The Lost Jinzouningen Saga
A Dragon Ball Super Z spinoff by Deaku
Epilogue ~ Farewell
Lore trudged his way through the snow of the valley he was traveling across on his way to the northern wilderness. He had heard rumors of an intact military base and wanted to check it out. If the rumors were true he'd destroy it so that it wouldn't be used by the wrong people. If not, well the trip was making for a nice little winter vacation. When he had first started out Lore had briefly considered wearing a tank top and shorts on this trip, just to see how people would react to seeing him dressed like that when it was so cold out. But his common sense won out and Lore decided to get himself some more suitable clothes for this little expedition into the north. He had bought a gray snowsuit that had a red strip around the waist; it had also come with red boots and gloves that came all the way up to his knees and elbows. When he first put it on Lore thought it looked a bit drab, so he bought a yellow scarf to brighten it up a little. After putting on his dark goggles Lore was satisfied that he'd look like a normal traveler as he was on his way north.
As Lore began to make his way up a hill and out of the valley his thoughts drifted back to what had happened over the paste few months since his unexpected battle with Vegeta and meeting the rest of the warriors he had heard so much about. Bulma had repaired the damage to Lore's body that had been inflicted during the fight with Vegeta; in fact she had actually managed to improve his mechanical systems, they ran a whole lot better now and he was actually more powerful than before. Bulma also told Lore that he no longer had to worry about shutting himself down when he used extremely high amounts of energy. He wasn't exactly thrilled about the Capsule Corp "tattoo" on the bicep of his new arm though, Bulma assured him it was just in case something happened to Lore someone would know to get in touch with her. That was okay he guessed, but he was still going to stomp whoever gave Bulma the idea of installing a communicator in his hand.
After Bulma had finished fixing Lore up she convinced him to hang around Capsule Corp for awhile; nobody seemed to mind, not even Vegeta, which surprised Lore. However, Lore found out later there was a reason Vegeta didn't protest to having Lore hang around. Vegeta said that Lore was in sore need of training; Lore had all that power but didn't know how to use it, Vegeta would teach him how to properly wield such power. With a little convincing from Trunks, Lore accepted, though Lore often questioned his sanity at that moment afterwards. Vegeta was a very hard instructor, their training sessions often more seeming like rematches of their first battle. Lore went back into the regeneration tank so many times he stopped counting after a dozen, at least he had managed to send Vegeta in there a few times as well. Bulma wasn't exactly happy about either of them spending anymore time in there.
Besides getting hammered regularly by Vegeta as part of his training, Lore also practiced his swordplay with Trunks. It was hard to decide who had the advantage there; while Lore had dual blades and couldn't be disarmed, Trunks had much more experience. Though many times Lore ended up face down on the ground with Trunks using him as a resting cushion, Juu-chan, Bra and Trun laughing at the sight.
When not training Lore spent his time hanging out with everyone and enjoying himself, either at Capsule Corp or downtown. Bulma was fun to hang out with since she was always doing something interesting, in Lore's view at least, even if Lore almost always ended up carrying packages when he would go downtown with her and the others. Lore also hung out with Trunks quite often, either kicking back and talking or watching TV if not training. He saw both Juu-chan and Bra as sort of sisters. Lore and Juu-chan had sort of a family connection in a way since they were both Jinzouningen, but they'd also have long talks about various things if neither of them were busy with anything. Lore liked Bra a lot and treated her like a little sister, though it surprised him when he found out she was actually Bulma's daughter instead of sister. The young Bra and Trun got along wonderfully, so much in fact that Lore had left the little creature in her care when he left on his journey. As for Juuroku-gou, the big Jinzouningen wasn't exactly the easiest person to befriend with his mostly stoic demeanor. Not the Lore didn't try, he even called the big Jinzouningen Red instead of Juuroku-gou since he thought that was a better name than a number.
Four others Lore saw quite frequently were Marron, Goku, Goten and Gohan. Marron came often to visit her mother, which they had to explain to Lore when he was trying to figure out hows and whys, but he understood once they told him the whole story. Lore took an immediate liking to Marron, she reminded him a lot of one of his friends back in school. Goku always came around to spar with Vegeta, and sometimes Lore. Even so, Lore enjoyed hanging out and talking with Goku, the man was an extremely powerful and able fighter but Lore always felt as ease around him for reasons he couldn't explain. Goten was always around to hang out with Trunks, Lore thought him to be a bit of a goof but couldn't help but like the younger Son boy. Goten even explained and showed Lore something called the Fusion Dance, though Trunks would never agree to help Goten demonstrate it for some reason. Lore often talked with Gohan when he would see him and was very grateful to the older Son boy, who had helped Lore complete the education he missed out on all those years ago when he was taken by Gero. Lore made a mental note that'd he'd have to take Goku up on his invitation for Lore to come to a Son dinner so that he could be introduced to the rest of the family.
Eventually, Lore got wanderlust and decided to head off once again, but he promised he would be back sooner or later. He gathered up his things in his pack and prepared to set off to wherever fate decided to take him. With a farewell from everyone at CC, though Vegeta's was more of a 'you'd better keep training or else' sort of farewell, Lore began his wanderings again. To his surprise, Lore ran into Piccolo a few times. They would spend a while talking and then go their separate ways, though Lore had a feeling the only way he found Piccolo was that he had let Lore find him. Eventually Lore had heard a rumor of an intact military base in the far north, and thus started Lore's current snowy trek.
Lore came out of his reminiscing as he came to the top of the hill, looking around he still saw no signs of the rumored military base. He only saw a forest that stretched nearly to the horizon, but off to the east he saw a small town. Lore thought that a rest and a hot meal would do him some good, plus he might find out something more about what he was looking for, so he started walking towards the town.
~~~~~
Lore was walking down the main street into town; it seemed to be a friendly place seeing as how the people he met so far on the outskirts greeted him even though he was a stranger. The town was in extremely good shape, Lore couldn't even tell if it had ever been attacked or not. Possibly not since the town was so remote, if it had been attacked it was probably long ago and these people were good at fixing things back up. It was a busy place too, despite being so remote, Lore saw quite a few vehicles going to wherever they needed to go.
After asking someone for directions to a good restaurant Lore began heading down one of the side streets, after turning a corner he found himself walking by a cemetery. From the looks of it the cemetery was unusually empty when compared to most Lore saw, so Lore guessed he had been right in thinking that this town hadn't been attacked. He then saw a girl in a wheelchair trying to make her way up the path into the cemetery, but she was having trouble from the steepness of the path and the light snow covering it.
"Need some help?" Lore asked as he walked up to her.
"What?" She asked, slightly startled. She hadn't noticed Lore until he spoke. "Um sure, that'd be nice, thanks."
"No problem." Lore told her as he began to take her into the cemetery. But when he looked at her Lore thought she had hauntingly familiar eyes. "Where to?"
"To the top of the hill please." She answered.
"Alright then," Lore smiled. "My name's Lore. What's yours?"
"I'm Ruri." She smiled back. "Sorry about taking up your time like this. Usually my brother is here with me but he couldn't make it back in time since the pass through the mountains is closed right now"
"Like I said, it's no problem." Lore told her. "But I'd have to agree with the pass being closed, it's pretty harsh up there right now. I just went hiked through it."
"You really hiked through that?" Ruri nearly exclaimed. "Wow, that's pretty impressive. How'd you mange not to freeze?"
"I'm resilient, I guess you could say." Lore gave a bit of a nervous laugh.
"You must be." Ruri laughed. "My brother's a pretty tough guy, I guess it comes from working around mines these past few years, but even he wasn't going to try to make it through those mountains until a bit more of the snow was gone."
Lore and Ruri talked a bit more as they made their way up the hill, Ruri told Lore a little more about the town since he had never been there before. It was called Moontear, apparently after the founding family, and it was one of the few places that was never attacked during the Jinzouningen rampage. Not that it wasn't effected though; when the rampage started shipments of various necessities stopped coming from the south, making it very hard for the people of Moontear to get by. Life finally began going back to normal when the rampage stopped and the citizens of Moontear started the local mines up again, selling the metals refined from the ore down south and then buying what the town really needed. Ruri's brother was one of the ones in charge of taking the metals down south and selling them, and he usually went to New Hope City. Lore laughed silently at this since it was quite possible that he had met Ruri's brother while he was staying at CC. Ruri also told Lore of why she was in a wheelchair, she had been out hunting in the mountains when she had an accident. A few months ago while climbing up a rock face to get a better vantage point, she slipped and fell back to the ground, injuring her back. Luckily a friend was with her and helped her back to town and to the doctor's. While it seemed bad at first, the doctor told Ruri that she would make a complete recovery. So now she was in the wheel chair as per the doctor's orders, but she'd be able to start walking again in a month or two.
"We're here." Ruri told Lore as they were about to pass a certain grave, Lore backed up a bit and stopped in front of it. It was had an impressive sculpture of an angel as a marker, wings spread wide and hands cupped in front as if the angel was holding something. Ruri thought she heard Lore gasp a little as he looked over it. "Is something wrong Lore?"
"What? Um no of course not." Lore answered, but he seemed a bit dazed for some reason. "Just trying to hold down a yawn that's all." He gave a big yawn, then laughed a bit. "Well, I guess that didn't work."
Ruri just shook her head and smiled as she began unwrapping the package that she had sitting in her lap. "It would have been my mother's birthday today." She said as she leaned down and placed the flowers that had been wrapped up on the grave. "She died of an illness a few years ago, right before the rampage ended. The doctor was infuriated that he couldn't do anything to help her since he didn't have the medicines he needed back then. He still hasn't stopped apologizing to me or my brother, especially since our father died long ago in almost exactly the same way. I don't blame him though, it's not his fault that it happened, it's just the way things turned out."
"Yeah." Lore nodded his head. "It's been a pretty harsh world these past couple decades. But finally things have turned around and everything is recovering, we can actually look forward to what may happen instead of dreading it."
"Yeah, that's true." Ruri smiled. "Okay Lore let's head back."
"As you command." Lore joked as they started heading back down the hill.
"Thanks for escorting me Lore." Ruri told him.
"It was no trouble." Lore grinned. "I was glad to be of service."
Soon the pair was back down to the street, but Lore was wondering if someone was going to pick Ruri up or she was just going to make her own way home.
"Well I guess this is where we say goodbye Lore." Ruri said as she held out a hand to shake. "It was nice meeting you."
"It was nice meeting you too Ruri." Lore shook her hand. "Um do you need a ride home? Or is someone going to pick you up?"
"Oh neither, just watch this." Ruri winked and moved a little ways out into the street. "My friend set this up for me." Ruri then pushed a button on the side of her wheel chair, with a sudden flash and a burst of smoke Ruri was sitting in a car.
"Wow! That's pretty cool." Lore said, a bit awed. "Your friend must be quite the mechanic."
"Yup, she's pretty good at things like this." Ruri flashed a peace sign. "See you Lore, maybe we'll meet again someday."
"Yeah, see you around Ruri." Lore smiled and waved as she drove away.
~~~~~
After Ruri left, Lore rushed off to find a flower shop where he bought some flowers and then returned to the grave Ruri had set the flowers at. Lore kneeled and set the flowers he had bought next to Ruri's, then gave a little prayer before rising back up.
"So I've finally found out what happened to you after I vanished." Lore said aloud. "I'm glad you were able to find happiness like Urika did." Lore laughed. "Ruri looks a lot like you, and seems to have your willpower too. I'm surprised I didn't peg her as your daughter right off, then again I've always been a bit slow at making connections like that."
Lore sighed and looked towards the horizon, the sun was beginning to set. "I wish that I could go back and change things, stop Gero from taking me that night. Hell, I'd like to go back and stop him all together. But even though there is actually a way I know of that I could use to go back, I've been told by someone with experience in that sort of thing it doesn't quite work the way we'd want it to. I think you'd like him, and everyone else I've met on this journey of mine." Lore smiled again. "Maybe you've already met a few of them if what they tell me about the afterlife is true, if not you'll probably meet them soon enough. I'll know you'll get a kick out of meeting them, I did once we had a proper introduction anyway."
Lore pulled a small box out of one of his pack's pockets, inside was a ring. "I was going to give this to you after school was done, but it seems Fate decided otherwise. But I'll give it to you now since it was meant for you." Lore set the ring the angel sculpture's cupped hands; he wasn't worried about someone taking it since the only way someone would see it is if they got really close and actually looked down into the hands. "Maybe we'll see each other again someday; but not right now, I feel that something's planned for me so we'll have to wait until that's out of the way." Lore sighed as he watched the sun disappear over the horizon.
"Farewell Athena." Lore said solemnly as he walked away, his scarf flowing behind him in the wind.
