Dragon Ball/Z/GT Fan Fiction ❯ The Prince and the Sorceress ❯ A visit from an old teacher ( Chapter 13 )

Disclaimer: I don't own Dragonball Z.

Chapter 12

Bulma stood like a doll while her mother wrapped her robes around her. Her fists were balled from her anger. She shot her lying mother a glare as she tried to make eye contact with her. When she was done Mrs. Briefs stood back.

"There pretty again." She said. "Would you like your hair done."

"No it's okay Mrs. Briefs. I'm a grown up I can do my own hair." Bulma said.

Mrs. Briefs nodded. "Of course dear, are we going to stay here?"

"We?" Bulma snarled. "I haven't decided what I am going to do about YOU."

Her mother began blubbering again and ran out. Bulma just turned up her lip in a snarl. She hated that woman so much. It wasn't fair she'd gotten use to the pampering she'd given her. She couldn't even get dressed in her robes anymore. Bulma grabbed her hair brush from her dressing table. She realised as she detangled her hair that she didn't know how to put her hair back up. Mrs. Briefs could make her hair into a sophisticated high hair do that made her look older. Bulma sighed there was only two styles she knew, pony tail or pig tail.

"Great I only know the animal styles.* She swept her hair up and held it with her hand. She knew there was pins and things that got put there. She growled as she stuck hair pins in randomly. She let go of her hair and it flopped into a terrible style. It would be a fantastic style for a punk but Bulma had to look like a Sorceress.

"Are you ready yet!" Vegeta snapped from the open doorway.

"Don't you ever knock?" Bulma said as she pulled her style back into a high pony tail.

"There's no door to knock." Vegeta said as he watched her with her hair. For five seconds he'd seen her with it down. She was stunning like that but now she had put it back up.

"That's because you destroyed it!"

"I was knocking." Vegeta smirked. She had a lot more fire in her words now. She wasn't holding back. He didn't care if she thought that was a bad thing he liked it.

"Then learn to knock gently." Bulma said.

"There's nothing gentle about me." Vegeta said his smirk still on his face.

"I shall be a few more minutes." Bulma said as she pulled at her hair. Bulma tried not to think if there was any innuendo in his last comment. She didn't want to get this close to Vegeta, she hated the fact they already were so close.

"Doesn't your mother usually help with your hair." Vegeta asked.

"She's not my mother." Bulma hissed.

"Self denial, never seen that before." Vegeta said smirking.

"I bet you're an expert at it." Bulma said. "Just don't mention THAT woman to me while we hunt the lair."

"What will the lair look like?"

"It will look like a big black rock." Bulma explained as she finished her pleat off. "I will have to scry for it and I need calm and focus to do that."

"What is this scry?" Vegeta asked. He did not like not knowing things and the best way was to ask.

"That would be scrying, it's a location spell." Bulma said. She was now glad Vegeta was here distracting her. She had stopped thinking about the blonde woman and was concentrating on talking to the saiyan.

"Thanks Vegeta." Bulma said. "I'm in need of a distraction."

"I am not doing this for you." Vegeta snarled. "Those Oni will pay for taking over me."

"They give false promises." Bulma sighed. "They would have no knowledge of how to push you to super saiyan."

"Did you get that from my mind witch?" Vegeta snapped.

"No, I know what the Oni do." Bulma said as she stood up summoning her staff to her. "They promise you what you most desire. Money, power and lust. They feed off those needs in the human heart. It is best to be without them."

Vegeta for a moment saw a haunted look pass across Bulma's eyes. "Did they get to you?" He asked.

"They almost had me." Bulma sighed. "If it hadn't been for my tutor at the time I would have been lost. Needless to say I got over their will and banished them."

"You didn't do a good job." Vegeta sneered.

"There is always holes in this universe for them to get through." Bulma sighed. "They cannot be completely eradicated. There is still darkness in the hearts of man and that is what calls them here."

"You sound like a freaking poet." Vegeta snapped. "Power and lust makes you strong, it fires your need to succeed."

"You sound like a war general." Bulma quipped. "All that lust and power gets you nowhere without love and friendship."

"Friends and love are for the weak." Vegeta spat.

"Perhaps you are the weakling for believing that." Bulma said smiling. She did like the conversation she could have with Vegeta. It was better than any of her friends gave her. It challenged her mind kept her thinking.

"I am the prince of all Saiyans. It is an insult that you call me weak!" Vegeta snarled his aura of power rushing up.

"Calm down monkey, I mean you're emotionally weak." Bulma said laughing. "You have enough strength to blow up this planet but that doesn't mean you mind is strong."

"I have no emotion, my mind is as strong as me." Vegeta said.

"Whatever you believe Vegeta, you shall always be the cold ruthless warrior." Bulma said. *How could I ever think there was any warmth in his heart?*

"Shouldn't you be finding this lair?" Vegeta said.

Bulma didn't answering him. She held her staff's orb at her eye level and concentrated. It lit up and the light shot up into a ball. Forms and structures morphed in the light. Vegeta recognised some of the lumps as mountains.

"A map." He said.

"Memorise where the red light is." Bulma said. "That is where the Oni's lair will be."

Vegeta nodded while keeping his eyes on the light show. There was a red flicker but it was gone. Bulma groaned in frustration. She couldn't pin down the dark ki. She knew it was here in this area, she just couldn't pin it down.

"It's not staying still enough." Bulma hissed through her concentration.

"Do you mean it's moving?"

"How can their lair move, it's made of rock." Bulma growled.

"If you can't track it how do we stop it?" Vegeta snarled.

"I'm not an expert at scrying Vegeta." Bulma said. "I know how to find dragonballs this way but this is slightly more complicated. The Oni lair doesn't want to be found."

"Or you could be too big headed to see it."

The voice that said it was old and there was a very bitter tinge to how it was said. Bulma winced and her map disappeared.

"Baba..." She huffed. *The last face I ever wanted to see again.*

"Glad to see you remember your old tutor." The witch cackled from her ball. "I was just around and noticed the whole disturbances. It felt rather similar to that time 15 years ago."

"Can we speak in private... please." Bulma forced the last word like it was alien for her to say.

Vegeta watched her scrunched up face. It was like she was fighting an urge to kill. *Now she knows how I feel.*

"I'm sure your boyfriend would like to stay." Baba said smirking. The look on the pairs faces as they turned.

"HE IS NOT...."

"IMPUDENT WITCH...."

"Now, now young ones, romance is always best not discussed with your elders." Baba said as she floated in-between them.

Bulma glared at Baba. She knew the old witch could see the future, something Bulma had never fully mastered. *Does she know something of our future or is she just teasing me from my teenage years of boyfriend hunts.*

Vegeta knew nothing of the shrivelled prune that was eyeing him. All he knew was that Bulma knew her and didn't like her. That gave Vegeta enough of an excuse not to like her as well. *When did I allow Bulma's opinions to mirror my own?*

"Listen you old crone I don't have time for your stupid mind games." Bulma said angrily. "You don't just pass by, what is it that you want?"

"To help you ungrateful whelp." Baba snapped. "You don't have the skill to catch the Oni lair. You spent too much of your powers on elemental tricks and illusions."

"I've mastered the planet's forces." Bulma said, more as a warning than a statement. "I could give you a demonstration."

"Wanting to impress your new beau?" Baba cackled. "He's better than the last one that was fawning over you."

Vegeta was growling and his eyes were slanted towards Baba. "Whatever you are suggesting old bag, the prince of all Saiyans does not fawn. Not now. Not ever."

"Whatever you say big boy." Baba chuckled. "Now less small talk, down to business."

"It's none of your business Baba." Bulma spat.

"Indeed it is when it jeopardises the whole universe." Baba said. "If the Oni get control of Goku what do you think will happen?"

Bulma looked down at the floor. She felt 10 years old again getting told off by the witch. "The earth will be destroyed." She murmured.

"Right." Baba said.

"Wouldn't that destroy their lair?" Vegeta said pointing out a hole in the logic.

"Goku would become their new lair." Bulma explained. "His power would channel all the nightmare beasts from the Oni dimension here. They would spread sending their destructive seed to the four corners of the universe."

"I see you understand the graveness of the situation." Baba beamed.

"So you think you can track down the lair better than me?" Bulma sniffed, her ego rising up again.

"Wisdom has merits over power sometimes girl." Baba said. Her face infront of Bulma's.

"I could take you in a heart beat." Bulma cried.

"Giving in to those dark urges, not very white lighter of you." Baba said.

"I'm not going dark." Bulma moaned. "I just find your presence highly irritating..... you old goat."

"I don't feel very welcomed here." Baba said. "Perhaps I'll go speak to your mother."

"What did you say?" Bulma growled.

"Your mother child." Baba cackled. "I heard on the grape vine you finally found out."

Bulma's face went from blue to red. "Why... you... how?"

"I can see the future, girl." Baba chuckled. "...and she paid me to tutor you."

"SHE DID WHAT!!" Bulma yelled.

Baba kept laughing as Bulma began her new rant. Vegeta glowered at the witch on the crystal ball. He really didn't want to be electrified twice in one day. He could tell by Bulma's reaction another anger storm was on it's way.

"Old woman, if you would just get down to finding that stupid lair." Vegeta spat. "It's bad enough being in the company of one witch, two are impossible."

"Mmmm." Baba humming looking at Vegeta as if for the first time. "You have changed since I last saw you."

"I have never met you in my life." Vegeta barked.

"Yes of course." Baba laughed. "Now down to business, the Oni." The old witch hopped off her crystal ball and onto the desk where she let her ball float towards her. She began her chant and waved her hands over the ball.

Bulma leaned against the wall her arms crossed. Vegeta saw what she was doing and smirked. *Getting a little antisocial Bulma?*

Bulma narrowed her eyes at Vegeta's smirk. *Stupid world ganging up on me... I haven't felt this stupid since I was turned into a frog.*

"I see their lair children." Baba said her eyes stuck in the ball. "It is in the mountains deep, deep underground."

"In the mountains?" Bulma questioned. "A cave?"

"In a way." Baba said. "It is floating in a magma flow deep in the mountain outside your palace."

"So close?" Vegeta said.

"Yes, the magma keeps it hidden from Bulma." Baba said. "Always moving, never stopping, but they can't hide from Baba!"

"Brilliant..." Bulma said in a dead pan voice. "Again you prove to me you're a better scryer than me."

"I'll leave the fighting to you two." Baba said jumping back on the ball. "I have to go speak to Mrs. Briefs."

The old witch floated out much to the annoyance of Bulma. Who glared as she passed by.

"I assume you know where the magma flows are child?" Baba said as she levitated at the door.

"Yes, I do." Bulma said still staring daggers at her old tutor.

"Glad to here it." Baba said. As she left there was still an unspoken tension. Bulma was still angry, angry at everything. She was stunned out of her self temper tantrum by a hand on her shoulder.

"Lets get this done." Vegeta said as he removed his hand.

Bulma felt where Vegeta's touch had been. She wished for more but she knew better. The proud Saiyan prince would never stoop down to her. As she remembered how he reacted to Baba's jibes. He was insulted at such a suggestion of them being an item.

She followed Vegeta out the hole in her palace wall. The Oni would soon be destroyed and Vegeta would return to his training. Bulma tried not to think about it as she found herself being held by Vegeta again. She pushed her emotions back and focused on the now. She was being held by the strong Saiyan prince that wanted nothing to do with her.

Deep down inside, Bulma sighed.

***********

Author's Note: Just in case anyone's interested to scry means to magically search for an object/information. You can do it through a crystal ball, flames, a mirror or tea leaves. A more conventional way is a pendant over a map or that Y shaped stick for water.

Chibi Vegeta: "Are you giving magic lessons now?"

Mz D: "No.."

Chibi Bulma: "I'll give ya lessons 'Geta!" *Chibi Bulma is dressed in a sorceress's dress and has a staff.*

Chibi Vegeta: "What lessons on how to be annoying?"

THWACK *Chibi Bulma hits Chibi Vegeta with the staff.*

Chibi Bulma: "Don't be a smart ass!"

Chibi Vegeta: "You can say ass in a PG-13?" *Looks excited.*

Chibi Bulma: "Um... yeah I guess."

Chibi Vegeta: "All right!" *Deep breath.* "You can kiss my short cute saiyan prince ass, you mother******* bitch!"

Chibi Bulma: "You **** ****ing sack of shit!"

Chibi Vegeta: "You can say shit too!"

Mz D: "Actually I've limited it to two times you can say it. Over excessive mild swear words is still a no-no."

Chibi Vegeta: "Ah... ****."

Chibi Bulma: "I'm gonna make you pay for your potty mouth!" *Staff glows.*

Chibi Vegeta: "You were swearing too ya hypa-crit!"

Mz D: "That's hypocrite."

Chibi Bulma: "ALAKA-BLOOIE!" *Lightening sparks out of staff.*

Chibi Vegeta: *Spark hits his butt.* "OW!"

Chibi Bulma: "Kiss that!" *Chibi Vegeta starts running away with Chibi Sorceress Bulma not far behind.*

Mz D: "So next chapter our two heroes, okay our god Vegeta and that Bulma person make their way into the depths of a volcano! Will the heat be enough to thaw their relationship or are they going to keep fooling each other?"