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Kakarot cradled the body of his best friend in his arms, his face uncomprehending.
Krillin was dead. From the look of him, his frontal lobe had been smashed in. His eyes were blank, but his face was frozen in terror from the last thing he saw. Gine knew that lingering final expression all too well.
She stood behind her son, her heart constricting in anguish at the sight.
Gine had dealt with loss. She was a Saiyan afterall, and thus had lost comrades in battle more times than she cared to remember. But now, all those deaths she experienced did not strike to her core as much as what she was seeing before her.
Maybe it was the fifteen years of the most peaceful living she had ever known that made her forget the pain and horror of death, but that wasn't just it. She knew this sweet little boy from Kakarot's heartwarming tales of his adventures around the Earth. She had the joy to finally meet him, talk with him, hear of her son's exploits through his words, see him fight, and bond with him as she did with all of Kakarot's friends. Her friends now too. A mischievous kind soul who would never wish ill on anyone. Only minutes ago, alive and laughing.
There was a commotion behind Gine as the rest of the gang came into the temple grounds. Master Roshi, Tien, and Gohan stopped beside her. Roshi looked gut-punched when he saw his student lay lifeless on the floor.
"What happened, Kakarot?!" Yamcha asked, as he and Bulma came in last, his broken leg slowing him down.
"Oh no!" Oolong cried out, as Launch and Puar came up on Gine's other side. Chi-Chi ran past Gine and stopped behind Kakarot, gasping when she saw what happened.
"Krillin..." Kakarot finally said, his voice flat. "He's dead."
Everyone gasped. They stood where they were for a long few moments, not believing what they were seeing and hearing.
"It-It can't be true! It can't!" Yamcha shouted in horror.
Though still in shock, Gine noticed the blonde referee was on the floor too. He looked battered and sounded scared out of his mind when he started babbling at them.
"It-it was a monster! A hideous monster!"
"Easy." Tien kneeled down and placed a hand on his shoulder to try and comfort him, but the referee went on.
"It took a strange ball covered with stars, and a list of the Martial Arts Society!"
"A Dragon Ball?" Gohan realized.
"By a monster?" Roshi asked as well. The referee looked over towards Krillin's body.
"Krillin tried to stop the beast, but it was too strong... that boy fought with everything he had."
Gine heard him but didn't take her eyes off her son. Kakarot started convulsing, his tail frayed and twitched as he couldn't hold back his sobs.
It was then that Gine realized Kakarot had, until now, never experienced losing someone dear to him. Back on Planet Vegeta, a moment like this would've happened much sooner in his life, but ever since they came to Earth, she prayed it never would.
But now it has. Kakarot couldn't save him in time. And who or whatever did this was still out there somewhere.
"Oh, Kakarot..." Gine said softly, a lump forming in her throat formed as she knelt down and placed a hand on his shoulder. "I'm so sorry."
Chi-Chi slowly and somewhat affrightedly walked up beside her and placed an arm on Kakarot as well to try and comfort him.
"Kakarot..." She tried to say. But then he shot up, shaking their hands off of him as clenched his fists with rage.
"HE DIDN"T DESERVE THIS!" He screamed into the air.
Kakarot grabbed his Power Pole off the ground and turned towards the gang with determination in his eyes. He didn't acknowledge his mother or Chi-Chi behind him.
"Bulma, do you have the dragon radar on you?!" He demanded.
The poor girl was still too shocked to answer, so she just pulled out the device from her pocket wordlessly. Then Kakarot suddenly ran past her, snatching the radar out of her hand without stopping.
"Stay with Krillin, Mom!" He called out behind him.
"Kakarot, wait!" Roshi cried out from behind Gine. Kakarot didn't heed his master's command and kept running out.
"Don't try to stop me!" Kakarot yelled back over his shoulder.
"Stop! THAT'S AN ORDER!" Roshi shouted, as ferociously as a master could shout to a student. But Kakarot kept running as he brushed past the temple's entrance, knocking over the entrance sign.
Before anyone knew it, he was already out of sight and disappeared into the late afternoon sun setting beyond the temple grounds...
"Impetuous!" Roshi cursed, then turned to Gine.
"That thing was strong enough to kill Krillin, and now your boy is running off right after a big match!"
She and Gohan shared a look when they knew what he meant.
"Kakarot didn't have a chance to eat or rest since the final match." Gohan said as he caught on, "He may not have much energy left to defeat whatever it was that attacked Krillin!"
Gine realized that as well, but she also knew that didn't mean Kakarot would be done for. Her son may be too caught up in the moment, but he wasn't stupid when it came to matters of survival. She and Gohan taught him better than that. He'll find a way to deal with that.
Roshi nodded in grave confirmation to Gohan's deduction, then added "We can only hope that he either comes to his senses soon or prevails, somehow..."
Gine looked at the Turtle Hermit for a long second.
"Don't worry about him." She said curtly, garnering a look of surprise from both Gohan and Roshi.
"Kakarot will be fine, he knows his limits." She said as if it were a matter of fact. She knew they meant well, but to say that something was a lost cause before even doing it was the most pitiful thing one could say to a Saiyan.
Roshi looked at her incredulously. "Didn't you just hear what I said?! Kakarot shouldn't just run off unprepared to fight something that killed someone as strong as Krillin!"
"You're already talking as if he was dead. He is a Saiyan! You know what he is capable of and how he can take care of himself!" Gine shot back.
"That doesn't mean he should just run off when I tell him to stay! Don't you care what happens to him?!"
Gine turned to face Master Roshi fully, feeling anger rising in her. "He has the right to avenge his friend! And how dare you ask me if I care for my own son!"
Roshi and Gine locked eyes, neither backing down from pressing their points.
"Please!" Gohan begged as he pressed himself between them. "Are you seriously going to squabble right here?!" He gestured towards Tien cradling Krillin's body, having closed his eyes out of respect.
Gine and Roshi looked down at their feet, feeling ashamed for arguing while a child lay dead before them.
"He was a brave soldier." Tien said with absolute conviction.
They all nodded. Gine could not deny it either, even for a human child, Krillin truly was strong.
"One kick to the frontal lobe, from the looks of it." Said Tien, observing Krillin's body.
"Are you serious?! Someone with Krillin's strength killed with one kick?!" Yamcha exclaimed in disbelief.
"It happens." Gohan said gravely.
"Who could be so cruel?" Chiaotzu asked, a question that burned desperately in everyone's hearts.
Oolong had walked back toward the group from where Krillin lay earlier, with something in his hand. "I found this piece of paper laying on the ground next to him. Do you think it has anything to do with it?"
Bulma took the piece of paper and read it aloud.
"It's the word 'Devil', circled." She said, as Gine and Yamcha tried to read it over her shoulder.
The sound of Roshi's cane hitting the ground reached her ears when he was suddenly behind them, his face ashen.
"LET ME SEE!" He demanded urgently. Gine was taken aback, she had never seen this perpetually relaxed teacher so scared.
Bulma handed it to him, and he read it. Gohan, c
oncerned over his former master's look of horror, came up beside it and read it too.
Both Roshi and Gohan turned white.
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Want to read more?
The next 10+ chapters are already available on my Patreon!
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📖 Early access to future chapters
🗳️ Polls to shape the story
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🔥 Bonus scenes & content you won't find anywhere else
👀 Don't fall behind—others are already ahead!
👉 patreon.com/FanfictionTakashi
(If link doesn't show, just search on Google: FanfictionTakashi Patreon)