The Tail Of Bulma
A Dragon Ball Z Fanfiction

[Disclaimer]

I don't own this, that, or the other thing. I also didn't make any profit from this story, so please don't sue me. All characters, events and places are fictional, any relation or semblance to anything in reality is purely coincidence.

If you're confused about the perspective shifts then pleas keep in mind that when the story is in third person it's relating to present events, first person perspective is relating past events. And if the first person is a bit odd then please bare in mind that I'm a male writing a female's perspective. As for the contents of this story arc it is based on events from both the Namek Saga and the original Dragon Ball, but from an alternate universe as Bulma is a saiyan in this story.

I hope you enjoy the story and review and, as always, please leave any feedback or constructive criticism. That is all.

[Goku's Stupid Wish]

Namek was everything that Bulma Briefs imagined an alien planet would be. Strange alien sky, strange alien waters, and strange alien plants that wanted to eat you. Throw in the incredibly strong ale that one of the locals introduced her to, and the brawls with the enemy soldiers, and she was having a real blast.

If we weren't here racing against an alien war lord for the namekian dragon balls for the fate of the galaxy, and perhaps the fate of the universe as well, this would be my ideal vacation...

On second thought, Bulma thought to herself, I usually find myself fighting for the fate of the world while on vacation anyhow.

So maybe this really would be her ideal vacation after all.

Right now, though, she was perhaps just a teensy bit bored. She had been left behind, ostensibly to look after her group's campsite. But, considering that the campsite was just an over-sized cave where they had deployed her favorite capsule house she used whenever she went dragon ball hunting, she knew better. Being a saiyan, although not by birth, she was obviously stronger than any of the other regulars in her dragon ball hunting party with perhaps the exception of Son Goku or Gohan. It was perhaps because of that strength that she was being kept in reserve, and also to keep an eye on the injured Vegeta.

They had found him a few hours earlier, near death with some grievous wounds that made her, Gohan, and Krillin wonder just how he had managed to survive before they had found him laying in a crater. Personally she thought it was pure spite keeping the man going, she was at a lost to explain it any other way. He didn't have any friends or family, what remained of his people were scattered across the cosmos, and his only home, if you could even call it that, had been destroyed long ago. If it weren't for his underlings, Nappa and Raditz, he would have been entirely left alone in the universe.

Rather than fear, she felt a great deal of pity for the man who would have been king had events played out differently for his people. Although he probably would not welcome the pity because of his false sense of pride.

She was taking stock of their medical supplies which consisted of salves and potions she had developed, deriving them from master Korin's senzu beans. Bulma had stocked enough for an entire battalion, knowing how badly they could all get injured on a typical dragon ball hunt. And that was just fighting tin pot dictators, men in mobile suits, and the odd beastman, not galactic tyrants bent on universal domination. Hopefully this was all they would need on the trip and they wouldn't need something more drastic like the dragon balls, because she had always hated to rely on them to solve their problems.

Suddenly she became aware that she was being watched, causing the fur on her tail to stand up. "I know you're awake, Vegeta." Bulma said, not looking up from her work. "You probably shouldn't get up right this second. My salves and potions are pretty effective, but do please give them enough time to do their work." She continued, knowing that he was trying to get up.

Indeed, he was having difficulty even sitting. So he decided that he would bide his time and gather his strength. But first he had to put the woman in her place. "You best curb your tounge, woman. I am..."

"'I am the prince of all saiyans!' I know but like I said the first time we met, I am not a real saiyan. And you're not the boss of me." Bulma chided him, finally looking up from her manifest.

Vegeta clicked his tounge loudly and then laid down angrily, it was most certainly wasn't because his injuries were protesting against him sitting up. But there was something on his mind, something that had been on his mind ever since he had met the unusual saiyan woman.

Something that she had brought back to his mind now that she had said it again. But how to ask her?

Almost as if she had read Vegeta's mind, Bulma spoke up "You're probably wondering what I mean when I say I'm not a real saiyan, aren't you?"

"The thought might have crossed my mind. But don't take it the wrong way, it's not like I'm interested in you or anything! It's just that it could mean the revival of the saiyan race after I'm done destroying Frieza."

Bulma snickered to herself at Vegeta's denial of interest in her, not that she could blame him if he were interested. Real saiyan or no, she was probably the first female saiyan he had met his entire life knowing his back story.

But how to explain it to him? She took a moment to wheel around her chair until she was sitting near Vegeta, allowing her blue furred tail to unloop from around her waist and under her yellow and black jacket. "Well, it happened because of the dragon balls on chikyuu." She said finally.

Vegeta looked at her in confusion, not quite believing it. "You mean you wished to be a saiyan?"

"Don't be stupid." Bulma immediately replied, shaking her head. She stroked her tail, which had curled up into her lap, absentmindedly. It was a habit she had whenever she was in deep thought. "It was years and years ago, back before any of us even knew what a saiyan was."

And then she began to tell her story...

I live in a strange and wonderful world, I'm sure you would agree if you were to stop there and take it all in instead of trying to destroy it as you have done on other planets. How many other wonderful things have been lost forever simply because of your need to avenge yourself upon Frieza?

There are titanic lizards of unbelievable power, size, and majesty. Breath taking dragons of unimaginable beauty and ferocity. Beastmen, talking animals, might and magic. And then there were the mysterious dragon balls.

When I first found one by accident, the two-star dragon ball, I didn't know what it was. It was small, barely the size of a regulation sized baseball, it was a cloudy orange that I couldn't see through and yet I could clearly see the two reddish orange stars floating in its depths as if they were submerged in water. Every test I ran in my laboratory indicated that it was nothing more than ordinary stone despite its appearance and found that it was giving off a subtle electromagnetic wave, which was how I developed my first dragon radar. And to my surprise there were apparently six more of these orbs somewhere out there in the world.

They had to have some kind of history, and so I began to do research into the orbs. Looking back now, I'm surprised that these objects of near limitless power left so little impact on history. Because no matter how much I dug into it, or what historian I brought it to, there wasn't anything concrete about them anywhere. All I knew for sure was that it was tied to an ancient dragon named Shenlon and it was somehow part of the creation of the Gardia kingdom(1). I had just brought it to West City University, with no results to show for it, and was on my way home.

It was a beautiful spring day and so I decided to walk for a change, besides it wasn't that far from home. And all of a sudden something caught my eye while still on campus. It was something like a carnival tent. It was tall, thin, and very colorful. It wasn't like it was in the middle of the street, but the campus was still very busy. West City University, even now, is an extremely busy campus with one of the largest student bodies around after all.

And yet no one else seemed to have even noticed the tent, it was like it wasn't even there at all. My curiosity peaked I went on over to the tent, barely noticing as the crowd parted around me without paying me slightest bit of attention. It was all so odd, like something out of a dream or vision. Who knows? Maybe it was?

The inside of the tent was small, barely big enough for two people, and at the center of it was an old woman shrunken with age. She was wearing intricate black robes with the crest for Hogwarts on her right breast, making me wonder if she had been a student or a teacher there at one point, and the most amazing thing was that she was sitting on top of a floating crystal ball.

In short, she was the quintessential witch. Her eyes were closed, making me think that she was asleep at first. "Bulma Briefs, you are seeking answers. Answers about that orb in your bag." She spoke, her lips not moving. In this altered state, I wasn't even surprised by anything she said or the fact that she said it without opening her mouth. It was like I was expecting it.

Automatically I pulled out the small orb, and said "You know what this is." Belatedly, I released that I said it without moving my own lips either. Again, I was neither alarmed nor surprised.

The old witch nodded her head in the affirmative. "As you already surmised, it is no ordinary stone despite what your best equipment and most thorough tests indicate. Indeed, it is a most powerful and sacred relic. It is a dragon ball, created by Kami-sama himself so it might give humanity hope and courage. Just one of seven that lay hidden in the world, waiting to be reunited with each other. When they are brought together and you call upon the mighty eternal dragon's name he will appear and grant almost any wish your heart should desire."

I was confused about why the strange witch was telling me all this. If she already knew my name without me having introduced myself then she should already know that I was a blessed girl. I already had fame, wealth, beauty, and brains. What would I have need for that I would require a dragon to grant me? Although there was one thing that I didn't have at that time that up until that moment I didn't even realize that I craved. Something that all my blessings couldn't grant me. Friendship and companionship.

"I tell you these things because there is one who has divined the purpose of the dragon balls and intends to use them to their full effect and rule the world. I tell you these things because I see the wish written on your heart. And even if it, too, is a selfish wish no one would fault you for wishing for it although I know not if it can even be granted by the dragon. And, lastly, I tell you because it is a fixed point that you will journey forth and collect the dragon balls, and I believe you can stop this individual from fulfilling his dream."

"I see." I replied, although I didn't really. I looked into the cloudy depths of the dragon ball, as if there might be answers there. There weren't. I wasn't sure how much I believed what I was hearing. Sure, magic existed but wish granting dragons and hidden destinies were pretty much the stuff of fantasy novels and classic manga. Plots of world domination I could believe as the Red Ribon Army was still active at the time, despite the best efforts of peace keeping forces to resist and stop them.

But really, what did I have to lose? Even if nothing that the witch had told me were true, it seemed like it would be a fun adventure. I had the wits to see such a trip through to the end, and the ability to track the dragon balls down. And, to be honest, I found myself getting bored at school as of late. And with summer vacation coming up soon it would be the perfect time to go, not that I always attended classes. So I was decided, I would go seek out the dragon balls.

I looked up and the spell or dream or vision or whatever was broken as sudden as it had started. The tent I had been standing in was gone, the old witch was gone, the crystal ball was gone. Just me standing on the side of the path, the two-star dragon ball in hand...

In the days that followed I prepared as best as I could for the voyage ahead carefully packing practical clothes, non-perishable food, potable water, first-aid, a stun gun, a house capsule, and an array of off road vehicle capsules. And I also worked on making a portable dragon radar since the first one I made was pretty much immobile and unsuitable for travel. I didn't have much time and the best I could do was a boxy, foldable unit about as big as your typical hand bag(2).

That was it, I was now as ready as I was going to be. A few days later, after summer break started, I was off on my very first dragon ball hunt...

I won't bore you about everything that followed in full detail, Vegeta. But I had met several people on the adventure, most of whom you've already met. Some of them became great friends during the trip and remained so over the years, but we also made enemies along the way as we had run ins with the Red Ribon Army for the first time. I'm not ashamed to admit I was scared at the time, I was still just a normal human girl at that point.

You probably don't know who they were but at one time the Red Ribbon Army had a large following. They were really obsessed with their version of a utopia, a one-world nation purged of racial impurities. They brutally executed beastmen, those with birth defects and mental problems, gays, gypsies, and, for some strange reason, lefties which would include me. I have a feeling they'd get on great with that Frieza guy, either that or they'd destroy each other one.

Because of their aim for world domination, I felt certain that they'd be the ones I had been warned about but they weren't in the end. They probably didn't even know of the dragon balls although they would latter learn of them. Instead it was a sawed off pipsqueak, a blue imp that fancied himself an emperor, by the name of Pilaf. It was like one of those games where you fight a series of increasingly worse enemies and, after all that build up, the end boss was something lame.

Embarrassingly enough, though, he had managed to catch us and take our dragon balls. Goku, Oolong, Puar, Yamcha, and myself were trapped in a concrete room. Pilaf was outside preparing to summon Shenlon, the walls were closing in and things were looking pretty bad for us. Suddenly Yamcha had a desperate idea for Goku to use the Kamehaheha wave that he learned from Mutten Roshi but had yet to fully master.

He charged up the attack over the course of what felt like several episodes full of close ups of his heavy breathing(3), but was in actuality a couple seconds max. He failed to brace himself properly, though, and was sent through the wall he was facing away from. Which was just as well because he was firing it off in the wrong direction anyhow. Luckily it left a hole big enough for the rest of us to escape the trap.

Pilaf had already successfully summoned the mighty dragon, but Goku stopped him from making his wish. He had knocked Pilaf out for the count along with his followers, all two of them. Like I said, lame right? The very definition of the anti-climax.

By the time the rest of us had joined Goku, he was greeting Shenlon in a jovial manner. I'm not sure if he knew what to make of that.

And, once again, I found myself with nothing to wish for. I had started out thinking to wish for the dragon to grant me friendship, something that I was lacking at the beginning of my quest. But now I had a circle of friends, people I could trust. People that wouldn't treat me differently if I were to tell them exactly who I was.

But Oolong opened his mouth to make his own wish, which I interrupted by smacking him with a large paper fan that I pulled out of no where. Knowing him it would be a pointless and perverted wish anyhow. Besides Goku had just saved us from a gruesome end, as well as the world, and the rest of us were of the opinion that he should be the one to have the wish.

He seemed stuck on what to wish for, but suddenly he had an idea. And then made the wish that made me immediately regret interrupting Oolong, "I know! I wish that Bulma had a tail like me."

Everyone else turned to me in shock. I couldn't see the look on my face, but I imagine that my eyes grew to the size of diner plates at that point. The dragon actually snickered at my plight and then said, "Wish granted."

I looked behind me fearfully and saw that I, indeed, now had a long monkey-like tail. Only it had dark-blue fur, instead of brown like Goku's...

[To Be Continued...]

1) This is a reference to the classic JRPG Chrono Trigger, by Squaresoft. It had artwork by none other than Akira Toriyama, the creator of Dragon Ball. In the original Dragon Ball manga Bulma had mentioned that the last recorded instance of where the dragon balls were used, someone had become king. It was never expanded upon, but it seemed like an obvious tie-in to me.

2) Think the tricorders from Star Trek TOS and you got the basic idea of what I mean.

3) Just me poking fun at the Dragon Ball Z anime.