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Fireworks filled the sky.
Two powerful warriors merged and stood in the heavens, their backs turned to the raging explosions behind them. Their presence was so overwhelming that Son Goten couldn't take his eyes off them for a second.
The enemy who had just driven him to desperation now seemed utterly insignificant compared to them. Despite having already transformed into Super Saiyan 3, Goten still wasn't a match for Goku Black.
The one standing before them was not just Goku Black; it was a fusion of Goku Black and the green-skinned villain. Their combined power far surpassed anything he could comprehend.
Shock and disbelief were written all over Goten's face as he found himself growing more and more curious about their identities.
From what he could tell, these mysterious figures were Saiyans like him.
But beyond that, he knew nothing else. Yet, in the next moment, Gogeta and Gohanks's actions left Goten utterly stunned.
The two wore solemn expressions as they walked, synchronously and reverently, toward the corpses of Bulma and Chi-Chi.
Their movements were perfectly in sync.
They closed their eyes together, silently mourning.
Confusion filled Goten's face.
"Could these two be old friends of Mom and Bulma Oba San? Is that why they came to help me? But why now, of all times? If that were true, they should have appeared when we faced Cell!"
Still lost in thought, Goten watched as Bulla walked toward Gogeta and the others with heavy, trembling steps.
Tears streamed down her face as she muttered under her breath, "Mom..."
Goten's eyes widened in realization. He stared at Bulla in disbelief.
He had noticed that the girl resembled Bulma a little, but he never imagined that she was actually her daughter.
Yet, the more he thought about it, the more it felt wrong.
In his memory, Bulma had only ever had a son.
His name was Trunks. Sadly, he was killed by that monster Cell.
If he were still alive, he would probably be around Goten's age now. Goten himself survived only because he was born a year after Trunks, which was just late enough to escape Cell's rampage in this timeline.
With sorrowful steps, Goten joined Bulla and walked toward the bodies of Chi-Chi and Bulma.
Tears poured from his eyes in torrents.
He knelt down and carefully placed their bodies side by side.
Then, he lifted Krillin's corpse onto his shoulder and flew toward a quiet, secluded spot. His hand moved tirelessly, digging into the soil, while tears fell onto the earth one by one.
Suddenly, two shadows appeared behind him.
Moments later, those two figures, Gohan and Bulma, knelt down beside him to help dig.
Seeing Goten's face, which closely resembled Son Goku's, Bulla finally understood.
"You must be Chi-Chi Oba San and Goku Oji San's son, right?" she asked softly.
Goten paused for a moment, then nodded faintly and continued digging in silence. At that moment, Bulla, reborn in this world, felt the same hollow pain she had once endured.
In her previous life, she had also been helpless, forced to watch her loved ones be slaughtered before her eyes.
In the end, she was killed too.
Goten had nearly shared the same fate until fate intervened and they found him in time.
"My name is Bulla. I'm Bulma's daughter, just not from this world. This man here is Gohanks, a fusion of Gohan and Trunks. He's a super warrior. I call him Brother Gohanks."
Hearing that, Goten froze again.
From Bulla's words, he realized one thing: these people did not belong to this timeline.
They came from another world entirely.
Goten turned around, glanced at Gohanks, and muttered softly,
"...That's nice."
The reason he reacted that way was simple. In this world, he didn't have an older brother.
His brother had died long ago during the Cell Games.
Krillin was the one who had been teaching and guiding him all this time.
When Goten first transformed into a Super Saiyan, he thought he had finally gained the power to defeat Cell.
However, Krillin crushed that confidence the very next second.
"You're still far from it, Goten. If you want to defeat Cell, you'll have to reach your brother's level."
From that day on, Son Goten trained with the sole purpose of surpassing Gohan.
However, there was something he couldn't understand. If his father and brother were such incredibly powerful people, as Krillin said, then why hadn't they been able to defeat Cell?
Krillin gave him a detailed answer.
He told Goten everything about the mistakes Son Goku and Gohan made during the Cell Games.
To push Gohan to break through his limits, Goku deliberately gave Cell a Senzu Bean, restoring the monster's full strength.
Then, he sent Gohan in to fight. The two fought evenly, blow for blow.
From start to finish, Goku treated the battle as nothing more than a test of Gohan's potential.
But the result was Gohan's crushing defeat.
Android 16 was killed.
Only then did Gohan explode with rage and transform into Super Saiyan 2. What happened next was something Goten could never understand.
After transforming, Gohan clearly had the upper hand; he could have easily finished off Cell.
Instead, he toyed with him.
He used his overwhelming power not to destroy Cell but to humiliate him.
In the end, Cell self-destructed, taking Goten's father, Son Goku, with him.
Even then, Cell wasn't completely destroyed. He revived, stronger than before, and evolved into his Lightning Cell form.
In this timeline, Gohan failed to overcome Cell in their final beam struggle.
Gohan perished instead of Cell.
After that, Cell slaughtered everyone else, leaving only the seemingly weak Krillin alive and completely ignored.
Ironically, however, it was because Krillin survived that everything afterward became possible.
When Goten thought back on all this, he couldn't help but think it was absurd.
The two warriors that Krillin said were the strongest hadn't even managed to finish off Cell. Instead, his father and brother had left him and Krillin with nothing but a colossal mess.
Shortly after Goten was born, he was thrust onto a path of relentless training.
He was raised as the world's last hope.
He never had a choice.
All of it, every burden, every responsibility, was thanks to his wonderful father and brother.
But there was nothing he could do about it now. What had happened had happened. All he could do was face it. It was almost laughable. Son Goten was training to surpass someone he had never met.
What was his purpose? To clean up the disaster that the person had failed to fix.
In Goten's heart, that so-called "big brother" wasn't worthy of respect.
After all, Gohan could have ended Cell quickly, but he chose to show off instead.
Still, that left Goten with an important lesson:
Never become like his father or brother.
Faced with Goten's calm and almost indifferent words, Bulla couldn't help but feel that they lacked emotion.
Perhaps it was simply that, right now, Son Goten was weighed down by grief.
(End of chapter.)