Dragonball: Rewritten

Chapter 2

Goku dipped the fresh washcloth into the bowl of lukewarm water. Sitting next to the cot, he dabbed the boy's forehead from one side to the other, some stray bangs tickling his fingers. The boy didn't stir once, just like he hadn't the last twenty-four hours. If it wasn't for the faint rise and fall of his chest, and the sensation of the boy's breath against his wrist, Goku would've sworn he was dead. Especially when the boy still had his old clothes on with dried blood and dirt everywhere.

He eyed the tail hanging limp off the side of the bed. A tail exactly like his own, but colored lighter. Looked softer too. It only twitched once this whole time, when Goku laid him down on the cot hours ago and covered him with the bedsheets. Goku was sure he would've woken then, the boy's face grimacing, hissing between his gritted teeth, but he didn't. The moment his head rested on a pillow, the boy was dead out again.

Bandages wrapped around different parts of his body. His whole left forearm. His right wrist and elbow. Both of his knees and ankles, and a huge bandage over his left hip. But the major wound was gone at least. The one Goku begged on his knees for help with, because he just knew with how it looked, the boy wouldn't survive. Not with how deep and ugly it was, how blood gushed over his arm when Goku lifted him up from the crater and onto Kintoun. This wound on the left side of his stomach meant death, and Goku couldn't afford that. He couldn't. Not when this mysterious boy had a tail just like his, smelled almost like himself, looked at him with those dark eyes before collapsing his head against Goku's chest.

So Goku soared right for Korin's tower. Practically stumbled right onto the floor, skidding on his knees, falling before Korin's feet. He didn't even let Korin ask a single question, babbling out on top of his lungs, "Please! Senzu bean!"

"Uh??" Korin glanced down at the boy in his arms, then back to Goku. "Who is he?"

"I don't know but he's dying! Please Korin!"

"But... Goku..." His heart sank at Korin's next words. "I don't have any right now."

His vision blurred over. "No." He stared down at the boy in the broken armor, his head lolled back, blood trickling down his parted lips—and then the image of Krillin's dead body superimposed over the boy's. "No... please..."

"Goku—"

"Not again." He shut his eyes tight, tears spilling out against his will, down his cheeks. "Please." He shook his head no. "Not again."

A soft sigh caught his attention. As did the phrase: "I might—"

He snapped his head up, blinking away stray tears.

Korin scratched the back of his head with one paw. "—have a spare somewhere." He pointed at Goku, his whiskers twitching as he glared. "But don't get your hopes up!"

Goku nodded yes, his throat too constricted to speak.

He followed Korin's body with his eyesight, clutching onto the boy's limp body hard to his chest. Korin walked to the other side of the tower where a stack of treasure chests, vases and potted plants rested. A flick of his paw to one of those chests, and the top flipped open, hitting the wall.

Korin flung his body over the edge, visibly rummaging through various items. Some of those items flew into the air, landing somewhere in the tower. His feet kicked in the air as he continued sorting through these things.

Then, a loud, "A-ha! There it is!"

Goku grinned when Korin came to his feet and turned around, holding a senzu bean in his paw.

His grin waned when he realized it wasn't a full one, but a half of one.

Korin walked over, saying, "It's not a full one, but it'll take care of that nasty wound of his, that's for sure."