Eclipse
by DoraMouse
ooxoo
Persistence: December 4th, 763 A.D. Again.
Forty-three years ago...
"MOM!"
Another little war in the sandbox, ended by a shriek.
"PILAF WON'T LET ME PLAY RULE THE WORLD AND IT'S NOT FAIR CAUSE IT'S MY TURN!"
A long moment of dread. A rustling by the open kitchen window. A raised adult voice.
"PILAF! FOR CRIMINEYS SAKE, LET YOUR SISTER HAVE A TURN!"
He was five. Blue skin, pointy ears and no hair. He'd stopped physically growing around the age of two, he was short. Even his annoying little sister was taller. But mentally... Pilaf was beyond advanced. He'd gone straight from sleeping all the time to walking, he had never crawled. He'd been too embarrassed to breastfeed. He had changed his own diapers. And he'd been reading the newspaper before he could even stand. At under a year of age, he had spoken his first word - and his parents had gotten out a dictionary to see what it meant. The family had invested in a sandbox only because they couldn't seem to keep their first born contained in a playpen. He was perpetually taking things apart in the house. Their second child was more average. The parents had secretly hoped for this to be contagious. They loved their boy but he drove them up as wall sometimes, with all his wild ideas.
Genius though he was, Pilaf was also still a child. He glared at his sister, who was now making a face at him. His bottom lip quivered. "But... I wanna... rule the world."
"DON'T MAKE ME COME OUT THERE!" shouted his mother.
ooxoo
Thirty-eight years ago...
The teacher frowned, peering over the rims of her glasses as she looked across her desk. She was often a patient lady - a great teacher - but today her face was wrinkled with mild concern and her voice was struggling to avoid a sigh. "Do you remember what the assignment was?"
Pilaf, age ten, stared at his feet. He was still very short. He fidgeted with his school uniform and mumbled something.
"That's right, dear. An essay about what you did this summer." The teacher was skilled at understanding mumbles. She indicated the stack of paper on her desk. "Susie went to the zoo, you know. And Calvin went camping and fishing. But you... Turned in this..."
In her hands there was an essay titled: 'How I conquered the world'.
Pilaf mumbled again.
"Yes, hon." The teacher sighed. "I understand. Not everyone had an exciting summer break. But you always make up the same adventure. And... You remember the talk we had before, don't you? Do we need to call your parents again?"
Mumble, shuffle, no.
"Look, I'll give you an extra day or two to re-write this. Okay? Just turn it in as soon as you've finished, all right? There's a good boy."
Pilaf took his essay and left the classroom. He clutched the paper over his chest and sniffled. What was so wrong, with this story? It was going to come true, someday.
ooxoo
Thirty-six years ago...
Bang.
A spray of metal gears. A cloud of colorful smoke.
Age twelve. A runaway. A dropout. Living near a landfill in a cardboard box. But at least out here nobody was going to tease him for being bald, short or blue. Out here, nobody was going to tell him that his dream was impossible. And the landfill smelled awful but it was full of amazing things. Useful amazing things. People threw away perfectly good tools! And parts! There were old cars! And broken appliances! And chemicals! It was everything that a young genius on a budget might need! And anyone with half a brain could pick the locks or climb the fence or...
The guard dog, that had been a little more tricky to get by.
"Uhm. Are you okay?" Said the guard dog, having noticed the explosion. He wore the uniform of a sanitation worker and walked upright. He had a soft spot for runaway delusional maniac children. When you worked at a landfill and saw the amount of waste that people generated on a daily basis... Most humans seemed like delusional maniacs.
Minions! Thought Pilaf, as he lay on the ground slightly charred and watched spots dance before his eyes. That's what I need!
ooxoo
Thirty-five years ago...
The plan was foolproof!
Pilaf stood on a crate, inspecting the troops. Brute force! That was the key! And he had designed the perfect weapon! Nobody would expect this assault! Nothing could go wrong! He saluted.
In front of him - but facing each other - stood two long rows of mostly humans. Some were sanitation workers. Others were the homeless and the dumpster divers that Pilaf had recruited. They weren't highly trained soliders. If the weapon worked, they wouldn't need to be. They had sworn loyalty to a crazed blue elfin midget. Most of them thought this was some kind of joke. They were playing along just to humor this poor kid. A few of them were looking around with the expressions of people who expected, at any moment, to see the hidden camera crew.
The troops returned the salute. Some triggers were accidentally pulled.
The newly invented weapon worked.
After a long moment, the guard dog - attracted by the noise - wandered up behind Pilaf. His eyes widened. His nose wrinkled. He squeaked, covered his mouth and ran away with his tail between his legs.
Pilaf stood with one hand on his hip and the other hand resting thoughtfully under his chin. He looked down at the twitching remains of his troops. But it wasn't until the sounds of the guard dog retching reached him that he muttered, in a tone of mild disgust. "Well, that's put me right off." He stepped down from the soap box and went back to his drawing board.
ooxoo
Thirty-four years ago...
The plan was foolproof!
"Chickens?" Said the guard dog, sounding skeptical.
"Yes." Pilaf, age fourteen, was proud to explain. He stood on his tiptoes. Which did not make him much taller. He was at chest height with the dog. "I made some modifications to my last design. Now, the target will become a..."
The guard dog interrupted. "You want to conquer a world full of chickens?"
"Well, yes." Pilaf did not tolerate interruptions from many creatures but he'd known of this guard dog for nearly two years already. "That IS the whole point. If everyone is a chicken then nobody will be able to oppose..."
"But... Do you think the chickens will care?" Said the guard dog. "I mean, with all due respect, I happen to know some chickens and... They don't really take orders, you see? So... Would it still be called ruling the world, if nobody actually listened to your rules?"
Pilaf stood perfectly still and thought about this for a while.
And then, he thought about it for a while longer.
And then, after the dumptrucks had come and gone and the sun had set, Pilaf went to find the doghouse. Where he rang the doorbell. Angrily. Several times.
The guard dog, who had wandered off after his remark many hours ago, eventually came to the door yawning and wearing pajamas. "Hrm?"
"What is your name?" Pilaf demanded. He hadn't ever asked before.
"Shou." The dog began.
"As of right now, you are my assistant!"
ooxoo
Thirty-one years ago...
Bang. Crunch. Sizzle.
"AHHH! My car! What the hell is wrong with you?!" Screamed a furious woman. She was tall and petite with high checkbones and shoulder length black hair. She wore long pants, a long sleeved shirt and three different gunbelts. She climbed the fence, frothing slightly at the mouth. "Dammit I just PAID the parking ticket! And they weren't even supposed to tow it here!"
Pilaf - age seventeen - stared at her, turned white and ran away.
He was followed by a few bullets and a scream of: "That cracked windshield is coming out of your hide, mister!"
"Uhm." said Shou timidly, now that he'd finished putting out the flames. He set the fire extinguisher down but decided to leave his safety goggles on for the next phase of damage control. "I know he doesn't look like much, Miss but that kid is a mechanical genius. Why just last week, he built a machine that can sort garbage at a rate of..."
The lady scowled meaningfully. And the meaning was: I don't care.
"What I'm getting at," stammered Shou, "is that he can definitely fix your car, if you don't kill him right away."
"Oh?" Said the lady. Her name was Mai. She didn't like the fleeing blue kid but this dog seemed trustworthy. And besides, she was broke. She needed her car but she couldn't afford repairs. "And how long will that take?"
ooxoo
Fourteen years ago...
Pilaf was sobbing again. He lay on a padded windowsill with his face buried in his arms and a box of tissues nearby. He was age thirty-four but he still looked five. The outfit didn't help. He wore a bright tunic and a hat with a bobble on the top. He'd always had to shop in the toddler section - it was a sensitive issue.
"The prisoners will die in the morning, Lord Pilaf." Mai said, trying to cheer him up. She hadn't really meant to become a part of this group. But the kid had - at gunpoint - done more than just repair her car all those years ago, he'd given it upgrades. A good mechanic was worth keeping track of. Mai had eventually felt sorry for him. She'd mostly felt sorry for Shou. And their adventures were... Harmless. Interesting. And neither Shou nor Pilaf had been able to drive, so she'd gradually taught them. And, well... The blue midget was truly a genius. It was good to keep track of those, too. He'd done all right. Had sold a few inventions. Pilaf had gone from rooming in a doghouse at a landfill to this - they were in a castle now. And the wealth hadn't even stopped him, he was still focused on ruling the world. She had to admire the determination.
Yes indeed, this tiny blue genius might just conquer the world someday. He probably wouldn't know what to do with the world once he conquered it but that was okay too. Mai had some ideas of her own for that part. It was just too bad that her ideas would have to wait. They had been so close.
"Panties!" sniffled Pilaf, who sounded horrified as well as massively disappointed. He grabbed another handful of tissues. "All the power of the eternal dragon and they wish for..." He burst into tears.
"There, there." Shou spoke soothingly and patted the midgets back. He wore the uniform of a ninja because honestly, nothing else had fit him very well. He was a humanoid dog. These days it seemed like most fabrics irritated either his fur or his nose. Shou hadn't been too picky about what he wore at the landfill because it had been a landfill. He cared more about his appearance as an evil - but not very evil - sidekick. "I'm sure that you'll get to make a wish next time."
Seventeen years. That's how long the three of them had worked together now. Half of Pilafs life. And after seventeen years of waking up each morning and saying "today is the day!"... After seventeen years of watching almost every kind of scheme imaginable backfire... This was what Pilaf had been reduced to. Chasing magical artifacts. And of all the wild plans that could have failed... How strange, that this plan would be the one that had nearly worked. How strange, that these dragonballs would be the things that could lead to world domination. Pilaf had done his research. He'd built a dragonball radar. He'd found one of the things, a glossy orange sphere with a single red star.
That had been a good day. Pilaf had celebrated by splurging and buying them all new clothes. Mai had a long grey trenchcoat, a very stylish cut - she'd picked it out herself. Shou had the ninja uniform. Pilaf had a new hat. And on the front of that hat, right in middle... And on the left shoulder of Mais grey trenchcoat... And over the heart of Shous ninja uniform... Was the design of a single red star. Just like the little star on the glossy orange marble. That was how optimistic they'd been.
The prisoners. Mai tried not to think about them. But her mind kept going back to them. Two boys, a girl and two animals. All so young. Mai had searched the prisoners, while they were unconscious. Pilaf and Shou were both far too shy to search anyone. So Mai had rummaged in their pockets. She'd eventually found the last marble, with four red stars, hidden under the youngest boys shirt. But not before she'd found... Mai bit her lip. She was NOT going to say anything. But the prisoners... Now they were locked up inside the castle, waiting to die. Morning would come soon enough. The sunlight would hit the glass ceiling of the prison and... Would it be very noisy? Or very messy? Mai wasn't sure what to expect or how to feel. They had never had prisoners at the castle before.
Maybe it would be less hassle, all around, to sort of nip down later and just leave the door open and politely ask them all to leave. Yes. That seemed like the most sensible course of action. But that plan would have to wait until Pilaf fell asleep and that might take awhile because the midget was upset. Pilaf had figured out how to steal the rest of the artifacts from that annoying superstrong kid and his friends. They had only needed the hidden one from the boys shirt. Once they'd gotten that, Pilaf had summoned the dragon. Victory had seemed assured. With a few seconds more... But instead Pilaf had been rudely interrupted by some humanoid pig. The wish had been stolen.
"What does a pig even need underwear for?!" Pilaf sobbed, beyond consolation.
The castle creaked. Something was happenening. Mai signaled that she would investigate and took a step towards the hallway.
Dust fell from the rafters. The walls shook. The floor shook. Something roared. It was not a small roar. Shou, suddenly operating on pure animal intuition, picked up Pilaf and grabbed Mai by the arm and leapt out the window. They hit the ground, rolled and lay there for a dazed moment. Behind and above them a giant monster - some kind of red-eyed monkey with fangs - was emerging from the castle walls and stomping the building flat even as it grew. Mai reached for her pistols. But Shou yelped, did not let go of his friends and ran away.
ooxoo
Thirteen years ago...
"I can't believe our luck!" Pilaf was smiling and clutching a new dragonball radar.
Last September, a pig had made a stupid wish. But this was a new year. It was May. The dragonballs could be used once a year. The artifacts shouldn't have even been active until after September again - but they were. Pilaf had lost everything but his willpower, when the castle was stomped. Mai had kept her car only because it had been in a capsule in her pocket. All of them were broke. They couldn't afford to ask questions. If another wish could be made now, they had to take the chance.
The strong kid was still alive. They knew this. They'd seen him a few days ago, on television reports of the 21st Tenkaichi Budoukai. But they hadn't heard very much about the strong kid because most of the recent news was about the moon. Nobody on the television or the radio seemed to know why the moon had disappeared during the tournament. Maybe it was a bad omen.
But six of the dragonballs were in one place already. And they had the last one. And Pilaf had outdone himself this time, to make sure that the wish would be his. He had the marble locked in a special box. If anyone else in the world had figured out how to build a dragonball radar... The box would hide the dragonball from them. So nobody else in the world could make the wish because nobody else in the world should be able to gather the whole set. They were the only ones.
Mai was driving as fast as she dared. Pilaf was navigating. Shou was sitting in the backseat, holding the box.
A dot on the horizon came towards them. The dot was a cloud. The cloud had a passenger, he was named Goku. Which meant that they were doomed.
Not even twenty full minutes later, Mai was standing by a smoking heap that had formerly been the car. Pilaf was slightly charred, on the ground and sobbing about how unfair life was. Shou was blushing through his fur, since he'd not only had to give up the final dragonball but also his ninja outfit.
"Maybe..." Mai managed, after a few stunned moments. She took off her long trench coat and lent it to Shou, who was modest and accepted it gratefully. "...we should try a different way..."
"No... I... I think... " Pilaf stumbled to his feet and gradually composed himself. "During my research, I read something... And I'll have to do more research but if it's true... Then I will get my wish."
ooxoo
Eleven years ago...
"Curse you, demon!" Pilaf waved a small blue fist in the air.
There was a lot of air. But the ground was coming up fast. Mai was concerned. Shou was falling nearby and had his paws over his eyes.
"Can you believe the nerve of that guy?" Pilaf, age thirty-seven, was outraged. He fell in the calm manner of someone who has been kicked off their own airship before. He fumed, almost visibly, as he tilted and spun - pushed by the winds and the gravity. "We go underwater, we find the jar... He'd been trapped for nearly three hundred years in that jar! You think he'd show some gratitude!"
"Yes, sir." Chorused Mai and Shou in unison.
The demon had promised to let them rule the world if they opened the jar. So Pilaf had opened the jar. But the demon had gotten a wish granted, not Pilaf. And Pilafs airship had departed in the direction of the World Palace. Without them.
"What is the world coming to when you can't even trust a demon?" Pilaf sulked, the air whistling past him.
Mai knew that she might die no matter what she hit but she saw the trees and rolled towards them anyway. She was human and therefore both taller and heavier than either of her friends. She knew that she might be able to break their falls. Perhaps at least one of them would live. Not that living seemed like a great option right now. The ancient green demon was strong, she'd been too frightened to even shoot at him. Could bullets hurt a demon? Maybe not. Stopping the demon might be up to the warriors then and all the best known warriors in the world were likely still recovering from the 22nd Tenkaichi Budoukai. So the whole world was in trouble, probably.
Despite this, Mai wanted to live.
But she didn't. Nor did Shou. Together, they broke Pilafs fall and kept the blue midget alive.
The landscape was all blurry and greyish and foggy and time didn't seem to happen. It was like being underwater. It was worse. Mai felt light enough to drift away and too heavy to move, both at once. She knelt and stared at her remains.
Then someone on Earth defeated the demon. And someone made a wish, even though the demon had recently made one - how were the artifacts useable again? And so all the damage that Piccolo Daimio had recently caused was magically undone. People who had died because of the demon were reincarnated. But Mai remembered what death was like. And so did Shou. Thus after Pilaf was released from the hospital - because the fall had injured him - the first time that he dared to mention the dragonballs, both of his friends clamped their hands over his mouth and said. "NO!"
ooxoo
Five years ago...
Dramatic music. A spotlight on a stage. A red carpet. A room full of famous people applauding. A marble podium with a microphone.
A pretty woman in an expensive and artfully torn up evening gown stood at the podium and waited for the clapping to finish. She smiled and nearly blinded the audience with her artifically whitened teeth. She was holding an envelope. She sounded overly cheerful. "And now, the moment we've all been waiting for! The winner of Best Picture is..." There was a drumroll. The pretty woman fumbled in the envelope because she wasn't looking at it, her eyes and her smile stayed on the audience. She held up a piece of paper and made a show of being surprised. "This Movie Is So Awful That You Will All Bow Down To Me!" She announced. "By Lord Pilaf!"
More wild applause, some cheering and even a few chants of 'make a sequel!'. Several camera flashes as the small blue midget is literally carried out to the stage. He's got wide eyes and very bad stage fright. He's wearing a toddler-sized tuxedo, an adult-sized bow tie and a hat with a bobble on top. Shou politely sets up a small ladder behind the podium and Mai gently sets her boss on the top rung. The gunslinger and the dog exchange bewildered glances before turning to wave, half-heartedly, at the audience while Pilaf is presented with a golden statue that is nearly his own height.
Eventually the applause dies down and Pilaf, age forty-three, leans towards the microphone. He speaks very slowly as if hoping that this will help make his message clear.
"...i don't think you people understand..."
ooxoo
Four and half years ago...
He was incredibly short. He was blue-skinned. He had no hair and pointy ears. He wore a bright tunic and a hat with a bobble on top. He was known to hang out with a dog in a ninja outfit and a dark haired lady in a grey trenchcoat. He was, in other words, impossible to disguise.
He was also fairly fast. Years of running away can do that.
Pilafs feet were blurs. He ran, flailing his arms as if hoping to become airborne and with tears of panic streaming down his face. His mouth was open but he was moving at such a speed that his screaming did not in fact become audible until several seconds later. And by then his distressed scream was just a faint sound drown out by the noisy stampede of adoring fans, curious reporters and anxious camera people. Everyone wanted an autograph or a photograph or an interview. Everyone wanted to know more about the award-winning movie and if there would be another movie soon and could they be in it and would he please read the scripts they had written?
Mai and Shou, moderately trampled, were trailing the crowd by a good minute and a half.
That was all the time it took.
Mai had the longer stride, she was ahead. Guided by the noise of the crowd more than anything else, she rounded the corner and skidded to an abrupt stop. "Oh no..."
Shou, who was behind her, stopped immediately when those words were uttered. He flattened his ears back, cringing in the alleyway and stared imploringly at his partner in not-exactly-crime. "Dare I look?"
Mai bit her lip, it was a nervous habit. She nodded.
Shou leaned around the corner. His eyes widened and he flinched. "Oh dear..."
The movie fans had caught up to Pilaf. One fan, in particular. A woman. She had apparently loved the movie so much that she just couldn't control herself. She had chased, caught, picked up and was now happily kissing the director. The poor blue midget was writhing in disgusted agony and rapidly turning a new color: ghostly white.
Age forty-four. His first kiss. Mentally, Pilaf was a genius. Physically, he had stopped growing at around the age of two. Emotionally and socially, he'd stopped growing at around the age of five.
It would take Mai, Shou and the entire staff of a busy hospital two full weeks to convince Pilaf that he was not going to die from cootie-related infections. It would take just over six months and some intensive counseling sessions to convince him that he was not permanently disabled. It would be a year and half before further intensive counseling got him to take the bag off his head and stop obsessively washing his face. But it would be years before he returned to... Well. Almost as normal as he'd ever been.
ooxoo
Two months ago...
"And THIS time," Lord Pilaf, age forty-eight, stood next to a giant lever of his own making. The grip of the handle appeared to be in the shape of a golden statue. He was very good at reusing things. "The plan REALLY is foolproof!"
Mai and Shou resisted the impulse to point out that they'd heard this before. Several hundred thousand times. They resisted the impulse to ask questions. They stood and waited. But... Because they'd been working with Pilaf for so many years now... They were standing a safe distance away. And they were wearing safety goggles and hard hats. And Mai was holding the fire extinguisher while Shou was holding the first aid kit. And they had a mobile phone with a local hospital on speed dial. And they were already thinking about what kind of lies they would have to tell the police and news reporters this time. Probably they could get away with saying the explosion had been part of a movie. Lord Pilaf now being known as an eccentric film director was not an entirely bad thing, in that regard.
"It's going to work, I tell you!" Pilaf shouted. He was grateful for his friends but their casual preparations for disaster were discouraging. He rubbed his hands together, grinned and reached for the lever. He indulged in an evil cackle while he was reaching.
At this precise moment, the dark mist fell to Earth.
ooxoo
Now...
"Are you sure that's a cat?" asked Mai, looking down.
"Maybe it used to be." Shou twitched his nose. "It sort of smells like a cat."
They heard distant shouting and, without leaving, turned away. They didn't remember the dark clouds - but Pilaf did. Because Pilaf was a delusional maniac. So being a mindless zombie hadn't actually been that much of a change for him. Besides, Pilaf was so dedicated to his dream of ruling the world that he'd recovered on his own and before anyone else. He was the main reason, in fact, that Mai and Shou were still alive. He'd kept them from getting hurt until they had recovered from being zombies. Something that he'd been constantly reminding them of for the last two months.
A half ruined city was a great place to find more parts. And they needed all the parts that they could get. Because Pilaf had a new enemy: the Red Ribbon Army.
For some reason the tiny blue genius was convinced that the dark clouds had been caused by the largest known criminal organization on the planet. In fact, Pilaf thought that the Red Ribbon Army was going to try to take over the world. He thought they might use dark clouds again. Or robots.
Pilaf was beyond outraged. When he wasn't reminding his friends of how he'd saved them, he was now ranting about Red Ribbon. How dare anyone else try to take over the world! What gave them the right? That was HIS dream. Didn't they know who they were dealing with? Strong warriors, hmf. What could anyone do about problems like Goku? But the Red Ribbon Army... Dark Clouds... Robots. Ha! Lord Pilaf felt able to address such problems. He had a whole array of designs just waiting to be built.
Mai and Shou were not so young as they had once been. Mai still looked to be in her twenties and could shoot as straight as ever but... She was closer to sixty. And Shou, if you wanted to figure his age in dog years, should have retired ages ago. But Pilaf was their friend and helping him was now an old habit. And they did feel indebted to their blue midget. Not just for recent events, either. He'd given them a lifetime of adventure and something like friendship, even if he couldn't give them the world. And following this routine, it seemed to keep them healthy and young-looking.
Still... Mai and Shou both knew what the Red Ribbon Army was. And that gave them pause. And Red Ribbon was endorsed by the World Government, these days. That gave them more pause. And Capsule Corporation could easily crush Red Ribbon - but they hadn't. So... Was it a three-way alliance? And if those three groups wanted to take over the world... That gave them quite a lot of pause. Tons of pause.
For thirty-one years, they'd been working together and helping Pilaf. And Shou had been helping Pilaf for even longer than that. They'd always understood that taking over the world might also mean taking on the world but... They had survived thousands of explosions and failed experiments and a strong kid and a giant monkey and the strong kid, again and a green demon and a movie award show and movie fans and dark clouds and...
Shou could still remember what death had been like. And so could Mai.
They hadn't enjoyed the experience.
And the problem was this: if you tried to take over the world and failed, nobody noticed. But if you tried to destroy the Red Ribbon Army and failed then the largest criminal organization in the world might still be upset with you. It would be like hitting an active bee hive with a very short stick and then finding out that the bees could use heat-seeking missiles. Mai and Shou were loyal. They respected and admired Pilaf. They sometimes regarded him as being their boss and sometimes, more privately, regarded him as being sort of like their kid. They felt responsible for the genius. They felt protective of him. Ruling the world was fine and dandy but taking on the whole world... Or even just Red Ribbon... Someone might actually get hurt. And it might be them.
They had to find a way to talk Pilaf out of this scheme, it was nuts - even for him. And that was saying something.
Rawr.
"Did that thing just make a noise?" Mai stepped back, turning again to look at the small heap of reddish fur in the street. She had already mentally labeled it as roadkill - but roadkill shouldn't blink. Or look like it had died by electrocution. Or sort of squeak. Maybe it was a strange type of squirrel? Mai remained skeptical about the creature being a cat.
"It must be delerious." Shou decided and being a mildy compassionate sort, he added. "We should take it to a shelter. They can... Put it out of its misery, one way or another."
And the tiny reddish cat - now a few hours old - thought: I...am...Delerious?
It hadn't expected to need a name. It wasn't sure why. It began to wonder what a shelter was. It also wondered what misery was and why anyone needed to go outside of it. It spent a few startled moments contemplating the complexity of the universe and then coughed up a little hairball. The soul of a hairball, anyway.
ooxoo
Authors Footnote: I've taken Pilafs age straight from the official timelines. He is 22 years older than ChiChi. (Goku starts out being the same age as his wife but his age becomes an open debate, after he starts doing space-travel and training in places where time passes differently. Otherwise I'd use him for the basis.) So just remember that by the time DBGT rolls around, Pilaf is closing on age 70. Which is not really that old in this fictional world where we have rather a lot of characters with ages past three digits. ALSO please note: the mere fact that Pilaf, Mai and Shou even show up in DBGT implies that they were not evil enough to have been left dead by any of the 'only reincarnate the nice people' type wishes made in DBZ. So... Yea. You'll see.
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