Falling
by Jae-chan
Story
Stats
Rated: PG
Started: 9/9/2001
Genre: Angst/Romance
Pairing: Chichi/Goku with some suggestions about Bulma/Vegeta
Setting: Well after Goku dies the last time. Chichi is in her late sixties.
Random Note: I'm having Goku constantly in his Super Saiyan form.
Disclaimer:
I do not own DBZ. I just write about it. ^.~
---
Chapter
One: Static Rain
A
woman with loose black locks streaked with silver stood out in the middle of a
large field in the mountains, the rain pouring around her and soaking through
her clothes. She was an older woman, probably in her sixties or seventies, but
she didn't appear weak or feeble in any way. Her skin wasn't as wrinkly as it
should have been, nor had her hair lost all of it's color. The only sign of her
true age was in her midnight colored eyes that displayed wisdom, strength, and
a great deal of pain. Those orbs of liquid night stared blankly ahead as the
mist and rain whipped around her in the wind. How long she had been rooted in
that spot was uncertain, but she had yet to move.
This
mysterious lady was none other than Son Chichi, the widow of Son Goku and
mother of Gohan and Goten. The field that she stood in was a field not too far
from her house, where she had lived since she married Goku so many years ago.
Chichi had not moved from that house and cared for it as she always had. Things
remained timeless in that place. Not even Goku's belongings had been removed.
Chichi still ironed uniforms and stocked her refrigerator high, just in case
Gohan or Goten came back from their long periods of training. Occasionally
Bulma would stop by with old friends or her son's daughter, but Chichi had
refused to leave her house in her later years. Even when Bulma asked her to go
to the hospital after her first sick spell, Chichi stubbornly kept her ground.
"What if my boys come back to an empty house with no food? I need to be
there." she would say. The argument would end there. Whatever medical
problems Chichi had she would keep to herself, and it was obvious that neither Bulma
nor her children knew what was going on.
Now,
despite her age and weaknesses, Chichi was standing in the rain and did not
seem to care if it would give her a cold. The chill did not penetrate her
senses. There was something else there that she felt more important to do.
*I'm
too old for this...they don't seem to understand. I can't be alone anymore. It
hurts my heart too much. I no longer have the fire that sustained me when all
of you would leave me behind and never tell me anything. My spirit is tired of
it, Goku.*
As
the wind grew colder and the sky grew darker, water from her own eyes began to
mix with the rain and run down the plains of her aged face. Her arms curled
about her torso as her eyes closed, letting the freezing temperatures try to
numb her.
**********
Goku shook his head, trying to concentrate
on his meditation, when a thought crossed through his mind crackling with some
sort of static.
'My...irit...it...Goku.'
He blinked as he recognized the voice as
Chichi's, but he couldn't understand why it was coming in so unclear. Normally
he had no trouble hearing her thoughts about him, in fact, whenever he wanted
to check in on her Goku could often just tune in. Like listening to a radio.
The dead could always hear the thoughts of the people that cared for them,
which was why Goku could usually tell what was happening on Earth.
*That's weird. I can't seem to get the
static to go away.*
The Saiyijin warrior frowned and stood up,
deciding that whatever it was, it was bad. His form blinked out from his
residence in the other dimension and flickered in front of King Kai's house. If
there was anyone who could tell him what Chichi was thinking, it would be a
telepath.
**********
Chichi sighed as she tried in vain to wipe some
of the water from her face and turned back for home. There had been more than
just the nasty disease in her body killing her for these past years. The only
time she could bring herself to show it was in the rain where her tears didn't
seem to matter against the tears from the sky. The death of her husband was
something that ate away at her everyday, and the years she had endured without
him had slowly torn away at her, even though she was very good at not showing
it. There were memories that still hurt and the fear that Gohan or Goten would
be taken away never left either. She fainted every so often, but things weren't
as dramatic any longer. When you were as old as she was, you didn't want to do
too much falling. Even if you were once known as the strongest woman in the
world, that didn't make your bones unbreakable.
Chichi coughed as she made her way through
the trees, realizing that what she had done had made her ill. She leaned
against a tree for a few moments, taking shelter from the rain underneath the
branches, and regained her breath. Her black and silver locks were plastered to
her head by the water and her wet clothes clung to her tightly.
*There were so many times I was left
without a word, but that last time...that last time hurt the most. I thought
you were going to come back because you said you would. I was as naïve as the
children had been until I had waited long enough to understand. Couldn't you at
least come back and say goodbye to me? For once I would have liked not to be
left in the dark. Closure would have been a nice thing to have. I'm sure you
thought it best, I'm sure you didn't mean to hurt me, but that didn't make it
any less painful. It took me years before I could come to the point where I
could no longer be angry that you were taken away. The sadness still remains
and it kills me. Perhaps it has spread to my body now too.*
**********
"King
Kai! There you are." Goku said, popping up by his lawn chair. King Kai nearly
fell out of his spot when Goku appeared. Goku had been masking his power level
again, probably just to surprise him. King Kai pushed his glasses up and looked
up at the blond haired, blue eyed Saiya-jin. "What can I do for you, Goku? You
haven't been around here for quite a while. Need some fighting tips?" King Kai
asked, seriously doubting that the young man could use anymore of his help in
training.
"Uh
no, not exactly. You can help me with a problem though." Goku paused as King
Kai sat up, his blue antenna's perking up.
"What's
wrong then?" he asked, a light frown crossing his features. It wasn't often
that someone came to him for something other than training advice or to show
off.
Goku
scratched his head, "Well since I died 'permanently', I've been able to hear
people's thoughts. Only people I knew and cared for me in return."
"A
normal trait, although your sensing of thoughts is probably better than most
people's." King Kai nodded.
"Yeah.
This ability's been working great until today. I was meditating and I heard
Chichi...but when I tried to figure out what she was saying it was filled with
static. I thought that only happened with phones..." Goku sighed, "Anyway, I
need you to help me find out what's happening."
"Static
you say?" King Kai asked curiously.
"Yes."
Goku responded as he watched King Kai get up and pace around mumbling.
King
Kai spread out his telepathic energies to find Chichi and see what was
happening. Static could have meant several things, but he just couldn't be sure
what until he did some investigating. When he finally found her he was smacked
with a rush of cold, but he was not discouraged from poking around her mind.
His frown deepened as he sank to the inner levels of Chichi's psyche and felt
how low her Ki was. She was dying.
"Goku..."
King Kai paused as he tried to figure out what to tell him.
Goku's
blue eyes widened for a moment before a deadly serious look fell over his
features. The innocent curiosity was gone and replaced by pure concern. "What
is it, King Kai? I have to know."
