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by
Jamie L. Word "Koji's
New Friend"
After Koji witnessed his father die and saw the remains
of planet Vegeta flying through space like a meteor shower, he
became a maelstrom of rage and bitterness.
For years, he went from planet to planet to search for
a way to ease his hurting soul.
The end result of each of those visits was conflict.
Planet after planet feeling his wrath, and fighter
after fighter falling before him in the wake of his rage, his
name came to inspire fear and dread all across the galaxy.
As he was still a child, his temperament was a fickle
thing, calm and almost pleasant one moment, then a raging and
tormented vessel of terrible destruction and vengeance the
next. His
patience had been eroded by his fiery rage and bitter sorrow.
By the time he had entered adolescence, he had
encountered a skilled Nameccian warrior with whom he found a
kindred soul. The
two became friends, and the older Nameccian became his mentor.
They began to train by sparring with each other
whenever they could. Koji
had grown much stronger than he was as a small child in his
father's battle team. He
was a teenager, and he had a new guardian of sorts.
With his space pod in the cargo hold of a Nameccian
space ship, Koji and his new friend travelled the galaxy
looking for respite from their troubles.
Koji sat in a seat next to a tall, green-skinned
warrior with pointed ears, fang-like teeth, and bug-like
antennae on his head. The Nameccian ally was well-muscled, and he wore a
sleeveless, black tunic with long, billowy black pants that
drew close at the ankles.
The Nameccian also wore a red waist sash for a belt,
brown pointy-toed shoes of the slip-on variety, and a long,
flowing white cape with huge extending shoulder pads.
The two friends sat in almost exactly the same poses,
with their arms crossed in front of their chests and their
feet planted firmly on the floor shoulder-width apart.
Koji wore his usual short-sleeved, dark blue tunic with
long, dark blue pants that were tucked into Saiyan boots.
Over that he wore Saiyan armor consisting of a chest
protector, shoulderpads, and hanging waist padding.
His tail was still gone, having been missing since his
early childhood. He
was well-muscled for a slender build, and he was also
clean-shaven with the same exact hairstyle he had as a small
boy. He still had
those same dark, brooding eyes.
Lying next to him on a console was a small carrying
case, and he looked at it momentarily as he sat in silence.
"Isn't that a carrying case for a scouter?"
the deep-voiced Nameccian inquired as he noticed his young
friend's attention was on it.
"Yes, Chih," Koji answered in a maturing
voice as he turned his gaze back to his friend.
"The scouter in it was one that was left in my
space pod the day my parents died.
I didn't know it was there until later when I began
looking for something to take my mind off of the things that
were bothering me. I
happened upon it during my moody browsing of the space pod
cockpit."
"But I thought you learned how to sense power
levels without it while you were training with me," Chih
responded, a bit baffled by the teenaged Saiyan's seeming
preoccupation with the device.
"I did," Koji replied as he caressed the
carrying case with his hand.
"I keep it to remind me of my parents, ... and my
people."
"In other words, for the sentimental value,"
Chih implied as the faintest hint of a grin began to form on
his face.
"Are we there yet?" Koji inquired impatiently
as he withdrew his caress from the scouter carrying case and
returned to his cross-armed stoicism.
"Almost, Koji," Chih answered as the hint of
a grin transformed into a true grin as he noted the youth's
defensiveness. "Almost."
"Good," Koji replied to that.
"It would be good to get something to eat and
maybe stretch my legs a bit."
"Food," Chih mused aloud as he returned his
attention to their journey.
"What is it about you Saiyans that you should
think about food so much?
All I need is water to drink, but you Saiyans need to
put away enough food to feed a large group!"
"Funny," Koji began, a faint hint of a grin
forming on his face now.
"For all the water you drink, I've never seen you
have to go to relieve yourself.
Why is that, Nameccian?"
"Huh?!?" Chih gasped in stunned disbelief at
the teen's words, his eyes widening as he began to sweat in
discomfort. "We
Nameccians are different than you Saiyans!"
"But of course," Koji retorted with a
mischievous grin as he began chuckling at the Nameccian's
defensiveness.
"What are you laughing at?" Chih muttered
aloud as he grimaced, partially in embarassment and partially
in wonder, and he blushed as well.
"What's the matter, Chih?" Koji asked,
picking at his friend a little more.
"Are you blushing?
Did I strike a nerve or something?
You're embarassed, aren't you?
Relax. If
you fret over it too much, you're liable to blow your antennae
off."
"Oh, you're real funny," Chih responded with
a playful retort, grinning just a bit as he almost laughed.
"Hey, you started this, remember?" Koji
replied with a jovial grin upon his face as he chuckled a bit
and then entered into a full-fledged laugh.
"It's amazing!" Chih thought to himself as he
regarded the youth. "He's
so young and yet so mature in many ways!
He's clever, shrewd, and skilled in the fighting arts
well beyond his years! Almost everything is like a competition to him, even this
friendly picking at each other!
It's like he's a fully matured adult living inside the
body of a child, but I can't help but sense something deeper
inside him!
He has revealed to me that his parents died and that
his home planet, planet Vegeta, was destroyed when he was just
four years of age, but he has never confided in me the full
details of those events. It is possible that he is unaware of those details, but I
can't help but ponder whether he's just burying those memories
deep within, unwilling ... or unable ... to share them.
When I found him seven years ago, he was a terror to
the universe - so full of rage and hurt, so out of control.
He had laid waste to several planets in his fury before
I met up with him. Although
we fought at first, we finally realized that we were not so
very different. We
both had previously unknown needs.
He needed a mentor, a big brother if you will. I needed a friend. He
kept that scouter hidden from me for seven years, until now.
Is he finally beginning to open up to me, to confide in
me even more?"
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