That was Gulugese for 'sexual partner', right? The alien began withdrawing its eyestalks when Touketsu repeated the word as he attempted to communicate the universal symbol for "sex" with his hands before remembering he couldn't. He pointed to his eyes before holding up three fingers. "Rehtapsa oitro nes'uho? Oitro." He repeated, waving his three fingers in the guy's face before describing the princesses one by one. "Nu yulo, nu rowga-"

"Epo." Touketsu didn't get to describe Kuma before the slug-alien began urgently shuffling away. "Epo, epo." He wanted nothing to do with this crazy foreigner. The guy seemed desperate for a threesome, and judging by his missing hand he'd been on the bad side of the local mob.

"Hey!" Touketsu shouted after him. "Hey asshole, I'm talking to you!"

"Sipp'o, kufnar!"

"What - you…How DARE you!" Touketsu raised his left hand to blast the guy in the back when a tall, lanky alien in a red leather jacket threw an arm across his shoulders.

The four-armed, gray alien pulled Touketsu towards him in an overly chummy way. "Hey man, looking for women?" he asked with a raunchy sneer as he leaned into his personal space.

"Get the fuck off me!" Touketsu spat, shrugging the man's arm off.

He backed off affably, his four hands raised. "Couldn't help but overhear you were lookin' for chicks. Blondes and redheads, yeah? I've got 'em in spades and a whoooole lotta others."

Touketsu glowered at him. At least this fool knew Galactic Standard. He huffed. "I don't want to hire any of your disease-ridden whores." The man's accommodating demeanor evaporated. "I'm looking for three females specifically: a blonde, a redhead, and a brunette. They look…something like my race," he added with some disgust.

The man's expression turned competitive. He leaned back and crossed his four arms. "You their pimp?"

"Wha?! No! Those little shits stole something from me."

The man's eyes flicked to the telltale stump of Touketsu's wrist, the boss-man's trademark warning to all debtors, shirkers, and thieves. "Uh huh. Was it your hand?" He drawled sarcastically. Touketsu's eyes narrowed. "Consider paying your debts next time. Otherwise the next thing to go will be your head. Excuse me, I'm going to see to paying customers," he sneered as he turned and walked off.

"Yes, go and peddle your filthy wares elsewhere, you-" Touketsu stopped when it occurred to him. Places of ill repute. The princesses were attracted to males with strong negative energy - rapists, thieves, murderers. If they were still here, they'd probably be seeking out a den of them, but the princesses also had standards. They'd be on the prowl for attractive, young males at a venue that was up to the standards of spoiled royalty…somewhere they could party…

His head shot up as he watched the man round a corner down an empty alley, and he followed after him. "Hey!" The man paused, looking over his shoulder as Touketsu strode up to him. "Maybe you can be of some use. I'm not looking for whorehouses, I'm looking for a goddamn experience. Where can I find the most exclusive nightclub in this city? The absolute best."

"Thought you weren't looking to get laid."

"I'm particular about my investments. Now do you know or do I have to find someone more knowledgeable?"

The man scoffed. "Oh, I can tell you alright," he said as he crossed his upper set of arms. He cast a fleeting, doubtful look at Touketsu's left arm. "But that's quite the demand coming from a scrub."

Touketsu's left hand curled into a trembling fist as he restrained himself from knocking the guy's head clean off. Information first. Information…

It was common for four-limbed, bipedal beings to get credit chip implants in their left forearms, and Vegeta had been no exception. However, the chips were programmed to dissolve and be absorbed by the body if an account had been inactive for an extended period of time. Considering the ten mysterious years he'd spent on Earth, coupled with his abduction onto another plane that resulted in his drastic transformation, it was doubtless long gone. Not that it mattered.

Eye twitching rhythmically, Touketsu forced a smile that failed miserably in looking sincere. "Heh. You'll be compensated handsomely, I assure you," he said, bringing his left arm up.

The man reached into his coat. "Great. We'll make the transaction, then." He froze when Touktsu's hand clenched into a fist and promptly lit up with dripping, dark ki.

Touketsu leaned in threateningly, his fist between their faces. "Information first," he growled. He stiffened when he felt the cold muzzle of a weapon press into his abdomen, followed by a click and whir of building power. Unseen, the man had drawn a plasma pistol with his right lower hand. Touketsu smirked in approval. He had to give it to the guy: He was a quick draw.

Eyes on Touketsu, the man smirked back as he finished drawing out his device. He pulled up the chip scanning app as he calmly gripped Touketsu by the wrist. "Time is money for a guy like me, and you cost me a lot of it. Hope you don't have a hole in your wallet, pal." He pushed the gun against Touketsu's stomach. "…Or I'm putting a hole in you." He chuckled darkly. Touketsu began chuckling with him, and they laughed together for a moment.

Touketsu's body plunged into blackness before erupting with its icy aura. The man's upper right hand, which had been wrapped around Touketsu's wrist, instantly froze before shattering to pieces. Before he could scream Touketsu grabbed the pistol and the man's other hand met the same fate.

"AHHH!-" He was silenced when Touketsu slammed his shaggy, right forearm against his mouth and shoved him up against a building.

"Shut up, you still have two. And if you want to keep them, you will tell me what I want to know now." The terrified man mumbled something desperately beneath Touketsu's forearm, and he drew it back.

"The Beautiful Corpse - the Beautiful Corpse! Corner of AI00 and 5278!" the man rambled. "Here, here! I'll give you the coordinates!" The device held in a tight death grip in his upper left hand, he hastily punched in the coordinates with a trembling thumb. He extended it to Touketsu.

The dark prince eyed it doubtfully. "How do I know you're not bullshitting me?"

"I'm not, I'm not!"

"Hm." He held out his hand.

The man was shakily putting the device into Touketsu's palm when the demon's fingers closed around his hand. The darkness coursing up his right arm into Svaroken, Touketsu stepped back and brought the blade down over the man's arm.

The man fell to his knees and shrieked but abruptly stopped when the dripping, dark blade was brought under his nose. Touketsu was scrutinizing the device in his hand, the severed arm disintegrating at his feet. "Let's try that again," he said blandly before returning his attention to the man on the ground. "Right answers only."

"I swear, that's what you want!" he cried, tears of pain and horror streaming down his face. "It's the boss man's flagship establishment - his favorite! You won't get better than that!"

Touketsu studied him for long moments. "Alright, I believe you. I also believe I said you'd be compensated. One should get what they give, after all." He smiled darkly, his eyes flashing purple as his pride stirred. "What was it you called me? A scrub?" He didn't wait for an answer when he brought the blade down over the man's head, disintegrating him body and soul in a fleeting explosion of sparks and black smoke. Touketsu snorted in satisfaction. He'd forgotten how good it felt to destroy something so utterly.

He glanced at the dark ki blade, and a thoughtful frown formed over his face. Touketsu brought his right arm up before his eyes and regarded the weapon with some fascination. Wreathed in dark energy and flat black as always to form the blade's hilt, were the curled fingers of his hand. He flexed and extended the shadowy fingers experimentally before dissipating the blade, watching his hand disappear with it. "Hm. Interesting." Wrapping his tail around the device, he scaled up the side of a building one handed.

—-

The night stretched on at Susmir. Many Familia had since left, but the Inimicus lingered. Enthusiastically inebriated, they had a lot to talk about after witnessing this wildly different night at the Volkfangr Arena. One of the Inimcus from the gang Touketsu had first accosted, Wrodac, watched Zeygorn stride through the hall. The three headed dragon exchanged some words with the queen before leaving.

Wrodac snorted, and he took a swig of beer from his horn tankard. "He couldn't find him," he told his cohorts. "You thinkin' what I'm thinkin?" he asked his buddies. He was met with blank stares. "If Vegeta's dead, we should try to find the body. Bring it in."

"What would be in it for us?"

"Oh, I don't know – Perks? A decent fuckin' place to live within the kingdom? Maybe money too, so we can buy some quality food. Shit, we could even be granted a pardon and allowed to move the hell outta this purgatory."

"What if he's alive?" one asked nervously.

"Did you see him before he pulled his little escape act? The guy's a dead man walking. If he is alive, we come at him together and he won't be," he said as two towering Saiyans walked past their table.

"Wait for them outside the gates?" Raditz asked Nappa as they strode towards the exit.

"Yep."

"Sipp'o, kufnar!" basically "piss off, fucker", lol. First time I've written dialog in a fake language, and I gotta admit it was pretty fun. :) Thank you for reading!