Tenchi Muyo Fan Fiction ❯ Okayama Summer ❯ Chapter 11

*^^ Rejoice! Here is the next chapter! ^^;;; ::coughs:: Right. ^_^ As I promised... full of Kururin-y goodness! :) Well, I'm having trouble thinking of things to rant about... sooooo... ^^;;; Yeah. OH!! ^^ If you hadn't noticed, DBZ has an annoying habit of creating minor characters, then completely dropping them. Most are never mentioned again. ^_^ I don't agree with this. It's all I'm saying. ::sighs:: I probably gave it away... ah, well. READ!!*

Chapter Eleven

"This is quite honestly the most stupid thing I have ever done."

Kururin sat on the banks of a small river not far from Goku's house, staring glumly at his reflection in its waters. I should be off training, like everyone else... he shifted uneasily. Or at least helping to take care of Chichi...

"But NO," he said aloud, sighing and flopping back in the grass. "I had to go on this pointless QUEST to find someone I already know is dead."

He contemplated giving up and going back to Kame House, as he had many times after leaving it two days ago, then (as he always did), decided against it. It wasn't that he had convinced himself Gohan was alive -- he told himself that he was DEAD, and that this was fruitless all the time, but the truth was he honestly didn't know, and this was why he wouldn't let himself quit. As Piccolo had said, no one could have possibly survived a blast that big -- even Gohan. This was easy enough to accept, if one didn't think too much about it. But there was this annoying little voice in his head that kept pulling out new possibilities -- "You really don't know anything about that new transformation of his... you didn't actually SEE him die..." -- etc. This was intensified, is possible, by his arrival at Goku's house, about an hour ago... it was deserted, of course, and looked unlived in, despite the occasional cooking utensil left out by Chichi, or all of Gohan's schoolbooks -- mostly unused -- stashed in a corner of his room. This, killing the vague hope that Gohan might have returned home with a kind of forgotten instinct, seemed only to stimulate Kururin's desire to find him, whether or not it was at all possible.

Kururin sighed, and closed his eyes. "I think," he said, in a conversational tone, "I'm going insane."

There was a giggle from behind him, and Kururin froze, not moving even to open his eyes. Someone had been watching him. Keeping his voice carefully neutral, he called, "Hello?" There was a silence, and he continued. "I know you're there... show yourself."

There was no spoken answer, but his ears detected a shuffling of dry leaves. They were leaving. He sat up and turned around, calling, "WAIT!!", but his onlooker had disappeared into the forest.

"Must have just been an ordinary person," Kururin mumbled to himself, and shook his head slowly. "You idiot, Kururin, you're growing paranoid in your old age..." He got to his feet and picked up the supply bag he had picked up from Goku's house. There wasn't anything in it; he just couldn't steal from his best friend, even if he was dead. "I need more food," he mumbled, "and a change of clothes would be nice..." He winced. "Something to cover up my fighting gi, at least..." He had been flying most of the two days, and keeping to himself, but he definitely needed something else to wear if he was going to go walking around among people in broad daylight. There was a very good chance someone would recognize him from the Cell Games... and that wouldn't be pretty.

"I think I flew over a town coming here..." Kururin slung the bag over his shoulder, then turned to frown at the forest, just in case whoever had been spying on him had come back. Hearing and seeing nothing, he shrugged and took flight, resolving to land right outside the village. Don't want to freak too many people out...

Unbeknownst to Kururin, however, there WAS someone watching him. The very same person as before, in fact. It watched in wonder as he flew over the trees, shielding itself behind an old dead tree. "He can fly," a voice whispered, "just like..." The sentence was not to be ended, the figure having made up its mind. It ran off through the trees, dodging the low branches with almost effortless skill, heading straight towards the village.

~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~

"Well, that was relatively easy," Kururin murmured to himself, stepping out of a clothing store on the outskirts of the small town. It was very small -- there was only really one street, and smaller ones branching off from it, leading to the dwellings of the citizens --, but this meant there weren't that many people living there, which was an advantage to him, if nothing else. He was now wearing a sort of black cloak over his gi: he looked quite the mysterious traveler. Which, of course, he thought to himself, smirking, is exactly what I am.

He saw that there was a merchant's shop down the road, and began making his way down that way. There was bound to be something to eat there...

An old woman was sitting outside in a chair on the porch, knitting something. She looked up when she saw him approaching, and straightened a little in her seat, somewhat apprehensive. "You don't look all that familiar... are you new around here?"

He nodded at her, taking the door handle. "Uh... yeah, kind of." Without thinking, he yanked on the door -- and tore it right off.

The old woman blinked. "Oh, my."

"Uhh..." Kururin cautiously put the door back, but it fell over again right away. "Uh. Um."

"What on Earth was that?" An older man emerged from a room in the back of the shop (which Kururin could see into quite well as of now), and approached the doorway. "Wha... what on Earth...?" He picked up the door, then looked at Kururin, his eyebrows raised. "Did you do this, sir?"

"Ahh... yes," Kururin stammered. "I'm really, really sorry... I'll repair it, I promise!" Damn it! I should have been paying attention!

The old man chuckled. "Don't be so hard on yourself. That old thing was getting rusty, anyway." He frowned. "But still... you'd have you be awfully strong to pull this off without meaning to..."

Kururin shrugged. "I'm a martial artist," He said vaguely.

The old man grinned. "Well, I guessed that much." He pushed the door against the wall. "Did you need something?"

"Yeah," Kururin said, suddenly remembering. "Do you have any kind of food here? I'm traveling, and I've run out, so..."

"We don't have that much left," the man said apologetically, "but we're getting a shipment tomorrow. If you don't want to wait until then, you can look around and see if there's anything you'd like."

"I'll do that," Kururin began to wander towards the shelves (which were, as the man had said, about half empty). He had selected a few things when the door slammed open, and a little girl ran in. "GRANDPA!!!!! GRANDPA, WHERE ARE YOU?!"

"Uh..." Kururin stared at her. "If you mean the shopkeeper, he went around back..."

"Thanks!" She was about half-way towards the back door when she stopped in her tracks and turned slowly to face him. After getting a good look at his face, she gasped, and took a step back. "It's -- you're -- you're the flying man!"

Kururin stared at her. "What...?"

The girl's grandfather entered at this point, looking slightly annoyed. "What are you yelling about this time, Lime?"

"It's that man!" The little girl named Lime said excitedly. "I saw him in the woods! He can fly, just like Gohan!"

Kururin nearly fell over. The old man looked at him strangely, and frowned. "Are you all right?"

Kururin ignored him, and addressed the little girl. "You -- you know Gohan?"

She nodded. "Yes, I do... I met him once. I thought you might know him... because, well, you could do the same things he could, and --"

"When?" Kururin asked despairingly. "Recently? Please, tell me!" If they know where he is, all my troubles are over... I don't have to worry anymore... I can go home, and...

"Um... right before the Cell Games," the little girl said, confused. "Why?"

... No. Kururin sighed heavily. "Oh... well... sorry to bother you..."

"Don't you know where he is?" Lime exclaimed. "Is he missing? What happened? Where did he go?"

"Lime!" Her grandfather said sharply, and turned to Kururin, his face worried. "Please, tell us all what happened. I feel we have a right to know."

Kururin nodded slowly. What were the odds of meeting someone that knew him...? "Well... you'll think I'm crazy after I tell you, but here goes." He cleared his throat. "If you know about Gohan's strength, then you've probably realized he was at the Cell Games. To make a long story short, we thought we had won after Gohan's father, Goku, sacrificed himself to teleport Cell to a distant planet so he wouldn't blow up the Earth. I guess some of Cell survived, though, because he came back... he can regenerate himself, by the way. After that... some bad things happened. It wasn't fun... but anyway, Gohan injured himself by protecting a guy named Vejiita, who had gone all psycho after Cell killed his son. After that... Cell and Gohan had a final showdown, and... well... Gohan lost."

This was met with silence, and Kururin could see that Lime was very close to tears. Her grandfather swallowed hard, then said, "Does this mean... that's he... well... died?"

Kururin nodded slowly. "Everything points to that, yes."

"If he's dead, why are you looking for him?" This came from Lime. It was a very good point, and one that had been haunting Kururin for a couple of days.

"Well... I..." Kururin sighed. "It's been a couple months since Gohan's apparent 'death', and something's been bothering me the whole time. I'm not... exactly... sure... that he's dead."

"You said he had lost..." The old man said slowly.

"Yes, but it was more like he was blown away... we didn't exactly SEE him die. And it seemed, somehow, as if he really couldn't be killed... he seemed to have reached some sort of level beyond human pain or emotion." This place must be affecting me in weird ways... that was way too deep for me...

"So... he could still be alive?" Lime exclaimed.

Kururin shrugged. "Possibly." He winced, seeing the deeply relieved look on the girl's face. "But... it's not certain. Not at all. Actually, he probably IS dead."

"But you're looking, anyway." The old man said firmly. "And you're confident enough to leave wherever you came from to here."

Kururin scratched his head. "I guess... I keep telling myself to quit, and that it's hopeless, but... I can't. It's strange."

"Not at all!" Lime said cheerfully. "See, we learned in school that your brain is split in half. So maybe one half wants you to stop and one doesn't! And the one that doesn't is stronger."

Kururin stared at her. "I... well, maybe..."

Lime's grandfather laughed. "Well, whatever it may be, we won't distract you from your goal." His face sobered. "I hope you find Gohan. That boy has a lot of potential."

Kururin nodded, and a half-smile graced his face. "Yeah. I hope I do, too."

Lime grinned at him, and said nothing.

~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~

That night, after the man and his granddaughter had gone to bed, Kururin stood outside the store, the bag from Goku's house full of supplies. He had told them that he would stay the night... but he had changed his mind, wanting not to get attached to these kind people. He stared at the dark windows, half wishing the old man would somehow see him and convince him to stay, then sighed and turned around, adjusting the bag on his shoulder.

"Are you going to fly again?"

The voice sounded strangely loud in the silent night. He stiffened, and said, in a loud whisper, "What are you doing out here?"

Lime shrugged. "Well. I thought you would leave tonight... it would be best for you." She paused, then... "I want to come with you."

Kururin whirled around to glare at her. "No!"

"Not so loud!" Lime snapped. "Do you want to wake up the whole town?" She then smiled at him. "Aww... why can't I come?"

"Why would you WANT to?" Kururin muttered, glaring at her.

Lime glared back. "I want to help you find Gohan. He's my friend, too, you know!"

Kururin turned, preparing to fly off. She wouldn't be able to follow him then. "What will you tell your Grandfather? And there's Cell, too. He's still loose."

She scoffed. "I'm not afraid of Cell! I'm not afraid of ANYTHING!"

Kururin paused, and looked over his shoulder. "You're not afraid of Cell? Even after he killed all those thousands of people...?"

Her eyes narrowed. "Cell's just a coward, killing all those people that would never do anything to hurt him if he didn't give them a reason." She silent for a moment, then added, "My parents wouldn't have wanted me being afraid of someone like that."

Her parents are...? Kururin stared at Lime for a moment, then sighed. "All right... fine. You can come with me. I guess I owe you that much. But... at least leave your grandfather a note, or SOMETHING..."

"Already did!" Lime said, utterly cheerful again, and -- to Kururin's surprise and annoyance -- jumped onto his back. "You're going to fly, right? Will you carry me?"

"Get OFF," Kururin snapped, and she (giving a long, pitiful sigh) slid off onto the ground. "We have to walk."

She stared at him. "Why?"

"It'll wake people up if I fly. It... uh... uses a lot of energy, so there's... um... light," Kururin explained lamely. There's no WAY I'm carrying her the entire way... what the hell does she EAT, anyway?

Lime frowned. "I... guess... that makes sense..."

"Exactly!" Kururin said, letting a nervous chuckle escape his lips as he began walking. "Now... uh... let's go. We have a long way to go."

Lime watched him a moment, then shrugged and began to follow him. "Okay... whatever..." I wonder if he even knows where he's going?

Kururin stared into the dark woods, and bit his lip. We're coming for you, Gohan.

Wherever you are.

*^^ ;; This chapter is dedicated to that wonderful who e-mailed me to ask for the next chapter... ^^;; I hadn't exactly FORGOTTEN, I just needed a reminder. ^.^ Sorry I don't know your FFN name. I dunno what the next chapter will be about... o.o Prob'ly more with Gohan and the Tenchi Clan... YES!! THEY ARE THE TENCHI CLAN!! ^^;; Right. Okay. Ja!*