"Ahh...this is the life, huh?"
Blonde Launch leaned back slightly, stretching her arms as she made sure not to fall off the bar stool. At opposite sides of her were Bulma, drinking a glass of cold water, and Chi Chi, who was drinking tea. Launch herself had just had her second shot of tequila, still holding the empty shot glass in her right hand before setting it down. Chi Chi chuckled slightly.
"For some, I suppose," she remarked politely, causing Launch to chuckle in turn.
"Ah, come on, Chi, you sure you don't wanna join me? It'll loosen you up just enough, hehe." As she spoke, the bartender returned with her third shot, which she accepted eagerly. "Thank you, kind sir!" she said, causing Bulma and Chi Chi to raise an eyebrow. They never would've imagined that Blonde Launch was ordinarily a happy drunk. For his part, the bartender smiled a kind, patient smile. He sensed that he'd have to deal with this lady for awhile.
"Anything else I can get for you ladies tonight?" He turned to address Chi Chi specifically. "Madam?"
Chi Chi chuckled. It was the first time she had been out since her wedding where someone had known she was married, although she wasn't certain how he had realized this.
"Oh, no, thank you. I'm quite alright."
The bartender smiled before turning to Bulma. "For you, miss?"
Curiously, a part of Bulma almost bristled at the term, even though the rest of her knew better. As far as she was concerned, she was perfectly content with her current situation. She and Yamcha hadn't been right for each other, and now that they were single again, they could both...move on. At their own pace.
"Nothing for me, thank you. As long as I can't sleep it off, I'm not drinking anything."
The bartender smiled. "Insomnia, eh? Not to worry: my aunt Dani taught me how to make the perfect cure for that. I'll whip up a cup for you!"
Bulma chuckled. Her own knowledge of pharmacology, as well as everything else modern science had to offer, had been no help in reversing her self-imposed sleeplessness. She supposed it was logical to resort to homemade methods.
"I appreciate the gesture," she said. The bartender finally turned to Launch once more, who had finished the third shot by the time he was done talking to the others. He smiled, a lot more nervously this time.
"And you, miss?"
Launch chuckled. "Ah, no rush. Give me a bit to adjust to this."
"Of course," he said before walking away to assemble the ingredients needed for his aunt Dani's special tea. Chi Chi couldn't help but chuckle a bit.
"'Miss Launch,' if you don't mind my asking...have you ever thought about being called 'Mrs. Launch' instead?" she asked in a conspiratorial tone, but found herself slightly surprised when Launch snorted out a laugh.
"What?! Are you serious right now?" she asked, laughing all the while. Chi Chi huffed slightly in indignation.
"It's a legitimate question," she countered. Bulma smiled while Launch struggled to calm down.
"Chi Chi, it's been, like, what, a month? These sorts of things take time. Usually," she added, reflecting on Chi Chi's own circumstances. "Most people don't get engaged in, like, five minutes."
Chi Chi's indignation only grew with that comment. "It wasn't five minutes!" she said angrily. Bulma shrugged.
"Eh, five, six: honestly, I was more focused on your whole deal with Goku than I was on the fight."
Launch took one final breath in order to regain her composure before cutting in. "I wasn't: it was eight minutes."
"Eight?!" Bulma asked, completely surprised, while Chi Chi's face fell.
"That's...that's a little longer than I thought it was..." she thought sheepishly.
"Mhm. Although really, with all the talking, the straight up pause halfway through, the way it ended...calling it a 'fight' is kind of generous."
Chi Chi crossed her arms and looked off to the side, embarrassed by the whole thing. "I-I didn't do that badly..." she said softly, trying to hold on to her dignity. Bulma chuckled while Launch thought over what had been said earlier.
"Honestly, it isn't the timing I got a problem with," she admitted, to Bulma's surprise.
"Hang on, what? After a month?!" Launch shrugged.
"Way I see it, we were kinda together for a lot longer than that. I wouldn't want to push any of that onto him, but like, if he walked up to me tomorrow and told me that he wanted to start introducing me as his wife or whatever, I'd be down." Chi Chi simply nodded, while Bulma kind of blinked.
"Huh. I...I see."
"The thing that's funny is the idea of making it legal." This time, both Chi Chi and Bulma were left confused.
"What's wrong with that?" she asked, prompting Launch to chuckle.
"Well, for one thing, I've never quite been sure how to explain the whole split personality thing in a legal sense." Chi Chi and Bulma nodded, that at least being reasonable. "And, even if we did manage to sort all that out, it'd be pretty difficult to really do an official ceremony. I mean, Blue could maybe do it, but I'm kind of a wanted criminal, like...everywhere," she said. "Why do you think I pick places like this or that bar in West City to hang out in?"
As a man a couple seats down from them pulled out his phone in order to send out a text, the two women looked at each other, growing somewhat nervous. "...The bartenders are nice?" Chi Chi suggested hopefully, knowing in her heart that it wasn't the answer.
"Why, thank you, madam!" the bartender from earlier cut in, cup of tea in hand. "The compliment is appreciated. Your tea, miss," he said as he turned to Bulma, who tasted a bit of it before drinking it slowly. "We have a rather relaxed policy here regarding, shall we say, prior offenders. So long as they don't cause trouble or harm to the other patrons, our doors are open." As he spoke, the man nearby put away his phone and calmly walked out of the building, a fact which the bartender and other patrons only scarcely paid attention to. Chi Chi merely nodded, not sure how to respond to all of this.
"I...I see," she eventually said. The bartender continued.
"It is, of course, a proper courtesy not to speak of any particular individual's presence here at any given time, provided one wishes to retain their right to enter this establishment."
Launch nodded. "Don't worry, man, I trust these two," she said, placing an arm around each of them. "The three of us being here shouldn't be a problem for-"
"Dan! Dan!" a voice cried out from the employee exit, which let out towards the dumpsters out behind the club. The door suddenly slammed open to reveal a younger man, perhaps twenty three, wearing casual clothes and a gold chain around his wrist. He looked incredibly agitated, sweating from either exertion or panic.
"What's going on, Luke?" the bartender replied.
"Kyle just sent me a text saying the cops are coming! He overheard one of their radios before they drove off, and he thinks they're looking for...her," he said as his eyes fell upon Launch, his voice laced with resigned annoyance. The bartender sighed, giving the trio a slight smile out of politeness.
"You folks should probably run."
Gohan sat at his desk with a pencil in hand, as he had been doing for so long that he had started to lose track of the hours. When his mother had first assigned all of his homework following his return from Namek, he had balked. It seemed like it would take him forever to finish. And yet, at this moment, the last problem of the last homework assignment he had been assigned sat before him, waiting to be solved. It was an algebra problem, incomprehensible to Gohan's peers but merely moderately difficult for him. He had been working his way through the problem for the last few minutes, and by this point, the solution had become clear to him. All he had to do was write the final expression, proving the value of x and leaving him without any homework for a week. Maybe two more seconds of writing, and he would be done.
So...why couldn't he pick up the pencil?
After he had written the last step, he had set the pencil down for a second while he stretched, as he had done often while he had been working. He couldn't think of where he had picked up the habit from. He hadn't done anything like that the last time he was home. Maybe while he had been traveling to Namek? He remembered Krillin stretching while sitting down sometimes, during their mental training sessions. He always seemed to need to stretch out something, as if his body was stuck in a perpetual state of minor tension.
He dismissed the tangent and turned back to the math problem. He reached out towards the pencil before hesitating, drawing his hand away from it as if it could give him a painful shock. He moaned slightly, annoyed with himself. It was easy, he thought. Just pick up the pencil, write the letter, write the equal sign, write the number, and put it in a box! Done! That's all it would take to be done for a week. All it would take for him to finally be able to...to…
Sleep.
That's what it all came down to. That's what he had been putting off for as long as possible. What he had thrown himself into his homework every waking second in the vain hope of avoiding. He needed to sleep. He...wanted to sleep. And yet, every time he thought to stop working, get himself a nice, cold cup of water, and lie down in his bed reading a good book, he just...couldn't. Every day since he had gotten home had proceeded in the same way: he'd wake up, get dressed, have breakfast, brush his teeth, work on homework, have lunch, work on homework, have dinner, work on homework, take a bath, put on pajamas, brush his teeth, work on homework, and then just...fall asleep, sooner or later.
Then the nightmares would begin.
They varied day by day, but they had always occurred each and every night, like clockwork. One night, he was trapped in Raditz's Attack Ball, banging fruitlessly against the hull before tearing it apart in a fit of rage, then flying at Raditz so ferociously that he tore straight through his chest. Another night, he was stranded in the desert where Piccolo had left him, dying of hunger and thirst, barely able to move before collapsing to the ground, everything fading to black. Yet another night, he confusingly found himself and the others on Namek in some strange televised mixed martial arts match with Recoome, Burter, and Jeice. The bizarre circumstances quickly became grotesque as he was beaten to a pulp by Burter, ending with his neck being broken and leaving him unable to turn his head away from the sight of Krillin, Yamcha, and Nail being brutally beaten to death by the trio of mercenaries. Although no two nightmares were even remotely similar, they all had something in common: they were pulled directly from everything that had happened to Gohan since he was abducted by Raditz. And they were all seared into his brain.
He had figured that no longer being on the Capsule Ship and being back on Earth would help the nightmares gradually pass. And yet, even when both of his parents were at home and he was out of danger, the nightmares continued to persist. By the end of the second night, he decided to do everything in his power to avoid having or even thinking about his nightmares, a task which would prove easier said than done.
Because he was still grounded, leaving the house was strictly off-limits, as was making use of Chi Chi's personal computer or her phone in order to play games. He tried to read first, but found it didn't quite distract him enough. He was forced to turn to doing his homework, focusing on that task so intensely that he forgot to lie down in bed his third night back, falling asleep in his chair. It hadn't taken too much questioning for Chi Chi to determine why. The therapist, Susan, had been hired and an appointment arranged for the next day within an hour.
From that moment on, Gohan had decided to be honest with his mother as far as him continuing to experience nightmares went, but he did his best to hide that he was continuing to stay up far later than he ought to. All the same, had it not been for how quietly he worked, as well as his remarkable alertness despite only getting four hours of sleep every night, he would never have managed it.
He hardly felt good about what he was doing, no matter how he attempted to justify it in his head. He was lying to his mother, after all, someone who only wanted to make sure that he was happy and healthy in every respect. But when he thought about how she'd react if he went into detail about his nightmares, about the other reason they frightened him beyond bringing to mind all of the horrible experiences he had found himself in...he couldn't even pin down how she'd react. He couldn't imagine it would be good.
Thus, he had kept up appearances as well as he could. It was a task that would become much harder when he lacked any homework to distract himself with. When he had nothing to do for hours upon hours, except to read, or to stare at the wall and think. To think about everything he had been through, how he had seen more death and violence in a little over a year than most people would in their entire lives. To think about how quickly he had had to grow up in order to survive...only for that to not have made a difference, in the end. To think about how he had acted to harm others, to...kill, others. That was what scared him the most.
Before Raditz came, he would have been unwilling to swat a fly. That one Saibaman, that Frieza Force soldier...even if he hadn't explicitly intended to kill them, how much did that matter in the end? They were still dead. It wasn't like either of them were likely to change their ways. He knew that those kinds of people needed to be stopped, and in both cases, he had followed another, older person's lead. They were the experts, after all. They knew what they were doing, what had to be done. And, when the time came for action, they did it, already planning ahead for what they had to do next in order to survive. They never stopped to think about it.
He was appalled at how quickly that had become instinctive for him. Even when he wasn't locked in combat, it always felt like so much was happening. He had only allowed himself a brief moment of rest after he had killed the Saibaman, not even fully processing just what that had meant before he was already back in the thick of the fight against Nappa. He had hardly had even that much time to mull over the fate of the Frieza Force soldier before he and the others had to hide. When he had time to think and rest, like during the flight to Guru's home, he never stopped to dwell on what might have happened to those two unconscious soldiers, soldiers whose energy he had never felt again. Only after everything had resolved itself and the group was finally able to make their way back home did Gohan really have time to think about everything that had happened. The two deaths he had caused over the battles he had been involved in already weighed heavily enough on his mind, but even this didn't quite compare to what he had felt just before he had been killed by Frieza. He'd tossed the memory around in his head for some time, painful as it was to recall, trying to explain it to himself.
In that moment, with Krillin and Yamcha, people he had grown close to, blown up right before his eyes, his mentor bleeding to death behind him, and his father not much further from the grave, all Gohan could think about was tearing Frieza limb from limb. His pure, unbridled rage powered him up immensely, more so than any previous burst of power he had experienced. He didn't stop to think about whether or not he could even pull it off. All that mattered was making Frieza pay.
In the end, he hadn't managed to hurt Frieza at all, and nothing he attempted to argue to himself could make him ignore that he had wanted to. He wondered what that said about him. Clearly, it said that he had trouble controlling his emotions. But more than that, did it mean that he had gotten used to violence? Had he accepted the idea of hurting someone as something that had to be done sometimes? Was that idea even correct? And, if it wasn't, and Gohan's actions were wrong...why was Gohan relieved that Frieza was dead?
He shot up straight when he suddenly heard a knock at the door, and promptly sensed someone right outside his room. He had been so preoccupied with his own thoughts that he had completely ignored the presence of their ki signature. After a second of apprehension, he realized that the person was none other than Chiaotzu, who he knew had stayed at the house to watch him while his mom was off in Ginger Town.
"Gohan?" Chiaotzu asked, in a tone which demonstrated his concern. "Are you doing okay?"
Gohan figured that the easiest course was the safest course in this particular case.
"I'm fine," he said, attempting to say it as casually as he could manage, but not quite getting there. Chiaotzu grunted slightly, signalling that he wasn't convinced.
"May I come in?" he asked gently, forcing Gohan to consider how to respond. He didn't particularly want to talk to anyone while he was in the middle of his own internal debate. However, the more he thought about it...if nothing else, talking was a decent distraction.
"Sure," he said, prompting Chiaotzu to open the door to his sparsely furnished room. He closed the door softly with telekinesis before floating around for a bit, admiring the space.
"Awfully nice aesthetic you got here, kiddo," Chiaotzu said, trying to make the young boy feel at ease. Ultimately, Gohan simply grunted in response.
"Thanks," he said, before turning back around to focus on picking up the pencil and finishing the algebra problem. Chiaotzu, noticing Gohan's reluctance to engage with him, decided to seize upon the problem as a conversational topic. He floated around such that he was hovering above Gohan's desk, giving him room to work while also ensuring that Gohan made eye contact with him.
"Ooh, working on algebra already, huh?" he asked, floating upside down. Gohan simply sighed, starting to get a little annoyed.
"Trying to," he said, prompting Chiaotzu to float away from the desk and re-position himself such that he was floating on his side next to the boy.
"Yeah, it took me like a week to figure this stuff out," Chiaotzu admitted before brightening up. "It's a good thing that Launch is such a good study buddy! She was able to make a lot more sense of it than I was, haha!" Gohan said nothing, simply continuing to stare at the pencil. Even the fact that someone was watching him didn't seem to make it any easier to just pick it up and get it over with. Chiaotzu noticed Gohan's look of frustration, and his first thought was to look more closely at the work on the page. To his confusion, however, the work appeared to be more or less complete: all he had to do was actually write down the answer. "You know, all that work looks like it's correct, kiddo," he said, trying to be helpful. "You've proved pretty handily that the value of x could only be-"
"I know," Gohan cut in, the slight edge in his voice shutting Chiaotzu down immediately. Maybe it was just how strong he had gotten, or maybe it was what he had heard about the kid from Tien, but Chiaotzu had to admit to being a little scared of him at that moment. All that power in the hands of a five year old would be a pretty dangerous concept, even if Gohan was far more gifted and polite than many of his peers. Chiaotzu backed off.
"Okay," he said simply, although he figured Gohan could notice the nervousness in his tone and manner. He felt bad that the kid was making him feel that way, and worried that his trepidation would make Gohan feel like he had done something wrong, even though he hadn't. Thus, he continued hovering nearby as Gohan kept trying to finish the problem, trying to think of something else to say. He decided to just cut to the chase. "I felt your ki signature spike a couple minutes ago," he said, doing his best to keep himself calm and measured. "Is everything okay?" Gohan looked at Chiaotzu, evidently torn on whether or not to say anything, before turning away again with a small huff.
"I'm fine," he said, sounding anything but. Chiaotzu knew it might be dangerous to continue the topic, but he felt like he had to say something.
"You sure? Your ki was rising slowly for a couple minutes there," he said, choosing not to mention that it seemed to be rising again, albeit at a slower rate. Gohan paused for a moment, his eyes widening slightly, as if he hadn't been aware of this fact. Chiaotzu began to grow even more worried. He'd trained with Tien long enough to know that it took a lot to keep an experienced ki user so preoccupied that they couldn't even sense their own energy fluctuating, let alone the energy of others. Something was clearly wrong here, leaving Chiaotzu to make another observation. "Honestly, it felt like you were getting ready for a fight-"
"Mr. Chiaotzu, I understand that you're worried, and you want to help, but I promise, I'm okay. You just...caught me off guard, for a second there." He didn't want to admit that Chiaotzu had been right on the money. In the brief second before he recognized who it was with such a high power level, he had honestly been prepared to fight, thinking perhaps that a squadron of Frieza's soldiers or some other new enemy had surrounded the house while he had been distracted. After taking a short breath, he flashed Chiaotzu a small smile. "I just need to finish this problem, that's all. Now, if you don't mind, I'd like to be left alone." He had tried not to let his growing irritation show, but evidently it hadn't quite worked, seeing as it took him a second to realize what he had forgotten to say. "Please," he added on, knowing that Chiaotzu would notice the interruption.
Chiaotzu began to feel a slight pressure coming from Gohan, like a continuous weak kiai. He doubted the boy was even aware of it, but even this pressure alone...Chiaotzu knew that a normal person would struggle to stand upright against it. He found himself sweating slightly as he glanced towards the door. It was clearer now than ever that Gohan wasn't fine. He hardly ever got this cross with anyone. More to the point, however, Chiaotzu noticed that Gohan's ki had spiked again, a much smaller increase this time, but still very noticeable. The boy was clearly wrestling with something, perhaps something that he hadn't yet talked about with his mother or his therapist. If he left him to his own devices, Chiaotzu worried that he would just work himself into even more of a state, making him feel worse in the long run. Nevertheless, he couldn't deny that the thought of walking away and leaving Gohan alone was rather tempting. He wasn't entirely confident that he wouldn't get hurt. Still, he had agreed to look after Gohan while Chi Chi was gone, and to him, that meant stepping in when he needed help, in whatever form it may be required. And there was one question on Chiaotzu's mind that he felt he had to ask.
"How long have you been done with that problem, Gohan?"
Chiaotzu realized his error an instant after he had said the words. Moving faster than he could see, Gohan, whose hand had been trembling as it hovered over the pencil, curled that hand into a fist and slammed it down hard on the desk, leaving a rather sizable crack in it as the pencil rolled off of the desk and onto the floor. Gohan flew up out of his chair, floating just an inch towards Chiaotzu, looking at him with an expression that had, up until now, been reserved for his worst enemies.
"What part of 'leave me alone' didn't you understand the first time?!" he snapped, his mind clouded by his anger such that it took him a couple seconds after his outburst to notice how Chiaotzu had immediately recoiled, floating almost a foot away from him and putting his hands up in a defensive stance. Thinking a little more clearly, Gohan thought to sense his babysitter's energy, and realized that Chiaotzu had powered up to the maximum of his power on instinct. More than that, his own power had spiked to over ten times Chiaotzu's own. Just because he was moderately angry.
"Mr. Chiaotzu...I-I'm sorry, I didn't mean to...to..." The young boy's words became hitched in his throat, held back by a shuddering sob which threatened to explode into a whole meltdown. Chiaotzu slowly let down his guard as Gohan's power dropped back down to normal levels, and took pause when he noticed the tears beginning to form in the child's eyes. He had fallen back into the chair, too distracted emotionally to even sustain his own flight anymore, his whole body trembling as he tried his hardest not to cry. Chiaotzu took a long look at him before hardening his resolve, floating up to him and wrapping the child, who was larger than him, into a strong hug as best he could.
"It's okay," Chiaotzu said, the right answer to an unspoken question. With one last sob, the boy broke down completely, no longer holding back all the tears he should have cried a long time ago. For a while, neither of them moved, Chiaotzu softly whispering comforting words while Gohan cried until his throat started to hurt. Neither of them knew precisely just how much time passed before Gohan stopped. Neither of them particularly cared. Gohan mumbled something which Chiaotzu couldn't quite make out, beyond the fact that it sounded like a question. "What was that?" he asked calmly, but when Gohan couldn't quite get out the words he wanted to say, he decided on a different approach.
"I wanna lie down," a voice said in Chiaotzu's mind, causing his eyes to widen slightly on instinct. He had no idea that Gohan had figured out how to initiate a telepathic conversation on his own. True, experienced ki users could figure it out after being contacted telepathically enough times, but he couldn't recall too many instances where Gohan had been the recipient of such a conversation. He ultimately shook his head. That detail wasn't what was important right now.
"Okay, let's lie down for a while, hm?" he said, in the same soothing tone he had been speaking earlier. Nodding wordlessly, Gohan didn't provide any resistance when Chiaotzu lifted the pair of them up into the air, lifting up the covers of Gohan's bed with telekinesis before setting him down gently and covering him back up. He floated nearby as Gohan pulled the covers a little closer, seeking comfort in their warmth, which made him smile a little sadly. It had been way too easy to forget that Gohan was still a kid. "Can I get you anything? Some water, a snack?"
Gohan coughed, his throat clearly dry. "Water," he said hoarsely, prompting Chiaotzu to nod.
"Gotcha." Without taking his eyes off of the boy, Chiaotzu reached out with his ki and brought a cup of cold water into Gohan's outstretched arms through a series of telekinetic machinations. The boy took a greedy sip of the water, seeking to relieve the pain in his throat, before lifting his head back up again.
"Thank you," he said softly.
Chiaotzu smiled. "You're welcome." After a moment of silence, he decided to broach a serious topic. "You, uh, you seem to have a lot going on right now," he began, a little unsure of how to proceed. "You wanna talk about it?" For a while, Gohan didn't say anything, simply continuing to drink his water, and Chiaotzu figured he simply wanted to be left alone, as he'd said. Eventually, he mustered up the courage to speak, albeit incredibly softly.
"I'm scared."
Once he was sure he'd heard Gohan correctly, Chiaotzu responded promptly. "Of what?" he asked, in that same calm voice. Gohan took a couple seconds to figure out the best way to express himself.
"A lot of things," Gohan admitted. "I'm scared about what Dad might find out there in space. I'm scared about whether or not we'll really be safe now that Frieza's gone. But more than that...I'm scared of myself."
Chiaotzu looked at the boy with concern. "Yourself? Why?"
Gohan sighed, finding that last fact more difficult to say aloud than he had expected. "Ever since Frieza died, I've been thinking about all the stuff that's happened, over and over again. And...some of the stuff I did...it scares me." Chiaotzu was beginning to understand, but Gohan continued anyway. "I killed that Saibaman back when we were fighting Vegeta and Nappa. Me and Krillin left two of Frieza's soldiers unconscious in a lake, and they...they never came out again. And then...right before I died, I...I..." Chiaotzu nodded, a silent signal that he didn't need to finish that sentence. Gohan was relieved beyond words. "I...I don't want to hurt anyone if I can help it," Gohan said shakily, as if he didn't even believe himself. "But, whenever I get angry like...like how I did earlier, suddenly, stuff like that doesn't matter. All that matters is...getting rid of whatever is making me angry." Gohan was silent for a while, giving Chiaotzu the chance to process everything he had said, before he began speaking again.
"Both Piccolo and Master Roshi told me that my anger was useful. That it was the source of a lot of power. When I get really angry, it's like I become...someone else. Someone...scary. But, I wasn't someone else when I did...that other stuff. Yeah, I was scared, panicking, a little angry, but...I was still me. So, I have to ask myself...what's the difference between when I'm angry and when I'm not?"
Gohan took a shaky breath, succumbing once more to his tumultuous emotions, and causing Chiaotzu to realize something.
"That's what the nightmares are about," he said. "Not just what happened to you...but what you fear you might do to others." Gohan's eyes widened before filling up with tears which he did his best to quell. At the same time, Chiaotzu made another guess, based on what Chi Chi had told him and how Gohan was responding to this particular situation. "You're still not sleeping, aren't you? That's why finishing that homework is so hard. You're trying to...to distract yourself, to keep yourself from thinking about all of this stuff." Gohan paused again, knowing he was right but not knowing how he had come to that conclusion.
"H-How did you know?" he asked, causing Chiaotzu to smile sadly.
"Chi Chi told me and the others that you hadn't been sleeping for the last few days, when Launch asked how you were doing. But, more than that...I can kind of relate."
Gohan looked at the pale white young man in confusion. "Really?" Chiaotzu nodded.
"It all started with something that happened to me over six years ago." Gohan's attention was squarely focused on him, prompting Chiaotzu to elaborate. "It's kinda funny, actually. It happened the same day your folks got engaged."
"You mean the 23rd Tournament?" Gohan asked, to which Chiaotzu nodded. "My dad told me about that a while ago, but all he said about you was that you lost in the preliminaries to that Tao Pai-pai guy." Chiaotzu nodded again, wincing a bit at the memory.
"He probably thought you were too young to hear all the details, but...Tao Pai-pai...he hurt me pretty badly in that match," he admitted. "I had to be rushed to the emergency room afterwards. By the time I woke up, the tournament had been over for almost a day." His expression darkened as he thought back to that time. "I...I was pretty surprised to wake up, if I'm being totally honest. Tao Pai-pai...when he hit me, I thought for sure that I was going to die. I was in so much pain, but at the same time my whole body felt like it was going numb, like I was losing my connection to it. The only time I'd ever felt something like that was when I had been killed by King Piccolo, so...needless to say..." He didn't need to say anymore. Like Chiaotzu had earlier, all Gohan had to do was shoot him a look. They understood each other.
Chiaotzu took a deep breath before continuing. "For some reason, that time the idea of dying hit me harder than it had when I had actually died. I still don't quite know why. It wasn't like I knew that I couldn't be resurrected again if I did wind up dead, at least not through our Dragon Balls. It only took me a couple days before I stopped having nightmares about the first time, but the fight with Tao Pai-Pai...that one took a while. Tien gave me space, but eventually he noticed how withdrawn I'd gotten. I barely came out of the house, and I mostly just sat around reading comic books all day. He walked up to me one day and told me that he needed me as a sparring partner if he had any hope of surpassing your dad." The two of them chuckled, both aware of how seriously Tien took his rivalry with Goku. "I wasn't quite sure about it after what had happened, but, I have to admit, it was a better distraction than comic books. We started up a daily training routine, and settling into that really helped me work through everything...in a number of ways. Obviously, stuff like that never truly gets out of your head, but I was in a much better place after a couple months of training with Tien. Then, of course, Launch slowly involved herself more and more in our lives, we were able to enjoy a real long period of peace, and, well...all of that helped even more."
Gohan nodded slowly, understanding what Chiaotzu was saying. "Um, if you don't mind my asking...is the second time bothering you at all?"
Chiaotzu smiled a little sadly. "Honestly? Kind of. I talked to Master Roshi, Launch, and Tien about it, though, and they've all been super supportive. Like I said...this kind of stuff never stops being difficult. But, most of the time, it does get easier...just as I'm sure it will for you."
"...Thanks, Mr. Chiaotzu," Gohan said earnestly, giving Chiaotzu a smile before sighing deeply. "I just hope I can get a handle on myself soon. I mean, I've heard of kids throwing temper tantrums, but...heh...this is ridiculous," he said, trying to play off his anxiety through comedy. Chiaotzu obliged by chuckling slightly.
"Well, if you don't feel comfortable talking about this stuff with your mother or your therapist, you should know that I'll always be available if you need an ear. Not to mention Tien, your dad when he gets back, Krillin, Yamcha, Master Roshi-"
"Mr. Piccolo?" Gohan asked, a slight bit of hope in his voice. Chiaotzu hesitated for a second before nodding.
"Always remember, no matter how far apart we are, you have a whole bunch of people out there who care about you. Don't hesitate to come to us when you need to." Gohan nodded a couple times, prompting Chiaotzu to cover him under the covers just a bit more. "Now, you can get up and brush your teeth if you want, but my advice for you is to get as much sleep as you can, as soon as you can. If you need something, either me or your mom will be here. Alright?"
Gohan nodded, smiling. "Got it. Just...thanks, again. For listening, and for being patient. I'm really sorry I snapped at you." Chiaotzu smiled back, with no hint of sadness in it.
"It's okay, Gohan. I'm sorry for the way I reacted then. It wasn't fair to you." With that said, he opened the door with telekinesis while simultaneously turning out the bedroom light, leaving only the desk lamp on. "Good night," he said softly, waving his fingers slightly before gently closing the door behind him as he floated backwards out of the room.
"Night..." Gohan said back, taking a deep breath. He was alone with his thoughts for mere moments, getting up only once before fatigue compelled him to drift off to sleep.
For the first night since he had left Namek, he didn't have any nightmares.
"I'm really sorry about all of that."
Blue Launch sat atop Kintoun with her arms around Chi Chi's waist, her eyes downcast. Chi Chi sighed sympathetically.
"It's alright. We just need to be more careful if we decide to go out as a group again. Blonde Launch is clearly pretty easily recognized."
Launch sighed in turn, her glum mood a contrast to her usual chipper self. "Yeah, it...it's still kind of jarring to think about, really. I mean, she's a lot better now, but before we met Tien..." She paused, a lot of different memories coming to the surface. "God, her poster was almost everywhere."
Chi Chi nodded. "Well, at any rate, you shouldn't feel bad about Blonde Launch's situation. I mean, it's not like you did any of those things she's wanted all over for, right?"
Launch murmured softly to herself, her mind preoccupied. "Yeah..." she said distantly, idly wondering how much that was true. Before she could ponder it too much, they were back at Chi Chi's home, where, to both ladies' surprise, Tien and Piccolo were standing outside along with Chiaotzu, Tien thinking something over while Chiaotzu and Piccolo stared at each other with some slight hostility. As Kintoun landed, Chi Chi and Launch hopped off, which only Tien paid much attention to.
"Hello, Launch," he said simply, greeting her with a slight smile. "I take it you had fun over in Ginger Town."
Chi Chi chuckled. Of course he could sense where they were the whole time. Honestly, she and her friends were fortunate that the people they knew who had such abilities were more or less good people. The idea of anyone else being able to tell their location anywhere on the planet was a rather unnerving concept, to say the least. Launch returned his smile with a tired look in her eyes, moving to wrap him into a lazy hug which he returned after a second, frowning slightly. It wasn't like Blue Launch to be this drained.
"Blonde Launch was recognized by law enforcement at the club she took us to," Chi Chi explained, causing Tien's eyes to widen in understanding.
"Ah, I see," he replied as Launch rested her head on his shoulder and let out a long sigh. "Do you want some hot chocolate?" he asked her softly.
"Uh huh," she replied tiredly. Tien smiled a bit more.
"Alright, I'll go ahead and make you that once..." Tien paused as he remembered something and turned towards Chi Chi. "Oh, right, Chiaotzu wanted to ask your permission on something." He glanced in the direction of his friend, still locked in an apparent staring contest, and cleared his throat. "Chiaotzu!" he said, startling him and causing him to break his concentration. "Chi Chi is here."
"Ah, right, yeah. Sorry, I, uh..."
"He and I were having a disagreement," Piccolo cut in, still obviously displeased. Chiaotzu simply grumbled while Chi Chi cocked her head.
"A disagreement?" she asked. "What about?"
"I entered the house to complete my domestic duties as usual," Piccolo explained. "I sensed that Gohan was sleeping and wanted to check on him, but Chiaotzu wouldn't let me enter his bedroom."
"I figured that she didn't want anyone to bother him," Chiaotzu countered. "And I imagine that applies to you especially. You don't exactly have the best history with him."
Piccolo sighed. "I realize that, but these restrictions are becoming bothersome. Do you truly believe that I will harm him anymore than I already have?"
Chi Chi drew her hands to her face, groaning for a second before deciding on what to say. "Piccolo, I know you've changed. I know you're not the person you were back then, but...I think Gohan needs some more time. Time to adjust back to living at home and out of danger. Especially with the nightmares he's been having, it's...it's still too soon. At least, that's what I believe."
Piccolo paused for a couple seconds before nodding slowly. "...Very well," he replied. "Now that my duties have been completed for the night, I shall return to the Gravity Chamber to continue my training. Farewell." With that, he flew off, heading towards the chamber alone and leaving Chi Chi slightly exasperated.
"Ugh...I really shouldn't be up this late," she said aloud, her eyelids drooping a bit.
"Um, Chi Chi, if you don't mind-?" Chiaotzu began, causing Chi Chi to wake herself up.
"Ah, right! You had a question."
Chiaotzu nodded. "Well, um, I know it's a bit of an imposition, but...I was wondering if you'd be comfortable with us setting up our house next to yours. At least so long as Piccolo and Tien are training together."
Chi Chi's eyes widened a little. "Oh! I didn't realize that your house was a capsule house," she said, thinking the proposal over. She turned to Tien and Launch. "Well, what do you two think?" she asked.
"I think it's a great idea," Tien said. "It doesn't make much sense for me to fly to and from where the house is currently to train. Plus, I'd rather not leave Launch and Chiaotzu alone all day."
"Oh yeah!" Launch added, some of her energy returning. "If we moved out here, the two of us could hang out every day!"
"And all three of us can help out around the house," Chiaotzu said. "Launch makes a pretty mean stew."
"Mhmm!" Launch echoed, causing Chi Chi to chuckle.
"Well, I can tell you're all fine with it, and I can't imagine Gohan would have any objections, so, you have my permission."
"Woo! Awesome!" Chiaotzu and Launch cried out almost simultaneously, while Tien simply smiled.
"Say, don't you owe someone a hot chocolate?" Chi Chi asked with a smirk. "I have everything you'll need in the cupboards."
Tien chuckled. "Thank you." He began to move towards the kitchen, but found himself held in place by Launch. "Launch, I need you to let go," he said, somewhat amused.
"But I just got comfortable," she replied, resting her head on his shoulder again. Tien laughed a little.
"Very well. Chiaotzu, do you mind?"
"Nope!" Chiaotzu replied, holding out his palms and lifting up Launch with telekinesis just as Tien hovered above the ground with the power of flight. Although surprised for a second, Launch rather enjoyed the feeling of weightlessness, and laughed as Tien flew into Chi Chi's home with Chiaotzu close behind, floating her alongside him. Chi Chi smiled at the trio before entering the house herself and taking a right towards Gohan's room.
She knocked softly at the door, but received no answer, concluding that Gohan had gone to sleep. Making sure to be as quiet as possible, she slowly opened the door and tiptoed into the room, and found that Gohan was actually sleeping peacefully. She smiled as she looked down at her son, before noticing something in the corner of her eye. She turned around to face the desk, where a single workbook lay open to a page in the middle. As she had suspected, he had been working on his homework the entire time she was gone, but more surprisingly, she recognized the open page as the last one she had assigned him. Every problem on it had been completed, right down to the last algebraic formula.
Without a word, Chi Chi closed the textbook and set it aside on Gohan's bookshelf before leaving Gohan to his dreams.
Okay, another chapter completed!
After switching some things around, I've got one additional chapter finished and another in the works. Things are getting a little bit trickier, but I think I can maintain this one chapter lead, or at least get stuff out on time until the arc's over. After that, I'm thinking we'll have a short hiatus, followed by a mini-arc, followed by a significantly longer hiatus. I feel like I miscalculated regarding the time that I started this arc. I felt like I had been absent for too long, and I wanted to have it as like a New Year's thing, which meant that a couple chapters already went through while I was still on break, giving me less stuff to fill in the time that I was in school and busy. If I'd waited until school started, I would've had more chapters finished going in, which would've made this a lot easier. Still, we'll make the best of it.
Anyway, let's get to responses!
mastercheif1229 says:
"Great chapter! I can't wait for the next one! I'm reading this at 1:24 A.M. and am really tired and about to go to sleep goodnight!"
Thanks, and oof. I feel like advising you to go to bed earlier, but that'd make me a massive hypocrite, lmao.
Jokermask18 says:
"I like you brought Piccolo's giant form ability back."
Yeah, I was kinda tossing the idea around, and I was like, "...Huh. Yeah, that could work with this." So I wrote it in. I can't think of too many situations where he'd use it, but hey, option's open.
RKF22 says:
"Excellent work can't wait for more"
Thank you!
Anonymously96 says:
"Good light chapter
Dende really went through some character development huh?
Well on Jamba, I didn't mean he was forced, in fact I also meant that he deemed it necessary
Now for King cold, off course the potential is there but dude is pretty chilled out for someone who hasn't trained to fight someone potentially multiple times stronger
Well through deductive measures, and the fact that the unstoppable evil is Canon, we can safely rule out androids and cell, beerus also because yes he's the god of destruction but not evil
Dunno if you count movies in canon too or not, because if movies are not canon then I can only think of Majin Buu as the likely candidate
As for cooler, it's been a while since I watched that movie but I think Goku was able to fight him like he fought frieza, with the kaioken unsure if it was against fourth or fifth form
If the transformation goes to upto 6-8 times his fourth forms power then well, he'll be a force to reckon with
Update soon"
Yup. Little dude's been through some stuff.
Ah, yeah, I gotcha. The phrasing was just a bit confusing. And as for King Cold, again: overconfidence came from somewhere.
See, from what I know, Goku fought Cooler evenly in his base form without using the Kaio-ken, but then Cooler powered up and got beyond Frieza levels, so even Goku with the full Kaio-ken couldn't do him in. Still, you'll see how it shakes out eventually. Thanks for reading, as always.
TheAlphaOfLife says:
"Take a break if you need to. People will wait for a story this good."
Yeah, Idk. I guess I just feel like I should do my best to honor my promise of an unbroken arc, you know? I still think I can manage it one way or another, and if I can't, I'll take a gap week. I appreciate the concern, though.
GhostKing666 says:
"On human transformations, they don't really need them. Max Power, Mafuba, Thundershock Surprise, Hypnosis, Mind Reading(as opposed to just telepathy), Ultra Divine Water, gravity chamber training, Kaioken, Spirit Bomb, the hyberbolic time chamber, Old Kai's potential unlock, 17 and 18 style biomechanical augmentation, fusion, learning god ki.
There are a lot of options the human z-fighters never bothered to explore even despite the gap between them and the saiyans getting bigger and bigger. And if they needed yet more power, there's always training to become a God of Destruction(lord knows Universe 7 needs a better one then Beerus) or trying to unlock Ultra Instinct(both of which are forms that are not species locked like the Super Saiyan transformation)
Also, as for Cooler. Cooler in his fourth form was actually weaker then Frieza, shown by the fact that Goku didn't even need to transform into a Super Saiyan to fight him and something Cooler actually admitted.
"He was always trying to beat me. Trying to prove he was the best and he definitely had the edge".
Though fandom does tend to interpret Salza calling Cooler "the most illustrious fighter in the universe) as Cooler actually training and learning special techniques from all over the universe(instant transmission for example) compared to Frieza's lazing around, it was Cooler's transformation into a fifth form that actually let him finally surpass Frieza(well, as long as Frieza never bothered to train anyway, stupid little brother mutant* prodigy).
While it's true the movie's time constraints meant that by the time Goku went SS in the movie, there was no longer a time budget for a drawn out fight, you'll note that Cooler's Supernova had been so powerful that it took Goku everything he had to push it back, leaving him completely exhausted** afterwards, where as Cooler wouldn't have had a problem fighting on or even throwing another Supernova had he not got hit with his own attack and thrown into the sun.
*Actually, King Cold, Cooler and Frieza were all Frost Demon mutants that were much more powerful then other members of their race(also evil). It's just that while Cooler was a Vegeta level genius prodigy, Frieza was basically the Frost Demon version of Broly. It's really no surprise that King Cold went and made Frieza his heir.
**Compared to Goku's fight against Frieza where Frieza was the one getting exhausted(Frieza's infamous endurance and ki control issue that took him years to finally fix) and Goku only desiring to stop fighting after he got bored."
Yeah, I tend to agree on human transformations. Just the tools we get through canon are enough for me to work with, lol. And wow, that's a whole lot of neat movie information. I didn't realize the lore behind all that was so hotly debated, lol. I must admit I'm a bit more of a casual fan than some, haha, so I don't always know as much as some of you guys do about all this. It's really quite fascinating, though!
That's an interesting analogy, really. I didn't think of the two of them in those terms, but it's a pretty apt comparison.
Amanny says:
"Great chapter. I love Piccolo's Max Giant Form. With Dende being immortal the Dragon Balls will never be deactivated unless Dende decides to wish himself mortal again, certainly spices events up."
Thanks! Yeah, it was a pretty interesting concept to work with, as was Dende being immortal and how that relates to the Dragon Balls.
Guest says:
"Another who mixes awful politics with the kais."
I can't tell if you're the same person from earlier, or if I just attract guest reviewers like this somehow. Still, sorry my ideas aren't your cup of tea, at least.
DiRunner says:
"I really like how in-depth you went with Goku's training to control Super Sayian. Not a lot of people do that and I like how the rage seems to affect his personality too while dealing with anything other than fighting."
Thanks! It seemed like an excellent opportunity to explore Goku's mindset in the aftermath of Namek, as well as just the psychology of being a Super Saiyan in general: like a 24/7 adrenaline rush. As someone who tends to panic when overstimulated, I can kinda relate.
Cerric says:
"So much friggin' lore in this chapter! Holy toledo!"
Heh, yeah. I always figured the whole Guardian concept could use expanding, and hey, what better time to do it than when Dende's about to be Guardian, you know?
Well, with all that done, no power levels this time, so I'm just gonna say: thank you all for reading, have yourselves a fantastic day, and take care!