Disclaimer: All characters portrayed in this story are the property of
their respective creators and companies.
This story takes place after volume 38 of the Ranma manga and a few
years after the end of DBZ. It largely overwrites most of DBGT.
C & C welcomed.
Dragon Ball R1/2
by
Donny Cheng
Chapter 7
Vejita grunted as he threw Trunks over his shoulder. Pain all to
familiar to him coursed through his body from the action of moving his
son's body. The added weight of a body in a room with the gravity four
hundred times its normal strength did nothing to help. Each step he
took to walk to the control panel reinforced the negative sensations on
his newly acquired injuries. However, the physical pain was
incomparable to the emptiness he felt.
He hadn't really been surprised. His expectations still did not
prepare him for the awful truth, though. His son was not a Saiyajin.
When he reached the panel, he proceeded to shut off the gravity control
mechanism, returning the weight in the room to its normal status. He
sighed as the strain on his muscles decreased. But the emptiness
persisted making relief that usually followed, impossible. As he walked
out of the room he glanced over his shoulder at the purpled haired boy.
The hair was further proof of the impurity of the blood. Physical
evidence to match the evidence of the soul. One that was clearly not
Saiyajin.
The faint glimmer of hope had left as fast as it had come. It had been
foolish of him to expect otherwise from his son. Second transformation
or not, Trunks was still Trunks; half-human.
He had pitied his son, since Trunks had not felt the same bloodlust he,
Kakaroto, and Gohan had when they transformed and tasted the power of
the Super Saiyajin for the very first time. Never would the boy know
the feeling of being so alive. Every bone, every muscle, every ounce of
blood singing in unison as unbridled anger surged through them.
Instead, Vejita grunted, the boy had became a Super Saiyajin over
childish anger and promptly forgot all about the transformation the next
day.
To think Kakaroto's son, Gohan, born of peasant stock could be more of
a Saiyajin than his own son. It still jarred Vejita to this day that
Gohan chose to be a scholar. Though the boy did not like fighting,
anyone that saw the boy transform in the battle against Cell could not
deny the fact that what they saw was a Saiyajin warrior in his full
fury. A waste of potential that Trunks would never have. That thought
brought him back to his previous battle with Trunks.
* * * * *
Vejita brought both of his arms down hard on to his son's back,
speeding the body's downward plunge. *That should do it,* Vejita
thought as the hard metal floor dented at the impact. He could already
feel the telltale signs of power rising at a drastic rate even though
Trunks lay prone on the ground.
Vejita was not fooled by the stillness however and soon, just as he
thought, the body disappeared. *Up there,* he predicted as he fired a
ki blast over top of him. He was surprised as he saw the touch of gold
in the color of the hair out from the corner of his eye. *Already?*
The ki blast slammed into Trunks, but he didn't bat an eye as he
disappeared once again. Vejita was not prepared for the second time
Trunks vanished and was thus caught unawares as his son materialized
right in front of him. He had not been mistaken. The boy's hair now
stood up even straighter than previously and the color was definitely
golden. There was blankness in the eyes that indicated Trunks had lost
all sense of what was going on as rage clouded his mind. Vejita had
done it. He had helped Trunks reached the next level. And now, he was
going to be in a world of hurt.
He thought desperately of what to do as Trunks flew in the air in front
of him. If he powered up, he would not be able to stop the next attack
in time. It would be best to block or dodge whatever came and look for
an opening to escape and regroup his power. However, he had sorely
underestimated how much of an increase in speed and strength the new
transformation awarded Trunks as an elbow slammed into his stomach. He
lost sense of where he was as his body was thrown to the ground.
Vejita looked up to see Trunks hovering above him as he shook off the
bout of dizziness that had overcome him. A large ball of ki formed in
the boy's hands. Vejita quickly formed ki blast in response in hopes of
being able to deflect most of the damage. Then all of a sudden, a light
of sanity appeared in the boy's eyes, and just as quickly as the
transformation took place, Trunks de-powered and fell limply out of the
sky.
Vejita's emotional high also deflated as he held out his arms and
caught his son's body before it hit the ground. He could hear his son
muttering 'father' just before he lost all consciousness.
* * * * *
Vejita reached the boy's room and dropped him onto the waiting bed.
The tiredness Trunks was experiencing was more likely from the effort of
reaching his second transformation than from any injuries Vejita might
have caused. It did warrant the use of the regeneration tank. Besides
that, he knew Kakaroto could still be in there. This time the thought
of putting his rival into the tank did not cheer him up. Seeing that
imbecile would only remind him of Gohan and what might have been for
Trunks. It was of small consolation that Goten was even worse compared
to Trunks.
Trunks had reached the next stage in his development and would probably
be able to do it again without any help. But to Vejita it mattered
little without the soul behind it. Trunks had once again proved that
despite being able to transform, ultimately, his human side ruled over
his soul. However, even with all this on his mind, there was one other
thought that bothered Vejita more than his son's failure as a Saiyajin.
It was something he felt when he heard Trunks whisper 'father'. Relief.
Why the hell had he been relieved that Trunks never landed a blow? He
wanted Trunks to strike him, didn't he? Finding no answers to that
question, he stalked out of the room intent on clearing his mind the
only way he knew how. Time to wake Kakaroto up.
* * * * *
"I figured you'd be here when I didn't find you in the tank," Vejita
said as he entered the kitchen. Kakaroto's head was buried inside the
refrigerator.
"Oh, Vejita," Goku said, pulling his head from out of the fridge to
give his long time rival a huge grin. "You must be happy about Trunks.
The power of his transformation woke me up."
Vejita grunted in answer. Kakaroto had managed to irk him again in a
span of less than a minute. His abilities must have improved
drastically for him to be able to penetrate the gravity room's barrier.
*I knew it, he had been holding back against me recently. I'll just
have to force his hand later tonight,* Vejita thought to himself.
"So you're training Trunks again? And where's your other student?"
Goku asked, while he set the table, placing a setting for Vejita also,
who took a seat at the counter across from him.
Vejita grunted again before replying. "No, the boy just needed a
little help to reach the second level. I gave Ranma the day off while I
took care of business with Trunks." Little was spoken between the two
men as they quickly and efficiently polished every item on the table.
"Oh, that was good. Bulma's cooking has gotten better," Goku sighed
patting his stomach happily.
"More like she's gotten more money and hired better help," Vejita
said. He caught himself glancing to the door of the kitchen, looking if
anyone might have been listening in on them. He shook his head and
wondered if his fellow Saiyajin were laughing at him from hell.
"So."
"So."
"Full?"
"Yep, you?"
"Yep."
Without another word the two men got up and decided to find someplace
relatively uninhabited.
* * * * *
Trunks managed to stay upright as he groggily walked to the kitchen,
for once glad that he hadn't woken up in the tank that smelled so much
like medicine after one of a fight with his overly aggressive father.
His stomach rumbled reminding him of his mission at hand and to get a
move on. Staggering, he made it to the kitchen to find a large spread
already laid out in on the table.
"Hey, Trunks. Where's dad?" Bra asked as she got the rest of the
leftovers from the fridge and brought them to the table. "He ate half
of what was in the fridge. Mom's going to be angry."
"I don't know. I just woke up in my room. I saw that Uncle Goku is
out of the regeneration tank, so you know what that means. And if
you're so worried about mom, why the food? It looks like you have the
other half of the fridge on the table. Didn't you guys go out to eat?"
"Hello, that was last night. You've been out like a light since last
night," Pan said as she and Ranma arranged to overflowing food.
"Well don't eat all of it. I live here too you know," Trunks said
testily as he grabbed a stool and sat down.
"Boy, you're in a foul mood. I thought you'd be happy. I just looked
at the computer logs for the gravity room. The power spike reading says
you did it. Congratulations," Bra said, also sitting down as the last
of the food was taken.
"It didn't work," Trunks mumbled quietly to himself as he remembered
the look of disappointment on his father's face just before he fell into
unconsciousness.
"What was that?" Ranma asked, not hearing what the older boy said.
"Nothing," Trunks replied. It was after a moment of silence and
picking at his food despite how hungry he was, that he spoke again. A
question had been on his mind since he talked with Ranma last. "When
you train with your father, do you go all out?"
"Of course."
"How do you do it, Ranma?" Trunks asked. *Why can't I do it?*
Ranma shrugged. "He may be slow and fat and getting on in the years
and dimwitted and..."
"Uh, I get the point," Trunks said quickly, interjecting in.
"...but he knows me very well and even when I try to fight
unpredictably, he usually figures out what I'm going to do. If I don't
go seriously on him, I get bruises and later at the dojo I lived at, I
would get wet."
"Now that you've mentioned it, I haven't seen the transformation Pan
told me about yet," Bra said.
*Might as well get this over will,* Ranma sighed. He took his glass of
water and upended it over his head. However, the usual gasps didn't
come.
"That's it?" Trunks looked on disappointingly. The chi as far as he
could tell was different, more 'feminine' like that of Pan's and Bra's.
However the actual level of it was exactly the same. Definitely not a
transformation like that of the Super Saiyajin.
"Hey, no fair, they're even bigger than mine!" Bra exclaimed as she
reached out and touched one of Ranma's breasts.
Pan glared at Bra as the girl started to demonstrate by jutting out her
chest. Pan nearly exploded when Bra took a hold of Ranma's hands to let
him 'compare'. "I think Ranma can tell."
"Well, they're for sure bigger than yours Pan," Bra smiled
condescendingly.
Ranma was already on his feet as the telltale signs of battle aura
manifested themselves. Life was decidedly easier since he managed to
pinpoint with accuracy how much battle aura a girl had. He noticed
Trunks motioning him to the doorway as the two girls argued.
* * * * *
"Are they always like that?" Ranma said as he and Trunks walked along
the hallway.
"Only when they're both after the same things. Which you happen to be
this time," Trunks snickered.
"Ack, and I thought I left all that back in Nerima."
"Girl troubles?"
"You don't know the half of it. It was one of the reasons I left there
in the first place along with Pop pressuring me with inheriting the
dojo."
"You don't sound like you get along with your father that well. If it
were me, I don't think I would mind him paying that much attention to
me." *I would love it,* Trunks thought to himself. "It must be great
to have him train you for the past ten years."
Ranma blinked at the wistful sound coming from Trunks's voice.
* * * * *
"Ranma, enough training. Time to show me what you've learned."
"O-Okay," Ranma stammered as he looked up at the towering figure over
him.
Ranma blocked the first fist that was aimed at his face, but was not
fast enough to block the leg that swept him off his feet. His head rang
as his head was swatted to the side by his father's huge hands. His
meager trained reflexes left him suddenly as his six year old mind
sought only to run away.
"What are you doing, Ranma? You could have hit me there instead of
trying to run away. An opening is only for a tactical retreat when you
can't win. But you can't tell that unless you actually try to hit me.
Again. We'll do this all night if we have to."
Ranma's head rang as more swats from those large hands batted his head
to and fro. He could dimly recall his feet running to get away in any
direction as his puffy eyelids made it hard on him to see where he was
running. He didn't know when it happened, but something snapped inside
of him and instead of fear anger emerged. The next time he felt his
father's fist against his face, he launched himself into the direction
into the attack as he could not even see where his father was anymore.
The solid flesh against his knuckles indicated he had done it.
Ranma tried looking down at his hand which was still clenched in a
fist, but could only see a blurred shape. He had done it. He had
punched his father.
"Good job, boy. You made your father proud. We'll do some more
sparring later. Don't worry, you'll get use to it."
*Get used to hitting Pop? I didn't like it when I got angry at him.*
* * * * *
"I don't know about that. Pop never asked me what I wanted. Well if
he asked me now, I'd probably have told him to do what he did to train
me. But if asked me earlier when I was young... well then, I don't know
anymore," Ranma said thoughtfully.
"Heh, you know what? Probably the same with me. My life isn't too bad
now and it would be different if I asked him to train me back then. But
I still wonder what would have happened if I took your route though."
"I don't. Thinking's not my thing," Ranma grinned. He pointed to his
fist. "This is. So, you up for that sparring contest now?"
"Always," Trunks grinned.
Trunks could have won within a minute, but something about Ranma made
him want the fight to last longer. He still won an hour later, but it
felt much more satisfying than outright overpowering his opponent as he
had done in the past Tenkaichi-budokai.
* * * * *
Vejita woke up and stared at the arm lying across his chest. It was
not attached to his wife. He stared irritably at the sleeping Kakaroto
and wondered how the idiot had managed to invade his sleeping space.
Somehow, he and Kakaroto had managed to knock both of themselves out
during that last attack.
He sighed and wondered how angry Bulma was going to be with him when he
got home. Yesterday night was supposed to be a 'celebration'. At least
Kakaroto's wife will be there and lessen the blow somewhat.
* * * * *
Bulma and Chi-Chi rolled their eyes as their respective husbands walked
in. "Chi-Chi's decided to stay a few days since we haven't seen each
other in a long time."
"Oh, Chi-Chi, you told Bulma about it? So, you pregnant?" Goku asked
innocently.
"I told you to keep quiet!" Chi-Chi yelled, aghast and blushing like
crazy.
Bulma raised her eyebrow. Chi-Chi hadn't mentioned it yet, but Bulma
should have figured something was up. Chi-Chi was even older than her.
She looked over at Vejita and noticed that he didn't even bat an eye.
Apparently Saiyajins really didn't know the difference between a fifty
year old woman and the young woman they married. In fact, she recalled
him asking her why she didn't have children anymore. She could still
remember the funny look on his face when she explained the concept of
human aging to him.
* * * * *
Nail smiled at his waiting brother as he came out of the Room of Space
and Time. "I was right. The room was magically attuned to Piccolo.
For me it is a fresh start and the two year limit did not inhibit my
stay in there."
"What if you were wrong?" Dende admonished, relieved Nail was able to
walk out.
"I had to take that chance. My chi level was still the same as when I
fought Freeza. There is no other way I can beat Piccolo when the time
of our fight arrives."
"Piccolo's had a few years head start."
"He's also had a few years where he was at a dead end. I know
everything he knows and was able to cut a few corners in my training.
One more day in the Room and I should be quite close to him."
"Amazing, isn't it?" Dende asked as he walked over to the edge of the
Kami platform and looked down. Even now he could sense the chi levels
of once dormant fighters beginning to rise to new heights.
"Thinking of the human?" Nail asked. Ever since he heard of the boy
Vejita was training, he had noticed a decidedly noticeable change in the
natural order of the planet.
"Still find it surprising that one of such little power can cause all
of this."
"I think Vejita should take most of the credit for this. He's started
the ball rolling."
Dende tensed at Vejita's name. "You aren't still thinking of revenge
are you, Nail? It's been so many years. Most of the others have
already forgiven Vejita."
"One colony is one colony," Nail replied. "He is but one man. Seems
fair."
* * * * *
The End. (maybe)
Upcoming Fics:
Full version of the one hour Ignorance is Bliss fic.
Lesbian 1/2: Chapter 8