The next day, both Naoko
and Tales were up early. She was awake, considerably earlier than
he, for when he got up, she was already beginning to cook breakfast.
He sat down on a log next to the fire, across from her.
“Ohayo,” he said, yawning
a bit.
“Ohayo,” she replied
coldly. Then, she sighed and looked up. “Look, Tales, the truth
is, I need your help.” She cringed as she said the words. “I’m
looking for the Dragon Balls, but I can’t get to the last one because of
an energy disturbance around the old site of the Tenkaichi Budoukai.
That’s were the seventh, the One-Star Ball is located. I don’t feel
comfortable going there alone, especially not now since Vegeta is with
me-“ Tales snorted at this, but made no comment. “-I would really
appreciate it if you’d go with me,” Naoko finished.
Tales thought this
over. “Is that why I haven’t been able to find and Dragon Balls?
Because you have them all?” he asked finally.
Naoko nodded and reached
into her shirt.
Tales raised his eyebrow
in disgust. “Not asking,” he said.
“No one would really
think of looking there. Besides, no one’ll mind if I suddenly go
a up a cup size or two,” Naoko said, setting two yellow balls with orange
stars on them on the log next to her. “Don’t worry, there’s only
two there. There are two in my pockets and two in my pouch.”
She patted a brown leather pouch tied at her side.
He leaned back a bit.
“OK, I guess I go with you.”
“Fine, then you can
carry these.” She threw the two Dragon Balls she had taken our of
her shirt at him. He caught them, then realized where they’d been
and dropped them in disgust onto the ground next to him. “Well, I
was wearing a bra, you know.” She grinned evilly. “Unless you
want to think I wasn’t. I mean, it’s not like you haven’t willingly
stuck your hands there before.”
“Naoko.” Tales snapped.
“Shut. Up. ‘Sides, knowing you, you put them inside the damn
bra.” Naoko fake pouted and he rolled his eyes, slipping the Dragon
Balls into the inside pocket on his cloak.
Behind them, they heard
Vegeta yawn and walk over. He snuggled comfortably into Naoko’s lap
with out a word and fell asleep. Both looked at him in surprise for
a moment, then burst into laughter.
The three set out an
hour later in the direction of the old Tenkaichi Budoukai. One of
those tournaments hadn’t been held in over twelve years, since before
either Naoko or Tales would have been old enough to participate.
They knew enough about them, though. It was at the 20th Tenkaichi
Budoukai that the fate of Earth had been decided. It was a very long
story indeed; they had spent over six months covering it in History in
school-when school still existed. The inside story, though, was only
known to select few. This tiny number included Naoko.
In 747, when Naoko
had been nine and still the princess, the final(though it wasn’t known
then) Tenkaichi Budoukai had been held. In the final round, Naoko’s
own older brother, Vejita and a powerful man who nobody remembered because
it wasn’t allowed, had fought. It seemed the two were equally powerful-until
something happened to tip the scales. For a split second, the man
had been distracted, allowing Vejita to land the fatal punch on him.
Vejita had won.
Celebrated as the new
World Champion, Vejita was able to gain power quite easily. No one
really realized that something was wrong with the picture. All they
saw was that their new favorite celebrity was becoming even more of a hit.
Naoko, who was younger than him by seven years, had been by his side the
whole time, supporting him, not realizing what he was doing. At the
end of a year, Vejita had been able to take control of the Earth.
Naoko was shoved to the background when a woman by name of Makoto came
on the scene. Seeing that her brother, the only friend she’d ever
known, had forgotten her so quickly, she ran.
Naoko tried to obscure
her identity, but it proved impossible. After a week of hardships,
trials, wandering, looking for a place where she would be accepted, she
found a small village on the coast. A boy there was more than ready
to befriend her. She was quite attracted to him; loved how he didn’t
question her about her past. She stayed with him and a four years
later, they were dating. They moved to the big city, and after a
few months, they broke up, unable to stand each other any longer.
They went their separate ways, both wanting different things. Naoko
wanted to be a Z Senshi. It had been her life-long dream, but until
then, she hadn’t been able to carry it out. The boy, who she knew
by then as Tales, wanted to simply do something that would get him a lot
of money without doing too much work.
Six years after, when
he was twenty, they met again, at the bar. They’d gone home together.
The rest was history.
Meanwhile, Vejita had had a hard time
keeping his stuff together since he’d had a breakdown when Naoko left.
He pulled through with the help of Makoto, who he was then sleeping with.
The world had finally figured out what he truly wanted and their small
forces were fighting back against him. And failing miserably.
Ten years after his
initial Takeover, Vejita was still in control, but the Z Senshi, who Naoko
had now joined, were grouping together to fight back. A few months
earlier, Naoko had left her son, who was also training to become a Z Senshi,
in the care of his Aunt Oniko. She wasn’t actually his aunt, but
his second cousin, but he called her “aunt” just the same. At the
same time, she had left on her quest for the Dragon Balls.
At about the same time, Tales decided
he was through being immature. He left the city he’d been destroying
and went on his own to search for the Dragon Balls, which brings us to
where he is now.
A strange song invaded
Tales’ ears and he looked down to the forest he was flying over.
He signaled Naoko and went to land. She followed, Vegeta a few seconds
later. When they alighted on the grass, Naoko sighed. “What
now?”
“Do you hear it?” was
Tales’ only reply. Naoko cocked her ears, trying to hear what he
was talking about. She couldn’t.
“I don’t know what
you’re talking about, but I’m going.”
She flew off.
Tales didn’t follow. He set off through the forest, looking for the
origin of the voice. Vegeta went with him. He finally found
it was loudest when he reached a clearing, the center of which was taken
up by a small, white, stone building. He looked back, saw Vegeta
was fine and opened the large, wooden door. He held it for Vegeta
and then closed it. The voice had become much louder. He walked
down a long hall, noticing that the stone was in ruins, though it looked
solid on the outside. The hall ended abruptly in a surprisingly large,
circular room. In the middle of the room, a woman with dark hair
was singing.
He knew he recognized
that voice.
“Oniko,” he hissed.
