Goku flew silently over the mountains as he thought about his life so far. Everything was, okay. He was proud of Goten for getting such a high place in class, and he was even prouder when he found out that he was going to Red Honoo. The whole idea was Chichi's, but Goku was still proud of him. He was also happy that everything was going well with Gohan, Videl and Pan. He remembered there was a time when they had an argument about whether they should still accept Mr Satan's very kind weekly allowance, but it seemed that was over.
But even though things around him had come and gone, he still felt the same inside. Guilty. He was guilty for acting like everything was all right when it was far from it. He was guilty for hiding the truth from his family and friends. But most of all, he was guilty for abandoning his child when she was very young. After he had returned from Capsule Corp, Goku had put on an act for his family to hide anything suspicious. But after a few minutes without her, or even him, Goku felt immensely depressed. He knew that without the contact from his chibi, he would slowly fade away into nothing. And seeing as he was the one who brought her into this world, it was made worse. But at least he knew that Vegeta wouldn't suffer as he was. Vegeta would never have known about Gojita, but he'd slip into depression without realising why. But because he had Gojita by him, Goku knew he'd still be the fiery ouji he loved. He'd do anything for Vegeta, he had known ever since he laid eyes on him for the first time. Goku knew he could always go over to Capsule Corp to see how Gojita was doing, but he just couldn't. Vegeta never wanted to look at his face again, not ever since he broke his heart.
Tears silently slipped down Goku's cheeks, but he made no effort to wipe them away. He often thought about Gojita and his koi, and he'd often end up crying. No one knew why, but he had stopped trying to cover it up long time ago. He loved them both. But he loved his son's as well. Maybe he didn't love Chichi like he had thought he would, but without her, the family would fall apart. For the last two years, Chichi had been screaming more and more often at Goku. Name-calling would often find its way into a number, if not all, of her sentences. Goku remembered how he used to call him names as well, but they were said fondly. Chichi spat hers out in spite. It seemed she only wanted children out of him and now she had enough.
Goku flew over the city, past Orange Star and onto Red Honoo. He landed a few blocks away, just to make sure no one saw him fly over to the city. Looking left and then right, he checked to see if the coast was clear before he walked to the school. Although he was a usually cheerful man, he found very little use for being happy. He had found out that he didn't love Chichi, he loved someone else and had broken his heart, he gave his daughter away and now he was suffering the consequences. Another tear slipped down the handsome saiyans face as he walked, looking down at the ground. If I could ever see Gojita again, I would never ask for anything else again. He promised to himself. If I could only see her just once, just a glimpse, I swear I'd never ask for anything else again! But he knew the chances of seeing Gojita again was one in a million.
My, the Kai's were being very kind…
"I like green too, ya know!" chirped Pan as the four of them walked through the crowds filling up the school's corridors. Actually, Gojita and Pan were riding on Trunks and Goten's shoulders. Goten suggested it as a way to get out of school faster. Pan willingly agreed, but Gojita refused. She said the only time she'd ever accept to be carried around was when both her legs were broken, and her legs were in perfect working condition, thank you very much. But Goten reasoned with her by saying that they'd get trampled on by older students making their way out. By the look on her face, it seemed Gojita wasn't too keen on the idea of becoming a saiyan chibi pancake! Reluctantly, she agreed. Trunks hoisted her up onto his shoulder with ease and Goten did the same to Pan. Gojita had to admit it was kinda fun.
Gojita sat on Trunks's shoulders, frown deepening as Pan continued to chat away. Basically, she was talking to no one, but her continuous prattle was starting to annoy Gojita. Kami! How in the hell can someone talk so much??! She wondered. She knew Goten talked just as much, but he had useful things to say. Pan just talked for the sake of talking.
"Great." She mumbled, hoping that if she responded Pan would shut up.
"What's your favorite colour?"
"Red."
"Ooh! I like Red too, ya know!"
Gojita's eye twitched as she felt her nerves straining. "Did you know that you
can make pink if you add white to red…"
"Hai…I know." She hissed, the second last of her nerves snapping. "Now, could
you maybe, just possibly…SHUT THE FUCK UP!!!" Pan and Goten stared at her in
shock.
"Gojita!" gasped Pan. "That's rude!"
"Does it look like I give a damn?!" she snapped. "You have been talking non-stop since we got back to class! And it's bugging the hell out of me!"
"But you didn't have to swear." Pointed out Goten.
"And how in the hell would I get her to shut up otherwise?" she questioned. She felt the shoulders under her start to shake and she looked down to see Trunks sniggered. "And what are you laughing at?"
"Oh, nothing." he said, trying to cover up his laugh, but failing miserably.
"Hai, you are laughing at something!"
"Well, it's just that…you remind me of someone."
"Yeah, she reminds me of your dad!" said Goten. Trunks nodded, trying to keep the smile stuck on his face. Remembering that his father left still hurt him, if not more so than before. Well, even if I've lost my papa, I've got a new friend. He thought happily. And she's a cloned version of my papa!…Well, except for the looks maybe. But she does look a lot like my papa when she scowls.
"Hn." Gojita huffed and turned her head away, scowling deeply. Goten and Pan sweatdropped while Trunks continued to snigger.
As soon as they reached the outside, Gojita hopped off Trunks's shoulders. She didn't feel like spending anymore time with Pan, as she knew that one more stupid word out of her and she'd be forced to beat her to a pulp.
"Gojita! Wait!!" called Pan. Gojita whipped around, scowl still plastered on her face.
"What?!" she snapped. Pan flinched at this, but continued to walk towards her.
"I'm sorry if I talked too much." She apologized. Gojita's scowl was instantly wiped off her face as Pan apologized.
"Nani?" she asked. It was the first time anyone, other than Piccolo or her tousan, apologized to her.
"I said, gomen nasai." She said, grinning sheepishly. "Sometimes I talk too much for my own good." Gojita looked…shocked. She had expected Pan to hate her for telling her to shut up, but Pan was apologizing. Maybe I've underestimated these ningen bakas…she thought.
"Hn, apology accepted." She said. Gojita felt a little guilty about yelling at Pan, as Pan was just being friendly. But she wasn't going to ever tell anyone that! Besides, she did kinda like Pan. Pan smiled broadly at her firecracker friend.
"Kay! I'll try and talk less from now on!" she promised. Gojita nodded, but she knew that was one promise Pan wouldn't keep.
"Hey, Gojita!" called Goten as he walked up to them. "Would you like to come with us? We're going to my house now." Gojita thought about it, and found that she was quite curious to see their house. But then she remembered Piccolo. She shook her head sadly, her deep black hair swaying from side to side.
"Gomen. But seeing as it's my first day at school, tousan wants to see how things went. So I have to meet my guardian outside of town." They nodded understandingly.
"Well, can we walk you to there?" asked Pan. "Onegai?" Gojita rolled her eyes at the ningen chibi in front of her.
"Fine." She agreed. Secretly, she liked Pan. Pan reminded her of someone she once knew; even though the only people she ever knew was Vegeta and Piccolo. But she somehow felt that she knew all three. Even Gohan, Goten's brother whom he had told her about, seemed very familiar to her.
The four of them started walking to the gate, the boys talking to themselves as Pan tried to strike up another conversation. Gojita let her have her conversation with the air as she drowned her voice out. In fact, she drowned everyone else out as she felt a ki. She could feels Trunks's, Goten's and Pan's…but this one was different. It felt so…so…familiar. It was as though she had felt it before. Gojita felt an emotion suddenly surge through her. Depression, sadness, guilt and plenty of other negative feelings welled up inside of her. And the sudden desire to see someone…someone linked to her…rocketed into her chest. Goten's voice suddenly wrenched her from her thoughts.
"Hey! There's my dad!" he said, pointing to someone in the crowd near the gate. "Hey, Gojita!" he looked down at her. "Why don't you come meet my dad. He's a little like Pan, but he's really nice." Gojita shrugged, trying to find those feelings again. The closer they walked to the gate, the stronger they got. All these…feelings. She wondered. They cannot belong to me! One minute, I'm feeling happy to get out of school and make some new friends…and now…now I feel so…depressed! What's going on??! Gojita walked silently along with the others as they came up to a tall, burly man. Gojita had her head down, deep in thought about these strange emotions she was feeling.
"Grandpa!!" cried Pan as she leapt towards the man.
"Hey! Slow down there, Pan!" he said. Gojita stopped thinking. That voice…I…I know it!
"What are you doing here, Mr Son?" asked Trunks.
"Gohan suggested I go pick up Pan and you guys." He said. Gojita looked up to see the man, but found her view was blocked by Goten. She was just about to open her mouth to curse at the happy-go-lucky teen when Pan spoke up.
"Hey grandpa! I made a new friend today!"
"Really? Who is she?"
"She's right here!" she chirped. Goten stepped out the way to reveal Goku and Gojita to each other. Gojita's eyes widened as she took in every detail of the tall man. He had ink black hair, almost the same colour as hers except she had a touch of auburn, in spikes. He was tall, burly but he had a gentle look on his face. His eyes were deep onyx, just like that of her tousan's, and they looked very much like the eyes of her kaasan in her dreams. He stood towering over her, and as soon as their eyes made contact, everything around her disappeared. Trunks, Goten and Pan were still around, but they were frozen in time. Everything ceased to move as she stared into the eyes she had seen only for a month in her whole life, and dreamed of thereafter. She knew who this man was.
…Kaasan?
Goku stared in wide-eyed shock at the chibi in front of him. Only moments ago, he could feel someone else's emotions. They were happy to get out of school and to have made some contact with the outside world. But he knew they didn't belong to him. In fact, he was rather confused at these feelings. He could also feel some kind of presence near him, but he thought that was just his senses going nuts. But now that he had seen the source, he knew that it wasn't his senses deciding to take a vacation to the nearest insane asylum. It was his maternal instincts.
Gojita? He asked in thought.
He looked the tiny chibi up and down. It had to be her! She had copper skin, deep ink pools for eyes and a slender and compact figure. Those that belonged to his koi. But she had a spiky fringe, in deep black with tints of auburn that crackled like Vegeta's in the sunlight, and her hair was long and tied in pigtails. Of the few things that resembled him, there was her facial expression. She stood staring at him, eyes wide and mouth open. It had to be her! Who else in the entire universe was an almost carbon copy of Vegeta with Goku's spiky bangs? They stared for a few more minutes before Goten interrupted them.
"Tousan?" he asked. Goku snapped out of his stare as he looked up at Goten.
"Uhh…hai?" he asked. He could feel the plunging of a small heart that he knew to be Gojita's. So…he can't be my kaasan. She thought miserably. He's already got kids. Goten and Gohan, and he's got a granddaughter as well! All the hope that had swelled in Gojita's tiny chest within a few seconds seemed to fizzle into nothing. Goku could feel it, but he knew he couldn't say anything, as he didn't know how to approach this. He decided he'd think about it when he got back home. But in the meantime, he had to try and act as though he was meeting Gojita for the first time.
"Is everything okay?" asked Goten. He knew that his father had been pretty depressed lately, and he was most certainly acting very weird.
"Umm…hai! Everything's okay!" he said, putting on his trademark 'Son-grin'. He looked down at Gojita and smiled sweetly at her. "Hi there! What's your name?" Everyone looked like Goku had just told them that he was really a woman. They were so shocked at this sudden burst of friendliness; their mouths hit the pavement, cracking it. But they were even more shocked at Gojita's reply.
"My name is Gojita. What's yours?" she asked politely, giving a genuine sweet smile.
"My name's Kakarot." He replied.
"Kakarot…" she murmured. "That's a beautiful name." Vegeta said that as well. Thought Goku as he smiled at Gojita and she smiled back. Trunks stared at the two; Goku, who was kneeling down, and Gojita who was looking him dead in the eyes. Is it just me…or do their smile's look alike? He privately wondered. It was true. Because both of them weren't putting on false grins or smiles, they looked similar. To hell with it…they looked exactly alike! A few more seconds ticked by as they looked each other dead in the eye. The silence between them was broken when Trunks coughed.
"Uhh…I guess I should be going now." He said aloud, turning Goku and Gojita's head towards him.
"Oh, okay."
"Saa, thank you for looking out for me today, guys." She thanked them. Gojita didn't know why, but she felt very happy. She turned back to Goku and smiled at him again. "It was nice to meet you, Kakarot." She said.
"It was wonderful to see you…Gojita." Goku smiled back. He was going to say 'It was wonderful to see you again.' But he knew he'd get peculiar looks from Goten and Trunks. Gojita walked away.
"We'll see ya tomorrow Gojita!!" chirped Pan after her. Gojita turned around, and gave them a Vegeta trademark smirk.
"Sayonara, Pan." She said. Ja ne, Kakarot. She thought as she waved goodbye and disappeared around the corner. There was another batch of silence as Goku looked to the empty spot where Gojita had stood before she walked off.
"Well, we'd better get going." He said cheerfully. At this, all three stared at him as if he had announced he was really Ginyu in Goku's body.
"Tousan?" asked Goten. "Are you feeling okay?" He shrugged.
"Hai, why shouldn't I?" he smiled at them. "Come on, let's go." They walked out the school and down a couple of blocks before they took off back to the Son Residence.
On their return, Goku was beaming like an idiot. Goten and Trunks silently wondered what happened to drag him out of his remorse as they entered the house. Privately, they were curious to see if he'd sink back into it at the shrieks of his evil, death-harbinger of a wife.
"GOKU!!" screamed Chichi as they entered. Pan cringed as she hid behind her uncle and both demi-saiyan teens back away. Gohan nearly fell out of his chair as she stalked over and glared at him. "Where have you been? You were supposed to bring them home fifteen minutes ago!!"
"Aw, come on Chichi," he said shrugging. "It's just fifteen minutes. That's not much at all." Everyone nearly passed out at this sudden change. Gohan stared incredulously at his father, very confused by the change. What the hell??! One minute, he's completely oblivious to the universe, stuck in his depressive stupor! And now he's acting as though everything is just peachy!! Goku smiled at all of them. "I'm just gonna go out for a while to do some training." He said. "I probably won't be back for dinner. I'll see ya round!" he walked out and took off to a secluded training spot.
There was silence as everyone strained their brains to think of something to say.
"That was…strange." Muttered Trunks.
"I'll say." Said Chichi, adding her two cents worth in. "I always knew he had a few screws loose, but I'd say he's falling apart!"
"Well, at least he's not moping around anymore." Pointed out Gohan.
"Hai, it's better to have tousan back to just the way he was." Remarked Goten.
"Hai. Well now Pan," he said, turning his attention to his daughter. "How was school today?" Pan grinned at her father as she ran up to him and jumped onto his lap.
"It was great! I made a new friend!" Goten giggled and Trunks rolled his eyes.
"Here we go again." He muttered.
"Pan, you've been talking about her all day!"
"I know, but she's really cool!!" she gushed. "she can draw, and she can read big peoples books and…and…and she's a very interesting person!" she said, all in awe and fascination.
"Honto ni?" asked Gohan. "Why?"
"She just is." Shrugged Pan.
"I don't know why Pan finds her interesting, but I sure do." Said Trunks. "She's so fiery, hot-tempered and full of life!"
"Hai, but she does remind me a little too much of your tousan when she scowls and crosses her arms." Goten then giggled. "She's got a Veggie-chan temper!"
"You mean, she acts like Vegeta?" asked Chichi, obviously eavesdropping in on the conversation.
"Hai! She scowls like him, she snaps like him…she even pouts and has the same personality as him!"
"Well, not entirely." Commented Trunks. "There was a stage where she looked a lot like your dad."
"Eh? What do you mean, like our dad?" asked Gohan curiously as Chichi blocked out what they were saying as she cooked the rice.
"When she and Goku met, they smiled!" he said. "She dropped her hard and expressionless barrier…and smiled! Goku also dropped out of his depression and he smiled too!" There was silence as Gohan absorbed what Trunks was telling him.
"You mean…they changed as soon as they saw one another?"
"Hai, but she might've been doing it to be polite and he probably didn't want to make a bad impression." Shrugged Goten. But neither Trunks nor Gohan shook the nagging feeling that somehow, Goku, Gojita and Vegeta were all linked. Trunks even had the nagging suspicion that he, Goten, Gohan and Pan were all linked in this as well. But how, he didn't know.
"Hey daddy?" asked Pan. "Can Gojita come to my house this weekend?"
"Who's Gojita?" he asked with a frown. The name seemed very familiar.
"She's my new friend." Gohan smiled sweetly at his daughter.
"We'll see."
Goku flew through the sky, exchanging sharp and powerful blows with his invisible enemy as he continued to train. He didn't know why, but he felt happy. In fact, happier than he felt in years! Maybe it had something to do with Gojita…hell, who was he kidding. It had all to do with Gojita. He had met his daughter once again, as a healthy, sprite and tiny saiyan chibi. He was happy because he got to see her. He was happy that he knew she was okay. But most of all, he was happy as she went to Red Honoo, the same school his youngest son and his granddaughter went to. Which meant he'd be able to see her more often.
Goku slowed down until he had completely stopped with his training. He hovered down to the ground and plopped back onto the lush green grass. He now knew where Gojita went to school, and that Vegeta was taking very good care of her. He grinned. Was there any doubt? He thought. He would never abandon a full-blooded saiyan chibi, his own daughter no less! But I know he'd never abandon any chibi in need. I know 'Geta. Goku lay on his back as he laced his fingers behind his head. Gazing up at the cloudless sky, he thought about what he was going to do. He knew he couldn't hide from Gojita forever, as she knew that he was her kaasan. Even if she had her doubts, he knew she could feel it. And as saiyans, emotions and instincts were everything. That's probably why 'Geta never showed any feeling or emotions of any kind to anyone. Just in case he got hurt…Goku's thought trailed off as he remembered that he was the one who hurt his koi. His one true love. But he'd make it up to him, one day…
Right now, I have to focus on how I can make it up to Gojita. He thought. He knew he couldn't say it right out that he was her kaasan, as he didn't know how she'd react to it. She might ask questions in trying to understand why he did what he did, or she could just hate him. Okay, so that's out. But I have to do something!! Goku thought for a bit and then realised that all he needed to do was be there for her. That's all he ever did for Goten and Gohan, and that's all they ever wanted and needed from him. Then that's it! He said. I'm gonna slowly work my way into her life. Maybe not as her kaasan, but I'll always be there for her…and I'll make sure she knows that!! He thought happily as, for the first time in five years, the guilt was lifted off his shoulders.
Gojita walked through the forest, not sure of what she was to make of the encounter. She could feel everything he could. She could sense him and he even seemed very familiar to her, even though she was sure she had seen him before. He said his name was 'Kakarot'. She thought, frowning and holding her chin in a puzzled manner. And Kakarot is a saiyan name! Tousan said he, my kaasan and me were the only true saiyans living on Earth, and he told me about Vegeta-sei's destruction…so that means he has to be my kaasan!! She frowned as she stopped when she remembered something. But…if he's my kaasan…why has he got kids already? Didn't he want me? She wondered. Gojita felt confused, and not entirely sure of what to make this. But deep in her heart, she knew what must be done. She knew that if she were ever going to find anything out, she'd have to spend some time with him. And this meant spending time with Pan!
She didn't want to admit it, but she rather liked Pan. Even though Pan chatted non-stop, there was just something about that non-stop chatter that pacified Gojita. And, maybe, just possibly, she showed a little…fondness for the baka ningen. That means I'll have to find some day when I can go and visit them. I don't think tousan will disapprove, but I'd better ask both tousan and Piccolo…just in case. Gojita walked in silence for a few minutes before a broad and happy smile curled on her face. I know that's my kaasan, I just know it! She declared. And when I do prove it that he's my kaasan…I'll bring him and tousan back together! Then, me, tousan and kaasan will be happy forever!
And I'll have a couple of half brothers too!
