Disclaimer: Dragonball Z and Characters do not belong to me but their respective owners. This is me trying to refine my writing style and nothing more, no profit is being made and all that.
AN: This will diverge from cannon.
Chapter One
A year. A small amount of time when one consider the threat that they were about to face. Krillin took a long breath, trying to calm his rapidly beating heart. It was still a year coming and yet he was just so scared.
Goku's brother Raditz had taken care of two of the most powerful people on the planet. Killed one of them to boot. Then they learnt that the two saiyans they were about to fight were at least ten times stronger.
Another shaky breath in.
The man, on the short side, sat in the middle of the room in Master Roshi's place, face set in a frown and hand at his chin.
He knew he had to train. But at the end of it all, it just seemed futile. He would train, and maybe after the year had passed he would be as strong as Goku—with luck maybe a little more powerful—but then there was still the hurdle of having to grow ten times that amount.
It was impossible. Except if there was a way to gain quick power in that short an amount of time.
Your goal, he thought to himself, is to get as powerful as you can in the shortest amount of time. How can you do that?
Training was one thing he definitely had to do. It was the only way to get stronger without the use of magic, even then it wasn't as though he knew any good witches who could gift him with a quick power boost. There was the dragon, but they had to save that for….did they though? The saiyans would land in roughly a year, time enough that he could make a wish and the dragon balls would be re-useable.
He shook his head. It wouldn't work. They didn't know the exact schedule of the saiyans, then there was the time it took to gather all the dragon balls. A month in the least. Time enough that the saiyans would destroy the planet before Goku got back from Other World.
Scrap that then, he thought.
No wishing for strength. He had to train. But he needed to get the most out of his training.
Krillin momentarily thought of joining Piccolo and Gohan in their training. Training with the green demon would allow him the most growth. But then Piccolo was volatile. That he was training Gohan was a miracle unto itself, the monk had no idea what might happened if he tried to join the fray.
Who else? Yamcha? Krillin shook his head. The man had been slacking off for some years, he was sure he was stronger than him. Yamcha would grow in strength, but in his case it would be minimal. Tien? Yeah, that would do, but it still posed the same problem. Tien was significantly weaker than Goku. They would first have to surpass the spikey haired man's power first before they were able to aim for the two saiyans.
A knock from the door interrupted Krillin's thoughts.
"Come in," he said absently not moving from his position.
The door opened and Bulma stepped in. One of the few people who knew how hard the situation was, but then again Krillin harboured the thought that perhaps even Bulma couldn't understand the situation. She couldn't sense energy, which meant she hadn't been able to sense Raditz and the milestone it would be to achieve his power.
Stop thinking in this loop, Krillin internally told himself. The only thing that can help you now will be action. The hard part though, was figuring out what to do.
"Krillin?" said Bulma, her voice was soft which was unusual for her. Maybe he wasn't giving her much credit.
"Yeah. Sorry. I was just thinking," he said.
She gave a small nod and walked into the room. She sat in front of him. "It's going to work out," she said, though Krillin could tell she didn't fully believe this. "When Goku comes back he'll be stronger. The earth won't be destroyed."
Krillin swallowed. "I have faith in Goku," he said. "But this seems a little insurmountable. If it was only one then I would have a little more hope that we could win, but…Two guys. Ten times stronger than Goku's brother."
Bulma sighed but then perked a little. "I know it seems pretty hopeless now," she said. "But not with the training you'll be getting."
Krillin's brow rose.
"Yajirobe just arrived," she said with something of a smile. "He said he had a message from Kami."
"Kami, the Guardian of the Earth, Kami?" he asked and Bulma smiled further, giving Krillin a nod.
He hadn't even considered him, all things said. Kami was an extremely powerful being, not because of the power he held, but what he could create. The dragon balls were not a trifle creation, able to grant any wish to the gatherer of the balls had, this, in Krillin's opinion made the man one of the most powerful being in the universe. Not to mention that the man was arguably older than Master Roshi, the amount of knowledge he would have accumulated would be immense.
The reason he hadn't considered Kami thought, was because the man didn't just train anyone. Goku had been the only person the Guardian had trained and tale from Goku said gaining the right to be trained and been arduous and time consuming.
Time was something they didn't have, which meant he couldn't go through arduous trials before he was trained. This way it was wonderful though, he would get trained by the Guardian and he would get stronger.
Would he be strong enough though? he wondered.
Krillin stood, a spark of hope filling him with a warmth that brightened the day a little.
"Maybe he's willing to train us," he said voicing his thoughts out loud.
"Yep," said Bulma. "At least that what I gathered. Yajirobe said after this trip he has to find Yamcha, Tien and Chiaotzu."
Krillin grinned further as the thought that they might win this got stronger. He got up and waited for Bulma to do the same. They went and scaled down the stairs into the living room, Master Roshi and Yajirobe sat in front of a small table partaking in small talk. They turned as he and Bulma stepped in.
"Finally got him to stop thinking, then?" Master Roshi asked, the question directed at Bulma.
"I think it's meeting Kami," said Bulma as she strode past Krillin and took a seat beside Master Roshi. "It got him all excited."
"I thought it might," said the bald man with a long white moustache.
"Yeah. Yeah. Training," Yajirobe chimed in. "Exciting. Get we can this going. I was promised I nice meal when all this was over."
"Okay," said Krillin and he took a seat in front of them.
"Simply put," he said. "Kami wants to train you to fight the saiyan threat. He wants the other who were at the tournament too…what were their names? Chazu—"
"Chiaotzu," Krillin corrected.
"Yeah. Him. And the others," he finished.
"If you don't know their names, how can you expect to find them all?" asked Bulma a frowned directed at Yajirobe. The frown soon into a scowl however as the man shrugged, looking blasé.
"Wasn't planning to," he said. A vein formed in Bulma's temple and Krillin knew what was coming. "Knew he'd want to fight, save the earth and all that." Krillin thought he could see Bulma turning a shade of red. "Particularly I don't care," the man went on. "I know it's coming in a year, and until then I just eat my fill and wait for the inevitable."
Krillin noted Master Roshi start shuffling back a little, looking between Bulma and Yajirobe with a look that was reflected on Krillin's face. The bald man stood, "Well," he said, not that Yajirobe noticed, his eyes were closed and he was going into detail about the sort of splendour he would engulf himself in. "I think I'll find the others," he said taking quiet steps back and towards the door.
He opened it and quickly took to the air, he was still in earshot however as he heard Bulma blow, loud shouts from Bulma and screams from Yajirobe. It wasn't moments before the plump man was chase out of the house and into his aircraft by an irate Bulma. Krillin let out a breath of relief that, for a change, that anger wasn't directed at him.
A look around to gain position and Krillin focused his Ki and pushed through the sky with immense speed. It would have been faster and less tiring to take an aircraft, but he needed to train and increasing his Ki reserves was a part of that. Krillin pushed himself faster, sailing above the blue water that seemed almost endless.
Maybe they would win this with Kami and Goku's help when he returned. But he wouldn't bet on them. He would need to push himself further than during his training with Master Roshi. The time for tricks and looking for the easy way out had to stop.
An hour passed, Krillin's thoughts stuck in a loop of what he could do and whether or not it would work. All things admitted it was more tiring than flying.
Land became visible in the distance, white high-rise buildings and the bustling of hovercrafts and the many people who called the city home. Yamcha would be among them. Krillin was where the man lived though. He stopped over the city and spotted a phone before descending.
He dialled.
"Talk to me," said a squeaky voice from the other side.
Krillin paused out of surprise before he gathered himself. "Puar, it's me. Krillin."
"Krillin, baby, what can I do for you?" the cat asked.
"Uhm…Yamcha. Can I speak to him?"
"He's sort of busy right now," the cat said. "In the middle of a match and all. I can give him a message though."
"No," said Krillin. "This is sort of urgent. World ending, urgent," he added.
"Oh," she said. "Well then. I'll try and get his attention. How fast can you get to the stadium in South City?"
"Five minutes," said Krillin.
"See you here the," said Puar.
Krillin put down the phone and soared into the sky, an aura of white engulfing him. He moved faster than before, headed in the direction of the large stadium near the centre of the city. Everything stopped as eyes were set on him, camera moving to them man that flew and landed in the middle of the baseball field.
"Yo, Krillin," said Yamcha with a baseball bat in hand. He looked ready to bat, a tall woman dressed in a suit next to him. "Puar tells me you said something about the end of the world."
"Yeah," said Krillin and he frowned, looking down a little. "Goku's dead," he said.
"Wow," the man said. "Oh. What happened?"
"Well, long story short. His brother arrived from out of space. Kidnapped Goku. Goku and Piccolo fought him and Goku was killed."
Yamcha looked stuck with his mouth agape.
"But that's not why I'm here. Two more of Goku's race are coming here and, after using the dragon balls. They'll destroy the earth."
Yamcha let out a long breath and ran a hand through his hair. "So I'm guessing you want me to train with you?" he asked.
"Kami wants to train us," said Krillin.
"You know," said Yamcha. "All these bombs you're dropping. Someone could get killed." Yamcha sighed again. "When is the green guy expecting us?"
"Going to head over there after I find Tien and Chiaotzu," Krillin answered.
"Well, I'll meet you there then," said Yamcha. "Go bust out my gear again. Haven't worn that thing in a long time."
"Yeah. Well. I'll see you there then." Krillin started to slowly take off.
"You know where Tien is?" Yamcha asked.
Krillin shrugged. "Mountains most likely," he said. "I'll sense him when I get close. Guy's probably training."
Krillin took off and regretted it as the cold of the mountains started to nip at his arms. He couldn't help wondering how those two were able to put up with this cold. But then it might have helped with their training.
As he'd predicted they were training. He could feel the two, their powers were like humanoid shapes in his mind, Tien shining brighter than Chiaotzu and his power extending further than his partner. He could feel that they felt him because they were coming closer. In a matter of moments the two became visible against the stark white of the snow-capped mountains.
"Krillin," said Tien with a small that Chiaotzu shared. "Long time no see."
"Good to see you buddy," said Krillin. "But time is not something we exactly have. Follow me while we talk," said Krillin before pushing towards the Lookout.
He noticed that with how long and the distance he'd been flying, he was finding it much harder to fly and talk at the same time. He would need to work on that. Any weakness that could weeded away so worth weeding away.