Chapter 50: Results and a Friendly Visit

Bulma trudged into the house to find it strangely quiet and empty. She didn't really care though; she was so horrendously tired that all she cared about was getting some sleep. She somehow managed to crawl upstairs and crash into bed, falling asleep almost immediately. She couldn't remember ever feeling so exhausted.

Late that same afternoon, she forced herself to wake up and crawl out of bed again. She knew she'd want to be able to sleep tonight if she was going to survive tomorrow's training session. She went downstairs and found her mother and father sitting in the living room, watching TV.

"Bulma!" Mrs. Briefs cried when she spied her pausing in the hallway. "Dear, there she is!"

"Bulma! There you are!" her father cried, jumping to his feet and hastily making his way to her. "I didn't even realize you were up there! Are you all right? You said in your note that you were in Vegita's gravity room when it malfunctioned. You weren't hurt, were you?"

"No," she said, shaking her head and smiling. "Thanks to Vegita, I'm fine. He turned the machine off from the outside before anything really serious could happen. Did you find out what was wrong with it?"

Dr. Briefs sighed, and immediately a more relaxed expression spread across his face. "Yes, I did," he said, pulling something out of his pocket and holding it up for her to see. It was a small resistor that he must have taken from the control circuit, guessing from the silver paint on the tip. It looked a little splintered.

"Here's the culprit," he said with a frown. "A faulty resistor. It seems I made a grave miscalculation when I had those robots construct the gravity machine. I forgot to account for the advantage human reasoning plays in constructing intricate circuits and electrical equipment. This resistor might have appeared fine before it was put into the machine - or at least it did when the robots inserted it, but I'm afraid it had a couple of cracks in it - cracks that they didn't see, but we might have if we'd been there constructing the machine ourselves. I'm sorry, Bulma, but I can't let either you or Vegita use that gravity room again until I'm sure all the rest of the equipment is safe. This one resistor actually was the culprit in this case, but there were a great many others that weren't tested when you turned the machine on, and I think I'd better check them first. Even though we've isolated your recent problem, there still may be more in the works."

Bulma gave a silent sigh of relief. That took care of Vegita's theory - not to mention her own anxiety about the matter. It was all just a big snafu. She'd never been so relieved to hear that her father had made a mistake. Admittedly, she had suspected Yamucha at first, even though she knew that it wouldn't have been his style to simply break one little resistor. He wouldn't have known what that would do anyway. Besides, if he had been the one to do that, knowing him, he would have stuck around the gravity room to make sure that his plan succeeded. In other words, he would have been watching when she'd gone in, and Bulma knew without a doubt that he would have done everything in his power to get her out of there if he had sabotaged the gravity room.

Even though the malfunction hadn't been intentional, Bulma agreed that it would be wise to make sure that there were no other unplanned hazards in the works. She helped her dad work on Vegita's gravity room for the remainder of the evening, stopping only when she was too tired to think. It really wasn't very late in the day, but she was exhausted nonetheless, and she knew she'd have another rough day ahead of her tomorrow. She turned in early that night, and would do so for many a night afterwards.

The next few weeks of training followed a pattern similar to that of the first day - with a few nasty exceptions. First off, in all his infinite wisdom, Vegita had decided at the end of the week that Bulma had grown too accustomed to eighty g's - despite the fact that she had barely gotten to the point where she could walk somewhat normally - so he made a new decree that the power would be increased by five g's at the start of every new week. Also, Bulma would never again be allowed to train for less than five hours with him on any given day - unless of course he felt the circumstances deemed otherwise, and she knew there'd be a fat chance of that. Finally, if ever he heard any manner of complaints from Bulma, she could always expect harsher exercises, and more of them at that. Not only that, but he'd also throw a higher level of gravity into the bargain, being the benevolent instructor that he was. Suffice it to say that Bulma was very exhausted at the end of each training session she spent with him.

Vegita's training was harsh, brutal, and really quite terrible, but for some reason unknown to Bulma, it wasn't entirely unbearable. She soon discovered as the weeks went by that although each day with Vegita introduced her to a new incredible level of pain and torture, she always left him with the eerie confidence that she could have withstood just a little more. It confused her, because she would have expected him to exhaust her to the point of collapse, but instead he always seemed to stop her just at the brink, leaving her just enough energy to trudge home to bed.

It could by no means have been claimed that Vegita held back on her more than he should have, or even any more than he'd intended. He was firm and unwavering about anything and everything pertaining to Bulma's training. He never hesitated to push her harder than usual, nor did he bat an eye at extending her sessions with him a half-hour or so from time to time. There really was no set ending time for their sessions, but he always managed to make sure she was nearly dead on her feet before he let her go. In any event, they never stopped until he thought it was time. Oddly enough, Bulma didn't really have much of a problem with that. For one thing, she was usually far too exhausted to complain if he went a little longer than she expected anyway, so it really didn't make that much of a difference to her. Besides, she was always able to walk away from it afterwards, so she figured that, considering who was training her, she probably had no room for complaints. He could have been far worse than that, after all.

She was learning to adapt, and in more ways than one. Perhaps the greatest visible change, at least right away, was her change in appearance. Bulma had discovered after only a few sessions that her trusty training gi was not suited for such intense gravity training. Truth be told, it was bulkier and heavier than she liked, and the way it clung to her when she was drenched with sweat was not a pleasant sensation. She began to understand more fully just why Vegita dropped the shirt as soon as he entered the gravity room. She didn't exactly have the same option available to her, but nevertheless she decided it was time to retire her old look, at least for training purposes. She opted for a gymnastics-style leotard over a pair of bike shorts, as the lightness and stretchiness of the fabric allowed for better freedom of movement, while at the same time didn't weigh her down or soak too badly with sweat. An unfortunate side effect was that she had to put up with a couple of decidedly interested looks from Vegita when he first saw her in her new ensemble. However, she told him very bluntly that if seeing her figure distracted him that much, she would have been happy to go back to her old gi. He quickly recovered himself enough to jeer at her for spouting nonsense when she should have been stretching.

By about the second week, Bulma had finally begun to settle in and grow accustomed to this harsh pattern of events. It wasn't until she found her rhythm that she was able to pay more attention to details other than Vegita's merciless thrashing, and she noticed a few things that she hadn't thus far - and probably never might have, had she not been spending so much time with Vegita.

It first struck her on the Friday of her second week. She had finished another long day of training and was just about to leave, but she stopped just three feet outside the door, having suddenly realized that she was standing on the grass in her bare feet. She was especially tired today, and it didn't really surprise her that she had forgotten to put her shoes back on before leaving the gravity room.

"Hey, wait a minute," she said, turning around and starting back up the steps. Vegita opened the door again and looked at her impatiently. "I left my shoes in there," she explained, pointing under one of the benches behind him. Rolling his eyes, he stepped aside and let her in.

She walked in past him - a little stiffly of course - and grabbed her shoes out from under the bench. She looked up and caught him staring at her from the doorway. Their eyes met, and having realized that he'd been watching her bend over, Bulma felt her face flush a little in angry embarrassment. Despite her sudden discomfort and awkwardness, she just then realized something that had eluded her in the previous couple of weeks. Vegita didn't seem as frightening to her anymore. It wasn't necessarily that she was getting used to him or anything - she dismissed that almost immediately. No, it seemed more like he was changing somehow. She wasn't sure why, but that gaze of his was much less fierce and intimidating than she had remembered. She couldn't figure out why, but she was too uncomfortable to try to work it out now. She lowered her eyes to avoid his, and she shuffled nervously past him and out the door.

"See you tomorrow, Vegita," she said stiffly, glancing nervously at him on the way out.

Vegita gave a rather quiet grunt of agreement and shut the door behind her. Bulma let out a sigh and, still clutching her shoes to her chest, she began walking slowly toward the house, her mind in a swirl of confusion. Just what the heck was going on here, anyway? She didn't know how or why it had happened, but Vegita had somehow changed without her noticing it. Now that she thought about it, he wasn't nearly as belligerent and obnoxious as he had been a few weeks ago, and the calm, almost docile way he had looked at her just now was definitely a drastic change, to say the least. He didn't have that same intense, hungry look in his eyes much at all anymore, and perhaps because of that, she didn't mind being around him as much.

Bulma didn't know what to make of it. Maybe his training was beginning to get to him. Yeah, that had to be it, she thought shakily, wiping some sweat off her forehead and shaking her head wearily. The way he was pushing her was nothing compared to the agony he was putting himself through every day. Perhaps he seemed so subdued all of the sudden because he was just plain wearing himself out. Sighing again, she walked slowly and stiffly the rest of the way to the house, her shoes still clutched tightly to her chest. She had completely forgotten about her bare feet.

As the week slowly passed by, Bulma began to observe Vegita a little more closely than she had before, and she came to a conclusion. She had been right about one thing. Vegita did seem gentler than usual, but she admittedly had to look hard to find that out. Gentler or not, Vegita was anything but when it came to her training. He didn't let up on her a bit, no matter which way she looked at it, and it was for this reason - as confusing as it may sound - that she found herself slowly beginning to relax around him.

Of course, she wasn't relaxed in the normal sense of the word. It was hard to be relaxed when you were getting the crap beaten out of you for hours on end. No; it was a different kind of peace that was coming to her - slowly but surely. Her fear of him was leaving her. No matter how she contemplated it, she could see nothing wrong with that - in and of itself. Vegita, as far as she was concerned, had proven that his intentions were indeed honorable ones. He was determined to train her fiercely, and there was now little doubt in her mind that he really was on the level about it; it was definitely for real. She knew that he must still have had feelings for her, but when it came to her training, it was all business. For that reason, she slowly began to lower her guard around him and "relax."

About the only thing that bothered Bulma about her training with Vegita nowadays was that she was unable to see how his methods were really all that effective. As far as she could tell, all that he did was knock her around for a few hours in high gravity. She was never physically capable of hitting him back, and blocking his blows was just as much out of the question. It was just beyond her how letting him give her a fresh set of bruises every day was a beneficial method of training. The only benefit she could think of that it might give her would have been a higher tolerance for pain, because all she seemed to gain from each session was just that - constant, biting pain in every joint, muscle, and bone in her body. She wasn't one to give up easily, though, and she figured that Vegita wouldn't have survived life as one of Freeza's cronies if he hadn't known an effective way to train.

Although there were times when she was sure he was going to run her into the ground with all these brutal training sessions of his, she somehow managed to survive each one, and unbeknownst to her, the truth of it was that she was making astounding progress. It wasn't until the last day of her third week - the last day of her 90-g week - that she finally learned just how effective Vegita's methods were proving to be.

The day started out the same as usual. Bulma got up, ate a light breakfast, and did some tough stretches to work out the stiffness and soreness that had settled in her limbs during the night. Then she trotted out to the gravity room, prepared to face her final harsh day of 90 g's. Vegita's training was indescribably painful and brutal, but she was a stubborn person, and she had a great deal of pride in a few facets of her life – one of the greatest of which being her training. She wouldn't have quit for anything now – no matter what Vegita did or said to make those sessions her own little slices of hell each day.

That was certainly no exaggeration, either. Vegita was indeed more than brutal with her, and none would ever have guessed that he felt anything but loathing for her, had they been able to witness the way he constantly insulted her and pelted her bruised and wearied body with painfully harsh slaps, punches, kicks, knocks, and any other kind of physical attack imaginable. In fact, Bulma's "training" would have seemed more to the outside observer to be nothing but a veritable masochistic fantasy. She never once was able to hit him back, and it was indeed rare for her to be able to block any of what he was throwing at her.

Nevertheless, she survived each of these horrific sessions, and she never once gave serious thought to the idea of giving up. She looked at each day she successfully survived in there as being a victory over Vegita, or more to the point, a victory over his apparently low opinion of her strength and abilities. It was a strange way of looking at things, but it would have been even stranger if she had known just how wrongly she had guessed his thoughts about the matter. Whatever the case, this was the reason she got out of bed every morning to go out and be pummeled all over again. That was what was on her mind yet again today. It was all the same as it was every day, but unbeknownst to her, today was going to be entirely different. Today she was going to discover something that would change her mind forever about the true value of Vegita's training.

Things started out as usual when she stepped into the gravity room and shut the door behind her. Vegita asked the same snide and obnoxious question he always did - whether she was giving in to her weak human nature today and quitting, or if she was instead going to make another one of her pathetic efforts to improve at his expense. Then Bulma did the same thing she always did in return. She shot him an obscene hand gesture and told him to shut the hell up and turn the machine on. Smirking, Vegita turned around and went over to the control panel to turn on the power. This was where the changes began. Instead of setting the machine for ninety, he set it for eighty. He turned around and leaned casually against the control panel, crossing his arms and smirking at Bulma as a look of surprise and bewilderment spread over her face.

"We'll be doing something a bit different today," he said, ignoring the confused look on her face, but not entirely removing the smirk from his. "This session is going to consist solely of sparring exercises. Do you have any objections?"

Bulma, under normal circumstances, would have shot him another obscene gesture. She would have realized immediately that if she did have any objections, it would have been wisest to keep them to herself. Vegita always made it that much harder on her if she dared to voice any complaints. On this occasion though, she was too confused and surprised to worry about objections.

"I don't know what's going on here," she said, looking at herself a bit and scratching her head. "Something's off, somehow. I'm not nearly as strained as I ought to be. I can actually move around!" She did a couple of light somersaults for emphasis. Then she turned back around, frowned, and crossed her arms. "Something must be wrong with the machine, I think," she said, looking past Vegita at it. "That must be it. You broke it, didn't you?" She folded her arms and glared sternly at him. "You're too careless with this stuff, Vegita. You've broken the machine, thrown it off, or God knows what else. This doesn't feel like any 90 g's to me."

"Feh," Vegita snorted. "There's nothing wrong with my machine, you dimwitted fool. If you had half a brain, you'd have figured out by now that it isn't 90 g's." He then stepped aside so that she could see the setting for herself.

Bulma gawked in astonishment at the little yellow numbers on the panel. "Impossible," she breathed. "There's no way I could be this comfortable in eighty g's after only three weeks of training!"

"There is if it's my training," Vegita said smugly. "Do you doubt me now, you silly girl?"

A rush of total euphoria had just bombarded Bulma's mind, and all of her restraint and good sense went entirely out the window. In a fit of frenzied joy, she launched herself at Vegita and gave him a great big hug around the neck. "I can't believe it!" she laughed as he stumbled to keep from falling over in his surprise. "It would have taken me months to get this far on my own! You're amazing, Vegita!" In a flush of wild excitement, she did something unthinkable. She swung around in front of him, and with her arms still wrapped tightly around his neck, she pulled his face to her own and gave him a great big kiss right on the lips.

Vegita was so astonished by her sudden, aggressive move that he didn't even react at all until Bulma, finally realizing what she was doing, jumped back away from him and gasped loudly, utterly mortified by what she had just done. She backed herself all the way up against the opposite wall as much of the color drained out of her complexion.

"Oh my God!" she cried, covering her mouth with one hand, her pallid face doing an about face as it suddenly began to turn crimson. "I - I didn't think! It was an accident! It wasn't...! I didn't...! Oh, Vegita, I'm so sorry!"

She didn't know what to do with herself. Her first impulse was to make a break for it, but he was between her and the gravity machine, and she wasn't thinking clearly enough to simply use teleportation. She couldn't even look him in the face for her embarrassment, so she simply sank to her knees and covered her face with her hands. She wanted to shrink in size until she disappeared entirely.

"I'm such a moron!" she said in a fierce hissing whisper. "Why the hell did I have to do something so stupid?!" The words had come out before she had taken the time to think about them, but as soon as they had left her lips, Bulma knew just how terrible they must have sounded to someone in Vegita's position. She was so angry with herself at this point that she wasn't even able to cry. She just crouched as low as she could push herself down, her face still buried in her hands and her shoulders shaking with emotion.

Vegita didn't exactly know what he was supposed to do about this. He couldn't ever remember feeling so awkward, and he was unaccustomed to the sensation. He didn't let it get the better of him for long, though. After a few moments of hesitation, he cautiously walked up to her and knelt down in front of her. Then he set his jaw, grabbed her gently by her shoulders, and lifted her firmly but gently to her feet.

"I'm so sorry, Vegita," Bulma said again, not removing her hands from her face as she shook her head and began to lose control of her emotions. "When I said stupid, what I really meant... It's just that I hadn't intended... Well, you know... It's just..."

"Enough," he said in a quiet, reproachful voice. "Apologies are a sign of weakness, so stop making them. I'm well aware that it was no more than a spontaneous act of excitement. I'm not angry, if that's what you're worried about." He then let her go without another word, walked over to the gravity machine, and folded his arms. He didn't turn back around.

A pained expression spread across Bulma's face. That hadn't been what she had expected him to say, and quite frankly, it hadn't been what she'd wanted him to say, either. She would have much more preferred him to yell at her, or at the very least tease her. She hadn't missed the hint of disappointment in his voice, either. She was terribly afraid that she'd hurt his feelings. Vegita didn't show any kind of emotion to anyone, but even so, she had spent enough time around him lately to feel pretty sure that her fear was justified. Under normal circumstances, Vegita would never have missed an opportunity to make fun of her when she had made a fool of herself. She had crossed a line by a very wide margin, and she knew it.

Bulma lowered her eyes in shame. What could she say to him? She knew that nothing she could say now was going to take either that kiss or the thoughtless words she'd said back, and she didn't trust herself not to say anything else to make matters even worse. This was terrible. Vegita might not even forgive her. A terrible thought suddenly occurred to her, and her head shot up as it hit her. Maybe he wouldn't even want her around any more. Maybe he wouldn't want to train her. The thought struck a note of panic in her mind, and she drew in her breath sharply. Granted, she could train on her own, but for some reason, the prospect of losing Vegita's training had suddenly made her very fearful and panicky. She didn't know why that was, but she did know that she was willing to try anything to make sure he didn't kick her out.

"Y-you still want me to train with you... right, Vegita?" she asked, dreadfully afraid he would say no, but determined to find out for certain.

He turned around then, and the look on his face wasn't at all what she had expected to see there. She saw a look of mild amusement hidden beneath a mask of scornful disdain. Her heart gave a leap as she saw a fragile glint of hope that he might not really be as hurt as she thought he'd be.

"Don't hold your breath," he snorted at her. "If you think for a moment that such a pathetic excuse for a kiss was enough of a bribe to let you off the hook, then perhaps you've been hit a little too hard on the head. We will be continuing as planned. You have a problem with that?" he asked her with a wicked sneer.

Although she would never have dared express the extent of her relief in words to him, Bulma couldn't help but smile happily. That was the Vegita she knew. Bulma found it tremendously comforting to see him back to "normal," at least in the Vegita sense, anyway. For a brief but terrible moment, Bulma had gotten the impression that she had done something irreversible, and it was more than just a little reassuring to have him back to his usual obnoxious self.

She realized immediately that she was going to have to be very careful from now on. She was overjoyed that she had been able to improve so much in such a short amount of time, but she had let it go to her head, and she had completely acted out of line. She made herself a promise that she was never going to allow that to happen again. Whatever happened, she was going to have to do her best not to act so irrationally around Vegita. She didn't want him getting the wrong idea, but even more importantly, she didn't want to risk the possibility that she might do something so cruel to him again. Thankfully though, now was no time to dwell on that. She had training to do!

When she didn't offer a reply to his derisive comment, Vegita smirked and folded his arms again, taunting her with his lack of a defensive stance. "Whenever you're ready, weakling," he shot at her.

Bulma smiled happily and poised herself to strike. "I'm ready," she said. "Let's go!" For the next five and a half hours she did her best to attack Vegita, while he blocked each effort with ease, all the while shouting vicious criticisms and insults at her with every move she made. Bulma had been a little hasty in referring to the day's level of gravity as being "comfortable." It only took a quarter of an hour for her to be drenched in sweat and panting like a dog. She wasn't the only one on the offensive, either. She had thought at first that they were just going to work on her offense today, but that idea was as far from the truth as it could have been. Vegita found plenty of opportunities to attack her in return, and while none of hers hit their marks, all of Vegita's did. All the same, it was quite easily the most enjoyable session Bulma had ever had with him. She'd never had any real chance to strike back at him before, and for some reason he was going reasonably easy on the counterattacks today. Perhaps this was his way of giving her a break. She didn't get any days off, after all. Still, she had a feeling that days like this were going to be few and far between.

She left the gravity room that afternoon sore and tired, but strangely happy. She paused as she stepped down from the door, and she turned around, looking up at Vegita with a shy but warm smile. "Vegita," she said, causing him to hesitate before closing the door behind her.

"What is it?" he asked gruffly, a tinge of impatience present in his voice.

"Um... I just wanted to say I'm sorry again," she said, shuffling her feet sheepishly and looking down at the grass in embarrassment. But she looked up again quickly, and her cheeks were a light shade of pink. "And thank you, for... well, for everything."

Vegita's mouth was a little agape at first, but he didn't lose his composure for long. "Tch," he snorted, waving her away. "Don't waste my time with your apologies. I've already told you I'm not angry, haven't I? As for thanking me," he added, looking scornfully at her over his crossed arms, "you might want to wait until after you've discovered what I have in store for you tomorrow to share such a simpering sentiment. Today was a walk in the park compared to the miseries you've got waiting for you in the near future, my ignorant little fool. Now go away and let me train in peace! I can't get any work done while you're here hindering me with your useless chatter."

Bulma just smiled and shook her head. "Whatever, Vegita," she chuckled. "I'll see you tomorrow, then. Good night... Vegita-sensei." she said, turning around and shaking her head again. The word seemed a strange way to address him, although after today, she had decided beyond all doubt that he had earned the title.

Vegita remained in the doorway, watching in astonishment as she hobbled off toward the house. It was only after one thirty, but since they wouldn't see each other again until the next morning, it was customary for her to leave him with a "good night" each day. His face looked a little redder than usual as he hesitated for a few moments longer and his scowl softened a bit. "Good night," he said quietly, when he was certain she had gone far beyond earshot. He then quickly stepped back inside the gravity room and closed the door.

- - - - -

Bulma walked into the house and sat wearily down at the table. "Man, I'm pooped!" she groaned, wiping some of the sweat off of her face. Her mother came in and smiled warmly at her.

"Another successful day, I see!" she said brightly. Bulma laughed.

"You have no idea," she chuckled. "Could you do me a favor and get me a great big glass of grapefruit juice, Mom? I'm so thirsty I could drink a river!"

Mrs. Briefs laughed and went to the fridge to get her daughter what she'd asked for. "Oh, by the way," she said, setting the carton on the counter and opening the cupboard for a glass. "Yamucha went to visit Kuririn today. He said he wouldn't be back until late tonight. He asked me to tell you that he was sorry, but he wouldn't be here for his sparring match with you."

"Oh, really?" Bulma said, kind of disappointed. She was really anxious to show him just how far she'd gotten, now that she knew. "That's too bad. I had something really good to show him."

"You could always go out to the Kame house and see him there," Mrs. Briefs commented, pouring her juice into a large glass. "I'm sure Kuririn wouldn't mind."

"Yeah, and neither would that old pervert, I'll bet," Bulma grumbled, scowling crossly. She didn't know how he did it, but no matter how strong she became, that man always managed to sneak up on her long enough cop a feel every time she saw him. It baffled her to no end, and it made her terrifically angry. No matter how many times she knocked him clear across the island or even far out into the ocean, he never seemed to let up on her. The man was a master all right - a master pervert. There was no way she wanted to go out there today. She was not in the mood to guard herself from him or his antics.

"No," she said, accepting the glass of juice her mom handed her. "I don't want to. Not if that old letch hangs around, I don't. I don't want to hang around here all day, either. It's Dad's day off, and he's just going to be reading his magazines or something, so I don't want to hang around the workshop. I guess I'll just have to find something else to do."

"Why don't you go visit Goku and Gohan, then?" Mrs. Briefs said, sitting down across the table from her and smiling. "It's been a good couple of months since you saw either of them, and I bet they wouldn't mind if you popped in and said hello. What do you think?"

"Hey, that's an idea!" Bulma cried, beaming at her. "That's a great idea! Ooh, but if I do that, I'll have to bring some diversionary material. Those three will be out there in the mountains training, and I'll want to have a good bribe for interrupting them..."

"Three?" Mrs. Briefs said, raising an eyebrow. "Who's the third?"

"Piccolo," Bulma said, looking back at her mother and frowning. "They're all training together to prepare for what's to come. I think I know what I'm going to do. I'll need your help, though."

"Really?" Mrs. Briefs cried in delight. "With what? What are you going to do?"

"I'm going to prepare a picnic lunch for them," Bulma laughed, standing up and planting her fists on her hips. "A lunch fit for a couple of Saiyans, Mom! Since my cooking skills leave a lot to be desired, I was hoping you could give me a hand."

"You've got it!" Mrs. Briefs cried. "Let's get to it then! It's already two o'clock. It'll be dinner time if you wait too long!"

They worked together to make a lunch big enough for two healthy Saiyans and one Namek. They packed in over fifty pounds of fresh food of all kinds for Goku and Gohan, and they stuffed in a few ice-cold bottles of spring water for Piccolo. The food took a long while to prepare, but Bulma's mother was so used to Vegita and his eating habits by now that it could have taken much longer than it did. At any rate, after about an hour and a half, Bulma set out for Mt. Paozu with her large cooler strapped to her back. She waved good-bye to her mom and flew off at a terrific pace.

It only took her a quarter of an hour to get there at such high speed, but remarkably enough, she wasn't the least bit tired when she did. It surprised her a great deal. Perhaps this was yet another happy side effect of Vegita's training. She grinned as she tracked the boys down with her chi sense, until she finally located them on one of the highest mountains - up atop the snowy cap. She could hear them clashing up there long before she finally reached them, and she had to strain her eyes to find them at first. They were definitely way out of her league; that much was obvious. Even Gohan was moving too quickly for her to keep up with his activity.

She was considering teleporting in to surprise them, but she never got the chance. They must've sensed her, because they all promptly stopped what they were doing and looked down at her.

"Hey! Bulma!" Goku cried, waving and flying down to her, with Gohan and Piccolo following close behind. "Wow, it's great to see you! What's up? You decide to come for a sparring match or two?"

Bulma laughed. "Maybe in a little while," she said with a grin. "But first, let's take care of this." She patted the cooler and grinned some more. "My mom and I packed a nice lunch in here. You guys hungry?" She pretended not to know the answer to that one.

Goku's and Gohan's eyes lit up with delight as they looked at the enormous cooler. "Boy, am I ever!" Goku exclaimed, rushing forward. "Here, Bulma, let me help you with that!"

"Whoa! Hey!" she cried, dodging him and laughing. "Geez, Goku, calm down! Come on; there's a good spot down there at the foot of the mountain. Let's sit down for a little while and make a picnic out of it."

Piccolo's expression hardened. Bulma smiled at him in understanding. She knew the Namek probably viewed picnics as a waste of time better spent training, but she wouldn't be persuaded to just let the boys gobble it up in midair. "It won't take too long; I promise," she said to him reassuringly. "I'm sure you've seen how quickly these two can eat by now," she added, jerking her thumb in Goku's and Gohan's direction. Piccolo gave a light harrumph, but he nevertheless followed the other two down after her. He must have supposed she had a point.

They flew down to the little valley just past the mountain's edge, and they settled down in a small clearing set among some large, healthy maple trees. Bulma spread the blanket she'd packed out on the ground and unpacked all of the food in the cooler - which Goku and Gohan devoured almost as quickly as she could set it down. She tossed Piccolo a couple of the water bottles and took one for herself as the boys made quick work of what was left of the food.

"So how goes the training?" she asked them, resting comfortably under the shade of the maples. "You guys feel pretty far along. I couldn't even keep up with you when I interrupted you earlier."

"Mmgff... we've been... gmph... training every day," Gohan said between mouthfuls. "Dad and Piccolo-san are really working hard, and they're helping me a lot too."

"You must not be taking much time out for picnics," Piccolo said, raising an eyebrow at her. "You certainly don't look like you did in our last encounter, and your power has increased noticeably. I gather you've been in training too."

"That's an understatement," she laughed. "Yeah, I was training on my own for a while, but apparently that wasn't good enough for a certain loud-mouthed Saiyan. Vegita's got me training with him now. I have to tell you, it's a lot rougher than anything I ever would have put myself through alone."

"Huh?" Goku gasped, nearly choking on the last of the ham. "Vegita's training you?"

"Yeah, I know," Bulma said, nodding and laughing at their astonished expressions. "It sounds pretty weird, doesn't it? I'll admit, I wasn't too thrilled about the idea either when he brought it up, but I don't have any regrets yet. He may be an asshole, but the guy knows what he's doing. I've gone farther than I'd ever dreamed possible already. I'm so comfortable in eighty g's now that I think if Rikuum were still alive today, I'd probably have a decent chance of beating him."

"Wow," Gohan said in amazement. "What's Vegita's kind of training like? Is it really bad?"

"It's like Hell on Earth sometimes," she chuckled, leaning back on her hands and looking up at the sky, "but it's damned effective. I imagine you went through something similar when Piccolo trained you before Vegita and Nappa first arrived, Gohan."

"So what do you think of Vegita?" Goku asked, keeping a remarkably straight face as he asked her.

"Huh? What do you mean?" Bulma asked in surprise. His question had caught her off guard. "What kind of question is that?"

"Well, what's it like to be around him?" Goku said with a nervous laugh. "I mean, it must not be all that bad, if you're actually willing to let him train you!" He laughed again, despite the sudden, sharp glare of disgust that Piccolo had shot him.

"He's a pain in the neck most of the time," Bulma said with a slight frown, crossing her arms. "He's obnoxious and argumentative, and by far the bossiest person I've ever encountered in my life. If I didn't worry about the effects it would have on the human race, I'd have kicked him out a long time ago. But," she added, looking down thoughtfully. "I suppose it could be worse. He seems to have calmed down a little, if you can believe it. He's not nearly as belligerent or destructive as he used to be. I think he's developed a good deal of self-control. At times, he can even seem kind of... gentle."

She looked back up, and she found that they were gaping at her as if she'd suddenly transformed into some kind of grotesque, hideous monster. She realized what she had said, and she laughed loudly, trying to fend off her own embarrassment. "Well, I guess not really gentle," she laughed nervously, "but maybe not as violent as before. I don't know! You'll just have to see for yourselves when you see him again!" She had grown fairly red in the face, despite herself, and she looked down and pretended to study her bottle of water as an excuse to avert her eyes from them. She didn't know what kind of demented part of her brain that comment had come from. Calling Vegita gentle was like calling a baby rabbit ferocious. It was no wonder they had stared at her like that.

Goku shot a grin at Piccolo, who just shook his head at him and grit his teeth angrily. Goku would not be stifled so easily. He gave a hearty laugh or two of his own and grinned shamelessly at Bulma. "What do you suppose could change the man so much?" he said loudly. "I figured Vegita hated everything about us. D'you think that's not really true anymore?" he asked her eagerly.

Bulma had begun to wonder why Goku was suddenly taking such an active interest in Vegita's moods, and where all these strange questions were coming from. "Well, I... um... that is, I mean... I don't know. Why are you asking me, anyway?" She had become rather flustered, and she snapped the last bit at him impatiently. "Geez, what's with the twenty questions, Goku? Why the hell do you think I'd know what goes on in that psycho's twisted brain? Maybe it's like Yamucha insists, and it's just a calm before the storm. Who knows? All I know is that I don't care what that spiky-haired jerk has on his mind at this point. Just as long as he's stopped being so destructive, I'm satisfied enough. He's still a jerk and a real pain in the neck, but at least he's a bit bearable. Let's just leave it at that and forget about him. Okay?" She glared at him, and he put up his hands and laughed good-naturedly.

"Okay, Bulma, you've made your point!" he laughed merrily. "That's fine. We'll drop it. We'll just forget he even exists, if you want!"

"I'd like that just fine," Bulma snapped, closing her eyes and scowling. Goku grinned at Piccolo again, and it was all the Namek could do to keep from getting up and walking away. His disgust at Goku's obvious lack of tact in asking such ridiculous questions was more than obvious.

"So what else is up at your house, Bulma?" Gohan asked, not quite understanding Goku's interest in Vegita either, but dismissing it as another one of his father's good-natured fancies. "Anything especially interesting you have to tell us? We don't get much news out here, you know!" he laughed as he waved at the wilderness about them.

Bulma opened her eyes and her expression became rather serious. "Well, I guess there is something," she muttered, suddenly remembering the conversation she'd had with her father yesterday, "but I'm probably wasting my time telling you."

"What is it?" Goku said, suddenly curious. He didn't know what to make of Bulma's suddenly serious expression. Even Piccolo's eyes opened a bit more with interest. There was something about Bulma's voice that didn't fit in with a casual picnic, and he was curious too.

Bulma sighed. "Well, I didn't think anything would come of it, and even if something did, I didn't know what I'd do about it, but at any rate, it's been done, and something has come of it."

"Huh?" Goku said with a puzzled frown. "I don't get what you're saying, Bulma. What has been done?"

"I'm getting to it, Goku," Bulma said with an almost irritated tone of voice. "Well, after I got back home from the fight with Freeza, I asked my dad to see if he could dig up any info on Dr. Gero - anything he could find. It's always been my policy to find out as much as possible about a future problem before I tackle it, and I figured that since this enemy was home-grown, we might be able to learn a bit about him before we actually had to fight his creations. Anyway, Dad did manage to find a small article about Gero in one of his old scientific journals, and it had a few bits of information that might be of use, or they might not. That's up to you, I suppose."

"What kind of information?" Goku asked, his face adopting a more serious expression too, now that he knew the nature of Bulma's news.

"I may now know the area where he's holed himself up," she explained. "The article only had conjecture in it, but it was right on the money about everything else it guessed. It made mention about Gero's creation of humanlike artificial intelligence, for one thing."

Goku shot her a blank look. Bulma sighed. "It means they had gotten wind that he was creating artificial intelligence similar to that of humans, Goku. In other words, he had created artificial humans - Jinzouningen. Ring a bell?"

"Ooooh..." Goku said, nodding as he finally understood. "So you think they might have figured out where Gero hid his lab too?"

"It's possible," she said, looking thoughtfully at her water bottle. "I haven't checked it out, of course. That would be stupid. I haven't told anyone else about it either. Only Dad, you guys, and I know about this. I wanted to tell you first, Goku. What do you think? Should we at least look into it? I didn't want to go because I was afraid I'd end up in over my head if I did manage to discover Gero's lab, but if I had you, or Piccolo, or even Gohan with me, I'd feel a lot better." She straightened up and stared resolutely at him. "I know you wanted for all of us to just train and prepare as best as we could for them, Goku, but this is an opportunity I thought we couldn't just ignore."

Goku didn't hesitate with his answer. "I'm still going with what I said earlier, Bulma," he said, smiling at her in understanding. "I know you wouldn't have brought this up if you hadn't thought it was important, but I think you should just forget about it. We wouldn't be able to do anything if we did find that lab. I stand by my decision about killing Gero. Finding his lab wouldn't accomplish anything if we just went there to parley with him. I don't think he'd listen to reason."

"Well think of this, then," Bulma said, making one last-ditch effort to salvage what she thought could be their only hope. "Remember what that kid said about Gero's future? Remember that his creatures would end up being his own destruction too? How about that? You want that to happen? They'll have killed him long before they appear to wreak havoc on that poor city. If you want to be a pacifist about this, you have to consider what pacifism in this case is going to accomplish."

Goku's eyes opened wide. "Gee, Bulma, I hadn't even considered that," he said, gasping in amazement. "I'd completely forgotten! If what that kid said is true, Gero is going to die in a couple of years!"

Bulma smiled in triumph. "So you see, we can't just stand by and wait," she said, going in for the kill. "At the very least we have to try to talk him out of this madness - for his own good, as well as the rest of the world's."

Goku frowned, he scratched his head, and he got up and paced for a while. Bulma could tell that he was really conflicted about this. Finally he just sighed and sat back down.

"Bulma," he said, shaking his head and sighing again. "It's no good. I really don't think he'll listen - certainly not to me. I think that a failed attempt may be more disastrous than not trying at all. Think about it! If we go and try to make him listen to reason, and he refuses, we throw everything away. One, there's the fact that he's not expecting us to prepare for him. Two, we won't know when he'll release his Jinzouningen if he knows that we know. He may set 'em loose early, or later. There's no way of telling. Besides, suppose he already has them built. I'd rather take them on after a few years of training instead of now. I'm strong, but I can be even stronger."

"The same goes for me," Gohan said, nodding gravely. "I agree with Dad, Bulma. I don't think Gero would listen to us even if we told him everything. If the guy's so eaten up with the idea of revenge that he would take such extreme measures, no amount of good sense would get through to him."

"I suppose you're right," Bulma sighed, shrugging and offering a smile of defeat. "Even I can't argue with those points. I guess I'll just have to leave it alone after all. It really was a waste of time to bring it up."

"Nah, you had a good point," Goku said, waving it away. "Besides, bringing it up with others before acting on it was a really smart thing. I'm glad you didn't decide to check it out on your own."

"Like I said, that would have been stupid," Bulma said, shooting him a proud grin, "and I'm a lot of things, Goku, but I'm not stupid. Now," she said, getting up and pitching the half-empty bottle of water into the open, barren cooler. "How about those sparring matches you offered earlier? Are they still up for grabs? We've got a good couple of hours of daylight left, and I'm not going to let you get away with dismissing my idea without some kind of punishment!" With that, she shot up toward the mountaintop. Goku and Gohan grinned at each other before springing into the air after her.

Piccolo floated up a couple of feet and paused before heading up after them. Well, they probably weren't going to get much of a real workout tonight, but he supposed one idle evening wouldn't make too much of a difference. He had been looking thoughtfully at the disheveled picnic site and contemplating this thought with a disapproving frown, when all at once he heard a disturbance in the air as it whistled toward him, and he simultaneously felt a jolt of chi from up above. An attack was coming!

He instantly jerked one arm upward, palm outward, to shield himself from the oncoming projectile, but instead of blocking a chi blast as he had expected, he found himself on the receiving end of a large, hard-flung snowball - about the size of a man's head. It slammed into his hand and disintegrated when it hit - covering one side of him completely with snow. His keen eyes immediately shot upwards to discover the culprit of this indignity, fully suspecting that he'd find Gohan up there, laughing and tensing himself for whatever retaliation he would bring him. However, it was Bulma whom he saw, loaded with snowballs in both hands, and flinging them at Goku and Gohan already. She must have teleported ahead of them and built up the snowball artillery before letting time flow again.

"Come on, you big snail!" she called down to him, hurling another snowball at him. "The sun isn't going to stand still while you dawdle, Piccolo!"

Smirking as he thought of the look of horror she'd be wearing when he made her eat her words, he shot up and out of the way of the icy projectile, powering up his chi as he went. When he had come up to be level with the rest of them, he concentrated all his telekinetic powers on the mountaintop, and pretty soon he was quite visibly working hard at something. Bulma and the others stopped what they were doing to watch him in curiosity and awe as, slowly but quite perceptibly, Piccolo caused all the snow on the western face of the mountain to shift slightly. Then he intensified his chi even more, yelling with the effort, and suddenly, all of that snow actually floated off of the mountain and into the air! Bulma, Goku, and Gohan simply watched in amazement as Piccolo levitated the enormous mass of snow up higher and higher into the air, until it was about fifty feet above them. Suddenly Bulma caught on to what was happening.

"Oh no!" she cried, trying to fly away, but slamming into Gohan in her panic. It was too late. With a mighty roar and a tremendous jolt in chi power, Piccolo slammed the entire bulk of that snow down upon Bulma and the Son men. Although they all thought to use chi power to heat things up around them as Piccolo's frozen retaliation swallowed them up, it wasn't before each one was covered and slammed downward a few hundred feet. They each emerged from the top of the white mess very much unhurt, but very much drenched. Piccolo sneered down at the dripping, bedraggled antagonists below him, and Bulma, Gohan, and Goku glanced at each other before grinning and nodding. They had united for a common cause.

"Let's get him!" Gohan cried, dashing forward and leading the charge. Bulma and Goku, however, decided to be less direct about their attack. Goku went straight to his zanzouken - the split-second afterimage technique that Yamucha had told her about, but had been unable to teach her, as he'd never learned it himself. Undaunted, Bulma didn't focus on that. She had her own deviltry in mind for Piccolo!

In the blink of an eye, she had stopped time. Grinning mischievously, she flew around behind Piccolo and pushed her hands under his arms, and then she clamped them down just behind his neck - thus securing his arms from any useful movement. She made a quick note of where Gohan and Goku were - still a good way off, although Goku was really farther off to the side than anything. If he'd decided to charge head-on like Gohan, he would have reached Piccolo already. Keeping them both in mind, she finally resumed time's flow and held onto Piccolo as tightly as she could.

She'd caught the hapless Namek off guard, but she'd also done the same thing to the boys. They both immediately stopped to stare as Piccolo began to struggle to free himself from Bulma's hold on him.

"Well, what are you waiting for, you nitwits?" she hollered, trying to keep her arms from being jerked out of their sockets as Piccolo struggled violently against her. "You think I can hold onto him forever?! Come on!"

Goku laughed outright, but Gohan decided to make use of the opportunity that Bulma had provided him. He let out a terrific war cry and charged at them. This time Goku followed suit, but things didn't go quite as Bulma – or they – had planned. Growling fiercely, Piccolo lurched forward one more time, and this time he was much too strong for Bulma to keep in check. Even so, she stubbornly held onto him anyway, and that had been a mistake - one that Piccolo had figured she would make. As the boys came within striking distance, Piccolo - with Bulma still in tow - did a quick somersault in midair. He went so fast that the force of the spin caused Bulma's legs to fly outward as they went, and each one of her feet clonked one of Piccolo's would-be assailants directly on the top of the head.

"Ow!" Gohan yelped as he was hurled downward.

"Oof!" Goku grunted, going down with him.

Piccolo stopped spinning and Bulma shook her head a bit to get rid of the dizziness. All the same, she couldn't help but laugh out loud at Piccolo's clever save.

"Gee, Piccolo, we make a nice team, don't we?" she laughed, letting go of his arms long enough to wrap hers around his neck and put him into a headlock. Piccolo smirked evilly.

"I quite agree," he said with a sneer. Bulma had made a mistake. Now that his arms were free, she was no longer out of his range. She realized it all too soon, but not soon enough to do anything about it. Piccolo grabbed each of her arms and flipped her over his head. Then he sent her crashing into Goku and Gohan, who were just making their way back up.

Undaunted, the three charged Piccolo as one, and this time, he had no other line of defense than hand-to-hand. He didn't seem to mind at all, though. He sneered as he dodged this way and that, easily avoiding Bulma's and Gohan's punches, but finding that he was having to work much harder to avoid Goku's.

"At least you've finally come to your senses and realized that you'd all have to attack at once to overpower me," he snorted, knocking Bulma and Gohan back and aiming a hard right at Goku's chin, which Goku just barely managed to dodge.

Goku leapt back a bit and laughed as Gohan and Bulma sailed back into the fray. "Maybe we're being a little unfair, though," he said with a grin. "It might be better to let those two take over for a little while. I'm sure it's rough on you with all three of us to consider."

Piccolo chuckled at the remarkably pointed dig that Goku had just made on him. "Don't get me wrong," he said, smirking as he once again knocked Gohan and Bulma aside. "It's nothing I can't handle."

Bulma and Gohan leapt back so that they were beside Goku again. "We'll see," Bulma said slyly, crossing her arms and grinning defiantly at him. She had begun speaking in Namekian. "It's time for round two, now, Piccolo. Perhaps we're no match for you, but Goku was holding back a lot. I say we let him try his hand alone."

"What did she say?" Goku said, bewildered. "I think I heard my name in there. Bulma, what language is that?"

Bulma laughed, suddenly realizing that Goku had never heard her use Namekian before. She was about to translate for him, but Piccolo answered for her.

"She says that she volunteers you to take me on alone," he explained with a wry smirk. "She thinks you were holding back on me."

"Yeah! Get 'im, Dad!" Gohan cried, laughing gleefully. "Avenge our honor an' stuff!"

Goku grinned and stretched his arms. Then he folded them behind his head. "Well, Pic, it looks like I'll have to take over their grudge match for them. Think you're up to it?"

Piccolo's only reply was to sneer and shoot a terrifically powerful chi blast at him, completely taking her and Gohan by surprise. They just barely managed to dart away as Goku blocked the blast and caused it to explode, and after breathing a sigh of relief, Bulma giggled. She'd rarely had such a great time sparring before! These guys were so much fun!

"Come on, Gohan!" she cried, striking a defensive stance and shooting him a challenging grin. "Let's see how much they've taught you!"

Gohan laughed and did the same. "I'm warning you," he said as he charged himself up. "They didn't go easy on me, and I won't go easy on you!"

"Okay," Bulma laughed. "We'll just see how much good Vegita's training has done me!"

As it turned out, she found Gohan to be a bit more of a match than he looked. Still, it was easier to spar with him than it was to spar with Piccolo, or Goku, for that matter. Those two didn't let up much on each other either, but in the end, it was Goku who won out. Bulma supposed that Nameks just didn't measure up to Saiyans. In any event, by the time Goku and Piccolo had finished their little go-round, the sun had already set. Gohan and Bulma had thoroughly worn themselves out by then, so they all decided it was a good idea to break for home. Bulma didn't mind as much as she thought she would. For once she was thinking responsibly. She knew she'd have a hard day of training with Vegita early tomorrow morning, and she was going to need her sleep. It was definitely time to go. The boys helped her pick up all the trash and load it into the cooler, and she strapped it back onto her back and got up to go.

"Bye, guys!" she said, giving Goku and Gohan big hugs. She managed to teleport a small one in on Piccolo afterward - much to his growling displeasure, but much to the amusement of his training partners. "I'd nearly forgotten how much I missed seeing you guys. I wish we could do this more often!"'

"You can, you know," Goku said with a big smile. "It wouldn't hurt nothin'."

"I'm not so sure," Bulma laughed, tucking a hand behind her head in embarrassment. "I'm gonna pay for this tomorrow, I think. I'm usually in bed for at least an hour by now," she added, frowning as she glanced at her watch. "I need a lot of sleep to recoup each day from Vegita's training sessions. I'll probably be dead on my feet tomorrow. He'll let me have it for sure!"

Goku grinned. "Sounds like he's really working you hard," he said.

"It's nothing I can't handle," Bulma said quickly, "and I could quit any time I wanted, but I wouldn't give that arrogant jerk the satisfaction!"

Goku laughed. "Still," he said. "It looks to me like he's doing a great job. I can already tell you're way stronger than you used to be, Bulma."

"You got that right," Gohan said, nodding in agreement. "She caught me off guard a lot, Dad. She's getting better, all right."

"That's really nice of you to say, guys," Bulma said with a faint smile, "but I have a feeling that when it comes down to it, no amount of training is going to do me any good. I can't really ignore the knowledge that I'm going to be outclassed no matter what I do. I'm not trying to be the best or anything; I just want to be good enough to survive... or at the very least," she added, looking down sadly, "good enough to keep out of your way."

Goku frowned at Piccolo, who grunted indifferently. "Bulma," Goku said, his expression having turned very serious indeed. "That's no way to talk and you know it. You never know how things will turn out, and you can't just assume the worst right away. If you do that, you'll be handing Gero's creations the victory before they even wake up."

"I know," she sighed. "Don't misunderstand me, Goku. I'm not giving up. I'm going to train the hardest I possibly can, and, good enough or not, I'm going to fight them as hard as I can. Just the same, I doubt that even you can tell me truthfully that you believe I'll be strong enough to defend myself from such creatures."

Goku sighed and shook his head. "All right, Bulma," he said finally. "Fine. I don't believe that you could defend yourself from them, but that's only if I think of you fighting them on your own. Things aren't as bad as you make them out to be. We're all in this together, and we'll need your help just as much as you'll need ours. Believe it or not, I believe in you. And you know what? I'll let you in on a little secret; I think Vegita does too."

"Vegita doesn't believe in anything but himself," Bulma said with a scowl. "I don't think he really expects me to follow through with this training of his, the way he's always acting as if I'm just dying to quit. For the life of me, I don't know why he's even wasting his time with it. All it's doing is taking time away from his training, after all."

"Think about what you're saying," Goku said with a broad smile. "Why would he be wasting his time, if he didn't think you were up to the challenge?"

Bulma didn't have anything to say to that. There was nothing she could say. "Maybe he just delights in tormenting me," she said finally, shrugging her shoulders. "I don't know. The man's weird, Goku. But in any event, I'm not giving up. You can count on that."

"That's the spirit!" Goku exclaimed, slapping her on the back - and nearly knocking her over in the process. "Next time you come see us, you'll be so strong we won't even know it's you till we see you! Oh, and when that happens, maybe you could teach me that time teleport thingy of yours? I can't seem to get it to work, for some reason."

Bulma regained her balance and smiled back up at him. "Sure Goku," she said. "Any time."

She floated up into the air to leave, but paused as Goku called out to her again.

"And Bulma?" he said with a mischievous grin.

"Yeah?" she asked, turning back around.

"Whatever it is you're doing to Vegita, keep it up, okay? From what you told us, it sounds like whatever you've done is changing him for the better!"

Bulma promptly turned scarlet, and Gohan looked first at her, and then at his father. He scratched his head in confusion. For Piccolo, however, it had been too much. Shaking his head in disgust, he flew off for the Son homestead ahead of Goku and Gohan, sending a curt nod of good-bye to Bulma as he left. Gohan waved good-bye too, and he promptly took off after Piccolo.

"I-I'm sure I don't have any idea what you're talking about, Goku," she said to him in a very flustered voice, and no less red in the face than before. "I haven't done anything to Vegita!"

Goku grinned obnoxiously. "If you say so, Bulma," he laughed. "See you later! Say hi to him for me!" Before she could say another word, he took off at tremendous speed after Piccolo and Gohan.

Bulma remained rooted in place for a good thirty seconds or so after Goku had disappeared over the mountains, but she eventually shook her head and smiled. What was she letting herself get so worked up for, anyway? Goku didn't know what the heck he was talking about. He was just teasing her. Sighing and shaking her head, she set out for home. If he only knew, she thought wearily to herself.

Bulma couldn't help but smile on the way back to Capsule Corporation. Things weren't so bad in her life, she decided. As she flew home slowly and with a good deal of fatigue, the peaceful smile on her face remained for the entire flight home.

It had been a strange, yet pleasant day.