Aeris flew straight into space and headed to the moon, where she finally started training
seriously.
She closed her eyes and began to meditate.
Her thoughts gradually drew inward…
Then emptied out…
She let herself sink into an extremely relaxed state.
At that moment, Aeris's spiritual awareness started spreading outward, then pulling back in again.
For some reason, she had the strange feeling that if she could keep herself in this state, she would improve tremendously.
So she kept going.
And because of that, no outside disturbance could reach her now. Aeris only felt that everything was… good.
Back on Earth…
Bulma was in her lab doing experiments.
Goku was out plowing his field.
Krillin was at work.
Poor bastard.
And Piccolo…
Well, Piccolo was doing what Piccolo always did.
Training.
Everyone was living their lives the same way they always had, each following their own rhythm.
Then Aeris felt something.
It was a very strange sensation.
Like something was trying to pull her in.
Aeris immediately opened her eyes and turned around.
And sure enough—
There was a vortex behind her.
…Are you fucking kidding me?
She shot to her feet and tried to fly away.
Didn't help.
At all.
Aeris was dragged straight into it.
Aeris: "…"
You ever have one of those days where you're just minding your own business, training peacefully, and then some weird-ass vortex shows up out of nowhere and decides to eat you?
Yeah.
That.
More accurately, it wasn't just pulling her.
It was trying to swallow her whole.
And the worst part?
The moment it grabbed her, she couldn't use any strength.
What the hell kind of nonsense was that?
Aeris struggled for several minutes before finally giving up.
Because she genuinely couldn't break free.
So in the end, all she could do was stop resisting.
And just like that…
She was swallowed.
The moment she got pulled inside, everything started spinning.
It felt like her body wasn't even hers anymore. She kept tumbling over and over inside the vortex, and the surrounding energy lashed against her, wounding parts of her body and drawing blood.
At this point, all Aeris could do was pray that wherever this thing was taking her wasn't somewhere too insane.
Because if it was…
That would be fucking terrifying.
After all, the unknown was always the scariest part.
Wasn't it?
Aeris gritted her teeth and held on for as long as she could.
But in the end, she couldn't keep it up.
And she passed out.
She had no idea how much time passed before she slowly woke up again.
The first thing Aeris did was look around.
And what she saw made her freeze.
This place looked almost exactly like Earth.
Almost.
If this really was Earth, then what the hell had happened here?
Ruined houses were everywhere.
So were bones.
"What the hell happened here…? Why is everything so desolate…"
Aeris cautiously observed her surroundings.
It wasn't that she was afraid.
But…
Everything about this place was too strange.
And then there was that bizarre vortex.
Aeris first used a healing technique on herself, then started searching around the nearby ruins. Unfortunately, she didn't find anything particularly useful.
"Tch… figures. Well, whatever. I'll figure it out slowly."
Then, all of a sudden, Aeris sensed people fighting roughly ten kilometers away.
And their battle power was stronger than any enemies she had encountered so far.
That immediately got her a little excited.
Because fighting strong people…
And killing them…
Or getting killed by them—
Okay, no.
She'd run away before that part happened.
Aeris got hyped for a moment.
Then she calmed herself down again.
Now wasn't the time.
The first priority was figuring out what had happened here.
Because this place probably had something to do with Earth.
And maybe…
Just maybe…
It was related to the kind of parallel world stuff she had seen in books.
Once she calmed down, Aeris began searching through the ruined buildings for clues.
Eventually, she found a newspaper that was still in pretty good shape.
And on it…
Was her picture.
If her picture was on it, then why—
Wait.
Her picture?
Why the hell was there a picture of her?
She would never take pictures herself.
Unless Bulma needed one for something.
But even then…
That still didn't explain this.
Had she overlooked something?
The vortex…
Earth…
The picture…
Then suddenly, Aeris's expression changed.
"…No way."
Had she somehow, by sheer dumb luck, ended up in the future?
But that didn't make sense either.
If she had really made it this far into the future, there was no way she would've let things turn into this.
Which meant…
Something must've happened to the future version of her.
Yeah.
That was the only explanation that made sense.
After thinking it through for a bit, Aeris decided she was going to go meet the bastard responsible for turning Earth into this.
Aeris exploded upward and flew straight toward where the battle had been happening earlier.
"You little pieces of shit! Wash your necks and wait there while I come kill you!"
Her expression gradually turned crazed.
Every cell in her body was screaming with excitement.
The violent aura pouring out of her was instantly noticed by the people in battle.
It felt like a crazed beast.
A terrifying presence.
A warning.
Like it was telling all three of them that something far worse was about to arrive.
But among the three of them, the young man was trembling.
Not from fear.
From excitement.
The other two—a fat one and a skinny old man—glanced at each other, then quietly suppressed their ki and ran for it.
The young man didn't have time to care about the two fleeing.
He immediately flew toward Aeris's aura, unable to hold back his excitement.
Meanwhile, on Aeris's side…
She noticed that two of the auras had vanished, while one of them was flying straight toward her at top speed.
"Interesting… so you're not running. That's pretty brave of you… Alright then. Let me take a look… at this so-called brave man."
Aeris sped up even more and flew straight toward him.
In the end, the two of them met halfway.
The moment the young man saw Aeris, he became even more excited.
At this point, he couldn't care less about the terrifying aura surrounding her. He hurriedly shouted—
"A-Aunt Aeris! Is it really you? Aunt Aeris!"
Aeris blinked in confusion.
He knew her?
No.
That wasn't right.
She didn't know him.
Still…
He looked oddly familiar.
Aeris thought for a moment.
Then immediately gave up.
The young man saw that she didn't recognize him and hurriedly said,
"Aunt Aeris… it's me. I'm Son Gohan. Don't you remember? Though… I guess it makes sense. It's been so many years since you last saw me… and I look like this now…"
By the end of that, the young man—
No, Gohan—
looked visibly downcast.
"Son Gohan?"
Aeris stared at the young man in disbelief.
This…
This was Gohan?
What the hell—
No.
Wait.
If this was how he looked now, then something had definitely happened to the future version of her.
No matter what, Aeris needed to understand the situation.
So she finally said,
"I am Aeris. But I might not be the Aeris you know. More precisely… I'm probably an earlier version of the Aeris you're talking about."
Gohan's brain nearly short-circuited.
That sounded way too complicated.
But after a bit, he finally sorted it out.
The Aeris in front of him was probably Aunt Aeris from an earlier point in time.
Seeing that he had managed to understand, Aeris let out a quiet sigh of relief.
Because honestly, her own brain wasn't exactly the sharpest tool in the shed either.
"So… can you tell me what happened in this future? And also… from the sound of it, something happened to the version of me from your time."
Gohan nodded and started explaining.
"Aunt Aeris… I don't know all the details either. But from what my dad told me, when you and he were leaving Namek together, something went wrong… You were swallowed by some invisible force…"
"When Dad reacted… all that was left…"
He lowered his head.
"…was one of your severed arms."
After saying that, Gohan turned his face away, clearly on the verge of tears.
That sight stirred something in Aeris.
She reached out and gently patted his head.
"Gohan really did grow up. You've already done well. So don't be sad because I'm gone. And if my disappearance led to the state the world is in now… then all I can say is, I'm sorry."
Before she could finish, her body began turning faint and transparent.
Aeris had a strong feeling that she was about to be sent back to her own time.
Before she disappeared completely, she tossed Gohan a small pouch.
When he opened it, he found over a dozen Senzu Beans inside, along with several capsules.
"Sorry… looks like I really do have to leave. Take these. They won't mean much to me right now… but they're perfect for you. And for what you all need at the moment…"
Before she could finish the sentence, she vanished completely.
Gohan tightened his grip on the pouch in his hand.
He knew exactly how precious those things were.
The Senzu Beans.
The items inside those capsules.
Every single one of them was invaluable.
.......................................
The next chapter is free on Patreon — 20+ advanced chapters available now!
patreon.com/YATOOOO