It was a gray, terrible day. Clouds of smoke curled through the air from the crushed and destroyed buildings below. Fires burned slowly or raged, causing the inhabitants of the tiny city to run and leave behind all they knew for an uncertain safety outside. Too late… Trunks watched, horrified. So many were dead. Bodies of those too slow to get away littered the main roads where the monster that had invaded had launched her attack. The devastation was complete and total. The few scarce buildings that had not been leveled were burning; those who had not died were forced to flee. He couldn’t believe how terrible things had become. Inwardly, he cursed himself. Guilt. If only he had flown faster… If only he had been watching more carefully! Once again, he felt the awful weight fall upon his shoulders. He was responsible for letting this happen. Gohon wouldn’t have. Gohon wouldn’t have let that…that Jinzouningen do this! Slowly, Trunks sunk to the ground from his place in the sky. Rubble covered the ground at his feet; rubble covered in part by blood… Sickened, Trunks moved on through the town. He had to help the survivors… ***** Watching from behind a crumbling brick building, one set of icy cat-slanted eyes narrowed dangerously as the form of the Earth’s last protector lowered to the ground slowly and surveyed the damage. She enjoyed the expression of horror that his face adopted while the burning flames leapt before him. The people of the city who had managed to survive put on the greatest soap opera of all times. Wives kneeled over fallen husbands, and children stood alone, crying bitterly for parents that would never return. Those who could walk tried to save the others, putting all their remaining strength into digging out the trapped and herding out the children and families to safety. It was a horrible site. One that no one would ever hope to see. And who had caused all this? Who had been the sole being to create such marvelous chaos? The woman behind the building smiled evilly. There was blood thirst in her face while her glassy eyes reflected the burning flames before her. She had done this. She had done it all! She felt like laughing. That is one for me, my brother’s killer. She directed her dark thoughts to the young man standing at a loss only a few meters away. Her eyes were again focused on him alone, the one whom she would soon extract her vengeance upon. She seemed to bore holes right through him. “Soon...” Juuhachigou muttered. Her fists clinched into tight fists as the rage within her welled up mightily. Her teeth were gritted as she spoke her next words, “Just wait, you little half-Sayian brat,” she said. “Just wait a little while longer until the right moment comes and you will pay for what you and your filthy master did to my brother!” Turning from the Sayiajin, Juuhachigou walked back down the ally way she had come from. It was time to leave and set the stage for her next play against her enemy. Unfortunately, she had a little problem to deal with first… Juuhachigou grimaced even as she thought of the human. Kuririn. He was her problem. She cursed herself because she hadn’t thought of what might happen if things went as far as they did. It seemed as though she still had a few bugs to work out of the stupid thing before he would be of any use to her… Coming to the place, Juuhachigou disgustedly stepped over the ill-fated human male that had dared to attack her. A single blast had punched a hole straight through him, and crimson blood seeped out onto the cold concrete around him. The cyborg’s lip curled at the sight. What a pathetic species to be taken down so easily. The look on her face diminished, however, when she got past him and found whom she was searching for. A small figure in a faded orange fighting gi sat on the ground with his back to the wall. His face was buried in his arms despairingly. Juuhachigou sighed both with unhappiness, and surprisingly, the tiniest bit of pity for the human. When she had forced him to kill one of his kind, she hadn’t expected to meet with as much resistance as he had put up. It was too late now to give any thought to whether it had been a bad idea to push him so soon. Now it appeared that she had shoved him almost to the breaking point… She remembered his reaction to his first kill clearly. He had struggled against her, refusing to harm the human; telling her that he couldn’t do it! She had gone so far as to threaten him, but even then he resisted. She could still see the frantic, pressured look in his eyes as he battled internally between gaining her approval and becoming a cold-blooded murder. Juuhachigou wasn’t sure what would have ultimately happened if the human male himself hadn’t jumped at her, hoping to kill her. Kuririn had acted instinctively, lashing out with his Ki for her. In the end, it had resulted in the other human’s death, something that Kuririn obviously considered an unacceptable sin. To her, it was all irrelevant. She had killed so many; what was one more? That answer was intolerable to Kuririn. He had killed someone. He had taken a life! Even in the darkness of the ally, Juuhachigou could see him shaking... That would never do; they had to get out of the city before that idiot Sayiajin just happened to stumble upon them. In his present state, Kuririn would be helpless to any attack. Besides that completely, Juuhachigou had to wonder what would happen if Kuririn where recognized by the boy… Kneeling slowly beside him, Juuhachigou gently reached out to shake Kuririn’s shoulder, hoping that it would bring him back from whatever nightmare that he was in. “Kuririn?” She called his name quietly. Bubbling within her was the urge to simply slap him hard over the head and drag him off, but somehow she knew that wouldn’t do any good. Right now, abuse was the last thing that he needed. “Kuririn, answer me…” At her touch, Kuririn’s trembling shoulders tensed, and he shied away from her shamefully. His head was turned as far from her as possible. She could hear him swallow a sob. Taken aback, Juuhachigou could only think to herself, Stupid sentimental human… She searched her cybernetically enhanced mind for something to do that would help, but came up with nothing in any of her memory banks. She had never tried to comfort anyone before. “Kuririn,” she said to him, sternness in her voice. It was all she could think to say. “We need to leave now. You have to snap out of it!” “…H-he’s dead.” Kuririn muttered in a low, grieving voice. A fresh shudder ran through him. “I-I killed him…” In a surge of frustration, Juuhachigou said the first thing that came to her mind. “You idiot, you haven’t done anything wrong. You fired defensively; he attacked you first!” She said. Her words had the opposite effect that she had wanted. With a mournful whimper, he unburied his face from his arms and clutched his head in his hands. The expression on his face was broken to pieces. “How could I have killed him…” Juuhachigou almost slapped her own forehead in exasperation. Then she heard the voice… “Hey! Is anyone down there?” It called. Juuhachigou recognized it immediately as the Sayiajin child, seeking out those still alive to help them. She growled under her breath; they should have been gone by now! She turned back angrily to Kuririn, to far gone in his own terrible thoughts to even notice the noises coming toward them. He would be the death of her yet! She didn’t have time to wait for him to get over this! Juuhachigou stood abruptly, furiously dragging up Kuririn by the collar as well. She shook him hard and stuck her face in his. “You listen to me, Kuririn!” She hissed at him. “We have to leave before that darn Sayiajin brat finds up here, and I don’t have time to pat you on the back and make everything all better again! The human is dead! Get over it; he won’t be the last if I have anything to do with it!” When he didn’t respond, she again shook him hard enough for his brain to rattle in his skull. “Do you hear me?” She demanded. It was with dead eyes that Kuririn dazedly looked back into hers. The pained look on his face hadn’t dulled. Juuhachigou’s head wrenched around as the noise came closer. If she took off into the sky now then she would be found out. Wrapping an arm around Kuririn, Juuhachigou dragged him with her into the shadows. He didn’t resist. In the ally, she watched as the Sayiajin walked in cautiously and looked around. She stayed very still as his eyes traveled over her and Kuririn. He seemed sure that no one was there to need his help, but instead of leaving, his shut his eyes and concentrated. Juuhachigou’s eyes widened as she realized he was searching for Ki from any trapped person that might be near here. Hurriedly, she grabbed Kuririn by the chin and forced him to look up at her. “Lower your Ki, now!” She whispered. At first, Kuririn made no move to follow her instruction, and Juuhachigou spent one terrifying moment sure that they were going to be found out and forced into a battle that she did not want to fight yet… But then, Kuririn finally closed his eyes and she watched her sensor’s reading fade away until his energy reading died completely. Juuhachigou was relieved. It also meant a turn for the better if Kuririn was enough of himself to follow her directions. As predicted, a second later, the Sayiajin boy opened his eyes and left to go save the world elsewhere. Juuhachigou relaxed her posture and her maybe-just-a-little-too-tight grip on Kuririn. He fell to a seat on the ground, breathing heavily. She noted that he kept his gaze carefully averted from hers. Annoyed and blaming him with their near discovery, Juuhachigou ignored him and started to leave. “Hurry up,” she called back to Kuririn darkly. “We’re leaving.” Kuririn reluctantly got up and followed her obediently… ***** Juuhachigou was extremely frustrated. She was sitting on the roof of an old building back “home” in Satan City, a particularly irritated look on her face. Her mind was stewing inside her crazily. They had managed to leave the destroyed city without problem or detection, but she still couldn’t get over how close she’d come to being found. It wasn’t that she didn’t think she could handle the Sayiajin child. By all rights, she was still stronger than her young opponent, and she knew it. So why the sneaking around? Why the systematic destruction of every city left on the planet? That was simple. It was because she wanted for her revenge to be complete and perfect. She would choose the place and the time; she would wipe out everything he loved, making him desperate. Then, in that final confrontation, she would make him pay for what he had done to her and her brother! Then, he would suffer and she would kill him! But not until she was ready, and had accomplished all that she had set out to accomplish. The perfect time would come, but not yet… The smallest malicious smile slipped onto Juuhachigou’s face as the battle took place in her mind’s eye. As childish as she felt day dreaming was, she had to admit that there was nothing more satisfying and stress relieving as watching her enemy beg for his life while crippled at her feet over and over again. Who cared that it was all an illusion. Soon would come the day that she made that dream a reality… She was knocked out of her “happy” thoughts as she caught sight of Kuririn out of the corner of her eye. He sat on a lower level roof a bit further down than herself, looking absolutely dismal. Since they arrived, he had been totally unresponsive, refusing to speak to her or react to any of her yelling at him. When they had set down from flight, he had sat down and rested his chin on his knees, and not moved an inch since then. Juuhachigou rested her chin on her hand and sighed looking down on him. He was part of her frustration as much as everything else was. She had been so sure that everything was going to turn out! Now look at him, she thought to herself. He might as well be dead for all the good he is to me like that… Lightly getting up from her spot, Juuhachigou gracefully floated down through the air to his side. Maybe she could slap some sense into him… Juuhachigou was surprised when Kuririn looked up upon her arrival. He leaned back against the wall tiredly, a fallen look on his face. Some of the light that she had become so subconsciously fond of was gone from his eyes. “Do you think that I’m a terrible person now?” He asked her quietly. His head bobbed back down to the ground. “Do…do you t-think I deserve to die for what I did?” Juuhachigou wasn’t sure how to answer that question. She turned her back and slowly sank to the wall beside him. Her gaze was toward the starry heavens. Her shoulders shrugged. “I don’t know.” She said quietly. Then she chuckled humorously. “But if you deserve to die for killing that one human, Kuririn, who knows what I deserve?” Kuririn turned to look at her. Even in the dark, Juuhachigou could see he was incredulous. “How can you laugh about something like that?” He asked. Juuhachigou shrugged again, turning her gaze back away from the small human beside her. “I guess after you’ve killed so many…” She began. Kuririn never let her finish. “But HOW can you kill so many, and not even care!” He demanded harshly. The abruptness of his statement startled Juuhachigou. The guile of it sent shock through her system. His words were a clear, boldfaced challenge. But Kuririn wasn’t finished. “How do you live with yourself, Juuhachigou?” He asked her. …Had it been any other person besides Kuririn, that one scrawny little human midget, than Juuhachigou would have killed them on the spot for such confrontation. How DARE he challenge her? But then again, what he said had rung with a certain truth… Juuhachigou stared at Kuririn for a long time through the hazy darkness. The little human had managed to spark something in her that she had never felt before in her life. What if…what if she were… No! Juuhachiogu’s face set. She had never doubted herself before; never given a second thought to what she had been spawned in the mind of her evil master to do. And she would not start now! She rested her head against the wall and closed her eyes. This is what you were made to do, Juuhachigou… She thought to herself. There is nothing else for you in this life… But Kuririn’s words still rung in her ears… But HOW can you kill so many, and not even care! How do you live with yourself, Juuhachigou? Juuhachigou’s brow furrowed. She wanted to hate Kuririn. She wanted to hate him for confusing her so! Before him, everything was so simple. Killing and hating were so easy. Now? Now she was having conflicting thoughts about the killing part! What a laugh! She was an android, a cyborg! And she was having a conflict with the very thing she was programmed? And all because of what? A weak, worthless, stupid human. She wanted to hate him… And yet, somehow, she couldn’t. No matter how hard she tried, she just couldn’t hate him… He had done something to her in some way that she still didn’t understand, and as much as she wanted to grab his throat and strangle him sometimes, she knew that she could never do that to him… Juuhachigou sighed deeply, and unclenched her fists after a defeated manner. She looked over at a staring Kuririn, whom had probably long since given up hoping for an answer. A bland smile managed to come over her face despite everything. “You know what, Kuririn?” She said to him. “I would really like to kill you now.” Kuririn gulped. “Okay…” Juuhachigou shook her head. “I would like to, but I really don’t think I can…” She said. The human seemed puzzled. “W-why not?” He asked. In his heart, he felt he deserved it… It had begun to rain, and thunder growled into the sky with the gathering clouds. Large drops of water began to fall from the sky and pour down upon the two sitting in the darkness. Kuririn flared his Ki around him to keep off the rain, and Juuhachigou scooted closer to him so his glowing aura protected them both. Juuhachigou sighed, reclining back. “I don’t know yet, Kuririn.” She answered honestly. “I haven’t known since the day I met you, and I think I’ll have to wait a while longer until I figure it out.” Kuririn’s head bowed, resigning himself. “I guess…I guess then, I’ll be sticking around a while longer…to help you…fight…” He tried to force the words out. Juuhachigou smiled, the dim glow of Kuririn’s Ki softening her face. Amazing, she thought. After all this, and he still wants to help me… “I won’t force you to kill the humans anymore.” Juuhachigou heard herself say. Kuririn’s head jolted upward. Wide black eyes shimmered with disbelief. “Do you mean it?” He asked her faintly. Hesitantly, Juuhachigou nodded. Then she added viscously, “But don’t think you’re getting off the hook; I still have plenty for you to do.” There was a soft laugh from beside her. It was a sound that made Juuhachigou feel much better. “Whatever, Juu-chan.” Kuririn said to her. “Whatever you say…” |
| A Fading Ki |
| Chapter 3 - Difficult Emotion |
| Author: Swiss Army Knife |
| Email: dragonswissarmyknife@hotmail.com |
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