Every day after that, Diego would apply the ointment to Nicole’s back every six hours. “A few days” turned into two weeks until Nicole’s back was completely healed and not a scar left in sight.
Diego was out on his regular duties. Truce was somewhere else in the palace. Nicole got up out of Truce’s bed and stretched. She looked on the foot of the bed and saw Truce had left her some new servant’s clothing. She carried it with her to the bathroom and took a shower. She then got dressed and applied the fake facial hair to her face. Her hair on her head had grown an inch almost, but still it was short enough to keep her disguise.
She walked out of Truce’s room and made her way to the kitchens. There Kabocha greeted her with a toothy smile. “Well look who is all better now!” the old saiyan said excitedly, “Come, my boy! Let’s get you some food!”
Nicole smiled and sat down at a table in the kitchen. Kabocha sat some food and drink in front of her.
“Eat up!” said Kabocha, “Got a lot to do today!”
“Thank you, Kabocha,” said Nicole with a smile on her face. She then scarfed down the food quickly, she was so hungry.
Kabocha laughed and said, “Don’t give yourself a stomach ache.”
“Sorry,” said Nicole with a mouth full of food, “It’s just so good and I’m so hungry!”
Kabocha laughed again.
After Nicole was finished eating, she followed Kabocha outside behind the palace to the soldiers’ training quarters.
“Today,” said Kabocha as they walked, “You get to see where your master’s true duties lie.”
“Oh?” said Nicole.
“You see, Prince Diego trains the soldiers to have them fully prepped for battle at any time. Our job for the next week is to adjust training equipment and clean armor and such.”
“What happened to our other duties?”
“Well see, we servants cycle through a lot of our duties, so whatever duties we had last week are going to other servants this week and we are cycling through to soldier quarters and armor duty.”
They then entered the training yard. Nicole’s breath caught as she spotted Diego, shirtless, dueling a group of saiyan soldiers. The world stood still for her as she watched how Diego fought so flawlessly.
“I see you are better,” came a voice beside her that shook her out of her zone.
Nicole looked beside her and saw Vegeta standing there grinning at her. She smiled and said, “Yeah, I am.”
Kabocha pulled on Nicole’s arm and said, “Let’s go get to work on those armors. It’ll take all day. See you later, Prince Vegeta!”
Vegeta nodded as Nicole and Kabocha walked away to the armor rooms.
For the next few days Nicole worked hard at her new duties. She was so tired by the time she returned to Diego’s room again. It felt good being in his room again. She was very happy. She always stayed awake long enough for Diego to return and then fell asleep with him.
After a week, Nicole was on break during her armor duties. She decided to sit and watch Diego at work with the soldiers. Vegeta sat down with her. Vegeta usually took over for Diego in the afternoons with another batch of soldiers.
“You seem to like working here best, I see,” said Vegeta.
“Yes,” said Nicole, “It’s a lot less hectic, sort of.”
“How long has it been since you last trained?”
“At least a month. I was busy preparing for my exam, so I didn’t get much time before it, and after it…well…you know the rest.”
Vegeta nodded and said, “I see.”
Nicole longed to be out in the training yard with Diego, instead of the other soldiers, just him and her, training together how they used to. She then sighed and said, “Maybe when life changes again, I’ll be able to.”
As Vegeta and Nicole talked, King Vegeta walked into the training yard. He spotted Nicole and Vegeta and walked to them. Nicole’s eyes widened, as a sliver of her last memory with him entered. She felt fear and anger enter her altogether. As he approached, she quickly stood up and bowed to him.
King Vegeta grinned and said, “It seems the boy has recovered.”
Nicole stood up straight and said, “That I have, your majesty.”
“Good,” said King Vegeta, “You’re resilient then.” He looked back at the soldiers training. A thought then entered his mind. He looked back at Nicole and said, “Boy, can you fight?”
Vegeta raised an eyebrow. Nicole was taken off-guard by the question. “F-fight, my lord?” she said.
“Yes, a saiyan should always know at least the basics,” said King Vegeta.
“I can a little,” said Nicole, feeling anxious of why the king would ask her that.
King Vegeta grinned and said, “Good.” He then looked back over to Diego and the soldiers and said, “Halt all!”
The soldiers all lined up together. Diego looked at King Vegeta, surprised.
“Yes, grandfather?” asked Diego.
Vegeta stood up beside Nicole.
King Vegeta put his hand behind Nicole’s back and pushed her forward. “I would like to test this boy here,” said King Vegeta, “See how well he can fight.”
“King-King Vegeta,” said Nicole, “This isn’t necessary.”
“Sure it is!” said King Vegeta, “You’ll have fun!”
Diego walked to meet King Vegeta and Nicole. “Grandfather, he’s a servant, not a fighter,” said Diego.
King Vegeta laughed and said, “I hear he can fight a little. I just would like to see how he would fair against some of the soldiers here.”
Nicole looked at the soldiers. Most of them were bigger than she was.
“Soldiers,” said King Vegeta, “Come, one from among you at a time, let’s test this boy!”
The soldiers were confused and some grinned, looking at Nicole. Nicole looked at Diego. He looked a little worried. She then smiled at him and said, “With your permission, my lord, I’ll do as told.”
Diego looked at Nicole, surprised and said telepathically to her, Are you sure?
Nicole nodded.
“Fine,” said Diego. He then walked away from Nicole and stood to the side.
King Vegeta walked to stand beside Diego. “Begin!” King Vegeta ordered.
Nicole readied herself as a shorter saiyan, almost same height as her, lunged for her. She quickly dodged his attack. He then turned around and tried to land a kick on her. She caught the kick and then tripped the saiyan. The saiyan got angry and quickly stood back up and started throwing punches at her. Nicole’s survival instincts kicked in. She fought back.
“Not bad,” said King Vegeta as Nicole kicked the soldier across the yard. “Next.”
One saiyan after the other got taken out by Nicole. Diego grinned proudly.
“Hmm,” said King Vegeta, “This seems to be easy for him. Let’s make it a little challenging. Halt!”
The saiyans lined up again to await King Vegeta’s next order.
“Let’s see how you fight with a weapon,” said King Vegeta. He threw a pole at Nicole, who caught it.
Diego grew a little worrisome. He had never taught Nicole how to fight with a weapon.
However, unknown to them, Chiaki had taught Nicole how to fight with many different weapons.
Nicole examined the pole in her hands. She grinned and then twirled it around to prepare herself.
“And go!” said King Vegeta.
Then one by one the soldiers ran for Nicole and Nicole defended herself and fought with the pole to take each of them down. Diego and Vegeta were both shocked at how she handled herself. She did remarkable, yes. However, there was one problem that Vegeta and Diego noticed that they hoped King Vegeta didn’t notice: The Gastavian fighting style.
King Vegeta grinned as he watched. “He’s an excellent fighter,” he said.
“Y-yes,” said Diego. Diego then realized the time and was thankful for it. “Grandfather,” he said, “It’s time for the soldiers’ break.”
“Is it?” said King Vegeta, “Too bad. This was quite entertaining.”
Diego then walked forward and said, “Soldiers! You may take your break now! Dismissed!”
The saiyan soldiers then left the training yard. Diego walked to Nicole and took the pole from her. “Good job,” he said.
Nicole smiled and nodded.
“Yes, excellent,” said King Vegeta walking up behind them. Vegeta joined them. “The boy should be a soldier, not a servant. Well, I’ll be off.”
King Vegeta then left the training yard. Seeing he was gone, Vegeta looked at Nicole and said, “That was very reckless.”
“Huh?” said Nicole.
“You didn’t realize what you did?” asked Vegeta.
“Nicole,” said Diego, “Who taught you to fight like that?”
“Like what?” asked Nicole.
“The Gastavian fighting style,” said Vegeta.
“Oh!” said Nicole, blushing. “Sorry, I lost myself back there. Chiaki taught me how to use weapons to fight.”
Diego became somewhat jealous at the mention of Chiaki.
“I’m sorry,” said Nicole, “You don’t think anyone noticed, do you?”
“Let’s hope not,” said Vegeta.
(I do not own any of the Dragonball Z characters or any of the story line directly linked to the series. All said content rights go to Akira Toriyama, the creator of DBZ)
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