THE FIRST FEMALE SUPER SAIYAN- PART SEVEN: ‘Strangers’ Ramiro Looked up at Ryoko and then changed his mind about telling her. “Look, I could give you a tour of the city, we could go out somewhere. I guess you need it shake your mind from your troubles.” He said, changing the subject. “You mean it? You’ll take me out, just like that?” Ryoko asked. “Sure. The house is getting kinda crowded and Chakira suggested I go out for a while…so I guess I could take you out? Is there anywhere you’ve never been that I could take you to?” Ramiro replied, smiling to clear his memory. “Okay! Lets go!” Ryoko grabbed Ramiro and pulled him straight through the house and they were flying off. “Where’s our destination then? Anywhere at all.” Ramiro said. “What about one of those balding park things? You know, a skating disco. Can you skate?” Ryoko asked. “I can use my flying ability to cheat, so yeah, I can do it without making a prick of myself.” He replied. “Where’s the nearest one?” “In the city where the high school is. Shall we go?” “Great!” Ryoko allowed herself to flip back to her usual wild self as the two raced into the city and landed near a deserted alley. Chakira walked into the house, sensing her brother’s Ki had left the house with Ryoko’s, so she smiled and shook her head and let the fact pass. The scouts met them in the living room with the Masaki house, and even Washu came out of her lab, and she sat with her legs crossed, hovering on her cushion and her holocomputer was in her hands. She lifted her hands from the key pad she’d been typing on and she slid off her seat, snapped her fingers and it disappeared. The scouts were all sitting on another couch in the huge living room and they looked up, Tenchi and Ayeka were curled up on the sofa together and Sasami and Chellena were still playing in the pool Washu had made. Vageta didn’t look very impressed by the crowd he looked at Washu. “That pink haired little girl is on the team as well? I might have understood the shrimpy boy over there, he had an odd hidden Ki, but this little brat?” Vageta said stubbornly. “Excuse me, but I don’t recall asking you to insult me.” Washu said. “Vageta, this is Washu, she is a lot older than you and she just happens to be the scientific genius in the universe. She’s 20, 000 years old or older, and her power is pretty good, maybe not to your scale but she can devise shields for you against Hunter and she can be very nimble. She can make copies of herself and even Hunter won’t be able to tell the difference. The girls over there, those are the sailor scouts. They have the power of the planets and when transformed they can be powerful as a team, especially when Serena, AKA sailor moon becomes the Moon Princess.” Chakira introduced people one by one and then looked at Washu. “Little Washu-” “How did you know?” “I just did, now as I was saying, do you know exactly where Ryoko went? Is she close by?” Washu smiled. “She’s in the city where the High School is. That’s what my mind link tells me.” “Thank you Washu.” “Any time, Chakira.” The Ikitsu came into the room and Chakira turned, and scowled slightly. “I am sorry if I startle you, but I am here on business.” Ikitsu said. “Your Ki is very familiar.” Chakira said. “I’m sure it is.” Ikitsu replied bowing her head. “But the familiarity will be needed. I am here to bring you one other member to the team and another should you request it. But I am here for another specific reason, young Saiyan.” “And what reason is that?” Chakira asked, keeping her Ki ready. “Don’t be so wary of me. I am here to train you in my ways, you will be better fighting Hunter that way. If you knew his true name you wouldn’t be so unsure. He doesn’t just destroy races, that’s what he’s doing, but he’s not just destroying them. He’s collecting their Ki to build a weapon, and that weapon will be turned against my people. He is somebody I have been tracking and he is very old. I may remind you of two people. Perhaps you should tell me.” Ikitsu said, her dark features remaining calm and composed. “Nobayama and Hunter.” Chakira said. “And it one of your abilities you have developed to recognise a person by the signature in their Ki much like you would tell a person by matching their unique finger print.” “So what’s the connection?” Chakira asked, still keeping her Ki at the ready. “They key is that Nobayama is related to me, and Hunter is like me. You see, I am a special warrior, from another world. I have been trained and I can be very powerful. I have specific details about Hunter.” Ikitsu replied. AT THE SKATING DISCO: “You skate pretty well without your power.” Ryoko said, speeding in beside Ramiro. “So do you.” Ramiro said. “But I’m using mine, you’re not.” “Maybe it’s all my training, we were made to do some pretty weird stuff with balance before he even attempted to let us try flight. Can you dance with the skates on, this is a great song, maybe we should try doing something fun besides going rough in circles.” “Sure, sounds great! Lets go.” The two joined up and then began dancing a twisting around the floor, when other saw them they cheered and joined in. There were some kids from the high school there too, mostly girls. They had just grabbed some boy they might not have known and dragged them onto the dance floor and the boys weren’t brave enough to refuse them. Those who knew him said hello as they passed. When the song finished and Ryoko and Ramiro stopped, everyone began to cheer for them to go again, so the DJ put a more bouncing song on with a beat that the two and everyone else could really go for. The two kept on going, neither worn out. Others left the floor because they couldn’t carry on leaving only Ramiro and Ryoko there. They had a spot light following them. Ryoko hadn’t had so much fun since….since she couldn’t remember. When the two finally left the floor they went to a café to get some food. The sat down and Ryoko still had her gleam of wildness on her, so she wasn’t feeling so depressed now and she wasn’t resorting to that ill fitting sensible pose she’d had for some time. As they ate, they talked. “That was fun. At least maybe this battle isn’t going to be bad after all. Even if I die I know I’ve found a real good friend and I’ve had the time of my life.” Ryoko said with a broad grin. “Hopefully you won’t, but, I’m worried when I get out into the battle field, I always have been. Despite the fact that I’m a saiyan and I’m supposed to love fighting…maybe because the planet my parents were on changed them, maybe my desire to fight got watered down.” Ramiro then explained what happened with his parents, where they were born, what a saiyan was, about the planet, how Freiza destroyed it and the other details Chakira had given the others after they’d come away from the tournament. “Wow…” Ryoko mused. “Tough life.” Ryoko explained what had happened to her, how she’s been a slave for Kagato and attacked Jurai and then been sealed by Yosho and all the other events that came after that. “It seems we’ve both had a tough life.” Ramiro commented at the end. “Shall we go?” Ryoko said, seeing they both finished. “Sure. Come on, maybe I could take you somewhere else.” “Why don’t we go for a walk? There must be a park somewhere, or even just a walk around the city.” The two took off and Ryoko and Ramiro flew off to find a park, it was easier in the dark because not many people were around and it was easier to hide from them to avoid being seen. They found a park, right at the end of the city and the two landed. “It looks like the place is deserted.” Ramiro said. “We could fly or do whatever here.” “Won’t Chakira be worried about you?” Ryoko asked. “She can sense when my Ki leaves and she knew I was going out anyway. I hear you have a mind link with Washu so she could also say you went with me.” Ramiro said. “Ramiro…in the room before we left you were going to say something and you didn’t. What was, if I can ask that?” “What? I did. I asked if you liked the person you’d become” “It wasn’t what you were going to say. I sensed it wasn’t.” “Well….I….I.” Ramiro didn’t back away, and he didn’t look away. He looked Ryoko in the eye. “If you don’t want to talk about it, fine.” Ryoko said. “No, we’re friends. It’s not that I don’t trust you, Ryoko, it never was. It’s just that…” Ramiro didn’t finish. “You really mean that? We’re really friends? Oh thank you Ramiro!” Ryoko threw her arms around him and squeezed him, his saiyan strength topped him from choking. “Of course I do.” Ramiro said, and looked up at the sky, almost glad he changed the subject. “Shall we look around? I’ll bet there are all sorts of things we can do? There’s like a wood just over that way, we passed it on the way here.” Ryoko said and the two flew off to the woods. They chased each other and raced there and when they landed all the creatures stopped speaking and calling. Ryoko leapt up into a tree and Ramiro joined her. The two jumped from tree to tree, and even when it started to pour down with rain they didn’t even stop, they carried on, and they chased each other for fun along the ground until they came to a huge rock formation they found from the tree tops. When they jumped down it opened out into a cave. “It looks a little like the cave I was trapped in.” Ryoko said. “C’mon, let’s go check it out.” “Sure.” The two flew into the cave and Ramiro used a Ki ball to light their way. The searched all the tight places and found all kinds of strange things. Ryoko used some of her power and made a piece of rock move and formed it into a moving robot. “Neat trick.” Ramiro said. “Watch this.” He formed a waterfall of light, which swirled around them and made pictures that moved around like a film reel. “That is amazing!” Ryoko said. “Where did you learn that?” “My trainer Nobayama taught me it as a way to control my Ki.” Ramiro said. When the two walked out Ryoko jumped up to a tree and sat up on a branch. Ramiro hesitated before joining. “Look, Ryoko…” he started. “Yes?” “I wanted to say…that…you’re not the only one who’d been hurt by the one they love.” “Ramiro….what happened.” “We’d known each other since we were ten years old, I was still being trained, we’d grown up to be real good friends too……………..” -------------------------FLASH-------------------------- Ramiro, as a sixteen year old, was running by the side of a girl with green hair and blue gleaming eyes. She was giggling and Ramiro laughed with her. “Come on Ramiro!” Suzumay cried with another giggle. “You want to go faster?” Ramiro asked. “Yeah!” The two sped up and then they reached the tree. She was out of breath but Ramiro wasn’t even in a sweat. She was panting to try and get her breath back and laughing with joy at the same time. “Do you think he’ll find us here? I can’t believe we did it and got away with it! We could get into so much trouble!” Suzumay laughed. “He won’t miss this sword for too long. We can sneak it back.” Ramiro said drawing the jewel encrusted huge sword. The jewels glinted in the moonlight. “Why don’t you show me your moves?” “Okay.” Ramiro used the sword and went through various drills before stopping, and Suzumay clapped her applause. Without word, he drew the sword back into the scabbard. Then he stood over by Suzumay. No signal was given, but the two join together in a kiss and held each other tightly. Even when it started to rain the two remained in each others embrace, melting into one thing…. ….Ramiro opened the envelope, and the rain smudged some of the ink as it pelted onto the paper. He opened the note left by Suzumay. ‘ I am very sorry things had to be this way, but…I’m leaving to get married to Seross. I hope you won’t do anything out of control, I love him. About us, well, I’m sorry…I can’t love you. I never loved you to begin with, we were just friends, and I thought it was just some weird fun thing before…but…no. I don’t love you. I’, again very sorry things turned out this way, but its not only dangerous for me to be with you, and I love Seross. We were good friends but…we ruined things for being together. I’m sorry Ramiro. We’re probably better off without each other, we got into so much trouble and maybe we’d be best to grow up and face facts. We can’t be with each other, you and I wouldn’t work out. I never loved you, it wasn’t anything you did, I just didn’t ever love you. ’………………. ------------------------- END OF FLASH-------------------------- Ryoko looked at Ramiro with anew kind of respect. “Oh Ramiro…I never should’ve asked. Ramiro was silent, and from a pocket inside his armour he pulled out a big brown envelope folded in half, he pulled out a little yellow envelope and a letter was also pulled out, the writing smudged with drops of water… “It’s the note she gave you.” Ryoko said. Ramiro nodded. “And she still got married?” Ryoko asked. “Yes. Her husband tricked me into coming into the wedding, saying that I could talk with her one last time, all I wanted to do was say I goodbye one last time, and when I got there he tried to provoke me into a fight, but when I refused he punched me. It didn’t hurt, didn’t even bruise me. Chakira saw what he was doing and had followed me and stopped him setting a group of men on me. But in the end Suzumay called me a monster and said I provoked her husband into a fight and claimed I’d come to ruin the wedding. She said she never wanted to see me again.” Ramiro replied. “She was such a-” “It happened a while ago, lets just forget about it.” OKAY, SO IKITSU HAS SPOKEN TO CHAKIRA, BUT WHAT IS THE CONNECTION BETWEEN IKITSU AND NOBAYAMA AND HUNTER, AND HOW DOES SHE KNOW HUNTER’S REAL NAME? RAMIRO HAD ALSO SPILLED WHAT HAPPENED TO HIM. WHAT WILL HAPPEN NEXT TIME? STAY TUNED FOR THE NEXT EPISODE: ‘Ghosts of the past.’