Dragon Ball © Akira Toriyama, Shuheisha, Inc.

Chapter 34: The Separation

The moment he came out from the Hyperbolic Time Chamber, Tenten had noticed that Trunks' surging Ki had surpassed his father's and that he had the chance to beat Cell in his semi-perfect form. She was estimating Cell's Ki if he ever reached his perfect form and the reality surpassed her expectation.

Trunks' new transformation had granted him a huge amount of power but due to the muscle mass addition, he sacrificed his speed and disabled him from landing any hit on Cell. The realisation struck him like lightning; it was the very reason why his father didn't take his transformation that far. His fighting spirit subsided when Cell showed him that he was very capable of reaching the same state of transformation. Realising that he was incapable of defeating Cell, Trunks' pride as a warrior was tarnished and he released his form, landing not far from Cell.

The moment she sensed Trunks' Ki drastically shrunk while Cell's remained huge, Tenten immediately leapt towards the sky and dashed into his place. Her chest was tightened and her mind was clouded with fear. Her heart was thudding wildly when the images of Gohan and Goten's death flashed inside her mind. The sight of him still standing on his feet relieved her until…

"I have no chance now… just kill me…" was the first thing she heard the moment she arrived.

For a moment, she couldn't think of anything. She couldn't even tell what was going on, who was the green creature before her. Her worry had evolved into something else and that was… rage.

"T-Tenten…"

"Hmm, worrying about your lover, huh? How perfect!" Cell brandished his hand towards Trunks. "Must be my lucky day to be able to see your face when I kill him right before your eyes… for the second time." Her breathing started to hitch as if it was so hard to gain oxygen that her body was also shaking so hard. "So helpless, powerless, and hopeless."

Her vision was once again darkened. She didn't even know whether she was standing or she had lost her footing because she felt like she was sucked to the ground. Trunks' voice was so faint that she didn't know whether she imagined it or he called her for real.

Don't lose your focus in your battle, Little Bird! Wake up!

Tenten gasped at the voice inside her head. A flash of light shattered all the darkness and at the same time, she felt electricity surging through the course of her system. Her body moved on its own as she ambushed Cell with an energy ball to distance him from Trunks. She then trapped Cell inside her barrier the moment Cell retaliated, resulting in him being hit by his energy ball that was deflected by her barrier.

"Hmph. Smart move. I didn't see that coming." Cell let out an evil snicker. It took her all to compose herself after deflecting Cell's attack, resulting in both of her hands being extremely numb but Tenten didn't want to show that.

"Should I congratulate you for reaching your perfect form? What are you going to do now that you're the strongest being on Earth?" It took her all to stop her lips from quivering. The last thing she wanted now was to show weakness to the disgusting insect—though the fact that he looked less like an insect in his ultimate form helped her going through her phobia.

"I'll open a tournament—ten days from now. I'm being generous. Get stronger and make me happy."

"What are you trying to do?" Trunks asked with a deeper scowl.

"You may not hear of it… But there used to be a Martial Arts Tournament called 'Tenkaichi Budokai'. I'm going to re-create it. But all of you will only have me to fight. We'll fight one-on-one, and if I win, we go to the next one. I don't care how many of you there are—the more the merrier. So you'd better start gathering allies. I'll let you know the location later. Keep watching the TV News."

The bio-android said the tournament would be a great way to pass the time and told them to prepare plenty of Senzu beans. He wanted to confirm his superiority and spread some fear over this world, to have fun and have the greatest fun to see people's faces contorted in terror. He had Freeza's cell within him, no wonder they shared the same definition of having fun. He flashed his two fingers at them and left with that.

When he left, the two let out a heavy sigh as if they were holding their breath all this time as if they were only a hair away from getting killed—literally. They both looked down to the ground, no words exchanged that the atmosphere was getting awkward…

Because Trunks already knew what was about to happen. He slowly walked towards Tenten, extending his arm to touch her only to be slapped away by Tenten.

"Tenten, I—" A loud sound of smack echoed through the plains. Trunks widened his eyes at the impact, staggered and tried to keep his stance balance while touching his reddened cheek. His eyes flitted towards her, noticing that she was trembling.

"What were you thinking?!" Her voice quivered. "Were you going to allow Cell to kill you?!"

He guiltily looked away from her and said, "I'm a failure… I…" He simultaneously opened and shut his mouth like a fish gaping for oxygen and failed to voice his reason. Fear had overtaken him, making him abandon his fighting spirit and accept his fate if he was meant to die.

"You've promised me! You've promised me that you will stay alive no matter what! Yet so easily did you give up your life to Cell!"

"You don't understand how it felt always to be exposed to the fact that I can't save the world, Tenten! I've failed to meet your brother's expectations…"

"My brother's only expectation of you is for you to be alive! He and Goten tried their best to stay alive during their fights! But you—" she pointed her finger at him, "—you allow yourself to be killed like a coward!"

"I'd rather die than be exposed to the fact that I couldn't give you the world you deserve, Tenten!" He clenched his fists.

"So… I'm the reason…" She let out a bitter chuckle. "You did everything for me and you want to die because you failed trying…" Suddenly, she recalled all the things that transpired between her and Krillin earlier and now she realised something…

Trunks widened his eyes. "No! That's not what I—"

Love was illogical. It was fool even…

"Let's just end it here, Trunks…"

Maybe it was better for her not to love…

For a moment, their surroundings were void of any noises, as if nature was resonating with their situations. Tenten eyes met Trunks, seeing how his eyes widened in catatonic stupor.

"W-what do you mean…"

"I can't love you back, Trunks…" The statement was like a thunder that struck his chest. "Having this relationship turns out to be a burden for both of us."

"I already told you that I don't mind! I'll wait no matter how long!"

She took a deep breath. "It's best to have our paths separately from now on…" He was about to say something but Tenten continued, "Don't wait for me… for your own sake."

She didn't like this outcome. How she hoped she could shed a tear at this point to at least show that she didn't want this also.

"No!" He held both of her arms. "Let's talk about it first! I—"

"What's the difference between breaking up and you giving your life?! Either way, I'm going to be alone! You didn't think about this when you gave up your life, right?!" She shook her head and walked away but Trunks kept her in her place. "Let me go!"

"I didn't mean to leave you alone!" He touched her cheek, slightly caressing it. "I'm sorry, okay? I won't do this again!"

"I'm tired of you doing things for me, Trunks!" She slapped his hand from her cheek.

"Then what do you want, Tenten?!"

"I…" She looked away for a moment before glaring at him. "Don't do anything for me! Just don't!" She pushed him from her way but Trunks held her arms tighter.

"I don't understand why you are so mad. I'm alive! Doesn't that all that matters now?"

"Thanks Shen Long, you're alive! But that's because you're lucky that Cell didn't actually kill you!" She took a deep breath and slowly pushed him. "I believe the best thing for both of us now is to take a break and reflect." She gently took his hands off him. "Let's do our best for the upcoming tournament. I will soon enter the Hyperbolic Time Chamber so, maybe I'll see you afterwards. Thank you for everything, Trunks…"

She didn't give him a chance to utter a word, leaping towards the sky in the direction of God's Palace. What was worse than losing and breaking up at the same time? Trunks shut his eyes, realising how foolish he was to not think about her feelings after losing so many people she loved. He hated himself so much that he clenched his fists around his hair, cursing himself under his breath. His adrenaline still rushed due to the exchanges they had before regret enveloped his centre that he had to scream it out to ease the feelings.

"Trunks, are you okay?"

Trunks swivelled around to see both Krillin and his father in the air. Krillin breathed a sigh of relief upon seeing him make it out alright while his father remained indifferent. He took a deep breath, trying his best to compose himself even though his whole body was still trembling due to the adrenaline rush from the chain of tumultuous events that happened to him in one single day. He recapped the whole thing about the tournament Cell was going to hold in the future, making both Krillin and Vegeta scoff in exasperation at the insanity of the idea.

#16, who eavesdropped their conversation, trudging towards them while uttering his desire to join the tournament. The right part of his head was torn apart, revealing some of the broken cables and ruined machine inside. Krillin offered himself to personally escort him to the Capsule Corp. to get him repaired. Trunks was about to protest when Krillin assured him that the androids they had in this timeline weren't as bad as the ones in the future. For now, they had no choice but to go home to the Capsule Corp. but Trunks kept looking in the direction of God's Palace, holding in his urge to follow her.

"Trunks." He shifted his gaze towards Krillin. "I'm sorry it happened."

He chuckled. "You saw it, huh?"

"I have to admit that I'm partly responsible because I did something foolish out of my feelings that made her mad." Krillin sheepishly laughed. He then told Trunks what had happened earlier which probably made her question her feelings for him.

"I see…" It wasn't that surprising knowing her condition and he had accepted that. "Thank you for telling me this, Krillin."

"Give her some time alone. I'm certain that everything will work between you two. After all the things you faced together, I don't think she will give up on you so easily as well."

It did make him feel slightly better. "Thank you, Krllin-san."

#16 was reluctant about whether Bulma and her father would take him in to fix him but Krillin convinced him that both of them were golden-hearted scientists, unlike his creator. Proving his words right, Dr. Brief didn't even spare a second to take him into his lab. After shutting the giant android down to fix him, he called Bulma home to fix the android.

When helping his mother, he couldn't help but keep looking in the direction of God's Palace. The temptation to go after her to fix things with her rather than fixing the android was so great that his mother reprimanded her numerous times for losing focus.

Sighing, he walked back to his room, closing the door behind him and leaning his back on the wall and sliding on it. What was more ironic than spending a year not seeing her then on the very day they met, the real separation happened? Taking out the hairpin she gave him before his battle with Cell, he scrutinised the hairpin and brought the hairpin close to his nose so he could breathe in the faint scent of her hair.

"I can't love you back, Trunks…"

He chuckled as he covered his eyes with his arm. "After all the things that happened, do you think I will just give up on you?" Staring at the hairpin in his hand, he brought it close to his chest. "But I will still love you no matter what…" he muttered as he kissed the hairpin. "I will always love you, Tenten… Always…"

AN: I'm sorry Trunks for making the break-up happen in this version. XD

Yes, this is another big change that I made in this version and in a way it's kinda a headache for me because I have to change a lot of things and even omit some parts from the previous version. But then I think this change is necessary for their character development though I wish I could keep things the way it is from the old version. The dilemma… XD

I hope you can still enjoy the story the way it is and I hope to see you again in the next chapter! Please do vote and comment to keep me going with this story!