"Sorry about Old Kai not showing up." Trunks told Yarro, as he strolled through Conton City beside her, each with an ice cream in hand. He'd foregone his usual coat and had tied his hair back, having just came back from a mission and not feeling like getting dressed up in heavy gear again. "You'll start getting used to Kais eventually – not many people come out of old age acting how you'd expect, and they're the oldest people around. I'll talk with him."

"Thank you." Yarro said. "Fortunately, Jinni and Kedavra were there to greet me in his stead."

"I heard about that. How did it go?"

"It went well." Yarro nodded. Then she noticed that Trunks still seemed to be waiting. "The sparring was especially interesting - I was not familiar with posing techniques, nor the kind of flexibility Majin have. I think that I had the upper hand against Jinni, but Kedavra was good at closing distance and preventing me from moving. I look forward to learning about new techniques to counter that in the future."

"That's good to hear." Trunks said, then took a lick of his ice cream. "How did you get along with your instructional videos? I know it's hard to get into them to start with, but you'll be finished before you know it."

"I finished them last night."

"...huh." Trunks smiled. "You're one of those people who like to get stuck in right away. That's always nice to see. Can you tell me what a Bootstrap Paradox is?"

"There is a man who has a time machine. He has a fondness for a particular composer, so he goes back to meet him. But, when he gets there, he finds that the composer doesn't exist. If he doesn't exist, he can't write the music that this man likes so much. So this man uses his records of the music, and gets it published, thus becoming the composer. But, if this composer didn't exist, then who wrote the music?"

Trunks smiled widely, partially due to Yarro's diligence, partially because she had to rush to get a bead of ice cream that had rolled down her cone. "You've got that part right, but how does it apply to the Time Patrol?

Yarro concentrated. "In the proper timeline, a Namekian saves an Earthling. An anomaly has made it so that the Namekian is incapable of saving the Earthling. If a Time Patroller saves the Earthling, it becomes a Bootstrap Paradox, or rather, a Casual Loop. We only know the Earthling has to be saved, because they were, and we save them, thus becoming the reason they were saved."

"And?"

"And it's an acceptable way to resolve an anomaly, but the proper course of action would be for the Time Patroller to prevent what happened to the Namekian, so that they still save the Earthling. This prevents the paradox and still allows the Earthling to be saved."

"That's-"

"-Right." The person finishing the sentence had arrived in a blur of deep red, and was standing in front of the pair with a smirk on her lips. She stood a little taller than Yarro, with defined muscles on her exposed arms. She wore baggy red gi, with a big sedge hat that cast her face in faint shadows. But what drew Yarro's eye was the furry Saitan tail wrapped around her waist. "Oh, you guys got ice cream. Sweet." She said, as her hand darted out and both people found a finger-sized gouge in their ice-cream while the Saiyan sucked her fingers.

"Hello there, Isala." Trunks said, with little more than a glance at his loss of ice cream. "I was just showing Yarro around Conton City. How was the debriefing?"

"It was good." Isala said. "SKoT was happy, so I am, too. Is your arm feeling better?" She asked, with a faint jab at Trunks right arm.

Trunks dipped just to the side and the pair laughed. "It's doing just fine. I'm just glad it wasn't torn off."

"Torn off of you?" Isala snorted. "Yeah, right. You could have beat the crap out of him any time you wanted."

"Well, yeah, but that kind of power level would drive the rest of the world crazy. We can't le-"

"Oh, you're in mentor mode. Got it." Isala bobbed her head and looked to Yarro. "Hey, I'm Isala, Trunks' partner."

"I'm...aware." Yarro nodded, having spent the last exchange just taking in the conversation between the pair. "The Hero of Toki Toki City and vanquisher of Old Kai, correct?"

"Yeah, but I don't like to brag about it." Isala shrugged. "Trunks told me that you managed to solve a time anomaly all by yourself, so you must be some kind of badass. Sorry I wasn't there to see it, but I was dealing with the jerks that gave that guy the device in the first place."

"Is that so?" Yarro's eyes flicked to her slowly-melting ice cream. "Was that Towa and Mira?" Then quickly lapped up the falling dairy, feeling less-than-elegant in the process.

"Yeah!" Isala said. "Well, she was one of their lackeys – nobody's allowed to engage the pair of them solo – but she went down all the same. The mission we just went on was a follow-up, y'know, finding out how she got her hands on a Time Ring in the first place? She's not that talkative, but we'll get what we want."

"This isn't really appropriate to be talking about with a new initiate," Trunks pointed out. "So, uh, why don't we talk about something else?"

"Okay. How's your girlfriend?" Isala asked.

"She's fine." Trunks said. "She wants to visit Conton City again soon."

"You're allowed to have contact with people outside of the Time Patrol?" Yarro sked.

"Hm? Oh, yeah. It can be complicated, because this place exists outside of time, but my mother helped invent something that keeps everything chronological if you need to contact somebody. You won't accidentally call them at a time you've already called them after, for example." Trunks said.

"Remind me why she doesn't just live here?" Isala asked. "It's much nicer than some boring old Earth."

"She likes it on Earth, I like visiting her, and maybe she knows she'd have to put up with you if she lived here." Trunks explained.

"What? I'm delightful." Isala smiled lopsidedly. "Everyone likes me."

"You saved their lives, and they've all had Time Patroller training." Trunks said. "Mai's lived through war, but I don't think she's ready for somebody stealing her food, her clothes, or impromptu sparring sessions."

"She'll be fine! She lives with your fashion sense." Isala laughed.

"Hey now. Everyone says I look cool." Trunks joined in.

"Lime green with bright red and blue? Get out of here."

"You're literally wearing a farmer's hat."

"It's a sedge hat, and sedge hats are cool. You think so, right, Yarro?"

Yarro had been enjoying the banter between the pair, because it reminded her of her own squad and the silly banter they would often have. Being put on the spot so soon, and in so similar a spot as they would have put her in, felt somehow comfortable.

"I do." Yarro said. "And it would be improper not to side with a fellow Saiyan."

"Oh, come on." Trunks said. "That's just unfair. I'm half-Saiyan."

"Then I suppose I half-agree with you." Yarro said.

"You're lucky we're not arguing with his father." Isala noted. "He'd have pulled the Prince card by now."

"Hey, you can't use him against me." Trunks said.

"It's for morale purposes!" Isala said. "You have no idea how many times we've had to go back to fix anomalies involving his father. Gets beat up? Prince of all Saiyans. Doesn't get a chance to get beat up? Prince of all Saiyans. Stubs his toe? Prince of all Saiyans."

"That's...fair." Trunks admitted.

"That does sound a great deal like King Sadala." Yarro nodded. "In that he is a proud man, though I've yet to see him lose a fight."

"Just about every King is like that." Isala said. "They forget that they're made of the same stuff everyone else is, and it doesn't take long for them to start buying into their own hype. You know you've got an ass on your hands when they start making statues of themselves."

"Don't you have a holographic statue at the center of the fountain?" Yarro raised an eyebrow.

"I didn't make it." Isala shrugged. "SKoT just told me to stand still one day and bam! There's my face looming over everyone. Makes people think I'm tall, when, y'know," She gestured over her short, lithe form. "That's hard to explain to newcomers, especially Namekians. I have to fly to get eye-to-eye."

"The Time Patrollers need a good role model, and there's nobody better than you." Trunks assured Isala. "Besides, you'd actually get yelled at for stealing food if that statue weren't there."

"Ehh...okay." Isala smiled. "So, Yarro, what's next for you? Going to cap the day off with studying?"

"Indeed. I'm interested in reading more about Super Saiyans. I'm interested in learning more about it, but there's not a lot to go on." Yarro answered.

"I...wouldn't advise doing that. It's a policy of the Time Patrollers." Trunks informed Yarro, uncertainly. "There aren't a lot of public records about Super Saiyans for...well, a lot of reasons. You'll be able to read more about them when you've got more experience as a Time Patroller."

"Yeah, trust us on this." Isala said. "You don't want to find out more about it until later, anyway. I can recommend some good techniques for you to look up. There's some cool stuff, like making mirror images of yourself, growing extra limbs, oh, and Instant Transmission."

"You want her to learn Instant Transmission already?" Trunks laughed. "Wouldn't that bore her away from here?"

"Yeah, I know. It's really boring." Isala looked to Yarro. "It takes a lot of time to learn, more than most techniques, and it's not actually helpful for fighting compared to other, similar techniques, but it's really good if you want to get around quickly, and across huge distances. But, it's best saved for when you're attuned to the Time Nest and can spend a long time doing whatever."

"I...see." Yarro said. "Will either of you be helping with training directly?"

"I don't think so." Trunks said. "We have our own training to keep track of, plus our duties in the Time Patrol, but we can spare some time here and there if you really need it. Don't worry; the academy will be able to get you on your feet faster than you can imagine. Only the best."

"And speaking of going, I've gotta dash." Isala said, as she hovered a couple of inches off of the ground. "I've got another date with SKoT, and she's promised that this time she won't burn the tea. Wish me luck!"

"Goodbye. Remember to get an early night!" Trunks said.

"Farewell." Yarro nodded.

Isala did a small salute and was out of sight.

"So, what do you think of our hero?" Trunks asked, as he turned to Yarro and put his hands on his hips. "She can be a bit of a handful, but she's got a good heart and there's nobody more dedicated to the Time Patrol than her."

"She seems pleasant." Yarro said. "Who is this SKoT she keeps referring to?"

"That's her nickname for the Supreme Kai of Time." Trunks explained. "I wish I could say it was to save her a mouthful, but, I think she just finds it fun. And the Supreme Kai of Time has a soft spot for her."

"For her heroics?" Yarro asked.

Trunks laughed nervously and scratched his head. "Let's just say she likes her Saiyans to have some spirit and leave it at that."