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Chichi nodded in understanding and watched as her son reverted back to the normal Super Saiyan state. "Let me get the scissors and razors." She stood up from her chair after marking the page she was on. After a few minutes of rummaging through the closet, she emerged with a barber set of succors. "Sit down on that chair," she ordered.
Gohan did what he was told and seated himself. He waited for his mother to start cutting his hair. By the time she was done, there was a huge mass of golden hair on the floor, which flickered and reverted back to black. Chichi brushed off the scraps of hair on her son's shoulder and announced that she was finished. Gohan held up the mirror and was not surprised to find that he looked just like he was in Super Saiyan 2, except his hair was a lot shorter. Noticing that all his hair was pointed straight up, he decided to pull down a bang to attain the image of an ascended Super Saiyan. "Thanks mom." He swiftly stood up from the chair and headed towards the bathroom.
She watched her son exit the room to go take a shower and sighed to herself. "It just isn't the same without you, Goku."
Chapter 2
A New Life
Gohan woke up the next morning with a yawn and scratched his head, only to find a large mass of hair, which he once owned, gone. He was alerted immediately and looked up at a piece of golden bang hanging over his eyes.
'What's going on?' he asked in confusion.
He picked himself off the bed and looked at himself in the mirror. He looked no different than before, except for the length of the hair. After seeing the projected image of himself in the small mirror on his oak desk, memories of the previous day's events flooded into him.
"My vow," he whispered quietly.
Gohan shook his head slightly before entering the bathroom to do his morning business. Once he emerged, he quickly changed into an orange fighting gi before heading downstairs. When he entered the kitchen, he found his mother slaving away at the stove.
"Hi mom," he greeted in a low voice.
Chichi turned around to face her child and smiled briefly at him before returning to her cooking.
Gohan seated himself at the table and waited patiently for his breakfast to be served to him. Once Chichi was finished with the simple (difficult considering Gohan is partially saiyan) task, she set the plate down on the table in front of her son.
"Enjoy your breakfast Gohan," she said affectionately as she walked away to get her share of the food before the demi-saiyan devoured it all.
After a long and tedious breakfast full of silence, Gohan announced that he was done before stepping out of the house. Once outside, he was not surprised to find Piccolo in his meditative pose in front of his house. Gohan slowly walked up to him.
"So, you're finally done eating I presume," came the voice of the wise namek.
Gohan nodded his head accordingly and dropped into a defensive stance several yards away from his house.
Piccolo noticed his movements and discarded his heavy weighted wear in a corner by a bunch of jagged rocks. He smirked at his young pupil and dropped into an attack stance. "Let's get started."
Gohan narrowed his eyes as seriousness crossed his features. He clenched his fist and unclenched it to prepare for any attack his old sensei might have in stored for him.
Piccolo let out a small scream before charging at the boy. Slowly Gohan improved his movements and attacks as they sparred from the ground to the air.
Gohan clenched his fist even tighter and threw a punch toward Piccolo's torso.
Piccolo flew back from the impact and countered with a kick to Gohan's face and a ki blast for added effect.
The young saiyan was knocked back briefly before charging up slightly. He charged towards his sensei and threw a series of punches before a few kicks. Afterwards, he fired a massive ki blast towards the namek.
Piccolo blocked most of the attacks, but when he was actually hit, the pain was immense. The ki blast came; the Piccolo's first reaction was to block. When it was growing hard to block, he deflected it. Finally fed up with being on the defensive, Piccolo powered up and created multiples of himself. "No more fooling around. Now the real training begins," he said with a stern voice before having his other selves charge at the demi-saiyan.
Gohan clenched his teeth and prepared himself for the attacks he knew he had coming. As he expected, he was attacked from every direction, throwing him off balance. Once he was used to the multiple attacks, he powered up slightly and began to fight back instead of defending. When he was sure he was to be victorious, he was met with a few kicks to the face and to the gut before thrown violently to the ground. Gohan crawled out of the crater and limped a little through his first few steps.
"Had enough, Gohan?" Piccolo asked through his panting.
Gohan took a few more steps before charging at the malicious green man floating the clear blue sky. "Not yet," he answered hoarsely. He threw rapid punches and kicks, only to have each attack dodged or blocked. Gohan narrowed his eyes and threw a few more punches before landing a very hard kick to the back of Piccolo's head.
Piccolo fell deep in the ground, creating a massive crater.
Just as Gohan thought he had won the match, he was in torso with a ki ball. Gohan was thrown back in surprise, but countered with his own ki blast. As the match between ki blasts erupted, the light and intensity from the fight became overwhelming. Slowly, the light died down to find Gohan in the air with his clothes slightly charred and singed from the attack.
Meanwhile, Piccolo picked himself off the ground and dusted off his clothes. "Your skills have clearly improved since yesterday. I assume that your hair was in your way," he said gesturing towards the short mangled mop of blonde hair on his pupil.
Gohan nodded as a reply and dropped to his knees, exhausted from the little sparring session. He wasn't even using his full power, yet he was still tired. Maybe if he started out as a Super Saiyan 2 and gradually decrease to the form of Super Saiyan 1, it would help him grow stronger. He couldn't risk reverting to normal thanks to his vow. At that sudden the ki of a particular person disappeared briefly and then flashed back to life, signifying the unconsciousness of the person. Gohan immediately recognized his mother's ki and rushed into the house to find his mother unconscious on the floor with broken dishes everywhere.
"Mom!" Gohan shook her shoulder to find that she was not waking up. He clenched his teeth and picked up her limp body. "I've got to get her to Bulma. May she'll know what's wrong with her."
Piccolo entered the scene. "What in the world happened to her?"
"I don't know!" screamed the panicking boy. Gohan hurried towards the door and took off in the air.
When Gohan arrived on the scene, Vegeta was waiting outside on the front lawn. "What's your hurry, brat? Come here for a spar?"
Gohan glared at him. At that moment Bulma came out from behind her husband. "Gohan, what's wrong?"
"It's my mom!"
Bulma looked at the body in his arms and panicked. "What's wrong with her? Did something happen?"
"I don't know!" screamed the boy.
Bulma gestured for him to follow her inside the building with Piccolo trailing behind.
"So, it looks like there's something wrong with Kakarotto's mate," Vegeta said to himself as he followed slowly with a small smile. "This will be interesting."
After an hour of waiting, Gohan was about ready to blow up the planet through his anxiousness. Finally Bulma emerged from her laboratory with a pleasant smile on her face.
"Bulma, is there anything wrong with her?" Piccolo asked for, the young demi-saiyan who was pale as a ghost and was clenching the bench so tight, cracks were forming.
"You don't have to worry, guys. It seems like it was nothing at all, but there is a little surprise in stored for us all. Why don't you go in and visit your mother, Gohan?"
Gohan released the bench and it crumpled to dust. Slowly entering the room where his mother was resting peacefully in, he took a death breath. Approaching the side of the bed, he seated himself in the white plastic chair beside the bed.
"How are you feeling mom?" he asked with concern.
Chichi took her son's hand in her own and smiled. She looked down towards her stomach and placed her other hand upon it affectionately. "It looks like we're going to have a new member in the family."
Gohan stared at her confused for a minute until he realized what she meant. "So, is it a boy or a girl?"
"I don't know yet. Bulma didn't tell me anything. Hopefully after a month or two, Bulma could determine the gender of this little guy," she replied.
Gohan sighed in relief as the information sunk into him. There was actually nothing wrong with her after all, just the side effects of her pregnancy. "So, when could you go home?"
Chichi thought for a minute and answered him, "I think Bulma said that I would be able to leave today."
Gohan flashed her a small smile and stood up. "I'll be back later, mom. Right now I'm going to get something to eat. Do you want anything?"
She shook her head and watched as her son exited the room, closing the door softly as he left.
"For some reason, I don't think he was all too happy about what I've just told him. Could it be that more stress has been put on his shoulders because there is someone else he has to protect?" she murmured to herself.
Releasing the thought, she slumped back against the headboard and waited for sleep to succumb her.
Outside, Gohan drank a nice warm cup of hot chocolate.
"Hey Gohan. So, are you excited?" asked Bulma as she passed through the hall.
Gohan sighed and nodded with a forced smile. "Yeah, I'm real excited." While in the inside, he was in agony. 'Great, another thing to remind me of how I screwed up. I've just deprived my new sibling of our father. I'm scum, quite possibly the lowest creature on Earth.' He had considered suicide two days ago, on the death of his father, but he held himself back. He knew that his father would want him to live, so he lived. Now, he felt as if he should've done so when he had the chance.
Bulma shot him a sympathetic glance. 'It must be very hard on him,' she thought to herself. 'I know something that'll cheer him up.'
"Guess what, Gohan? Thanks to the enhanced and high tech equipment Capsule Corp. has produced, we have the ability to determine the gender of a baby right after it's conceived."
Gohan nodded dumbly, tuning her out completely. Then one word caught his attention while Bulma was rambling.
"It turns out you're going to have new baby brother!" she exclaimed with a wide smile.
The remains of the beverage Gohan was previous drinking ended up on the floor somehow as the demi-saiyan looked away from her gaze. He concentrated his gaze at his feet where a puddle of hot chocolate lay. Suddenly a machine came strolling by quickly, picking up the liquid. This was not what he needed. Being reminded of his failures and his stupidity only brought more pain towards him. He closed his eyes tight and gritted his teeth while clenching his fists until his knuckles turned white.
"T-thanks, Bulma," he forced out. He blinked back any tears that may erupt and calmly walked pass her.
Bulma sighed as she watched the retreating figure walk away from her view. 'His life is already in torment and it's only beginning. Poor guy.' Bulma turned around and walked down to hall to meet Vegeta who was leaning leisurely against the walls with his arms crossed in an arrogant manner.
"Kakarotto's brat is facing the hard times. This may develop character for him. After all, he is a Saiyan and we all know that we saiyans always have pride."
"Yes, but Gohan doesn't seem to take much pride in what he does. It's more like he's in a world of pain and torture than a normal life without a father," said Bulma.
Vegeta snorted. "It's obvious that Kakarotto and his brat never took any pride in what they did, but deep down they actually do, thanks to their saiyan blood. Just like in the Cell Games a few days ago, Kakarotto's brat was so filled with pride that he didn't even know his own limitations and the cost of his actions."
"And that resulted in Goku's death," she finished off.
"Exactly."
"But what can we do to help him? I've never seen him like this before."
Vegeta stepped away from the wall and started walking towards the Gravity Chamber. "Leave him be. A true saiyan will solve his problems on his own."
"But he isn't a true saiyan. He's just half. Don't you get it Vegeta? He's not like other saiyans. He's different from all of them, especially you."
Vegeta stopped in his tracks. She had a point there. He ignored her last comment and continued toward his destination.
"Gohan, I wish there was some way we could make the pain go away. I miss that happy little boy you used to be," Bulma whispered to herself as she peered down the hallway Gohan went.
Well, this was done pretty quick. Thank you for all your reviews; it really motivated me to continue writing this when I had the chance. So here is your reward.
Please excuse any grammatical errors. I'm too lazy to proofread what I wrote, especially when it's easier to catch mistakes done by other people and not those done by yourself.
Next Chapter: Gohan's training increases as he gets older and stronger. Meanwhile, little Goten is born and a tragic event happens. (Like in every other fic… can you guess what it is? Again, another idea from another author, so don't kill me if it's not original)
Okay I lied about Videl coming in Chapter 3, but I really want to get pass character development first. That way there isn't that big of a gap between what's going on. I can guarantee that Videl will enter in Chapter 5 for the two chapters are a bit sad and angsty. Thank you for reading and I hope you enjoy the later chapters.
