In my defense your honor, I listened to the Adventure Tri All-Cast cover of Butterfly about a dozen times before coming up with the basis of this chapter. And then again when developing the chapter, and while writing the chapter-
Ok but the original thought for the chapter was just the first, second, and last parts, but I added a few other scenes that wouldn't be long enough for their own chapter, I kinda wanted to switch the order of the second and third parts but this way worked out better in structure I think.
The lyrics are taken from the aforementioned Adventure Tri all cast verion of Butter-Fly, from YouTube's captions
I also referenced Butterfly a few chapters ago, right after Dende healed SIGohan, those lyrics were from LeeandLie (AmaLee)'s cover on Youtube, I forgot to mention it then
I swear every cover of this song has a different vibe, helped by lyric changes, Let's see how long it takes for this story to get to KEH's cover's energy
Anyway, back to our regularly scheduled posting schudule. Also some minor plot shenanigans
thewittywhy: it's more postponed than out the window, I never planned to ditch the concept entirely, and I do need it first for said power/crutch. I call it a crutch because I had absolutely no idea how I was gonna deal with the Cell fight before remembering it. I have actively had to add limitations for there to be any stakes. However this is the most detail I shall give on it and will not be confirming or denying any guesses. Honestly I probably shouldn't have said that much.
And a guess you can say she's making the best out of a situation here... perhaps not on a power scheme but an ever so needed change nonetheless.
fangrts: I'm still in the Buu Saga on my rewatch and I'm not quite at mystic Gohan as of yet, but either way, my planned thing is not connected, and will be popping up before the Buu saga
After an endless dream
In this world of nothingness
It seems as though our beloved dreams will lose
Even with these unreliable wings
Covered in images that tend to stay
I'm sure we can fly
Oh yeah
After an endless dream
In this miserable world
That's right, maybe not using common sense isn't so bad after all
Even with these awkward wings
Dyed with images that seem to stay
I'm sure we can fly
On My Love
I gazed around, allowing my mind to wander as I made my way leisurely through the wilds, occasionally using a bit of Ki hop over an obstacle, but otherwise keeping to a standard pace.
Oh sure, I could have made it to my destination in a few moments by flying but I've had enough zipping around for a bit. It's not like I was going too far anyway.
It was nice to just wander about, nothing rushing, no imminent danger to worry about.
Actually, it was quite reassuring that there were really only two people on the planet who could realistically be a threat to me at the moment. One of which being the one I was going to visit.
I'll become a happy butterfly
And ride on the glittering wind
I'll come to see you soon
Eventually, I had to use a fair bit of Ki to climb up a mountainside and made my way around until I saw Piccolo meditating near a waterfall.
He spent a bit of time around the other Namekians, but most of the time he still stuck to his distant, antisocial self.
I sat on the edge of a cliff, far enough from the waterfall that I didn't risk water splashing on my paper as I brought out a sketchbook and pencil.
Piccolo nodded in greeting before returning to his meditation. Sometimes we would chat, sometimes sit in silence. It was, nice. Not feeling obligated to say anything.
I stared at the page, trying to figure out what to draw, a nagging thought biting at me.
I glanced at Piccolo, another thought occurring to me as I snickered.
"What?" He asked.
"Oh nothing, I was just thinking- until dad gets back, you'd be the default protector of Earth."
Piccolo scoffed, "yeah right. You can go ahead and have that title."
"Ew. Gross. Responsibility. No thanks."
"Then don't try to pass it off on me!"
"But you're the strongest! That comes with responsibility or whatever."
"Oh? Then maybe I'll just go and take over the world then."
I rolled my eyes at his sarcastic threat, turning back to my stubbornly blank page.
I twiddled the mechanical pencil in my hand.
The twiddling turned to spinning.
Remarkably no pictures magically appeared on the page by staring at it.
It's best to forget
The unnecessary things
There's no more time to be fooling around
I sighed. Usually, I'd at least be able to scratch out the surrounding landscape, but nothing seemed to be drawn.
"What?"
"Huh?" I turned to Piccolo, who had turned his head towards me.
"You're not," he waved his hand at my paper, "drawing or whatever it is you do."
"Oh, uh, it's nothing…"
"You're a terrible liar."
"Why does everyone say that? But no, really, it's nothing."
Piccolo's unmoved and unimpressed face showed all that he was convinced by my rebuttal. As in, not at all.
"Really. It's nothing. It's just…" I trailed off, humming as I tried to find words to dismiss it all.
"You're making noises. None of them are words."
I hummed louder.
"Ok so," I started, "hypothetically speaking-"
"Not hypothetical at all then."
"You could let me finish first!"
Piccolo waved off the protest to continue.
"…ok so, hypothetically speaking, what's your opinion on…reincarnation…?" My voice got progressively quieter as I spoke, shrinking in on myself. Not that I wasn't certain Piccolo caught every word regardless.
I chanced a glance at Piccolo to see him squinting at me, as if trying to puzzle out my words.
"Well, in a way you could say that since I was born from my father's life energy-"
"No- no. I mean yes- but no. I mean- like- a person dies, and is born again as someone else but is still that original person, just, different body, or whatever."
"…back on the topic of not being a hypothetical question-"
I fell backwards so I was laying on my back on the cold stone, groaning in regret about bringing this up.
"None of those were words."
I grabbed a rock without sitting up and chucked it vaguely in his direction. It certainly did not get close to hitting him.
"I assume this is why you prefer to be called a girl then?"
I sat back up, leaning my chin on a hand, not glancing over.
"Well, I mean trans people do- never mind- yeah, that's why I, prefer- am a girl."
Piccolo nodded.
"That explains some things. However, it brings up the question of, why you trusted me so quickly. It's one thing for a child, or Goku, to trust easily, but it's, more questionable for, I assume you were an adult."
I shrugged. Because I doubted him being a favorite character from some stupid shonen I watched when I was ten was an adequate response.
"What was your name?"
I paused, frowning.
I glanced over at Piccolo and quickly looked back away, drumming my hands on my crossed legs.
"Doesn't matter," I decided, "I have no intention of using it in this life. it's not- it wouldn't be accurate anymore."
Piccolo didn't push for an answer. He never did.
I wasn't sure how long I stayed there after that, and I still was barely able to scratch out a few lines that were maybe a tree. Not that I was ever any good at drawing trees. But eventually, it started getting darker and I had to take off, this time opting to fly until walking once I got to a road.
What do you mean, wow wow wow wow wow
I wonder if we'll reach the skies
But, wow wow wow wow wow
I don't even know what my plans are for tomorrow
I once again fell into a pattern of letting my mind wander as I gazed around, making a steady pace down the path.
I paused looking over as a car stopped beside me. I wasn't good with car models generally, much less in this world, but it looked nice, I think.
I smiled as a completely overdressed Krillin stepped out, in that white suit I remembered him wearing a few times in the anime.
"Hey! Just the man I wanted to see!" He called.
"Hey, there's someone I wanted you to meet!" Warning number one.
"This is my new girlfriend!" Warning number two.
A woman with blue hair stepped out of the passenger side of the car, and do you believe in hate at first sight? Because oh boy-
Was I biased against someone other than 18 dating Krillin, maybe. But also-
"Aww! Well aren't you the cutest little guy!" Three strikes, she's out.
She took a step forward and I took three back.
"I am very much a minor."
She pouted and I looked at Krillin to hopefully move the conversation away.
"Uh, hey! Uh, Bulma, Yamcha, and I are all gonna be meeting at Master Roshi's in a couple weeks, you should come too!" Krillin smiled.
My eyes flickered to the woman- I physically could not care less about her name- and back to Krillin.
But still, I nodded, "ok, I'll ask my mom."
A bit of standard small talk and well-wishes later, which annoying lady felt the need to include herself in, and I was once again making my way home. Home to a normal dinner and to my familiar bed.
After an endless dream
In this world of nothingness
The next day Bulma called and asked if I could help her in shopping for some stuff for the Namekians, both because they'd be leaving soon and it was the last time they could experience new things here, and because she wanted them to have some things to take with them.
She said that she could use an extra person to help carry stuff.
Chichi was hesitant at first, something something studying, but I was insistent. I'd barely been able to visit anywhere in this world, which is remarkable considering my ability to fly, and I certainly never got the chance to find stuff for myself to buy. Eventually, Chichi relented.
Which lead to me now, following Bulma around a mall larger than any I'd been in, this life or previous, there were so many stores I'd have to utilize my speed did I wanted to go in them all, but considering life, half of them, were generic clothing stores, I had no reason to.
Despite her claims that she'd need my help carrying things, most of the time when she'd find something new she wanted she'd put them into storage capsules. Those were very convenient.
It seems as though our beloved dreams will lose
Eventually, she waved me off, "why don't you go find something you'd like," she'd said with the instruction to call her over when I found something and she'd buy it.
I wandered through various shops, noting through nicknacks and toys I'd have probably gotten if I were on my own, but if it was on Bulma's dime, who clearly had no sense of normal money allowances, I might as well get something worthwhile.
I browsed through a video game store, even though I'd have no device to play any of them on, and noted that while there were some original games, or at least games I didn't recognize, a lot of them were knock-off or off-brand versions of games from my past world. Most notably being Capsule Monsters, obviously using the original name of Pokémon. I made a note to get that one once I had something to play it on.
Even with these unreliable wings
I scanned through a few more stores, noting some t-shirts that I soon dismissed cause Chichi would never let me wear them in all likelihood. Some bracelets would be nice…but they'd probably break if I ever had to fight without time to take them off first.
A DVD store was next. I scanned through some movies, once again noting that a fair few of them were off-brand movies from my past world, most ones I had never even watched the originals of, or what I would consider the originals at least. A few looked like they were the same movies though, just recast and remodeled to fit this world better.
Covered in images that seem to stay
I moved on to their TV series and discovered much of the same. I paused at their animated shows. It seemed like more of a risk to go out of my way to buy any of them, as I had no idea what would be good or not without access to others' opinions.
My eyes lingered on one series, ha! Of all the shows that remained visibly the same, Yugioh? Really? That seemed kind of random. It only seemed to be the original series, none of the sequels, but that was the only one I ever watched anyw-
My eyes froze over another DVD box.
I'm sure we can fly
That-
I hadn't considered-
I floated up, not caring if anyone saw as I plucked the newly spotted DVD off the shelf.
I slowly landed again as I stared intently at the image on the front.
On
An image of seven human children standing over a cliff, with seven corresponding little monsters standing beside them. On the back, it showed eight children lined up with eight monsters.
My
My eyes scanned over the title, waiting for it to change, to reveal itself to be something different than what I originally assumed. That I had ideally misread yet another knock-off series.
But no, regardless of how long I stared at it, the title, Digimon: Digital Monsters, remained the same.
Love
It was stupid. Of all the-
Why did I even care so much anyway. It was just a show. I was literally in DBZ. The show I had watched before either Digimon or Pokémon. So why was this-
"Oh there you are! Did you find something you like?" I was brought out of my thoughts by Bulma walking up behind me.
She hummed reading the cover of the DVD. She didn't seem to find anything nearly as special about it as I did.
"Well it seems like a waste to only get you a single DVD series," She stood back straight, finding the hole where I had gotten it, and plucked out three more. Holding them out to me I saw the titles of 02, Tamers and Frontier had been sitting beside the original Adventure now held in my hands.
She held out the other DVDs which I took more delicately than I had, anything in this life. As if afraid that a misstep would make them fade away.
"Wait, do you even have a DVD player to watch them on?" I looked up, the thought hadn't even occurred to me, but I don't think we did. We had a TV, but only really for the news And whatnot.
Bulma hummed in thought as she looked over the store, walking over as she apparently found what she had been looking for.
"Here! I'll just get you one of these portable players. The quality isn't the best, I'll have to find you a better one later, but this way you can even watch it in your room," she winked as she took the DVDs from me in order to pay for them.
She then packed the five items in a Storage Capsule, which seemed excessive, and handed it to me. I didn't let the capsule out of my sight until long after I got home.
I'll become a merry butterfly
And ride on the Earnest wind
I'll come to see you where ever you are
I sat in my bed as I used the last of the natural light from my window to sketch when I heard a knock at my door.
The still unopened Capsule sat on my dresser, I don't know why I hadn't opened it.
Goku doesn't knock when he enters, and obviously wasn't here. Chichi knocks but opens the door immediately anyway. So that would leave-
"He-he-he-hey! Gohan!" The door opened to show The Ox-King, almost too big to fit through the door as he entered.
"I got you something!" He held out a perfectly wrapped box. I smiled as I opened it, revealing a little Fox plush.
I thanked him as I placed it among the other plushes. Of course, I would not be satisfied until they took up at least half my bed. I doubt Chichi would let them get that far though.
"So…Gohan…"
I shifted as the mood in the room changed.
"I hear you had quite the trip to Namek!" Grandpa Ox sat on the edge of my bed. I shifted back as far as I could.
Ambiguous words
Are surprisingly handy
I'll shout it out, while listening to a hit song
"I guess…"
"Why don't you tell me about it!" He grinned. It seemed forced.
"Well, we went to Namek. Got the Dragon Balls. Bad Guys were there. We fought them. Then wished our way back home."
"I heard you, hurt, someone while you were there."
"Yeah. He was trying to kill us. Didn't have a choice."
"I, see…is that all?"
"Yeah."
"And Goku didn't come back with you? How do you feel about that?"
"It's fine. You heard the Dragon, he'd be back soon enough."
"Haha! Of course he will! But, it's ok to miss him until then…you know?"
"Mmhmm."
"And, you can talk to me about anything, you know?"
"Mmhmm."
"Alright then," he pat my leg and took significantly too long to leave.
What do you mean Wow wow wow wow wow
I wonder if it'll echo through this town
But wow wow wow wow wow
There's no use anticipating
Finally, it was the day that the Namekians were set to leave. I had two additional wishes written down, having asked Ocari to translate them into Namekian writing for me.
I walked over to Dende.
"Hey, you only need two wishes for the whole, new Namek thing, right?"
"Yes," he nodded with a smile, "one to make a New Namek, and one to bring us there."
"Right…right, well, uh," I brought out the paper labeled with a 1, "if you wouldn't mind, adding this wish, it's just, something I wanted to take care of…"
Dende scanned over the note, "of course! This wish should be simple enough."
"Right, and also, if it's not too much of a hassle, Next time the Dragon Balls recharge," I brought out the second piece of paper handing it over as well, "I mean, if not it's fine but-"
"Of course! As soon as they recharge on New Namek I'll make the wish! It's the least I can do! But…are you sure you want this one later than the other?"
"Yes," I nodded. That much wasn't a question.
After an endless dream
In this miserable world
The first wish was simple enough. I did not need to be waking up for the next ten years thinking of that stupid Fake Namek thing like some bad middle school memory. So the wish was for Raiti and Zaacro to go to whatever planet they wanted. I couldn't care less where that was, just as long as I never saw them again.
And with a few words, the Dragon had announced it being fulfilled.
As for the second wish…welp. It was done. It was out of my hands. It was happening. And I had 133 days to figure out how to deal with the ramifications of that. I had already talked to the most important three about it, that being Nappa, Bulma, and Piccolo. But I should probably talk to others about it too. Definitely Krillin, maybe Chichi. There's no way for me to tell Goku, but that's his own fault anyway.
That's right maybe not using common sense isn't so bad after all
Dende made his wish for a new Namek. The dragon announced it was done much to the Namekians' joy.
"I would like to stay here please."
All eyes turned to Ocari, who was all but glaring at the ground.
There was a beat where nobody moved, then Bulma stepped forward and knelt by his side.
"Hey, are you sure about that? I mean I don't mind, I have plenty of space for you to stay, but-"
"Yes. I am sure. I- there's so much more I can learn here. And if I ever wish to return I'd only have to make a wish myself. Right? I've spoken to my elder about it already- it's- I want to stay. Please."
Another beat of silence.
Then Bulma leaned back with a smile, "well it seems like you have everything planned out then don't you? Like I said, I have no problem with it, but I don't have final say."
She stepped aside and left it up to the Namekians to discuss, which, predictably at this point, they agreed.
And, with a sad goodbye to Cargo and Dende, the wish was made leaving Ocari and Piccolo the only Namekians left here.
Even with these awkward wings
Stupid. Ocari's able to make a life-changing decision and stick to it, and he's a child. Yet here I am second-guessing a wish that literally has no threat to me.
Maybe I should have just done that wish first. Get it out of the way instead of having to anticipate it for four months. Oh well, too late now.
Dyed with images that seem to stay
Regardless, the fan fair was over and soon enough Chichi was ushering me back home once again, her riding the Nimbus and me flying beside it.
I'm sure we can fly
Sometimes I wished I could just ride on the Nimbus. It'd be easier than keeping a relatively slow speed when I had to focus on keeping it steady.
Chichi didn't seem to wonder why I couldn't. Not that Goku really did either, but he noted it was odd in the moment. Probably better for me that they didn't.
On my Love
I scoffed to myself as I saw the still closed capsule. Honestly, if a child can make a choice to stay behind away from his family I can open a stupid show that probably isn't even the same as the one I remembered.
I pushed the button on the capsule and tossed it so its contents landed on my bed.
After an endless dream
In this world of nothingness
I was once again walking through the wilderness and took my place sitting near Piccolo.
I didn't even bother taking out a sketchbook.
Instead, I twiddled a completely in plastic copy of Digimon Adventure between my hands.
It seems as though our beloved dreams will lose
Piccolo didn't move or say anything for a few moments, before sighing as he realized I was not going to initiate conversation.
"What is that?" He relented.
"It's, it's nothing."
"Clearly, it is not."
"It's, a thing I liked. Before." I let the implication be the end of the sentence.
"And you are staring at it because?"
"I, don't know. I don't, like thinking much about before. It's easier, and it's not like it effects anything, isn't it better to just ignore it all?"
"I'm not sure where you got the idea that I am the best person to speak to about this, but you are wrong."
"No. Because if I talked to Krillin about it he'd just want to talk about it-"
"Which you are doing."
"And I don't want to talk about it."
"Yet here we are."
I laid back into the cool rocks as I glared at the sky.
Even with these unreliable wings
Covered in images that seem to stay
I'm sure we can fly
Piccolo lowered himself until he was sitting on the rocks beside me instead of hovering.
"I will admit, I don't tend to think much about my father, what he did and how I came to be much anymore. Once it was all I could think about. It was all I knew. I knew I was created to get revenge on Son Goku so that's what I set out to do."
"Then I lost. I lost that fight and all I wanted was to get strong enough to beat him. And then I did. I killed him. I knew, I always knew his friends would bring him back. That I'd have to kill him twice for it to stick. But I had won, technically. And I had no time to enjoy it because there was an incoming threat and regardless of what I wanted to do next, I had to have a planet to do it on. So I, borrowed, Son Goku's child to train up to defend this miserable planet. A small, sarcastic, spiteful little thing-"
"I feel like I know this part of the story," a smile tugged at my lips involuntarily. Well, technically I knew all parts of this story but well, details.
"Stubborn, snippy-"
"Alright, you can wrap this part up at any point now."
"Stubbornly independent, despite not having an ounce of initiative-"
"ALRIGHT!"
"Oddly talkative, for someone with zero social skills-"
"You are the last person-" but I couldn't finish the sentence through trying to force a grin off my face and muffled giggles. At some point I had ended up sitting up again.
"But not afraid. At least, not of me. It never bothered me before, that people were afraid. That just meant I was strong. But, having someone, who by all means should have been afraid, not be, and rather stand up to, make demands, and- engage in conversation- it made me think that perhaps I'd been missing something for all those years."
I twiddled with a corner on my shorts, "I feel like you lost the point somewhere in there."
"Probably. My point is, the person who that was, didn't just begin to exist with this life. And if this thing you enjoy is enough to send you into a crisis, it must be something important."
"Or maybe it's not. Either way, you're putting a lot more effort into that piece of plastic than you have into your training in the past months," I withered away from Piccolo's disapproving glance with an awkward smile.
It's not my fault I wanted a bit of a break after Namek. Besides, Chichi's been on my back about studying, which I've had to focus on not just powering through whatever she tosses at me. I swear she was starting what I was learning in middle school. I am six. Physically.
I'm going to hit a wall eventually with her expectations where I catch up to where I was in my past life and that is not going to be a good day.
Besides, it's not like I dropped training entirely. I still sometimes sparred with Piccolo. Sometimes Krillin. Nappa once. (It was like punching a brick wall)
I scooted closer to Piccolo. Then closer still. Another few inches and Piccolo was eying me suspiciously. Finally, I got close enough that I could hug him without him having a chance to escape.
"Alright that's enough," he decided after a generous second and a half, pushing me away by a shoulder.
I was smiling now, which I suppose was an improvement from before.
"…did you really make that stupid wish?"
"You were there. You saw me give the paper to Dende. It's happening. 132 days." I had counted, double, and triple counted the days in the calendar, just to be certain I had the date right.
"Why would you-"
"It's fine. It'll be fine. Nothing bad will come of it."
"But, why?"
"Why not?"
"That's not an answer."
"Isn't it? It's the one I got." Well, most of it anyway. It's also partially a grievance I had with canon.
"Besides," I continued, "you have to come too, after all, you're the only one who knows where it is~"
"And why would I do that?"
"Because I'm asking you nicely and I'm your favorite person?"
"That is a bold assumption."
"At this point, I think it's a pretty safe assumption."
The sun was starting to set, and Piccolo was still denying that he'd come, but at the end of the day, I knew he would.
If anything it just made me feel better about the wish. The more I thought about it the more, excited? I became. Was that the word? I don't know if that's the word I was looking for. Anticipating would also work. Thrilled perhaps? Eager?
It's not like I really thought nothing could go wrong with it, but the idea of fixing what was one of my biggest, fixable, problems with canon? It was…fun.
"Hey…" I started, as if remembering right before I was about to leave, "before, when you wanted to know my name-"
Oh yeah
Walking through the wilds at dusk or night was nice, no matter how often Chichi would insist I come home earlier. It's not like any wildlife out here could break my skin, let alone hurt me.
But eventually, I got home. I plugged in the little DVD player and finally tore off the plastic from the box.
And after a bit of glaring at the instructions, making sure I was working the stupid thing right, I finally put the disk in and allowed the intro of Digimon Adventure to play, idly wondering which version of the intro it'd be.
It was Butter-Fly.
After an endless dream
In this miserable world
That's right, maybe not using common sense isn't so bad after all
Even with these awkward wings
Dyed with images that seem to stay
I'm sure we can fly
On My Love
I'm not sure if that was better or not.
In my defense, part two, Piccolo was rather prone to monologues in this point in the story, granted mostly internal as a vector of screentime eating flashbacks, but details
And yeah, it was kinda inevitable I'd mention Digimon in the series properly, for no biased reason whatsoever. This was the easiest way to do so.
And yeah, of course I'm keeping my baby Namek. It'd be a waste to focus on him then yeet him back with all the others