I've been wanting to give a try writing a fanfic for a while now. Well,
here here is the first. It didn't come out looking quite as good as I'd
hoped it would but I hope it's not too painful to read. Oh, well...

WARNING : While I'm going to mess up quite a bit with the X storyline
(hint to X's hardcore fans ^_^;), there are still going to be spoilers. 

As for timelines, this takes place a while after the Buu incident, and
around X's volume 4.

Of course, C&C is very welcome.
(By the way, I'm open to suggestions for the tittle)






Characters depicted here belongs either to Akira Toriyama or Studio
CLAMP.

Prologue :
**********

A painter would have loved this Spring day, the warm light coming from
the midafternoon sun illuminating even the thickest, deepest part of the
forest. Had he found a place high enough to look over the treetops, he
would have been delighted to see the perfect symmetry of the white-caped
mountain which stood in the background. A poet might have described with
flourish of language the breeze that made everything gently sway. Such
people, had they been here, might have done this. That illusion,
however, would only last for a short while. Sonic booms resonated over
the landscape, as the two human(?) beings who flew high in the air shook
the scenery with their fight.

That morning, Goku had been contemplating whether or not he was going to
go bug Vegeta until this one was willing enough to fight, which he knew
would take a strickingly short time. It'd been six months since Majin
Buu had been defeated and nothing had happened since. To put it short,
he was bored. The one thing keeping him from flying over to Satan City
was that Bulma had asked him not to. She found her husband hard enough
to keep in one place and did not particularly care for disturbance.
Trying to teach the mighty prince the differences between being the Head
of Capsule Corp and the King of Vegitasei wasn't an easy task.

For Goku, the relief came when Chichi told her family she wanted
everyone out for the day. She was going to clean the house from top to
bottom and didn't want anybody in the way. This meant that Gohan could
spend the day with Videl, and it meant Goten and his father could go
train together, which was the next best thing.

They'd been going at it for a few hours now when Son Goku called for  an
alt and flew down toward a river. "Let's stop for a while, son, I'm
getting hungry."

"But dad, mom told us she didn't want to see us before tonight. What are
we going to eat here ? Shouldn't we go to the city to get ourselves
something ?", said Goten as he landed beside his father.

Goku began to strip off his clothes. "Naa. Why don't you gather some
wood and light a fire. I'm sure I can find some fish in that river".

Eyeing the closest small tree, Goten began to walk toward it. "Sure !"

"And try to find some dead wood before chopping down a tree or some
branch. And if you do so, do it cleanly."

Sighing, Goten turned away from his unsuspecting victim and took off.
"Yes dad."

*******************

An hour later, he was by himself. His father had thought it a good idea
to take a digestive nap. Like any eight-years old kid, Goten didn't
think this idea all that great. 

"Remember", had said Goku right before he left, "your mother wants us to
be back by the end of the day. Don't be late or she'll yell at us,
again."

And, like any eight-years old kid, Goten had been completely honest when
he answered. "Don't worry, dad, I'll pay attention to time"

To be honest, Goten didn't really understand his mother. There were less
than a dozen things, people in fact, who could hurt him. That was in the
entire world,  and these people were friends. And since his speed would
have allowed him to fly around the world in less than an hour, he tended
not to worry about lateness.

It's about an hour later, while jumping in rhythm with a rabbit he was
chasing around, that he stumbled upon it. He had wandered in an area
covered with blooming cherry trees when his attention got caught.

>From the corner of an eye he thought he'd seen a faint glimer coming
from a particularly large tree. It stood alone in a small patch of grass
on the top of a hill, its delicate, falling blossoms the stricking image
of grace. He was fascinated. 

Forgetting the rabbit that took its chance to flee, he slowly walked up
to it. Nothing seemed wrong, now that he really looked at it, but yet...

As he got nearer, he couldn't say what interested him in this cherry
tree. He was sensing something that reminded him, in nature, of the Ki
he was so used feeling within himself, his father or any martial artist
with a bit of training. What was weird was that it felt as if many
normal people's energies had been gathered in a single place. It was
like his father's Genkidama, except the place was this tree.

For some reason, it made him feel cold.

He was about five meters from it when the sensation it gave him began
pulsating, growing stronger by the second. Goten stopped for an instant.

" It's weird. " He thought outloud. " It's very weak, but it's weird. "

Curiosity took over and he got closer. Finally, he stood at arm length
from the tree. The pulsation had grown stable and it was as if he was
listening, his head on a chest, to a heartbeat. Tentatively, he began to
raise his hand. He stopped short and decided for caution. The very earth
shook for an instant as he powered up to the first stage of Super
Sayajin.

Again, he raised his hand toward the trunk. And touched it.

****************

SonGoku was loudly snoring beside the river when a feeling of power
suddenly awakened him. Shaking off his sleepiness, he took off into the
sky. He recognised Goten's power and was worried as he didn't perceive
anybody beside him. And if his son was just experimenting, he had to be
sure he was cautious. It wouldn't do if the youngest of the Son family
accidently destroyed the planet because of a poorly aimed Ki blast.

An instant later, his son's presence seemed to have disappeared
completely. Levitating over where last he had felt Goten, he could see
nothing below him. Nothing but an old, rotten to the core, brought down
trunk on the barren top of a hill.

***************

Seichiro was musing in Shinjuku, watching his unsuspecting future victim
when something went suddenly wrong. It took him a few second to realise
it was coming from the Tree. Not wasting a moment, he instantly began to
run at top speed, making the people who caught a glimpse of him
wondering if they hadn't hallucinations.

He was usually much more cautious, but he could't allow anything to
happen to the Tree, and what he felt was very wrong. 

"Damn, has Subaru decided to go after it? I thought he didn't want to be
near there anymore". With that, he pushed himself further, trying to
gain seconds that could prove precious.

**************

SonGoten had been expecting many things, from an attack to the tree
falling down over him. The blinding light that flared the instant he
touched the trunk, followed by the sensation of falling into a dark pit
wasn't one of them.

He immediatly tried to stop his fall. But the Bukujutsu didn't seem to
work and he could feel nothing within his grasp. For a long time, he
braced himself for impact, increasing his strenght. He didn't noticed
that none of the usual lightshow was aroud him, that he couldn't have
seen his hand had it been mere centimeters from his eyes.

With no transitions, he found himself standing.

Everything was dark around him, with no more light than there would be
at night, under a moonless sky. A great shadow was before him.
Everything felt cold and threatening. And worst of all, he could hear,
coming from no direction, or all directions at once, the cries of pain
of a child. 

The shadow grew more and more threatening, the cries were joined by
others from men, women and children. And Goten was sure of it, the
reason behind it all was this darkness in front of him. He began to
gather his might. For an instant, the shadow seemed to cower in front of
the growing star. But here was its domain, here it was allmighty, and
its hunger would not be denied. As a mater of fact, this one would
satisfy it well. It began to surround its prey, ready to engulf him.

The rage that was his birthright was the only thing keeping the young
boy's fears at bay. But when he saw the shadows creeping closer, when he
heard the cries getting louder, he finally let go. With a wordless
scream, a fury that could shatter a star was unleashed.

******************

Seichiro was entering the parc when the end of the world came about.

This was his first thought when he saw, when he felt the flash that was
coming from were his Tree was. It took a few moments for his sight to
come back to him. It allowed him to witness the last of the wave of
power dissipating armlessly into the sky. "I wish good luck to anything
that's in its path".

Despite his attempted irony, he couldn't hide from himself that he had
been -no- that he was frightened by what had just occured. He wasn't the
only one. As he got up - when had he thrown himself to the ground ? - He
noticed birds and small animals that usually lived in the park flee from
it in panic. He heard a young mother crying as she tried to soothe her
screaming baby. Shaking like a leaf, she seemed unable to move from were
she knelt. He saw a salaryman who seemed in complete shock under the
tree beside which he'd been resting. On the street behind the trees,
people were slowly getting out of cars. They'd been caught in the
biggest car crash he had ever seen.

Shaking himself, he began to slowly walk toward the place his Tree
stood. Had anybody paid attention to him, they would have seen a tall,
handsome man who didn't show any emotions behind his sunglasses. They'd
had been surprised of the turmoils of emotions that clouded his
thoughts.

As he got there, he felt some relief as the only damage the Cherry Tree
had withstood was the destruction of a few of its furthest branchs.
Beside the Tree lay, facing the sky, a little boy who couldn't be older
than ten. His hair was undescribably spiky and wild and he was clad in a
weird red outfit. He was unconcious.


End of Prologue.
=================