第2章

フォーンコール

Fōnkōru

The Phone Call


Bulma jumped back in a startle as the supposedly battery-drained phone in her hand blared loudly. She stared at it in horror. Her numb mind debating whether to answer the strange call or not. She knows what will happen.

She stared at the screen. There was no name at all. It was from an unknown caller without even a contact number. She saw the time, it was 12:06am.

She waited for the phone to stop ringing but it didn't stop like normal calls do. It continuously rang for several minutes. Frightened, she pulled out the battery but it never stopped from ringing either.

"What the hell is happening?!" she panicked. She dropped her phone on the ground and tried to step on it but it continued to ring.

The ringing was ceaseless.

After all her attempts on shutting the stupid device up, she hesitantly, she answered the call, "Hello?" he voice broke, giving in her fear.

"Hey," it was a response she received from a stranger. A man with a very charismatic, commanding and cold voice she never heard in real life but in her dreams.

"W-who are you?" she asked hesitantly.

The stranger let out an amused yet dark chuckle. "I am nobody."

"Huh?" Bulma mouthed.

"Nobody is my name."

"Are you serious?"

The man in the other line chuckled, "Yes, of course."

Bulma frowned and decided to play along this 'Nobody's game. "Alright, Nobody. What do you want?"

"Nice guess, woman. Actually, I wanted you to do something for me."

Bulma sighed. Just as she had thought.

"I can see you from somewhere you don't know." The stranger told her.

Unknown to Bulma, Vegeta's spirit form lingers at the corner behind her, staring at her intently.

As if feeling a cold blow of wind gusted past her, Bulma turned around to see no one. But a odd feeling in her gut was telling her that she was not alone in there.

"R-Really?" stuttering in fear, Bulma looked around her to find any signs of this nobody character but she never saw any.

The stranger laughed, amused. "Of course, you won't be able to see me..."

Bulma let out an unsatisfied huff through her nostrils. "Fine! Then if you could really see me then prove it to me! Describe me!"

"A blue haired blue eyed woman, wearing a casual pink shirt, dark fit jeans and sneakers terribly wet in the rain. She is speaking to a stranger by her smartphone. Ah... Is that an CPhone 13? The latest release? Ha! You're surprised, aren't you?"

Bulma was gaping in disbelief as the stranger was indeed right!

"Are you watching me through CCTV?"

"Nice try but no."

Bulma grinned widely. She needed to get out of this dream-no- wait a sec- this isn't a dream right? It's not a dream anymore? And this guy on the phone... Just who the hell is he?

"My phone is out of battery right now. How come you could call me?" she asked.

"Don't worry about it. I'm using the lunar energy to make a call and talk to you over your phone the way you humans do with solar energy in calculators. Free of charge. Natural source of energy. Environmental friendly." The stranger told her smugly.

"uh... okay." Bulma grinned awkwardly as she tried to sneak away from the shrine, she didn't want to speak with this stranger anymore but the thunder roared angrily making her jump back in surprise... and fear.

"Never try to sneak out on me or you die," the stranger hissed. Bulma shuddered. Did the thunder just roar because of this 'nobody's' anger?

"W-What are you, really?" Bulma asked. "A-are you a ghost or yokai or something?" she asked in horror and with such uneasiness. She didn't like where this conversation was going.

"Something along the lines of that," the stranger responded as a matter of fact. "So you better obey my commands if you know what's good for you."

And she was so frightened for her life.

"Would you leave me alone after this?" Bulma asked, whimpering in fear.

"Fine," the stranger agreed so that he could only make her do his bidding.

"What do you want me to do?" Bulma asked.

The doors of the shrine creaked open and Bulma turned around in fear.

"Come inside," he commanded. Bulma obeyed hesitantly and walked inside the dark room only enlightened by a candle by the center of the room. The door closed behind her and she turned around to see it shut close.

"Remember that urn you were so amused with two weeks ago?" Vegeta asked.

"That's an urn? I thought it was a jar!"

Then was an annoyed grunt on the other line.

"Anyways, how did you know that?" Bulma asked.

"I saw you."

"The decoration papers used in it were beautiful," she complimented.

"Those are talisman seals, not decoration papers." The stranger angrily muttered, kind of annoyed before he commanded her again. "Look for the urn."

Bulma search through the dark room and found the decorated -er- sealed urn by the temple's platform. "Found it!" she said.

"Good," he complimented. "Now, I want you to remove the talisman seals- the decoration papers one by one..."

Bulma reluctantly agreed. "Okay." and then crouched down into the jar while holding her phone in between her right shoulder and right cheek as she reluctantly touched the first one.

"Wait a sec," she suddenly hesitated.

"What?" he grumbled impatiently.

"Would this anger the monks if they found out I released these decoration papers?"

"Don't worry about them. My anger is more terrifying than theirs anyways."

Bulma pouted. "Uh... What?"

"Just hurry up!" he snapped at her, getting impatient of the girl's hesitation.

"Hey, I-" Bulma was about to protest back at him. Just who the hell is this stranger trying to order her around anyways?! But then the thunder blared once more, as if a deity was getting mad at her disobedience. She reluctantly muttered to herself, "Okay, Okay. Just make sure that I won't get into trouble from this!"

She slowly removed the first seal then the second, and the third.

An ominous thunderstorm rang like bells of hell around the Seventh Warrior's temple. Another roar of thunder woke Dende and the other monks up, jolting up in shock as they sensed an massive dark energy suddenly appear in the planet and is very close to them, making them all panic.

The ground began to tremble as Bulma removed the fourth and fifth seals, but she barely noticed the phenomena happening outside the shrine anymore since the stranger has already hypnotized her enough to control her mind.

"Hurry up!" Vegeta yelled at her when he sensed the monks woke up from their slumber due to his sleeper powder letter. Bulma stumbled at the sound of his command and removed the sixth seal.

"There! Over there! I could sense it at the main shrine!" one of the monks screamed, pointing at the main shrine. And the ground shook harder. Cracks began to appear across the ground as they all tried to come to the shrine, blocking their path. The thunder blared louder and a strong hurricane began to blow them away.

Still oblivious to the phenomena outside, Bulma released the seventh and the last seal. A bright blue smoke rose out of the urn before it exploded into a bright blue light that shot throughout the dark night sky filled with thunderclouds. The frightening force of the shockwave the burst of energy caused the shrine to blow up to smithereens and sent Bulma flying backwards. The light blasted upwards, blinding everyone near it for a long moment.

"The seals! The seals have been removed! The Legendary Destroyer has been released from the seal!" one of the monks screamed.

"No! Kami-sama! Help us! This is going to be the end for all of us! NO!" the others screamed.

Soon, the light began to fade and the blue ki aura disappeared. Everything had finally calmed down. The thunder. The rain. The wind. The earthquake. Everything seemed calm and the monks ran towards the now useless shrine.

Bulma recovered from her dizziness cause by the impact on her and quickly scurried away from the temple in a scare. 'Nobody' made her release the seals to the Legendary Destroyer's jar. 'Nobody' has tricked her into doing that! Oh Kami! She made a huge mistake on obeying a stranger. If Dende and the monks finds out, they will be mad at her and she'll be dead meat!

She ran into a nearby road and halted when blinding yellow-orange overhead lights flashed before her eyes and a loud sound of horn filled her ears.

"We don't mention his name in here. For anyone who does shall meet an unfortunate accident." Dende's words filled her mind, as the car hit her.

Did she ever mention his name before? She guessed she did.

"By the way monk, who is Vegeta?" Bulma suddenly remembered when she asked Dende about the letter she found on the room.

Could it be that the name of the one who was feared as the Legendary Destroyer of Worlds is Vegeta?

'What a strange name.' she thought.

as she got hit by the car and her body hit the ground with a loud thud.

Someone got out of the car and shook his head in distaste.

"Stupid girl!" the drunk driver spat before he went back inside his car and drove away, leaving Bulma dying on the road.

Meanwhile, Dende and his fellow monks arrived to the main shrine and were shocked to death to find out that the sealed sacred jar was destroyed to pieces. The seven talisman seals scattered beside the pieces.

"He managed to break free of the seal," Dende suspected. "The jar seemed to fall down from the platform because of the earthquake."

And then, he remembered Bulma mentioning the name of the Legendary Destroyer and panicked. The girl must be in grave danger. 'He'll come for her.' he thought.