Thanks for your time, please read and review! Happy reading!
~Kouen Shino
"Red Flame of Death"
~And maybe I'm crazy, but laughing out loud makes the pain pass by. -DMB; Spoon~
Steam billowed up from the pot of stew Chichi was cooking.
"Just right," she murmured under her breath, eyes half-lidded as she stirred at it gently, and then turning off the stove. "If only Gokuu gets hope soon… he'll still be able to eat it when it's hot." She looked up at the clock on the wall, reading it to say 7:55. "And he'd better get home soon!"
She sighed, slumping into the wooden chair beside her kitchen table. "He won't be back soon," she reminded herself. "He's off saving the world again."
She recalled the few words they'd exchanged that morning.
"I'm going to the Briefs' house. Vejita and I are sparring today."
"Oh all right, but don't come home too late."
"Don't worry, Chichi, I'll be back by six at the latest."
The clock chimed as the minute hand passed the space marked with a 12, deeming it eight o'clock. "Where are you Gokuu? Why do you always come home so late?"
The phone rang harshly, drawing Chichi out of her thoughts. She stood sullenly to answer it.
"Hello?"
"Thank Kami it's you, Chichi!" the voice poured like liquid mercury through the phone line and into Chichi's ear.
"Oh, hello, Bulma. You sound upset, is something wrong?"
"Shit, Chichi! It's just awful!" her voice broke, sounding as if she was crying.
"Bulma? What's wrong? Tell me!"
"It's… it's… Vejita!"
"Vejita? What about Vejita?"
"Oh, Chichi! It's Gokuu too!"
Though no one could see it, Chichi was certain her eyes widened and turned to glass. "What?! What about Gokuu? What happened?! Tell me, Bulma!!"
"Oh, Chichi! I'm so sorry!"
"Just TELL ME!" she threw her cooking spoon down onto the kitchen floor, and it clattered against the tiles like a stick thrown to a dog would.
"Well… it's he and Vejita were sparring… well, in the gravity room and…" her voice faded off, and Chichi could hear her weeping.
"Bulma? Bulma, please, tell me what happened!"
"It's… Oh, Kami, Chichi! They're gone!"
"WHAT?! What do you mean, 'they're gone!?!'"
"The gravity room… it collapsed on them! Vejita he…"
"IT COLLAPSED ON THEM?! HOW THE HELL DID THAT HAPPEN?!"
"Vejita… he must've had it turned up way too high! It's happened before but…" her voice trailed off, and she sniffed, "I never thought it could happen like that! When we found them… When we found them they…they were all ready blue in the face…"
Chichi could hear no more, she was drowning in her confusion or pain, she wasn't sure which.
"Bulma…"
"I'm sorry, Chichi, I really am just… Oh Kami, I think my soul is dying!"
"Bulma..?"
"Yeah?"
"Our souls are dying together."
"…. I'm sorry, Chichi."
"So am I…"
They hung up, the phone clicking back onto its cradle almost incoherently.
For a moment, Chichi stood motionless, unable to think. Then, like a river breaking from its dam, the tears came. Big, blue, unstoppable tears, and she fell to her knees as if they could pull her with them. "GOKUU!!" She screamed out; pain an obvious element to her heart. "Gokuu!" a bit weaker, as if she really were drowning in her tears now. "Oh Gokuu… please… don't leave me here alone!"
She sobbed for hours, unable to stop herself. When she was dried up, she stopped, and lay still on the floor, unable to move, exhausted from her breakdown. She felt completely numb.
Time ticked by, and the chime sounded four times before she finally stood up, picking up her spoon and returning to the pot she'd cooked her stew in. "Gokuu, you missed dinner again," and she covered it up, placing it in the refrigerator. "But that's okay. Tomorrow you will be hungry as a horse, and you will want twice of what you would've gotten today. It'll be here waiting for you." She closed the refrigerator door gently, and stood there a moment.
"Bulma, I know you're hurting too, now… we've lived through our husbands together, and I think we could live through their deaths together too. They died together, right? Well, Bulma, we might as well die together too."