Monsters, and worse, existed in the world, unbeknownst to most. Beings, Gods even, simply unfathomable to everyday people living their ordinary lives, ignorant of the inconceivable presences hiding or living amongst them. Since the dawn of time, these great, incredible powers fought and struggled over the world itself: the Devils, the Fallen Angels, and the Legions of Heaven being the main big three…
Suddenly, out of the blue, it happened… the first incident was in Cinching City, where an extraordinary human child was born, radiating an incredible, bright light. After that, reports of people with superpowers occurred all over the globe. No one, the supernatural included, knew what was causing these 'quirks', but some had a suspicion that it was something else, perhaps something even older. Before long, the supernatural became the totally normal, dreams a reality, and the world had become a superhuman society.
Then, in an era completely unknown to all… on a certain mountain, thousands of miles from civilization, unbeknownst to humans or the supernatural alike, there lived a lone boy who communed with nature… a boy who'd unknowingly change everything…!
"HNNNNNN…" The boy drew out his focus, dropping his weight into a martial arts stance as if eyeing an opponent. His concentration remained steadfast as the muscles in his incredibly developed forearms flexed and tensed, right before he pounced!
"HYAH! Prepare to die!" He triumphantly hollered as he grabbed the sides of a thick, heavy tree trunk, nearly five times his size, then tossed the mass of hardened wood high, high into the air with a hefty HWNN! He smirked, leaping into the air with incredible form, "No escape!"
With a powerful, mighty kick, the little boy shattered the massive stump into several pieces. Dropping down, alongside the pieces of scattered timber, he fell back onto the ground, wearing a proud expression. "That takes care o' the wood-choppin'!" He chuckled, then diligently began to collect the spread-out pieces of lumber. Suddenly, his stomach echoed a loud growl. "Shucks. Only now I'm hungry…"
He dropped off a few planks of the wood and went inside his hut. The place was admittedly small, but never once did that cross his innocent mind. He had a bed, table, and cabinet storage, and that was more than enough. Inside, he picked up a long, orange pole that had been resting up against the doorway, and then he quietly approached an adjacent table, where a single violet cushion rested; in the pillow, sat a beautiful orange sphere, aligned with four yellow stars.
"Hey, Grandpa. I'm gonna get some grub." He spoke a quick prayer to the crystal ball, then left.
"What'd be good today…" He pondered aloud, as he left the premises of his property and traveled along the pathway leading to a deep, dark forest below…
A few yards out, over a tall mountainside, a bright red sigil appeared over the ground, and a young girl manifested out of thin air. The young devil was beautiful, considering her young age, and determined. Watching the small owner run off, she hopped off the ledged and sprouted a pair of unique wings, before descending below, towards the strange hut in the middle of nowhere.
"Just had bear the other day… wish I'd bump into a tiger…" The boy spoke aloud as he aimlessly wandered the dense forest. Eventually, he took a detour, and suddenly found himself looking over the top of a deep ravine. Far below, over the rocks, streamed a long lake. He smiled, and took a moment to appreciate the warm sunlight, creasing over the tall tree-lines, just behind. "I forgot about fish!" Stepping forward, he dropped off the steep cliffside, and plummeted downwards, towards the flowing water below. He laughed, childishly, as he fell, "Whee!"
With incredible reflex, he grasped onto a nearby tree branch and pivoting his small body forward into a mid-air roll, then landed perfectly on a nearby rock. He took a peak at the water behind, then striped off his clothes until he was completely naked. That's when his long, brown tail revealed itself from behind, and dipped into the water. Patiently, we waited and then quickly sprung his tail out the water, just as a massive fish burst from the lake with a great CRASH, spraying water everywhere.
"HEY-YAA!" Seeing his chance, the boy leapt into the air, and kicked the animal in the head. GONK! The massive fish practically gasped as it faded into unconsciousness, and dropped back into the lake, just as the little monkey boy followed after. "HEH! HEH!" The boy chuckled, innocently, as he grasped the limp fish by its tail and pulled it back out.
"Wotta catch, wotta catch!" He smiled gleefully, as he changed back into his clothes and began his trip back home.
Along the pathway which he traveled every day, the boy hummed along as he dragged the massive fish from behind, one that dwarfed his small stature. As he drew closer to his hut, the boy suddenly stopped. "Huh? Wazzat…?" Before he left to go fishing, he was sure that he'd closed his house doors. Now, the entrance to his abode was completely open, and something was inside, loudly rifling through his possessions.
"One? There's only one here?" A young, frustrated voice sounded from inside his hut.
Quietly, the boy dropped his massive catch off to the side of the house and peaked inside through the open doorway, engraved with red letters that spelled out the name Son Gohan. Noticing his presence, inside, the intruder turned around to face him. It was small, but taller than him, with crimson hair, red as blood; in its hands, his golden four-star ball, his grandfather.
The boy, unbelievably peeved with the creature's audacity to invade and steal from his property, burst in a sudden rage. "Another monster, eh?! Tryin' to steal grandpa from me, eh?!" He rushed towards the stranger, both his fists raised threateningly.
"What in the…?!" The creature panicked and suddenly took off, flying over him with a pair of dark wings. The boy, awed at it's capability of flight, watched the creature escape through his front door, landing outside on his property. Quickly, it turned around to face him.
"You, monster! Now c'mon and fight! C'mon! Fight! C'mon!" The boy loudly challenged as he leapt outside, revealing a long orange pole that he'd been carrying on his back.
"Would you shut up?!" The thief hollered back at him with high pitched scream, suddenly throwing some sort of fireball directly his way. A flash of dark red, unlike anything he'd ever seen before, struck him in the head, knocking him hard to the ground with a loud SNAP.
"OWWEEE! OW! OW!" The boy groaned from the lingering pain, "Whuh was that?! What're you, a witch?!" He looked up at the stupefied creature and rubbed his sore forehead.
"W-what are you…?! H-how are you still standing?" The creature quivered, afraid. She was young, but she still had the power of destruction, passed down through her lineage. Yet, somehow, this little boy had survived a direct strike from her blast.
"HA! Dummy! Stupid! Y'think you can hurt me?! With a little ouchie like that?! HAH!" He raised his pole, again, and ran right towards her again. "Now monster… prepare to die!"
"Time out, wait!" Suddenly, the girl threw both her hands into the air as a sign of surrenderance. With added emphasis, she shook her head from side-to-side. "And I'm not a monster!"
The boy slid to a dead stop, with an utterly confused look. "Are you human…?"
She frowned, then slowly dropped her arms. "Well… isn't it obvious? Have a good look! See?"
She was young, perhaps even close to his age. The girl wore a pretty violet dress over a small white shirt and boyish brown shorts. Her skin was a beautiful, mystic-like, snowy porcelain, the likes of which he'd never seen before. "Well?" She pouted. Her eyes were bluer than the nearby lakes, hidden between the mountains. Long, crimson hair ran down her small shoulders, and smaller twirls hung up to the sides like miniature crescent moons; above sat a cute, twirly crest.
Slowly, the boy circled her—cautiously—his orange staff held tight in guarded hands. Quietly, he studied her every nook and cranny, curious yet still quite unsure about what she really was.
"Wait. Are you human?!" She complained, getting tired from his meticulous inspection.
"Of course I am!" He proudly replied, then stepped back, still confused. "You don't seem like me, you're soft and weak lookin'…" He frowned scratched his head.
"Well, I'm not really human…" She nodded. "But I'm not a monster, either. I'm a girl!"
"A girl?" He suddenly brightened. "You're a girl?"
"Well of course!" She exhaled, annoyed. "What? You've never seen a girl before?"
"Nope. You're the first person I've seen besides me and Grandpa." He nodded. "Grandpa told me that if I ever met a girl, I should be nice to her." Then, he revealed the golden Four-Star Ball with his right hand, and showed the girl. "So why'd you want Grandpa?"
"Huh?!" She exclaimed. "When did you take that back?!"
"When you flew over me." Suddenly, a brown tail appeared behind him. "I took it back with my tail. See?" He grinned and turned his backside to display the strange anomaly.
"Your tail…" The girl swallowed, admittedly nervous. The boy was short, smaller than her, but noticeably built for someone his age. His hair was quite sizable, and jet out to the sides like several long, black blades. He wore a blue Gi, tied with a white cotton belt, and held a tied cylinder to his back for the orange pole. But, his most noticeable feature, was certainly the tail.
Is that what the humans call a quirk? She wondered, silently. No, wait. Focus. "So, do you live together with your grandpa, then?" She asked, hoping to change the subject.
He shook his head. "He died a long time ago." Suddenly, he walked back over to the girl, quietly watched her, then, without warning, pulled up her dress to look directly at her shorts.
"What're you doing, you human pervert?!" She shrieked and forcefully pulled down her dress.
"Girl's don't even have tails… and they can use magic? Weird… how strange!"
"Well… I don't know much about human girls, if I'm completely honest." The girl slowly replied, baffled with this human boy she had just met. "But… for a human, you're really strong for somebody so tiny."
He smiled and giggled. "Grandpa trained me!" Suddenly, he grabbed her hand.
"Wait a second…!" A flush of red took over her expression. The girl looked up, surprised by his actions. The little boy beamed with a bright smile.
"Come to my house! I'll make you some grub cause you're a girl!" Gently, he pulled her along back to his house, a happy expression still plastered over his face. "Follow me!"
He's so trusting… and he has a dragon ball, just like it said in brother's book… maybe his power will come in handy, even if he is really weird… Silently, the girl pondered as they went inside the hut, again. "Hey, no funny business, okay?" She spoke up.
The boy turned around, genuinely confused with her request. "What's funny business?"
"No way!" She gasped, then turned red again. He really is a weirdo… Quietly, the young girl watched the strange boy, intently, as he rummaged around his cupboards. For some peculiar reason, she just couldn't stop looking at his tail. A monkey boy…
"Hey, mind telling me your name?" She decided to ask.
"Goku! Son Goku!"
"Oh? Goku…" She thought it over, smiling. "You know, I like that name. I'll let you keep it."
"Okay." He looked back at her and smiled again. "What about you?"
"Eh? Me?" His naive brightness had caught her off guard.
"Yeah!" He nodded, then returned his attention to the padded, worn draws.
"I'm Rias…" She quietly spoke.
"Rias? What kind of name is that?" He chuckled.
"Ugh! It's a marvelous name, thank you very much… hey, your Dragon Ball!" Rias suddenly shouted and pointed towards his hand.
"Huh?" Goku glanced down at the golden Four-Star Ball in his hand. Within a set pattern, the crystal ball pulsated, over-and-over, with a bright glow. "G-Grandpa's talking!" He stuttered.
"That's not your grandfather, idiot!" Rias suddenly grabbed the ball out of Goku's hands and stared, in wonder, at the glowing item in her current possession.
"Hey!" Goku snatched the spherical crystal back. "Stop touching grandpa!"
"W-Why do you keep calling it 'Grandpa'?" Rias stuttered out of annoyance.
"Yeah!" Goku nodded. "It's the only memento of his that he left me! A-And girls aren't allowed to touch it!" He looked back down at the item he gently cradled. "Look! He's glowing! It's like he's talking excitedly! This is the first time I've ever seen him do that!"
Rias, paused for a moment, then smiled. "You know, I'll let you in on a little secret." The young girl put out her hands, and two red sigils appeared over her porcelain palms. Suddenly, two more crystal balls, nearly identical to Goku's, appeared in her hands. "See?"
"It's Grandpa! You have two grandpas!?" He exclaimed, shocked.
She smiled, charmed. "These aren't grandpas, silly, they're Dragon Balls!"
"Dragon Balls…?" The young boy, awestruck, couldn't take his eyes off the glowing four stars.
"Yeah! Your Dragon Ball is reacting to these two here." She motioned him over. "Come over here. Try putting yours next to them."
"Okay…" Gently, he sat his Grandfather's Dragon Ball next to hers. Immediately, all three balls glowed a bright yellow, as if they were alive and sentient.
"See?" She looked up and smiled. "I found this ball," she picked up one, "in my brother's storeroom collection. I wondered what it was, so I did some research in my library and found out that they're actually something truly amazing!"
"What's so amazing about them? And what's a library?"
Rias smiled and sat up on Goku's bed. "Want me to tell you?"
Goku nodded, obediently. "Yeah."
"Well… long ago, apparently near the end of the Great War, God, himself, was said to have created seven Dragon Balls, mystical orbs capable of incredible feats, beyond mere mortal imagination. When all seven Dragon Balls are brought together, Shenron—the lord of dragons—appears. If you chant the words then, he will grant you any single wish you want."
Goku looked down at his Dragon Ball. "Wow! Any wish will come true if you collect all seven Dragon Balls?"
"Yep. Except it's been thousands of years since Shenron was last summoned, so it looks like all the Dragon Balls were separated again since then."
"So you're trying to collect them all?"
"Yep." Rias looked at the ball in her hand. "See, I've got the One and Five-Star Balls."
Goku smiled. "Grandpa's has four stars!"
"Which makes it the Four-Star Ball." Rias stood off the bed and approached Goku, flashing him a cute grin. "So, can I have it?"
Goku's brow furrowed, and he hid the ball behind him. "No way! Grandpa gave this to me!"
"What!?" She groaned. "Come on, you're not going to use it anyway, Goku!"
He sticked his tongue out at her. "Bleh!"
Rias waited, then smiled at him, with an added hint of mischievousness. "Okay… then why don't you help me find the Dragon Balls? Your grandpa did tell you to be nice to girls, right?"
"Find the Dragon Balls?"
"You've got nothing to do here, after all. And it's your duty as a man to go to various places, train yourself, and follow me." She replied, coolly. "I could use you, Son Goku."
The young boy grinned. "Do you think I can get strong like Grandpa if I train?"
Rias laughed. "Of course! All you've ever seen are these mountains, right? You haven't even seen the ocean, have you? There's human cities, even other worlds, where tons of people live, and you'll get to see the most amazing things."
"Sounds like fun! I think I'll go!"
"Great," she snapped her fingers, "it's decided, then!"
"But," Goku pointed to his Four-Star Ball, "you're not getting my ball! I'll hold onto it!"
"That's fine! I'll just need to borrow it after we find the other ones… now, c'mon. Let's go, follow me!" Rias walked around Goku, and left through the front door.
"But how do you find the other balls if you don't know where they are?" Asked Goku, as he followed her outside his hut.
"This." Another sigil appeared over her hand, and an aged paper map appeared in her fingers. "It's my brother's, a map that details where all the Dragons Balls have been scattered." She laughed. "It took him literally forever to create it."
She pointed towards the nearby mountains. "That way, approximately 2500 kilometers to the west! That's where the next Dragon Ball is."
Goku frowned. "I don't get it, but we'll need a way to get over there, right?"
"Well, I don't believe you can teleport, so what would you suggest we do?"
The boy froze, too confused, then ran back into the house. Suddenly, he returned with a tiny item in his hand, a capsule with the number nine on it. "Grandpa found this in the water once!"
He clicked the top of the capsule and tossed it away, to the side. Following a blast of smoke, appeared a clean, white motorcycle. "Okay, let's go!"
"A capsule? Your Grandfather had this?"
"Yeah! It's super fast! Let's hope on!"
Rias looked at the stylish bike, then back at Goku, and charmingly smiled. "Son Goku. I am Rias Gremory, a devil."
"A devil?" Goku tilted his head.
"Yup!" She triumphantly proclaimed. "And you'll be the first member of my peerage!"
The young boy blinked, then shrugged. "Ah, whatever. C'mon, let's go!" Goku's tail wrapped around the girl's hand, gently, and helped pulled her up onto the bike. "Hold on tight!"
Suddenly, Goku hit the gas, and the two drove off. Rias, having never ridden on a vehicle before, wrapped her arms around the boy's stomach and looked over his shoulder. Her great, crimson hair fluttered in the high wind, unlike Goku's spiky mess. Slowly, she continued to lean into him. Unsurprisingly, he smelled like the forest, but she didn't mind.
I won't turn him into a devil… yet.
"Yay! This is gonna be fun!" The young boy cheerfully laughed, as they continued driving throughout the dense forest, towards the great unknown that lied ahead.
Goku and Rias's journey has just begun. What awaits them on their eventual adventures? Find out next time on "Gotta Heed The Call of Magic Dragon Balls!"