How suiting.
Upon Gokuu's orders, Katera had removed her boots and gi, and before she had even the chance to do it herself, Gokuu had scooped her up and deposited her in the warm water.
Katera resurfaced and said miserably, " I could have done that myself, you know. "
" I know, " shrugged Gokuu. " But you're a kid again. I say enjoy it. "
" What do you know? " Katera retorted.
" I know I wouldn't mind being a kid again. In some ways it was much better, and easier to find adventures, " Gokuu said, sitting on the grass next to the barrel.
Katera snorted.
Gokuu eyed her from the grass. " I mean it, " he said. " I had so much more fun when I was a kid. Now I have so much to worry about. I'm so strong now that I worry about what could happen to my friends just from people coming to challenge me. " Gokuu's eyes squinted as he gazed skyward and he added in a low tone that was so completely unlike the man it left his new daughter speechless, " It's not just Freezer coming to Chikyuu... "
---------------------------------------------------------------------
It was a couple of days before Sarro again had a knock at her door. Turning from the mirror, she set down her hairbrush and went for the door with her hair unbound. Upon opening the door, she found Yamcha there. He was leaning against the doorframe with his expression unreadable.
" Let's have lunch, " he said shortly.
" Let's, " said Sarro in response. The 'not' she'd had planned never leaving her lips. She fumed inwardly, she could just see Dende's smirk.
Pouar looked between the two of them, his expression unreadable as well, but there seemed to be some bit of glee in there somewhere. Sarro turned back to the house and added over her shoulder, " Just let me braid my hair. "
" Sure, " Yamcha entered the house after her and shut the door. " I've been wracking my brain the past couple of days, " he said while Sarro headed off to do her hair.
" Have you? " prompted Sarro hesitantly.
" Yeah, " Yamcha stood awkwardly at the center of her living room, " been trying to figure you out. I can tell you're hiding something. Something that has to do with the name Zello, and that guy that killed Katera. It didn't take much to realize that it's not Katera you came here to hide from. "
Sarro was fast finding it impossible to braid her hair for her shaking fingers.
Yamcha continued his inadvertant assault on her already thin nerves. " Then it came to me, you're not hiding. You have some hidden agenda. You're here for a reason, a reason that has something to do with Gokuu: something to do with Gokuu, that guy, Katera, maybe, and your past-- the name Zello. " Yamcha smirked in a self-mocking way, " Listen to me, Bulma would be so proud of the fact that I can use my brain. "
Sarro gave up on the braid and somehow managed a ponytail in it's place. Even this was a feat. He was too close... too close.
She fumbled out of the room and found she had to pass Yamcha on her way to the door. Drat, had he planned that? Forcing a smile that was an immediate failure, she said uneasily, " That's all very nice, Yamcha, " and made an effort at passing him.
Yamcha reached out and caught her by the arm. Despite the fact that she was quite a bit stronger than him, it managed to stop her. She forced herself to meet his eyes and then it took all her power to keep from looking away in shame.
This sucked.
" Sarro, " Yamcha said quietly, " please. I realize you must have your reasons. But, I'd still like to know. "
Sarro found herself wanting so desperately for that mouth of his to stop talking and kiss her. Where was Pouar? This seemed to be the only time the little cat ever left 'Lord' Yamcha's side. Oh, her heart was breaking, shattering, beating too fast for it to handle, just from the way he was looking at her. Sarro felt bile in her throat. She wanted to throw up. She wanted to run away. She wanted to stay. She wanted to cry. She wanted this to be over with.
Instead, she whispered, " I can't tell you, " her voice breaking on the words, along with the last remnants of her resolve.
---------------------------------------------------------------------
Atop a plataeu, in the middle of nowhere they stood. The difference in height was astounding, yet in a way oddly nostalgic.
Katera was shorter than Gohan had been, however. The difference was just barely there, but Piccolo could see it.
The other difference between the two students was painfully obvious. While Gohan had cowered in the presence of the Daimaoh, Katera glared, glowered, and scowled. She was barely resisting the urge to fidgit (something similar to Gohan) but this was not a fearful fidgit, this was an impatient fidgit. She wanted to get this over with.
Fine then, so he would grant her wishes.
Piccolo had moved but a millimeter forward when Katera took the cue and attacked. Even as a child, the blow she delivered was enough to sting. Piccolo bared his teeth in anger, adult mind or not, this was a mere child, and he would not be beaten. But as the fight dragged on, it became apparant that Piccolo's assessment of the girl's strength had been off the mark. Beaten he would be not, but matched he would be. Interesting.
This set Piccolo to wondering. When regressed roughly fourty years Kateraope had dropped in power only from Vejiita's level to his. Piccolo was not conceited, he knew that drop wasn't that far. He was estimating on the time, afterall, Vejiitasei had been destroyed just over thirty years past, Vejiita claimed to have been about five at the time, Katera was supposedly a few years older... it was amazing the information Gokuu could garner out of people... and even more amazing what he could retain of that information.
But Piccolo was off topic, either way, he thought, as he watched Katera attack him with a ferocious ferality that was at the same time calculated and oh, so deadly, either way, Katera had gone back in age so far, and yet lost so little of her power.
So why couldn't she lift her sword?
Piccolo tightened his fist and punched Katera into the dirt. During her recovery time, he mused over the sword, lying sheathed a short distance away. It had taken fourty minutes of arguing to convince her to let him carry it here, let alone touch it. Ten minutes of which had been spent at the beginning, when he suggested leaving it behind.
There was the other mystery about Piccolo's newest student. What connection tied Katera so tightly to a weapon apparantly scorned by the Saiyajin?
Piccolo's mental ramblings were cut off as Katera kicked him in the head. She spun around and elbowed him in the nose with added power, and the Namekuseijin staggered back. Piccolo felt the blood run down his face and growled. Glaring up at the girl (even he had a problem thinking of her as that, the way she spoke, her manner, even in her youth everything about her screamed of a masculine demeanor) he steadied his position and opened his mouth wide. He caught Katera off guard with the ki blast emitted from his throat.
At the last moment, Katera dodged to the side, and down a short ways, putting her in perfect alignment with Piccolo's kick. Even as she hit the ground and skid over the plateau's edge, Katera twisted herself around and commanded,
" Kori no shi! "
[trans => Ice of death]
Piccolo shielded himself as the frigid ki attack tore at his skin. When it finally ceased it's barrage, Piccolo warily relaxed. However, Katera had not yet returned to the plateau.
Still cautious, as he was not yet sure of the extent Katera's honor, Piccolo approached the edge and looked down. There at the bottom, flat on her back, lay Katera. It was a far ways, but Gohan had survived farther and he was only half Saiyajin.
" Get back up here, " Piccolo snapped, " I know you can. "
From the bottom of the cliff came an indistinct obscenity.
Piccolo's face pinched and he stepped off the edge to float with crossed arms and narrowed eyes down to the little Saiyajin. " I said, " he repeated tersely, " Get back up there. "
" This is a training session, " Katera fired back, inputting all her insolence into emphasizing the 'is' " You can damn well wait until I've caught my breath. "
Piccolo arched his eyebrow at that.
[Yes, yes, I know Piccolo has no eyebrows, but he does have the pronounced browbones which he can raise, and besides, that describes more a facial expression than the actual act of raising one's eyebrow]
" We've only been fighting for a short time. You don't need to catch anything, " Piccolo kicked her lightly in the side, " So get back up there. "
Katera glared up at him. " I used Kori no shi, it took a lot out of me in this body, gimme a minute. Yaro. "
[trans => bastard]
And suddenly, it all fell into place.
Piccolo smiled evilly. He knew exactly how to get Katera to lift that sword, and he was going to enjoy every minute of it.
---------------------------------------------------------------------
Yamcha exited from the front door of Sarro's house and met with Pouar
halfway down the walk. How or when Pouar had
scrupulously left he couldn't say, but there he was.
" How did it go, Yamchasama? " the little cat inquired, not helping but notice that Yamcha was without Sarro.
" I couldn't tell you, Pouar, " answered Yamcha emotionlessly, " not even if I tried. "
---------------------------------------------------------------------
Piccolo took a step forward and shoved his toe under Katera's back. She glared at him warningly, but he paid this no heed. Lifting her into the air he sent her careening into the sky with one swift kick to the back. Following her up, he caught her at the beginning of her descent and thwacked her back onto the plateau.
Katera hit the dirt and coughed. Getting up on her knees, she wiped the thin trickle of blood from her mouth and regarded her tutor with a murderous look.
Piccolo's returning expression was much of the same. He dropped his stony vissage and let all his dislike and anger come through for Kateraope.
This was the woman, not girl, that had insulted him, and Gohan. She'd ruined his favorite waterfall! She'd attacked him, for no reason, and been a general nuisance since arriving on Chikyuu. A nuisance that Piccolo did not need nor want.
In running through all the indignities he'd suffered by Katera, Piccolo's
thoughts inevitably turned to Sarro. Damn that woman,
perhaps more so than his newest student. She, afterall, had brought
Katera here, for her own reasons. Yamcha wasn't the only one to suspect
Sarro, nor was Vejiita the only one to dislike her. There was something
unsettling about the frail-apparant little Saiyan woman. Something that
spoke of more power than any of them cared to admit. In just a few hours
she'd appealed to Gokuu's foolish heart and wrapped him around her little
finger. She was up to something... but what? What could it possibly be?
Piccolo dismissed his train of thought. It would call for some meditation later, but for now he had Katera to deal with.
---------------------------------------------------------------------
Yamcha was the one dealing with Sarro. Well, Yamcha and Pouar to be exact. But then, Pouar was dealing more with Yamcha than with Sarro. It was psychoanalysis all around!
Yamcha poked his head out of the shrubbery and peered into the room. Sarro was sitting in a chair with her back to him. Good, it seemed she hadn't yet developed the ki sensitive sense. He was going to get to the bottom of this.
Next to him, Pouar's head emerged from the leaves and regarded him worriedly. " Yamchasama, Sarrosan will be very angry if she finds you here peeping. "
" I'm not peeping, Pouar, " Yamcha corrected, " I'm... keeping an eye on a potential enemy. "
" You're keeping an eye on a pretty girl, " Pouar contradicted.
Yamcha looked put out. Just because Sarro happened to be gorgeous didn't
make him a peeping tom. Yamcha's face screwed up in thought as he debated
this with himself. If Sarro was an enemy, then he was doing good, if she
wasn't then he was doing bad. It worked inversely. But, But, if Sarro wasn't
an enemy, did that so make him a peeping tom? Even if he was acting out
of suspicion that she might be a threat to the peace of Chikyuu, was her
potential innocence to make him out as the bad guy? Yamcha hated moral
debates like this. Finally he resolved that either way it did him good,
so all was well in the world.
" Dende, " Sarro murmured idly, " Is Yamcha still outside? "
Uh... Dende paused to check from the future, yes.
" I thought so. " She sighed and leaned back, looking for a moment as weary as she had in the far future, " I think I'm getting the hang of this ki sense you speak of. "
That's good, but don't you think that perhaps you ought to tell Yamcha or at least Gokuu about--
" No! " Sarro cut him off sharply, her expression darkening to an almost bitter and frightening rage. " I will not tell them. " Such was usually the end of the matter.
However, Dende was through biting his tongue. Sarro, he said
furiously, This isn't helping you one bit to keep it from them.
Yamcha's close enough to finding it out for himself. How long do
you think until the other, more smarter members of your 'players' begin
to become suspicious? Piccolo and Vejiita already don't just suspect you,
they dislike you. You're not helping yourself with this pretense. If you
would just listen!
" How important to you is it that the Chikyuu of the past remains there, Dende? " Sarro inquired coldly.
Dende was taken aback by the implications of her question. Calming himself he hastily began, Now, Sarro...
" Because if not by me, it will be gone by that which follows me. " Sarro scowled and leaned forward to rest her chin on her clasped hands. " I think it's time you prioritized Dende, and worked on getting me the rest of the information I require. "
H-Hai, Dende stammered, and then his presence was gone.
Sarro slid her gaze to the side and caught sight of Yamcha and Pouar in her periferal vision. Both spies gave a gasp and ducked into the bushes. Sarro narrowed her eyes.
" Nothing is keeping me from my goal, " she intoned. " Nothing. "
¤¤
[Well, I thought that was a good place to end it. Yamcha's no closer to finding out Sarro's secret, and neither are we, for that matter. Piccolo thinks he knows how to get Katera to lift her sword. What does he know that Katera doesn't? More answers to be revealed in Chapter Thirteen; Continue on the Path to Success! Small Sword Fighter Katera!]
[Written by Inseiko, 2000]
¤
Chapter Thirteen