Post by Krillin on Oct 15, 2010 2:22:07 GMT -5
They moved out of his sight quicker than he had expected. For a moment, Gohan Senior just stood there, patting dust out of his clothing and watching as Krillin and Kyojin disappeared into the distance. He felt left out somehow, as if he could provide some significant help were he still present. It might have seemed a strange thought to anyone else, considering that the power of Kyojin far outstripped his own, but power was not everything. He had been about equal in power with Goz and had defeated him easily. Skill and technique made a big difference, as he had proven just there. And Kyojin did not seem to be a great deal brighter than Goz. The giant had a one-track mind and was quickly incited to anger and thus easy to exploit in battle, as Krillin was already proving.
Before he even realized it, Gohan's legs were moving, not away from the battle but toward it, following the instinct to help. Krillin was a good boy, and did not deserve to get ripped limb from limb by that creature. The boy's methods to get him to come along here were questionable – outright dishonest, in fact – but his heart had been in the right place. Yes, he was a good boy, and good boys did not deserve to get crushed by giants. Perhaps he could give him a hand.
But they had gone so far out of sight, were so far away, that his legs began to tire and his lungs to burn. He stopped, breathing hard, and cursing himself for a lack of endurance. If he could not reach the battle then Krillin might . . .
Wait. Gohan reached into his pocket and pulled out something that he had just taken for emergency. He had not expected to actually need it, but a wise person took every precaution that he could get, and he was indeed a wise person.
He stared at the piece of fruit in his hand for a moment. Just a simple looking peach, but to have heard the demons Goz and Mez talk about it, this was the greatest wonder of nature. An increased endurance at least, and who knew what else? Mez had stopped Goz before he could say anything more about the fruit. If it was sacred to the lord of the dead, then it must be special indeed. Perhaps it could give him the boost that he needed.
With no more hesitation, Gohan popped the fruit into his mouth. It tasted just as any typical peach would, though how he could have remembered that he was not quite sure. The dead tended not to eat anything, so the last time he had in fact eaten was probably back when he was alive. Being away from the Relegation Room must really have been helping his memory.
And the fruit began to suddenly live up to its reputation. A new strength flowed through his limbs. His tiredness vanished. Even his head seemed to be clearer than it had been before. This was the best that he had felt since . . . Well, ever. Or at least in his memory, shaky as that still was.
He smiled for a moment, flexed his hand. The new sensations flowing through him were quite invigorating and he caught himself marvelling at them for a while.
But a distant crash, and a rising could of dust dragged him back into reality. Oh, yes. Krillin. That was the reason that he had eaten the fruit in the first place. It was time to go.
Gohan's legs pumped harder than he had previously imagined, and he took off at greater speed. Hopefully, Krillin could last long enough for him to be able to help him defeat Kyojin.
- -
Krillin ducked under an outcropping as Kyojin's fist crashed into the side of a mountain, bringing rocks raining down in front of him. He turned his head away to avoid getting dust in his mouth. If he started coughing, he would give away his position.
Just as the rocks stopped raining down, Krillin charged forward, leg extended toward Kyojin's gut. The blow, unexpected completely by its recipient, landed perfectly, and the giant staggered back a few steps before swatting at Krillin like he was a fly.
"Whoa!" Krillin cried as he shot up a bit to avoid the giant's hand. But he was not entirely successful; the tip of one of Kyojin's fingers caught him in the back and knocked him out of the sky.
His shoulder hit the side of the mountain first, but did not give way under the pressure. He tumbled down the mountain on his side, jarring loose chunks of rock to fall down with him.
He had bearings enough to grasp hold of another outcropping just as he tumbled over it. The rocks and dust cascaded over him, continuing on their one way trip to the ground. He sighed in relief, but did not allow himself to be relieved for long. He climbed onto the outcropping and looked up.
Kyojin stood as always, one fist embedded in the mountainside. His head swung this way and that in a clear search for him. The giant did not know where he was. Perhaps he could get another sneak attack in, just one with a little more power this time. He needed to keep the giant out for longer, but he did not want to kill him. Killing was not exactly a very fun thing as far as he was concerned. He just bet that Kyojin would disagree with him on that one.
"Where have you gone, tiniest of ones?" Kyojin called out, as Krillin rose behind him. The giant no longer seemed angry at all. More like playful, as if this whole ordeal was a game to him. It probably was. "No matter how small you are, you cannot hide from me forever!"
Not that he would need forever. Just another minute or two would do him just fine right now. He floated behind Kyojin's neck, keeping in time with his head movements, as he once again poured ki into his hand. The same place as his last good hit would suffice; it just need to be more powerful. Just another minute more. He had to hope that Kyojin would not notice him for another minute more.
He almost got his wish.
Just as he decided that he had enough power channelled into his fist and was pulling it back, Kyojin turned, swinging an open palm with him. There was no time to dodge.
The palm struck Krillin full force, dissipating the ki in his hand and knocking him across the landscape. He tried to right himself in the air, but the pain from the blow was too distracting. And it was soon accompanied by a new one as his back slammed into a mountainside. The rock crumbled a bit under the force of his impact, and he began to roll down the mountain. He was still conscious at this point, though he did not know how that was possible. And he wasn't particularly thrilled about it. At least if he were knocked out, he would not be feeling this pain right now.
He stopped rolling, finally, and he assumed that he had hit the ground. He let this thought relax him somewhat, and he lay there for a few seconds for his head to clear.
When it did, he found that he was not on the ground as he had thought. Not unless the ground here was yellow and had calloused fingers. He would have shot up in shock if he'd had the energy for it. No, this certainly was not the ground. He was in Kyojin's hand. And slowly, terribly, the hand began to close
He wondered if Goku had ever felt like this.
He grimaced as Kyojin lifted him up to eye level, but did not close his eyes. Oh, sure, he was pretty scared right now – an understatement, to be sure; he was terrified – but he didn't exactly want the giant to know that. He did have a little bit of pride in himself.
"That was not a good trick to pull, tiniest of ones," the giant said, his voice at what would have been a whispering tone to him, but was still loud to Krillin's ears. "You did that once before, and it seems that I was right to think that you might try it again."
Well, Krillin had to acknowledge that perhaps that had not been the smartest of moves. Kyojin had not exactly stricken him as being very bright, but that didn't necessarily mean that he was quite dumb enough to fall for the same trick twice. He should have tried another tack.
But hindsight was perfect, wasn't it?
And so here he was, trapped in the gigantic fist of some great monster, waiting to find out just how much damage could be inflicted on a dead person such as himself. He tried to wriggle free, but his impacts into the mountainside had sapped his strength, and the way that Kyojin was holding him – squeezing him, actually – was not exactly helping.
And the pressure got tighter and tighter, threatening to crush whatever bones where left in his spiritual body . . .
- -
It was about time.
As if the search itself had not been maddening enough, the tiny ones had been making things even harder for themselves. While all of his victims tended to try to avoid being smashed, none of them tried things to this extent. The tiny bald one had even injured him, something that had not happened in several hundred years. Needless to say, that fact was just a little upsetting.
The smashing would otherwise have been quick, for Kyojin was not one to draw out the fate of his victims. Just because he liked to crush things didn't mean that he was cruel, after all. But the tiny bald creature had just been too annoying thus far and consequently deserved a little more suffering before his fate was handed down.
And he had to admit that this was rather fun. Even if his current victim happened to be looking him straight in the eye and was not screaming. Well, he couldn't have anything, he supposed.
Besides, this gave him the perfect excuse to crush him harder.
- -
It was a long run, even with the increased stamina provided by the sacred fruit. But Gohan could eventually see the huge form of Kyojin looming in the distance, rock dust still rising around him. The giant must have made a great many strikes at those peaks. Which meant that Krillin had been doing and excellent job of evading them. There was every possibility that the boy would not really need his help at all, but it was better safe than sorry. An insurance policy never hurt anyone.
He came closer now, completely unnoticed by the giant. Even when he made it up to Kyojin's feet, Gohan was not discovered. Such an unobservant creature, but he supposed that it was like a person not knowing that an ant was crawling onto their shoe. Anything of such a size was too small and insignificant to even register a glance. And this was a very useful thing, in fact. An unnoticed bug could be a dangerous bug if given the proper chance.
And Gohan knew that he could be a dangerous bug indeed. If it was necessary, that was. It might not be.
He halted momentarily, wondering why the giant was not making any more attacks. His eyes glanced about, trying to find any sign of Krillin, but did not catch one. At last, Gohan closed his eyes, relying on that old trick of ki sensing that he had learned at some point during his life. While the dead did not truly have anything in the way of ki, there was always a residue, he had noticed. A residue of the power that the person had possessed in life. It was almost non-existent in even mighty warriors – he had seen a few of those, in the Relegation Room – and thus was not easy to detect. But if one was skilled enough in the art of ki sensing, and could concentrate hard enough, then it was possible to detect someone by his ki.
And as it happened, Gohan was both very skilled at ki-sensing, and possessed great concentration. He was able to lock onto Krillin's residual ki, and he opened his eyes to follow the trail.
He almost choked at what his eyes showed him. Oh, Krillin was here, all right – and being held between the huge hands of Kyojin, looking to be on the verge of being crushed. Whatever Krillin's strength had been before – and it had been considerable, in Gohan's observation – it had obviously taken such a hit that he could not escape form this grasp on his own. He was trapped.
So what was there to do? He could feel this monster's ki easily, and it dwarfed his as much as his body did. There was no way that he would be able to strike an effective blow, or one that the giant even would notice. How could he expect to free Krillin, if he could not do anything to warrant the monster's attention?
He had to think quickly – Krillin did not appear to have a lot of time left. Gohan glanced around desperately left and right, trying to find something that might serve as a distraction against Kyojin, but the only thing in sight were the mountains. And those were no help, really . . . Wait.
An idea formed inside of Gohan's head, triggered by a memory of something that had occurred just as he and Krillin had been escaping from the Relegation Room. That move he had used . . . It had seemed so familiar to him, even back then, when his memory had been at its foggiest. Something kept telling him that he knew that attack.
The Kamehameha Wave.
If he could remember how to do that, then there might be a chance to do something . . . But his memory still was not perfect, and he could not quite determine how the attack was performed.
But still, with nothing else to do – he heard Krillin cry out from above – Gohan knew that this was the only choice. He would have to go from recent memory and work out the rest of the details from there.
And he cupped his hands at his side, whispering the first syllables to the attack's name. "Ka . . . me . . ."
- -
The pain was getting worse and worse. He didn't even think that it had hurt this much when he had been killed – by Frieza, not by one of Piccolo Daimio's children, though both had been pretty painful. He supposed that when you were already dead that you could handle more pain without losing consciousness or any other additional bad things happening to you. Someone like Goku would probably enjoy finding out something like that, but to Krillin, it just wasn't very fun.
He continued to struggle, but to no avail. His strength was simply sapped too much from being thrown into the mountainside and subsequently crushed into Kyojin's hands. He wasn't giving up, though part of him wanted to. If it was just a matter of himself, he probably would have. But it was not a matter of just himself. Gohan Senior was a concern here, too. He had to buy the old man enough time to escape, to get to Judgement without being harmed by this brutal giant.
He could only hope that it was working out well.
He tried to wince, but did not have even the strength for that, as Kyojin laughed in his face as he slowly crushed him. It wasn't bad enough that he was likely suffering some fate worse than death, he had smell this thing's breath too.
But something caught his attention suddenly. A faint stirring of ki, he was surprised to note. And it was coming form nearby, almost right below him.
Despite his current situation, Krillin could not help his curiosity in this matter. Just what was going on down there? Strenuously, he turned his head toward that stirring of ki.
And he stiffened in shock. If he didn't know better, that was Gohan Senior down there, a blue ball of ki forming between his hands. Or so Krillin assumed – ki attacks being fired from the hands and all, as a matter of course. And Krillin was sure of which ki attack this was. There was only one, that he was aware of, anyway, that Gohan Senior knew how to perform. Or had when he was alive.
He was going to do a Kamehameha Wave.
This thought failed to hearten Krillin however, though he had to appreciate the old man's gustiness. But there was no way that any attack Gohan Senior could fire off was going to do anything more to Kyojin than make him itch. He appreciated the old man's thoughts and attempt to help, but it just wasn't worth the effort. There was no hope.
Or if there was a hope, it was the desperate, far fetched hope that Gohan Senior had some sort of plan. Krillin, with nothing else better to do, decided that he might as well latch on to that hope. It was his one and only shot.
- -
Word Count: 2,927
Before he even realized it, Gohan's legs were moving, not away from the battle but toward it, following the instinct to help. Krillin was a good boy, and did not deserve to get ripped limb from limb by that creature. The boy's methods to get him to come along here were questionable – outright dishonest, in fact – but his heart had been in the right place. Yes, he was a good boy, and good boys did not deserve to get crushed by giants. Perhaps he could give him a hand.
But they had gone so far out of sight, were so far away, that his legs began to tire and his lungs to burn. He stopped, breathing hard, and cursing himself for a lack of endurance. If he could not reach the battle then Krillin might . . .
Wait. Gohan reached into his pocket and pulled out something that he had just taken for emergency. He had not expected to actually need it, but a wise person took every precaution that he could get, and he was indeed a wise person.
He stared at the piece of fruit in his hand for a moment. Just a simple looking peach, but to have heard the demons Goz and Mez talk about it, this was the greatest wonder of nature. An increased endurance at least, and who knew what else? Mez had stopped Goz before he could say anything more about the fruit. If it was sacred to the lord of the dead, then it must be special indeed. Perhaps it could give him the boost that he needed.
With no more hesitation, Gohan popped the fruit into his mouth. It tasted just as any typical peach would, though how he could have remembered that he was not quite sure. The dead tended not to eat anything, so the last time he had in fact eaten was probably back when he was alive. Being away from the Relegation Room must really have been helping his memory.
And the fruit began to suddenly live up to its reputation. A new strength flowed through his limbs. His tiredness vanished. Even his head seemed to be clearer than it had been before. This was the best that he had felt since . . . Well, ever. Or at least in his memory, shaky as that still was.
He smiled for a moment, flexed his hand. The new sensations flowing through him were quite invigorating and he caught himself marvelling at them for a while.
But a distant crash, and a rising could of dust dragged him back into reality. Oh, yes. Krillin. That was the reason that he had eaten the fruit in the first place. It was time to go.
Gohan's legs pumped harder than he had previously imagined, and he took off at greater speed. Hopefully, Krillin could last long enough for him to be able to help him defeat Kyojin.
- -
Krillin ducked under an outcropping as Kyojin's fist crashed into the side of a mountain, bringing rocks raining down in front of him. He turned his head away to avoid getting dust in his mouth. If he started coughing, he would give away his position.
Just as the rocks stopped raining down, Krillin charged forward, leg extended toward Kyojin's gut. The blow, unexpected completely by its recipient, landed perfectly, and the giant staggered back a few steps before swatting at Krillin like he was a fly.
"Whoa!" Krillin cried as he shot up a bit to avoid the giant's hand. But he was not entirely successful; the tip of one of Kyojin's fingers caught him in the back and knocked him out of the sky.
His shoulder hit the side of the mountain first, but did not give way under the pressure. He tumbled down the mountain on his side, jarring loose chunks of rock to fall down with him.
He had bearings enough to grasp hold of another outcropping just as he tumbled over it. The rocks and dust cascaded over him, continuing on their one way trip to the ground. He sighed in relief, but did not allow himself to be relieved for long. He climbed onto the outcropping and looked up.
Kyojin stood as always, one fist embedded in the mountainside. His head swung this way and that in a clear search for him. The giant did not know where he was. Perhaps he could get another sneak attack in, just one with a little more power this time. He needed to keep the giant out for longer, but he did not want to kill him. Killing was not exactly a very fun thing as far as he was concerned. He just bet that Kyojin would disagree with him on that one.
"Where have you gone, tiniest of ones?" Kyojin called out, as Krillin rose behind him. The giant no longer seemed angry at all. More like playful, as if this whole ordeal was a game to him. It probably was. "No matter how small you are, you cannot hide from me forever!"
Not that he would need forever. Just another minute or two would do him just fine right now. He floated behind Kyojin's neck, keeping in time with his head movements, as he once again poured ki into his hand. The same place as his last good hit would suffice; it just need to be more powerful. Just another minute more. He had to hope that Kyojin would not notice him for another minute more.
He almost got his wish.
Just as he decided that he had enough power channelled into his fist and was pulling it back, Kyojin turned, swinging an open palm with him. There was no time to dodge.
The palm struck Krillin full force, dissipating the ki in his hand and knocking him across the landscape. He tried to right himself in the air, but the pain from the blow was too distracting. And it was soon accompanied by a new one as his back slammed into a mountainside. The rock crumbled a bit under the force of his impact, and he began to roll down the mountain. He was still conscious at this point, though he did not know how that was possible. And he wasn't particularly thrilled about it. At least if he were knocked out, he would not be feeling this pain right now.
He stopped rolling, finally, and he assumed that he had hit the ground. He let this thought relax him somewhat, and he lay there for a few seconds for his head to clear.
When it did, he found that he was not on the ground as he had thought. Not unless the ground here was yellow and had calloused fingers. He would have shot up in shock if he'd had the energy for it. No, this certainly was not the ground. He was in Kyojin's hand. And slowly, terribly, the hand began to close
He wondered if Goku had ever felt like this.
He grimaced as Kyojin lifted him up to eye level, but did not close his eyes. Oh, sure, he was pretty scared right now – an understatement, to be sure; he was terrified – but he didn't exactly want the giant to know that. He did have a little bit of pride in himself.
"That was not a good trick to pull, tiniest of ones," the giant said, his voice at what would have been a whispering tone to him, but was still loud to Krillin's ears. "You did that once before, and it seems that I was right to think that you might try it again."
Well, Krillin had to acknowledge that perhaps that had not been the smartest of moves. Kyojin had not exactly stricken him as being very bright, but that didn't necessarily mean that he was quite dumb enough to fall for the same trick twice. He should have tried another tack.
But hindsight was perfect, wasn't it?
And so here he was, trapped in the gigantic fist of some great monster, waiting to find out just how much damage could be inflicted on a dead person such as himself. He tried to wriggle free, but his impacts into the mountainside had sapped his strength, and the way that Kyojin was holding him – squeezing him, actually – was not exactly helping.
And the pressure got tighter and tighter, threatening to crush whatever bones where left in his spiritual body . . .
- -
It was about time.
As if the search itself had not been maddening enough, the tiny ones had been making things even harder for themselves. While all of his victims tended to try to avoid being smashed, none of them tried things to this extent. The tiny bald one had even injured him, something that had not happened in several hundred years. Needless to say, that fact was just a little upsetting.
The smashing would otherwise have been quick, for Kyojin was not one to draw out the fate of his victims. Just because he liked to crush things didn't mean that he was cruel, after all. But the tiny bald creature had just been too annoying thus far and consequently deserved a little more suffering before his fate was handed down.
And he had to admit that this was rather fun. Even if his current victim happened to be looking him straight in the eye and was not screaming. Well, he couldn't have anything, he supposed.
Besides, this gave him the perfect excuse to crush him harder.
- -
It was a long run, even with the increased stamina provided by the sacred fruit. But Gohan could eventually see the huge form of Kyojin looming in the distance, rock dust still rising around him. The giant must have made a great many strikes at those peaks. Which meant that Krillin had been doing and excellent job of evading them. There was every possibility that the boy would not really need his help at all, but it was better safe than sorry. An insurance policy never hurt anyone.
He came closer now, completely unnoticed by the giant. Even when he made it up to Kyojin's feet, Gohan was not discovered. Such an unobservant creature, but he supposed that it was like a person not knowing that an ant was crawling onto their shoe. Anything of such a size was too small and insignificant to even register a glance. And this was a very useful thing, in fact. An unnoticed bug could be a dangerous bug if given the proper chance.
And Gohan knew that he could be a dangerous bug indeed. If it was necessary, that was. It might not be.
He halted momentarily, wondering why the giant was not making any more attacks. His eyes glanced about, trying to find any sign of Krillin, but did not catch one. At last, Gohan closed his eyes, relying on that old trick of ki sensing that he had learned at some point during his life. While the dead did not truly have anything in the way of ki, there was always a residue, he had noticed. A residue of the power that the person had possessed in life. It was almost non-existent in even mighty warriors – he had seen a few of those, in the Relegation Room – and thus was not easy to detect. But if one was skilled enough in the art of ki sensing, and could concentrate hard enough, then it was possible to detect someone by his ki.
And as it happened, Gohan was both very skilled at ki-sensing, and possessed great concentration. He was able to lock onto Krillin's residual ki, and he opened his eyes to follow the trail.
He almost choked at what his eyes showed him. Oh, Krillin was here, all right – and being held between the huge hands of Kyojin, looking to be on the verge of being crushed. Whatever Krillin's strength had been before – and it had been considerable, in Gohan's observation – it had obviously taken such a hit that he could not escape form this grasp on his own. He was trapped.
So what was there to do? He could feel this monster's ki easily, and it dwarfed his as much as his body did. There was no way that he would be able to strike an effective blow, or one that the giant even would notice. How could he expect to free Krillin, if he could not do anything to warrant the monster's attention?
He had to think quickly – Krillin did not appear to have a lot of time left. Gohan glanced around desperately left and right, trying to find something that might serve as a distraction against Kyojin, but the only thing in sight were the mountains. And those were no help, really . . . Wait.
An idea formed inside of Gohan's head, triggered by a memory of something that had occurred just as he and Krillin had been escaping from the Relegation Room. That move he had used . . . It had seemed so familiar to him, even back then, when his memory had been at its foggiest. Something kept telling him that he knew that attack.
The Kamehameha Wave.
If he could remember how to do that, then there might be a chance to do something . . . But his memory still was not perfect, and he could not quite determine how the attack was performed.
But still, with nothing else to do – he heard Krillin cry out from above – Gohan knew that this was the only choice. He would have to go from recent memory and work out the rest of the details from there.
And he cupped his hands at his side, whispering the first syllables to the attack's name. "Ka . . . me . . ."
- -
The pain was getting worse and worse. He didn't even think that it had hurt this much when he had been killed – by Frieza, not by one of Piccolo Daimio's children, though both had been pretty painful. He supposed that when you were already dead that you could handle more pain without losing consciousness or any other additional bad things happening to you. Someone like Goku would probably enjoy finding out something like that, but to Krillin, it just wasn't very fun.
He continued to struggle, but to no avail. His strength was simply sapped too much from being thrown into the mountainside and subsequently crushed into Kyojin's hands. He wasn't giving up, though part of him wanted to. If it was just a matter of himself, he probably would have. But it was not a matter of just himself. Gohan Senior was a concern here, too. He had to buy the old man enough time to escape, to get to Judgement without being harmed by this brutal giant.
He could only hope that it was working out well.
He tried to wince, but did not have even the strength for that, as Kyojin laughed in his face as he slowly crushed him. It wasn't bad enough that he was likely suffering some fate worse than death, he had smell this thing's breath too.
But something caught his attention suddenly. A faint stirring of ki, he was surprised to note. And it was coming form nearby, almost right below him.
Despite his current situation, Krillin could not help his curiosity in this matter. Just what was going on down there? Strenuously, he turned his head toward that stirring of ki.
And he stiffened in shock. If he didn't know better, that was Gohan Senior down there, a blue ball of ki forming between his hands. Or so Krillin assumed – ki attacks being fired from the hands and all, as a matter of course. And Krillin was sure of which ki attack this was. There was only one, that he was aware of, anyway, that Gohan Senior knew how to perform. Or had when he was alive.
He was going to do a Kamehameha Wave.
This thought failed to hearten Krillin however, though he had to appreciate the old man's gustiness. But there was no way that any attack Gohan Senior could fire off was going to do anything more to Kyojin than make him itch. He appreciated the old man's thoughts and attempt to help, but it just wasn't worth the effort. There was no hope.
Or if there was a hope, it was the desperate, far fetched hope that Gohan Senior had some sort of plan. Krillin, with nothing else better to do, decided that he might as well latch on to that hope. It was his one and only shot.
- -
Word Count: 2,927