Wow I have no idea why this one took a bit longer. It's not even a long or complicated chapter

Guest: I don't think that'd be totally necessary. There's already enough diverse senient species on DB's earth that while Kuriza would stand out some, it still probably won't be too distracting

Qinlongfei: I do definitely find some of Goku's writing in Super to be irritating. There are some instances that it just goes a bit too far to me. Though I know at least two infamous cases that are just mistranslations. For the most part, it is easy enough to look over though.
Golden Frieza and Blue had a fair enough fight, the main this that turned the fight was Frieza not having enough control over the form to hold it for long enough since he got over-excited and wanted to use it immediately after discovering it.
And many thanks. Pretty much the second I learned of Kuriza's existence I knew I wanted him in the fic and decided right then that I would include him. He's also quite fun to draw lol

Some1call4MR-E: I think the cloning head canon is generally the most accepted one that I know of. And, I don't know about that but I think an easier comparison would just be the Namekians which are also a single-sex species

Krillin

It was kinda funny how quickly things could change.

He'd gotten so used to thinking that Gohan knew more than she should, that it was almost surreal to see her looking so lost.

Of course he offered to hand down some of Marron's old baby stuff. Working for Mr Satan he was sure she could afford anything she'd need, or at the very least she'd better be able to. If that man wasn't paying her well at the very least-

Besides the point- it'd be better to have somewhere to start with than be left with no clue where to start. He needed an excuse to get rid of some of this old stuff anyway, he just didn't have the heart to throw it away.

Most of the toys were fine to pass down. They had a few neutral clothes too, though Gohan didn't seem to mind if they leaned feminine either. As long as they weren't literally pink and frilly she didn't seem to care if the patterns were feminine, or even some of the dresses- saying they'd would probably be easier with the tail.

He couldn't say he was surprised by that.

It'd taken a good portion of the afternoon. Just because capsules made storage easy that didn't slow the progress of looking through everything. That, and convincing Gohan that yes, it was, in fact, ok for her to have it.

Every so often they'd have to take a break to care for the little one. It was kinda surreal to see something that really did look like a baby Frieza, but so, innocent. Almost, dare he say, cute.

"I am too young to be a parent," Gohan commented as she monitored Kuriza sitting against a pillow, flailing around one of Marron's old toys.

"That's not true in any regard." Even ignoring the whole, reincarnation thing, 22 is a fairly reasonable age to have a child. "Goku and Chichi were 19 when they had you."

"Well, I feel too young."

"Doesn't everybody?" He joked.

It was nice. It'd been a while since they've had the opportunity to hang out for a day.

It'd been a while since he hadn't been questioning her intentions.

That was, really sad now that he stopped to think about it. For so long he'd been concerned about whether she had foresight, that she often knew things and questioning if that was a coincidence or not. It was kinda funny how it took her truly not seeming to expect something to confirm it.

And he was certain she had no idea Kuriza existed beforehand. She was entirely unenthusiastic to go into that ship, and she truly had no idea what she expected to be done with him. It was nothing like how she acted when Beerus first showed up. Or even what he remembered from threats before that.

Still, there was one thing he was- well not concerned about, but curious really. So as they sat out on his patio, not as nice as Roshi's, being in the city and all, he figured this was as good a chance he was gonna get.

"Hey, can I ask a question?" He asked.

Gohan only slightly turned her head, more preoccupied with coddling Kuriza and clearly not being practiced about it. She wasn't doing anything wrong, necessarily, but it was without any confidence. Hey, she was pretty lucky though. Kuriza had been pretty quiet throughout the day. Sure, he whined and spoke in baby babble plenty, but Krillin didn't think he'd cried once.

"What's up?" She answered.

"Was I supposed to die on Namek?" He asked with a smile.

The reaction was gradual. At first the question probably just seemed random. But slowly her eyes widened and her shoulders tensed.

"Huh?" It was a small noise, hardly a full version of the word. Something related to fear grew in her eyes. Not the fear of anything dangerous, but of being caught.

Maybe he should have just left it alone. It's not like it really mattered. Oh well, too late now.

He leaned back on his hands as he spoke again. "Well, thinking back, I'm pretty sure Nappa only lived because of your interference. And if he's the reason I got free from Frieza, that could mean that I wouldn't have if he wasn't there."

He tilted his head over to look at her. She hadn't moved, sitting stock still and wide-eyed.

He tried to smile as reassuringly as he could. "I figured it out a while ago. It doesn't really make that big of a difference though, right?"

"I- I don't-" Gohan almost managed words before eventually settling on just, "How?"

Which was good. Krillin didn't know what he'd do if she tried to deny it.

"It was just a little thing at first. I was remembering an old story- back when we were in that hospital, all the way back when Vegeta and Nappa first showed up. We were all laughing about Goku's fear of needles and something led to you being asked what you were afraid of." Krillin glanced over but her expression didn't show any recognition, it wasn't that different from how she'd been for the past couple minutes. "You said something along the lines of, grey aliens, green bugs, and pink bubblegum. It's just, pretty coincidental, y'know? And then after that, I couldn't help but pick apart a few other strange occurrences over the years."

"I don't- I don't remember saying that."

"I'm not surprised. It was so long ago, I only remembered because it was like, a funny story to remember."

Gohan finally looked down. As much as he tried to play it down before, it was still obviously a pretty big deal, especially for her it seemed.

"I don't, really know things anymore. Beerus was the last thing I had any details on. After that, it's a few bigger events but no details about how they happen, or even what they really are in some cases."

"Oh good, there are more major events." Krillin self-deprecatingly joked, before quickly clarifying, "I'm joking. I'm not actually that surprised."

As much as he was already certain she didn't know, he still couldn't help but clarify, "You didn't know about Kuriza, did you?"

She shook her head. "No. No, I- it's not even that I didn't know he existed, I'm pretty sure he wasn't supposed to. That's, that's something I probably would have known."

"How?" He asked.

"It's, it's too notable not to have. I don't know what I could have done to change something this drastically though."

"How does it work?"

Gohan glanced at him through the corner of her eye. Somehow he already knew he wasn't going to be getting the full answer.

"I just have a set amount of knowledge, of one version of events. If I change something I won't know how it'd end up, though that was a bigger issue back when I was younger. I can't get anything new, and I can also forget things. I have forgotten things. It made somethings pretty stressful back when I actually knew what was going to happen."

Krillin nodded. That made sense, well, as much sense as anything could. Still, "That doesn't really answer my first question though."

Gohan looked at him, unsure of what he meant.

"Was I supposed to die on Namek?"

Gohan blinked. "Oh…" she looked away, and around, and hesitated for so long that he already pretty much knew the answer when she eventually did give the barest of nods.

"Not for long though," she still quickly clarified, "you were brought back with Namek's Dragon Balls. And everything turned out fine either way so-" she trailed off.

Gohan had been so out of it after he'd nearly died. There was probably more to it than she was saying, something that led to her tone of guilt.

Krillin remembered immediately after they'd gotten back to Earth. Gohan had grabbed onto his shirt as he'd turned away for something. It was one of the few times she'd really looked like a child. "I'm glad you're ok." It was barely louder than a whisper. Sounding more like she was trying to reassure herself.

Krillin didn't question more about it. He could make a few assumptions about what was supposed to happen after that.

"Was I always supposed to end up with Eighteen? You were always so enthusiastic whenever we'd interact."

Gohan almost laughed, face darkening a shade. "Yeah. I think I got, a bit too excited when that started playing out. Also watching Vegeta getting beat was fun."

Krillin laughed along, glad the tension had somewhat lifted.

He was tempted to ask about things that had changed. What could have made things go off track as she'd stated. He was half tempted to see if Raditz was right or not about his theory about him not being brought back.

But that could wait. There'd always be another day.

Especially as Kuriza had started fussing again.