Kakarot stared at his son with a look that was a mixture between regret and concern. On the surface he knew this wasn't his or anybody else's fault, but even still he couldn't help but feel that if he'd just been around more.. if he hadn't been so neglectful in his duties as a father… He might have noticed this side of his son sooner. He might have been able to help him before it got so out of hand.
He wondered if maybe the boy's mother wasn't right all along, maybe he should have just stayed back on Earth with his grandpa where it was safe? In his hubris he had thought that only by his side would his son be protected from the space tyrant Frieza. But what if the danger was him all along?
Him because he didn't know how to properly be there for a son who needed him..
Kakarot looked at his son for a long, steady second. "My son.. My only son.." He watched as Gohan leveled a glare at Ginyu and flared his Ki. For the moment he seemed to be aiming his anger at Ginyu but in many ways that was somewhat worse. If he were targeting Kakarot or his wife he knew the boy wouldn't be harmed. Even though the captain of the Ginyu force claimed he avoided killing kids, Kakarot didn't altogether trust the man who had kidnapped his son in the first place and set this all in motion.
Gohan's power may have been massive for his age, but his savage, mindless state would leave him vulnerable and hopelessly outmatched against someone as powerful and skilled as Ginyu. He was cursing his luck and weighing his options as quickly as he could when his wife's worried voice cut his musings short. "Oh my God, Kakarot what the fuck is he doing!?" She asked, horrified.
He looked up in time to see Ginyu plunge his own left hand into his chest, causing blue blood to gush from his mouth and of course the fresh hole in his chest. He half cackled half wheezed as he pulled his hand out of the wound. Kakarot frowned heavily and shouted, "Hey what the hell is the matter with you? you're going to kill yourself, is that what you want!?"
Kakarot couldn't honestly care less if the man chose to end his own life, that was his prerogative for which he had no say… But the fact that he was doing it right in front of his son really bothered his fatherly instincts. Not only that but the way the man just kept staring at the boy with hungry eyes the entire time, even as he ruptured his own chest, made Kakarot feel extremely uneasy.
Ginyu huffed and tried to remain upright. He wearily eyed the approaching boy who seemed as if he was keen on the idea of inflicting a great deal of violence on the wounded man. 'Need.. *huff* *huff* a distraction.' He thought desperately. He had done a little more damage to his body than he originally intended…
As soon he'd had the thought the boy paused just before his right foot touched the ground. Gohan turned slightly to look at some far off distance and frowned heavily.
Ginyu thought the boy said something like "Mr. Pick a nose" but he couldn't be sure. In either case he had found the distraction he needed. The eyes were the windows to the soul, after all. And now Gohan's were wide open.
'Perfect!' Ginyu straightened, which certainly must have hurt like hell, and threw his arms out wide. Still staring at the, crimson eyed Gohan, Ginyu yelled,
"Change Now!"
The moment their eyes made contact the boy froze. His animalistic mind grew frenzied with fear and his instincts screamed but it was too late. He had fallen into a predator's trap..
The feeling of having your soul forcefully removed from your body was.. uniquely indescribable. It wasn't necessarily painful per se.. It just felt plain wrong. Gohan roared internally as his consciousness was drug unwillingly up through the very core of his being and shot out through his mouth.
For one surreal moment that seemed forever frozen in time, Gohan had an out of body experience in which he could see everyone and everything around him.
'Wait is that me!?.. Why am I being pulled away from my body?? Why do I look like that?? Hey wait.. Mom! Dad! Why can't they hear me…'
And then he found himself forcefully stuffed into a shell of a body that did not belong to him. Immediately white hot pain flashed through the boy and he began wailing. Something was terribly wrong.. it felt like his ribs had been ripped from his chest. Mostly because they had.
Not only that but the body he now found himself in felt altogether off. For one thing it was too big and bulky, he stumbled and slipped.
His young mind was completely unable to compensate for the differences between his years of carefully developed muscle memory and the contrarily disproportionate body he now possessed.
"Gaaaaah!" He screamed, in a voice that was far too deep and gravely to be his own. Across from himself he saw.. well himself and slightly off to his left was his parents, looking back and forth between his body and himself with confusion and worry. Gohan tried to focus but he couldn't do anything more than collapse and scream due to the hole in his chest…
Kakarot for his part had been terribly distracted by the sudden and immediate loss of his friend Piccolo's Ki. He looked over at the downed Ginyu, who suddenly seemed to be in a great deal more pain than he was before.. Aside from that he couldn't discern a single visible effect from Ginyu's technique.
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He had turned just in time to see the two opposing lights fly out of Ginyu and his son's bodies, and then into one another and that left him rightfully concerned for the young saiyan's well being.
"Get up Ginyu! What the hell did you do to my son!? If you're hurt that's your own damn fault, now answer me before I blast you to pieces!" Kakarot demanded.
On the other side of the downed Ginyu roughly twenty feet away stood Gohan. The boy still had animalistic features and wild flowing hair due to his relentless Ki aura. He looked to be in stunned silence as he looked back and forth between his upturned palms. He scanned his arms up and down before he began to laugh maniacally, "ahahaha!..."
Bulma turned to her furious husband with a look of grave despair. "Kakarot.. I think.. Ginyu may have switched bodies with our son.." She whispered. She was reluctant to admit it but as the scene played out before her the woman's scientific mind saw things in a manner most people didn't. Like it was a puzzle that needed to be solved and there may have been much more at play than what was on the surface..
Kakarot's eyes widened and he looked at his wife with hesitation. "A.. are you sure?" He asked. But as he looked back over at the downed Ginyu and really focused on the man's Ki he couldn't help but noticed how drastically different it was from before. Even though the general shape and color of the energy was the same, the intent and emotion behind it was not.
All of the captain's malice and anger were gone, replaced by confusion, fear and innocence. The innocence of his son.
Meanwhile, Gohan's body still had the wild and ominous aura it possessed before but when Gohan was at the wheel that power felt instinctual and limitless. Now it felt somewhat muffled and full of ill intent.. Goku's eyes widened as he slowly realized his wife was indeed correct. Captain Ginyu had stolen his son's body and now that left Gohan in serious danger…
As Gohan's parents wrestled with their existential turmoil and tried to think of the best possible way to save their son, the boy in question continued losing blood at an unsustainable pace. Whatever body Ginyu had before was obviously from an incredibly resilient race that could withstand many fatal wounds, but a gaping hole in the chest probably wasn't one of them.
Especially since it seemed as if one the body's lung may have been nicked…
Ginyu himself, now in Gohan's body, continued staring at his hands in awe. His face rapidly cycled between several emotions but most often they were glee and uncertainty. 'Such power.. And I can sense something deeper. I can't even bring it all out the way the boy could.. There's something dangerous about him.. Somethinganimalistic and.. natural. Given enough time.. I'm certain.. Yes.. He is the one ahahaha!' Ginyu roared internally within his (stolen) head.
Suddenly he stopped laughing both internally and outwardly. He frowned and looked over at the boy in his dying body. He didn't have long.. He had really been reckless with this one. He needed to act fast. . 'He is the one who will end the universe..' Turning towards the boy's parents he began making his way toward them.
As they noticed his approach their faces twisted into a look of righteous fury. Had Ginyu not been in the body of their child, he was sure he would already be dead. That too, had originally been a factor of his plan. With the element of surprise he was going to end the fool, Kakarot's life using his own son's hands. But now the situation had changed…
Ginyu/Gohan held up his hands in defense. "Wait! You must listen well! We haven't got long..!" He pleaded but he was metaphorically skating on very thin ice at the moment.
Bulma roared, "No! You don't have long! You give my son back his body or so help me God!.. He's dying!" She cried out in anger and desperation.
Ginyu/Gohan frowned and seemed to have a lot of trouble shouting his next sentence out, "I know, I made a damn mistake, I'm sorry!" Bulma and Kakarot shared a clearly disbelieving look, not being convinced at all of the man's sudden and unreasonable change of heart.
Kakarot stepped forward, raising a clenched fist and cracking the ground with a stomp. "If that's how you really feel then give my son his body back!" He demanded. The frown on Ginyu/Gohan's face grew deeper and he snarled, which honestly looked frightening with his animalistic appearance.
He crossed his arms in a manner that was way too mature for the little boy's body he'd stolen, and both his parents felt a pang of deep sorrow in their hearts.
"I can't.." He said reluctantly and looked away, arms still crossed. The boy's parents' blood ran cold. They paled and their eyes widened, not being able to react otherwise.
Bulma was the first to recover from her stupefaction. "Do you mean to tell me.. That this change is permanent? Tell me that's not the case Ginyu or so help me…" She warned with quiet, barely contained fury. The final stage before a mother truly snaps.
Ginyu raised his arms in defense. "No that's not what I'm saying! But my technique is designed in a way such that I'm unable to switch bodies with someone who is too close to death. That's why we must hurry and get him to a healing chamber! We must stabilize him so that I can switch back." He said with serious urgency.
Kakarot and Bulma shared a look before Kakarot turned back to his possessed son's body and lifted a clenched fist. "We don't have any other choice so we're going to give you the benefit of the doubt but know this, Ginyu. Your life is tied to the well-being of my son, both physically and his mental state after this is all said and done. Do you understand me?"
Truth be told, for a moment he actually felt like he was scolding his son and a jolt of pain shot through him but he kept it from showing on his face with a level of discipline befitting a master martial artist.
Ginyu nodded and rushed over to the downed boy, his parents following close by. "We'll take him to our ship and-.." He began but Ginyu cut him off, cutting his arm through the air.
"No! We must get him to my ship! Within the empire it is second only to Frieza's family's personal cruisers. My healing pods are far superior to yours!" He insisted. Kakarot looked at him with obvious distrust and contempt. "Why would I trust anything you say at this point Ginyu? Move aside, I need to heal my son a bit or he won't make the trip." He commanded.
Ginyu placed himself on the other side of his downed body. They rolled him over and Kakarot had to reinst the urge to vomit. At least the boy was unconscious at this point so he wasn't whimpering. Ginyu, in Gohan's body, looked up at the man who kneeled on the other side of his dying body. "Look, like it or not that's just another reason to bring him to my ship. It's a mile away tops! And I know you don't trust me but I'm doing this for my own sake, got it? So at the very least I'll help you help this boy!" He said determinedly.
Kakarot and Ginyu both raised their palms out towards the barely breathing Gohan. Kakarot couldn't help but raise an eyebrow. "You.. can heal people?" He asked curiously. The saiyan certainly didn't peg him as the type to ever want to save lives.
The man in the boy's body shrugged. "I'm over a thousand years old as you may recall me saying. I've mastered hundreds of abilities just for the sheer boredom of it all."
Kakarot shook his head, taking the explanation in stride. It really didn't matter as long as it helped save his son. Kakarot closed his eyes briefly and focused before a warm, shining green energy began to radiate from his palms. There were tiny emerald motes of light that floated around and entered into Ginyu's body.
Occasional pulses came from Kakarot's palms providing further boosts of vitality.
Across from him, a crimson lightning began to arc between Ginyu/Gohan's hands. Sharp pulses of red energy emanated from his palms as he too, began to heal his damaged body with his own version of the technique.
Kakarot studied Ginyu's skill with a scrutinizing gaze. Upon first seeing the lighting he was initially distrusting and almost intercepted the man who had commandeered his son's body but.. He sensed no ill intent and most of his focus was on helping his son.
Once he'd seen a sufficient amount as far as how the technique functioned, he thought to himself. 'I'll have to practice that later.. It would be incredibly useful to have two healing abilities working in tandem.' before he focused his full attention back on the boy trapped in this monstrous, dying body…
The wound slow began to knit itself back together and the freely flowing, purple blood began to slow to a trickle.
"There.." Kakarot said several minutes later. He wiped his brow which was drenched in sweat. "He's stabilized for now. I'll carry him, lead me to your ship immediately!" He demanded.
End of chapter 34