How much I care (DBZ fanfic)

Chapter 9

Gokou felt as if he were some sort of non-existent form, which alarmed him at first.

"Am I... dead?"

But, one always does get alarmed when they find they can walk through solid things, or in Gokou's case, fall through them. The hole that appeared made him feel like something was yanking at him from the insides and his outsides were forced to comply. Somewhat nauseous, he was even more annoyed that he couldn't lean against a tree.

The sound of a gentle giggle attracted his attention. Surely someone was there and could explain it. By this time, he was somewhat used to people guiding him along during this... ordeal. He kept walking along the forest path; he knew this place from somewhere else. Or so he felt as if he did.

He shrugged off the feeling and followed the voice. Female, he tried to determine her age, but unlike males, females' voices didn't change in tone as drastically.

As he approached a clearing in the path, he certainly knew where he was. Almost a mile and a half away from the cottage, it was a little lake he used to fish in. Huge stones created an arch around most of the lake, good for diving in.

After grunting in annoyance as when he attempted to jump on a boulder, he fell right through, and after trying to climb it, he sank through as well, he strived to get to the voice.

"It's there. It's real. I'm here. I'm real. Why can't I... touch it?"

Annoyed that he hadn't been warned that he would be... a ghost or something along those lines, he hovered in the air and decided to float up to the voice until he could figure out how to make his form complicated enough to literally touch things in this... place.

"Gokou, stop!"

Gokou froze in mid-air. The words weren't threatening or even annoyed, but playful and barely audible by the laughter behind it. What scared him was that he wasn't quite sure the voice was talking to him or not.

Splash!

He would have been soaking wet, and the voice gave a little squeal as apparently she had been soaked.

"Come on in, 'Chi!"

"You mean jump in from this high up?"

"I'll catch ya!"

Her voice went from an unsure nervousness as the male's voice re-assured her, but what was... awkward was that Gokou recognized the voice as his own.

"Is this the past or something?"

"Sure is!"

Bulma beamed at him. He would have fallen over, but there was nothing to fall on to. This time, she had shoulder-length hair so he was considerably sure she was the Bulma from this time.

"Vegeta told me not to help you but I think he enjoyed having two of me around too much. Anyway, I'm not going to stay for long, it's just that you're so silly that I felt bad for you."

Gokou crossed his arms over his chest.

"So when you look behind this boulder what do you think you're going to see?"

Bulma smiled. Gokou thought she was enjoying this a bit too much.

"But... my dress!"

"Take it off then."

"Gokou!"

It was pretty obvious, even when the past Gokou wasn't in sight, that they both shrugged.

"What will I see? Uh... me... and Chichi?"

"And how long ago is this?"

Gokou blinked. How was he supposed to know? Bulma yawned.

"Alright, alright, figure it out yourself. There are two and a half things I want you to keep in mind."