Filthy Monkeys

There once was a Saiyan named Kale. There once was a Saiyan named Cerus. It was around midnight or something. It was past their curfew. The two (former) street urchins were out on the street nevertheless, scrounging for delicious treats, the kind you dream about every night but forget about before you wake up the next morning.

The orphanage had a strict ‘no dirty monkey children allowed outside after dark’ policy. Anyone who broke that rule paid for their insolence dearly. Disobeying a direct order from Ms. Jocoty, their caretaker, was like spitting into the wind without having a spit fetish.

Ms. Jocoty was old as tits, so she could neither do anything wrong nor could she be admonished in any way, shape, or form by the Sadala Defense Force, who took their orders directly from the king. The cowards feared breaking her hips or something; they would never tackle her or arrest her or even say unkind words in her presence, lest that cause her to faint. Nobody wants a lawsuit on their hands, especially the king.

That was more than enough backstory to show that these girls were hungry and bored. Most of the time they were forced to stay in their rooms and knit their caretaker a new pair of socks or panties, or write festive slam poetry for the daily shindig after supper. Kale hated that nonsense. Cerus did too, but her feelings are less relevant.

At night, the streets of the royal city were a scary place, and by scary, I mean dark and mysterious and a little too spooky and eerily ambient for children such as these to remain entirely placid on their walk. It was near pitch black out on account of there being no lampposts anywhere. Few Saiyans could be found out and about at this hour of the night. A freezing current was blowing through the streets, stirring up fragments of trash and dust into the starry, moon-stained sky.

“Cerus… let’s go back,” Kale whispered, her voice shaking. “Ms. Jocoty will punish us if we–”

“Are you afraid of her? She’s just an ugly old woman, Kale. Besides, she’s not our mother. She’s nobody. She can’t tell us what to do.”

“She takes care of us! It’s disrespectful, Cerus. She could kick us out if she catches us…”

“So?” asked the other girl, hardly paying attention.

Kale frowned, fear clearly plastered on her face. “Where would we go?”

“Heya, lookit that! Yasekki rolls! Someone’s left them out in the open! What luck! C’mon, Kale!”

They came to a stop before an unattended car parked outside of a bakery. Indeed, left in the open trunk was a box of crispy yellow pastry balls glazed in purplish murask sugar. These were the kinds of treats orphans like Kale and Cerus could scarce dream of. Back at Ms. Jocoty’s place, they hardly ever got to eat anything but stale bread, overripe fruit, and overcooked, unseasoned meat.

Their mouths watered. Even so, Kale meekly said, “Sh-shouldn’t we make sure these don’t belong to anyone?”

With exaggerated movements, Cerus looked up and down the street. Not a Saiyan in sight. She shrugged, her pink-and-white skirt fluttering lightly in the wind. “Who cares?”

“B-but…”

Cerus snatched a yasekki roll without a second thought, biting into it barbarically, licking her lips loudly. “Oh my gosh, Kale, it’s so tasty! Try one!”

“W-well… shouldn’t we… shouldn’t we…?”

“Oh, come off it, Kale!” the other girl reprimanded her, pulling out another roll and tossing it to her companion. “Nobody’s watching us. Lighten up.”

“I don’t want to get in trouble…”

Cerus’s cheeks were flushed ever so mildly. Her calm, girlish face, soft, puffy lips, and wet, grey eyes betrayed no doubt. “It’s just a couple sweet rolls, Kale. I bet they won’t even notice we took some. It’s not like we’re being greedy and running off with the whole box…”

Kale’s face, on the other hand, was pouting, contorted unnaturally so as to choke away her natural girlish beauty. Whenever she got like this, it was almost as if she were trying to disappear. The effect produced little more than a wretched, pitiful sight. The other girl ushered her on again with a devious smirk and a pat on the shoulder.

Trembling, Kale timidly bit into her roll. Her frown evaporated. “It’s… good! So sweet! Oh…”

Before Cerus could respond, Kale scarfed down the rest of her treat. “See?” she giggled. “Told ya. Come on, let’s grab a few more and–”

“Halt right there!”

The unmistakable voice of a Sadala Defense Force guard cut through the night, sending shivers down their spines. Their hearts sank. Kale’s eyes filled with tears; Cerus casually tossed another roll into her mouth, trying not to act surprised. The man was tall and broad-shouldered, with a thick black beard and heavy gait. His armor shone in the moonlight. His muscles protruded beneath his skin-tight, standard-issue jumpsuit.

“Hiya Mr. Guard sir,” Cerus said breathlessly, stepping forward, another sweet roll held behind her back as she struck an innocent-looking pose. “Nice night, isn’t it, Mister?”

“I witnessed both of you stealing from that delivery vehicle,” the man replied gruffly, ignoring her. “That’s not okay. By the King’s Law, theft of any other person’s property is punishable by a fine or time in prison.”

“Oh, is that so? But we weren’t stealing anything, Mister.”

From behind her back, Cerus stealthily threw the sweet roll to Kale and stepped up to the guard, taking a seductive pose.

“I saw you do it myself. You can’t lie your way out of this, girls. That’s a crime, you know. Now, you’re going to have to come with me an–”

“Shush,” Cerus breathed, placing her hand on the man’s chest. “Come on. You didn’t see anything. Honest. We’re just a couple of innocent girls. We didn’t know any better… we’re hungry and cold and alone. The orphanage doesn’t give us much to eat… Please, you don’t have to do this. I’ll make it worth your while if you let us go.”

The elite mumbled something indistinct, his cheeks burning red. Suddenly, he no longer appeared very big or scary anymore. Kale had hardly a clue what Cerus was up to. She had never seen her friend act this way before.

“You two shouldn’t be down here,” the guard finally said in a rather lame tone. “This is gang territory. This late at night, you’re bound to run into trouble. You need to return to wherever you came from.”

“It’s okay, sir, honest. We go for walks at night all the time. We can take care of ourselves.”

“Can you now?” His eyes flickered, and Kale thought she saw the haze break. For some reason, the man was no longer enthralled. “You look like a pair of lost little girls.”

“We’re fine. Look, why don’t you just calm down, and we’ll make it worth your while, won’t we, Kale?”

Kale went pale. Her fingers shaking, she shook her head vehemently, unable to form any words. This was beyond anything they had ever done together. Cerus was presuming a lot by asking that of her. The bitter reality of her friend’s treachery tore at her heart.

“So that’s your game, eh?” the guy murmured, scratching his beard and looking them over. “For me to look the other way.” Cerus nodded enthusiastically, blinking rapidly. “Well it ain’t happenin’! I’m not that weak. You’re both coming with me!”

He drew a pair of energy bonds from his belt, wrapping them around Cerus’ wrists before she had any clue what had happened. The elite moved faster than Kale would have expected. But he wasn’t fast enough. Her reflexes had kicked in as soon as he had raised his arm, and she was already gone, fleeing down the road, a melting sweet roll held tightly in her hand, the wind on her face, her old friend, the one she’d grown up with in the orphanage, the one she’d once called her sister, left behind.

“Kale! Ka-ale!” the other girl cried out, her voice breaking as it rose in unbridled terror.

Not looking back, she fled with extreme agility. Cerus had done that to herself. She could blame no one else for her stupidity. Kale did not feel guilt as much as anxiety bubbling up in the back of her throat. The more she ran, the less her thoughts remained clear to her, and that was for the better.

She would not be taken to jail. She ran and ran until she was out of breath, no longer aware of where she was. The streets this far downtown were totally vacant and unfamiliar. Kale knew vaguely that she was in some gang’s territory, but if she kept quiet, with a little luck, she’d be able to pass through unnoticed.

She was shivering. It had been foolish to leave her coat at the orphanage. What if this was the night they really had decided to run away? If she’d gone back for her coat, Ms. Jocoty would have caught her for sure. She was stupid, so stupid and reckless and childish. That’s all she was. There was nothing else to her being. Why did she have to be so stupid?

Kale blinked away the tears, stumbling into a garbage can. The top flew off, rolling down the street noisily, echoing several times before the darkness swallowed it up again.

She felt their eyes on the back of her neck before she spotted the first one. She was so careless. Biting her lip, Kale tried to calm herself. They wore tight-fitting punk clothes, torn open at the knees, the sleeves on their black jackets cut off to reveal bare, tattooed arms. Four men, none older than that guard, surrounded her. The one directly ahead was crouching, peering into the trash can with feigned interest, snapping a knife open and close in one hand.

Grinning sinisterly, the man whispered, “Hope we didn’t frighten you, love. You lost? What are you doing here? Where are you going?”

“I-I’m just… just trying to get home.”

“Where’s home?” one of the men behind her asked. “Definitely not here, ha!”

Panicked, Kale jumped and spun around. They cackled ravenously. Her neck was soaked by sweat. It was no fun being the object of humiliation. She had endured enough of that at the orphanage. But these guys were so much taller and stronger, confident in their numbers. She desperately looked for an opening, but there was none. If she tried to run now, Kale knew they would go for the kill.

“That way.” She pointed down the road in the direction she had come from, her finger shaking in the moonlight.

“It’s late. How’d a pretty little doll like you end up on the streets at this time of night?”

“I-I’m just trying to get home…” she repeated passively, clutching her shoulders, her teeth clattering.

“You’re cold–here, take my jacket,” said the man with the knife. Hopping up, he took it off and walked over to her. Though Kale shook her head and put her hands up and tried to tell him she was quite alright, he walked over to her and put his thick fur-trimmed jacket around her shoulders nonetheless.

For a moment, the warmth comforted her, and she allowed herself to relax. That was when he pressed down upon her shoulders, using the jacket to smother her, bringing her to her knees. So shocked was Kale that at first, she did not resist, but as he pressed his hands against her chest, a dread feeling spread like wildfire inside her. She screamed for him to stop, to let her go, to have mercy. The man wasn’t listening; his partners were licking their lips. He pressed his hand harder against her, groping blindly, squeezing uncaringly. This time, she tried to run, so he grabbed her by the hair. Pulling her roughly back to him, he whispered again, “Settle down, you. This ain’t the half of it.”

Reality blurred into a smattering of shapes and beams of light. For a moment, she wondered what had happened to Cerus. He pulled her hair again, pressing his body against hers, and her thoughts went blank. Despair and pain all at once vanished, and she felt nothing… nothing but a tingling heat in her spine surging up to her skull.

A flash of yellow-green light split the street in two, the spire of energy and flames streaking like a comet into the night sky. Her entire body was tingling now. Silence followed. Kale found that she was breathing hard, but she knew not what from, nor where she was. Looking around, wide-eyed, she realized she was sitting on a sidewalk in the cold, her skin covered in goosebumps. Her hair was in her face, stuck to her forehead and cheeks with sweat. Next to her was a pair of smoking black boots and a scorch mark on the pavement.

“Y-you monster…! I’ll kill you, bitch!” a man shouted, jumping out from the darkness at her.

Kale screamed in fright, clutching her cheeks, shaking terribly, paralyzed, unable to move. Why was she so tired?

Another man leapt from the darkness to her left. “Get her! She killed Tukolo! I can’t believe it! What the hell?!”

To say Kale was, in that moment, confused, would be an understatement, so it will not be stated. The poor girl had little idea where she was, who these men were, or why they were attacking her. She’d gotten lost on her way home. Cerus had beaten her back, she just knew. How she had ended up here… those memories were fuzzy and broken and impossible to grasp onto.

And yet she was powerless to stop them. A third man too was with them. They were spitting and cursing, eyes livid, teeth bared, swooping in for the kill. Why were they doing this? What had she done to them? She was cold; Kale just wanted to go home.

A shadow passed between the moon and the world, and suddenly, a woman was standing between Kale and the men.

“Go home,” she barked at them, folding her arms.

“B-but Caulifla, she killed Tukolo!”

“Don’t make me repeat myself,” the woman said tersely. Her hair was shorter than Kale’s, although longer than Cerus’, black, spiky, wild as a feral animal’s. She wore baggy purple pants and a short magenta top that covered only her chest, leaving her stomach and shoulders bare to the night.

Kale sucked in a breath, trying to steady her madly beating heart.

“O-okay… fine, we’ll go, we’ll go!”

They sounded like such whiners, like the others in the orphanage when breakfast was running a few minutes late. How easily that woman–Caulifla, was it?–had dominated them, had made those frightening-looking men pale and mute, took her breath away. They were pets, not men–not real men. She hadn’t needed to fight them, they feared her so.

Swallowing hard, Kale attempted to stand, but she was too weak. Caulifla kept her back to Kale for another minute of windshorn silence. Then she turned, winked, and offered the girl a hand.

“Th-thank you… Miss… Miss… Ca-ca-ca-ca…” Kale stammered.

“Caulifla,” the woman replied casually. “And you are?”

“K-kale, I’m Kale. Y-you saved m–”

Caulifla walked over to the boots, crouching and peering at them intently. “Heh, not bad. You vaporized him.”

“I-I did what?” Kale was more than a little perplexed.

“Tukolo. They were trying to have a little fun. Those idiots don’t get out much. I should have stopped it as soon as I saw what they were trying to do… but then you did that move. Can you do it again? Right now? Try it on me, Kale!”

Hearing Caulifla say her name sent a jolt of electricity through her body. She wanted to be near this woman, wanted to stay close no matter what. She didn’t know why, or to what end, but the feeling was screaming out from the inside of her skull as strong as thirst or hunger or extreme weariness. But this emotion, unlike those, made her feel alive, made her feel real and safe and content.

Though she did not know what Caulifla was talking about, Kale nonetheless attempted to produce a ki blast as she had seen the other children at the orphanage sometimes do. Cerus had once shot a big blue beam from her fingertips at another girl for stealing her nightclothes. But Kale had never pulled off such a feat herself. She was not one to pick fights like Cerus.

Sticking her hand out awkwardly, Kale gritted her teeth, grunted as she had seen the other girl do, and tried to pull off an impressive attack. Nothing happened. She went scarlet around the ears.

“That’s okay,” the woman said, patting her on the shoulder. “You look really tired, Kale. I bet you used up all your energy against Tukolo, right?”

“Ye-yeah, that’s it.”

“I haven’t seen you before. Are you from around here?”

Glancing around one more time at all the closed-up shops and buildings, their walls grey and pink and white and faded in the near darkness, she shook her head. “I don’t know how I ended up here. I was supposed to be heading back to the orphanage and…”

“Orphanage?” Caulifla cocked her head. “That’s where you live?”

Again, shame overcame Kale. “Mhm,” she nodded meekly.

“How do you like it there? Got a cozy place to sleep, lots of friends, three meals a day?”

Kale shrugged. “It’s not the worst, but me and…” She paused, having almost said ‘Cerus’. For some fierce reason, she couldn’t bring herself to admit to Caulifla that she had come out this night with her friend in the hopes of stealing whatever food they could find. “I mean, I was just out walking, and…”

She looked down, realizing for the first time since she could remember that she was firmly grasping that sweet roll in her left hand. Its sugary glaze had melted all over her fingers, its rounded form crumpling beneath her grip. The girl opened her palm, looking at the little ball of yasekki wearily.

“Hey, where did you get that?” Caulifla asked, poking her head in closer to get a good look. “A yasekki roll! Mmmm…”

Without asking, the woman plucked the pastry from Kale’s hand, holding it up. In the moonlight, Kale noticed a bite mark in the side of it. Caulifla took a bite directly over that. At once, as if by reflex, a warm, hopeful, calming feeling raced through her body down to her toes. Kale shuddered, covering her mouth.

Caulifla threw it back to her after taking another large bite. “It’s late. How about you come back with me tonight?”

“With you…?”

“You could join my gang, heh. What do you think, Kale? Don’t know many guys who could vaporize someone like Tukolo… besides you owe me. That was one of my paid bodyguards you just killed.”

“I-I’m s–”

Caulifla raised her hand impatiently, then proceeded to lick the frosting off it with slow, long, wet tongue strokes. “Don’t worry, Kale. We’ve got lots of tasty food and a bed for you if you want to come back with me tonight. My gang has the biggest territory out of anyone in this city. But you have to be loyal to me, Kale. If you are, I’ll let you train with me, and maybe I’ll be able to help you control that incredible power you showed off earlier. I mean, you lit up the entire street with that explosion! That was cool.”

She didn’t know what to say, so she smiled, nibbling at a corner of the yasekki roll. “Yes,” she spoke without thinking. Her mind was once again running blank and her body was tingling warmly. She had forgotten the cold. “I would really like to join your gang, Miss Caulifla.” She bowed. “Please!”

“Good choice,” Caulifla replied, placing her hand on Kale’s shoulder, squeezing it softly.

The girl felt her breath on her cheek, and there was the moon and all the stars and the cool night sky, so vast and vivid and humbling that she knew this had to be a dream–a better dream than the ones she’d had before.