Dragon Ball © Toriyama Akira, Shuheisha, Inc.
Chapter 20: His Other Half
Both Trunks and Tenten were mysteriously recovered the next day. Even though no one could answer how two herbal pots made it into the room freaked Bulma out throughout the morning.
"I don't even know how to boil the herbs without you, Tenten. It definitely wasn't me," so Bulma said. Trunks couldn't recall anything from last night but it wasn't like it matter anymore because they had to go back to their routine.
It was the East City this time.
The moment the radio announced the attack, both Trunks and Tenten rushed to the city. Bulma had asked them to protect people from the shadow, trying not to stand out until they figured out the way to banish the androids, so they did. The drill was always Trunks driving the androids away from the city while Tenten led the citizens to a safe place. On her way to the city, she noticed an old dome that was half-ruined. It was old and had been abandoned for a long time but it was the safest place for the citizens.
She flew back and forth to help the old and disabled people to reach the place. On her umpteenth flight, she spotted a trail of blood, leading her to an unconscious young soldier who sprawled helplessly near the city ruins. Rushing to check the soldier's condition, Tenten clamped her mouth upon noticing that he had lost his right leg. The memory when she discovered her brother losing his left arm rushed into her memory and sent a sickening sensation to her stomach.
Tenten quickly shook her head to diminish the memory, taking a deep breath to push the past to the back of her head. She put her hand over the soldier's right leg, slowly closing his wound up. The soldier weakly grunted, opening his eyes for a moment before losing his consciousness again. She sighed in relief when she found his pulse. If he didn't have a great will to stay alive, he could be gone any minute. Slinging his arm around her shoulder, Tenten brought him to the dome where she put him in the triage section for the medic team. They were questioning her ability but Tenten only smiled in response.
Trunks arrived in the dome with a few survivors an hour later but the aftermath didn't always end in peace. Hysterical screams blaring everywhere the moment it downed to them that they had lost their homes, their wealth, and their loved ones. Some people remained silent, eyes void of life, body trembling from the traumatic experience. Some others formed a circle, holding each other hands while praying for the world's peace, hoping whoever entities they were praying to would actually listen and gave a drop of their power to help them secure the world's peace.
Two men were suddenly after each other's necks and Trunks had to jump in between them to prevent another bloodshed. They turned out to be siblings. The younger man blamed the elder for leaving their mother. The elder couldn't save her in time because by the time he wanted to go back, the house had been devoured by the androids' deadly attack. The younger man fell to his knees and burst into tears, regretting the fact that the last thing he said to his mother was he hated her with all his might. The elder finally approached his brother, sharing a brotherly hug and comforted each other.
It was one of hundreds of scenarios that reminded them that they were living in uncertainty. Nobody knew what would happen by the next second, or whether they could meet again later…
"I gotta go now, Trunks! I'll definitely beat you in our next match!"
Trunks squeezed his eyes shut and assisted the medic teams who need to arranged their post to treat people. Tenten was busy with the people who were severely injured, healing them with her mysterious power. He couldn't blame the people in the room for gazing at her, but he somehow disliked the way a young blonde soldier staring at her.
"How are you doing, Sir?" he asked the soldier, only then realised that he had lost his right leg. The soldier seemed to be five or seven years older than him, and that reminded him so much of Gohan.
The soldier chuckled. "I'm not old enough to be called 'sir'. The name is Quince. You?" The soldier extended his arm to him so Trunks accepted it.
"Trunks. Nice to meet you, Quince. Even though I'd rather meet you not in a situation like this."
"Nah. For us soldiers, we usually met the best people in our lives in situations like this. You get to see who comes to you at the lowest point of your life. Did you get my point?" Quince said.
Trunks nodded in agreement but frowned deeper when he noticed Quince was looking at Tenten again. She caught their eyes and waved at them before going back to her work.
"Your girlfriend?" Quince asked.
Trunks answered with a long victorious "yes" with an interlacing "now you know" and "stay away from her" tone.
"Oh, okay." There was a hint of disappointment and amusement in Quince's tone. "She was the one who saved me. I thought I was in heaven when I saw her because—" he pointed his hand towards Tenten, "—she looks like an angel, right? You'd think that way when you see a woman like her in a warzone."
Trunks chuckled. "Indeed. She can be a demon sometimes though. Don't tell her I said this."
Quince's body bounced back and forth from laughter. "Well, you can't judge a person from their looks, right? I can see that both of you are… quite unusual. Sorry if the word is offending."
"No, not at all." Trunks shook his head. "You're right about that. It's a long story but, you can say that."
"Man, I envy you." Quince solemnly looked down at his missing limb. "I was dreaming to be a soldier all my life and suddenly I have to quit because of this. How can I protect people this way?"
Trunks looked up to the dome's ceiling, taking a deep breath as the memory of Gohan rushed into him. Everything about Quince reminded him of Gohan and the guiltiness he held for years was building up to his tightening chest.
"I… lost my teacher three years ago. He lost his left arm because he protected me from the androids. But even with the lost limb, he was still up against the androids all alone until his last breath…" Quince widened his eyes at the story. "If it weren't because of me, maybe she didn't have to be an orphan," Trunks said as he laid his eyes on Tenten.
"Your teacher was her brother?" Quince asked. Trunks nodded in response, solemnly looking down at his palms before sighing. "Losing an arm and still faced the androids all alone. What a man…"
"Yeah. Maybe it's not my place to say this but you shouldn't give up. I will make a prosthetic leg for you if you want," Trunks said. "I'm a scientist too, so you can leave it to me."
"Man, that's gonna help a lot. Thanks, mate! But you know what? I don't think you should blame yourself for your teacher's death."
Trunks was taken aback by Quince's statement.
"You're a good man. I will do the same thing if I were him. He might be believing that if there's anyone who could save the future, you're the one."
Suddenly, Gohan's face when he said it popped into his mind.
"I've been in the military for a long time and I have a good hunch about people." Quince pointed to his own eyes. "Your eyes, mate. You have the eyes of a hero."
Trunks smiled at him, believing that Quince was right about the best people might be the one he met in a bad situation.
Bulma was working on the chronal energy they were going to use for the time machine when Trunks told him about Quince's prosthetic leg. Bulma pulled a folder that contained the data needed for his prosthetic leg design and told him to study it before getting into the blueprint. He wished that his mother could help him but he couldn't bother her because the time machine alone had taken most of her time.
It had been eight months since they were making a trip to the past and they still needed a few more weeks to collect enough for the two-round trip. That gave him enough time to work on Quince's prosthetic leg. However, the next trip worried him because this time, he didn't know for how long he would stay in the past. Trunks pushed his chair a little bit to see his mother. Anxiety was growing in his chest by the thought of things that might happen to her while he left.
When he pulled his chair so he could proceed with his blueprint, he spotted Tenten walked out with a bucket of white lily and dressed in black. He quickly followed and called her before she flew away, asking where she wanted to go.
"It's Goten's anniversary so I want to go home and…" She showed him the bucket, "…doing the usual thing near the lake."
"What? Why didn't you tell me something so important?" Trunks scratched his head, wanting to punch himself for forgetting it. "Stay there. I'm coming with you!"
"You don't have to if you have so many things to do, Trunks. We're doing this every year after all. Goten will understand," she said.
"Keep your promise. Don't let anything bad happen to her and always be there for her. I will come after you if she's sad."
Trunks lowered his gaze while reminiscing the smile Goten had before he left him forever. Goten was his very first and forever best friend. Just like Gohan, Goten was the brother he never had, a perfect sparring partner that shared the bond he'd never share with anyone in this world.
"No." Trunks chuckled. "Goten won't understand and will be very mad if I don't go with you."
Tenten tilted her head slightly to the right but Trunks would never tell her the man-to-man pact he made with Goten.
The lifetime promises with his other half six years ago…
The plain not far from the West City was a perfect place to spare. Avoiding Goten's kick, Trunks blocked the punch that followed the attack and fired an energy ball towards Goten, only to be countered by Kamehameha and exploded. Goten coughed as the place surrounded by billowing smokes, trying to figure Trunks' position with his watery eyes. He shot the moment he saw a shadow, not expecting an attack coming from his back—a side-thrust kick that sent him flying until he crashed several boulders, imprint his body's shape on them.
"Ouch, ouch! That's hurt, arsehole!" shouted Goten while rubbing his head.
"You should sense my Ki instead of using your eyes, Goten! You can't do the same mistakes over and over!"
"Tch! I know that!" Goten scoffed, crossing his arm, and turned his face away like an angry kid.
"That was a great match, though," Trunks said while extending his arm to help Goten up. "Let's do it again!"
"Of course! I will beat you next time, you'll see!" Goten fist-bumped Trunks before accepting his help.
"Dream on, Goten. I'll always be stronger because I'm older than you!"
"Don't be so cocky! One year doesn't make much difference!"
"Action speaks louder than talk, Goten. You better prove it!"
Their banter went on until they were out of words and laughed about it. They only sparred for two hours but had used all their stamina so they just laid on the ground, looking up to the sky while allowing the wind to cool their body down. Watching the moving clouds, Goten pointed on several clouds with unique shapes: fish, dog, cat, and several others, stopped at the one shaped like a bird.
"Hey, Trunks. Have you ever think of how our life will be without the androids?"
"Well… maybe I have… sometimes," Trunks said. "I always want to be a great fighter like my father but at the same time, want to be a scientist like my grandfather and mother. Eventually, I will have to inherit the Capsule Corp. after all… but," Trunks shrugged, "I don't know. It's too early to decide."
"Wow, that's huge," Goten said with a smirk. "For me, I want to travel around the universe like my father. I mean, it's so cool to see the lives on another planet other than the Earth. But it's also cool if I can go to school normally, make a lot of friends… You know, what was ordinary is no longer ordinary now. I think it's cool to experience all of that!"
"True." Trunks nodded, thinking that it might be a great idea to be an adventurer before settle down with everything. "Uhh… what about Tenten?"
"She said she wants to be an interior designer. Nah! That's impossible! Her Math is good, but have you seen her drawing?" Goten feigned a disgusted look. "She once cried because I thought her whale drawing was a banana." Trunks burst into laughter. "You can't blame me, Trunks! Who the heck colour a whale yellow?!"
"I must say that her sense of art is… rusty," Trunks said, trying to find a better word but couldn't.
"She's sucks! She's a thousand times sucks! I always told her she better be a doctor or a… what do you call the person who makes the medicine?"
"A pharmacist?"
"Yeah, a pharmacist. She's a healer, you know? And very good with herbs. She better stay in that area instead of turning my room into a labyrinth." Both of them laughed louder, agreeing that Tenten might be sneezing a lot because of this.
"Tenten as a doctor or a pharmacist, huh?" Trunks muttered while drinking his water.
"Yeah, and you'd be a scientist and marry her. Then you'd live happily ever after," Goten smoothly blurted, making Trunks choked on his drink.
"H-hey! Where did you get the idea?!"
"Don't be stupid. I notice your Ki presence is always messy whenever she's around. Ah yeah, like now," Goten said in a singsong tone to mock him.
"S-shut up! You never like me getting near your sister before," Trunks turned his face away. "W-what's the change?"
"Now that I think about it, she's a demi-Saiyan and will need a man stronger than her to take care of her. Since I can only think about you and think that you're decent enough, I guess I should approve you. Oh, my brother knew anyway. He approved you too!"
His face was burning with embarrassment and Trunks no longer knew how to face Gohan during his exercise that day.
"I will take care of her no matter what. Even if we don't end up together," Trunks said.
There was a silence before Goten said, "Promise me that, Trunks…"
"Huh?"
"Keep your promise. Don't let anything bad happen to her and always be there for her. I will come after you if she's sad. This is a man-to-man promise!"
His stomach churned at Goten's words. Something about his sentence indicated that he would go somewhere far away and never return. For a moment, he couldn't answer him until Goten extended his arm for a fist bump.
"I promise," Trunks said as he responded to his fist bump.
"Oh yeah, I promised Tenten I would help her doing laundry today." Goten gathered his bag and waved his hand at Trunks as he floated in the air. "I gotta go now, Trunks! I'll definitely beat you in our next match!"
That was the last conversation he had with Goten.
When he practiced with Gohan, they abruptly stopped the session because they sensed two Ki's movements. Upon realising who's the Kis belonged to, they wasted no time rushing into Mount Paozu. Down in his heart, Trunks kept wishing for both of them to remain unharmed. The moment he sensed Goten's Ki gradually getting smaller, he couldn't even hear his own heartbeat anymore.
Thunders were pouncing the moment they got into the crater where Tenten and Goten were attacked by the androids. They didn't even notice the sky was getting darker every second. The sun who promised the bright day shamelessly hid behind the grey-shaded clouds that were congregating around them. Prickles of rain sung the grieving melody and drenched the area.
Tenten's scream from afar had confirmed their fear. Goten's face was peaceful and content in Tenten's arms but Trunks didn't want to remember that.
He hated himself for forgetting the smile Goten had before bidding him farewell…
AN: I think it's not entirely wrong to say that Goten truly is Trunks' 'other half' in cannon because they're doing Fusion together. XD So sad that I have to kill Goten in this fic but honestly, writing Gohan's death is harder because I have to describe the emotional state both Trunks and Tenten were in the situation and it got me. LOL~ XD
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