LETTIE
I've never imagined that, in a period of less than 24 hours, I would lose my home, be kidnapped, discover that I had two older brothers and that I am part of an almost extinct alien race, be kidnapped AGAIN, and form an alliance between a green alien and a four-year-old child, so we could save humanity from its total destruction.
Yup. That's what you've read.
It was just not my day. Or it was, because that day changed my life forever.
I was doing great, seriously!, fighting in a clandestine tournament on an afternoon that I no longer remember what day of the week it was.
What? There's nothing wrong with fighting in clandestine tournaments.
Okay. I admit that something might be wrong when it had the word "clandestine" on it. But what could I do? That was my livelihood, the only thing I knew how to do well as long as I remember. Besides, they would let me live in one of the rooms of that place, paying half the rent that a sloppy neighborhood in downtown would charge me.
I was standing in the ring of that dimly lit warehouse, surrounded by a lattice fence that prevented the competitors from falling into the crowd, insane by the heat of the fight.
Ahead of me, a gigantic man looked at me with sadistic and dark eyes. His hairy body was shaped like a ball, wearing black leather belts around his wrists and neck, covered only by a black underwear.
Ew.
"Lettie! Lettie! Lettie!" The crowd in the stands shouted my name, trying to cheer me up after I was punched in the cheek by my opponent. It was clear they had bet on me, and it was no joke getting to the final of that tournament. My body was aching from how much I had already fought today.
Just one more fight and I would be able to pay for the expenses until the next fortnight. Who knows, I might even be able to buy a new waistband for my kimono, which had seen better days. Oh, although it would be better to save some money to buy my own house one day. But, there's also that nice recipe book I've seen in the bookstore… Gee, it was hard choosing what to do with so little.
However…
Why was I feeling an anguish growing in my heart? Why, no matter how much people praised my name, their voices didn't affect me?
I looked at my opponent on the other side, waiting for me to strike the next blow, and I asked the question that surrounded me for years:
What was I doing there?
What was the point of it all?
What was I fighting for?
I feel the adrenaline of the fights running through each drop of my blood; I feel a vigor that I don't know if it comes from me or from the euphoria of the fights; I feel like there's something roaring inside me, but I cannot find the voice for it.
At the same time, I love it and I hate it.
At the same time, I feel nothing and I feel everything.
I don't know if I have the technique, but I lack strength; or if I have strength and lack technique.
I needed a teacher, a tutor, whatever! — someone who would teach me and guide me on how to fight properly. If not for the pleasure of fighting, then so I could win more tournaments, earn more money, and have a better life quality.
But who would teach a woman who barely has the financial means to survive until the end of the month? Who would teach me for free?
"HEY, LETTIE! ARE YA GOING TO DAYDREAM ALL DAY?! I BET ON YOU! FINISH HIM, NOW!"
I turned and spotted my renter shaking his fists at me, filled with banknotes he collected from the bets; his face half-hidden by the smoke of a cheap cigar he was smoking.
Blinking several times, I realized that my opponent was now looking at me with boredom and disdain, waiting for my move. I snorted, shaking my head and relaxing my limbs as I put on a combat mode, and soon I felt the familiar twinge of pain at the end of my spine.
"Alright…" I whispered to myself, ignoring the pain. "Let's finish th–"
BOOM!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! — A part of the warehouse exploded.
When I realized, I was already fallen to the ground, bleeding by the shrapnel that hit me. A buzzing got to my ears, almost as loud as the screams of people desperately trying to leave the place.
At a glance, I saw my opponent also lying on the other side of the ring. He wasn't moving, and his eyes were staring at a fixed point.
Dead.
I quivered. From the screams of other people, my opponent shouldn't have been the only one who had died from the sudden explosion.
What was going on? What caused that?!
My answer came in the shape of a man who landed right in front of me. Well, he looked like a man; a very strange man. From the little I could see, he was almost as half-naked as my downed opponent, wore an armor with spiked shoulder pads, and had a black hair so long and spiky that it looked like a porcupine.
He crouched in front of me with his arms resting on sturdy thighs.
"I finally found you, little sister." He opened a sardonic smile behind a square monocle with a greenish visor. "Come, let's have a family meeting."
In the next second, I was hit in the head and blacked out.
***
When I woke up, I screamed.
I wasn't on the ground, in the ring of the place I called home.
I was flying.
Not by myself, of course, but thrown over the back of that man who had kidnapped me, with my face buried in his spiky hair.
"Shut up, Lettie!" he barked, raising his voice over my panicked scream. "Don't make me knock you out again!"
I looked around, watching a desert landscape with rocks of all shapes and sizes, as far as I could see. I had no idea where I was.
However, the only thought that occurred to me was how this man was doing that; HOW WAS HE FLYING?! Without any support, protection, anything! He looked like one of those comic book heroes, flying as if it were the most natural and normal thing in the world.
I was shaking from head to toe. We must have been reaching the height of airplanes.
"P-P-PUT ME D-D-DOWN!!!!!!" I turned to look at him, allowing myself to grab his hair to hold myself up. "N-N-N-NOW!!!!!!!
"That's what they all say." I heard him laugh. "Calm down, little sister. We're almost there. Ouch!" he exclaimed after I pulled his hair again when I thought I was going to fall. "You really are our mother's daughter, huh? Nice to meet you, I'm Raditz."
Well, it wasn't any nice for me at that moment, especially after some of his words reached me with a big question mark: little sister? Our mother?
Look, I have met enough weird people in my life, but this guy... this... Raditz... surpassed all the limits of weirdness that someone could have.
As I tried to understand what he had said, I accidentally touched something soft around his waist, and my trembling was replaced by a horrifying paralysis when I saw that it was a long, brown-furred tail.
The twinge of pain at the end of my spine hurt once more, but what scared me the most was the sensation of feeling a powerful force coming from that man.
Who was he? Or rather, what was he?
I don't know if it was the shock of the explosion in the ring or the despair of flying on the back of a stranger at hundreds of meters above the ground, but I couldn't say or scream anything else. My voice disappeared. In fact, I began to feel a great discomfort. My ears were crushed by a strong pressure, and I was suddenly short of breath, which only made my heart race faster than it already was. My stomach churned so badly that I only had time to turn my head sideways and vomit the snack I had eaten before my fight, which didn't please Raditz at all.
My mind then became cloudy, and I could no longer distinguish the time around me. It must be because of the height. I passed out and woke up again every two minutes, or twenty, I don't know, disoriented by the speed we were moving and with a dizziness that no blow I'd ever received on the head in past fights had been able to match. All I know was that Raditz kept muttering and talking to himself about someone with a high power level moving too fast in some direction.
I've never felt so helpless. But what could I do in that situation? My best option would be to squirm in protest, which would lead to two results: either I would be knocked out again (according to his threat), or I would fall to certain death.
The desert landscape gave way to the sea, covering everything below us. Raditz then reduced his speed and height, which made me regain consciousness, and I could see that he was flying towards a single, tiny island planted in the middle of all that blue immensity, with a pink house surrounded by three palm trees. I confess that, if it weren't for the circumstances, I would have found that place the most adorable in the world and would have asked about its rent price, but my mind was too busy, imagining what kind of terror that man could want to do to me by taking me to a desert island.
It was hard to see from my position, but as we approached the island, I noticed it wasn't that deserted. Little by little, I distinguished six figures watching our arrival with great attention.
When Raditz landed on the sand of that island, he threw me to the ground at the feet of one of those six individuals as if I were a bag of rice, leaving my old white kimono all dirty.
I closed my eyes as I felt the hard ground beneath my body, still with a great discomfort and a terrible headache throbbing in my temples.
"W-What is this?!" I heard a new male voice speak above me, followed by frightened gasps coming from the others. Apparently, I wasn't the only one there who was startled by Raditz's presence.
With difficulty, I opened my eyes, covering them against the Sun, and looked up, finally seeing the owner of that new voice: a young man, close to my age, with thick black spiky hair. I know it wasn't the time or the moment for that, but I couldn't help but notice he was wearing a beautiful orange and navy blue fighting uniform, with heavy black boots. He was very robust and muscular, but on the other hand, he had a pair of large black eyes that revealed an innocence and curiosity. However, I had the strange feeling that he was somewhat familiar to me…
Right behind him, clinging to his leg, a child, no more than four years old, stared at me in astonishment; a tiny little boy, with long black hair under a red hat with an orange ball on top, and I immediately suspected he was the son of the man I just described, since they were identical.
At a distance, I spotted another young man, but he was quite short, bald, and had almost to no nose, wearing the same orange uniform as the first one, followed by a tall girl with short green hair, a bearded old man who was also bald and had a sort-of-pervert look, wearing sunglasses and holding a staff, and… was that a real sea turtle by the seashore?!
I couldn't hold it anymore and turned sideways, vomiting and startling the others once again.
"Ugh!" I heard Raditz mumble with his tongue sticking out. "I apologize for her behavior. It's the first time she has flown. Her body isn't used to it yet."
I remained lying on the ground, massaging my stomach, and I wasn't surprised that no one came to help me. Everyone was evidently in shock at our sudden arrival. I was still in shock at my arrival.
I then saw that Raditz and the little boy's father were glaring at each other for endless seconds, with serious faces, looking like mortal enemies trying to guess what the other would do next.
"I have finally found you." Raditz crossed his arms in front of his armor, showing muscles bigger than the little boy's father. "You've grown up a lot, but I recognize you just by seeing you, Kakarot."
Apparently, the little boy's father knew Raditz as much as I did, because he frowned as he repeated in confusion, "Kakarot?!"
"I don't understand," said the bald young man. "What is he talking about?"
"Uh... Excuse me?" I stood up, supported on my knees, and raised my hands in a sign of surrender while looking at everyone. "I'm sorry, but... is this some kind of a scam? An express kidnapping? Because if it is, I'll tell you right now that I don't have money, much less anyone who wants my rescue. Can anyone tell me where I am–"
"Be silent, woman!" replied Raditz, and then turned to the little boy's father with a not-friendly expression, "Kakarot! What are you doing on this planet?! It was your duty to end the human race! That was your mission! What have you been doing all this time?!" He then turned to me and spat, "And as for you, Lettie, you shouldn't even be here in the first place!"
"Hello???" I replied in indignation. "How should I not be here, if it was you who KIDNAPPED me and brought me HERE?!"
"I mean 'here' in 'on this planet', you worthless fool!"
I opened my mouth wide, perplexed by such petulance, and realized how the others were also as stunned as I was.
"Hey, you listen here!" The bald young man stepped forward and pointed a finger at Raditz. "I don't know who you are nor what you're looking for, but it's better if you just leave! Get out!" He waved him away as if he were a mere annoying fly.
I immediately realized what a mistake he had made.
The tail around Raditz's waist glowed and, as if it had a life of its own, slapped the bald young man with such violence that he went flying towards the pink house, making a hole in the wooden walls, barely missing the bearded old man along the way.
"KRILLIN!" exclaimed the said Kakarot, who turned to Raditz showing deep fury, gritting his teeth. "You... You...!!!" He then stopped, eyes-wide when he saw Raditz's tail.
I was still open-mouthed when I witnessed the others also become astonished at the sight of his tail, and I got shivers. Why was I feeling that was a bad sign?
Raditz kept waving his tail in front of him, laughing as if he was showing off a trophy.
I felt another twinge of pain at the end of my spine.
"I think that now," he declared, "you already know my true identity."
"Your identity?" questioned Kakarot. "What do you mean by that?"
I noticed that his son was pretty worried, pulling him by his uniform pants while his father tried to pull him away and, to my great surprise, I noticed that the little boy also had a tail!
What was I getting myself into?!
However, for a few seconds, the little boy and I exchanged distressed, insecure, and, above all, scared expressions. I don't know if it was the situation that caused it, but something about that child moved me, making his big teary eyes get directly into my heart.
"Daddy, no!" The little boy whimpered and tried to pull him again, but the woman with short green hair soon picked him up, taking him away from the adults.
For the second time, our eyes met, and I felt great compassion for that terrified child. There was something about him that gave me an intense feeling of… protection. But why?
My thoughts were interrupted when I heard Raditz growl, "Kakarot! You are a scoundrel, how could you forget who you are?!"
"Stop calling me Kakarot!" he replied, clenching his fists. "My name is Goku! Son Goku!"
"What?!" Raditz was indignant. "How dare you say that?" He turned to me. "Lettie, tell them! How did you find out your name?"
Everyone stared at me, and I felt tiny.
Why were we suddenly talking about names?!
"I-I don't know very well..." I saw myself forced to answer; my muscles tensing in anxiety. "The only thing I know is that… I was found in an open field when I was a baby, with a piece of paper written 'Lettie' on it. Just that. I know nothing else, much less who left me there.
I lowered my head when a wave of sadness consumed me as I spoke out loud about an event in my life that I have no pleasure in dwelling on. Everyone's eyes were on me, and, above all, I noticed the well-known feeling that got to people when they discovered that I had been abandoned by my parents: pity (except for Raditz, of course).
"Ugh!" he snorted again, now speaking more to himself than to us. "So what they've said is true. Mom indeed had gone soft!" He looked at Kakarot/Goku with visible irritation. "Did you happen to hit your head when you were a child?!"
I believe that was a rhetorical question, but, to everyone's surprise, Goku (I decided to call him by the name he preferred) replied:
"Yes, I did hit my head when I was a child. I've got the scar."
What I heard next disturbed me a lot. The bearded old man stepped forward, with an enigmatic expression, and began to tell Goku a story about another old man, called Son Gohan, who, years ago, found a strange object in the deepest place in the valley. As he got closer, he saw a sphere-shaped Space Pod. Inside it, he found a baby that had a tail.
From what I understood, this said Son Gohan was Goku's adoptive grandfather. Well, this man began raising Goku but realized he was an extremely violent little being. One day, baby-Goku fell off a cliff (I wonder how he did not die, we're talking about a cliff!), and hit his head pretty badly. But he survived, and from then on, he became a kind and gentle child, until he grew up and became the man standing next to me, staring at the bearded old man in a complete state of astonishment at apparently discovering his past right there, at that moment.
Now I was the one who felt pity for him.
"Damn it, DAMN IT!" Raditz got angry after also hearing the story, glaring at me and Goku. "And to think that I thought I would find two great warriors, but now I see that you are nothing more than a pair of useless rats!"
That was too much for me.
"Okay, I'm done!" My blood boiled as I uttered the words, "You destroy my house, kidnap me, fly with me through the air, bring me to an island in the middle of the sea, and stand there cursing me without even giving me a FREAKING SINGLE EXPLANATION?? Who do you think you are?!"
"I'll explain to you..." announced Raditz, impassive and still. "Kakarot, Lettie... You do not belong to the human race of this planet. Your home planet is Vegeta. You belong to the strongest warriors of the Universe. You are Saiyans! And I, Raditz, am your older brother!"
Every hair on my body chilled when his statement got into my subconscious and hit my guts like the most violent of blows.
A sequence of "What?!", "What do you mean???", "Older brother?", and "Strongest warriors of the Universe???" were heard, externalized by the others.
Goku and I stared at each other; our faces showing the purest confusion and perplexity.
No. That could only be a scam, for real.
That wasn't possible...
I don't have brothers. I don't have any family.
My past only includes one person: me.
But why did something in my soul scream in warning? Why was the twinge at the end of my spine reaching its peak?
"Daddy!!!" Goku's son suddenly ran up to him and grabbed his leg, with the green-haired woman coming after him calling 'Gohan'. Apparently, Goku paid tribute to his adoptive grandfather by naming his son after him.
"TH-THAT'S..." He tried to speak and push Gohan away at the same time. "THAT'S A LIE!"
"You must be a crazy maniac!" I added; my face transfigured as I stared at Raditz.
"It can't be true!" said Krillin, who had come out of the hole he made in the pink house. "If Goku and even this... this woman, Lettie, are aliens, why are they here on Earth?!"
Raditz let out a terrifying laugh. He seemed to be having fun with it all.
I noticed how Goku was sweating as much as I was.
"The answer is simple," replied Raditz, "Kakarot, you, exclusively, were sent to this planet to eliminate all human beings who stood in our way! Now you, Lettie, were sent to this planet by a mere and unfortunate accident."
"Huh?!" exclaimed Goku.
"W-What are you saying?" I asked.
"We, the Saiyans, are a family of powerful warriors," repeated Raditz. "We travel across the Universe to look for planets with a good environment, and we eliminate all the individuals that live on them, and finally, we sell the planet for a high price to other aliens. We always send adult warriors to planets where strong fighters live. But, to weak planets, like this one, we send babies, which was your case, Kakarot."
Goku sought my gaze, and I, his. What we just heard sounded like something from a sci-fi movie. However, as I took a closer look at Raditz, I couldn't deny what was before my eyes. That guy, for certain, was not human.
"If what you say is true," began Krillin, "you're the worst type of living being that can exist, that's terrible!"
"I cannot believe they send babies across the Universe, all by themselves!" The green-haired woman hugged Goku's son in an unconscious motherly act. In my heart, I felt the same.
"Lettie," Raditz then addressed me, ignoring the others, "with you, it was a little different and, let's say, nothing heroic or worthy of our Saiyan race pride."
I straightened up, swallowing hard.
"You were also sent here to Earth in a Space Pod as a baby," he continued. "About two years after Kakarot was born. But, you weren't sent to destroy this planet. I don't know how to explain matters concerning the heart, regardless of race, but our mother's heart became weak and softened when she gave birth to you. The planet we inhabited was about to be destroyed by a rival race during a period of war and, as a last act of," his tone turned into disgust, "'love and compassion' towards her offspring, our mother put you in a Space Pod to save you, and let it take its course. As we can see, the course of your Space Pod brought you to planet Earth. What a low taste."
I didn't feel anything anymore. My limbs went numb and tingled. Did that mean that, after all, I wasn't… abandoned? I had a mother who... wanted me? But she had to literally send me out into the Universe as a last hope of saving my life?
A lump grew in my throat, but I swallowed it. No. I couldn't show weakness at that moment.
"Kakarot, Lettie, look at us." Raditz spread his arms. "We're like three peas in a pod. The same face shape, nose, mouth… Even our hair is similar; black and spiky, although that short hair of yours suits you well, Lettie. It's also worth mentioning that your blue eyes are a genetic inheritance from our maternal grandmother that Kakarot and I had the misfortune of not inheriting. Don't brag about yourself because of that, huh? Hahaha!"
I felt exposed by having my physical attributes displayed by a man who had only made me feel nauseous until then.
However, when I scrutinized Goku and even Raditz closely, something about them reflected a very familiar resemblance that I contemplated every day in the mirror of my rented room in the clandestine arena.
I glanced back at Gohan, curled up in the woman's arms, and I also saw some resemblance in his face; something that made my heart warm as I felt a kind of... connection.
However, I got back to being on alert when I saw how Raditz also looked at Goku's son with a dark smile and expression. It was only then that I realized he was looking at Gohan's tail.
"Kakarot!" suddenly exclaimed Raditz. "Within a few years, you alone can wipe out all Earthlings, if you remember the order given to you. And that includes you too, Lettie. Don't you think you'll get away with this just because of our mother's ridiculous weakness."
I beg your pardon?!
Raditz then crossed his arms and looked up to the sky. "Luckily you can see the Moon from this planet."
Goku was just as disconcerted as I was.
"Why did you say that?" I questioned.
"Since when did celestial bodies become the main topic of this conversation???" he added.
"DON'T BE IDIOTS!" replied Raditz. "We, the Saiyans, can fight with our full strength when we see the Full Moon! We transform into giant monkeys and acquire unbeatable destructive power!"
Hello? Giant monkeys?
A bucket of freezing water wouldn't have had a greater effect than that statement had on me, and it got worse when I heard Krillin, the green-haired woman, and the old man gasp in genuine terror, turning pale, even.
I had an unsettling feeling they knew something about that.
Good thing Goku externalized my question:
"What are you talking about? I don't understand anything you're saying!"
Raditz was stunned. "What?! Impossible!" He approached and peeked behind us. "Now I can see it! W-Where are… Where are your tails?!"
I can't believe I actually turned around to look for a tail stuck to my back, but bear with me. I wasn't having a good day. In the end, I didn't feel so bad, since Goku had done the same.
"WHAT HAPPENED TO YOUR TAILS?!?!" demanded Raditz.
"My tail was ripped off me a long time ago," claimed Goku with conviction.
"AND WHAT ABOUT YOU, LETTIE?"
Me? What happened to my tail? Oh, come on, what tail??? What was this lunatic talking about? And why on earth did Goku have an answer to this question? Since when did humans have tails?!?!?!
But then, I realized that, instead of celestial bodies, the main topic of that conversation was the revelation that I and, apparently, my older brothers, Goku and Raditz, belonged to an ALIEN race, which, deep down, would explain the reason for the existence of a… tail.
I felt another twinge of pain at the end of my spine, and suddenly, it was as if I had been slapped in the face.
Could this... twinge on my spine... be related to a... tail?
I no longer felt the sandy ground beneath my feet.
"ANSWER ME, LETTIE! WHERE. IS. YOUR. TAIL?!"
"I-I-I don't know! I confess that… I do have a chronic pain at the end of my spine for as long as I can remember... But I never knew why."
"Argh!" Raditz clenched his fists. "In your case, it must have been ripped out when they found you as a baby. People must have thought you were a freak. It's the only plausible reason!"
Wow. That explained a lot about the behavior of some people from my childhood towards me.
"YOU TWO ARE IMBECILES!!!" shouted Raditz. "Now I see why you're living so peacefully on this planet! You don't have a tail!!!"
Seriously? Or would it be because Goku and I weren't brainwashed to lead us to exterminate beings from other planets for a monetary benefit? From what little I observed of Gohan back there, he didn't seem to harbor any feelings of hatred towards humans just because he had a tail.
"That's enough!" I exclaimed, also relieved to see that the others around me showed to be fed up with all that talk.
"Yes!" agreed Goku, already getting into a combat position. "I don't care if I come from another planet, if I'm a Saying-or-who-knows-who, or if I have siblings." He turned to me. "Except for you, Lettie. You seem a nice person and are welcome in the family."
"Th-Thank you…?"
"Krillin is right! Raditz, you're the worst!" He pointed at himself, "I am Goku and I was raised HERE, on Earth! Now go away and leave us alone!"
"Yeah!" exclaimed the woman. "Go away!"
"The past doesn't matter anymore." The bearded old man went next to Goku. "He and this young lady have the right to be Earthlings!"
"It was Goku who saved this planet from destruction!" declared Krillin, which made me wonder how much I didn't know about my brother.
However, I was so touched by how this peculiar group seemed so resolute, convinced, and, above all, united, that I also spoke, "Listen, Raditz. You've seen that we don't want problems, but if you insist on that, you'll have to face the consequences of your own actions.
"Well said, sis!" Goku winked at me with a smile, and for the first time since I set foot on that island, I felt a bit of joy.
Raditz was not intimidated at all, though. "I can't do this." He began walking around, laughing with disdain. "Besides, the Saiyan family was quite small. Planet Vegeta was decimated, and most of our race disappeared from the Universe, as well as our father and mother. There are only five Saiyans left alive, including you two. The other one is me, the fourth one was sent to fight on another planet, and the last one was sent to an unknown planet." He paused for a moment. "On one occasion, we were able to find a good planet and we wanted to attack it, but there it was only three of us against an entire planet." He turned to Goku and me, "That was the moment I thought about you." He then walked towards us. "But you, Kakarot, do not have your full fighting power. You're strong, but not enough. As for you, Lettie, you still have a long way to go to catch up to Goku himself. I've seen you on that arena. You have potential and you know how to fight, that's a fact, but you lack training."
His words only confirmed what I have been thinking my whole life. I exchanged glances with Goku, and I felt embarrassed. Based on the absurd things I have heard until then, that sea turtle hiding in the corner of the pink house might even be stronger than me.
"Nonetheless," continued Raditz, staring at us face to face, "if you both join the three of us, we can make it."
"No way! Step back!" Goku stood in front of us all. That wasn't the time or the moment, but after spending a lifetime trying to survive all by myself in such a hostile world, the feeling of having someone wanting to protect you was very, very good.
"Come on! Open your eyes!" Raditz leaned over towards us and we took a step back. "It'll be fun! Don't you feel how the Saiyan blood runs through your veins?!
"Daddy, I'm scared..." cried Gohan, clinging to the woman.
"Hey..." I turned to him with my best attempt to show a comforting smile. "Don't worry, everything will be fine."
My gaze met the woman's, and we could both see in each other's eyes that there was a good chance I might be wrong, and it was her turn to try to give me a comforting smile.
"Stop talking nonsense, Raditz!" warned Goku. "I'd rather die than help you destroy this planet! If there's one good thing I got from finding out I have siblings, it was knowing that at least one of them is decent!"
Upon hearing Goku's words, I touched his arm and stood next to him. "There is nothing for you here on this planet, Raditz. This is our last warning. Go away and forget about our existence. Consider yourself an orphan and with no siblings, because the only one I have is called Son Goku."
"Aww, that's so cute, cheesy and boring." Raditz rolled his eyes. "No matter what you say, you will help destroy planet Earth." His gaze then went to Gohan, now with his face buried in the woman's neck, shaking all over.
Goku and I exchanged disturbed looks as we realized what was going on in Raditz's mind, who pointed at Gohan and asked, "Is this boy your son?"
Goku began to vehemently deny it, as if he could erase the several exclamations of "Daddy!" coming from Gohan in the last few minutes. My heart sank when I felt the despair in his voice, especially when I also heard Gohan crying as the adults' tone raised.
"DON'T LIE TO ME!" replied Raditz. "What do you have to say about the boy's tail? Isn't that proof that he has Saiyan blood?!"
The woman tried to hide Gohan's tail under her legs, but her efforts were useless. My heart pounded in my ears as I saw the tension on that island only increasing. Everyone there was in the highest state of alert.
"So what?!" Goku frowned in ferocity. "Who cares?!"
"It seems like you don't want to understand what I'm saying." Raditz opened a sinister smile. "I think I'll borrow your son!" And he walked towards us.
I believe Goku was so stunned by Raditz's words that, for a moment, he let his guard down. By seeing him in that state and, above all, by seeing that boy so small (that only then did I realize he was my nephew), showing teary and red eyes filled with terror, I turned to the woman and whispered, "Psst! What is your name?"
"H-Huh...?"
"What is your name?"
"B-Bulma... Bulma Brief."
"Bulma, take Gohan away. We will try to stop him!"
She didn't think twice and ran with him until they were at a good distance, but she didn't have many options for where to go considering the tiny size of that island.
With that said, I took a step forward and raised my voice. "Raditz, if you want the boy, you'll have to get through us first!"
I glared at him, feeling an unexpected fury run through my blood. I couldn't understand why I was behaving like that. I didn't even know Goku, Gohan, or the others there. But, something inside me told me that fighting alongside them was the right thing to do. Besides, what other choice did I have?
"Raditz, don't come any closer!" Goku seemed to go back to normal after seeing my behavior, and together, we got into a combat position, with Krillin and the bearded old man also positioning themselves beside us.
"Master Roshi, at your service, miss." The old man introduced himself, gloomy behind his sunglasses. "I'm Goku's trainer. I'm sorry you met him in such conditions."
"It's a pleasure, Master," I replied in the same tone, grateful to meet a Martial Arts Master from up close, but without taking my eyes off Raditz. "It's a shame, indeed. It would be better if it was in a friendly tournament in the city."
Our enemy was approaching fast.
"If you take one more step, I'll finish yo–" Goku barely ended his sentence before he was punched in the stomach by Raditz and went flying until he landed with a thump on the seashore, groaning in deep pain and agony.
I stood there, with wide eyes staring at my brother lying on the sand. How did that happen? Hasn't Raditz said that Goku was strong? How could he have been defeated with just a single blow?
"Daddy!!!" Gohan dashed towards him, escaping from Bulma's hands.
When I realized, I had also run ahead of Raditz. "STOP! DON'T YOU DARE LAY A FINGER ON HI–" A tearing pain emerged from my guts when he kicked me right in the chest, sending me flying away just like Goku and falling into the freezing sea with my body half submerged in the shallow waters.
I couldn't breathe. The air simply wouldn't come in, as if my lungs had stopped working due to the fright we've got. I was sure that my rib cage had been broken, such pain was consuming me, burning from the inside out.
Every inch of my body cried out for help. I had never been hit like that. Ever. Not even my worst opponents in the countless clandestine tournaments I've participated in. How much strength Raditz had, how much… power!!!
I heard the alarming buzz coming from the others, calling for Goku, calling for Gohan, or calling for me. I tried to get up, only to fall again, swallowing salt water along the way.
I wanted to vomit for the third time. However, lying on my back in that water, trying to catch my breath in desperation, clutching my kimono to my chest, without meaning to, I spotted something far away in the skies, or rather, someone.
A shiver ran down my spine, and it did not come from the freezing water.
From up above, that figure watched us, floating in the air. I couldn't make out who they were, only that they had a white cape fluttering in the wind. I rubbed my eyes and closed them. When I opened them again, the figure was no longer there.
Raditz's blow must have caused me hallucinations.
Feeling more useless than a stone, I tried to get up one more time, finding strength in the depths of my being, but I soon fell again, while, far away on the seashore, I witnessed Raditz lift Gohan in the air by his clothes and declare, "Kakarot, I'll keep your son. If you want him back alive, you will obey your brother's orders." He stared at me and raised his voice. "That goes for you, too, Lettie!"
Gohan was crying nonstop. Goku and I were immobilized by pain; Now, for Bulma, Krillin and Master Roshi, they were immobilized by fear.
"Kakarot, Lettie, I'll give you just one day to think," added Raditz. "I believe you'll have no choice but to join us. But," his voice deepened, "you'll have to give me proof, and it'll be easy. You need to eliminate one hundred human beings from this planet. Not fifty from each of you. I want two hundred in total. Your deadline is this time of tomorrow, and you must bring the bodies to this place!"
I'm pretty sure we all turned pale. I also noticed how Goku suddenly stopped moving, in shock upon hearing such conditions for having his son back. Even little Gohan seemed to understand the gravity of the situation he was in.
"I hope I made myself clear," concluded Raditz. "Tomorrow will be fun. Don't worry, I'll do everything I can to not kill my little brother's son. I want him along when all of us Saiyans unite to destroy Earth! HAHAHAHAHA!!!"
At seeing Goku raising his hand, still lying in the sand, in a futile attempt to reach his son, I felt a tear running into my mouth.
Never, in all the fights, moments, struggles, or nightmares I've had in my life, did I think I would witness such barbarity. Two hours ago, my only concern was whether I would be able to win a fight in a clandestine arena and organize my finances to survive that month.
But there, my heart screamed in fury and indignation as I saw myself fallen and defeated on the ground with one of my older brothers, while the other one was taking my nephew to an unimaginable fate.