"Out of breath again, huh kid?"

That damned jug was dangling from a claw. Korin waved it mere inches from Goku's face, but the boy was too worn out to even reach out to try and grab it. He was lying flat on his back, sweat trickling down his face despite the cold.

"You know why you're having so much trouble?"

Goku panted in response.

"The air's thinner up here."

"I…know…that…"

"You sure don't act like it. You're running around wasting a whole lotta energy."

Goku rolled over onto his stomach and pushed himself up. "How are you so fast? You're a big fat cat!"

"I don't have to be fast, kid, as long as you're an idiot."

Goku was too winded to protest the insult.

"Your eyes aren't even open!"

"Don't gotta be. I know every move you make before you make it. It's in the way your muscles tense and shift. I can hear it."

Goku blinked. Tense and shift…

In the three days he'd spent with Master Korin, he'd forgotten all about the spirit and the purpose and everything else the Chosen Child had told him that had led him here. In truth, Goku had found purpose, and that purpose was to get that damned Sacred Water whatever it took. He would die on this tower if that's what it came to.

Although there was Mother to consider…

Tense and shift.

He had noticed something about the way Korin moved.

Goku scooted himself into a corner and spent the rest of the day watching Korin move about. At first, Korin ignored him. Then he placed the jug enticingly on its platform and walked off. Then he blatantly took a nap in full view of Goku.

And Goku watched.

Finally, as dark set in, Korin gave in. "Well, at least we've established you're honest. Which is more than I can say for some other folks who've been up here."

This piqued Goku's interest. "You mean someone tried to take it while you were asleep?"

"You're so-called Ox King thought he could get the drop on me."

"What did you do?"

"Smacked him in the face with my staff. Which is about what you'd get if you tried that, as long as you move the way you do."

"But he got it eventually. So he must have learned to move more quietly."

"It's not about sound, kid, it's about form."

Goku considered this. "How long did it take him to get it?"

Korin paused. "That depends. Are we counting all the times he gave up and left, or just the one where he stuck it out?"

"He gave up?!" This was not the answer Goku was expecting. "But…but what about the spirit? I thought it was supposed to help him do anything!"

"Look, kid, you gotta get some of this nonsense outta your head." Korin waved a hand authoritatively. "Whatever the Chosen Child told you, just forget it. It's all crap."

"Well," Goku leaned forward, agitated, "but then why did he say-"

"The Lady is very self-serving. See, the thing about being able to see the future is that you can manipulate it from the present. Let's say time is like a book. You're reading the story of your life. What do you do when you get to a part you don't like?"

Goku considered this. "I guess you could cross it out?"

"Sure thing. Cross it out, erase it, and write something else instead. Something you like better. Now let's say you get to a part you do like, and you wish it came sooner. What do you do then?"

"You could take the page out and move it up earlier in the book. And if you had the book on a computer, you could just copy and paste the whole page easy!" Goku said triumphantly. He wasn't quite sure what Korin was getting at just yet, but he could tell they were getting somewhere interesting.

"Computer?"

Goku spent several minutes trying to explain what a computer was. It didn't help that he'd only seen one a handful of times in his life, had no idea how they worked, and not really technically used one, per se, just watched Bulma work on one.

"Whatever!" Korin finally interrupted Goku's inept explanations. "The point is, as long as you know what's in the book, you can change it to make it fit what you want. It's the same thing with seeing the future. All the Lady really has to do is pull a string here or there and everything falls into place for her. How'd you think you ended up there?"

"Huh?"

"You think you woke up and immediately thought to see her? No way, kid. She pulled at something in your head to drag you over there." Korin shook his head. "Typical."

"But I feel like I did want to see her…"

"You can see her any old time, she ain't goin' anywhere. You don't gotta run off in the middle of the night."

Goku considered this. Then he stood up and took a deep breath. "I think I understand what you're saying."

"I doubt it. No offense, kid, but you don't look too smart."

"Well," Goku scratched the back of his head. "I know one thing for sure. I wanna train and get stronger. I wanna be stronger than my father and my brother, and stronger than Master Roshi, and stronger than anyone else. I wanna be the best, most skilled fighter in the universe."

"Oh." Korin said. "Well, that's…new."

"Will you help me?"

"Might as well, since you're here."

Goku's face split into a huge grin. "Wow, really? Thanks!"

"If you can get the jug, I mean."

"Oh." Goku's face fell a bit, but he regained confidence quickly. "There's just one more thing. My brother is going to come home soon, and I want to go see him."

"Okay."

"So, it's okay if I go and come back?"

"Do whatever you like, kid. It's no fur off my nose."

Goku grinned. This purpose stuff was all well and good, but Goku was a Saiyan, and he knew where the fun was really at.

"So finally, I told him," the Saiyan woman was talking loudly as her companions munched their sandwiches, "I was like, listen, I'm sick of this. Either you marry me, or we're through."

Raditz lay down on the picnic blanket and covered his eyes with his arms. When he had initially suggested the crew get together after they'd returned from their mission for a game of chase ball, he'd expected some resistance, at least on the part of Tien. To his surprise, however, the surly young human had accepted the invitation enthusiastically – he was a local champ, as it happened, and highly competitive.

In fact, Tien had warmed up considerably in the last four years, although that scowl seemed permanently etched across his face. But he appeared happy to spend time outside of training with his crew, and his relationship with Yamcha in particular had improved considerably. The two were opposites in every way: Yamcha was chatty and popular, Tien faltered with basic small talk and it didn't seem like he had a whole lot going on in his personal life. Once, when Tien had given a cryptic, evasive response to a question about his family, Raditz had jokingly suggested that the young man had been abandoned by his parents because his third eye had freaked them out. He'd expected an angry lecture about the virtue of the third eye, but instead Tien had snorted with laughter.

It was then that he knew they were friends.

It was an odd realization for Raditz because he'd never had human friends. He knew a lot, of course, not least of whom was Dr. Toriyashi, his cousins' father, but he didn't think of them as friends, just people from around town. But wasn't it normal to be friends, even close friends, with your crew mates? He'd grown up around his father's crew and their kids – they were more than friends, they were practically family.

That couldn't possibly be the case for him and the humans though. Raditz couldn't imagine allowing his own kids, should he have any, to sleep over at Jasper's little house with the delinquents the redhead had adopted.

Although Jasper was quite good with kids…

Raditz had spent years watching his little brother play with a human child, a child that, he had suddenly realized, he was almost…fond…of? He'd hate to see anything bad happen to Krillin, and it was now dawning on him that it wasn't just for Kakarot's sake, it was because Raditz himself actually liked Krillin as a person in and of himself.

And he liked Yamcha too, who with all his vanity and his sometimes blatant cowardice, always knew how to lighten a tense mood. Jasper's monotone voice was almost comforting in its steady tone, and Tien was always reliable, his lust for a good fight almost Saiyan-like.

When he'd invited a few of his Saiyan friends for a picnic, Raditz had made a point to say that his crew would be there. A couple had backed out, but a few had accepted the invite: Daiken, of course, who'd shared a few nights at the bar with the crew over the years, Parsin, a member of Raditz's former crew – they'd joined together and had been friends ever since, and Laufa, who was never one to turn down a captive audience no matter what species they were.

So that afternoon saw Tien, Yamcha, and Jasper gathered in a field outside Arkisbe, along with Goku, Krillin, and Jasper's twins.

"And? What happened?" Yamcha asked Lauffa, leaning forward to grab another pickle from the plate being proffered by Krillin.

"He dumped me!" she screeched. "Can you believe it? Who would dump this?" The 33-year-old gestured to herself, waving a hand over her chest and down her flat stomach and small waist.

She was incredibly attractive, it had to be said. She had short hair that curled upwards, framing a sharp jawline and high cheekbones. Her large eyes were lined with thick, long lashes, the kind less fortunate women had to purchase from specialty makeup stores. A small, delicate nose came to a point above perfectly bow-shaped, plump lips. She had the kind of figure most Saiyan men (and some Saiyan women…and a lot of human men…and women…) drooled over – thick legs, wide hips, toned arms. She was gorgeous.

"I dumped that," Daiken said, taking a bite of his sandwich.

Raditz grinned under his arms as he anticipated the upcoming argument.

"I dumped you, you ass," Laufa protested, throwing a carrot stick at him. He caught it, mischievous grin plastered on his face. "You good-for-nothing piece of shit."

"How come?"

Everyone turned to look at Lapis. This was the first thing he had said, besides a few cursory hellos, since the gang had assembled on the green almost three hours ago. Now he was up on his knees, bright blue eyes fixed intently on Daiken.

"Hmm?" Laufa said.

"How come he's a good-for-nothing piece of shit?"

"Lapis, you must not speak this way about your elders," Jasper said, pulling the boy back onto the mat.

"She's the one who said it!" Lapis protested.

"It's the truth. He's a cheating scumbag," Laufa said.

"I told you from the start I didn't want to be exclusive," Daiken said.

"You're disgusting!"

"Yeah, I know, and I told you so. It's not my fault you thought you were going to tame me."

"You slept with my cousin!"

"She came on to me!"

"Oh please, not this again," Parsin interrupted. "It's bad enough we had to listen to you two fight constantly while you were dating, now we have to listen to it when you're broken up? Land's ends, you two! That was nearly five years ago!"

"You should be on opposite teams next round," Lapis said. His gaze was piercing. "That way," he nodded to Laufa, "if you catch him, you can beat him up."

"Isn't it-um, isn't it better to just be friends?" Krillin asked tentatively. "I mean, you two were getting along just fine before."

It was true. Up until Laufa had launched into the sad tale of her latest dashed dalliance, she and Daiken had been laughing and joking together.

"We are friends," Daiken said.

"I hate you so much," Lauffa responded. Then she began to wail. "I just want to get married! What's wrong with Saiyan men that I, the most gorgeous girl on the Circle Islands, can't get married!"

"I've been to the Circle Islands," Goku piped up. He took a big bite of a rice cake. "Remember, Krillin? We went last year, with Bulma."

"Oh yeah!" Krillin turned to Laufa. "You have a lovely home," he said politely.

She stared at the two of them for a moment. Suddenly, she was right in Krillin's face. "Oh. My. Gods," she breathed. "It was YOU!"

Krillin tumbled back onto the mat.

"You!" she pointed at him, fingernail inches away from his eye, mouth a wide O of surprise. "You were the human that came to visit! And there was a girl! With blue hair!"

"That's Bulma!" Goku grinned. "Hey, did you see us there?"

Raditz rolled onto his stomach now, curious. He knew that Kakarot and his friends had been running around looking at buildings, as his father put it, but it was weird to realize that this also involved Kakarot meeting other people, that other people, strangers, might know who he was and what he was up to as well. And now his curiousity was piqued. He'd known for Lauffa for nearly six years, since she'd started dating Daiken, and he didn't know a single thing about her family or mother town.

"No!" she screeched. "I was away, but when I came back everyone was talking about you. You tried to get into the Floating Palace, didn't you?"

"We just wanted to take a look around." Krillin sat himself up. "We didn't mean any offense. We wouldn't have asked if we knew it was gonna be such a big fuss."

"You know," Goku said, memories resurfacing, "some of the people there weren't very nice."

"Well, you can't just walk into the Floating Palace. I mean, it's almost holy. And there's still a queen, you know."

"I don't mean about that." He was glaring at her now. "They weren't nice about Krillin. They said mean things to him. And to Bulma."

"Oh." Laufa leaned back a bit. She suddenly became aware that for the first time in her life, she was surrounded by more humans than Saiyans. Her face burned ever so slightly under the gaze of this new audience. "Well, you know," she shrugged, "there aren't very many humans on the Islands. Or any, really. I mean, I'd never even seen a human until I came out to the City for training to join the GFA."

"I get it," Tien said. The scowl that had cleared over the last few hours had reemerged with a vengeance. "It's okay to be speciesist if you don't see humans very often."

"No, that's not what I said," Lauffa protested.

"What were you even doing on the Circle Islands anyway?" Parsin said, turning to Goku and Krillin.

"Why should it matter what they were doing?" Tien said, voice slightly louder now.

"Everyone knows what the Islands are like," Parsin said. "They don't like outsiders there, even Saiyans. What do you expect as a human walking around on their lands?"

The Circle Islands were a string of nine islands roughly in the shape of a circle in the middle of the Eastern sea, off the coast of the southernmost tip of the Great Continent, the largest landmass on Vegeta. The Great Continent represented 90 percent of the planet's habitable land, and the smaller landmasses were usually small plots not far from the coast, like Kame Island. The Circle Islands, however, were nearly 4,000 miles away from the mainland, and as a result were very insular. Inhabited entirely by Saiyans, it was not uncommon for its inhabitants to live and die on their mother island, and in fact this was encouraged and expected. Despite the instinctive desire for battle and glory that was ingrained in Saiyan DNA, Islanders were among the very last Saiyans to begin registering to serve in the King's Guards, and were the absolute last people to join the GFA, loathe as they were to leave their homes. In the last hundred years both jobs and land had become scarce, it had become more common for young Islanders not only to leave but sometimes even marry outside the Islands and settle on the Great Continent.

Growing up on one of the smaller of the islands, Laufa had never met a human, and in fact knew very little about the species that shared her planet. She recalled her first days in the capital city and how she had marveled at the sight of a human girl with golden hair, only to be teased by another Saiyan for not knowing that humans had varying hair and eye colors. She had blushed in embarrassment then, and was blushing now.

"We were going to visit the Floating Palace," Goku said. "We were going to be very respectful and everything."

"Yes, but why?" Parsin insisted.

"Why what?" Tien snapped. "Does he need permission?"

"No," Parsin said tersely, "but there's no reason to go looking for trouble."

"You sound like Father," Goku complained.

Parsin grinned widely at the unanticipated compliment. "Well, thanks kiddo, it's an honor." He turned to Raditz and winked. Raditz rolled his eyes.

"Those people were awful," Goku insisted. "We went to a food shop and the man there told us to go home and stick with our own kind. And he said I shouldn't even be friends with Krillin and Bulma! He was horrible! And there were all those nasty kids. Tell her, Krillin!"

Krillin gulped. He would not soon forget the day they had been surrounded by a group of children, none of whom could have been more than eight years old, who had insisted that Krillin and Bulma were wearing costumes of some kind. They'd yanked at Bulma's hair and clawed at his noseless face. One particularly persistent child had outright refused to believe him when he said he didn't have a tail. When Krillin insisted, the kid tried to force his pants off to make his point.

"I'm sorry some people were rude to you, but its hardly my fault." Despite nominally apologizing to Krillin, Laufa was looking at Tien, whose dark eyes were practically boring holes into her skull. "I wasn't even there! And it wasn't anyone I know who was rude…I don't think. I mean, I know some people who have little kids, but…"

"Don't apologize," Parsin insisted. "You two," he turned back to Krillin and Goku, "should stay out of trouble. Stay home where you belong."

"Where they belong!" Tien moved to stand, veins popping in anger. But he was settled by Jasper's firm hand on his shoulder, gently pushing him back towards the mat. His gaze was emotionless as ever, but his mouth twitched in a small smile. Tien stared at him, unsure whether to succumb to those cool eyes or rise with the heat of his anger.

"Well," Krillin spoke up, "yeah, there were definitely some people who were rude to Bulma and me. But we still had fun, right?" He looked at Goku, who, seeing the concerned look in his friend's eyes, grinned in response. Krillin smiled back, partly in relief. "We played on the beach and went swimming every day, and we lay down in the sun and got all tan like Bulma wanted. Remember?"

"Yeah! And we ate that orange ice stuff, what's it called?"

"Halicee!" Laufa said.

"Yeah!" Krillin and Goku said together.

Relief visibly washed over the Saiyan woman, and she leaned back on the mat. "It really is beautiful out there. And people are nice mostly. Maybe you could come with me sometime!" she grinned at the two boys. "I'll show you around. No one will bother you if you're with a local."

"I wanna go too," Lapis said. He turned to his sister. "Right?"

Lazuli shrugged.

"Sure!" Laufa threw her arms up happily. "You can all come!"

"Alright," Daiken got up, wiping his hands of crumbs. "Sorry to break up the vacation plans, but I think it's time to get moving."

Chase ball was a simple game. There were two teams, and in every round one team pitched and the other caught. The catcher had two goals – first, obviously, to catch the ball, and second, to run as fast as possible to a post 500 feet from the pitch line. The pitcher's team gave chase, attempting to grab the ball from the catcher before he got to the post. The catcher's teammates chased them, trying to protect their teammate and keep control of the ball.

Mostly what it amounted to was a huddle of bodies rolling around in the grass on top of a small ball ten feet away from the post.

Making teams had been a matter of great debate, although not because they were an odd-numbered group – that dilemma had been quietly resolved when Lapis had been called to join a team and his sister had simply followed him over. It was the proportions that were the problem. There was immediate consensus that as the two largest in the group, Raditz and Jasper shouldn't be on the same team. Humans vs. Saiyans was out because the humans outnumbered the Saiyans by too many. Seeing Lapis and Lazuli pair up had prompted Goku and Krillin to want to be on the same team.

But team dynamics had been forgotten as soon as Lapis and Lazuli took off. The first round had seen them on the pitcher's team, and the adults, minus Jasper, had watched in awe as the two moved in perfect sync with seemingly no communication. Instinctively, they had both locked onto the same person, Parsin, a swift runner who had gained quickly on Raditz, the pitcher. At first Parsin hardly noticed them – after all, they were two tiny humans and he was an expert Saiyan fighter. But before he knew it he had one at either side, and with perfect timing Lapis launched himself in front of him and barreled into his chest, while Lazuli, taking advantage of the distraction, slid between his feet and knocked him over, using both legs and the full force of her tiny frame.

The adults were so stunned by the performance that they'd forgotten all about the game. Raditz had stood there, ball hanging limply from his hands. Goku and Krillin, not appreciating what they had just witnessed and seeing instead an opening for their team, grabbed it from him with ease and ran unencumbered to the pole.

There was much arguing in the second round over which team should get the twins.

The sun was low in the sky when the group broke up. Lauffa gave Goku and Krillin her communicator number, while Parsin took Jasper aside to encourage him to take the twins to Kingdom Center for some professional training and Yamcha suggested Tien sleep over at the Ox King's castle, since it was closer.

It had started to drizzle as Yamcha and Tien went on their way.

"My uncle says he's never seen it rain so much in his life," Yamcha said.

"Yeah." Tien paused. "Did you have fun today?"

"Yeah actually. Raditz's friends seem pretty cool."

"Oh yeah?" Tien's tone was neutral, but Yamcha knew him well enough by now to know that he was anything but.

"Don't take everything so personally. It's true, some Saiyans do go their whole lives without ever really talking to a human."

"Look, I like Raditz. But I think today just goes to show that we can't really be friends with them. Not really. Not if they think of us like that."

Yamcha sighed. "I don't know about that. I think we can be friends, but…." He paused. "I dated a Saiyan girl once."

Tien froze. "What?"

"Well, not dated, exactly. More like…I don't know. We spent some time together."

"You didn't sleep with her, did you?"

"Um…"

"Yamcha!" Tien eyes were sharp with disapproval. "What were you thinking?"

"I don't know!" Yamcha said helplessly. "It just sorta happened, okay? It was a long time ago and it was only a few times-"

"A FEW TIMES?"

"Don't judge me, okay! I broke it off when I realized that, that-"

"That what? She was just using you?"

There was a long silence. Yamcha's face burned.

"I had Saiyan friends, when I was a kid," Tien said suddenly. "We played games together. Then one day I saw one of the girls crying over something, I don't know what. I had a piece of cake with me and I gave her half to cheer her up. Some of the boys saw me do it. They beat me bloody." He wasn't looking at Yamcha. His eyes were glazed over with the memory, his face lost. Then he took a deep breath and turned back to Yamcha, who was staring at him. "They were my friends. But then they decided I crossed a line, I forgot my place. Maybe Raditz is different, I don't know. But his friends won't be."

Yamcha looked down at the ground and shoved his boot under the wet grass, turning up the dry dirt underneath. "Maybe you're right."

"I don't believe you."

It was several months later, Raditz had left, Goku had returned to the Tower, then his father had come back, and so he'd gone home too.

Bardock was sitting on the couch, arms crossed as he glared at his son. "There's no such thing as Korin, it's just a story. And even if he was real, everyone knows you can't climb Korin's Tower."

"So you've heard of this place?" Gine said, surprised.

"It's a story about the Ox King." Bardock waved a hand dismissively. "He climbed Korin's Tower and trained with the great Master Korin, who taught him to unlock his hidden potential." His glare deepened. "It's a story for children."

"It is not," Goku protested. "It's true, and I climbed the tower and met him!"

"You did no such thing, and you shouldn't say such obvious lies," Bardock said. "Do you have any idea how ridiculous you sound? No one can climb Korin's Tower. You can't even fly up. It goes all the way up to eternity."

"Wait, so this is a real place?" Gine said.

"Yes, of course," Bardock replied.

"So who built it then? If no one can climb it, then who built it up so high?"

"Master Korin," Bardock responded without hesitation. Everyone knew that.

"You just said there's no such person."

"Hah!" Goku exclaimed triumphantly. "And he's not a person, he's a cat!"

"Alright, that's enough!" Bardock had had it. "I've let you get away with doing whatever you want whenever you want because your mother doesn't like to upset you, but I'm done. There will be no more of this, no more living up in Master Gohan's cabin, no more running off to do gods' know what, no more ridiculous lies, none of this. Do you understand?"

Goku crossed his arms. "I told you I'd stay here to see you, and I visit Mother every day. But I'm not going to live here anymore. It's not my house."

"What happens between me and my sister is none of your business, Kakarot," Gine said. Her face had darkened – they'd been arguing over this for months. "I've told you this before, and I'm not going to discuss it with you anymore."

"I'm a boy, Arale's a girl, and-"

"And nothing!" Gine snapped. "Turi forfeited her right to this house when she chose that man over her own flesh and blood!"

"That's not true! You don't get to decide that on your own!"

"Kakarot! Do not raise your voice to your mother!"

Goku fumed, his fists tight and shoulders hunched around his ears. He didn't normally argue with his mother, but they had been butting heads over this for months, and with his father back he had no intention of backing down.

"You need to move back here," Bardock was saying, "and get yourself together. You're going to be sixteen in a few more months, you need to get serious about your training so you can be ready to get a real job."

Goku took a deep breath. He knew this was coming sooner or later, and there was no way it was going to go down well no matter what he said, how he said it, or when he said it. So this was it.

"I'm not joining the GFA."

Bardock stared at his son. "What?"

Goku swallowed. "I don't want to go off planet and fight for Frieza's army. I want to stay here, with my family and friends."

"Fine, you still have to train for King's Guards, and-"

"I don't want to join the King's Guards either."

There was a long silence as Goku squirmed under his father's disbelieving gaze. Finally, he broke. "Why should I join the King's Guards and move all the way away to Kingdom Center just so I can live all alone in a tiny room and have people say oh, you're a third class, and all that, and they got all their first class, why don't they all join King's Guards when they get all the nice stuff in Kingdom Center and we only have stuff that's already here, and we didn't even have water properly until the rain started, and-"

"Stop, stop." Bardock's breaths were shallow. "What are you saying to me? You're not joining GFA, you're not joining King's Guards, so then what the hell are you doing?"

"I'm going to continue my training here."

"TRAINING?" Bardock roared. "What training? This?! This running around, making up stories, doing whatever the hell you want, years of this nonsense, and I have let it slide because, because," he threw his hands up, "I don't even know anymore! But this is taking it too far. I'm not going to sit around and let you become some delinquent weakling!"

"I'm not, I'm training, I swear!"

"What are you going to do for money, huh? Because I sure as hell won't be funding this waste of time!"

"I've been growing apples up at Master Gohan's house, and I think I can start selling them, and anyway I don't need a lot of money-"

"You're going to be a farmer?" Bardock breathed. "After everything I've done for you, everything I've sacrificed so you and your brother could have a good life, you're going to spend that life scratching at dirt to survive?"

Goku sighed. "Father, it's not like that, really, I-"

"Kakarot," Gine said quietly. She placed a hand on his knee. "You can't do this."

Goku swallowed. He knew his parents didn't understand what he was doing and didn't take it seriously, and that he was lucky he'd gotten away with it without consequences for so long. But this was the end of line. He had hoped that his mother would at least be supportive. She was always on his side. But he could see in her eyes that now, he'd lost her.

But he couldn't back down.

"I'm sorry, I can't do what you want me to."

"You can," Bardock stood up. "You can, you just don't want to. You'd rather embarrass me so you can go off and play around and do whatever. And you know what, Kakarot? This isn't your fault. This is my fault for letting things go on this way for so long. But if this is how you want to live, you're on your own. Starting now."

Goku turned to his mother, but she was looking at the ground.

He slid quietly off the couch and made his way to the door. "I'm sorry," he said.

"Oh, not yet, you're not," Bardock said. "But you will be."

The door creaked shut behind him.

"It's just a phase, Bardock, it really is," Gine said.

"Don't," he snapped. "Don't you talk to me about this. Not now."

Outside in the cold, Goku shivered and considered his next move. He could go to the cabin he had made his home, or he could go back to Korin's Tower. But he suddenly felt very lonely.

Maybe he'd bunk at Kame House tonight and head out to the tower in the morning.

In fact, Korin's Tower did not go all the way up to eternity. There was something above the tower, and it was from that platform that Master Korin now peeked down into the mortal world.

"See? This is what I'm talking about," the cat said.

There was no response.

"Are you listening to me?"

There was the sound of tinkling water and a low humming.

"I'm telling ya, this ain't like before." Korin huffed. "And he learns fast. I won't be able to keep him away from you for very long."

This finally seemed to have an effect on Korin's companion, who joined the master on the edge of platform and peered at the world beneath.

They watched together for several minutes.

"See?" Korin waved vaguely downwards. "He's just foolin' around best I can tell."

"Weren't they all?" the man's voice was slow, low, and deep.

Korin scowled. "You know what I mean. He's got a perfect little life down there. This is what's screwin' it up, not fixin' it."

The companion shrugged.

"And he's tiny. I mean, 15 is young for the mortals, right?"

The companion turned back.

"The others were older, I'm pretty sure. They sure as hell were bigger."

Nothing.

"You're being very rude right now!"

"How far has he advanced?"

"Farther than he realizes. If he keeps his pace, he'll be up here in a few months of mortal time."

"Then I will see you again in a few months of mortal time."

Korin threw his arms up. "Are you serious? You don't have anything else to say about this?!"

The companion drifted away from him.

"Hey!" Korin called out after him. "This is very rude!"