Dragon Ball/Z/GT Fan Fiction ❯ Beneath the Surface ❯ Brolli's Daughter ( Chapter 8 )

Chapter 8: Brolli's Daughter

Dusk was making its appearance as the sun was sinking and the sky was darkening. A faint chilly wind whispered by, as if announcing that the sun was saying good-bye for the day. Shinobi stood in the apartment complex surrounded on all sides by white apartment buildings, with her arms folded stiffly across her chest, and a very annoyed look on her face.

It appeared that Shinobi had had a long day. Her eyes were icy, one thing that didn't appear in Zeusu's character. They were the same bright color yes, but Shinobi's were of a different mood. She also had a slight tan, and as mentioned, dark brown wavy hair as opposed to her younger brother. Shinobi gave off a somewhat negative energy, though not necessarily hostile, more so anger. This worried the Z-fighters slightly, her negative ki could make it easy for Iriyoku to change her to Majin. If she hadn't given off that familiar ki that brought back memories of Brolli, they might have mistaken her for Vegeta's long lost daughter.

"I don't know what you guys are staring at," she said bluntly, "but I've just returned from working some long , excruciatingly boring hours and I'd like to get to my apartment and rest now. So get out of my way…please." Everyone was surprised at the gruffness of her voice. It was somewhat low and womanly, not loud, nor soft, but convicting despite the slight drag in her speech. She looked and sounded like the type that easily got her way.

"Are you Shinobi Bushi?" Piccolo asked, unaffected by her rather anti-social stature. Shinobi blinked a few times in astonishment, wondering how in the world he could have guessed that. She then marched right up to Piccolo, who ended up being about a head and shoulders taller than she, but it did not affect her confidence. She stared straight up into his eyes and put her hands on her small hips.

"And what if I am?" she asked, with a slight smile, but seriousness rang in her tone of voice.

"We have some matters we would all like to discuss with you," Piccolo answered calmly, as if she had nicely asked him the time of day. Shinobi was a little discouraged that Piccolo hadn't so much as faltered from her supposedly intimidating mannerisms, but she stood her ground.

"I'm not in the mood for chit-chat," Shinobi said airily, looking bored. She turned her icy glare onto the rest of the group, and sighed. None of them looked familiar to her, but they did all have a certain air of confidence that was enough to make Shinobi a little nervous. She was out numbered by far, though the group strangely didn't seem threatening. This caught her interest. If they don't mean to harm me, what do they want then? Shinobi tried not to show her interest, but was beginning to fail. A curious glint could be caught in her stony eyes, which gave everyone else around her relief. She might cooperate after all. After a brief tense silence, Shinobi finally spoke again. "So what is this about anyway, did I do something wrong? Have some secret treasure hidden in my apartment? The Mafia is out to get me? Or let me guess, I'm really a long lost princess of some corrupted kingdom and you need me to take the thrown and bring back the order, ha," Shinobi ended sarcastically. She glanced around the group again and her gaze fell and stopped on the youngsters. She was strangely drawn to the blonde kid, he looked remotely familiar to her after all. They with the purple hair was kind of cute…the kid with the black messy hair was slightly interesting looking as well, but he didn't look as serious as the violet haired young man. She wasn't sure which one she liked more. But again she unconsciously tore her gaze from those two and landed it on Zeusu. What is it about that kid that looks so…like me…what?

Zeusu began to look uncomfortable under Shinobi's scrutiny, so he started to squirm nervously, which gave Shinobi more confidence. That was more like it, she was used to people being intimidated by her. Zeusu, on the other hand, was not impressed by Shinobi's attitude. She didn't come off as the friendly type, more so the hostile type; she seemed like the type of girl that spoke her mind, without any regard for other's feelings. Zeusu knew that it might be too soon to make such a judgment, but by the looks of things she fit the profile, beautiful yet arrogant and rude. He didn't really want her to be his long lost sister. He knew she had no reason to trust them and every right to be rude to strangers that strangely knew her name, but her attitude when she first appeared had been sour, which was a minus.

"Something along those lines," Piccolo stated, answering Shinobi's previous question.

"Ha, is that so?" Shinobi said with a slight laugh, and a sarcastic grin on her face. "Well," she said with a more serious tone in her low voice, "lets hear it. I know you don't think I'm going to invite a group of total strangers inside my apartment."

"Your choice," Piccolo said. "Well to start out--"

"Wait!" Trunks hissed, cutting Piccolo off. "They are around here somewhere, they might hear and jump us or something."

"Whose around here?" Shinobi asked in her usual bored drawl (not to be mistaken with a southern, hick drawl, think more like Angelina Jolie's voice, the way she talks), but her eyes were giving away to worry.

"They are the reason we are here right now, but we can't say, they might find out somehow that we are here if we keep talking out here," Trunks continued to whisper. "That's why we need to go inside so that we don't attract attention to ourselves. Lets talk in the hallway if you don't want to take us to your apartment, but we need to go inside. We won't hurt you, I promise." Shinobi gave the first real resemblance of a genuine smile, and then hastily led them inside.

As they all followed suit, Yamcha couldn't help but be impressed with how smart Trunks had been when he handled the situation. He himself hadn't thought of being overheard, it just hadn't occurred to him. Maybe Trunks was more like Bulma than Vegeta after all. He had noticed that Trunks didn't seem his arrogant self today, perhaps because Vegeta wasn't around, or maybe he grew out of it. He hadn't seen the kid since the tournament, he had been a conceited brat then, a true spawn of Vegeta's ego, though Yamcha never let it show that it bothered him so. If that was the case, Yamcha might find being around Trunks more tolerable. He hoped it would get better, right now he was aching inside to just fly away somewhere secluded to scream at the top of his lungs in suppressed years of hurt and rage. One of these days he was going to have to get it out on his own, if not then it would build up until he could take no more, then no telling what would happen…

The group entered a dimly lit hallway right inside the entrance of the apartment building. The eerie dismal yellow light given off by an ancient looking light fixture was enough to dampen any cheery mood that dared enter. Dark red carpeted stairs were immediately located to the right of the entrance leading to the next floor, but Shinobi passed by them and led her unexpected guests down the dreary hallway until they were located directly under the light fixture so they could see more clearly. "Lets talk here," Shinobi said dryly as she rested her back against the dingy wall. "Now seriously, what the hell is going on?" The rest of the Z-fighters crowded around her in the rather narrow hallway, almost too small to accommodate them.

"As I was saying," Piccolo said once he was settled in his spot, "I'm going to try and keep this short, if you want to know more ask later but we really need to keep moving as to not be detected as Trunks pointed out."

Trunks huh, Shinobi thought to herself as she glanced quickly in his direction before she returned her

attention to Piccolo. Interesting name, you're not so bad looking either. Shinobi quickly snapped out of

her reverie and focused on what Piccolo was telling her. It seemed drastically important, and this excited

Shinobi. Nothing in her life or about it had ever been important, not enough where groups of people were

showing up on her doorstep.

"I don't know much about your personal life," Piccolo said, "but I'm going to assume you don't know

who your father was." Shinobi nodded her head slightly. "Well the truth is, your father was a Saiyajin,

from Planet Vegeta, and he had extraordinary power, that you have inherited." Shinobi stared at Piccolo, dazed, but motioned for him to continue. "Well," Piccolo said, "Lord Iriyoku from Planet Jepido has been looking for you and your siblings to manipulate your mind and trick you into fighting for him to help take over Earth, and whatever other planets look fit in his eyes."

"Now just wait a minute," Shinobi said, holding up her hands to show her frustration. "You're saying my father is an alien, and that some guy wants me to fight for him to help take over the Earth? I'm sorry but that sounds a bit far-fetched, especially since in reality, I don't have superhuman strength so that would be a waste. I mean you had me going with my father being alien and all, I mean since I never met the guy he could very well be and that would explain a lot of things about my life. But I'm not a super hero."

"Well that's true, you're not especially strong right now," Piccolo answered calmly, which again irked Shinobi. She just couldn't understand how this guy could not be in the least intimidated. It was clear she wasn't buying it, she expected him to at least look desperate in his attempt to persuade her to travel with them. "Iriyoku would just train you until you reached your full potential and then come back to finish the job off. Plus he knows Majin, which is a form of wizardry that he would use to make you even stronger than you're full capacity for power. Believe us, we've seen it in action, and it would pretty much mean the end for us and the Earth."

Shinobi knew she had no good reason to trust them, yet she couldn't help but believe every word Piccolo said. It wouldn't mean a whole lot if strangers from around town had walked up to her and known her name, it wasn't a very large town and it wasn't uncommon. She at least knew all the faces that she came in contact with when she was working at the local record store, maybe not their names but their faces. But these guys, she had never seen before. Plus they all seemed to be genuinely serious about this whole ordeal, so either this stuff was true, or they were all mentally ill. "How do I know this isn't all just some big sick joke?" Shinobi asked angrily, still keeping up her defense. She wasn't about to let them just whisk her off that quickly.

"You just have to trust us," Goku spoke up. "Deep down you know we are telling you the truth."

The innocence in Goku's voice did the trick. She was totally convinced, even after long years of being a total pessimist, and one of the most difficult persons that some people have ever come in contact with, she was hooked. Even though she could continue arguing over it for another two hours if she wanted to, she just didn't have the heart this time, they seemed to be telling the truth, the whole truth, and nothing but the truth.

"Well," she finally said, "what is it you want me to do?"

"Come with us," Piccolo answered. "We will train you to fight for the Earth. We will help you achieve your maximum power level. You will be far stronger than most of us standing here. But we will fight along side you until we claim victory over Iriyoku. He must be destroyed, merely defeating him will not do the trick, he will just keep coming at us until he finds a way to break through and snatch you and your siblings away. Then it is pretty much over for us, so we cannot allow that to happen. He must be killed."

Shinobi was in awe of what she was asked to do. Never in her life had she amounted to anything. She had never been special, never been counted on. She couldn't even count on others, not even her own parents, for that matter she didn't even know who either of them were. Her life had been filled with bouncing from home to home since she had been a natural born terrorist. She never made any friends with her attitude, and scared most boys away so she hadn't been in many relationships. She was a loner, but not necessarily an outcast. Her beauty made her approachable, but her demeanor crushed any hopes of starting up new friendships, thus pegging her an outsider. Yet here and now, she was being asked to help save the world, a world full of people she didn't even care for, but the job alone was enough to turn her life around. No more boring small town, no more annoying people, no more boring job, no more trashed life. It was all too easy to give up, anything was better than staying here. She had always dreamt of leaving, and now she was being given a free ride out of here, plus a large task to conquer. Shinobi didn't know if she was up for the challenge of training to be a super hero, but she was definitely ready to take a hike out of Sensei.

"Ok," she said slowly, "but before I go anywhere, who are all of you, your names I mean."

"Piccolo."

"Krillin."

"Number 18."

"Gohan."

"Videl."

"Goten."

"Trunks."

"Zeusu."

"Yamch a."

"Tien."

"And I'm Goku," Goku said cheerfully, ending the sound off. "By the way, Zeusu is your little brother." Zeusu smiled at Shinobi shyly, as she gawked at her new family member.

No wonder I thought he looked like me, she thought to herself. She never had family before, she felt a little weird now that she knew. This day would definitely make a mark in her history book. Her life had just been flipped upside down.

"After we leave here, will be on our way to pick up your younger sister," Krillin added. Shinobi's jaw seemed to drop even farther. Another one! Wow this was, strange. She didn't know whether to be ecstatic about having a brother and a sister, or upset that she had never known.

"Well," she said absentmindedly, still lost in her thoughts, "I'm going to go pack some things--uh how are we traveling? I didn't see a car anywhere, I don't have one, and I have some luggage…will there be enough room in whatever we are using?"

"We will be traveling in a copter," Trunks supplied. "There will be room for luggage but don't you have some capsules to put your clothes in?"

"Well I hadn't planned on leaving this place anytime soon, so I hadn't thought of buying any traveling capsules," Shinobi replied dryly, a little annoyance lingering in her tone. Trunks was taken aback by her reply, it was sarcastic, yet slightly insulting, as if she had been insulted and was returning the favor.

She sure is temperamental, Trunks thought to himself.

"I have some extra if you would like to use them," Zeusu offered quietly, as if he were a tad afraid of his older sister. He began fishing around in his pocket for the few extra capsules he dropped in before he left his home.

Shinobi felt a little bad about intimidating her younger brother now that she knew who he was, so she gladly accepted his offering in an attempt to show she might care, and headed upstairs to her apartment to begin her packing. She didn't give any indication that her guests were welcome, so they all just stood awkwardly in the hallway waiting for her return.

Shinobi entered her tiny, dimly lit apartment, and headed straight for her bedroom. She wasn't much on collecting a lot of things so her packing was relatively easy. She opened one of the travel capsules Zeusu had given to her and started shoving clothing inside. She had a lot of clothes, in contrast to her environment. Her apartment was plain, only a table in the kitchen, a small couch in the tiny living room, a small television on a stand located in front of the couch. She didn't even have chairs at her table in the kitchen, she saw no need to get any. She thought of eating at the kitchen table more of a family thing, and since she had no family, she needed no chairs because she would never eat at the table, that's what the couch was for. Seiten had even offered to by her some chairs when he was over to visit a few times.

Seiten…Shinobi thought almost woefully. They had dated for quite some time. The one guy that refused to be intimidated by her. He was one of the few brave ones that managed to pass the test. Shinobi wasn't ever interested in relationships, but she would let them take her out a few times. Once they finally got the hint that she wasn't interested, they left her alone. But Seiten…not Seiten. He refused to give up on her. His perseverance was slowly eating away at the chip on Shinobi's shoulder. She actually started to like him. He was a very sweet young man, always nice to her even when she was being totally uncooperative. As if he understood her somehow, and accepted that she was who she was, and let it be that way. It was one of the strangest experiences of Shinobi's life. All the other guys had tried to change her, try to make her a good person, and she made sure they crashed and burned for it. She wasn't here to change. But, it seemed that Seiten knew this. He never made an attempt to ask her to apologize for being rude, or asked her why she was so mean, or anything of the sort. He just let her be, but stood beside.

That in itself, almost caused Shinobi to actually try to be a better person. Someone that would take so much abuse from her when she was in one of her moods, and take abuse from others in the town for being seen with her and taking her abuse, was enough to drive a person insane. But he did it, calmly, as if it were nothing to him. Then one night he told her he loved her. She was totally shocked. Even though it was Seiten that was saying this, it was almost impossible to love her, even she knew that. She also knew, that somewhere down the line, she began to love him too, but there was no way in hell she was going to admit that. Love was nothing but a stupid emotion that tore people open and broke them down. She was convinced it didn't even exist, since she had been abandoned as a small child. She had never felt it, or felt she was loved before, but love messed things up, especially when she was proving herself wrong by loving Seiten. But she refused to be wrong, and broke it off with Seiten right after that. She knew she would get over it quickly, but knew that he may not. Nevertheless, she put him in the back of her mind, and hoped he would stop calling. But he was no quitter, as if he had been expecting her to react that way. He always called to check up on her, asked her if she would like to have lunch, knowing she would say no, but he asked anyway.

Here Shinobi was though, about to disappear from this town, probably forever, and not even say good-bye to Seiten, the man that proved her wrong. She owed him that much, but she knew that if she called him, she might not go on this trip. It seemed terribly important to her visitors that she accompany them on their journey, and now it was terribly important that she go. Before she began her reverie on Seiten, she was stoked and ready to leave immediately. She know realized that it was Seiten all along that kept her here in the first place. Had he not come into her life, she would have saved up enough money and left long ago, there was nothing for her here…except him. But no, she was trying to forget him anyway, and this was the perfect opportunity to do so. So Shinobi continued to stuff her suitcases full of clothing, she was taking whatever she could with her.

Once Shinobi was finished with her clothes, she moved to the top of her dresser and mulled over whether to take the few items that were up there. The only things she had up there were gifts from Seiten, and some of the other guys that had taken her out. Shinobi knew that she was supposed to be putting him at the back of her mind, but she just couldn't leave the porcelain teddy bear, or the necklace with the heart locket that she would never wear. She gently gathered up those few items and packed them away amidst her clothing so they wouldn't get damaged. She would just use the trinkets to remind her of how close she was to true happiness. So close…

Zeusu had given Shinobi three capsules and she filled every one of them. She closed them up and secured them in her pants pocket. She grabbed a coat she had left out to wear, and was about to leave when she passed by the phone again. Shinobi wasn't notorious about feeling bad about anything, but it seemed to be the code for the day. She had felt bad about scaring her brother, and now she was feeling bad about leaving without any indication of what happened to her. Shinobi knew that Seiten would fall apart if he didn't hear from her at all and she was gone. He might think she died, or something awful. She knew she wasn't supposed to care but she did, so she decided to leave a message on her answering machine telling him and anyone else that had the balls to call her that she was gone. If you are trying to reach Shinobi Bushi, she is not here right now. Actually, I am moving away, starting a new life elsewhere and will probably not be back. I am leaving this message so that no one will worry about my disappearance, but I'm sure I wouldn't have to worry about that anyway. At any rate, I am gone.

Shinobi knew the message would come off as abrupt, but she didn't care. At least he would know…

She opened the front door and took a long look at what she was leaving behind. She then stepped out into the hall and closed the door firmly behind her. She was about to lock it, then decided against it. She didn't have anything in there that was of worth besides the TV, and she had everything she needed, so she just left the key in the door. The landlord would have easy access to rent it out to someone else.

Shinobi began to descend the stairs, but could hear quiet talking in the corridor below. She knew that it was the group waiting for her, so she stopped just short of the last step and listened to what they were saying.

"…you felt that negative energy," Krillin said quietly. "That is not a good thing."

"Yeah I know what you mean," Yamcha added. "That makes it easier for Iriyoku to take over her mind. She's gonna have to shake that attitude or we'll be training her for him. Making his job easier."

"We have time," Goku said optimistically. "We still have a chance to save her, and us. She still has a chance to change. Just give it some time."

"How much time," Piccolo asked. "We have time yes, but not much. Maybe she shouldn't stay with Vegeta, I don't see those two getting along. Their relationship might only add more to her angst, I don't think we can afford that right now."

"No no," Goku protested, "it will be fine. She will be fine, just trust me. I can feel it."

"If you say so," Krillin said tiredly.

So they are worried about my attitude huh, Shinobi thought to herself. They will try to change me like the others. Maybe this isn't such a good idea. Shinobi pondered on whether to turn back, but then decided to go ahead and accompany them. Whether their intentions were to change her or not, the bottom line was that they needed her. She had never been needed before, the feeling was foreign to her, but she liked it. But if they aimed to change her as an underlying scheme, she would just make them wish they had never thought about it. Changing her ways was not an option, never had been, never would be.

"Hey I'm ready," Shinobi called out as she finally stepped off the stairway.

"Well then lets get out of here," Piccolo said, as the rest of the group followed suit. Piccolo retraced the steps they had taken to reach Shinobi's apartment complex until they reached the clearing they had landed in, which was on the outskirts of the small town. Shinobi worried a bit as she noticed where they were leading her. She began to wonder if it wasn't just a joke, but as she studied their faces constantly, nothing gave way. She hoped she could run fast enough and scream loud enough for help if they were to try and drag her off somewhere to hurt her.

Once they reached the spot they had landed in, everyone stepped back as Trunks pulled out a capsule and threw it to open up the copter they were going to travel in. This relieved Shinobi greatly. Everyone piled in and this time Yamcha took the wheel.

"Which direction Trunks?" he asked quietly, hoping to disguise his disgust for having to ask Trunks anything.

"Our final destination is called Area Bridge. Its about 700 miles southeast of here, not nearly as far."

"Southeast it is then," Yamcha replied curtly, turning on the engine. Everyone else either buckled up or just stood up as Yamcha took off. Shinobi decided to sit alone, she wasn't really in the mood for making friends (actually, she never was). She still wanted to learn more about her brother, see if he was anything like her besides in looks, but she didn't have the nerve right now, plus she knew what they thought of her, and she wasn't about to give the satisfaction of seeing her making an attempt to be friendly. It wasn't her style, but she would get to know Zeusu some time, in private so others wouldn't see and assume what she didn't want them to.

"Finally down to the last one," Goten said with a yawn. "All this riding around is tiring and boring, but it beats school."

"That's the truth," Trunks agreed as he rested his head on the back of his seat. "But we are almost finished. Wonder what Area Bridge has in store for us…"

Author's note: I would like to thank all of the kind souls that read my story, especially the reviewers, your reviews let me know that I'm keeping it interesting. I'd like to especially thank Tony (celticsfantc@netscape.net) for his review on fanfiction.net. You are proving to me that most people are getting out of my story what I want them too, and you asked all the right questions, that's what I want! Plus, one of your questions also sparked an idea in my head, which will probably make my story even better. Thank you all!