memories make the man: a tale of a tail

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The others came back at three o’clock and Tein, Choaisue, and Piccolo also returned when they felt the others return. Bulma was asleep on the couch and Vegeta wasn’t anywhere to be seen. They guessed he was asleep upstairs and decided to let them both stay that way. They would feel Trunks and Goten were still up though. It was way past their bed time. Probably playing the playstation again. Goten loved that thing more than Trunks ever did. Going to the guest quarters, they were determined to find out if Bulma got any leeway in the Saiyan’s memory and what Vegeta had to talk about. Yet for now, it to time to go to bed.

X)(X

It was in the beginning of the morning. Only a few were still in bed. Just the children and one adult. Vegeta was sleeping in this morning. Bulma checked all news reports to see if there was a meteor coming for earth or something because that never happened. Waiting for him to wake up, Bulma was trying to tune out the consent munching from the kitchen. It had been an hour and he still was eating. She herself could afford it but she wasn’t sure how Chi-Chi did or had in the past. She never got around to asking. But, strangely she didn’t want to know now. They had plenty of food and such, so it wasn’t her business to know.

They asked about what Vegeta said last night. She wasn’t about to tell them but she did tell them that it looked like Vegeta’s tail was growing back. They didn’t seem to tell it so well as the moon was wished back some years ago. But if they cut it off and Vegeta got his memory back, then found out about it. Not an army of Super Saiyans could stop the rage he would go into. And he would go into it, no doubt about it.

“So don’t let him look at the moon. Simple.”

“If only it was simple with him.” Bulma said with a sigh as she was terribly annoyed with the whole situation this morning. How she would love to go back to the end of last night’s conversion and minus the whole tail thing that ruined the mood.

Vegeta came down finally with the two half-Saiyans on his heels. They seemed to be bugging him about something.

“Please!” The boys asked in unison.

“No.”

“Please!”

“No.”

“Please!”

“No.”

“Please!”

“No.”

“Please!”

“No.”

“Please!”

“No.”

“Please!”

“No.”

“Please!”

“No.”

“Please!”

“No.”

“Please!”

“No.”

Vegeta’s voice was exactly the same every time he spoke. Tired but calm. He seemed to have more patience with the kids.

“Please!”

“No.”

“Please!”

“Nope.”

“Please!” Vegeta turned to them seemingly his good nature was running out.

“Not happening.”

“Please!” The last straw was broken.

“Adjkjhjure ihjowef ijdwfjowei wfkllf, fiohwr!” That seemed to stop them for the moment. Vegeta walked on without them.

“What did he say?” Goten asked.

“I was going to ask you.” Trunks answered seeing his father going to the kitchen seemingly going to eat even with Goku in there.

Vegeta watched Goku eat for a moment. He didn’t feel so bad now about his eating ways. Grabbing some food, he started to chow down as fast as Goku. It was so strange, Goku stopped eating. Even at the tournament, Vegeta didn’t eat like this. It was like Goku’s eating habits back when he was a kid. Really, really, bad. Like he didn’t care. Maybe he didn’t at all.

“What? Are you the only one around here allowed to eat or something?” Goku smiled and started up again but still watching Vegeta.

In the living room the same reaction was happening. Bulma never seen him eat like this except when the gravity room exploded. He’s body used so much energy to recover he needed too. Bunny was more than happy to make more then and now. Vegeta was eating more than Goku on a normal day it seemed.

X)(X

The bots took away all the dishes and Bunny was calling the store to delivery their monthly supply of food early and to double the order. Goku wiped his hands of his pants ignoring Chi-Chi complaints as Vegeta was washing himself off at the sink. The boys were behind him with pleading eyes.

“No.”

“But we didn’t ask anything yet.” Vegeta turned around.

“Okay ask. Then I’ll turn you down.” Bottom lips were shaking. Vegeta forced himself to look away and not be swayed by tearing eyes. Walking away from them, they followed like lost puppies. He sat down and they were still doing the puppy eyes in front of him. Vegeta found it more annoying than anything. “All right. If I show you. Will you quit?” Both nodded hard. “Fine.” Vegeta stood up and pulled up his shirt a little. They could see and furry, brown, almost rope looking thing around his waist with a white cloth tied around it. Vegeta undid the knot and Vegeta brown thick tail come lashing out, like it was happy to be free.

“Cool.” Both said in awe of the appendage. Trunks looked down.

“We didn’t get a tail. But, Gohan got one.” Goten crossed his arms looking down as well.

“Not fair!” Bulma tried to smooth it over.

“It’s just the way it come out sweethearts. There was about a fifty-fifty chance.” Bulma said trying to calm the two down. They calmed but now they looked pitiful because they would never get one and they knew it.

Bulma turned away watching Vegeta trying to tie his tail back up like it was before. Yet, Vegeta’s tail wasn’t behaving for him. He was getting annoyed with it as it was waving around like crazy.

“I’ll tie you in a knot if you don’t behave!” The tail seemed to stop its struggling and laid limp in his hand. Finally he was able to pull it tight around his waist and tie it there. Pulling his long shirt back down he sat on the couch looking straight ahead.

“Are you okay?”

“Great. Wonderful. Never better.” Strangely he said that completely mono-toned but it had such a sarcastic feel to it. Yamcha looked at him, still flipping through the channels which made Bulma smack him in the back of the head.

“Get it to something and leave it there!” Yamcha put the remote down and crossed his arms, like a spoiled child.

He looked back at the television seeing a little girl talking the a reporter. She was drawing something. A stick figure of a man with hair on top of his head. Like a black flame.

“What the . . . ” The others saw what he was seeing. Then looked back at Vegeta and back at the barely first grader’s stick drawing. “That’s you!” Vegeta looked at the screen seeing the redhead.

“Oh. Yeah. Forgot about her.”

“And what do you mean by that?”

“I was walking around in the city and ending up this old train station. I watched the trains for a while and that little one there was there too. There was no one else there though. I though that was a little strange but it didn’t bother me.” He stopped talking to watch the screen as the little girl started to talk to the reporter.

“I was playing at the old train station that is near my house here and playing with my ball and I dropped my ball and I went down to get it but, I slipped and fallened down hard.” Vegeta almost laughed in amusement at her imperfect and adorable speech. “Then the train was coming and I couldn’t move. Then he grabbed me as the train came. I was soooo scared. That train didn’t stop and would have squashed me.” The camera moved back to the female reporter.

“Back to you Hojo.”

Everyone ignored the next story as all there thinking about that story. Vegeta saved a little girl from a train. No one knew for a fact if Vegeta would have or not if he was in his right mind. Some were leaning towards no and some were thinking yes. Just not so nicely about it. Like yelling at her for being stupid or something afterwards. It was hard to say for sure.

Bulma sat down by Vegeta. She could see the tail under his shirt trying to wiggle itself free from its bondage. She tried to ignore it.

“So anything else go on during your trip around the city?”

“Let’s see. Some people talking about me and you, some watching some interesting sites, saving her from the train, getting hit by a two-by-four, offered a job as a male model and a bouncer, three sets of officers come to talk to me, and finally listened to the third set and come back here. That’s about it.” Vegeta stood up stretching his arms above his head. “So is there a place I can train or run around a bit here. I got too much energy and I need some physical labor of some kind.”

“Um . . . what did you do at the village?”

“Let’s see. I chopped down trees, chopped down the top and branches off the logs, haul it all into the wagon that goes back to town, unload it next to the loggers, chop the logs into smaller pieces, helped in the building the new huts and such, gathered food, cleaned and gutted the animals for food storage, helped planting the small gardens around the village, and lastly guard duty from the wild animals that wanted an easy meal about ever other night.”

“You did all that every day?”

“We all did that every day. It was a group effort. I tended to do more than one job if not all of them. I had the energy for it.”

“If you’re anything, it’s not lazy.” Bulma said with a small smile.

Goku jumped up off the couch so fast it made Chi-Chi go to the floor by the sudden move. She glared at him but he didn’t notice.

“Hey. I know. Vegeta should start training again in the gravity room.” Everyone looked at him like he was crazy. That he noticed. “I don’t mean at his normal level. We’ll start very low. Like ten then see if he can go higher.” Bulma thought about it. His mind was different but his body seemed to need the higher activity.

“Not bad. Okay, but you go with him. I don’t want him in there by himself incase his body forgets he can stand that kind of force.”

“Great.” Goku grabbed Vegeta’s wrist. “Come on.”

“Hey! My wrist is attached to my arm you know. It doesn’t come off.” Goku looked at his grip and let go with an apologetic smile. Vegeta turned to the others.

“Just tell me. Who is babysitting who here?” Without waiting for an answer Vegeta turned back around and Goku lead the way this time.

Bulma watched them go without another word. Her mind was churning from what he said. It seemed to sink in finally.

“You know . . . Vegeta’s got a point. Who is babysitting who?” She started laughing and the others just stared at her. “Vegeta found a non-morbid sense of humor.” She was still laughing going up the stairs. Yamcha waited until he couldn’t see her anymore.

“I think she is losing her mind.”

“No.” Eighteen said suddenly. “Vegeta did have a point. Goku is a big kid in way and Vegeta’s memories are not where they should be. In a way they are babysitting each other.” Yamcha shook his head.

“I still think Bulma is losing her mind.”

X)(X

Everyone was out doing something except Yamcha, who stayed inside Capsule Corp. He had nothing to do and watched the television without much interest. Mostly flipping the channels quickly. He stopped on channel eleven as the female reporter was wearing a skirt short enough that a strong wind could show her black, lacy underwear. As he was drooling, she was talking about a strange hole that appeared over night.

“According to eye witness accounts. Some kind of creature got out of the hole seen here. And flew away on small bat like wings that as strangely much smaller than its body. . . . ” Yamcha was snapped out of his trance at the description. That was like the creature they fought no more than a week and a half ago. Now there was another one. Not good. Definitely not good.

X)(X

Vegeta jumped up from the floor catching Goku in the chest, knocking him to the floor. Goku put his hands out and flipped himself over to land on his feet. The fighting lust had come back to Vegeta. At least in the high gravity of fifty G’s. What King Ki said was true. The Saiyan home world was twenty times earth’s gravity. Vegeta’s body didn’t even notice the change in the downward force until he got to twenty-five G’s.

At first Vegeta was only blocking or avoiding Goku’s attacks. But as some started to hit, Vegeta grew more aggressive and started attack him with a force that could kill a normal human. Goku pushed his ki higher was every blow as Vegeta’s was starting to go back to normal fighting levels slowly but surely.

“Not bad Vegeta. Should we raise the gravity a little?”

“By all means. Computer. Raise gravity to . . . eighty times normal gravity.” The computer bumped and buttons flashed to comply with the request. The force got harder on them. Goku looked at Vegeta stunned.

Before he had to go to the computer and raise it manually. Now Vegeta remembered how to do the voice command function.

“When did you remember to do that?” Vegeta’s face dropped the anger sneer.

“I don’t know. I didn’t think about it. I just . . . did it.”

“Good. That means you’re in there somewhere.” Frantic banging on the gravity room door stopped the conversation.

“Guys. We have some serious trouble.” Vegeta looked up at the ceiling.

“Computer. Stop gravity simulation.” There was a small beeping sound and flashing from the console and then the force was lessened. Moments later it stopped completely.

“Come on in Yamcha. It’s safe!” The open raised the second after Goku said that and he came running in. He looked really worried.

“Bad news. The creature seems to have a twin running around here.”

“What?!”

“A creature with small bat like wings. Sounds like our guy. And if things are following the same patten as usual. I think it wants revenge on the one who killed the first one.” Vegeta was completely in the dark without as much as a match in this conversion.

“So . . . who killed the . . . first one?” Vegeta asked as he was loss from word one. *There’s a creature now?* He noticed they were both looking at him. Then he knew who did it. He sighed sounded highly annoyed. “Of coarse! Should have seen that one coming.” Vegeta put his head down. “Just tell me it was self-defense.” Goku was still weirded out by Vegeta not liking to kill anything.

“Ah . . . he was going to kill you, Trunks, and Goten if you didn’t take his head.” Vegeta only sighed and walked out of the gravity room. “Hey, where you going?”

“To take a shower. I’m allowed to do that alone I should think!” The voice came from the hall. Goku could only laugh.

“Now I can’t feel this ki. I wish his power would make up its mind.”

“It happened after the fighting started. He would only block me for the longest time. But he seemed to react the more he was hit. Then his ki started to flare up and stay there. He was fighting like he normally did and in someways . . . better I think. Without rage his technique stayed solid.”

“I don’t spar with him Goku. I can’t keep up with you guys. So he has a weakness?”

“Yes and no. His rage can fuel raise and recharge his power but in return. His attacks are not as perfectly executed as normal. But unless you are up at his power level and such. You would never notice the difference. And when he is angry he stops fighting with well-thought out moves and plans. He goes straight to instinct which can be both good or bad depending.” Yamcha only nodded but not really understanding.

“So. What are we going to do about the creature?”

“Find it and see what it wants. If it wants to fight then we fight.”

“What about Vegeta?” Goku looked down at the tiles of the gravity room floor.

“You might be right. It may want Vegeta’s life. So Vegeta going to have to stay here for now. Until we got this settled.” Goku got two fingers to his forehead taking a hold of Yamcha’s shoulder. He felt Gohan’s ki and transported to it.

X)(X

Vegeta was scrubbing his hair. The water was hot enough to scold a human’s flesh but it wasn’t hot enough for him. Things were really weird now. His tail wiggled out of the cloth and wound around the back scrubber. It was doing his back for him.

“Stop trying to kiss up. You still don’t behave half the time.” Vegeta felt the brush hit his foot hard. Looking down Vegeta found his tail was lying down, almost lifeless. It was like it had emotions of its own. Vegeta picked up his tail, sighing hard and patted the fur like he was trying to comfort it. “I’m sorry. This isn’t easy for me.” The tail lifted itself up and went back to scrubbing like it was all good and no feelings hurt.

Vegeta turned the water off and his tail put back the scrubber and grabbed the towel off the rack. Vegeta eyed his tail suspiciously.

“Okay. You behave and I won’t tie you up again, okay?” *I talking to an appendage that is coming out of my backside. That looks like it belongs to a monkey. Why not? Besides my hair I looked normal, unlike almost everyone else here. We have a green skin man, three eyed man, a talking mime like child, a lady that said she was an android with the scary but dead blue eyes, a man that is only a head taller than his four-year-old daughter, and a man that can appear and disappear at will. Let’s add a guy with a tail to the list.* The tail rapped itself around his waist tightly but comfortable enough to move or bend around with ease. Vegeta put on his shirt and held up his pants. Focusing on the inner power to focus at his finger tips. Opening his eyes seeing he burned a hole just a couple of inches below the top. Slipping them out he threaded his tail through the newly made hole and smoothed down the fur. Once done it rapped around his waist again. “I wasn’t wild about ya at first but I think I could get use to you.”

X)(X

I think this is a good stopping point for now. I wanted to get this out before the 24th as the store is doing the major preparations for the move. I going to be tired between the 24 to sept 10th. So I’ll try to write as much as I can for the next few days. Promise.