Chapter 20 -  Escape From Chi-Chi  

A reunion between a father and son who haven’t seen each other for about 20 years doesn’t often happen, but when it does there are two paths that it can take. It can either be a huge success, with both instantly growing attached to each other, or a huge failure, where both man hates the other intensively. Luckily though, the reunion between Bardock and Goku has so far been going extremely well.

The two sit at a large table in the quaint kitchen of the Son house, with Chi-Chi hastily preparing an epic meal, scampering around rapidly in her cooking apron, and sorting out every aspect of it, attempting to make it perfect for their guest. Gohan sets the table politely, walking across the cold stone floor, and placing every knife and fork delicately down, producing four places, all evenly spaced out.

“Gohan, please can you go and get your father and his new friend?” Chi-Chi asked assertively. The young half-Saiyan boy doesn’t say a word, but merely rises to his feet obediently, and walks off to find the two adults, obliging in his mothers wishes. “It’s not like Goku to be away during a meal, he must be having a really good time” Chi-Chi thought out loud, smiling weakly at the prospect, and attempting to ward off any doubts about his safety, albeit completely unsuccessfully.

Gohan silently strides outside the house, then carefully senses for power levels in the surrounding area. It doesn’t even take a second to work out where the two are, as the boy’s senses work with incredible precision. He powers up slightly, becoming immersed by brilliant white KI, then flies off towards their location, moving at an almost undetectable speed. He flies over a fairly large forest that thrives with prosperous trees, and countless animals, playing around in the bushes or on the ground, pretty much going about their simple daily business. Gohan sighs dejectedly, life is so simple for all the wildlife, they don’t have a single worry in the world and most of them live to a great age. On the other hand he must face the most powerful warrior in the universe in just a few days, with his, and everyone else’s life at stake. It isn’t fair, why can’t he just swap places with them for a week or so, at least if Frieza destroys the Earth and its inhabitants the chances are it’ll be painless and unforeseen for them. For him though it’ll be a long, agonizing death, full of suffering and torment.

He is shaken out of his depressing thoughts when he senses his dads power level again, with it being right below him this time, in a small clearing surrounded by trees, a perfect hide out from the troubles in the world. Gohan diminishes the KI around him, then slowly floats down to the ground, landing just on the border of the clearing. He looks around for his father, but cannot see him, although is KI signature is definitely in the immediate area. A rapid gust of wind makes Gohan go staggering backwards, which is in turn followed by a few more bursts until it stops as unexpectedly as it started, and all is silent. The kid suddenly realizes what is going wrong, and cautiously glances around. Without warning he shoots out a small KI blast, which goes through the air at an impeccably fast speed. A tall, dark haired man then appears in front of it, almost completely taken by surprise as is revealed by his fearful eyes, before he leans backwards, barely avoiding the blast.

“Hey Dad!” Gohan exclaimed excitedly. “I almost got you that time!”

“Heh, well done son,” The man replied, revealed to be none other than Goku. Another figure then appears, as if from out of nowhere. This figure is definitely a man, proven by his muscular physique, and boyish looks. He has a deep scar running across his cheek, and a sly grin across his face. It is now apparent that the reason Gohan couldn’t see his dad and granddad was because they were moving at such rapid speeds that their movements were completely undetectable.

“Hey kid” the man said casually.

“Hi Bardock” Gohan replied. “Mom said its time to eat tea, and asked me to get you.” Goku nodded, and everyone flew off towards the small cottage where Chi-Chi was growing impatient, stomping across the floor, and shouting, completely enraged.

“What’s taking them so long?” She asked herself rhetorically. “I spend all day cooking this meal, and is it appreciated? Of course not! Goku’s got better things to do than come and eat with his wife, such as talking to that new friend of his…it’s just not fair!” Chi-Chi stated, a hint of annoyance and sadness in her voice. Before she can continue her ranting though, the two Saiyans and the kid burst through the door, and all sit at the table expectantly.

“Hi dear!” Goku grinned.

“Don’t you ‘Hi Dear’ me Mr! Where’ve you been? I’ve been worried sick about you!”

“Relax, we’ve only been down in the clearing for a while.”

“A while? A while?! You’ve been there for almost two days!” Chi-Chi yelled out ferociously. “I thought that you had been killed, or injured! Didn’t it even occur to you that maybe you could tell me where you’re going next time?”

“Sorry…” Goku said flatly and guiltily, exactly like a small child who has just been caught stealing from the cookie jar.

“Let’s just eat” Chi-Chi said, unable to stay mad at her husband who she has come to love so much over the years, as she dishes out the food. Of course it is eaten rapidly in a matter of seconds, as Bardock turns out to have just as big an appetite as Goku.

“Hey Chi-Chi” Goku said between mouthfuls, half his food being spat everywhere “Do you mind if we take Gohan up to Kami’s to train?”

“WHAT?!” Chi-Chi yelled aggressively, making everyone cower in their seats. “TAKE MY SON TO TRAIN? HE COULD BE HURT!”

“C…calm down…” Goku started, but is cut off straight away.

“Gohan has to study” was the stubborn reply as Chi-Chi begins to gather her bearings again.

“But…” Goku tried to say before being interrupted again.

“You’re rotting his mind with all this fighting you know. What about his future? How is he ever going to become a famous scholar if he doesn’t spend his time studying?” She asked rhetorically.

“But if he doesn’t train then Frieza will probably destroy us all!” Goku argued. Bardock may not have known either of them long, but it was fairly obvious who was going to win this little discussion, and that was of course, Chi-Chi. Gohan groaned, as he knew this too.

“No, and that’s that!”

“But mom!” Gohan moaned. “What if Frieza destroys the whole Earth! Then I won’t be able to become a scholar!”

“Listen young man, if you don’t stop disagreeing with me, you’ll go straight to bed! Understand?”

“Yes mother”

“Good! Now eat your tea” The rest of the meal was eaten in complete silence, no one daring to say a word. Naturally, with the speed that Goku and Bardock ate at, it took a mere matter of seconds for everything to be disposed of, so it really didn’t make that much of a difference. They waited patiently for Gohan and Chi-Chi to finish, as it is considered rude to leave the table when others haven’t finished.

“Erm…Gohan, I was thinking…you know if we saved the world and you helped, there’d obviously be a lot of money involved” Bardock said, clearly aiming his words at Chi-Chi. “And you know what you could buy with a lot of money?”

“A really good education?” Gohan answered, working out where the conversation was heading. Chi-Chi is intrigued by this, and raises an eyebrow. After a great deal of thinking, she gave him permission to train, although it seemed to cause her pain.

A short while later, Goku and Bardock were walking out of the front door with some suitcases, closely followed by Gohan. Chi-Chi walks towards them accusingly, about to demand an explanation for them taking all of that stuff.

“Bye Chi-Chi, we’re going to Kami’s for a few weeks, love you!” Goku said, disappearing out of the door along with the other two, not even giving his wife time to argue with him, or even disapprove of where they are going.

“They’ve gone again, leaving me all alone” Chi-Chi said, expressing her annoyance, and dejectedly wandering into the house, walking backwards and staring at the trails left by everyone flying. “Good luck Goku, please come back alive” she expressed to herself, a tear forming in the corner of her eye.

******

Kami’s Lookout, the place that everyone would want to be. You can see literally the whole world from the extravagant palace, and everything seems absolutely perfect. The architecture is designed exquisitely, and faultlessly. There are no annoying drunks or imperfections in people up here…in fact there’s only two humanoids, one is a Namek, and one is an unidentified creature. The Namek is old and somewhat frail, carrying a wooden staff, the God of Earth, someone extremely important and necessary to the survival of the planet. The unidentified thing is a short, plump, almost completely black thing with large lips, and a turban atop of his head. Despite his odd appearance, he is still an immensely likeable character. He is the gardener, or maintainer so to speak, and without him the place wouldn’t look anywhere near as good.

At the moment the lookout is occupied by a few people, busily scuttling around at speeds that are practically unnoticeable to the untrained eye. The occasional flash of light can be seen, and it goes this way for almost 30 seconds until the movement comes to a halt, and two figures are revealed, breathing very heavily, and one looking distinctively more worn down than the other. Upon closer inspection, one would be able to come to the conclusion that the two fighters are prince Vegeta, and Korosu. They have been doing a form of sparring, albeit it far more intensive, with excessive physical injury being distributed to both, but especially Korosu as he has the inferior power level.

The Saiyan is a bleeding wreck; his face a mixture of cuts, bruises, and mangled facial features such as a broken nose, and fat lip. One of his eyes is being forced shut due to overwhelming pain in it, and his arm is limply hanging at the side. His fighting gear has been damaged terribly badly, with a huge fist shaped hole in his armour, and numerous rips in his trousers. He sways limply from side to side, before falling onto one knee, and groaning in agony. His whole appearance has been distorted past any recognizable state, and had Krillen not arrived with a fresh batch of sensu beans, his life could have been wasted carelessly.

Vegeta smirks arrogantly, practically in prestige condition, except for one small cut that runs across his cheek, emitting a quaint quantity of blood, but not enough to bother the prince. He looks down at his now fully revived training partner, and walks off in disgust, having not even been given a challenge by him. When Vegeta is out of sight, Korosu gets up, helped by Krillen, and it in total disbelief at the princes power. He gives an aggravated shout, seeing how Vegeta is far beyond a level that he will reach any time soon. Krillen attempts to comfort him, but Korosu pushes away the human in a fit of rage.

“Use your anger to enhance your training” A voice suggested, coming from Korosu’s left. The Saiyan turns round to see Kami standing over him ominously. Korosu doesn’t dare disrespect a God, so he stares right at the Namek for a while, waiting for a follow up to the suggestion. Eventually he gets one after a considerably long amount of consideration. “I want you to work as hard as you possibly can on exercises such as press ups, push ups, squats, and practicing your close-combat fighting moves. Find out your maximum, then proceed to do this as a daily exercise. Come back after you’ve calmed down, and I will teach both you and Vegeta some new techniques and training methods.” Korosu obediently walks off, and begins training, isolated from the rest of the lookout in a small corner, and working to an extent that not even he thought possible. Krillen sighs then goes to train himself elsewhere. Before he can walk off though, Kami takes hold of his shoulder, and prevents him from moving any further. “Krillen, you must use the room of spirit and time to increase your power level. There are a few things I need to teach Vegeta and Korosu before they enter it though. Two people can go in at once, so I want you to take someone in, and train with them.”

“Room of Spirit and Time? What’s that?” Krillen responded curiously. 

“A room where one day out here in the equivalent to one year in there. It can be used to massively increase your power level, but you can only go in there for a maximum of two Earth days out here.” Kami explained. Krillen seems to understand exactly what he’s talking about, picking up on it very fast. “Now all we have to do is wait for everyone to arrive.”

About 5 minutes later, Goku, Gohan, and Bardock all touch down on the lookout. They dump their stuff on the floor, not even bothering to unpack, and search for Kami in an effort to seek his permission to train them. Before they find the Namek though, Tien arrives, closely followed by Piccolo. Realizing that everyone has arrived, Kami reveals himself slyly, walking out of the shadows, and addressing everyone.

“I’m sure all of you have come here to train for Frieza’s arrival, but I must state that I will not give any of you individual attention, you must learn to learn, and function as a group, a team. Now Krillen, take Tien into the room of spirit and time. I’ll explain what it is to the rest of you a bit later.” Kami explained, allowing the confused Tien, and confident Krillen to wander towards the great room. Mr. Popo greets them outside, and seemingly explains how it works and gives them all the vital knowledge of it.

“I will give you all weighted clothes, which means that you’re GI’s will differ from your normal ones. Bardock, Korosu, Vegeta, I hope this isn’t too much of a problem, being such a difference to your usual attire?”

“Just get on with it Namek!” Vegeta shouted rudely and impatiently, anxious to get on with the training. Everyone looks at him as if he has just started to shout during church, and he stands there completely expressionless, awaiting Kami’s words.

“Such rudeness will not be tolerated here,” Kami said assertively. “If you wish to speak like that, then leave now, otherwise I will begin the training.” Vegeta seriously considered the prospect of leaving, but decided against it, curious to see what this room of spirit and time actually does. The Namek begins giving everyone their daily routines, with slight differences on each one according to power. Everyone starts to train as a group, all of them working hard as possible. The real training is soon to begin, and with Frieza looming ever nearer time is of the essence. Will all this be enough though?