Ch. 11: Pigero

Two children found a body on the beach.

"Who is he? Doesn't look like he's from around here." The little girl wondered

"I dunno... He must've fallen off a ship or something...." The boy thought aloud.

"Well don't get too close, he could be dangerous!" The girl warned.

The boy poked the body with a stick carefully. No response. "He won't wake up." He noted.

"Is he alive?"

"I'd better check!" The boy put his ear against the body, listening for a heartbeat. After a moment...

"I guess not. Too bad." He decided that the person below him was dead.

"Oh no... How can you tell, Rom? What did you do?" The girl asked.

"The old ear test! You're six years old, and you haven't learned about the old ear test?" Rom teased.

The girl thought hard. The old ear test actually wasn't really a thing. "Yes I have!" She decided.

Rom looked over the body once again. "It doesn't look like he has anything valuable on him."

Meanwhile, the girl was looking at something down the shore a little ways. "Hey, look, Rom! What's that?"

Rom turned to see what she was pointing at. It was a sword lying in the sand. Excited, the two children ran over and picked it up, fawning over it. "Check it out!" Rom said, taking it out of its scabbard. It was shiny, as if it was brand new. He did a few test swings, but when one of them had him looking back towards where the body had been, he found it standing upright, albeit barely. Both children went pale. 

"Hey... That's my sword..." The owner of the sword managed to get out, before collapsing.

"I guess he's dead again." Rom commented.

...

When Gohan woke up, there were two other kids with him. One seemed younger than him, while the other seemed to be about the same age as him.

"Hello there!"

"Hi." Gohan answered politely, albeit weakly, still a little disoriented.

"How's it going? I'm Rom!"

"And my name is Chiko! Hi!"

"Hi. Where am I?" Gohan asked.

Chiko tried to answer him, but it felt more like they were playing some sort of game.

"Here."

"Where is here?"

"Wherever we happen to be at the time."

"Oh. Cool." Gohan sat up. Rom explained that Gohan was at his house. "It's free because no-one wants it. Where'd you come from, anyway?"

"I dunno." Gohan replied, thinking back on it. "I think it was a desert or something." His mind flashed back to the island.

"Oh wow! I can't believe you're all alone!" Chiko exclaimed.

"Not anymore." Rom told him. "From now on, you can hang out with us! We're orphans too! We only have one rule, never cry. But Chiko breaks that rule all the time, so don't worry-"

"I do not!" Chiko interjected.

"I'm Gohan." Gohan told them. 

"It's nice to meet you, Gohan. Don't believe everything that Rm tells you though, okay?" Chiko told him. "You're the first new orphan ever. The rest of us have been here since the tidal wave." She told him. 

"Uhh..." Gohan started.

"Say whatever's on your mind, Gohan. We speak freely here."

"That's good. It's just that I've been alone for so long... I forgot how to talk." Gohan hadn't really been alone. Even now, Piccolo and I knew exactly where he was. We'd just stayed at a distance so that he could grow on his own.

The other two looked at Gohan with pity.

...

The two were explaining that a huge tidal wave hit their area a long time ago, leaving a bunch of orphans, when they heard a car's engine.

"It's the goon squad. Let's go!"

"Right."

Without any explanation, they started running towards the roof with Gohan in tow. There was a vine tied up to the tree. It was a long jump, even for Gohan, but the vine made it possible for the kids to swing across.

"I'll be back. I just need to get Chiko across." Rom and Chiko swung across the gap between the roof and a small ledge that someone had crudely built in the tree, landing just as the 'goon squad' made it to the rooftop. 

Rom realized that he wasn't going to make it if he swung back to get Gohan. "Uh oh. He's a goner."

The 'goons' started to corner Gohan. They talked about making him come with them, so Gohan jumped the gap, barely landing on the ledge.

Startled by Gohan's incredible physical abilities, nobody said anything for a long time, then Rom stood and shouted "Take that, you big apes!"

Irritated by their failure, the 'goon squad' left to find other orphans while Rom explained that the 'goons' were from the orphanage, where kids had to do chores and get spanked. He made it sound like an absolutely horrible place. As he was finishing his explanation, they all heard a loud scream. The orphanage people had caught a girl. 

As the orphanage guy started to put her into the van that they had with them, she disappeared from his grip. 

"Huh?" The orphanage guy looked around, to find a boy in his late teens. The girl was hiding behind his leg.

"That's enough out of you clowns. The girl stays."

"That's what you think!" The orphanage people got into fighting poses, but the teen didn't seem to be intimidated in the least. The one that he had snatched the girl from charged at him, but he simply elbowed him and down he went like a sack of bricks. The other guys weren't too difficult either for the teen to take down. Even though they carried clubs, they each went down with a single blow.

After that, the kids started throwing rocks at the only person standing, a lady. She tried to explain the positive sides of going to an orphanage. New clothes... hot meals... et. cetera, but the kids weren't interested in listening. 

"If you really wanna give us nice things, that's fine. Just bring them over here." The teen called out as a representative for the children.

Saying "We'll be back", the orphanage people left empty-handed.

As the kids celebrated, the teen walked over to Gohan.

"Is he new?" He asked Rom. Gohan answered for him.

"Hi, I'm Gohan. Nice to meet you."

"And since he's the smallest, he gets food every day now!" Chiko tried. Unfortunately for her, she was still smaller than Gohan.

"Nope. You're still the smallest, Chiko." The teen burst her bubble. Everyone laughed.

After the party had calmed down a little bit, the teen introduced himself to Gohan.

"Hi, Gohan. My name's Pigero. It's nice to meet you."

Living with the children and Pigero was fun for Gohan. Pigero was strong for a human, and it felt nice to be around kids his own age. Unfortunately, it wouldn't last.