Violet stared at the dying fire as she listened to the sound of Kakarot's breathing.
He was utterly relaxed, an idiot's smile plastered across his face as he dreamed. She had considered killing him- perhaps bashing his skull open with a sharp rock.
But he had stood up to bullets and barely flinched. She considered dropping a pebble down his throat, and running while he choked, but there was still a good chance he'd cough it out and murder her.
She considered running, leaving while he was still asleep, and trying to put distance between them, but he could fly.
As it was, she decided to bear with it. The fire began to flicker and go out as the last of the log crumbled, nothing left but the glowing embers in the ash.
When the cave had gone dark completely, she shivered, before shuffling closer to her captor. She'd kill for a blanket right now- she had in fact, killed for less, but whatever made the Monkey King so ungodly strong apparently also kept him warm while sleeping butt-naked on cold rock.
Realizing she didn't have much choice, she stripped down for the second time that night, before leaning herself against Kakarot's bare chest.
She guided his arms around her, and took comfort in the warmth of his body. Finally, she gave into exhaustion and fell asleep to the rhythm of her rapist's breathing.
...
"We've lost contact with Colonel Violet, sir." Staff Officer Black announced, walking into the room.
"Oah~ Ohhhn! Ahhn!"
Black frowned, looking at the Commander with barely-hidden disgust. He could get away with it, after all, the Commander was quite distracted at the moment.
Three years ago, Commander Red had been a man Black admired and looked up to- well, not literally. But someone who he thought could unify the world under his banner, but in the time since- the hunt for the Dragon Balls was wearing them all down.
Commander Red in particular seemed to have lost a startling amount of motivation. Little did Black know, but he was the cause of that. Two years ago, he and Red had been drinking together, and Red bemoaned his short stature, and his problems getting women to respect him.
Black said, quite reasonably, that if one was rich, powerful, and dangerous, getting respect was quite easy.
Commander Red took that to heart, and now it was a rare night, or day, or morning, he didn't have a prostitute in his arms.
"Take... whew! Take five, Chelly." the prostitute simply gave a sigh of relief, and quietly left the room.
"If I could have a moment of your attention- Colonel Violet has failed to report in. She was on the trail of the Desert Bandit, and his Dragon Ball, when she made her last report; first, that our rumors were true, and even when he had her in his sights, he refused to fire on a woman. Second, that he didn't have a problem wiping out the rest of the Violet Squad. She was pursuing him solo... that was thirty hours ago, and she hasn't reported back."
Commander Red nodded, pouring himself a drink and looking at his aquarium.
"The Dragon Ball, it's in the same location?"
"It hasn't moved enough for our sensors to have detected a change. It's either at the edge of the forest, or just inside."
"Hm... it's not like Violet to not report in." It's not like any Red Ribbon soldier to shirk their duties. The Red Ribbon were the greatest army on Earth for one reason: Failure usually meant death. Only the extremely successful could earn themselves a second chance.
Everyone who remained a Red Ribbon was more disciplined, more willing to obey, more likely to succeed at any cost, than any army that might oppose them. Commander Red contemplated his drink, swishing it around in the cup, before frowning deeply, "What's the most likely reason?"
"Three that I can think of, sir. The more likely option is that the Desert Bandit led her into an ambush, and she was either captured or killed by men more willing to harm a woman. The second is that she's turned traitor, she took the Dragon Ball for herself and is intending on selling it to the highest bidder. Violet's always been more motivated by her paycheck than her loyalty, but she's an excellent soldier and successful Colonel, so we've been willing to look past that."
"And the third option?"
"There's rumors of villages simply vanishing along the forest's edge. Buildings destroyed by some manner of beast. There are a number of extremely dangerous monsters in the forest, some famous enough to be called Demons by the people in the area. It's possible she went there, and was killed by one of the demons there."
"Hm. If she's a traitor, I want her brought here. We'll make an example out of her. Everyone knows failure means death, but betrayal means a fate worse than that." Black couldn't help but notice Commander Red's member stiffening at his own plans.
The man kept himself from sneering in disgust- if the suspected traitor was a man, Black was sure that Red would simply order him shot.
Every day, he chided under Red's growing incompetency, "But otherwise, I want recon on the area, then... send in Colonel Silver. Tell him to retrieve the Dragon Ball at any cost, and Violet if it's possible."
"Understood sir."
"Wait- the Desert Bandit... would he be able to win against Silver?"
Black considered it. The Desert Bandit had good aim, powerful weapons, and beyond that, was a martial artist of some renown. Silver... may not be enough. "...There's a chance he wouldn't."
"Then we'd have lost two Colonels to one bandit." Red said, before grinning, "Have one million Zenny ready for Hasky. Tell her that we need her to steal the Dragon Ball from the Desert Bandit."
"If Violet was taken out by ambush-"
"Then send them both! Hasky will handle the bandit... and Silver everyone else."
When Violet opened her eyes, she found herself alone, naked, and on the stone floor. She groaned in pain as she rose to her feet, feeling sore all over both from her harsh intercourse with Kakarot, and the uncomfortable sleeping conditions.
"Kakarot?" she asked, looking around. Biting her lip, she quickly went over to her clothes, pulling them on as quickly as she could, and moving towards the cave entrance.
She did a speedy observation of the forest outside, and tried her luck wandering out into it. She had to get away from this place.
She wasn't twenty minutes into her fleeing when Kakarot descended from the sky, held in one clenched fist, by its tail, was a Woolly Mammoth. A dead one. She could tell from the fist-shaped, scorched, impact on its forehead that Kakarot had killed the monster himself.
"H-Hello." she began, smiling.
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