rate_review Reviews

Oh My God! This has have to be the best chapter to day. Totally awesome. I'm really surprised to see that your views mirror the ones I'd had of Gohan perfectly. I can't wait for the next chapter!

~Kenya

*is speechless*

Words cannot completely express the awe you inspired in me with your amazing talent in this story.

It's just so vivid!

I'll happily wait for more.

The times when he could hardly even recognize his own best friend, so intoxicated and overwhelmed with his artificial 'happiness'.

To me, we seek love as a high. So many books, stories, fairy tales, and even movies nowadays describe love as this high that takes a hold of your heart and turns you inside out and makes your stomach flutter with butterflies. What is love? Scientifically? It’s a chemical reaction in the brain that lasts for a maximum of six months before the endorphins are no longer produced in the brain. So my conclusion? Love doesn’t exist. ‘Love’ as we understand it is not what love actually is. So that brings me to the question that if our ‘love’ is an artificial high, what is real, true love? And where does it start and does it ever end?

Because it was easier to walk out of paradise then to be cast out.

Fucking beautiful, sweetheart. Fucking perfect. We can lie to ourselves, especially when we’re hurting. It’s easier on our hearts when we can say that we walked away from our happiness rather than admitting that it left us because of our own ridiculous mistakes. The hardest part about sinning is confession, and I despise anyone for making it look easier. For us to admit our sins is a humility that VERY few possess. Even fewer possess the emotion to feel remorse for their acts, and yet, we still throw away happiness just for the sake of pride. That thought leaves a foul taste in my mouth.

Perhaps, the horror of it was, that this... THIS...was the real Gohan.

This is my only flame on your story, my love. I see, in the story, that Trunks is fighting to remove each mask from his counterparts slowly, painfully, and brutally. I argue that we need these masks to survive, and nothing will convince me otherwise. I am the greatest liar. Even to you. To my husband. The only creature in the world to see my heart is my son. Because he can’t hurt me. Yet. Some people have an uncanny ability to see past the masks without ripping them off, and they are the people that get shunned the most. Why? Because they SCARE the hell out of people. Masks are to prevent pain. Maybe in denying our true selves, we cause the biggest pain of all, but I must conclude that I am a coward for wearing a mask. Solely not to be hurt.

But HIS identity was also upheld by the undefeatable reputation of his father. So when the great hero finally displayed some fucking mortality.... it crushed Gohan's entire world.

One of these days, I’ll tell you who my parents are and, you’ll understand why this kills me so bad. Fucking amazing, Todesengel. Fucking perfect.

Choking sounds made Mirai's stomach fluctuate with nausea, his eyes darting around to avoid having to see one of the greatest men he'd ever known choking the life from Trunks.

It occurred to me as I read the chapter that these two same people (or same person) look at the same man in two different ways. Mirai sees Gohan much like Gohan sees his father, and Trunks sees Gohan as a liar, and it disgusts him and pisses him off that Gohan wears such a thick mask. Maybe the both of them are just a little right. There is definitely a goodness in Gohan, but like the story says, human blood is full of greed and the lust for revenge. Our greatest weakness and our greatest strength.

"My hero," Gohan began to bawl with tearless eyes. "My fucking everything!!"
"Your lie." Trunks' voice said simply. "Your beautiful fucking lie."

Damn this is a long review. How could I not comment on this? How does that saying go? One man’s garbage is another man’s treasure. That’s right. How many things do we throw away that another man finds beautiful? Well, I’m going to flip that. How many things do we find beautiful that another man has broken and thrown away? I was broken and thrown aside, and yet, I’m still told I’m beautiful. It’s a fucking lie. No matter how beautiful I am on the inside, and no matter how people see me, I’m still not infallible.

Sometimes you have to destroy before you can create.

Wow. What a loaded statement. I see Trunks as the destroyer. He pulls everything down around him in ruins and stands over it, laughing, amused and happy with his destruction. Mirai? He is the creator. Where there is nothing. Where there is emptiness. He strives to build it back up, but the harshest part is that one could not exist without the other. Destruction and creation go hand in hand. I don’t know if I’ve demanded that you see FullMetal Alchemist yet, but in alchemy, the science, in order to create something, there are three steps. The first step is to assess the composition of the material. The second step is to break it down, and the third step is to reconstruct it. The Law of Equivalent Exchange says that everything must give to receive. Nothing extra can be taken away or added. Complete destruction. Complete creation. Complete power.

This was a wonderful chapter, hon. It really got me in some place. Maybe, I am Gohan. You asked me about my marriage, and you told me that you didn’t understand. When I explained it, seemed so painfully logical, but yet, it’s not. It blocks who I am inside, and it causes me to live a different lifestyle. My lie. My beautiful fucking lie.

BrucesGirl

This is going to be a short review, because I am already late for work as it is. *GRINS*

No wonder the Gohan Mirai met the other day was nothing but a shell of a man. Trunks really is breaking him in every fucking way.

And even if these things are the truth, what a sick fucking way to get it all out in the open. Somethings are just better left unsaid, unless of course, you enjoy the pain telling the truth will cause.

Excellent chapter, many MANY things to be thinking about on this one.

O.O This chapter was so... DISTURBING that I had to stop constantly and remember to breathe!! I LOVED it!! I swear, no other author I have ever come across has the talent that you do to say the absolute truth. I knew this chapter would be amazing, and it was. And you know, it's true what you said. People prefer someone who's honest, even if they are rotten inside, to someone who's nothing but a lie. God, that chapter was just so powerful!! Seriously, I cried, I laughed, I choked, I spent most of the time reading this remembering to close my mouth and swallow. I loved how brutal the fight was between Gohan and Trunks, and I thought it mirrored how brutally truthful Trunks was being with Gohan very well. OH, and the thing with ChiChi???!!! I scared the crap out of my mother because I yelled out, "WHAT???!!!!" very loudly. I would have never thought of that in a million years, and it was such a devastating blow to Gohan that I couldn't blame Mirai for what he yelled at Trunks. Funny though, I find myself unable to feel pity for Gohan. I thought I did earlier when Mirai visited him, but what happened, though it thoroughly broke Gohan, was necessary. After all, it only broke a shell, a mask, and now we can get to the real Gohan inside. Interesting how this makes such a different reaction in Trunks than the memory with Goku did. With the first memory, Trunks seemed to see himself as a monster, unjustified in his own past actions. In the memory with Gohan however, Trunks seems to feel that he is justified in what he has done up until now. The difference is staggering... especially when this memory is so much more grotesque. Uggghhh... I gagged when Gohan was shoving his fingers in Trunks's chest. I wonder why that wound hasn't healed?? There's probably a whole bunch more fascinating details that I could touch on, but I think I'll end it there. Oh, except I almost forgot about the part with Goten... The very fact that Trunks felt that way with Goten and gave it up is so unbelievably sad. I couldn't help but feel that Trunks should have that happiness with Goten. My heart was quite literally in pain while I was reading that passage. I know that you already know the ending to your own story, but whatever the outcome, I hope that Goten is a part of Trunks's life. I know I probably already said that, but it's true; Goten is what Trunks needs if he would only let himself be happy. Okay, I'm really done now. As always, this was a terrific chapter and I cannot wait to read more of your undeniably brilliant work!!

Perplexing predicament. As Mirai stands and ponders this particular persona...one has to wonder about the outcome... Gohan's facade was shattered uttlerly and totally... another broken toy... fascinating in its irony... the Saiyan Prince always claimed vengeance on his third class rival... how fitting it came at the hands of his petulant heir... thwarted again, by yet another 'Purple Hair.'

All broken... all shattered... victory comes in many forms... "Hail to the Prince!" Finally, in the basest sense of the word, he's come out on top....

So is Trunks a petulant child, or a devious bastard? Is he that dead inside? Or has he buried himself so far inside himself that the only thing left is a empty shell? Just how hollow is this husk of a prince that the only way back from the abyss is for him to review the most heinous of his atrocities? Power is a beautiful yet terrible beast. How pungent is that aroma? The sweet taste of sheer dominance? That wonderfully sweet ahprodisiac called lust that gives one the strength to withstand all that in the one critical moment...gives one the perpetual strength to overcome all... to be the one.

God or Devil? Can he be redeemed? Or is he already dead...and this is just a nightmare... his own personal hell that he relives over and over again... in the hopes that he can indeed save his own soul? Is this truly a voyage of the damned? Is he condemned to relive his misdeeds over and over again because of the sole destroction of the Supreme Kais favorite? Have the actions of this 'ONE' in an infinity of Trunks condemend them all to the pit of hell for all eternity?

And the destroyed souls he left in his wake: how can he ever atone for the desolation he's caused?

The one saving grace he had? Goten...

Gohan... and just how many hells has this poor soul been subjected to? the hell of a shrewish mother... the hell of an uncaring father who abandoned him every chance he got under the guise of heroics... and worse... a younger brother who turned to the other only male parent on the planet who understood him: Vegeta... until his father returned, he had the illusion of playing big brother, but that role was superceded by his[Goten's] best friend: Trunks...

Kidnapped three times as a child, rescued each time by his father [actually he saved himself..and forgot], forced to study at an early age by his mother, tossed in the wilderness with an insane green being who sword vengeance on his father [he did kill him after all], fought beings from other planets, went to another planet where he met some reallly evil beings...came back home and fought more... not because he wanted to, but because circumstances demanded it.
Saiyaman was a cry for help. He was completely ineffectual in stopping Buu.

....Trunks, who shattered all the mirrors. Trunks, who revealed the magnitude of his impotentence... Trunks, whose life and existence have more meaning than Gohan's ever did... Trunks in his own way... has purpose... Gohan--has nothing... just another empty husk ... a shell of a broken being...

...all are broken...

Incredible

Incredible

Incredible

Oooo... a new chapter!!! I was so happy when I got home from visiting my relatives to see that Chapter 19 was up!! I've had no sleep in about two days, but I couldn't think of sleeping until I read this chapter and as always, I'm so glad that I did. This chapter was awesome, I think that the memory device is a genius move. It's fascinating to see Trunks's reaction to seeing himself acting like an emotionless monster. After all, distancing yourself from a memory can't really work all that well, now can it?? You know, what with hindsight being 20/20 and all. I, like Mirai, found myself hypnotized more by his feeling nauseous than the way he was seducing Goku. The idea of Goku seeing his actions with Trunks as medicine and not getting emotionally involved really relieved me. For some reason, I cannot see Goku ever falling for Trunks, mostly because of his interactions with Vegeta. So, I think the way that you handled that went beautifully. Oh, and Gohan's next huh?? I can't wait for that one. I'm so very interested in seeing Trunks's reaction to what his past self did to Gohan, especially after his reaction to the memory with Goku. I realized something while reading this chapter that I never realized before. I've often told you how I love your descriptions and how as a person who learns things visually, I can picture everything in your stories clearly. Well, I just realized that one major reason why your stories are so easy to picture is because you focus on all five senses. The scene where Trunks and Mirai are looking at the mourners and you descibe the smell of the grass, the exquisite colors of the sky, the wind moving through Bulma's hair... Your descriptions are so clear because they encompass the entire surroundings, down to the smallest part, and I could not be more grateful to you for that. Every time I read something new of yours, I see something else about it that's brilliant and it fascinates me. Anyways, this is truly a great chapter and I, as always, eagerly look forward to more^-^!!