11-21-2005, 02:02 PM
Dark eyes fluttered slowly open. Reijin?s hand touched his mouth and wiped away a slab of drool as he turned over in his bed. The alarm clock?s continuously antagonizing drone was penetrating his ears painfully, and he clutched the pillow over his head. He groaned into the bed and finally rolled over, throwing the pillow across the room and hitting the clock.
The clock tumbled off of the dresser on the far wall and dropped onto its side, still continuing its perpetual scream. Reijin?s dark hair was matted to the side of his face as he flung his feet over the bed, managing to roll off the bed in the process. He landed painfully, and gasped a moment. ?Man? Could this get any worse?? he mumbled. He crawled slowly across the floor over random pieces of clothing until he finally reached the alarm clock, silencing his killer with a swift press of a button.
The moment the alarm was silenced, he rolled over onto his back, breathing a sigh of victory. Yawning, he realized that the sun?s rays were slowly entering the bedroom through the window and he forced himself into an upright position. He looked from side to side, groggily surveying the room. Something wasn?t right, and he couldn?t tell what that was. He pushed himself up further, and grabbed onto the dresser for support as he climbed to his feet. He had to find some clothing or else he wouldn?t be prepared for what lay outside of his door.
Looking around, he could find none of his armor or belongings. ?Where is it?? he mumbled. Then he stopped. ?What the hell is going on?? He heard a knock on his door and his gaze quickly shot towards it. ?Umm? Yes??
A young female voice responded through the door. ?Baby, you up?? The door began to slowly open and Reijin stood there in his boxers, trying to understand why he felt so out of place with a normal routine life. A young woman strode in with medium length raven hair wearing a short tank-top and a pair of shorts. Upon seeing Reijin standing there, her eyes widened. ?Um? You might want to put on some pants,? she giggled, motioning at the bulge at the front of his shorts.
His face turned red and he quickly dropped to the floor scrounging for a pair of pants. Finding the first pair he could, he pulled them to his face and took a quick whiff. He remembered having worn them yesterday, and quickly pulled them on. Halfway through the process, he caught the pants leg on something and tripped, hitting the ground hard. The girl freaked and darted forward, grabbing him and helping pull him to his feet. ?Calm down. You should really try to get some more sleep once in a while.?
His eyes looked up at hers, and then he noticed something strange about her midriff. ?Where?s your new tattoo?? he asked.
She seemed taken aback as she looked down at his stomach. ?Um? What tattoo? You know my family would probably disown me if I got one.? She suddenly eyed him curiously. ?Why do you ask? Are you ok??
He looked up at her and unexpectedly found himself wondering the same thing. Why would he ask that? ?I don?t? know.? He sighed and shook his head. He reached down and grabbed a shirt from the floor. ?Videl, do you know if this shirt is clean or not??
Her nose wrinkled up as she looked at it. ?Well, compared to most of your clothes, I guess you can call it that. Now hurry up, we?ve gotta get you to class before you are late. Traffic is gonna be really busy if we don?t get out of here, and you know how that goes.?
He nodded and stretched his arms out above him, yawning as he positioned his arms through the holes in the shirt. ?You know? We should start getting you to work out a bit. Get rid of that skin and bones look you have going on there,? she giggled.
Reijin quickly shot her a look as he pulled the shirt down over his skin. It was pretty baggy on him, and he sat down on the side of the bed as he reached for his boots and began to lace them up. She stood up and grabbed a set of folded up clothes from a nightstand next to the bed and walked out of the room. ?I?ll be out in a moment,? she called from the bathroom before shutting the door.
He finished lacing up his boots, and walked over to the mirror on the side of the room. What did she mean buy skin and bones? He knew for a fact that he was pretty well built. He pulled up his shirt, and found to his surprise a few ribs were easily distinguishable. Almost discouragingly, his stomach growled at him at the same time. He sighed and allowed his shirt to drop back into place as Videl left the bathroom. ?You are pretty quiet today,? she observed, walking back into the room and standing next to him.
He gave her a sad smile. ?I?m pretty hungry.?
She laughed at him. ?Let?s hit McDonald?s on the way out and get you something to eat.?
He nodded and walked into the bathroom. Reaching for his toothbrush, he suddenly realized that it felt very out of place for Videl to be staying with him and yet changing in the bathroom. ?Hey baby?? he called out. Her acknowledgement resonated throughout the walls of the apartment. He didn?t really know what to ask, so he tried to phrase his question innocently. ?Why were your clothes separated on the nightstand??
She walked back in as he began to brush his teeth. ?Oh, I was in a rush when leaving my apartment last night. I had just gotten off work and didn?t have long to stop by the house when I grabbed my stuff, and you seemed like you were really looking forward to my cooking and all. By the way, did you finish studying for that test you were getting ready for when I got here??
He spat into the sink and rinsed out his mouth. She handed him a towel and he wiped his face for a moment before running a brush through his hair. ?We?ll have to hope so. I can?t afford to fail this one,? he found himself answering.
She turned and walked towards the door, motioning for him to hurry. She had changed into a pair of long pants and had pulled on a small pink shirt and a grey jacket on top of it. ?Come on. It?s pretty cold outside, so you might want to grab a jacket.?
Obligingly, he reached into the closet and grabbed a jacket, pulling it on over his shirt as she opened the front door. Icy cold wind filled the front of the room as he turned off the last light and stepped out. ?My god, it?s freezing out here.?
She laughed as they walked up the stairs. ?It?s only about 65 out here. You just have no fat on your body. I hear bones do not hold heat very well.? She pointed towards a black Honda Accord at the end of the building. ?I had to park over there last night.?
Getting to the car, she climbed into the drivers seat while he stood there staring at her awkwardly. She gave him a weird look and then nodded her head towards the passenger seat. ?Oh no, I know how you get. You?ve barely slept, and I?m not letting you drive my car like that.? She put her keys into the ignition and turned the car on, the radio suddenly blasting loudly. Turning slightly red, she fumbled with the volume until she could turn it down as he opened up the passenger door.
He gave her an odd look as she began to back out. ?This doesn?t feel right,? he mumbled.
?What do you mean?? she asked him as they began the short drive to the college.
He shrugged. ?You driving, for one. Something feels wrong about that.? She shot him a look and groaned. He quickly took the defensive. ?No! I?m not saying you drive badly,? he quickly covered up as she rolled through a stop sign. ?I?m just saying that something doesn?t feel right, and I have no clue what it is.?
She looked over at him and smiled. ?You probably just forgot a book for class or something. Trust me, everything is about as normal and boring as it gets.?
Reijin sighed and leaned back in the seat. Normal and boring were what felt so wrong.
?Alright, remember, your class if over there. No excuse this time,? Videl laughed, pointing towards the side of the campus. Reijin nodded and she pulled him in close, quickly kissing him. He found himself kissing her back lightly by instinct, and then she stepped back. ?Gotta run, good luck!? She flashed him a smile and turned, darting off towards her class at the other end of the campus.
Turning, Reijin began to walk slowly across the grass. He was holding his books under his jacket sleeve and nearly dropped them when someone suddenly put their masculine arm around his shoulders. Startled, he looked over to the side to see Trunks grinning at him. He took a breath of cool air and wasn?t sure what to say.
Trunks beat him to the punch, hypothetically. ?Hey man, you ready for this test?? He then let go of Reijin?s shoulders and ran his fingers through his shoulder length purple hair. Reijin shrugged at him and pushed him off from him. Trunks laughed and continued on as if nothing had happened. ?Yeah, I talked to Rad last night on the phone and he said he?s going to ace this test.?
Reijin shook his head with disgust. ?Man, when does he not ace the test? I swear, he has to be doing our professors or something. The guy is like the center of this college.? He quickly changed the subject. ?How come you can get away with the purple hair? That?s weird.?
Trunks nodded somberly. ?Yeah, it is. Why do you think I dyed it that way?? he asked, keeping a straight face. Unable to hold it, he burst into laughter. ?Dude, you need to stop being so serious. Quit thinking so much, fucking emo guy. You are starting to remind me of some of Rad?s friends.?
Laughing, the dark haired youth stepped up to the door, pulling it open for the two of them. ?I don?t blame his friends for being so emo. The guy?s name even shortens to a synonym for ?badass? and ?cool?. I?m sure that they can carry a large ego on their shoulders around him.?
Trunks sighed as he dropped into a chair and tossed his books onto the floor beside it. He threw his feet up into the chair across the aisle from them and turned to the side as Reijin took his seat. ?Quit having something to dislike about everyone. He was cool enough to invite us all to go snowboarding with him later after class. You did get out of work, right?? Reijin nodded. ?Good, you and Videl can group with us when we get up there. I?ll probably ride with you guys while Rad takes David and Aaron. Oh, did I tell you that my dad called last night??
The skinny youth shook his head and looked around the room watching the students as it filled up. ?No. Is he doing alright with the marines?? Trunks nodded.
?Yeah man, he?s heading to Japan. Pretty sweet, isn?t it?? His purple hair shook as he bobbed his head excitedly. ?He?s going to hook me up with some stuff when he gets there.?
Reijin could help it as his eyes widened. ?Wicked,? he spoke through an impressed visage. ?That?s definitely pretty sweet man.? He trailed off as he noticed a girl enter the room. She looked over at him, and they locked eyes briefly before she scurried to the other side of the room.
His companion followed his gaze to the girl at the other side of the room and gave an approving look. ?Well she?s new. Haven?t seen her before. Not bad looking either.?
His words fell on deaf ears as Reijin was overcome with a feeling of anxiety. ?Something isn?t right?? he repeated.
Trunks turned back around yawning. ?Don?t worry, you?ll pass the test.? The door shut hard as a large man entered the room, motioning for them to quiet down.
A few minutes later, Reijin found himself staring down at a sheet of paper and holding a pencil in his hand. Trunks was busily writing in front of him, and to every side of Reijin he could see that others doing the same. He, on the other hand, was having a very serious problem. He held the pencil up in his hands, trying his hardest to figure out how to place it into his hand. ?Why the hell do these people insist on using such primitive writing tools?? he mumbled.
Then he froze. He realized that he didn?t know how to write, and everything around him demanded this one simple task from him. He didn?t know why, but he felt as if him not knowing how to write should be normal, and yet everyone around him made him feel as if he had known how to write all along. ?Why?? he trailed off, not quite sure why he had referred to writing as primitive. His head began to spin a bit, and he grabbed his head.
Moments later, he hit the floor beside the desk. The room suddenly burst into a commotion as the teacher looked up from the front of the room to see Trunks dropping quickly to the floor to help Reijin sit up. ?What happened?? he asked suspiciously. ?Is everything alright?? Almost in answer, Reijin felt the world suddenly spin on him and he rolled over, throwing up in the floor. The students began to yell in disgust as they threw their chairs to the side and jumped up for protection. The teacher rolled his eyes a bit, suspecting fowl play to get out of the test, and finally sighed. ?Trunks, help him get to the nurse?s office.?
Trunks nodded as he helped his friend to his feet and gingerly stepped over the mess in the floor. The teacher was walking over with a broom as they reached the door, and he called to them once more. ?Ask them to send the janitor in here if they are able. Reijin, you can finish the test tomorrow.?
?Thank you, sir,? Reijin mumbled weakly. As Trunks hoisted him out of the door, Reijin?s eyes caught once more on the stone faced expression of the grey eyed girl. Then his vision spun on him, entering a maelstrom of chaos while Trunks guided him blindly down the hall trying to talk to him.
The water splashed, drop by drop, slowly like a pianist?s metronome. Reijin found himself standing over an open body of water, with nothing but the air itself surrounding him. His eyes drifted downwards, and he saw a reflection standing directly beneath him, his own form being repelled by the water itself. The sound of water splashed once more, and a ripple spread from his body. The ethereal form adjoined to his feet dissipated slightly, and returned to form once more. The Saiyan?s eyes narrowed as he found his reflection to be that of a girl? Suddenly the image burst into bloom, looking to both sides in an almost slightly panicked way. Then she looked back through the water and her eyes connected to Reijin?s. Her deep grey eyes? They widened a moment in surprise, as Reijin?s own mimicked her emotion. Then the water rippled once more, and she was lost to him.
?You really shouldn?t stay up drinking all night before a big test, man,? Trunks?s voice interrupted his thoughts. He shook back to reality as the memory of a previous vision came to light from his past. Something was very strange, and he couldn?t quite figure out what. ?Seriously, I think you may have just fucked up my schedule pretty good about that test-?
?Where am I?? Reijin spat out, looking around a bit.
His friend held him up against the doorway to the nurse?s office. ?At the nurse?s room. You are majorly acting weird.?
He shook his head defiantly. ?No. This isn?t right.? He continued mumbling as Trunks popped open the door to the room and called for help. He blacked out again, and in his last sight of the hall, the grey eyed girl was staring at him from the distance.
He awoke shaking on a bed in the nurse?s office. No one was in the room with him, and he began to panic. He looked around quickly, realizing that he no longer had his jacket on and yet he was pouring sweat, despite the cold clammy feeling his body had overtaken. A moment later, a man walked into the room. ?Good, you are awake.?
Reijin?s black eyes quickly searched the room for something concrete to anchor his ideal of reality to. ?What happened?? His words felt distant, exiting his lips from lungs that felt as if they were not his. Weak, human lungs.
The man shrugged. ?We aren?t sure. You blacked out. From the looks of things, I think you may have caught that bug that?s going around. We?ve had about twenty people get sick from it within the past month, so it?s nothing unusual. Pretty normal, for this time of year.? Normal. There it was again. Everything was normal. Why was he losing his mind then?
He struggled to clear his head, feeling inside as if he should know of some method to help clear his thoughts, and finally stood up and reached for his jacket. ?I?ll try to take some time off from work. I?ve just had a pretty stressful week,? he mumbled apologetically.
Nodding, the man led him out the door. ?I?d definitely suggest that. Testing season can definitely be tough, and I know you live on your own. Like I said, this is normal for students your age about this time. I see people like you everyday.? He smiled and placed a comforting hand on Reijin?s shoulder. Reijin suddenly wanted to throw the man?s arm to the side, and scream at him that he was not just another everyday person, that he wouldn?t simply fade into the crowd, that he was destined for greatness? But he struggled against his strange urges and simply nodded at the man before turning and walking out.
His entire walk toward the school caf? was a thoughtful one, seeking to understand what was going on. The weirdest part of the entire situation was that no one else seemed to acknowledge that anything was actually happening out of the ordinary, and Reijin couldn?t help but question himself. ?Is this really all just in my head? Gah? It?s probably just a side effect of being sick or something.?
He made it to the caf? and realized that he would be getting out of class soon. Taking a seat outside, he placed his head into his hands while trying to sort out his thoughts. He heard a noise beside him and he heard himself speak. ?Not now, Trunks, I really feel like shit man??
?I understand.?
Reijin?s head bolted up momentarily and he found himself to be face to face with a set of deep grey eyes. He turned slightly in his seat, and stared at her in shock. Her eyes had a cold, dead look to them, and her hair was a grey that seemed as if she was a spirit from a distant past. She had a halfhearted smile upon her lips, and she sat his stack of books from his class onto the table before him. He looked at them for a moment, and then found himself at a loss of words. ?Um, thanks.?
She nodded slightly, and then turned a bit, looking down at the table as if she was debating her next words. The young man stared at her for a moment, and finally she looked up at him. ?You feel it, don?t you?? she finally whispered. His expression betrayed his true feelings as he sputtered that he didn?t know what she was talking about, and she gave him a sad look. ?I don?t want to freak you out, but we need each other right now.?
The chill seemed to penetrate the thin figured man a bit more suddenly, and he pulled his jacket tight around him, breathing out to find that his breath had not actually formed a mist. ?I already have a girlfriend. Videl,? he spoke slowly.
She shook her head as if he had totally missed her point. ?No, that?s not what I mean. You feel out of place in a seemingly ordinary situation. You know that this is not the world meant for you. You know that something is amiss, and you want to find out what it is, but everyone is constantly telling you that this is all normal, that you are the same as everyone else, and that you are nothing special.? Her eyes saw that she had hit a critical spot inside of him as he popped his jawbone in an attempt to calm himself and listen to her. She didn?t show any sign of amusement, and continued giving him a sad look. ?I won?t have much time to talk to you, but I wanted to let you know that this is not you, this is not your world, and you don?t belong here.?
Reijin heard a girl calling to him from the distance and he looked up to see Videl off at the other end yelling to him and waving. Trunks was walking with her, and Reijin could see Raditzu following shortly behind them, his long hair waving in the wind as he looked around at the girls nearby. Videl?s eyes locked on the girl beside him, and she gave a quizzical stare and quickened her pace. Reijin turned to her. ?What do I do??
She shrugged. ?For the moment, there is nothing you can do. Just follow along. I just wanted to make sure that you didn?t continue to feel that you were losing your mind.? She suddenly rose to her feet and put on a cheery girl expression. ?Thanks a lot for the help!? she said somewhat loudly as the others came into range. She gave a slight nod and one last parting look, her grey eyes seeming to show an image of a tall muscular form in proud black armor, with a cloak wrapped around his figure and a smug grin upon his face. Then she turned, walking off directly past them.
Videl stared at her as she passed by and then slid down in the seat Reijin was in, wrapping her arm around him. ?Hey love, how are you feeling?? She kissed him quickly on the side of the check and he gave a weak smile. ?Like crap? I can tell. You?ve been acting weird all day.?
Trunks dropped into another chair next to him, straddling it from the opposite direction as he whistled. ?That?s that chick from class earlier, isn?t it?? Reijin gave a nod and Videl shot a sharp look in the girl?s direction.
?About that? Who was she?? she asked, dangerously.
Reijin gave a halfhearted shrug. ?I didn?t catch her name. She was just dropping my stuff off from class and was letting me know about the extension on my test.?
Videl looked at Trunks who was watching Rad skateboard around the table in a rear manual. She spoke up and Rad dropped the skateboard back onto four wheels and kicked it up into his hand before taking a seat next to them. ?Why couldn?t Trunks bring your stuff??
He had a feeling that he was being interrogated, and simply gave her an absent look. ?She was asking me about Rad. By the way, dude, next girl that asks me about you is going to be given the rejection line as your phone number.?
Rad laughed a bit, and flashed him a grin. ?Don?t worry about it. She doesn?t need my number, I?ll have hers by tomorrow.? Videl shook her head and let the subject go.
Slapping her hands into his lap, she snuggled close to him. ?So you know the ride arrangements for the trip, right?? He nodded and she smiled. ?Good. I?d let you drive, but since you feel like blacking out over and over, I think I?ll handle it. I?m already worried enough about you still wanting to go snowboarding with us. You might blackout going down the mountain or something and turn into a human avalanche.?
Their long haired companion let out a loud laugh. ?Oh man, that?d be xtreme!? he exclaimed, giving Trunks a high five. ?Dude, we are so bringing the video camera with us.?
Videl rolled her eyes. ?Anyways, we need to get there soon, so let?s head out.?
The others jumped up and grabbed their stuff and they began to walk off as a group in the direction of the cars. ?I?ll meet you guys at the mountain. I?ve got to get David and Aaron from their class. They are going to dip out a bit early,? Raditzu proclaimed. ?I?ll see you guy?s there.? He gave a quick nod and turned off in the direction of a group of girls that were in the complete opposite direction from his friends? classes.
Trunks rolled his eyes and walked beside the couple while making sure to keep his distance. ?So do you guys really think that Reijin is going to be able to handle something like this feeling the way he is??
His girlfriend gave him a worried look, and he struggled to give her a reassuring smile. ?Don?t worry, I?ll be fine. Ask that question after I freestyle my way down that mountain.? She didn?t look convinced, but she gave a half smile to him.
Trunks slapped them both on the shoulder as they reached Videl?s car. ?Fucking awesome.? He opened up the backdoor and climbed into the backseat as the others took their places in the driver and passenger seats. ?Oh, Rad has all of our stuff in his truck. The boards and all. Everything?s taken care of.?
Reijin reached over to the radio as Videl was slowly backing out and nonchalantly turned up the volume on it. He could normally handle his friend?s mouth, but today he just couldn?t deal with it. Unfortunately, he found himself having to listen to Trunks begin singing along with the music as they drove off from the school. Reijin?s ears suddenly attuned themselves to the song on the radio.
He found himself beginning another moment of feeling strangely out of place when Videl suddenly turned the radio down and began to talk to him. ?So are you feeling better now that you are getting away from that school for a bit? You know, with the stress and all??
He gave a small encouraging smile to her. ?I think so. I?m pretty sure it?s just the stress of the day and all. You know how it goes.?
She sighed a bit, relieved, and flashed him a white smile. ?I?m glad. I love you so much. I am really worried about you. You know that if anything happened to you I wouldn?t be able to handle it. So make sure that you are ok, alright??
Trunks made a gagging noise from the backseat and Videl gave him a quick look in the rearview mirror as Reijin smiled. ?Yeah? I love you too.? She reached over and took his hand tightly, and Reijin felt warmth spread throughout his being. He felt so? content. Unnaturally so.
He looked out of the window and realized that they were starting to climb up the side of the mountain. ?Seems we are almost there, love.? She clenched his hand a bit tighter and pressed the gas a slight bit harder to help the car climb the incline. Reijin tried to fight a sudden nervous tightness in his gut, and she spoke out in frustration. ?Dammit.? She nodded towards the clock. ?We are going to be late if we don?t hurry up. Rad and the others are probably there already.?
Reijin shook his head. ?Nah, he had to stop to get the other guys and I think he said something about probably being a bit late.?
She bit down a bit on her lip and gave him a slightly worried smile. ?You sure?? He tightened on her hand reassuringly and she turned her full attention back to the road. ?I?m just concerned. I don?t want to mess this up. We?ve all been working hard for this, and we deserve a break.?
?The two of you definitely deserve some alone time. Without me in the backseat. Probably with you two taking my place,? quipped a voice from behind them.
A feminine laugh filled his ears. ?I?m inclined to agree,? she giggled, giving Reijin a quick wink.
?Oh that?s disgusting,? Trunks yelled in mock horror. He threw himself back into a laying position in the backseat and pulled on a set of headphones.
Videl ignored Trunks?s exaggerations and gave Reijin a small tug. ?Hey, can you get that Tatu cd out of my book for me? I want to listen to it.?
The dark haired youth shrugged and pulled it out, sliding it into the cd player with ease. Moments later, they were silenced by the music as she flipped along searching for a song that she liked. It only took a moment, and Reijin was once more feeling drawn into the feeling that something was wrong. He thought back on the grey eyed girl?s words. He remembered his argument about Videl having a tattoo. He felt so? weak. He felt as if he should be ten times more powerful than this.
The music seemed to echo his thoughts perfectly as he thought about how he was in a state between denial and acceptance. Was this reality? Everyone else said that it was. The grey eyed girl told him that this was not. But then? Every school had that one weird witchcraft type of girl that tried to convince everyone that there was some conspiracy afoot and that they shouldn?t believe anything they set their eyes on. What could be more real that his love for Videl? And yet he still felt uneasy. His eyes wandered around absently as his mind swam with the possibilities. As he began to zone out a bit for the ride, another mind?s thoughts seemed to overlay themselves onto his own.
He hated to admit it, but something within him was telling him that it was time for him to complete his Gaean training. ?That?s impossible though?? he whispered. He had killed Kasumi, and none of the other Gaeans, if there were any, even knew of him. He let out a slightly ironic snort of disgust. If they had heard of him from the people of Yardrat, then they would probably know of his deed. No? He would have to finish learning the Gaean style on his own, he presumed. It was much more graceful and accurate than the brute force of a Saiyan warrior that he had been taught from birth. To perfect his skills as a warrior, he would go to a large amount of stress and pain to complete his trainings.
He realized that he was sweating. These thoughts were so fresh in his mind. They were so? recent. It felt as if he had only gone through this path in his cerebrum the day before, and yet he didn?t understand what any of it meant. Saiyan warrior? Gaean training? Who was Kasumi? And what was Yardrat? He didn?t understand anything that was going on. The grey eyed girl had told him ?I won?t have much time to talk to you, but I wanted to let you know that this is not you, this is not your world, and you don?t belong here.? Everything seemed to run together a bit, and Reijin found himself suddenly bolting awake, quickly sitting up and panicking.
?What?s wrong?? Videl quickly asked, worried. She took her eyes off of the road for a moment and gave him a look. ?Reijin! Calm down! What happened? Are you ok-?
Without warning, the car hit a patch of ice on the mountainside, and began to slide sideways. Videl screamed in panic and Trunks sat up in the backseat. Reijin entered a state of shock and he saw Videl turn and look at him apologetically as the car slid sideways into the rail. She opened her mouth, and the moment before the car made impact with the rail, the words cut through the screams swiftly.
?I love you!?
Then everything was shut out by the screams, fading into silence. Silence was replaced by ice. Ice was replaced by an abyss of darkness. Reijin?s thoughts envisioned flashes of Videl. He saw the two of them on graduation day from high school. This isn?t real? He saw the two of them kissing softly behind the school building. This can?t be real? He saw her for the first time that he met her, her beauty radiating over anything he had ever seen before. Why can?t I accept this? He saw a pool of water as the two swam naked under the moonlight one late school night. I?ve always loved you? He saw the two of them lovingly exchanging gifts under their first Christmas tree. My love for you is real? He saw her face covered in tears as the car reached the rail. I love you, too? He saw her eyes screaming an apology. Why can?t I wake up? He saw her softly curled up within his arms on the couch. WHAT IS HAPPENING TO ME? He saw? nothing.
What could have been hours later, he began to feel a cold sensation across his skin. He began to stir slightly, giving a weak moan as he moved aching muscles within his body. The cold had penetrated deep within him, and he felt himself very weakened. He struggled to slowly open his eyes, against his better judgment, and stretched a hand out weakly. He realized that his hand was covered in blood, and blood slowly dripped down from a large gash on his forehead. He grumbled slightly, trying to ignore the pain, and was thankful for the shock his body was under. He pulled himself weakly along the ground until he began to feel a pressure lift off of his legs.
Turning over, he fell onto his back and looked up into the sky to see the furious winds blowing all over him. The snow was growing ever thicker, and he could hear the relentless howl of the wind from all over. They were supposed to be snowboarding. They were not supposed to be here. He looked down and saw that the lower half of his body was covered in blood and he felt a sharp pain as he pulled himself even further away from the blood soaked hole in the snow from which he?d been laying. He realized that a large tree branch had been lying on his legs, but he?d managed to slide out with the help of the snow.
His groggy mind could barely process the events that had occurred. He wasn?t quite sure what exactly had happened, but it slowly began to piece together in his mind. The trip to the mountain. The ice. The car wrecking. Videl. He bolted upright, feeling a sharp jolt of pain rock his body entirely. He looked around him everywhere, and looked up once more. He saw the railing, far above him, broken and hanging over the side of the nearby mountain. They had taken a sharp drop indeed.
He looked to his sides and saw the trees crushed and broken all around them. ?The car?? he struggled. ?Where?s the fucking car?? His breath came out tightly, as if he were short of breath and near hypothermia. He managed to climb to his knees, trying his hardest to ignore the massive amount of pain that was racketing his body all over. He could only assume that he had broken something in quite a few places. He bit down hard on his teeth, and felt a splash of blood rise up in his throat. He coughed, spitting the blood out onto the crimson ground beneath him, and stumbled forward. He knew that he was only able to walk on his broken limbs through the shock his mind was in alone.
No human body could take this.
Shortly in the distance, he saw a snow covered form of something large. The metal scraps protruding from it could only have been one thing. ?The car!? he gasped, wincing in pain. He slowly stumbled forward, beginning to hear a muffling sound from nearby. Each step brought him more and more pain, and each step was closer to the worst of it. He tried to cry out, but his mouth was filled with blood, and his lips were cracked and dry from the cold icy grasp of the winter?s heart. ?Videl? Trunks?? he managed, only to be drowned out by the howl of the wind.
He reached the car itself, and fell over against it, unable to stand any longer. He heard a stirring from the other side of the vehicle, and willed himself to move. His bloody hand stretched out, grasping a piece of sharp metal on the car. The metal cut sharply into his palm but his determination pulled him forward by his arm. ?Someone help?? he heard from the other side of the vehicle. He gritted his teeth and grasped another piece of the destroyed car, feeling a fresh pool of warm liquid splash outwards and to the ground as he did so. He had to get to her. He pulled himself, feeling a fiery pain burn through his entire body, searing him to the core as no other pain had ever done. He felt the agony of molten metal being poured throughout his bloodstream and spreading through his veins. He felt, for the first time, the agony of being on the edge of death. And yet he was not dead. Through sheer willpower alone, he was somehow alive.
He pulled once more, and felt his body sliding limply along the ground and finally rounding the metal heap. His eyes fell upon two forms lying side by side in the snow, nearly covered over by the snow. He heard a male voice speaking softly into the wind, a sound devoid of hope. ?Someone help?? It was the sound of hopelessness, calling out only because he could think of nothing else.
?Sometimes things happen. You can?t learn from them otherwise.? He had said this to Akira Dezmon. His mind flashed. Who was Akira Dezmon? Pain flashed through him again, something entirely nonphysical. Something completely cerebral.
?It?s good to see that you?re not dead.? Vejita had spoken to him genuinely, as a friend. Agony bolted through his cortex. Vejita had never said that! Vejita was a Marine, stationed to go to Japan! Trunks had told him so!
In Reijin's time in the alliance, he had found many vacancies. The first having been Vejita's own halfling son, Trunks. When he had allowed the two of them to emerge as one, he had initially attacked him with a furious rage, that of having failed his mission. Now, however, he found it ironic that he was in the same position that his creation had been. He hated him for his birth... But as he spent time on this planet, he was beginning to adjust to the thoughts of such a union. The shame that adorned his heart was a heavy burden to wear...
What were these thoughts? Trunks had always been a good friend of his, from before High School! Why would he and Trunks ever be enemies? He was loosing his mind, he was sure if it. His face hit the snow before him and he felt the cold, but only slightly through the dampening numbness that had overtaken him. He was going to go insane moments before dying.
Trunks had been nothing more than something that had intervened between himself and his goal. There was nothing personal in the fusion of the two abominations. It was merely business. It was always business. Trunks. Gohan. Goku. Goku Jr. Kasumi. He did not regret his actions. Pride would not allow him too. But he did make himself live with the consequences of such actions.
His eyes were beginning to succumb to the darkness once more, and he heard another muffled cry from before him. He opened his mouth slightly, attempted to call out, and no words escaped. His lips formed them anyway. ?I cannot help you. I am weak. I am helpless. I?m only human.?
?For the moment, there is nothing you can do. Just follow along. I just wanted to make sure that you didn?t continue to feel that you were losing your mind.? The grey eyed girl?s words seemed to whisper to him through his unconsciousness, and he remembered them suddenly.
His eyes fluttered open once more, and he spat dried blood onto the snow. Somewhere deep inside of him burned. Not the burn of pain. His body was beginning to shut down, and he was beginning to block out the pain. Somewhere, his body burned of defeat. His mind would not accept it. He would never accept it. He moved slightly once more, sliding his arm forward. ?This is not me! I?m stronger than this! I?m more disciplined! I can?t be gotten rid of so easily!? His mouth attempted to make out he words, and to his surprise, towards the end he managed to feel a gust of breath force its way out of broken lips. He smiled proudly, and the small amount of smug refusal to die felt very much normal for him. As if he were always accustomed to an arrogance that denied mortality.
?I?m glad. I love you so much. I am really worried about you. You know that if anything happened to you I wouldn?t be able to handle it. So make sure that you are ok, alright??
?I will not be beaten so easily.? He began to pull himself forward once more, and his hand reached forward, slapping a hard cold figure before him. To his surprise, it stirred slightly, and he saw it turn around very slowly. His eyes opened wide as he saw Trunks looking back at him. His skin was whiter than the snow itself, a white that he had only imagined as the absolute white of heaven itself. It betrayed any sense of blood flow through his veins, and he gave Reijin a somber look. His hair was matted to the side of his head with blood. ?Trunks?? he managed.
?She?s dead.?
Reijin?s heart felt as if it had stopped, but he could not have been granted even this mercy. He pulled himself forward as hard as he could, and he managed to see over Trunks?s nearly immobile form. He saw Videl staring into the sky through glossy, lifeless eyes. Tears had literally frozen into small pools of ice on her cheeks, and her lips were a deep blue, reflecting the lighter shade of blue that covered the rest of her face.
?No?? Reijin felt his throat begin to close up, even now. She couldn?t be dead. He looked up to see Trunks looked at him gravely, as if he wanted to cry but could manage no more tears. ?She can?t be dead.?
He shook his head. ?She?s dead. She died in my arms, begging for my forgiveness for the wreck. She cried that she loved-?
?SHE CAN?T BE DEAD!? Reijin found his lungs begging for death as he forced enough air through them to send the blood within his body into a frenzy. Trunks grabbed him forcefully and shook him. Reijin pushed Trunks away and climbed over to Videl, pulling her tightly to his chest. ?You can?t be? dead.? For the first time that Reijin had ever encountered, he felt tears begin to flow down his cheeks. Part of his mind argued with this thought, that he had cried many times before in the past. He had cried when his mother had died. He had cried? No? He had not cried. This was not him. This was not real.
The pain he felt inside of his heart begged otherwise. The pain was very real. The pain was a level of pain that he had never known to be possible for a Saiyan to feel. He had not understood why these alien thoughts were coming at him from every direction, but he didn?t care. ?You can?t be?? he cried. Like forming stalactites, trickles of moisture made their way down his face to hers below him. His tears landed on her cheeks, fusing with her own tears before freezing as well. He had never cried. Not like this.
Trunks grabbed him and held him close to him, huddling against him for warmth. ?I?m sorry,? was all that he could offer.
Reijin shook his head angrily. ?No? The dragonballs can save her? The dragonballs can bring her back!?
He received a sharp look from his friend. ?Now is not the time for you to be losing your mind, Reijin! This is very serious! We both have just lost a good friend, and I cannot pretend to know the anguish that you are feeling right now, but we have to try to get out of here!?
Tears ran down his cheeks as he looked up at Trunks. ?No? I have nothing to live for now. I was intending to ask her? to ask her to marry me this Christmas?? he managed to choke out. ?And now she?s gone,? he sobbed. ?She?s GONE! I have lost everything to me??
Trunks grabbed him and hit him hard in the side. ?You are still alive! I am still alive. And if we plan to keep it that way, we need to get out of here! You haven?t lost everything!?
Reijin could only sadly shake his head. ?You don?t understand. Videl was my world.? This world is not real. ?Videl was very real.? This is not your Videl. ?The pain I feel inside is unbearable. The pain is very real.? The pain is very real.
He gave Trunks a look. ?In all the time that we?ve been friends? Enemies? Whatever our relation has been-?
The purple haired man grabbed him and struggled to his feet, attempting to pull him up. ?I don?t know what the hell you are talking about.?
?LET ME FINISH!? he found himself screaming. Trunks looked a bit taken aback, but then gave a sad look at Videl, remembering her words upon her death. ?Whatever our relationship has been, I have never done anything to anyone without a reason. Everything that I have ever done, every action that I have ever made, has always been made with a reason, good or bad. This! This has no reason! There was no reason for me to lose Videl! She can?t be gone? SHE IS GONE! I can?t ever hold her in my arms again! I can never hear her voice tell me how much she loves me!?
Trunks opened his mouth to speak, and then slowly closed it, unable to bring himself to words. Somehow, another tear managed to form upon his face. Reijin continued, another tear falling upon her face. ?Every action had a purpose? And yet? And yet with absolutely no reason at all, Videl had been ripped from my arms, ripped from my life.? He felt something distant within him, a growing strength, something that felt of a former life. ?I will never see the look of our children.? He felt a cold fury, an anguish of helplessness. He was Reijin. He was one of the greatest among Saiyans. ?I will never have any of that?? He was? helpless. He was normal. He was only human.
?I can?t believe she?s gone??
The clock tumbled off of the dresser on the far wall and dropped onto its side, still continuing its perpetual scream. Reijin?s dark hair was matted to the side of his face as he flung his feet over the bed, managing to roll off the bed in the process. He landed painfully, and gasped a moment. ?Man? Could this get any worse?? he mumbled. He crawled slowly across the floor over random pieces of clothing until he finally reached the alarm clock, silencing his killer with a swift press of a button.
The moment the alarm was silenced, he rolled over onto his back, breathing a sigh of victory. Yawning, he realized that the sun?s rays were slowly entering the bedroom through the window and he forced himself into an upright position. He looked from side to side, groggily surveying the room. Something wasn?t right, and he couldn?t tell what that was. He pushed himself up further, and grabbed onto the dresser for support as he climbed to his feet. He had to find some clothing or else he wouldn?t be prepared for what lay outside of his door.
Looking around, he could find none of his armor or belongings. ?Where is it?? he mumbled. Then he stopped. ?What the hell is going on?? He heard a knock on his door and his gaze quickly shot towards it. ?Umm? Yes??
A young female voice responded through the door. ?Baby, you up?? The door began to slowly open and Reijin stood there in his boxers, trying to understand why he felt so out of place with a normal routine life. A young woman strode in with medium length raven hair wearing a short tank-top and a pair of shorts. Upon seeing Reijin standing there, her eyes widened. ?Um? You might want to put on some pants,? she giggled, motioning at the bulge at the front of his shorts.
His face turned red and he quickly dropped to the floor scrounging for a pair of pants. Finding the first pair he could, he pulled them to his face and took a quick whiff. He remembered having worn them yesterday, and quickly pulled them on. Halfway through the process, he caught the pants leg on something and tripped, hitting the ground hard. The girl freaked and darted forward, grabbing him and helping pull him to his feet. ?Calm down. You should really try to get some more sleep once in a while.?
His eyes looked up at hers, and then he noticed something strange about her midriff. ?Where?s your new tattoo?? he asked.
She seemed taken aback as she looked down at his stomach. ?Um? What tattoo? You know my family would probably disown me if I got one.? She suddenly eyed him curiously. ?Why do you ask? Are you ok??
He looked up at her and unexpectedly found himself wondering the same thing. Why would he ask that? ?I don?t? know.? He sighed and shook his head. He reached down and grabbed a shirt from the floor. ?Videl, do you know if this shirt is clean or not??
Her nose wrinkled up as she looked at it. ?Well, compared to most of your clothes, I guess you can call it that. Now hurry up, we?ve gotta get you to class before you are late. Traffic is gonna be really busy if we don?t get out of here, and you know how that goes.?
He nodded and stretched his arms out above him, yawning as he positioned his arms through the holes in the shirt. ?You know? We should start getting you to work out a bit. Get rid of that skin and bones look you have going on there,? she giggled.
Reijin quickly shot her a look as he pulled the shirt down over his skin. It was pretty baggy on him, and he sat down on the side of the bed as he reached for his boots and began to lace them up. She stood up and grabbed a set of folded up clothes from a nightstand next to the bed and walked out of the room. ?I?ll be out in a moment,? she called from the bathroom before shutting the door.
He finished lacing up his boots, and walked over to the mirror on the side of the room. What did she mean buy skin and bones? He knew for a fact that he was pretty well built. He pulled up his shirt, and found to his surprise a few ribs were easily distinguishable. Almost discouragingly, his stomach growled at him at the same time. He sighed and allowed his shirt to drop back into place as Videl left the bathroom. ?You are pretty quiet today,? she observed, walking back into the room and standing next to him.
He gave her a sad smile. ?I?m pretty hungry.?
She laughed at him. ?Let?s hit McDonald?s on the way out and get you something to eat.?
He nodded and walked into the bathroom. Reaching for his toothbrush, he suddenly realized that it felt very out of place for Videl to be staying with him and yet changing in the bathroom. ?Hey baby?? he called out. Her acknowledgement resonated throughout the walls of the apartment. He didn?t really know what to ask, so he tried to phrase his question innocently. ?Why were your clothes separated on the nightstand??
She walked back in as he began to brush his teeth. ?Oh, I was in a rush when leaving my apartment last night. I had just gotten off work and didn?t have long to stop by the house when I grabbed my stuff, and you seemed like you were really looking forward to my cooking and all. By the way, did you finish studying for that test you were getting ready for when I got here??
He spat into the sink and rinsed out his mouth. She handed him a towel and he wiped his face for a moment before running a brush through his hair. ?We?ll have to hope so. I can?t afford to fail this one,? he found himself answering.
She turned and walked towards the door, motioning for him to hurry. She had changed into a pair of long pants and had pulled on a small pink shirt and a grey jacket on top of it. ?Come on. It?s pretty cold outside, so you might want to grab a jacket.?
Obligingly, he reached into the closet and grabbed a jacket, pulling it on over his shirt as she opened the front door. Icy cold wind filled the front of the room as he turned off the last light and stepped out. ?My god, it?s freezing out here.?
She laughed as they walked up the stairs. ?It?s only about 65 out here. You just have no fat on your body. I hear bones do not hold heat very well.? She pointed towards a black Honda Accord at the end of the building. ?I had to park over there last night.?
Getting to the car, she climbed into the drivers seat while he stood there staring at her awkwardly. She gave him a weird look and then nodded her head towards the passenger seat. ?Oh no, I know how you get. You?ve barely slept, and I?m not letting you drive my car like that.? She put her keys into the ignition and turned the car on, the radio suddenly blasting loudly. Turning slightly red, she fumbled with the volume until she could turn it down as he opened up the passenger door.
He gave her an odd look as she began to back out. ?This doesn?t feel right,? he mumbled.
?What do you mean?? she asked him as they began the short drive to the college.
He shrugged. ?You driving, for one. Something feels wrong about that.? She shot him a look and groaned. He quickly took the defensive. ?No! I?m not saying you drive badly,? he quickly covered up as she rolled through a stop sign. ?I?m just saying that something doesn?t feel right, and I have no clue what it is.?
She looked over at him and smiled. ?You probably just forgot a book for class or something. Trust me, everything is about as normal and boring as it gets.?
Reijin sighed and leaned back in the seat. Normal and boring were what felt so wrong.
?Alright, remember, your class if over there. No excuse this time,? Videl laughed, pointing towards the side of the campus. Reijin nodded and she pulled him in close, quickly kissing him. He found himself kissing her back lightly by instinct, and then she stepped back. ?Gotta run, good luck!? She flashed him a smile and turned, darting off towards her class at the other end of the campus.
Turning, Reijin began to walk slowly across the grass. He was holding his books under his jacket sleeve and nearly dropped them when someone suddenly put their masculine arm around his shoulders. Startled, he looked over to the side to see Trunks grinning at him. He took a breath of cool air and wasn?t sure what to say.
Trunks beat him to the punch, hypothetically. ?Hey man, you ready for this test?? He then let go of Reijin?s shoulders and ran his fingers through his shoulder length purple hair. Reijin shrugged at him and pushed him off from him. Trunks laughed and continued on as if nothing had happened. ?Yeah, I talked to Rad last night on the phone and he said he?s going to ace this test.?
Reijin shook his head with disgust. ?Man, when does he not ace the test? I swear, he has to be doing our professors or something. The guy is like the center of this college.? He quickly changed the subject. ?How come you can get away with the purple hair? That?s weird.?
Trunks nodded somberly. ?Yeah, it is. Why do you think I dyed it that way?? he asked, keeping a straight face. Unable to hold it, he burst into laughter. ?Dude, you need to stop being so serious. Quit thinking so much, fucking emo guy. You are starting to remind me of some of Rad?s friends.?
Laughing, the dark haired youth stepped up to the door, pulling it open for the two of them. ?I don?t blame his friends for being so emo. The guy?s name even shortens to a synonym for ?badass? and ?cool?. I?m sure that they can carry a large ego on their shoulders around him.?
Trunks sighed as he dropped into a chair and tossed his books onto the floor beside it. He threw his feet up into the chair across the aisle from them and turned to the side as Reijin took his seat. ?Quit having something to dislike about everyone. He was cool enough to invite us all to go snowboarding with him later after class. You did get out of work, right?? Reijin nodded. ?Good, you and Videl can group with us when we get up there. I?ll probably ride with you guys while Rad takes David and Aaron. Oh, did I tell you that my dad called last night??
The skinny youth shook his head and looked around the room watching the students as it filled up. ?No. Is he doing alright with the marines?? Trunks nodded.
?Yeah man, he?s heading to Japan. Pretty sweet, isn?t it?? His purple hair shook as he bobbed his head excitedly. ?He?s going to hook me up with some stuff when he gets there.?
Reijin could help it as his eyes widened. ?Wicked,? he spoke through an impressed visage. ?That?s definitely pretty sweet man.? He trailed off as he noticed a girl enter the room. She looked over at him, and they locked eyes briefly before she scurried to the other side of the room.
His companion followed his gaze to the girl at the other side of the room and gave an approving look. ?Well she?s new. Haven?t seen her before. Not bad looking either.?
His words fell on deaf ears as Reijin was overcome with a feeling of anxiety. ?Something isn?t right?? he repeated.
Trunks turned back around yawning. ?Don?t worry, you?ll pass the test.? The door shut hard as a large man entered the room, motioning for them to quiet down.
A few minutes later, Reijin found himself staring down at a sheet of paper and holding a pencil in his hand. Trunks was busily writing in front of him, and to every side of Reijin he could see that others doing the same. He, on the other hand, was having a very serious problem. He held the pencil up in his hands, trying his hardest to figure out how to place it into his hand. ?Why the hell do these people insist on using such primitive writing tools?? he mumbled.
Then he froze. He realized that he didn?t know how to write, and everything around him demanded this one simple task from him. He didn?t know why, but he felt as if him not knowing how to write should be normal, and yet everyone around him made him feel as if he had known how to write all along. ?Why?? he trailed off, not quite sure why he had referred to writing as primitive. His head began to spin a bit, and he grabbed his head.
Moments later, he hit the floor beside the desk. The room suddenly burst into a commotion as the teacher looked up from the front of the room to see Trunks dropping quickly to the floor to help Reijin sit up. ?What happened?? he asked suspiciously. ?Is everything alright?? Almost in answer, Reijin felt the world suddenly spin on him and he rolled over, throwing up in the floor. The students began to yell in disgust as they threw their chairs to the side and jumped up for protection. The teacher rolled his eyes a bit, suspecting fowl play to get out of the test, and finally sighed. ?Trunks, help him get to the nurse?s office.?
Trunks nodded as he helped his friend to his feet and gingerly stepped over the mess in the floor. The teacher was walking over with a broom as they reached the door, and he called to them once more. ?Ask them to send the janitor in here if they are able. Reijin, you can finish the test tomorrow.?
?Thank you, sir,? Reijin mumbled weakly. As Trunks hoisted him out of the door, Reijin?s eyes caught once more on the stone faced expression of the grey eyed girl. Then his vision spun on him, entering a maelstrom of chaos while Trunks guided him blindly down the hall trying to talk to him.
The water splashed, drop by drop, slowly like a pianist?s metronome. Reijin found himself standing over an open body of water, with nothing but the air itself surrounding him. His eyes drifted downwards, and he saw a reflection standing directly beneath him, his own form being repelled by the water itself. The sound of water splashed once more, and a ripple spread from his body. The ethereal form adjoined to his feet dissipated slightly, and returned to form once more. The Saiyan?s eyes narrowed as he found his reflection to be that of a girl? Suddenly the image burst into bloom, looking to both sides in an almost slightly panicked way. Then she looked back through the water and her eyes connected to Reijin?s. Her deep grey eyes? They widened a moment in surprise, as Reijin?s own mimicked her emotion. Then the water rippled once more, and she was lost to him.
?You really shouldn?t stay up drinking all night before a big test, man,? Trunks?s voice interrupted his thoughts. He shook back to reality as the memory of a previous vision came to light from his past. Something was very strange, and he couldn?t quite figure out what. ?Seriously, I think you may have just fucked up my schedule pretty good about that test-?
?Where am I?? Reijin spat out, looking around a bit.
His friend held him up against the doorway to the nurse?s office. ?At the nurse?s room. You are majorly acting weird.?
He shook his head defiantly. ?No. This isn?t right.? He continued mumbling as Trunks popped open the door to the room and called for help. He blacked out again, and in his last sight of the hall, the grey eyed girl was staring at him from the distance.
He awoke shaking on a bed in the nurse?s office. No one was in the room with him, and he began to panic. He looked around quickly, realizing that he no longer had his jacket on and yet he was pouring sweat, despite the cold clammy feeling his body had overtaken. A moment later, a man walked into the room. ?Good, you are awake.?
Reijin?s black eyes quickly searched the room for something concrete to anchor his ideal of reality to. ?What happened?? His words felt distant, exiting his lips from lungs that felt as if they were not his. Weak, human lungs.
The man shrugged. ?We aren?t sure. You blacked out. From the looks of things, I think you may have caught that bug that?s going around. We?ve had about twenty people get sick from it within the past month, so it?s nothing unusual. Pretty normal, for this time of year.? Normal. There it was again. Everything was normal. Why was he losing his mind then?
He struggled to clear his head, feeling inside as if he should know of some method to help clear his thoughts, and finally stood up and reached for his jacket. ?I?ll try to take some time off from work. I?ve just had a pretty stressful week,? he mumbled apologetically.
Nodding, the man led him out the door. ?I?d definitely suggest that. Testing season can definitely be tough, and I know you live on your own. Like I said, this is normal for students your age about this time. I see people like you everyday.? He smiled and placed a comforting hand on Reijin?s shoulder. Reijin suddenly wanted to throw the man?s arm to the side, and scream at him that he was not just another everyday person, that he wouldn?t simply fade into the crowd, that he was destined for greatness? But he struggled against his strange urges and simply nodded at the man before turning and walking out.
His entire walk toward the school caf? was a thoughtful one, seeking to understand what was going on. The weirdest part of the entire situation was that no one else seemed to acknowledge that anything was actually happening out of the ordinary, and Reijin couldn?t help but question himself. ?Is this really all just in my head? Gah? It?s probably just a side effect of being sick or something.?
He made it to the caf? and realized that he would be getting out of class soon. Taking a seat outside, he placed his head into his hands while trying to sort out his thoughts. He heard a noise beside him and he heard himself speak. ?Not now, Trunks, I really feel like shit man??
?I understand.?
Reijin?s head bolted up momentarily and he found himself to be face to face with a set of deep grey eyes. He turned slightly in his seat, and stared at her in shock. Her eyes had a cold, dead look to them, and her hair was a grey that seemed as if she was a spirit from a distant past. She had a halfhearted smile upon her lips, and she sat his stack of books from his class onto the table before him. He looked at them for a moment, and then found himself at a loss of words. ?Um, thanks.?
She nodded slightly, and then turned a bit, looking down at the table as if she was debating her next words. The young man stared at her for a moment, and finally she looked up at him. ?You feel it, don?t you?? she finally whispered. His expression betrayed his true feelings as he sputtered that he didn?t know what she was talking about, and she gave him a sad look. ?I don?t want to freak you out, but we need each other right now.?
The chill seemed to penetrate the thin figured man a bit more suddenly, and he pulled his jacket tight around him, breathing out to find that his breath had not actually formed a mist. ?I already have a girlfriend. Videl,? he spoke slowly.
She shook her head as if he had totally missed her point. ?No, that?s not what I mean. You feel out of place in a seemingly ordinary situation. You know that this is not the world meant for you. You know that something is amiss, and you want to find out what it is, but everyone is constantly telling you that this is all normal, that you are the same as everyone else, and that you are nothing special.? Her eyes saw that she had hit a critical spot inside of him as he popped his jawbone in an attempt to calm himself and listen to her. She didn?t show any sign of amusement, and continued giving him a sad look. ?I won?t have much time to talk to you, but I wanted to let you know that this is not you, this is not your world, and you don?t belong here.?
Reijin heard a girl calling to him from the distance and he looked up to see Videl off at the other end yelling to him and waving. Trunks was walking with her, and Reijin could see Raditzu following shortly behind them, his long hair waving in the wind as he looked around at the girls nearby. Videl?s eyes locked on the girl beside him, and she gave a quizzical stare and quickened her pace. Reijin turned to her. ?What do I do??
She shrugged. ?For the moment, there is nothing you can do. Just follow along. I just wanted to make sure that you didn?t continue to feel that you were losing your mind.? She suddenly rose to her feet and put on a cheery girl expression. ?Thanks a lot for the help!? she said somewhat loudly as the others came into range. She gave a slight nod and one last parting look, her grey eyes seeming to show an image of a tall muscular form in proud black armor, with a cloak wrapped around his figure and a smug grin upon his face. Then she turned, walking off directly past them.
Videl stared at her as she passed by and then slid down in the seat Reijin was in, wrapping her arm around him. ?Hey love, how are you feeling?? She kissed him quickly on the side of the check and he gave a weak smile. ?Like crap? I can tell. You?ve been acting weird all day.?
Trunks dropped into another chair next to him, straddling it from the opposite direction as he whistled. ?That?s that chick from class earlier, isn?t it?? Reijin gave a nod and Videl shot a sharp look in the girl?s direction.
?About that? Who was she?? she asked, dangerously.
Reijin gave a halfhearted shrug. ?I didn?t catch her name. She was just dropping my stuff off from class and was letting me know about the extension on my test.?
Videl looked at Trunks who was watching Rad skateboard around the table in a rear manual. She spoke up and Rad dropped the skateboard back onto four wheels and kicked it up into his hand before taking a seat next to them. ?Why couldn?t Trunks bring your stuff??
He had a feeling that he was being interrogated, and simply gave her an absent look. ?She was asking me about Rad. By the way, dude, next girl that asks me about you is going to be given the rejection line as your phone number.?
Rad laughed a bit, and flashed him a grin. ?Don?t worry about it. She doesn?t need my number, I?ll have hers by tomorrow.? Videl shook her head and let the subject go.
Slapping her hands into his lap, she snuggled close to him. ?So you know the ride arrangements for the trip, right?? He nodded and she smiled. ?Good. I?d let you drive, but since you feel like blacking out over and over, I think I?ll handle it. I?m already worried enough about you still wanting to go snowboarding with us. You might blackout going down the mountain or something and turn into a human avalanche.?
Their long haired companion let out a loud laugh. ?Oh man, that?d be xtreme!? he exclaimed, giving Trunks a high five. ?Dude, we are so bringing the video camera with us.?
Videl rolled her eyes. ?Anyways, we need to get there soon, so let?s head out.?
The others jumped up and grabbed their stuff and they began to walk off as a group in the direction of the cars. ?I?ll meet you guys at the mountain. I?ve got to get David and Aaron from their class. They are going to dip out a bit early,? Raditzu proclaimed. ?I?ll see you guy?s there.? He gave a quick nod and turned off in the direction of a group of girls that were in the complete opposite direction from his friends? classes.
Trunks rolled his eyes and walked beside the couple while making sure to keep his distance. ?So do you guys really think that Reijin is going to be able to handle something like this feeling the way he is??
His girlfriend gave him a worried look, and he struggled to give her a reassuring smile. ?Don?t worry, I?ll be fine. Ask that question after I freestyle my way down that mountain.? She didn?t look convinced, but she gave a half smile to him.
Trunks slapped them both on the shoulder as they reached Videl?s car. ?Fucking awesome.? He opened up the backdoor and climbed into the backseat as the others took their places in the driver and passenger seats. ?Oh, Rad has all of our stuff in his truck. The boards and all. Everything?s taken care of.?
Reijin reached over to the radio as Videl was slowly backing out and nonchalantly turned up the volume on it. He could normally handle his friend?s mouth, but today he just couldn?t deal with it. Unfortunately, he found himself having to listen to Trunks begin singing along with the music as they drove off from the school. Reijin?s ears suddenly attuned themselves to the song on the radio.
How the hell did we wind up like this?
Why weren't we able, to see the signs that we missed
And try to turn the tables?
Why weren't we able, to see the signs that we missed
And try to turn the tables?
He found himself beginning another moment of feeling strangely out of place when Videl suddenly turned the radio down and began to talk to him. ?So are you feeling better now that you are getting away from that school for a bit? You know, with the stress and all??
He gave a small encouraging smile to her. ?I think so. I?m pretty sure it?s just the stress of the day and all. You know how it goes.?
She sighed a bit, relieved, and flashed him a white smile. ?I?m glad. I love you so much. I am really worried about you. You know that if anything happened to you I wouldn?t be able to handle it. So make sure that you are ok, alright??
Trunks made a gagging noise from the backseat and Videl gave him a quick look in the rearview mirror as Reijin smiled. ?Yeah? I love you too.? She reached over and took his hand tightly, and Reijin felt warmth spread throughout his being. He felt so? content. Unnaturally so.
He looked out of the window and realized that they were starting to climb up the side of the mountain. ?Seems we are almost there, love.? She clenched his hand a bit tighter and pressed the gas a slight bit harder to help the car climb the incline. Reijin tried to fight a sudden nervous tightness in his gut, and she spoke out in frustration. ?Dammit.? She nodded towards the clock. ?We are going to be late if we don?t hurry up. Rad and the others are probably there already.?
Reijin shook his head. ?Nah, he had to stop to get the other guys and I think he said something about probably being a bit late.?
She bit down a bit on her lip and gave him a slightly worried smile. ?You sure?? He tightened on her hand reassuringly and she turned her full attention back to the road. ?I?m just concerned. I don?t want to mess this up. We?ve all been working hard for this, and we deserve a break.?
?The two of you definitely deserve some alone time. Without me in the backseat. Probably with you two taking my place,? quipped a voice from behind them.
A feminine laugh filled his ears. ?I?m inclined to agree,? she giggled, giving Reijin a quick wink.
?Oh that?s disgusting,? Trunks yelled in mock horror. He threw himself back into a laying position in the backseat and pulled on a set of headphones.
Videl ignored Trunks?s exaggerations and gave Reijin a small tug. ?Hey, can you get that Tatu cd out of my book for me? I want to listen to it.?
The dark haired youth shrugged and pulled it out, sliding it into the cd player with ease. Moments later, they were silenced by the music as she flipped along searching for a song that she liked. It only took a moment, and Reijin was once more feeling drawn into the feeling that something was wrong. He thought back on the grey eyed girl?s words. He remembered his argument about Videl having a tattoo. He felt so? weak. He felt as if he should be ten times more powerful than this.
How did we ever get this far?
It shouldn't have to be this hard.
Now for the first time in my life
I'm flying.
Are we in love? Do we deserve
To bear the shame of this whole world?
And like the night we camouflage
Denial.
It shouldn't have to be this hard.
Now for the first time in my life
I'm flying.
Are we in love? Do we deserve
To bear the shame of this whole world?
And like the night we camouflage
Denial.
The music seemed to echo his thoughts perfectly as he thought about how he was in a state between denial and acceptance. Was this reality? Everyone else said that it was. The grey eyed girl told him that this was not. But then? Every school had that one weird witchcraft type of girl that tried to convince everyone that there was some conspiracy afoot and that they shouldn?t believe anything they set their eyes on. What could be more real that his love for Videl? And yet he still felt uneasy. His eyes wandered around absently as his mind swam with the possibilities. As he began to zone out a bit for the ride, another mind?s thoughts seemed to overlay themselves onto his own.
He hated to admit it, but something within him was telling him that it was time for him to complete his Gaean training. ?That?s impossible though?? he whispered. He had killed Kasumi, and none of the other Gaeans, if there were any, even knew of him. He let out a slightly ironic snort of disgust. If they had heard of him from the people of Yardrat, then they would probably know of his deed. No? He would have to finish learning the Gaean style on his own, he presumed. It was much more graceful and accurate than the brute force of a Saiyan warrior that he had been taught from birth. To perfect his skills as a warrior, he would go to a large amount of stress and pain to complete his trainings.
He realized that he was sweating. These thoughts were so fresh in his mind. They were so? recent. It felt as if he had only gone through this path in his cerebrum the day before, and yet he didn?t understand what any of it meant. Saiyan warrior? Gaean training? Who was Kasumi? And what was Yardrat? He didn?t understand anything that was going on. The grey eyed girl had told him ?I won?t have much time to talk to you, but I wanted to let you know that this is not you, this is not your world, and you don?t belong here.? Everything seemed to run together a bit, and Reijin found himself suddenly bolting awake, quickly sitting up and panicking.
?What?s wrong?? Videl quickly asked, worried. She took her eyes off of the road for a moment and gave him a look. ?Reijin! Calm down! What happened? Are you ok-?
Without warning, the car hit a patch of ice on the mountainside, and began to slide sideways. Videl screamed in panic and Trunks sat up in the backseat. Reijin entered a state of shock and he saw Videl turn and look at him apologetically as the car slid sideways into the rail. She opened her mouth, and the moment before the car made impact with the rail, the words cut through the screams swiftly.
?I love you!?
Then everything was shut out by the screams, fading into silence. Silence was replaced by ice. Ice was replaced by an abyss of darkness. Reijin?s thoughts envisioned flashes of Videl. He saw the two of them on graduation day from high school. This isn?t real? He saw the two of them kissing softly behind the school building. This can?t be real? He saw her for the first time that he met her, her beauty radiating over anything he had ever seen before. Why can?t I accept this? He saw a pool of water as the two swam naked under the moonlight one late school night. I?ve always loved you? He saw the two of them lovingly exchanging gifts under their first Christmas tree. My love for you is real? He saw her face covered in tears as the car reached the rail. I love you, too? He saw her eyes screaming an apology. Why can?t I wake up? He saw her softly curled up within his arms on the couch. WHAT IS HAPPENING TO ME? He saw? nothing.
What could have been hours later, he began to feel a cold sensation across his skin. He began to stir slightly, giving a weak moan as he moved aching muscles within his body. The cold had penetrated deep within him, and he felt himself very weakened. He struggled to slowly open his eyes, against his better judgment, and stretched a hand out weakly. He realized that his hand was covered in blood, and blood slowly dripped down from a large gash on his forehead. He grumbled slightly, trying to ignore the pain, and was thankful for the shock his body was under. He pulled himself weakly along the ground until he began to feel a pressure lift off of his legs.
Turning over, he fell onto his back and looked up into the sky to see the furious winds blowing all over him. The snow was growing ever thicker, and he could hear the relentless howl of the wind from all over. They were supposed to be snowboarding. They were not supposed to be here. He looked down and saw that the lower half of his body was covered in blood and he felt a sharp pain as he pulled himself even further away from the blood soaked hole in the snow from which he?d been laying. He realized that a large tree branch had been lying on his legs, but he?d managed to slide out with the help of the snow.
His groggy mind could barely process the events that had occurred. He wasn?t quite sure what exactly had happened, but it slowly began to piece together in his mind. The trip to the mountain. The ice. The car wrecking. Videl. He bolted upright, feeling a sharp jolt of pain rock his body entirely. He looked around him everywhere, and looked up once more. He saw the railing, far above him, broken and hanging over the side of the nearby mountain. They had taken a sharp drop indeed.
He looked to his sides and saw the trees crushed and broken all around them. ?The car?? he struggled. ?Where?s the fucking car?? His breath came out tightly, as if he were short of breath and near hypothermia. He managed to climb to his knees, trying his hardest to ignore the massive amount of pain that was racketing his body all over. He could only assume that he had broken something in quite a few places. He bit down hard on his teeth, and felt a splash of blood rise up in his throat. He coughed, spitting the blood out onto the crimson ground beneath him, and stumbled forward. He knew that he was only able to walk on his broken limbs through the shock his mind was in alone.
No human body could take this.
Shortly in the distance, he saw a snow covered form of something large. The metal scraps protruding from it could only have been one thing. ?The car!? he gasped, wincing in pain. He slowly stumbled forward, beginning to hear a muffling sound from nearby. Each step brought him more and more pain, and each step was closer to the worst of it. He tried to cry out, but his mouth was filled with blood, and his lips were cracked and dry from the cold icy grasp of the winter?s heart. ?Videl? Trunks?? he managed, only to be drowned out by the howl of the wind.
He reached the car itself, and fell over against it, unable to stand any longer. He heard a stirring from the other side of the vehicle, and willed himself to move. His bloody hand stretched out, grasping a piece of sharp metal on the car. The metal cut sharply into his palm but his determination pulled him forward by his arm. ?Someone help?? he heard from the other side of the vehicle. He gritted his teeth and grasped another piece of the destroyed car, feeling a fresh pool of warm liquid splash outwards and to the ground as he did so. He had to get to her. He pulled himself, feeling a fiery pain burn through his entire body, searing him to the core as no other pain had ever done. He felt the agony of molten metal being poured throughout his bloodstream and spreading through his veins. He felt, for the first time, the agony of being on the edge of death. And yet he was not dead. Through sheer willpower alone, he was somehow alive.
He pulled once more, and felt his body sliding limply along the ground and finally rounding the metal heap. His eyes fell upon two forms lying side by side in the snow, nearly covered over by the snow. He heard a male voice speaking softly into the wind, a sound devoid of hope. ?Someone help?? It was the sound of hopelessness, calling out only because he could think of nothing else.
?Sometimes things happen. You can?t learn from them otherwise.? He had said this to Akira Dezmon. His mind flashed. Who was Akira Dezmon? Pain flashed through him again, something entirely nonphysical. Something completely cerebral.
?It?s good to see that you?re not dead.? Vejita had spoken to him genuinely, as a friend. Agony bolted through his cortex. Vejita had never said that! Vejita was a Marine, stationed to go to Japan! Trunks had told him so!
In Reijin's time in the alliance, he had found many vacancies. The first having been Vejita's own halfling son, Trunks. When he had allowed the two of them to emerge as one, he had initially attacked him with a furious rage, that of having failed his mission. Now, however, he found it ironic that he was in the same position that his creation had been. He hated him for his birth... But as he spent time on this planet, he was beginning to adjust to the thoughts of such a union. The shame that adorned his heart was a heavy burden to wear...
What were these thoughts? Trunks had always been a good friend of his, from before High School! Why would he and Trunks ever be enemies? He was loosing his mind, he was sure if it. His face hit the snow before him and he felt the cold, but only slightly through the dampening numbness that had overtaken him. He was going to go insane moments before dying.
Trunks had been nothing more than something that had intervened between himself and his goal. There was nothing personal in the fusion of the two abominations. It was merely business. It was always business. Trunks. Gohan. Goku. Goku Jr. Kasumi. He did not regret his actions. Pride would not allow him too. But he did make himself live with the consequences of such actions.
His eyes were beginning to succumb to the darkness once more, and he heard another muffled cry from before him. He opened his mouth slightly, attempted to call out, and no words escaped. His lips formed them anyway. ?I cannot help you. I am weak. I am helpless. I?m only human.?
?For the moment, there is nothing you can do. Just follow along. I just wanted to make sure that you didn?t continue to feel that you were losing your mind.? The grey eyed girl?s words seemed to whisper to him through his unconsciousness, and he remembered them suddenly.
His eyes fluttered open once more, and he spat dried blood onto the snow. Somewhere deep inside of him burned. Not the burn of pain. His body was beginning to shut down, and he was beginning to block out the pain. Somewhere, his body burned of defeat. His mind would not accept it. He would never accept it. He moved slightly once more, sliding his arm forward. ?This is not me! I?m stronger than this! I?m more disciplined! I can?t be gotten rid of so easily!? His mouth attempted to make out he words, and to his surprise, towards the end he managed to feel a gust of breath force its way out of broken lips. He smiled proudly, and the small amount of smug refusal to die felt very much normal for him. As if he were always accustomed to an arrogance that denied mortality.
?I?m glad. I love you so much. I am really worried about you. You know that if anything happened to you I wouldn?t be able to handle it. So make sure that you are ok, alright??
?I will not be beaten so easily.? He began to pull himself forward once more, and his hand reached forward, slapping a hard cold figure before him. To his surprise, it stirred slightly, and he saw it turn around very slowly. His eyes opened wide as he saw Trunks looking back at him. His skin was whiter than the snow itself, a white that he had only imagined as the absolute white of heaven itself. It betrayed any sense of blood flow through his veins, and he gave Reijin a somber look. His hair was matted to the side of his head with blood. ?Trunks?? he managed.
?She?s dead.?
Reijin?s heart felt as if it had stopped, but he could not have been granted even this mercy. He pulled himself forward as hard as he could, and he managed to see over Trunks?s nearly immobile form. He saw Videl staring into the sky through glossy, lifeless eyes. Tears had literally frozen into small pools of ice on her cheeks, and her lips were a deep blue, reflecting the lighter shade of blue that covered the rest of her face.
?No?? Reijin felt his throat begin to close up, even now. She couldn?t be dead. He looked up to see Trunks looked at him gravely, as if he wanted to cry but could manage no more tears. ?She can?t be dead.?
He shook his head. ?She?s dead. She died in my arms, begging for my forgiveness for the wreck. She cried that she loved-?
?SHE CAN?T BE DEAD!? Reijin found his lungs begging for death as he forced enough air through them to send the blood within his body into a frenzy. Trunks grabbed him forcefully and shook him. Reijin pushed Trunks away and climbed over to Videl, pulling her tightly to his chest. ?You can?t be? dead.? For the first time that Reijin had ever encountered, he felt tears begin to flow down his cheeks. Part of his mind argued with this thought, that he had cried many times before in the past. He had cried when his mother had died. He had cried? No? He had not cried. This was not him. This was not real.
The pain he felt inside of his heart begged otherwise. The pain was very real. The pain was a level of pain that he had never known to be possible for a Saiyan to feel. He had not understood why these alien thoughts were coming at him from every direction, but he didn?t care. ?You can?t be?? he cried. Like forming stalactites, trickles of moisture made their way down his face to hers below him. His tears landed on her cheeks, fusing with her own tears before freezing as well. He had never cried. Not like this.
Trunks grabbed him and held him close to him, huddling against him for warmth. ?I?m sorry,? was all that he could offer.
Reijin shook his head angrily. ?No? The dragonballs can save her? The dragonballs can bring her back!?
He received a sharp look from his friend. ?Now is not the time for you to be losing your mind, Reijin! This is very serious! We both have just lost a good friend, and I cannot pretend to know the anguish that you are feeling right now, but we have to try to get out of here!?
Tears ran down his cheeks as he looked up at Trunks. ?No? I have nothing to live for now. I was intending to ask her? to ask her to marry me this Christmas?? he managed to choke out. ?And now she?s gone,? he sobbed. ?She?s GONE! I have lost everything to me??
Trunks grabbed him and hit him hard in the side. ?You are still alive! I am still alive. And if we plan to keep it that way, we need to get out of here! You haven?t lost everything!?
Reijin could only sadly shake his head. ?You don?t understand. Videl was my world.? This world is not real. ?Videl was very real.? This is not your Videl. ?The pain I feel inside is unbearable. The pain is very real.? The pain is very real.
He gave Trunks a look. ?In all the time that we?ve been friends? Enemies? Whatever our relation has been-?
The purple haired man grabbed him and struggled to his feet, attempting to pull him up. ?I don?t know what the hell you are talking about.?
?LET ME FINISH!? he found himself screaming. Trunks looked a bit taken aback, but then gave a sad look at Videl, remembering her words upon her death. ?Whatever our relationship has been, I have never done anything to anyone without a reason. Everything that I have ever done, every action that I have ever made, has always been made with a reason, good or bad. This! This has no reason! There was no reason for me to lose Videl! She can?t be gone? SHE IS GONE! I can?t ever hold her in my arms again! I can never hear her voice tell me how much she loves me!?
Trunks opened his mouth to speak, and then slowly closed it, unable to bring himself to words. Somehow, another tear managed to form upon his face. Reijin continued, another tear falling upon her face. ?Every action had a purpose? And yet? And yet with absolutely no reason at all, Videl had been ripped from my arms, ripped from my life.? He felt something distant within him, a growing strength, something that felt of a former life. ?I will never see the look of our children.? He felt a cold fury, an anguish of helplessness. He was Reijin. He was one of the greatest among Saiyans. ?I will never have any of that?? He was? helpless. He was normal. He was only human.
?I can?t believe she?s gone??
![[Image: reijinchefsig.jpg]](http://i18.photobucket.com/albums/b121/warpzone116/reijinchefsig.jpg)
"I'm gonna fuck that unicorrrrrn"
