Chapter 20 – The face of my father
"I do not aim with my hand; he who aims with his hand has forgotten the face of his father.
I aim with my eye.
I do not shoot with my hand; he who shoots with his hand has forgotten the face of his father.
I shoot with my mind.
I do not kill with my gun; he who kills with his gun has forgotten the face of his father.
I kill with my heart."
(Stephen King, The Gunslinger – The Dark Tower, Volume I)
Vegeta looked down, thoughtful. Raditz had finished his story, omitting the part about the map and the magic orbs because he didn't trust the other one at all. From his attitude, it was impossible to know whether or not the son of King believed the story told by Bardock's son, but suddenly he said:
"Now it all makes sense." Vegeta raised his eyes and looked around. There was no one paying attention to the two of them. He thought it was a good thing that he didn't like to drink too much. It would not have been good to have listened to that story while drunk. "Nappa kept us believing that our parents had betrayed each other. He never denied the accusations we made to each other and the way he told the story." Vegeta's fist closed, and his lips crisped with hatred. "Damned. We must kill the bastard."
"And we will," Raditz said, " I don't know about you... but I don't want to kill one traitor and continue to serve another..."
The two looked at each other. Vegeta gave Raditz an evil smile. They both hated Freeza and had always wanted the death of the one responsible for their parent's death. But they had never thought of joining forces against him until that moment.
"Could you tell me more about the "trick" you want to play on him?"
"I can," Raditz gave a wide and radiant smile, "and it will all start with the robbery of a certain stagecoach... which will not actually happen."
Freeza had very pale skin and eyes of faint violet. On his chest, near his heart, he had a tattooed reptile, which had earned him the nickname "the lizard." Anyone who didn't know him well would think the man was weak and sickly, but nothing could be less true. He had a great aim, as well as being skilled with a knife in his hands. His thin body was stronger than it looked because he did not have the vices of other men. He hardly drank and did not smoke, although he had the strange habit of rolling up cigarettes and lighting them but letting them burn slowly while he just stared. The only thing that stimulated him was to command.
In the beginning, he went on robberies with the gang and always killed the most. His coolness and agility made him feared. When the gang grew big enough to become infamous, he gradually withdrew and was seen less and less. Until he was just a ghost to the common population. A scary ghost.
But his life was not a piece of cake. Men within the gang had challenged him more than once. And all of them had died. Those who had dared to try to kill him from behind, sleeping, defenseless. All had been surprised by his power of reaction. He had become a monster at 16: he had committed his first murder for his father, who had led the gang before him.
But when his father bothered him, Freeza killed him. For years he trusted King Vegeta, but he proved weak and was also killed.
He feared almost nothing but only a man:
Bardock. The best gunslinger he had ever met in his life, a true phenomenon that he would never challenge. If he hadn't known from Nappa that he had sold his pistols, he would never have surrounded him on the West Sayan stage. Bardock could have taken Zarbon's place as his right-hand man, but he refused and left the gang. This he had never forgiven.
When he learned from Nappa that Bardock not only had the map that led to the magical spheres that had been an obsession for Cold, his father, and had even found one of the orbs, he wanted the treasure too much. But he couldn't find it among Bardock's things, so he believed that the gunslinger had hidden it in West Sayan itself. But since this had only been speculation, he eventually put this idea behind him. But if one day he knew that they really existed, he would do anything to have them.
On that night of the summer party, he had retreated to the house after eating and having a few shots of whiskey. He didn't like the less important men in the gang to know too much about him. It was essential to maintain this aura of mystery. When Zarbon joined him in his room, he asked:
"Were you not enjoying the party, Zarbon?"
"I'm not in the mood for partying... " Zarbon had been depressed since the stagecoach guard had hit him.
"You know what they say when you come after me, don't you?"
"I don't care," said Zarbon, "let them think what they want, boss."
Freeza laughed, appreciating Zarbon's dogged loyalty. The man had saved him a few times.
And he would save him one more time, the last, soon.
The days that followed until the supposed assault on the stagecoach were hot, muggy ones. Always apart, Vegeta and Raditz were setting up the logistics of their plan. It involved the destruction of the farm and the dispersal of the gang, and then a surprise for Freeza. A trick played on him by Raditz.
Like almost every perfect plan, it had only one flaw: neither of them knew what they would do next. The guys knew within themselves that it would destroy all the safe havens that had taken them from boyhood to the adult days: Nappa, the farm, the gang... even Freeza's protection.
But the pair of them knew that sooner or later, they would end up dead when Freeza thought he had others as good as them. Until then, what had kept them alive was Vegeta being the best and fastest gunfighter in the gang and Raditz a feared and intimidating assassin. There was no other gunfighter who could compare to Vegeta. No one had Raditz's skill with a knife.
But he feared both of them, and when he found one of the two looking at him suspiciously, it would surely be the end. But they would not let that happen. That was why they had no fear of dying at all, so they had nothing left to lose.
Seven days passed, and the day came for the stagecoach to return. Nappa woke them up long before dawn. As they always did, they would go to the observation point, seeming to wait for the stagecoach.
And then, everything would be settled.
Nappa was rolling a cigarette at the top of the hill where they watched the road mounted on their horses. Raditz had observed him. He knew how much it had cost him every day beside that man for whom he had had almost devout respect for twenty years. That man was the reason he had grown up without his mother's affection and his father's example. That man was to blame for his not having the same clean, fair and generous record that had made his brother a good and decent man.
That man owed him a life. He looked at Vegeta. As agreed, Vegeta had a rope in his hands that he seemed to play with. It was not something the gunslinger usually did, but Nappa did not seem to notice.
Suddenly, Raditz said:
"Nappa... do you remember that girl in Fierce's Landing?"
Nappa laughed. A few years before, when they were looking for a guy who had been ordered killed by Freeza's gang, he had met a girl in that city. Not a girl like the ones Raditz knew, prostitutes, cabaret dancers. No, she was a girl he had met by chance in the street, with long blond hair and an angelic look.
"Yes, I remember ... the daughter of the owner of that warehouse ... why did you remember her?"
"Actually, it was not her I wanted to talk about, but the conversation we had on that occasion?" he looked discreetly at Vegeta, who still seemed perfectly distracted "when you told me that she was not for me, and I understood? Remember what you told me?"
"I said that if you were a decent boy from a good family, you would have a chance, but you were a bandit and could not change it."
"That's true," said Raditz, "but do you know that deep down, I never came to terms with it? Not because of the girl. I don't even remember her name anymore. But for not being able to have a girl because I didn't have a good family.
Because I am not a decent man."
"But..."
"You're going to tell me it wasn't your fault, aren't you? That's always what you say. It was fate, destiny... that kind of shit."
Nappa stared at him, understanding nothing when Vegeta, without warning, attacked like a snake and slipped the knot through Nappa and pinned him down, tying both his arms together at once.
"What are you kids playing at?" he said, laughing nervously but with a note of fear in one voice.
"The joke is you explaining why none of us could have a decent family because our parents were killed by Freza," Vegeta said coldly, "can you explain?"
"I... already told you the story... and..."
"You didn't tell the whole story, did you?" Raditz asked," You left out the part where you were supposed to say that our parents were... betrayed by you, filthy traitor!"
Nappa's eyes widened. He feared that this day would come, the day they would find out what filled him with remorse. Deep down, he knew that it would be fair to pay with his life for his cowardice. Vegeta knocked him off his horse and kept him immobilized on the ground with the rope. Raditz also got off and knelt beside him, taking his weapons from their holsters and handing them to Vegeta, then removing his own knife from its sheath and saying:
"You have replaced my knife well. I cut Ginyu's throat with it, and it felt like I was cutting butter."
"But... you said that the gunman killed Ginyu..."
"Truth be told: Ginyu was going to die anyway. I only shortened his suffering, Nappa. Ginyu was shot just below the heart by that famous gunman who shoots like Bardock. The boy shot him with his left hand from a moving horse. Yuz was caught with his right and ended up dead on the spot. You could see him shoot if we were going to rob that stagecoach. But you will die before you can see him with your eyes."
"Raditz, I..."
"It's funny, Nappa. I had nightmares about the death of my father, my mother, and my brother. I passed that spot many times with crosses on the road and wonder why I was still in the gang. Why I ignored the pain of serving the one who killed my father...and wonder if I had forgotten the face of my father."
Vegeta said nothing as Raditz spoke but tightened the strings while the story proceeded. At this time, he really tightened them to the point of hurting Nappa.
"Then something, or rather someone, reminded me of Bardock's face. Someone who shoots like him, who looks like him... who has his face. It was like Bardock came to life again, by someone with his blood on the veins."
Nappa's eyes widened in disbelief. Somewhere in his mind, there was something that could not make sense, could not be true...
"The... boy?"
"Yes, the boy, the baby: my brother Kakarotto. He didn't die, Nappa. On the contrary, he was raised by a man who treated him well, a family to him... And he reminded me that my father had honor. My father had courage. My father was only killed because you turned him in, told Freeza that he would go to New Sadala unarmed. You betrayed your friend!"
"And before you did it," Vegeta interrupted, "you turned my father in. You were the one who arranged the whores for him. Maybe you believed that with my father gone, you would inherit Freeza's trust, didn't you? You didn't count on Zarbon getting ahead of you. That he had something you didn't have in Freeza's eyes... so, you traded your two best friends for nothing. And you tried to make up for it: you took care of both of us: you taught us not to cry because it might make Freeza angry, you taught Raditz how to use a knife to the point of making him the best at it, you taught us how to shoot, how to ride, and you made me the best horseman and marksman of the bunch. We thought you were doing all this for us... but it was for yourself. You made us good at everything you were mediocre at, to stand in our shadow as you had stood in our parents' shadow before because you realized that you are just a useless, disposable pawn
without someone stronger around."
"That's not true..." Nappa argued
but was interrupted.
"YOU BETRAYED OUR PARENTS, AND BECAUSE OF YOU, THEY ARE BOTH DEAD!" shouted Raditz, leaning over him uncontrollably and punching him hard in the face. He was about to throw a second punch when he felt Vegeta grab his arm. He looked at the other furious man to find only the cold, impassive gaze of his ally.
"Remember our agreement about him."
Raditz snorted. Vegeta let go of his arm and said:
"We agreed that we would not torture you in gratitude for all you have done for us over these years. But you owe each of us a life."
"To me, two," said Raditz.
"And unfortunately, you have only one life to give in return.
"It's not fair!" Shouted Nappa, "I took care of you when you were ill! I treated you both like sons... and I really loved you both! I'm proud of you! Always have been! And I'm sure your parents would be proud."
Vegeta gave a cold laugh, and Nappa fell silent. Then the young man said:
"No father would be proud of a son like us, Nappa. No father would be proud to have a murderous son who kills by laughing. That's what you have turned us into. And that's why you will pay us with your life...and Raditz and I will kill you laughing."
Raditz smiled wickedly and put away the knife. Nappa was tied up so that he couldn't escape and Vegeta said:
"But this is not where you will die. Did you notice that we arrived too early? Let's go to the curve of the crosses. That's where you will die.
The way to the spot of the crosses was fast. Nappa would have begged for mercy the whole way if Raditz hadn't used his bandanna to gag him. When they reached the curve of the crosses, they tied Nappa to a tree, and Raditz ripped off the gag, saying:
"Now speak whatever you want to tell us. But nothing can save your life."
Nappa looked from Vegeta to Raditz and, at that moment, accepted his end and said:
"Whatever they do to me, I deserve it. I betrayed the best companions I could have had. I stood shoulder to shoulder with them during the war and caused both of them to die..." suddenly, involuntary tears filled his eyes, and he said, "and Gine... Poor girl, she didn't deserve this. She never did. Forgive me, Raditz." he stared at the boy with cold eyes. "Kill me... but forgive me," he repeated.
Raditz took his knife from its sheath and, with a single stroke, stabbed Nappa in the middle of his diaphragm, twisting the knife as he said:
"That's my pardon, Nappa. Keep it."
Nappa coughed, snorted, and spat blood. He looked at Vegeta, who was staring at him with his cold eyes, and said, panting:
"Ve...geta..."
"I forgive you too, Nappa," he drew one of his revolvers and slowly pulled the gun hammer, looking at the man who had raised him as a father, "But my father... he doesn't!"
The shot pierced Nappa's heart, and soon afterward, Raditz pulled out his knife, causing blood to gush from his wound, staining the ground where Bardock's blood had once been spilled by Freeza. Nappa let out a hoarse sound once or twice before his head hung forward, and he expired, dying.
"That was quick," Raditz said, using his bandanna to wipe the knife before putting it away in its sheath, "I'll have a good memory of the old bald guy," he laughed, more to himself than to the other.
"The truth is, we'll miss him," Vegeta said, looking away from Nappa's body, "but he couldn't go on living after we learned of the betrayal. Let's go..."
"Not yet," Raditz went to the saddle of his horse and took out a piece of paper, which he unfolded. It was a poster. A rather ridiculous poster he had picked up in New Sadala on one occasion. Pictures of the three of them, but with half their faces covered by bandanas saying: "Wanted, the birds of prey." He had made many jokes about how useless that poster was, but he had kept it because, deep down, he was proud to be known as one of the men of the birds of prey gang. Not anymore.
He held the poster out at Nappa's feet and, running his finger in his blood, made an "x" over his face on the poster. Then he wrote "Traitor" in blood on the bottom of the poster before wiping his finger in the soil.
"I left a message for Kakarotto," he said to Vegeta as he mounted on his horse, "what will we do with Dottie?
Nappa's mare, named Dottie, was standing at the side of the road. Vegeta casually looked at the animal and said:
"We can't take it. Leave it as a gift for your brother." He mounted his animal and took off down the road, with Raditz following him.
"He doesn't need it," said Raditz, "he has a beautiful animal, a golden mare."
"Impressive," said Vegeta with irony, "ever since you learned that he was your brother, you only talk about Kakarotto.
"You say that because you didn't see him shoot," Raditz teased.
"I think you better shut up, or I will shoot you before you say ouch," Vegeta said, with a fierce tone, "we need to focus on what we have to do."
"It's going to be a long night," Raditz said.
"And I hope that for Freeza, it will never
see the sunrise tomorrow..."
They took a sideway up the road, in the direction of Vegetown and the farm the gang used as a hiding place. With Nappa dead, the second part of their plans must be done. Which would not be so easy.
About an hour later, Goku galloped down the road ahead of the stage. When he noticed, the horse stopped at the curve of the crosses. He slowed down and signaled Yajirobe to stop as soon as the stagecoach pointed around the bend.
"What is up, Goku? " Yajirobe asked from the top of the coach.
"Look," Goku pointed at Nappa's body.
"Blimey!" shouted Yajirobe, "It's the bald one! The bald one from the birds flock!"
Goku got up and stared at the poster at Nappa's feet. Without anyone saying anything to him, he understood that this was his brother's doing.
"Yajirobe, let's tie the horse in the stagecoach," he said, "and when we get to West Sayan, we need to report that someone has just committed a crime against one of the men from the bird of prey gang..."
"Do we really need to take the horse? A new horse always bends the pair..." Yajirobe's unappealing laziness always spoke louder.
"Yes. Let's take the horse to the sheriff," said Goku, "and we must ask him to telegraph and tell Officer Hitto about this... and this man deserves at least a proper burial, the sheriff can send Piccollo here to collect the body to entomb at the city graveyard."
Goku took a last look at Nappa's body. He didn't say anything more but didn't want the traitor resting beside his parents. He mounted and thought for a moment about his brother. Certain he had changed his mind because of their meeting. He wondered if revenge would end there or if his brother would take it further.
Deep down, he knew he would. Raditz would go to the ultimate consequences.
Notes:
1. This is certainly one of the strongest and most significant chapters in this story. An act of classic Old Western revenge. I got a lot of inspiration for this from Sergio Leone's "Once Upon a Time in the West," with its slow shots and long silences pointed by a harmonica melody.
2. Notice Zarbon's canine fidelity. It is more important than any other kind of relationship that is implied between him and Freeza. Can you imagine what Zarbon will do for him?
3. Vegeta and Raditz finally united. But they are still 2 men against a hundred. Is it possible for them to kill Freeza and defeat the gang? Yes or no? In the next chapter, "We are the gang," the answer.
4. This chapter's soundtrack is "The great silence" (Il grand Silencio) by Ennio Morricone ( watch?v=As08QDxmHGs) and "The man with Harmonica," from "Once upon a Time in the West": ( watch?v=udIY_3s4_XQ).
5. The gunslinger's corollary from "The Dark Tower" series is one of my favorite quotes, and it inspired the title of this chapter. In the series, when a gunslinger has forgotten "the face of his father," it is because he has forgotten the honor taught from generation to generation. Our two boys, by the way, have not forgotten their fathers' faces.