The Years After
Chapter Five
When Bulma arrived at our home to stay the first thing I noticed was how much bigger Trunks had gotten. He had deep blue eyes so deep that you could get lost in them. His hair was fuller and the color was brilliant, pale lavender, which contrasted well his dark skin.
"ChiChi!" Bulma cried and like old ladies we fell into each other's arms. She had grown old in so little of time. She had a few wrinkles around her mouth, far more than most women her age should have. Her hair was les thick and pulled back into a pony tail and she wore old, faded clothing instead of stylish jeans and tank tops.
"You're welcome here, always," I murmured. We pulled away and in the light of the moment I presented Bulma my daughter, Tomoko.
Trunks was awed by the baby Tomoko. Bulma knelt down to him and showed him his new friend and Trunks cooed and reached out to pat Tomoko 's head.
"Tomo-chan!" he gurgled. Bulma smiled up at me.
"I think Trunks here has got a new friend."
Indeed he did.
The Androids attacked cities, countries, and sea more and more each day, blasting islands off of the maps and killing thousands upon thousands of innocent people. I waited nervously by my radio, listening for the latest broadcast of darkness.
Bulma was just as nervous as I, but more productive in the ways of continuing her daily routine. She studied book upon book of science volumes as thick as car tires. She studied late into the night, making notes, blotting ink, her eyes becoming rheumy and tired.
"I plan to find a way to save this timeline from destruction!" Bulma told me when I asked.
"How can you do that? It's impossible, what with supplies running low!"
"I'll find a way. I can use scraps of everything to build my time machine.
"A time machine?!?"
"Yep," Bulma confirmed. "A time machine."
Though I doubted it would work, Bulma would sometimes work wonders. She had created the Dragon radar, pills that affected the bladder when you called "Piggy" and many more things. Her alertness brightened my mood and I finally found trust in her.
Gohan continued to train each day until he spat up blood. He was constantly sore but soon he worked himself into routine. Fat became muscle, muscle became has hard as rocks. Tendons began to stick out of his neck like cords and I feared that the work would strain his heart. A smile of courage was always on his face and when it was not, it was because he had fainted.
The strain never got to the heart. The farthest it got was to Gohan 's conscious. He went to the newly burned out cities to look for survivors. When the Androids came too near, he fought them back, getting horrifically wounded in the process.
On I was safe in our valley home behind Mount Paozu. The Androids never seemed to find it.
Once Trunks could walk and talk, Bulma moved back to Capsule Corporation. West City had already been broken up, but the giant mansion of CC held fast. Bulma 's father slipped away on Trunks' third birthday and Bulma 's mother followed suit a year later on Tomoko 's fourth birthday.
"CURSE THE DAMN ANROIDS!" Bulma would scream, hurling crunched soda cans at the ruins of buildings she had once known.
She wore a baggy wind breaker with CC's logo and a baseball cap on backwards. I didn't bother to reason with her. I had once knocked down one of my cherry blossom trees on purpose, I was so angry. Tomoko began to cry but little Trunks soothed her by telling her everything would get better soon.
"No Trunks," Bulma said, coming to her senses and returning to us, dust smudged on her cheeks. "Not today."
Tomoko had blossomed into a young me by that time and would in the years to follow. She held her hair proudly in a high ponytail. It was black, but in certain light it gave off a dark blue sheen. Her eyes were unlike mine, though, they were a solid coal black just like her father 's that sparkled like wet diamonds when she was excited.
Trunks and Tomoko were like siblings but I knew it my heart that one day it would very well be more than just friendship.
Gohan had hardly any leisure time and seeing Gohan train made Trunks anxious, so the little tyke trained too. I helped this by teaching Trunks the basics. This took time because while training I was often cooking meals on the stove and delivering packages to the elderly. When Trunks turned seven, nearly seven years after Goku 's death, Gohan taught him how to fly.
"I must help Gohan!" was Trunks finest statement received with a shrill "NO!" by his mother.
For a short period in the summer of that same year the destruction stopped. People had a little lightened spirits in that time but the Androids quickly returned. I knew deep inside that they had grown bored.
Gohan had described them too me as "Graceful as acrobats" and "Beautiful yet deadly." He said there was a blonde woman who wore jean clothing and a boy who had an orange bandana tied around his neck.
"They're maniacs! They laugh when they kill people…so much blood…" Gohan told me, his body quivering.
Gohan was now seventeen years old, almost eighteen, when he announced that he would fight the Androids head on and not stop until either both of them or him were dead.
"YOU CAN'T GOHAN! THINK ABOUT WHAT HAPPENED TO PICCOLO AND THE OTHERS!" I shrieked in hysterics.
Gohan calmed me down and then told me that he wouldn't try anything unless he knew. I believed him.
When I told Bulma of what Gohan had said, Bulma was solem.
"It is a dire consequence if he loses, not only his life, but the whole world."
I nodded keeping my tears back with all of my strength.
"I know this Bulma. I can see it just as clearly as you."
We hugged for a long time before I mentioned of Gohan 's intentions of training Trunks.
"I don't want my son to die, ChiChi! It would be too much! I've already lost mama, papa, and Vegeta! Even Yamcha meant much to me! I cannot loose my son!"
I gripped her tightly to make her come back to reality.
"I don't want to loose my son either."
This was when Bulma finally calmed. When Trunks is older we promised.
By then, though, Gohan had already taken off into the sky, not saying a final word of goodbye. Even if it were, my heart was hollow.