Day Four: Evening

[Yamu]

Yamu clenched his prized baseball bat to his chest with his one good arm and rocked back and forth as he sat on his heels. The head of Kari had been blown to splinters, all that remained was a crude wooden spear and only the letters ?a-r-i? still etched into the surface of the weapon.

His totem was as battered and broken as he was?but they had both survived. They had stood toe to toe with a man who could strike fear with his name and panic with his presence, the warrior known as Raditzu.

And they had won.

The cost had been terrible though, Kari had not been the only casualty. Yamu lifted himself to his feet, dragging the ki machine gun behind him till he stood over Jeice?s body. ?Hey, Red?you wanted to see how you measured up?well it took last year?s winner to do you in. I hope that means something to ya.? The veiny behemoth respected the fallen warrior not just as a friend but as a fearsome fighter. The searing pain in his arm forced him to wince. He tucked what remained of Kari through the sash along his waist?she would still see the Finals even mortally wounded as she was.

His good hand nudged the jar of ki sand that also hung from his fabric belt as he tucked the broken club in. He pulled the jar out and with a grunt smashed the ceramic onto the ground sending a plume of sand casting the grains in all directions. His arm might not longer be working but his energy was still as strong as ever. Yamu focused his energy on the sand coating them in the pitch black hue of his own aura. Slowly the grains wrapped themselves around his useless arm turning it as black as rich topsoil. Soon his entire arm was coated in energy infused Ki Sand and shone like polished obsidian.

Yamu directed his energy forcing his arm to move by controlling his ki sand. He flexed his new pitch black hand and the pain was phenomenal, but pain had always been a part of the Arlian Guardian?s life. He could not feel through the sand gauntlet that now coated his left arm from fingertips to just below his shoulder?but he could punch with it, grip with it. Survive with it.

The problem was?the hairless human did not know what to do now. He had lost everything he had once possessed in this game. His weapon was useless, his friends all killed, and anyone he now knew on the island was an obstacle, even friends. Even Burter.

The words of his friends? echoed through the veiny titan?s head, appearing in his mind?s eye like translucent phantoms. ?If I fall?you?ll keep the gun. Even if you don?t shoot it, it will make you stronger.? Jeice told him, and Yamu?s fingers clenched the handle tighter, balancing it on his mono-colored left hand. The memories could not speak anything new, but the words of the past could have as much influence to the present as they did then.

?Looks like I?m going to be doing more then carrying it. I?m going to have to kill with it.? the ebony eyed Earthling replied to the apparition.

?That?s what I wanted to hear from you, Yamu.? Jeice replied to his friends demand. The red skinned warrior?s alabaster teeth shining past his lips.

?I just feel like I?m lost?? He spoke into his inner self, he felt like his center was gone. The supports he had leaned on, his totem and his friends, were now things of the past.

Paragus leaned over, ?Just nerves, Yams. Don?t let it get to you.? The one eyed Saiya-Jin was smiling as always, his grin just as infectious in memory as it was in real life.

Yamu could not fight the grin that crossed his face as the pleasant memories of his fallen friends renewed his spirit.

?You sure seem to be in a happy mood.? Bulma stated, her hands resting on her gun like most people?s would a beloved pet.

?Yeah?I am. I just found out that Jeice was right the whole time.?

Jeice spoke up again from a different day. ?You get your strength form your friends?I saw it in you when you saw that guy on the hill?the one you called ?Burter?. It ignited something in you, something that helped you single handedly drop two Super Saiya-Jins.?

Yamu hefted the machine gun and channeling a ball of ki through his sand covered arm slicing three initials into the butt, ?P-B? and ?J?.

The one-eyed saiyan was still sitting on top of the rock in which he stopped to take a break. ?I think we are ready to move again.?

A broken arm would not stop Yamu. He had bested one of the greats of the universe and learned the lesson from it. The Arlian Guardian was one of the best?but there was always better and to beat everyone else he would still have to play the game. His blood lust was not sated?he would make it to the Finals through a trail of blood?but there was no reason he should not pick and choose the battles that got him there.

He marched deeper into the island with a new weapon and a new arm. The glass like sand that replaced his left arm shone in the failing sunlight as the fourth day drew to a conclusion. The memories of his friends would fuel him forward to the Finals?Yamu just hoped they were enough.