Contradicting Mission

Part 9

The boy woke up famished.

All through the day before, he had not eaten a bite, nor had he taken a sip of water since the time he woke up to the time he went to bed on that cold, Aeesu floor. As he opened his eyes, squinting in the bright halogen lights shining from above, he took a moment to reorient himself. He still expected to wake up in his own room, in his bed, the whole fiasco nothing more than a product of his unreigned mind. Somewhere along the lines, he had developed the sinking feeling that it was all very real indeed--quite depressing.

The room was colder than it had been when he went to bed. The air conditioning from hell must have gone into over drive since he went to sleep; no doubt making the Aeesu-jin more comfortable at his expence. He gratefully snuggled his body deeper under the foot of blankets above him, pulling his knees up to his chest and tucking his head under the blankets, blowing on his cold hands. He wrapped his tail around his arms that, despite the many blankets, felt naked.

He had a nasty taste in his mouth, no doubt from not eating and going two days without brushing his teeth. He scraped his fingernails along his tounge, trying to rid it of the nasty, white-colored film that had built up there over night. It didn't help much.

Still, he wasn't too uncomfortable. Despite the cold on the outside, he was nice and toasty under his fort of blankets, like a warm bun cooking in the oven. A warm, glazed bun, like the ones his mother would make him on cold winter nights. With extra butter and brown sugar. So sticky and good smelling..........he mentally slapped himself. Forcing himself to dismiss his stomach's screams of agony, the bun named Gohan sighed in reasonable contentment and closed his eyes to try to squeeze in a few more hours of sleep.

At the foot of his bed, a corner of his mound of blankets lifted, letting an unpleasant chill into his warm little blanket haven. He groaned and glared at the little spot of light that tore it's way into the darkness the heavy blankets provided. At first, it was just a small spot of light, letting in only a small draft of cold that tormented his bare toes. He drew his feet closer to his body.

The little speck of light got bigger, and an object, undefinable against the light that so disagreed his the boy's eyes, crept it's way under the blankets with him. Hoping it was a dream, he scooched away from the shadow of an object as far as he could without scooching all the way out from under the blankets. The shadow pushed it's way further under the blankets with him, the cold spot of light enlargening to allow the indestinguishable thing easier passage.

The object touched his leg, and he almost screamed when he realised it was a hand. A hand as cold as death, creaping it's way along his leg. The ice-cold hand was attached to an ice-cold arm. And as the object pushed it's way totally under the blankets with him, he recognized it as the cold-blooded body of an Aeesu-jin.

The Aeesu-jin known as Eesei. Gohan sighed with relief as well as annoyance and he scooted over to make room for her to fit under the blankets with him. The little Aeesu-jin girl curled up under the crook of his arm, the metalic plate on the top of her head feeling like an ice-cube to his once warm armpit while one of her horns jilted the blankets around his head in an uncomtortable angle that allowed cracks of light to spring up around the borders of his breached blanket domain, allowing the enemy--the cold--in..

"You're so warm!" she exclaimed, wrapping her freezing cold tail half-way around his torso and working her ice-cold hands up under his gi to rest against his rib cage.

I was so warm! He mentally yelled.

It was sheer torture. To Gohan, it felt like he had just come out of the sauna and curled up with a living ice-pack, wrapping it all the way around his body for some lunatic reason.

"I could stay here forever......," the little girl murmered, he very breath was like death as it brushed over his cheek.

"I was just getting up," the boy said, forcing his body to roll out from under the deep layer of blankets and into the freezing light without. He was begining to despise waking up, and, quite obviously, waking up didn't agree with him much either.

He lay on his back on the carpet outside his warm haven, watching his mound of blankets move around as Eesei took over his bed. His eyes drifted to the other side of the floor where he saw that Forester was still laying alseep, blissfully unaware the youth next to him felt his skin was hardening with ice-crystals. Gohan could see his breath spuming out of his nostrils and mouth as he waited for his body to adjust to the cold.

Not satisfied with the speed of his metabolism, he forced his groggy body to sit up, scrambling around for his boots. He found them at the foot of the couch. Blowing warm air into each before pulling them on, he was glad they were so thick and heat conserving, all the better to thaw out toes. He pulled the orange layer of his gi on, and wrapped one of the thicker blankets around his shoulders before standing up. Looking about the room, he saw the couch was empty--wasn't Forester going to sleep there? The boy's muddled mind dismissed it. Carefully stepping over the prone body of Forester, Gohan made his way to the kitchen.

He was pleased to see that Sunow was already up and sitting at the small kitchen table, sipping from a mug as he read over something on his portable computer.

"Good morning."

"Oh!" the Aeesu-jin jumped in his seat, "Son Gohan, you're up. I thought you'd sleep for at least two more hours."

"So did I," the boy said sadly, thinking of his warm haven behind him--now property of Eesei the ice-pack. He pulled the blanket around his shoulders tighter. Sunow watched with fascination as steam rose from the boy's mouth every time he breathed. It was always strange to observe warm blooded organisms.

"Care for a drink? It's warm," Sunow offered, pouring a steaming, amber liquid from a pitcher into a mug similar to the one he had been sipping from.

The boy accepted the brew and held it to his face. Taking a whiff of the substance before daring to ingest it, he could have sworn he smelled caffine in it. Perhaps coffee's planetary cousin? With a shrug of conviction, the boy took a swig. He nearly gagged. Coffee's stronger planetary cousin.

Sunow laughed, "Carefull, the stuff packs a punch! Still, it really warms up the system and kick-starts a day."

"I'll say," the boy said, taking a second, more confident swig The stuff was strong, but also very good. He wondered if he'd ever be able to accept Earth coffee again. It was also pleasant to have something--anything--in his stomach.

Sunow smiled and set down his cup and computer, "You said there was something about Aeesu-sei time you wanted to ask about?"

"Oh, right," Gohan said, cramming his hand into his pocket and exploring around for the piece of paper he had stuck there before going to bed last night. Handing it to Sunow, he asked, "What does the time written here say?"

"Well, in your time, this is about five hours from now," Sunow said, having a hard time trying to accually explain what the series of numbers on the paper said. How does one explain time?

Gohan held the mug to his lips, letting the steam from the warm drink heat up his nose for a moment before taking a few more swallows, enjoying its potency. So he had five hours before he would could go see the doctor? Strange, how the day before he had been so busy, running around, getting identification, checkups, temporary residence, and today.......... Today he had to find some way to fill five hours in a small, three bedroom apartment.

He suddenly remembered something. Speaking his mind's question aloud, he said "How do I get there?"

"Hm?" Sunow asked, pausing in mid-sip.

Gohan felt slightly embarassed, "I don't really know how to move around down here. It's like a maze with no end."

Sunow laughed, setting his coffee down to avoid spilling. The boy lowered his head as his face darkened.

"It's perfectly normal," the Aeesu-jin finally said, "Most aliens don't adjust well here. Even the ones raised here as servants, or have lived here for years. They just don't have it in their blood like we Aeesu-jin. I wonder why the scientists haven't done further study on the subject......." He retrieved his mug, tilted his head back as he drained the last of his drink in one gulp, and took a refill.

"Lack of tests subjects, I imagine," the boy said, pulling a stool out from under the table and sitting across from Sunow. Resting his arms on the table, he leaned forward, looking at the small portable computer. It was hardly more than a squarish, 4x6 flat piece of tech-material with buttons and a screen on it, "What are you looking at?"

The Aeesu-jin suddenly stiffened, pulling the computer out of his sight and putting it under the table, "Nothing. Just the latest details on my assignment."

"Oh?" Gohan asked, not without noticing the sudden turn of character, "What do you do exactly?"

"A freelance director of investigation and information retrieval."

Analysing the words, the boy finally asked, "So you're a detective?"

Sunow tilted his head back, downed his entire mug of coffee, refilling his cup once again, "You're obviously not familiar with Aeesu protocol."

Realizing he was pressing, the boy confined his eyes to his cup, where he watched himself slowly run his forefinger along the rim, "Sorry."

Sunow hadn't gotten much sleep when he went to bed. He lay on his soft mattress, modified to give maximum comfort to his size and shape, and wondered about the mysterious four people that had moved into his house. Something about them made him uneasy, like he felt they were hiding something important from him. But what could they be hiding, with someone so innocent as Son Gohan on their side?

Perhaps he was giving them too much credit. Giving Gohan too much credit. They were off-planets after all; most off planets were criminals, weren't they? Simply Aeesu-jin who had it in big with Heng and decided to abandon planet for the duration of life. So wouldn't that make Freeza a criminal in the least? Or was it his father than sent his lineage spiraling into space, never to be embraced or accepted by the population of planet Aeesu? Or was it his father's father. Or farther back. How far back does an off-planet's family go until it hits the criminal that started it?

Hours and hours of musings wore heavily on Sunow, as he realized the hard way. Rubbing at a still sleep-puffy eye and nursing his coffee, he studied the quiet, polite boy that sat with him at the kitchen table. And what of him? Was he in cahoots with the criminal, or was the innocence of his face true? Something about the shadows in the boy's eyes seemed to kill the innocent look about him. What could this little boy have possibly seen to put that look there? When the light hit him right, he seemed to transform from a young teenager to a withered old man, long since sapped of strength and waiting for life to slip out of him like a mist from a pond. A fresh body with an exhasted soul. The boy downed the last of his coffee and accepted a refill.

Sunow felt sudden--albeit irrational--pity for the boy.

"Nearly everyone in this side of the underground knows where Dr. Koda lives," the Aeesu-jin said.

The boy glanced at him from around his mug.

"And so do I. Tell you what, I'll be going by his office on my way to report to Backlash today, I could always drop you off there on my way."

The boy's eyes widened and he smiled, momentarily chasing the shadows in his eyes away to allow him the boyish composure he deserved, "Really? It won't be out of your way?"

"Directly colinear. Right along my way."

The boy's shoulders sagged with relief, "Thank you." The two exchanged smiles, and for the first time Gohan felt confident that these Aeesu-jin weren't all a bad lot.

A swish sound drifted into the kitchen from the livingroom, no doubt one of the automatic doors to the bedrooms. The boy and the Aeesu-jin became silent as they heard the sound of feet walking downt the hall, through the livingroom full of sleeping children. Hardly seconds later, the door frame was filled--or half filled--with the form of Garlic. He had removed his cape during the night, which for some reason made his head look abnormally large. Gohan didn't bother smiling, he just didn't have the energy to show pleasure when one of them was around.

"Drink?" Sunow offered, tapping on the pitcher of coffee, "It's warm."

The gremlin's eyes darted to see Gohan was already drinking the substance, then at Sunow's mug. With a sigh of what sounded like condecention, he gave a hardly audible nod--yes, he would like a drink. Sunow poured a third mug--Gohan only now noticed the Aeesu-jin had set out the extra cups in advance. After handing the demon a warm cup, the boy could still count two empty ones, just waiting for Freeza and Bojack to wake up and put them to use.

Only two cups?

"Doesn't Forester drink this stuff?" The boy asked quietly; he always seemed to loose his enthusiasm when one of them was around. It was a curious fact that had caught Sunow's attention. He was begining to think the boy's change in composure was born from more than just conflicting ideas in manners. The boy seemed to watch the gremlin's every move as though he expected him to suddenly lash out and attack. All Garlic really did, however, was pull the last chair out from under the table and sit down, his chin hardly two inches above the table-top. Sunow found it funny, anyway.

He turned his attention back to Son Gohan's question.

"My Forester? Goodness, no. He hates the stuff, says it tastes like paint," Sunow said, adding, "Most Aeesu-jin kids don't like it."

The boy nodded his head and returned his attention to his coffee. He seemed to find something highly fascinating about running his finger tips along the rim, an action Sunow took as a newly born nervious habit. What, oh what linked Garlic and Son Gohan together? It seemed almost crazy, but Sunow felt like the two of them should fighting, trying to kill eachother. Not just that, but like they should all be fighting eachother, waging a crazy, violent, four-way war of destruction and death, eventually concluding in only the supreme winner left standing.

A strange thing to feel when you've only met the people the night before. Still, the rigid way Gohan and Garlic sat, keeping constant vigil over one another through the corner of their eyes as they sipped their coffee in edgy silence made it hard to dispel such a wild notion.

Garlic stood.

"Well, this has been pleasant," he said, and headed toward the kitchen exit. He paused in the door way as though he were considering saying something further, but only drew back his blue lips to reveal his sharp canines at Gohan in a toothy smile. He exited the room; not long after Sunow and Gohan heard his door swish open and close, presumably, behind him.

Sunow observed the look on Son Gohan's face was darker, moodier, than it had been when he originally said good morning. A fact that only fed Sunow's curiosity. Sure the little gremlin was a generally rude fellow, but so far, Sunow couldn't find any truely tangible reasons to despise him. The whole time Sunow had accually known the little man, he couldn't have spoken twelve words. He hadn't been noticably unpleasant this morning--despite the carnivorous grin he had sicced on Gohan. So why did the boy have such an obvious dislike of him?

He seemed like the forgiving type of child, not letting bad emotions fester....... But what about that shadow that occationally graced his eyes? The boy must have seen many bad things in his life, and perhaps Garlic and the other two were part of that badness.

But then why the hell would he be working with them?!

"Son Gohan, may I ask a question that may border-line nosey?"

The boy looked up. The darker look Garlic's presence had put on his face dwindled and faded; perhaps it was good to keep his mind off darker things. But Gohan was nervious. What if Sunow asked about Earth again? Or about the mission? What could one say to answer what they were doing on Aeesu-sei in the first place?

We're here from a future where you can count the number of Saiya-jin and Aeesu-jin alive, combind, on one hand. We're here to save your planet from getting destroyed prematurely--oh, rest assured it will be destroyed in due time, just not yet. How did we get here? We're not sure exactly. Some Kami from another reality just sort of teleported us here--yes, another reality, don't look at me like that. How did he know about your planet's fate? We don't know. What exactly is going to happen here? We don't know, we're just hoping to get lucky enough to find out. So, who's up for another round of coffee?

Gohan was quite sure he'd be better off simply checking himself into the local asylum. He had been on Aeesu-sei for a good two days plus and was still having a hard time accepting it. How could anyone else?

"What is your connection to your three companions?"

The boy licked his lips. "What exactly do you mean?"

Sunow thought for a second, "Well......okay, you three obviously don't get along. Those three seem to hate you with a vengance; from what I've seen, you don't exactly carry affection for them. What causes you to harbor this mutual dislike?"

"Before arriving here, I don't think any of them knew eachother. They are connected through me." Gohan paused to wonder if that made sense, "And they know me because......well, we just met before."

"Meeting doesn't usually bring about loathing."

"I didn't say we met on friendly terms."

"Are you going to elaborate?"

The boy sighed. Now came a second problem. Memories. Unpleasant, hair-raising memories that would be better left alone, forgotten. A nightmare in which he had woken up from and would never have to worry about having again. Gohan was pretty sure it was an unhealthy way of looking at the bad things in the past, that it would probably be better in the long run to just accept all that happened to him so he could start finding a way to heal his battered soul. Perhaps some day he would, too. Not right now, though. This was not the place to try coming to terms with a life-time's worth of painful memories.

"Oh, you know. They tried to kill me, I faught back."

"Why would they want to kill you?"

Gohan closed his mouth. This was edgy territory, a place he could slip up and mention something that might give away something. At least give away something that might make Sunow suspisious enough to press further. He had caught on to Gohan's occational reference to Earth, hadn't he? And he was a detective of sorts; it was his job to catch things people said. And what about the dragonballs? Garlic and Freeza had been after those wish-granting spheres and he had stood in the way, making them an indirect reason for his enemies to want to kill him. And he would not, could not bring the dragonballs into this mess as well.

"Okay, fair enough, if that's too personal of a question," Sunow allowed. The perplexion on the boy's face had drawn his skin tight along his forehead. Downcast eyes, pursed lips........that area was off limits for discussion, it seemed. "May I ask how long you've known them?"

A brief pause of consideration followed, eventually the boy answered, "I first me Garlic when I was four. Freeza when I was five. I just met Bojack last year."

"That long ago? You were so young--you are so young. My goodness. One more question then I promise I'll stop," Sunow said, letting the fact that a little boy like this had faced death more times than he had. Gohan tensed in anticipation of the next question, "May I ask why you're working with them? I mean.....I don't think I could work well with people out to kill me."

"I wouldn't have expected it, either," the boy said, "Until just these past couple of days, I would have considered them all dead."

Sunow waited for the boy to continue, but the answer never came forth. The boy only emptied his mug and stared into it's empty interior in thought. Then the his face suddenly contorted. A deep rumbling sound filled the miniature kitchen and Gohan bent over at the waist wrapping his arms around his stomach, resting his forehead on the table. He moaned.

Alarmed and concerned, Sunow asked, "What's wrong?!"

The boy moaned again, "I haven't eaten all day yesterday or this morning."

"How often does your species normally eat?" The Aeesu-jin--totally ignorant about food intake--asked. Couldn't one die if they didn't eat enough? It was a strange concept to one who's never consumed anything besides liquids.

"Around three of four times a day," the boy paused to allow his stomach to emite another frightening sound, "I thought that maybe drinking something would help, and it did for a while, but.....well, now it's back with a vengance."

"I suppose we should get you something to eat, then." The Aeesu-jin said, pushing back his chair and rising, "You know, you really should mention these things before hand. I could have gotten you food last night."

The boy looked at him, "I was too busy to realize I was hungry, I guess. I was more cold and tired last night."

Clearing the used cups off the counter, Sunow rinsed them off and put them away in a cabinet in the far wall. Drying his hands off with a towel, he said, "I understand perfectly. One moment and we'll go get some nurishment for that body of yours. I have to get Forester and Eesei up to go to their lessons, and I have to call ahead to schedual my meeting with Backlash. Departure time in half an hour, go get ready."

"Right," the boy said and left the small kitchen, dragging the blanket on his shoulders behind him like a pretend cape.

Making his way through the livingroom, which looked like a war zone with all the blankets tossed around and two 'dead' bodies laying lifelessly about, he meandered down the hall way to the bathroom. The door opened before him and swished closed behind him, cealing him in. The bathroom was as empty as it was last night, a fact that surprised him more than it really should have.

Resisting the urge to strip down and take another long, warm bath, he made his way to the mirror to check his appearance, dropping his blanket on the floor as he went. He didn't look half bad. The bags under his eyes were gone--thanks to blessed sleep-- and he looked pretty much refreshed. He was surprised to see his hunger wasn't evident; from the way he felt, he thought his ribs would be sticking out through a thin layer of skin. He would have sworn his skull would be visible through his face, cheeks hanging loosely on his jowels, cheekbones sharp, eyes sunken into their sockets. His hands should have been shrunken to mere claws, hardly anything more than bones and a minimal amount of muscle to move them.

None of these features were visible. His eyes were bright, his face was perfectly fleshed out, his ribs as padded by thick, sinous muscle, his hands stong and durable. Nearly horrified that he would feel this bad by going a mere day without food, he wondered what sort of shape he would be in if he went two days. Any longer and he was sure he'd be dead. He felt a new-found respect for peope in third-world countries that only ate once a week.

Getting off task again.

The only thing wrong with his appearance was his hair. It had looked bad last night, but now--two days without mantainance--it had no rhyme or reason to it at all. It seemed to have gotten spikier overnight, the stiff strands shooting off in every direction in a blatant disregard for gravity and its laws. Running a hand through it, he was surprised to find there were no snarls, his fingers traveled through the raven black strands as though it were liquid coal. It was just spiky.

That must be how Saiya-jins can go years without brushing their hair.

Nevertheless, he ran his fingers through his hair a few more times, giving it a vague idea of which direction to go to perhaps attempt the usual orderliness he preferred. He wanted to look presentable when he met the doctor again--he was pretty sure he didn't look so the first time.

As an afterthought, he ran a quick splash of water out of the bathtub faucet and ran it over his face, then went on to wash his hands and arms to the elbow. It was nice to have access to warm water on this kami-forsaken ice-ball of a planet.

How much more time did he have left? Deciding to risk it, he sat on the edge of the tub and removed his boots, rolling his pantlegs up to his knees. Turning the red knob, steaming hot water came gushing out on his now exposed toes. On this alien, hostile planet, there couldn't be many things better than this. Hot water on his cold feet, the steam wisping up his legs, the smell of heat was more than enough to make him smile. He took his time, massaging the arch of each foot under the hot water to not only clean them but to help him relax. Now this was a stress-relief therapy he could get used to.

Almost reluctantly, he turned the water off and walked on tip-toes across the cold tile floor to dry each foot off with the blanket he had abandoned on entering. Once satisfied that he wasn't getting any drier, he pulled his boots back on and--checking his appearance once more in the mirror--made his way back to the living room.

Sunow, Forester and Eesei were waiting for him by the door. Bojack must have gotten up after he went into the bathroom, as the blue giant was now sprawling quite comfortably on the couch, feet up on the cusions and a cup of the hot coffee Sunow served held in one of his massive hands. Gohan wondered if he ever sat properly, or even knew how. The boy chose to ignore his presence in the room completely.

It took Gohan a moment of looking to notice that the two children wore sashes across their chests, Forester's a deep hunter-green and Eesei's a sunny yellow. Each sash was trimmed with light blue and had writing on them in a language the boy could not recognize. Aeesu-go, no doubt.

Tapping Eesei's sash, he asked, "What's this?"

"We have to wear them at our lessons, they tell out school and our grade," Forester said, his voice sounded less irritated than it had last night.

Like Aeesu-jin school uniforms, the boy thought.

"Kids are supposed to wear them whenever they go out," Sunow explained, elbowing Forester in a silent hint, "But most don't."

"That's because their embarassing!" the Aeesu-jin boy said, wrapping both his fists around the sash he loathed, "Look at this thing, it's hidious."

Gohan smiled, bemused. Nice to know other planet's kids hated wearing uniforms, too. So strange how similarities like that could be found universe wide.

Any potential conversation was cut short by a particuarly raucous howl emited unintentionally by Gohan's stomach.

"Looks like it's time to go," Sunow said, trying not to stare at the boy's abdomen. It was fascinating to think an internal organ could make such a remakable sound. Organisms that ate solids sure were quirky. The adult Aeesu-jin turned his attention to the relaxed form of Bojack, "We're leaving now, tell the others that we're gone."

The Biraju-jin lifted his cup in acknowledgement and nodded his head.

Sunow sighed at such indifference as he, his two children and Gohan left the apartment.

****

Gohan, now rested up and not half way gone into lunacy from lack of sleep, still found the other Aeesu-jin that wandered the halls incredible to look at. Perhaps an Aeesu-jin would think the same about planet Earth and the vast variety of different human characteristics; none the less, to this particular Saiya-jin/human boy, this was unusual.

Carefully staying within five feet from Sunow and his brood at all times to avoid risk of getting lost in this swamped, over-trafficed, series of well lit catecombs, he tried to figure out how to navigate through them. He looked at walls, cealings, floors, hoping to find a number, a word--in any language!--something! There was nothing to be seen, however.

He thought of another method--doubtful that it was the Aeesu-jin way, but still a worthy possibility--in which to navigate. If these underground tunnels were anything like streets were, then there might be hope. Three dimentional streets. After all, if one were to travel three blocks north, then four blocks west, they would reach the same destination as they would if they traveled four blocks west first, then three blocks south. If that were the case, all Gohan would have to do is count the number of times he went left, right, up or down, then flip them backwards to get home. If he turns six times to the left, five times to the right, and two times down, then, surely, to get back to where he started from, all he would have to do is go back six times to the right, five times to the left, and two times up. Hopefully.

Still, it must work better than trying to remember left, right, right, left, up, left, right............

The boy started counting his turns even as he soaked in the different looking Aeesu-jin. The two tasks seemed to eat up time faster than it would have gone if he were wandering aimlessly behind Sunow.

Six turns to the left and four turns to the right later, the group of four stopped infront of a broad, heavy looking door. Above it was writen the words 'Grades 1-12' and below that was written the strange dialect Gohan recognized from Forester and Eesei's sashes. This must be where they go for their lessons.

"Bye, Papa," Forester said as the door swished open to admit him and his sister, "We'll come straight home after class."

"Bye bye, Papa!" Little Eesei peeped, waving energetically to him as she ran through, "I'll paint you an' Gohan a pretty picture!"

Gohan and Sunow waved as the doors closed between them and the school kids, cealing them from sight.

"Now, Son Gohan," Suno said with conviction, "Time for you to eat."

The boy sighed with relief as his stomach murmured in anticipation; he turned and allowed the Aeesu-jin to lead him down the hall.

With his new attempt at navigation, he figured that they were back tracking, running partly over the coarse they had already adventured. When they had reduced their distance until--by Gohan's figuring--three turns to the left and one turn to the right away from where Sunow's home was located, they turned off in a different directin. The boy had to add an extra level to his figuring when the two of them came to what looked like an elevator shaft with no elevator in it and started to fly upward. He started counting floors. Five floors up they emerged from the horizontal shaft and continued their track.

Something seemed different. It was strange. Nothing had really changed, it was still freezing, too bright, crowded with intimidating Aeesu-jin that took the time off from whatever their destination to glare at him, but for some reason Gohan didn't feel as......uncomfortable. Perhaps it was because he had come up with a semblance of knowing where he was. Though he still had no way of knowing how to accually get out of this underground, frozen hell, he still had--hopefully--a way to get back to Sunow's apartment. Perhaps it was because he had already met two Aeesu-jin he felt he could trust. Perhaps it was because he had gotten a reasonably good night's sleep.

Either way, he walked with more confidence. Something had changed, and it was for the better. He could only hope it wasn't the calm before the storm.

Eight lefts, six rights. Ten. Twenty. How far were they going?! Gohan was begining to wonder if Sunow was lost, until the moment the Aeesu-jin said the words he had been longing for.

"We're here."

Looking up at where they had stopped, the door was emens; thick and heavy. Unlike most doors, this one looked dirty, greasy, very out of place in what Gohan had percieved as an immaculate civilization. A closer look proved that, indeed, various foods had been ground into the door and its surroundings. Some was sticky, some crusty, some very old, most unidentifiable.

Sunow reached a tentative hand up to the door-open button. Even this was covered in various grody substances, but here the shape was more that of finger and hand prints than mindless smearing. The Aeesu-jin forced himself to push the button, immidiatly wiping his hand on his hip afterward.

The door gave out a grinding sound, and instead of quietly swishing out of the way like all the other doors the boy had encountered, this one slowly, squeakily, started to move aside. It seemed to take forever, and the hunger-driven Saiya-jin side of the boy nearly tore the door out of its frame to get inside at the food. The Earthling half, however, was trying to get him to go the opposite direction. The shape the door was in, the smeared food, the crusty, rotten looking layer......

Oh, kami. What if what Freeza said about Aeesu-sei food is true?!

When a big enough crack appeared between the door and the wall, the boy swore he could see the air inside seeping out, like a clawing, dying animal making an run for a second chance on life. The air was grayish, smokey, gritty looking. But, oh kami, sight is nothing compared to smell.

Gohan had never spent a week in a small locker with six rotting, festering bodies of various rodents, but he swore that whatever was on the other side of that door must be its equivilent. The smell forced its way out as the door finished opening, assaulting his nose, tearing its way into his lungs and traveling south to hassle his empty stomach.

Sunow gagged and covered his mouth. Gohan lurched over as his stomach tried to empty its non-existant contents on the tile floor. He tasted the remains of the coffee he'd had that morning welling up on the back of his tounge taking four steps backward, bending over at the waste. It was the odor of rancid meat. Rotten food. The smell of death.

"Oh, kami," the boy moaned through his hand, trying to swallow the bile that was forcing its way upward, "I can't eat in there!"

After a moment of no one entrering through it, the door decided it had been opened long enough and made its grinding, chugging way closed again, blessedly cutting off the assault of tainted-meat smell that befell the two unfortunate people.

"You aren't going to eat in there," Sunow said, wincing in mere memory of the horrible stench, "This is only the main enterance to the dining hall. That horrible smell was coming from the mess hall where all the slaves eat. No sane man with half a mind would eat there unless he were on the verge of death by starvation--and even then there are hundreds of cases a year where a slave rathers to die than eat what they serve."

Finally regaining control of his gag reflex, Gohan managed to ask, "What do they serve there?"

"Whatever you smelled. I don't want to guess. Are you still even hungry?"

"Yes," the boy answered without hesitation, "But I think my stomach shrank and twisted in agony. It's like a perversed version--a sick mockery--of food. Oh, kami, do they really feed living, breathing beings stuff like that?"

For this, Sunow had no answer.

"So we have to go in to get food?" Gohan asked finally.

"Sorry to say, yes. But you don't have to eat and smell that.......terrible.......stench. Just inside this door there is a hall that branches off from the main room. Through it is were beings eat when their masters are willing to pay for more appropriate edibles."

"Right. Let's go," the boy said, trying to steel his senses against the assult he knew he would have to endure. Eyes on the prize, he reminded himself, think of all the good foods Mom makes.

Warm chicken dumplings in rice, served with candied yams.

Sunow hit the door-open again, and the enterance chugged open. The foul air burst forth. With a force of will power, the boy forced himself through. Sunow followed.

Hot tomatoe soup with shart cheddar cheese and cranberry muffins.

Inside, the air was thick and smoggy. Only allowing himself a quick look around, the boy could make out large, alien forms sitting at dirty round table, plates filled with unknown substances before them. Thank every kami in the known universe he couldn't make out what was on those plates through the smoke. Some of the aliens were puffing at foul smelling cigars and foreign looking cigarettes, the glowing ember at the end of each was probably the only light in the room except for the soft red lighting that creeped in from unknown sources. At the back of the room, Gohan could barely make out a line of people that led up to a bar. Accually waiting in line for the horrible grotesqueness, here called food. Oh, kami the smell.

Macaroni and cheese with peas and steamed broccoli and cheese cake for dessert.

He felt Sunow grab his arm and begin to lead him off to the side. Overwhelmed by the horrible odor, he could only allow himself to half-dragged across the room, all the while cursing his keen Saiya-jin sense of smell in all the ways he knew of. Something about the smell was familiar. It was a tinny, rusty smell; for some reason it felt like he knew it. It didn't take long to dawn on him. Blood. Kami, he smelled blood. Drying blood, dripping blood, old blood, new blood. It was all here, all so familiar. He remembered smelling blood before. Many, many times. His blood, his father's blood, Piccolo-san's, Vegita's. All those horrible smells gathered together in a far more primal place than memories.

Mostly, he couldn't stop remembering the smell of his own blood. Everywhere. On him, on the ground below him, on his opponent--who at the moment was an abstract combination of all things evil his subconscions collectively percieved as 'the bad guy'-- his blood flying through the air above him, splattering back on his face. Oh, kami. He was going to bleed to death! How could one loose this much blood and still live?!

Warm apple pie, pot roast, scalloped potatoes, spicey chicken with bean curd.

Next he knew, he was no longer in that dark, dingy room. It was light, like all the other hallways and rooms he had been in while traveling the populated areas of Aeesu-sei. The smell was no longer waifting about him, no longer arousing memories of the subconscious, no longer making him feel like he were dying. He had made him. He and Sunow had made it. And, even after the horrible expiriance he had just endured, he still found himself hungry. More than hungry.

Ravenous.

"Hard part's over," Sunow said beside him, sighing in relief. He hadn't missed the way the boy's eyes hazed over half-way across the room, hadn't missed the sudden look of panic and fear, as though he were looking helplessly into the face of death . But, the Aeesu-jin realized, that was all just another little mystery of the boy named Son Gohan--a boy whose mysteries and memories would probably never be entirely revealed to him, or anyone else. Through and through, this kid was on in a million. "Now all we have to do is find a table."

To be continued........