Gohan watched the boy carefully during the next week after his transformation. There was no external marking to show that it had happened, and Goku seemed to have no memory of the event.

It was so strange. When the boy woke up after all of the destruction the only thing that seemed to be on his mind was food. He was unusually hungry, which was saying something. It was only after he had begun to eat his breakfast when he noticed that there was debris all over the place. He asked what happened and was confused as to why he had managed to sleep through it. He then shrugged it off as he refocused on his meal.

Gohan really didn't know what to make of it. The innocent boy he had taken in was also a monster, which raised the question of what Goku really was. There had been times in the past that Gohan had thought the child was a bit strange, but no normal human could have done that. Was he really a human?

He glanced over at the child, who was giving him a strange glance. Goku seemed to know that something was troubling his grandfather, and it bothered him. Gohan did his best to try to ease the child's mind, but it was difficult. Although he didn't want to admit it, Gohan was scared of his grandson.

He had wrestled with idea of giving the child up, allowing him to be someone else's problem. Yet, every time he glanced at the little boy, that idea wavered. Even if the child was an inhuman monster, he still loved him. That child was still just a little boy who needed someone to care about him.

oooooo

It took a while, but eventually, Gohan convinced himself that he would be fine and the child wouldn't be a danger as long as he didn't look at the moon. He took the child aside the one day and explained to him that a great terrible monster came out when one looked at the full moon. The only way that he would be safe from the monster would be if he stayed inside and slept during such a night. Although the child was excited, like any young boy would be, he had managed to convince the child that seeing such a beast would be a bad thing.

He was definitely grateful for that. He didn't need the child running off during the night only to transform again and cause who knows what kind of damage. Just to be sure though, he was going to have to stay up the entire night during the next full moon, just to make sure that the boy was asleep.

He also needed to begin teaching the boy the ways of the world. The child had never seen another person before, and well, that might cause him problems later in life. Eventually, he was going to have to explain the processes of getting older… well, that is if the child followed the same growing patterns as an ordinary person did. He thought he would, even if the child was somewhat small for his age.

That was one thing he had noticed that he was doing more and more since his grandson's transformation, he was examine the child rather frequently to see if he could find something else different about him. And, in all honestly, the only thing physically different about the boy was that he had a tail… that, and the transformation issue. It was very perplexing.

oooooo

When Goku was around eight, it seemed like everything was going fine. The child was still enthusiastic about life, and he was proving to be quite the student, like Gohan had hoped. He had not transformed again since that awful night, and his grandfather had almost forgotten about it.

The only difference was that every once in a while, Goku asked about his parents. Gohan just told him that he had been abandoned. Yes, that was a little harsh to tell a child, but Goku took it well, and it was a lot better than some of the other theories Gohan had created over the years.

Every once in a while he'd ponder about the child's unusual origins. Sure, he had ideas about it, but he had no proof for any of them. He did, however, write to his former master, to see if it was possible that he might have heard of a tale concerning people like his grandson. The response held no answers, just the same curiosity that he held. Maybe this was something that he wasn't supposed to learn…

oooooo

Gohan had been fast asleep when a roar awoke him. Without a second's thought, he ran outside to a sickeningly familiar sight. The great ape that was his grandson was standing right over their house, looking murderous. He quickly moved to the cover of the nearby trees, hoping that he hadn't been noticed just yet.

How did this happen? He had warned his grandson time and time again that he wasn't supposed to look at the moon, and he disobeyed him! He glanced up at the ape, who was currently looking for something to destroy. Now what was he supposed to do? It took all of his strength just to get away from him last time!

Suddenly, the beast turned towards his direction. It was almost like it was listening for something. Gohan was scared. Was it possible that it could hear him moving? He really hoped that wasn't the case.

It moved towards his position, stepping on anything that was in its way, including their house. Gohan winced as he watched. It might not be much, but it was still his house, and he was quite fond of it.

The ape stopped at the tree line and looked around. It definitely seemed to know that something was there. It roared again, impatiently, as it ripped a tree out of the ground, roots and all. The tree was held over its head for a moment, almost as if it was showing off its strength, before it tossed it as far as it could. Gohan could feel the ground shake as it landed.

As it roared again, Gohan quickly moved through the forest to a different position, hoping that he wouldn't be noticed. This creature had to be stopped. He had failed before, seeing as it was an unknown at the time, but now he knew what it was and what it was capable of doing. He just hoped that he wouldn't kill his own grandson in the process.

He hoped that he would have time to prepare the attack, the Kamehameha wave. It was definitely risky, but hopefully, it would stun the beast long enough to keep it still until morning. If it didn't, well, he hoped that he wouldn't get placed into that situation.

Every moment he spent gathering his chi seemed like an eternity. At every moment, he was just waiting for the ape to notice him, to close in for the kill. Fortunately, he was just about done when that finally happened. The ape seemed to have noticed the light emanating from his chi. It approached him slowly, almost as if it was unsure what to make of the strange light.

Gohan was thankful for that; it gave him just enough time to for him to finish. The beast had just a moment to look at him when he released his master's attack. The blue wave hit its target and knocked it to the ground. There was no movement or sound after it dissipated, other than the sound of falling particles, most likely dirt and small rocks.

Had the attack done its job? He slowly moved forward to see what had happened to his enemy. It didn't move, which worried him. His grandson wasn't dead, was he? Then there was a sudden movement, a twitch of its hand.

Then without warning, the beast's large tail came at him. He barely had time to block it as it swept him aside. As he attempted to pull himself together, he watched in horror as the creature started to pick itself up. This beast seemed to have no damage.

Gohan knew he was in trouble when he started feeling the chills go down his spine. The creature was hard enough to stop the last time he had faced it, but from that time, it seemed to have gotten much stronger. It shouldn't be that much of a surprise since Goku had gotten stronger since then, but he hadn't realized just how much it would affect his other form too.

He was just going to have to see if he could once again last until morning. Hopefully, he would be able to do that. However, this time, Son Gohan wasn't very sure of the outcome.

oooooooo

"Grandpa! I'm heading out!" a young boy said to a curiously orange ball that seemed to be in an exalted place in the little building that the boy now called him. It had been a few years since he had awoken to find his grandfather in very bad shape.

Although the man was clearly in pain, he had been able to tell his grandson that the full moon monster had hurt him and their house. The poor boy had done everything in his power to help his grandfather, but it wasn't enough. He was very sad when his grandpa had left him. Even though he knew it was unmanly, he had cried, only pausing when he buried the body, as he had been taught.

Once he had cried himself out, he had made a promise to the strange orange ball that his grandpa had left to him that if he would ever meet that monster that he would make it pay for hurting his grandpa. That had been years ago. He hadn't heard of the beast since, so he really had not thought much about that revenge.

Instead, he was more worried about trying to find himself food and pleasing his grandpa, who he was pretty sure could still see him through that ball. It was enough for him, so he generally enjoyed each day he spent at his home.

That particular day, however, he had noticed that some of the birds that had flown in from a different part of the mountain seemed uneasy, as if something had spooked them. It was probably just that saber-toothed cat that liked to come around every so often, so he didn't think much of it as he decided that he wanted fish for a meal.

A little later, once he had managed to snare his prey, he was heading home in a rather good mood when a strange noise reached him. It was like nothing he had heard before. A sort of low rumbling that didn't fit in with the normal sounds of the forest. Moments later, he learned that the sound came from a strange shiny creature that was moving very fast and was coming straight for him.

Just before it hit him, it stopped. It must have been after his fish! Well, he wasn't going to stand for that, so he picked up the creature as it began screaming and threw it. Unsure if it was down for good, he got into an offensive stance and told it to fight.

Instead of fighting, a strange figure emerged from it. A demon! It then attacked him with some sort of magic. It was painful, but it wasn't enough, it just made him angrier. Again, he told it to fight.

"Wait! Whoa! Time out!" it shouted as it raised its hands. "I'm not a demon! I'm a human!" That was sure a surprise! He hadn't expected to see another human. He was even more surprised when he found out that this new human was a girl. So, he did what any man would have done and invited her to his house.

There was no harm in it. Though, he would never realize, even later in his life, how much his world would change from his chance encounter with Bulma Briefs.

FIN

Hmm… I had never expected this fic to take me so long to write. Distractions are awful.

I hope that this short piece was enjoyable in some ways. It was definitely fun to write and to play around with third-person writing, which I still have difficulties with.

Well, that's it for now,
ayamari no Goshi signing off.