Author's Note: Okay, I want to make this perfectly clear, you guys are the best. You might think you know that but I don't even believe that you understand how amazing you all are.
A fair number of you seem dissatisfied with Krillin sparing Vegeta in the last story and to be honest I cannot be happier to hear that. Don't get me wrong I'm not backtracking and the ending of the first story stands as is, I've got plans for the saiyan prince after all. Though when making my decision to let Vegeta live I sort of assumed everyone would be alright with it, Vegeta's a fan favorite character and I figured some may be disappointed at losing such an important character, especially after I decided to continue the series. Yet with your messages and reviews, some of you seem to be more open to bigger changes then I previously thought and it is so great to hear that. Not to say that I was holding back before but all this feedback has me really excited about the future of this series and how extreme I can go. I know this is a little long winded but I really wanted to share the impact your comments have on me and how much I really appreciate them. So as always thank you so much.
Also just a heads up there are a few references in this chapter from the original dragonball as well as a filler episode from dbz. Hope you all have a great day, please enjoy.
Chapter 2: Preparations
What am I doing?
It was the fourth time Krillin had asked himself that question during the long drive to the King's Castle.
I should have just left, they may know who I am but they'd never be able to catch me. I might be doing more harm than good by doing this. Then again if I didn't, would I be on the run? Would I have to move out of Master Roshi's place? How much do they actually know about me? How much do they know about all of us?...do they know about the dragonballs too?
Krillin sighed.
What am I doing?
"We're here."
Krillin paused his train of thought to look out of the car window only to be greeted by the tallest building he had ever seen. A tower of blue and white jetted upward toward the sky with a perfect green lawn surrounding it and a small fountain just in front of it. In a perfect circle seven other towers surrounded the castle though none of them as tall as the castle they stood just as refined.
"Wow," Krillin said his awe getting the better of him.
"It is a sight." The man in the suit said before pulling up to the entrance of the castle.
After parking the car the man wasted no time getting out and opening the door for Krillin who stepped out of the car his gaze still locked on the castle.
It's a lot bigger than home, to say the least.
"Come with me."
Krillin obeyed the man's instructions quickly following him into the castle. The two men walked through a giant hallway into a lobby with enough space to fit the entire Kame House inside of it. Slowing down the monk had to pause to take in the scenery of the view.
"Mr. Krillin, don't fall behind."
"Oh, sorry," Krillin said catching up to the man in the suit as he waited by an elevator.
The monk and the man waited until an elevator opened its doors in front of them. Extending his arm forward the man allowed Krillin to enter first before joining him. Pressing the button for the top floor the elevator started to make its way upward.
"So uh." Krillin stammered, "How much do you know?"
"About the East City incident? I was told that thousands of people in East City were killed in an instant with no reason or explanation given. The only thing that remained were two spheres one of which jetted off into an unknown direction. The other one was retrieved and set out to the lab for study."
Spheres?...The spaceships! They must have taken Nappa's!
"Then I was told enough to identify you and the reason I needed to bring you here," The man in the suit continued, "So to answer your question, more than most"
"Oh."
"The higher-ups have a clearer picture than I do, but you'll be speaking directly to the King."
"What?"
"We're here."
The man and Krillin stepped into a grand room with a large amount of space in it. Book cases lined the walls while an impressive looking desk was placed in the back. Behind it there was a balcony blocked by a series of glass doors, in the center lay a small table with two couches surrounding it. These couches and most of the room was room packed with a crowd of people all looking downcast and solemn. As soon as the group of people turned their gaze to the see the monk and the man, they stiffened only for one of them to instantly point at Krillin and start to shake.
"It…it's him!"
The group of people took a noticeable step backward and those that were sitting almost jumped to their feet. Confused at the reaction of the room Krillin stayed still unsure what his next move should be.
"Ladies and gentlemen, leave us." A voice of power washed over the room calming the group.
Krillin saw that it coming from a dog who was currently looking out of the glass doors with his back facing the monk.
"But…but sir!"
"I'll be fine, now leave us."
The group followed the order but some still looked at Krillin with suspicion, they left through a side door which closed promptly behind them.
What was that about?
"Your majesty, I have brought him." The man in the suit said with a bow.
"Thank you, you are dismissed."
"Sir." Without another word the man left through the same side door the group of people had exited, leaving just Krillin and the dog in the room together.
"You must be Krillin. It is a pleasure to meet you." The powerful voice Krillin almost echoed through the room as the dog turned to reveal his short stature and old age. Despite that the blue fur of the dog seemed to almost radiate power but not with the strength Krillin was familiar with. His glasses almost betrayed the depth of his eyes looking far into Krillin deeper than just was on the surface.
He reminds me of Master Roshi or Kami.
"Oh, my word I didn't know you were injured." The dog said looking at Krillin's arm.
"It's alright your majesty don't worry about it, thank you for having me."
"No need to be so formal my boy, please call me King."
"Oh, okay King."
"Take a seat won't you, would you like something to drink? Water? Tea? Coffee? Whiskey?"
"Whiskey?" Krillin asked sitting down on one of two couches.
"Whiskey it is! Good man, I can tell you take yours neat!"
Before the monk could reject the offer he was handed a glass almost half filled with a shiny gold liquid.
Should have asked for tea. Or at least some ice.
"Drink up my boy, whiskey calms the nerves helps put some hair on your chest, or in your case on your head!" King said laughing at his own joke while he poured himself an even taller glass of the gold liquor.
"Heh, thank you, sir."
"I told you to call me King my boy!" The dog barked before sitting on a couch facing opposite to Krillin. "Now then, to good health!" King raised his glass expectantly.
"Oh, good health," Krillin answered before clinking his glass against King's.
The dog smiled before downing his drink in a single swig. "Ah, that's the good stuff!"
Krillin smiled back and took a sip of his own drink, before releasing how strong the whiskey really was. The monk doubled over coughing, the potent drink catching him completely off guard.
"HA! A little too much for you my boy? You'll have to be careful this stuff is older than me!" King laughed.
Well, he's definitely more like Master Roshi now. Krillin thought trying to regain his composure.
"Alright, now let's get to business." King said slapping his knee, "I'm sure you have as many questions for me as I do for you. So how about this, we'll swap questions and answers sound fair?"
"Ah, sure."
"Splendid, by all means, why don't you start?"
Krillin blinked while trying to get his head on straight still a little overwhelmed. "Uh, I guess I want to know, how did you find me?"
"A fair question and one I am happy to answer."
Reaching down onto the table separating the two and picked up a remote, pressing a button turned on a TV that Krillin hadn't noticed before to a paused section of a video. From what Krillin could see the video was being shot from a helicopter.
"Though I have to say you sure didn't make it easy for us." with that said King pressed play and the video came to life,
"Come on Mike get me closer! I need a better shot of the aliens!"
Krillin recognized the voice of Barry Walters and as the video rolled on he knew exactly what was going to happen next. The video had filmed both Vegeta and Nappa standing on the ground just minutes after they had landed on Earth. Even from the helicopter, Krillin could see the sneer on Nappa's face and the grin on Vegeta's but despite the horror, the two saiyans represented it wasn't enough to make the reporters leave, that came later.
"Hey, what's he doing?" Barry Walters had asked focusing on Nappa as he gathered his energy into the palm of his hand.
Wearing a giant grin the giant saiyan threw the energy at the helicopter. The whirlybird started to shake just from the force of the energy and Krillin could hear the pilot, the cameraman, and Barry Walters scream for their lives. Then, just as it had happened five days ago the monk was able to place himself in between the sphere of dense energy and the innocents. Shifting his ki so that it encased only his right arm Krillin swung his fist at the blast and batted the ball away from the news crews. With a new direction, the sphere flew away from the monk soaring into a nearby mountain where it detonated and immediately vaporized the giant chunk of rock. For a moment all was still. The only sounds were the sizzle from Krillin's right arm and the turn of the helicopter's blades. The camera was now shaking uncontrollably the cameraman barely able to hold it together. Due to the violent shaking, a lot of the audio was hard to hear and it wasn't until
the monk turned toward the reporters did the sound kick back in.
"If you want to live you need to go now. Tell everyone you can to avoid this area. Understood?"
After the monk had finished speaking King paused the video on a close up of Krillin's face.
"This video is pretty much the only thing we had regarding your identity. It took my people three full days to track down your name and even then we still had no idea who you really were." King said slowly.
Living on an island will do that.
"Regardless it was only by chance we saw your name pop up among the patients at West City Hospital, after that, I sent one of my best to search for you and here you are." The dog said before pointing to the paused video, "That's you, isn't it?"
Krillin paused unsure of what to say but after realizing that he had no way out of the situation he sighed heavily before saying,
"Yes, it is."
King looked into the monk's eyes for a long time before getting up from the coach walking over to the bar and pouring himself another glass of whiskey.
"It's your turn for a question." The dog said his back facing the monk.
"What do you plan to do with this video?"
"That is entirely up to you," King said walking back to the couch with a full glass of whiskey.
"What do you mean?"
"Whoops, sorry my boy it's my turn now," King said before chugging his glass of whiskey in one go.
Once he was done the dog put the glass down on the table before redirecting his focus onto Krillin.
"A number of months ago I learned of a report of a flying man who rescued a young girl from being run over by the criminal Launch. I dismissed it at first but was that you as well?"
"…yes. Is she still wanted by the police?"
"She is, why did you take her?"
"Believe it or not she's an old friend but what she was doing was wrong so I stopped her. Is there any way she can be let go?"
"Hmmm, well you did return the money and thankfully no one was hurt during the chase. I suppose I could if she agrees to a week of community service."
"Thank you."
King nodded happily but his tone grew serious only a moment later. "Before we go any further please answer me this. Are you a threat to the world and its people?"
Krillin was about to laugh at the question and even wondered if the whiskey had affected the dog, but before he did Krillin noticed a quiver in King's hands as he waited for the monk's answer. The dog held fast but the more Krillin looked at him the more he realized that the strength he had sensed before had faded just a little.
He's scared of me. They all are.
"No sir, I am not."
"Are you an alien?"
"No sir, I am not."
"Are…are you human?"
Krillin paused before looking at his glass of liquor,
Funny question. "Yes sir, I am."
King studied the monk for a moment before relaxing into a warm smile.
"Of course you are, forgive me, my boy, not only did I break the rule of our game I also asked you a question I already knew the answer to."
"You did?"
"You're no threat to us, on the contrary, it seems we owe you more than we could ever repay. Saving the lives of those reporters certainly put you in a good light but I wasn't truly convinced until I saw the second video Mr. Walters and his crew had recorded."
"The second video?"
"The one where you approached them first."
What is he- Oh! During the three hour break. I didn't think they were recording that.
"It doesn't have as much impact as the first one no mountains were harmed after all," King continued, "But you said something to Mr. Walters, something great enough to turn him away from what is possibly the story of the century. Do you remember what it was?"
"I couldn't save East City, let me save you," Krillin said slowly.
"That's it; I knew then even though I couldn't understand how you did what you did you were doing it for us, for the world."
No, I was doing it for Gohan. "So, what happens now?" Krillin asked.
"What would you like to happen? If this story got out you could be a hero."
"Sorry, I'm pretty far from being a hero."
"Not from my perspective, in that video I saw a young man who was able to do the impossible to save many, many lives, including some of our best and brightest."
"The reporters?" Krillin asked a little confused.
Krillin's question made King pause before breaking into a soft smile.
"Not just them my boy, after the attack on East City I ordered our military to locate and destroy the East City threats. Over 35 battleships and 27 jets were mobilized and set to attack and defeat the invaders.
Krillin sat up in surprise. "I had no idea."
"Of course not, what I'm telling you is top secret I hope you understand that this conversation should be kept between the two of us. I'm trusting you with a lot."
"I understand."
"Thank you, just before the assault I was given the recording you just saw. Luckily for us, Mr. Walters saw fit to send this video to us instead of to his employers, most likely seeking a greater reward. Due to his greed and lack of foresight we have determined that this is the only recording of your actions and the invaders presence."
Good, that's one less thing to worry about.
"Seeing that one of the aliens had the ability to destroy mountains with a ball of light convinced me to call for a retreat," King continued. "There were too many unknowns to risk our bravest in a fight where we were clearly outgunned. However, there was another reason I stopped the attack."
"What was that sir?"
"You reminded me of someone."
"Who?"
Before he answered King stretched out his hand toward Krillin's empty glass which the monk had been sipping from throughout the conversation. Handing over the glass Krillin watched the dog walk back over to the bar with his own empty glass and fill up both to the brim.
"You're old enough to know about King Piccolo correct?"
You have no idea. "Yes, I am."
King walked back and handed Krillin his drink before sitting down himself.
"Years ago he overthrew this kingdom and threatened the entire world not with an army but with just his own strength and the ability to destroy cities with beams of light, just like the East City invaders. At the time there was no one who could challenge him," King said while taking a small sip of whiskey, "I lost some dear friends that day."
"I'm sorry."
"Thank you, but that is in the past. After all King Piccolo was beaten in the end and as far as the public knows it was thanks to the military, but that is not what happened."
Krillin said nothing but took a drink himself fully aware of where this conversation was going.
"What I'm going to tell you now goes beyond top secret. Very few know this and even now years later we still do not know what it means. You see King Piccolo was defeated by-"
"A boy with a tail," Krillin said smoothly interrupting the dog.
King sputtered to a stop before looking at the monk with wide eyes.
I've surprised him, good let's use that.
"You…you know about the boy?!"
"I do."
The dog's shock was easy to see but the moment passed and before long King tried to compose himself.
"Who, who is he?"
"I can't tell you that," Krillin said sternly.
"You can't?"
"I'm sorry but it'll be better if you leave him alone, you don't know the whole story."
"…would you like to tell me?"
"I'm sorry, I can't."
"I see, well it's your business after all, and as I said I don't see you as a threat. Though I can't deny I am immensely curious, but demanding information from the man who saved us paints an ugly picture wouldn't you say?"
Krillin paused unsure of what to do next.
He's not accusing me of anything and as far as I can tell he seems genuine. Plus he doesn't appear to know about the others or even the dragonballs…I won't tell him everything, but if show him something then maybe I can get something I want.
Putting down his glass and holding up his left hand out in front of him Krillin summoned a bit of energy just enough to form a small ball of ki in his palm. As soon as he had King's dropped his glass of whiskey in his hand in shock.
"That…light! It's just like in the video!"
"This is ki," Krillin said, "It's sort of like an energy that can be used to move fast, punch harder, fly, and as you've seen can blow up mountains."
"How…how are you doing that?"
"Anyone can."
"What?"
"Ki is something that exists in every person you just need to know how to access it."
"How?"
"Years of training in martial arts."
"Martial arts? You're saying that your abilities all come from martial arts?"
"Yes, I'm just as human as anyone else. I just trained a lot."
"That's…hard to believe."
"Well you'll have to, since it's the truth."
King said nothing his mouth agape in amazement as Krillin vanished the ball of ki and took another sip of whiskey.
"I can't tell you everything sir it's not my place to, but there is something I need to tell you."
"What is it?"
"I killed one of the aliens but the other one…escaped."
"WHAT?" King shouted standing up out of his seat. "Is there a chance he'll return?!"
"There is."
King put a hand to his head as if to stabilize himself before sitting back down.
"This…this is a nightmare."
"…I'm sorry," Krillin said with his head hanging low.
"No don't apologize, I'm sure you did all you could."
Krillin flinched, "…the only reason I'm telling you this is that if he does return you need to stay out of it."
"What?"
"I think you understand that going up against these aliens is suicide. If he does return do not engage him."
"So what are we supposed to do? Just wait for him to kill us?"
"No, leave it to people who can fight him."
"People? There are more like you and the boy?"
"…as I said, I can't tell you everything."
King stared at the monk for a moment before reaching for his glass of whiskey only to remember he had dropped it, he fidgeted with his hands before sighing, "I understand."
"Thank you."
"Is there anything we can do for you? You've done so much for us."
Good, the gamble paid off.
"Yes, there is, please don't show either video to the public I actually would like you to destroy it completely."
"Are you sure?"
Krillin nodded.
"Very well, is there anything else?"
"Keep my name and everything else I've told you to yourself, the fewer people who know who I am and what I can do the better."
"What should I tell the world? Every reporter in every city is demanding an answer."
"You may have to admit to the alien attack. That's eventually going to leak out regardless and you can even say that they were defeated by the military."
"I doubt the people will believe that."
"Fine, then someone strong or something, just keep both my name and the fact that one of the aliens escaped secret, to avoid a panic."
"Yes, yes you're right."
"And there's one more thing. I want you to rebuild East City."
King blinked in surprise, "That, won't be an easy task. The blast destroyed everything it may take some time before we gather the needed materials."
"I understand, but if everything goes well you're going to need that city up and running within the next two months."
"Two months!"
"I know it's a lot to ask but you have to believe me, it's for the best."
For a full minute, King said nothing, deciding to instead look deeper at Krillin in an attempt to understand the strange request. "Alright, I will do everything I can."
"Thank you," Krillin said before putting down his glass and standing up, "In exchange, if the alien does return I'll be in contact to warn you."
"Contact? How?"
"I'll leave an anonymous tip," Krillin said as he walked toward the door leading to the balcony and opened it with his left hand. "Just don't use my name when you're sharing the information I give you."
"Well, what do we call you?"
Krillin paused and thought about it before smiling to himself.
"Call me Mr. Baldy."
Before King could respond Krillin jumped into the air and flew off without another word.
"Are you out of your mind?!"
Krillin flinched at Bulma's screech and even had to dodge a book thrown at him. The blue-haired genius was busy working on the namekian ship in the laboratory. She was working on the ship from the inside with the platform down and Krillin could see her moving around trying to get everything up and running. Despite that, she still somehow found the time to yell at the poor monk. Krillin had gone to Capsule Corp to explain what had happened with King; now he had wished he hadn't.
"Why would you tell them all of that? You could have lied!"
"I didn't have a choice Bulma they already knew my name and had a video with me on it."
"You could have just left! You can fly can't you?"
"And have to worry about being questioned every time I go out for groceries? No thank you."
"Well, you didn't have to go blabbing about everything to the King of all people!"
"I didn't blab about everything, they have no idea about the dragonballs. The King saw Goku when he was just a kid but doesn't even know his name. They have no idea about you, Gohan, or even Piccolo, just me and Launch. So once she does the community service she's free and I had to tell them about Vegeta so we don't have more people dying. We can't wish them back without Kami. Plus this way if Vegeta does come back we can warn them and no one will get in the way while him and Goku fight."
"Fine, whatever, you can't take it back anyway." Bulma said clearly annoyed, "But why did you ask for them to rebuild East City?"
"Well if I didn't and we do wish everyone back that's a whole lot of people without any homes."
"Well that's nice of you but how are you going to explain a city full of dead people coming back to life all of a sudden?"
"…..I haven't thought that far."
"Of course not, I swear you guys are all muscle and no brain."
Krillin rolled his eyes. "How is it going here anyway?"
"Good, we're on schedule, should be done by tomorrow."
"Wow, that was fast."
"Surprised me too, but she was already good for space travel and Mr. Popo has been really helpful in translating the language. So once that was done it was just about making it comfortable for the two-month trip."
"Hard to believe it's almost time to go."
"Believe it, so any other bombs you need to tell me?"
"Actually, Chichi is really against Gohan coming with us."
"Didn't we figure that would be a problem anyway?"
"We did, so there's that, and I saw Tien today."
"Yeah I called you as soon as the hospital let me know he was up, I would have gone but I was stuck here. How's he doing?"
"Well, he wants to go to Namek too."
"What?"
This time Krillin had to dodge a wrench.
"Why are you telling all of this to me now! I don't have time for this! It's going to take forever to redesign this thing for four people! Do you know what time it is? I was going to go to bed soon!"
And here I was wondering why she and Yamcha broke up.
"I'm sorry, He learned about how I let Vegeta go and, he didn't take it well."
Bulma was going to yell at him again but saw that the monk already felt bad enough and just sighed instead. "Fine, whatever, looks like the ship will be ready in three days instead of one, but is he sure? I mean he's probably in worse shape than you."
"I don't think any of us could convince him not to come. He's pretty angry at me."
Bulma didn't say anything but jumped down from inside the ship. "Listen I get it, when you told us you let Vegeta go I was a bit angry at you too."
"You were?"
"Well, why wouldn't I be? The guy blew up a city! But the more I thought about it the more I realized it's not my place to judge. I mean, I wasn't there and beyond what you and Goku told us I don't really know what happened."
Krillin didn't respond.
"So if you think what you did is right then I'll support you."
"But what if I made the wrong decision?" Krillin asked clenching his left hand. "What if Vegeta comes back and just kills everyone and it's my fault?"
"Well, that would be less than ideal, but have you ever considered that you made the right decision?"
"What?"
"I mean sure you let him go but really only because you listened to Goku, and Goku let Piccolo go after the Tenkaichi Budokai right? We all thought Goku was crazy then but didn't Piccolo end up helping you in this fight? Maybe Goku saw something like that in Vegeta. If we can bring everyone back to life and we can convince Vegeta not to kill anymore then that's a net gain. Maybe he'll even help us the next time a super strong crazy guy tries to destroy the planet."
"…Bulma, I highly doubt that would ever happen."
"Sure, call me crazy but I bet I'm right."
Bulma walked past Krillin and bent down to pick up the wrench and book she threw at him before walking back to the ship. "Regardless I don't think you should doubt yourself so much, you're smarter than you think."
"Really? What makes you say that?"
"Yamcha told me," Bulma said as she threw both the book and the wrench back into the ship.
"Oh?" Krillin said a little surprised at how easily Bulma could say his name. "When did he do that?"
"While we were breaking up."
"How did my name get into that conversation?"
"It was afterward you weirdo, once he stopped crying. We talked a lot about what you guys were doing. How you were coming up with plans, training, even working with Piccolo. He really respected you."
"…yeah," Krillin said slowly.
Bulma noticed the tone and rolled her eyes before smacking the monk upside the head.
"Ow! What was that for?"
"Because you keep doing that!"
"Doing what?"
"Doubting yourself! Yeah you made a mistake, or maybe you didn't, we don't even know yet. But either way, you can't keep doing this."
"I thought you said you couldn't judge me because you didn't see what happened?"
"I also told you what Yamcha told me and the Krillin he told me about sounded a lot stronger than the Krillin that's here now."
"Yeah…but."
"No buts!" Bulma said before hitting Krillin again.
"What about Tien?"
"What about Tien? He's mad at you and I think he's got a right to be but you're fixing it aren't you? You came up with the plan to get everyone back and you're the one who's going to Namek. No matter what he said about you, show him he's wrong."
"Bu-" Krillin started before he saw Bulma raise her hand again. "Vegeta's still out there because of me."
"Sure, but you were strong enough to beat him the first time and personally I think you're the only one who doesn't believe you can do it again."
Krillin could only blink in response before a smile ran across his face.
"Thanks, Bulma."
"Sure, but if you really wanted to thank me you shouldn't have shown up with news that added 72 hours to my schedule. Or do you have anything else I should know?"
"Actually yeah, I learned that Nappa's spaceship was picked up by the King's men."
"Really? Huh, that's good to know.
"You think it could help with this ship?"
"Maybe, is that it?"
"Yeah, that's it."
"Good, now get out of here, it's going to be an all-nighter for me," Bulma said as she jumped back up into the ship.
Krillin smiled again and turned to leave.
"Oh Krillin wait, I almost forgot."
"Yeah?"
"Mr. Popo told me that Korin wanted to see you."
"Korin? Why?"
"Don't know, didn't ask."
"Gee, thanks."
"Shut up I don't owe you anything."
"Oh sure, I'm just the guy who saved the planet you live on."
"Weren't you leaving?"
There it is.
Krillin had been flying for almost half an hour trying to find Korin's tower which had gotten much harder due to the sun having set hours ago.
He's probably asleep but can't hurt just to check.
Landing onto the tower Krillin started to look around for the cat only to find him standing in the center of the great pillar.
"You came." The cat said slowly.
"Yeah, sorry, but didn't expect you to be up. It's pretty late."
"Haven't been sleeping well, too quiet," Korin said before turning away
"Too quiet?"
"I've gotten used to horrendously loud snoring throughout the years but, it's just me here now, so. It's too quiet."
"Oh, I see."
Korin nodded.
"So why did you call me here?"
"I wanted to ask you something," Korin said as he walked to the side of the tower and picked up a tea kettle with a single cup.
"You wanted me to drink tea?" Krillin asked.
"In a sense," Korin answered pouring the cup full of a strange black liquid.
"That doesn't look like tea."
"Truth be told its closer to a water than tea."
"Well, it doesn't look like water either."
"You're right it's called the Ultra Divine Water and it helped Goku defeat King Piccolo," Korin said before handing the cup to Krillin.
"What?"
"This water is capable of revealing the secret power hidden deep within yourself. It's a boost in power that was great enough to help Goku beat Piccolo when he was a child."
"I had no idea, why are you giving this to me now?"
"Because the water will help you reach the limits of your strength and I believe you are far from your limit."
"I see," Krillin said staring at the cup, "This is in case Vegeta comes back or if something happens on Namek."
Korin nodded.
"What's the downside?"
"You catch on quick," the cat said slowly, "The water is also a poison if you're not strong enough physically or mentally, it'll kill you."
"…oh."
"In the past, there were fourteen martial artists who drank the water before Goku, they all perished."
"I think I'm stronger now than Goku was when he overcame the poison."
"Perhaps, but I'm not sure Goku fought the poison off because he was strong or if he was a saiyan."
"What do you mean?"
"Those fourteen warriors who died were all human Goku is the only one to have survived, it could be because of his strength or because he's-"
"Not human."
"Precisely," The cat said with a nod, "I asked you to come here so I could be honest with you, I think letting Vegeta live was a mistake."
"You're not the only one," Krillin said with a small laugh. "Tien said the same thing."
"He's awake?
"I talked to him earlier today. When he learned about Vegeta he was really angry said he wanted to go to Namek too."
"I can imagine, regardless I wanted to do more to help." The cat said slowly, "This water can make you stronger if you survive and we may need that strength, but it is your choice. I won't force you either way."
Krillin said nothing but took another long look at the dark liquid in the teacup.
Risking my life for more strength, a week ago this would have been an easy decision, but now…
"I will not have a friend destroy himself for a possibility."
Kami's words rebounded through his head and the monk found himself slowly lowering the cup back down toward the cat until he realized he had returned the cup.
"You're refusing it?"
"…yeah. You're right I do need more strength so maybe I'll come back to this, but if I were to die here right now. I'd have too many regrets. We leave for Namek in three days and I need to be there to help bring everyone back."
"I understand," Korin said as he opened up the tea kettle to bring the black liquid back in. "What will you do in that time?"
"I guess I'll be focusing on healing my arm, don't know what we'll find on Namek but I'm sure I'll need both hands."
"I agree if I don't see you before you leave good luck."
"You won't be there?"
"No, I should concentrate on raising the senzu beans for Goku."
"Alright, then I guess I'll say goodbye for now," Krillin said offering his hand to the cat.
"Goodbye Krillin and good luck," Korin said shaking the offered hand.
The monk smiled before taking off back into the sky, heading for home with sleep on his mind.