DB Multiverse

Chapter 3: Hang on!!

Everybody had a map that had a red colored part in their hands: that was where they had to plow the fields. Kulilin and Vegetto smiled.

“It brings back to the good old time!” exclaimed Kulilin.

“Yeah, it also brings back memories…” Vegetto muttered.

“Should we do it bare handed?” asked Trunks, frowning.

“We’ll be faster that way.” Replied Vegetto as he stretched. “Besides, you’ll exercise.”

“Go do it instead of talking. Then you’ll be faster!” growled Bulma.

The men nodded and then took off.

When Vegetto arrived in his field, he put his hands on the soil. He felt a sort of nostalgia overcoming him. He saw smaller hands, the hands of a child plowing a field with difficulty. Dazed, he closed his eyes for a few seconds then opened them to see his own hands. He felt a tear in the corner of his eyes, but he didn’t rub it off. With rage, he put his hands in the ground and started working, his mind elsewhere…

Further, Kulilin bustled about working as fast as he could. After half an hour, he allowed himself a short break. He had plowed about thirty miles square of field, he could rest a bit, couldn’t he? He exhaled heavily and let himself fall on the ground, his eyes focused on the blue sky. Memories of Gokû and him came back from time to time. No matter how he liked Vegetto, it wasn’t the same… On the other hand, he had none to blame for anything… After all, there was no one to blame… Besides, it had been only a few months that he had been gone. Time would heal. Kulilin closed his eyes that tears had filled at the thought of his best friend, almost his brother… After a while, he dried his tears with his sleeves then got back up and stretched. Those fields weren’t going to plow themselves!

As for Gohan, he was working faster than ever without taking even a ten second break. He wanted to be done as soon as possible to go back to Videl who had stayed at the camp. The girls had decided that plowing was a man’s work. And he hadn’t managed to make them think otherwise. Oh well… According to his estimations, it would take him two hours and a half, if he didn’t slow down, to finish plowing his part. Feeling much brighter with this thought, Gohan increased his rate.

Goten and Trunks were working together on their portion of land. Side by side, they talked as they slowing got the work done. At time they took some minute long breaks, but quickly got back to work so that they would not come back too late. At about noon, Vegetto came to give them a hand. And so, that’s how the day was spent for everyone. The next day, they went to plant senzu bean seeds and the day after, they watered and fertilized. For a month, they pampered their crops. They were aware it would take several months before they could be rewarded for their work, but at the sight of Vegetto getting worse and worse due to his chronic hunger, they worked even harder. Korin-sama had given them two senzu beans but Vegetto had refused to eat them, saying he wanted to keep them for harder times. And he was right.

At that time, there were eleven months left before the first harvests. Out of pride, Vegetto wanted to wait two other months before eating the first bean. Days peacefully passed in their small world. Three months later, Vegetto ate the first senzu bean. There were eight months left. If he took the last senzu in four or five months, he would manage to make it. He had to… Yet, Vegetto felt more and more hungry and he grew weaker and weaker. He took more time to work, he seemed more tired and ate incredible amount of food without feeling really filled. His friends were getting worried. Each night, Bulma told him to take it easy and to rest and each morning; his children told him about their concern. But, out of pride, he denied his tiredness. He even got angry at time, but his fits of anger never lasted long. Three months before the first harvests, Vegetto fainted for the first time. As he was digging for another irrigation canal, he just fell. Alarmed by the sudden drop of his ki, Gohan rushed to look for him. He found him unconscious. He landed, gripped the Saiyan by the shoulder and shook him.

“Dad! Dad! Answer me, you have to!”

Vegetto opened his eyes and remained silent for a few seconds and then, tried to move his arm. With no success. Gohan took his on his back and prayed every gods he knew for Vegetto’s quick healing. When Bulma saw Gohan’s arrival and that he had Vegetto on his back, she rushed to them, clearly panicking. Gohan gently put his father on the ground and breathed heavily.

“Gohan! What happened to your father?”

The young man didn’t answer right away as he was deep in thought. He eventually looked up to say:

“I felt his ki drop out of sudden. I went to see what was going on and I found him like that, lying on the ground…”

Bulma brought her hand to her mouth to prevent herself from screaming of horror. Just then, Chi-Chi ran out of the house.

“What happened? I saw you coming from the window!”

“Vegetto has fainted.” Answered Bulma.

“In that case, don’t let him here!” exclaimed Chi-Chi. “Bring him inside and put him to bed.”

Gohan did as he was told. Chi-Chi boiled water and prepared enough dishes to feed a regiment whereas Bulma was watching over Vegetto. The latter was having a fever and muttered in his sleep.

“Heal soon…” Bulma was saying over and over as a litany.

“Bul… ma… the dragon ball…” mumbled Vegetto.

Bulma recognized some events of her teenager-hood in these words, those she had gone through with Gokû. But soon, Vegetto was speaking about events from another life. Memories were mixing in his head. He started to be delirious, he opened his eyes and spoke nonsense, such as “Bulma, tell the rabbit to leave” and then, losing consciousness for an hour. Everybody was very worried and that’s why they worked even harder. During Vegetto’s short moments of consciousness, Bulma, hoping it’d make him feel better, helped him to eat a few dishes, but he ate them with increased difficulty. In front of her helplessness, she dissolved into tears. Chi-Chi heard her and came to comfort her.

“Crying won’t help. Use your energy to do something more useful.”

“I know but… there are three months left and we’ll be able to harvest and… I fear he won’t make it.”

“He will make it,” Chi-Chi said. She sounded so sure that Bulma couldn’t do anything else but nod.

After a few days, Vegetto found the strength to get up. After he had gotten a severe scolding and a few death threats if ever he was going back to work, the Saiyan consented to rest. He spent his time eating and sleeping, and he hated that above anything. After a week of that horrible treatment, he was allowed to go back to work. One month before the harvest, he gathered everyone.

“Listen, there is one month left. I wanted to speak about what we were going to do afterwards.”

“What do you mean?” asked Kulilin.

“We won’t stay here forever! We have to make sure we have enough food and I am not going to go back and forth between here and the Earth for it really is tiring! The kids are out of school and they need to go to get an education. That’s why we will have to find a way…”

“I could construct machines to do the work in our place…” offered Bulma.

“I was rather thinking of people.”

“Who do you want to come here? Earthlings aren’t dupe…”

“What if we asked extraterrestrials…” started Kulilin.

“How? And more important, who?” asked Gohan.

“Let’s not forget that he saved the universe when he destroyed Buu!” declared Bulma. “The entire galaxy owes Vegetto one. We could go through Kaio,” mumbled the scientist, a hand on her chin.

“Good idea!” exclaimed Vegetto. “I’ll do it right away!”

Vegetto frowned in an effort to concentrate.

“Master… Master, do you hear me?”

“I hear you loud and clear, Vegetto.” answered Kaio’s voice.

“Could you give a message to some people that you trust, as to the Namekians, for instance?”

“Of course I can. Give me your message.”

“Tell them that my survival depends on their answers and that I need their help to cultivate my senzu beans.”

“Very well. Wait a bit…”

Vegetto felt as if the waiting was stretching forever when he heard Kaio’s voice in his ear again.

“There, it’s done and I have some answers. As I thought, the Nameks replied positively, but there is also the Haïteku. They are a peaceful and large people living in the same corner of the universe than the Namek.”

“I expected more… After all, I did save the universe!”

“Yes, but the universe doesn’t know that… Besides, we can’t tell it to everybody!”

Vegetto sighed and thanked Kaio who broke the connection. The others had followed the conversation and were puzzled. How could they get out of it?

Vegetto spent the time training. There were only two more weeks to go. Two short weeks. Of course, it was unreasonable for him to train in such conditions but if he didn’t train too hard, it’d be ok, wouldn’t it? Either way, he was going to do it all the same. In spite of Bulma’s banning and Chi-Chi reprimands, he needed to move and to exert himself. That was how he could feel alive. He never thought better than when he was training. He was working on a series of kicks when Gohan landed in front of him.

“You shouldn’t be doing that.” He said. “What if you fainted again?”

“I’d prefer that.” Answered Vegetto. “You have Saiyan’s blood in you, so you must know that inaction kills me. And you train whenever you can, either with Kulilin or with the kids.”

“Maybe, but this is about your well-being!” suddenly yelled Gohan. “If anything wrong was to happen to you, what would you do?”

“I’d say that, at least I’d have done what I enjoy.”

Gohan was about to retort something witty but Vegetto was faster.

“Ok, I'll stop training but only if you do something for me.”

“What would it be?”

“I would like to fight against you.”

“You can’t be serious? You totally outclass me.”

“I have never been more serious. I know what potential you have. And I just want to know its limit.”

“You know very well that I never enjoyed fighting…”

Vegetto burst out laughing.

“Yes and given who your parents are, it’s rather surprising. Please, do it for me. I feel so rusty that I’m sure even Frieza could stand up to me.”

“You’re exaggerating…” said Gohan with a smile.

Vegetto grimaced. He knew that Gohan was strong; he felt it in his guts. If only his son had been more of a fighter… More of a brawler… He loved fighting powerful enemies! And here, he was denied his pleasure! He joined his hands and insisted:

“Come on… In return, I won’t transform.”

Gohan thought for a while. It wasn’t reasonable, he knew it. And yet… Even if he just wanted to live a peaceful, calm and routine life, he went on fight stance. A vague smile on his lips, he conceded:

“Ok, we will fight. But you have to swear that at the mere sign of weakness, you’ll stop and we’ll go back home.”

For an answer, the Saiyan rushed on his son, fists first. Gohan parried the first right punches but was caught unaware by the left uppercut that got his full force. He was thrown back three feet away and then crashed. When he got up, he noticed that he lip was badly cut.

He is serious! he thought as he wiped it with the back of his hand. I’ll have to use all my strength to stand up to him.

Vegetto smiled then rushed at him again. That time, Gohan managed to respond and kicked him in his jaw. Vegetto shook his head, groggy. Gohan took advantage of it to go behind him and strike him hard on the head. Vegetto leaned on the ground to jump on Gohan and he threw a Genki ball that exploded on his son’s stomach. Gohan yelled in pain when the ball hit and placed a hand on his wound whereas his other hand parried a kick that was so fast that he saw nothing more than its shadow. Seeing an open space, Vegetto threw another Genki ball that hit Gohan’s chest that time. Gohan replied with a furious kamehameha that Vegetto managed to dodge by an inch. The half Saiyan took advantage of that second of respite to increase his power: a white aura surrounded him. Vegetto ferociously smiled at him. The young man rushed at his father and punched him hard in the stomach, which made Vegetto bend. The latter looked up at his son in the eyes, satisfied.

“That’s surprising Gohan. Your strength is so amazing. The old Kai’s gift really worked really well! It’s even more impressing now that I face it than when I watched it from afar.”

“You think? When I got this power, I felt as if I was the king of the world, I was number one against Cell… but the next moment, you had far surpassed be, so far…”

“Come on, our fight is rather balanced.”

“You kid me? You haven’t even transformed into a super Saiyan!”

“But neither have you.”

“Yes I have, but you just can’t see it. I assure you, the strength I have now, I have it thinking that I have transformed in level 3 super Saiyan. Thanks to god’s gift, my hair doesn’t turn blond.”

“But you have never reached the super saiyan 3 level!”

“Now I have. But without its downsides. When I used my strength against Buu, I noticed that it was way more powerful than dad when he was ssj3.”

Vegetto had a kind of smile, his eyes blurred by nostalgia. Gohan frowned when he saw it. The next second, all hint of feelings had gone from the Saiyan’s face who said, with a more frank smile:

“You call Son Gokû ‘dad’, yet you speak of him on the third person with me.”

“I’m confused,” replied Gohan as he scratched his nose. “I think that we had to keep you apart, as you kept asking. My father, well… the first one, doesn’t exist anymore… Then habits die hard.”

“On the contrary, I’m glad that you make the difference. But will you be able to think of me as your father?”

“I do it already! It’s just that, at time, I forget…”

“It doesn’t bother us…” answered Vegetto, changing his voice on purpose, in reference to those who still believed that there were two people in this body.

Gohan heartily laughed at the imitation when Vegetto suddenly let out a cry and fell over.

“Damn!” screamed Gohan as he flew towards his father. “Veg… Dad!! Are you ok?”

“I went too far…” he weakly mumbled.