Chapter 14: The Other World

Yellow clouds were floating high in the sky and lots of high-pitched voices could be heard. A better look showed that there was a huge queue of what appeared to be mini ghosts running all the way to a big building. Along the line, there appeared to be skinny men wearing shirts and ties. Well, from far away they look like men, but upon closer inspection, they seemed to have horns and their skin colours were either blue or red.

Where was this strange place?

"Hello and welcome to the Other World…wait…what is your name?" A small blue ogre said as he approached the teen Saiyan with a clipboard in one hand and a pen in the other.

"I'm Noca…where am I?" The Saiyan questioned. He was really disoriented right now.

"Well, you are in the Other World. You died on Earth so you came here and you have your body, so we're going to send you to the front of the line," The Ogre explained, seeming far too friendly.

"I'm…I'm really dead? It really feels like a dream," Noca said, looking at himself with a questioning expression.

"It will for a bit, but then things will come back to you. If you'd like to follow me," The Ogre said, walking away.

Noca stepped away from the little ghost things and followed the blue ogre. Noca was a lot taller than him and this felt strange because this guy seemed to be an authority figure up here, wherever here really was.

"So…what are these things?" Noca asked, apparently loud enough to be heard.

"Excuse me I'm a person!" One of the little ghosts piped up.

"Uh…are you?" Noca questioned, wide-eyed.

"Some of them can be quite angry…those are souls," The Ogre answered.

"Souls?"

"Yep. They are on their way to see where they go. Some will go to the Underworld and some will go to the Other World…usually referred to as Heaven by the people of Earth," The Ogre explained further.

"Ok…so where am I going? I hope it's not the Underworld?" Noca said, he tried to be light hearted, but being dead wasn't a great thing.

"You have kept your body and you are also a fighter. That means you have the highest honour. King Yemma will tell you more. If you'd like to head inside the Check-in station and approach the desk. And we hope you enjoy your stay in Other World."

Noca stared at the little ogre in confusion. What a strange thing to say to someone. Noca ignored it as the blue ogre motioned for him to continue. Noca, remembering that it's best to be polite to people that help you, especially when they're polite to you, turned to face the ogre once more.

"Uh…what's your name?" Noca asked.

"Oh, that isn't important," The Ogre waved off.

"No, I'd like to know your name," Noca pressed.

"Well, they call me Mao," The Ogre revealed.

"Mao? Well it's nice to meet you. You're quite helpful," Noca said.

"Why, thank you, but that is the meaning of us Ogres. It is our purpose in life to assist you in the next life any way we can."

Noca smiled weakly at Mao and then went into the Check-in station, but he wasn't anticipating it. He was very worried about what he would be told. He already didn't want to believe he was actually dead. There was so much he hadn't done.

As Noca walked in through the door he could hear many people complaining about this person getting to cut in line. Noca didn't have a clue and he was actually terrified of who this King Yemma would be.

As he walked in, he noticed the huge desk situated in the middle of the room and a huge ogre sat behind the desk. Noca could only assume that this massive, red-ish skinned, bearded ogre was King Yemma.

"You will be comfortable in Other World…Next!" King Yemma yelled, stamping on a piece of paper.

"King Yemma sir, we have someone here who still has their body," An Ogre said.

"Hm…according to this list, only one person will arrive with their body…so you must be Noca. Legally known as Noca Brief…no record of a previous last name, but you appear to be a part of the Saiyan family known as the Kayu family. Your Great-Grandfather was the fifth person in your family to carry the name Kayu. You're not the first Saiyan I've had, but not many of you get to go to Grand Kai's planet. Only one before you has managed that." King Yemma explained.

"Goku?" Noca questioned.

"Do not interrupt King Yemma!" An Ogre yelled.

"Oh…sorry…" Noca said, not realising he had made some sort of mistake.

The King started to look through his books for some reason, but Noca didn't have a clue as to what his reasoning behind this was.

"So, you are entitled to take the plane to Grand Kai's world, but apparently here it says you have three family members who are in Other World, but have partially retained their bodies. These souls get none of the body, but your family have."

"If you don't mind me asking…who are they?" Noca asked, hoping to hear one name.

"Cilu, or Cilu III, and Daisy. Those are your grandparents…and…Emna…" King Yemma revealed to the boy.

Noca looked up and instantly his composure changed.

"My mother? She kept her body?" The boy questioned.

"Yep, she never committed anything close to a single broken rule. Cilu is there because of how he made up for his past "sins", as you call them on Earth. Plus he never worked for Freeza. Kayu V however…he is in the underworld," King Yemma explained.

Noca didn't know how to respond, but gathering that he had worked for the Saiyan army and had most probably killed many beings he definitely hadn't been able to make up for any broken rules in his life. The King informed him that the next plane to Grand Kai's planet would be leaving in 20 minutes and he then motioned for the boy to follow the ogre waiting by the door. Noca thanked King Yemma for giving him some knowledge of where his family ended up.

Noca began to walk towards the door, but as he reached the door a being suddenly appeared in front of the desk, shocking the King.

"Ah! Oh my…it's you Supreme Kai!" King Yemma exclaimed in glee.

"Hello there King Yemma, you are doing a fantastic job down here, but I'd like Noca to come with me," The Supreme Kai told the King.

"Huh? What's going on?" Noca asked.

"Oh it is such a pleasure to finally meet you face-to-face my lord Supreme Kai!" The King said in his most flattering tone.

"Please, don't praise me. I'm just here doing my job ok. This isn't Noca's time, so I would like to take it from here. But don't get me wrong; you are doing a fantastic job here. I like the desk by the way," Supreme Kai said as he walked over to Noca. The King seemed to get very giddy with that.

"Oh my! Thank You Supreme Kai. It's made from the finest Mahogany around!" King Yemma told him.

"I like it, come on Noca, put your arm on my shoulder," The Supreme Kai instructed.

Noca did as he was told and gingerly placed his hand on the Supreme Kai's shoulder. He didn't know what was going on and was terribly confused. He knew he was supposed to be dead and going to Grand Kai's Planet, but now some other one calling himself the Supreme Kai was saying that it wasn't Noca's time and was taking him to another place.

"Keep your hand on me."

The two instantly disappeared shocking all of the little ogres or souls that witnessed it. A lot of them felt very privileged to have just met the Supreme Kai.

"He liked my Mahogany desk," The King was sat there beaming with pride.

Meanwhile on a very small, round planet with just a couple of small possessions, a little Kai and his pet monkey were taking a nap outside. They were quite unlucky as someone was on their way to disturb their nap. King Kai's antennae began to twitch as his senses could pick something up.

He opened his eyes to see a man with outrageous spiky black hair standing over him with a goofy smile on his face.

"Hey King Kai! Bubbles!" Goku greeted, shocking the Kai out of his seat.

"Ah Goku! I was taking a nap!" King Kai yelled at the Saiyan.

"Oh, I'm so sorry King Kai…I thought this was the easiest place to get to…" He said, shrugging his shoulders. King Kai really wasn't happy about this, but he knew a way to get back at Goku.

"Well, you could've knocked first…speaking of which, I have a new one…knock, knock!" King Kai swung around and said.

"Oh, come on King Kai, I'm busy," Goku said as he put his fingers to his forehead, but King Kai wasn't about to be shunned.

"Knock, knock."

"I've really gotta go…"

"Knock, Knock!"

Goku flinched after that last one. He sighed and decided he just had to go along with it.

"Who's there?" He asked.

"Etch," The King couldn't stop sniggering before he even told the joke, but Goku just didn't care.

"Etch who?" Goku asked.

"Bless you! HAHAHA!" The King was laughing far too loudly at his poor joke and even Bubbles sighed.

Goku just stared blankly, which got a very disappointed response from King Kai. Even Bubbles didn't respond.

"I've been saving that one for a long time!" He said, proud of himself.

"Sorry, King Kai…but this is very important…I need to find Noca and I couldn't sense his energy from Earth, but I can now…there he is!" Goku put his fingers to his head once more and focussed his energy, but before he left he had one more thing to do. "Oh…can you tell Pan that I've found him?"

"Sure Goku, but I will have a good joke for you next time!" King Kai revealed.

Goku smiled at King Kai as he waved and vanished into thin air.

"Poor Goku…can't appreciate a good joke."

It took less than a second from when they left King Yemma and his employees, but there was so much difference in the two locations. Noca had never in his life, travelled by teleporting before, but he and the Supreme Kai just teleported from King Yemma's Check-in station and they were in this magnificent scenic location.

Noca couldn't stand straight for a couple of seconds whilst he adjusted to the teleportation, but once he recovered, he could take in the scenery. It was truly amazing. The grass was a brilliant shade of green and swayed lightly as a soft warm breeze wandered through the air.

The water was a magnificent bright blue and crystal clear. The sky was a light shade of lilac and there wasn't a single cloud in sight. As Noca inspected the sky some more, he noticed the outlines of several small moons. Noca looked to the Supreme Kai who just smirked and took a seat on a rock.

They young Saiyan continued to take a couple more looks around the place and rose up to get an aerial view but it just seemed like the place was never-ending, it was amazing.

"Where am I?" Noca asked, all of this was just far too confusing to keep up with.

"You are on the Sacred World of the Kai's. You are lucky, not many people have come here in the past," The Supreme Kai explained.

"King Yemma…he called you Supreme Kai?" Noca questioned.The Kai nodded, he knew Noca would have questions and he was willing to answer them. "What is a Kai?"

"The Kai race is one of the oldest living races in the Universe, we watch over everything. There are many levels of Kai."

The Supreme Kai went on to explain the amount of Kai that were still living and what their duties were. He also mentioned that there had been many other Supreme Kai and Grand Kai in the past, but they had exceptionally long life spans.

Noca didn't reject any of the new information and was very understanding about all of it. He was about to ask another question, but was unfortunately interrupted by the angered voice of what sounded like a very old person.

"Who is that kid?! This is a sacred planet!" The Elder Kai exclaimed upon seeing the boy. Noca flinched at the sight of the wrinkled old being.

"Elder, this is Noca…the Saiyan…"

"Well, what's he doing here?" The Elder questioned, loudly. The Supreme Kai just sighed.

"Sorry about him…he's very old…I don't even know why he bothers to carry on," The Supreme Kai whispered to Noca.

"I heard that! You can't just bring random people or Saiyans here. It upsets the balance…they'll start to think they can drop in whenever they want…" The Elder yelled some more.

Suddenly, someone else appeared out of nowhere and surprised both Kai and the teen Saiyan. The most surprised was the Elder though. He jumped due to the shock and fell to the ground.

"See what I mean!?"

"Oops…sorry old Kai…" Goku said, with a chuckle.

"That's Elder Kai!" The Elder screeched back.

"Oh…sorry…"

"Goku, what are you doing in Other World? You don't have a Halo so you're not dead…" The Supreme Kai said.

"I know. I used instant transmission," Goku explained.

"Stupid trick…those lazy Yardrat," The Elder mumbled.

"So, what are you doing here?" The Supreme Kai asked.

"I came here to get Noca…I'm gonna take him back to Earth," Goku answered.

"Really?!" Noca questioned.

"Goku, you know you cannot take a dead person back to Earth unless you have a valid reason, and then it's only temporary," The Supreme Kai explained.

"I know that, but I didn't mean right now. I'm gonna figure out a way to bring him back to life first," Goku explained.

"What about the Dragon Balls?" Supreme Kai asked.

Goku gave the Supreme Kai a look that seemed to say, "you know that won't work." The Kai nodded and accepted it without questioning further. After all, the two of them both knew something was strange about Noca. Neither of them could explain it, but by bringing him back to life it could soon become clearer.

"The Dragon Balls didn't work?" Noca questioned.

"Uh…yeah…they didn't…Shenron must've woken up on the wrong side of the bed…"

Goku was clearly lying. Noca could tell, but he knew that Goku would tell him the truth if he had a full reason as to why it failed. It was then that Noca remembered something else he could do right now. Goku was alive and had just come from the tournament.

"How did you beat Wun?! And…how's Pan?!" Noca asked.

"Uh…Vegeta and I teamed up to take him on and used a very strong Ki attack to beat him and…she misses you…she was finding it very hard…"

Noca looked down and started to feel sorry for everything that happened. He really didn't believe that it was his own fault that he died, but that didn't change the amount of anger her felt towards himself.

"She will be so happy when you go back home, but first…I don't want to waste this time we have," Goku explained.

"What do you mean?" Noca asked.

"You wanted to train with me…now we can train," Goku revealed, a smirk plastered on his face.

"Really?" Noca questioned, feeling rather excited.

"Yep. You need to learn how to control your Saiyan abilities and what better way to do that than training with the master himself, plus I need time to figure out a way to resurrect you."

Goku smiled that classic Son smile and Noca felt reassured about his future. There was always something special about Goku. He could always make people feel better about themselves.

"Goku, you know there is only one way you can bring him back to life now and Elder Kai has already done it," The Kai said telepathically.

"I know, but I am willing to do it, no matter what any of the consequences are," Goku replied.

The two looked at each other and the Kai realised that Goku knew full well what he was doing.

"Right. We better start training, but first…I need something to eat!"

Noca laughed at Goku and the two Saiyans turned to face the Kais hoping for them to provide them with food. The Kais looked to each other and sighed. They would need to deal with two hungry Saiyans. Not their speciality, but they would find a way to deal with them.

Whilst the Saiyans are eating the Kai turn to each other and have a few words to say.

"He looks familiar…" The Elder stated.

"Yes. There is a strong resemblance between them," The Supreme Kai revealed.

"You were right then…I feel it too…he will be truly powerful one day…" The Elder continued.

Both of them nodded and returned their gaze to the two Saiyans who were just lying back after finishing their meals. They would get some much-needed rest before getting on with their training.

Down on Earth, a small family finally returned to their home and were just settling down. They spent most of the evening at Capsule Corp. but decided they best get back to their own home. Videl went to the living room to relax, whilst Gohan was trying to get back into perfect shape again. He was still feeling some of the effects of his injuries, but after using the healing tanks for a couple of hours at Capsule Corp. he was almost completely healed now.

Pan dragged herself upstairs and just dropped onto her bed. She couldn't be bothered with doing anything else. She still hadn't got over everything she had seen those past few days and she had lost a lot. Dealing with it wouldn't be easy, even though she had tried to make it seem like she was feeling better when with her friends.

The teen girl was still holding onto the black headband and couldn't bring herself to let go of it…she didn't know if she would ever see the boy again, but she couldn't lose faith in her grandfather. He would be up to the task of bringing the Saiyan teen back to Earth safe and sound.

Once he was back, Pan would finally be able to truly express her feelings towards the boy.

She was just starting to drift to sleep when suddenly…

"Hey Pan…knock, knock…"

The voice echoed through Pan's head and forced her to sit up in her bed.

"Huh? Who are you?" Pan questioned. The Voice sniggered and then continued.

"You're meant to say, who's there?"

"Uh…who's there?" Pan asked, hesitantly.

"Nana"

"Nana who?" Pan asked.

"Nana your business! Hahaha!"

Pan closed her eyes and shook her head at such a terrible joke.

"Is that you King Kai? I'm really not in the mood…" Pan responded, turning over and trying to go back to sleep.

"Well, then I guess you're not interested in knowing that Goku has been here."

"My grandpa is there?! Has he found Noca?! When is he coming back?!" Pan was sitting up on her bed now and for some reason was looking up to the ceiling.

"Hey, hey, slow down! Goku isn't here right now, but I think he has found Noca…he told me to let you know."

Pan: Oh my god! Thank you King Kai! Thank You! Thank You!

Pan was getting so excited, she knew that she shouldn't get her hopes up too much, but she couldn't help it.

"Calm down, don't get too excited. We never know how long it will take Goku to bring the boy back to the Earth, he first needs to resurrect him."

Pan's expression changed again and she was looking down to her bed feeling very confused and upset. King Kai could tell that she had got upset and realised he may have made a mistake.

"But…uh…don't worry. This is Goku we are talking about. He always finds a way."

"I guess, thanks King Kai."

The wannabe Comedian Kai said a goodbye to the Saiyan girl as she fell back, flat onto her bed and run over everything she had just discovered. She would see Noca again. She didn't know when, but it was likely she would see him alive once more. She couldn't have been happier, but she was still concerned about whether or not Goku had a plan. It could take a couple of years for him to bring Noca back.

She turned in her bed to face the window, looking out contemplating her future. Contemplating the future that she hoped to share with Noca. She closed her eyes and fell asleep quickly.

Things would return to normal…someday…