Dragon Ball/Z/GT Fan Fiction ❯ Changing Seasons ❯ Neko's Eagerness ( Chapter 13 )

It had been less than two days since they had arrived on the metropolis-like planet of Jalamir. Neko and Piccolo had been given a suite of rooms more suited to a visiting dignitary than two strangers seeking closure and vengence for a past deed. Neko did not mind the space, she just used it to further her training, shoving the circular, satin-sheeted bed to the end the room along with it's twin and rolling up the thick, seemingly bearskin rugs.

Piccolo, for his part, either aided his daughter in her training, keeping her on her toes, or spent the time in meditation. The door was opened but once, after one of the slave-men had brought a tray of assorted meats and fruits on a golden platter to them. Neko had thanked the man politely, seeing him flush with pride at the attention of the strange girl-child from the planet Earth, and devoured the entire platter's worth in less than five minutes, patting her bulging stomach and belching loudly when she had finished.

Piccolo opened one eye and regarded his daughter coolly; "Perhaps you can do that on the battle field and your breath will stun her into submission…"

She cast a baleful look his way, an almost mirror of one his own expressions, as she sat crossed-legged on one of the beds and licked the crumbs from her fingers. "I don't want her submission, Father," She said, between a last mouthful, she swallowed and added, more clearly, "I want her dead."

"Afterwards, Daughter," Piccolo said, more seriously, given the reason for this visit, "Will that quench the thirst for blood you feel inside you? Or will you need find others who have done you some slight that deserve to taste your wrath?"

"This isn't about `some slight', Father!" She cried, knocking the tray to the floor with a clatter as she leapt to her feet, fists clenched at her sides, her eyes smoldering, "A `slight' I could forgive! Why must I always go over this with you?! I had thought you of all people could understand…"

"I do understand, Neko." Piccolo spread his hands, standing before her, aching to take her into his arms and hold her until her anger and rage faded like a bad dream. But, he knew, it was not as simple as a fatherly touch or word, not this time, not for a long time, "I understand probably better than you'll ever know. Which is why I am trying so hard to steer you from this path…before you regret it."

"Steer me from it?" She asked, looking up into his handsome, strong green-skinned features, "Than why are you helping me, even now? Why even allow this journey to take place, and help me train for the outcome we both know is fated? If you are so against this, why are you even here?"

"Because, Neko, I cannot let you do this alone." He said, touching her shoulder with one hand, "Because I love you too much to allow you to die, alone, on a strange world. And we both know that if I hadn't gotten that ship from one of your mother's relatives' friends, you would have only found a way to come her yourself, alone and unprepared."

Neko nodded, it was true. She knew, nothing would have kept her from coming to Jalamir and claiming her victory over that bitch Larajin. Nothing. She smiled and laid her hand over her father's. "Thanks." She said, before twisting her arm in such a way that he was nearly flipped over, nearly, "But, let's not waste anymore time." She said as she looked up at him from where she had been the one to fall, springing back to her feet with instant, cat-like grace.

After a while, a few more days, a few more trays of food and walks through the garden with the twin slaves, Ral and Dal, and long, tiresome bouts of training to hone her skills as a fighter, Neko began to get more than a little restless. She wondered what was taking her highness so long to annouce she was ready to meet on the battle field. Probably gorging herself on drink and well-muscled male slaves within her so-called `pleasure room' again, she thought bitterly.

They had come to the lust palace gardens that afternoon because Piccolo had seemed weary of looking at the same four walls with no sunlight to gain strength from anywhere about. She sat on one of the elaboratly carved wooden benches, her customary blood-red gi had a few tears here and there so she was wearing a garment of loose, flowing material that made her feel as if she were naked and indeed seemed translucent in it's dark and lavender purple hues.

She donned a needle and some crimson thread which had been found for her upon her request and went about the task of mending her clothing. Even though she knew Piccolo could just as easily summon a new gi out of the air for her, as is part of his powers, still, he did not because he knew it was better to take care of one's possesions and not just assume that if something is ruined, it may be replaced at a moment's notice. Neko had been mending her own clothes since she could thread a needle, and she knew it was good for her, although tedious at times. When Dal tried to take it from her, claiming that no guest of the royal house should need to do any menial labor, she refused to give it over and proceeded with the task she could now do blindfolded, as her thoughts wandered of their own accord.

She was hardly aware when Ral sat beside her and began to unbind the two small buns on either side of her head she had taken to styling her long, raven-dark hair in over the past few years. She felt the pins slip out and her hair tumble down her back and shoulders and he raised a comb to her tangled locks, forcing the comb's teeth through the snarls made from too much training and not enough personal hygeine. She winced, and started to tell him to leave her be, but he wasn't as placid as his twin and refused to be put off.

"I'd just let him finish, Daughter." Piccolo said, from behind and above her as he floated, taking in the nourishing sunlight, "He is only doing what he's been trained to do."

Sighing, Neko allowed her hair to be combed, brushed, scented with oils smelling faintly of rose and lavender, and restyled into the way she had it before, sans the tangles. She looked down and saw Dal at her feet, smiling up at her with large dark eyes that somehow made her think of a lost puppy she'd once found as a child who followed her everywhere and wore that same expression of sickening adoration. She suddenly felt as if she were choking on all this attention and sprang to her feet, cluching her newly repaired gi to her chest as she nearly screamed.

"Ugh! What is taking her so long?!" She cried, "It's been past the day she first told us she'd be ready! How much longer are we to stand this…this treatment?!"

Ral and Dal exchanged hurt looks and Piccolo ignored them entirely. To Neko he said, "You still do not have much in the way of paitence, Daughter."

"Paitence?!" She cried, it seemed she was always a storm about to blow, "How paitent does a person have to be, for god's sake!"

Before he could respond, Neko spun about and slammed through the double green-tinted glass doors which led to the greenhouse and than to the palace interior. She left behind a crackling residual of energy that Piccolo would have been able to feel even had he no eyes or ears. He glanced at the twin slaves and saw that strands of their hair upon their heads were standing on end.

She is eager for the fight, he knew, he just hoped she remembered all he'd taught about controlling and focusing her ki when the time came and not losing it and go flying off the handle in a torrent of fury that would only be used against her. Piccolo sighed heavily and went back to his meditation, trying, for days, it seemed, to rid himself of the terrible feeling which had been tormenting him since their arrival.