3rd part
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In the palace of God Piccolo sat down in the bathtub filled with warm water and carefully lowered his arms. Goten looked with curiosity at the foamy green below. His toes didn't twitch the first time they touched the water, as Piccolo was relieved to see. Apparently he had let it in neither too cold nor too hot. As soon as they both sat in it, Piccolo only went up to his stomach, Goten up to his shoulders, Goten began to slap his palms on the water so that it splashed in all directions. He didn't stop there when Piccolo carefully washed him off with a sponge, almost forgetting to rinse the remains of spinach off his own body. Finally they were both clean and Piccolo climbed out of the tub with Goten. But when he took a step with his wet feet towards the preheated bath towel, he slipped on the tiles and ... bang, his head hit the edge of the bathtub. Suddenly it got dark.<br />
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“Piccolo!” A worried voice, the soothing feeling of warmth that streamed through his body from his chest, awakened Piccolo's spirits. He opened his eyes and saw Dende pulling his hands back from his chest with a relieved smile. "Did ... did you heal me? What happened? I fell ... right?"
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"Yes, actually quite stupid. Your skull is very hard, but the tubing is even harder. Luckily Goten started screaming so loud in shock that Popo and I could hear him. An open skull fracture is not something you can deal with should be joking. "
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"Truly not," Piccolo muttered, feeling the back of his head. He felt no pain, but the purple puddle on the floor in front of the tub showed how serious the situation had been. "Is Goten okay?"
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"You don't have to worry about him. Popo put him to bed. We found a pacifier on his things and Popo smeared it with honey.You can't imagine how quickly he was quiet and just sucked. "
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"Thanks for your help," said Piccolo, getting up.
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Dende handed a fresh bath towel. "What about, can you transform your clothes too neatly, or should I look for new ones? In the palace there are whole chests full of robes from our predecessors."
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"Let me just do it," said Piccolo and used his strength to turn the dirty, torn things back into squeaky clean, whole ones. "What about your homework?"
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"I'm almost done. Do you want to see them afterwards?"
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"It can't do any harm. The Chief Elder is relying on me to give you a little help."
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Popo passed the bathroom and peeked through the door just as Piccolo put on his cloak. "Baby sleep now. Very tired of excitement."
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"That's good news," said Dende happily. "Then I can go to work in peace."<br />
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"And I sat down in front of the kid's room and meditated a little."
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"Go bum and clean the kitchen and dining room," sighed the servant.
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Said and done. For the next three hours it was as peaceful in the palace as one was used to.
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In the letter house, Bulma and Chichi were doing the washing up of the rest of the dishes.
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"You are fine," sighed Chichi and sparingly added the detergent to the basin. "Your nights are definitely not as cold and lonely as mine ..."
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“Cold and lonely?” Bulma couldn't turn away quickly enough to hide the tell-tale blush that rose on her cheeks.
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"That's exactly what I mean," said Chichi with an envious look and dipped the rag into the hot, foaming water. "Oh, my Goku ..."
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"Did you ...", Bulma hesitated to bring up the subject, but she had been bothered for a while, "say, Chichi, have you ever thought of getting married again?"<br />
Chichi almost dropped the plate on the floor. "What?"
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"Would that be so unusual? After all, widows and widowers all around are getting married again after a reasonable period of mourning and nobody finds anything there. One day Gohan and Goten will grow up and start their own family. You will be lonely old and gray."
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Chichi let the plate slide into the water. "You're not the first to tell me," she replied thoughtfully. I have no shortage of benevolent neighbors, an old lady who is a well-known matchmaker in our area even pushed me a few folders with photos and résumés of candidates. "She wiped the plate clean, dipped it briefly into the second basin filled with hot water and then handed it to Bulma, who was already lying in wait with the tea towel.
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"And? Wasn't there anyone under that you would have liked?"
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Chichi reached for the second plate."Yes, but every time I imagined that the whole family would have a picnic, Goku would always appear by my side, everyone else I tried to put in his place faded away pretty quickly."
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"You still love him," said Bulma with a sad smile and took the next plate.
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"It's not just that ..." Chichi fell silent and they finished the rest of the dishes in silence.
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When everything was clean in the cupboards, they treated themselves to a snack from the nearest sushi restaurant and tea.
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"To get back to your question," Chichi said after a while. “I don't really feel widowed at all.” She stared at her blurry reflection in the tea and brushed a loose strand from her forehead.
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"What do you mean?" Asked Bulma.
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"Well, the people you mention and who get married again, they can hardly talk to their loved one in the afterlife, right?Their loved ones are soul flames and will never come back. They had a funeral, mourned, lit incense sticks on the house altar and received their condolences from friends and relatives. They watched the coffin sink into the ground, watched the flowers of the wreaths wither and finally replaced them with other flowers. On the day their loved one dies, they go to their grave, water the gravestone, put fresh flowers down and tell their loved ones what has happened in the past year. "
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"Yes, if you look at it that way," Bulma took a small sip and grabbed a piece of sushi with her chopsticks. “If you look at it that way, then you had no real opportunity to draw a line.” She dipped the roll in the soy sauce and bit off a piece that she chewed lost in thought. "From that point of view, you are really not a normal widow. If one day Goku changes his mind and allows us to use the Namekian Dragon Balls, he can come back into the world with you and the children at any time.Do you still hope? "
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"Not consciously, not willingly. Of course, I know he won't change his mind. I recently met Uranai Baba and annoyed her until she told me that Goku is fine and that he has loads of training partners down there It looks like he doesn't miss me a bit. "A drop stole from the corner of his eye and ran down lonely Chichi's cheek.
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“Don't!” Bulma put her hand on the trembling Chichis. "He probably thinks of you a lot. Vegeta enjoys his training too and seems to only live to fight. We both know better than to cry about it, don't we?"
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“Thank you, Bulma.” Chichi wiped away the tears with the back of her hand. "We should start thinking about getting some sleep before the whole circus starts all over again tomorrow." She looked up through the window, towards the sky. "I miss Goten, my little darling. He never lets me brood for long ..."<br />
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In God's palace the peace came to an end when Goten awoke and tried to climb out of the crib Piccolo had made for him. In doing so he came across the numerous bells attached to the grille, which immediately began to ring.
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Piccolo and Dende, the two of them were sitting in the hall in front of the nursery, discussing Dende's homework, and they listened up.
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While Dende quickly packed up his notebooks, Piccolo opened the door wide. Just in time to see how Goten overcame the low lattice and fell on one of the pillows that Popo had piled around the cot with foresight.
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Piccolo lifted Goten from the pillow. "Ihhh ...!" The diapers were probably full again. This time Piccolo didn't have to improvise because he had long since prepared everything for this case. Disposal was again carried out by targeted cremation of the full diaper. Neatly wrapped, Goten felt comfortable and enterprising.<br />
"We should get some fresh air with him," suggested Dende. "There are those lattice things where the babies can crawl around freely."
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"Ah I know what you mean," Piccolo nodded. "It's called a playpen, I think. That would be ideal, then I can continue meditating in peace and you can correct your mistakes before you send the solution to New Namek."
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Said and done. They took Goten outside in front of the palace and Piccolo transferred a couple of large plastic boxes and a couple of metal rods to a playpen with metal bars all around and a padded mat. There they put Goten in, who happily crawled his new surroundings from one corner to the other.
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“Here, I found this!” Popo came running out of the palace with another box. He set her down in front of Piccolo with a beaming face. They were all kinds of strange things, bent, twisted, made of wood, plastic, fabric and metal. "This can be used to make toys for Goths," Popo said eagerly."Otherwise he'll get bored and scream."
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"Good idea," said Piccolo. “Otherwise I can't really sink myself in.” And so a plush Namekian, wooden blocks, a tin car and a large, soft ball were created. Goten was placed in a corner of the playpen and Dende put the toys in front of him. Goten immediately grabbed the plush Namek and chewed on the green feeler, which Piccolo commented with a grimace.
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Since Goten was busy, Piccolo sat a few meters away on the grass and put himself into a trance to