Chapter 25

A few weeks before.

Time flies. A year has passed since the day the Briefs mother and son were found dead in their home. The case was a mystery the police had yet to solve. Their only clues were Bulma Brief's cryptic last words and the testimony of two ex-thieves who found the body. Tea and Supper, the two said ex-thieves, now live in Karin village, where they trained under Upa, the recent Tenkaichi Boudukai champion in order to defeat Tsuru and TaoPaiPai - two dangerous criminals with connections to the Red Ribbon Army; and who happened to have a grudge against the twins. Apart from training though, they also helped the Karin people rebuild their village's sacred heritage - the Karin Tower.

Everyday, Tea and Supper climbed up Karin Tower carrying carved pillars to rebuild the tower to its former height. Though the work-cum-training was progressing steadily, it was still far from being finished. Karin, the brown cat who used to live on the tower, supervised them. According to Karin, their real training will begin when the tower is complete.

Tea and Supper collapsed at the top of the tower, panting. Carrying huge chunks of rocks while climbing up a tower at ninety degrees angle without even the aid of ropes is no easy task. Their training has shown its effects, however. They were stronger than they had ever been before; no longer were they the skinny and malnourished street kids. Instead, day by day they were turning into warriors who will one day be capable of holding their own against Tsuru and TaoPaiPai. But as of now, they still have a long way to go. Karin allowed them to rest while he enjoyed the view from the tower. He had his back to them, with a small jug dangling from the end of his stick.

"Karin-sama," he heard Supper ask, "What's in that jug?" Karin didn't turn around. "Water." he said simply. "Can we have some of it?" she asked. "No." he replied. At that, Tea stood up. "Why not?" he demanded. This time Karin turned around. "Because this is no ordinary water," he said mysteriously. "It's very precious. If you want it, you'll have to take it from me."

"All right." Tea accepted the challenge, eyes gleaming. The thought of obtaining something valuable, be it money or precious stones or magical water always lifted his spirits. He cracked his knuckles menacingly, then charged. To his surprise, Karin disappeared suddenly, and he managed to stop just before the edge of the tower. Tea was still looking down from the height and recovering from the near fall, when he heard Karin's voice behind him. "You're fast," the brown cat said, "but not fast enough."

"But I am," Karin heard Supper's voice behind him, and in a split second the three-eyed girl lunged for the jug. Karin pushed his hand which held the stick up, so that the jug flew in the air. He caught it with the pointed end of the stick, and proceeded to move it so swiftly, the jug seemed to be invisible.

Unless one had three eyes, of course. Supper grinned and grabbed the jug when she suddenly felt something curl around her ankles, making her trip and fell flat on her face. She got up, rubbing her face to see Karin's face peering at hers. His tail, which was what had tripped her, swayed left and right teasingly. "You're right. You are fast enough," Karin agreed, "but careless. You depend too much on your third eye."

"Tell you what," he suggested while swiftly moving the jug away from Tea who was creeping from the back. "Why don't you co-operate? If you can get this jug off me by sunset, you don't have to till the fields in the afternoons. You can train for just half the day here." Tilling the fields and other work are also part of the twins' training. "But I must warn you, even Earth's best warrior only managed to do it after three days."

Tea and Supper looked at each other and came to a decision. "You're on," Tea said, and Supper nodded in agreement. "Well, what are you waiting for?" Karin taunted. So the twins worked together to get the jug off the cat.

***

It was getting dark. In another half hour, the sun will set. Tea and Supper were bathed in sweat and panting, and still haven't managed to even touch the jug. No matter what they did, Karin managed to anticipate their moves and dodge them. They'll have to think of another way do it if they are to get it off him by sunset.

Tea and Supper zigzagged across the small platform, chasing and baiting Karin, when Supper stopped all of a sudden. "Say," she suddenly remembered something. "Why is the water so precious anyway? What does it do?"

"Anybody who drinks this water will become ten times stronger than they were before." Karin answered her. "That's why it's so precious."

"Oh...," Supper said. "Then, can you tell us about the warrior who managed to get it from you in three days?" She asked another question. Karin smiled wistfully,a faraway tone in his voice. "He was, as I've said, Earth's greatest warrior. If he was still alive when the cyborgs came, Earth would still be in peace. In fact, you may have heard of him before. But that's a story for another time." He moved to the side as Tea attempted to grab the jug when Karin was apparently engrossed in his memories, and failed yet again. "Tsk, tsk. How many times do you want to try that trick with me?" Karin chided. "If that's all you can do, you'll never get to taste the water in this jug, not even in a hundred years."

"That's it," Supper said, determined. "Prepare for my ultimate attack, Karin-sama!" She took something from her shirt pocket. It appeared to be a capsule. She pushed the top of the capsule and instantly it turned into a big, fresh, juicy fish, which she dangled in front of Karin. "Here kitty, a nice fresh fish for you," she said. Karin's veins were popping on his usually calm self at the absurdity of the scene before him. "You think I'll fall for THAT?!" he asked feeling rather insulted, at the same time wondering why the hell would Supper be carrying fresh fish capsule and Kami knows what else on her person.

This was just the diversion Tea needed to act. In an instant Karin felt something hard pressed against his back. "Give me the jug now or I'll shoot," he said menacingly. He knows he's not strong or quick enough to force the jug away from Karin, but he can make Karin give it to him. For a moment, Karin was shocked. Tea and Supper used to live on the streets, and they stole, cheated and robbed to make a living. He had thought that they'd left that kind of life behind them when they came to live here. Was he wrong after all? Perhaps he hadn't known them as well as he thought. Slowly, he handed the jug over to Tea. "That's it," Tea said, as Karin slowly took the jug from the pointed end of his stick and appeared to hand it over to him. "Slowly, now," Tea threatened. "This isn't my finger pressed against your back, in case you think I'm bluffing."

The jug was now in Tea's hands. "Turn around," he said to Karin, still in the criminal tone. Karin obeyed. "Gotcha!" Tea laughed his heart out at Karin's expression, for what was in Tea's hand which he used to threaten Karin was not a gun, nor was it his finger, but a banana! Karin was now seething and cursing himself for falling into such stupid tricks, twice. Supper, on the other hand was ecstatic. "We did it! We did it!" she said excitedly. "Yup," Tea said, throwing the banana down as he walked toward his sister. Unfortunately, he slipped on the very banana he threw away carelessly. The jug fell from his hands and right off the edge of the tower!

"The jug!" Supper cried out, as her third eye immediately detected the jug falling off. She rushed after it, but was too late. The jug fell down from the tower, and so did she.

Chapter 26
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