Chichi’s Last Challenge

By: Mikami

Chichi lowered her eyes, letting a warm stream of tears dampen her cheek. She clasped a pale hand against her chest, near her heart. "She was so little..." Her voice cracked as she spoke about the child that had died in her own arms. Her husband Goku stood quietly at her side. He locked his arms around her back and pulled her gently against his chest.

With her husband's attempt at comforting her, Chichi's knees buckled and collapsed onto him as she convulsed from sobbing. "Oh, Goku, she was so helpless and, and...."

"Shh," Goku hushed her. "There's nothing you could have done."

Chichi released another stream of warm wet tears and silently walked over to the wall. She leaned back and slid to the ground. She wrapped her arms around her legs, pulling her chest against her knees. She sat there silently, meditating upon the sad events that had just occurred.

She was still sore from birthing the child, and vaguely remembered struggling as her friend Bulma took the child from her arms. She remembered how the chubby newborn face contained Goku's eyes and innocent grin, and had a mass of fuzzy black hair. She also remembered how the baby was so quiet, never uttering a single violent outburst. They hadn't even had a chance to name her yet.

Chichi stirred, a knot tightening in her stomach as she recalled further. She was holding her daughter carefully, the baby's head nestled in the crook of her arm. Her third child, Chichi knew what she was doing. As Chichi started feeding the baby, she felt as if something were wrong. The child's movement ceased, and she stopped suckling as if giving up on something. Chichi had tried to stay calm, but the whole process felt so unnatural. Minutes later, the baby girl started writhing and screaming. The first time her daughter had cried, Chichi mused. She had been alive only for about two days, but had only made gentle cooing and giggling sounds. Chichi remembered feeling a state of panic rising as she failed to soothe her child. Minutes later, all of the baby's movement ceased.

It tore at her heart that something so young, so innocent, so helpless could be gone in mere seconds. Why didn't anyone seem to care about it as she had? She wiped another angry tear from her eye. She felt powerless; nothing could bring her baby back. She bit nervously on her lip, wishing that she didn't feel so hollow and empty. After all, death was not a new concept, especially to Chichi. She had watched many people come and go in this lifetime. But in her own arms? Chichi had never been granted the honor. And that was one honor that she never wanted to bear again.

Goku shook his head at Chichi and slowly left the room. Chichi sensed that she was alone and fell to sobbing again.

She was walking through the forest, holding the hand of a small child. The child eagerly tried to run ahead, but Chichi naturally restrained her. Instead, she veered toward a thicket, filled with berry bushes. She lifted up the corners of her apron, making a basket. She and the child gingerly began picking the berries and dropped them one by one into the apron.

As the apron slowly filled with the juicy berries, Chichi smiled at the child. "Lets go home and make a pie out of this, ok?"

The child looked up with bright eyes and clasped her arms around Chichi's leg in a hug. Chichi fell to her knees, and smiled at the girl. "You wanna ride on my shoulders?"

As the child climbed onto her back, Chichi felt oddly youthful, and started running gleefully through the forest. She felt rejuvenated, and as she merrily sprinted, she could almost see her house. However, of the things she didn't see, was a root protruding from the ground. She fell, striking her head on a rock on the ground. She felt almost numb to it, just hearing the echoing slap of flesh against stone. She also felt the force of the child's body giving way to the collision with the ground.

She wanted to scream; to cry for help with all her might. However, despite her pain, she couldn't muster one sound or summon one tear. Bathed in blood from both she and the child, she lay looking at the sky like a wounded animal. She couldn't collect the strength to move, but judging from the silence and the pool of blood in which she lay, the child was probably dead.

A slight animalistic noise escaped her immobile body. She found a huge form looking over her. A dragon, or a lion, probably coming to finish her off.

"Chichi, can you hear me? Snap out of it!"

Slowly, she regained focus, and realized that the huge man hovering over her was her father. She yelped in horror and shuddered as he bent to touch her. "I can't leave her! She needs me!" She screamed in a hazy delirium.

"Chichi, get a hold of yourself! It was just a dream!"

Chichi was silent, frustratingly tossing and turning on the soft mattress of the bed. She decided that in her sleep, someone must have moved her. At least someone had seemed to care. She saw her father and blinked defiantly at him. "Papa, can I please have some time alone?"

Stifling the urge to cry, she released her hair from its bun. As black locks fell around her face, she seized a hairpin. She started for a moment at the small metal objet, and decided that whatever pain she would soon put anyone through was minimal to what she was suffering. She swallowed hard, as she brought the pin nearer to the vein in her wrist. As she braced herself for the initial contact, she prayed that the rest wouldn't hurt.