Finding Hope

Chapter 58: The Myth of The Gem Guardian!

3rd person's pov

"Tsubaki?" Vegeta questioned, furrowing his eyebrows at her floating figure. "All of you, need to leave here immediately. Or there will be consequences for all of you." Tsubaki said sternly, she stared emotionless at the group which shocked everyone. "Tsu, it's us.. Your family." Gohan spoke up, "I have no clue what you're talking about." Her stone cold attitude caught everyone off guard, including Trunks' and Gohan. "Tsu, what are you saying? It's me, your older brother. Gohan, don't you know me?" Gohan took a step forward, only to be met with a ki blast which nearly hit him. "She's distracted, let's grab the gem." Rin headed for the gem, but Tsubaki could sense what was going on behind her.  "Not happening." Tsubaki stuck her hand out, sending a purple colored ki blast towards Rin who didn't see it coming. "RIN!!" Riko shouted out of panic, flying towards her but it was too late. Rin had been hit in the back by the ki blast, she flew forward, hitting the wall and passed out from the impact. 

Keiko and Keitaro stared in absolute shock, watching as Riko rushed over to his sister who was knocked unconscious. Gohan looked up at Tsubaki, who still had her hand extended out towards where Rin was just floating. She slowly dropped her hand, turning her head back towards the group standing below her. "Did you kill her?" Goku asked, he knew that this was not his daughter. This version of Tsubaki was not the real her, which made Goku angry, he wanted to know how he could get his daughter back. 

"No, if you must know." She answered.

"Then what did you do to her?" Riko held his sister's upper half of her body close to him, looking up at Tsubaki with hatred. Tsubaki didn't answer causing Riko to grit his teeth, "I'm going to kill her." Riko snapped his eyes up towards Tsubaki, who was seemingly distracted by Goku and the others. "You've changed. This is not Tsubaki, the one that we know at all." Vegeta spoke up, "He's right. The Tsubaki I know... Would never threaten anyone like that." Trunks' said,  he looked up at Tsubaki who glared harshly at them. It became silent and just as a gust of wind blew past the group, Riko charged at Tsubaki who was supposedly distracted. "You're not getting away with hurting my sister like this, you wench!!" Riko threw ki blasts at her, but they didn't hit her at all. Instead, the ki blasts hit everywhere else other than her and none of them touched the tree either. "Riko, no!" Keiko shouted but despite her warnings, Riko still kept going. He threw more ki blasts at her, which she continued to divert elsewhere so they didn't touch the tree. One ki blast managed to hit Tsubaki in the side as Riko smirked to himself, satisfied with the fact that he had hit her. Smoke covered Tsubaki's area, as the smoke cleared a figure slowly started to appear. Riko's smirk fell off his face as an angry Tsubaki appeared, floating out of the smoke unharmed. Without another word, Tsubaki disappeared from sight and nearly set panic upon Keitaro and Keiko who were watching the whole thing while caring for Rin. 

"Where'd she go?" Riko looked all around and it was too late for him to turn, "Riko-" Before Keiko could warn him, Tsubaki appeared behind Riko and blasted him in the back with the same color ki as she used on Rin. Riko flew forward, quickly regaining his senses and charged at Tsubaki who dodged every punch and kick he threw her way. Tsubaki then blasted him three more times, each with more power than the last which knocked Riko unconscious. Riko fell to the ground with a large crater forming beneath him, Keiko rushed over towards him. She grabbed onto him, trying to wake him but nothing she did roused him awake. "You!! How could you?!!" Keiko's power level started to rise as she glared at Tsubaki, "Keiko stop that! You'll get yourself killed! Be Smart about this!" Keitaro pleaded but his twin didn't listen, she put Riko down next to Rin and began to float up towards Tsubaki who already was pissed off because of Riko. "You think you can just hurt my friends without getting a fight out of me?" Keiko disappeared from sight, before reappearing in front of Tsubaki as she threw her right fist at her face. This however never connected because Tsubaki stopped her fist with just her finger, which shocked everyone. "Keiko," Keitaro knew he had to do something before Tsubaki could harm his sister, so he threw a ki blast at her as he flew towards her. Tsubaki moved her head slightly to the left as the ki blast whizzed past her head and hit the wall a few feet away, Keitaro and Keiko looked at each other before nodding. 

"What are they doing? They're going to get themselves killed." Videl watched carefully, "I got it!" Hunter exclaimed loudly, "What do you get, Hunter?" Goku looked over to the red head, who was standing on the opposite side of Gohan and Trunks'. 

"Why she's so different. Why she isn't herself." His eyes were lit up in the most weirdest way, which didn't sit well with Vegeta. 

"Well, spit it out." Vegeta snapped.

"There is this really old legend that surrounds the gem. If someone were to get too close to the gem and they mean no harm to the ecosystem around them, the gem would select that person to be it's guardian. This person of course has to be pure of heart." 

"Like a super saiyan." Gohan muttered. 

"Like a what?" 

"A super saiyan. You have to be pure of heart to be able to reach the level of a super saiyan." Vegeta explained.

"Tsubaki is nothing but of a pure heart, she can even ride nimbus. She's been trying to keep them from getting the gem since we've been here."  Trunks said, "The gem chose her to be the guardian. The question is, how do we get Tsubaki back to being herself." The group stopped talking when Keitaro and Keiko crashed right into ground in front of them, both of them were injured. While Tsubaki was unharmed but even more pissed off than before, she went Super and this time it was much stronger than before. The group stared up at her in shock, bringing their guard up as they knew that they were going to have to fight her. 

"I think the only way, we can bring her back to herself.. Is by fighting her." Videl suggested. 

"You might be right about that."