Hey guys, Liz here! So I got done with one of my final projects! Woo! To celebrate, I thought I'd update for the Son Squad one-shots. A lot of you really like her, so please give it up for our oldest girl, Chiyo!
Chiyo's Big Night
Age 778
Chiyo paced back and forth in her apartment in West City in anticipation. She hated this game of waiting. Any minute now, a curator from the West City Art Museum was going to call and let the 22-year old know whether her art piece would be displayed there as part of the "new artist" exhibit for the next month. If her piece got to be in the exhibit, it'd be the pinnacle of her young art career. If not, then it would just confirm her fears that she was not meant to be an artist after all.
Now that Chiyo had finished up at art school, she decided to go freelance and be a freelance painter. It was slow goings, but thanks to a little help from Hercule, she was starting to get some recognition on the art scene. Heck, he was the one who helped her meet with the curator who told her that he'd look over her painting and get back to her on the matter. The fact that he was even considering her was huge considering she had no real reputation at this point. This could make or break her both metaphorically and figuratively. This was bigger to her than any of the battles for Earth ever were.
Just then, the landline rang and Chiyo raced to answer it. She took a big deep breath before answering the phone. "Hello?" She answered, trying to mask her worry.
"Hey, Chiyo," Gohan greeted on the other end, causing Chiyo to be both relieved and annoyed. "Have you heard from that big curator yet?"
"No," Chiyo sighed, slumping down onto her living room couch. "I thought you were him when you called."
"Oh, sorry," Gohan apologized. "I didn't mean to make you nervous or anything."
"No, no, you're fine."
The young woman laid herself down on her back and stared up at the ceiling above her. She had hoped and prayed that this moment would come sooner rather than later. Her mother had been skeptical about her pursuing a career in the art field and insisted she go to the same university as Gohan to become a scholar, even though Chiyo showed no interest in that kind of career whatsoever. It was only after getting help from her father that Chi-Chi let up and stopped nagging her about art school. This would be her chance to show her mother that she could make it as an artist and find success too. Then she wouldn't have to be compared to Gohan all the time whenever the Son family got together for their big family dinners that they had every so often.
"Don't worry, sis. I know you got this. Psyching yourself out is only going to make things worse," Gohan said on the other end of the line, as if he were reading her thoughts. He could've been; I mean, they did have that psyche link that Piccolo had taught them all those years ago. Or maybe it was just a twin thing. Chiyo leaned more towards that being the explanation.
"Thanks, Gohan," She thanked her brother, her thoughts momentarily stopping their endless race around in her head. "You have no idea how much I appreciate hearing you say that."
Suddenly, there was a knock at the door, slightly startling Chiyo and almost causing her to fall off the couch. She quickly sat up and ran to the door to look through the peephole to see who on Earth could be coming to her apartment. It couldn't have been for a package or any guests, so who could it possibly be? When she looked through the door, the half-saiyan woman nearly fell over when she saw who it was; it was the curator!
"Gohan, I have to call you back!" Chiyo quickly spoke before hanging up and throwing the phone on the couch. "One moment, please!"
The young woman ran to her bedroom and quickly threw off her pajamas that she had been walking around in and threw on a pair of dress pants and a button-up shirt. She was sure that the curator would've called her instead of come to her home. After all the buttons were done, Chiyo threw her long, straight hair into a simple ponytail and raced to the door, almost sliding and falling over due to the rug by the door slipping out from underneath her feet. She quickly straightened herself up before opening her door to the slightly short and bald man in the fancy suit.
"Sorry for the delay, sir," She apologized, trying to keep her nerves from showing. She wanted to say, I thought you were going to call instead of come over to my home but decided against it since she didn't want to seem unprofessional. "Can I get you anything?"
"No, no, I'm fine," The curator stated, walking in without actually being invited inside. "I've come to discuss your art piece with you. I prefer doing these things in person, you know."
"Oh, yes, my painting," Chiyo stated, even though she knew exactly what the curator was referring to. Why did I just say that?! She thought to herself. Of course, he's here to talk about the painting! What else would he be here for?!
The snobbish man let out a cough to gain Chiyo's attention and the young woman gulped as he pulled a slip of paper out from his jacket pocket. He handed it to her and Chiyo opened it up to find it was an invitation to the gallery opening. On it, there was the date of the opening along with the names of the featured artists who would have their works put up. Chiyo gasped when she saw that her name was the first one to be featured on the little slip of paper.
"The board and discussed the painting and thought that your landscape piece was absolutely marvelous," The curator stated with a small smile on his face. "In fact, we all felt that it should be the center piece for the gallery opening next week. Of course, this means that you should be expected a bit of a bigger sum of money in the coming few weeks."
Chiyo couldn't fully process it all. Her piece….her piece was going to be the center piece for the gallery exhibit opening…Her painting was- and the extra money- and just….She simply nodded and the curator soon left afterwards. As soon as he was gone, Chiyo passed out on the couch.
The next week
The art museum was abuzz with the city's most elite individuals all walking around in fancy formal attire and dining on mini snacks. This was definitely an unfamiliar scene for most of the Son family, especially Goku who kept complaining how the suit Chi-Chi had him wearing was too tight and the food was too small. "How much longer do I have to wear this thing, Chi-Chi?" Goku asked, pulling at his suit collar. "This is not my favorite look."
"Oh, hush, Goku," Chi-Chi quickly snapped at her husband, but not loud enough to where it would cause a scene. The last thing she wanted was to embarrass her eldest daughter on what was sure to be the most important moments of her life. (Okay, maybe second most important since she thought Chiyo's most important moment would be her finally getting married). "We've come here to support Chiyo. It'll be done when it's done."
"Okay," Goku sighed. He wasn't really sure about this whole art thing. When Chiyo asked him to help her convince his wife to be okay with her going to art school, he only did it because he knew it would make Chiyo happy. He didn't fully understand it though. To him, all art looked the same. Maybe he just didn't have good taste in that sort of thing.
Not too far away, Goten, Trunks, and Daichi were all under a table cloth, sneaking food off the little buffet tables from above. All three were in suits that their mothers force them to wear to this exhibit opening. "This stuff is so tiny," Goten remarked as he grabbed a plate with mini sandwiches on it. "Is it for babies or something?"
"This stuff is just what they serve at these fancy gatherings," Trunks answered, reaching up and grabbing a plate of cocktail wieners. "Rich people only like to eat a little bit of food for some weird reason."
"Well that's just dumb," Daichi stated, grabbing a plate of cheeses from above. "You'd think rich people could afford to buy bigger food."
As Goten went to try and grab another plate, someone lifted the table sheet up to get a peak of who was stealing all the food from the table. All three young boys froze momentarily and thought they were busted. However, they were soon relieved- only slightly- when they saw that it was not an adult but instead Chibiko, who was in a nice purple dress with her hair done up in a fancy bun.
"Wow, Chibi, nice outfit," Trunks said, teasing Chibiko for having to wear a dress. (She really, really, hated having to do this). "You actually look like a girl."
"Shut-up, Trunks!" The young girl hissed, her face turning red with embarrassment. "And oyu three shouldn't be hording all the food! You're gonna get in trouble. Or worse, you could get Chiyo in trouble."
"Don't be so paranoid," Trunks brushed off Chibi's warnings. "I've done this a billion times before at Mom's gatherings and nothing happened."
"Whatever." Chibi rolled her eyes and walked away, but not before grabbing a few of those finger sandwiches to have for herself.
Meanwhile, across the floor, Chiyo was trying her best not to freak out too much at the fact that this was actually happening. She could feel sweat trickling down her back in torrents as it came closer and closer to unveiling her piece. Her hair was up in a long braid wrapped in a bun-shape while she wore a beautiful sleeve-less blue dress that cut just above her ankles and black dress flats since she still couldn't walk in heels no matter how hard she tried. A part of her wanted to bolt out the door right then and there since she found out that she would have to stand in front of everyone there when they unveiled her painting. She'd be next to the other featured artists as well, but she'd be the one who would be more front and center than the rest. Maybe I can sneak out without anyone looking, Chiyo thought as she looked to the door. She even started inching towards the door. If she could just make it out before anyone noticed-
"Excuse me," Someone said from behind.
Chiyo inwardly sighed and turned to see who it was that had called out to her. She turned to find a woman about her age standing behind her. This woman was quite the looker; she had short blonde hair done in perfect little curls, beautiful hazel eyes, and her dress was a beautiful off-the-shoulder black dress with a diamond lace. Chiyo could feel her face heating up as she locked eyes with the woman.
"Are you Son Chiyo?" The woman asked, turning her head slightly to the side when she asked for Chiyo's identity.
With her red-colored face, Chiyo replied in stutters, "Y-Yes, that's me. W-Who are you?"
The woman smirked and reached into the little purse hanging off of her left shoulder and pulled out what turned out to be a press pass with her picture and name on it. "I'm Lucie Firecracker of Satan City News," The woman replied, giving Chiyo the pass to hold as if that somehow gave her more credibility as to who she really was. "I've been looking to talk to you. All the other names for this art opening are artists who have been on the scene way longer than you have, and yet here you are; the featured artist of the whole opening. And this is your first ever public appearance. I wanna figure out why."
Never before had Chiyo been interviewed by someone from the media. The closest she ever came to interacting with the media was back during the Cell games with that one reporter. Other than that, she never really had that kind of interaction with the media. (She didn't outright hate them like Piccolo and Vegeta did, but still). However, it did dampen her spirit that a pretty girl just wanted to talk to her to get the latest scoop on her status as a new artist making headway in the art world. "Oh, well, I guess you can ask me anything you want to," Chiyo shrugged, not really sure how this whole thing worked. Maybe she was being too casual about it?
"Awesome!" Lucie cheered, surprising Chiyo with her sudden outburst of excitement. The blonde-haired reporter reached into her little purse and pulled out a pen and a small notebook to write down what she heard. "So tell me, what started your art career?"
"Oh, well, I guess it all started back when I was around eleven," Chiyo began, thinking back to after the Cell games. She told Lucie the story of how she used art as a way to cope with her Father's absence from her life- not mentioning that it was because he was dead but instead saying that he was separated from the family and unable to get back in contact with them for years. She started out with drawing the life around Mt. Paozu and slowly transitioned into drawing her family members, much to their annoyance. She picked up painting thanks to Bulma taking her and her twin brother to an art exhibit when Vegeta and Trunks backed out of it. It was after that experience that Bulma had given Chiyo not only painting supplies, but also a Capsule house she could use as a painting studio. In fact, she still had that Capsule house out in Mt. Paozu that she goes to sometimes when she needed a break from city life or inspiration on a new painting.
"Wow….That was just, so powerful," Lucie stated after Chiyo finished her story. She even wiped a small tear from her eye afterwards. "Your story of finding meaning after such a stressful event is very deep."
"Well, it was just my way of coping with things that were out of my power," Chiyo explained, trying her best not to break out in tears there herself.
Art was like her therapy after her Father died for the second time in her life. It allowed her to express her feelings of regret, sadness, anger, confusion, and many others in order to come to terms with Goku's decision to stay dead. Seeing him again at the world martial arts tournament was one of the most emotion-filled moments of her life and she wanted to both hug her Father and slap him at the same time for leaving her family. She finally did get to tell Goku how she felt about everything when, a few weeks after coming home following the defeat of Buu, she sat down with Goku outside the home and told him how everything made her feel. She cried, yelled, laughed, the whole nine-yards. She poured her heart out to her Dad and let him know what his decision to stay dead for seven years really did to her. And, surprisingly, Goku actually cried a bit too. He told her how he didn't like the idea of staying dead but thought that it was the best thing to do not only for the Earth, but for her and the entire family. It just seemed like the right decision at the time. Goku even told her that he wouldn't blame her for being mad at her for the rest of her life, which she had every right to be. It was during this whole discussion that Chiyo realized that her Father had actually matured a lot while he was in the afterlife. They wrapped everything up by hugging one another for a long time and Chiyo silently crying into her Father's shoulder.
"I hope you got what you need for your report," Chiyo told Lucie after the young woman put away her notepad.
"I did and then some," Lucie replied, smiling at Chiyo.
Suddenly, microphone feedback could be heard and everyone's attention turned to the impromptu stage that was not too far away. On said stage was the curator and his board of art directors. "Attention," His voice boomed out from the microphone. "May I please have your attention? I would like to call all our artists to the stage so that we may unveil their art piece."
"Oh, I guess that's my cue," Chiyo chuckled, pointing to the stage. "Guess I gotta get on up there."
"Guess so," Lucie chuckled as well. "Good luck."
"Thanks." Chiyo hid her somewhat blushing face as she went to the stage and sat down in one of the chairs that was set up on stage. As she sat there, she tuned out the curator and looked out over the crowd. In the front, she saw the press all taking pictures and recording the whole thing on camera. However, she looked over them and found her family and friends standing there watching everything unfold. What really surprised her was that in the way back she could see her old master, Piccolo, standing in the back leaning against a pillar with a smirk on his face. Everyone was there to support her. They all came for me, She thought as she looked between everyone.
It was only when the curator called out her name that her attention was called back to reality. The curator gestured her to come forward and help him pull down the sheet that was covering her painting. She did and the sheet was pulled away to reveal a landscape piece of what only a few in the crowd recognized to be Planet Namek.
And scene! What did you guys think? I hope you guys enjoyed it! It makes me so happy that a lot of you enjoy my OCs. I know that a major consensus on OCs is spotty at best, but I'm glad that you guys have been so kind to give me feedback and thoughts about these characters. Anyway, I hope you guys have a good day. Remember to keep washing your hands and stay safe! Next time we'll talk about one of the youngest of the Son squad so stay tuned. If you really like Chiyo, make sure to check out the main story following the DBZ timeline when you get the chance. See ya!