Chapter 9
Emily sat quietly in the corner, watching Goten and Trunks perform the fusion technique over and over under the watchful eye of Piccolo. After her catastrophic landing at the Lookout, no one really wanted to talk to her; they had regarded her warily, something she hadn't expected. Not even her mother would look at her. Having nothing better to do, she had followed the boys and Piccolo to their training room. Watching them make the same movements over became old quick, but being here in a familiar environment was better than being out with everyone else, where she felt like a stranger.
...
She was back.
17 could hardly believe his eyes when Emily appeared out of the sky and crumpled to the ground. Piccolo seemed to be the only who could react properly: he picked her off the ground then carried her away to the training session. No one else joined them, even though Krillin and Yamcha had been with them previously. After Hitomi stuck her nose up at Emily and ran off, everyone was just quiet for a while. Then the gossip began.
"What is she doing back here?"
"Why was she crying?"
"Does she look really thin to you?"
"Why do you guys care so much?"
The last one was said, very quietly, by a rather confused Videl. Everyone seemed to have heard it, however, and the chatter stopped as everyone turned to face her. "What?" Videl said, still confused and now a little flustered.
"You… Gohan never told you about her?" Krillin asked.
"No… She said she was an old friend, right? You guys seem like you haven't seen her in a few years, and I've gotten the impression that's not a big deal," Videl explained.
"Videl…" Krillin began. "Emily's not an old friend. She's Gohan's twin sister. That's why I was surprised he never mentioned her."
Videl's eyes widened considerably and her mouth fell open slightly. "He- what?"
"It's my fault," Chichi said quietly. All eyes turned to her, burning with curiosity. "When Emily first left… I went a little crazy. I almost burned all of her things, but Gohan managed to stop me. After that, he packed up all of it and I forbade him to ever talk about her again, and to never look at her things. That's probably why Goten doesn't remember her; we haven't even said her name in three years..." Chichi's eyes had a haunted look in them.
"What about Trunks, then? I know she looked after him before," Krillin said, turning to Bulma, who shrugged.
"Hell if I know. She didn't watch him very often, but she did come over quite a bit. She mostly just sparred with…" Bulma trailed off as well, unable to finish.
A heavy silence hung over them for a few more moments before Krillin spoke up once again. "Does anyone even know why she left?"
Chichi shook her head mournfully. "No one does. She left me a letter when disappeared, but she didn't say why she was leaving."
"I do," 18 suddenly spoke up. Everyone looked at her in surprise, even Krillin. 17 shot her a warning look. Don't you fucking dare, he thought. You know what this means. Don't do it!
Sorry about the long wait and the short chapter, and for the skipping around. I've been trying to get this out for a while... I'm graduating high school in a few weeks and things are going to be fairly crazy, so you might not want to expect an update for a bit. Also, I'm going to Dallas ComiCon next weekend! Much excite! (If you're going let me know :D)
