Dragon Ball/Z/GT Fan Fiction ❯ Slayer Mine ❯ Training ( Chapter 4 )

"Again!" He stood by, watching her as she went through the moves, her normal grace failing in the face of her tiredness. Regular food, rest, cleaning and clothing had put some flush back to cheeks that were filling out and a body that was doing the same. She looked much better, Piccolo mused, than she did upon the first time he'd seen her.

"I..am tired, Sensei!" She cried, panting, "Can't I stop and rest for a bit?"

"Would a vampire or demon allow you to rest?" He countered, "No, he would kill you in an instant! Again!"

Growling under her breath, Giselle continued. Though her limbs felt like lead and her throat echoed the fire in her chest. For weeks it had been like this, training, training and more training. When she wasn't practicing the fighting moves and routines or sparring with her new 'Watcher' she was out every night walking the graveyards, the darkened streets, ever mindful of her `duty' as the slayer.

She had not failed to see, as of late, that her kills were becoming…not easier…she did not what…just…different. She felt strength inside as she had never felt before and it seemed to that what she was doing was more than just her sacred calling. She was coming to enjoy…even look forward to it! She felt good every time she buried her stake deep in some bloodsucker's dead-stiff chest and watched it poof into dust and nothingness. Good because she thought of all the people she was saving. She had never felt that way before about it.

It had all just seemed like eating or sleeping to her. Just something she `did'. She did not stop to wonder about why or the way she should feel about it afterwards. It seemed, Giselle thought, as if I've been living my life in a half-awaked dream-state and am only now, with Piccolo's help, fully awake.

Piccolo watched his young student with something akin to pride lingering at the corners of his mind. He scowled at her and did not not show her his true emotions, but when at last he told her to cease for the day, to get some sleep until she had to go out and be the slayer once more, his nod of approval was good enough for her. She sighed, smiled and slipped silently into the small house he'd brought them to several days before.

Giselle Elise Walker, as her birth certificate had printed upon it, where ever it was she could not say, collasped on the single bed and did not bother to pull the blankets up around her body. She always felt completed exhausted after a bout of training with Piccolo, but it was a good exhaustion. It wasn't like the tiredness which came of weeping all day because she could not find food, again, after seeking for several days. Or the weakness that came of spending yet another wearisome night in cold, biting rain with no shelter in sight.

Giselle slept for awhile. When she woke, she was no longer tired, but she was famished! She walked to the small refidgerator and peered inside. She grabbed up stuff to make a sandwish, eating it slower than she would have, weeks ago, had such food been presented her. She no longer had to fear it disapearing or being snatched away from her hungry mouth. After she ate, she took a shower and enjoyed the warmth of the water on her skin, the heat soothing aching muscles and driving away the chill of the coming winter in the air.

She did not wear her Watcher had found this place, but she had learned not to question too much. She was just happy to be someplace other than on the streets. For once. It hadn't always been that way, she knew, but she quelled the stray thought before it could take root. Giselle would not think about that tonight. No, she shook out her dark locks, braiding them back into a thick plait down her back as she stood before the bathroom mirror in her towel, she would not think about her past and the people she'd left long ago.

She raised a hand and smoothed the mist from the mirror, gazing through eyes that did not, now, seem so hollow at her reflection. The brown eyes that looked back were more a deep red than regular brown, with flecks of green here and there. She was not an ugly girl. By no means. She had a pretty face, if a bit childlike and pale, but the gauntness was leaving her cheeks and the roundness gave her a certain…perky…look.

Her mouth was small, thin and almost always in a surly half-grin, at least, it had been, now though, it was merely smiling softly and the expression was not lost on her. She'd never really taken note of her appearance before. She'd always hidden herself under stringy, dirty hair and half-smiled that held the bit of sarcasm at it's root. She had hid behind these things because to look to pretty was to attract unwanted attention…especially on the street. But, now, here, with Piccolo, she felt safe enough that she did not need to hide herself.

She glanced out the small window in the bathroom, seeing how dark the sky had become. During the cold months the sky always darkened earlier. She did not know if she liked or hated the autumn and winter months more than the spring and summer ones. Sure, the vamps were less in the colder times, their prey mostly all bundled up indoors than in the summer and spring when warm tempature would lure them out of doors to walk around, unprotected, at night. But, the early darkness meant early scouting on her part which meant less sleep and she thought she could do with a bit more of that.

Besides, if there weren't the bloodsuckers to deal with there sure as hell would be the demons. The cold did not bother them. The prowled around wiether or not they found a human to slaughter. If they came upon on, sure, they would not hesitate to kill him, but they did not depend upon the kill such as vamps did. Giselle knew her duty with either monster, however.

"Ready?" She was standing near the bed, inspecting the wooden stakes and other means of combat a slayer always had with her, no matter what. It seemed to her, that she'd had these stakes…or ones like them…ever since she could recall. She could not recall a time when she wasn't the slayer. It would have been pointless, she thought, to try. She was what she was and there was no changing it. She looked up at Piccolo and nodded, stuffing the last of her weapons into the backpack.

She slung it over her shoulder and stepped past him outside. The cold air slammed into her, making her gasp and pull her jacket, the one Piccolo'd given her to wear, tigher about her shoulders. She did not say anything and knew that he was with her as she made her way towards the forest that would lead into town after a few miles. Knowing them as she did, Giselle anticipated a few vamps on the way through the thick wood and dispatched them with an almost mindless ease. She brushed the disgusting ash off her jeans and sweater and continued on.

"Giselle!"

She heard something behind her. Swiftly, without much thought, she spun and drew the blade from her boot-sheath. She gasped as someone slammed into her from the side and knocked her down. Piccolo's called her name in warning, but she could not answer, she rolled away and whoever…whatever…it was was on her again! She could not move! She was pinned and helpless as a butterfly upon a dart board! She had never felt strength like this! She glared up at eyes that were dark…but they weren't dead. This was no demon or bloodsucker then.

"Let me up!" She growled, struggling, at last she managed a clumsy punch and roll and got herself out from under her attacker. She leaped to her feet and crouched down, wary, waiting, "Who are you?" She asked, her voice sounded odd even to her own ears, "Why did you attack me?"

"Attack you?!" The stranger laughed, showing her with a flick of his hand the two bodies laying nearby, "You were too lost in your daydreams to sense them. I did not attack you, girl. I saved you."

She looked, shook her head and the hand holding her blade trembled. If that was so…then…No! She was the slayer! She was not…careless! She sighed and resheathed her weapon. She turned to the stranger; "I don't know where you came from, but thanks. I…I need to keep my attention on the moment and not on thoughts of…well…I just need to pay better attention, I guess!"

"That's for sure!" The stranger said, and his tone made her pause for a moment, she did not care for it's mocking arrogance, she did not want to admit to herself that it reminded her of herself in a way, "If I had not been seeking Piccolo and came upon you, you probably would have been dead now!"

"You were seeking my Watcher?" She asked, "Why? Do you know each other?"

"Not altogether as a friend, Giselle," Piccolo appeared in front of them, instantly from thin air in that way that aways unnerved her, "But, I've known Vegeta for quite some time, yes."

"What's this `Watcher' business?" The one called Vegeta asked, confused, then without waiting for an answer he said to Piccolo, "You have to come back with me, now! Something's happened!"

"What?"

"Just come on!" Vegeta said, leaping into the air, "We have to hurry!"

"But I can't leave!" Piccolo said, gesturing towards the girl who still looked from one to the other in puzzled amusment, "Giselle…"

"Nevermind!" Vegeta cried, "There is no time! Bring her! Just hurry!"

"What's going on, Sensei?" Giselle asked as Piccolo scooped one arm around her waist and, with arms about his neck, lifted her into the sky after Vegeta. He shook his head, uncertain himself, "I don't know, Little one. But I can feel something…bad."

Giselle did not say anything but all ready knew that life as she had known it was about to change in a more dramatic way than she had ever dreamed possible.