They had noticed that something was wrong the second they flew into the air and started heading for Capsule Corporation. The ugly haze of black smoke was their first clue, and when they stopped to concentrate on the balance of the people in the world and their ki, they were devastated to realize that there had been of tremendous loss of life. While they had been busy thinking about subduing Juunana-gou and deliberating on what they were going to do with him, all of Satan City had been demolished. Whether or not the culprit was Juuhachi-gou, they couldn’t be sure, but they were almost certain of it. Considering what had happened to her twin brother, it was only reasonable to assume that the same had happened to her as well. If it had indeed been her that was attacking the city, they were going to have to do something about it. With Juunana-gou, it had been fairly easy to overlook his sin and keep themselves from punishing him --- it had only been one girl, and she was still alive and well. However, if Juuhachi-gou had killed a city full of innocent people….Well, it was simply much harder to overlook.

Piccolo shook his head, saddened. He had truly hoped that it wouldn’t have to end up this way. He didn’t want to have to hurt Juuhachi-gou, didn’t even want to consider it. But the loss of life was absolutely staggering. It simply couldn’t be ignored. He wondered how Kuririn would feel about it, knowing that his wife had killed so many people. It would be a hard thing for anyone to get over, but especially Kuririn. He cared so much about his wife and loved her deeply. This was not something that he would be able to accept readily. If they could think of no other option but to kill the female jinzouningen, he was certain that it would destroy his friend. Kuririn would simply not be able to go on.

At his sides, Koronu and Gokuu were silent. Their faces wore matching scowls and their brows were drawn together sharply; their eyes stared straight ahead at the smoke that coiled up from the city. It wasn’t always easy to see the resemblance between the two of them, but at the moment they looked nearly identical. None of them had said anything since they saw the smoke. All of them knew what had happened and what they had to do. There was no need to say anything. Instead of heading east towards Capsule Corporation, their plans had silently changed and they had all began flying straight towards Satan City. Piccolo could tell that all of them were a little scared of what they might find there. None of them wanted to find Juuhachi-gou killing innocent people. But still they flew on, growing more and more determined as they drew closer.

He looked down for a moment at Juunana-gou, who was being held at his side by a headlock. The jinzouningen had yet to wake up and was hanging limply in the air as they flew. Gokuu and Koronu had reasoned that since Piccolo had been the one to knock the android out, he should rightfully be the one to carry him. He wasn’t fond of the decision, but he accepted it. Mainly, he accepted it because he didn’t trust Koronu enough to know that she would not kill him and he didn’t trust Gokuu enough to know that he wouldn’t drop him. He did not want be the one restraining him when the jinzouningen woke up, however. It would be easy to restrain him again in this position, but he was pretty sure that the android would get in at least one good hit before he was knocked out again. He just hoped that the others wouldn’t need his assistance in battle, because he wasn’t about to let go of Juunana-gou.

As they came closer to the city and were able to see the beginnings of destruction, Piccolo swallowed hard. It had been a long time since he had seen this kind of damage. None of the tall buildings remained standing, and in their place was an impressive wall of fire that raged across the battered city ground in a matter of seconds. The smoke was thicker now and they could taste it burning in their throats as they flew through the air. The bridge that led to the city had been blown into several burning pieces and was smoking in the river below, along with several cars and buses. Piccolo shook his head, flying past it all and into the city, his heart beating wildly in his chest. He couldn’t see the bodies, but his heart already knew how high the death toll was.

The city below them was a horrifying sight, and all Gokuu thought think about as he flew over the annihilated remains of buildings was all of the people that had been killed. In the middle of the work week, right when business was starting? There must have been thousands upon thousands of innocent people that were in those buildings and on those streets. It made him sick to his stomach to think that one of his friends could have done this. Juuhachi-gou was someone that he trusted, not just because she was Kuririn’s wife, but because she was Juuhachi-gou. He had trusted the female jinzouningen in her fighting abilities --- trusted her enough to let her take care of his best friend and be his wife. Juuhachi-gou had been there to help when they rescued ChiChi from Sukuashi, as well. She was a friend, an ally. And yet, she had done this. Gokuu frowned. It made him uncomfortable to think of her as a killer, but yet, that’s exactly what had happened.

His thoughts were broken by a sudden shout, an loud and indiscernible yell.

Gokuu turned when heard it, spinning around in the air coming to a standstill. The others halted as well, moving their heads around to find the source of the shout. Gokuu knew that it had come from below them and moved his eyes down to search the wreckage for any signs of life. He couldn’t see anything at first, just mounds of broken concrete and steel beams through a haze of ugly black smoke. Then he made out a glimpse of lavender below him. Trunks. When he searched for the boy’s ki however, he was slightly puzzled. There were two of them. Two of them within a very close vicinity. He paused, his brows drawing together in confusion. Piccolo too, looked at him with a perplexed expression, obviously feeling the same thing. Intrigued, Gokuu flew closer to the boy, intent on solving this mystery before they flew any further. As he neared the boy, he caught sight of something else: a glint of metal at his back. A sword.

Understanding hit him immediately and though he was obviously surprised, he was happy as well. It had been a long time.

“Mirai Trunks!” He shouted happily, and waved down at the boy.

The future warrior ascended through the smoke and into the air to join them, looking tense and a little nervous as well. He was much older than when Gokuu had seen him last. He had lost the youthful look in his eyes and the childlike pout. Instead, it had been replaced with a mask of sadness and fatigue, like someone who had been through far too much pain in their lifetime. His hair had been cut short again and fell just above his ears in neat, lavender strands. There was the same familiar jacket, and as Gokuu cast a glance back, he assured himself that it was the same sword as well. Mirai Trunks had come to the past timeline again. He was happy to see the boy of course, but he was also a bit confused as to why he was there. He wondered whether or not it was a coincidence that he should happen to show up right as the jinzouningen began causing so much trouble. He knew how horrible Mirai Trunks’s world was and how the jinzouningen had managed to ravage everything in sight. Now that their own jinzouningen seemed to be doing the same, it was a little more than unusual that Mirai Trunks had shown up. Had he known about all of this ahead of time?

“It’s been a long while.” The future warrior said softly and nodded his head at them in respect.

“Hai, it has.” Gokuu agreed. “What are you doing here? Did you know that all of this was going to happen?”

The boy frowned deeply and looked down, his eyes dark. “I had no idea that this was going to happen. Okaasan and I just came back for a visit. We didn’t know that we were going to find our world being repeated in yours. We only arrived last night.”

“It’s odd that the jinzouningen would begin their destruction at the same time.” Observed Piccolo. “Last night was when Juunana-gou attacked the girl. I suspect that Juuhachi-gou may have changed last night as well, but only began her destruction this morning. Perhaps because of Kuririn.”

Mirai Trunks’s eyes opened wide. “Is he….?”

“Kuririn is fine.” Gokuu comforted quickly. “At least….he’s alive. I don’t know if he is aware of what’s happening, though.”

His mother, who had been silent up until then looked over at him with a frown on her pretty face. “Frankly, if I were Kuririn, I wouldn’t want to know what was happening.”

Kuririn waited outside the door, taping his foot impatiently. It was after ten in the morning; they had to at least be awake at this hour. He reached forward and knocked on the hard oak surface of the door again, rapping his fist four times on the door. Again, there was silence from within the small house and he scowled, looking back down at his watch. Normally he wouldn’t be so impatient, but he had to find his wife. Juuhachi-gou moved quickly and the longer he waited, the further she was going to get. And because she didn’t need rest, she would never have to stop. That meant that unless Kuririn started moving now and fast, he might never catch up to her. He had thought to stop off at the closest friend’s house, reasoning that the search would be quicker with two. He had been knocking on their door for what seemed like hours now, hoping that someone would be awake inside. He knocked once more, this time more violently.

At last he heard hints of heightened voices from inside, then footsteps approaching the door. He stepped back and brushed himself off self-consciously, wondering how exactly he was supposed to tell them what was happening. The door opened to reveal a beautiful young woman with short black and crystal blue eyes. She stared at him blankly for a moment, then her face crumpled with grateful tears. She reached out to hug him, wrapping her strong arms around him as she cried.

“Gohan!” Videl yelled through her tears. “He’s here! Kuririn’s okay!”

Gohan’s head suddenly appeared in the doorway and he looked down at Kuririn with the same grateful expression that was on Videl’s face. “You really had us worried, Kuririn. Okaasan has been trying to call you for hours now. Are you okay?”

A strong, awful feeling of dread struck Kuririn’s heart as he stared at them, his mind working quickly. He had been having a terrible, ominous feeling ever since Juuhachi-gou had flown out their bedroom window and into the air. It was a feeling that he wanted to ignore because he loved his wife, but facing his friends now, he couldn’t possibly push that feeling away any longer. Something awful had happened, something that he knew nothing about. Something that involved him or his family. The dread and fear that he was feeling was so strong at first that he couldn’t even move himself to speak. From the looks on his friends’ faces, he was in much more trouble than he had originally thought. Sickness and nausea began to churn and curdle in his stomach, and his limbs grew numb and cold. There were a millions unanswered questions in his mind, so many that he couldn’t even discern them anymore; they simply flew wildly through his head, screaming and chanting and causing him to almost go mad with frustration.

When his voice finally did come back to him, it was quiet and raspy. “Why wouldn’t I be alive? What’s happening?”

Kuririn watched the news blindly, his body completely still on the couch beside Gohan. His eyes took in the images of death and horror that were flashing on the screen, but his mind and heart simply could not comprehend it. His heart felt as though it had completely stopped beating. It lay dead and defeated in his chest, along with his soul and everything else that he had ever known. The city was completely in ruins, thick black smoke curling up from the burning buildings and into the morning sky. All of the skyscapers had toppled to the ground and the smaller buildings had been crushed under their weight. The city was an unrecognizable heap of concrete and metal, with dangerous shards of glass rising out of the rubble like transparent knives. The only people that the news cameras displayed were dead; most of them burnt, some of them had been physically killed by what the newscaster called “the demon jinzouningen”.

The cameras moved again, and as they turned, the viewers could catch a glimpse of this demon jinzouningen, hanging ominously in the sky above the city. Though the angle was bad and the lens of the camera was not that powerful, the figure could be made out anyway, through the haze of black smoke that was floating around her. A small woman. Short blond hair. Ice blue eyes. Smooth, pale skin. Kuririn watched dully as this demon jinzouningen stretched out her hands and caused another building before her to explode in a mass of charred concrete and razor-sharp glass.

“Marron is okay. She is with Okaasan, and resting right now. Videl and I could drive you over there if you wanted to see her. It might be good for both of you to see a friendly face right now.” Gohan helpfully suggested.

Behind the couch, Videl leaned forward and rested her hand on Kuririn’s shoulder. Her crystal blue eyes were full of concern. “Kuririn, are you okay?”

He slowly nodded his head, feeling suddenly dizzy. Gohan and Videl gave each other a knowing look, obviously sensing that although Kuririn was acting brave, there was much more going on in his mind. He didn’t care if they knew or not. He didn’t even know how he felt. He didn’t know what to say, didn’t even remember how to move. Nothing seemed to make sense to him anymore. Again, his eyes traveled to the television set and he watched as his wife demolish Satan City.

“You shouldn’t worry about Juuhachi-gou.” Gohan comforted. “Okaasan said that Goten and Trunks went after Mirai Trunks as soon as he took off. They’ll stop him from hurting her. And it feels as though Otousan, Koronu, and Piccolo are headed in her direction as well. They’ll be able to contain her. I don’t know what’s going to happen after that, but I’m sure that things will work out okay. Don’t worry, Kuririn. We’ll take good care of her. Juunana-gou too.”

Again he nodded, and his head swam with the movement. There was another sudden explosion on the screen, and a piece of burning concrete went flying forward as if it were headed directly for the camera. There was blackness on the screen for a moment, then the hiss of static and black and white lines spread erratically across the television. Dying inside, Kuririn slowly closed his eyes, then opened them up again and watched the static-filled screen once more, his eyes blank and unseeing.