Dragon Ball/Z/GT Fan Fiction ❯ Dragonball Infinity ❯ Chapter Eighteen: Tears in Heaven ( Chapter 18 )

Humming to herself, Gokuu marched toward the mountains, and tried to keep her tune steady and on the right key. Beside her walked Olibu, and she smiled often at him. The tall man cleared his throat almost every time she did so - a confusing act for her because she kept expecting him to try to talk after he did it. Finally, when she smiled at him and Olibu cleared his throat once more, she stopped humming and walking.

"Are you okay? You sound like you have a sore throat."

His eyes widened before she saw his cheeks pinken slightly, "I'm fine, Gokuu, really."

"Oh, then did you want to talk to me about something ...? I've been practicing doing this song right for a while, so if you want me to stop-"

"The song is fine," he said with a wide grin, "I was just thinking that ... Gokuu, you're not really like other girls. You're even different from the female warriors here." As she frowned, he shook his head, "I don't mean that in a bad way. You're ... refreshing, Gokuu. It's nice that I can talk to you like one warrior to another, and not have to worry about getting you offended like some women here that I know. That's something that I really like about you ..."

She scratched the back of her neck, and cocked her head to the side, "Oh."

"... I like being around you."

Beaming at the insight, she told him, "I like being with you too."

"You ... do?" He murmured before he smiled even wider, and touched her cheek gently.

His fingertips tickled her softly, and so she giggled, lightly batting his hand away, "Course, I do. You're a good friend."

He went still before he gently placed his hand on her shoulder, "I was hoping to be more than just friends, Gokuu."

"More than ...?" Frowning, she tilted her head to the other side, "What's that mean? How can people become anything more than friends?" She smiled, "What's better than being friends?"

His eyes widened in disbelief until his blonde brow reached his hairline, "... I - I don't mean to be rude, but, Gokuu-chan, are you a virgin?"

"A what?"

Clearing his throat, he seemed to become more florid before he took her hand, "Perhaps I should teach you what it is to be a woman."

It didn't happen for another couple of months, but eventually her balance became skewed. Gokuu had been aiming at Paikuhan's face when it really seemed to hit her, and she toppled to the side only to fall on her rump with a soft cry. Her opponent instantly was upon her, and she had to roll away to avoid getting hit, jumping to her feet with none of her usual grace before she threw several energy blasts into his face.

The delaying tactic worked for all of a few moments before Paikuhan lurched toward her, and headbutted the Saiyajin. She wobbled back a few steps before she landed on her behind again. Gokuu held her dizzy head, breathing in through her nose, and then exhaling out via her mouth.

Before he seemed properly able to gloat, Paikuhan's brow creased in concern, "Gokuu? What is it?"

"Just a little woozy," she said, and then grinned at him. "Weird, huh? You pack quite a whollop with that head of yours." Smirking, he offered her a hand which she took so that she could stand up. Eyes wide, Gokuu abruptly stumbled before she could catch herself, "Whoa!"

"I hit you harder than I thought if you're this bad."

"It's not bad at all," she said.

"Gokuu," Olibu said from the sidelines, "you just tripped over your own feet. You've been doing it a lot too."

Becoming unsure, she looked over at the confused looking Paikuhan to the concerned Olibu. The latter asked, "Are you sure it's okay for you to be eating? You are dead. There's never been a hungry dead man before ... or a hungry dead woman."

"But I get so hungry," she told them.

"It's just a habit you need to get out of," Paikuhan explained. "There's no reason for you to eat anymore. It's unnatural for someone who's dead to eat."

Olibu nodded, "I understand you can't help but try to breathe right now, but that's normal. You'll stop that after a few thousand years. I still do it sometimes myself, but ... eating?"

She managed to shrug sheepishly before she sighed, and relented, "Maybe I'll have one of those nurses check on me ... I'll just have to ask for no needles again."

"All right," Olibu nodded, and then got into the ring before he waved to her. "We'll see you soon, Gokuu."

When Paikuhan raised his hand in a short farewell, Gokuu waved back as she teleported to the infirmary. She ended up beside Elra, one of the nurses that treated her often, "Hi!"

"Hello, sweet cakes," Elra murmured cheerfully as she binded a broken leg of some yellow and pink alien. "How's my favorite patient? What'd you break this time?"

"I don't know. Olibu says I need a check-up."

"Ooh?" Smiling, she turned around, and poked at her shoulder, "That sweet, big man is worried about you, is he?"

"Yeah, him and Paikuhan."

"Oh, that green guy? Well, if you don't mind having two, then I don't mind," she winked, and finished wrapping the alien's leg before stamping a heart sticker on the knee of the bandage, "You keep off that leg, you hear?" When he was gone, the nurse grinned almost evilly at Gokuu, "So-"

"No needles," she said hurriedly, and her friend blinked before laughing shortly.

"Oh ho ho! Gokuu-chan, I know better than to stick something in you that doesn't belong," Elra winked again, making Gokuu's head cock to the side, and she wondered if the other woman had something in her eye. "So what's up, babe?"

Shrugging, she started, "I've been getting dizzy recently, and I can't seem to keep steady on my own feet because of it. Olibu and Paikuhan think it might be because I still eat."

"And I keep telling you, Gokuu, it's perfectly natural. Even in death, Saiyajin eat like starving packs of delmappi. I know. I looked it up."

She nodded, "Well, can you find out what is wrong? I want to get back to training."

"Sure, babe, lay down, and I'll take a gander at you."

About a half hour later when Gokuu had been thoroughly checked over, Elra began to tap her foot in annoyance, "I can't find anything wrong with you. Your temperature is a bit high, and you've gained a few kilograms, but you've been adding on so many muscles, that's normal."

"... Wait."

Pursing her lips, the nurse put her hands on her hips as she waited, "Yeah?"

Gokuu hovered her hand over her stomach, "I just remembered. I've been trying to build muscle mass for my abs, but it just keeps getting softer and softer. You don't think that weight is fat, do you?"

Violet eyes bugged out before she began tapping her foot even faster as she thought, "Well, how much do you usually eat?"

"I've been eating a bit more than usual, but my stomach was soft before that ... I mean, I just can't stop eating. I used to be able to restrain myself, but now whenever I see food, I pop it right into my mouth - even if I don't like it," Gokuu exclaimed while the nurse chewed in confusion on her lip.

"I see ... Gokuu-chan, I'm going to call someone in from heaven. A gynecologist, okay? They won't be using any kind of needles, I promise." Scratching her head, Elra then sighed heavily, and shrugged, "I'm pulling at loose ends here, but if you guys are allowed to eat even in death ... well, you can do all sorts of other stuff too, I bet."

"What do you mean?"

"Just wait until the gynecologist gets here, Gokuu."

The alien woman doctor that had come in was big, loud, and had three huge pairs of lips to match with both of her assets. After some rather strange tests - but thankfully no needles - the jelly?-cologist grinned with all three mouths, and said, "My! You've got one healthy baby, Son-san."

Gokuu was too shocked for even her jaw to drop, "Huh?"

"Your baby, dear. You're just in the middle of your second quarter." She glanced into some kind of handbook before looking at Gokuu and her tail, "You are a Saiyajin, correct?"

Swallowing nothing, she nodded, and one hand wandered to her belly to clutch there gently, "Yes."

"Good, good, didn't want to offend," the large alien said, two of her tentacles shutting the book while several others gently prodded her sides. Gokuu removed her hand shakily so she could work, "From what I can tell, you're in your twenty-sixth week. You should be feeling a bit muddle-headed and dizzy for a while, so don't worry too much about that. It'll pass in a month or three."

Three? ... Muddle-what? Gokuu thought meekly, her hand returning to her lower abdomen when the alien pulled off her four appendages. Twenty-six ... She attempted to do some math after that, to figure out just how far along she was, but all she could recall from her talks with Bulma had been a bunch of nines and thirty-sixes and puke and food cravings.

Maybe something about harmonicas ...?

The doctor smiled - at least it looked like a smile with all of those sharp incisors - "Oh, you won't be able to feel the baby for another five months, dear. Saiyajin women don't show until near the end of their third quarter. It's a sort of defense mechanism so rival males don't try to kill the baby before the female can give birth."

Rival what? Quarters? What about that 'trim-whatever' thing? Holding her head with her other hand, Gokuu blinked at her until she whispered, finally making some kind of sense out of all the thoughts in her head, "But I'm dead ... and my baby ...?"

She shrugged, "Doesn't change the fact that you're pregnant, dear. Your little bundle of joy will be arriving within the next year - give or take a month."

"A year? Bulma said babies took ..." she paused, trying to remember before she finally recalled it, "They take nine months."

"Not for your species, Son-san. Saiyajin have a seventeen month long gestation period." Gokuu's jaw dropped, but the alien didn't seem to notice, "You've already gone through six months of that, and right now your baby is going to do a lot of growing. Keep eating what you can, Son-san. I suggest you stock up on meat and vegetables. They do wonders for little Saiyajin miracles."

Nodding, she was given a few more instructions - and an appointment to come see another doctor again in another month - before she wandered out of the infirmary, not even hearing her nurse friend shout. Gokuu headed toward the dojo that she, Olibu, and Paikuhan had been in just that day. They took one look at her, and dropped down from the air to talk to her.

"That took longer than I thought. What's wrong?"

It took her a while, but she smiled, "There's nothing wrong with a baby."

"... Dead people don't have babies, Gokuu," Olibu told her, his eyes seeming to be denying something.

Gokuu shrugged, "I don't know what to tell you then. This lady doctor came in, and did tests, and then said I have a baby on the way." She looked down at her stomach, the idea still trying to sink in, "I have a year to go."

The green alien watched her face before he nodded, and his hand lifted up a bit as if expecting something, "Can you feel it move yet?"

Smiling, she shook her head, "No. I think it's too little for that right now."

"If you don't mind me asking," Olibu said, "who's the father? I mean ... how does a dead woman get pregnant?"

"Elra thinks that since I can eat, I can do other stuff that living people can do too."

"Son-chan," Olibu repeated himself, "who is the father?"

The smile didn't exactly die, but her shaking hands fisted into her shirt, half of the light went out in her eyes, and tears sprouted, "... He's dead too."

Olibu startled, and stood up straighter, exhuming confusion and what seemed like protection, "... Is he here?"

She shook her head, and tried to calm her hands, wiping the tears away, "No. No, he's not."

"He's in the main part of Heaven then?" Paikuhan put in when Olibu crossed his arms, facing away, and the men stiffened when she denied this as well. Paikuhan licked his lips, staring at her before he found his voice again, "Was he reborn again?"

"No ..." Gokuu bit her tongue, "I hope not ... if he was, then I really won't be able to tell him about the baby. He won't know me ... but I can't find his energy signal in Hell, so ..." She glanced up at them, ignoring the utterly astonished faces they had, "He wouldn't want to be someone else - he likes being tough, and mean, and prideful. I changed him a little bit, but it wasn't enough to redeem him."

Olibu cleared his throat, "If he's not ... there, then where else would he be? And if he is in Hell, maybe there's a reason that you don't know about. Maybe he really does deserve to be there, and not here with you."

"No, I know the reason," she said. "Countless billions. Trillions of people maybe. It might pain him now, but that doesn't matter to Enma - for him it's not enough that he died trying to save me and the baby. His one selfless act ..." she gave them a little smile, "I'm not bitter. It just felt so wrong of me to die when his last wish was for me and the baby to live."

"Gokuu," Olibu said, "men like that ... I understand that you thought he was a good man, but the end result is still the same. Judgement is indefinite."

"I know, but why punish me too? I've never done any wrong, but I'm not allowed to enter Hell to see him, and he can never come into Heaven because his place is there. For him to see me would be a reward, and since he belongs in Hell, he can't have rewards." After a moment she raised her head to look at them, her eyes dry, "I don't even know if it would be a reward for him if he knew about our baby or not, but he deserves to know that he's a father ..."

"Perhaps," Paikuhan began, "we could go to see Enma. Maybe he has more information on this strange turn of events."

Nodding after a while, she said, "Yes. He gave me the ability to go through either Heaven or Hell once, so there must be exceptions to all of those rules."

"Of course. There are a lot of insurrections down in Hell, so Enma lets me go down to put them back in their places. Especially, if there are a lot of extremely strong people doing it."

Eyes widening, she jumped in front of the green alien, "Really? You mean I could go see Vegeta if he's been bad or something?"

"Ah ... well, yes, I suppose you could do that if he starts to cause a riot in Hell."

Releasing a victorious shout, she beamed brilliantly, "I never thought I'd say this, but be mean, Vegeta! You hear me!? I want to go see you, and tell you about our baby, so be as evil and mean as you can!"

... XP Okay, I tried to make as short as the normal chapters were. It just didn't work, okay? Doubt that you guys are complaining, of course.