A Monkey's Ball
By Tito-Mosquito
Author's Notes: I don't own 'Journey to the West', Dragon Ball or DBZ. Akira Toriyama owns Dragon Ball and DBZ, though I don't know who owns 'Journey to the West' since the author Wu Cheng'en has been dead for over 400 years. This is my first fanfic ever, and hopefully not my last. I thought I try something that no one has ever thought of before.
China 630 A.D.
A group of four travelers journey across the rocky path between the mountains. They are on their way to the city of Turfan, which far beyond those mountains. One of the travelers was seated upon his white horse. Another was far behind. He was running, trying to catch up to them. "Can we please rest and have something to eat? My hooves are killing me!" he complained, breathing heavily.
"Oh quit your whining, Pigsy!" yelled a large bald man with a red beard. He is wearing a necklace made of skulls of nine monks from a previous pilgrimage and carries a yuéyáchan (1).
"Hey! I can't help being a fat pig!" whined the slow traveler who is literally a pig. He was a plump-sized human with the head of a pig. Not to mention he is out-of-shape. He's been dragging his jiuchi-dingpá (2) with one hand while he was trying to catch up.
"Well it's no wonder you're a pig. It we have a beautiful big-breasted woman here, you'll be faster than you look." The big man laughed.
"What?" Insulted by that remark, Pigsy jumped at the big man. "Why you…"
They fell to the ground and started fighting. Throwing punches and biting (in Pigsy's case) until they were frozen by the mental power of Xuán Zàng, who was known as the Tripitaka, the leader of this pilgrimage.
"That's enough, both of you!" shouted Xuán Zàng as he wrapped himself in his yellow-orange robes. "I will not have my disciples fight amongst themselves, especially in my presence!"
Pigsy shook his head and looks up at Xuán Zàng. "Sorry Master, but I'm hungry!"
"We're all hungry!" the three turn around to the source of that voice. There stands a handsome young man whose face is covered in fur, wearing a gold-banded headband. The back of his hands are also covered in fur. On his back is an indestructible staff called Nyoibo, the strongest weapon in the universe. His monkey tail swings left to right. "We've been traveling on this pile of rock for three days now. And we nearly ran out of rations and there's not a single grub to eat around here."
"We must keep going. I fledge to Emperor Tang that I would fetch those scriptures and nothing is going to stop me." Xuán Zàng said.
"What about these berries right here? Let's eat some of those" Pigsy said. There is a small bush with pinkish berries. He started picking some and eating them.
"Um… those berries are poisonous. They're indigestible too." the big man pointed out.
Upon hearing those words, Pigsy becomes noxious. He covers his mouth with his hands and ran past the group and pushed the monkey boy out of his way. The monkey boy backs up and finds himself on the edge of a cliff. He tries to find his balance but it was no use, he tumbles down the steep hill. He tries to grab a branch but it snapped off by the weight of his body. Finally he splashed down to a small river and landed on his butt. He could feel the throbbing pain on his behind. He rubbed his butt to ease the pain. He groaned furiously "That stupid pig!" He raised his Nyoibo high up and declared, "I'm going to shove this right down his throat until it comes out of his… huh?"
The young man noticed something in the river. It was glowing from the reflection of the sun. He got up to see what it is. He reached down with his free hand to pick it up. What he has on his hand was nothing like he'd ever seen before. It was a crystalline orange pearl about the size of his fist. It had four red stars on it.
"Hey, Wukong are you all right?" shouted the big guy.
Coming out of a trance he shook his head. He looked up and answered back, "I'm okay, Sandy! I'm coming up!" Wukong placed his Nyoibo on his back, and put the pearl in his little sack on his belt. He crouched down and leaped high up and somersaults back down to his friends.
"Hmm. Show off." Pigsy grumbled after he wiped his mouth clean of vomit.
"Are you all right, what happened down there?" Sandy wondered.
"Oh let's just say I saw stars." Wukong simply answered. "Four of them."
Pigsy and Sandy looked at each other in confusion and shrugged their shoulders while Xuán Zàng stared at him.
"Come on you guys, let's get going." The four continue their way to Turfan with Son Wukong leading the way as Xuán Zàng gazed at him with concern eyes.
This is only the beginning!
I hope you liked it. If you're not sure where I'm going with this fanfic, what I can tell you is this might become the first in a series of Dragon Ball fanfic. It will be a retcon/reboot/re-imagining of the Dragon Ball universe. I may expand on this story, or even write the entire 'Journey to the West' using DB/Z/GT themes, concepts, and motifs. Please review, I like to know what you think.
In case you're wondering:
(1) A yuéyáchan (also known as a monk's spade) is a Chinese double-headed staff with a crescent-moon blade at one end and a spade at the other with six xizhàng rings.
(2) The jiuchi-dingpá is a nine-tooth iron muck-rake, a weapon from Heaven (the mythological Chinese one, not the Judeo-Christian/Catholic one).