Dragonball M, Chapter 2: Lighthouse! Across the Shores of Shattered Time!

[Cthulhu_of_R'lyeh]

Then:

When it was finally over, Parsley felt drained. She reached up to rub her eyes and found that they were wet. Tch. As Ishtar struggled to find words, Parsley sat in silence. Walking through it all like that left her raw and tired. But... for the first time, she felt that she could close her eyes and not see Appel's sneering countenance again.

She did so. She closed her eyes.

Nothing.

Nothing but blissful darkness.

Parsley breathed in and basked in finally being free - for the night - of her demon.

How did she feel? That was Ishtar's question after some seconds of stammering and tripping.

"Tired." She rose to her feet. A grateful smile touched her lips. "I'm tired, and I'm going to bed. Thank you, Ishtar."

From the response, it seemed as if the endeavor was not simply a waste of shared suffering. So after a moment of simply staring, and getting herself under control enough to stop looking the fool, Ishtar offered Parsley a weary smile.

"That is very good to hear."

Letting silence fall between them for a few moments more then -- more so that she could enjoy, through the stolen anguish, the temporary success -- the golden-eyed Oni offered Parsley a nod, before explaining something. "What you suffered was ... severe. Success will be temporary. A ... few days at best, a single night at worst. You need to ... Ah." Ishtar stopped herself short. Parsley was hardly a fool, from her behavior and the way she spoken of it, the Saiyan understood that her offering of succor wouldn't solve the matter entirely.

No sense dragging that fact back into focus, when success for a night, or two ... or with hope -- however slim -- three; was more than enough for now.

Far more rattled, than I figured I would be ... hmph.

There came a sigh, before the glowing-horn Oni shook her head and took the time necessary to relax the tension in her shoulders, that had been built up; and only then did she return her focus to Parsley a smile tugging at the corner of her mouth. "... for another time. I do believe you have a bed waiting for you. Good night, Parsley. I am glad I could be of assistance."

---

Now:

"Of course." Parsley couldn't stop the smile from creeping across her lips. It was just so damn exciting. Such power coursing through her; it was exhilarating! Even if she couldn't access it any time she wanted, it was still exciting.

Then, there was the social aspect. She was the first Super Saiyan in two millennia. That placed her name amongst the Saiyans of legend; right next to Vocado, Brocado, Buffet, and Beatz.

"I am the first Saiyan in two thousand years to achieve the pinnacle of our race. I... am a Super Saiyan!"

An awkward moment consisting of Parsley grinning proudly, hands jabbed into her hips like some corny superhero, dragged on for a short while until she cleared her throat. "But I... can't actually transform on my own. But, I did it!"

Ishtar smiled softly, at the palpable joy -- and the goofy superhero stance that reminded the Oni of Pinach, and Rutaba, certainly -- emanating from Parsley as she wasted no time explaining that she was the first Super Saiyan in roughly two thousand years.

And the Oni ... understood why this news was important.

Thanks in no small part to the connection she shared with Sarada, and the emotional offerings that coincided with the almost-reverence in her Saiyan Queen's voice when she spoke of the transformation, coupled with what she recalled from her time interacting with the species some dozen or more millennia ago, the Saiyans even then, telling stories to the young ones among themselves of how their ancestors 'changed ... but not like the Great Oozaru. They kept their small selves, but their hair was as shiny as gold, with eyes as green as the Stagaroo's feeding plains. In their fists lay the might of the storms themselves ... and when they fought, when they fought; they ground split beneath them, and they parted the very sky ...' And in that light -- and understanding -- It was no surprise that over the long years the Super Saiyan had become a figure not unlike the great Warrior Gods of other species.

A thing to look to. A thing to hope for.

Especially for a species where power was lauded above all else.

Though for Parsley in particular to reach this pinnacle ? A Saiyan the golden-eyed Oni had come to know quite well -- or at the least understand -- over the past few days, who had suffered the loss of everything that had once made her a Saiyan ?

The Oni offered the Saiyan Princess a warm smile.

"Regardless of the circumstances this is something certainly worth celebrating, Parsley."

Of course having said that, the glowing-horn Oni also knew that Sarada was ... undoubtedly out of sorts about the whole thing. It was after all a pinnacle she'd attempted to reach herself, 'to become the first Super Saiyan in 2,000 years' ... and yet in the moment when Ishtar checked, all she could sense was the familiar tingle of primal satisfaction that could only mean one of two things. That she had just finished ravishing -- or being ravished by -- her Oni, or she'd eaten food; and given that both women were not currently a naked, sweaty, bloodied, and blissfully numb tangle of limbs wrapped around each other ...

The golden-eyed Oni suppressed a chuckle.

Food.

Nearing the Pendulum Room now, Ishtar rounded a corner before offering Parsley another smile ... though this one was a bit less warm than before.

"As for this room. Your training. The Pendulum Room is a place most strange." The Oni explained, then. "It knows things it should not, and bends time in ways that would make most mages envious; to show you scenes that you were never there for. More importantly however," the glowing-horn Oni continued, "what you experience during your time inside -- pain, fear, joy, pleasure, sorrow -- will be as real to you as anything else yet ... once you step outside the room, it is almost as if you never entered."

At the doorway now, the Oni peered in to see if it was empty, before being satisfied with the result. Turning back to Parsley then, the Oni shrugged her shoulders.

"What you choose to with the room is up to you, I suppose. Though if it is all the same ... I would join you."

She doubted there would be much for her to do, while inside. It was for Parsley to determine the scenario, and train ... and the Oni had half a mind what the training would consist of -- mastering her Nightmare, Appel -- and yet at the end of the day; Ishtar was on edge both from Zurvan's state, and the meeting with Alakazah.

The Oni needed something to do.