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Being a Time Patroller leaves Gonan Mirai in a… unique situation. She’s messed with time travel before, it’s why she’s here in the first place, but she hadn’t had access to so much before. She hadn’t even considered going so far back in time that she could meet her grandfather, or going forward in time to see what new foes they’d meet. But now, she could.
Now, she had to. It was part of her job as a time patroller.
The Supreme Kai of Time was generous in her offer when she showed up. She’d pardoned Mirai for her meddling with time travel so long as Mirai had agreed to become a Time Patroller and worked to prevent others from interfering with the timeline. Apparently, it was either that or Mirai faced the consequences, or Bulma faced the consequences. Those consequences being possible destruction. Erased from existence. Something along those lines.
Mirai couldn’t put Bulma in that situation. So she’d agreed to become a Time Patroller. For Bulma’s sake. For Trunks’ sake.
That didn’t mean she liked it. Sure, it was interesting sometimes. She could see a whole different perspective on events that she’d been involved in, parts she wasn’t physically there for or parts that she’d missed. But it’d also meant that she’d face the same awful headache that was helping people she’d seen die, only now she sometimes has even worse fates to replay in her head thanks to their latest threat in Towa and her creation, Mira.
Unfortunately, even having the ability to see the parts she’d missed in the timeline, it still didn’t explain things thoroughly enough. She could watch Gohan’s final battle with the androids over and over, but she could never know for sure just what he was thinking in those moments.
Not that she doesn’t have her theories.
Mirai senses a presence entering the Time Nest behind her. Looking back at the presence, she finds their newest recruit who’s been climbing the ranks rather quickly ever since they were summoned.
She doesn’t know their name. She never bothered to learn it, and she never bothered to give her own birth name.
The recruit stops a few paces behind her and tilts their head, eyes glancing towards the scroll she’d been looking over on the desk.
Mirai hums, turning to face them. “Curious about this scroll?”
They nod and narrow their eyes, the picture of professionalism. Ready for another fight.
She shakes her head slowly, “It hasn’t been tampered with. I was just…” Mirai looks back to the scroll. “ … reminiscing…”
The Time Patroller nods as if in understanding, looking back at the scroll. Suddenly, their eyes widen, and Mirai can sense a familiar sinister energy emitting from the scroll right next to her. Immediately she turns to face the scroll, eyeing the purple mist-like energy that emits from it now with horror.
“No, not this history too…!”
Just what are Towa and Mirai up to?! Can’t they leave anything alone? Wasn’t this piece of history bad enough as it was? Why would they possibly want to make it even worse than before? How would they even make it worse than before?! The only thing that could’ve possibly made this worse was if–
Trunks.
No.
“Mirai!” The Supreme Kai of Time’s voice calls from the bottom of the steps of the entrance. Mirai whips her head to look at the short Kai, already hating the stern look on her face. Chronoa has her fists held to her hips as she frowns Mirai’s way, like a scolding parent would. Despite her sternness, Chronoa’s expression softens as she steps closer to Mirai. Her hands are still on her hips, but she looks almost more concerned than she is scolding. “You… understand, right?”
… She does.
Her feelings are not a factor, cannot be a factor in this delicate mission. Whatever Mirai may want to do, she can’t. She can’t interfere with the timeline anymore than fixing whatever is broken by Towa and Mira.
Mirai will be on the sidelines for this mission…
Well, it’s not like any mission before this has been any different since they’d summoned that new recruit.
“I understand,” Mirai confirms reluctantly. She carefully rolls up the scroll and holds it for a moment. Then, slowly, she turns to their recruit and schools her expression as much as possible as she hands over her history, her world. “Then… Good luck.”
The recruit takes the scroll in their hands and gives her a firm nod. They’re gentle with the scroll, far more gentle than they’d been with every scroll they’d been given prior. Not to say that they handled the previous scrolls roughly by any means, but… they’re certainly giving this one more care.
Mirai chooses to ignore this. At least for the time being.
In a bright flash of light, the recruit is brought to the scroll’s timeline and the scroll remains in the air briefly. Mirai catches it before it can fall and sets it back down on the table. She can feel Chronoa move to her side, and she can sense that the Elder Kai is moving to her other side, but she pays them no mind. After taking a deep breath to prepare herself for whatever may come their way, Mirai rolls the scroll out once more to survey the situation.
Ah, so that’s what Towa did.
Instead of Gohan facing androids 17 and 18, he’s facing 16, an android that had never showed up in their timeline before. The recruit has positioned themselves on Gohan’s left side, probably attempting to cover for Gohan’s missing limb.
Gonan never had the chance to do that.
Mirai watches the recruit and her brother fight against 16 silently, letting Chronoa and Elder Kai provide most of the support and warnings. Somehow, the situation is both nerve-wracking and underwhelming. The recruit has been taught well, they’re handling 16 rather well and Gohan is holding his own fairly well himself. Still, Mirai would rather this didn’t happen in the first place. Either way, 16 is taken down eventually with minimal injuries.
The confusion on Gohan’s face is… something. Mirai’s not sure how she’s feeling about any of this.
But she certainly has a better idea of how to feel a few moments after 16 has been taken down. Dread fills her insides as she sees Mira appear a few yards away from her brother and the recruit.
That is not good. Not good at all. The recruit has been lucky so far in their encounters with Towa’s creation, and Gohan won’t be of much help against him.
They need backup.
“Chronoa…”
The Supreme Kai of Time sighs heavily at Mirai’s side, exasperated with the casual addressing, but the stress in it overwhelms the exasperation immensely. Mirai looks to Chronoa to see her worrying her lip as she stares at the scroll.
“Chronoa…!”
Dark eyes shut tightly, Chronoa’s pink eyebrows furrowing as her head lowers. Her fists are clenched where they rest on the table, like making this decision is causing her physical pain or something, until finally–
“Go.”
Mirai doesn’t need to be told twice. Just before she can close her hand around the casing of the scroll, Chronoa grabs her wrist and looks Mirai in the eyes. She’s still worrying her lip, and she looks concerned, almost afraid, yet stern nonetheless.
“Remember, Mirai. You understand?”
Her jaw, no, her entire being tenses at the reminder.
She hates it. She hates it so much, but she has to follow the rules.
Mirai nods.
Chronoa searches her face for a moment, probably trying to see if she truly does understand and isn’t just saying that she does. Mirai’s not sure if she finds what she’s looking for, but Chornoa lets go of her wrist either way.
She wastes no more time grabbing onto the scroll and transporting herself to the timeline to support her recruit and her brother.
The fight against Mira is a blur to Mirai. She can’t for the life of her remember how well she’d fought, if she’d gotten hurt anywhere, or even what moves she’d used against Mira. All she knows is that she fought hard enough to put Mira on the defense.
Mira doesn’t like being put on the defense.
“Why can’t I beat you?” He seethes when the battle lulls to a pause. “Even against three of you… I am far stronger… I must be…”
“I won’t let you kill Gohan,” Mirai growls out, her throat feeling raw with the vibrations. She takes a step forward, itching to get back to beating Mira, but the creation simply huffs out a laugh before seemingly disappearing.
She hears her brother and the recruit gasp at Mira’s disappearing act, but Mirai pays them no mind. Neither of them are being harmed presently, so she needs to keep her senses out for Mira.
But… it seems Mira has left the timeline.
That’s… good. That’s good.
Had this been a normal situation, Mirai would’ve checked Gohan over for wounds. But as things are now, Mirai forces herself to focus on the recruit. She looks over them for any injuries as they explain something to Gohan. She doesn’t bother to follow their conversation. She can’t bother to follow their conversation. If she gives Gohan too much of her attention, she knows she’s going to do something stupid and Chronoa will be upset with her and who knows what her punishment will be for meddling with the timeline now.
Mirai’s resolve is shaky though, and oh-so brittle.
It crumbles when Gohan speaks her name.
“Gonan…”
Mirai collects the shards of her resolve and tries to piece it back together, just enough to not register Gohan’s words. She just needs to last a few moments longer, then she and the recruit can leave.
“You came from the future, didn’t you?”
Ignore him ignore him ignore him–
“So Bulma was able to finish her time machine.”
Focus on the recruit, just focus on the–
“Sis…?”
“Are–” Gonan– Mirai rasps out. She attempts to clear her throat, but the lump remains. Stubbornly, she tries to speak around it. “Aren’t you supposed to– to…”
Regrettably– Thankfully, Gohan seems to catch himself. “Right, it’s not the time for this.” Gohan steps away, facing away from her, leaving her – “17 and 18 are attacking the city!”
Mirai doesn’t realize that she’d reached out for her brother until his gi top is fisted tightly in her grasp. “Wait,” she gasps, eye burning. “I’ll– I’ll go with you. I’ll fight alongside you, this time…! This time…! You…!”
“What are you saying?!” Chronoa’s voice screams in her head. “You know you’re not allowed to do that, Mirai! If you help out Gohan here, you’ll change the course of history!”
“I know!” Mirai’s voice cracks as she stares at the weathered asphalt beneath her, fingers still tangled in her brother’s gi. “I know,” she sobs. “But I… I can’t…”
Suddenly, her hands are gently pried from her brother’s gi by a single calloused hand. It’s so nauseatingly nostalgic that it makes her sob harder. It’s all she can do not to crumple where she stands as she sees Gohan’s feet shuffle so that they’re facing her. She doesn’t dare look up. That calloused hand squeezes her own.
“Gonan…?”
Chronoa addresses the recruit with pleas to stop Mirai. She’s not sure why she can hear Chronoa as well, maybe it’s a desperate attempt to get Mirai to understand quicker, a secondary plea even as she entrusts their recruit to pull her away. Whatever the case, the recruit does little more than startle and look between Mirai and her brother.
“Sis…” Gohan calls again, softer this time. Mirai still refuses to lift her head to look at him. “Is there something you want to tell me?”
Mirai doesn’t move.
In truth, there are plenty of things she wants to tell him. She wants to ask if her theory on why Gohan went through with this at all was correct. And if it is, she wants to shake her brother until he sees sense, but she knows that he won’t change his mind. She wants to tell him about how Trunks turned out, how he’s so strong and brave and just the best little brother anyone could ever ask for, even if he’s a brat sometimes.
She wants to tell him that it doesn’t have to be this way. That he doesn’t have to throw away his life, here. But she can’t. She can’t because there are rules and she knows she has to abide by them. If she doesn’t, History could fall apart and everything would fall to chaos.
Mirai hates being a Time Patroller. She hates that this situation right here isn’t even the worst part about it all. Not on its own, at least.
No, the worst part about this scenario is that in some other timeline, a timeline Chronoa has allowed to stay, a timeline that Mirai has to look after more often than her own, Gohan gets to live. In that timeline, Gohan doesn’t die to the androids. Instead, the androids turn good, and even start families of their own. In that timeline, they’ve faced foes that Mirai has never met previously, her friends and family achieved more power than Mirai could possibly fathom before she’d seen it, before she’d wield it.
And in that timeline, Gohan meets Videl. In that timeline, Gohan has a wife, and eventually a child. He has a little brother born from their parents rather than the bond they’d had with Trunks. That Gohan gets to be a scholar, a family man, he gets to stop fighting as much, he gets to be happy.
But this Gohan? Her Gohan, that’s standing right in front of her now?
Her Gohan doesn’t get to have any of those things. Her Gohan is doomed to die here against the androids.
No matter how viciously he claims that his story has no end in his final moments, this is where Gohan dies. And Mirai cannot do a single thing about it. Even if she does, Chronoa will simply send some other Time Patroller to fix what Mirai had done, because Gohan has to die here.
And this knowledge, this curse , is the worst part about this job.
“Gonan…” Her brother continues, voice still achingly soft. Mirai stubbornly refuses to look. He continues anyway. “If you’re here, even after everything… Then the future… is safe, isn’t it? And so…” Gohan’s hand tightens around hers, determination clear. “This fight has a real purpose. That’s enough for me.”
Slowly, gently, Gohan’s hand releases Mirai’s, and he steps away once more, going even further now. Mirai… doesn’t move. As much as her instincts scream at her to, Mirai’s limbs remain heavier than any katchin. Her chest constricts, making it hard to breath or even make a sound. Still, her brother’s name forces itself out of her mouth as she curls her hands over her stomach, as if that would curb the nausea.
“Sis,” Gohan says once more, and Mirai almost wishes he’d just leave already. Gohan needs to leave before Mirai does something stupid, or Chronoa needs to transport her back to the stupid Time Nest. “It looks like you’ve made a good friend,” he continues, probably referring to the recruit at her side. “You can’t abandon a good frien–”
“Shut up,” Mirai finally rasps out. Finally, she lifts her head and glares at him, ignoring the wetness she can feel on her cheek. “You don’t… get to talk… about abandoning people.”
Gohan takes a step back in shock, looking absolutely ridiculous in his surprise. Quickly, he realizes his mistake and grimaces, looking down at the asphalt below them now. Guilt is written all over his face. It answers any question Mirai might’ve had in the most gut wrenching way possible. And Mirai hates .
Because Gohan’s surprise wasn’t at hearing that he’d die. His surprise was at Mirai’s anger towards him. Honestly, her brother was supposed to be the smarter twin.
Mirai turns away from her brother, away from the recruit, away from everyone. She stares at the asphalt until she’s reminded of how she’d found Gohan’s body in the first place, and instead turns her gaze towards the darkening sky. It’s going to rain soon. She can smell it.
It’s blissfully silent for all of a moment or two, then Gohan’s speaking again. One last goodbye.
“It was really good to see you, Gonan.”
She hears feet shuffling on the asphalt, and feels the air shift when Gohan leaves the ground. She doesn’t dare leave her energy senses out, she wouldn’t know how to handle feeling Gohan leave like that.
She doesn’t say goodbye when the sound of the wind being cut through reaches her ears. She doesn’t say anything when she knows Gohan has left. She doesn’t…
Mirai’s vision is blinded by white and the familiar sensation of being transported somewhere.
“We think you should take a break for a while.”
Mirai blinks at Chronoa and Elder Kai.
“What?”
Chronoa brings a hand to the back of her head, looking downwards in… shame? “That was a heavier bit of history for you than I’d realized… I was careless…”
“The point is,” Elder Kai cuts in, “We think you could really use a break after this one. I’ll keep an eye on the scrolls for a little while.”
“But… the recruit–”
“Can handle some solo missions for a bit,” Chronoa assures.
Mirai looks down as she considers this. She knows the recruit is a quick learner, and they don’t have the same connections to the timeline that she does so they won’t be as affected by the events. The recruit is detached from it all, not like she is. They aren’t plagued by memories of friends and families, they won’t feel the same temptations that she does.
Eventually, Mirai sighs.
“Okay."