Chapter 4: Old Friends and New Tricks
The sun rose on another beautiful day in West City. As warm rays of light cast early morning shadows across the city, the populace began to move about with their daily routines; all the while, oblivious to any existence of ill will that might loom above them in the stars. As the bustling city blossomed to life with sounds of urban, morning traffic, so too did Trunks and his friends at the Capsule Corp mansion.
"Breakfast is ready!" Bulma's voice echoed through the hallways of the mansion.
One thing that had never changed was the quick response the smell of good, wholesome breakfast and the associated invitation could get from guests in her home. Within minutes, Trunks, Gohan, Leon and Dende were in the kitchen taking in the delicious smells of the morning meal. Not much later, the Supreme Kai, Garice and Baleck were also in the kitchen offering their assistance to help the others dish out breakfast. Bulma directed her small army to the adjacent dining room with various platters of freshly cooked foods.
"Where's Avien?" Bulma asked everyone.
The bustling bodies stopped moving around the room and looked for their missing friend.
"She's still in the mansion," Gohan replied, searching for her life force energy. "In her room still, maybe?"
"I'll go get her," Bulma announced. "And you boys don't even think about starting without us!" she snapped as she left the room and headed down the hallway towards Avien's room.
Everyone finished setting out plates and began finding seats around the large dining table that centered the dining room and waited for Bulma to return with Avien.
"Hey Trunks, after breakfast, I need to run some errands," Gohan told him. "It shouldn't take too long, but I need to take care of a few things."
"Okay," Trunks replied, slightly confused. "Do you need any help?"
"Not really," Gohan replied easily. "You're welcome to come with me, but I just wanted to go by my parents' old house and see what's still there."
"Oh," Trunks said solemnly, "No, if you need time alone there, I understand."
"No it's okay," he insisted. "I'm just wondering if some of my old things are still there."
"Okay," Trunks replied quietly, relieved he hadn't upset his now-orphaned brother.
"Could I go?" Dende asked earnestly. "I would love to see what this planet's countryside looks like."
"Of course," Gohan replied with his father's same smile. "I'd love to show you around, Dende. In fact, I have just the place that I think you'd like to see."
"How much longer do you think we have?" Leon interrupted.
Their attention turned to Leon.
"Before the Saiyans get here, I mean," he clarified.
Trunks reflected on Leon's question and searched for the unmistakable hatred that coursed through the powerful aura he felt coming closer to his home.
"It's hard to say," the Supreme Kai answered, breaking the silence. "But we shouldn't worry over it right now. We can't do anything about it yet."
"The Supreme Kai is right, Leon," Gohan agreed. "Besides, as strong as we are I really doubt we will have any problems with them. They may be so overwhelmed when they find out what they're up against, that they'll just turn around and leave."
Leon took in what Gohan had said and looked to Trunks for affirmation.
"Maybe…" Trunks said softly but knew that would not be the case. His luck was never so fortunate.
"Avien!" Bulma called down the hallway as she passed by Leon's room. "Breakfast is ready, dear!"
She continued to walk towards Avien's room, despite getting no response. Bulma knocked modestly on the door to Avien's room.
"Avien, sweetie," she said only loud enough to get through the door. "Are you hungry?"
Bulma made no effort to try to hear what was going on inside the room, but she felt the distinct thump of someone moving around and the successive thumps as the movement came towards the door.
"Mrs. Brief?" Avien's muffled voice asked through the door.
"It's me, dear," Bulma answered.
The door lock clicked and the door slowly opened. A look of concern flooded over Bulma's face as Avien peered around the door. She looked distraught as if she had been crying.
"Avien, are you okay?" Bulma asked sympathetically.
"I'm fine," she lied, brushing away the tear lines on her face and gathering her composure to feign sickness. "I'm fine, Mrs. Brief. I just didn't sleep well and woke up feeling ill. That's all."
"Oh, sweetie, I can bring you some breakfast and warm tea," Bulma promised. "That should make you feel better. And if it doesn't, I'll call our doctor and arrange an appointment."
Avien wanted to curse Bulma's commitment to hospitality.
"No, no, that's ok," she continued to lie. "I just need to try to sleep a little more, and I will be fine."
"Okay," Bulma agreed softly. "Are you sure you wouldn't like some hot tea though before going back to sleep? It might help you sleep better."
Avien choked back a laugh of sarcasm at the irony.
"No, thank you, ma'am," she answered as she started to close the door. "I'll be fine. Thank you again."
After the door had closed, Bulma stood there for a moment. She contemplated whether she should knock again, but then left Avien to herself and returned to the dining room.
Bulma walked back to the dining room quietly and found a spot at the table to sit down.
"Where's Avien?" Dende asked Bulma.
"She said that she felt sick this morning and just wanted to rest," Bulma answered noncommittally. "Let's eat."
Without hesitation they began passing around platters for everyone to help themselves to the delicious breakfast that Bulma had prepared for them.
"Did she say why she was feeling sick?" Trunks asked as he helped pass plates around.
"She didn't," Bulma elaborated. "But she didn't look like she felt well."
Trunks shrugged his concern away and began eating.
As everyone ate, they took particular notice to Trunks and Gohan. The two Saiyans ate like there was no tomorrow, which for all intent and purpose, there very well might not be. It was a very good breakfast and in between mouthfuls of delicious goodness, they exchanged casual conversation. Mostly they explained idiosyncrasies concerning humans on Earth to Baleck, Garice and Dende. But Leon remained silent and only occasionally ate from his plate. His inaction did not go unnoticed.
"You know I forgot to make us tea," Bulma said suddenly. "I'm going to make some, would anyone else care for some?" she asked climbing from her chair.
"Uh, sure, mom," Trunks answered, followed by others' affirmations.
"Leon would you help me get more glasses for everyone, please, dear?" Bulma asked as she started towards the kitchen.
Her question snagged him out of his own thoughts about Avien and the start they had gotten off to earlier that morning and back into reality.
"Oh, yeah, sure," he answered, almost tripping as he got to his feet.
He followed her to the kitchen. However, no sooner had he stepped out of line of sight from his friends and into the kitchen, was he slammed with a barrage of questions.
"Leon Datch, what in the world happened?" Bulma exclaimed in a whisper as she grabbed the teapot from the sink and began to wash it out with soap.
"Wh-what are you talking about?" Leon asked defensively.
"You know good and well what I'm talking about, young man," she snapped in her motherly tone. "That poor girl has been in her room crying. What in the world did you say to her?"
"Me?" he choked, fighting back a laugh.
"Shhh!" she shushed. "Get the glasses from the cupboard and stop making so much noise.
He shook his head in confusion, but obeyed.
"What did you two talk about that caused her to lock herself in her room and cry all night?" she interrogated.
"What did I do?" Leon replied with a snicker.
"Is it funny that she's been crying all night?" Bulma snapped quietly.
"All morning," he corrected. "She's only been like that for about an hour."
"Irrelevant," Bulma cut him off. "What did you two talk about?"
Leon sighed in surrender.
"Look," he explained, "we just talked about us, you know – our history, if you will. And then she got mad and went to her room."
"Uh, huh," Bulma snorted. "And what sort of history did you talk about that would get her to the point of locking herself in a room and crying all morning?"
Leon hesitated for a moment, trying to gauge whether or not he should really give Bulma what she was asking for. His pride was in favor of it, but his judgment said no.
"I asked her about her parents," he lied. "Turns out her mom died in childbirth and her father died just before Trunks and her returned to her planet. She doesn't know how he died. I didn't know, and I pushed the question too soon, I guess."
Bulma sighed as she finished prepping the teapot for another brew.
"I'll talk to her today," Bulma assured him.
"You know, I don't–," Leon tried to protest but was cut off.
"No!" she said flatly. "I'll iron this out, you just steer clear until this evening."
Leon stood with a blank look.
"I want to go cry in my room and get away with it," he thought to himself sarcastically. "These women make my head hurt."
"Leon," Bulma said, once again interrupting his thoughts, "take the glasses back to the dining room and I'll be there shortly with the tea."
"Yes, ma'am," he muttered with obedience, mentally defending the ridicule from his ego and cursing his judgment.
Without another word, he silently left the kitchen.
Following breakfast, Gohan and Dende departed for Gohan's childhood home out in the countryside. Trunks and the Supreme Kai saw them off from the open back yard of the Capsule Corp Mansion. Once airborne, Gohan and Dende flew off westward from the mansion and West City.
"How far away is your parents' house?" Dende asked Gohan as they flew.
"It's on the other side of the continent," Gohan answered. "But first I wanted to check on some old friends of mine. I haven't seen them in years."
Gohan led Dende on a flight path west over the sea from West City.
"How long do you think it will take us?" Dende asked.
"How fast can you fly?" Gohan replied with a smile.
"I'll keep up," Dende promised.
"Well, let's get some exercise then," Gohan coaxed, his smile never fading.
As they began to accelerate, Gohan's aura began to turn from his effortless white color to a dim red that became a deeper shade of red as he flew faster, leaving a long red tail of energy behind them. Mirroring his speed, Dende's aura flashed to a deepening shade of purple as he, too, increased his speed to keep up with his Saiyan friend.
"Wow, Dende," Gohan shouted through the wind to his friend, "You're really fast! I'm impressed! Keep heading west; I'll race you to the end of the water!"
"You're on!" the Namekian shouted back with a grin. "I'll wait for you at the beach!"
The two raced on for the better part of an hour until they had crossed the West Sea. Dende moved ahead of Gohan and dropped from the sky to the sandy beaches on the western side of the sea. Gohan chased after his friend and landed nearby shortly after Dende.
"I know you're faster than that," Dende accused.
"Well, maybe a little faster," Gohan admitted. "But you were really moving! You're way stronger than you were when we were kids, Dende."
"Well, we're both much stronger than we were when we fought Frieza," the Namekian pointed out.
"Yeah, but your energy feels different than it did then," the young Saiyan explained. "It's hard to place, but it's almost like you've lived a few lifetimes of battles since then."
"It's my brothers' energy you feel," Dende explained, his voice and enthusiasm lowering. "When Frieza's brother began killing off the remainder of my race, my fallen brothers merged their fading life forces with me, just as Nail did with Piccolo all those years ago. It was the only way to save them. And now, I carry the total essence of my species. I'm the only one left, Gohan."
Gohan was silent for a moment; his smile faded from his face.
"I'm very sorry, my friend," he lamented. "I wish I could have been there to help you. I wish I could have been able to help so many of my friends."
"It's not your fault," the Namekian assured him.
"All the same," the Saiyan replied. "I wish things had been different. Who knows? In another life, I may have come to visit you on New Namek. Maybe then, I could have helped you put a stop to Frieza's brother. I could have sworn that my father killed him when he came to Earth seeking revenge for what Dad did to Frieza. Who would've guessed that he'd come back only to take out his anger on your people."
"There's no way that you could have known, Gohan," Dende replied solemnly.
"Still," Gohan continued, "I wish that things could have been different."
They stood in silence for a moment. Part of the silence was out of a mutual understanding for the honor of Dende and Gohan's fallen families. The other part was simply to enjoy the warm sea breeze as it blew against them on the beach. Gohan closed his eyes as his hair danced freely in the breeze. The smell of the salty water mixed with the snowy sand under his feet to provide a rather pleasant odor that one could only truly enjoy on a clean, empty beach. Gohan listened to the soft waves as they washed up onto the beach around them. Their soft, rolling crashes reminded him of how peaceful and harmonious his home planet was when it was not at war. He smiled to himself.
"There's a place not far from here I'd like to show you," Gohan told his Namekian friend. "I think you might find it to be kind of, well, homely."
Dende gave his friend a confused look.
"Homely?" he asked in bewilderment.
"Come with me," Gohan instructed softly as he floated up from the beach.
Without protest, Dende began to hover up above the sandy surface and followed Gohan high up into the northwestern sky.
Trunks stood alone on the balcony at Capsule Corp Mansion. After breakfast and a shower, he had changed back into his usual black tank top and pants with his brown belt and boots and blue Capsule Corp jacket. As he looked out over the city skyline, he pulled his long purple hair back into a ponytail and tied it off with a hair tie. It was time for another haircut. It was only midday.
"I could get Mom to take care of it," he thought to himself. "But then again, she's taking care of Avien."
He hoped that Avien would not be sick long. He knew that they would need everyone they could get to stop Broly's onslaught. He reflected on his memories and his journal notes of his encounter with Broly. He had only returned to the alternate timeline to let his mother and Goku know that he had beaten the Androids and Cell. He never would have guessed that he had arrived just in time to face off with the Legendary Super Saiyan himself. Memories of that brutal battle flashed through his mind. He shuttered once at the thoughts, and then put them out of his mind.
"Getting cold?" Leon asked as he walked out onto the balcony. "It's the middle of the day out here. If so, you might want to get yourself checked out; might be coming down with whatever Avien has."
Trunks smiled at his friend.
"Space flu?" Leon asked jokingly.
"Maybe," he replied sarcastically. "Is everything alright?"
Leon's expression changed.
"I'm fine, man," he assured Trunks. "Just wanted to hang out. It may have seemed like it for the past year, but there's not always something wrong when I come find you. Sometimes I just want to say hi."
Trunks' first impulse was defensive, but let it slide. He knew that Leon had been on edge lately. The whole ordeal with the Saiyans had him on pins and needles. Even though Trunks had not shown it to the group, he couldn't blame Leon one bit.
"I'm sorry," he replied tactfully. "I just know that you've been worried lately."
"What are you talking about?" Leon asked.
"Well, the Saiyans invading Earth and all that; I get it," he answered. "It's really been stressing you out."
"Well, that's one of the things," Leon admitted, but paused too long.
"…What else is bothering you?" Trunks inquired casually.
Leon sighed heavily.
"I'm just glad you're home," he answered flatly.
Trunks wanted to delve into Leon's unexpressed worries, but decided it best to let him open up about his issues at his own pace. If it was one thing Trunks had learned from his father, it was never to ask too personal a question too soon.
"Who was that blonde girl you were with?" Trunks asked, changing the subject.
"What the hell are you talking about?" Leon asked genuinely confused.
"I guess she wasn't that memorable," the young Saiyan replied with a shrug. "She looked good in that bikini too."
Leon kept a blank stare.
"You don't remember the blonde girl you were with the day you asked me to go to the beach with you?" Trunks asked again. "I'd kept myself prisoner in this house for six months, and you finally got me to go outside. I went to the beach on the other side of the city, and you and Mom were there and you were with this blonde girl…"
"–Kari," Leon finished for him. "Her name was Kari."
"Right," he replied with a smile. "So what happened to her?"
Leon's face became just noticeably more blushed.
"It didn't work out," he answered sheepishly.
Trunks laughed and looked back out over the city skyline.
"Leon," he began, "we live in a post-apocalyptic world, and you can lift a bus over your head. How did it not work out?"
Leon's temperament lightened noticeably.
"We just weren't right for each other," he said with a cross smile.
"What does that mean?" Trunks asked directly.
"Well," he paused, searching for the right words, "we didn't have… common interests."
"So she wasn't interested in the fact that you could lift a bus over your head?" Trunks shot back, poking fun.
Leon laughed.
"No," he clarified, "she wasn't… interesting."
"Is that you being nice when you're saying she was dumb?" Trunks teased.
"I didn't say she was dumb," he defended.
"Oh, man, now you're just confirming it," the Saiyan teased again.
"You said that," Leon shot back.
"Well she was blonde," Trunks joked.
"Jeeze, man, you want to back the bus up and try again for a mercy kill?" Leon asked, amazed at his friend's sarcastic,verbal brutality.
They laughed together, for the first time in a long time. Slowly, Leon worked to gain his composure back.
"In the end, she just wasn't…" he fought again for the right words. "Challenging."
Trunks' expression immediately changed, and Leon knew his word choice had been misconstrued.
"Intellectually, I mean," Leon clarified.
Trunks smiled broadly.
"Intellectually," the Saiyan repeated, his smile not fading.
Trunks let it go for a few moments and then added, "So is she really blonde?"
"Good grief, man!" Leon shouted hysterically.
Even Trunks was now beginning to blush.
"I'm just messing with you," Trunks said finally.
They shared another refreshing laugh followed by a moment of quietness.
"I've missed you, bro," Leon said sincerely.
"I missed you, too," Trunks reciprocated. "And I shouldn't have left without you. I was wrong… and angry. Angry with myself though. Angry that I let her die."
"You know she went out there that day for you?" Leon asked. "She knew that we were going to our deaths, but she wouldn't turn back. She kept telling me that no matter what, we had to keep Buu busy until you got back. I've wished a thousand times over it was me instead of her."
Trunks remained silent.
"I thought for sure I was gonna die that day; and I wish I had if it would have meant she didn't," he continued. "I'm sorry that I didn't keep her safe for you."
Trunks' eyes watered at the edges.
"It wasn't your job to protect her," Trunks replied quietly, sniffing away a tear. "It wasn't your burden to bear. I'm glad you lived; and you should be too."
"You're a good man," Leon said as he put his hand on Trunks' shoulder.
"You wouldn't have believed so if you'd seen me out there… when I left, I mean," Trunks said quietly. "In some ways, I'm glad you weren't there. I was a different person out in space; just as cold as the void I traveled through. I'm glad you didn't see me like that."
"Avien said you were pretty brutal," Leon noted.
"Poor girl was scared to death of me," the Saiyan admitted.
"Really?" his friend asked.
"I incinerated a man surrendering in front of me," he elaborated. "And then I brought down the entire building on all of his people. You could see it in Avien's eyes. Fear, anxiety, anger, and relief all at once. She was relieved to be free, but petrified at the means by which I got her there. I slaughtered those people, Leon. I destroyed their leader in front of them as he begged for his life and then brought half their capitol burning down on them as I left."
Leon's eyes were wide as he listened to Trunks' confession.
"I took Avien, and we left," Trunks continued. "Truth is, I really didn't even want to take her with me. Figured she'd be more trouble than it was worth. But I couldn't just leave her there. I had hoped I could just leave her on her home planet after she told me where New Namek was. But when we got there, her planet was a wasteland. Everything and everyone had been destroyed. What made things worse, was I still wanted to leave her there."
"Why didn't you?" Leon asked.
Trunks sighed.
"I guess I saw myself," he said ambiguously, but then clarified. "I remembered what it was like to lose all the ones you love. I saw myself after Gohan died, and there was nothing left but the Androids and more death. Even though I wanted to, I couldn't manage to leave her there. Then Avien and Dende ended up saving my life on New Namek. Turns out, I couldn't do everything on my own. I guess I had to learn the hard way."
Leon hesitated, but was curious if he could get the answer to the question he had asked Avien early that morning.
"Why do you think she went with you?" Leon asked carefully.
"She didn't really have a choice," the Saiyan replied casually, telling half the truth. "If I'd been in her shoes, I guess it would have been an obvious choice too."
Leon reluctantly accepted his friend's answer, but reflected on the conversation he had with Avien earlier that morning. Trunks remained quiet for a moment, but then noticed that his friend was still quiet in thought. Reluctantly, Trunks decided to use the skills he had developed from his training with Supreme Kai, and he listened to Leon's thoughts for a moment. After a few moments, Leon's string of questioning made more sense. Trunks half-smiled to himself: Leon was interested in Avien.
"Hey, Leon," he said interrupting his friend's thoughts. "Wanna go grab lunch in the city? I know this place that's got some pretty nice selections."
Leon's attention came slowly back to Trunks' offer.
"Uh, yeah, man," he agreed. "Sounds good. Lead the way."
They floated up off the balcony, and Trunks led Leon northward out over the city.
Dende trailed just behind and off to the side of his young, Saiyan friend, Gohan. They had only been flying for perhaps fifteen or so minutes when he began to notice a small, vertical line in the sky ahead of them.
"Am I seeing things?" Dende asked himself as he squinted to better focus.
He blinked a few times to be sure, but the faint line ahead of him slowly began to grow more detail as he neared it. As they flew nearer, he could make out more details, and noted that it wasn't a line at all, but rather, an elaborately designed monolith that rose from the forest floor below them straight up into the sky above them.
"Gohan, what is that?" he shouted through the wind to his friend.
"It's Korin's tower," Gohan yelled back. "At the top of the tower is a platform we call 'The Lookout.' It used to be Kami's Lookout back when Piccolo was alive."
"Who is Kami?" Dende asked innocently.
"Kami was the Earth Guardian," Gohan explained. "But in order to become Earth's Guardian, Kami had to separate all of the evil in his soul from his physical self. The evil spawn was called King Piccolo. My father defeated King Piccolo while still a child; I hadn't even been thought of yet. But, before King Piccolo died, he produced an egg that would eventually bring about Piccolo as you and I knew him. But because of Kami and Piccolo's spiritual connection, when Piccolo was killed, Kami disappeared as well… along with the Dragon Balls."
"That's terrible," Dende lamented.
Gohan remained silent, but began to ascend at the monolith in front of them and led Dende up through the clouds to the top of the tower. Eventually, the monolith widened to a large, horizontally centered ellipse, open in the middle with eccentric handrails that ran the circumference of the structure. The structure's inner platform was supported by a series of thin columns that encircled the floor surface, and there was a small staircase that lowered along the outside of the structure to an inner atrium about halfway down the structure. Gohan led Dende onto the platform through the gap in the middle of the structure, and the two landed softly inside the open and empty chamber.
"Korin?" Gohan called out. "Korin, where are you, sir? It's me, Gohan!"
There was no reply. As they looked around, they could see that the entire platform had been vacated. Gohan, unwilling to give up, began to sense for Korin's life force to try to locate his long-absent friend. It was no use.
"I can't sense him at all up here," Gohan said finally. "Let's check the Lookout."
With that, he and Dende flew from the platform and continued to ascend past Korin's Tower to the long-forgotten Lookout. Dende noted as they continued to ascend that the Lookout itself was not connected to Korin's Tower; but, somehow, floated over the tower without the aid of supports. Once they had flown to the top of the world, they landed on the wide, circular floor of Kami's Lookout. Dende marveled at the large, domed temple at the far end of the grounds. The temple appeared to house three wings with a large dome over the center atrium and smaller domes over the two other wings. Four thin spires stood around the temple creating a large, rectangular perimeter from the center atrium. The Namekian was impressed. As he looked around the giant circular platform, he noted the series of trees at the outer most edge in four equal intervals around the circumference of the platform. There were two more gardens with what appeared to be palm trees parallel to the front entrance of the temple, seemingly creating a short path toward the front of the temple. Additionally, there were two other gardens of trees to each side of the long, pinkish canopy that spread out perpendicularly from the front entrance of the temple.
"This is Kami's Lookout?" he asked in amazement.
"Yep," Gohan answered. "Pretty cool, huh? Let's see if Mr. Popo is around."
"Who?" Dende asked, confused.
"Oh, Mr. Popo?" the Saiyan explained, "He was sort of like Kami's advisor. Mr. Popo's been around for a long time and had advised many Earth Guardians. He's pretty sharp, despite what you might think at first glance. Let's see if he's inside."
Gohan led Dende toward the central atrium of the temple.
"Mr. Popo!" Gohan shouted towards the open doorway to the temple. "Korin! Is anybody home?"
Dende followed his friend cautiously; curious, but also vigilant about everything around him.
"Do you think they're still living up here?" Dende asked quietly. "I don't know how they could sustain themselves up here without food and supplies. Perhaps they moved on."
"I doubt it," Gohan insisted. "Besides, Korin is a great gardener. You should try his beans…"
"If you say so," Dende replied with a shrug.
They entered the temple and stood in the central atrium, looking around for signs of life. Gohan and Dende remained quiet as they searched the area with their auras for any traces of life force. It was extremely difficult, they found, since their were all manner of mystical rooms and areas that hindered their focus.
"Mr. Popo!" Gohan shouted again, breaking the silence. "Damn, where are these guys?"
Suddenly, they could both feel the presence of others. But they seemingly came from nowhere and were immediately in the room!
"Gohan?" a soft voice all but whispered. "Gohan, is that you?"
They turned to see a short, pitch-black skinned man with pink lips and large eyes. The man wore loose, white pants with red upturned-ended shoes, dark red sash and vest, and had a white turban with a large sapphire in the center piece above his forehead. Dende also noted that he wore small, hooped, gold earrings and large, gold bracelets, just above the elbows.
"Mr. Popo!" Gohan exclaimed. "I'm so glad you're still alive!"
"Me too!" Popo agreed. "But I am confused as to how you are still alive, my friend."
"Where'd you find the Dragon Balls?" a raspier, older voice asked.
Dende quickly matched the voice to a small white-gray cat that stood on two legs and carried a grey, wooden staff.
"New Namek, I'd say," the diminutive feline grunted.
"Korin, it's great to see you again!" Gohan shouted as he knelt to hug both of his old friends.
"Good to see you again, too, Kid," Korin replied. "But I must ask, who is the Namek you've brought with you?"
"I'm Dende, Sirs," the young Namekian said respectfully. "It is a great honor to meet you both. Gohan has told me about you."
"Has he now?" Korin asked inquisitively.
Dende noticed that the small, bipedal feline squinted most of the time he spoke.
"How did you get back to life?" Popo asked.
"Obviously, with the Dragon Balls," Korin snorted without waiting for Gohan to answer. "Here the boy stands with a Namek. Clearly someone went to New Namek. Trunks? Come, my boy, let's have tea, and you can tell us all about it."
"Actually," Gohan interrupted, "I have a few things that I need to ask you, and then a few other things I need to take care of… urgently. And besides, Dende here could tell the story better than I could, and I would like you two to get to know him. I think he will be staying with us for a while, and maybe he could hang out here more often…?"
Korin and Popo looked at each other, then back at Gohan and Dende.
"Is this about the dark power in the skies?" Popo asked.
"Partly," Gohan explained. "But, I need to know if my father left anything here at the Lookout before he died."
Korin looked at Popo to answer.
Mr. Popo thought to himself for a moment, but drew no memories of Goku's property remaining at the Lookout.
"No, I'm sorry, Gohan," Popo answered. "As far as I know, all of his belongings were either at your house or at Master Roshi's house."
"Gotcha," the Saiyan replied. "Well, I'm going to go look at my house for a few things. Would you two mind telling Dende about the Lookout and the Earth for a bit?"
Dende's expression changed as he looked at Gohan with confusion.
"I think he would make a great Guardian," Gohan insisted.
"What?!" all three resounded.
"Gohan, what are you talking about?" Dende asked. "I don't know the first thing–."
"Trust me," Gohan interrupted him. "You'd be great at it. I know it. Wouldn't you agree Mr. Popo?"
"Is the boy willing to take on such responsibility?" Popo asked with his usual softness.
Dende looked silently at Gohan, then at the ground.
"I don't even know what kind of responsibility being a Guardian entails," he replied evenly.
"Relax," Gohan insisted. "Just enjoy some tea with Mr. Popo and Korin, and I'll be back in just a little while. Then we can all sort it out together. While you wait, take a tour of the Lookout. It's really an impressive place."
"Where are you going?" the Namekian asked.
"My parents' house," Gohan answered. "And maybe by Roshi's house. I need to find something, and then I'll be back. It won't take long, I promise."
"But you said your parents' house was on the other side of the continent, Gohan," he argued. "That could take until tomorrow for you travel there and back."
"I promise you I'll be back in an hour," Gohan said confidently.
"How?" Korin interjected. "That's a long way, even for you, Kid."
"Trust me," Gohan insisted. "I'll be back soon."
Without another word, Gohan raised his first two fingers of his right hand to the center of his forehead and focused his senses on Master Roshi's house, or, more accurately, Roshi's life force. As he located it, he centered his focus and projected forward.
As the others watched in confusion, Gohan disappeared from their view. Dende immediately focused his aura, sensing for Gohan's energy. His Saiyan friend was nowhere to be found. He had completely vanished. Dende continued to search for Gohan's life force, and, then, somewhere distant, he felt it again.
"Whoa," Dende whispered to himself. "How did he…?"
"He's definitely his father's son," Korin said, cutting the Namekian off. "Always a new trick up their sleeves."
