That night, Trunks' and Goten's families left the hospital quietly before the police were able to speak to them. Any conversation with them would soon be irrelevant. Bulma looked over to Trunks, who was nestled in his father's arms, fast asleep. She sighed. It had been a long day for her son, and too for all his family and friends, and she had no doubt that everyone involved would be devoid of happiness until the infectiously always-happy Goten was back among them.
Raking through yet another lot of junk, Bulma was getting frustrated. This had to be at least the tenth drawer she'd searched, yet she still couldn't find the Dragon Radar. It hadn't been all that long since it had last been used, but it had still managed to be misplaced. With a sigh, she recalled that she had been hopeful it would be a long time before it would be needed again. That sure hadn't worked out.
The sound of soft footsteps alerted her to another person's presence. She turned to see her young son with a round device in his hand. He held it up:
"You looking for this? I woke up early and couldn't get back to sleep, so I figured I'd go find it to save time."
His blue-haired mother couldn't stop a sad smile from creeping onto her face. Trunks' face was pale, except for the skin around his eyes which was red and puffy. He was clearly tired and was still obviously upset, but was still trying his best to help get his friend as soon as possible. It took an enormous effort for her to not hug her son, but she knew it was not the time. Finding the Dragonballs was far more important.
"OK, you four, I'll give each of you directions to the Dragonballs as you get closer. Three of you will have to get two of them, I'm afraid. Please be safe".
Goku, Gohan, Krillin and Vegeta all nodded their understanding before rising off of the grass in Capsule Corp's grounds. Chichi, Bulma and Trunks watched, torn between hoping the men would be safe, and willing them to return as quickly as possible.
The wait was made to seem even longer and more agonising by the awkward atmosphere in the room where Chichi and Trunks were left to pass the time while Bulma helped direct the search for the Dragonballs. Chichi was still hugely conflicted about Trunks' actions, and found herself swinging from furiously angry to sympathetic to thankful over and over again. The tension between the two was exacerbated by the fact that Trunks was so frustrated over not being allowed to assist in collecting the Dragonballs that he was extremely restless, rarely being still for more than a few seconds. The fiery woman's patience inevitably ran out.
"Trunks! Please, just sit down and keep still before I do something I may or may not regret! It's hard enough being here with the boy who killed my son without you fidgeting constantly!"
Trunks was immediately still enough to give a statue a run for its money. Chichi too froze as Bulma entered the room with a sad smile.
"I know how upset you are Chichi, and I understand why, but please don't take it out on Trunks. He cares about Goten too, you know. I just came to say that Goku has already gotten a Dragonball, and is on his way back. Krillin is very close to his target too. With any luck we'll have them all in no time!"
The good news continued to trickle in in this manner. Vegeta soon recovered a Dragonball from deep in the ocean, and Gohan successfully retrieved another from within a large forest. With only three more to recover, morale was rising as the coveted wish became more within reach. Motivated by this thought, the fighter's spirits were renewed and they continued the hunt long into the night.
AN: Huge apologies for the boring chapter. It's more of a transition chapter to get the necessary Dragonball search over with, rather than developing character's feelings or anything vaguely interesting. Next one should be more substantial, and hopefully more engaging, and will probably be the last.
One thing I'm a bit worried about in this chapter is how long it would take to find all of the Dragonballs. Time passing is never clearly shown in the series, and I have no idea if four people gathering the balls over 24 hours is realistic. If you think this is a ridiculously short time, please review and tell me so I can change it, and anything else.
Also, just in case anyone's confused on this matter, I am NOT a freaky fish guy.