Dragon Ball/Z/GT Fan Fiction ❯ Gohan's Legacy ❯ Apple Town ( Chapter 1 )

DISCLAIMER: Oh, we all know I don't own 'em already. ^__^

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GOHAN'S LEGACY

CHAPTER ONE

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Among the singular events that happened in the life of a woman named Lime; one would forever be printed indelibly on her mind as both the best and worst day of her life: the first time she met Son Gohan; the love of her life. Fate had finally caught up with her on that dreadful day when she was sixteen years old, and Gohan not much older himself.

At the last minute she had decided to accompany her parents to nearby Apple Town for supplies, she went instead of her grandfather, a decision she was ultimately grateful for considering the outcome. They had just gotten the supplies and were loading them into their tired old truck, preparing for the climb back high into the mountains when the Jinzouningen paid a visit to the sleepy mountain village. Lime lagged behind her parents, bending to coax a kitten from it's hiding place under a juniper bush, when the first explosions began. In many ways it was the kitten that ultimately prolonged her life. Hearing the concussions, she looked up and stared in mute horror as the area where her parents were standing only a moment before was consumed in a ball of fire, which quickly expanded, knocking her back into the side of the store they had just left. The kitten scampered off into the woods; it's tail bottle brushing as Lime pulled herself from the girl shaped dent she'd left in the building's side. She staggered forward arms crossed over her face, as the heat baked into her skin, evaporating her tears as soon as they breached her eyelids.

She was dimly aware of the sounds of townspeople running around in panic, their screams and cries of alarm muted to her ears. The world around them was turning into a pillar of fire that was threatening to set the entire forest ablaze. Lime raised her head; desperately searching for any sign her parents had been thrown clear of the blast, just in time to see a veritable stampede of villagers bearing down on her. Her eyes widened in shock as she braced herself to be trampled by them. But closing her eyes, and gritting her teeth, all she felt was a burning whoosh of concussive air, and the sizzle of energy. She opened her eyes and wished she hadn't, because bodies were strewn everywhere around her. Faintly, she heard a choking sobbing sound and realized it was coming from her.

"Look, Juunana-gou…we missed one." She heard a female voice comment dryly.

Lime looked up at the two figures standing at the head of the street. She had never seen the Jinzouningen before that moment. She had only heard reports of their rampages on the radio with her grandfather, when her parents weren't around. Her mouth dropped open in shock, she didn't know what she had expected, maybe some kind of monsters certainly, but not this…not a boy and a girl who looked barely beyond her own age. The girl tucked a lock of her blonde hair behind a shell shaped ear and re-folded her arms with a sideways look to her companion, a boy with glossy black hair and a red scarf.

"Want me to get her?" The blonde asked, as she extended her hand in Lime's direction. Numb with shock, she barely noticed the screams of the dying and injured had tapered off to nothing. She stood rooted in the middle of the street, the village burning down around her. The one called Juunana-gou gave a small grin and started moving in her direction.

"No Juuhachi-gou, this one's mine." He purred, and she turned panicked eyes to the young man for a moment, before the shock wore off and anger replaced it. Foolishly she fell into a fighting stance, like her grandfather had taught her. On some level, she knew that flight was impossible. They would just cut her down like an animal - just like they had done to the inhabitants of Apple Town. At sixteen, Lime desperately wanted to live, but if she had to die, she wasn't going to go quietly or easily. The dark haired Juunana-gou smirked at her when he saw her fall into a crouch.

"Please! Don't even bother." He chuckled derisively while his companion Juuhachi-gou laughed sadistically with him. Before Lime could even process the motion, Juunana-gou was in front of her, gripping her by the throat, cruelly lifting her off the ground. Lime futilely grabbed at his wrist, her airflow restricted. Kicking out at him with her coltish legs, she was unable to do any real damage to him, despite landing several blows. Juunana-gou looked her up and down appreciatively, leering at her with his cat like eyes. "You're kind of cute." He told her, curling one of her heavy russet braids around a finger.

"Come on Juunana-gou. I'm bored, just kill her already and let's go." Juuhachi-gou complained from somewhere behind Juunana-gou. Lime couldn't see the blonde android; all she could see was the cold smirk of the boy as he held her off the ground.

"Go find something else to blow up then. I want to have a little fun with this one first." He said with an evil sneer spreading across his face. "I wait while you try on clothes…you can wait for me while I try her on."

Lime felt like her body had been dunked in the icy water of the river. She understood the implication of his words. She might be young but she wasn't naïve.

"Not while I'm alive," Lime rasped through her bruised throat, and she renewed her efforts to get away. Juunana-gou laughed, admiringly, and shrugged his shoulders.

"Whatever. I'm not that picky."

"MASENKO HAAA!!!"

Hard on the heels of the cry from above them, Lime felt herself wrenched sharply to the side. The world filled with light, and she and Juunana-gou went flying their separate ways. The shocked Jinzouningen released her throat as the ki blast knocked him away. Lime rolled to a stop and sat up, coughing as Juunana-gou flew backwards into a burning building, causing it to collapse. Disoriented she looked up into the face of what had to be an angel.

A young man in an orange and blue gi hung in the air looking toward where the dark haired android disappeared. His hair was like gold fire, and his eyes were a brilliant, pupiless teal. He didn't look much older than Lime herself, but the expression on his handsome face was hard and cold, as he turned his ire towards Juuhachi-gou.

"Run! Get out of here now!" He yelled at Lime with barely a glance in her direction. Juunana-gou exploded from the burning building behind Lime and rocketed toward the young man. At the same time, Juuhachi-gou launched herself at him as well. Lime pulled herself to her feet, breathing in ragged gasps through her injured windpipe. She ran a short distance away into the forest; after all, she wasn't stupid, before turning to watch the fight. She was curious about her golden haired savior - she had never seen a fighter with such skill before. She watched fascinated.

The three of them moved faster than her eyes could follow as they darted in the air above the burning town. The cracks and booms of their fight bouncing off the nearby mountains, in deafening echoes. She was amazed that the young man seemed to be holding his own against the Jinzouningen. She was forced to move farther into the forest, when a stray energy blast cut through the trees less than two meters away, slicing a path through the forest and sending the heavy evergreens flying. Lime ducked and covered her head, waiting to be crushed by one of the huge trees, but once again luck seemed to be on her side. She felt a tremor under her feet as something impacted the ground nearby hard enough to crack it. She lost her balance and landed on her butt. The normal grace and cat-like reflexes her grandfather's years of training had given her abandoned her as she found herself at ground zero of the world erupting into chaos. Then just as suddenly all fell silent.

Lime looked up in time to see the two Jinzouningen flying off toward the West, thankfully, forgetting about her. Shakily, she got to her feet and brushed herself off. She barely noticed several bleeding cuts on her bare legs and arms, or the broken suspender of her overall shorts. There was a good-sized crater in the middle of Apple Town, or what had been Apple Town's Main Street, and she crept toward it, keeping a wary eye on the sky above, in case this was only a ruse on the part of the Jinzouningen. She seemed to be the only thing still alive in what was once a small, bustling, mountain town of orchard farmers and loggers. She peeked into the crater and saw the young man in the orange and blue shogi lying as still as death at the bottom, a small trickle of blood running from the corner of his mouth. His hair and eyebrows were black now, she noticed, but her mind was too overwhelmed to wonder why.

The reality of what had just happened slammed into her like a physical blow, and she sank to her knees sobbing. She cried for her parents; she cried for the innocent residents of Apple Town who hadn't had a chance; she cried for herself; and she cried for the brave young man lying dead in the bottom of a crater in the middle of the road. She didn't even know his name.

Suddenly, she leapt backwards onto her butt, shrieking in surprise and fear when the dead young man in the crater sat up, groaning and rubbing his head. Her reaction would have been comical if either of them had felt like laughing. He looked around with his quick black eyes until they met her wide gray ones. Her mouth hung open in response to yet another mind-blowing shock of the day, as he fumbled at his waist. He took out a small brown bag and untied it clumsily. Lime watched slack-jawed as he took something out of the bag and ate it.

"You should be dead? Why aren't you dead after that?" Lime sputtered in disbelief as the young man did the impossible and got up from the crater to stand over her. Lime scrabbled back from him, crab-like on her hands and heels. "Why didn't they kill you?" She demanded.

Silently the young man bent down and offered her his hand to help her up. Lime looked at him warily for a moment, before accepting the proffered hand, after all he had just saved her life.

"I don't know why they haven't finished me off yet. Maybe they like toying with me." He mused when Lime was back on her feet again. "Are you all right?" He asked her. Lime looked at him in wonder, he had impacted the ground hard enough to make a huge crater and walked away from it none the worse for wear - her grandfather had once told her of Martial Artists with abilities like these, but she had never expected to ever see or meet one, especially one so young. He looked at her with more concern when she didn't answer and just gaped at him.

"Miss? Are you injured? What's wrong Miss?" He asked as he put a hand on her shoulder. He looked her over for any obvious injury, and then leaned in to inspect the blooming black bruises on her neck from where Juunana-gou had held her. Holding her chin lightly to tip her head back, he examined her closely.

"L-Lime…" She squeaked out. He looked at her curiously, his black brows drawn down in concern. "My name is Lime." He colored slightly and let go of her, straightening himself up.

"Hajimemashite, Watashi wa Son Gohan." He said and grinned at her. Lime blinked at him, one moment he had looked the fierce avenging angel, and now he looked positively…goofy.

"Yoroshiku." She said absently, and she tentatively reached out with one finger and poked him in the bicep, as if testing to see if he was real. Gohan cocked his head, and smiled. Lime gave him a shy ghost of a smile in return.

"Kimi wa tenshi desu ka?" She blurted out, which made Gohan laugh nervously, one hand behind his head.

"My Kaasan says I am, but no…I'm no angel." Lime blushed, embarrassed at her silly question - of course he was no angel - he was just a martial artist like she was, only a hundred times more powerful. She looked down at the toe of her sneaker as crimson stained her face and probably made the light dusting of hated freckles on her cheeks stand out even more.

"Did you live here?" Gohan asked quietly and Lime looked up at him as he surveyed the damage, the stern expression back on his face. Creating frown lines between his eyes that would be permanently and deeply etched there before he saw the age of twenty-five, if he wasn't careful.

"No, I live farther up the mountain with my grandfather and my p-par…" She trailed off as fresh tears wetted her cheeks, and she furiously wiped them away. Gohan nodded in sympathy; saving her from explaining that she had just lost her parents less than an hour before.

"Gomen nasai." Gohan told her, and his eyes and expression told her more than his words that he understood what she was feeling. "Will you be okay?" He asked when she had herself under control again. She nodded, and he turned to go.

"Gohan-san!" She called after him when he got a few steps away. He turned back, as she ran up to him and impulsively reached up on her toes to kiss him on the corner of his mouth. Gohan turned an alarming shade of red and stammered in embarrassment. "Thank you for saving my life." She whispered and hugged him briefly before turning and running toward the tree line. She paused to look back before disappearing into the forest, and found Gohan still standing there looking after her, one hand on the place she had kissed him, a wide grin pasted on his face.

It was that precise moment Lime fell in love with him for the first time. Returning the smile, she raised a hand in a small wave and vanished into the trees.

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