UPDATE 13/04/2017 - I am still replacing chapters that have undergone revision!
DEVIANTART - was previously under carpeomnios, but I deactivated some time ago. I'm not sure if I will reactivate
OTHER SITES - You can find Warrior's Daughter on AO3 under WhitethornWolf also! is the original, though ;)
NOTES (PLEASE READ):
I use a mixture of the FUNimation dub and Viz-translated manga for name references! The English dub is the most common reference for translations, but not the only one. Please keep this in mind before messaging me!
Please ask before referencing my character Chiyo in fic or art!
I cannot stop you from using her name as I do not own the name Chiyo, so go ahead!
This is a fanfiction and I provide it to you free of charge, and you do not have my permission to repost, redistribute, republish or make derivatives of my work! This includes selling my work, plagiarizing my work in part or in whole, or otherwise making any sort of profit from my work! Any theft will be dealt with under the Digital Millennium Copyright Act (DMCA). Fanfiction is considered a derivative work, but I still own the copyright to the written piece, and publishing my work is not license to use it however you please!
"The longest journey is the journey inward."
-Dag Hammarskjold
"Now Chi-Chi, don't be so upset!"
Glowering, Chi-Chi pressed down on the accelerator of the aircar as it shot over the ocean.
"Stuff it, Dad!" she snapped as seawater sprayed them both. "I told them to be back by dark!"
"Goku hasn't been to the Turtle Hut in a dog's age," Gyumao said, wiping his forehead. "Probably had a lotta catching up to do…lost track of time…"
"Well, good for Goku!" Chi-Chi snapped, and swerved to miss a dolphin leaping gleefully from the water. "Except our son has school!"
Gyumao stared at the back of his daughter's head. "But Chi-Chi, Gohan's only four years old! He can miss a day of preschool and it won't make any-"
"Get with the times, Pop! It's a competitive world - and it's never too early to get an edge!"
Gyumao sighed and shook his head, gripping the sides of the aircar as his daughter swerved again. He loved his daughter, but sometimes she went overboard as far as her son went. "C'mon, honey. Please be careful...in your condition..."
"I'm fine!" Chi-Chi replied impatiently, though she did raise her foot from the accelerator. "The baby's not due for another month and a half!"
A small island with a single shack appeared on the horizon, and Gyumao rose from the seat, shielding his eyes with an enormous hand.
"Master!" he bellowed, catching sight of an old man standing outside the house. "It's me!"
Chi-Chi braked hard, and the aircar skidded to a stop with a bump that made Gyumao's teeth rattle. He climbed from the car and bowed.
"How are you, master? It's been so long!"
"Huh?" Kamesen'nin said vaguely, scratching his beard. "Oh, yeah...fine..."
There were others outside the shack-Gyumao knew Kuririn of course, and Bulma - and their eyes nearly bulged out of their heads when they saw Chi-Chi climb from the car with difficulty.
"Jeez!" Kamesen'nin exclaimed.
Chi-Chi didn't seem to notice their stares. Placing her hands on her hips, she glared at them and demanded, "Where's my son? Where'd Goku take him now?"
There was a long, awkward silence. Then Kamesen'nin smiled weakly.
"About that..."
Later…
"Dad, it's too soon!"
Gyumao watched Chi-Chi pace up and down the length of the hospital room, wincing with every step.
"You have to relax," he said, pushing his glasses up the bridge of his nose. He sat awkwardly in a chair too spindly for his bulky frame.
"I can't relax!" Chi-Chi snapped, turning around with difficulty. "How am I supposed to? The baby's not due til December! It's not ready - I'm not ready!"
Another stab of pain in her abdomen made her bend over, crying out. Gyumao took her arm firmly and guided her back to the bed.
"Relax," he repeated. "You're not doing yourself or the baby any favours by panicking."
"I've done this before, remember?" Chi-Chi grumbled, but she allowed herself to be put in bed.
A young doctor entered the room, wearing a crisp white coat and carrying a clipboard.
"I'm Doctor Hakase," he said. "How do you feel?"
"Like I'm having a dinosaur instead of a baby!" Chi-Chi said sharply. "How d'you think I feel?"
"Ah." Unfazed, the doctor hung his clipboard on the end of the bed and pulled on a pair of gloves. "I'll just take a look. Please lie down."
After a few uncomfortable minutes, he stood up and went to wash his hands.
"You're almost fully dilated," he said. "I expect that baby will be arriving very soon."
"But how?" Chi-Chi demanded. "He's not due for almost two months!"
The doctor raised his eyebrows. "Are you sure? From the looks of it, your baby is definitely ready to be born. I'll call a midwife for you."
After Doctor Hakase left, Chi-Chi lay back on her pillows and sighed. It was not meant to be like this. Goku was supposed to be here, holding her hand and sharing in the excitement of a new baby together. Even Gohan should have been here, but he was in the wilderness being abused by a green demon. And Goku was…he was…
"It's too soon," she said again, and blinked hard to banish the sudden tears that rose in her eyes.
Gyumao patted her hand. "Perhaps it's for the best," he said. "The shock of what Master Muten told us earlier probably didn't help. And at least a new baby will keep you occupied for a while."
Pain tore through Chi-Chi's abdomen and she gritted her teeth. The contractions were getting worse. Soon the baby would come and she'd be left to raise it. Him. She and Goku both knew it was a boy. He was so excited when she told him, just like a little kid…
"Goku?" Chi-Chi hesitated. "Do you remember back to before Gohan was born?"
Goku looked up from his bowl of rice. "Yeah? What about it?"
"Well, do you remember how I told you how…how babies were made and everythin'? How it…um, happens?"
Chi-Chi blushed. Oh, she remembered that mortifying talk.
"Yeah," Goku said. Damn him, she thought, he was completely unfazed. "Why, have you forgotten?"
"No, of course not!" Chi-Chi snapped. "I - what I'm trying to say…Goku, we're gonna have another baby!"
There was a long pause, in which Goku swallowed a mouthful of rice.
"You mean there's another little baby in there right now?"
"Yes, that's exactly what I mean."
Goku stood up and pushed away his bowl. Then suddenly he grabbed his wife and gave a big whoop, then swung her around.
"Whoopeee! I'm gonna be a dad again! Yeah!"
Chi-Chi laughed, then promptly pushed him away and ran out of the room as nausea rose in her stomach like a wave. As she ran she could hear Goku's voice reverberating through the house.
"Where's Gohan? Goha-a-a-an! I'm takin' him fishing to celebrate!"
One year was a long time, but her father was right - a new baby would keep her hands full. And when Goku and Gohan finally returned at the end of the year, they would get to meet him.
The door opened, and a nurse stuck her head inside.
"Miss Chi-Chi, is it?" she said. "I'm your midwife, Suimono."
Chi-Chi cried out as another contraction gripped her. She took long deep breaths, fought the pain and gave the nurse a weak smile.
"It won't be long now," Suimono said, after examining Chi-Chi. "Would you like some water?"
"Yes, please."
Chi-Chi gulped down the water, nearly choking as another contraction tore through her. There was a horrible shrieking sound as her father pulled his chair across the linoleum floor to her bed side. Her hand was lost in his massive fingers.
Some time passed; Chi-Chi was by now far too distracted to care how long, but it seemed like an eternity. And finally in the late afternoon, her and Son Goku's second child came kicking and screaming into the world like Gohan had, four short years before.
Chi-Chi collapsed back onto her pillows and let her shoulders droop with exhaustion.
I did it! She thought, and let her eyes close. When she opened them a few moments later, she saw the back of the nurse as she bathed the baby.
"Miss Chi-Chi, your baby has…well. Hmm, it's quite unusual."
Chi-Chi looked over at the nurse, who was still bent over the baby bath.
"What?" she said, frowning. "What's wrong?"
"Well, um…" the midwife glanced over her shoulder in puzzlement. "It's a tail."
"Oh." Chi-Chi laughed. "It's a…a family oddity. On my husband's side. My first son was born with one as well."
"I see," the midwife replied, though she clearly didn't. "Well…if it's normal in the family…and your daughter is beautiful anyway."
Chi-Chi nodded absently. Then a second later, what the nurse said caught up to her.
"Wait, did you say…?"
Suimono turned around. She was cradling the baby, who was swaddled in a pink blanket. "Here's your daughter."
"What?" Gyumao murmured. "Chi-Chi, I thought you said the baby was a boy!"
"Well, I thought he was," Chi-Chi said. She took the baby from the midwife. After a few moments the nurse left the room and there was a sudden silence. Both father and daughter took the time to study the baby in front of them. Her face was bruised from the trauma of birth, but she had a mop of thick black hair that stood up in spikes and tiny starfish hands. Black eyes stared from underneath puffy eyelids. She looked exactly like Gohan when he was a baby, but Chi-Chi supposed that would change.
A girl. She had always wanted a daughter. Of course she loved Gohan with all of her being - but here was someone she could share an understanding with. And at least she wouldn't be obsessed with fighting like her father.
Chi-Chi smiled down at the curious little face that blinked sleepily at her.
"Well," she said. "She doesn't much look like a 'Goten.'"
Gyumao laughed and gently brushed a lock of hair off the baby's face. The newborn had drifted off to sleep, snuffling occasionally. Chi-Chi felt like sleeping too, but first she wanted to name the child. But what to name her? She wanted Goku to share in this moment, too. After all, it had been his idea to name Gohan after his grandfather. The name Gohan was special. Chi-Chi wanted her second child's name to be special, too.
"Well, Dad?" she asked. "Do you have any ideas?"
Gyumao stroked the baby's head for a moment. His massive hand was almost twice the size of her head, Chi-Chi noted with amusement.
"What about your mother?"
She looked at him in surprise. "Chiyo?"
"Why not? You named Gohan after Goku's grandfather. Wouldn't it be appropriate to name your first daughter after her?"
Chi-Chi stared down at the baby for a moment. "Chiyo." She fished the baby's tiny hand from the blankets. "Son Chiyo. Welcome to the family."
Little Chiyo's fingers latched onto her mother's thumb with a grip of iron. Chi-Chi smiled. "You are definitely Son Goku's child."