Post by Krillin on Oct 11, 2010 2:39:03 GMT -5
And it took a moment, but Krillin realized what this was: the wisps were looking at them funny. How they could possibly look at someone funny, considering that they had no eyes, Krillin did not know, but it was unmistakable. Something about the way the wisps stood there, their attention clearly focused upon them was unnerving him in the worst of ways. He tried to tell himself that he was just being silly, that the looks did not mean anything whatsoever.
But as usual, when he was trying to tell himself to relax, he ignored the speaker.
He tensed his legs, his shoulders, preparing for something evil to befall them in the next minute or so. And he had presence of mind enough to warn his companion about the surely approaching danger. "Keep your guard up, Gohan. I think something bad is about to go down."
Krillin spared a backward glance, and saw that Gohan Senior had taken the advice to heart; there was a firmer set to his face and to his shoulders, and his steps became more careful, more deliberate. This was the posture of a fighter: alert, ready to strike at anything on a moment's notice. This was the Son Gohan Senior that he would have expected to see in the afterlife.
"Do you know what kind of trouble is approaching?" Gohan Senior asked, keeping his voice low. "I just want to be prepared."
Krillin shook his head. "I'm not sure. I just know that it's coming. Keep an eye out. You may catch it before I do."
Silence came again, and though Krillin knew that it was a good thing, it still made him a little nervous. Ghastly silence before some bad thing of epic proportions occurring was as common to his life as a haircut was to others. He had just become so accustomed to it that he almost felt resigned. He fought against that feeling, though. That feeling made a person slower on the uptake.
And so the two continued on, taking silent steps, eyes warily scanning the surrounding landscape for any sign of trouble.
- -
Called to duty, a creature lumbered out of his cave. He was a large creature by almost any standards, even bigger than King Yemma himself. And Yemma was the standard for being big in Otherworld. But size was not always the best indicator of strength, hence one of the reasons that the giant had been trapped in this cave.
He had been out of control once, just running amok wherever he went around here. Until the day he ran into the Grand Kai. The battle had been short. The creature had landed no blows, its opponent having the speed advantage, while the Grand Kai had landed only three. But they had been enough. Enough to humiliate him and have him imprisoned in that horrible, cramped little cave, only to be let out when the order was given.
Of course, that was not really so bad; the space was cramped, but the times outside made up for that rather nicely. No longer did he have to run amok, with no direction. Nope, no more of that for him. Now he had a job. He was now one of Otherworld's enforcers. Basically, he got to smash creatures and souls that stepped out of line. It was pretty nice work.
"Uh . . . uh . . . Kyojin?" called the nervous little beast that stood at his feet. Though he was so far down below Kyojin's line of sight, the tall creature could detect the sweat running off the office demon's forehead.
"I get to smash something, right?" Kyojin asked, his voice rumbling the ground just as much as his feet did.
The little office demon trembled at this, and Kyojin smiled at its obvious fear. "No, actually. N-no, you don't."
Kyojin frowned. What were they doing letting him out of his cave if he could not smash anything? Stupid office demons, toying with his feelings like that.
The little demon readjusted his tie in a clear display of nervousness. "I- I mean, you don't get to smash anything, yet. First, you've just got to bring the two subjects back up to Judgement. Then maybe King Yemma will let you smash them."
Kyojin considered this. It still sounded like he would get cheated out of his deal. He didn't like having to wait around for Yemma's say-so. "You see to it that I do," he intoned at last. "Not smashing things is not good for my temper."
"Um . . .Yes. I . . I will do my best, oh mighty Kyojin." He straightened his tie one more time. "Now here are their descriptions. You will have to go searching for them . . ."
- -
Krillin was wondering whether or not that voice telling him that there was nothing to worry about was right after all.
He did not know how much time had passed, but it was a great deal any way it was considered. They had spent hours at least ducking behind rides and game booths like wanted criminals, fearing some sort of divine retribution. But none came. And despite the feeling in Krillin's gut, none seemed to be on its way any time soon.
He and Gohan Senior had long since passed the amusement park, and had seen various other curiosities along the way, like a race track, and a camp ground. None of these were as heavily populated as the amusement park had been, but there were always a few wisps present. And all of them continued to give their funny, faceless stare. It had set Krillin's nerves on edge before, but now it was just getting irritating. At least now they were on the open fields, where the wisp population was quite sparse. And in fact, neither he nor Gohan Senior had yet spied any soul with a body in this place. Krillin did not know how common or uncommon a thing it was for a soul to keep its body after death, but he had expected to see at least a few.
It made him wonder for a moment what the criteria were for keeping one's body in the afterlife. Probably something major, Krillin thought. But the fact that Krillin himself had retained his body made him cast some doubt about the "something really major" theory. He hadn't done that much, in his opinion.
"I think we can stop skulking about like this, son," Gohan Senior piped up. "I don't know about you, but all this crouching is starting to put too much of a strain on my legs."
"Well," Krillin thought for a moment. His mind was still not yet out of its "we're out of danger" mode. Which in all likelihood meant that they actually were out of danger. "Yeah. I guess there's nothing here to worry about."
To tell the truth, Krillin was relieved to be walking normally again, perhaps even more so than his companion. He was short enough as it was, and the last thing he needed was the risk of spending the rest of eternity hunched over like some four-legged animal. It was not a pretty picture.
They crested a hill, a higher one than most of the ones they had crossed, and stopped for a moment. Krillin took this opportunity to stretch his back muscles. Kami but it felt good to stand up again.
"Hey you, get back in line!"
The guttural voice cracked forth with such authority that Krillin stood at attention without thinking. Casting his glance to the side, he noticed that Gohan Senior was looking at him with an expression that clearly indicated that the old man thought that Krillin had lost his mind. Blushing, Krillin relaxed his posture and looked ahead once more. "Heh, heh. Sorry. Reflex."
He could see who must have been the voice's owner several yards down below. A hulking, blue, orgrish figure. This figure seemed to be shouting at a line of wisps, some of which appeared to be cowering in his presence. One look at the brute, and Krillin decided that it was probably best to avoid him at all costs. It wasn't that he didn't have confidence in any of his abilities, but who knew what kind of weird powers a native of Otherworld might possess? It wasn't a risk worth taking. Silently, he tugged on Gohan Senior's sleeve, and motioned for them to get away.
Unfortunately, he was not fast enough.
"Hey, you on the hill!" the voice came again, and there was no mistaking the fact that it was now directed at them. The wisest thing to do would probably be to run. But again the authority of the voice froze Krillin. The monstrous figure stepped up the hill to meet them. "What do you – hey! I know you two!"
"Uh . . . Heh, heh. No, I think I've just got one of those faces. We've never met, I assure you!" Krillin said nervously, rubbing at the back of his head.
"Never said we met, shrimpy. Just that you look familiar," the blue demon countered smartly, then turned to call out over his shoulder, "Hey Mez! I think this's them two runaways we got word about!"
Runaways? What did they do a bed check here in Otherworld? Nothing of the sort had happened so far in Krillin's tenure. Of course, his tenure had not been very long. And things were so businesslike around here that headcounts probably were a pretty routine thing.
Krillin swallowed. Perhaps they were wanted criminals after all.
Before he could fully process this information, a red demon, dressed much the same as the first came into view and stood beside the blue one. The red demon was smaller, but still quite large overall, and wore a pair of horn-rimmed glassed on his face. Those glasses gave him an oddly scholarly look.
"Hmm," said the red demon, Mez. "You know, Goz, I think that you're actually right for a change. What are the odds?" Mez's manner sobered up a little, and he stood straighter, probably hoping for him and Gohan Senior to be intimidated by his height. It was not entirely effective. "Okay, boys, we can do this easily and just co-operate, or we can do it the hard way. That's how things work down here in Hell."
Hell? Well, that was just great. If ever there were a place quite possibly worse than the Relegation Room . . . And the whole irony of it was that on the surface this didn't seem like such a bad place to be. Must have been that afterlife sense of humour rearing its head once again.
"Uh . . ." Krillin began, reaching for something to say. He really didn't want to get into a fight with such an unknown quantity. While the demons, Goz and Mez, were alive and he could thus sense their ki, he did not know how much he could trust his senses. They could be masking their power or have all kinds of other crazy abilities that did not require ki. "Look, couldn't you guys just let us off?" Krillin felt stupid the moment he said this. Could anything more lame have come out of his mouth?
"Let you off?" Mez said, chuckles bursting forth from his lips.
"That's the funniest thing that we've heard all day! You think we'd risk our jobs over a couple of nothings like you?"
Goz had joined in with his partner's laughter. "You two are some comedians, huh? But I guess you not coming peacefully means that I get a chance to play with ya."
Krillin's eyes darted between the two demons, thinking of a way to get out of this without running away. Doing that would have been fine before they had been confronted, but to do it now would be to behave more cowardly than he would like to think himself to be. He watched, sweat pouring down his face as Goz put his hands together and cracked his huge knuckles . . .
"If I might interject for a moment," Gohan Senior said, surprising Krillin; he'd almost forgotten that the old man was there. Both demons actually paused to listen. "But perhaps we could work out a compromise? A simple challenge. If Krillin and I win, you let us off free. If the two of you win, we will go peacefully."
It was not a plan that Krillin really favoured, but the two demons exchanged glances and leaned in to discuss the matter further. Harsh whispers rebounded back and forth, Goz sounding more angry and Mez sounding more annoyed. The discussion continued below hearing volume for another minute before both demons turned to look at them once more. And Goz had a smile on his huge blue face.
"Challenge accepted, old man," Goz agreed, rubbing his hands together in glee. "It'll be the most fun us two have had in a few years. And I get to go first, with little shrimpy over there."
Krillin was about to interject, but never got the chance. Mez beat him to it.
"Hey, I wanted shrimpy!" he argued. "I don't want to be stuck with the old man! And besides, you got to go first with the last guy!"
"Oh yeah?" Goz turned a furious glare on Mez, who returned it with equal fervour. "Well, looks like we've got something to settle first."
Krillin edged backward a bit, noticing that Gohan Senior stood his
ground. This looked like it was going to get ugly, that these two demons were going to duke it out to see who got to have a crack at who . . .
"Ready? One . . . two . . . three!"
At the sight of their actions, Krillin fell over in shock. Good grief, not this again! Rock, paper, scissors. Flashbacks of the many times Krillin had decided things based on this game ran through his mind at this. What was it with all of these crazy people he was meeting up with lately?
For his part, Gohan Senior looked just as bewildered as Krillin did at this turn of events. Goz and Mez continued the game, matching several times before one of them came up as a winner.
"Ha! Rock breaks scissors!" Mez crowed triumphantly, smashing Goz's extended fingers with his fist. "I win, so you get the leftovers."
"Humph!" Goz returned. "Yeah, well that was just luck. I'll let it go, though. Being that I'm so generous and all."
Mez rolled his eyes, then turned back to Krillin and Gohan Senior. "Okay, now that that's settled we can get down to business. Move it along shrimps!"
Mez made a motion with his hand that bade them to follow as the two demons walked off, Goz grumbling something else about luck. Nerves jumbling around in his gut, Krillin stepped up beside Gohan Senior.
"Just answer me one question . . ." Krillin began. Gohan Senior looked at him. "Do you really know what you're doing?"
Gohan Senior nodded. "Well, of course I do son. I used to be pretty good at this type of thing." He paused for a second, tilting his head and frowning. "I think."
Krillin merely put his head in his hands. "Perfect."
Word Count: 2554
But as usual, when he was trying to tell himself to relax, he ignored the speaker.
He tensed his legs, his shoulders, preparing for something evil to befall them in the next minute or so. And he had presence of mind enough to warn his companion about the surely approaching danger. "Keep your guard up, Gohan. I think something bad is about to go down."
Krillin spared a backward glance, and saw that Gohan Senior had taken the advice to heart; there was a firmer set to his face and to his shoulders, and his steps became more careful, more deliberate. This was the posture of a fighter: alert, ready to strike at anything on a moment's notice. This was the Son Gohan Senior that he would have expected to see in the afterlife.
"Do you know what kind of trouble is approaching?" Gohan Senior asked, keeping his voice low. "I just want to be prepared."
Krillin shook his head. "I'm not sure. I just know that it's coming. Keep an eye out. You may catch it before I do."
Silence came again, and though Krillin knew that it was a good thing, it still made him a little nervous. Ghastly silence before some bad thing of epic proportions occurring was as common to his life as a haircut was to others. He had just become so accustomed to it that he almost felt resigned. He fought against that feeling, though. That feeling made a person slower on the uptake.
And so the two continued on, taking silent steps, eyes warily scanning the surrounding landscape for any sign of trouble.
- -
Called to duty, a creature lumbered out of his cave. He was a large creature by almost any standards, even bigger than King Yemma himself. And Yemma was the standard for being big in Otherworld. But size was not always the best indicator of strength, hence one of the reasons that the giant had been trapped in this cave.
He had been out of control once, just running amok wherever he went around here. Until the day he ran into the Grand Kai. The battle had been short. The creature had landed no blows, its opponent having the speed advantage, while the Grand Kai had landed only three. But they had been enough. Enough to humiliate him and have him imprisoned in that horrible, cramped little cave, only to be let out when the order was given.
Of course, that was not really so bad; the space was cramped, but the times outside made up for that rather nicely. No longer did he have to run amok, with no direction. Nope, no more of that for him. Now he had a job. He was now one of Otherworld's enforcers. Basically, he got to smash creatures and souls that stepped out of line. It was pretty nice work.
"Uh . . . uh . . . Kyojin?" called the nervous little beast that stood at his feet. Though he was so far down below Kyojin's line of sight, the tall creature could detect the sweat running off the office demon's forehead.
"I get to smash something, right?" Kyojin asked, his voice rumbling the ground just as much as his feet did.
The little office demon trembled at this, and Kyojin smiled at its obvious fear. "No, actually. N-no, you don't."
Kyojin frowned. What were they doing letting him out of his cave if he could not smash anything? Stupid office demons, toying with his feelings like that.
The little demon readjusted his tie in a clear display of nervousness. "I- I mean, you don't get to smash anything, yet. First, you've just got to bring the two subjects back up to Judgement. Then maybe King Yemma will let you smash them."
Kyojin considered this. It still sounded like he would get cheated out of his deal. He didn't like having to wait around for Yemma's say-so. "You see to it that I do," he intoned at last. "Not smashing things is not good for my temper."
"Um . . .Yes. I . . I will do my best, oh mighty Kyojin." He straightened his tie one more time. "Now here are their descriptions. You will have to go searching for them . . ."
- -
Krillin was wondering whether or not that voice telling him that there was nothing to worry about was right after all.
He did not know how much time had passed, but it was a great deal any way it was considered. They had spent hours at least ducking behind rides and game booths like wanted criminals, fearing some sort of divine retribution. But none came. And despite the feeling in Krillin's gut, none seemed to be on its way any time soon.
He and Gohan Senior had long since passed the amusement park, and had seen various other curiosities along the way, like a race track, and a camp ground. None of these were as heavily populated as the amusement park had been, but there were always a few wisps present. And all of them continued to give their funny, faceless stare. It had set Krillin's nerves on edge before, but now it was just getting irritating. At least now they were on the open fields, where the wisp population was quite sparse. And in fact, neither he nor Gohan Senior had yet spied any soul with a body in this place. Krillin did not know how common or uncommon a thing it was for a soul to keep its body after death, but he had expected to see at least a few.
It made him wonder for a moment what the criteria were for keeping one's body in the afterlife. Probably something major, Krillin thought. But the fact that Krillin himself had retained his body made him cast some doubt about the "something really major" theory. He hadn't done that much, in his opinion.
"I think we can stop skulking about like this, son," Gohan Senior piped up. "I don't know about you, but all this crouching is starting to put too much of a strain on my legs."
"Well," Krillin thought for a moment. His mind was still not yet out of its "we're out of danger" mode. Which in all likelihood meant that they actually were out of danger. "Yeah. I guess there's nothing here to worry about."
To tell the truth, Krillin was relieved to be walking normally again, perhaps even more so than his companion. He was short enough as it was, and the last thing he needed was the risk of spending the rest of eternity hunched over like some four-legged animal. It was not a pretty picture.
They crested a hill, a higher one than most of the ones they had crossed, and stopped for a moment. Krillin took this opportunity to stretch his back muscles. Kami but it felt good to stand up again.
"Hey you, get back in line!"
The guttural voice cracked forth with such authority that Krillin stood at attention without thinking. Casting his glance to the side, he noticed that Gohan Senior was looking at him with an expression that clearly indicated that the old man thought that Krillin had lost his mind. Blushing, Krillin relaxed his posture and looked ahead once more. "Heh, heh. Sorry. Reflex."
He could see who must have been the voice's owner several yards down below. A hulking, blue, orgrish figure. This figure seemed to be shouting at a line of wisps, some of which appeared to be cowering in his presence. One look at the brute, and Krillin decided that it was probably best to avoid him at all costs. It wasn't that he didn't have confidence in any of his abilities, but who knew what kind of weird powers a native of Otherworld might possess? It wasn't a risk worth taking. Silently, he tugged on Gohan Senior's sleeve, and motioned for them to get away.
Unfortunately, he was not fast enough.
"Hey, you on the hill!" the voice came again, and there was no mistaking the fact that it was now directed at them. The wisest thing to do would probably be to run. But again the authority of the voice froze Krillin. The monstrous figure stepped up the hill to meet them. "What do you – hey! I know you two!"
"Uh . . . Heh, heh. No, I think I've just got one of those faces. We've never met, I assure you!" Krillin said nervously, rubbing at the back of his head.
"Never said we met, shrimpy. Just that you look familiar," the blue demon countered smartly, then turned to call out over his shoulder, "Hey Mez! I think this's them two runaways we got word about!"
Runaways? What did they do a bed check here in Otherworld? Nothing of the sort had happened so far in Krillin's tenure. Of course, his tenure had not been very long. And things were so businesslike around here that headcounts probably were a pretty routine thing.
Krillin swallowed. Perhaps they were wanted criminals after all.
Before he could fully process this information, a red demon, dressed much the same as the first came into view and stood beside the blue one. The red demon was smaller, but still quite large overall, and wore a pair of horn-rimmed glassed on his face. Those glasses gave him an oddly scholarly look.
"Hmm," said the red demon, Mez. "You know, Goz, I think that you're actually right for a change. What are the odds?" Mez's manner sobered up a little, and he stood straighter, probably hoping for him and Gohan Senior to be intimidated by his height. It was not entirely effective. "Okay, boys, we can do this easily and just co-operate, or we can do it the hard way. That's how things work down here in Hell."
Hell? Well, that was just great. If ever there were a place quite possibly worse than the Relegation Room . . . And the whole irony of it was that on the surface this didn't seem like such a bad place to be. Must have been that afterlife sense of humour rearing its head once again.
"Uh . . ." Krillin began, reaching for something to say. He really didn't want to get into a fight with such an unknown quantity. While the demons, Goz and Mez, were alive and he could thus sense their ki, he did not know how much he could trust his senses. They could be masking their power or have all kinds of other crazy abilities that did not require ki. "Look, couldn't you guys just let us off?" Krillin felt stupid the moment he said this. Could anything more lame have come out of his mouth?
"Let you off?" Mez said, chuckles bursting forth from his lips.
"That's the funniest thing that we've heard all day! You think we'd risk our jobs over a couple of nothings like you?"
Goz had joined in with his partner's laughter. "You two are some comedians, huh? But I guess you not coming peacefully means that I get a chance to play with ya."
Krillin's eyes darted between the two demons, thinking of a way to get out of this without running away. Doing that would have been fine before they had been confronted, but to do it now would be to behave more cowardly than he would like to think himself to be. He watched, sweat pouring down his face as Goz put his hands together and cracked his huge knuckles . . .
"If I might interject for a moment," Gohan Senior said, surprising Krillin; he'd almost forgotten that the old man was there. Both demons actually paused to listen. "But perhaps we could work out a compromise? A simple challenge. If Krillin and I win, you let us off free. If the two of you win, we will go peacefully."
It was not a plan that Krillin really favoured, but the two demons exchanged glances and leaned in to discuss the matter further. Harsh whispers rebounded back and forth, Goz sounding more angry and Mez sounding more annoyed. The discussion continued below hearing volume for another minute before both demons turned to look at them once more. And Goz had a smile on his huge blue face.
"Challenge accepted, old man," Goz agreed, rubbing his hands together in glee. "It'll be the most fun us two have had in a few years. And I get to go first, with little shrimpy over there."
Krillin was about to interject, but never got the chance. Mez beat him to it.
"Hey, I wanted shrimpy!" he argued. "I don't want to be stuck with the old man! And besides, you got to go first with the last guy!"
"Oh yeah?" Goz turned a furious glare on Mez, who returned it with equal fervour. "Well, looks like we've got something to settle first."
Krillin edged backward a bit, noticing that Gohan Senior stood his
ground. This looked like it was going to get ugly, that these two demons were going to duke it out to see who got to have a crack at who . . .
"Ready? One . . . two . . . three!"
At the sight of their actions, Krillin fell over in shock. Good grief, not this again! Rock, paper, scissors. Flashbacks of the many times Krillin had decided things based on this game ran through his mind at this. What was it with all of these crazy people he was meeting up with lately?
For his part, Gohan Senior looked just as bewildered as Krillin did at this turn of events. Goz and Mez continued the game, matching several times before one of them came up as a winner.
"Ha! Rock breaks scissors!" Mez crowed triumphantly, smashing Goz's extended fingers with his fist. "I win, so you get the leftovers."
"Humph!" Goz returned. "Yeah, well that was just luck. I'll let it go, though. Being that I'm so generous and all."
Mez rolled his eyes, then turned back to Krillin and Gohan Senior. "Okay, now that that's settled we can get down to business. Move it along shrimps!"
Mez made a motion with his hand that bade them to follow as the two demons walked off, Goz grumbling something else about luck. Nerves jumbling around in his gut, Krillin stepped up beside Gohan Senior.
"Just answer me one question . . ." Krillin began. Gohan Senior looked at him. "Do you really know what you're doing?"
Gohan Senior nodded. "Well, of course I do son. I used to be pretty good at this type of thing." He paused for a second, tilting his head and frowning. "I think."
Krillin merely put his head in his hands. "Perfect."
Word Count: 2554