ChiChi wiped a tear from her eye as she watched her friend cry over Tayhei.  Quietly, she eased into the room and stood behind Bulma, staring at a picture of the small girl who had entered and left their lives so quickly.

"It hurts doesn't it?" She asked Bulma softly.  "To be losing a child?"

Bulma rose her head and turned back to look at ChiChi.  "It does.  Even though she isn't really my daughter....It feels like she is."  Her eyes welled up again and she blinked rapidly.  "Is this what it felt like when Gohan died?"

"Hai." ChiChi answered.  "It still hurts, even though he is still gone.  We have been through so much Bulma, I sometimes wonder if it was worth it all." She mused, sitting down beside her friend.

Bulma thought of all the time she had spent with Vejiita, the good times and the bad.  The good out weighed the bad by far, and she would never give up any of the time that they had spent with each other.  She knew ChiChi felt the same way about Gokou, though she had never really asked.  As for Gohan, he was a good boy, and if she knew ChiChi, she knew that her friend had never once regretted having Gohan.  He was possibly the best thing in her life.  Tayhei was like a daughter to her, and the only thing she regretted was not knowing her sooner.

"It was worth it.  It was all worth it." She murmured.  "And we both know it.  We will see them someday, ChiChi.  Vejiita and Gokou.  They are waiting somewhere up there for us.  Gohan too and...." She trailed off, staring at the wall.

ChiChi watched silently, tears shining in her eyes.  Bulma hugged her friend, with tears still streaming down her cheeks.

"And Tayhei too." She whispered.  "Tayhei is waiting for us up there now too."
 

I'm not even sure why I'm writing this.  I know you will never see it, but it seems important to me that I write it.  I'm writing it in your notebook, the one you used to write about the jinzouningen in.  I hope you don't mind all that much, but it seemed like the right thing to do....I've been looking over all of your journal entries, and even found the stuff about you and me.  I felt like I was invading your privacy, but I wanted to know as much about you as I could, now that you are gone....
 I just want you to know that Kaasan and I are building Earth back to what it used to be again.  It will take awhile, I know that, but in the end, it will all be worth it.  I remember what it was like before all the cities were destroyed, and it's beginning to look like that again.
 You probably know this already though, I'm sure you and Yakosoku, Gohan, and my Otousan and everyone else can see Earth and always watch down on us.  Did you ever see me cry?  I don't anymore, you know.  I stopped crying a while ago because there is so much to do here.  Besides that, everyone who looks down on us has probably seen enough tears already.  Everyone single person on this world has cried at one time or another, some more than others, but still, that's a lot of tears.  It has to be enough to fill an ocean even.
 I don't smile anymore either.  I'm so scared that the next time I smile might in fact be my last smile....And I want to save my last smile for you.  I know I will see you again some day, not even the Kaious can mess up our love.  And when I see you again, I will smile my last smile, and then we can live off of your smiles for the rest of eternity.
 Kaasan says that after a while, I won't be able to picture your face in my mind anymore; that's how it was for her and Otousan.  But I think I will be able to see you still, because every time I close my eyes you are there.
 I would say I miss you, but that really isn't what I feel.  I don't miss you.  Missing you is like admitting that you are gone from my life, and I don't want to admit that you are gone, because you really aren't to me.  I don't miss you.  I love you.  And I'll see you when I get there.

With Love, Trunks

----Tayhei's journal: Page 74
 

He patted the notebook gently and placed it on top of her headstone, along with a bundle of roses on top of the rest of the flowers that had been placed here by visitors.  ChiChi-san, he knew, had been here earlier today, leaving a handful of orchids behind.  Engin too, was here, and had left his usual bright red flowers scattered about the headstone.  He had taken her death pretty hard, and had lost a lot of that ego that he used to have.  Some way or another, Tayhei had managed to touch everyone that stumbled into her life.  Tayhei could have changed the world with merely a smile and a touch so warm.  What could he do without her; the girl whose pure soul and life had seemed to surround him and fly like stardust, dizzy in his eyes.  She was an amazing girl, more than amazing....He could search to the ends of the Earth, beyond the edges of the universe and through the stars and never find anyone like her.  He didn't want anyone else.  He wanted her.

"It's a nice day out isn't it?" His mother asked him quietly.  She had cut her hair short again, and it looked good, better than before.  He had always thought of his mother as a very beautiful woman, even now, when she was older.  When he asked why she cut it, she had replied that life was all about change.  He thought about this for a while, and noted that before she came along, his life had been stale and unchanging.  Tayhei had quietly, and forcefully changed the way he thought of things, given him that last key to happiness.  She had changed him in a subtle way, making Earth a better place to live, for him, and for everyone, in the process.

"A great day." Trunks agreed, staring up at the bright blue sky, with only a few fluffy white clouds and the sun shining down on them.  Murmurs of fear shook through him, imagining that he could see the jinzouningen appearing in the sky above him, racing down at him.  He shook his head slightly and the images of the jinzouningen disappeared, fading into the sunlight.  They were gone too now, both of them.  He would never have to stare into their malicious eyes, never have to her their laughter as they killed one human after another.  They were dead, and he was free.  But freedom has a high price, and it came at the life of her.  Because of his freedom, their freedom, she had to die.  And it wasn't fair.

"I'll get her back for you Trunks.  I'll bring them all back. Somehow." Bulma smiled at him and took his hand as they walked back to the car.  He didn't smile back physically, but smiled back mentally.  Not that his mother didn't deserve a smile for being there for him every day, every step of the way, but he just couldn't bring himself to give her his last smile.  He was saving that smile for Tayhei.

He imagined himself, several years ahead of time, a small figure in a thriving community of people, living among skyscrapers and stoplights, breathing in fresh air and  the scent of pine forests.  Looking up and seeing a pure blue sky instead of a cavern ceiling, and not living life shut away in an imaginary world.

No one would ever speak of the jinzouningen, they would never even think about them anymore.  People would go to work everyday, come home every night, pat their children on the head, read the morning paper, and never even remember what he had fought for, --what she had fought for-- to earn this for them.

Maybe he would become a martial arts teacher someday, and teach young children the perfected art of defense and tranquility, something you could only reach with pure concentration and peace.  Everyday he would teach them, just as he had taught her, and they would reach new heights in power.  They would gaze adoringly at him, with smiles on their chubby faces, ready and willing to learn, a group of eager students.

One or two of those students would follow him home one day, visit his aging mother and her crazy friend ChiChi to eat dinner with them.  They would sit in her spot at the table, eat ravenously just like she had when she first came.  They would stare up at him with the same innocent, curious eyes, begging for more knowledge to soak up like sponges.  And maybe one of them would spy a picture that hung in the dark hallway that once held her room.

"Who is that?" They would ask, their eyes still full of curiosity, gazing at the picture of the most beautiful girl to ever grace Earth with her presence.  And Trunks would trace the line of her face with his finger for a moment, and stare into her light green eyes for a lifetime, and wonder how on Earth he could explain someone like Tayhei.

She is warrior of the humans, fighting for the right to live in freedom from the cruelties of the jinzouningen, and living for the memory of her family.

She is the love of my life; soft and sweet with the innocence of a child, who loved, and was loved, by every single person in her life, and changed me for the better.

"She," Trunks will say, "Is Tayhei."

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