(A/N: Yeah I know, I know. I skipped a week, and I'm sorry, but hopefully the length makes up for it? Unfortunately I do have to prepare for my exams in a couple of weeks as well, and I do have to prioritise those. I probably shouldn't be writing at all when it's so close to my exams, but I want to, and it's a good way for me to vent, so I will regardless. I will also say that I've been really stressed recently, so enthusiasm wasn't there for a while, and again, I'm sorry about that. Anyway, I want to address Chi Chi and what is going on in her head. At the moment she is NOT in remorse, but more fearful of what Goku would do if he found out about her little escapade. Her explosion at the end of the last chapter was more of a fight-or-flight action more than an emotional outburst. I do hope to get some more story progression done this chapter, I want to withhold the knowledge of events from Goku a bit longer. I want him to build a relationship with the Saiyans, particularly Caulifla, before I release the juicy news to him. I also think that some time needs to pass. I mean, all the events so far have happened in a single day, and in my opinion I should have spread it out over longer period of time, but it's done now, so whatever. Anyway, I hope you enjoy this chapter, so read, review and favourite if you want to read more!)
Chapter 7: Restlessness to Realisation
Caulifla couldn't sleep. Surely she couldn't have gotten all of her energy back in that one short nap? No, she was being kept awake by something it was just a bad feeling about something? A It kept her restless.
In an attempt to concentrate on something, rather than pondering on nothing, the female prodigy decided to find out how things had gone on her trainer's return home. She chose to check the Ox Princess' ki first, considering her erratic mood swings, it was probably a good idea. It was somewhat difficult to put a pin on her mood, though it seemed like the woman was scared, her ki fluctuating constantly in a jumpy fashion. Not a good sign.
Walking down the hallway, Caulifla stopped at Kale's door, and peering in she found that her sister (she may as well call her that at this point, the girl was so emotionally attached to her) was not having the same difficulty at sleeping as she was.
Judging by Goku's ki however (which she had been keeping an eye on occasionally, out of boredom and curiosity), he hadn't found out about his wife's sin. Curiously though, he didn't seem to be sleeping either, but his ki was calm-ish, and slowly, very slowly, rising. Where the hell was he though? He said he was going home to sleep because it was late, and he was presumably going to talk with his wife, so why would he be gallivanting, or relaxing, in the middle of nowhere.
Well, there was probably no harm in going to check out what he was up to, he was basically asking people to come and find him with his ki risen that high anyway. Plus, she would be able to find out how on Sadala -'Or Earth now-' she mused- they found each other in their….position….earlier that day. Caulifla shivered, before walking out of her new, home?...and shooting off into the sky, on the path to whatever wasteland that Goku was hiding in.
Contrary to the Saiyan girl's assumption, Goku wasn't in just some barren wasteland, nor was he at peace. He was truly very troubled by the events that had transpired over the day, and floating atop the roof of Grandpa Gohan's house, he had the opportunity to mull over his emotions through meditation.
Why had Chi Chi been so upset? He may have shouted for what he considered was an understandable reason, and abruptly left, but it still didn't explain why she freaked out so much.
And then it hit him like a ton of bricks. Chi Chi could sense ki! Did she think that he and Caulifla had…..done…..that…..to her? He would never do such a thing! He only wanted to train the girls, not….fraternise with them! He wasn't Yamcha!
No, this wasn't the point of his meditation; he was here to calm his mind, and fretting about whatever other dilemma his wife was having. He began to regulate his breathing, and calm his mind, sat in the lotus position, eyes closed.
Besides, it wasn't as if Chi Chi was particularly passionate about doing those sorts of things anyway. Goku didn't lead his life directed by those things like Roshi or Oolong did, but he was a Saiyan, and one that had his hand in every single universe or multiverse-threatening battle in his lifetime. Stress and tension were bound to build up in his body due to it all, and going by the little information about Saiyan culture that Vegeta had forced him to listen to, it was the job of both the male and female Saiyan in a bond to….relieve each other's tensions occasionally so that they would be in a healthy body and mind to continue fighting.
Now again, Goku wasn't hung up about this sort of issue, if he had to guess he probably had more self-control that the entire of the Saiyan race combined, had it not been destroyed. Either way, Goku did respect his wife's wishes (somewhat, she was starting to wear down his patience) and would do so in this situation too.
However, it was getting to the point now where even meditation -his substitute method of drawing out and releasing stress- was doing little to help him, and the effectiveness was only decreasing by the day. This was probably due to the mental and emotional troubles he had been subject to recently, given that today he was having a particularly hard time clearing his head; after the eventful day it was understandable.
Concentrating on just calming himself enough to be able to sleep tonight-or morning, he wasn't really sure anymore- Goku rose slightly higher into the air, his ki following his altitude, and as time went by, instead of growing more at ease, he became more and more frustrated. On top of this, he was so lost in himself and his own emotions that he lost the hyper-awareness that one would normally experience during meditation, and couldn't even notice, the approaching Saiyan female, the one that he didn't realise was the source of this pent up frustration.
Caulifla was growing more and more concerned by the rising ki that belonged to her new trainer as she got closer to it. It had gone from steadily and somewhat calmly rising, to twisting and writhing in aggression. You can tell a lot about someone's current state by feeling their ki, and Caulifla was definitely disturbed by what she found in Goku's. Surely she was getting something wrong. She wasn't even anywhere near him yet, and she could virtually measure the tension and stress in his energy. Maybe he had found out about his wife after all?
No, even with his temperament, any Saiyan would have flown off the hook and probably caused some devastating damage to the surrounding area. Besides, this tension didn't match match that sort of anger, not to mention that a furious outburst from Goku would have alerted even the most inept ki-sensors all way out in her universe, as well as an explosion in power that had the potential to destroy said universe from here.
Deciding not to think on this any longer, and instead get a look at the man she was theorising over, Caulifla sped up her flight, eager to find out what was causing him so much mental trauma.
Finally close enough to wherever Goku was for a building (presumably belonging to said Saiyan) to come into view, Caulifla slowed down to a halt and observed from a distance. It had actually taken longer that she had expected, although she may have just gotten lost in the confusing forests and mountains.
She moved a little closer, enough so that she could see exactly what Goku was doing, but far enough away that she wouldn't be noticed. Little did she know that she could be right in front of the man and still go unnoticed with his current level of awareness.
He seemed….unsettled, even more so than his ki let on earlier. He was surrounded by a visible aura, but not a calm one. It was flickering and sparking around him, though still unlike the albeit similar one that Super Saiyan 2 emitted. Even though the ascended state brought about cold emotions in those that weren't used to the form, this was unlike it, if the lack of blonde hair on Goku's head wasn't enough of an indicator.
Growing unsettled by the eerie atmosphere that the silence was casting upon the unfamiliar territory, the man's student closed the distance between them and tapped him on the shoulder.
No response.
How distracted was he? In front of him this time, Caulifla at least let some humour out and went to flick him on the nose.
Only to notice that she definitely got a response this time. Goku, seemingly subconsciously, grabbed her wrist and twisted it, enough to elicit an alarmed cry from his protegee. What the hell was up with him?!
"OI! Old man! What the hell are you doing!" Caulifla cried out. However Goku seemed to pay her outburst no mind, if he had even noticed it. His face was clouded over in darkness. And hiis grip was tightening; her wrist bone was beginning to succumb to the pressure. "Owowow! Stop it Goku, please!" The girl was howling out in pain at this point, and the use of just his first name was indicative of her pleading.
Luckily for her though, the wail had seemingly managed to snap him out of his daze. His eyes opened, and he looked confused, blinking at her blankly. Turning around to look at the position he was currently in, he jumped when he noticed that his hand was latched upon a wrist, and the person that the wrist belonged to was trying her very hardest to keep composed now that he had regained conscious thought.
Immediately, Goku retracted his hand and looked apologetically at Caulifla, before floating back down to the roof of Grandpa Gohan's house that he had previously been hovering over. The girl rubbed the sore joint, and shook her head rapidly to prevent her eyes from watering. She would not be seen as weak in front of her trainer!
"Oh crap, sorry Cauli! I didn't mean it!" Goku frantically blurted out.
The female prodigy was not impressed. "What the hell was that! You just sat there like a statue and grabbed me out of nowhere! Explain yourself, old man!"
Goku winced at the ferocity of her words. He didn't mean it, he just wasn't in the best of moods, and it was understandable why.
"Again, I'm sorry. I was trying to meditate, but it wasn't going well. It's stopped helping me clear my mind recently; I just end up getting more angry." He attempted to rationalise his action, though he could understand why grabbing her without holding back, when she wasn't expecting it would definitely set her off. He supposed it was lucky that she could take it, and shuddered at the thought of him accidentally doing that to Chi Chi. The woman would probably castrate him.
Caulifla eyed the man thoughtfully. So that was why he had managed to put up with a lack of...sustenance for the past however many years. He had meditated away his stress. Of course, most Saiyans would rather solve those issue in a more physical way, that's just how most were, but then again, Goku didn't seem like a particularly normal Saiyan. To be able to restrain himself/keep himself grounded for such a long time would be a marvel to anyone on Sadala. Chi Chi also seemed like the kind of person that would have used Goku for Gohan and Goten and left it at that, so 'years' seemed like a fair assessment. "Whatever, Son Goku. I'm impressed you haven't gone berserk with that woman for a wife as it is." Caulifla initially smirked at her remark, but frowned when Goku's reaction was abnormal, given his normal carefree mood. He had begun glaring coldly at the floor, by the looks of it in a depressed mood.
Giving in to her curiosity, Caulifla also descended, and sat down next to the man on the edge of the rooftop.
"Surely your mating, or marriage, wasn't so crappy from the beginning. How did a fighter like you manage to mate with someone who wants to take that fight away from you?" Caulifla questioned with genuine interest. It was extremely uncommon for any Saiyan to get married, let alone into a horrible relationship; rare enough for Caulifla to not be used to the phrase. So to her, for the strongest Saiyan in the multiverse to be involved in one of those rare cases told her that some level of trickery or confusion was involved.
It seemed that her suspicions were correct, judging by Goku's reply. He seemed to have some difficulty getting the words out as he spoke."Well, at the time I didn't know what marriage was. We met as kids, and I thought that it had something to do with food."
Caulifla snorted "I'm not surprised. No Saiyan I've ever met has knowingly done anything like that while in full understanding of the situation, and I expect that Vegeta guy would tell you the same thing, besides his family of course, being royalty."
Goku gave her a weak, faint smile in an attempt to show that he was paying attention. "Well, we matched up in a tournament years later, and well, she burst into tears when she thought I wasn't going to marry her, so I did. I still mostly thought it was related to food though, as well as the embarrassment that would have ensued afterwards"
That surprised her. "Woah, the old crank was a fighter? She shouldn't have let herself stop. But I'm not surprised she burst into tears; I've already seen that she uses it to try and get what she wants."
All that was heard following that was a lamenting sigh. It wasn't in her nature, but Caulifla felt somewhat bad for the guy. Here was a man that seemed so happy and carefree during a tournament of life and death of all things, as well as throughout the short time she'd been around him since, and to see him so put out was unnerving.
"I'm sorry for earlier today by the way, Caulifla. You passed out after our spar, so I took you back to your room and went to take of your weights, but I ran out of stamina and fell unconscious too." Goku said the words in regret, and the prodigy he was addressing noticed it and instantly forgave him. She run out of energy too, so she couldn't really blame him.
What she was surprised to find however, was that she didn't like it when Goku called her by the name that she would kill anyone else if they didn't use it, besides Kale. Huh. Maybe she'd gotten used to him calling her by the shorter version, so him not using it would mean something was wrong? Oh well, she didn't really care.
"Eh, I'm not bothered by it, don't worry. Just be careful not to tire out next time." Caulifla smirked at the man in jest, not noticing the implications of her own words.
Goku's mood wasn't improved. The ground had become very interesting to him, but he turned to face her, a pained look on his face. "Chi Chi got really angry at me earlier, and sad too. She can sense ki you know, even if it's not very well."
Although she looked intrigued by where his thoughts were going, Caulifla hadn't put two and two together. Luckily (or unluckily), Goku had done the thinking, and had come to a conclusion that was likely what was upsetting him.
"I think she got angry because she sensed us close together earlier. She probably thinks that I….besmirched our marriage because I was angry she spent all that money."
Caulifla blinked, before turning away and scowling in the direction of Goku's home. She didn't even care about the implications of what the man was saying, she was just angry at that stupid woman. Here Goku was remorseful for something that didn't even happen, feeling terrible about the prospect of upsetting his wife, while the wife in question couldn't give a shit about neither him nor his need to train, as well as committing the very act that Goku was terrified of doing to her, and right under his nose! What kind of horrible mate could ever do that, especially without-
Of course! This would explain why the woman didn't go insane after breaking the bond, and why Goku himself didn't go mad and destroy the universe in a fiery rage!
Realising that it had been silent for some time now, Caulifla turned back toward Goku, but kept the thought at the front of her mind. She would investigate later. For now, she would try to comfort the man in front of her. While still retaining her fierce image of course, she wasn't just charitable for the sake of it.
She put her hand on his shoulder, looking down at him and grinning. "Just get some sleep old man; your harpy wife doesn't deserve the thought or care."
"Besides," she started, punching him lightly on the shoulder. "You need to teach me all your techniques and forms!"
Goku actually grinned back at her for that. "Heh, I sure will. I won't let Vegeta surpass me, just as I won't let my students surpass his!" Staring back at her enthusiastic expression, his grin changed into a genuine smile. "You know, I'm glad I met you," Goku exclaimed adoringly. "You stood up to Chi Chi when she was in a frenzy, you already surpassed my expectations, and you managed to cheer me up, and all in the space of one day. Thank you, Cauli."
Caulifla looked into the orange-clad Saiyan's dark, onyx eyes. Filled with genuine interest and care, the look they shone penetrated hers and caused her face to heat up. Looking away from the innocent man that was clearly starved of the same interest and care by his wife, Caulifla grew more curious about her theory.
"Don't worry, Son Goku, I'll not let anyone surpass me, least of all the Princess and his cabbage plant. That reminds me, you don't have a Saiyan-sounding name. It's ironic that the strongest of all of us doesn't even represent our race by name."
Returning her quizzical stare, Goku replied in kind. "Well, I was given a Saiyan name at birth, and I was one of the only Saiyans not on Planet Vegeta when it was blown up. I had been sent to Earth to destroy it, but I hit my head on a rock and lost my Saiyan anger and thirst for destruction. My adopted grandfather, Son Gohan, called me Goku, but Vegeta and most other Saiyans call me Kakarot. I do like the name, but I was Goku for years, so I stuck with that."
"Fair enough. I think Kakarot's a pretty cool name too, for the record. Anyway, go get that sleep old man, you have teaching to do tomorrow."
And with that, Caulifla oddly ruffled the man's spiky locks and took off into the sky eagerly. Goku noticed that she wasn't quite going in the right direction, but shrugged his shoulders and yawned. She probably knew what she was doing. In the meantime, man he needed some sleep. Gone was the restless mood he was in before. His final meandering thought while drifting off on the roof was unsurprising, though somewhat saddening to him.
'You're better at cheering me up than my own wife is, Caulifla.'
Really far away from Goku's sleeping figure, Caulifla had kept an eye on the slowly decreasing power level she was moving away from, and was satisfied when she felt it fall enough to indicate that he was sleeping. This meant she could focus on what she had theorised about. If what she thought was true, then it would explain a lot about the abnormality that was Goku's relationship.
Okay, she had finally arrived. Man, Mt Paozu and the mountain ranges were huge! She imagined that, given the time, both the woman and her son would be asleep by now, though she would have to be careful about concealing her ki, so the little chibi wouldn't notice it and get up. As she suspected, the door had been kept unlocked, if it even had a lock. Chi Chi was a predictable being in everything besides her mood swings, Caulifla had gathered that in the short time she had spent around the woman.
Besides, she wasn't entering the house with malicious intent, she was only here to answer her question.
Or so she thought. Peering in to what she correctly assumed was the Ox Princess' room, she saw the figure that Kale had mentioned, and her mood immediately darkened, with an ominous urge to creating a small ki blade and ending her trainer's source of upset right then and there. However, she held back, knowing that was one of the stupidest things she could do, given the current circumstances, and she looked towards the woman in curiosity. She was lying face down into her pillow, and the covers were doing what the name implies well.
Now was the critical moment to not get caught, and it would be best if the didn't disturb anyone in the house. Concentrating, Caulifla began to generate a constant gust of ki, that slowly heated up the room, and more importantly the bed in front of her.
'Please, please, please….' Caulifla pleaded in her head, her look transfixed on the movements of Chi Chi. Her prayers were answered when the woman in question subconsciously turned over in discomfort due to the heat.
This allowed Caulifla to take a look at what she had wanted to see, and what she saw proved her theory but also shocked her. Of course, this explained how the woman could turn against her mate and not be concerned about him or his feelings at all.
Smirking at herself, Caulifla quietly made her way out of the house on Mt Paozu, making sure that there was no sign of her entrance. She flew into the air and into the distance, satisfied by what she had found.
There was no Saiyan marking of ownership on Chi Chi's neck.
INSERT LINE BREAK
It was finally morning, and Goku woke up with a contented stretch. Had he really slept on the roof? Wow, that sure was one great nap!
He hadn't been of the best energy for the past few weeks, and that particular rest had him wake up with all the energy in the world. He felt ready for training today. In fact, he was going to train right now, and all he needed to do was grab Caulifla, and Kale if she wanted to as well.
Concentrating his energy, Goku searched for the energy of Caulifla first. He got a lock on it within seconds, despite the distance, and found it to be encompassing a good, relaxed mood. Assuming that she wasn't still asleep, he used Instant Transmission for once, rather than flying over like he had been doing recently That had turned out to be a mistake, and he would realise this in the next few moments.
The Saiyan didn't really allow himself the opportunity of taking in the surroundings, and just began talking immediately after appearing.
"Hey Cauli!" Goku spoke into thin air, knowing she wouldn't be too far from where he was stood. "I know it's a bit early, but I'm really pumped to get started today! I'm thinking we try and get you to Super Saiyan 3 today, how does that sound!"
Bouncing on his feet out of excitement, he had barely finished speaking before his eyes widened, and he yelped at the sudden realisation of where he had ended up.
The man had wound up teleporting right into the...bathroom of the Capsule house. It was certainly a modern-looking bathroom, which wasn't surprising considering how the house was one of the premium ones, made by the richest company in the world. Now, this was a problem because most modern bathrooms, especially those of this size (seriously, this Capsule house was HUGE), had walk-in showers, with full-glass windows.
Caulifla had been minding her own business after waking up, and had decided to take a long, steamy shower to prepare her for the day ahead, which was likely to consist of gruelling training. Due to this, she had figured out how to turn up the power and heat of the water, and was at first oblivious to Goku's rantings about training, even managing to miss the infamous pop that his Instant Transmission was known for. However, she had heard the noisy gasp that he had emitted, and turned around to see what the weird noise was, and her eyes met Goku's dilated ones for a few shocked moments.
The Saiyan duo stared at each other in disbelief for a while, though admittedly for different reasons, and both could feel the heat rising to their cheeks. This was, however, until Caulifla shook her head rapidly and screamed, scaring the living daylights out of the man in front of her, though not before he unwillingly got a long look at the woman in front of him.
Adrenaline building up in his veins, Goku let out a quick "Sorry!" and turned on his heels, heading speedily for the door. Unfortunately for him, the modern bathroom also had come equipped with a very secure, Saiyan-proof locking system, and this meant that the Saiyan in question was trapped in here with another who had grown a large tick on her forehead, though more out of shock than genuine anger.
After a fair few minutes of stereotypical chasing had passed, a very flustered Goku had decided that it would be better to smash a window and sort it out later than suffer any more of Caulifla's wrath than he already had. Perhaps it would be a good idea to just keep on flying to places when he was going to drop in somewhere unannounced.
With a deafening crash, Goku landed outside and eased when he heard a faint sigh of relief in the background. After staring at the floor in embarrassment for a few minutes and pushing the surfacing images to the back of his mind, he finally got up to officially get the Saiyans for training. Making the better decision this time around, he opted for entering through the front door, where he was greeted in the hallway by a shifty Caulifla, who was more focused on the grains of dirt in the floor than her trainer.
Goku had managed to draw his eyes upwards to look her in the face, and stifled a cough to break the awkward silence. "We should, uh, go train early today, if you wanna make progress"
Caulifla looked up, a pink tint still colouring her facial features. She wasn't really bothered by the prospect herself; hell but what she was concerned about was Goku's reaction and the thoughts going through his head, and more importantly, whether that would inhibit his focus during the day's training. For now, she would act like normal, as a guy like Goku probably wouldn't be fazed by something like this anyway.
"Yeah whatever old man, just don't pull any shit like that again, got it!" She smirked at the man, and received his stereotype response in return. Phew, all tension dissipated.
Goku scratched the back of his neck with his right hand, and chuckled at her. "Yeah, sorry about that, I'll just fly from now on. Anyway, is Kale coming today?"
His question was answered when said Legendary Super Saiyan appeared from around the corner. "Yes, I d-don't need to get as strong as you two, but I want to t-turn Super again."
Goku was taken aback by this. "You can't turn Super Saiyan anymore? Man that sucks, it probably means I won't be able to train you then. I'm not very good at teaching people proper ki manipulation," he exclaimed. Shrouded in thought for a few moments, he spoke back up after he looked to have had an epiphany. "Oh, I know! I'll bring you to Piccolo! He's way better at that stuff than me!"
Behind him, Caulifla neered. "What, that green Namekian? We're stronger than him, well, Kale would be at Super Saiyan."
It appeared that Goku was expecting this response, and he merely chuckled. "Well, Piccolo is weaker than us, but he's a lot cleverer when it comes to energy and meditation, I bet he'd get Kale back to Super status in no time!"
Kale seemed convinced, and put her hand on Goku's shoulder when he prepared his Instant Transmission. Goku glanced at her, and then looked back at Caulifla with a grin. "I'll be back in a little bit. Don't worry, I won't be stumbling on anyone in the shower this time!" He ruffled her spiky black hair, before disappearing with a pop, and Kale's shocked "What?" echoed with it.
Caulifla was more taken aback by what Goku did, not said. Was this hair thing just going to be a natural exchange between the two now? 'Whatever,' she thought as she trudged over to the gravity chamber in the mountain. 'I need to show him how capable for Super Saiyan 3 and Blue I am!'
Entering the chamber with high levels of anticipation, the Saiyan prodigy turned up the gravity, ready to train in her base form for maximum strength gain.
Piccolo was having a rough time today. He could dodge well enough, he supposed, however attacking was not going so well. Gohan was definitely not cutting him any slack, and he was improving fast. Talk about prodigies. The Son family was practically crawling with them, and he had heard from his student that Goku had taken on two exceptionally talented Saiyans, and he already knew of Vegeta's student.
As if his thoughts had become reality, Piccolo was shocked when a nasty punch that Gohan had aimed at him was deflected by the face of a man in a Turtle School gi that had appeared with an unknown girl.
"OWOWOWOWOW!" Goku yelped, and thanked the Kais that Gohan wasn't in his Mystic state. Why did this remind him of Beerus and lettuce?
"Dad?" "Goku?"
"What are you doing here?" The two both looked confused. Why would Goku feel the need to come here, and who was this new person. Gohan remembered her face from somewhere, maybe the tournament?
"Hey guys! How goes the training? Gohan, you've gotten way stronger, I'm proud of you!" Goku replied rapidly, clearly excited about something.
Smirking at Goku's praise of his son, and by extension, his teaching of the man, Piccolo stopped charging the Special Beam Cannon that he had begun building up, and spoke up. "He's been improving very quickly. Anyone would've thought that he hadn't stopped training at all since Majin Buu." He turned to Kale. "Say, you're Kale from the tournament aren't you?. Another Saiyan I presume?"
Kale blinked, shocked at the fact that she was recognised from her beserk from, where she assumed he remembered her from. She didn't have any memories of the tournament during the time that she was in that form, and going by what Caulifla had told her about it, she had been the one to cause all that damage to the fighting stage, and she and bulked up to look completely different than usual. "Uh, yes, I am a Saiyan, but I don't have the same Super Saiyan form than anyone else." Turning away and looking at the floor, she spoke to herself glumly. "Actually, I don't have any Super Saiyan form at the moment."
Unfortunately for her embarrassment, Piccolo's extremely sensitive Namekian ears picked it up where the other two didn't hear. "You're like Gohan here too then. He may not have lost the form entirely, but he lost Super Saiyan 2 and barely made it to the first state when Frieza returned not so long ago." With that, he nodded at Gohan, who transformed into his Mystic form, showing the power that he had regained in the time he had spent training recently.
Kale looked towards the Saiyan hybrid, who now had his father's trademark neck-scratching on show. This man had been extremely weak only a short time ago? His power was immense! Could this Piccolo help her to reach this kind of power as well? Perhaps she should aim for higher than just Super Saiyan after all.
Piccolo broke the silence by announcing something that made the Saiyan girl's heart jump. "I can sense a massive power coming from you too. If you could harness it, your strength would be comparable to Goku at Super Saiyan 3 at least."
Sensing his opportunity, Goku attempted to capitalise on the moment. "So how about it Piccolo? You know I'm not good with teaching meditation, I just do it. Plus, I can't train both of the girls if they need different things. What do you think?"
It would've been hard for Piccolo to refuse, and luckily he seemed willing. "I don't see why not. I'm training Gohan as it is, and I'd imagine I'm better at multitasking than a Saiyan," the Namekian grinned at Goku competitively.
Said man laughed in reply. "Awesome! I wish I could stay longer, but Super Saiyan 3 takes a long time to learn, and Cauli doesn't want to just wait around. Bye Gohan, Piccolo! And Kale, I'll probably come and pick you up in the evening sometime, okay? Have fun you guys!"
With that, he disappeared in a flash.
"Did he say 'Cauli?'"
Having been to the area enough times to recognise it for Instant Transmission, Goku used the land as a guideline instead of Caulifla's ki this time. She was probably in the gravity chamber, but he was taking no risks. Especially if he has to look Chi Chi in the face later. He may not have done it on purpose, but he felt guilty anyway.
Meandering over to the chamber in the mountain, allowing the Saiyan girl to train a while longer without him, Goku felt an unease settling in his stomach. Unbeknown as to why, he kept on, and walked into the room a while later. What he immediately noticed was the crazy high gravity setting that the room was on. He had to push out extra energy to stay stood upright. On top of this sight that greeted him also made him do a double take as well.
There was Caulifla, lying on the floor, barely conscious. It looked as though she hadn't even powered up to Super Saiyan in this gravity! If that was the case, then why was the gravity so high?
All of a sudden, his question was brutally answered, by the means of a gravity increase. Of course! Caulifla had put the gravity modifier to incrementally increase, and had let her confidence go to her head.
That wasn't the issue at hand, however. The issue was the pained scream that shook the room almost as much as the change in gravity had.
In a whirlwind of movement, Goku powered up and smacked off the controls forcefully. Instantly the pressure in the room was lifted, and just in the nick of time, too. Caulifla dropped to the floor, her energy completely dropped. If the gravity had increased again, she would have been a goner!
"CAULI!" Goku roared. This was not supposed to happen!
Goku phased out, appeared in front of Caulifla and pulled her to his chest, before leaping out of the door and blasting off into the distance, with Korin's Tower in his tunnel vision.
Dammit, why didn't this girl do moderation? Sure, confidence was great, but when you get to a certain point of overexertion, you're destroying your body and making no progress.
Caulifla ached all over, the pain nigh unbearable. She attempted to prise open her eyes with her hands, but found that not only could she not bring up the energy to do so, but that even if she could, her arms were being held in a way that kept them from move.
With about all the strength she could muster, Caulifla's eyes slowly opened. Okay, so she was in Goku's arms -again- and he hadn't seemed to notice her stirring, his dark, onyx eyes showed determination. Heh, he was concerned, cute. The question was, why? Had she pushed herself too far in the gravity chamber? Dammit, all she wanted was to prove herself, and now she'd gone and made a fool of herself instead.
However, the warmth that Goku was generating, from the bridal-style of carry that he had her in, was foreignly comfortable to her. No raging pheromones with time, only exhaustion and contentedness. Huh. Well, she didn't have the energy to ponder why too much.
In fact, her eyes had already been forced shut again from the icy stings of the speeding wind, and it wouldn't be long before she passed out again.
So then, Caulifla decided to just let unconsciousness take her instead of fighting it. She didn't mind being like this anyway, not that she had a choice.
Korin had enjoyed the long era of peace that the Earth had been subject to over the past few years. Or at least, the lack of destruction. Any invading villains had been relinquished quickly, before they could cause a huge amount of damage like Cell and Majin Buu had.
In addition to that, he was glad he didn't need to shell out his senzu beans all the time. These things took a very long time to grow! Even with Bulma's aid these beans still took at least a month for a batch of them, and he had been saving them up for a while. Having had to shell out some for when Goku and Vegeta had gone to that future timeline, he was more determined than ever to keep his stocks high. Who knew when the next enemy would show up and cause harm? Especially now that every universe knew Goku's name, and saw him as stronger than a god, and the strongest of those 8 participating universes. Piccolo had told him of Jiren, a being that had impressed Goku and vice versa, so it was likely that he would be showing up for a fight soon, and while it wouldn't be hostile, the destruction from a battle of their level could cause some serious damages.
Well, enough of the pondering. Looking out over the edge of his tower, Korin searched about for the interesting group of Saiyans that had arrived yesterday. It was his and Dende's job to watch over the Earth and it's inhabitants after all, and those 3 energies were hard to miss for those that had learnt to sense the measly energy of normal humans. Korin blocked out the low energies of the humans to pick out just those 3.
Okay, so the male one had begun training with Vegeta, and he seemed to be making good progress already. One of the girls -the quieter one- had started meditation with Piccolo up on the Lookout this morning, but what about the other one?
Wasn't she the strongest of the trio? Why couldn't he sense her ki?
As if in answer to his question, Korin became aware of a massive ki that seemed to be approaching him. Really? Out of all the days, one where he had been thinking about his growing senzu collection, was the day that someone showed up in need of them.
Korin checked again. So that energy was Goku, but he seemed fine, so who was it in such dire need of healing that he would be moving so fast? He should just wait. And wait he did.
For less than a minute before Goku showed up. He hadn't even seen the man on the horizon, he was so fast and frantic that he's appeared as if from nowhere. And he could see why
Ah, so there was that girl, Caulifla was it? No wonder he couldn't find her before, her energy was so low that it was barely readable with her right in front of him. And he'd prefer it if he wasn't in front of him, to be honest; the sight wasn't pretty, at least in her current condition.
She was bruised all over, there were scuffs all over her skin, and there was a noticeable lack of blood on one side of her body, as if she'd been subject to a pressure to have it move to the other odd thing was how
"Hey Korin! Sorry, no time for introductions, do you have a Senzu bean?! Caulifla really needs one. She pushed herself too far when I brought Kale to Piccolo! She set the gravity way too high! If I hadn't come in-"
"Goku calm down," Korin cut in sternly. Man, he'd never seen the Saiyan in such a state! He hadn't even been nervous when the Cell Games was approaching, yet he was so concerned about this situation, even though similar things used to happen all the time. Maybe it was something about this girl.
He supposed it didn't matter. Watching the man in curiosity, Korin grabbed a senzu bean and threw it at him as fast as he possibly could. Goku instantly looked up from the girl and moved his hand to catch it in a flash, wasting no time as he knelt Caulifla's head on his leg. He carefully prised open her jaw and crushed the senzu bean with her teeth, before letting it slide down her throat on it's own.
Immediately the wounds on Caulifla's body faded, save for one bruise on her arm. She kept on sleeping, and Goku visibly relaxed; Korin noticed this.
"Say Goku, what's your relationship with this girl? You seemed pretty shaken up when you arrived," the cat exclaimed thoughtfully. Goku looked up at the cat, thinking. "Well, she's my student, and I'd say we're friends, but I don't know what she'd say. Chi Chi doesn't like her, but I don't care. She's been mean to me recently, and Caulifla told me that she isn't worth the thought, so I'm gonna train her whether she likes it or not."
Korin was intrigued by this. Since when did Goku ever disobey his wife in any manner? The woman was a master manipulator, and the cat was surprised to say the least, to hear that her more-than-loyal husband was rebelling a little bit. What was also interesting was how Goku spoke of this Saiyan with more affection than he did for his wife. He'd never admit it to his old student, but Korin always thought that the man's marriage was pretty ridiculous, and it seemed that most of the Z-Fighters agreed with him. Because really, a marriage of 20 years over some food? And the woman in the relationship was the polar opposite of Goku, and in this case opposites do not attract. The woman was actively trying to turn the fighter's life in to one of mundane farming and boring jobs. When Bulma had visited a while back to show him a new soil compound for the senzu plants, she had told him about how Chi Chi had apparently spent the 100 million zeni that Mr Satan had given Goku for saving the world from Majin Buu. How does someone even spend that much money?
His thoughts were interrupted when Caulifla opened her eyes with a start, and looked up at the face of the spiky haired man above her. Talk about recovery, she had probably broken the record for the speediest one ever, even with a senzu bean.
"Oh, Cauli! I'm glad you're awake. How do you feel?" Goku smiled down at her as he spoke.
Caulifla sat up awkwardly. She was still in pain, after all. "Where am I?"
"You're at Korin's Tower. You needed a senzu bean, and this is where they are grown, so I had to bring you here. How did you get so hurt? I came back to the chamber to see you lying on the floor!"
Damn, so that was how she got knocked out. She had her suspicions about how far she pushed herself, and this confirmed them.
"I made the chamber turn up every few minutes automatically. I stayed in my normal form too," she explained nonchalantly. She didn't want Goku to be lecturing him, but she supposed that she shouldn't lie. Hell, she was annoyed at the man's wife for doing that, so she shouldn't become a hypocrite.
Goku sighed, before he actually chuckled at her, much to her surprise. "Maybe do it a bit slower next time? Heh, I can't be annoyed at you. Anyway, I did the same thing back in the day, in fact I almost died. But, be careful, you know? You won't stay above Kale or Cabba if you burn out too quickly." He ruffled her hair again. This was definitely a thing now.
Caulifla couldn't help but let out a small giggle at the man, and stare at him in amusement. That wasn't the reaction she was expecting from him. It wasn't uninvited however, she just wanted to get back to training as soon as possible, so she'd rather he make a quick statement over a long-ass lecture that her brother usually gave her. Ugh
Korin watched the exchange between the two Saiyans and frowned. Was this a normal interaction between Saiyans? No, definitely not, Vegeta was enough to disprove that. Why then, was Goku acting at lot more relaxed and happy around this girl but not his wife?
It probably had something to do with the fact that nobody, let alone Korin who didn't go out anyway, had ever seen Chi Chi and Goku in the same room for an extended period of time without the former getting angry at the latter for something either petty and unimportant, or unnecessary. Goku seemed almost scared of that woman.
"Anyway Goku," he spoke aloud, already bored,"if you aren't here for a cup of coffee, which you aren't, you should get going, and don't come back again if not for that. I don't like being a one-stop medical service you know."
Goku, now distracted from staring contest he was engaged in, looked over to the cat and laughed at his frustration."Sorry Korin, I'm not a big fan of coffee, so I guess we'll have to go! In that case, can we take a few senzu beans for the road? I don't want have to burden you or Dende again if something happens."
Annoyed further at this, Korin grimaced. "You're lucky you're so strong, Goku. Anyone else and I'd have said no. We can't afford for you to be out of action if some invader shows up wanting to conquer the planet," she begrudgingly admitted, before turning away and rummaging around in the senzu vase, saying goodbye to a portion of his once-growing collection of beans.
He handed a few to Goku, who patted Korin on the back and chuckled. "Thanks Korin, I'll be sure to come say hi for something besides coffee at some point! Come on, Cauli, let's get going, but we're gonna take training a bit easier today okay?"
"Yeah whatever, let's go. Thanks for the bean, talking cat-dude!"
Korin grumbled to himself at that remark, and watched the two rise into the air.
As they faded into the horizon, slowly this time because Caulifla was taking it easy on Goku's request, he smirked knowingly at the sky.
"You wouldn't turn up here unless Chi Chi's frying pan gets involved, Son Goku."
(A/N: I was going to write more for this chapter to get it over 10k words, but the pressure of revision for exams had built up for a while, and now it's shone through in one huge burst. I may have to skip another week or so, and I'm truly very sorry if I have to do that. If it turns out to be the case, then I promise that once the exams are over, I'll write a chapter of at least 20k, or multiple ones of at least 10k in succession of one another, okay? Sound good? Thanks for the large number of reviews, follows and favourites too by the way. This fic is actually doing pretty well by DBS fanfiction standards, and I'm glad for that, because I truly care about how my writing is presented, and try to make the language and structure of a very high standard compared to other fics. Trust me, this story has only just begun. I fully intend to bring it to at least 100k, and not filler either; 100k works of solid, progressive work. Be sure to follow, review and favourite if you want to help me get there, it gives me the motivation I need! Thanks!)
