The Years After
Chapter Ten
Bulma worked hard into the night while Tomoko and I took turns listening to the evening broadcast and checking on Trunks. Shortly after eleven o'clock at night Tomoko disappeared from my site. I could hear her talking with Trunks in the back room where his bed was.
"Were you frightened?" I heard Tomoko ask Trunks softly.
"No…not at the time. It was stupid of me to do so. I should've stayed back like mom said."
"You were brave, Trunks-kun. You were trying to do good."
I heard a pause. Trunks didn't answer. I got up and peeked into the crack the door made. I saw them holding hands, Trunks propped up on his pillows.
"I'm thinking I will go in mom 's time machine to go back to the past to warn your father and the others of the Androids."
"So I heard. When? You are too weak right now," Tomoko said.
Trunks smiled a little.
"I know. I plan to go once I am better, up to my full strength."
"How far to you plan to go back?"
"Fifteen years, three years before the Androids come. When Gohan was eight."
"Oh."
Tomoko sighed softly.
"Gohan would've been proud of you, Trunks."
"Yes."
They sat there for a long while until I planned to go back to the radio when Trunks said,
"I miss him. He was a brother to me."
"Same."
Trunks laughed a little at Tomoko 's dry joke.
"I'll tell you all about your father when I come back, Tomo-chan. I'm sure he was a great man."
Tomoko shrugged.
"I don't know. I'd kind off like to imagine him my self instead of being told what he was."
"Why?"
"Because I'd like to be naïve about it. That way it will not be so painful."
Trunks fell asleep in her arms. I walked away and sat by the radio to catch the last bit of the broadcast. Three cities, one of the few that remained, had been destroyed. The Androids were becoming crueler and more blood thirsty than ever.
When Trunks strengthened his mother, Bulma, prepared him for the trip ahead. We told him to be careful in what he said and to not give away that he was the son Vegeta.
"If you tell them and my past self gets word of it," Bulma warned, "You will not be born."
"Don't tell them about Tomoko either," I advised. "For the same too might happen."
Trunks nodded solemnly.
"I won't."
Bidding him goodbye that sunny day was a hard thing for Bulma, Tomoko and I to do. He dressed in a jean Capsule Corp. jacket with baggy pants and boots. He wore a black tank top and looked hardly recognizable. He was handsome and shrewd and no one would ever guess that he was a mixture of Bulma and Vegeta. Trunks told his mother he'd be back soon and that we shouldn't worry.
"I'm a Super Saiyan! In that time period I'll be the strongest one there. Don't worry."
Turning to Tomoko he took her hand and squeezed it. She smiled at him.
"You'll wait for me, won't you?" he asked. Tomoko nodded.
"As long as it takes."
Trunks leaned in and they kissed quickly on the lips and rising into the air Trunks got into the large dome capsule and closed the top. He waved and we waved after him, Tomoko yelling out to him,
"BE BACK SOON!"
When Tomoko and I returned home there was a woman waiting for us by our house. She had set up a small camp and a small fire and over her cooking pot she was roasting some meat. She looked up when we landed in our air car and smiled at us.
"Hello there!" she called, waving.
"And to you!" I called back, reaching to where she sat, feeling perplexed. She was young, the age Gohan would've been if he were still alive, with bright blue eyes and dark hair pulled into a not at the nape of her neck.
"What is your name?" I inquired. Tomoko scurried into the house to prepare a bed for what seemed to be a guest.
"Videl," answered the woman simple and smoldering her small fire she got up and shook my hand. Her touch was strong and her eyes shined brightly. I gasped when I heard her name.
"Videl? Gohan told me about you long ago," I said softly.
"I have come, I think, to the Son house."
"You have. I am ChiChi, Gohan 's mother."
"Where is Gohan?"
I paused. A gentle breeze blew against us and I wondered why it had taken Videl so long to come to us. I had no idea where she was from or who she was or how Gohan knew her, but something told me instinctively that they had been more than just friends. This was shocking, but it didn't knock me off of my feet like I had suspected.
"Gohan died three years ago. He died fighting the Androids."
Videl didn't seem too shocked when she heard this news as if she had known it deep down, but she sank to the ground and drew her knees up under her chin. Her mannerisms were peculiar but I ignored it and I sat next to her and put my hand on her shoulder. She took a knife out of her backpack and sharpened it on a rock.
"I take it you and Gohan were in love," I said softly. Videl sniffed and then began to cry.
"Yes we were. I had to travel by night and I was so far away…I knew he'd die fighting! He always warned me about that!" Videl dried her tears and stood up.
"I'm sorry I've bothered you," she said and packing her things in a hurry I said aloud,
"Gohan told me to tell you that he was sorry."
Videl paused and looked up at me. She sighed.
"I know he is? Who wouldn't be?"
Taking her things Videl stood up and taking my hand kissed it.
"Thank you, Son ChiChi, for your understanding. Gohan and I met in the year before his passing. He had come to where my city was once it was destroyed. We didn't know each other well, but in the end we loved each other. The last time I saw him, which was nearly three and a half years ago. He told me to go to the Son House if I ever wanted to meet his family. This is how I found you. I'm glad I did."
With that the strange girl Videl turned and walked away from me, leaving me staring with my eyes wide. When she left in the fading sunlight that day, leaving me staring after her with the weirdest sensation I have ever felt, I smiled.
Everybody so far in my life who had left me had said 'Thank you.' Peculiar.
"I'll be back!" Videl called to me.
"I know!" I said to myself and turning I went inside. I never saw Videl again.
Something told me in my heart that she had joined Gohan in the afterlife. I didn't protest.