The world came into focus slowly for the girl and she noticed that she was no longer lying on the paved street of the destroyed city. There were no more explosions and no more tremors of impact running through the earth. She could not smell smoke or dust, and she was no longer running or hiding. She still did not feel like herself, however. She was dizzy and tired and could barely keep her green eyes from closing. She felt as though she were in danger, not from the jinzouningen or any other unknown force, but from her own body. She was dying, or already dead. In her heart she could feel death slowly grabbing a hold of her soul and pulling her down. As best as she could in her dizzy, confused state, she shook her head to clear it. Trying very hard, she concentrated, searching for signs of where she was and what was happening to her. Vaguely, she could feel that someone was holding her in their arms, carrying her somewhere. Slowly, her light green eyes opened. The world before her was blurry and shifting, full of soft colors and muted sounds and she could not make sense of anything. When her eyes finally focused and her mind finally cleared, she stared up and her eyes widened in awe.

Limpid blue eyes stared down at her, half hidden by soft locks of lavender hair. The sun, bright and high in the sky strained from behind him, softly falling on her face. He seemed to glow like an angel, illuminated by the piercing sunlight behind him. A slow, sad smile spread across handsome his face, displaying a row of perfect white teeth. The girl’s heart began to flutter like a bird in her chest.

Flashes of the golden haired warrior she had seen flew through her mind as she stared at his dark face. She knew that it was not her golden warrior, but because she was so confused and dizzy at the moment, she led herself to believe that it was. She ignored the lavender hair and the sky blue eyes, concentrating only on the strong line of his chin and the muscles that she felt holding her. She gazed as if in a trance, afraid that if she blinked, he would disappear. Her senses grew aware of the clean scent of his jacket, pressed against her face. It was worn and old and scratchy on her skin, but comforting just the same. He was as solid as pure marble, perfectly chiseled like a statue or a piece of stone. She drew her head away from him and studied his face more closely.

"Are you all right?" he asked in a concerned voice that seemed to echo in her mind for an eternity. Carefully, he adjusted his arms to hold her better and she appreciated the gesture. Now that she had awoken a bit, the full impact of the jinzouningen’s battle was now sinking in. Sharp pains stood out all over her body, so intense and overwhelming that she could not differentiate where the pain was actually coming from.

The boy holding her tilted his head to the side, waiting for an answer. His tan faced seemed to glow with an luminescent holy force, and his body was filling her with warmth all over, spreading through her limbs to the very tips of her fingers. Again, the sunlight pierced her face, and she felt warm all over. The pain floated away for a moment and it was replaced by a sudden, strong feeling of comfort and tranquility. The feeling settled quietly in her soul, and she could only think of one reason for it --- She had died.

"Are you....an angel?" She asked him quietly, her voice hoarse and her throat aching with the effort of speaking.

A look of surprise appeared on his beautiful face. "No, I'm not an angel. You are still alive." He informed her and didn't stop moving, keeping a firm grip on her small body. "Barely alive though. You are lucky I found you when I did. You could have bled to death."

The girl brought her eyes to his once more and felt grateful that he had saved her. Angel or not, this boy must have rescued her from the wreckage after the jinzouningen had finished their battle. Her mind drifted to the golden haired warrior. She had seen him jump into the fight right before she lost consciousness. She wondered if he had managed to defeat the jinzouningen. She wanted to ask the boy who was carrying her about the outcome of the battle, but couldn’t seem to find the right words. Instead, she merely stared at him. There was some familiarity about this boy; the way he moved so gracefully and how his eyes reflected a life of sadness. Though she was the one lying in his arms dying, she began to feel bad for him. She couldn’t help but feel bad for him. There was such pain and sorrow in those sky blue eyes. It was as if he had lived a life comparable to her own --- a life of heartbreak and loneliness.

He gently raised his eyebrows in question. "How did you get out of the underground city?" He inquired. "Only two people know the access code to the Underground City. Neither of them is you. So, how did you get out?"

Underground City? Her eyes narrowed in confusion. She had never heard of such a thing, didn’t even know that the remaining people of Earth had to resort to living underground. The idea of it seemed silly to her; almost laughable as she looked up at her handsome savior. If there were an underground city, she had not been invited to join it. But then, she had not had any human contact outside of her sister, for years now. There had probably been some sort of a move to this place, but she must have missed the notification. She shook her head slowly. The movement caused her head to swim slightly and she took a moment before replying to his question, blinking.

"I don't know what you are talking about. I have never seen an underground city." She assured him. Her voice sounded weak and soft, barely audible to even herself; her ears had begun to ring violently and loudly.

He stopped and stared at her. "Never?! But....How did you escape the jinzouningen?" He demanded, glancing down at her suspiciously.

Abruptly, she felt fatigue begin to take effect on her again and she closed her eyes briefly before answering. Pain was sweeping through her body like waves on a beach, increasing and decreasing again in a matter of seconds. Her head felt like it was going to split in half and the ringing in her ears was growing even louder. "I didn't escape them, I followed them."

He raised an eyebrow.

Her head nodded with sleepiness and his movements seemed to slow and blur before her eyes. "Am I dying?" She asked softly.

The boy frowned deeply, marring his perfect face, then nodded slowly. "Hai."

She closed her eyes again. She had promised someone long ago that she would not die before gaining revenge on those who killed her, but like life, promises were easily destroyed and forgotten. If she saw her again in the afterlife, she would have to apologize for not carrying though with her promise. But she would rather avenge her sister's death than apologize for not being strong enough to survive; she wanted to live. She had to live. She would never be able to forgive herself if she died from such silly circumstances and was never able to at least help rid the world of the jinzouningen.

"But I can still save you. You will not die." He assured her.

“What can I do?” She asked softly.

“Just breathe." He told her, with half a smile on his face. He tightened his grip on her and seemed to be moving faster than he had before. Wind tousled her hair, and his, and it seemed to her that they were flying. They were moving very quickly, but she could not feel any rhythmic steps as he carried her. Perhaps he was being careful not to jostle her and keeping his movements tight and gentle; or perhaps she wasn’t dreaming and they really were floating above the ground. She didn’t know and at the moment she didn’t care. She just felt tired, and she wanted to rest.

She murmured an incoherent response, and dropped into sleep against his warm chest.

Her parents eyed her with matching looks. They were not old, but they were aged. There were wrinkles all around their mouths and eyes. They weren’t the pleasant kind of wrinkles that came from laughing or smiling, but the deep, hard lines that were only a result of crying and yelling and grief. Their hair was tinted gray in spots, and her father had already begun to use a walking stick. It was sad for her to watch them grow old in this manner, for she remembered what they had been like when they were young and full of energy. They were getting older much faster --- all because of what the jinzouningen had been doing to the Earth. They became old people quickly because there was no joy in their lives, and happiness was what kept people young and vibrant. As a young girl, she viewed it as a terrible, terrible thing. At her age, she couldn’t imagine growing old quite yet, but she knew that she never wanted to look as aged and tired as they did.

"Tayhei-chan, we know it is your birthday today, but--" Her mother began. She edged closer to the little girl and hugged her tightly around the shoulders.

"We still have to work today." Her father continued solemnly. "You remember I told you that money has been scarce lately, since the jinzouningen, eh?"

"Hai Otousan." Tayhei declared, and she placed her hands behind her back. "It is because the jinzouningen have caused so much damage and the prices on everything have gone up."

He smiled warmly at her and spoke softly in a voice that she could never, ever forget. It was soothing and deep; the most comforting sound that her ears knew. "Well, if we go to work today, and maybe earn a little more than normal, your mother and I will get you a gift."

"But, there are no promises Tayhei." Her mother reminded. She took her father's hand and they both stood up. This had happened often enough since the jinzouningen had come. Really, Tayhei could not remember things being any other way. For as long as she had been alive, her parents had been working day and night, and she had to stay home by herself and take care of her little sister. Her little sister was merely a baby, but a sweet baby. She rarely ever cried or fussed, as if she knew that her parents already had enough stress and she didn’t want to cause them any more trouble. Tayhei looked after her little sister happily, for not every little girl was able to have a real-life baby doll to play with. Besides, with her parents gone most of the time, it was lonely there, and she liked having someone to talk to.

Delicately, her baby sister was placed in her arms. "Will you take care of Yakosoku-chan for me again today?" Her mother asked her.

"Hai Okaasan. I will be very careful with her." Tayhei promised. "I always will be. I'll love neechan for ever and ever......"

The girl woke up out of her dream, startled. She blinked several times, trying to rid herself of the memory and sat up. It did her no good to think of such things. It only brought back a lot of pain and a lot of unanswered questions. She opened her eyes slowly, blinking at the bright white that invaded her senses. Her fingers held tightly onto the blanket that had been covering her, and she noticed that it had a stiff feel to it --- like new sheets. Everything smelled fresh and clean, like lemons and soap. A glance around the room informed her that she was in a hospital of some sort. She was the only occupant in a room with several beds, all white. Waking up in a hospital made sense to her when she remembered the fight with the jinzouningen and how she had been injured. She vaguely recalled something about being carried by someone, but she couldn’t quite seem to remember much about that.

Lightly, she brushed her hair out of her face and noticed that her hands were completely unscathed. Her green eyes narrowed in confusion and she looked down at herself. No cuts, no bruises, no injury of any sort. She wasn't wearing her clothes either, but a pair of loose, baggy pants and a tee shirt that read “Capsule Corporation”. She must have put these clothes on; she couldn’t imagine anyone dressing her. Closing her eyes tightly, she tried to remember what happened. Vaguely she recalled a boy talking to her, but she could not remember how she got here or what they had said to one another.

She sighed, not quite sure what she was going to do now. She didn’t know if she should just get up and walk out into the hallway or if she should stay in bed. It looked as though she were fully healed, but there might be other injuries that she was not aware of. She looked around the room, bored. It was dead silent, except for the sound of footsteps outside a glass door to her right. A face appeared behind the door, and he smiled when he saw that she was sitting up. He entered the room, and she recognized him as the boy who had been carrying her. A flood of memories came back to her then, though she still did not know how she had ended up here.

"Good morning." He said casually, tucking a strand of lavender hair behind his ears. "I'm glad to see you finally woke up. We were quite worried about you."

She didn’t quite know what to think about all of this. For one, she was worried about where she had been taken. And for another, she was also wondering who exactly “we” was. Was she at Capsule Corporation, as described on the tee shirt that she was wearing? She knew that the old Capsule Corporation building had been destroyed and she had just assumed that the owners had been destroyed along with it. But perhaps they had opened a new headquarters. She wasn’t sure about that, however. After all, it was just a tee shirt and there were no other signs that it was anything Capsule Corp. related. In fact, she was even more positive that she was in a hospital, because she could see heart and breathing monitors on the far wall, echoing her own heartbeat. She still didn’t understand what had happened to her though. She had been injured very badly, and couldn’t possibly have healed in such a short amount of time. It didn’t feel like weeks and months had already gone by. It felt like a few short hours.

"I appear to be healthy...." She studied her arms again, still looking for cuts. "I was cut, several times. Why am I not bleeding anywhere?"

The boy smiled again. "We have excellent medicine. You should be completely healed."

Excellent medicine? More like miracle medicine. There must be something that this boy is hiding, judging by that impish grin on his face. Perhaps this is in fact Capsule Corporation and they are testing new drugs? Her thoughts sounded highly paranoid and irrational, but she had learned a lot in the past few years. For instance, she knew well enough now not to trust anyone that she came upon during her travels. They were all fighting to survive against the jinzouningen and sometimes it made people do crazy, manipulative things. Of course, he had saved her, and she owed him thanks for at least that much. Surely he wouldn’t have saved her if he had some evil plot in mind.

"Thank you for saving my life." She murmured softly, and looked at him with her green eyes narrowed in suspicion. She was still a little suspicious, especially since the boy seemed to continuously smile, as if he were keeping secrets and couldn’t quite contain himself.

The boy bowed his head slightly and fingered the edge of his jacket, which had the Capsule Corporation logo on the side of the sleeve. "I could never leave anyone to die."

He shook his head and then looked up at her with another smile. "You feel all right, eh?"

"Hai." It was true that she felt alright, at least on the outside. There were no bruises or scratches or broken bones. Inside though, she was still highly confused and had no idea what she was supposed to think about all of this. With a sigh, she looked around for the notebook she had been carrying. It appeared to be no where in sight, not even on the table beside the bed. Her small sword was there, leaning up against the far wall, but there was no sign of her beloved notebook. Fear and panic began to creep into her stomach. That notebook was everything to her. If she had lost it in the middle of the jinzouningen’s fight, she would never forgive herself.

"Where am I?" She asked him, her eyes still searching the room for the book.

"The Underground City." The boy informed her proudly. He adjusted the jacket that he was wearing and crossed his arms, looking at her with his head held high. A stray piece of lavender hair fell down across his face. Casually, he sat down in the chair that was next to her bed.

"Underground city?" She implored, her face displaying confusion and feeling frustrated that she could not find her notebook anywhere. She didn’t think that she had lost it; she had tried to hold onto it until the very last second. But perhaps when the boy picked her up and took her here, he had left it. Either that or he had taken it. Perhaps that was why he was grinning at her in such a way.

"Hai. You aren't from here, are you?"

She shook her head negatively. "I didn't know there was such a thing."

"Well, now you do." He smiled warmly at her. She began to wonder just how many times this boy had smiled in his lifetime. The number must have been great, because he seemed so comfortable with the idea of smiling. A smile, to her, was to be only granted to a special person or a special memory. She didn't have much reason to smile anymore. All her memories were forced away when they came to mind, and all the special people in her life had disappeared.

"My name is Trunks. And you are....?"

She looked up and found his eyes. “Tayhei.”

"Hajimemashite." He said politely, nodding at her. He looked happy to be there with her at the moment, but she recalled the way his eyes had looked when he had been carrying her. She had thought that he looked sad --- tragically sad. She wondered where that deep and tormented look had gone to and why he was so suddenly cheerful now. Like everything else, it made her suspicious and she regarded the boy with caution. She had felt bad for him then, even though she knew nothing about what had happened to him. When he was carrying her, it seemed as though he were much like herself. Too full of sadness to not let it seep out of her soul and through her eyes. It was something that she couldn’t help, and she hated to see herself in the mirror now. She couldn’t believe how sad she looked in comparison to the chipper girl that she used to be so long ago. It made her even more angry with the jinzouningen and made her want to see them destroyed even more. They had taken away everything from her --- including her spirit. But that was why she was following them and that was why she was recording everything that they said and did. One day, she knew it would enable her to defeat them.

“I had a notebook with my in the city. I can’t seem to find it here.” Tayhei informed him, looking into his eyes.

He smiled again and reached into his jacket and pulled out her notebook. It looked even more battered and war torn that it had before. She didn’t mind though, she was just happy that it was here. If she had lost all of those notes, she would be devastated. It seemed as though her entire life was in that tiny little notebook. Not just things about the jinzouningen, but personal things as well. Memories were easier to forget if she wrote them down and got them out of her head. At the same time though, she did not want to lose those memories. She cherished the fact that they would remain in print forever in her notebook.

"Looking for this?" Trunks questioned with a hint of mischief on his face. He looked as if he were going to try and keep it away from her.

Rather rudely, she grabbed the book away from him and held it tightly to her chest. "Did you read it?"

"Iie."

"I didn’t think I would leave it in the city." Tayhei explained solemnly, while tracing the spine of the notebook with her finger, glad to have it back in her possession.

"And what does a young girl such as yourself do out in an abandoned city with the jinzouningen?" He inquired.

She felt her face flush with the prospect of explaining what she had been doing. This boy seemed to be the understanding, soft type; someone who would listen to her and understand what she was trying to say. He also seemed to be the protective type; the kind of boy that would be concerned about the well-being of others, especially females. But underneath that, she sensed that there was a quick temper hidden somewhere in those sky blue eyes. She didn’t want to be around when he got angry. And if her assumptions were correct, he might be quite angry when he found out that she had been following around the most dangerous monsters the Earth had ever known. He stared at her blankly, waiting for an answer.

"I was just scavenging." She lied, and shrugged nonchalantly. "Food is scarce in my area."

He eyed her critically. "You need to be more careful. The jinzouningen are very powerful."

Tayhei nodded in agreement. "Yes, they are very powerful and very strategic fighters as well. They each have very special techniques. Although they seem quite unattainable, they can be done."

As soon as the words came out of her mouth, she grimaced. She wanted to be careful not to give away too much information to the strange boy, but when he asked her about something that she knew so much about, it was hard to keep quiet. She considered herself to be an expert on the jinzouningen by now, especially their fighting habits and techniques, which she had actually studied on her own. If she felt comfortable enough with the boy --- and she certainly didn’t, she would have shown him the pages and pages of documented fights that she had between the two feuding jinzouningen.

The boy sat on the chair still, looking up at her. "What is in that notebook?"

Tayhei racked her brains for an answer to give him. She couldn’t think of any suitable lie, so she simply said the first thing that popped into her mind. "It's eh....a recipe for spice cake."

"Almost every page is written on, and the notebook is too thick to hold just one recipe." He pointed out in an intelligent voice. He raised an eyebrow at her, looking at her with a face that clearly showed he knew she was lying. Obviously he had been thinking about the content of the notebook for a while now. This frightened her, and so did the look that was in his eyes. She began to feel panic again, as though she needed to get away from him as quickly as possible before he began asking questions.

She held it tighter to her chest and backed away from the boy. "It is a really, really long recipe."

A grim, determined look came across his face and he stood to join her. She backed away hesitantly and looked over her shoulder for an exit. Smoothly, he appeared no more than inches away from her face, peering down at her, his breath warm on her face. "You know a lot about the jinzouningen, correct?"

She didn't like this. People were not supposed to get this close to other people. He was invading her space, and she couldn't help but feel irritated at this. The first person she had seen in years was insisting on annoying her. If there was one thing that she couldn’t stand, it was nosy people who had to ask prying questions that she didn’t want to answer. He was too nosy, he was too close, and he smiled way too much. Of course, the reason he might be so irritating to her was because she wasn’t used to being around people quite yet. After all, she hadn't even touched a living person on the hand since....well, it had been a long time.

Tayhei nodded reluctantly and took a step backwards. "More than they know about themselves."

He turned to face her and she was once again struck by the familiarity of him. "Why do you keep moving away from me?" He inquired with a grin. "I know for a fact I do not smell that bad. What is in the notebook?"

The edges of her mouth turned up, not quite a smile and he continued following her. And now he was insisting on badgering her with humor, which confused her. Part of her wanted to laugh at what he had said, but the other part of her was still scared and simply wanted to run away before he could do anything to her. He was throwing her off by trying to act so charming. She didn't answer his question, and edged her way around the infirmary bed, still clutching the book. The boy followed her steadily, his eyes on the notebook. She felt her heart constrict with the possibility of him stealing her notebook. It would mean the end of years of hard work, and most likely, the end of all hope for killing Juunana-gou and Juuhachi-gou.

"Give me the notebook!" He demanded suddenly, reaching out for it with eager hands. Without so much as a second thought, Tayhei kicked him swiftly in the shin and jumped onto the bed.

The boy cried out more in surprise than in pain and bent down to examine his leg. Tayhei gazed down at him from her perch on the bed with concern. She hadn't meant to hurt him, just scare him a bit. She had never really hurt anyone before, although she was a practiced and accomplished fighter. Then again, she had never really had the chance to hurt anyone. She hadn’t even seen anyone since she had begun to take up a serious interest in training.

"Remind me to never try that one again." He muttered under his breath. He stood and faced the girl standing on the bed. "Did you have to kick me?"

"Hai. You were going to take my notebook."

He rolled his eyes at her. "It is not like I am keeping the damn thing. I just want to read it." He assured her.

She looked at him skeptically, then her face softened a bit. She had been scared before, too scared to be thinking rationally. This boy was not a criminal. He obviously had saved her, taken her here and healed her. She couldn’t hold something like that against anyone. In fact, she should be thanking him profusely and trying to think of some way that she could repay his kindness. He was not a terrible person, just a very curious and inquisitive boy who seemed to be concerned about her. He had warm eyes and an inviting smile, and didn’t look as though he wanted to hurt anyone, let alone her.

"You don't seem like the stealing type." She observed before jumping down off the bed and standing next to him.

"I'm not." He assured her. She accepted his response and the paranoia that she had been feeling earlier drifted away. She was still a little frightened that he might be mad about what he would found when he read those pages, but it wasn’t worth being stubborn and uncooperative. Especially since he had been so kind to her so far. Hesitantly, she held out the notebook.

He accepted it from her and gingerly opened it up to the first page. She grimaced as she imagined what he was reading, which had been one of her earlier encounters with the jinzouningen. It had been close, very close, and she had almost been discovered because of her immaturity and her lack of self-control. It had been a very dangerous, very scary day --- almost as scary as today’s events. Trunks’s blue eyes narrowed as he scanned the first few pages quickly, then widened when he discovered what it all meant.

"You've been spying on the jinzouningen?!" He howled. She cringed at the volume of his voice, not used to hearing people yell like that. He looked positively irate and there was an interesting vein throbbing in his forehead. "What in Kami's name possessed you to do such a thing?! You could get hurt!”

Tayhei felt her jaw tighten and she sullenly looked down at the ground. She had been hoping at least to become friends with the boy, seeing as though she didn't have a lot of friends at the moment and she hadn't talked to anyone in years. It would have been nice to be able to catch up on the world events with someone. She had been so involved with the jinzouningen the past few years that she didn’t even know what was happening in the outside world. It seemed as though he wasn't looking for friendship though. It seemed as if he wanted to hit her at the moment because he was looking at her with such furious eyes.

Not quite knowing what to say, she merely shrugged her small shoulders and didn't meet his eyes. She supposed that her reaction was not one that he was expecting, for he suddenly stopped in his angry tirade and looked at her. Slowly, the anger in his features melted away and became nothing more than a simple look of concern. She guessed that was where all the anger came from in the first place --- he just didn’t want her to get hurt out there. The jinzouningen were dangerous and what she did on a daily basis was like trying to commit suicide. She could understand why he thought she was crazy.

"Look, I’m sorry. I didn't mean to upset you." He assured her. The warm smile appeared on his face again. “Actually, this notebook could be quite helpful to me, and so could you. Tayhei, I need to ask you for your help."

"Help for....?" She ventured.

"The world has been turned upside down by those artificial humans. If I don't do something to stop them soon, who knows what will happen? I’ve been trying every now and then to defeat them but I just don’t have the strength yet." He pointed out. She listened carefully to the way his voice reflected his emotions. She liked the way that he seemed to be so open with his feelings. It was something that she could probably never do.

"I don't have the strength to defeat them yet, but you probably have the knowledge.” He continued. “With your help, I can see the weaknesses in the jinzouningen and for once have a fair fight."

She thought for a moment. Even though he was not the warrior she had seen before, he had potential, and he had also saved her life. It was only right that she do a favor for him. Besides, what he said made a lot of sense, and she was tired of having to do things alone. She wanted to defeat the jinzouningen herself, but even if she didn’t, it would be nice to know that she had helped the process along.

"I will do anything to help Trunks-kun." She informed. With a small bow of her head, Tayhei held out her hand, and he promptly shook it on agreement. Her hand tingled with his touch. He was the first person that she had touched in four years, and for some reason it felt fantastic. Perhaps it would do her good to open up to someone again and begin to live life like every other normal person. She had to admit that she was tired of being so lonely. Besides, Trunks seemed like a nice enough companion. She might like helping him.

Trunks grinned and headed toward the door of the infirmary. "Well, before we go and make plans to save the Earth, let's go get some food."

Chapter 3
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