I love writing about Yajirobe. Anyways, I hope this update doesn't seem too OOC for any of the characters.

Yajirobe shuffled the cards, his pudgy fingers preventing a few from falling into place. He groaned as they flew everywhere; he really needed to get a better grip on the flimsy things. He pushed his chair back and kneeled on the floor, his red scarf trailing on the ground as picked each card up one by one and placed them messily on the table. Korin laughed, grabbing his furry stomach, and said, "With the amount you eat, it's not surprising that you could drop to the floor so quickly. I'd just like to see you try to stand back up!"

The chubby man rolled his eyes, muttering a few choice words under his breath at the white cat, most of them involving his mother. Finally, after picking up about half of the cards, he told Korin, "You're just jealous that I get to leave the tower and eat other stuff besides those stupid Senzu Beans!"

Korin growled at the dishonor this lowly human was showing him, though his anger dissipated as he stared at one of the Joker cards with Mr. Satan's face on it. He continued looking at it until Yajirobe threw a King on it. Korin hurriedly slid the Joker out from under it and, with the card in his hand, asked his companion, "Have you heard anything about Mr. Satan lately? I haven't heard anything about that oaf in a while."

"Nothing much," Yajirobe grunted, pulling himself up as he placed the last of the cards on the table. He gathered them all into a deck after plucking the Joker from Korin's hand and began turning them over, making certain that they were each facing the right way. "He hasn't been in the news much lately; I think something's happened to him."

Korin bobbed his head at the thought; not much gossip had been flying about the World Martial Arts Champion of the late. It was odd. He heard his name often for a cat that didn't get out much, yet now, all news had disappeared. Curious...

"How about that Majin Buu guy?" Korin asked as Yajirobe began shuffling the deck again. "He hasn't become his old pink, menacing self again, has he?"

"No," Yajirobe replied, fumbling the cards in his hands. "I've heard that he's been taking care of that whole mansion. Even does the housekeeping sometimes. You know Goku's son? Well, he's moved into the mansion with his wife and kid just a month ago or so. I can't remember if their kid's a boy or girl; it sure acts like a boy, but I think it might be a girl."

"Considering what a wimpy man Goku's son seems to have become in the past few years, I'm surprised that he can even have kids," Korin chuckled, receiving cards as Yajirobe dealt them out. "He's dropped all training, hasn't he? I mean, all he does is read books, and I've heard that he's none too happy a man." Yajirobe nodded, trying to keep count of the number of cards he handed out. "At least his other boy's a fighter. Has his own training center and gives lessons to kids, right? Knocked his woman up, right?" Korin spat, laughing, "What a waste of talents! They're strong boys, and they should focus on their training lives, not training their wives! What good-for-nothings..."

Yajirobe smirked as, with Korin distracted, he slipped himself a few aces and kings. He had learned that once the cat started talking, he couldn't focus on anything else, giving him the perfect advantage while playing card games. But Korin was so distracted by his own gossip that he could hardly remember why they were sitting at the table, cards in their hands.

"And don't even get me started on that Krillin fellow! Speaking of wastes of talent; he's a hard worker, and he's letting it go to waste! He grew his hair out, has an android for a wife, and somehow managed to have a girl with her." Yajirobe only nodded, knowing all of this already because he was the one who had given Korin the information after his excursions outside of the tower. This was his perfect weapon for winning card games. While Korin wasn't looking, he began pretending to shuffle the deck, really placing cards strategically for when it was his turn to draw. He continued listening to the cat's blabbering. "He grew his hair out? Can you believe it?" Yajirobe snorted a laugh; that had been news a few decades ago. Perhaps the cat was senile, as he seemed to bring up Krillin's hair every card game. "And, oh, don't get me started on that Piccolo character! I can't believe he sent Goku down here; can't Dende heal him? But, no, the sneaky fellow probably just wanted to push the Saiyan off on us, sick of him." Incredulously, he exclaimed, "What do I look like, a babysitter?"

The cards flew everywhere as a gust of wind came down, and a low voice said, in as cheery a tone as ever, "No, I think you look more like a sucker." Yajirobe and Korin both gulped; their gossip sessions usually went uninterrupted, so Piccolo's arrival had been quite unexpected.

Yajirobe bit his bottom lip nervously, watching the intimidating Namekian's every move. "Where's Goku?" he asked, his mood plummeting as he noticed the Saiyan was nowhere to be seen. To Yajirobe's relief, Korin was the one to receive the threatening glare as he repeated, more fiercely, "Where's Goku?"

It was just as he feared: the Saiyan had slipped away under his detection, and he didn't even listen as Korin muttered, "Well, you see, he sort of left..."

"Where did he go?" Piccolo demanded, his fists curled tightly as he felt his good mood disappear.

Korin chose his words carefully as he stated, "He... went to go visit Chi-Chi." Piccolo growled at his fear receiving the confirmation it needed to jump from being a fear to becoming reality.

"Where does Chi-Chi live?" he asked the cat, towering over him.

Scooting back in his seat and placing his hands protectively over his head, he said earnestly, "I don't know, I don't know! Yajirobe's the one who told him where to go, not me!"

The cat snickered, then, as the Namekian turned towards the fat man. As he moved forwards, Yajirobe stepped backwards, and this continued until Yajirobe reached the edge of the tower. Then, with a swift movement, Piccolo picked the short man up by his shirt and barked, "Tell me where he is!"

Yajirobe wiggled in the air helplessly, his stubby limbs waving through the air. He lied, "I don't know where he is! I swear!" Then, in a tiny, pitifully shameful voice, he added, "Please don't hurt me."

Piccolo seethed with rage, a sudden fury sweeping over him. "If you don't tell me where he is," he threatened, hanging Yajirobe over the side of the tower now, "I'm going to drop you! I know you know where he is, so don't hide it from me!"

Yajirobe protested with grunts, succumbing to the pressure by yelling, "I'll tell you! I'll tell you! It's a large white house to the south of North City, right by the mountains! I swear, I swear! Now let me go!"

True to his word, Piccolo released the poor man over the tiled floor, setting him down quite gently for a man of his anger. Then, without another word, he took off from the tower, heading north. He was quite disgusted with himself because Kami was quite disgusted with him. He had acted with the cold rage of Piccolo and the passion of Nail, disregarding the elder Namekian's advice of peacefulness in his mind. Despite what Kami had ever said, Piccolo had to admit that Vegeta had always been right in one respect; fear was an effective tool to get information out of a source quickly.

At Chi-Chi's house, Goku was still hiding in the dark of night beneath the window sill. He couldn't decide whether to simply stand up and surprise her or whether to go about it another way. He had already decided that flying to the window would be a bad idea; she hated it when he flew. That was also the reason why he had decided not to use Instant Transmission to simply teleport himself to North City. Along with her hating that method of transportation, there was a chance that, because he was unfamiliar with this region of the world, he would become lost. And he didn't want to bother King Kai again, lest he be forced into laughing at another one of his jokes. Plus, by flying to her house, he managed to gather some time to think of exactly how to approach the woman.

Of course, it didn't seem as if he'd given himself enough time to think.

Goku had no other ideas of how to get her to notice him, so he decided to stick with his first plan. He quickly stood up straight, sticking his head above the window sill to let Chi-Chi see him. However, instead of hearing her exclaim happily at his arrival, an unfamiliar scream pierced the air.

One of the maids who had taken over washing dishes for Chi-Chi had just seen a strange man appear in the window, blocking the moon light. After releasing a scream, she took the frying pan in her hand and hit him squarely in the jaw with it. To her further horror, however, he simply pried it off of his face, the metal having taken the shape of his chin.

Goku scratched his head awkwardly, handing the deformed pan back to the woman with a nervous laugh. This wasn't Chi-Chi...