Dragon Ball/Z/GT Fan Fiction ❯ Iterations ❯ Mediocre ( Chapter 2 )

It's been said that heroes are made, not born.

 

Heroism usually doesn't go beyond one generation because it's not an inborn trait, unlike the penchant for violence wired into my genes. The sons and daughters of heroes often end up as mediocre people of average intelligence, prone to bouts of depression and insecurity because of the enormous shadow their parent(s) cast on them.

 

I've never had any interest in heroism, but I think sometimes I get depressed about living in the shadow of my own expectations. I look at all the things that I have and own and realize I didn't earn much of anything by myself. My mom passed a decent percentage of her IQ onto me, my dad passed on his strength, both of them passed on their good looks. In terms of status and wealth, it was destined from the beginning that I take over the corporation once I was old enough because my mom had been itching to leave the job for years (She's not the type who likes office work. Or any kind of work, period). I'll be inheriting the Briefs family estate from my grandfather one day. That includes several bank accounts and smaller companies whose individual worth surpasses the GDP of a bunch of nations.

 

Because of all that, I feel mediocre.

 

Sometimes when I'm lying awake in bed, gazing at the ceiling, I toy with the thought of throwing it all away and starting over, to try to make it to the top again on my own, just to prove myself.

 

But that's completely absurd, of course. There's no way I could cast it all off. It would have to entail becoming an anonymous face, a no-name, not just giving away my possessions. If I simply left my job, I would still be rich and well known, labeled as the former CEO of Capsule Corporation. If I gave away my money to charity, I would become even better known.

 

The only thing I could do is to leave Earth and resettle on another planet. Not something that attracts me at the moment. Anyway, if it became known that I'm the son of Prince Vegeta, former destroyer of worlds and exterminator of species, it'd all be over. It'd secure me a permanent spot at the very bottom of any society, most likely in a maximum security prison.

 

Where am I going with this?

 

I'm just mediocre because I was born at the top. There's nowhere higher to climb.

 

But I've never considered heroism either. Heroism wouldn't entail giving up money or possessions. It would have to involve some drastic, insane maneuver or series of maneuvers that clearly went against logic, all for the sake of humanity, or something like that. That kind of stuff is not my thing. Intellect and violence run in my blood. Not reckless idealism.

 

I leave that to my best friend's father. Hmm. Funny that that's how I think of his relation to me nowadays. When I was little, he was my father's enemy first and foremost.

 

My father had a hero moment once. He killed himself for the sake of the Earth. I think. Or maybe for my mom and me, but that would have been so unlike him. He never really talked about it afterwards, and I didn't bother asking. Goes to show how much I cared about heroism even at that age.

 

Where am I right now in this state of silent philosophical banter? I'm in the elevator on the way to the 35th floor.