Chapter Text
As I stood there, aggressively considering my life’s choices, and asking myself what the hell had led me to seeing my dad explode right in front of me…
God, I almost couldn’t tell you.
Like, my dad was an asshole. The biggest piece of shit. But man, seeing him just get absolutely obliterated was almost cathartic in a sick, messed up kind of way. And yet the irony about that was, instead of feeling elated, I was trying to not piss myself.
Just like how my father was a mess all over the floor, I felt like my life up until this point was likewise. The thought had crossed my mind many times that I should have just left him. After all, with Mom gone, and my brother having run off with his girlfriend, there wasn’t all that much leftover. At one point, I had all the zeni I needed to get away on my own, but I guess it’s hard to leave the only thing you’ve ever known behind, even if that means chipping away at your chances for another life.
Thousands of my zeni later, and my dad’s contract in hand, we were supposed to meet with King Furry himself to get some business going in Central City. God knows why I agreed to go in the first place; I guess I was at the mercy of Dad’s whims considering he was using all my zeni for this interesting venture.
As a result of all these decisions, each lining up in such a perfect way, the result was that I watched him get obliterated right in front of me.
I felt my breath grow shallow as if I had forgotten how to breathe, and I felt my stomach churning as the smell of burnt flesh filled my nostrils. There was hardly anything left of him but his business contract, with remnants of his ash and guts splattered on the white paper.
Around what was left of him were other dead men—guards of King Furry, who had died in vain as well. Before me was the King, sure, and some pterodactyl looking thing, but also the most menacing, towering dude I had ever seen. His green skin seemed to sharpen the already malicious smile that crossed his mouth, his teeth just as piercing and intimidating as were his eyes.
The worst part of it all was he was looking directly at me.
“Please, do not harm another soul!” the King cried, but he was shushed instantly as the green invader stretched his arm toward King Furry.
“Silence, you fool!” the invader replied, not removing his gaze from me. “As I have warned you before, you are no longer in control here!”
There was a long pause. I tried to swallow, but the muscles in my neck were seizing. I thought then that I was surely going to die. My brain began throwing life events at me, images of Mom, the big oak tree in my backyard. For a moment I saw what could have been if I had done what I was supposed to do and left Dad to live my own life.
Briefly Dad’s words filled my ears like a ghost, his voice regarding my contribution to the family stinging as he dismissed me: “Kat, you think 50,000 zeni is a lot? I could piss away that much! Your contribution is meaningless!”
It was his way of saying… nothing I ever did was enough, and he needed more. I guess it was too late to realize my dependence on him emotionally had been a huge mistake. But in the end, it didn’t matter, as I was about to die anyway.
The invader, who was still looking in my direction, returned his arm to his side momentarily before lifting it upward again to point one of his sharp clawed fingers at me. “You,” he said, as his pointed finger began moving in a back-and-forth motion as he gestured for me to approach. “Come here.”
What would it be? Blown to smithereens, a broken skull, a punch through the gut? The fact that this guy could just generate a fucking beam thing and blast people to death must’ve been the top of the iceberg, surely. I didn’t know exactly what I was dealing with, but I knew it wasn’t good.
“Me—me?” I asked, my voice shaking. I stupidly pointed a finger up at my face. I was an absolute dumb ass but fear does something to you.
“Yeah, you! Come here!” the invader yelled in response.
My legs felt like gelatin at that point, but I managed to wobble over. What was I supposed to do, run? I felt like trying to escape would only entice the inevitability of my certain demise.
Once I got up close to him, I was finally able to comprehend the absolute unit that he was. Like, he had to be over eight feet tall, and he was ripped to boot. This was such a bad horrible situation he could murder me with his pinky finger.
“I get the feeling that you knew that blob on the floor,” he said, his smile remaining.
Well duh, I thought.
“Just like that pathetic human and the others on the floor that have met their fate, I hope you realize that there is no point in rebelling against me. Take their death as a sign to submit to me. I am the new King of this world, and you will call me King Piccolo.”
Oh, yay… he was a megalomaniac, too. What luck!
“Okay, yeah sure, whatever you say,” I replied, my tone quick and to the point. I couldn’t believe it myself either, but what was I supposed to say? Fuck you? I honestly wish I was braver and went on my impulse at that moment to just say it and kill myself. The torture was at odds with, you know, dying and all, though.
“Very good then,” King Piccolo replied, chuckling. “I am about to make my announcement to the world of their new ruler and what is to become of their repulsive lives. I suggest you take that as an honor that you get to see the rise of my domain in real time!”
Some guy in the back corner of the room began to sprint for the exit, but without even looking King Piccolo shot some wave from his hand again, not only obliterating the actual dude, but the wall right in front of him. The exit doorway was now a large hole, ironically with the “EXIT” sign right above it still intact.
“Who else wants to try and run?” King Piccolo huffed, crossing his arms over his chest as he scanned all the remaining people in the room. The silence gave him the answer he wanted it seemed, and immediately any sense of irritation disappeared from his expression as he resumed his chaotic grin.
“Now then,” he began, “would somebody be so kind as to bring in a recording device? My new world will certainly need its introduction. I can’t keep my servants waiting.”
Gasps and grunts echoed between the people as they began to coordinate with one another. A shuffle here, a trip there, but their scurry quickly brought together exactly what King Piccolo wanted.
“Yes, umm, King Piccolo, we have everything set and ready to broadcast you, Sir,” a dark-haired lady had sputtered.
King Piccolo turned towards the prepared camera set and took position. A five second countdown was initiated by the lady, and then a screen turned on next to the camera, showing King Piccolo in perfect center of the shot and me in the background, shaking.
I didn’t know if I was supposed to get out of the view of the camera or not but I was so petrified that I couldn’t do anything but stand there. I think King Piccolo saw this display of what was going on via the live feedback footage and he just burst into laughter, providing his megalomaniac self on full display as the broadcast started.
He started talking to the camera, but I could not focus. As in, everything was so obnoxiously loud and horrifying that I felt like reality itself had turned itself up in intensity. Something as simple as a bird flying past the window could be equated to a missile. The crumbles that continued to fall off the dusty exploded wall might as well have been boulders.
No matter where I looked, something small was happening in a very big way. My bitchy dad’s guts on the floor just magnified itself whenever my eyes skimmed past them. The lady in the back looked like she was about to die of an aneurysm.
And yet, in the middle of all this internalized chaos and my existential crisis, I heard King Piccolo say, “Please, don’t worry, this is meant to be Happy Fun Time!”
I couldn’t believe what I was hearing. Happy Fun Time? I mouthed softly to myself in confusion. That is like the kind of thing an evil clown would tell you when you were having a nightmare birthday party. Only there wasn’t even cake here.
Please, God… I thought, hoping a last-minute prayer would get me out of this. But ironically it would suddenly get much worse.
“You there,” King Piccolo said, turning his head from the camera to look at me again. “Yes, you… why don’t you show all the insolent humans of the world what you think of me? You have witnessed firsthand my power. Go on! Don’t be shy.”
Why is this happening to me? Why me? What did I do exactly that made this all be on me!? What was I even supposed to say in a situation like this? On the one hand, this would be the perfect moment to tell him, and extension everybody on earth how I felt. I hated him. I hated his guts and his shitty grin. I wanted to tell him what a good for nothing, dog licking, soul sucking, trashy, dickless, evil pain he was. The best thing that could happen would be he would blow me up then and there and I’d be free of this tyranny and join my crap father in hell.
On the other hand.
“He is super strong and can kill everybody if he wanted to! We are doomed and this guy is going to be our end!” is what I ended up saying. Not very eloquent I admit, but again, I was put in unnecessary spotlight.
Unfortunately, I think King Piccolo liked this because he started laughing again. Throwing his head back, mouth open, on the verge of tears crying laughing. Within a few seconds though, after he had his fill at my expense, he elaborated, saying, “Now then, what does a pathetic human like you call an all-powerful being like me?”
“Umm, King Piccolo?” I responded, dumbfounded by his continued pestering.
“Yes, King Piccolo… I am your King! Now say it like you mean it! Declare my name!”
“All hail King Piccolo!” I yelled.
The dark-haired lady conveniently cut the camera feed to end the broadcast. Even with all the fearful eyes that had joined me in my view of the room I was in, through the lenses of that camera, I could still feel a weighted dread eclipsing the world around me. Empathy or my own fear, I certainly felt that we were all doomed.
In any other universe, I suppose it would be safe to say that the world as we knew it should have ended that day. In any other instance of reality, maybe I would have been dead. And yet? There I was. There we all were. Humanity at the brink of destruction.
“Now then, Piano, would you so kindly escort King Furry—or should I say—Peasant Furry here to a vehicle of transportation? I want to make sure he has front row seats to the destruction of West City!”
“Destruction?!” I gasped. I really wished I hadn’t, though. Between my dissociation I guess I missed what he had been saying in the broadcast.
“Oh, yes, destruction,” King Piccolo replied. “To pulverize, extinguish, eradicate… you know, completely wipe something off the face of the earth!”
“I know what destruction means!” I argued. I didn’t want to go into explaining that I completely tapped out of his grand info dump on how he’s going to kill everybody. Maybe it was better that way. I did not see it or hear it, so to speak. Maybe if I just ignored what he had said hard enough...
“Oh, spicy, aren’t we? Well then, if you know what it means, perhaps, I will educate you on what it does. You don’t learn just by knowing, you learn by experiencing it.”
“I… I don’t understand,” I muttered.
“You will be coming with Piano, Furry and I to witness the destruction of West City! What are you, dense?”
Panic ensued. Rather, it resumed. Why couldn’t I have kept my mouth shut? Maybe he would have left me where I was while he went on his circus parade.
“I will find a transport, my King,” the pterodactyl guy, who was obvious to me now named Piano, acknowledged. As he left momentarily to retrieve a car or whatever, I looked over and made eye contact with King Furry. We both were terrified beyond belief of what was to come, and no words could be said. Yet, that joined fear we both had gave us just enough solid communication to come to a rather simple yet firm understanding.
We had to find a way to get away from this guy.
How though, was the question. King Piccolo could blow us up whenever he wanted. I was positive this charade was going to inevitably lead to our demise, so while we did as he said, we just had to wait for the prime opportunity to get the hell out of there. The only problem was, what could possibly be a distraction strong enough to get his attention away from us?
From the window behind King Furry, I unfortunately saw that our transport had arrived. The engine of the craft was muted from behind the glass as a very soft whoosh sound from Piano opening the cockpit could be heard.
“Ah, quick and precise,” King Piccolo beamed. He walked over towards the window, gesturing for me and King Furry to follow him. “Come now, West City awaits us!”
“Though the window?” I said sarcastically.
“Why of course! Why bother with stairs when it’s so much easier to break the rules!” King Piccolo replied, smiling as he pulled his right arm backward, and with a powerful, swift punch, broke the window down like it was nothing.
The sudden shatter of the window made me recoil and duck my head. The wind from outside made its presence known immediately, sending whistles though what shards of glass that remained upright. When I opened my eyes, I saw that nobody had moved yet, and both King Furry and King Piccolo were waiting for me.
“Now, now, ladies first,” King Piccolo mocked, his creepy smile still plastered onto his face. He gestured the hand that had just punched down the window towards the open cockpit where Piano waited, even his minion mirroring him in their uniform malicious expressions.
With no choice but to obey, I walked toward the window and past King Piccolo and the shaken King Furry. The closer that I got to the window, the more I felt the wind, and the more intense the wind got, a clearer view was made for me as I looked out at the adjacent buildings and long blocks of grassy terrain beneath and beyond me.
The barriers of the shattered window melted away once I attempted to mentally measure what might as well been a chasm between myself and the craft. A good foot and a half or so between solid ground and the ship; not bad of an in-air parking job on Piano’s part, but it was still way too far for me. Disorientation seemed to take hold of my vision as my brain scrambled with the idea of jumping in.
“Come on now, don’t be shy,” Piano chimed, starting to chuckle as he watched me struggle.
With all my might I focused on the landing goal and made my jump. While in hindsight I realized it wasn’t as bad as it could have been, I found my heart was racing despite my small success. Worst of all, King Furry and King Piccolo would climb in soon after, so any feeling of distancing myself from that weirdo was simply too far off to have any relief anytime soon.
So, there I was, multiple floors in the air next to the downtrodden and former office of King Furry. It wouldn’t be long before all the buildings throughout West City looked like this—worse even, considering King Piccolo literally said he was going to pulverize it. Never in my life would I have ever thought that this is something I would experience. Stuck in a shitty job and unsure where my life was beyond a box, sure. Stressed over a missed bill here and there and having the IRS take away my home? Yeah, that was a possibility, in this economy. But this? Gotta add terrorism—nay, a demonic invasion to the list while we’re at it!
“Now then, off we go!” King Piccolo said, stretching his arms in the air as he excitedly exaggerated his presence.
However, Piano did not proceed. There were a few seconds in between King Piccolo’s orders before he turned his attention to his minion, frowning. “Piano, did you hear me? Chop, chop!”
“I heard you, my King, but I see something—someone approaching us.”
“Ha, as if that matters! Another little human or two think they can stop me now, hmm?”
I looked outward in the direction that Piano was focused on. Indeed, there was a guy heading our way. He was bald and looked strong, but not anything I thought was of significance. But I was dead wrong assuming, because this guy actually had previous beef with King Piccolo. I would quickly come to know this, because even though I wasn’t looking behind me at King Piccolo, I could feel him seething.
“Him again!? You would think these idiots knew when to give up! Especially after I killed those friends of his!” King Piccolo huffed. “No matter, I’ll deal with this little pest quickly. Keep the engine running, Piano, I won’t be long.”
King Piccolo full ass just jumped from the cockpit, multiple floors high at least, and landed perfectly on the ground beneath us. Shocked, my eyes were glued to the instant confrontation that began to ensue, although from up high where I was, I could barely hear anything. A few words here and there, a couple names dropped, something about an Evil Containment Wave, and then the bald guy pulled out a rice cooker?
“What!?” I heard King Piccolo scream from down below. Whatever was going on was intense.
“Oh, that little rat! How dare he threaten King Piccolo!” Piano said, angry on behalf of his master.
I wanted so badly to know what was going on, but I kept my mouth shut this time. The good thing about it was that Piano decided to put the craft in a stationary position and jumped down to meet with the two below. Luck paid off for me shutting the hell up because this was perfect. They were conveniently distracted… and it just so happened it looked like they were about to start fighting, too.
“As bad as I feel for that guy down there, I think we should get the hell out of here,” I said to King Furry.
Gasping, as if appalled, he replied, “I can’t just leave! That man down there is in very real danger! What about my people, too?”
“Your people?” I felt offended. I get he was trying to be a good leader or whatever, but good lord I was right there. “I am one of your people!?”
Not even missing a beat, King Piccolo and the bald guy down below started to officially fight. The movement was quick, and my eyes failed miserably at trying to even perceive back and forth movement between the dude confronting his green nemesis. Seconds turned to minutes, and despite the awesome moves of this martial artist it was simply not going to take care of anything. It got to the point where King Piccolo was able to take an easy opening and stomp on the poor guy.
“The longer we wait the more trouble we are going to be in!” I pleaded.
It seems I wasn’t the only one with the idea that we needed to retreat ASAP. From the destroyed window, a couple armed guards and police men stared out at us, anxiety evident in their expressions as they did a few double takes of the fighting down south and towards us again.
“King Furry, we’re here to get you away from this place!” one of the guards said. “Survivors have started to evacuate, and you need to as well!”
Sweating at this point, King Furry locked his gaze towards the fight below. I could tell it pained him to see the bald guy getting his ass handed to him. After everything we’ve seen with King Piccolo and his show of power, it very well looked like this guy was a goner. I didn’t put it past him to feel a bit of shame leaving, but what good were we going to do?
“Sir, we have to leave, now!” another officer shouted. The small group began climbing into the cockpit with us, surrounding the King and joining me in my pleading.
Things kept stacking up. As in, something else started to happen.
“You leave him alone!” I heard from below, but it was a new voice. Everyone in the cockpit, including myself, instantly snapped our attention from the anxiety-ridden King, and to what looked to be a little boy. A tiny little boy with messy hair and a tail.
Rubbing my eyes, I thought for a moment I was starting to hallucinate. “Is that a kid!?”
Silence overtook the cockpit, although the air was very loud and full of intensity. We all watched as the boy walked confidently up to face King Piccolo, the bald guy now down for the count.
What could one kid possibly do? This was a slaughter in the making, and there was nothing anybody could do to stop this.
“Sir, with all due respect, you’re no good to your citizens dead! We must regroup!” one of the officers continued to plea, his voice breaking the concentration the group had on the situation on the ground.
“All right.” King Furry exhaled, as if defeated. “Let’s get out of here and make sure the evacuees are safe.”
One of the armed guards pushed me gently out of the way and took control of the craft. As the cockpit shield lowered over us, muting the world around and beyond us even further, I felt an odd yet extremely minuscule intuition, deep in the back of my mind like a small glimmer of hope, that everything would be okay. Yes, even for that kid down there.
I guess I was right, because in the end, it was said all over the news that that scrawny kid with a tail ended up killing King Piccolo. For many years, and despite everything that had happened, I held onto that speck of hope as if it was the last thing I had.
I lost everything I ever knew that day, but it didn’t compare to my new lease at life. And best of all, I would never have to see King Piccolo ever, ever again.
Or so I thought…