Ok so…This chapter does have foreshadowing, at the very least the premise of it does, I think all the way back to the first Pigero POV if I recall correctly
The outcome of this chapter, is not so much foreshadowed, at least not so overtly, but it's still been planned and built up
As for the Tarble question, the responses between FFN and AO3 are about 50/50 so I'll see if I can justify it further in the story and go from there
mewfour123412: Yeah I agree that the enemies in the Tarble special aren't really great threats but that's kind of the point. They're a joke in the special, yet would have been an existential threat at the start of the series, as they are to Tarble. To me it's somewhat to show the growth of the characters, especially as they're described as being "as strong as Frieza" and that not being taken seriously
thewittywhy: Krillin certainly has some questions remaining lol. And yeah, SIGohan would have been around 17(18 with time chamber) around the Buu Saga, and then I skipped past another year to be able to use the Dragon Balls again for the Tapion movie, and its been nearly a year since that since then, so it'd be about twenty year in total
ArguableReader (Guest): It would be an interesting premise, but if I did so with every character it'd probably end up being pretty repetitive.
Qinlongfei: Yeah, I'm thinking up a way to justify his involvement. Though I don't think the future aspect would really work, primarily because Tarble isn't really a fighter character, at least not to the degree that would be needed. I think if anything, he'd be more likely to offer to take Trunks and company to his new planet to help rather than help Earth, which I don't think Trunks would accept out of obligation to the Earth
And you know, I wasn't even are that people shipping Gohan andEighteen until I got back into the fandom around the time I started writing this. And, I don't strictly hate the ship, like the age difference is definitely noticeable, but at least the canon doesn't have them interacting while Gohan was a child, unlike what I did in fic. I still don't like the ship though. I don't see the point, the two never really interact, and both have better, more dynamic ships. That being said, anyone who does so specifically to dis Krillin can perish.
And I'm team, Gohan has 3 dad's rather than pitting them like it's a competition. During Namek, Krillin is certainly Gohan's primary dad, and outside of that, Piccolo is primary dad when Goku isnt around, and when he is then it goes back to Goku. The other two are still subsequent dads at any given point.
As for how Krillin's feeling ing the wake, he is certainly left questions.
JCINNABAR: Krillin may not be known for being the smartest character, but the Namek Saga alone shows that he's far from dumb. Krillin's input and decisions are one of the main reasons anyone survives through that lol.
And of course, you as well
Roshi
Roshi didn't get what all the fuss was about. An adult was an adult. Who cares about the specifics of it?
He also didn't get the whole, Gohan is a girl now thing. But he also didn't really care. If the Dragon did its job right there's be no difference anyway so who was he to comment on it?
He'd say the Dragon did a good job but he didn't really have much interest in playing those games with any of his grandkids- even if he just gave them that title. Maybe if Goten ever got a nice girlfriend when he's older.
Gohan probably wouldn't play the game right anyway. He was always- wait, was he supposed to refer to Gohan as a girl even for when she was younger? Eh, might as well for consistency's sake.
She was always such a timid child. If he'd tried to play the game with her now she'd probably only get more distant and uncomfortable than she already was instead of angry and lively.
Uncomfortable.
He'd thought the word without quite registering it.
And he almost as quickly dismissed it. Gohan was just like that. She didn't go out of her way to talk to people or socialize.
Except when she was around Krillin. That was the only time he could call her talkative. She'd even go out of her way to visit the island just to be around him back in the day.
He had tried to reach out to her on one such occasion. Thinking back on it now, he supposed that what he'd thought was just general shyness in her short, concise answers could have also been her not wanting to talk with him.
She didn't talk much with Yamcha or Tien either. But even then she had never been so, avoidant with them either. Thinking back on it, she had almost seemed conscious of not wanting to sit too close to him.
Very much unlike how she had fallen asleep all but leaning into Piccolo. Far, far closer than he would have once thought anyone could get to him and survive.
But that was different. Her interactions with Piccolo and even Krillin stemmed from outside of the island. From training and Namek respectively. It would make sense that she's more comfortable around those two than others.
She still wasn't like that to Yamcha or Tien or though. Her lack of communication with them was more due to circumstance.
In fact, she happened to pick fights with many of those who had been stronger and more threatening. He's heard many stories from Krillin about her picking fights with Vegeta back when he was far more dangerous. And he himself had witnessed that behavior with Eighteen's brother back when he had been the second most threat under Cell.
It seemed entirely exclusive to him that she was outright and purposefully distant to.
That bothered him, more than he would have thought. Even more so that he hadn't realized sooner. If anything, he should have realized when Eighteen had singled him out to remove from the room when Gohan wanted to talk a few years back. But he had dismissed it as her wanting to talk with Krillin specifically.
It didn't quite occur to him that she'd had no issue with Eighteen herself in the room.
In the past, if women did not enjoy his game, they'd simply avoid him. But the idea of that occurring with one of his grandchildren- he didn't quite like that.
He glanced over to Marron who was running around looking for a toy she had left.
Would she one day be uncomfortable around him too?
He didn't like that thought.
…
I sighed as I stood outside of the now-familiar apartment complex. It's hardly the first time I've visited. But it was the first time I'd done so without necessarily being glad for it.
I'd tried to come up with a plan for how I was gonna go about this, but I kept coming up blank. Pigero had actually sounded concerned at just the concept of me dating someone older, before even knowing who it was or how much older.
I could just like, wait for him to get over it. That was totally an option.
I debated just like, leaving, but figured that wouldn't be too productive to anything and went in anyway.
It was pretty normal at first. 'Course it was just Rom and Chico at first and their vibes pretty much overpowered anything else.
"Ok fine. I'll pretend to believe you only did innocent date stuff," Chico pretended to concede. "So, what'd you do then? In your perfectly PG-13 date in which you stayed overnight at an older boy's home?"
"Yeah." Pigero said as he entered the room. What did you do. Spending the night with a man who is my age?"
He emphasized the final two words with a hand to his chest. And I understood the point he was trying to make. He clearly did look older than me or Chico or Rom. He looked older than Seventeen even. Probably due to Seventeen being an android. That probably messes with his physical aging.
But even as I understood the intentions of his question, if anything it made the exact opposite point.
It just reminded me that I'd met Pigero when he was a teenager- before he was even 16. It reminded me of how young Seventeen had seemed when he was first freed from Gero. I'm pretty sure even back then I'd related him to seeming around Pigero's age.
That was a really long time ago too.
It doesn't seem that long, but it's been, what, ten years? Longer if you count the time chamber.
That's a long time. How has it been that long? It really doesn't feel that long.
"It's not that big a deal," I tried to deflect.
"Not that big a-" Pigero took a breath to calm his tone.
"Look, I get that you're stronger than- me, or most people. Probably that guy too. But that doesn't mean you can't get taken advantage of or hurt in other ways. And you've never been with anyone before, which makes the age difference worse- I'm just- I'm worried."
I shrunk in my seat. I mean, yeah I already knew that's what the issue was. But, it was different hearing it said.
And what's worse, is that it wasn't necessary. The only reason he was worried was because he thought I was the youngest one in the room.
But that just wasn't true.
And that made me feel all the worse for it.
I, considered my response.
The easiest resolution to this would be the same as before, right? I mean, it went ok with Krillin. If anything, it should be easier here, right? They've known plenty for way longer and have never had issues with any of it- outside of the occasional questions or amazement of abilities.
Still, I hesitated. It wasn't an easy thing to say. It probably never would be.
"It's not really- ok. So. It's actually a bit more complicated. So I- I don't really want to explain it more than once. So, uh, if the others want to know they should probably be here too."
That got their attention. Chico and Ron were paying more attention than before. Pigero furrowed his brows at it.
"I understand your life has been complicated, but I can't imagine what could change this," Pigero stated.
Rom perked up even more. "Is this lore? Should I get the board?"
I blinked. "Uh- sure," I waved it off. The silly board of theirs would probably be a fine distraction anyway.
"It's a Saturday night so like, it'll probably only take like, half an hour for the others to get here," Chico said while texting.
And that was good. It'd give me time to actually plan my explanation. It'd be better this time. Better than with Krillin and Eighteen. Closer to how I explained it to Piccolo.
How did I do that?
I don't really remember.
That was a really long time ago too.
That's- fine. It doesn't need to be exactly the same. I just have to make sure it's good enough.
I startled as I felt a hand on my shoulder. "you ok?" Rom asked, glancing down at me as I was sitting.
He had already finished setting up the lore board, as they called it. How long did that usually take? It couldn't have been more than a couple minutes at most right? It's a corkboard with pictures and papers pinned to it. That couldn't take that long to set up.
"Uh, yeah. Yeah. It's just, not something I really explain much. Just trying to figure out how to put it."
Rom held his gaze for a moment longer. "Alright," he eventually conceded, "it doesn't have to be super elaborate you know."
"Yeah," I half agreed.
In theory, the concept is simple. It's super simple. The little I said to Krillin and Eighteen before got the point across perfectly well.
But it's still not, the best way to put it. There was a better way, I'm sure.
Still, the time went by faster than I would have liked.
Hachi arrived first. He raised an eyebrow at the board but didn't comment.
Ena however, was delighted at it, arriving next. She was the most invested in it after Rom and Chico. She might be more invested in it than Chico actually.
Rinku and Yordon arrived last. Still closest to each other after all these years.
And with all of their original group gathered that meant my time for planning was just about up.
"So why is the board up? I thought this was just about some guy Goh was dating that Pigero didn't like," Yordon asked. I don't think I was quite aware that was common knowledge but whatever.
"Dating a guy who is as old as I am, and ten years older than her," Pigero corrected.
Reaction to that ranged from neutral to uncomfortable. Which, made sense. It did.
"Right so, that's not quite the case actually," I began, already second-guessing how I was going to go about this.
"I thought he was my age. If not why would t you clarify that earlier?"
"No- he is. That's not what I meant." I'd been derailed. Need to get back on topic.
"Ok, so what then?" Ena asked, "Are you secretly like, an alien that ages faster or something?"
…
For a moment I blinked at her. Like, I thought she was trying to make a joke- which she was- but not in the way that it'd be if-
"Wait did you not know that?"
For a moment there was no reaction.
Then there were very loud reactions.
I cringed away from the uproar and quickly clarified as Ena was already frantically scribbling- assumably to add to the board. "not- not the aging part. The alien part. Because, yeah. Uh yeah? Half technically. My dad is literally from another planet so like- yeah. I kinda assumed that was common knowledge by now…"
"Do you see it on the board?" Ena asked, taking a break from her several notes to indicate to the board.
"I don't know! I only really pay attention to it enough to check you aren't putting anything incorrect on there."
"I am not, surprised, in the slightest," Pigero leaned his head back as he waited for the chaos to wind down.
Which, yeah this was not how I planned on this going. This was, not even on the table of my expectations actually. I had to completely wait for it to die down before I could even attempt to try again. I had to refund what I was gonna say, that had derailed me a fair bit.
Simple. Just keep it simple.
"Ok so, no. The alien thing was not what I meant when I said him being older isn't quite true. It's more like- ok so, do you know how reincarnation works?"
"That trope where someone dies and gets reborn?" Rom asked.
"Uh, yeah. Is that a trope? I don't know how common- never mind not the point. Uh, right so- that's pretty much what happened to me. I was someone else, and then reborn here."
"Huh? Wait, how old were you?" Chico asked while Ena was already writing.
"Like, 21." Even though I still wasn't exactly sure about that, I'd decided it was the most consistent answer I could give. It's not like the distinction mattered too much between early twenties.
"Oh so when you say he's not older you mean like, collectively," Rom clarified.
"Well, yeah," I shrugged.
There were more questions, and though I still had that same anxious energy it was going well. I think. I mean, general questions were better than anything-
There was a laugh. More of a chuckle really. But there was no humor in it.
It was Pigero.
It was only then I realized he'd yet to say anything at all.
He looked up at me. "So it was all a lie then?"
"…what?"
"Everything. This entire time, you've- has everything just been a lie?"
"What? No! It's not-"
"Of course it has. If the premise is a lie, how could anything built on it be true?" His tone kept getting angrier.
"What premise? I don't- that's not how that works. This isn't like-" I couldn't even think about how to put it.
"This entire time, since I met you, I've been worried because I thought you were some little kid born into such absurd circumstances. But that just wasn't true, was it?"
"I never asked you to worry! I'm telling you specifically so that you don't!"
"Well, congratulations. You succeeded at that much."
I took a step back, then another. Everyone else was staring now. Either at me, or him, or both- they were just staring.
I felt myself breathing faster, the anxious energy changing to outright shaking.
I don't- what was I supposed to say- I don't- know. I don't know.
I took another step back.
"Whatever."
I left.