Dragon Ball/Z/GT Fan Fiction / Yu Yu Hakusho Fan Fiction ❯ Valentine's Day ❯ Chapter One ( Chapter 1 )
[ T - Teen: Not suitable for readers under 13 ]
By: Alastair 
A strange young man appears out of the blue. Where did he come from, and what secrets does he carry?
Anime/Manga: Dragon Ball/Z/GT Fan Fiction / Yu Yu Hakusho Fan Fiction | Genre(s): Angst / Drama / Action / Romance | Type: Crossover | Uploaded On: 08.04.2003 | Pages: 9 | Words: 7.1K | Visits: 647 | Status: Work In Progress
A strange young man appears out of the blue. Where did he come from, and what secrets does he carry?
Anime/Manga: Dragon Ball/Z/GT Fan Fiction / Yu Yu Hakusho Fan Fiction | Genre(s): Angst / Drama / Action / Romance | Type: Crossover | Uploaded On: 08.04.2003 | Pages: 9 | Words: 7.1K | Visits: 647 | Status: Work In Progress
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Valentine's Day
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Chapter One
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"" is for speech.
'' is for thoughts.
[] is for telepathy.
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She tried not to die right then and there, "Otousama! You're embarrassing me!"
Vegeta scowled at her for a moment before going back to the boy - whose collar was being held up by the Saiyajin no Ou - and said, "Such a pitiful ningen. I bet that you wouldn't be able to stand in the ring with me for more than a second." Something flashed in his eyes, and he threw the boy on the street, turning to Bra, "In fact, that seems like a wonderful idea." He pointed at her, "From now on, you can't go out with anyone that can't fight me for longer than a minute."
The boy had seemed to think that this was too long of a time to be with Vegeta, and had vanished - more like ran like hell - as soon as he was able to stand. Bra's kaasan, Bulma, had yelled his ear out about not hurting any ningen, and he hadn't really done anything to Bra's (ex)date. He just shook him up a *lot.*
"Get in the house, Bra," he said pointing toward the door.
She sighed, "Otousama, can we *at least* leave the vicinity of Capsule Corp. before you decided to do something about me growing up?"
"This," he began, "is much more effective. Now, I don't have to search the whole city for you and a male ningen that would do anything to get into your" - he sneered at the garment - "short shorts."
Realizing that trying to argue this issue on their front lawn was pointless, Bra did as her otousama said. Then she realized that arguing with him on any kind of turf was pointless. Breaking into sudden tears, she fled to her room. She - due to her Saiyajin heritage - was incredibly fast. Though she would never be as fast as Pan, who actually trained and fought in matches, she took pride in her natural speed. She was gone before he could try to talk to her about the evils of boys.
She thought to herself, 'If Kare had tried anything like that, I would have been able to protect myself. If not - though a highly unlikey senario - then I could have gotten away.'
Vegeta had not been too keen on the idea that Bra wouldn't fight, so he had made a bargain with her: she had to at least learn basic self-defense and how to fly. She could have held against a lightweight like that boy. Otousama was just being silly. She groaned into her hands. Now, he wanted her *dates* to *fight* with him?!
"Otousama . . . why can't you just *pretend* that you're happy that your little girl's growing up?"
The phone rang, and Bra numbly stared at it as it rang two more times before she picked it up with a disenchanted, "Moshi moshi," for the caller.
"Bra-chan?" Asked a familiar voice. "What are you doing at home? You should have been here a half hour ago."
"I met up with some very much unwanted interference."
"What kind of interference?" Pan asked.
"Otousama interference. Get this," she said, "Otousama says that I can't go out with anyone unless they can go one-on-one with him for more than a minute."
"Wow! A whole minute with Vegeta?! That's like signing your death warrant! Bra-chan, if anyone wants to fight your tousan, I'd be careful around him, he might be unstable."
"What do you mean?"
"Only someone with a death wish would want to fight Vegeta!" Bra giggled, and Pan continued, "There's my Bra-chan! Why don't you come on down to the club anyway? Without your date."
"Okay," she said, "I'll be down in a couple minutes. I'm taking the short cut."
The short cut being, of course, flight. She said goodbye to Pan, opened her balcony window, and took off into the night sky toward the city. She landed on a building, and climbed down the fire escape into the alleyway. She was right across from the club that she was supposed to meet Pan and Marron at. Bra headed confidently toward the street, however, Fate's kindness seemed to be absent that night.
Someone's arms wrapped around her stomach, effectively holding her arms to her sides as he did so. He had a knife to her throat. Though this usually wouldn't have been such a problem for someone with Bra's strength, somehow, her assailant was stronger than her. Much stronger.
He murmured into her ear, "You scream, I stab."
Bra swallowed a dry lump, and tried not to shake. If she peaked her ki then Pan or Otousama would feel it, and come running. They knew that she would never raise her ki unless it was an emergency.
She felt to see if he had a high ki level - since he was so strong - and was surprised to find that he had none, not one drop. However after a little bit of scrounging around, she found it. At his current ki level those two could easily take him out, but not herself. But then again, he could be hiding the rest of his ki, and he would likely be able to feel her ki. Her attacker leapt - with her still in his arms - onto the building that she had just left, and then he jumped from building to building.
He stopped on one building, and scanned those around him hurriedly. Bra looked at her assailant, and struggled not to scream. He was hideous. His skin was coming off in large chunks. Not big flakes of skin. Chunks of skin. His skin was rotting away. Now that they were out of the alley she could smell him properly. He was some kind of living corpse!
But why did he have ki? Wasn't he technically dead though he was moving around? His ki did feel kind of odd though. That must have been why she hadn't felt it at first. It took an effort to really feel it. It had a different sort of wavelength to it than her own and the others' type of ki.
He growled, "Remember, don't scream . . . if he hears you, he'll know where I am in a heartbeat."
"Who?" She asked, barely above a whisper.
"If he hears you, he'll come and kill me. He's so much stronger than I. Terribly strong. He'll . . ." he continued talking, but it was more of the above.
'He's insane!' She thought frantically.
Someone stronger than him? Bra scanned the area for other ki than Pan's, but she could feel nothing like that. What if his ki was like her captor's though? She scanned again, but, instead of looking for ki similar to hers, Bra looked for that strange dark feeling ki. The corpse's ki felt frantic, and cornered. He was desperate to get away. To anywhere. To get away.
She tore her scans away from his. Would the other's ki have a different personality too? Abruptly, she felt something enter her scanning radius. It was moving at an incredible speed around the city. Searching. His ki felt like a hidden snake readying to strike and kill its victim. That's what his ki felt like. Readiness. However, he also felt angry and rather confused. And there seemed to be this strange tinge of fire and ice to him.
[Who are you?]
Bra pulled away her scans, and gasped. What had that been? She noticed that now that she knew where he was, she could feel his scan coating over her. Like the way that she could feel the sticky insane scan of the corpse. This was something strange and new. One could feel it when their ki was scanning for other ki? His ki felt soothing compared to the madman behind her. She welcomed the feeling of his scan. Something seemed to wrap her mind in a soothing caress, and Bra readily melted into the pleasantness of it. It almost ridded her mind of the avid fear that she felt from being held by a living corpse.
[What are you afraid of?]
Bra swallowed nothing, [There's this corpse! He's threatening me with a knife!]
[I'm coming.]
Not a 'Don't worry,' or an 'I'll save you,' or an 'Everything will be okay,' or even, 'I'll rescue you from this slime!' It was a nice reassuring 'I'm coming.' And that felt better than any old, lousy, half-assed thing that he could have said. He sounded so . . . sure of himself.
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This guy is obviously from another anime as stated in the summary, so I'm going to give you some addresses to pics for you to look at as a visual for you readers that don't know who this guy is. For those that recognize one of the words in the addresses below, you should check them out anyway. Very nice.
http://www.fortunecity.com/lavendar/godfather/46/hiei191.jpg
A/N: I especially like the headshot of him at the bottom. You'll see what I mean.
http://www.fortunecity.com/lavendar/godfather/46/hiei222.jpg
A/N: *SNICKER*
http://www.fortunecity.com/lavendar/godfather/46/hiei80. jpg
A/N: This is probably one of the best pictures that describes how he looks in this scene except his belt is different, and he's not covered with scratches. In my opinion, a more beautiful picture than this would be hard to find.
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He seemed to appear out of thin air right in front of their eyes. He wasn't much taller than Bra, probably only another inch, but it was slightly hard to tell because of the black hair that was swept back like a flame. The hair above his forehead was a black starburst outlined in silvery-white hair. Though his hair was similar to Otousama's, the rest of him looked nothing like Vegeta.
Vegeta and Goku did not have the slanted eyes of the Japanese because they were Saiyajin, and this strange man did, but his eyes were bright red and slightly larger than most Japanese eyes. His face structure did not have Otousama's sharp lines, it was more childlike, almost feminine in a way. However, as he took off his black cloak in one swift movement one could clearly see that this was a male. His muscles were also nothing like the Z Senshi's. While they were bulky, he was much more sleek. Built for intense speeds.
The man's attire consisted of good black boots, loose, black gi pants that were held up with what looked like an old ninja belt with four small buckles, and a black shirt. Its sleeves had been ripped off. A white bandana was wrapped around his forehead, and a bandage was wrapped around his right arm. A wicked katana blade was in his hand, the sheath having been thrown to the side with his black cloak.
All this she took in in the fraction of a second.
"Get away!" The thing shrieked, and suddenly there was agonizing pain in her right side. Bra screamed. He had stabbed her! "Come any closer, and I'll kill her!" He stabbed her side again, and she whimpered. He kept the blade in her, and twisted it slightly, causing her to jolt, and cry out louder. "Go now! I'll do it! I'll kill her!"
A torturously smooth voice came from his throat, "Don't do anything stupid. Koenma wouldn't like it if you killed another ningen."
"Shut up!" And the knife twisted further.
"Otousama!" She screamed, though she knew that it would make no difference. This hurt. Too much. There wasn't much other pain more intent that a knife turning in one's own gut. "Otousama!"
"Get away!" Then he growled at Bra, "Shut up, bitch! No one wants to hear it!"
She gritted through her teeth, "When my otousama gets here, he'll pulverize you!"
Damning common sense, she raised her ki as high as she could, but it was slowly slipping away from her along with the blood oozing down her leg. She was loosing ki, and fast. Bra felt an answering ki from three different places. Pan and someone else in the city, and Vegeta down at Capsule Corp. All three now heading toward her.
The form of Piccolo appeared first. What had he been doing in the city? One would think that the people would scream as soon as they saw him. He gasped when he saw her, "Bra!"
Surprisingly, the young man only glanced curiously at him before turning to the corpse, "Let her go, and fight me. She has nothing to do with it. Don't put another ningen death on your record."
"It wouldn't matter anyway," he mumbled. "The penalty would still be the same. If you catch me, you'll just send me to the Reikai, and that brat will execute me."
"Then give up! If not, then I will still catch you!"
Pan and Vegeta arrived at the same time. Otousama's eyes filled with rage, and sent a fist crashing into the corpse's head. At least, that was what he had planned to do. The corpse had moved quickly, and was now balancing on the ledge of the building. He twisted the knife again, and jammed it up.
Bra shrieked, and the corpse's head suddenly fell forward, onto the ground. Sliced cleanly off of its body. It rolled away, and as it did, something fell out of it. Another head. A red, scaly head with a sharp maw, and electric yellow eyes that stared blankly up at her.
Someone shoved the body to the ground, and cradled her in their arms, quickly taking out the dagger. It turned out to be the young man. He took off his shirt, and pressed it tightly to her wound. Pan rushed to their side, and he turned to her, "Hold her side. Tightly."
"Nani?" Pan asked. "Doushite? Where are you going?"
He stood, and looked at the body disdainfully, holding up a hand as if to shoot out a ki blast. However, the body burst into flames instead. He didn't seem to be too surprised by that, and his expression also didn't change when the body stumbled to its feet, and ran around like a . . .
Like a chicken with its head chopped off.
The young man said conversationally, "You have to burn them alive, or they'll just grow another head."
Vegeta sent a massive ki at the monster, and it engulfed the creature totally. Afterwards, he barked, "Who are you?"
"It," he began, "doesn't matter."
"It matters to me, boy! You just lit some kind of living corpse on fire as if it was nothing! As if it were ordinary!"
"Corpse?" He raised an eyebrow at that, and then picked up the red head that had come from out of the corpse's head, "This is a youkai. He had eaten this ningen inside out, using it as a disguise to go amongst the ningen unnoticed. He was looking for another body to inhabit when we found out where he was." Then he drop-kicked it somewhere into the city.
"We?" Vegeta sneered.
He tilted his head to the side, "I've said too much already. Ja."
And then he was gone. So fast that she didn't even see him, and she believed that not even Pan, nor Piccolo, nor even Otousama saw him. They were staring so hard at that spot.
Just as Bra slipped out of concsiousness, with Pan and Vegeta crying out her name, she could still feel his ki. He was almost on the other side of Chikyuu, but his ki was strong and prominent in her mind. Angry and extremely confused.
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Otousama, Otousan, Tousan, Chichiue, Chichi, Oyaji - Father A/N: Whenever you see several words in a row like this, that means that it's in descending order. Otousama is very, very, very polite, and Oyaji roughly means 'Old Man.'
Saiyajin no Ou - King of Saiyans
Ningen - Human
Okaasama, Okaasan, Kaasan, Hahaue, Haha, Ofukuro - Mother
Moshi Moshi - Hello (for the telephone only)
Ki - Energy
Reikai - Spirit World
Nani? - What?
Doushite? - Why? / How come?
Youkai - Demon
Dewa Mata, Ja Mata, Dewa Ne, Ja Ne, Ja - See You Later
Chikyuu - Earth
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"She's waking up!"
"Bra-chan!" Her kaasan's voice. She could recognize that voice anywhere.
"Kaasan," murmured Bra, opening her eyes, "Where am I?"
"You're home," she said, "in your nice, cozy own room."
"Why am I-?" Suddenly, it all came back to her. The strange corpse, the young man with the katana, the stabs in her side, twisting . . . She murmured, "I feel sick."
"To be expected," murmured a dark voice, gruff, and nothing like that young man's. It was Piccolo, "Even *I* find being stabbed unpleasant. I can't even imagine what it would be like to have a blade *turning* in my side."
"Don't remind me, Piccolo-san," Bra said. She took a deep breath, and then looked around.
Bulma and Pan were standing beside her on the bed, and Trunks was standing at the foot of her bed, looking down on her with more than a tint of worry. Piccolo was grimacing as if remembering being stabbed himself, Gokuu was a little behind Pan and Bulma, respectively giving her some space in case she decided to make a run for the bathroom, and Vegeta was standing beside the door, and somehow, Bra knew that he had been standing there ever since she had been brought home.
"What happened?" She asked. "After I fainted, what happened?"
Gokuu smiled, "I felt Vegeta's ki when he blasted that . . . what did you guys call it?"
"We called it a corpse," Vegeta started, "that boy called it a youkai."
Bra wanted to ask what had happened to the young man, but held her tongue.
"Well, anyway, I did my Instant Transmission, and when I saw you, I brought you to the Lookout. Dende healed you, and then I brought you back here."
"That boy had a strange ki. It's almost impossible to detect," murmured Piccolo. "The only thing close to it . . . I've only felt it a couple other times. In the mountains two times, and again in the city that night. That youkai that captured Bra had similar ki to his."
Gokuu nodded, "Un, I've felt them in the mountains near my house."
Vegeta, curious in his own Vegeta-like way, asked, "What the fuck are you two talking about, Kakarotto?"
"There are youkai everywhere, Vegeta," Gokuu said.
"What the fuck are youkai, anyway?"
The other Saiyajin smiled at him, "Well, first, whatever you guys saw last night was one, and then . . . well, there are all sort of different kinds."
Piccolo nodded, "That youkai had a dragon-like head, and the boy could have been mistaken for a ningen if not for his red eyes."
"But that's not to say that he is a youkai," Gokuu said. "I've felt one or two ningen feel like that. Nothing rotting or anything."
"Some kind of mystical, magical creatures? And a very special ningen boy? A boy that is so fast that I couldn't even see him tense to move?" Vegeta snorted, "Rubbish."
"What's rubbish?" Asked Yamucha as he walked in.
"Youkai," Vegeta snarled at the scarred ningen.
The man shuddered, "That reminds me. There's something on the news. The authorities found some kind of decapitated head in the city. Looks kind of like a dragon head except the size of a ningen head."
He smirked, "Must have been the one that the boy kicked."
Piccolo cleared his throat loudly to get their attention, "I think that we should be careful around this boy. He's trouble. After all, it's been a while since our last big battle. I think that we might be a bit overdue. I'm going to tell the others to watch out for him."
Then Bra noticed something that she hadn't before. There, sitting quite innocently on her dresser, was a neatly folded black shirt as if recently taken out of the washer and dryer.
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Hai, Un - Yes
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Bra stared at the clock.
2:10.
Five more minutes, and then school would be over. Five more minutes, and then she could look for that young man. Though the view was probably wonderful, walking around without a shirt on wasn't really the way to go. He could catch a cold or worse.
2:11.
Her reasons were lame, she knew, but she refused to admit that he intrigued her. That he was devilishly handsome, and that he stirred excitement within her whenever she remembered that deep, smooth voice that had made everything - even the knife in her side - feel all right.
2:12.
If only she could see him again. Even if it were only the last time, she would leap at the chance to see him.
2:13.
She felt for his strange ki, and was surprised to find that it was easy to find him now. Ever since she had first felt his ki, she had been able to sense him. All day, he had only felt like a tiny thing in the back of her mind because her mind had been on her schoolwork. But now, since the end of the school day was so near, she turned to thoughts of him, and his ki engulfed her. She liked the way she could feel what emotions he was experiencing.
2:14.
He was angry right now. At himself. And despair was creeping in at the edges. As if resurfacing from the very pit of his soul. It certainly felt like old despair. Something was reminding him of something that he feared.
More than any of the other feelings combined, he felt alone.
2:15.
Bra forced herself to walk briskly, yet steadily, out of the classroom, through the hallways, and out of the school. When she was a good half mile from the school, and she made sure that no one was around, she lifted up into the air, going toward him, and his anger, hopelessness, and loneliness.
She did not have to travel very far. He was in the city. Landing just outside of the city, she began to walk again, a little faster than before. She scanned the city for any other ki that felt like his in case she came across trouble like the night before.
There was one other. With him.
She took up jogging to where he was. He wasn't that far from her. They were standing on the roof of a building when she spotted them. The youkai - wrapped within a fresh ningen skin - was facing him, and the young man was scowling. Strange how it made him more handsome. Lowering her ki level, Bra climbed up the fire escape in the alley, and ended up right behind the youkai.
While not as precise with her ki as almost everyone else, Bra did know how to make a ki blast, but the thing was this. Should she risk being detected? And what if the ki blast did him no harm? What if he turned on her?
The young man didn't even look at her, [You again.]
[Hai, me.]
"Hn," he snorted. [Watch out.]
The youkai lit on fire again, and Bra thought that she almost felt something come from the young man. It *almost* felt like he had used his ki, but he had not done any such thing. She dodged the flailing creature, and then a shriek from the youkai pierced the air. A quick slash from his katana ceased the awful noise before Bra even lifted her hands to cover her ears.
The heat around the headless body of the youkai increased, and it disintegrated, turning into ash and floating away in the wind.
"How did you-?" Bra then felt his ki far away somewhere to the south. She scowled at the spot where he had been standing just a moment before, and humphed. "How rude!"
She couldn't keep herself to stay mad at him though. Alone. Such a gut-wrenching feeling. More so than that blade twisting in her side. That was pain. He was feeling pain.
When she got home, Bulma asked, "Bra-chan, where were you? Your tousan went out looking for you. He said that something was amiss."
"Nowhere," she mumbled, a bit put off by the young man. She wasn't completely sorry for him after all. He had just ran away from her!
Bulma looked up from her book, and frowned, "Honey? What's wrong?"
To get her off of the real reason that she was upset at the moment, she moved to another topic that was bugging her, "Otousama said that I can't go out with anyone unless they can stay in a fight with him for longer than a minute."
"Don't worry," Bulma smiled, "he'll get over it soon. He just needs to get used to the idea that his little girl isn't a little girl anymore."
"Kaasan, he should have gotten used to it when I was fifteen. I'm almost eighteen now, and he's still not used to it!" She growled, "I'm almost a woman!"
"Maybe," rumbled a voice behind them, "you should start acting like one then."
Bulma snapped at him, "What's that supposed to mean, Vegeta?"
"Maybe, she should move out."
"You don't really mean that, Vegeta, so don't say it," said Bulma, standing up, and poking his chest. "You'd hate it if she left."
He grumbled something incoherent, and then walked out of the living room, Bulma following him, and admonishing the Saiyajin no Ou.
Bra decided to leave them be, and to get to her room. What she found there almost made her scream, but she held it in, and, instead, asked, "What are you doing here?
Piccolo frowned, "Wondering why you took his shirt to school with you."
She kept calm, "Who's shirt?"
"That boy. The one that lit the youkai on fire with his pure will."
His will? That's why his ki had felt weird. She felt his feelings through his ki somehow, so of course she could feel through the ki as he used his will to create flames. Or something like that.
"Arigatou, Piccolo-san, I was trying to figure out how he did that," she chirped.
His frown became deeper, "Bra, stay away from him. I mean it. Don't make me tell Vegeta."
"No!" She shouted, and then blushed, whispering, "Don't do that, Piccolo-san. Otousama would be so disappointed with me. I just wanted to return his shirt. Happy?"
"Why?"
"Why what?"
"Why would you want to give his shirt back to him?"
"He was nice, Piccolo-san. He saved my life. The very least that I could do was give him his shirt back."
"Did you find him?"
Bra bit her lip, and looked at the ground, "No."
She tried to think of how she had discovered that his ki had been far away. So far away that she had given up on finding him. Piccolo was telepathic after all. There was no need to give away that she was lying.
He looked at her - somehow she knew that he knew that she had lied - "Don't make any unnecessary risks." Then he flew out through her open balcony window.
She scowled, and shut her window with a snap. After a thought, she also locked it. Just for good measure.
Pulling out some homework, she sat at her desk. However, her mind would not concentrate on her work. She checked the location of the young man, and her stomach flipped when she realized that he was just outside.
Bra leapt to her feet, opened the balcony window, and ran to the balustrade. He was sitting quite comfortably in one of the branches of the tree outside her window, leaning back against the trunk of the tree. Watching her.
"For all the skill that you people possess with being able to detect rei'ryoku, you sure are inattentive. If that green fellow had bothered to turn around he might have seen me on the roof a minute ago."
"Rei'ryoku?"
"Hai, rei'ryoku," he tilted his head to the side, staring at her as if she were a dolt. "Surely, you know that what you ningen are feeling within yourselves is rei'ryoku. The power within all you ningen."
"Oh!" Bra exclaimed, "You mean ki."
He snorted, "Such a crude term, but you ningen were always crude." She felt a flash of pain from him after he said that. As if he what he had said made him remember something.
She said, "Chotto matte yo." Bra went back into her room, and retrieved his shirt from her backpack. When she returned to the balcony, he was standing on the balustrade, perfectly balanced, and looking as if he could do cartwheels along the whole length and not fall. She smiled up at him, and handed him the shirt, "Here you go."
He stared at it for a while before slowly taking it, and, after that, he stared at her. His ki flashed with disbelief. Bra wondered at that. Did he not expect that she would give him the shirt back? Or did he not expect any kindness? What?
"What?"
The young man with the strange red eyes closed them, and shook his head, "Nothing at all."
And then he was gone.
Someone knocked on her bedroom door. Sighing, she answered it, "Hai?"
Bulma smiled, "No luck with Vegeta. Gomen nasai, Bra-chan. He seems to think that it's his duty to make your life miserable. Of course, he doesn't see it along those lines. That's just my translation of the whole ordeal."
Bra moaned, "It's not fair!"
Otousama deems that she can't go out with anyone unless they can last in a fight with him, an incredibly sexy guy from out of the blue appears, and she can't act upon it! Of course, she couldn't voice these frustrations in front of Kaasan, but it sounded almost as good in her head as it would ever sound being screamed. Besides, she probably saved herself from a sorethroat.
Maybe if he lit Otousama on fire . . .
Then again that just might only agitate Vegeta. He was no pushover. Suddenly, she was ashamed for wanting harm done to her otousama. He just wanted to protect her, and he was doing so in the only way that he knew how. Though it was an inconveniece for her, she might be able to forgive him some day for it.
When she had the before mentioned incredibly sexy guy from out of the blue as her husband.
'Hell, I'm almost eighteen! Why not think big?'
Bulma smiled, "Oh, I see! You've got your eye on some handsome young man, don't you?"
Embarrassed, Bra only nodded. How could she see through her so easily?
"And he definately wouldn't last against Vegeta."
She nodded again.
Actually, she wasn't so sure about that. He was pretty fast. Otousama had said that not even he had seen him move. And he had some form of pyrokinesis so he had some fighting chance. And his katana. Though that probably wouldn't do much harm to Otousama either.
Kaasan nodded, all-knowing, "It's Goten, isn't it?" What? Bulma was now no longer looking at her, but out the open balcony window. "The way your eyes lit up, Bra-chan. You were just thinking of how he might have a slim chance. The only single, handsome young man that I know who has a chance at staying on his feet in a fight with Vegeta is Son Goten."
She sighed, and said, "Kaasan, I have homework to do."
She snapped out of it, and said, "Oh, of course! Silly me. I'll just go talk to your tousan again. Maybe he's learned his lesson by now." She rolled her eyes, telling Bra how much she believed that. Slim to none.
*-*-*
Reiryoku - Spirit Power
Chotto Matte Kudasai, Chotto Matte Yo, Chotto Matte - Wait a Minute
Sumimasen, Suminai, Gomen Nasai, Gomen - Excuse me / I'm Sorry
*-*-*
That night, Bra awoke with a jolt. Sitting up in bed, she tried to think of what had awoken her. The slight pressure in the back of her mind was pulsing strangely. Alone. That ki. That young man. Despair. Anger. He was in the mountains. Despair. He was powering up. Alone.
He was trying to obliterate himself.
Realizing this, Bra threw her covers off herself, and silently thanked her room for being so chilly. She was always dressed in warm pajamas, thus no underwear and tanktops for her. Long pajama pants and long-sleeved shirts were more like it, and much more warm.
She opened her window, and shot out into the air. However, two others spotted her, and they flew along side her.
"Imoutochan!" Trunks called, "Go back to bed! This doesn't concern you!"
She shook her head, "Iya! I'm coming too!"
Vegeta growled, "Girl, he's looking for a fight. That's why his ki is going wild."
"He's trying to kill himself!" She shouted.
Niisan blinked a few times in surprise, "Nani?"
Piccolo caught up to them, and asked, "How would you know? We're too far away to be sure."
"I'm sure though."
They didn't ask. Pan and Gohan soon joined their group, and Pan joked, "You've suddenly taken an interest in fighting, Bra-chan?"
She shook her head again, "Iya."
"Are you sick?"
"Iya."
"You're going to some sale in the mountains that's going to stop in a half hour?"
"Iya."
"You lost an earring, and now you're trying to find it?"
"Stop it!" She snapped, and, thankfully, Pan ceased.
When they arrived, they found Chaotsu, Tenshinhan, Yamucha, and Goten with Gokuu trying to talk to the young man, "-can't give up! Just stay a little longer, and talk to me! We'll work things out!"
His power was nearing Super Saiyajin 3, and with that kind of destructive ki - with who knows how much more - he could destroy Chikyuu! Gokuu seemed to be having very little effect on him.
Vegeta barked, "What's wrong with you?! Why are you being such a weakling?! You're taking the coward's way out!"
This, however, had a more dramatic effect. His ki lowered just slightly, but the feelings that Bra could feel coming off of him did not lessen at all.
Gokuu smiled, and whispered to the Saiyajin no Ou, "Do that again, Vegeta."
He grunted, but complied, "And I thought that you were going to be trouble! Now you're just a pathetic wad of flesh and bones! I wouldn't let you look at my *feet!* Slathering dog! Wretched scum! Coward! A damned coward!"
Bra noticed that Dende was with them, and he rushed to the figure that collapsed to his knees in the snow. With her excellent Saiyajin hearing, she heard him mutter into his hands, "Sumimasen. Sumimasen. Sumimasen. Imoutochan, forgive me. Sumimasen."
Dende knelt beside him, and asked, "Are you okay? Do you need any healing?"
"No," he mumbled.
Gokuu and the others edged closer, and he looked up at them. He spat out at Vegeta, "Bastard."
"Likewise," said Vegeta, frowning softly. As softly as Vegeta could. What could he have been thinking?
A snort of laughter issued from him, but no more than one. Now he was slightly amused, but his loneliness peaked again.
Tenshinhan looked around, and also frowned, "Where are the portals?"
"What portals?" Asked Gokuu.
The young man's face did not change, but his despair and loneliness increased even more, "Gone. They're gone."
Tenshinhan gasped, "You're from another dimension!"
"Nani?!" Barked Otousama.
He glared balefully up at them, but it seemed that he only put half of his heart into it because soon after his facefaulted, and his hands were cradling his head. "Don't remind me," he said.
So with the portals gone . . . he couldn't go back home? That's why he was so depressed?
Bra had a simple solution to his problem, "Don't worry. We can help you get back home."
Reuniting the incredibly sexy guy from out of the blue with his family seemed much more important than marrying him at the moment. Besides, she was getting sick of the despair rolling off him. It made her stomach queasy.
"Really?" Asked Gokuu. "How can we do that?"
She rolled her eyes, "Gokuu-san, do you remember a little thing - seven little things called the dragonballs?"
His eyes widened in understanding, "Yeah! That can definately help him!"
The young man's scowl returned, "What the fuck am I going to do with dragon testicles?" Causing Piccolo and Vegeta to crack up. Bra did so for another reason because soon after he said that came this through her head, [Besides the obvious . . .]
Gokuu looked from him to Bra like a tennis court match for a while, and then asked Bra, "Wait a minute . . . Are we still talking about the same thing here?"
Still giggling, she patted his shoulder, "Ignore him. He doesn't know what we know."
Gokuu nodded dubviously, "If you say so . . ."
She turned to him, "The dragonballs are seven spheres with stars inside them. If you collect all seven, you can call Shenron, and he'll grant any wish within his power."
He narrowed his eyes, "And what if he can't do anything?"
"There isn't a lot that Shenron can't do."
"I don't know," said Piccolo, "from what Kami understands of these portals, they don't lead to a dimension within this one or a dimension that this one is in. These portals lead to completely different dimensions that are in no way connected to ours."
The young man snorted, "They used to."
"So," he said, ignoring his pessimism, "Shenron might not have the power to create a barrier that was never there between the dimensions."
His despair - which had been lowering - went up again, and Bra bit her lip, "That doesn't mean that Shenron *doesn't* have the power though. It's still worth a shot."
"Then," Gokuu began, "it's settled!"
"Don't tell me that I have to go through some stupid trials," the young man sighed.
"Iya, they're just scattered all across Chikyuu. They can take a lifetime to find, but we-"
"Whatever," he said, and then he took off the white bandana around his forehead. At first, Bra thought that the thin horizontal line on his forehead was a scar, but then it opened. A third eye! He closed his red eyes, and the third violet one glowed green for a moment. He said, "There's one in your home. A small orange ball with four red stars in it."
"Ha - hai," Gokuu stammered. "I kind of have a soft spot for it. You see-"
"You used to think that the spirit of your jiji was in it," he murmured, almost as if asleep. And it looked like he was with his eyes closed, and still standing. "And you still like to think that this is true."
Which caused mouths to drop on almost every face except Vegeta and Piccolo's. They scowled.
He frowned, "You killed him by becoming an . . . Oozaru. You stepped on him. It was an accident." Then his eyes opened, "What are you, Son Gokuu?"
"This is too weird," said Pan. "Can you tell the future?"
"Iya."
"Can you levitate things?"
"Hai."
"Can you control people's minds?"
"Only the weak-minded."
*-*-*
A/N: Star Wars!
*-*-*
Before she could continue, Gohan clamped a hand over her mouth, "Gomen nasai, Sanjiyan-san."
"Jaganshi," he said.
"But that means . . . you're a youkai!"
"That should have been a given when you saw my Jagan," he said gesturing toward his third eye that was no longer glowing. "I found the other six."
Piccolo snorted, "Bring them to us, and we'll summon Shenron for you."
"Why can't I do it myself?"
"We've had too many . . . mishaps in the past."
He nodded as if he knew exactly what they were talking about - and he probably did, who knows what kind of things that he had seen in Gokuu's head - and then he was gone.
Gokuu snapped out of his stupor, "Hey! He's fast! I just barely saw him leave!"
"We didn't see him move at all," grumbled Vegeta.
"Hey, did we ever catch his name?"
"Anou . . ." Pan thought this over, "He never said it."
"Who cares?" Otousama said, "He's going to be gone soon anyway."
[Sayounara, Jaganshi-san.]
[Sayounara, Bishoujo-chan.]
She had a blush on her face the entire trip home.
*-*-*
Iie, Iya - No
Imoutochan, Imouto - Younger Sister
Oniisan, Niisan, Aniue, Ani - Older Brother
Ojiisan, Jiisan, Jiji - Grandfather
Oozaru - Big Monkey
Sanjiyan - A/N: I don't have a true translation for this. I've heard this guy called Sanjiyan before, and it's basically supposed to mean a person with three eyes.
Jaganshi - Master of the Evil Eye
Jagan - Evil Eye
Tip: The best way to tell these two words apart is fairly simple. Jaganshi has one more kanji than Jagan. While Jagan only has the kanji for evil and eye, Jaganshi also has the kanji for master. So Evil Eye's Master, or Master of the Evil Eye.
Sayounara, Sayonara - Goodbye
Bishoujo - Beautiful Girl
*-*-*
Great. I've started yet another fic. Don't be proud of me! I have four others in the making! 'A Losing Battle,' 'Pregnant Fathers,' 'Silver,' and 'Wakagaeru.' There's also another fic somewhat in the making that I plan to be a songfic. A *whopper* of a songfic, but still a songfic.
Maybe I'll take a slight break by writing this new monster before continueing the others. I need a break. I keep on beating on myself for not finishing the other fics.
For those that have read 'A Losing Battle:' I'm going to finish up the next chapter, and stash it up sometime this week. There's one or two more scenes that I want to finish up. It's way too short as it is this moment.
Readers of 'Pregnant Fathers:' Sorry! The second chapter won't show up for a while. Please be patient!
For those reading 'Silver:' Well, I planned for this story to take a while between chapters anyways. I don't want to screw up all the suspense and mystery to it!
'Wakagaeru' fans: Anou . . . Hentai! All of you! Anyway, I only wanted to write a tanpen - short story - for this once a month anyway. So, I'm slightly good with that.
Fuck, and I have 'The Dragon's Hoard' on hiatis. That's never happened before. So, I'm pretty busy with all these serious fics. Sorry, to those that have been waiting for them! I just need a break! This is kind of like for 'Jaganshi ga Boku no Nagaisu ni Iru!' It's going to be about twice as long as that one. Maybe more. But that's not what I'm talking about with similarities.
'Jaganshi ga Boku no Nagaisu ni Iru!' was written for my amusement, and thankfully, everyone else loved it too. Hopefully, you'll all like this just as much, if not more.
Ja mata!
*-*-*
P.S.
Yes, there is a reason for it being called 'Valentine's Day.'
*-*-*
Valentine's Day
*-*-*
Chapter One
*-*-*
"" is for speech.
'' is for thoughts.
[] is for telepathy.
*-*-*
She tried not to die right then and there, "Otousama! You're embarrassing me!"
Vegeta scowled at her for a moment before going back to the boy - whose collar was being held up by the Saiyajin no Ou - and said, "Such a pitiful ningen. I bet that you wouldn't be able to stand in the ring with me for more than a second." Something flashed in his eyes, and he threw the boy on the street, turning to Bra, "In fact, that seems like a wonderful idea." He pointed at her, "From now on, you can't go out with anyone that can't fight me for longer than a minute."
The boy had seemed to think that this was too long of a time to be with Vegeta, and had vanished - more like ran like hell - as soon as he was able to stand. Bra's kaasan, Bulma, had yelled his ear out about not hurting any ningen, and he hadn't really done anything to Bra's (ex)date. He just shook him up a *lot.*
"Get in the house, Bra," he said pointing toward the door.
She sighed, "Otousama, can we *at least* leave the vicinity of Capsule Corp. before you decided to do something about me growing up?"
"This," he began, "is much more effective. Now, I don't have to search the whole city for you and a male ningen that would do anything to get into your" - he sneered at the garment - "short shorts."
Realizing that trying to argue this issue on their front lawn was pointless, Bra did as her otousama said. Then she realized that arguing with him on any kind of turf was pointless. Breaking into sudden tears, she fled to her room. She - due to her Saiyajin heritage - was incredibly fast. Though she would never be as fast as Pan, who actually trained and fought in matches, she took pride in her natural speed. She was gone before he could try to talk to her about the evils of boys.
She thought to herself, 'If Kare had tried anything like that, I would have been able to protect myself. If not - though a highly unlikey senario - then I could have gotten away.'
Vegeta had not been too keen on the idea that Bra wouldn't fight, so he had made a bargain with her: she had to at least learn basic self-defense and how to fly. She could have held against a lightweight like that boy. Otousama was just being silly. She groaned into her hands. Now, he wanted her *dates* to *fight* with him?!
"Otousama . . . why can't you just *pretend* that you're happy that your little girl's growing up?"
The phone rang, and Bra numbly stared at it as it rang two more times before she picked it up with a disenchanted, "Moshi moshi," for the caller.
"Bra-chan?" Asked a familiar voice. "What are you doing at home? You should have been here a half hour ago."
"I met up with some very much unwanted interference."
"What kind of interference?" Pan asked.
"Otousama interference. Get this," she said, "Otousama says that I can't go out with anyone unless they can go one-on-one with him for more than a minute."
"Wow! A whole minute with Vegeta?! That's like signing your death warrant! Bra-chan, if anyone wants to fight your tousan, I'd be careful around him, he might be unstable."
"What do you mean?"
"Only someone with a death wish would want to fight Vegeta!" Bra giggled, and Pan continued, "There's my Bra-chan! Why don't you come on down to the club anyway? Without your date."
"Okay," she said, "I'll be down in a couple minutes. I'm taking the short cut."
The short cut being, of course, flight. She said goodbye to Pan, opened her balcony window, and took off into the night sky toward the city. She landed on a building, and climbed down the fire escape into the alleyway. She was right across from the club that she was supposed to meet Pan and Marron at. Bra headed confidently toward the street, however, Fate's kindness seemed to be absent that night.
Someone's arms wrapped around her stomach, effectively holding her arms to her sides as he did so. He had a knife to her throat. Though this usually wouldn't have been such a problem for someone with Bra's strength, somehow, her assailant was stronger than her. Much stronger.
He murmured into her ear, "You scream, I stab."
Bra swallowed a dry lump, and tried not to shake. If she peaked her ki then Pan or Otousama would feel it, and come running. They knew that she would never raise her ki unless it was an emergency.
She felt to see if he had a high ki level - since he was so strong - and was surprised to find that he had none, not one drop. However after a little bit of scrounging around, she found it. At his current ki level those two could easily take him out, but not herself. But then again, he could be hiding the rest of his ki, and he would likely be able to feel her ki. Her attacker leapt - with her still in his arms - onto the building that she had just left, and then he jumped from building to building.
He stopped on one building, and scanned those around him hurriedly. Bra looked at her assailant, and struggled not to scream. He was hideous. His skin was coming off in large chunks. Not big flakes of skin. Chunks of skin. His skin was rotting away. Now that they were out of the alley she could smell him properly. He was some kind of living corpse!
But why did he have ki? Wasn't he technically dead though he was moving around? His ki did feel kind of odd though. That must have been why she hadn't felt it at first. It took an effort to really feel it. It had a different sort of wavelength to it than her own and the others' type of ki.
He growled, "Remember, don't scream . . . if he hears you, he'll know where I am in a heartbeat."
"Who?" She asked, barely above a whisper.
"If he hears you, he'll come and kill me. He's so much stronger than I. Terribly strong. He'll . . ." he continued talking, but it was more of the above.
'He's insane!' She thought frantically.
Someone stronger than him? Bra scanned the area for other ki than Pan's, but she could feel nothing like that. What if his ki was like her captor's though? She scanned again, but, instead of looking for ki similar to hers, Bra looked for that strange dark feeling ki. The corpse's ki felt frantic, and cornered. He was desperate to get away. To anywhere. To get away.
She tore her scans away from his. Would the other's ki have a different personality too? Abruptly, she felt something enter her scanning radius. It was moving at an incredible speed around the city. Searching. His ki felt like a hidden snake readying to strike and kill its victim. That's what his ki felt like. Readiness. However, he also felt angry and rather confused. And there seemed to be this strange tinge of fire and ice to him.
[Who are you?]
Bra pulled away her scans, and gasped. What had that been? She noticed that now that she knew where he was, she could feel his scan coating over her. Like the way that she could feel the sticky insane scan of the corpse. This was something strange and new. One could feel it when their ki was scanning for other ki? His ki felt soothing compared to the madman behind her. She welcomed the feeling of his scan. Something seemed to wrap her mind in a soothing caress, and Bra readily melted into the pleasantness of it. It almost ridded her mind of the avid fear that she felt from being held by a living corpse.
[What are you afraid of?]
Bra swallowed nothing, [There's this corpse! He's threatening me with a knife!]
[I'm coming.]
Not a 'Don't worry,' or an 'I'll save you,' or an 'Everything will be okay,' or even, 'I'll rescue you from this slime!' It was a nice reassuring 'I'm coming.' And that felt better than any old, lousy, half-assed thing that he could have said. He sounded so . . . sure of himself.
*-*-*
This guy is obviously from another anime as stated in the summary, so I'm going to give you some addresses to pics for you to look at as a visual for you readers that don't know who this guy is. For those that recognize one of the words in the addresses below, you should check them out anyway. Very nice.
http://www.fortunecity.com/lavendar/godfather/46/hiei191.jpg
A/N: I especially like the headshot of him at the bottom. You'll see what I mean.
http://www.fortunecity.com/lavendar/godfather/46/hiei222.jpg
A/N: *SNICKER*
http://www.fortunecity.com/lavendar/godfather/46/hiei80. jpg
A/N: This is probably one of the best pictures that describes how he looks in this scene except his belt is different, and he's not covered with scratches. In my opinion, a more beautiful picture than this would be hard to find.
*-*-*
He seemed to appear out of thin air right in front of their eyes. He wasn't much taller than Bra, probably only another inch, but it was slightly hard to tell because of the black hair that was swept back like a flame. The hair above his forehead was a black starburst outlined in silvery-white hair. Though his hair was similar to Otousama's, the rest of him looked nothing like Vegeta.
Vegeta and Goku did not have the slanted eyes of the Japanese because they were Saiyajin, and this strange man did, but his eyes were bright red and slightly larger than most Japanese eyes. His face structure did not have Otousama's sharp lines, it was more childlike, almost feminine in a way. However, as he took off his black cloak in one swift movement one could clearly see that this was a male. His muscles were also nothing like the Z Senshi's. While they were bulky, he was much more sleek. Built for intense speeds.
The man's attire consisted of good black boots, loose, black gi pants that were held up with what looked like an old ninja belt with four small buckles, and a black shirt. Its sleeves had been ripped off. A white bandana was wrapped around his forehead, and a bandage was wrapped around his right arm. A wicked katana blade was in his hand, the sheath having been thrown to the side with his black cloak.
All this she took in in the fraction of a second.
"Get away!" The thing shrieked, and suddenly there was agonizing pain in her right side. Bra screamed. He had stabbed her! "Come any closer, and I'll kill her!" He stabbed her side again, and she whimpered. He kept the blade in her, and twisted it slightly, causing her to jolt, and cry out louder. "Go now! I'll do it! I'll kill her!"
A torturously smooth voice came from his throat, "Don't do anything stupid. Koenma wouldn't like it if you killed another ningen."
"Shut up!" And the knife twisted further.
"Otousama!" She screamed, though she knew that it would make no difference. This hurt. Too much. There wasn't much other pain more intent that a knife turning in one's own gut. "Otousama!"
"Get away!" Then he growled at Bra, "Shut up, bitch! No one wants to hear it!"
She gritted through her teeth, "When my otousama gets here, he'll pulverize you!"
Damning common sense, she raised her ki as high as she could, but it was slowly slipping away from her along with the blood oozing down her leg. She was loosing ki, and fast. Bra felt an answering ki from three different places. Pan and someone else in the city, and Vegeta down at Capsule Corp. All three now heading toward her.
The form of Piccolo appeared first. What had he been doing in the city? One would think that the people would scream as soon as they saw him. He gasped when he saw her, "Bra!"
Surprisingly, the young man only glanced curiously at him before turning to the corpse, "Let her go, and fight me. She has nothing to do with it. Don't put another ningen death on your record."
"It wouldn't matter anyway," he mumbled. "The penalty would still be the same. If you catch me, you'll just send me to the Reikai, and that brat will execute me."
"Then give up! If not, then I will still catch you!"
Pan and Vegeta arrived at the same time. Otousama's eyes filled with rage, and sent a fist crashing into the corpse's head. At least, that was what he had planned to do. The corpse had moved quickly, and was now balancing on the ledge of the building. He twisted the knife again, and jammed it up.
Bra shrieked, and the corpse's head suddenly fell forward, onto the ground. Sliced cleanly off of its body. It rolled away, and as it did, something fell out of it. Another head. A red, scaly head with a sharp maw, and electric yellow eyes that stared blankly up at her.
Someone shoved the body to the ground, and cradled her in their arms, quickly taking out the dagger. It turned out to be the young man. He took off his shirt, and pressed it tightly to her wound. Pan rushed to their side, and he turned to her, "Hold her side. Tightly."
"Nani?" Pan asked. "Doushite? Where are you going?"
He stood, and looked at the body disdainfully, holding up a hand as if to shoot out a ki blast. However, the body burst into flames instead. He didn't seem to be too surprised by that, and his expression also didn't change when the body stumbled to its feet, and ran around like a . . .
Like a chicken with its head chopped off.
The young man said conversationally, "You have to burn them alive, or they'll just grow another head."
Vegeta sent a massive ki at the monster, and it engulfed the creature totally. Afterwards, he barked, "Who are you?"
"It," he began, "doesn't matter."
"It matters to me, boy! You just lit some kind of living corpse on fire as if it was nothing! As if it were ordinary!"
"Corpse?" He raised an eyebrow at that, and then picked up the red head that had come from out of the corpse's head, "This is a youkai. He had eaten this ningen inside out, using it as a disguise to go amongst the ningen unnoticed. He was looking for another body to inhabit when we found out where he was." Then he drop-kicked it somewhere into the city.
"We?" Vegeta sneered.
He tilted his head to the side, "I've said too much already. Ja."
And then he was gone. So fast that she didn't even see him, and she believed that not even Pan, nor Piccolo, nor even Otousama saw him. They were staring so hard at that spot.
Just as Bra slipped out of concsiousness, with Pan and Vegeta crying out her name, she could still feel his ki. He was almost on the other side of Chikyuu, but his ki was strong and prominent in her mind. Angry and extremely confused.
*-*-*
Otousama, Otousan, Tousan, Chichiue, Chichi, Oyaji - Father A/N: Whenever you see several words in a row like this, that means that it's in descending order. Otousama is very, very, very polite, and Oyaji roughly means 'Old Man.'
Saiyajin no Ou - King of Saiyans
Ningen - Human
Okaasama, Okaasan, Kaasan, Hahaue, Haha, Ofukuro - Mother
Moshi Moshi - Hello (for the telephone only)
Ki - Energy
Reikai - Spirit World
Nani? - What?
Doushite? - Why? / How come?
Youkai - Demon
Dewa Mata, Ja Mata, Dewa Ne, Ja Ne, Ja - See You Later
Chikyuu - Earth
*-*-*
"She's waking up!"
"Bra-chan!" Her kaasan's voice. She could recognize that voice anywhere.
"Kaasan," murmured Bra, opening her eyes, "Where am I?"
"You're home," she said, "in your nice, cozy own room."
"Why am I-?" Suddenly, it all came back to her. The strange corpse, the young man with the katana, the stabs in her side, twisting . . . She murmured, "I feel sick."
"To be expected," murmured a dark voice, gruff, and nothing like that young man's. It was Piccolo, "Even *I* find being stabbed unpleasant. I can't even imagine what it would be like to have a blade *turning* in my side."
"Don't remind me, Piccolo-san," Bra said. She took a deep breath, and then looked around.
Bulma and Pan were standing beside her on the bed, and Trunks was standing at the foot of her bed, looking down on her with more than a tint of worry. Piccolo was grimacing as if remembering being stabbed himself, Gokuu was a little behind Pan and Bulma, respectively giving her some space in case she decided to make a run for the bathroom, and Vegeta was standing beside the door, and somehow, Bra knew that he had been standing there ever since she had been brought home.
"What happened?" She asked. "After I fainted, what happened?"
Gokuu smiled, "I felt Vegeta's ki when he blasted that . . . what did you guys call it?"
"We called it a corpse," Vegeta started, "that boy called it a youkai."
Bra wanted to ask what had happened to the young man, but held her tongue.
"Well, anyway, I did my Instant Transmission, and when I saw you, I brought you to the Lookout. Dende healed you, and then I brought you back here."
"That boy had a strange ki. It's almost impossible to detect," murmured Piccolo. "The only thing close to it . . . I've only felt it a couple other times. In the mountains two times, and again in the city that night. That youkai that captured Bra had similar ki to his."
Gokuu nodded, "Un, I've felt them in the mountains near my house."
Vegeta, curious in his own Vegeta-like way, asked, "What the fuck are you two talking about, Kakarotto?"
"There are youkai everywhere, Vegeta," Gokuu said.
"What the fuck are youkai, anyway?"
The other Saiyajin smiled at him, "Well, first, whatever you guys saw last night was one, and then . . . well, there are all sort of different kinds."
Piccolo nodded, "That youkai had a dragon-like head, and the boy could have been mistaken for a ningen if not for his red eyes."
"But that's not to say that he is a youkai," Gokuu said. "I've felt one or two ningen feel like that. Nothing rotting or anything."
"Some kind of mystical, magical creatures? And a very special ningen boy? A boy that is so fast that I couldn't even see him tense to move?" Vegeta snorted, "Rubbish."
"What's rubbish?" Asked Yamucha as he walked in.
"Youkai," Vegeta snarled at the scarred ningen.
The man shuddered, "That reminds me. There's something on the news. The authorities found some kind of decapitated head in the city. Looks kind of like a dragon head except the size of a ningen head."
He smirked, "Must have been the one that the boy kicked."
Piccolo cleared his throat loudly to get their attention, "I think that we should be careful around this boy. He's trouble. After all, it's been a while since our last big battle. I think that we might be a bit overdue. I'm going to tell the others to watch out for him."
Then Bra noticed something that she hadn't before. There, sitting quite innocently on her dresser, was a neatly folded black shirt as if recently taken out of the washer and dryer.
*-*-*
Hai, Un - Yes
*-*-*
Bra stared at the clock.
2:10.
Five more minutes, and then school would be over. Five more minutes, and then she could look for that young man. Though the view was probably wonderful, walking around without a shirt on wasn't really the way to go. He could catch a cold or worse.
2:11.
Her reasons were lame, she knew, but she refused to admit that he intrigued her. That he was devilishly handsome, and that he stirred excitement within her whenever she remembered that deep, smooth voice that had made everything - even the knife in her side - feel all right.
2:12.
If only she could see him again. Even if it were only the last time, she would leap at the chance to see him.
2:13.
She felt for his strange ki, and was surprised to find that it was easy to find him now. Ever since she had first felt his ki, she had been able to sense him. All day, he had only felt like a tiny thing in the back of her mind because her mind had been on her schoolwork. But now, since the end of the school day was so near, she turned to thoughts of him, and his ki engulfed her. She liked the way she could feel what emotions he was experiencing.
2:14.
He was angry right now. At himself. And despair was creeping in at the edges. As if resurfacing from the very pit of his soul. It certainly felt like old despair. Something was reminding him of something that he feared.
More than any of the other feelings combined, he felt alone.
2:15.
Bra forced herself to walk briskly, yet steadily, out of the classroom, through the hallways, and out of the school. When she was a good half mile from the school, and she made sure that no one was around, she lifted up into the air, going toward him, and his anger, hopelessness, and loneliness.
She did not have to travel very far. He was in the city. Landing just outside of the city, she began to walk again, a little faster than before. She scanned the city for any other ki that felt like his in case she came across trouble like the night before.
There was one other. With him.
She took up jogging to where he was. He wasn't that far from her. They were standing on the roof of a building when she spotted them. The youkai - wrapped within a fresh ningen skin - was facing him, and the young man was scowling. Strange how it made him more handsome. Lowering her ki level, Bra climbed up the fire escape in the alley, and ended up right behind the youkai.
While not as precise with her ki as almost everyone else, Bra did know how to make a ki blast, but the thing was this. Should she risk being detected? And what if the ki blast did him no harm? What if he turned on her?
The young man didn't even look at her, [You again.]
[Hai, me.]
"Hn," he snorted. [Watch out.]
The youkai lit on fire again, and Bra thought that she almost felt something come from the young man. It *almost* felt like he had used his ki, but he had not done any such thing. She dodged the flailing creature, and then a shriek from the youkai pierced the air. A quick slash from his katana ceased the awful noise before Bra even lifted her hands to cover her ears.
The heat around the headless body of the youkai increased, and it disintegrated, turning into ash and floating away in the wind.
"How did you-?" Bra then felt his ki far away somewhere to the south. She scowled at the spot where he had been standing just a moment before, and humphed. "How rude!"
She couldn't keep herself to stay mad at him though. Alone. Such a gut-wrenching feeling. More so than that blade twisting in her side. That was pain. He was feeling pain.
When she got home, Bulma asked, "Bra-chan, where were you? Your tousan went out looking for you. He said that something was amiss."
"Nowhere," she mumbled, a bit put off by the young man. She wasn't completely sorry for him after all. He had just ran away from her!
Bulma looked up from her book, and frowned, "Honey? What's wrong?"
To get her off of the real reason that she was upset at the moment, she moved to another topic that was bugging her, "Otousama said that I can't go out with anyone unless they can stay in a fight with him for longer than a minute."
"Don't worry," Bulma smiled, "he'll get over it soon. He just needs to get used to the idea that his little girl isn't a little girl anymore."
"Kaasan, he should have gotten used to it when I was fifteen. I'm almost eighteen now, and he's still not used to it!" She growled, "I'm almost a woman!"
"Maybe," rumbled a voice behind them, "you should start acting like one then."
Bulma snapped at him, "What's that supposed to mean, Vegeta?"
"Maybe, she should move out."
"You don't really mean that, Vegeta, so don't say it," said Bulma, standing up, and poking his chest. "You'd hate it if she left."
He grumbled something incoherent, and then walked out of the living room, Bulma following him, and admonishing the Saiyajin no Ou.
Bra decided to leave them be, and to get to her room. What she found there almost made her scream, but she held it in, and, instead, asked, "What are you doing here?
Piccolo frowned, "Wondering why you took his shirt to school with you."
She kept calm, "Who's shirt?"
"That boy. The one that lit the youkai on fire with his pure will."
His will? That's why his ki had felt weird. She felt his feelings through his ki somehow, so of course she could feel through the ki as he used his will to create flames. Or something like that.
"Arigatou, Piccolo-san, I was trying to figure out how he did that," she chirped.
His frown became deeper, "Bra, stay away from him. I mean it. Don't make me tell Vegeta."
"No!" She shouted, and then blushed, whispering, "Don't do that, Piccolo-san. Otousama would be so disappointed with me. I just wanted to return his shirt. Happy?"
"Why?"
"Why what?"
"Why would you want to give his shirt back to him?"
"He was nice, Piccolo-san. He saved my life. The very least that I could do was give him his shirt back."
"Did you find him?"
Bra bit her lip, and looked at the ground, "No."
She tried to think of how she had discovered that his ki had been far away. So far away that she had given up on finding him. Piccolo was telepathic after all. There was no need to give away that she was lying.
He looked at her - somehow she knew that he knew that she had lied - "Don't make any unnecessary risks." Then he flew out through her open balcony window.
She scowled, and shut her window with a snap. After a thought, she also locked it. Just for good measure.
Pulling out some homework, she sat at her desk. However, her mind would not concentrate on her work. She checked the location of the young man, and her stomach flipped when she realized that he was just outside.
Bra leapt to her feet, opened the balcony window, and ran to the balustrade. He was sitting quite comfortably in one of the branches of the tree outside her window, leaning back against the trunk of the tree. Watching her.
"For all the skill that you people possess with being able to detect rei'ryoku, you sure are inattentive. If that green fellow had bothered to turn around he might have seen me on the roof a minute ago."
"Rei'ryoku?"
"Hai, rei'ryoku," he tilted his head to the side, staring at her as if she were a dolt. "Surely, you know that what you ningen are feeling within yourselves is rei'ryoku. The power within all you ningen."
"Oh!" Bra exclaimed, "You mean ki."
He snorted, "Such a crude term, but you ningen were always crude." She felt a flash of pain from him after he said that. As if he what he had said made him remember something.
She said, "Chotto matte yo." Bra went back into her room, and retrieved his shirt from her backpack. When she returned to the balcony, he was standing on the balustrade, perfectly balanced, and looking as if he could do cartwheels along the whole length and not fall. She smiled up at him, and handed him the shirt, "Here you go."
He stared at it for a while before slowly taking it, and, after that, he stared at her. His ki flashed with disbelief. Bra wondered at that. Did he not expect that she would give him the shirt back? Or did he not expect any kindness? What?
"What?"
The young man with the strange red eyes closed them, and shook his head, "Nothing at all."
And then he was gone.
Someone knocked on her bedroom door. Sighing, she answered it, "Hai?"
Bulma smiled, "No luck with Vegeta. Gomen nasai, Bra-chan. He seems to think that it's his duty to make your life miserable. Of course, he doesn't see it along those lines. That's just my translation of the whole ordeal."
Bra moaned, "It's not fair!"
Otousama deems that she can't go out with anyone unless they can last in a fight with him, an incredibly sexy guy from out of the blue appears, and she can't act upon it! Of course, she couldn't voice these frustrations in front of Kaasan, but it sounded almost as good in her head as it would ever sound being screamed. Besides, she probably saved herself from a sorethroat.
Maybe if he lit Otousama on fire . . .
Then again that just might only agitate Vegeta. He was no pushover. Suddenly, she was ashamed for wanting harm done to her otousama. He just wanted to protect her, and he was doing so in the only way that he knew how. Though it was an inconveniece for her, she might be able to forgive him some day for it.
When she had the before mentioned incredibly sexy guy from out of the blue as her husband.
'Hell, I'm almost eighteen! Why not think big?'
Bulma smiled, "Oh, I see! You've got your eye on some handsome young man, don't you?"
Embarrassed, Bra only nodded. How could she see through her so easily?
"And he definately wouldn't last against Vegeta."
She nodded again.
Actually, she wasn't so sure about that. He was pretty fast. Otousama had said that not even he had seen him move. And he had some form of pyrokinesis so he had some fighting chance. And his katana. Though that probably wouldn't do much harm to Otousama either.
Kaasan nodded, all-knowing, "It's Goten, isn't it?" What? Bulma was now no longer looking at her, but out the open balcony window. "The way your eyes lit up, Bra-chan. You were just thinking of how he might have a slim chance. The only single, handsome young man that I know who has a chance at staying on his feet in a fight with Vegeta is Son Goten."
She sighed, and said, "Kaasan, I have homework to do."
She snapped out of it, and said, "Oh, of course! Silly me. I'll just go talk to your tousan again. Maybe he's learned his lesson by now." She rolled her eyes, telling Bra how much she believed that. Slim to none.
*-*-*
Reiryoku - Spirit Power
Chotto Matte Kudasai, Chotto Matte Yo, Chotto Matte - Wait a Minute
Sumimasen, Suminai, Gomen Nasai, Gomen - Excuse me / I'm Sorry
*-*-*
That night, Bra awoke with a jolt. Sitting up in bed, she tried to think of what had awoken her. The slight pressure in the back of her mind was pulsing strangely. Alone. That ki. That young man. Despair. Anger. He was in the mountains. Despair. He was powering up. Alone.
He was trying to obliterate himself.
Realizing this, Bra threw her covers off herself, and silently thanked her room for being so chilly. She was always dressed in warm pajamas, thus no underwear and tanktops for her. Long pajama pants and long-sleeved shirts were more like it, and much more warm.
She opened her window, and shot out into the air. However, two others spotted her, and they flew along side her.
"Imoutochan!" Trunks called, "Go back to bed! This doesn't concern you!"
She shook her head, "Iya! I'm coming too!"
Vegeta growled, "Girl, he's looking for a fight. That's why his ki is going wild."
"He's trying to kill himself!" She shouted.
Niisan blinked a few times in surprise, "Nani?"
Piccolo caught up to them, and asked, "How would you know? We're too far away to be sure."
"I'm sure though."
They didn't ask. Pan and Gohan soon joined their group, and Pan joked, "You've suddenly taken an interest in fighting, Bra-chan?"
She shook her head again, "Iya."
"Are you sick?"
"Iya."
"You're going to some sale in the mountains that's going to stop in a half hour?"
"Iya."
"You lost an earring, and now you're trying to find it?"
"Stop it!" She snapped, and, thankfully, Pan ceased.
When they arrived, they found Chaotsu, Tenshinhan, Yamucha, and Goten with Gokuu trying to talk to the young man, "-can't give up! Just stay a little longer, and talk to me! We'll work things out!"
His power was nearing Super Saiyajin 3, and with that kind of destructive ki - with who knows how much more - he could destroy Chikyuu! Gokuu seemed to be having very little effect on him.
Vegeta barked, "What's wrong with you?! Why are you being such a weakling?! You're taking the coward's way out!"
This, however, had a more dramatic effect. His ki lowered just slightly, but the feelings that Bra could feel coming off of him did not lessen at all.
Gokuu smiled, and whispered to the Saiyajin no Ou, "Do that again, Vegeta."
He grunted, but complied, "And I thought that you were going to be trouble! Now you're just a pathetic wad of flesh and bones! I wouldn't let you look at my *feet!* Slathering dog! Wretched scum! Coward! A damned coward!"
Bra noticed that Dende was with them, and he rushed to the figure that collapsed to his knees in the snow. With her excellent Saiyajin hearing, she heard him mutter into his hands, "Sumimasen. Sumimasen. Sumimasen. Imoutochan, forgive me. Sumimasen."
Dende knelt beside him, and asked, "Are you okay? Do you need any healing?"
"No," he mumbled.
Gokuu and the others edged closer, and he looked up at them. He spat out at Vegeta, "Bastard."
"Likewise," said Vegeta, frowning softly. As softly as Vegeta could. What could he have been thinking?
A snort of laughter issued from him, but no more than one. Now he was slightly amused, but his loneliness peaked again.
Tenshinhan looked around, and also frowned, "Where are the portals?"
"What portals?" Asked Gokuu.
The young man's face did not change, but his despair and loneliness increased even more, "Gone. They're gone."
Tenshinhan gasped, "You're from another dimension!"
"Nani?!" Barked Otousama.
He glared balefully up at them, but it seemed that he only put half of his heart into it because soon after his facefaulted, and his hands were cradling his head. "Don't remind me," he said.
So with the portals gone . . . he couldn't go back home? That's why he was so depressed?
Bra had a simple solution to his problem, "Don't worry. We can help you get back home."
Reuniting the incredibly sexy guy from out of the blue with his family seemed much more important than marrying him at the moment. Besides, she was getting sick of the despair rolling off him. It made her stomach queasy.
"Really?" Asked Gokuu. "How can we do that?"
She rolled her eyes, "Gokuu-san, do you remember a little thing - seven little things called the dragonballs?"
His eyes widened in understanding, "Yeah! That can definately help him!"
The young man's scowl returned, "What the fuck am I going to do with dragon testicles?" Causing Piccolo and Vegeta to crack up. Bra did so for another reason because soon after he said that came this through her head, [Besides the obvious . . .]
Gokuu looked from him to Bra like a tennis court match for a while, and then asked Bra, "Wait a minute . . . Are we still talking about the same thing here?"
Still giggling, she patted his shoulder, "Ignore him. He doesn't know what we know."
Gokuu nodded dubviously, "If you say so . . ."
She turned to him, "The dragonballs are seven spheres with stars inside them. If you collect all seven, you can call Shenron, and he'll grant any wish within his power."
He narrowed his eyes, "And what if he can't do anything?"
"There isn't a lot that Shenron can't do."
"I don't know," said Piccolo, "from what Kami understands of these portals, they don't lead to a dimension within this one or a dimension that this one is in. These portals lead to completely different dimensions that are in no way connected to ours."
The young man snorted, "They used to."
"So," he said, ignoring his pessimism, "Shenron might not have the power to create a barrier that was never there between the dimensions."
His despair - which had been lowering - went up again, and Bra bit her lip, "That doesn't mean that Shenron *doesn't* have the power though. It's still worth a shot."
"Then," Gokuu began, "it's settled!"
"Don't tell me that I have to go through some stupid trials," the young man sighed.
"Iya, they're just scattered all across Chikyuu. They can take a lifetime to find, but we-"
"Whatever," he said, and then he took off the white bandana around his forehead. At first, Bra thought that the thin horizontal line on his forehead was a scar, but then it opened. A third eye! He closed his red eyes, and the third violet one glowed green for a moment. He said, "There's one in your home. A small orange ball with four red stars in it."
"Ha - hai," Gokuu stammered. "I kind of have a soft spot for it. You see-"
"You used to think that the spirit of your jiji was in it," he murmured, almost as if asleep. And it looked like he was with his eyes closed, and still standing. "And you still like to think that this is true."
Which caused mouths to drop on almost every face except Vegeta and Piccolo's. They scowled.
He frowned, "You killed him by becoming an . . . Oozaru. You stepped on him. It was an accident." Then his eyes opened, "What are you, Son Gokuu?"
"This is too weird," said Pan. "Can you tell the future?"
"Iya."
"Can you levitate things?"
"Hai."
"Can you control people's minds?"
"Only the weak-minded."
*-*-*
A/N: Star Wars!
*-*-*
Before she could continue, Gohan clamped a hand over her mouth, "Gomen nasai, Sanjiyan-san."
"Jaganshi," he said.
"But that means . . . you're a youkai!"
"That should have been a given when you saw my Jagan," he said gesturing toward his third eye that was no longer glowing. "I found the other six."
Piccolo snorted, "Bring them to us, and we'll summon Shenron for you."
"Why can't I do it myself?"
"We've had too many . . . mishaps in the past."
He nodded as if he knew exactly what they were talking about - and he probably did, who knows what kind of things that he had seen in Gokuu's head - and then he was gone.
Gokuu snapped out of his stupor, "Hey! He's fast! I just barely saw him leave!"
"We didn't see him move at all," grumbled Vegeta.
"Hey, did we ever catch his name?"
"Anou . . ." Pan thought this over, "He never said it."
"Who cares?" Otousama said, "He's going to be gone soon anyway."
[Sayounara, Jaganshi-san.]
[Sayounara, Bishoujo-chan.]
She had a blush on her face the entire trip home.
*-*-*
Iie, Iya - No
Imoutochan, Imouto - Younger Sister
Oniisan, Niisan, Aniue, Ani - Older Brother
Ojiisan, Jiisan, Jiji - Grandfather
Oozaru - Big Monkey
Sanjiyan - A/N: I don't have a true translation for this. I've heard this guy called Sanjiyan before, and it's basically supposed to mean a person with three eyes.
Jaganshi - Master of the Evil Eye
Jagan - Evil Eye
Tip: The best way to tell these two words apart is fairly simple. Jaganshi has one more kanji than Jagan. While Jagan only has the kanji for evil and eye, Jaganshi also has the kanji for master. So Evil Eye's Master, or Master of the Evil Eye.
Sayounara, Sayonara - Goodbye
Bishoujo - Beautiful Girl
*-*-*
Great. I've started yet another fic. Don't be proud of me! I have four others in the making! 'A Losing Battle,' 'Pregnant Fathers,' 'Silver,' and 'Wakagaeru.' There's also another fic somewhat in the making that I plan to be a songfic. A *whopper* of a songfic, but still a songfic.
Maybe I'll take a slight break by writing this new monster before continueing the others. I need a break. I keep on beating on myself for not finishing the other fics.
For those that have read 'A Losing Battle:' I'm going to finish up the next chapter, and stash it up sometime this week. There's one or two more scenes that I want to finish up. It's way too short as it is this moment.
Readers of 'Pregnant Fathers:' Sorry! The second chapter won't show up for a while. Please be patient!
For those reading 'Silver:' Well, I planned for this story to take a while between chapters anyways. I don't want to screw up all the suspense and mystery to it!
'Wakagaeru' fans: Anou . . . Hentai! All of you! Anyway, I only wanted to write a tanpen - short story - for this once a month anyway. So, I'm slightly good with that.
Fuck, and I have 'The Dragon's Hoard' on hiatis. That's never happened before. So, I'm pretty busy with all these serious fics. Sorry, to those that have been waiting for them! I just need a break! This is kind of like for 'Jaganshi ga Boku no Nagaisu ni Iru!' It's going to be about twice as long as that one. Maybe more. But that's not what I'm talking about with similarities.
'Jaganshi ga Boku no Nagaisu ni Iru!' was written for my amusement, and thankfully, everyone else loved it too. Hopefully, you'll all like this just as much, if not more.
Ja mata!
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P.S.
Yes, there is a reason for it being called 'Valentine's Day.'
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