| Author: Swiss Army Knife Email: dragonswissarmyknife@hotmail.com |
| Battle's Past |
| It’s peculiar, the way the stories are often written. The plot and the characters are always different, of course, but no matter how original that an author believes that they are being, the pattern of a story is always the same at heart. There is the hero. The one person that brings the ideas together. He or she is the focus, and story will revolve on his doings and his importance. He is the strong one. And the strong rule the story. The brave and the bold. No body wants to hear about the losers… This is especially so in stories that are true. People are more comfortable with the undefeatable. They wish to live and love their heroes, and not have to worry about the accessories that they will never hear of. For that is another fact about stories – there is always more to the plot than you see. Always more characters whose importance seems uncertain. And it’s sad that we miss these few, for without them, the story is incomplete. Life is too complicated to restrict to what we feel is significant. Because after all, who can really know if it wasn’t the tiny act that no one saw that didn’t tilt the scale and win the battle? ***** The room was plain and small, painted a natural shade of creamy white. There was little furniture, only a small table and a mirror that hung from a wall. A single bed stood at one far wall, and was covered by modest blue sheets. Beside the smaller bed was the skeleton of another, this one new and without the heavily worn look that the other possessed. And this new bed was meant for two. A soft oceanic scent filled the room with its pleasant, salty fragrance. It stirred the fluttering curtains with a slight breeze, and caused the makeshift seashell wind chime that was hung there to quiver and plink together in a simple music. It was charming and comfortable, despite its relatively small size and quietly used appearance. And to the young man standing silently in its doorway, it was home. It was the room that Kuririn had occupied for most of his life, and he was overjoyed that he would finally have someone to share it with. Less than a week before, Kuririn had fulfilled his dreams by marrying Juuhachigou – the cyborg woman that had once been considered his worst enemy. A smile played at his lips as he thought over what she had once been to him. His eyes sparkled. Haha. Juu-chan was no longer his enemy… He found himself turning at the sound of a bustling noise in the hallway, which was quickly followed by a bump and a muffled, irritated curse. From the flight of stairs a woman with long blond hair and beautiful ice blue eyes appeared, lugging with her a medium sized box in her arms. Kuririn smiled, stepping forward to help, but she shoved past him. Kuririn wasn’t really surprised. Juuhachigou was a very independent woman, and wished to remain so. He knew that she had passionately sworn to herself not to let something like tying her soul to another soften her in any way. Amusing, he often thought to himself when trying to hide from her his smile. He loved her for all of her quirks and insecurities. So much. The box was placed on the floor, with the contents being the whole of the young woman’s possessions. There were mostly clothing, and the small things that Kuririn had gotten for her. After the cell games, Juuhachigou had owned practically nothing. To her, it was as if her whole life was starting over again. She glanced over her shoulder briefly, where her new husband was standing watching her with that adorable, lopsided grin on his face. She was starting over indeed – with Kuririn. When she pulled back up, her hands were immediately on her hips. She surveyed the room that was to be her own. Hers and Kuririn’s. It was very simple. It would look better when the new bed was set up, she quickly decided. “Wanna go ahead and move out the old bed, Juu-chan?” Kuririn suddenly spoke up. Juuhachigou shot him a sharp look. He did that often, seeming to read her mind and her intentions. She still wasn’t sure if he was reading her face, or he really did know her well enough to read her thoughts… “Yes.” She finally spoke, and nodded toward the small cot. “Was that yours growing up.” Kuririn nodded, grinning to himself with memory. “Since I was thirteen and I first came here to train. Gokuu and I shared a room when we were kids. I moved out his old stuff a long time ago, though. A year or so after he married Chichi.” Juuhachigou asked, “Why not sooner?” A shrug. “I was lonely, I guess. We were best friends, and when he married all of a sudden I think I was somehow expecting him to come back. Childish I guess, but he was like a brother. I was kind of sour on Chichi for a while.” Kuririn laughed. Juuhachigou turned back to the room. She exhaled slowly. “Kuririn…are you sure about moving your old things? I know that they must mean a lot –“ Kuririn smiled at her halting attempt at thinking of him. “I’m sure, Juu-chan.” He said quietly. He had never been more sure. Rather her in the room with him than a bunch of stuff that he halfway wanted to forget anyway. “I’ll go ahead and get some of the boxes we found from the attic to put it in. Do you mind pulling the garbage out from under the old bed? Juuhachigou nodded briefly, turning to start the task without further question. “Of course,” she muttered distractedly. Kuririn only nodded and left her alone in the room. ***** The old bed was more of a mat on legs, Juuhachigou thought as she kneeled beside it. It sat low to the ground and creaked as she leaned her weight against it. The mattress was thin and sagged slightly from years of use. Only the blue cotton sheets seemed relatively new. The sheets were new and pressed and clean, smelling of soft soap and scented, as everything here was, of the ocean. She didn’t mind that. Kuririn smelled like the ocean too. A contented, relieved sigh escaped Juuhachigou in spite of herself. Contentment because that was the only word that she felt could describe the sense of security and bizarre peace that existed only around that weak little human. And relief because that was the overwhelming feeling that told her she could make a home here…with Kuririn…and she would not have to run from anyone or anything anymore. Not even herself. She was grateful for that. So grateful. Thankful for another chance, and somewhat awed that any person with half his senses could love her. She couldn’t remember when that awe and gratitude had turned to that special emotion in return. Love. So strange a feeling. She had only dismissed it as irrelevant and unnecessary. She had been a fool. Love had become necessary to her. Kuririn had become very…necessary. It was a strange emotion, and the more she had come to know it, the more of it she had come to crave and need in her heart. It had taken her a very long time to sort it out. And she wasn’t the only one who had taken time to understand it either, she thought with a smirk. Kuririn had his own issues to work through. She frowned a little as she thought of it, the way that he had suddenly withdrawn from her when she had become too close to him. Like he was scared. And he was, but in such a different way that she had been afraid of him. She had feared the raw, powerful emotion as if it was an infection. It had symbolized a vulnerability that she had experienced difficulty embracing. And it meant openness. Openness that she had not shared with anyone. There was more, but it was an internal battle. Something on the inside within her own heart and mind, where walls secured her form touching or being touched from anyone on the outside of her. But Kuririn had not been like her. No, no. His battles were external. They were difficult, painful experience. And pain. They were different walls. He himself had seemed surprised that they existed. But they were there. The woman still remember the bewilderment she had felt. She was a cyborg murderess who had just found herself to be irreversibly in love to the proverbial “superhero” of earth, or one of them at least, and when she finally, haltingly, and almost angrily found it within herself to express that, the one that she loved had looked at her with those large, expressional eyes and his joy had seemed washed away with fear. It had been quite traumatizing. She had been angry with him, until she found out why. The conversation was still solidly in her mind. <> He was sitting out on that stupid beach, staring into the ocean. For hours he had been staring! It would be dark soon, and unless she knew him a lot less that she believe he did, Kuririn would be a long time in coming in. Heck, he might even start to train, in that nervous, depressed way of his, and then it might be days before she could get him to stop again! And darn her if she had willing to wait that long! Juuhachigou had stomped out onto the sand, the days tensions and sorrows miserably and unhappily buried, just suppressed, beneath the surface on her pale, perfect skin. She would know what was going on in the little runt of a human’s head before this night was over! Kuririn jumped as she came up beside him and suddenly gripped his shoulder. He didn’t make a sound, but the fear – that strange, distant, guilty-looking fear – still buzzed in his eyes. Why did he seem afraid of her? She had knelt in front of him, holding his shoulders firmly and daring him to meet her icy, intimidating eyes. When he seemed reluctant to do so, she growled, and shook him rather roughly. “What the heck is wrong with you!” She had shouted, unbidden of the hurt that broke through the cracks of her frustrated voice. “Kuririn, this isn’t like you at all! Do you want me to make an attempt at worry about you?” Her comment had caused him to chuckle just a little, and he looked up and smiled at her. “Are you worried about me, Juu-chan?” He had seemed so amused. A little bashful. The woman had let out an irritated, displeased noise and more or less gracefully plopped down beside him on the sand. They had both stared into the waves for some time, bodies just touching. Kuririn’s face had seemed thoughtfully, just slightly agitated Juuhachigou had been down right unhappy, and she fidgeted uncomfortable, thoughts ragging. Finally she could not help but ask, “Kuririn, are you scared of me because I am a cyborg?” The human beside her had looked up suddenly, blinking in his confusion, “What?” He had asked, sounding puzzled. Juuhachigou had inhaled very slowly to calm herself, and hold the hurt welling up in her at bay. It seemed so uncharacteristic of him, but she had learned that she was not always the best judge of humans, and that they were often very fickle. And afraid of those that were different. “Do you fear me because I am a machine?” She asked. “Do you still think that I will hurt you?” Kuririn had stared at her for what had seemed like years, then with a ferocity that Juuhachigou had never seen in him before, he exclaimed, “No!” And he shook his head furiously. His hand reached out timidly for hers, but grasped in intensely once she had invited him to hold it. She shook his head again. “No, Juu-chan! Of course not!” He said, voice fully of certainty that secretly made Juuhachigou warm throughout her body. The shinning of his black eyes had been enough to show her that he was telling her only the absolute truth. “I love you!” “Then why?” She had asked, “Why do you seem so afraid of me? Why have you been avoiding me?” Kuririn had looked down at that, seemingly ashamed. “Ah, Juu-chan,” He had mumbled. “That’s not your fault. I’m sorry if I made you upset. I wasn’t afraid…not really.” “What is it?” Juuhachigou had been sincere. She had felt more apart of another persons life than she had felt in all her remembered lifetime. “Do you not want to be with me – “ Kuririn hadn’t even allowed her to finish her though before answering that one. “That’s not true!” He had cried. “I guess…I guess I just can’t believe that you would want to stay…” <> He had dropped off mournfully after that, lost in years past, of painful rejection and absolute disregard. He had been afraid somewhere in his heart that Juuhachigou would leave him, and crush what was left of his hopes to be loved by someone. It had been somewhat heartbreaking, and so sad. She hadn’t wanted him to feel that way then, and she certainly didn’t want him to feel that way now. Juuhachigou clinched her fist through the covers of the little bed that belonged to her new husband. She was determined. She would make him feel the same way that he made her feel. Like everything was going to be okay on into forever, and she never had to worry about life changing so drastically that he wouldn’t somehow be there for her. Juuhachigou was going to be a good wife. With that thought and goal floating over her head, Juuhachigou looked over at the skeleton of the bed that was to be Kuririn’s and hers lying in pieces beside her. Her gaze was strong. This was the start of her new life with Kuririn. She stuck her hands under the tiny bed. But first things first… ***** Kuririn was humming happily as he descended slowly from the attic, carefully not to drop anything or trip and far down from the stairs due to his characteristic clumsiness. A large smile seemed permanently plastered over his face. He life, which had always seemed to follow the worse case scenario, was beginning to look up. Very, very up. His dreams, shoved aside as impossible for so long, were beginning to come true. Wrapped up in his warm cloud of happiness, Kuririn didn’t see the small table in the hallway and he stumbled, bumping up against it with the boxes. His hand barely went out into time to catch the picture frame and the phone from toppling of. “Shoot.” He muttered, steadying himself, trying to get a better hold on the containers that would soon hold most of the possessions in his old life. He thought for a moment that perhaps that thought should sadden him, but that passed quickly by. He’d spent his old life longing for a new one. Putting it behind him would be easily. Although… His eye caught sight of a photo frame on the table he had almost knocked over, and he turned, readjusting the weight of his load so that he could see it better. It was an old photograph, one of the whole group – everybody. All the Zed fighters, plus Bulma. It was a favorite of his, and it seemed to sum up everything of worth that he had ever done. That he had sort of done. Gokuu was really the hero, but Kuririn had been a part of it. In his own way, Kuririn felt that he had been a part of saving the world. He smiled as he took in the central character – the eternally happy, childlike Gokuu. Just to the right side of him was another man, of whom Gokuu had laid a large hand on his shoulder. Kuririn. “I miss you, Gokuu,” Kuririn breathed quietly. He tossed a look back to his room where his new wife was waiting for him. “I wish I could tell you all that’s happened. I…think that you’d be proud of me.” ***** Juuhachigou had her nose turned up, digging through the dust and the gloom under Kuririn’s bed. True enough to Kuririn’s personality, it wasn’t really a mess, but most of it beyond the outer rim did not seem to have been disturbed in years. Already she had retrieved several pads of drawing paper and one or two magazines. There was an old-looking box that had been stuffed full of photographs from over the years, and – bizarrely – a fist sized rock with the Kame symbol crudely drawn on in marker by a childish hand. Obviously it meant something to Kuririn, she guessed. She was pretty sure that she was almost finished, but then the tips of her fingertips just barely hit something. Somewhat irritated, she dug deeper, pressing her hand as far back as she could, until she almost hit the wall. Instead of the wall, she found her hands curling around a plain package shoved back into the furthest corner of the bed. Curiously, she pulled it out. It seemed to be a moderate sized carton, carefully packaged and taped shut from any outside wear and tear. A thick layer of dust coated the top of it, like it had not been touched since it had first been put under the bed, far in the back were it was unlikely to be seen. Strange – packaged like a precious memory, and yet put away as something one was trying desperately to forget. A little smile came to Juuhachigou as she swiped at the dust, revealing a band of tape. Kuririn wouldn’t mind, she wagered. They were, after all, putting most of these things away. It would be interesting to see what was inside such a plain package. She took hold of the tape. A second layer, with the restrains now gone, Juuhachigou carefully lifted stiff lid. A thin blond eyebrow raised in question when the contents were suddenly revealed. Aside from a rather musty puff of old air suddenly released, there seemed to be only two items folded with care in the bottom. She lifted the topmost piece of the bizarre clothing into her lap. She observed it closely, running her fingertips over its surface. It felt firm and smooth to her and very tough, yet it was strangely flexible. It reminded her of elastic, or rubber. It was strangely textured, with a lined pattern of though stripes above the abdomen and shoulder pads. The style, geared so obviously to protect the most vulnerable part of a humanoid torso, seemed to be meant for a warrior – a warrior’s armor. Yes, certainly it was armor. Except there were several peculiarities. The first was that the armor seemed very small, as if it was fitted for a small child. Kuririn sized, Juuhachigou thought. But if it was his, then why would it have been so carefully packaged beneath his bed? It seemed cared for, like a precious memory. She felt that she had seen something like this before, though not personally. It was stored in her collected memory that Gero had documented. Vejita had worn armor like this. Her delicate fingers ran over the tough material. But then why would Kuririn have a pair? A small downward curve settled on Juuhachigou’s lips as she found herself staring at the last oddity – the unavoidably obvious blemish: a gaping hole that pierced through the armor and excited the back. The worse damage seemed on the back side, which was cracked like a spider web. A closer inspection found that a hole existed also in the other piece of clothing – a jet-black body suit. This solider had suffered – the armor told the story. Her brow furrowed at that thought. After all, this suit…seemed to belong to her new husband. “Kuririn?” She called over her shoulder. “Could you come here for a minute?” “What is it, Juu-chan?” Kuririn’s soft voice came back, and a second later he reentered the room and came up beside her. His smaller hand fell to her shoulder with soft affection. “What have you found – “ He cut off abruptly at the site of the plated armor, and Juuhachigou looked up to see his eyes wide with surprise and briefly – flickering horror. He let his hand fall over hers, and as his fingers came to the cracker center, sliding painfully over the old wound, he shuddered. His face held the reminder of agony. “I had forgotten this was here.” When Kuririn spoke, his voice seemed husky. Rare compassion moved Juuhachigou to grip the trembling hand of her new husband, and return his look of grief with a quiet concern. “Is this yours?” She asked quietly. Kuririn’s mouth was set in a straight line. He seemed almost reluctant to answer. Then finally, he nodded – albeit a little shakily. “Vejita gave Gohon and me a pair of Sayiajin armor on Nemek.” He said quietly. “Right before we fought Freezer.” Juuhachigou’s face held a sharp puzzlement. “I thought that Gokuu fought Freezer.” She said. Kuririn nodded. “He did. But Gohon and I fought him first, while Gokuu was healing.” “I never knew that.” Kuririn sunk to his knees beside her, slowly letting out a steady exhale. He fingers were again tracing the belligerent, gaping hole in the armor. “You can imagine that we didn’t have much of a chance alone. My power level didn’t even barely reach 300.000. Freezer was over a million, and then only in his second form.” Juuhachigou shook her head. “I know much about many of your fights through Gero, but I have nothing from Nemek. I once asked Bulma about it. All she told me was that Gokuu fought Freezer and beat him. Other than that I knew that you died on that planet, but that’s all.” A somber nod. “It was a long, terrible battle. Only about four people made it off of that planet alive. Four. And only one Nemek. It was the worst odds we’ve ever been up against. Especially before Gokuu showed up.” Juuhachigou double blinked. “Before…?” “Yeah. Gokuu showed up after we had already been there for more than a month. He was injured right off, and whole he healed, Gohon and I ran into Freezer on accident. After a month of hiding and trying to outsmart and stay a step ahead of him, he had finally found us.” Juuhachigou held up the armor. “Is that when this happened?” She asked. Kuririn nodded again. “It hurt.” She stared at him quietly for a moment, unsure of how to respond to such a reply. She looked down at the armor and the terrible enigmatic scar that pierced it and tried to imagine what could possibly have caused such a wound. To Kuririn. Her husband had been in this armor when the damage was made. Someone – a beast she had never really known – had done this to her Kuririn. It was difficult to swallow such a thing. “It hurt” seemed hardy adequate in explaining it away. No, there was much more to the story. And she had never known it. That was unacceptable. “What happened, Kuririn?” Juuhachigou heard herself asking. She turned to stare directly into his distant eyes. “I want to know what happened to you.” Kuririn must have seen the dead set look in the intensity of her partial glare, and he sighed very deeply, standing to sit heavily at the edge of his old bed. He seemed wilted, lost in battle deep in his past. Juuhachigou felt she could almost see it raging behind his haunted eyes. He managed to smile sadly at her, as if trying to detour her. “It’s…kind of an unhappy story, Juuhachigou,” He muttered. “Not exactly the way I’d hoped to spend our first night home together.” The cyborg woman caught the subtle pleading in his voice, trying in his own way to persuade her to drop the subject. But somehow, a voice in side her wouldn’t allow her to let it go. She felt there was something more behind this story – more than what was obvious. She lifted herself from the floor and moved to sit beside Kuririn with her back rested comfortably against the wall. She gestured for Kuririn to settle beside her. “Setting up the room will wait.” She said. “I need to understand why no one told me anything about this. Ha. I don’t half believe all that “Gokuu the Hero” crap that those other idiots spill out to me. I want to know what really happened on Nemek, Kuririn.” Her voice was stern, sterner than she had meant it to be. She could see the distinctive frown on Kuririn’s face even though he was not looking at her. His head was bowed, and his face seemed captured by far off pain. “You don’t understand, Juu-chan,” He tried once more to change her mind, sighing and his shoulder’s drooping. “What happened on Nemek was…terrible. I’ve never regretted what we did there – heck, there probably wouldn’t be any Nemeks left if we hadn’t have intervened. But…that doesn’t stop me from trying not to dwell on it.” Kuririn continued. “I doubt that I will ever forget that monster – I can still see him and almost feel his…” The poor human fumbled off, sounded almost choked as if even the thought of it was too much to handle. Almost instinctively, his hand traveled to settle over his stomach, directly over where the hole in the armor might have laid over his flesh. He shook his head. “He tortured me and killed me, Juu-chan. I was a nightmare-ravaged, wide-eyed mess for months after I was wished back. It took me a long time till I could “forget” about it.” He chucked humorlessly. “As if I could ever really forget.” “How come no one told me about it?” Juuhachigou asked, face effectively darkened seeing her husband like this. Kuririn was such a happy person. It somehow almost hurt to hear him say such things. Kuririn shrugged. “No on really knew. Gokuu felt it, sort of. But only Gohon and Vejita were there. Them and little Dende.” He explained. “It became part of the battle that no one talked about. That monster hurt Gohon to, and the kid doesn’t hardy say anything about it, ‘cept maybe to his dad. And you know Vejita. He was still pretty nasty back then. He didn’t care about either of us at all.” Juuhachigou sat forward. “What did happen, Kuririn?” She asked slowly and deliberately. “It bothers me not to know something about you that affected you so much.” She handed Kuririn the armor. “Wouldn’t it be better if you talked about it? I will listen to you. You don’t have to keep all those kinds of memories to yourself anymore.” After a long moment, Kuririn hesitantly, hesitantly nodded. “Yes…maybe you’re right.” He mumbled almost mechanically. “It isn’t good to have secrets.” “Tell me the story, Kuririn.” Juuhachigou said, and reached out to grip one of his limp hands. “Tell me.” Meekly, Kuririn nodded. His head was down, lost in thought. <> "The sky was so green, and so bright, illuminated always by at least two large suns. In every direction all that one could see was the ocean, green itself, with only the sparsest chances of seeing dry, green ground. Green - the word summed up Nemek almost singularly. Below me the water churned madly, frothing and bubbling violently as it found new channels of crushed earth through which to pound. Waves - tall and foreign in a world in which existed only large, still lakes - rocketed and powered with newly found force, plowing ahead with the unnatural, now-settling energy of enormous magnitude. I was in the air, panting weakly in the face of the power that I had just witnessed for myself. That monster - Freezer - had just used a fraction of his power, and with it, raised whole chunks of Nemek into the air. I remembered distinctly being pulled off the ground, and literally thrown to the mercy of a gigantic tornado of wind, debris, and ki. Freezer was the one who had released the ocean, and in turn split up the once dry ground into the mercy of its gurgling depths. I suddenly double blinked as my eye began to sting, and I became aware that there was blood beginning to dribble into his my eye from a deep gash over my right eye. I remembered that I had been struck by a piece of rocky debris when I had tried desperately to turn around within the whirlwind. A small exhale escaped me, and I grasped the small, quivering green-skinned child in my arms a little tighter. At least...I had managed to find what I had been desperately searching for. At first I had been sure that Dende would be lost. The little boy looked up at me then, just barely cracking open his large, frightened black eyes long enough to ensure that the arms that held him were friendly. When he saw that it was me, he dropped his head, relieved. His muffled, relieved whimper was all of the thank you that I needed. "KURIRIN!" My head shot up as I registered a panicked, boyish voice calling out my own name. I caught sight of the boy just below me and to my left, scanning the ground as if expecting to see me there instead of safely in the air. "Gohon!" I called back, grimacing as a sharp wave of pain that rolled through my head again. Gohon turned abruptly, staring up at me with a mixture of relief and fresh worry. "You're hurt." He said after a moment, young eyes trained on my face. I found it in myself to smile, muttering that I was fine. Tough at the moment, it hardly seemed like a time to smile. I knew that we were going to die if something didn't change. I couldn't protect myself, much less the two young boys I currently considered mine to care for. Laughter - malicious, self-satisfied, evil-tainted laughter - seceded in breaking through my thoughts. I looked below me, to the only visible patch of earth amidst the great rushing tons of water. Perched on that patch of earth, huge muscular pink arms crossed smugly across his great, broad chest, was Freezer. Most chilling, I saw the two twin horns, twisting grotestly out of the clown-like face. Unbidden, I felt my lip curl even at the sight of the evil tyrant. How could such a beast laugh at such destructive handiwork? "Why the long faces?" The creature called up at us with great humor, enjoying the realization of death that was trapped in the eyes of his new prey. His mocking voice taunted us, reveling in the power he now held over us. "Now all we need to decide is who will be dying first!" I would never forget the way that that beast then looked at us, gazing over each of us as if we were less than people – he was deciding which of us to kill first! I could see the way that Gohon spazemed in midair as the monster's gaze washed over him first, taking in the demi-Sayiajin boy critically, as if gauging the level of enjoyment he might take crushing the boy's skull. The fear that I sensed in my younger partner angered me, and I could feel my ki bubbling, just suppressed beneath the surface. But then the cold, careless eyes drifted away from the boy and casually turned toward me, small human warrior, and the tiny green nemekian child in my arms. I would remember that look for as long as I lived, the way that it seemed to invade me and poke at my fear. But more than fear, I felt repulsion. That this...monster...felt he had the right of God to decide the measure of a life. To threaten my life, and the life of the child in my arms, it infuriated me somewhere deep. I could hear Dende's whimper, as if he could feel the creature's gaze on his back though his eyes were clinched so tightly, "Kuririn...I'm scared..." He had murmured, trembling. I felt my anger growing, and in a burst of error, I met eyes with the monster called Freezer, boring my eyes into the cold beads of he hunter. 'No,' I said mentally to him. 'You are wrong if you think you will have this innocent. I won't let you.' My grip on the boy tightened. And then...then the eyes passed me. They were on Vejita now, and I just caught the twinge even in the tense shoulders of the Sayiajin prince. He was afraid too. He had not expected this. All three of us pitiful three in the air waited in almost silence as the creature called Freezer closed his eyes in concentration, that terrible offensive smile still plastered onto his face. "Kuririn..." Dende whimpered. And then Freezer opened his eyes. He squared his shoulders, dropping his arms, glaring at us up in the sky. His eyes were burning, almost hungrily. And then, so suddenly that I was almost unable to see his take off, Freezer released his grip on that pathetic isle of dirt and blasted toward us – the breathless, terrified warriors that were us – with a cry that would echo in my mind all of my life. He rammed past Vejitta, barely clearing his shoulder, and trailed far beyond poor Gohon. Right at me, and at Dende. I remember the numbing, almost paralyzing shock and terror that tore through me when I realized. Only instinct allowed me to gather my senses enough to pry the petrified child that I held away from my body and shove him away from me. He was just barely out of my arms when it hit. I turned back to Freezer's charge, not to meet a punch or even a ki attack. He didn't stop, but plunged one of his two huge horns straight through...m-me..." <> The narrative ended abruptly, and Kuririn buried his head in his hands, shuddering almost painfully. "You have no idea..." He whispered, and a tear made its way slowly down his cheek. Juuhachigou had been engrossed by the tale, but now came back fully into the hard reality, literally shaking within herself to think that such a battle actually took place. She reached out for her loved one, wrapping him in an embrace. He sunk thankfully into her comfort, and she held him tightly, blinking hard as if unwilling to think that Kuririn... Her Kuririn... "He impaled you." Juuhachigou murmured, all at once beginning to understand the venom and the hatred that the others always seemed to carry in their voices when the spoke of the demon called Freezer. He would have to have been a monster - no creature with any humanness in them could be so brutal. Kuririn's eyes were wide, still lost back on Nemek. "It didn't end." <> "The horn was as thick as the trunk of a small tree, wider than both of my wrists put together. Sharp on one end like a spear, and the pierced through my body like a stake - tearing through the muscles in my abdomen and ripping at my diaphragm, so that I could barely breath. Crushed through two ribs, rupturing one of my lungs. At first I was in shock, unable to understand what had just happened to me. I saw Dende falling further and further away, screaming at me, this terrible look of absolute horror on his face. I know that Gohon cried out to me - he must have - but I didn't hear him. All I could when I looked down was Freezer's head, and that horn. I could feel it on the other side of my body, sticking out through the armor in my back. And there was blood. So much of it. It gushed out of the...the hole...in my stomach, running down to Freezer's face. He licked my blood as it dribbled to the side of his mouth. He licked it. I could see it, and... It started to hurt then. The subtlest movement and my mind left shock to return to the worst pain I have ever felt in my life. I couldn't even scream - I could only lie there, trying to support myself with my ki and gasp in pain. It was blinding! Gohon tried to help me, but it only caused that monster to torment me further. Crimson blood was everywhere, even Gohon and Vejitta's faces. Freezer...h-he wanted me to scream." <> Kuririn cut off from the story suddenly, eyes shut tightly. His face contorted with the memory of that pain. "I did scream once, before I eventually passed out," he murmured. "After what seemed like hours, utterly helpless, impaled at the mercy of that madman. He threw me off after he was through. I can only vaguely remember falling into the water." Juuhachigou didn't trust herself to speak. So she just held Kuririn tight, resting her cheek to the fuzz of black hair on his head. She held him and rocked slowly and gently, knowing no other way to comfort him. "I'm sorry," she finally whispered, voice low and sorrowful. The new knowledge of what her lover had been through weighed heavily on her heart. "I should not have forced you to tell me about this." Kuririn shook his head shakily. "No. It…might have been for the better. N-no secrets. And it was good to share. No one else knew…" Juuhachigou took a halting breath, and pulled him into her lap, nuzzling against his hair affectionately, and with a dutiful, loving possessiveness. "You will always have me to share now," She whispered to him. "For now until the day you die, and even after that." They didn’t get to finish putting up there bed that night. ***** It was the next day at the Kame House – a nice, quiet morning with gently lapping waves always in the back of your hearing, and the unobtrusive sun overlapped by wispy, limp looking clouds in a pale blue sky. The two sole occupants of the house were already awake, but were as quiet as the lazy morning. Juuhachigou had woken up expecting Kuririn to be as he was the night before, in her arms. But he had already gotten up, and was fixing breakfast. She had greeted him with a kiss on his cheek and a wordless hug, and there had been little said throughout the meal, despite Kuririn’s characteristic attempts at cheerfulness. He had dismissed himself after that, and gone to finish that task they had begun last night – assembling the new bed. “Can’t have my new bride sleeping on that old cot…” He had murmured, smiling and darting off. Juuhachigou didn’t hinder him. She wanted some time to think herself. Juuhachigou had found that she liked to sit out on the beach and think. Kuririn often went there when he felt the need to be slightly depressed or just to think, and she had found that she quite enjoyed being out there with him. The sand was soft and warm when she sat down, spreading out her legs in front of her to catch the fresh morning rays of the sun. She sighed. It didn’t seem the same alone. And yet today she felt the need to be alone. Last night she had made a realization. It was simply this: She had married a short, relatively weak human. Though she had met him during a battle, she had somehow not made the connection that he was indeed a warrior with the Zed fighters, and he had been since he was a child. Her “memory” was painted with Gokuu. She had taken for granted that Kuririn had also been intricately apart of many terrible battles like the one he had described with Freezer. She wondered if the other humans were the same way. Kuririn had not said, but she felt sure that if she asked there would be many more stories that no one else knew. Stories that he and the other humans had taken a key, yet somehow overlooked and “unimportant” role. She had a feeling what she had overlooked was rather commonplace. Had it always been like that? She wondered to herself. Were the humans and even her Kuririn always in that awkward, out of the spotlight arena were they mattered and didn’t at the same time? It didn’t seem to bother Kuririn, and yet for some reason that made her even more uneasy. It wasn’t right. Juuhachigou sat up rigidly and frowned at the sky. No, it wasn’t right. And in the end, no one would know about any of it. Kuririn and that scared idiot and the Cyclops and the little clown prince would not have existed. And they were okay with that. She jumped up from the sand and rather aggressively stomped back into the house, brewing. Well, it wasn’t okay with her… ***** Up in the hallway beside the bedroom, Juuhachigou found what she was looking for. In order to put together their new room, Kuririn had hastily moved all the older contents out into the hallways. Mixed in with these things she found her own small possessions. With quiet determination, the young woman lifted the flaps of the box containing all of her former livelihood, and searched through its random contents for something specific. She smiled briefly when the soft, firm cover came into her palm. She pulled the small book out and gazed at its cover with fresh purpose. The book was a gift from Kuririn, one of the many small things that he had given her at random just for the sake of making her feel so special. It was a pretty thing, plain but covered with a soft colored fabric to make it more feminine. It was nice – a thoughtful gift. Kuririn had intended it to be a journal of sorts. Kuririn himself seemed fond of writing things down like that, private thoughts and personal experiences – now she was beginning to see some of the reasons he did so. He had given it to her in hopes that she too would enjoy the idea. But Juuhachigou had never been good at expressing herself – much less on paper. Yet perhaps now she had good reason to use it. A pencil was an easy thing to find among Kuririn’s cluttered belongings, left on the kitchen table since before their wedding. With this and the book she headed back outside. The wind had increased slightly and the sky had paled. Seated once again in the warmth of the sand, Juuhachigou crossed her legs. The little book lay open in her lap, and Juuhachigou sat staring at the blank pages for a long moment. How to begin? As images of her husband the night before, telling of sorrows invisible to all but the sparsest few floated into her thoughts, Juuhachigou’s eyes gradually cleared. She had all of a sudden realized the right beginning. ‘Unseen Heroes’ she penned carefully, unpracticed script flowing with meticulous precision from her pencil. ‘: The Legacy of the Human Warriors’ A look of contentment met her features with that written down. There were other stories besides the one that she had heard. Stories that no one other than Kuririn and the other humans knew. Stories of unknown bravery and importance. She would make it a point to discover them all, a little at a time. And she would put them down here – documented immortal on paper to keep it from fading into the forgotten past. “Juuhachigou?” A quiet voice broke through to her suddenly, and her head swung around startled. A little smile touched her face when she saw the one who had come upon her so suddenly. “Kuririn.” She greeted him calmly, favoring him with a soft look as he came over to her and knelt beside her. He glanced down at her lap, but she had already closed the book. “I finished the bed, Juu-chan.” He said. “Do you want to come and see? I think you’ll like it.” Juuhachigou accepted the hand that he offered, and walked beside her towards the house. “Of course,” She smiled down at him, an unusually freely expressed love shining in her eyes. “I’m sure that it will be beautiful.” ***** That night, just before flicking off the new bedside lamp and curling into her new husbands side, Juuhachigou wrote the first words in the only written record of the human Zed fighters and their efforts to save their home world. ‘Sometimes the bravest, most noble of souls are forgotten,’ she wrote, taking time to stop and smooth back the dark bangs that had fallen into Kuririn’s eyes as he dozed beside her. She smiled softly at him and took back up the pen. ‘They may not seem as important as others, but I know that they are more than they appear. Some of the best things in this realm of living are small in stature or weak in body. Real strength comes in desire, in hope, in loyalty, and in love. And that it truth.’ Juuhachigou closed the book quietly, careful not to wake Kuririn. There was so much more to write, but it could wait till another time. She laid it aside and turned out the light, lying down and wrapping her arms around her loved one. Even in sleep, he seemed to smile, snuggling closer. Juuhachigou buried her face in his shoulder, breathing in his smell and enjoying his closeness. She grinned as she held him. Kuririn was very special – more so than she had ever realized. But she would learn and she would become his secret-keeper. Kuririn and she, this would be an exceptional beginning to their own story – one which she hoped would never end. Overlooked, short, weak or not – Juuhachigou loved Kuririn. And she would make sure that the soul she loved was never forgotten… |
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