Chapter 7- Birthday
Gohan stretched, relishing in the fact he was able to sleep in past 6a.m. on weekends. He blinked and rubbed his eyes, trying to remove the sleep from them. Before his brain was fully functioning again, Goten was racing through the door of their shared room.
"It's about time you woke up! Mummy is making the ichigo daifuku, but she won't even let me get close!" He lamented, taking a seat on his brother's stomach.
"I wonder why…" Gohan mumbled good naturedly, rather impressed that his mother had kept Goten at bay for so long, even though she was entirely human. He imagined that if he hadn't restarted his training earlier this year, even he would have trouble keeping up with the little ball of energy.
"Mummy also said Grandpa is coming. She wants to know if the big, scary, green man is coming, too!" Goten continued, not registering his brother's teasing.
Gohan coughed, trying to cover his laughter at Goten's description of Piccolo. He felt Piccolo's response soon after. 'Just because you will never be green and scary…' he seemed to think, also somewhat amused. 'Oh and congratulations, you survived another year.'
'Thanks… I think…' Gohan focused as hard as he could on giving a precise message that could easily be translated into words.
'I can sense… something. It's not a Ki signal, more like a precognition.' He added as Gohan extended his range for sensing Ki and held his brother a little closer. 'I'll try meditating for a few more hours before I come and see you. I think some kind of danger is approaching, but I can't be sure yet.'
The familiar weight of dread settled in Gohan's stomach as he thought of the implications of this. And his father wouldn't be there to clean up his mess if something went wrong this time.
"What is it?" Goten asked, leaning forward until his forehead bumped against his big brother's. Surely it would have concussed a lesser person.
"Nothing, yet… Yes, Piccolo is coming. Maybe we should leave Mum be and just eat breakfast for now, huh? Mum will let you eat them later on today."
Piccolo landed in the yard in time to see Chi-Chi berating Gohan for breaking the leg off one of the outdoor tables he was supposed to be setting up for the birthday lunch. "I told you to do it GENTLY! I hired these especially, so you'd better find a way to fix it!" She didn't need to say she couldn't afford to pay for the damage at the moment. Her stress and screechy voice spoke volumes.
"I'm sorry, Mum!" Gohan quickly replied as he fruitlessly bumped the table leg against the underside of the table where it had once been, as if hoping it would magically repair itself.
So of course he nearly jumped out of his skin when the area between the table and the leg began to glow and a fixture appeared in its place. Gohan sighed with relief, more curious than ever about how that particular power worked. "Thanks Piccolo!" He smiled as Chi-Chi turned on her heel to fetch some of the food from inside.
"Listen," Piccolo began, leading Gohan away from the relatively fragile tables. "I still can't get any more information on what it is that's coming for us. But I have the feeling that I'm going to die, again, in about six months."
"W-what?" He forced out, the dread in the pit of his stomach hardening into resolve. No, he wouldn't die for him again. He didn't notice the slight artificial wind that had picked up around him.
"Also," Piccolo continued, feeling it would be better to get all of the bad news out of the way at once, "I'm not sure that any of the Dragon Balls will be able to be used to wish me back. I mean, my instincts are screaming at me to reproduce. It's usually best to listen to them."
Gohan's eyes rested on Piccolo's stomach area before he realised what an idiot he was being. Nameks reproduced by orally laying eggs… asexually.
"If I have a child now," he ploughed on, ignoring Gohan's weird thought train, "I can accelerate his growth and we can raise him to be a warrior as well. I know my race can take DNA from our surroundings; we wouldn't have genetic variation otherwise. I'm not sure it will work with something so completely alien, but I want to try and mix Saiyan DNA." He said all of this very quickly, as though afraid his idea would be deemed stupid. He only vaguely knew about the science of it.
Gohan was perplexed by this. "But how does that even work!" he demanded, baffled. Was it even, well, allowed for a species to have such an obviously superior evolutionary path available?
"I don't know how, I just know it does, ok? I remember taking the superior chloroform of a tree for one of my children, but the egg was destroyed when that tyrant landed." He seemed to be too angry about this to vocalise essential details, but Gohan knew he was referring to Frieza. "Or rather, it was Nail, on planet Namek. I know it works, anyway, just not to what extent."
"Ok," Gohan nodded, "if you think it might work, I'm willing to help. We just need to get Vegeta in on it too, since he's the only pure blooded Saiyan left on this planet."
Piccolo's brows twitched as he thought of the implications of this. Much yelling about pride of the Saiyan race and probably a fight seemed to lie in that direction. "Human-Saiyan hybrids seem to be stronger. Call me optimistic but perhaps we should try that mix out first?"
"Oh right!" Gohan nodded and blushed a little. Piccolo noticed the build up of mind barriers, but didn't comment.
"I only need a few cells." He reminded the boy. "There are sufficient cells in a hair or something of the sort." He searched Gohan's thoughts for the appropriate wording yet again. "Gametes are not needed; in fact they would probably be more of a hindrance."
"Right, so when are you – ow!" He complained, rubbing the spot where the hair had promptly been plucked from his scalp.
"No time like the present." Piccolo replied, ingesting the precious cells immediately after speaking. "I'll know if it worked by tomorrow. The glands in my throat and chest will do all the work."
Gohan grumbled something about consent and consummation before turning back to the house to see if his mother needed a hand. He saw Goten carrying a platter, which appeared to be bigger than he was, across the lawn. He watched his brother hesitate as he came to the table, unsure of how he was going to actually get the platter up there.
He looked around for something to climb on, but the chairs hadn't been set out yet. He knew that if he tried to jump, he would probably spill the food everywhere, which would not make his mother very happy. He shut his eyes tight and concentrated on lifting his Ki. Goten didn't have much control yet, but he determinedly made himself hover until the platter could be slid onto the nearest table.
Extremely pleased with himself, Goten dropped suddenly and proceeded to bounce up and down on the spot. "Brother, brother! Did you see? I figured it out all by myself!" He called, waving his arms at Gohan as though they were miles apart instead of meters.
"Wow, well done! You should come and train with us one day and we'll teach you how to fly properly." Gohan replied as he and Piccolo approached. That was another thing that bothered him now. The kids would have to be taught to defend themselves properly as well. Suddenly six months seemed to be too short a time.
As if to chase the gloomy thoughts away, at least for now, a hover car landed in the corner of the yard and the Son boys' gigantic grandfather carefully extricated himself from the cramped space. "Aha, there you are!" he boomed jovially, putting the horned helmet on his head now that there was enough room for it.
He flung an arm around Gohan's shoulders before they were both barrelled into, head first. "Hi Grandpa!" Goten said in a slightly muffled voice because his face was still pressed into Gyumao's side. He laughed in response, but still glanced over at Piccolo uneasily. Piccolo wasn't paying much attention though; he was too busy being surprised by the sudden appearance of Vegeta's Ki.
Chi-Chi seemed flustered by the sudden arrival of her guests and quickly ran inside to fetch chairs and the drinks. She returned with a few chairs just in time to see Vegeta come to a sudden halt in the middle of her yard.
He slowly put Bulma down, who seemed to be torn between yelling her lungs out at him and preventing herself from throwing up. "Dammit Vegeta, can't you come to a reasonable stop instead of throwing the contents of my stomach everywhere!" She gave him an ineffective push and tottered away unsteadily.
Vegeta sighed and muttered something about pathetic humans, but grabbed one of Chi-Chi's chairs and set it out for her, anyway. Trunks, on the other hand, was grinning. "Hey Dad can you teach me to fly that fast later?" he asked enthusiastically.
He was answered with the usual noncommittal grunt. Trunks retained some hope, since it hadn't been a flat out 'no'. He and Goten soon stuffed their faces, and then quickly ran off to play-fight and get away from the boring adults.
Krillin, 18 and their toddler arrived last, explaining that Roshi had stayed behind to look after turtle. "Oh, isn't she just precious!" Chi-Chi smiled, and even Bulma perked up a little at the sight of the little girl. 18 looked embarrassed, but Krillin was as proud as punch.
"Isn't she? This is Maron." He introduced now that everyone had gotten over the shock that he actually had hair.
Everyone over the age of six soon sat down for lunch, except Piccolo, who sat down because he simply knew that something significant was about to happen. And just ten minutes later, he wasn't disappointed.
"Hellooo, can anyone hear me?" Goku's voice called from Otherworld. Given the way everyone jumped (to varying degrees), it seemed that they could all hear him.
"Dad?" Gohan asked, standing and looking around, even though the voice had seemed to come from the inside of his head. Various murmurs of 'Goku?' and 'Kakarrot?' followed this.
"Hey Gohan, how are things?" He answered cheerfully, "Why is everyone there?"
Gohan deflated a little, "It's my birthday, I'm sixteen today." He answered.
"Huh, already? Well, happy birthday! I just wanted to let everyone know that I can have twenty-four hours back on earth. I hear they're going to have another World Martial Arts tournament soon, so I was going to come back for that."
A stupid grin plastered itself across Gohan's face, but his rejoicing was cut off by his mother. "What? You come back for a stupid tournament, but not the birth of your second son!" She raged, shaking her fist at the sky.
"Um, second son? So it worked then, you did get pregnant?" He asked, at first uncomfortably, but then more excitedly.
Chi-Chi rolled her eyes in exasperation. Of course he had just been off doing his own thing and not watching them. He didn't seem to realise just how long he had been dead, either. Chi-Chi suddenly realised that Goku wouldn't have aged at all over the years. She suddenly became hyperaware of all the wrinkles and grey hairs she had gained in the meantime. What if he thought she was too old now!
"Well anyway, King Kai says I've taken long enough. I'll see you all in about half a year, ok?" Everyone could practically see the smile in his words. It was contagious.
Even Vegeta was smirking, "Right, we'll see if anything has changed when he gets back." He made as if to leave and start training on the spot, but then he noticed the look Piccolo and Gohan were sharing.
"Didn't you say you're going to die in six months? Does this have something to do with the tournament and Dad coming back?" Gohan asked sharply, his concern increasing.
"Possibly, like I said, I'm not exactly sure on the details yet. I may not be able to see anything else, so we should prepare for every possibility while we still have time."
Vegeta was quick to pick up on the direction of their conversation, as usual. "We should all enter the tournament and keep a look out. Splitting up during such a time is just asking for trouble."
Gohan hesitated, not particularly wanting to fight people if he didn't have to. Besides, the tournament was bound to be held in Satan City. What if his classmates saw him? Wouldn't Videl compete as well?
Gohan did not yet realise that he would be practically forced to compete by the very girl he was thinking of.
Thank you for all the alerts, I'm glad people are reading this. The next chapter is drafted and should be up before Christmas.