It didn’t take them long to reach their destination; Trunks knew exactly where he was taking her and wasted no time in guiding them there. He knew that the ocean would be beautiful today, that the sun would be high in the sky and warm on their skin. Already he could see only a few wisps of clouds, moving along with the light wind that flew through the air. Clear days like this one were rare on this area of the coast, but it felt only right that it should be beautiful today. Tayhei was seeing the ocean for the first time, and he wanted to make it a memorable experience for her. The crashing waves and dark skies of a storm could be beautiful as well, but there was nothing like an impossibly blue sea and sand that was glinting with sunshine. He dropped down before they reach the ocean, landing on a grassy hill that led up to the edge of a cliff. This cliff, he knew, dropped down straight into the ocean; it was a dizzying, frightening drop with razor sharp rocks and a tumultuous sea at the bottom. But the view from that cliff was astounding. And the beach that was just south of the drop and the sheer rock wall was pure and untouched, perfect.

He led her up to the cliff’s edge, bending down to avoid the flowering branches of the trees that hung overhead. It was spring and the blooms had just begun to unfold. The scent of them was strong but sweet to his senses, intoxicatingly floral. As they stepped closer to the edge of the cliff, the scent of the blooming flowers began to meld with the salty sea air, creating a brilliant and comforting mixture. He guided her up over the grass and walked her to the edge, turning to see the look on her face when she saw the ocean for the first time.

She was expressionless at first, her beautiful green eyes taking everything in. Her long golden hair trailed out softly behind her, lazily floating in the wind, and she raised her hand to shield her eyes from the sun. The ocean was an amazing blend of blue and green today, moving and flowing with the same intensity that it always had and always would. The clouds that hung in the sky were low, and the bottoms of them barely skimmed the tips of the highest reaching waves. Below them at the base of the cliff, the waves slammed into the rocks and shot up, reaching for them and sending up salty air and mists of ocean water. Tayhei’s green eyes closed for a moment, inhaling the intoxicating mix of flowers and the surf, then they opened again and she looked out to see with a look on her face so childlike and amazed, that Trunks had to smile. Those childlike eyes widened and shimmered --- whether it was tears or the moisture from the air, he didn’t know for sure, but he had a pretty good idea. He had wanted to make it memorable for her, and he had.

He watched her silently from the shelter of the dunes and the long grass, looking down at the white sand beach before him. Barefoot, she walked slowly through the tide, leaving tiny footprints in the sand behind her. Her long golden hair trailed down behind her and blew softly in the wind; she reached back and held it in place with one sand covered hand. She had rolled up her jeans so that the bottoms wouldn’t wet, and they sat rolled at mid-calf. Wearing nothing else but a shirt that hung loosely around her, she looked beautiful in the sunshine and the wind. She stopped for a moment at shore, facing out to sea, then bent her head back and closed her eyes, a rare smile on her beautiful face. He watched her inhale the salty air, bending down to let her fingers skim through the waves that were coming in on the shore. He smiled. It was strange how she could seem so much like a child to him sometimes. She looked at the world in the open, wondrous way that only a child could, with her eyes wide and taking everything in, treasuring every moment she lived and everything she saw as though it were the most precious thing on Earth.

She paused for a moment and bent down to examine a seashell, crouching down on her heels in the sand as the waves gently crawled towards her. Her fingers caressed the shell gently, admiring its smoothness and the beauty of its shape and color. It was a purple conch shell, about the size of a grapefruit --- a rare shell for this area of the coast. She admired it for a moment more, then she rose from her position in the sand and turned so that she was facing away from the beautiful blue ocean behind her. Moving the shell down towards the ground, she started writing something in the wet sand, her hand gently and gracefully guiding the shell as she wrote. He was curious about what she had written, but much more intrigued by the way that her eyes glinted in the sun. They looked greener than ever here. Complemented by the blue of the sea, they seemed to almost glow with the infusion of sunlight and happiness.

His heart did something strange then --- a combination between an ache and a flip. He turned his eyes away for a moment, looking down at the grains of sand that had found a home on his bare feet. It was easy to think in simple terms here, to imagine them as just a boy and a girl together on the beach. It was easy for him to think of love, to conjure up the image of holding her in his arms and looking into those bright green eyes. But things were not that simple and they never would be. This was not a world where people found love and lived in happiness. Their world was a world of pain and death and destruction; a world that was run relentlessly by the jinzouningen. Whatever his heart was feeling, he had to push it away. It just couldn’t happen. The chances of happiness in a world like this were so slim that he didn’t even want to try for it.

When she was finished writing with the shell, she stood and came back to him, jogging lightly through the warm sand, looking content and comfortable. His heart ached again as she turned towards him, her face flushed and happy, but he pushed it away and locked it up. In a world like this, there was no hope for such things. His heart did not agree though, and it spoke to him in comforting, soft tones as he rose to his feet and walked to meet Tayhei out onto the sand. His mind was telling him that it just wasn’t possible, but his heart was soaring with possibilities. Though he dared not to think about it, the collision of emotions and feelings there would have been enough for him to forget that anything else in the world existed.

“It’s beautiful. I never knew….” She said softly, looking back at the crashing blue and green waves. “I had always imagined it, but I never knew….”

Tayhei looked so innocent to him then, so happy. The girl rarely ever let a smile appear on her face, she was certainly making it up now. She was happy here, on this beach, in the sand, with him. And for reasons that he could not explain, the fact that she was happy sent his soul sailing. He was struck with the sudden impulse of keeping her here on this beach forever and letting the joy of the ocean and the salty sea air soak into her heart. She needed it. He needed it. The world needed it.

“Now you know.” He answered, his voice barely above a whisper. With his heart beating hard in his chest, he turned to help her back into her jacket. She swept her hair back and it brushed across his hands as he moved behind her, silky and damp against his skin. As he stood behind her, he dared to lean forward, letting his nose brush lightly across her golden hair. She smelled like a mixture of the fruits that were growing on the trees around them and the salty, fresh air that came from the ocean. It was familiar, comforting, intoxicating. He felt his heart jump again, seeming to swell in his chest as she turned and faced him, her green eyes gazing into him gently.

This can’t happen. He reminded himself firmly. Not in this world. And the fact that she seemed so innocent and so naïve stuck a very personal, very frightening chord with him. She was strong at heart, but too physically weak. If she ever went to fight the jinzouningen, she would be killed --- there was no debate about that. It made him angry just to think about it, just to know that it could happen. He didn’t want to get attached, didn’t want to lose anything else in his life. If this girl was intent on killing the jinzouningen, then she was going to attempt it, no matter what he did to try and stop her. And in the end, he was just going to end up hurt again. In this cruel and hopeless world, there were no such things as happy endings. He turned to face her again, gazed at her eyes, her pretty face, the long strands of golden hair. Not in this world. Sadly, not in this world.

As they turned to walk away from the beach, he paused for a moment to look back and see what it was that she had written in the sand with the shell. It was hard to decipher; the waves had just come ashore and were washing over it. White foam was spilling over the smooth letters, taking them back out to sea, piece by piece. But before the ocean could completely erase the word, he caught sight of it:

Hope.

The city is far behind me now, and I am back in the destroyed outside world, listening for the jinzouningen. Now that I have had plenty of time to think about the situation, I realize how wrong I was. I left Trunks and Bulma behind in anger. I never thanked them for their hospitality or for their friendship. I just left, and it was terrible of me. The fight was not particularly vicious. He could have said harsher things and I could have given harsher replies. It was the underlying tone of the argument, the things that weren’t being said, that made me angry. I am glad to be back in the outside world and on my mission once more, but at the same time, I regret what happened. Trunks meant more to me than he will probably ever come to know. Now that I am no longer in the city and no longer with him, I am faced with a bigger problem: getting him out of my mind....

----Tayhei’s journal; Vol 2: Page 26

"You're depressed."

It was a statement, not a question. She knew him well enough already to be able to tell when he was trying hiding his emotions. Those sky blue eyes gave away far too much, and as he shot her a glance, she could see the sadness and the restlessness that was etched in his soul. And it wasn’t just his eyes, either. His mouth was drawn into a slight grown and his face lacked its usual color. He was pale and sad and she knew that there was something bothering him.

They were walking back from the beach, their arms barely brushing against each other as they swayed back in forth. She could sense that he needed to talk, but knew that the beach was not the place to do it. With the roar of the ocean and the wind, not a word would be heard between the two of them. Instead, then strolled out and into a forested area, to a clearing where the sun was still able to reach them. It was quiet here, despite the fact that the ocean was so close, and the air smelled like a mixture of pine and salt. A rather large rock had provided them with a place to sit, and they had were silent for a few minutes, neither one of them able to find any words. The behavior was not characteristic of him, and Tayhei was beginning to worry that a big confession was about to be made. He hesitantly took her hands and his sky blue eyes found hers. He lifted his head and spoke softly to her in a voice that she had never heard before.

"When Gohan died, I thought that it was all over.” Trunks began. “I was the last warrior, the only one left to defend the lives of the innocent and protect what was left of the Earth. But no matter how hard I tried, I would never defeat the jinzouningen, they are too strong. They are too strong for Earth's forces, too strong for my father, too strong for Gohan, and too strong for me. If my father could see me now, still fighting to kill these pitiful wind-up toys, he would be ashamed."

Tayhei furrowed her brows and thought of the man in the picture Bulma had shown her. The Saiya-jin no Ouji: Vejiita. In a way, Trunks was almost exactly alike him; they even had the same matching smirk. According to what Bulma had told her, he also had the same temperament and at most times, the same pride too. Vejiita had been a very, very prideful warrior and a very strong one as well. If Vejiita had indeed passed on that pride to his son, then the fact that the jinzouningen were still alive must be bothering Trunks on a deeper level than Tayhei originally thought. She had never stopped to think about the personal side of it, about how Trunks must feel, being defeated again and again by his enemies. It must be very hard for him to continuously be pushed down, though she did admire his persistence.

He buried his face in his hands and took a deep breath, his broad shoulders shaking slightly. "Hell, even I'm ashamed of myself. Do you know how hard it is to look in the mirror? You have no idea how much guilt I carry on my shoulders; no one could ever fathom the pain I have been through."

His last words struck a cord that was buried deep within, and the guilt and sadness that she always hid. Instead of feeling pity or understanding towards him, Tayhei felt white-hot contempt growing inside of her. Guilt and pain were something that she definitely understood and she didn’t like the idea of someone undermining that. Everyone had guilt and everyone had sadness; it should all be treated equally and fairly. After all, sadness was horrible, no matter what heart resided in or what it was about. It was disrespectful of Trunks to assume that just because he had been through a lot of pain, that the rest of the world had it easy. That simply was not the way that things worked and it made her mad to think that Trunks could be that arrogant and unseeing. She wanted to say something about it, wanted to tell him to stop living his life as if he were at the center of the universe. Not everything revolved around him and his pain. His sadness was important, but so was everyone else’s sadness. No one deserved any more sympathy than anyone else.

“A lot of people in this world have pain in their hearts, Trunks.” She reminded him softly.

He frowned and looked lonely and miserable. “Well, I have my pain for a reason. It’s there to remind me how easy it is to lose people. With the jinzouningen and the ever present threat of danger, it’s hard to hold onto people for very long or keep them safe. I don’t think you realize just how terrible those evil twins are. I don’t think you realize the trouble that you’d be getting yourself into. And because of that, I can’t let you come back out here on your own. You can come outside with me to practice ki attacks, but you will not be able to live the life that you were living before. I can’t let you leave the Underground City again.”

The world fell out from under her and she stared at him in complete shock. He had promised her that she would be able to fulfill her mission and go on with her life. They had agreed that she would only stay for a few months. That was the deal. That was his promise. Her green eyes narrowed. She was angry that he had gone back on his word and angry that she had let herself believe in him and trust him. She could see in his eyes now that he had never intended to let her go back out again. In his heart, he had been planning to keep her caged in that Underground City forever. He had only been tricking her, luring her in with comfort and friendship so that she wouldn’t want to leave, so that she wouldn’t even think about it when those few months were over. But he was wrong. Her promise to Yakosoku was much, much more important than her own personal comfort. She would give up anything to keep that promise, even if it meant sacrificing her own happiness. If he tried to hold her back from it, she would not let him.

“I am not staying in the Underground City.” She spoke forcibly, her green eyes burning into his. “I made a promise and I intend to keep it. You can’t keep me chained up here. You don’t make my decisions for me.”

He glared angrily into her pretty face. "I am just trying to protect you, Tayhei! I don’t want anything to happen to you; I don’t want you to get hurt and I certainly don’t want you to die. You don’t know what the jinzouningen are like. You have no idea what they are like. They are ruthless, cruel, cold-hearted murderers. If you honestly think that you are going to go out into those deserted cities, find them, and fight them, than you are completely insane. They aren’t going to indulge you for even a second! As soon as you step out in front of them, they are going to kill you. You are nothing but a helpless, delusional little girl! You will never kill the jinzouningen and you will never keep your promise --- they will slaughter you within in two seconds."

She was incredibly hurt by his harsh words, but angered by them as well. He honestly had no right to decide her destiny for her and tell her what to do. She was intelligent and she was strong; she wasn’t going to rush into anything. She knew that the jinzouningen were stronger --- she had studied them for years now and recorded their every move. Better than anyone else in the world, she knew how powerful the evil androids were. And that fact that Trunks would even mention the promise that she had made to her sister was enough to make her blood turn to fire in her veins. He had no right to even speak about that. He didn’t know anything about it. She turned away from him and spoke softly.

"Maybe I am delusional.” She retorted in fury. “I thought you were a great man, Trunks. Now I know you are only a spoiled little boy."

With a rush of adrenaline, Tayhei pushed herself off of rock that they had been sitting on together. She ignored the shaking feeling in her knees and the way that the trees overhead seemed to spin around her, making her dizzy and weak. Her heart was trying to tell her not to do this, but she refused to listen to it. She was too angry to listen to it and too irrational to realize that she was making a huge mistake. Still simmering with anger, she turned to face him with an icy green glare. Forcing herself to keep her hands steady, Tayhei took off the jacket that Bulma had given her. She stared at it for a moment, fingering the light fabric and admiring the Capsule Corporation logo. Then, without warning, she flung it into Trunks's arms with so much force that he almost lost his footing.

With brisk, angry steps, she began walking away, her vision blurring with a layer a tears. They had been so kind to her. They had given her a home, friendship, comfort --- everything that a person needed to survive in this world. But she would have to leave it all behind her now. Trunks, Bulma, Capsule Corporation, the jacket, everything. She didn’t dare look back. She was afraid that if she saw his face again, she might cave in and give up. And she didn’t want that. She would rather die than give up. Her little sister had been everything to her so long ago and in some ways she still was. She would never let her down, and she would never let anyone control her life the way that Trunks was trying to do now.

"Where do you think you're going?!" Trunks shouted after her. His voice was angry, but she detected just a hint of desperation there, as if he couldn’t really believe that she was doing it, that she was actually walking away from him.

"I'm leaving, Trunks."

There was a moment of silence from behind her, and then his voice came through the trees, seemingly slapping her as she walked through the quiet forest. The bitterness and betrayl in that voice was so sour that she could practically taste it. "Well, if that’s the way you feel, then just go!” He snapped angrily. “And never come back. The gates to the city will not be open to you, someone who doesn't feel it should exist. I don't want to see your face again. Goodbye."

She paused, then turned around and stared at him. He was standing up, with his arms crossed, facing her across the clearing. His eyes were dark and troubled and his mouth was drawn into a horrible frown. He may have looked intimidating and awful then, but at one time he had been kind. He was been very kind. And she at least owed him respect for the way that he had treated her and for what he had done for her. Momentarily pushing her anger aside, she bowed slightly before him, thanking him with not words, but just the look on her face. "Goodbye."

Then she stood tall, tipped her head back slightly, and flew above the trees and into the sky. As the pine needles brushed past her arms and the scent of the ocean grew thicker in the air, she finally allowed herself to cry, anger and bitterness creeping out through her tears. This wasn’t the way that she wanted it to end. This wasn’t the way that she wanted it to happen. But unfortunately, fate had directed her to this path and this was the way that it had to be. She flew up and up, as if she could escape him and this world and fly straight out into the universe. When she was high enough above him, she took a chance and looked back down, only to find him staring straight back at her. For a moment they both seemed to freeze, and even from a distance, she could still see the glint of heaven in his sky blue eyes.

Then she slowly turned and flew quickly into the distance.

Chapter 10
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