Prelude
The sky lit up with lightning as rain fell heavily, a city caught in a bleak picture of black. Usually vibrant and colourful, there was a foreboding air that weighed heavily upon it all.
It was a day that should have been happy, especially for a new family.
The birth of their first son.
Son Goku, saviour of the world, a tall man with eyes of black and long, strangely shaped hair that had remained almost unchanged in his entire life stood at the side of his wife as various doctors and nurses ran to and fro, not knowing that their efforts would be fruitless.
A heart monitor beeped slowly and agonisingly so. Hope is so much worse when it is unfounded.
Even the new born infant who sat in the man's arms fell silent as the last beat of his mother's heart fell, her last words settling on their ears.
"Do your best... Gohan, my son."
Loving wife, dutiful daughter and the best of mothers. Those would be the words that would be inscribed upon the stone of her final resting place.
And the rain fell on.
A father left without his daughter returned home to mourn. A boy left without his mother stayed profoundly silent. A man left without his wife refused to accept his lot.
There lay, across this land and hidden, several magic orbs of legendary power. Alone they simply gave beauty but assembled and with the correct incantation they would summon forth a great dragon, a hundred fathoms long and as glorious to behold as all the world's wonders.
But therein laid not the final secret. For upon its summoning, the dragon given mystical power by a guardian God, would grant a wish, any wish.
Power, wealth and life eternal could be yours.
But none of these were what this man wanted.
He just wanted to see the smile of his wife once more.
Normally, gathering them was an immense task that could take a man a lifetime to complete, however, a young genius had managed to create a device that could locate any of these, the most sacred of objects.
The man was lucky enough to have, in his youth, befriended this genius and it was with her he entrusted his son while he searched for the wish that would bring his beloved back from the dead.
Without sleeping, eating or drinking, it took the man just three days to find them all. It has to be said that the ability to fly freely helped him enormously.
All seven orbs gathered together, he stood in a clearing alone, but for the animals of the forest. Weaker than he had ever felt in his life but with a renewed hope in his heart, he rose his hands aloft and brought forth the dragon they called eternal.
"Dragon whose name is Shenron, by thy name I summon you to grant my wish!"
Brought forth in a shower of light, Shenron looked down upon the warrior to whom he owed he owed his continued existence and with words as loud as an explosion yet which only the man could hear, he spoke.
"To he who has summoned the Eternal Dragon. Speak thy wish carefully and I shall make it so."
"O' Eternal Dragon, bring back to this living world my wife, the mother of my son, bring back Chi-chi."
Its body winding over many acres, a green stencil upon the sky with majesty like none other, the dragon's eyes began to glow red as it began to use its power.
But it was not to be.
"Thy wish cannot be granted. It is not possible. I cannot revive those who have died as nature intended. She whose life you wish to reclaim died in childbirth, thus I am forbidden from reclaiming her. Do you have any other wish?"
Even the dragon, which had no true soul of its own could not fail to be heartbroken as Son Goku, the greatest man who ever lived fell to his knees, three days of pain, of distress and of false hope finally caught up.
With only the dragon as his witness and for the first time in his life, Goku wept, a broken man.
So, seeing a man so utterly crushed and knowing that no power it had would come close to truly healing the man, the dragon gave the man a choice.
Stay alive and look after his son, knowing that the boy needed him but being without his wife until he died an old man or to be granted a path straight to heaven.
The answer was the only one that man could ever have given.
In the end, it wasn't really even a choice.
So, when the sky cleared and stars began to fill the night again, Son Goku returned home, his son with him.
He was Son Goku, the strongest under the sun and now he was a father.
And he would ensure his son became even greater.
He made a solemn oath, with the very boy as his witness. That he would help him no matter what came and went, no matter how hard it was.
That Son Gohan's name would become a legend.
That his story would become one told to all.
Son Gohan, the greatest man who ever lived.
For Chi-chi.
And for Gohan himself.
A Son's Tale
Written by Umbra Gami.
Part time Beta Reader – Slicerness
Special mentions –
J-Chan
Nexus Darkstar
The Carpainter
FuMaoChu
And Flutters
Dragon Ball, Dragon Ball Z, Dragon Ball GT and Dragon Ball Super all belong to Akira Toriyama and his associates. I claim no ownership of any rights, copyrights of any of the characters displayed within this work of fiction.
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All characters displayed herein are works of fiction and any semblance to any real life persons, living or dead is purely coincidental.
Thank you for reading.
