“Yeah but.....it’s not that great. Now, if you really wanted to hear a great story, talk to my brother Gohan. That‘s something somebody should have caught on tape.”
“Kino!“
“Ok fine. But like I said....“
“Yeah yeah, you just sit there and talk as much as you want.”
“Well, all right...if you put it that way...“
“Kino...“
“Just kidding,“ Kione replied with a smile, “ok, it was two weeks before me and Goten’s eighth birthday and I had found a little bird, a blue jay, with a broken wing one day while walking through the woods. I took her home and cared for it until her wing had healed and then took the time to help her learn to fly again. I had never actually had a pet of my own before so I kinda thought of this little bird I called Mae as my own and very first pet. She was the sweetest thing I had ever seen and everything she did kept me grinning for hours, she even sat on the rim of a cereal bowl and ate breakfast with me in the morning.”
“That’s so cute.” Suzuka said as she listened.
“Yeah, my mom thought it was adorable too.”
“What happened to her?”
“Well, one day, we took a walk, like we usually did, and met up with a little boy. He was carrying one of those BB guns and after spotting Mae, decided he‘d try a little target practice. I was screaming at him and she was trying her best to keep out of range but she couldn’t get away. She was too far from me and I wasn’t there in time when he pulled the trigger. She fell to the ground and it didn’t matter what I did......I couldn’t wake her up. That little brat just sat there laughing and my anger just skyrocketed. I know she was just a little bird, but Mae was my little bird and she meant everything to me.
“Everything I did for her and everything we did together just flashed through my mind at once as I stared at the kids face and all of a sudden something clicked and I.....kind of exploded in a way. A huge rush of energy came over me and I had to get rid of it because it felt like I was burning alive. Well....after that happened, the blinding light died and the little kid could and I could see again. Unfortunately, I didn’t have time to do anything to him since he had dropped the BB gun and ran away from me as fast as his legs could carry him, screaming at the top of his lung .”
“That,” Suzuka sniffled, “is so sad. That poor little bird! I’m so sorry Kione, I feel terrible.”
“Suzu....are you ok?”
“Yeah......yeah I’m fine, there’s just a little something in my eye.” her friend responded. Kione smiled and patted her on the back. Suzuka returned one and wiped her eyes. “Did you find out whatever happened to the kid?”
“Yup.”
“You did?”
“Yeah....conveniently I went to school with him in fourth grade and unfortunately for him....I never forget a face. His ugly little one is one I recognized right away.”
“What’d you do to him?”
“I made his life a living hell for a year and a half until he transferred schools.” Kione replied smiling to her self.
“I can only imagine what you did to him.” Suzuka laughed as she saw the huge grin on her friend’s face.
“You’re right, and no one believed what he said I did to him because everything that came out of his mouth sounded like some story he made up and I was never punished. I mean....would you believe a little kid if they told you a sweet and innocent little girl like me chased him around shooting “little glowing thingies” at you if you didn’t know I wasn’t totally human?”
“Probably not.”
“I rest my case.”
“So, what happened when you went home?”
“I went home as I was, after taking my anger out on the gun and giving Mae a proper burial. When my mom saw me she flipped out and fainted while my brothers, dad, and Trunks were all celebrating my great accomplishment. I eventually realized what I’d become and calmed down, but stayed super Saiyajin for the rest of the day because I thought I looked awesome.”
“Hehe, sounds like you.”
“Hey....shut up.” Kione said with a laugh. A minute later, their conversation was interrupted when a football whizzed passed Kione’s face, barely missing her nose. The girls blinked and stared at the football resting on the ground.
“Sorry about that girls!” a boys voice called out as he ran towards them, “oh, hi Kione, Suzuka.”
“Hey Hayama.” They both answered.
“Would you hurry up!” another boy shouted.
“If you knew how to CATCH I wouldn’t have had to run all the way over here, Yagami!” Hayama yelled back. “Well, I better go before those guys have a cow.”
“Take your time, I like watching Yagami spaz.” Kione replied.
“That’s always entertaining.”
“I know, that’s why I annoy him as much as possible.” Kione added. Hayama smiled and shook his head.
“Poor guy, you always pick on him.”
“Yeah, maybe I should let up a little.” She suggested. The two looked at one another and immediately both said,
“Nah.”
“Well, I’ll see you two on Monday.”
“Later.”
“Bye Hayama!” Suzuka shouted as he ran to get the ball. Kione leaned against the tree’s trunk and closed her eyes. She was suddenly awakened by a light tap on the top of her head and saw Hayama running back to the group. She grinned and sat up, forming an idea. Suzuka saw Kione’s eyes sparkling and knew she was up to something.
“You’ve got an idea...”
“Yup.”
“What are you gonna do?”
“Play football.”
“What?”
“Play football.”
“You can’t play football!”
“Of course I can.”
“Yeah but, gym football’s totally different then playing football with a bunch of thugs, they don‘t follow any rules. They attack each other like they‘re playing rugby.” Suzuka explained, though being glad she and Kione were always on the same team when playing team sports in gym. Kione was probably the most athletic person she knew, besides Goten and Trunks.
“I know, that’s why it’ll be fun. I mean, do you really think any of those guys are gonna hurt me?” She replied with a small smile.
“Well....no, but.....uh....oh forget it, once you set your mind on something there’s no talking you out of it.” Her friend said, giving up on trying to change Kione’s mind. “Just try and not roll in the mud? We’ll probably go somewhere after they’re done playing.” Kione giggled and nodded.
“Yeah yeah, I won’t. Hey, why don’t you come play too, I bet you’d have a blast.” She said, jokingly.
“Very funny.” Suzuka answered. Kione smiled again and took off towards the group of boys, Suzuka following half way and sat down next to a tree, ready to watch.
“Hey boys! One of your teams better make room for me, I’m playing too!”
“Your sister plays football?” Yagami asked.
“Yup.” Goten said, looking over at Trunks.
“All right then, you’re on our team Kino!”
“Whose?” She asked as she reached the group.
“Against your brother. This is our team and that’s Gotens.” Yagami said to her, having the guys separate. She scanned over the opposing team and rested her eyes on Hayama. He grinned and waved at her. She smiled back and turned to her team.
“Ok. So, who’s got who?” Kione asked and both teams went into a huddle. Each called who would be guarding who and worked out a plan. Since their team had possession of the ball it wouldn’t be passed to Kione right away, they figured the other team would be expecting her to receive it first and worked out a way to make it look like she was the one going for the touch down.
After a moment, they set themselves up on the field and Kione was next to Trunks, who held the ball tightly, and faced her brothers friend, Takeru. He smiled at her, his green eyes dancing. She winked at him and when the signal to go was shouted, took off in the opposite direction while Trunks turned and began to throw the ball to her. Confused by the motion Takeru dashed after Kione and after getting to close, noticed Kione didn’t have the ball.
“Gah!” he shouted and tired running away once he saw her coming straight at him. But Kione was quicker and tackled Takeru to the ground. A boy with blonde hair had gotten the ball but was pushed to the ground by Goten before scoring. The teams set up again and this time Kione put herself in front of Hayama.
“Bet I’m faster then you are.“ He said to her.
“You wish.“ She answered. He grinned and a minute later, Kione received the ball almost immediately, was protected by Yagami, and began to run for her life. Hayama however was right on her tail and leaped at her. Before she knew it, she and Hayama fell to the ground and both rolled over, laughing. He said in a sing song voice,
“Hah, I was faster then you were.” and grinned, looking down at her. She giggled, catching her breath.
“That’s only because I let you catch me.”
“Sure ya did.” Hayama said, and rolled off of the tackled Kione and onto the ground, letting her get up.
“What, I did!” She added, laughing as her friend smiled back. Suzuka grinned at the sight of the two and decided playing football wasn’t such a bad idea. She was glad she had worn jeans that day and ran over to the group.
“Hey I changed my mind! I wanna play too!”
“Well that figures.” Kione said, laughing silently to herself, “and let me guess who’s team you wanna be on, Goten’s?”
“You bet, I’m gonna tackle Trunks.” Suzuka replied happily. Hayama and Kione smirked and the deep purple haired girl grinned.
“Hey, come on you guys! We don’t have all day!” Yagami shouted.
“Easy there cowboy!” Kione yelled back. The group began laughing and Yagami’s face flushed.
“Aw, just come on!” He answered, folding his arms across his chest. The three smiled and ran to join their friends. The group eventually got back into play and for the next hour played their game, although it was more like a whole bunch of different games all combined into one most of the time afterwards. Later on, some of the boys had gone home, it being so close to dinnertime for many, and others were lying on the grass next to one another, forming a small circle.
“Ah, nothing better then being covered in mud.” Ataru said.
“Oh yeah, nothing better in the world” Suzuka added sarcastically.
“Well no one said you had to join the mud people.” he replied, throwing a wad of mud over at her.
“Gah! Ataru!” Suzuka wailed, sitting up, and brushed the mud off her shirt. The blonde snickered and he and the rest of the group sat up. He was grinning but before long, had a handful of mud slam against his face. The others laughed and Ataru sat blinking.
“Hey, that’s not playing nice.”
“Well, no one said you had to join the mud people either.......” Suzuka replied and smiled at him. He made a face at her and the whole group giggled.
“I can’t believe we have to go back to school next week, vacation went so fast.” Hayama complained.
“Yeah no kidding, seems like as we go on the years get worse and worse.” Kione added. Half of the group was going on to their sophomore year and the others were going to enter their junior.
“But if you think about it, school’s almost over. Well, it is for me at least.” Trunks said happily, “only one more year after this one.”
“Yeah and then what?” Goten asked.
“Then what what?” Trunks said, blinking,
“Then what. As in what are you gonna do after you graduate?”
“Well that’s an easy one,” Kione answered, “Trunks is going to become some crazy political leader and take over the world.”
“Doesn’t bother me, as long as he makes me his first lady.” Suzuka said sweetly, batting her eyelashes, as she leaned against the older boy and snuggled against his arm. The others laughed as Trunks began blushing a rosy red.
“Ehh.....quit it.” He whined, nervously eyeing the dark eyed girl. She giggled, kissed his cheek, and pulled away. Trunks then blushed a deeper red and Suzuka winked, causing the group to erupt in laughs and whistles. He eventually got over it and managed a laugh himself, even if it was a tiny one. Kione stared at her friend out of the corner of her eye and realized she was no longer playing a game, but that she might in fact have a little crush on her and her brothers childhood friend. The thought of that caused her to start giggling while Goten blinked in confusion.
“Hey, anyone got the time?” A boy asked.
“7:00.” Ataru answered.
“Wow it’s pretty late.” Kione mumbled absently.
“7:00?!” Goten cried, “Kino, we’ve gotta get home, Kaasan‘s gonna be so mad!”
“Ugh! You’re right!”
“We better get going too.” Yagami said as he and Ataru stood up. Other boys agreed and the rest jumped to their feet. The friends had said their good byes and soon the only remaining group members were the Son twins, Trunks, Hayama, and Suzuka. Hayama had started to leave but Kione pounced him, scolding him for walking off on his own as the sun was setting.
“He’s a big boy Kione, I’m sure he can take care of himself.” Suzuka said, poking the blue eyed boy’s strong arms.
“Yeah I know, but even I don’t really like walking around by myself in town while it’s dark. No matter who you are, you’re vulnerable that way.”
“Hm, guess you’ve got a point.” the other girl responded, “guess that means you’ll have to walk me home Trunks,” she added, taking hold of his arm.
“Uh....well, I dunno....Goten’s pretty strong too.....” came Trunks’ nervous voice again.
“That’s nice. Hey! Can we fl....ow!” Suzuka yelled as Kione stomped on her foot and glared at her out of the corner of her eye. “Take the bus?” she suggested, smiling nervously. Hayama blinked in confusion, but shrugged and forgot about it.
“Well, if you guys really want to, I guess you could all come along.” he said. The others agreed and headed towards the street. Suzuka hung onto Trunks, Kione and Hayama started rambling, and Goten walked behind them, annoyed and bored. They came to the curb and Kione started across before the rest. Down the road, a motorcycle was speeding its way up the quiet street, oblivious to its surroundings, and a hazard to anything it came near. Before anyone knew it, the sound of the motor was so loud they could all feel it chilling their very bones. At that moment, Kione spun around and was just a few inches away from a monster that could take the life of anyone before the 60 seconds that added up to a minute was allowed to pass.
Her eyes widened in horror and the sound of her scream and the breaks coming to a screeching halt echoed in everyone’s ears. Suzuka cried out and Goten had turned his head just in time to see his sisters frightened face. The light from the bikes head light was so bright, it seemed to engulf all its surroundings in nothing but a blinding white and from that moment on, no one could see what was happening. What seemed like forever only took a second, and after the light disappeared, Kione lay still.
“Kione!” Goten shouted, his terror stricken face sparkling with beads of sweat. The motorcyclist turned and looked at the group for a split second, annoyed and frightened himself, revved his motor, and took off, vanishing just as fast as he had come.
“Hey wait! Come back!” Trunks’ fierce voice rang out through the empty street, covering everything it touched with its anger. “Stop!”
“Forget him!” Goten said angrily, not meaning to direct it towards his friend.
“Kione?” came a soft nearby voice. Kione had come out of her daze and opened her eyes fully. To her surprise, she was staring at Hayama’s chest. They two were lying on the opposite side of the street; Kione cradled in her friend’s arms, safe from any harm.
“Hayama!” she gasped and quickly lifted herself off him. He winced and sat partially up, his shirt’s back and right arm sleeve had been torn up from sliding across the street’s knife like pavement and the exposed skin was now beginning to bleed. The other three group members had rushed over and all were still pale from the incident.
“Hayama, are you all right?” Kione shouted and then made a face at herself, not meaning to have been so loud.
“I’m fine, are you ok?”
“No, I mean, yeah, I think so.” she answered shakily. Goten dropped to his knees and rested his hands on Kione’s shoulders.
“Are you sure you’re all right?” her brother asked in a concerned voice. His sister nodded and was soon back over top of Hayama. Trunks was on his other side and the two of them helped the boy up.
“Suzuka, it’s late and I know your mothers probably worried sick.” Kione said as she stood up.
“I know, I just......I’m glad you’re alright,” she said and hugged her friend, “Hayama, you’re a hero, a stupid one, but a hero nonetheless and I’m glad you’re still in one piece.” she added and hugged him gently as well.
“Thanks. Now go on, before you get in trouble.” he answered. Goten nodded to Trunks and he let go of Hayama carefully and walked over to Suzuka. He whispered to her and once they had walked far enough, he scooped her up and took off into the sky.
“We need to get him cleaned up.......to the doctor or something.” Goten mumbled.
“Take me home, it’s only a scratch and my mom’s a nurse, she’ll know what to do.”
“Right.” Kione said and started to lift off the ground. Goten’s eyes widened and he screamed a silent “no” to his sister. She squeaked out a noise and quickly planted her feet firmly on the ground. The three hurriedly made their way to Hayama’s home, careful not to lift themselves off the ground too far to cause suspicion. Once inside, his parents, brother, and sister were all in the kitchen as his mother cleaned his shoulder and arm. Goten called he and Kione’s mother and assured her they were all right, they’d just gotten into a little accident. Although, to ChiChi, it wasn’t little at all. Throughout the confusion, Hayama’s mother remained calm.
“Are you two hungry? It would be no problem at all to fix you a little something to eat.”
“No thank you Mrs. Asako, we’re ok.” Goten answered. She nodded, smiling, and turned back to her son.
“We should probably get home.” Kione said quietly as Goten shook his head in agreement. It was then Kione noticed her hand was sticky. Through all the excitement, she had ignored her own wounds and quickly hid them, not wanting to upset anyone.
“At least let us take you home.” Mr. Asako offered.
“We’ll be ok. We don’t live very far.” Kione lied.
“We don’t want to trouble you further, after what’s happened and all.” Goten added. Hayama looked at the two questioningly, but Kione shook her head slightly, barely allowing it to move.
“Well, I.....,” his father began in protest, “.......as long as you two are careful. Go strait home.”
“We will, we promise.” Goten assured him. Kione moved over to Hayama and gave him a hug.
“Thank you.”
“You’re welcome.”
“I’ll see you soon.” She said, letting go. Hayama smiled.
“Thank you Hayama, take care of yourself.” Goten said. The other boy nodded and the twins soon left. “We better get home.”
“I know,” Kione began, “let’s go.” And with that said, both lit up the sky around them and took off into the air, kicking up tufts of grass behind them. The bright light drew attention from the Asako household and Hayama’s little sister was glued to the window, trying to find whatever had made it. Hayama himself also furrowed his brow in question, seeing nothing, not even Goten or Kione.
Upon arriving home, ChiChi had rushed out the door and pulled her children into a hug. Gokou and Gohan and Videl too, had come home to make sure the twins were all right. They were brought into the house and not even a scratch got passed ChiChi. As a mother, she saw all and made sure all of her daughter’s wounds were treated.
Once into bed, both Kione and Goten knew that if not for Hayama, she would have probably not walked away from the street with just a scratch on her hand. Being Saiyan didn’t exclude them from injury. Kione was thankful Hayama had not been seriously hurt, she would never have been able to forgive herself if anything had happened to him.
