CHAPTER 40:
The Loss Of a Friend; The Beginning of a Friendship

The chirping of the crickets was like a soft dirge ringing throughout the dark night. The gentle echoes were the songs of the final farewell in the clearing they had found in East Forest. They had set up torches to give off faint light which cast dancing shadows on tree trunks that were scattered around them. The yellow glow lit Pan's hair as the wind ruffled stray strands that made their way clear of her tattered bandana.

They had dug a small hole for Giru, and Buu had changed a boulder into a beautiful marble tombstone that rested in the clearing. Pan had wished to bury Giru by the desert, since they had first found him among sand, but it was too dangerous to go out into the open, and she feared that a storm may accidentally bury the grave, meaning she'd never be able to visit Giru again. She had to settle for the forest. She only wished that Giru could rest peacefully here, among the lulling cricket chirps and the whispering trees.

The crowd that had gathered was small, and it was a shame that only Pan had the ability to ever know her robot friend. She knew that her Gramps would have loved Giru, and Buu could have played all kinds of games with him if he were still alive. Pan looked up to see her Gramps, Majin Buu, and Piccolo standing around the hole in the clearing. Piccolo was staring off into the distance, and her Gramps was blubbering, issuing loud sobs that shook his entire body.

Pan, however, felt nothing. She knew she should feel sorrow, sadness, despair, possibly even mourn, or fear, or sympathy… But it was all beyond her. She had spent so long crying herself to sleep, there really was no way she could be more depressed. She had hardened a great deal to her losses, and what happened to her earlier that day only confirmed the ending to her innocence. With Giru, Pan buried the last of her hopes. It really was all over, now. She had just learned to accept it.

Pan picked up the pillow bag and placed it gently into the hole. With her bare hands, she began to cover Giru with the soil around the grave. Hercule helped her out, pushing moredirt over the remains of her lost friend. After about two minutes, it was over, and Pan stepped back to wipe her hands on her pants and, with soiled fingers, smudged the beginnings of the one and only tear from her cheek.

"Here lies a friend and hero, T20-06 'Giru'," Pan read the tombstone solemly and then looked down, observing her shadow to try to get her mind off the loss. "I'm sorry you guys didn't know him…" She took a breath and then rubbed her hands on her arms in a slightly protective pose, "He… he really made a huge difference on the trip." She sighed, "He even saved my life once. I'm… I'm sorry I wasn't able to be there for him." She looked up toward her Gramps and Buu and knotted her eyebrows slightly downward, "He was possibly the most faithful friend anyone could ever have."

"Ah… Ah'm sorry Ah never got ta know 'im…" Hercule sniffed loudly, "But… but Ah'm glad that ya were able ta find such a faithful friend…"

A long silence drifted among them as everyone stood in silence, thinking of better days. Pan felt the wind ruffle her bandana, and adjusted it slightly against her hair. It was torn in several places, and because of that, it was loose on her head. She'd have to repair it at some point.

Now that she thought of it, she realized she should have buried her bandana with Giru. Not just to give to him as a keepsake to remember her and her Gra–a person he knew at one point–, but also as a symbol of the fact that the days that she once knew and loved were over. The final farewell, indeed.

Pan looked up to the crowd and said under her breath, "I know you guys didn't know Giru… but… is there anything someone would like to say? Not just about Giru, but maybe… maybe about other people you may have lost in the past, that we can't bury right now?"

Buu looked up and scratched his cheek, "Buu miss Bee…"

"Ahh!! Bee!" Hercule looked to Buu with a somewhat sad smile, "Ah miss Bee, too, Buu." Hercule looked down to Giru's grave, "Yeah… Bee was a good dog."

Pan looked down sadly, "I don't remember Bee."

Hercule nodded, "Yeah, Bee was one of the reasons Buu became good; isn't that right, Buu?"

As Buu nodded, Pan smiled sadly at the tombstone, "Giru was also one of the reasons Tru–a friend– and I became friends…"

Another long pause came between the party, and Pan found herself looking up to stare at Piccolo. "Mr. Piccolo?" She waited for him to acknowledge her, but when he didn't, she frowned and continued, "Is there anyone you miss?"

Piccolo turned his head indifferently to her and grunted under his breath, "No."

"Not even one person?"

"No."

Pan looked away from Piccolo and stared off to the trees, "I don't think you mean that."

Piccolo snarled slightly and shook his head in disappointment, "You have to learn that mourning over the loss of people will only get you nowhere and gives nothing but distractions."

"That's… a horrible way of looking at it…" Pan looked to him with a desperate frown as her eyes went wide.

"It's life, Pan." Piccolo gave her a stern glare, "The only way to survive is to move on. You kill to survive. You plan ahead to strategize." Piccolo turned to her and huffed, "That's one thing about humans, Pan. They are only species that I know who looks back to the past in order to face the future." He stared at her unblinkingly, "That also makes humans a weak race. Memories of loss are only weaknesses, and if your enemy ever takes advantage of it, it leads to intimidation." He nodded to her, "And intimidation leads to defeat."

"But why are you saying this now–?"

"–Because funerals are a pointless ritual, especially now. Pan, you are being hunted, and all you're doing is sitting around and crying."

"I am NOT crying!!!" Pan could feel frustrated tears swell in her eyes as her fists balled at her sides. "I hate you!"

"Good." Piccolo gave her a smirk, "I want you to hate me."

"Well you're doing a damn good job of it!!!" Pan stepped back and threw her hands before her, "How could you say this crap at Giru's funeral?!?!" She glared angrily as she rose her power, "Humans are not a weak race because we look back at our past. We go out of our way to learn from the past, so we never…so we… we never make the same mistake again!!"

"You fool!!" Piccolo threw his hands before him, "Lower your ki right now or else all of Baby's followers will target us where we stand!"

Pan lowered her ki, but felt anger swell inside her. With a roar, she punched a tree and sent it splintering into a hundred thousand pieces in a gigantic explosion of wood and debris. "I HATE YOU!!!!" She screamed aloud and fell to her knees, pounding at the ground in a fit of rage, "I HATE EVERYONE!!!"

Pan felt her body shake in tremors of hatred, of anger, of grief beyond her words. Her body tingled with her pumping blood, her soul shrieking inside her, her words and emotions pounding at her mind, "I HATE GRANDPA!!!!" She felt tears swell and flow down her cheeks, "I hate him for leaving me!!! HE LEFT ME!" Her hands gave way on the ground, and she collapsed, crying into her own flesh, trying to hide her tears in shame from the Namek who stood over her with his arms crossed before his chest.

Hercule watched all of this with a somewhat confused expression, but he could empathize with his granddaughter completely. It wasn't just her world that was coming apart, but his, too. All his followers had deserted him, now worshipping the parasite that not only took over the world, but his own beloved daughter, Videl. Piccolo had no family to mourn for, and by the looks of it, it didn't seem as if he could morn… if Piccolo even had it within him to empathize or sympathize with anyone.

Hercule walked up to Piccolo and hesitantly laid a hand on the Namek's back, but jerked it away before the Namek would be angered, "Uh… Mr. Piccolo… Sir?"

Piccolo gave him a glance and a raised brow ridge that indicated Piccolo really had no interest in what Hercule had to say, but Hercule was determined to say it anyway in defense of his granddaughter, "Pan… she's been an emotional wreck lately. She hasn't eat'n in days… She… She's really been suff'ring, and… Ah hope you don't hold it against her that she's sayin' all those things. Ah mean…" He looked downward, "She really doesn't mean 'em."

Piccolo looked toward Pan, who was still crying on the ground, and said aloud, "What have you been doing to train her?"

Hercule blinked, "Huh? Train her?"

Piccolo grunted in frustration, "Yes. Train. What have you been doing to train her?" Piccolo looked to him in exasperation, "You aren't going to tell me that you haven't done ANYTHING, are you?!"

The firelight from the torches caused the sparkles of sweat to glisten on Hercule's forehead. "Uhhh…." The World Champion's eyebrows went up and he closed his eyes with an enormously overly-nervous smile, scratching his hair behind him, "Heh… Heheheh…. Ehhhh."

Piccolo grunted and narrowed his eyes toward Pan, "I thought so." Piccolo huffed and walked up to stand directly before Pan while keeping an unconcerned gaze on Hercule, "I hope you don't mind, but I think I'm going to take her for a while."

"Take her??" Hercule blinked and frowned, "Where??"

"To actually accomplish something." Piccolo huffed, "Something you wouldn't know anything about."

Pan looked up and wiped several tears from her face, "Huh?" She looked up to Piccolo and tried to weakly stand on her feet, "What are you talking about?"

"Don't argue with me." Piccolo grabbed her across the waist and flung Pan over his shoulder, causing her to emit a startled scream.

"WHAAA?!" Pan beat at his back, "What are you doing?! Put me down!!! PUT ME DOWN!"

"Sorry, kid. You're coming with me."

"Gramps!! Help me!" Pan continued to beat at Piccolo while kicking her legs.

Buu stepped forward and stopped beside Hercule, looking to his friend, "Buu make Green Man into chocolate?"

"No, Buu." Hercule shook his head and put his hand out to stop Buu. "Ah think Ah kin trust Mr. Piccolo, here." Hercule stepped forward and gently rubbed his hand on Pan's back, "Just stay safe, Panny. Ah don' know what Ah'd do if anythin' were to happen to ya…"

"Gramps! No! Wait!" Pan tried to reach out her arm to him, but Piccolo grasped her even tighter and began to run through the forest, leaving the clearing, the light, and Giru's grave behind. "Let go of me!!!" Pan beat Piccolo's back again as he ran, "What do you want from me?!"

"I'm going to train you, kid." Piccolo smirked slightly as his legs caused them to almost fly past the trees, "And when I'm done with you, nobody is ever going to mess with you again."

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-1/17/04-