The grass around the Son House was bright green and lush, unusual for the weather this time of year. Most lawns had begun to yellow and fade during the heat of summer, but the Son House lawn remained deep and well-nourished. Trunks knew that ChiChi put a lot of work into the yard and it certainly showed. Besides the lush green grass that surrounded the small home, there was a gorgeous garden in the back that clearly displayed her talents with flowers and plants. Her orchids were especially beautiful and grew without the help of a greenhouse or any kind of unnatural supplements. They bloomed brilliantly in different shades of purple and seemed to beckon people into the garden to view all of the other beauties. A long trailing vine of pink flowers was wrapping around the side of the house, the newest edition to ChiChi’s showcase. Trunks watched as the sun hit the vine and made the drops of dew sparkle like tiny diamonds on the petals of the flowers.

He looked over to find the rest of his companions admiring the lush garden as well. They had all come to the Son House together, including Tayhei. Bra had neglected to come, saying that she wanted to just stay in her room, which was unusual for her. Trunks didn’t have time to be concerned about it, though. He would simply have to deal with Bra’s feelings later when he had the time….And when he figured out what he was supposed to say. His future companions wandered around in the yard for a moment, their eyes taking in the beauty of the garden and the surrounding woods. Especially Mirai Bulma who looked quite impressed. He knew that ChiChi was still alive in the future world, but he guessed there wasn’t much opportunity for gardening there. The way Bulma spoke, she made it sound as though there weren’t enough time or resources to do anything.

The future world sounded bleak and depressing to him. He knew that it was selfish and probably wrong, but he had often thought of how glad he was that it had all happened to Mirai Trunks and not him. He couldn’t possibly be more thankful that the events of his timeline had been altered into something more bright and chipper. Sure, they had had their share of troubles here as well, but it was nothing compared to the devastation and sadness of the future world. He hoped that he would never have to live his life the way that Mirai Trunks lived his. He didn’t want to walk around with shadows hanging over him and sorrow in his eyes. He didn’t want to be haunted by events of the past to the point where nothing seemed to break the despondency. There were a lot of things that he could deal with easily in life, but that kind of pain and depression was not one of them. Mirai Trunks handled it well; he simply looked the part of an angst-ridden warrior. But Trunks knew that there was much more than that in those sky blue eyes that were identical to his own.

Trunks eyed him and watched as he straightened the sword that seemed to be permanently attached to his back. He didn’t know why the guy insisted on brining it to the Son House. It wasn’t as if they were going to have to battle Gokuu or defend themselves from ChiChi’s wrath. It seemed to him as though he was entirely too fond of to the sword. His eyes moved to the hilt, which was glinting in the morning sun as his future counterpart walked to his mother’s side. It was interesting to think that this was the very sword that had killed Freezer, the mirai jinzouningen, and who knows how many others. As far as Trunks was concerned, swords were nothing but instruments of death and he thought was almost disgusting to have such a tight relationship with such a thing. He thought of the sword that he himself had kept; the sword that had killed his mother. He had locked away that instrument of death forever, kept it buried in the Capsule Corporation safe, where it would stay for all eternity. He remembered how he had felt when he found that sword, when he saw the blood that was trailing down the smooth, cool metal. He didn’t want anyone else do die. He didn’t want anyone else to have to suffer death at the hands of that sword. When he saw it there in the snow, he didn’t see a fine weapon --- a weapon he could use to strengthen his fighting skills. Instead, he saw nothing but evil.

Mirai Trunks caught in him staring and leveled him with an impatient gaze. The future warrior didn’t seem to be too fond of him. Trunks didn’t know why of course, but it upset him just the same. Now he was going to have to spend the rest of the week trying to win his future counterpart over. That definitely wasn’t going to be an easy task either, especially since it looked as though Tayhei had already wrapped her icy claws of death around Mirai Trunks’s heart.

Trunks stepped out of the Capsule Car to join the others and stretched his arms over his head, his mouth opening with a cavernous yawn. He looked over at Mirai Bulma again, who was biting her lip and looked quite nervous. He frowned momentarily, remembering how his own mother would bite her lip exactly like that when she was worried about something.

“Are you excited to see Gokuu?” He inquired, and gestured towards the Son House.

“Hai.” She answered with a hesitant smile. She brushed back a long strand of coiled turquoise hair. “It’s been a long while since I last saw Son-kun. I just can’t believe that he’s alive and well. All of these years I thought he was dead in your timeline as well. I guess it just proves what an amazing warrior he is. Even after being dead for seven years, he still comes backs to life and keeps defending the Earth.”

Trunks had often thought of the exact same things. He admired all of the Earth’s warriors, including his own father, very much. But there was just something special about Son Gokuu. He would admit it to anyone but himself --- definitely not his father, but he was certain that Gokuu was the greatest warrior that ever lived. He thought this because of many of the reasons that Mirai Bulma had brought up, as well as the fact that his strength was incomparable and at times even incomprehensible. Plus, he was also one of the nicest people that Trunks had ever met --- if a little slow and naïve sometimes. He could understand why Bulma had looked so wistful when she heard that he was still alive. The greatest warrior that ever lived had a tendency to win people’s hearts. He hadn’t meant a person yet (besides his father) that hated Gokuu.

“He’s quite a guy.” Trunks agreed, a smile appearing on his face. Maybe one day, the younger generation would feel the same way about him.

Bulma looked back up at the house. Her eyes narrowed as if she were trying to peer in through the windows. Trunks thought that she was very pretty. His mother would have been more than pleased to see how well she was going to age. Mirai Bulma must have been quite old by now, but she still remained young-looking for the most part. The only evidence was a few wrinkles and a slower, more strained and mechanical way of walking. Other than that, she looked almost just as his mother had looked before she died. Her fashion sense was a bit different however. He knew that his mother probably would never have worn the loose jeans and button down shirt that Mirai Bulma was wearing. His mother liked to showcase her figure --- not hide it.

“And you said there was a second son?” She asked absently, unaware of his staring.

“Hai.” Trunks answered her happily. “Goten. My best friend.”

“He’s a complete copy of Gokuu.” Tayhei chimed in suddenly. She placed a hand on Bulma’s shoulder and winked conspiratorially. “You should ask ChiChi-san to show you some pictures of him when he was younger. He used to look exactly like his father.”

Trunks didn’t know why, but he felt a compelling urge to glare at the girl. She hadn’t done anything wrong, really, but just the fact that she knew so much about Goten bothered him. Goten was his best friend. Tayhei shouldn’t even be allowed to speak to him. And the fact that she was actually nice to Goten was another thing that intensely annoyed him. He would never be able to figure out why she chose to hate him and adore his best friend. It didn’t make any sense. After all, he was the more handsome of the two. He spent way more time on his appearance and was way more educated when it came to charming girls and treating women with respect. Goten just twiddled around in a daze and was more enraptured with the prospect of food than he was with any girl. Not that he was jealous or anything, but it still annoyed him. It annoyed him enough to want to smack the girl sometimes, especially when she made some cute remark about how nice Goten was or what a good time they had together. The urge to glare overcame him and he narrowed his eyes at her, scowling deeply. She ignored him, of course, but he thought he detected a glint of mischief in her eyes.

“I’m a bit nervous.” Mirai Bulma spoke up again. She began to play with the top button of her shirt, nervously fingering it as she bit her lip again.

“Don’t be.” Trunks comforted. He led all of them up the walk to the front door of the house and knocked gently on the door. “They’ll be happy to see you. You too. You’re quite a legend around here. And I bet if we stick around long enough, ChiChi will even cook us lunch. Trust me, you don’t want to miss that.”

There was a bit of commotion from inside the house and he thought he could hear ChiChi’s voice through the walls. He shifted from one foot to the other and tried to think of a way to explain the future visitors’ presence without alarming ChiChi. The woman was famous for fainting and he didn’t want to have to spend half an hour trying to revive her. He thought about telling Mirai Bulma and Trunks to hide out of sight until he had fully explained, but quickly dismissed the idea. It was just silly to make them have to do something like that, and he had a feeling that it might make his future counterpart even more annoying. Before he could think of some way to explain everything to the woman though, ChiChi slowly opened the door and poked her head out.

She regarded him with familiarity, though there was no smile to be found on her face. Her gaze became puzzled as it fell on Mirai Trunks, and then turned to complete and utter shock when she saw Mirai Bulma standing in her yard. He watched as her eyes grew to the size of saucers and her mouth fell open. She brought a hand up to her chest and gasped.

“It can’t be!” She cried. She took a sudden step forward and stared at Mirai Bulma, her mouth still hanging open. Then her face took on a different emotion and she began to sway back, looking dizzy. Trunks immediately reached out and steadied her with a strong hand. At least he had been prepared for it this time. The last time ChiChi fainted, no one had been close enough to catch her and she had fallen straight to the floor. This time however, he managed to keep her from fading, although she certainly looked as though she were still ready to fall over any moment.

“Don’t faint.” He begged her with a sideways smile and patted her arm gently. “This isn’t my mother. Remember Mirai Trunks? This is his mother from the future. They came to visit.”

Instead of looking overjoyed and smiling at them like he thought she would, ChiChi’s face just fell into an expressionless mask. She didn’t invite them in and insist on making tea for all of them as she usually did. She simply stared at them as though she didn’t quite know what to say. Then her face dropped into a deep frown and her dark eyes went to the ground, avoiding their eager gazes. She opened her mouth a few times, as if to try and say something, but no words came out. Slowly, she turned her head back towards the inside of the house, frowning. Trunks thought her behavior to be very odd. Normally ChiChi was such a wonderful hostess. At a time like this, with such special guests, she normally would have been going overboard to make them comfortable. Instead, however, she just looked as nervous and sad. He could tell that there was something bothering her; that something had gone wrong. He didn’t know what it was or how bad it was, but he knew without a doubt that something was wrong.

“Did we….come at a bad time?” Trunks inquired. His hand fell from her arm and hung loosely at his side, numb with apprehension.

Recovering quickly, ChiChi looked up guiltily and shook her head. “No! No. I’m glad that you’re here. It’s just….Well, a lot has happened in the past few hours. I’m a little overwhelmed already.”

Tayhei stepped forward and looked at her with concerned green eyes. It was a look that he didn’t normally see on the girl. She reached out to put an arm around the woman in a comforting gesture that was very much unlike her. “Is everything okay?”

ChiChi bit her lip and stared at them all anxiously. “Juunana-gou attacked Marron last night. She’s okay, but in a little bit of shock. She is actually upstairs now, resting. Gokuu and Koronu took off awhile ago to subdue Juunana-gou and try to figure out what to do with him.”

Trunks’s mouth fell open, horrified. It felt like her words had actually kicked him straight in the gut and knocked the wind out of him. He never would have thought that something so terrible would happen, especially to someone as sweet and innocent as Marron. He didn’t know what was wrong with Juunana-gou, but he couldn’t help but be disgusted and horrified by what he had done. He didn’t care if Marron was okay or not, it still made him angry. It also scared him a bit as well. Juunana-gou was one of their friends. He and Juuhachi-gou were part of the group. He simply could not believe that Juunana-gou would do something so awful. It made him feel absolutely ill to think about how scared Marron must have been. It made him even more ill to think about what had possessed Juunana-gou to attack his own niece. He just couldn’t believe that Juunana-gou would intentionally try to hurt her, especially since he knew that the two of them had a very close relationship. The Chestnut family had always been kind of quiet, but they at least stuck close to each other. As far as he knew, all of them got along rather well. He didn’t even want to think about the devastating effects that this was going to have on the family.

Still stunned, he looked over to find his visitors from the future looking every bit as horrified as he felt. He didn’t think of it until that moment, but the implications of the situation were frighteningly similar to the events of the future world. He was sure that Mirai Bulma and Mirai Trunks had probably just been hit with a ton of memories of what their world was like and the devastation that the jinzouningen had caused. Bulma looked especially scared and her hand was gripping her son’s jacket tightly with anxiety. He knew that in the future world, Bulma had lost absolutely everything that she cared about. She was probably terrified that the same thing was going to happen in this timeline as well. Her son stood tall beside her with his eyes fierce and his body tall; his muscles tense under the soft fabric of his jacket and Trunks could tell that an unbelievable power was beginning to surge beneath the future warrior’s skin.

“This is horrible!” Tayhei exclaimed and her arm dropped from around ChiChi’s shoulder. Her beautiful face was marred with shock and fear. “Why would he do something like that?!”

ChiChi shook her head helplessly. “Apparently, the jinzouningen have reverted back to their former programming. We don’t know why. It just happened out of the blue, no warning or anything. Koronu just suddenly showed up with Marron in her arms and told us that it was Juunana-gou that had attacked her and that Piccolo was fighting him off.”

“Wait, wait.” Mirai Bulma finally spoke up. Her blue eyes were shining with a light sheen of tears and the woman looked positively terrified. “If this happened to Juunana-gou, did it happen to Juuhachi-gou as well?”

With that question, a whole new fear began to attack Trunks’s heart. He felt his veins begin to freeze over and his limbs grow numb. If the same thing was happening to Juuhachi-gou, it would be even worse than Juunana-gou. Juuhachi-gou was a wife and a mother. She had a husband that adored her and a daughter that practically worshipped her every move. There was no way that they could kill her, no way that they could justify ending her life when she had a family. They had to protect the world, but that was going to be awfully hard when their enemy was part of a family and a good friend. He quickly prayed that the same thing was not happening to the female jinzouningen. Dealing with Juunana-gou would be hard enough, but if they were forced to try and contain Juuhachi-gou, it would be a disaster. Sweat dripped down from the side of his temple and his heart began to speed up to an unnatural, unhealthy rate as he hoped with all of his might that the female jinzouningen had not fallen. But when he looked up and saw the look on ChiChi’s face, he knew that it was no use praying.

ChiChi looked down again, and then raised her head to stare at directly into the future woman’s eyes. Her voice wavered.