~Chapter 12: From the stars~
It was the middle of the afternoon by the time Bulma got to the Kame House. Muten Roshi, Umigame, and I were all really excited to see her. After all, Bulma's visit was the most exciting thing that had happened to us in weeks. She gave us a friendly greeting and a package of tea cakes. Muten Roshi didn't waste any time in making a lecherous comment and getting bludgeoned by Bulma, although I don't think what he said was really dirty or anything. Besides, it just wouldn't have been the same if he hadn't said something to her. It felt like old times. Bulma looked like she was doing well. After we got settled in, I made the mistake of asking about Yamucha.
That set her off. Bulma went on an anti-Yamucha rant that included shouting, exaggerated arm movements, and the phrase "I'm better off without him and so are you!" I think that she was on about something Yamucha had done, but I doubted somehow that he was entirely at fault. You know, for as long as those two were supposedly a couple, I can't remember any point at which they seemed happy together. It's too bad, really. They probably could've been friends if they hadn't tried to force a relationship. It's none of my business, I guess.
Bulma kept going about Yamucha for about two whole minutes, and she probably would have gone on even longer if we hadn't heard a strange whooshing sound and seen something outside. Through the screen door, I saw a cloud hover over the ground and someone jump off of it. My heart leapt - it was Goku! I couldn't contain myself; I bolted for the door and shouted to him. He smiled and waved. What a great day this is, I thought. We'd catch up and reminisce, and then maybe all four of us could go out and do something. Almost immediately, though, we noticed something strange - Goku had brought someone. It was an adorable little kid wearing a surcoat. He was shy and clung to Goku's leg, but he was also a polite kid. He smiled at us - what a cute smile, too - and said hello.
"Hey, Goku," said Bulma, "Who's the kid?"
Goku beamed at us. "He's mine!"
We all jumped involutarily. Son Goku - a FATHER? It was a pretty mind-boggling concept. I guess we shouldn't have been so surprised. He had been married for five years, after all. Somehow, though, it didn't seem to fit. Having kids was an adult thing, and in my mind, "Goku" and "Adult" were firmly established polar opposites. The kid's name was Son Gohan, after Goku's childhood grandpa. He was four years old("This many!", he said, holding up four fingers) and he did look quite a bit like Goku. Specifically, he had a tail, a monkey-like tail like the one Goku had as a kid. That put us all on edge a little bit. When Goku'd had that tail, he'd always transformed into a giant ape when he saw the full moon. We tried not to linger on that subject, though, because Goku still didn't know that he had been the ape monster all those times. So, instead, I asked Goku if Gohan was as strong as he was. I'd obviously hit a nerve, because Goku folded his arms and pouted. He said that Chichi wouldn't let him train the kid. I commiserated with him on that one - what a waste of a potentially great martial artist. We both agreed that Chichi was making a big mistake. Now, though, I understand perfectly what her intentions were, and they were the best. Heaven knows that I wish that we could've prevented poor, sweet little Gohan from getting roped into the hell that would come in the years to follow. I guess that you can never really understand the heart of a protective parent until you've become a parent yourself.
We went on catching up with Goku for maybe another minute and a half, and then the world was turned upside down. Suddenly, Goku got really nervous. His hair stood on end. Well, it stood on end even more than it does under normal circumstances. "Something's coming," he said, shuddering all over. "Something... powerful!" At the next moment, a man came down from the sky. He was tall, with huge muscles and ridiculously long hair and a smug expression frozen on his face. He faced Goku - we were all standing right around Goku, but he looked right through us. It was Goku that he was facing. A nasty smirk came into his features.
"Ah, there you are... Kakarotto," he said, talking directly to Goku. "You look just like your father."
Well, that was confusing. I looked at Goku - maybe he knew this guy? - but he had no idea what was going on either. The strange man started some insane chatter about exterminating the species on our planet, and my first reaction was to get annoyed. Frankly, I was not impressed. Yeah, he looked big and tough, but so did a lot of people. Keep in mind that I was used to being within the five strongest fighters on the planet, so I didn't really consider that I might not be able to handle him. The fact that he'd flown in had thrown me a little, but hey, so what? I could fly too. What really should've tipped me off, of course, was how nervous he was making Goku. Goku always had had a knack for those sort of things. Still, when he started going on about exterminating species, I took him for a simple lunatic and went up to him to tell him in so many words to buzz off. He swatted me like a fly, and I went straight through the wall of the Kame House. He didn't even use his arms or legs to hit me; he used his tail. It was just like Goku's and Gohan's. There was a heated discussion - something about tails and Goku losing his memory as a kid - but I didn't catch much of it because I was busy trying to gather my strength to stand up. I thought that there was no way anyone could be powerful enough to hurt me that much with a blow like that. Not even Piccolo could have done that. I got up just in time to hear the revelation that would change everything forever.
"You and I, Kakarotto," the stranger growled, "We are the same! You are a Saiyan, a member of the most powerful warrior race in the universe, and I, Raditz, am your older brother!"
How can I possibly describe how it felt to hear that? Goku had a brother, and he was an alien. Goku himself was an alien named Kakarotto! Confusion? Shock? Terror? Probably some mixture of the three. Imagine how Goku took it. In his own mind, he'd always been human. To have someone come along and rudely shake him out of that belief must have hurt. Of course, he didn't want to believe it. I didn't either. Goku called Raditz a liar. He demanded that he take it back. Raditz' smirk only grew even more cruel, and he went on to explain the Saiyans. As Raditz told it, they were a race that would locate inhabitable planets and sell them to races looking for space. First, he said, they would render the planet suitable for its new residents - by killing every native being on it and reducing it to a lifeless husk. As young children, Saiyans were sent to exterminate the populations of the absolute weakest planets - those planets whose inhabitants would put up next to absolutely no struggle. Earth was one such planet, and Goku had been sent here as a child. According to Raditz, he would surely have wiped out Earth's entire population within a few years, except that he hit his head, making him lose his memory and turn into the sweet, unassuming Goku that I knew. Raditz told us all this very matter-of-factly and as calmly as if he were explaining any common business procedure. Can you hear that crumbling sound? That's the sound of humans' confident little sense of supremacy being destroyed forever. Seriously, this was about 25 years ago, so many young people today are already used to the fact that aliens exist, but up until Raditz came to Earth, we humans had been pretty sure of ourselves. We thought that we were the only life aside from perhaps some distant primative organisms. Then, suddenly, it turned out that not only were there other races, but that, compared to them, we humans were nothing. To the Saiyans, even the strongest of humans(me, for example) were worth about as much notice as a slug or an ant. Raditz also mentioned that Saiyans show their true power when exposed to a full moon, which explained the whole giant monkey thing. He went on to inform us that the Saiyan homeworld had been destroyed, and only four of the entire race remained, including Goku. He'd come to take Goku back with him to help clear out planets. I was petrified. This guy was so confident that he was actually explaining things to us, as if we were no threat. What could we possibly do?
Of course, Goku wasn't just going to take that. He stood up to Raditz as best he could and said proudly, "I don't care if you are my brother! I don't care if I am an alien! I'm not like you! I'm Son Goku now - get off of my planet!" Alien or not, he was still Goku. Seeing Goku take a stand like that gave Muten Roshi, Bulma, and I the courage to rally behind him. It felt like we were representing our whole planet. Raditz just laughed and repeated his offer to Goku. Goku refused, of course. That's when Raditz noticed Gohan.
"Ah, is that your whelp, Kakarotto?" he said, moving towards him. Goku stepped in front of him and prepared to attack him to protect Gohan, and I did the same, just in case. We didn't have a chance to do anything. Raditz kicked Goku before he could even move. That one kick sent Goku halfway across the island, and it rendered him helpless. He just laid there on the sand, grasping his abdomen and trying to scream but only managing a strained groan. I was still ready, but you're insane if you think I'd have attacked Raditz after seeing that. I was too petrified to move. This guy had beaten Goku with one kick. Gohan ran to his fallen daddy, but Raditz picked him up. He told Goku that unless he agreed to come, Gohan would die. As proof of his "good intentions", Goku would have to kill a hundred humans within a day. I couldn't believe the cruelty. He used a child. It still makes me fume a bit to think about it. He also casually mentioned that whatever Goku's decision, the Saiyans would clear out Earth soon anyway, and then he just took off. Goku was extremely upset. He called for his Kinto'un and almost took off right after him, but we surrounded him and talked him out of it. I distinctly remember grabbing him by the front of his gi and shouting that he would die if he went after Raditz. I remember that very distinctly because I was right.
After we got Goku calmed down a little, he came up with a kind of plan. With any luck, Raditz had the same weakness in his tail that Goku had once had. If Goku could get ahold of that tail, Raditz' power would drop.
"Well, yeah, but how are you gonna get to it?" I asked.
"Well, you and Muten Roshi-sama will help me, won't you?"
Of course we agreed, but I started to panic. I could just picture Raditz laughing as he tore through all three of us like nothing. He was just too powerful for us to fight. In an attempt to reassure myself, I said that at least Bulma could revive us with the dragon balls if we were killed by Raditz, but even that hope was destroyed when Goku told us that Shenlon would grant no one wish twice. Since Roshi-sama and I had already been revived, we couldn't be brought back to life again. "This time," he said, "death means death." Aie. Now I was really panicking. Still, we didn't have much choice but to go after Raditz. We had a kind of plan. Since Gohan had been wearing one of the dragon balls on his hat, we could use the dragon ball radar(which Bulma happened to have with her, which is a bit odd now that I think of it) to track Raditz' position. We'd try to get him to get careless so that Goku could grab his tail, then I'd cut his head off with a Kienzan. Having something of a plan made us a little more confident, and we prepared to go after him. Suddenly, we heard a voice from nearby.
"You have no chance..." it said. It was Piccolo. Apparently, he'd been watching us the whole time, and Goku had been too distracted by Raditz to sense him. The sight of Piccolo didn't exactly cheer us up. Things had been bad enough before he got there. Piccolo surprised us with his intentions, though: he wanted to kill Raditz. He said that the three of us had no chance against him, and that our only chance was for Goku and Piccolo to ally against him. I never thought that I'd see that happen. Goku was unimpressed, though, and only asked Piccolo what was in it for him. Piccolo told us that while he hated Goku, and Gohan's kidnapping was beneath his notice, he wanted to protect Earth. Of course, he veiled that intention under something like the Earth being his alone to terrorize. Goku agreed, and he grabbed the radar from Bulma and hopped on Kinto'un. He and Piccolo flew off after Raditz.
The rest of us were just stunned. We couldn't think of anything but to get into the craft that Bulma'd came in and go after them. It was a nervous trip. We were really afraid that Raditz would have killed them both before we got there. We thought that the best that we could hope for would be to get there before the battle was over so that we could help out. Since our craft was slower than Piccolo and Kinto'un, and Goku had taken the radar, the battle was already over by the time that we arrived. We must have missed one hell of a battle, because Piccolo and Goku were far, far weaker than Raditz, but they somehow managed to eke out a victory. When we got there, only Piccolo was standing. Raditz was dead, Gohan was unconscious off to the side, and Goku was lying on the ground with an enormous hole in his chest. We landed and poured out of the craft. I ran to Goku first and knelt by him. That was one nasty wound. Amazingly, Goku was still alive and conscious. Piccolo gave us the short version of their fight - Gohan had displayed a hidden power and managed to help. Goku had held Raditz while Piccolo used a special ki blast that went straight through both of them.
I held Goku's hand. It was unbearable to see him in such bad shape. I told him to hang in there, but I knew already that he'd be dead in seconds. Goku managed to smile at me and actually say something.
"Hey... Kuririn..." he said, "Dying sucks... huh..."
I was almost crying, but I smiled at him just the same. "Hey," I said, "We'll bring you back with the dragon balls."
"Thanks," Goku said, and he died. I leapt back in surprise and alarm. His dead body had just vanished into thin air the moment his life left it. Piccolo explained that Kami-sama must have taken his body. I didn't know what Kami-sama could possibly want with Goku's body, but I just had to accept it. It wouldn't have done any good to worry about that. We started talking about gathering the dragon balls to bring Goku back to life. I was upset. It's not very fun to watch one of your best friends die, even when you know that they can be brought back to life. We also took a device off of Raditz that Piccolo had said was used to measure an opponents power and position. It was a little unit that attatches to the head and has a small display in front of the user's eye. They're called "scouters", but we didn't know that yet. I had to get it off of Raditz. Brrr. I hated to touch him. I kept imagining that he'd suddenly come back to life and crush my skull.
Anyway, we soon learned that we weren't out of the woods yet. Piccolo, after stopping to regenerate an arm that had been blown off (I'll never get used to seeing him do that), very matter-of-factly announced that he'd be taking Gohan. He said that Gohan was powerful and needed to be trained so that he could help when the other two saiyans, who were each stronger than Raditz, got to Earth in a year. We protested, but there was nothing we could do to stop Piccolo from taking Gohan. He told us that he'd kill us if we tried to stop him and he meant it. There was nothing to do but try to gather ourselves and return to the Kame House. I was emotionally exhausted again - it had been one hell of a day. I just wondered how I'd explain everything that'd happened to Chichi.
--END OF CHAPTER TWELVE--