Chapter 43: Goku's pupil

"Goku!"

Bulma smiled warmly and hugged her friend.

"Is your house on fire or something?" she joked. "You almost never come here!"
"Well, I'm kinda busy," he replied, scratching his head like he did so often. "Gohan won't train anymore because Chichi really made him a scholar when I died, but Goten's far than enough to handle! The boy's got spirit..."

The Saiyan sighed.

"And to think that I've missed seven years of his life... really, if I had known, I wouldn't have-"
"At least you didn't know," Bulma replied. "You're not the only Saiyan who missed a part of his son's life, if you know what I mean. And yet," she continued, a bit of frustration in her voice, "Both of them said 'daddy' the first time they spoke. I'm almost insulted you know."

Bulma walked in the living room - where she was before Goku knocked on the door two minutes earlier. Bra was sitting on the wooden floor, playing with the very sophisticated educative game her mother had just finished for her.

"Let's say you've both atoned for missing out a part of Trunks and Goten's lives," she said with a smile, sitting on the couch. "Vegeta's amazing with Bra - just don't let him know I told you that. He still pretends to be in his I-don't-know-what-I-can-do-with-a-daughter phase."

Goku laughed, and the four-year old half-Saiyan girl glanced up at him. It felt a bit odd for Goku - it didn't feel like being looked at by a normal, innocent child. It felt like being scanned and analysed by a scientist or a doctor.

Or Vegeta, he thought. Yes, that was it: the little girl looked very much like Bulma, yet, by the way she stared at him right know, there was no doubt that she was taking a lot after her father, too.

"Are you the one Daddy calls Kakarot?" she asked, inclining her head on the side as she kept gazing at him.
"Yup!" he replied happily. "Call me Goku though - I'm sure Vegeta feels like he's the only one who can call me Kakarot."

Bulma laughed while Bra simply nodded - again, something that surely came from her father.

"I'm being so rude," the blue-haired woman said. "Do you want something to drink or eat, Goku?"
"A soda will be fine, thank you."

With a last smile, the scientist left for the kitchen. Her daughter, though, was still staring at Goku with intensity.

"Dad says you're the only one that can beat him," she suddenly said, her sapphire studying him carefully.
"Well, I guess that would be true," Goku replied, beaming. "Your dad's a pretty tough fight for me, though, I'll admit it."
"He trains everyday with Trunks in the Gravity Capsule."
"It figures."
"They're both very strong," she continued without really listening to him. "But they won't show me."

Goku frowned a little.

"Could you?"
"Could I...?" he repeated, a bit clueless.
"Could you show me? Dad won't train me and he forbad Trunks to do so, he says girls don't fight but I wanna do like him and Trunks! He won't even teach me how to fly, they carry me around, but I can do it on my own! I'm a Saiyan too you know!"
"Erm-"
"Please!" she begged, her hands clutching at his legs and her blue eyes begging him. "Please, please, please! I wanna make my dad proud, I want to be like him!"
"Look, I-" he started off hesitantly. "Listen... I might teach you the basics if you really want, but I'm warning you right now that you're not fighting me whatsoever. One little scratch on your arm, and your father is going to murder me."
"You will?" she asked, sparks in her beautiful cobalt eyes. "You will train me?"
"If you really want, yes."
"Thank you so much!!"

By the time Bulma came back in the lounge with Goku's soda, her daughter was beaming and her friend was rather confuse.

"Woah, what happened when I wasn't here?"
"Well," Goku stared, but Bra's treatening glare stopped him.

He smiled widely - too widely for it to be natural, even for him - to Bulma.

"She was just showing me how good she is with that complicated toy you made her! For a four-year old little girl, she's really super smart!"

Bra smiled innocently, and her eyes moved back on her educational toy.


Bra streched her neck, looking into the Gravity Capsule through a round window. Both her father and brother were turning their backs on her at the moment, which was perfect, actually, since she wanted to spy on them. Goku would teach her nothing but the basics: flying, sensing people's energy, supressing yours, that kind of simple things. For the more complicated stuff and moves, she would have to do it on her own. Perhaps that just by observing them, she could figure out how they did, and mimic their techniques.

Her father suddenly turned his head towards the window: she quickly lowered herself to hide from his sight. Surely he wouldn't want her to spy on them as they trained.

Vegeta's eyes narrowed, staring at the empty window. He could swear someone had been watching them.

"What's wrong?" Trunks asked as his father briefly closed his eyes.

Bra. What would she be doing there?

"I'll be right back," he said, quickly getting out the Gravity Room.

His dark eyes immediately spotted his daughter. With the guiltly look of a thief who's just been caught by the police, she glanced up at him.

"Yes?" she asked with a voice that was meant to sound innocent.
"Bra, what are you doing here? Aren't you supposed to be with your mother?"
"She was making me read a book," the little girl complained. "I got bored, so I came here to watch you and Trunks training."
"What for?"
"I was just... curious?" she suggested.

The prince crossed his arms.

"None of that 'just curious' nonesense with me, young lady."

Bra swallowed hard: her father seldom got mad at her, but when he did, he always called her "young lady".

This was bad.

"I've told you a thousand times," he said rather impatiently, "That I will not train you. You don't need to be trained, Bra! Let the warriors take care of that and-"
"Fine!" the little girl scowled. "Don't train me if you don't want to, but you can't stop me from watching!"

Her tiny body left the ground and she "sat", floating in midair, just at the right spot to look through the Gravity Capsule's window.

"I'll stay here until you both finish your training," she said as if nothing special had happened, "And you don't have any control over this!"

Vegeta's jaw dropped and he blinked several times. What in the world... he knew for sure she hadn't learned to fly from him, and Trunks shouldn't have shown her, either. He had been forbidden to do so.

"Who the hell taught you how to fly, Bra?" he finally managed to ask.

The little girl crossed her small arms, looking at her father with a hint of defiance in her cerulean eyes.

"Goku," she replied.

The Saiyan's dark eyes widened: Kakarot had trained his daughter? His little girl, his beautiful princess? He'd taught her about fighting?! This was surely the greatest insult he'd received in his entire life, and never before had his daughter spoken to him with such blatant disrespect.

"Kakarot taught you how to - excuse me?!" Vegeta spat. "You asked that clown to train you?!!!"
"He may be a clown like you say," she snapped back, "But at least he didn't just refuse and tell me that 'girls don't fight'!" she finished, imitating his rough and angry voice.

Vegeta took a deep breath, then pointed behind her.

"In the house. Now."
"No," she harshly replied.
"GET IN THE DAMN HOUSE RIGHT NOW AND DON'T FORCE ME TO ASK YOU AGAIN!"

Bra scoffed - never had his father gotten that mad at her - but headed for the house nonetheless.

"And by foot," he ordered in her back, "If it isn't too much to ask you!"

His daughter landed on the grass and ran towards the house, tears rolling down her cheeks.

Vegeta got back in the Gravity Room as Bra rushed into the house.

"Moooooooooooooooooom!!!!" Bra shouted, jumping into her mother's arms.
"Bra, for heaven's sake, where in the world were you, I've been -"

Bulma stopped at once when she noticed that her daughter was crying.

"Sweetie, what's wrong?" she asked softly.
"D-dad is mean," she sobbed, "And I hate him and-"

Bulma frowned. Vegeta, mean? He was an angel with Bra, what had gone wrong?

"- and he likes Trunks better and it's not fair!" Bra finished, still crying.
"Hey, hey," Bulma whispered, stroking her child's blue hair. "That's not true, what happened that made you think that?"
"He won't train me! I asked, but he won't do it! So the other day," the girl sniffed, "Like two weeks ago, when Goku came, I asked him, and he said he would teach me! And just now, I wanted to watch at dad and Trunks training but dad saw me and he got mad! I flew for him, and I thought he'd be proud but he just got even angrier and he shouted at me! That's not fair, he's always proud when Trunks gets better! It's not fair!" she insisted.
"You're right, it's not fair. Tell you what," Bulma said with a smile. "I'll talk to him for you, all right? Maybe he'll change his mind. But no matter what, he loves you Bra. As much as Trunks."
"Really?" she asked.
"Of course, Bra!"

Making her cry like that - I'll give you a piece of my mind!


The Saiyan prince jumped a little when the door opened behind him. He glanced up at the mirror just in time to see Bulma closing the door behind her.

"I've got to speak to you," she said.
"Now?" he scowled. "Can't I take my shower first?"

She crossed her arms.

"No."

Vegeta grunted and turned to face her, folding his arms too.

"I talked to Bra this afternoon," she said. "She said you got mat at her because she watched your training with Trunks and you even yelled at her."
"No," he simply replied.

Bulma's sapphire narrowed.

"Are you telling me that Bra lied?"
"No, she was just mistaken. I wasn't mad when I saw her spying on us, I just didn't want her to do it. I got mad when she told me that she had received training from Kakarot."
"Don't blame her for finding a solution on her own, Vegeta!"
"A solution?" he repeated. "A solution to what problem exactly, if I may ask?!"

She poked his naked torso with the tip of her finger, glaring at him with no fear at all in her blue eyes, no matter how sharply and menancinglyhe glared back. He did not move back, and stared at her stubbornly. He would not change his mind. He was ok with Trunks taking after him - though, needless to say, he did not want his son to end up exactly like him. But his daughter? Hell no. She was brilliant, beautiful and talented, just like her mother. He wanted her to grow up happily, without having to worry about fighting. Furthermore, there was no way Vegeta could train Bra: he could train Trunks, blast him, allow him to punch him, and punch him back. He didn't worry about Trunks getting hurt, and when he did - though this was rare - it only made him stronger in the end.

But Bra? He could never fight her. Should he even bruise her cheek, should he even allow her to hurt herself by punching him, he would never forgive himself.

"A solution to the problem that her father is too sexist to show her a thing or two about fighting!" Bulma snapped.
"I'm not sexist! Why would she even want to fight anyway?!"
"Because she admires you and wanna do just like you, you idiot! I'm not asking you to train her as hard as you train Trunks, but you could at least have the decency to show her the basics! And what if she ever needs to fight, uh?"
"Why would she need it? She's a girl, Bulma - a girl. Girls don't need to fight!"
"Now, you're really being sexist Vegeta. What if someone wants to hurt her someday?"
"And you're really being ridiculous," he growled. "If any bastard ever even thinks about laying a single finger on my daughter, I'll crush him to a million pieces before he even has the time to move a damn muscle."

The blue-haired woman sighed heavily.

"And what if you're not there, tough boy? Listen," she sighed, putting her arms behind his neck. "Really, why don't you show her a thing or two? Not like you do with Trunks, just... a little soft training, you know? That would really make her happy, and it won't kill you."

Bulma bit her bottom lip hesitantly.

"You know, she... she cried earlier because she thinks you love Trunks better. I know it's not true," she quickly said, for Vegeta was showing every sign of a brutal interruption. "But that would really show Bra that you love her if you do that for her."

Vegeta sighed and leaned his forehead on Bulma's. She was looking at him with her most pleading eyes - this was disloyal, of course. She knew he couldn't say know to those eyes.

"All right," he scowled. "I'll do it. Now, can I take my shower?"
"Alone?" she purred, smirking suggestively to her husband.

The prince smirked back.

"Not necessarly..."

End of the chapter: Hophop! Damn stubborn Saiyan prince... who can't resist a pair of blue pleading eyes lol :D I hope you guys liked that chapter, next one should be coming soon as usual ;)