“Would you quit bothering me about Trunks?”

Mirai Trunks faltered at the harsh tone in her voice. He had been trying to get Tayhei to give him more information on the subject, but each and every inquiry was met with a curt reply. She was obviously very disturbed by what she felt for the boy, and probably quite confused about the fact that he was suddenly encouraging their relationship. Also, she seemed like a rather private person, and he was kind of stepping out his boundaries by asking her all of these questions about her love life. No wonder the girl was irritated with him. But he just couldn’t help himself. He had to know for some reason. He had to actually hear her say that she loved the other Trunks. He needed to hear that for his own sanity, and to be able to permanently close off the door to that kind of relationship with her. Otherwise, it was going to make it harder for him to leave, knowing that he probably just lost his last chance to be in love again. “I’m sorry, I’m just….”

Tayhei raised a delicate eyebrow. “Trying to live vicariously through him?”

He smiled wryly at her. “I guess that’s part of the reason. And then I think about what was like to be in love, and how comforting and beautiful it was. I think about how I used to want everyone in the entire planet to know what that feeling felt like. Too many people go through their lives never even having a taste of what real love is. And I suppose that I just don’t want that to happen to you. I can accept the fact that you don’t love me, and that you’re never going to love me. But I can’t accept the fact that you won’t love anyone.”

“I loved my sister.”

“That’s not what I meant.” Trunks said, shaking his head. Though, it was nice to hear her admit something like that. It was probably the most revealing thing she had ever said about her past --- about her life. It was definitely the only personal thing that she had ever told him. Then again, he expected her to love Yakosoku. After all, that little girl had altered every single aspect of his own Tayhei’s life. It was only natural that the same thing would happen here as well. “I guess I just don’t understand why you shut yourself off from the world like this. I don’t understand why you run away from everything. There are just some things that you can’t escape from, and love is one of them. If you have feelings that strong for someone, you shouldn’t ignore them.”

“I don’t have feelings for anyone.” Tayhei told him evenly, and she began to play with the edge of one of the bandages that was wrapped around her hand. “I don’t feel anything anymore, really. I don’t allow myself to feel anything.”

“Why?”

She looked up at him, but her green eyes were distant. It looked as if her mind was a world away, and she was reliving some other life. Her voice came out bitter and a little angry; she obviously felt very strongly about the subject. “Because once you’ve been hurt badly enough --- once you’ve lost the only person that you’ve ever cared about, you don’t want it to happen again. You protect yourself. You stop wasting your time with foolish pursuits like dreams and crushes. You realize that life is pain, and the only way to avoid it is to close yourself off from it.”

Mirai Trunks thought about that for a moment, then frowned at her. “I’ve lost nearly everyone that I ever cared about and experienced more pain than most people experience in two lifetimes. And yet, I still hope for love. I still dream about it every night.”

“It’s different with you. You’re not dreaming of love in the future, you’re dreaming of love in the past.” Tayhei corrected. Her eyes met his again, and for the first time, he felt as if he couldn’t reach her anymore. He could feel her becoming more and more distant from him with every word. “It’s easy for you to say that you’re still looking for love, but you’re not. You’re just reaching behind you and trying to pull back what you’ve already lost.”

Marron took a deep breath before entering the infirmary, but it all came out in a quick ‘whoosh’ when she spotted Tayhei sitting next to Mirai Trunks on an infirmary bed. She had only seen pictures of the future warrior, and it was almost as if she were seeing someone famous sitting there before her. It was strange that he looked so much like the Trunks that she knew and yet so different at the same time. He was like an older, more tragic version of Trunks. A Trunks that had felt too much pain and seen too much horror. He was handsome though, just as handsome as the Trunks that she knew. And he was talking to Tayhei as if she were the center of his universe, his eyes never straying from hers. Tayhei herself was in pretty bad shape. Blood had stained the clothing that she was wearing, and there were bandages all over her, many of them quite large. Dark purple bruises were already beginning to form on her arms, legs, and neck. The only thing that had remained untouched was her face. But there was an uninviting expression there, and a lot of anger behind those bright green eyes. She stood in the doorway for a moment, deliberating whether or not she should turn back. It looked as though they were in the middle of an important conversation, and the last thing she wanted to do was interrupt.

But she lingered too long and eventually the older girl’s cool green eyes fell on her. Marron took a step back and mustered up a brave smile, trying to figure out what to do with her hands. She couldn’t just leave them loose at her side. She didn’t want to look dead. And she couldn’t keep moving them because that would just make her look insane. She desperately tried to shove them into the pockets of her jeans, which was quite a feat considering the fact that they were a little tight around the waist. She tried to keep her voice calm and light, as if she wasn’t sweating and panicking. “Tayhei, it’s nice to see you again.”

Tayhei looked at her blankly for a moment. “Who the hell are you?”

“You know who I am, Tayhei!” She snapped in reply. She was suddenly bitterly angry at Tayhei for making this much more difficult than it had to be. Didn’t she realize that they were in a hurry? She wanted to make that wish as soon as possible so that when her mother came out of surgery and was all healed, she wouldn’t have anything holding her down. She wouldn’t have anything to feel guilty for. The time spent here with Tayhei was just time that they could be using to find the dragonballs. “I’m Marron! Kuririn and Juuhachi-gou’s daughter. We went to Sukuashi together. You were mean to me the entire time….”

“That’s right! Muffin!” Tayhei exclaimed as if she had just remembered. Then she leaned forward and squinted at her face, examining it intently. “Are you trying to wear makeup now? That’s so adorable.”

She instantly blushed, and felt a small part of her shrink back and cower. Yes, she wasn’t very good at putting on makeup yet. Her mother had always been naturally beautiful, so no one had really been around to teach her how to do it. She had tried on her own, but so far it was mostly just experimentation. But that didn’t mean that Tayhei had to point it out. In front of Mirai Trunks, no less. Marron felt the anger and hostility inside of her begin to burn. She had been holding in all of her frustration for so long that an awful lot of it had built up. And if Tayhei kept saying things like that, then she had a feeling that all of that anger was going to come tumbling out. She gave the older girl a sharp look, taking in the bandages and bruises that were all over her normally flawless skin, and then smirked. “At least I’m not going to have scars and bruises all over my body.”

Tayhei smiled sweetly. “Well, if your wind-up toy uncle hadn’t viciously attacked me and almost murdered me, then I wouldn’t either.”

Marron looked up quickly and glared at her. She should have known that coming here to talk to her was a mistake. She didn’t know how the girl did it, but every single time something came out of her mouth, it was targeted to cause the maximum amount of emotional damage. It was as if she actually sat around and practiced saying all of these means things. “Listen, I didn’t come here so that you could hurt me and make fun of me. I need the dragon radar, and no one else knows where it is. Go and find it for me so that we can get on with our mission and collect them all within a fairly decent stretch of time! And if you’re actually going to not get it for me, then I am going to be really mad.”

“Be patient, Marion.” Tayhei told her calmly and slowly, as if she were speaking to a child. She smiled again --- that quick dangerous smile that made Marron dread whatever she was going to say next. “I just want to ask you some questions first. Who are you running off with to find the dragonballs?”

A small surge of pride ran through her. She tilted her head up and raised her eyebrows haughtily. “Goten.”

“Oh. I really hope that you don’t get lost.” The older girl said, placing a delicate hand on her chest. Her voice came out sounding halfway concerned and halfway amused. “Goten isn’t the smartest guy in the world when it comes to things like directions. Come to think of it, he isn’t the smartest guy when it comes to anything. The boy is as dumb as a brick.”

“How dare you say things like that?!” Marron exclaimed angrily. She stomped her foot on the tiled floor of the infirmary and glared up at Tayhei with menacing eyes. She would never be able to understand why Tayhei could act so mean. Especially towards someone like Goten, who would do anything for anyone. He had been nothing but kind to her since they first met, and Tayhei still insisted on making fun of him while his back was turned. And worse, Goten would never even believe that she said things like that. He was completely confident in the fact that he and Tayhei were friends. It simply made Marron furious. “Goten is a wonderful boy! He’s a much better person than you.”

Tayhei raised her hand in the air dismissively. “Calm down, Muffin. I was only joking.”

Marron stared at her, and placed her hands on her hips. “Are you going to give me the dragon radar or not?”

“That depends. What are you going to give me in return?” The older girl asked with a devilish smile. She leaned back on the infirmary bed and cast Mirai Trunks an impish smile, as if the two of them were sharing some great secret. It made Marron mad to see that he smiled back as well, as if he were amused by the entire situation. She would have expected a little more out of Mirai Trunks; everyone had told her that he was kind and sad….They hadn’t mentioned the fact that he was likely to side with Tayhei and make fun of her as well. Though, if what Trunks had been blabbering about earlier was true, his actions might be attributed to the fact that he was interested in Tayhei romantically. Marron didn’t really care. All she knew was that she felt severely outnumbered here, and wished that she would have just waited for Goten.

“You’re going to make me pay for the dragon radar? That’s ridiculous!” She cried out indignantly. “Look, I knew that this was going to happen if I came to talk to you. I knew that you were going to be difficult. I tried to come here with an open mind, ready to forgive you for all of the nasty things that you’ve said to me in the past. But you are just impossible! Absolutely impossible! I don’t know how Goten or Trunks or anyone can stand to be around you as often as they are.”

“Calm down before you give yourself a seizure. First of all, what do you need the dragon radar for?”

Marron sighed, annoyed that Tayhei was making this so difficult for her. “I am going to wish back the people that my mother killed in Satan City.”

“That’s all?” Tayhei asked quizzically. She narrowed her eyes, and they glinted under the fluorescent lights of the infirmary. “That’s only one wish.”

“You’re allowed to make just one wish.” Marron explained. She was just relieved that she knew something the older girl didn’t know for once. She would be hard pressed to find anything else that the older girl wasn’t familiar with or educated on, but Tayhei was fairly new to the group and most likely hadn’t had a chance to hear everything there was to hear about the dragonballs. Marron smiled and spoke in the same slow, calm voice that the older girl had used earlier, mocking her. “The dragonballs actually regenerate faster if you only make one wish. It just isn’t necessary for us to wish for anything else. The only thing that we need right now is to bring back all of those innocent people that were killed in Satan City.”

Talking about the dragonballs and wishes had made Tayhei start thinking about things that she had long since pushed aside. She thought about her first real conversation with Mirai Trunks, when he asked her why she had never thought to bring her sister back to life using the dragon. He couldn’t understand why she hadn’t taken the only chance she had to get back the person that she had loved more than anything. He was so desperately in love with Mirai Tayhei that he probably would have done anything to bring her back, but it just wasn’t the same with Yakosoku. Bringing her little sister back to life meant that she was bringing back another opportunity to get hurt again. Because even if she brought her sister back to life, she still wouldn’t be able to get rid of the sickness that had killed her in the first place. Yakosoku would eventually start to suffer as she had before, and when the sickness became too much for her again, she would die. And Tayhei would be left alone again. The mere thought of it made her stomach churn relentlessly. She didn’t ever want to have to be hurt like that again or feel that aching loss again.

But still….It would be so wonderful to see her again. It would be so nice to be able to hold her little sister in her arms and hear her sweet little voice again. Yakosoku had died nearly a year ago, but the pain that Tayhei had felt when she died still remained just as strong as it had before. She had been so unhappy since her sister had died; it seemed as though nothing in this world had the ability to make her feel the way that she had when her sister was alive and healthy. Perhaps if she had Yakosoku back, then the rest of the pieces of her life would fall in place as well. Maybe if she had Yakosoku back, she could start living again. She wasn’t so sure that she could move on without her. She wasn’t so sure about anything anymore. Not Trunks, not her life, nothing. The only thing she had ever been certain about was the fact that she loved her sister.

She was quiet for a moment, then finally looked back up at Marron, taking in the pigtails and the childishly angry expression. She smirked. “Let’s make a deal, Muffin. If I give you the dragon radar, you give me the second wish.”

Marron crossed her arms uneasily, squinting at her suspiciously. “I don’t know if I should trust you to use the dragonballs. They have an unbelievable amount of power in them --- they can do anything. And a lot of people have tried to abuse that power before. A lot of people have tried to take advantage of the fact that the power of the dragonballs is limitless. And knowing you, you’d probably wish to take over the world or something ridiculous like that.”