"You'll pass?" Piccolo repeated in complete shock. "You won't use the Room again?"
"That's what I said," Dad told him cheerfully.
"Why…? You still have another day before you've used all your time!"
"It's pretty rough in there, even if you're not doing anything," Dad explained. "I'll do better resting my body."
That seemed to amuse Vegeta for some reason. "Even the great Kakarrot… admits defeat against the rigors of the Room."
"Maybe," Dad admitted. "But there's a point where stressing your body more is just torture, not training. I've got nothing against you guys using the room, though. You've probably still got room to improve."
"What did you say?" Vegeta growled. "Are you suggesting that you are more advanced than I am?"
"Uh-huh. A lot."
"WHAT…?"
Dad then turned to the others. "Good luck, everybody! We'll meet again at the tournament!" He turned to look at my brother and me. "Let's go, Gohan, Goshi!"
"Y…yeah…" we said together as we followed him to the edge of the lookout. We then took off a moment later.
…
"Could I make a short stop here?" Dad asked us as we came up to a strange looking bulge on the tower that was seated below the lookout.
Neither Gohan nor I had a problem with the request and followed Dad inside the bulge, which turned out to be a bit of a house. When we landed, both Gohan and I were rather surprised to see a dark-colored cat holding a hermit or sage staff (1). There was also a man sitting inside who was unfamiliar to me.
"Hello, Muten Karin-sama," Dad told the cat.
Gohan and I quickly exchanged a look before we bowed slightly. "N-nice to meet you…!" we told him hesitantly.
"My. How you've grown," the cat told my father.
Dad then looked over at the man. "Hey, Yajirobe! You're back!" I frowned slightly as I looked at the man; I did not recall ever hearing about him.
"What are you doin' here, Goku…?" Yajirobe nervously asked my dad. "You better not be tryin' t' talk me into fightin' in that stupid tournament!"
"Don't worry. That's not why I'm here."
"G-good… although I know you must be wishin' you could beg f'r my help…"
"Earth is in dire straits indeed," the cat told Dad. "Terror… Chaos…"
Dad nodded. "I've never seem anything like Cell. In its complete form it might be the perfect fighter."
"…You're certainly calm, considering that." The cat's voice was hesitant and somewhat nervous. "I suspect you made some valuable discovery in the Room of Spirit and Time." (2)
Dad put his hand behind his head as he began to laugh. "Sort of."
Gohan and I looked at our dad before we exchanged confused expressions. We had been with him the entire time, and neither of us knew what he could possibly be talking about, let alone what he had discovered.
"Muten Karin-sama, you've got a pretty good idea how strong Cell is by watching from here, right?" Dad asked.
The cat nodded. "He hasn't shown his true powers, but I have a sense."
That seemed to make Dad happy. "Can you compare us? I'm gonna rev up right now," and he did.
"ENOUGH! YOU'RE GOING TO SHATTER THE TOWER!" the cat shouted as he and Yajirobe desperately tried to not be flown from the tower by the sheer force of Dad's chi. Dad quickly complied.
"That was about half power," Dad told him. "What do you think?"
"H-half power…?" the cat stammered. "You never cease to astound me! Is there any limit to what you can become?"
I looked over at my brother and knew that he was thinking the same thing that I was. Something was off. Dad said what he had just done was 'half power' but that seemed wrong. I was having a very hard time trying to piece everything odd about the day together.
"But how am I compared to Cell?" Dad asked the cat, almost impatiently.
"You always ask the most difficult questions…" the cat replied. "As I said, this is only speculation… but honestly… I'm afraid Cell is still a bit stronger."
"Oh geez…" Yajirobe said as he finally got off the ground. "What is this Cell thing?"
"I thought so," Dad said happily. That really made Gohan and I stare at him. "I guessed right! Thanks, Muten Karin-sama!" That also caught the cat off guard.
"Let's go you two!" Dad told us as he put his hands on our shoulders.
"You're using that method again… aren't you…?" I asked my Dad unhappily as he grinned at me. Gohan then told the cat 'goodbye' before the scene disappeared.
…
When the scene finally reappeared, I learned that we were in front of the Kame House. Once again, Dad had to pry me from him before he could move.
"I don't know why that bothers you so much, Goshi," Dad told me as I regained myself.
"I don't really know either…" I admitted. "But I really don't like it."
"Anyways… Let's grab Kaa-san and go home," Dad told us. "We can rest better there. We'll rest three days, train three days, and rest another three. …Then it'll be time to fight."
"Tou-san… is that really enough?" Gohan asked him rather surprised that Dad was being so lax about this. "Can we win?"
"Don't worry about it," he replied as he began pushing us towards the house. "C'mon, let's get your Kaa-san."
I am actually still debating with myself over whether or not getting Mother was a good thing. She pretty much screamed when she saw us. "IN HEAVEN'S NAME… WHAT DID YOU DO TO YOUR HAIR?" she demanded of us. "YOU'VE BECOME PUNK ROCKERS!"
I wanted to argue about what could be truly considered punk or not (I had learned way too much about music by that time), but Dad pretty much did not give us much time to speak. He just told Mother that we were going to be Super Saiyans for a while, and that we were going to head home. Dad then teleported us home, much to my dismay.
…
"Look at the size o' the fish in this lake!" Dad pointed out to us as we prepared for a family picnic, quite a bit later.
"Tou-san… are you sure we should be relaxing like this?" my brother asked him.
"Don't you worry about a thing! We'll probably be fine!"
" 'P… probably'…?" both me and my brother repeated.
"Take it easy! We're fine!" Dad tried to reassure us. "Like I told you, there's no point in pushing any further. We've taken our bodies as far as they can go."
"Hey you three!" Mother called out to us. "The picnic's ready!"
Dad seemed ecstatic as he turned to us. "Come on you two! Forget what's comin' up and have a good time!"
"Mirai-kun and Bulma-san would often say similar things…" I said quietly as we began to walk back over to where Mother was fixing the blanket.
"Huh?" my brother asked me. I had not told them much about my time in the future, so it usually took both Gohan and Dad by surprised if I opened up about something.
"We… we often didn't have time to relax and enjoy ourselves… Usually, the day involved fighting, training, or school work… but if Bulma-san managed to pick up a rare food, we would usually have a feast in an attempt to lift our spirits and forget about things for a while. Both Mirai-kun and I usually needed it."
"Hey Goshi, how come you keep calling Trunks-san by that name?" Gohan asked, taking the opportunity to pry a little more into the six years that I was not around.
I laughed. "I've been calling him that for three years. I do it because it irritates him."
"But… that's mean!"
I noticed that my brother's face wore a rather shocked expression. That amused me further. "We like to tease each other, and that's just part of it. He likes to remark about my eating habits, and I aggravate him by calling him that. I think it can be considered a show of affection." I then looked over at my brother, who was wearing a dubious expression. It was clear that he did not understand which made me smile. I would demonstrate how it worked when everything was over.
"Hey, could you at least stop being a Super Saiyan while we eat?" Mother asked Dad as he and Gohan finally sat down.
…
"Gohan… when did Tou-san learn how to drive?" I asked my brother as we were sitting in the backseat of a car our father was driving. I had absolutely no recollection of him doing so in the past, so I was a little confused.
"It was sometime after we learned about the androids," he replied before he turned to look out the window.
"Nothing's open," Dad observed as we passed a small village. "All the stores are closed."
"Well, yeah," Mother agreed. "Who wants to work when they're gonna die in seven days?"
"We interrupt this program for a special news report" the radio said. I groaned; radios never had good news. "The Royal Defense Force is at this moment racing to Point 5, region 28, to bring down the monster called Cell. They are about to launch their attack!"
"What?" Dad asked as he realized what was happening. He then began yelling: "NO, DON'T BE STUPID! STAY AWAY! WHAT ARE THEY THINKING? DON'T THEY UNDERSTAND THEY'RE JUST GOING TO THEIR DEATHS?"
"This is an all-out attack!" the radio continued. "The blasts are deafening! I've never seen such firepower! They're still not letting up! Surely nothing could survive this onslaught!"
"Get out of there-now!" Dad hissed.
A few moments later, the radio produced nothing but static. All of us knew the result of the attack: Cell wiped them out. Dad angrily turned the radio off and opened the door to the car.
"Could you three go on home by yourselves?" Dad asked us as he got out of the car. "I'm sorry. I have to see Piccolo." He then disappeared.
None of us knew what he was going to do, so we just shrugged it off and went home.
…
Some time later, Dad just randomly appeared, told us that we had to go see someone and took off with us, via teleportation. He then got Kuririn, and the next thing I knew, we were on the lookout.
"Will you stop doing that to me, Tou-san?" I demanded of my father once I calmed down.
Dad just waved me off and mentioned that Dende was here. Gohan and Kuririn seemed surprised, but I was just confused. Who was Dende?
After a moment, Gohan dragged me over to where a small version of Piccolo was standing. Apparently, this was Dende. We were quickly introduced.
Then, at Piccolo's prompting, Dende then remade the dragon balls, which relieved everyone. Dad then said that he was going to go look for the dragon balls and teleported off somewhere. I don't think that there's been ever a time where that man has confused me more.
Trunks then asked Gohan and me if we had any idea what our dad was planning. We unfortunately knew nothing, which caused everyone else to speculate.
…
Then… it was the day of the Cell Games. (3)
After Dad reappeared on the lookout (he had been at home for some reason), we all began to make preparations to head out. Vegeta had gone on ahead already, which did not surprise anyone.
It was then revealed to Dad that the dragon balls could not bring back someone who had already died previously. Dad did not seem bothered by that in the least bit. He just said that we had to not die; I swear that he made everything sound too easy. We then took off.
A little while later, he noticed the arena that Cell had built and began our descent. When we landed, I noticed a strange creature, much taller than most of us, standing on the arena. I really had no way to describe it, other than it looked like someone had crossed a man with a giant grasshopper. I mean, it even had the wings!
"Welcome, everyone," the thing, which I now gathered was Cell, said.
"Feh… What's the point in bringing them along?" Vegeta irritably asked no one in particular. We had landed not too far from him.
It was about that time when Juurokugou walked over to us. "I wanted to thank you, Kuririn," he told our friend. "I owe it to you that I'm back in action."
"Hey… glad to do it!" Kuririn told him.
Dad then extended his hand towards the artificial human. "Let's do our best."
Juurokugou gave him an evil look. "I was created to kill you, Son Goku. Don't ever forget that."
That seemed to upset Dad slightly. "Man… that's a downer…" he whispered to Kuririn. He then straightened up and began to crack his knuckles. "Well then! Mind if I start us off?"
"What?" Trunks asked, summing up everyone's thoughts. "Do you really think we should start with you…?"
"Is it okay, Vegeta?" Dad asked the prince, while ignoring Trunks' question.
"Do what you want," Vegeta told him, uncaringly. "I'll still be the one to finish him."
"Hey… Who said you get to pick?" some strange man with a black afro and large mustache yelled at us, which surprised me. I did not know that anyone else was here, so I looked at him carefully; there was a possibility that he was more arrogance than Vegeta.
"Um, excuse me…" another man asked Dad. Since he was holding a microphone and there was a cameraman nearby, I guessed that he was from a TV station or something along those lines. "Are you all entering the Cell Game?"
"Yup," Dad told him. "Most of us, anyway."
"You've got to be kidding!" the announcer yelled. "This isn't a game! I mean, yeah, it's called a 'game,' but it's-"
"You're the one who doesn't get it," Kuririn interrupted.
The arrogant guy laughed. "I didn't expect this… I guess some people've been living under a rock and never heard of Hercule-sama!"
"This is the World Champion Martial Artist!" the announcer told us, which made me snort. Dad was one of those as well. "The mightiest in the world!"
"Goku, just let him go first," Kuririn told my dad.
"Well… if you say so…"
"It's time," Cell then told us.
…
Finally, the Cell Games are about to begin! Can our warriors defeat this menace, or will this creature from the future get the better of them? Stay tuned for the next exciting episode of Dragonballz to find out!
1 In the manga renditions, Karin/Korin (Japanese/English) is shown to be a dark-colored cat, not white. Also, Gohan never saw Karin until this point in time in the manga.
2 I can't figure out why it keeps changing between 'chamber' and 'room' in reference to the hyperbolic time chamber. It was driving me nuts!
3 I want to point this out. It says that the Cell Games occurred on M_ the 17th. It is never stated that the Games occurred either in May or March, and I know for a fact that none of the Japanese months begin with an 'm', so your guess is as good as mine as to when this takes place. It DOES NOT happen in May, since the androids appeared in mid-May and there is nowhere near enough time to allow for this. And, the Cell Games DO NOT OCCUR a year after the androids appear. It's only a couple weeks.