Eleventh, Conspiring Chi-Chi.


Goku doesn't know why Vegeta promised Lord Beerus that he'd serve him a steak with 'Granny's Secret Sauce' on it, but he sure isn't complaining about it. He's not curious about it either, to be completely honest, because there's nothing more that could he want at the moment, than the perfect end, following a satisfying occurrence – well, almost completely satisfying, because it was cut short by the uninvited spectators, who showed up. But never mind that. He doesn't even know if he should be here, finishing his third portion of steak along with Lord Beerus and Whis especially, but oh well, he is. And he is enjoying it!

'Hmm!' he throatily vocalises, waiting a short fraction of a second to swallow the last bit of meat, before he completes with, 'This is so good! Thanks, Vegeta.'

While in response, Vegeta makes an irritated, but dismissive sound, and then turns his head the other way, Goku gladly reaches for another piece of steak. He invited himself to have this meal, and he plans on eating as much of it, as he can. Before his fingers can claim the piece of meat, however, a sharp smack meets the back of his hand, to possibly make his entire hand reconsider its decision to get a fourth portion of steak. Taken aback by the sudden attack on his hand for no reason, he gathers a confused frown to appear on his face, as he just then looks up from the tray filled with steak, to find the person responsible for keeping him from his fourth piece.

'Hey…' he starts to complain, not really bothering to find out who it is, that smacked his hand.

'What?!' Lord Beerus hotly retorts, verbally defending himself against the attack, and that way directing Goku's attention to him.

'Why did you do that?' he seriously asks the god.

'Because you're eating too much! You've already had three pieces of steak,' Lord Beerus stubbornly answers him.

That's not fair, Goku thinks. Looking at the filled tray, there's no need for Lord Beerus to keep anyone from eating more steak. And since it's only him, Lord Beerus and Whis who are eating, while the others are silently seated at the table with them, Lord Beerus doesn't need to be stingy about the meat.

'You also already had six pieces,' Goku reminds him, begrudgingly leaning back in his chair.

First chewing down his last bite of his steak, Lord Beerus proudly boasts in his god status, as the perfect reason to get away with whatever he feels fit to do, saying, 'I am a god. I can have as many as I want.'

Frowning, Goku argues against that with, 'That's not a good reason!'

'It is!' Lord Beerus argues back. 'And besides, Vegeta made me the promise of steak, so I'm entitled to more.'

That's true, Goku silently acknowledges, but he doesn't lose his frown just because it's true. In fact, against his will, he feels too much like he's Goten, who is being pushed to do something by Chi-Chi, just being she's the mother, and he's the son. He crosses his arms instead, to properly accuse Lord Beerus in a sulking tone.

'You're just being stingy!'

'Goku's right, my Lord,' Whis casually floats into the conversation, as though he had been part of it from the beginning. 'You are being stingy. Consider how if it hadn't been Goku contracting Hit to kill him, Vegeta wouldn't have had to bargain with me for the same training. Hm, Lord Beerus?'

In a flash, Goku adjusts his eyes to the one sitting next to Lord Beerus. He finds Whis finishing his explanation to Lord Beerus with a soft chuckle, and partly closed eyes, his look almost saying that he's simply interested in keeping the silent peace that he needs to keep enjoying his steak.

Thank you, Whis. You're the best, Goku silently thanks his trainer, his eyes growing bigger in admiration for the soft teacher.

As he watches Whis, his heart silently dancing in thankfulness that Whis took his side, he observes how Whis is solely trying to eat. He has his hand with a fork, ready to dig into a cut off chunk of steak on his plate, so he shouldn't be subjected to the possibility of developing a distaste for his meal, all for something silly. Because he can understand Whis when it comes to the particular subject of food, he begins to open his mouth to say that he'll stop fighting with Lord Beerus, but a trembling sound of stressed syllables stops him from getting his words out.

'Goku hired Hit to kill him?'

That voice… Uh-oh!

Like water left in the fridge for far too long, his entire body freezes with a special type of chilled frigidness. Except for his head, of course, which (as a primary instinct that defies all degrees of numbness) automatically turns to look at his wife, who is sitting all the way at the one end of the table. Instantly, their respective eyes meet, and where his pupils dilate in numbing shock, hers dangerously flare at him with angry flames.

Double uh-oh!

A stare that deep, with such intensity, directed solely at him, for consumption, should melt all of his frozen body to a useless puddle on the floor. It should do that, in fact, he wholeheartedly wishes on his life that it would happen that way, thus giving him a justified escape, but no, her stare doesn't do that. What it does do to him, is mercilessly burn into his skin without physically breaking him apart, only, inside where her flaming stare penetrates to…

Chi-ChiHoney

The names effortlessly come together in his mind, but when he tries to speak them out through his mouth, his brain decides then, to send the command for the saliva in his mouth, to make a run for it down his throat, and that way be safe from the fiery fury of the woman staring at him. His escaped saliva, then leaves his mouth feeling completely dry to try and open, much less make an attempt to say something to save himself.

'He did,' Whis' voice casually wafts through the air again. 'You had believed it was Frost, hadn't you, Goku's wife?'

Whis!

So badly, as the desperate cry sounds in his head, he wants to sharply turn his head towards Whis, and warn him to keep his mouth properly closed, or better yet, keep his mouth occupied with chewing on his steak, however, his frozen body doesn't pay any tiny attention to his wants. Rather, his instincts win the control over his body, keeping him in place, to only observe the reception of the news by his wife, as that's the only thing that matters in the whole world right now. His mind can freely think that Whis went from saving him from Lord Beerus' stinginess, to betraying him in a sweet sacrifice to his wife, but his eyes, oh his eyes can only remain on his wife. Whis, though! He still stubbornly wants to face Whis and give him the same stare of fire that he is receiving from Chi-Chi, because thanks to him, now she knows.

She now knows that he is responsible for Hit coming after him, and she knows that he purposely left Gohan's, knowing very well of the possibility of his death. It's not like before, when she got Piccolo to tell her what happened to him, because now, she knows most of the truth, and her eyes… Her eyes loudly speak of the single emotion which she feels, only, it's spoken in resounding echoes, that he is completely petrified of what will become of him.

'Your silence suggests that I am correct, doesn't it?' Whis' nonchalant voice drifts through the air again. 'Can I also assume that you didn't know about his death tonight, then?'

That darn Whis! Can he just keep eating instead of talking?

What does he think he is doing? Doesn't he realise the resolute silence at the table means something significantly sensitive? Is he maybe drunk on steak, that he's just absently using dangerous information as topics for conversation attempts? Really, only Whis is capable of saying something so serious, so casually, with such abandoned crass.

'No,' Chi-Chi shakily lets out, her eyes still focused with unshakable determination on him. 'I didn't know that either.'

That quietly rumbling tone… That subtly ablaze pronunciation…

Okay, now he's just dead. This act of inhalation, is definitely his last breath on Earth, and he better cherish it.

In that certain mindset, he instinctively closes his eyes to say his last prayer, in the weakly defeated state that he's in. A prayer won't save him, he knows that, obviously he knows that, but he still wants to say it, if only to show some hurried appreciation for the full life that he's lived up until now. He never would've imagined that coming here for steak, would lead to his final death.

To face his death like a strong man, he opens his eyes, to look at his wife one last time.

Although he still finds the same fire staring at him from his wife's eyes, there's something strangely silent about her surrounding aura. The way that he knows her, he can immediately pick up on the difference. She's fuming, yes, beyond angry, yes, however, he can somehow understand that she won't scream at him to death at all. At least, not right now. He should be glad about that, especially when she finally averts her eyes away from him, with no sign of her ever returning them to him again, but he just…

He doesn't trust that. That can't really be the end of it, can it?


26Chapters


Oddly, he's this close to making it through a fourth piece of steak.

Lord Beerus doesn't bother him about reaching for that piece, and Whis, as if he didn't create a seriously gaping hole in what had been a well rounded circle of perfection, simply continues to eat in silence. Goku wonders why he hadn't thought to do that all through the time that he decided he needed to be Chi-Chi's informant. But on second thought, when Goku remembers that his wife got it out of Piccolo, how Hit had attacked him, he can't really blame Whis for speaking as he did. But still, Whis shouldn't have said anything.

Although he finds it odd that he's able to nearly finish a whole piece of steak, he isn't surprised by how he has difficulty making it through that same piece of steak. He had hoped with all of his heart that a fourth piece would steer his mind away from the fact that Chi-Chi unclenched her angry fists on the table, looked away from him, and soon after got up from the table, only to have difficulty with it. If anything accurate, the steak plays with him, suddenly switching to a bitter taste on his tongue, and then struggling to fit down his throat, as he attempts to push it down to his stomach.

Still, though, he wouldn't consider himself a fighter, if he gave up like that, before swallowing down the last fibre of meat. With that in mind, he continues his physical battle of eating a bitter steak, and forcing it down, piece by piece, to his stomach. One part of him continuing, is mostly to buy himself time to prepare a decent response for Chi-Chi once she decides to bring up what she knows, and the other part, is simply fear that once he stops eating, Chi-Chi will pounce on him, and he will wish he never existed.

As he eats, one by one, everyone excuses themselves from the table. Vegeta first, and then Bulma, then Piccolo, followed by Goten and Chi-Chi, and lastly, Whis and Lord Beerus. They all leave him at the table. Well, him, his peanut-sized piece of meat, and his thoughts of fear all remain at the table. If he puts that small piece into his mouth, and then suffers through its bitter taste, to then forcefully swallow it, he'll only be left with the burning image of Chi-Chi's glare of death, and that…

Oh man, what is he going to do?

He can stall finishing his meal for a while, but in the end, he still has to go home. No one else after Whis brought up the subject of Hit, or the fact that Chi-Chi now knows the truth, but she still knows that truth, and nothing will get him out of that. He will admit something, though, that this is a first for Chi-Chi, to react like that. For her to seem like the world is exploding inside her eyes, and then just be clear of that explosion, is a definite first. And a definite, absolute cause for unrivalled fear.

Oh, man…

He won't make it through this night, whether he finishes his meal or not. Either the fearful anguish will finish him, or his wife will, so there's no point in postponing the inevitable… Just as he thought that he can't call himself a fighter if he didn't eat up to the very last of his meat, he tells himself now, that if he doesn't get up to face his wife, he'd be a cowardly fighter, who couldn't face his defeat with dignity.

He'll find her, he quickly decides, simultaneously shoving the single piece of meat into his mouth as he pushes out of his chair. By the time that he heavily takes down his final bite, he's already four or five steps away from the table, and on his way to finding his wife, to face the consequences of his decision. Even though he is in no way prepared to face the consequences, he walks in big demanding steps to find her, until after some time, he catches sight of her in the back area, talking to Whis.

No way!

His heart immediately catches fire.

Whis, he doesn't trust. Not tonight. And definitely not with Chi-Chi.

To not waste time, and give Whis more time to tell Chi-Chi things that he's not supposed to, he quickly goes over to them, coming to a stop right next to Whis. He would usually stand on the side Chi-Chi is, but since he doesn't know what more she knows at this point, he's safer a little step away from her.

'Do I have to pay for it?' Chi-Chi asks Whis as he finds his landing next to Whis.

'How cheap!' Lord Beerus objects before Whis can answer.

Because he hadn't noticed Lord Beerus on the other side of Whis, Goku looks around Whis, doing it just in time to catch Lord Beerus turning his face the other way from Chi-Chi. He wonders what that is about, only, Whis' quiet response turns his attention back from Lord Beerus.

'Please, Lord Beerus, don't be rude. Her circumstances are different.'

Putting aside what happened earlier, Goku silently appreciates how Whis has this way of defending innocent people against Lord Beerus, while respecting Lord Beerus in the same breath, that is completely unattainable to the normal human. Goku like that about Whis. Now more than ever, because whatever it is that is going on, Whis is standing up for Chi-Chi, in a way that is respectfully telling Lord Beerus to behave himself.

'What's going on?' he tentatively joins the conversation.

He's taking a chance. Butting into their conversation like this, when he is already on borrowed living time, he's taking a chance. He knows this, as she could very well explode with all the content that has been boiling within her up to now, but he would rather that, than her acting like she didn't hear what Whis announced to her. In fact, if he is being honest, he wants her to go off on him, he wants her to be familiar in that sense, and make him feel like he is not going to survive tonight. He needs that from her, because this voice of silence, and her inaction towards the fact that he, Goku, hired Hit to kill him, and then he actually died, is wildly feeding his fear to obesity. He needs to provoke a reaction from her, using any tiny thing.

'If you must know,' she is the one to answer him, although her eyes remain on Whis, 'I'm arranging something with Whis. Whis, I was asking if I have to pay for it?'

Chuckling as is like him to do, Whis politely says, 'No. Consider it a favour, as I am quite honestly intrigued by your method.'

What? What are they talking about? Her method? What method?

Firstly (properly studying Chi-Chi's face for any hint), he doesn't trust the fact that she mentioned anything about Hit until now, and secondly (he looks at Whis, hoping to get a clue from him as well), he just doesn't trust Whis tonight. So when he adds her and Whis together, the result is double mistrust, or more accurately, immovable suspicion.

'What-' he starts to ask, when Chi-Chi speaks at the same time.

'Thank you, Whis,' she says, sounding genuinely thankful, and then turns to him to say, 'We can go home now, Honey.'

That… That last part dedicated to him, she said that too normally, like she's back to her normal self, like she's not angry, and like she doesn't remember what happened with him and Hit. He just can't trust that… Especially not when she talked methods and payments with Whis. Come to think of it, he'd hired Hit to kill him, offering an amount of money… What if…?

Oh no! She's not…? She's not asking Whis to beat him up, is she? He'd understand if that's what she's doing, of course, but he doesn't want Whis to beat him up.

'But, what were you talking about with Whis?' he wonders.

He really just needs to confirm that he will not be receiving a beating from Whis. At the moment, it's no longer about provoking a reaction from her, it's only about preserving his dignity as a fighter, because the humiliation that he will suffer from a one-sided fight with Whis, is something that he doesn't want to experience. Ever.

'Nothing that you should be concerned about tonight,' she tells him. 'We need to get going home, anyway.'

There it is again, that normal way of speaking from before. And still, he doesn't trust it, it's only that if he continues to prod, asking her about this arrangement with Whis, he might just find himself sleeping at King Kai's tonight. He has to let it go. Whether he trusts Chi-Chi's behaviour or not, he needs to go with what she wants.


26Chapters


At a point that night at Bulma's, he'd been craving for an outburst from her, wholeheartedly wishing that she would drop the act of the news not affecting her, only for him to later change his mind on trying to provoke a reaction from her, when he saw that she had no interest in bringing his crime up between him. Since then, he's made sure to keep walking in that line, of not bringing up the incident himself, if she didn't do it first.

Today being the sixth, five days exactly have gone by since that night when Whis gave his secret away, and nothing, absolutely nothing, has happened yet. Because of that, he's been living each day, with precise discipline, also being completely dedicated to behaving carefully, so as to not do anything to annoy her. Although she hasn't brought up anything about the hit on his life, or the fact that he died as a result of that, he has been restraining himself in ways that shouldn't be allowed him in his own home.

But man, the amount of miserable pressure, extraordinary discipline, and self-denial it takes to not feel at home in his own home… That's no joke. It's terrible.

He's had to train himself, to pretend that he is on King Kai's planet, and not actually in a house with his wife, where he has free access to whatever things he wants, particularly where his wife is concerned. Not for anything, has he made skin contact with her. Not even when they sleep, does he allow his toes to touch any part of her. Actually, he's been doing a lot of things, that he otherwise wouldn't bother to.

Like tiptoeing on his nerves, just expecting her to explode at any time.

Like being selective of the things that he says.

Like helping out where he can, without getting in her way.

Like religiously going home for lunch each and every afternoon since that night.

On this sixth afternoon, as on the previous days, without fail, prepares to transmit to his house, focusing on Chi-Chi's energy. The thing that stops him from leaving the field at once, is how weak her energy signal is. It's never like that, he thinks, developing a small, slightly worried frown. The reasonable side of him, says to him that she might just be sleeping, hence her weak energy, but the on-edge side of him that has been leading him all these days, immediately assumes that she's finally reached the point that she's been avoiding.

Today's the day, then, he prepares himself. If her energy is anything to go by, she's most probably doing a mental preparation, and thus relaxing her body, for it to be fully charged when he gets home for lunch. Led by that thought, he takes a final preparing breath, before fully focusing on her energy again, and leaving towards that. The image that meets him when he appears where his technique led him, though, is nothing like he is used to seeing.

This isn't his home.

This is the remainder of a disaster that hit his home.

In urgency, his eyes run all around the area, looking to find the familiar picture of his comfortable house. His eyes only continue to see a mess, though, no matter which way, which side, and which angle they look at, they only see the mess of a broken down house; rubble, in truth, as though someone specifically made an attack to break his house down.

Hit! His mind instantly goes to that one man, who made the promise to finish his assassination in his own time, while his heart erratically jumps away from him, to Chi-Chi!

How stupid of him! He thought that she had been sleeping, but now that he's here, seeing the actual picture of reality, he should've known that something was wrong. He can't waste time. Immediately, he has to find her! Since he can still trace her weak energy, she must be buried somewhere beneath this rubble. He doesn't want to think of it as true, but that being the case, it means that she is still somewhere underneath the broken house.

As much he doesn't want to think of her being buried under all of this mess surrounding him, he unfortunately doesn't have time to spare for worrying if she is okay either. In his subconscious state, he's thinking it, entertaining it, even, but overall, as he begins to pick up broken brick by broken brick, he doesn't have the grace of time to fully connect to that worry. What's more important to him, is actually finding her, pulling her out of it, hurriedly taking off with her, making a brief stop at Korin's for some senzu beans, and then dutifully taking her to Dende, for proper healing.

'Chi-Chi!' he screams for her, while throwing obstacles of concrete that are hiding her from him, as far away as possible.

He can't afford to throw the broken stones somewhere on the existing rubble, in the case that he accidentally piles a much bigger load of hurt onto his already buried wife. As he picks up the broken bricks in a wild frenzy, determined only to discover any part of her pale skin, or the colour of her clothes, he automatically tosses them afar, until finally, one of the broken bricks in his hand, reveals Chi-Chi's hand.

'Chi-Chi,' he lets out the relieved exclamation of surprise.

Just like that, he forgets to throw the brick away. Instead, it mechanically falls out of his hand, dropping down, to land just a breath from his foot, and leave his hand free. His now free hand joins his other in hurriedly moving to pull his wife from under the damage, and straight into his shaking arms. He's not sure if he hurt her in the process of pulling her up, he only knows that her body's limp in his hold, that even trying to cradle her is hard.

Softly, he tries to get her attention by saying, 'Hey…'

By all that is important in the world, when his soft request doesn't alter the situation, even by a breath, he gets the strongest urge to shake her. He really just wants to shake her, because this isn't how he knows her as. Her body is so close to being lifeless. And her eyes are closed. This doesn't look like his wife. Just like the rubble where he is standing on, doesn't look like his home, this woman in his arms doesn't look like his wife. This looks like someone close to dying.

'Hey, hey, hey, Chi-Chi,' he urgently gets out, barely managing to keep himself from shaking her.

He's aware that he shouldn't just be standing here like this, rather than moving on with his plan as he intended, but seeing her like this in his arms, the majority of his muscles just lose strength.

'Stay, Chi-Chi,' he begs in a weak whisper.

She can't… She shouldn't leave this world. No, she can't leave this world. It's not right for her to leave this world. She needs to stay, because… She just needs to, and although he doesn't want to hurt her any more than she already is, he uses his closest hand to squeeze her side. He's silently urging her to keep holding on, and that she shouldn't give up yet.

Shortly following his squeeze, her eyes snap open.

His initial reaction, is to panic that he hurt her by doing that to her side, and she's now protesting against it. When she blinks after opening her eyes, though, his mind registers that hey, she's awake, not unconscious anymore, and his mind travels from the reaction of panic, to relief. Enthusiastically, he crushes her to him without care, her name getting lost on his tongue in the momentum of his euphoria.

'Let go of me.'

He hears the flatly serious tone, and even that it's Chi-Chi saying it to him, but he doesn't follow the instruction. He's too happy to have her back, with her eyes open (a sure sign that she will be okay), to suddenly stop smothering her into him like he is doing. Actually, in the back of his mind, he takes her request to be a sign of exhaustion from the whole thing that happened, which is partly why he doesn't care to let her go.

Right now, in this immediate of state of consciousness, she hasn't really begin to come to terms with what happened to her, and he understands that, but she has no idea what it was like for him to come home, only to find it in shambles. She can't begin to imagine what a scare it was for him to find everything broken down, and her buried underneath the entire mess, and so he won't let her go. Not until he's had his fill of relief, and until he's seeped some of the life inside of her, into his being, for cemented certainty.

'Goku,' she says again, 'let go of me.'

Aww, he mentally protests, he doesn't want to let her go. He wants to keep her pasted on him, to the point where she's literally one being with him. Can't he just have that?

'I said, let go now, Goku,' she says louder than the last time.

She must have raised her voice, to counter the way that he held her tighter when she asked him to release her, and had it not for her doing that, he wouldn't have let her go. Well, he doesn't exactly let her go, really. What he does, is slightly pull her out of his embrace, to keep having her close, because after almost losing her, after worrying that he was going to lose her, he can't just allow her out of his hold like that. He'd be a fool to.

Unfortunately, since she has her own strength, and usually knows how to detach herself from him if she wants to, when he's refusing to let her go, she does just that. Not carefully, she removes herself from his hold, to stand on her feet a step away from him. Truthfully, he's hurt by her insensitivity, although he doesn't entirely blame her for wanting breathing space. He would've liked for her to stay just a little longer in his hold, but now she's just standing there, looking at him with a passive expression.

Unable to resist, he warmly smiles at her from a joint place of relief and love. He's not showing it, but really, she really has no idea how glad he is that she's okay. The sour image of her under the rubble, still active in his mind, but seeing her in front of him, lessens the glaring visibility of that image. Not even the dust spots on her clothes and parts of her face, can fully take him back to that place. She's here, standing on her own two feet, and-

'Whis!' comes out of her mouth all of a sudden.

Whis?

He's confused. Her eyes are directly set on his, and he's pretty sure that she's talking to him, but he's not Whis. Just a little bit, he's confused.

'It's me, Goku,' he says to her, pointing to his face, and doing his best to sound patient, rather than confused.

It may be that she's suffering from aftershock, or something, so he has to talk to her in the nicest way possible. It could also be that she thought another man, not her husband, held her in his arms, which is why she said to let her go- But wait, no, she specifically said his name, so what is this Whis name that she's calling?

'You called?' a fluently smooth voice suddenly sounds next to him, making him snap his head in that direction.

'Whis?'

Confused, he looks from the man whose name he just blurted, to Chi-Chi. Not blinking, Chi-Chi looks away from him, to instead have her eyes on Whis.

'You can restore my home to its usual state now, please,' she says to Whis.

'Right away,' Whis answers. 'However… You'll want to move away from here, please.'

Huh?

Again, Goku looks from Whis to Chi-Chi, and then back to Whis. He's still confused, because he's clearly here with these two, and yet, he's not here with them at all. It seems that they are on their own planet, speaking a language that he has never heard of in his life, and excluding him as if he's not even here.

'Wait…' he tries to say to Whis, as Chi-Chi is already starting to walk away from the destroyed house.

Politely, Whis spares him a look, if only to say, 'Goku, please stand back from here. It will be rather irking to rework the house around you. I can do it, of course, I simply prefer not to.'

Even though he wants to (in some minor way), he can't argue with Whis, because what? Really, just, what? How stupid is he right now, that he doesn't know what is going on here? Nonetheless, he does as he is told, walking over to join Chi-Chi. Once he joins her, he sets his attention on her, preparing to ask her to tell him what's happening, but he finds that her eyes are straight ahead, on Whis. While she keeps her eyes on Whis, waiting, he keeps his eyes on her, waiting as well.

'All done,' Whis announces at last.

His announcement perks visibly Chi-Chi up, intriguing Goku to shift his sight from her, to Whis. He doesn't know one thing about Whis being here, or if he's been here all along, he only knows that whatever 'all done,' means, he wants to find out.

'Chi-Chi, what is Whis doing here?'

'He came to fix the damage, which he caused,' she answers, not missing a beat, or looking at him.

He will silently acknowledge that he is still confused, and that being so, he most probably just misinterpreted what Chi-Chi said to him, but he has to ask.

'Whis did that to you, and to our house?'

It's much worse to say the words in the form of a question, than it is to think it, except, he has to make sure that he and Chi-Chi are on the same plane of understanding. As he's thinking this, he carefully looks at Whis, wondering why Whis would do that, if he really did that.

'Yes,' Chi-Chi replies. 'He did. I asked him to.'

Okay, so he didn't misinterpret Chi-Chi that first time, but what's this about her asking Whis to destroy their house? He can't have heard that correctly, can he? Because that wouldn't make sense, especially considering how much Chi-Chi loves their house. She would never do something like that. He needs to make sure that she really said what he thinks he heard her say.

'You?'

'Yes, me,' she says, and then asks, 'Does that surprise you?'

Does it surprise him? No, not in the way that it should. He rather feels certain levels of confused, lost and disconnected, that aren't deep enough into his understanding, to transform into surprise. However, he strangely feels overwhelmingly compelled to give her a positive answer.

'Yes.'

Only then, after his simple not-so-honest answer, does she turn to him, to calmly ask, 'Why?'

So calmly, she asks that? Meaning… Meaning she did ask Whis to destroy their house? Because if that's the case, yes, he's surprised! Surprised that she's asking why he's surprised, like having a reason will make her see him as a criminal.

'Because why would you do that, Chi-Chi?' he questions with a frown. 'That's our house. Why would you ask Whis to destroy our house? And… Why did he do it while you were inside? He could've hurt you. I thought you were going to die. Why did you do that?'

'Why are you asking me that?' she questions him back. 'Was it wrong of me to ask Whis to do that?'

Really, he's still just trying understand why she had Whis destroy their house, but what a question from her! He's not angry, he's not blaming her, he only wants to understand why she did that, and yet, she's asking him questions that are sure making him feel like he's in the wrong. All of a sudden, he finds that he is no longer just trying to understand her, he's also starting to get irritated with her.

His mind does a complete spin from where it had been, to how it's thinking now. What does she mean, was it wrong for her to ask Whis something like that? She really can't see that it was wrong? She asked Whis, to destroyed their house, with her in it, and there's really nothing wrong that she sees with that?

'That's our house,' he points at their restore house. 'Why would you have it destroyed? Why would you do something so irresponsible like that? You were inside, Chi-Chi, you could've died.'

'But I didn't die,' she carelessly shrugs in his face. 'And look, our house is back to normal, so stop with all your nagging.'

After that, she begins to walk away from him, giving off the impression that they have reached the end of the conversation, and he just cannot believe her. As he is in disbelief of his wife at the moment, he stands stunned to the spot. He's seriously irritated now too, but for the most part, he's just stunned.

He wonders, is his wife crazy? Does she think that, 'she didn't die, and look, our house is back to normal,' makes this okay? That it wipes out what happened? And she's just walking away? Really? She's now getting into the house, and closing the door behind her, and that's it? She's not going to explain this thing to him?

'Ah, well, it seems my work here is done,' Whis' voice brings him back from his thoughts.

That statement from Whis almost makes him want to let out a howl of laughter, but not because he feels tickled to laugh. It's that Whis can dare to something like that, as if destroying someone's home is the most normal thing to do in the world. Goku gets that Whis is Lord Beerus' attendant, and he may be used to seeing destruction, but touching someone else's home for no apparent reason, is not acceptable.

'Why did you do it, Whis?' he asks in frustration, his arms crossing.

'It was favour,' Whis calmly tells him.

This time, Goku does follow through with the urge to let out a laugh, asking, 'A favour?'

He got the fright of his life, coming home to find what he found. His life had begun to slip from his mind, leaving him open to the vicious attack of insanity, if something happened to Chi-Chi, and Whis will stand there and tell him that it was it was a favour? That, he has to laugh about.

A favour, Whis says? That's really funny. He calls destroying someone's home, and nearly killing that someone's wife in the process, a favour? What sort of favour is that? On second thought, as he's sobering up, no, he doesn't want to know. He doesn't want to look at Whis right now either, because who in the hell does favours like that?

'Whis, please go.'

He's not suggesting, he only wants Whis gone, and away from his property. That's all. Whis seems to notice this, because he eyes Goku with something that looks very much like sceptical surprise, although he doesn't make a comment. Instead, he slightly bows his head to agree, and then promptly disappears from sight. Soon after that, he instantly transmits into the house, to clear this thing up with Chi-Chi.

'Chi-Chi, I don't understand,' he says to her the second that his feet land close to her. 'You need to explain this to me, because I really thought that you were about to die. I thought someone had hurt you, and destroyed our home, but Whis says it was just a favour.'

'It was a favour,' she answers with a shrug, like it's nothing. 'I asked him to destroy our home, and bury me under the mess, just before you came home for lunch.'

So deeply, it bugs him that she can say that with a straight face, that he has to ask, 'Are you serious?'

He's not asking her to confirm what she said, no, he's wondering to know if she's lost her mind somewhere between being buried under the broken stones and now. More importantly, he's wondering if this is this her idea of a joke. Because even if it is, he's not going to laugh.

'I am,' she nods. 'But I'm also curious to know if I scared you by asking Whis to fake this attack on me.'

Since she's asking, he'll spare the time to that that yes, at that moment, he'd been frightened to the next life, that someone had attempted to kill her. But knowing the truth now, he's just angry. He's gone from confused, to irritated, to frustrated, and just now, angry. Why would she do something so stupidly irresponsible? And to him? Does she think it's funny for him to be confronted with the idea of her dying? It makes him angry to think that she would joke around with the idea of her death, like it's a funny trick that he's seen several times before.

'I'm pissed,' he shouts, speaking for his current feelings, not his past.

Every vein in his body is starting to jump out from under his skin, because he just can't comprehend how she doesn't understand her own thoughtless irresponsibility. Not only could've she really died, but had she died, she would've left him without a wife, and his sons without a mother. How can she not see the seriousness of the matter like that? Heck, to him, it's not so much about the 'supposed favour' anymore, it's about the 'what if,' that would've been his reality right now.

'Why?' she laughs, and he notices that it's much like how he'd laughed in Whis' presence. 'Does it make you angry that I did something that thoughtless?'

'You shouldn't have done that,' sternly leaves his mouth, because that shouldn't even be a question from her. 'You destroyed our home-'

'How do you think I feel every time that you die?' she calmly poses, cutting through his words.

He hears her question, but since he didn't get to finish his previous point (which he really feels like he has to make clear to her), he decides that he's not going to pay attention to her calm question, instead of completing his point, so that maybe it will drill into her understanding.

'AND YOU ALMOST DIED, CHI-CHI!' he bellows for added emphasis.

'HOW DO YOU THINK I FEEL EVERY TIME THAT YOU DIE?' she screams back at him, her face turning a deep shade of red, as her body trembles per word.

'That's not what we're talking about here!' he angrily throws his hands up in the air. 'We're talking about you being careless, and how even though you didn't die, you could've.'

This whole argument, even though it just began, he is already losing patience with, much more her stubborn refusal to accept that she gave him the fright of his life.

'Hypocrite!' she hisses at him, one of her fingers pointedly jabbing at his chest. 'You can hire Hit to kill all you want, without thinking about how it would destroy our home, and take you away from us, but I can't do the same thing? Why do I have to be responsible, when you can be carelessly selfish when it suits you? Why do I have to consider this family and this house, when you don't? Did I build this home on my own? This family? Huh? Did I do it all by myself?'

That's what she's doing? That little comment she made in there about Hit, is that what this is about? Her taking revenge on him, or trying to make him feel guilty? That's what she meant to do with that mess? He can't believe her!

In his subconscious, he knows that he's at fault, and that if he hadn't pulled that stunt with Hit, none of this would be happening. However, his conscious is now already frustrated with her for not understanding the impact of what she did, and angry for her actually doing it, that he can't bring himself to sink, and apologise for what he made her do in response. He would much rather hold his angry ground, insistently reminding her that she nearly died, and how that tore him apart.

'You were reckless,' he rasps. 'You made me angry! I'm angry. Do you have any idea how I felt seeing all of that?'

Just summoning the image to his mind, he has to deeply growl out in frustration for going back there, shake his head to remove the picture from his memory, and then violently kick the air between them, for not being able to stop seeing the image replayed in his mind.

'It feels horrible, doesn't it?' she sadly asks after his little commotion, seemingly sympathising with him.

Something about her sad tone, puts an immediate stopper on his anger, because apparently, now she understands his point, and is seeing from his side of things.

'So much, Chi-Chi,' he brokenly admits, taking a step to be closer to her, and closely share relay to her the exact depth.

'I know,' she carefully nods. 'I know better than anyone, how that feeling of everything you know, shattered in front of your eyes, kills you. I mean, when you realise that your life will never be the same again, after losing what you had, it poisons your life to less than half of what you know it to be, doesn't it? And the fear, it's real, isn't it? How it sucks on your blood, your very life, making you just want to give up. That's the worst, isn't it?'

She's understating it, he thinks, not yet ready to give her an answer. It's much more, and much worse than that. He hates to return to that scary moment, before he knew it was all a setup, a type of revenge for what he did with Hit, so he won't, but he won't pretend that it's not worse than she's making it to be with her words.

'Answer me, Goku,' she tightly urges. 'I want to hear you tell me how you felt, because maybe if you say it out loud, you'll understand how I feel every time that you die. Your death hurts me, Goku. Always. You can't just go around hiring assassins to kill you, knowing that you will die. You can't keep breaking my heart with such recklessness anymore. There has to be a limit. When will you reach it?' she finishes, breathing like her body is in pain, and she can't continue to support it anymore.

He was wrong.

Looking at her now, hearing the quiet defeat in her voice, and the absent light in her eyes, he realises that he was wrong. She didn't do this to take revenge on him. No, he figures out that she did this, with the single wish, that he would come to feel how she always feels about his death, and just how his decision to hire Hit was irresponsibly reckless, disregarding anyone else.

He was so wrong.

He hurt her, and she only wanted to show him a glimpse of what that hurt looks like, as much as she was able to. Realising this, makes his body feel heavy, his skin extremely hot, and like an invisible block of Whis' special concrete is tied around his neck, to specifically fall over his heart and make it heavy. It's most suffocating feeling that he has felt in his life, but strangely, in spite of his current discomfort, after all, just wants to pull her into him, and make what she felt disappear.

'Chi-Chi...' he bravely pushes out his stifling discomfort, to reach her with his sincere words. 'I'm sorry for making you feel that way.'

Sighing at first, she slowly raises her hand to cover her forehead, and then drops her hand, as if to say that isn't sure what to do with herself.

'I know that Saiyans don't have limits,' she tiredly says, 'and maybe I'm wrong for trying to give you a limit that you don't need, but... Goku... There is a limit, right? You'll reach that limit, where death is no longer an adventure for you, won't you?'

No, he doesn't necessarily think that it's an adventure, he's just not afraid to die. He never has been, and because of that, he got carried away in wanting to fight Hit at his best, and lost the vision of what else matters in his life.

Ever so remorseful, he steps to her, starting with, 'Chi-Chi, I know that you're angry with me about Hit, and what I did-'

'Angry?' she asks in disbelief, laughing a little too. 'Is that what you think? That you left, knowing you were going to die, and much worse, not thinking about anyone else while you did...' She shakes her head as someone undecided on which way to go, would do. 'I just don't know if it's worth it to scream at you. I don't think it is.'

She's disappointed, he concludes, that's disappointment in her words. Disappointment sums up why she didn't do anything all these days, why she still isn't yelling at him into the next dimension, and why she doesn't have the strength to properly fight with him, as she would've done at other times. And for that, he's rapidly sinking into a quicksand of regret.

'I'm trying to apologise,' he tries, his voice on the verge of shaking. 'Please just tell me what I can do. You're right, I didn't think about anyone else, so what do I have to do?'

'I just don't know if you want to apologise, because you felt it for yourself,' she quietly refuses, 'or because you truly are sorry.'

'I am sorry,' he replies, meaning it with everything.

Yes, part of the reason, is that he felt it for himself, what it's like to think that he lost her, but really, he is sorry for doing what he did. He's sorry for hiring Hit at all, that he would readily gather the Dragon Balls to summon Shenron, and use the all the wishes to undo what he did.

'I guess I'm just not ready to let it go yet,' Chi-Chi confesses, 'because I don't want to accept your apology. This time is different, Goku. I hope you know that. You can't expect me to react the same way.'

He does, though. He knows and understands that he shouldn't, but he really just wants her to accept his apology, and then they can move on from that. He doesn't know if he can bear another minute of living on his nerves, or as he just discovered, living in the daunting shadow of her disappointment.

'Please,' he reaches for her arm, 'Chi-Chi, I'm sorry.'

'I want to accept that,' comes from her mouth, and to his surprise, her free fingers start to trace the skin of his wrist. 'But I just can't. I'm sorry.'

A last swipe of her thumb across his wrist, speaks the final decision for her, some time before she separates herself from the same space as him, and turns her back to start walking away from him. It's like she said, he sullenly longs after her leaving figure, this last time was, is different. He made the choice to die, not for the good of the world, but for his own satisfaction, and that marks the great difference that she can't easily get over. He will, no matter how long it takes, have to wait for her to open a window for him.


Twelfth, Sensual Chi-Chi.