Blue Roses

Bouzi Neo

Chapter Six: Lectures

Bulma sighed when she woke up, knowing she was in a completely empty house. It was too risky to go shopping, no telling where the androids were, besides she did go just the other day and she'd live if she forgot a thing or two. The last thing she needed, as a mother and, sighing, she knew she would hopefully be supporting poor Gohan for a while, the very last thing on her list was to be going on one of her shopping trips. Not that she had been on one since Gokou...

She tilted her head down in a slight respect as she always did when she thought of the tragic death of her beloved Gokou: loving and selfless friend, father, savior, and husband. She never knew she thought so much of the naïve man until he was gone. Not even the first time he died did she realize that she cared so much for him and owed so much to him. Why, when she was a teenager she had less than no moral values. She would have killed him the very first day she met him, a little kid, for that one dragon ball. To get what? She frowned, not remembering well.

But he changed that. When she tried to teach him the cruelties and realities of the world time and time again, he proved to her that the little kindnesses and selflessness mattered more so than anything. The precious adventures they had each had a little moral to them, and even though Gokou himself didn't really care much for Bulma's moods and quick temper, he soon grew attached to her as she did him. Though even when he hit adulthood, he managed to make insulting comments without meaning for them to be so, and she still to this day would chew him out for them if they were bad enough. And then he would find a way to make fun of her temper after she yelled at him. He never quite worked that way with Chichi, but Bulma smiled, she knew every reason why.

She missed dear old Chichi. Age hadn't been quite as kind to her and she grew much faster mentally and physically. 'Of course, that's what having children does to you,' she mused. Bulma herself found it hard to loose the excess weight from Trunks' birth. It had been hard on the woman who was quite fond of her looks back in the days to loose it but she was quite satisfied with Trunks as the result and sacrifice. Like the motherliness from within suddenly shown up, and she didn't resent the beautiful baby boy her looks as much as almost everyone would have thought she would have. It was actually dedicating herself to Trunks that helped her to survive this entire mess. And she was sure that it was Gohan that did Chichi, but now that Gohan was, as much as even Bulma herself hated to admit it, a man, there was little pampering she could give him. She closed her eyes, just trying to feel the pain that Chichi must have felt every night, wondering, hoping, begging that the last thing in the world that she had would be alive, all right. To live to see the sunrise and to still be in one piece by the time the sun set.

Standing up, still caught in her thoughts she put her place in Chichi's once again, but Trunks in Gohan's for a different scenario. When, for there was no longer an if, Trunks really did start to fight the androids, where would she be? Broken and upset, of course. She strongly disapproved with him, but she knew she had to let him go. Why couldn't she have had a little girl? With blood in her veins that did not come from a man of a race with such a passion to fight? She knew that she would probably be living in even more fear. Her arrogant face and her proud nature had kept her from fearing the androids all too much. Maybe it was her very tongue, which was ever so hard to hold when she was angry, especially when there was no good thing to say about those horrid androids, that got Trunks to do it. Maybe it wasn't the Saiya-Jin in him, but her genes. Of course it was hard to tell because there were so few yet so many differences between Bulma and Vegeta's personalities. The biggest one was really strength and love to fight; and of course their history differences. Sighing once more, she walked out of the room briskly.

She had no need, really, to get dressed in decent clothes, though later she knew she would. She didn't mind about Trunks being exposed to her so much as Gohan. Modesty wasn't really quite a virtue in her. If someone saw her, especially a male, she had a mind to yell at them, even hit them and call them a pervert then walk away muttering, 'Men', as she used to usually do. But now she was so much more tranquil that the old fire that burned in her, that passion just died. It made her sad, she used to love herself even with her faults, which were at their fewest.

Locked in her thoughts, Bulma walked down the halls and through her memories, the past. They weren't so golden when they happened, but now she didn't know what she'd do for just one more adventure with Gokou, one more fight with Yamucha, one more remark about Kuririn's baldness, one more anything. She wished the fighters had lived to see Trunks, and Gohan, of course, grow up. What fine young men they were. She groaned. Bulma was too homesick, you could call it, to want to eat. With a heavy heart, she lay down on the couch and closed her eyes.

Suppose it was really without reason that she bothered getting up, like all the other days. She always ended up deep in thoughts, heart sick, tired, mad, sad, and alone. But this was the first day of Trunks' absence, she already felt as if this was the way she'd been living for all of her life.

And maybe, just in another way, it was.

"I thought I'd see you some time or another."

Trunks panted, bending down and his palms resting on his knee caps, "Yeah," He coughed, "You didn't tell me that you weren't going to tell me where you were. Should have prepared me," He sarcastically added, "I would have been up at three."

Gohan shrugged, "Every day you'll have to find me. Try to get used to my normal state of energy and use that as your guide. As you advance it'll become easier. Reading kis is one of the first and most important parts of fighting and yet it includes no fighting. You already know that you have to have as much information about where you're fighting and who you're fighting before you just jump into a fight."

Trunks diligently listened, "But what if they don't wait for you to check out the scenery?"

"Well, then it'd be in the best case that you get them to play cat and mouse. If it's an area by buildings and where a lot of people could possibly be, then you should make it your first obligation to get away from that area and to a place where you can fight without interruptions or worrying in the back of your mind that people might get hurt. Amazingly enough, this happens more than a lot, and cat and mouse is one of the androids' favorite games, so you'll usually have no problem with luring them away."

Nodding, he sat down on a rock, crossing his legs, "Always make sure there's no one around to get hurt, got it."

"Also, they can use people as their advantages. I've known those fiends to take hostages just to toy with me and see what they could get me to do."

"Did the people always turn out safe?"

Gohan's fist, loosely hanging at his side clinched in a sudden burst of anger in him, "Not always, Trunks. I won't lie to you. It's my fault a lot of people have died that way, and a horrible way it is. Damn those androids."

The boy really hadn't expected it to, and wasn't quite sure why he asked at all, "Gohan," his impatience and yearning to actually fight rising and giving him the strength to protest to the teaching habits, "So far we've done nothing considered training."

Gohan's eyes sharpened in sarcasm and amusement, "But we have, Trunks. I know you think you know a lot of this and it seems to be common sense issues, but believe me you loose a lot of that on the battle field. I know."

Submitting, Trunks listened again, "Alright. So a lot of it comes down to the location." He repeated, "If there are people there, get the androids out to a place where there aren't any people to fight. Reasons for this," He added, bored with the material, "are not to hurt people and to make sure that the androids can't use the objective against you."

Gohan could have laughed at the boy, but he sighed, "Okay. Well the basic reason we're fighting is to defend and don't you forget it. No matter what they say and who they threaten you with, it might be personal but you have to forget that sometimes. It's all a weight. While sometimes these emotions fuel you with what you need to get the upper hand in battles, they also blind you so that you use it stupidly. Keep calm and clear no matter what."

The lecture was more than boring for the young teen, but out of respect and because he was somewhat used to lectures by now, he nodded and noted every word that Gohan said.

"Now, your real training will start tomorrow because you came so late today. We'll review and I'll give you a few more of these pointers and then I'll get to training you." Gohan nodded, "Before we head home, here's a little on energy and how to master reading and seeing it: Sometimes the physical plain can't hold enough and if you think in the mental plain, you see so much more."

"Huh?"

"I'm saying if you can read actual energy, you'll be able to see what the blind eye reading only what's before them cannot."

Trunks nodded, still very confused but keeping silent.

"Reading and seeing energy is easy. Piccolo explained it in the best way, I guess. Look hard with unblinking eyes and concentrate to see the energy. You might barely get a glimpse of their physical form if you're still new to it, but as you progress and get stronger and sharper in every way then it'll be more than easy to keep up with. Feel the energy, see it, feel it, hear it, fighting relies on a lot of the senses and keeping in tact with them. It's not blind fists being thrown everywhere, you know. And though you might think while you're on the battle field that you won't remember a word of this, you will. So spend the rest of the day trying to get comfortable with my regular ki level. If you try hard, and because of your special circumstances, I know it should be easy to get down in a few hours max."

"Special circumstances?"

"Your race." Gohan didn't dare mention Vegeta. He didn't want to ever hear or say that name again. Watching the young Vegeta get up, he sighed to himself. Why was it that he had to train the son of the man he hated most… and the woman he loved most?
O.o;;;; So many paragraphs...

Next Time: Bulma, you've been acting a little differently lately, and Trunks is wondering why. Gohan's finding it hard to contain his crush but is still training Trunks with no outside complaint. But inside he's worried. What will happen when the androids really do attack? They've been laying low since the previous day, but they never do for long.

Reviewer's Corner:

Vegeta Goddess: Yes, I know, last chapter was a short bit. Believe me, it'll start to get up to 8-16 pages a pop. And you know my style and how I love short chapters too. Too short, people complain and say it doesn't flow, too long and people get bored cause it drags. You tell me what's better..... I think you spelled it right. Not that you should be asking me. My spelling is crap.

Chewy-Baka: n.n;; I'm a fisherwoman and I caught a Chewy-Baka!

Raven Pan: Eventually, I will make good training and fight scenes, but I think I hate writing those more than I hate writing lemons...

Seth: Gohan/Bulma is actually one of the more well known odd-couples. Now, I don't really consider Gokou/Bulma an odd couple for a few reasons: One, after all the thousands of fics that could very well rival the B/V empire, I'd think that it just kinda goes against all that is odd-coupling. Odd-coupling is kinda always the underdog, the couple that people write off as close to impossible and never give much attention to. So among couples like Gokou/Bura, Gohan/Bulma, Vegeta/Pan (I like odd couples... but I seriously do not support that one), and other ones, Gohan/Bulma and Vegeta/Pan are probably the only two that people would read. For this fic, I tried very hard to make it flow well and drift from being a whole bunch of word-for-word THoT to a story but not make it too outrageous.

Celeb Ryu: It is always good that you get to review me.

Sano: Oh, if you think she's having a fit now, wait until Trunks gets kidnapped... OH! I've said too much already...