One In a Million Girls….
By: Dariyen Ryuseikyaku


No! he thought as he struggled under the funnel prepared to absorb him. I can't let this happen...can't let this monster make me fodder for his "ass vacuum"! Despite his struggles, through which Cell only laughed, 17 felt the monster's tail slowly overcome his efforts to push it away. Damn it.... Why?

At that moment, a large dagger sliced across Cell's tail. It distracted Cell enough for 17 to get out from under the large funnel. Both participants in the fight looked to where the dagger had come from. There stood a rather short girl. But she wasn't like any human girl 17 had ever seen. She wore a black bodysuit, a black trench coat with a high neck, and black, thigh-high boots of shiny leather. Her hair was white, and her ears were pointed--wait a minute. Pointed ears? 17 thought. Who--or what--is she? What's going on here? Why is she here in the first place?

In addition to her ears being pointed, 17 noticed a black, whip-like tail with a tuft of white hair on the end. At present, the tail was whipping from side to side in an angry motion. "Hey!" she shouted to Cell. "What the Hell are you doing?" Her speech had a strange accent to it.

Cell retorted, "I'm about to absorb this android boy and become more powerful, that's all. You're quite welcome to watch, if you like."

The girl shook her head and waved her hand dismissingly. "Nah. I've got better things to do than watch an Earth boy become a dust particle in some big bug's ass vacuum." The girl's echoing his own earlier thoughts made him blink. She winked at 17, then turned her attention back to the irate and indignant Cell, her disgusted expression back in place. "Can't you at least pick on someone your own size?"

Cell made a show of thinking about her remark. "Pick on someone my own size, eh?" His expression turned evilly sardonic. "Like...YOU, perhaps?" Cell proceeded to charge at her, and she was startled for a moment, but quickly recovered enough to cartwheel out of the way of his flying fist. When she was again standing, she brought out two huge daggers, flipped them around so that their points were down, and faced Cell.

"Okay, you wanna fight? All right, I'll give you a fight," she sneered. The she stopped. "Hold on just one minute." She took off her trench coat, then stretched out a pair of black wings that were sort of bat-like, but for some reason, they reminded 17 more of a dragon than a bat. The girl shouted to 17, "Hey, you! With the black hair!"

The appearance of the girl had pretty much shocked 17. Or could it be that I'm feeling aftereffects of the fight with Cell? he thought. In any case, he realized that she was shouting to him. "Oh.... What?" he answered.

She tossed her coat to him. "Hold this, will ya?"

17 caught the coat aimed at him and automatically folded it over his arm. He looked at the coat for a second, then called to her, "What do I look like? A coat rack?"

The girl narrowed her eyes at 17 playfully. "I refuse to answer that on the grounds that I might incriminate myself," she quipped. Then she got serious and huffed out a breath, as his expression didn't waver. "Just hold my coat, will ya?" She didn't give him a chance to answer, but turned back to Cell and readied her weapons. "Now," she said, "where were we? Ah, yes, I remember now." She spin-slashed at Cell with both her daggers, which he narrowly avoided.

17 watched the fight in shock. He'd never seen someone fight like the girl before, and, though she didn't fight with ki, she didn't even flinch as Cell fired a blast at her. She simply ducked, then spun on one foot, giving Cell a sweeping kick that almost knocked him down. Cell flew into the air to try to get away from her.

The girl knew a trick as good as that, though. She extended the wings on her back and jumped into the air. A few flaps of the powerful wings--which were much larger than they had originally looked--and she was at eye level with Cell. "Good try, dude," she said in mock encouragement. "Maybe next time you'll even beat me." She chuckled. "I think you better go back to whatever anthill you crawled out of, Bug-Man."

The object of her insult retorted back indignantly, "My name is not 'Bug-Man!' It's Cell! And if you call me 'Bug-Man' again, I'll rip you apart!"

"Oh, forgive me, Your Bugginess Cell," she said sarcastically, then collapsed into laughter. Even 17 had to smile at bit at her retort. Cell took that opportunity to fire a ki-blast directly in her face. She went flying, but recovered before she could hit the ground. "Hey! That was cheating! No fair!"

This time it was Cell's turn to laugh. "Immature little whelp," he remarked of the girl. "Now I'll teach you what happens when someone interferes with me."

"Really? Then lemme teach you what happens when somebody tries to teach me something," she spat. The two were in the air again, and she readied her daggers once again. "The class is 'Pain 101,' and your instructor is Relln Hargreavan." She smiled an evil smile.

17 was shocked that such a little girl would challenge Cell. She's either extremely brave or extremely stupid. I think I'll go with stupid, 17 thought, purposely ignoring the voice in the back of his mind that kept repeating "hypocrite." But as he watched Cell and Relln fight, he became more confident that she would win. True, she did get a bit bruised up, but that was to be expected. Finally, Relln ran Cell off.

She landed, and breathed a sigh. Not of relief, but of fatigue. Then she smiled and jumped up, spinning in a circle before she landed. "Whoo!" she enthused. "That was a fun workout! I wonder if he'll come back to play again?"

17 looked at the girl incredulously, shock widening his ice-blue eyes. "You mean to tell me that was all just a game to you? You were just playing with him?"

Relln nodded. "Uh-huh. What else would it be?" She gave him a broad smile, then took her coat back from where it was still draped over his arm. After carefully folding her wings, she put the coat back on.

"Hn." 17 grunted, folding his arms across his chest and turning his back to the girl. "I had you figured as smarter than that. I guess I was wrong."

She stopped a moment. "Huh? Whoa, wait a minute, buster! Who saved whose ass, here?" Relln put her hands on her hips and glared. 17 turned back around, noticing that her eyes were dual-colored--one purple and one orange.

"He could have easily killed you, yet you say you were just playing with him," 17 clarified. "That strikes me as very foolish. And it was a deadly game you were playing, too. Furthermore," he continued, "I didn't need your help anyway. I never asked you to fight Cell for me. I don't need anyone to fight my battles." He glared right back at Relln.

"Well, fine!" she said, getting in his face (as much as she could, seeing that she was about a foot or so shorter than he was). "Don't cry to me to save you when old 'Hoover-Ass' sucks you up! You could have at least said 'Thank you', you...you...ungrateful BRAT!" Her outburst shocked 17, and he watched her spin on her heel and storm away, her tail whipping furiously.

As he watched her retreating back, he whispered, "Thank you, Relln." He didn't know why he'd said that, though. There was no way she could have heard him, and he didn't really need her. Or did he? Surely I'm not getting weak, am I? he asked himself. Bah! That I'd have to have a mere child protect me. How...insulting! He harrumphed indignantly, then smiled an evil smile. The next time Cell comes here, I'll give him a beating he won't soon forget. No, he will...because he'll be dead.

His smile froze on his face when he looked down next to where Cell had been. There, sticking upright in the ground, was the dagger Relln had thrown at Cell's tail. It was stained slightly with blood along its edge, but was as bright and shiny on every other part of the blade as if it was brand-new. He entertained an amusing thought that the dagger described Relln perfectly. Stained with blood along the edge, but immaculate still. 17 pulled the knife out of the ground and looked at it for a moment. Then he took the dagger with him as he left the battle site.


 

I was just saying that I'd kill Cell a few weeks ago, wasn't I? 17 asked himself, as he struggled yet again under Cell's tail-funnel. How can I be losing? I am the ultimate warrior.

I...am...undefeatable....

Cell laughed. "Why do you struggle? I'll put you out of your misery."

Relln, he thought as Cell's tail overpowered his grip, where are you? He berated himself for being all kinds of a fool for making her leave, then berated himself yet again because he needed her help again. He remembered part of their exchange of words.

"Don't cry to me to save you when old 'Hoover-Ass' sucks you up!" she'd said to him, right before she'd flounced away, out of his sight and out of his life. He'd thought that was what he wanted, but he'd felt oddly empty after she'd left, the silence seeming to press in on him.

17 finally realized that struggling was only going to make things difficult for him, but he didn't want to give up. He wanted to see Relln again. He wanted to ask her about herself. Most of all, he wanted to live. He knew he could have found her--after all, how many white-haired girls with pointed ears and dual-colored eyes were out there?

He thought of the dagger he'd picked up from the ground. After thoroughly cleaning it, he'd carefully placed it on the mantelpiece in his house. He wondered absently if his sister 18 would throw it away. He hoped not.

Without his knowing why, a tear escaped from one eye and went slipping down his face. Damn.... I'm sorry, Relln....


[fin]


 

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