12 - A Sudden Attack! Candle The Assassin

Hours had passed as the three slept. The sky was dark and the chirping of crickets and the sound of snoring were all that were audible. While Truffel and Vidya were sound asleep, Jesse slept lightly, still alert and ready in case anything happened. He felt it was quite likely Pictoro wouldn't just wait for Jesse to come to him, he'd probably send someone after him. So for now, he'd wait a bit, he wanted to gauge the strength of the Bio-Android's forces after all.

He knew he couldn't be terribly strong seeing as he never even appeared or did anything in the series, perhaps stopped by the army or police. Obviously the timeline was now different because of him, since Vidya would normally be dead by now, meaning Pictoro would have no chance to reach his full power.

Suddenly, the small capsule house all three of them were sleeping shook violenty as a pair of fingers tore through the metal walls. Jesse's eyes immediately burst open as he got up from his bed. The pair of fingers gripped down and effortlessly tore a large sheet of the wall straight off, though the walls were quite thin, so this wasn't the most incredible feat. The now opened wall revealed a slender, tall figure, the man who had torn it down.

He wore a long, wide brown hat over his head, and coming from under it was his long blonde hair. On his body a tight grey gi with no symbol on it, and over the gi was a long brown trenchcoat.

'D-Damnit! An attacker already…? Who is this guy?'

The man stood silently, looking around the room at the sleeping Vidya an Jesse. Truffel was sleeping in another room instead.

"Alright… so there's the girl… and there's the boy…"

The man mumbled to himself, his calm aura juxtaposing Jesse's nervous mood.

"Hey bastard! You ain't gonna even touch this girl, now who the hell are you!?"

"Ah, of course, wheres my manners. I am Candle, and you are?."

Jesse started to calm himself down.

"I'm Jesse, and you must be one of Pictoro's goons right? Well I already beat up two of them earlier so just run off while you can or whatever!"

He yelled, some nervousness still easily detectable in his voice. This statement was mostly a bluff, he wasn't good at feeling power, but he could tell this guy was strong, at least more so than the average person. Whether he was stronger than him, he'd have to figure that out in battle.

'I might be in over my head here…'

"Hmph. I'm not exactly one of his goons, I'm more of a hired gun… or well a hired fist is more like it. And yes, normally I would give you the same advice, I'd tell you to just run off and let me take the girl, but…"

Candle smirked viciously.

"I'm about to hit my one thousandth kill! And you seem like the perfect person for this milestone!"

He said as he got into a fighting position, staring at him with bloodlust.

'A thousand kills, eh? This guys no pushover?'

All the yelling had woken up Vidya, and as she got up and looked around, rubbing her eyes, she yelled out.

"U-Uwah?! W-Whats happening Jesse?!"

"Run off and wake up Truffel! Stay with her til I beat this guy!"

He said, faking some confidence. Vidya immediately shook her head violently and ran off to do as he said. He was a bit nervous but was still thinking to himself, analyzing the situation.

"Beat me, eh? We'll see about that boy."

'Alright, so Pictoro would rather send a hired assassin after me over his own men, that must mean however strong this Candle guy is, he's stronger then anyone who directly works for him… or maybe he just thinks I'm too weak to send his other men after… Whatever! I'll think of this after I get rid of this asshole.'

Swallowing his saliva, he continued to speak.

"So you wanna kill me do you? Then come at me then, just try it asshole!"

He'd never faced such a real opponent before, especially one with so much bloodlust in their eyes. Candle simply stared at him calmly.

"Step outside and we'll fight. You seem interesting and this capsule house is too small a battleground."

Listening to him, Jesse and Candle both left the house. Jesse stood in a nervous fighting pose while Candle simply stood casually with his arms to his sides.

"Ha!"

Jesse was the first to attack, rushing forward with a punch. Candle however stood calmly as he drew near. Instead of attacking, he kicked up on the dirt, spreading it everywhere in front of him.

"S-Shit my eyes!"

Jesse said as he suddenly stopped, the dirt in his eyes. Candle continued the attack with a kick to the head, launching Jesse back into the trees.

"That's dirty!"

"Hmph, theres no such thing as dirty or undirty fighting, just winners and losers."

Candle said, almost as if he was insulted. Jesse got up and finished rubbing the dirt out of his now red eyes. He didn't quite agree with him, his pride wouldn't let him, but if he was going to be dirty, he'd do it too.

"Dahaaa!"

Jesse kicked forward, launching a cloud of dirt and numerous rocks on the ground at the assassin while rushing forward himself. Candle easily deflected all of the rocks even barely being able to see. As he was distracted, Jesse went for attack, right in his crown jewels!

"Haa!"

But as his fist collided with Candle's pelvis, his eyes widened in surprise.

'W-What the hell?!'

Jesse jumped back in surprise and Candle held his pelvis tightly, in some pain.

"D-Damn that hurt… but not as much as you intended it to, did it?"

He said smugly with a pained smirk on his face.

'There's nothing down there! His genitals are completely gone!'

"Wha- What're you a woman or something?!"

"No no, of course not. I just simply had them removed, no reason to leave such a simple weakness so vulnerable after all."

'This guys crazy... making himself a eunch just to fight better. The surprise of finding nothing there was enough that I pulled my punch too, at least this tells me something important... that this guys not really so strong, even that weaker attack hurt him quite a bit after all.'

As Candle let go of his pelvis, he shook his hand and finally got into a fighting position, clearly beginning to take Jesse more seriously. Jesse did the same and a smirk appeared on his face as he yelled out.

"Fine, no dirty fighting then, you're weak anyway."

Using full power, Jesse rushed forward with great speed.

"W-What the hell?!"

Candle yelled out, Jesse was suddenly nowhere to be seen as he blitzed past him.

'He shouldn't be this much faster than me, what the hell is he doing...?'

Candle's eyes darted around until he suddenly felt a presence right behind him.

"There you are!"

However, when he tried to attack him, his fist simply passed right through him. From behind Jesse immediately struck him hard in the back of the head with his fists balled together.

"I'm over here actually!"

"Wha- What the hell was that?!"

Jesse smirked, seems he'd been worrying too much about this guy's strength.

"The Afterimage technique. And here I thought you were stronger, but you're just a common thug!"

He mocked him. The Afterimage technique was one of the few Dragon Ball techniques Jesse had been practicing, along with the Kamehameha, though he could only pull off the former right now. Holding the back of his head, Candle yelled out and rushed him.

"S-Shut up and die!"

As he was about to punch Jesse, he instead stopped and immediately turned around. He was expecting an afterimage and swiftly reached into his backpocket, pulling a laser pistol out and firing in front of him.

"Haa! Now die!"

But his shot hit nothing but the trees, since nothing was actually in front of him.

"E-Eh…?"

"Still behind you idiot!"

Jesse punched him right in the back of his head, sending him flying into the trees. What Candle had assumed was gonna be an afterimage, was just Jesse actually standing there. Instead of even testing it Candle preemptively assumed, which would be his greatest failing.

'But it's probably a good thing he did that… That laser gun could've killed me right there…'

When Candle was launched, he had also dropped his laser gun on the floor. As Candle recovered he looked on at Jesse with fear, he was way stronger than he thought. Jesse was thinking the same thing as Candle.

'Grandpa really trained me better than I'd thought… maybe the Beetle Schools more than just a normal martial arts school?'

Candle began reaching into his pockets, throwing out various capsules onto the ground until he finally pulled out a red capsule.

'T-This is bad, I've gotta get outta here... this kids a monster!'

With a cloud of smoke, the capsule had turned into a red jet-like plane which he quickly hopped into. It began to rise into the air, but moments before it could blast away, Jesse yelled out.

"No you don't! You're not going anywhere!"

He swiped the laser pistol off from the ground and quickly fired multiple beams at the plane. The blasts hit the engine head on, and the vehicle began to plummet to the ground.

"Uwah?!"

Before he knew it Candles plane engine exploded in the air, completely destroying him and the plane.

"Oops… I was aiming for the wings..."

He rubbed the back of his head as he said this. He didn't intend to kill him, but…

'He said he killed like a thousand people, so he deserved to die anyway, didn't deserve any mercy.'

As pieces of the plane fell onto the ground, Truffel suddenly yelled out from through the hole in their capsule house, Vidya holding onto her leg tightly.

"What happened?! Are you oka-"

She stopped her worried yelling and sighed as she saw Jesse standing there completely fine and rubble on the ground.

"Phew… But don't worry me like that! We thought you exploded or something!"

She immediately went to angry yelling.

'W-What'd I do? Whys this whole family gotta be so damn bipolar…'

He thought to himself before just sighing and continuing the conversation.

"Im fine im fine, he was kinda weak anyway. But we should probably go ahead and make our way to Pictoro's base, before he sends more people after us."

It would be really bad for them if he got into contact with stronger assassins like Tao Pai Pai, someone like that he wouldn't be able to beat. Jesse was much calmer and surer of himself now though, if the man he sent after him was that weak, he didn't think Pictoro would be too strong himself.

Rummaging through the ground, he picked up all the capsules Candle had left on the ground.

"C'mon, we'll take one of his capsules and be on our way, Vidya can guide us there. He probably thought that assassin would be enough so he won't be expecting a direct attack this soon!"