To See the Old Neightborhood.....

Part 28

In all truth and light, Gohan, with all his smarts and all his expiriance in the many situations his topsy-tervy life had stuck him in, had no clue as to what to expect. The only thing he knew was that he was taking a risk. A risk for his sanity, a risk for his health, a risk for his brother, and heck, a risk for existance. But did he have any alternatives? Perhaps he did. But, in this present situation, he didn't have the time to think, as danger was not only knocking at his door but was rattling his door knob and banging on his windows. So he shouted two words he had hoped he wouldn't have to use ever in his hopefully long life.

"Kyushu suru!"

And, though it seemed to Goten, Lomen and especially Gohan that time was staggering by as fast as molasses, the whole ordeal took up the time-slot of perhaps 1.3 seconds. The ball of too many chi's came upon the brothers. Desperation and self preservance lurred Goten to dive to the dirt, arms protecting his head and eyes scrunched shut. He recognized his brother calling out the one attack he had hoped he wouldn't. Kyushu suru? Oh, nichan! Not that! Don't let that thing touch you, much less go into you! Don't do it, don't do it, don't do it!!

But Gohan must not have been listening to his younger sibling's thoughts at the moment, for he did it. As the twisted blast hit his hands, all second thoughts were null. It was too late. Any alternatives that were trying to crawl into the half-Saiyan's mind were stopped in their tracks as the blast gave one more torturious flash of light, as though it were refusing to go quietly. But then it did go. Right into Gohan's body.

Gohan, as stated earlier, had no clue what to expect. He speculated in that short 1.3 seconds that he had before absorbtion a million and one possible out comes to taking this risk. Some were weak attemtps at positive; perhaps it would be easy to control! Perhaps it would feel just like any other chi he had tried to absorb! Maybe.......maybe it would be even easier since his own chi was part of the bunch! Most speculations, however, were wrought with suffering, pain, death, insanity and loss of control. He might explode, he might go mad, he might this, he might that, he might, he might HE MIGHT! None of his thoughts, however, helped him to prepare for what he felt.

He felt nearly nothing at all.

Like the brush of a pidgeon feather agenst his palm, the blast, after its impressive violent flash of light, went dormantly into Gohan's own suply of chi without a second attempt for freedom. There was no pain, no hard to control explotions of chi. Perhaps Gohan did notice a slight flux when the energy entered his body, temporarily screwing up his control, but nothing, NOTHING he had expected. The evil, twisted nature of the power now just left a light chi residue. A bad odour that hangs aroung a place even after the trash has been taken out.

Goten looked confusedly at his brother, who intern looked confusedly at his own palm which had done the feat. Lomen, too, was stopped in his motion to stare. True, he had been told before that this man-boy supposedly had the power to absorb chi. But.......but........IT WASN'T SUPPOSED TO BE TRUE!! Lomen, in all his expertise of chi manipulation and practice of his sacred, special power, had never found anyone who could accually absorb chi as he could. He was now in a field yet untested or faught on before. As far as he or Gohan knew, there had never been a fight between two people who could do Kyushu suru before. In truth, before this meeting neither would have fathomed that another to use it could exist. It was, in all due rights, a momentus, frightful occation.

Who would win? That was yet unknown. Lomen had years, and yes decades of more expiriance and practice in this aria, but he had yet to be able to maintain the power he had stolen permanantly. The false power, if not let out, would eventually seep out of Lomen's body in a slow, sometimes painfull process that often left him pale, short of breath and irritable. He was already feeling earsigns of withdraw, for though he had managed to tap a few strands of chi from Gohan, he had used them all up applying them into the attack Gohan now possesed. It had been considerable years since he had needed to use other's power in a battle. He was markably strong even on his own, and had had plenty of time to completely recover from past expiriances. If Lomen didn't write the book on Kyushus suru, then he at least knew every line by heart.

Gohan, still young in the world, had always been a fast learner. He had managed to learn chi manipulation, the art of Kyushu suru, from merely watching his father during practice. The attack he learned was uncannily similar, if not identical, to Lomen's form of Kyushu suru. The only difference was the reactions each of their bodies went through. The Saiyan body did not adapt well to foreign chi, much as Saiyan chi does not adapt well when abosrbed into a different person's chi. It was for this reason that, way back when Goku and Gohan had first tried out this new tecnique, Goku had had such a hard time controling the chi he absorbed from Gohan*. As well as this explains the difficulty Gohan had while fighting Vegita.**

(* See 'Endangered Saiyans') (**See 'Rought Fight on a Picnic Afternoon')

Perhaps it is due to the Saiyan lineage. Generation after generation of fighting, their very chi faught. It faught when they slept. It faught when they ate. It faught when they were born, as they lived, as they died, and even faught after they died. A Saiyan chi is restless. Demanding. Always ready, and indeed needy, of a fight. A fight to keep the very chi happy. The blazing, anxious, excitable, eager, ever ready to go chi of a Saiyan. It was their power, their downfall, and their blazing will to survive.

Now put this reckless, violent chi into another person's body. Into another person, and another chi's body. It would be equivilent of putting a mad dog into a pen with another dog. The chi's would fight. The strongest chi would eventually dominate the weaker one. Or, in the case of the fight between Vegita and Gohan, the chi within eventually would end at a draw, with both chi's so worn out that the body had nothing left to fight with if not discharged.

If one over uses Kyushu suru when it comes to absorbing a Saiyan's chi, it can build up. If the absorber moved fast enough, the power that comes off of the battling chi within him can give him a boost in power. However, it is unwise and unhealthy to go too long like this. The residue of chi left behind can build up. If that chi builds up too much, it forces it's way to the surface.

The result: an uncontrolable, huge discharge of chi that explodes out of the body.

Half-Saiyans seemed to be different. More adaptable, less full of fight, their chi is much more maintainable. Still strong, but not battle crazed. Controlable, though still anxious, it made for good short term use as Lomen had found out, but it was flighty, ticklish, and rather quick to use itself up. Perhaps part of this reason was that it came from children, whose characters seemed to naturally demand high action, but wore out quickly.

All the areas of Kyushu suru had yet to be explored.

For, even with all this explained, there was yet to be a truely good explaination as to why Gohan didn't seem affected at all from the blast he had absorbed from Lomen. It could be because some of his own chi had been incorperated into it. Or that Lomen had already broken the chi in to a more servable level. Or that the chi had been moved around so much it had lost some of the fight in it.

Either way, things had to continue.

And Gohan made the next move.

In his raised palm, he made an exact replica of the blast he had just absorbed, in all of it's twisted, warped glory.

And he threw it back at its original creator.

****

Goku whistled as he and his fathet continued to fly toward the fray. A quick questioning look from Bardock prompted him to say, "This fight's gettin' interesting!"

Bardock grinned a Saiyan grin. That was good. He liked an interesting fight, and hoped he would be able to play a part in it. He didn't even need to be told they were almost there. The flashing lights on the horizon (a sure sign of a battle) was enough to give it away.

****

"Well, THAT was surprising!" Trunks said to Radditz as they and the little Vegita continued to fly along.

Radditz nodded, "I didn't think Gohan would try something so stupid as to absorb that.......thing."

"Accually, it was the best thing to do in that situation," Trunks said, and gave a slightly warning look, "Gohan is a smart guy. He doesn't DO stupid things when it really counts. Especially when Goten might be in danger."

Radditz furrowed his brow a moment as he searched harder at the clump of chi's he only slightly felt. Oh, yeah. He hadn't noticed Goten's chi there before. True, he had already been told that the boy was with his brother, but Radditz hadn't known that Goten was so close to the tainted attack. It was indeed as Trunks had said. If Gohan had dodged, Goten might have been hurt.

And Radditz knew far too well the extent Son family members would go to avoid their kin being hurt.

Thoughtfully, Radditz rubbed a certain area on his stomach. Though there was no hole there, he still could sometimes almost feel it. Feel that laceration, that pain. A strange feeling of wind running coldly through a bodily hole that just DIDN'T belong there. Phantom pain of some sort? That usually only happens when one loses a limb, doesn't it? Radditz didn't even have a scar. He was glad of that. A scar of that size would have probably given him many problems; abdominal muscles were some of the most used muscles in the body.

Either way, the phantom pain was enough. It was a constant reminder as to the love and protection shared by his brother and his family. With love, fear of your own death came second.

Radditz suddenly felt a pang of concern for his nephew, despite the fact that he hated being concerned.

It just seemed unnatural for such a Saiyan. He kept himself consoled that he was almost there. He could feel that much at least.

****

Lomen, positions reversed, did exactly as Gohan had. He raised his hands and the blast went straight into his own power source. He didn't even bother yelling the move's name.

It didn't feel as he had hoped it would. He had hoped that with the exact blast he had used returned to him, his power would go back up to the high it had been at earlier.

Unfortunatly not so.

Infact, his power didn't go up at all. The blast simply vanished into his body where it must have gotten lost or something, cause he certainly couldn't feel his chi rising. Well, that was certainly a downer.

Gohan didn't give him a chance to act further. He flew in, fist raised, to deliver a hopefully fatal impact. He was growing agitated with all this Kyushu suru going on here. By what must be luck, Lomen managed to raise a hand to block, and caught Gohan's raging fist.

Not questioning his luck, Lomen didn't hesitate to start immidiate absorbion of any and all the chi he could get out of Gohan. And in doing so, he started making a link to his chi. Still momentarily surprised that his attack had been stopped, Gohan didn't even notice his dropping power at first. And when he did, Lomen had already gathered enough to tighten his grip, stealing more, faster, as he grew anxious to own it all.

But Gohan was also a fast thinker. His keep ability to feel chi allowed him to almost SEE his power as it pumped into Lomen's greedy hand. And apon seeing his target, Gohan reached out with his own ability and started stealing it right on back!

Lomen was stunned! He had expected the man-boy to try to physically pull his hand free, but he had NOT expected him to fight fire with fire!

It was now a tug of war. Lomen pulling Gohan's chi out of his body, and Gohan pulling it right on back-taking some of Lomen's power with it. Back and forth, Lomen's, Gohan's, neither giving up what was theirs and greedily trying to take what was not.

Neither were even bothering to yell 'Kyushu suru' anymore. It seemed pointless. This was a battle of wills, not a battle of voices.

And now, with both of their hands locked as their chi's were tossed around like rag dolls, this battle was majorly picking up.

And at this time, Goku and Bardock finally reached the scene.

To be continued.....