Ch. 36: Saiyan Invasion Aftermath (2)

After I explained about Pigero to my dad, Raditz, and Yajirobe, something fell from the sky. It was Vegeta. He was barely alive. His tail, as well as almost all of his armor was gone. It was pretty clear to me that Shay'd needed to regrow some of his limbs in order to ensure his walking capabilities. Either way, he wasn't a threat anymore. 

Yajirobe freaked out when Vegeta landed, and ran up to him with his sword raised, attempting to kill him, but ironically, Vegeta's spaceship landed so close to the chubby swordsman that he just jumped up and started running to who-knows-where. Raditz, Goku and I just looked on as Vegeta literally crawled into his ship and disappeared, back to the Frieza Force's base. Goku wasn't willing to kill him, and Raditz seemed to understand and respect that without them even having to say anything to each other.

"I think we should go look for Gohan and Krillin. If what you said is true, Hanna, then they're probably pretty hurt. Maybe unconscious, in the middle of nowhere." Goku decided. Since Yajirobe was gone now, Goku was the most injured out of the three of us. Honestly, the only real effort Raditz'd put in all day was when he'd help blast Vegeta into space, so he was in about the same condition as me, since my body hadn't been totally capable of keeping up with my movements when I'd fought Gohan's ape form. If Goku was still capable of flight, neither of us felt like we had any right to complain.

Though Goku could walk and even fly by himself, it was difficult for him to do, and he was pretty slow thanks to the backlash from Kaio-ken times four, so Raditz and I half-carried him to the spot where Piccolo and Tien were waiting, since it was on the way.

"Where's Nappa?" Raditz asked them once we landed, noticing that the burly Saiyan was nowhere to be seen.

"His space pod showed up, so we let him go. I honestly think that you changed him a little bit, Raditz." Tien told us. Raditz seemed conflicted about the whole idea of them letting Nappa go, but he didn't say anything.

"You look like hell." Piccolo told Goku, noticing the bad shape he was in. King Piccolo wouldn't have hesitated to kill Goku right then and there, but the current Piccolo seemed concerned instead.

"Nice to... See you too." Goku told him, chuckling a bit, "Don't make me laugh... It hurts."

"So it's over?" Tien asked.

"Yeah." Goku said, sitting down, "He's gone."

"Don't you wish we hadn't eaten that Senzu Bean that the cat gave us on our way here?" Raditz joked.

"Absolutely. I could use one right now." Goku said.

"Wait a second!" I exclaimed, pretending that I'd just remembered this next bit of information. I pulled two Senzu beans out of my pocket, "When I started training in the Time Chamber, Korin gave me five Senzu beans... I ate three, but I kept two for safekeeping. I brought them to this battle, just in case, but I forgot about them." I lied. In actuality, these were not three year old Senzu beans pulled from my pocket, but brand new, mutated Senzu beans pulled directly from the storehouse at the Core.

On top of fully healing a person, they also marginally boosted their strength. It wasn't on the level of a Saiyan's Zenkai boost, where they got stronger the more they were beaten up, but it was pretty incredible growth for a human. I gave one to my dad and stored the other one to give to Krillin when we found him.

"Man, Hanna. I wish you'd have remembered these before we flew Kakarot's injured butt all the way over here." Raditz joked. Embarrassed, I scratched the back of my head and tried to act cute.

"Sorry, I forgot." I'd actually genuinely forgotten, somehow. 'Shay, wasn't it your job to... Have Chelsea remind me or something?' I almost blamed Shay herself for not reminding me, but she'd done a great job so far, and I knew that she'd beat herself up unnecessarily if I accidentally told her that she wasn't fulfilling duties that she'd never had, so I blamed it on Chelsea, who wasn't capable of reminding me, instead. 

'Sorry, Mistress!' Shay apologized. She acted so cutely sometimes, complying with all of my stupid demands.

I remembered where the fight with Gohan had happened. Just look for the huge crater between the battle zone and Kame house, after all. It was right on the edge of the forest, too, right beside the ocean. When we got there, we found both Krillin and Gohan unconscious.

A worm was trying to slither its way into Krillin's ear, but Tien picked it out for him before turning him over. The pain from being flipped over woke Krillin up, and he seemed to be lucid enough to swallow the Senzu bean himself while Piccolo picked Gohan up and materialized him some clothes.

We didn't bother going anywhere for a while. The previous day's events, while not as heavy as they'd been in the original anime, still weighed on us heavily. When Gohan woke up, he didn't say anything. It seemed that he remembered what had happened while he was in his Great Ape form. He remembered Pigero's death.

"What was he like?" Krillin asked me after a long silence descended on the group. We all knew that he was talking about Pigero. 

"Not the type to regret anything. He'd just do what he could, end of story, little regard for his own safety." I told him, "I guess he finally did what he wanted to do. He saved lives when he occupied Gohan long enough for me to get there."

"Yeah. I only exchanged a few words with him, but he seemed like a really good guy."

"We'll bring him back, you know." Tien reminded us.

"Because I killed him." Gohan said angrily.

"You couldn't control yourself!" Krillin argued Gohan's point. As the one who was skipped across the ocean like a rag doll, Krillin's point was a valid one. He'd forgiven Gohan already, and I knew that Pigero wouldn't hold a grudge over it either when he got back, but it had a profound impact on my little brother. 

"I still killed him!" Gohan shouted.

"Gohan, stop. Pigero sacrificed himself to stop a natural disaster. It wasn't anybody's fault." I told Gohan, laying my hand on his.

Gohan didn't have anything to answer me with, nor did he get to, as we started to hear engines in the distance.