Dragon Ball/Z/GT Fan Fiction ❯ Garrulous and Gritless ❯ I, 13: Gohan ( Chapter 13 )
[ Y - Young Adult: Not suitable for readers under 16 ]
By: ShiningMoon 
Anime/Manga: Dragon Ball/Z/GT Fan Fiction | Genre(s): Adventure / Action / Comedy / Drama / Psychological / Romance | Type: Divergence | Uploaded On: 01.15.2011 | Pages: 2 | Words: 2.7K | Visits: 225 | Status: Completed
Anime/Manga: Dragon Ball/Z/GT Fan Fiction | Genre(s): Adventure / Action / Comedy / Drama / Psychological / Romance | Type: Divergence | Uploaded On: 01.15.2011 | Pages: 2 | Words: 2.7K | Visits: 225 | Status: Completed
NOTE: Ugh—I hope this is okay. I've been in a bit of a funk these past few days, experiencing the strange feeling of being obsessed with something other than DBZ. (I got the game Dragon Age: Origins for Christmas. I've played "only" 30 hours so far and am hooked. As anyone who's played it might guess, I'm experiencing a high-grade Alistair Fever. XD)
So, I hope everyone seems in character and everything. This came out being a lot shorter than I thought it might...I just wasn't feeling it; seeing these two characters butt heads was not as interesting to me as I thought it was going to be. Maybe it will be more interesting later, if they get the chance. I feel like I'm not doing Chi-Chi justice, here...maybe if we can see some of it from Raditz's perspective it'll help. Hm.
For those who may be worried: The real plot hasn't even started yet. Oh-ho-ho...just you wait.
In any case, I'm sure I'll get my groove back when I start writing the next chapter. Raditz tends to have that effect.
...
This is not good.
Well, what happened is, Kuririn and Yamcha and Tenshinhan and Chaotzu went to tell Mommy about what happened to Daddy. Me and Piccolo sparred while we waited for them to come back. He says I'm getting pretty strong, for a little kid, but also he always talks about how I don't know how to control my power yet, which I guess is probably right 'cause I haven't been practicing for very long. But, at least I'm good at sneaking up on people.
Oh, but, anyway, um, so what happened after that was, they came back.
With Mommy.
She was yelling and screaming and crying and then she came up to me and started hugging me. Then she said she was gonna go have "words" with Raditz. Which is where we are now—at Bulma's house, 'cause that's where Raditz is. I dunno why she brought me, but maybe she's scared that Raditz is gonna hurt her and she thinks maybe I'm scary enough to him to keep him from doing anything bad, I dunno. I hope I don't have to do anything again...it was so scary before. I almost died. But Bulma won't let it happen, right? It just seems like a really bad idea.
Bulma opens the door to her house looking super tired. "Hey, Chi-Chi, Gohan," she kind of mumbles. "Need so—" she doesn't even get to finish talking before my mommy does.
"Bulma, I need to talk to that sonnuvabitch that almost killed my son this instant!" she says.
"He also actually did kill Son," Bulma says, and it looks like she didn't get very much sleep.
"Yeah, well, he's coming back anyway," my mommy is practically about to push Bulma through the door so she can get in, "but Gohan is alive and I don't want him to be in any danger, so I need to show this guy what'll happen to him if he lays a finger on my son ever again!"
"Yeah," Bulma kind of nods. "Uhh...he's...uhhh..." she sounds sort of confused but it's probably because she's so tired, and she wanders into the house and points down a hallway. "Third door on the right," she says. "Just don't be too noisy. I'm going to bed."
I wonder if Bulma knows my mommy very well. I mean...she's almost always noisy when she's this mad, and I would be worried if she wasn't because the next level of scariness after being noisy is her being really, really quiet.
"To bed?" Mommy says. "It's eight in the morning!"
"I actually went to bed at..." Bulma trails off. "Not very long ago," she finally says, and she's almost stumbling down the hallway while she walks. "So I...need more sleep...just don't...piss him off too much," I can hear her say. "I arready did that once today..." I can't really see her when she says it but she almost sounds happy about it. Bulma sure does a lot of crazy stuff when you think about how strong this guy is and how she's not a fighter and stuff. I mean, I'm not really either, but I've kinda got some powers, you know? And I'm learning so I can do a little bit. But I don't think she has any. She's just a lady, except maybe she has the same weird way of scaring people that my mommy has. Anyway, my mommy storms off into the room that Bulma said Raditz is in. I follow real close behind her.
"You!" she screams into the door when she swings it open. Raditz is lying in his bed and he turns around to face the other way, away from the door. "You...child-hurting murderer!"
"Mm," Raditz says, and he sounds kind of happy, "go on."
Then Mommy runs over to his bed, pulls a pretty framed painting off the wall, and slams it on the back of Raditz's head. I'm about to run toward her and pull her away from him before he hurts her, but he just lifts his head out of the covers to look at her. "Are you the brat's mother?" he asks.
"How'd you know?" she seems a little bit surprised, and not mad for a second.
"You reek of the same human stench as he does," he says. "Luckily for the boy, he takes after his uncle's looks." His eyes go over to me and he smirks a little bit. I wonder why he's not being so mean like before. I wonder if it has to do with how Bulma cut off his tail. Yamcha said something about that but I didn't really get it all the way.
"Look, you," Mommy is mad again, "don't you dare touch my son again!"
"Hm," is all he says. Uh-oh—if he isn't saying okay and that he won't hurt me, does that mean he's gonna go after me? But Piccolo will keep me safe, and the others. I bet they could beat Raditz pretty easy if they all fought him. But, for some reason Bulma didn't kill him before, so maybe they would just beat him up a little bit and bring him back here. I feel a little bit safer thinking about that, especially 'cause I'm getting stronger every day and Piccolo keeps showing me how I should be sure of myself. He says, being smart is just as important as being strong, and, I think I'm pretty smart 'cause Mommy made me read all those books and stuff. I kind of want to go to the library and see if there are some books about fighting. Piccolo says I don't need them but I think it would make me feel better and it seems like the better I feel about sparring and stuff, the better I do.
"Hey!" she reaches under the covers and grabs for where Raditz's collar would be, except, he's not wearing a shirt, I guess 'cause he's been sleeping. So her hand lands on him, and he makes this really scary hissing-growling noise and I wince a little bit and when my eyes open back up she's flying across the room. I'm quick enough to catch her, though, so she doesn't get hurt.
Raditz looks over at us. "If you don't have anything useful to say, get out," he tells my mommy. "But while you're here, I'd like to tell you that I took great joy in killing your mate—and it's only a shame that I can't do the same to you."
"You can't?" I ask before I can even think about it. "Why—" but Raditz is all growly again so I stop, and it's probably better that way anyway 'cause maybe I don't wanna know why he can't, maybe it's something really bad or scary or maybe even something else. Piccolo acted like he knew, but he seemed confused too, so maybe not. Mommy has fainted and I can't really blame her 'cause Raditz is really scary when he's mad.
"Kid," he says, "if you come by here again, I can't hurt you—for now." He grins a little. "Maybe one of these days I can have a real conversation with my dear nephew, huh?" But then his face gets serious again. "But for god's sake, don't bring that woman with you."
"Is she that much meaner than Bulma?" I ask. 'Cause, I mean, I've seen Bulma be pretty mean too, so is that really why Raditz doesn't wanna see my mommy? Heck, Bulma even tried to kill Raditz with that big knife! All my mommy did was hit him with a painting...it probably didn't even hurt him.
Raditz's eyebrows get a little wrinkly, like he's thinking real hard or like he has something he's thinking of saying but trying to say it a different way to make it sound like something it's not. (Daddy said things to Mommy that way sometimes, to make it sound like me and him weren't just exploring for fun in the forest all day. He told her we were looking for mushrooms and stuff. We sort of did, but not really. You know, normally my daddy doesn't seem very smart at all, but he's pretty good at getting out of doing things, you know? It's like even when somebody knows he's not quite saying the whole truth they let him think he is anyway, 'cause, I dunno why. I wonder if Raditz is like that too, maybe, since he's my daddy's brother and all.)
"She is more tolerable," is all Raditz says, but that doesn't really answer my question, but I guess that's okay because I probably shouldn't have asked it anyway. He looks me over a little bit. "You know, you could be a great Saiyan warrior, kid, even if you're only a half-blood."
"I'm not a Saiyan," I tell him. "I'm not mean like you guys."
"Of course," he grins in a kind of scary way, "it doesn't count as being mean when you nearly kill somebody, does it, if that somebody is bad and evil, hm? There are two different kinds of killing—isn't that what you're trying to tell me? The type where the mean ones kill the good people and the type where the good ones kill the mean people. Is that right?"
I don't know what to say. I...I guess...I dunno. I...well...I mean...if they're mean...then it's different, right? I look at him for a little while to see if he's joking, but he just keeps that same old grin on his face for a while and then it gets all...blank. I mean, all not-happy-not-said like he's just watching me to see what I do. I dunno what to do, so I pick Mommy up and run out of the room real quick, and out the front door, and put her in the car, and try to wake her up.
"Gohan?" she finally says.
I say, "You fainted when he threw you, and told you about Daddy."
She gets a mean look on her face and I say, "It's okay, he promised he's not gonna hurt me. I think," I dunno if it's true, but I think it'll make Mommy happier and if she's happier I can go back to training with Piccolo and Yamcha and Kuririn and Tenshinhan and Chaotzu, "that Bulma came up with some way to keep him from hurting people."
She smiles a little. "That woman always was a genius. But," her fists ball up, "he'd damn well better keep his dirty paws off of you. You watch out, Gohan. I got a bad feeling about him." She sighs and looks at me real seriously, and I nod.
"Mommy," I say, "after we go home I'm going to go back to train, okay? Kami said that there's some scary stuff coming and I don't want Daddy to die again and..." I stop, 'cause I don't think Mommy really likes Piccolo, but, she looks at me like she wants me to keep talking, "and also he's worried he's gonna die, and if he dies, Mister Piccolo dies."
She frowns. "Good riddance, I'd say."
"But I'm gonna train no matter what, okay? So, um...so...don't worry about me. Those guys are really nice and they make sure I'm not hungry or anything, okay?" I actually make sure I'm not hungry, but I guess it might make her feel better thinking that somebody else does, because I think she thinks that I don't know how to do that stuff. "Plus, I'm gonna go get some books to study from while I'm resting between sparring and training and stuff."
"Good," she says, and she hugs me tight because I think she knows that I'm gonna leave no matter what. I think she's thought that ever since I told her earlier about how before I ran away during the nights to train with everybody. "Study hard," she says. "And whatever it is that Kami is so worried about, when it gets here, make sure you stay out of the way." She sounds extra-serious about this last part, in that way that only she ever talks to me.
I nod, 'cause it's easier that way, even if don't know if it's gonna happen. None of us knows what's gonna happen... "Okay," I tell her.
"And visit me," her eyes get full of tears, "and...oh, Gohan, I can't believe you're so young and you're going out in the wilderness with Piccolo and fighting and," she sniffs, "you're just like your father, but..." she holds me really tight, "you just keep studying, and make me proud, okay? When this is all over, we'll..." she smiles a little, "we'll see about getting you in a proper school so you can have friends. Real friends that aren't your father's fighting buddies."
"Okay," I say again. Maybe some other time I'll tell her how I don't really wanna go to school with other people. I'm so different from the kids I see sometimes, like now, like when I go into the city—my hair is all over the place and I have a tail and if I keep on getting stronger what if I accidentally break something and...and...I've never been around that many people all at once, and...it's...scary. It's okay outside with Piccolo and everybody because that's not that many people and I kinda feel at home outside, you know? But in the city, everything is...weird. Loud, and...too bright.
"Let's go home," she finally says, letting me go and wiping all the streaks off of her face, "and get you a nice lunch," her voice kind of shakes, "and don't you forget to visit your mother every now and then, hm?" She breathes in and out a few times. "I don't want to see you out with those...hooligans...but...I know you'll just run away," her breathing is strange again, like the air keeps getting caught in her throat, "and you're faster than me, now, Gohan...you'll just keep...outrunning me..."
"I'll visit," I say. "I promise."
And she smiles and puts her hand in my hair and then we're on the way back home.
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So, I hope everyone seems in character and everything. This came out being a lot shorter than I thought it might...I just wasn't feeling it; seeing these two characters butt heads was not as interesting to me as I thought it was going to be. Maybe it will be more interesting later, if they get the chance. I feel like I'm not doing Chi-Chi justice, here...maybe if we can see some of it from Raditz's perspective it'll help. Hm.
For those who may be worried: The real plot hasn't even started yet. Oh-ho-ho...just you wait.
In any case, I'm sure I'll get my groove back when I start writing the next chapter. Raditz tends to have that effect.
...
This is not good.
Well, what happened is, Kuririn and Yamcha and Tenshinhan and Chaotzu went to tell Mommy about what happened to Daddy. Me and Piccolo sparred while we waited for them to come back. He says I'm getting pretty strong, for a little kid, but also he always talks about how I don't know how to control my power yet, which I guess is probably right 'cause I haven't been practicing for very long. But, at least I'm good at sneaking up on people.
Oh, but, anyway, um, so what happened after that was, they came back.
With Mommy.
She was yelling and screaming and crying and then she came up to me and started hugging me. Then she said she was gonna go have "words" with Raditz. Which is where we are now—at Bulma's house, 'cause that's where Raditz is. I dunno why she brought me, but maybe she's scared that Raditz is gonna hurt her and she thinks maybe I'm scary enough to him to keep him from doing anything bad, I dunno. I hope I don't have to do anything again...it was so scary before. I almost died. But Bulma won't let it happen, right? It just seems like a really bad idea.
Bulma opens the door to her house looking super tired. "Hey, Chi-Chi, Gohan," she kind of mumbles. "Need so—" she doesn't even get to finish talking before my mommy does.
"Bulma, I need to talk to that sonnuvabitch that almost killed my son this instant!" she says.
"He also actually did kill Son," Bulma says, and it looks like she didn't get very much sleep.
"Yeah, well, he's coming back anyway," my mommy is practically about to push Bulma through the door so she can get in, "but Gohan is alive and I don't want him to be in any danger, so I need to show this guy what'll happen to him if he lays a finger on my son ever again!"
"Yeah," Bulma kind of nods. "Uhh...he's...uhhh..." she sounds sort of confused but it's probably because she's so tired, and she wanders into the house and points down a hallway. "Third door on the right," she says. "Just don't be too noisy. I'm going to bed."
I wonder if Bulma knows my mommy very well. I mean...she's almost always noisy when she's this mad, and I would be worried if she wasn't because the next level of scariness after being noisy is her being really, really quiet.
"To bed?" Mommy says. "It's eight in the morning!"
"I actually went to bed at..." Bulma trails off. "Not very long ago," she finally says, and she's almost stumbling down the hallway while she walks. "So I...need more sleep...just don't...piss him off too much," I can hear her say. "I arready did that once today..." I can't really see her when she says it but she almost sounds happy about it. Bulma sure does a lot of crazy stuff when you think about how strong this guy is and how she's not a fighter and stuff. I mean, I'm not really either, but I've kinda got some powers, you know? And I'm learning so I can do a little bit. But I don't think she has any. She's just a lady, except maybe she has the same weird way of scaring people that my mommy has. Anyway, my mommy storms off into the room that Bulma said Raditz is in. I follow real close behind her.
"You!" she screams into the door when she swings it open. Raditz is lying in his bed and he turns around to face the other way, away from the door. "You...child-hurting murderer!"
"Mm," Raditz says, and he sounds kind of happy, "go on."
Then Mommy runs over to his bed, pulls a pretty framed painting off the wall, and slams it on the back of Raditz's head. I'm about to run toward her and pull her away from him before he hurts her, but he just lifts his head out of the covers to look at her. "Are you the brat's mother?" he asks.
"How'd you know?" she seems a little bit surprised, and not mad for a second.
"You reek of the same human stench as he does," he says. "Luckily for the boy, he takes after his uncle's looks." His eyes go over to me and he smirks a little bit. I wonder why he's not being so mean like before. I wonder if it has to do with how Bulma cut off his tail. Yamcha said something about that but I didn't really get it all the way.
"Look, you," Mommy is mad again, "don't you dare touch my son again!"
"Hm," is all he says. Uh-oh—if he isn't saying okay and that he won't hurt me, does that mean he's gonna go after me? But Piccolo will keep me safe, and the others. I bet they could beat Raditz pretty easy if they all fought him. But, for some reason Bulma didn't kill him before, so maybe they would just beat him up a little bit and bring him back here. I feel a little bit safer thinking about that, especially 'cause I'm getting stronger every day and Piccolo keeps showing me how I should be sure of myself. He says, being smart is just as important as being strong, and, I think I'm pretty smart 'cause Mommy made me read all those books and stuff. I kind of want to go to the library and see if there are some books about fighting. Piccolo says I don't need them but I think it would make me feel better and it seems like the better I feel about sparring and stuff, the better I do.
"Hey!" she reaches under the covers and grabs for where Raditz's collar would be, except, he's not wearing a shirt, I guess 'cause he's been sleeping. So her hand lands on him, and he makes this really scary hissing-growling noise and I wince a little bit and when my eyes open back up she's flying across the room. I'm quick enough to catch her, though, so she doesn't get hurt.
Raditz looks over at us. "If you don't have anything useful to say, get out," he tells my mommy. "But while you're here, I'd like to tell you that I took great joy in killing your mate—and it's only a shame that I can't do the same to you."
"You can't?" I ask before I can even think about it. "Why—" but Raditz is all growly again so I stop, and it's probably better that way anyway 'cause maybe I don't wanna know why he can't, maybe it's something really bad or scary or maybe even something else. Piccolo acted like he knew, but he seemed confused too, so maybe not. Mommy has fainted and I can't really blame her 'cause Raditz is really scary when he's mad.
"Kid," he says, "if you come by here again, I can't hurt you—for now." He grins a little. "Maybe one of these days I can have a real conversation with my dear nephew, huh?" But then his face gets serious again. "But for god's sake, don't bring that woman with you."
"Is she that much meaner than Bulma?" I ask. 'Cause, I mean, I've seen Bulma be pretty mean too, so is that really why Raditz doesn't wanna see my mommy? Heck, Bulma even tried to kill Raditz with that big knife! All my mommy did was hit him with a painting...it probably didn't even hurt him.
Raditz's eyebrows get a little wrinkly, like he's thinking real hard or like he has something he's thinking of saying but trying to say it a different way to make it sound like something it's not. (Daddy said things to Mommy that way sometimes, to make it sound like me and him weren't just exploring for fun in the forest all day. He told her we were looking for mushrooms and stuff. We sort of did, but not really. You know, normally my daddy doesn't seem very smart at all, but he's pretty good at getting out of doing things, you know? It's like even when somebody knows he's not quite saying the whole truth they let him think he is anyway, 'cause, I dunno why. I wonder if Raditz is like that too, maybe, since he's my daddy's brother and all.)
"She is more tolerable," is all Raditz says, but that doesn't really answer my question, but I guess that's okay because I probably shouldn't have asked it anyway. He looks me over a little bit. "You know, you could be a great Saiyan warrior, kid, even if you're only a half-blood."
"I'm not a Saiyan," I tell him. "I'm not mean like you guys."
"Of course," he grins in a kind of scary way, "it doesn't count as being mean when you nearly kill somebody, does it, if that somebody is bad and evil, hm? There are two different kinds of killing—isn't that what you're trying to tell me? The type where the mean ones kill the good people and the type where the good ones kill the mean people. Is that right?"
I don't know what to say. I...I guess...I dunno. I...well...I mean...if they're mean...then it's different, right? I look at him for a little while to see if he's joking, but he just keeps that same old grin on his face for a while and then it gets all...blank. I mean, all not-happy-not-said like he's just watching me to see what I do. I dunno what to do, so I pick Mommy up and run out of the room real quick, and out the front door, and put her in the car, and try to wake her up.
"Gohan?" she finally says.
I say, "You fainted when he threw you, and told you about Daddy."
She gets a mean look on her face and I say, "It's okay, he promised he's not gonna hurt me. I think," I dunno if it's true, but I think it'll make Mommy happier and if she's happier I can go back to training with Piccolo and Yamcha and Kuririn and Tenshinhan and Chaotzu, "that Bulma came up with some way to keep him from hurting people."
She smiles a little. "That woman always was a genius. But," her fists ball up, "he'd damn well better keep his dirty paws off of you. You watch out, Gohan. I got a bad feeling about him." She sighs and looks at me real seriously, and I nod.
"Mommy," I say, "after we go home I'm going to go back to train, okay? Kami said that there's some scary stuff coming and I don't want Daddy to die again and..." I stop, 'cause I don't think Mommy really likes Piccolo, but, she looks at me like she wants me to keep talking, "and also he's worried he's gonna die, and if he dies, Mister Piccolo dies."
She frowns. "Good riddance, I'd say."
"But I'm gonna train no matter what, okay? So, um...so...don't worry about me. Those guys are really nice and they make sure I'm not hungry or anything, okay?" I actually make sure I'm not hungry, but I guess it might make her feel better thinking that somebody else does, because I think she thinks that I don't know how to do that stuff. "Plus, I'm gonna go get some books to study from while I'm resting between sparring and training and stuff."
"Good," she says, and she hugs me tight because I think she knows that I'm gonna leave no matter what. I think she's thought that ever since I told her earlier about how before I ran away during the nights to train with everybody. "Study hard," she says. "And whatever it is that Kami is so worried about, when it gets here, make sure you stay out of the way." She sounds extra-serious about this last part, in that way that only she ever talks to me.
I nod, 'cause it's easier that way, even if don't know if it's gonna happen. None of us knows what's gonna happen... "Okay," I tell her.
"And visit me," her eyes get full of tears, "and...oh, Gohan, I can't believe you're so young and you're going out in the wilderness with Piccolo and fighting and," she sniffs, "you're just like your father, but..." she holds me really tight, "you just keep studying, and make me proud, okay? When this is all over, we'll..." she smiles a little, "we'll see about getting you in a proper school so you can have friends. Real friends that aren't your father's fighting buddies."
"Okay," I say again. Maybe some other time I'll tell her how I don't really wanna go to school with other people. I'm so different from the kids I see sometimes, like now, like when I go into the city—my hair is all over the place and I have a tail and if I keep on getting stronger what if I accidentally break something and...and...I've never been around that many people all at once, and...it's...scary. It's okay outside with Piccolo and everybody because that's not that many people and I kinda feel at home outside, you know? But in the city, everything is...weird. Loud, and...too bright.
"Let's go home," she finally says, letting me go and wiping all the streaks off of her face, "and get you a nice lunch," her voice kind of shakes, "and don't you forget to visit your mother every now and then, hm?" She breathes in and out a few times. "I don't want to see you out with those...hooligans...but...I know you'll just run away," her breathing is strange again, like the air keeps getting caught in her throat, "and you're faster than me, now, Gohan...you'll just keep...outrunning me..."
"I'll visit," I say. "I promise."
And she smiles and puts her hand in my hair and then we're on the way back home.
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