Chapter 2

Dawn of Adventure

It took some time for Sky to adjust to his new surroundings. It was an odd feeling, having nothing to compare it to himself, but he could feel the progress day by day. Moving came easier now, and although this wasn't clear until he looked back on it, the sun seemed to gradually beat less harshly upon his back. Looking at his warped reflection on the surface of Goku's "Grandpa", it seemed his very complexion had changed from a pale white to tan. It seemed odd how he'd hardly noticed the change, and it felt wrong that his person could have been altered so drastically without notice. Yet, his mind was still disoriented by the ways of this world that he awoke in. He couldn't decide if this dysphoria between his reflection and his body was commonplace for a person or one born only from his own ignorance of self. Was this wrongness natural for one in his amnesiac condition or was it something that befell everyone at one point or another? Though in a way he supposed it didn't matter. The feeling was there crawling beneath the surface of his very being as his soul rejected the face and form it was attached to. This contradicted the natural feeling that Sky had come to know as he'd come to learn (relearn?) the ins and outs of his own body.

Sure, it had taken time to adjust, but with each passing day he'd found moving came easier, and the disconnect between his mind and body was no longer there for the most part, except whenever his eyes caught sight of his reflection. In those moments something within him screamed in horror at whatever had become of him. Truthfully, Sky didn't know what he would do without Goku in times like these. When he wasn't hunting or eating with Goku (two activities that took up a surprisingly large portion of their days), Sky spent most of his time lost in thought. He didn't want to be too hasty about his next move, but he was very quickly getting impatient. Move too soon and he'd lose out on valuable time to recover his strength (though again, he had no idea how he'd started out so weak), but too late and whatever leads may exist to his past before he met Goku could very easily be lost. This possibility above all else was terrifying. Still, that it took him a week to finally build the resolve to return to the place he had first fallen out of the sky and investigate for anything felt altogether too slow.

The conversation itself was rather simple, given how long Sky had been avoiding it. He first resolved to go early in the morning, just before he and Goku were preparing to hunt for their breakfast.

"Goku," he began, pulling his only shirt over his head, which smelled faintly of the soap he'd washed it with the night before, " I have been meaning to ask you, where did you find me? I don't think you've ever pointed it out."

"Oh that, well it's at the fishing spot." Goku responded almost instantly. This caught Sky off guard.

"Wait, you mean to tell me that we have been going there this entire time?" he asked, astonished.

"Pretty much." Goku replied nonchalantly. This only served to upset Sky more the longer he thought about it.

"Why did you never tell me?" He asked, genuinely annoyed at the blatant disregard of the topic at hand.

"Tell you what?" Goku asked, genuinely confused.

"Tell me that was where you found me!"

"You never asked."

"I…" Sky sighed in frustration, covering his face with his palm, then paused for a moment before looking back at Goku. This was Goku he was dealing with. Always caught up in the moment, his friend had probably completely missed how important this was to Sky. "You have a point, I guess. Either way, would it be alright if I went to look around there while you go hunting?"

"Sure, but you will be responsible for your own food!" Goku responded with his signature grin before he rushed out of the house

"H-hey wait a minute!" Sky yelled after him, but Goku was long gone. "Dang it." he said after a pause into the empty room.

His voice seemed to fade out as the once loud and lively room was replaced with an air of silence. He was alone again. Alone with nothing but his thoughts, which seemed to spur up after a brief reprieve. The first thing to pop up was his appearance, as usual. Although he knew that he looked different, he couldn't quite pin how exactly. How, how, how, that was always the question. All he had were questions, looking back into a blank past devoid of the answers he sought. And at the end of each day, he still knew nothing more than he had started with. By this point, there was a part of him that doubted if he ever did look different.

To make matters worse, Goku couldn't comprehend what he was going through. He had no-one to talk to about his problems, and now he had learned that he could have possibly found some answers all this time. It was so simple, so blatant. All he had to do was look down at the ground while they were fishing, and he might have found something, anything to hint at who he used to be. The whole notion was maddengly simple. How could Goku have kept that away from him? Why would he never feel the need to mention it? At this pace, he was never going to get anywhere, a thought that filled Sky with ever growing frustration.

Seeking to distract himself, Sky looked around the small room, only to see "Grandpa", as Goku called it, gleaming in the morning sunlight as it sat in its usual spot. In the distance, he could see the sun climbing ever higher into the morning sky. He'd let his emotions build up long enough, the boy decided. Now was the time for action, no more delaying. With his new resolve, at last Sky walked out the house and followed the trail to the spot, daring to hope that this was the day everything would change. He would never quite realize just how right he was.

As Sky was walking along the trail, he continued to ponder on the situation at hand. As he did, he failed to notice a small root sticking up out of the ground. This, of course, would prove to be his downfall, as when he went to make the turn into the clearing, his foot caught it. The rest of his body kept going, sending him tumbling into the sandy ground. A sharp burst of pain exploded on his forehead, a sharp ringing running through his ears as he skid across the ground. His face turned red from skidding across the sand and in his ankle he felt a spike of pain. His head spinning, he slowly began to move his hands below himself, trying to pick himself up. The ringing and the soreness began to slowly fade and for a moment that seemed to be it. Then his hand hit something buried in the ground, a rounded object with a jagged edge. The moment his hand made contact yet another sudden outburst of ringing overwhelmed him , and his vision gave out. His head burning in pain, Sky's hearing began to fade in and out as the feelings in his limbs left him. Before long, he was floating in a sea of black, devoid of sensation but the now overwhelming ringing. Then, without warning, that too stopped, and in its place a rather unexpected sound replaced it.

There was a voice in his head, seemingly distant yet just out of his grasp, that Sky began to hear just after all of his senses quite suddenly failed him. It cried out, audibly panicked, "Whoa! What was that?" The yell of panic only seemed to worry Sky more as he could do nothing but listen. He could relate to the statement that permeated through his mind, though this thought was clearly not his own. He did not recognize the voice, though it did sound familiar. Whoever it was, they seemed to be talking to someone. If it was him or someone else he did not know, but whoever the second person was, they didn't respond.

After a pause (filled with silence, for Sky was otherwise quite alone in the sensory void he found himself in), the voice continued "Are… are you okay?" The silence persisted, to Sky's annoyance. He wanted to recognize something. This felt important, it was something. And yet, his memory failed him.

After a moment that seemed to stretch into hours, the voice spoke again, desperation filling it, "Just a little longer… come on! Hang on!" Again, silence returned, haunting him. Just what was this? What was going on?

His mind was rambling in the moment, unsure of how to respond to the strange and stressful events unfolding in front of him. He wished to think about these outcomes longer, but this pause soon ended. The voice grew faint, gasping for breath, "No… I can't… hold on…" Its voice strained as it yelled in desperation. Then a new voice screamed in terror as what sounded like thunder struck around them. The voice seemed to fade as they fell further and further away, leaving nothing but a hollow silence yet again.

And then, as suddenly as it began, it was over. Still clutching his head, Sky felt the sudden rush of his senses returning to him. Quiet sounds, like the wind rustling through the leaves overhead suddenly came into sharp focus, reminding him they had just before been absent. He found himself aware of the dirt beneath him and the glare of the sun overhead. The transition from nothingness to reality was just as jarring as the inverse had been. For a moment, Sky felt nauseous.

In his hand, Sky noticed as he struggled to his feet, was a rather peculiar object. It was hard to describe, with the limited knowledge he still had of the outside world, but still this felt entirely unique. Its shape, as he would later learn, was that of a broken gear, with a piece of string tied to it, as if it had once been worn around the neck. There was a faint gleam to the strange object, beautiful almost, that seemed to shine from within the light blue body, inscribed with a darker blue pattern.

The boy pondered this new object for a moment, studying it. He scowled. Still nothing. Whatever this was, it called forth no new memories, no revelations, just a vague notion of importance, which was hardly surprising given the pendant's bizarre form. Although, it could be something, so Sky made sure to pocket it before he continued on his way, this time more cautious of his surroundings.

He continued down the path for a brief moment before he came upon the bank where he was found. Now came the hard part. Taking a deep breath to calm his nerves, he began his search through the riverbank and the surrounding area in hopes of finding something from his past.

While this was happening, Goku was running through the woods on a search of his own. A search for something delicious. His stomach being his guide, he ran through the trees and brush in search of his lunch. His mind was partly set on something gamey and with some good charing on it, the very thought of which made his mouth water. He could only think of the smell of the catch cooking over the fire as he turned it end over end.

That settled it, he would catch a deer for sure. With his mind set on that, now all he had to do was find his newly determined quarry. Luckily he knew exactly where they would be gathering, so with a quick change in direction, Goku set off towards the clearing near the end of the trail.

His quick pace, fueled by his ceaseless hunger, made the travel to his destination pass in what felt like a flash. Soon after, the clearing in question sat right in front of him. The place was a good way off from the original path, but it always seemed to have something grazing in it. So it was no surprise to him when he arrived that a large number of deer were around the area, each bigger than the last. This only served to make him more excited, and just imagining the smell of the meat cooking over the fire made Goku even more determined to catch his prize. Before long he had his eyes set upon the ideal candidate.

A four point buck stood off to the side of the clearing, within a clear shot from his vantage point in one of the trees. Now all he had to do was catch it by surprise, so with a practiced stance he slowly moved towards his target. Then, once he was right above it, he lunged.

The buck reacted just in time, dodging what would have been a clean blow before running with everything it had. This did nothing to deter Goku, and he immediately gave chase. Before long, the path that he had taken to the clearing was long behind them. From the tailed boy's perspective, the two were locked in a game of sorts, the sole objective to outrun the other, and with excitement Goku noted he was not far behind. With each passing moment the chase became ever more heated, the two passed through multiple clearings before they found themselves coming upon another path, which the buck turned to run along, its pursuer not far behind. The deer gave its all to try and outrun the young boy, but he on the other hand was having the time of his life. Far from exhausted, Goku was beginning to feel this was the most fun that he had had in quite some time. The rocky terrain that they ran upon rapidly jumped in elevation, until they were both running along the slope of the mountain, a large drop to their immediate right.

Far from the jovial mood of its hunter, the deer grew increasingly desperate for an escape. Desperate enough to do something drastic. As they continued their pursuit along the ridge, it made a jump for it into what appeared to be another trail running parallel below. Sensing the time had come, Goku lept after it, tackling his quarry midair just before it could land on the ground below him, which was covered in what seemed to be a solid layer of rock. As he wrestled with the animal, preparing a quick chop to finish it painlessly, a strange beast rounded the corner in the mountain before him.

Goku tensed. Was this a rival hunter, here to steal his prey? It acted like it, unflinching with its odd body, which glinted in the daylight, and hovered just above the ground rather than in contact with it. The boy prepared for a standoff, but instead the strange creature kept going unpaused, until with a loud crash it collided into his body. For the first time since he could remember, Goku felt pain. He could see the odd beast had taken the worst of the hit in their collision, but still he was shocked. What was this thing? How strong was it? This was exciting. He dropped his earlier prey, which had been killed in the commotion, and moved to draw his staff.

Much to Goku's confusion, the beast made no move. Or, none that he expected. Instead one of its scales (or appendages? Goku was no expert on anatomy, especially of something so new) swung out, and a smaller creature emerged from within. It looked like him, sort of, though it was taller, sporting longer, blue hair and wearing an expression of terror quite foreign to what he knew. The person (he assumed, for this certainly seemed like another one. Goku applauded himself for recognizing them as one immediately. He'd only met two others after all) drew a strange silver object from their pocket and pointed it in his direction. Then, a moment later, Goku felt another sensation he had yet to experience beforehand. It stung, not quite like when the beast had collided with him, and erupted in a much more precise location. The sensation repeated itself five times, then stopped as suddenly as it had begun. The person that stood across from him seemed stunned.

"What… are you?" they began, "How are you still alive?" They demanded, shocked that anything could take an entire clip of a gun to the head without so much as a scratch. The newcomer stopped for a brief moment, looking over Goku again. "I thought you were a monster when you wrecked my car without so much as a scratch." Seeming to think for a moment, they added off-handedly, "Are you one?"

Goku responded by rubbing his forehead, "Me? No, I'm not a monster? Those only show up around here during the full moon."

"What?!" For whatever reason, the newcomer seemed disturbed by his answer. Weird. Why would they ask it if they didn't want to hear the answer?

"Anyways," Goku continued after he realized the stranger wasn't going to, "I'm Goku." And now he was even remembering his manners. Today was going rather well, his grandpa would be proud of how he was conducting himself. Speaking of which… "Are you a girl? I noticed you don't have a tail, and that's what grandpa told me sets girls and boys apart."

"Yeah?" the other responded, sounding confused, "I am, how was that not obvio- wait, a tail? That's… not too weird, actually. I live in a world with talking animals all over the place. I'm Bulma, by the way. What do you mean you were told boys have tails? Did your 'grandpa' have one too?"

"Oh, no. I thought mine would just fall off one day. I guess that's not it, huh?" Goku laughed nervously, "but the only other boy I've met had one too."

This seemed to catch Bulma off guard. There were more of him. Was this other boy just as weird?

"Oh… well then, would he happen to be with you?" She began, scanning the trees. This first boy had leaped onto the road from out of nowhere after all. Who could tell where a second strange kid could be lying in wait?

Goku shook his head in response. "No."

"Where is he then?"

Goku scratched his head for a moment and thought aloud, "Last time I saw him he was taking a nap in the middle of the trail towards the stream. Apparently he likes to do so face down. You learn more about people every day."

Bulma raised an eyebrow at this. The statement felt odd, but so did the rest of this conversation. At any rate, she probably needed to get moving. "Uh huh… well then, if that's it then I'll have to see you later, for I have some dragonballs to find."

"What's a dragonball?"

"Oh? You haven't heard of them before?" Bulma shouldn't have been surprised by this, in hindsight, but in the moment it was the sort of legend she'd expected to be more widely known. A whole lot of texts she'd been found had made an awfully huge deal about them after all, but then again no one she'd met yet was terribly concerned with the artifacts.

"You gonna tell me or what?" Goku continued, impatient. Did the newcomer really need to pause the conversation over a simple question?

"A dragon ball is a mystical orange orb that is said to grant wishes if you gather all of them." Bulma finally elaborated, doing her best to simplify it into the most important details. Sure, she could've told him about the exact diameter and the unique pulse each gave off she was using to locate them, but something told her stuff like that would simply go over the country boy's head.

"Oh, so it's just an orange orb? I think those are the things that grow in trees, right?" Goku said, proud of himself. So he was aware of these things! Grandpa had educated him well.

"No, those are oranges." Bulma sighed. Seems she'd cut out too many details. And she'd thought the wish part had been enough to establish she wasn't just talking about fruit.

"Oh, what's the difference?" The boy asked, now somewhat confused.

Bulma gave it a second to think of another sufficient detail. Which shouldn't have been hard, but with her car recently broken this was beginning to become a bit of a stressful day. "One is edible, while the other is shiny and has a number of stars in it."

Goku's eyes seemed to light up in recognition on hearing this new detail, "Oh, in that case, I think my Grandpa has one!"

"What?" Bulma asked, hoping for clarification. She wanted to be hopeful she'd just stumbled upon the third of the seven, but was now a bit nervous she'd accidentally described yet another fruit.

"Yep it has four stars in the middle and everything" Goku elaborated, excited there were apparently more of them.

"Wait, so you do have a dragon ball?" So it was true! Well, this encounter was turning out to be worth the crashed car. She had spares anyway. Now to figure out how to get the orb for herself.

"Yep"

"Shiny orange ball just a bit larger than your palm?" It was important to establish that they weren't still talking about fruit, after all.

"Yep yep"

"O-okay then, well if you wouldn't mind, could I travel back with you to see if this thing you have is really a dragon ball?" Bulma needed to be delicate in her approach. Sure, this was a small child in the middle of nowhere, but not fifteen minutes earlier he had just totaled her brand new car merely by standing in the way, then shrugged off six bullet shots like it was nothing. (Yeah, yeah, it felt really bad having just shot a gun at a kid and all, but in her defense the whole situation had panicked her and she'd been convinced he was some sort of monster or demon. Maybe she read a few too many less than grounded tales of the dragon balls before setting out on her hunt)

"Sure" Goku shrugged. Grandpa had taught him to be polite around guests after all. The exact details were lost of him, but this seemed like the sort of thing he should agree to. If he didn't have enough food now he'd just hunt more later.

"Really?" This was beginning to feel like it was going well to Bulma. Almost too well actually.

"Yeah, it could be fun!" After all, this was still the second person Goku had met in the past few years. And both had been in the same week too!

"Well alright then, let's go. We can take my caaaarrr… oh yeah, it broke. Gonna have to get used to that one." Bulma sighed. And she'd just been getting fond of the thing too. "Well, I guess I will just have to open up a new one."

She reached into the broken car and pulled out a bag before she began rummaging through it. Before long, she pulled out a large metal case full of small white capsules with strange colors and numbers written across the middle of them. She proceeded to pull out one of them before pressing the tab on the top of it and throwing it towards the road behind them.

When the small object hit the ground, it exploded in a puff of smoke, leaving another car in its wake, this one slightly smaller with two wide arm handles on the side of it.

"Alright, get in so that we can get there quicker." Bulma explained, brushing herself off. No matter how hard they tried, these capsules always seemed to kick up a lot of dust when activated. She briefly cursed her father's love of dramatic effect.

"Okay!" Goku, by contrast, had no idea what had happened, but given he didn't really understand the first metal thing's nature, he wasn't about to question the new one's manner of appearance.

And with that they were off in a puff of dust as they floored it down the trail towards Goku's home. They, however, were not the only ones headed back to the small house.

Whilst the two of them had been dealing with their little excursion, Sky had been struggling to find anything during his search. He had searched high and low for any sign of a clue, but aside from the broken gear he'd picked up on the trail there, the only thing he'd come across was a small empty metal box. It was probably nothing, a piece of junk that had been there for some time, but Sky didn't really have much to go on at this point, so he pocketed it anyway. Just in case. After an hour or so of more fruitless searching, a loud sound caught his attention.

It was a faint shattering sound, like a large object quite suddenly being torn asunder, which seemed to originate from a significant distance from where he was, though with Sky's sharp senses it still easily stood out from the usual sounds of nature. Six faint bangs then followed the sensation, and though he wasn't quite sure why, Sky quickly shifted into a tight stance. He was suddenly alert, almost as if his muscle memory was reacting to this new stimulus, even when his mind couldn't connect the dots. Nothing more followed, but nonetheless Sky decided that he'd spent enough time looking around, and headed out to investigate. It was probably nothing, but he had to be sure.

It took a good five minutes to reach the general area where the sound had originated from. Sky was sure he could've made the journey a minute sooner, but he was doing his best to move silently through the landscape. Something about the sounds earlier had unnerved him, but he couldn't quite place it. Whatever it was screamed for him to move, for him to take action. Whatever it was had to have some meaning behind it, but it couldn't hurt to check on it at the very least.

When he arrived at the area, he found a strange metal object, smoking from between two shining panels as it glinted in the afternoon sun, and a long paved path. He'd been on the road before of course, but never paid it too much attention. Nothing had really happened there, it was just part of the scenery, so it only now occurred to Sky that it had a function. Regardless, whatever had happened here was long gone. Giving his surroundings a quick glance to be cautious, Sky turned down the road towards his current home. It was lunchtime after all, and he was probably late.

When he finally arrived, Sky was surprised to see a newcomer talking to Goku as he turned a rather large deer over their firepit. Which reminded him, he was supposed to have been fishing as he searched the streambed, which meant he had no real food to eat at all at the moment. That was disappointing. Oh well, there were more pressing things at the moment. There was someone new at the moment, and he wasn't going to lose the opportunity to learn something, though he doubted he would. She seemed almost familiar too, which filled Sky with hope. Would today prove to be productive after all?

As he got closer, Sky began to overhear the conversation Goku was having with their new guest.

"Do we really have to eat before you show me the dragonball?" she was asking, "It can't take that long, and then I'll be on my way."

"Nah, lunchtime is lunchtime, and a good host should always provide a meal, that's what Grandpa always said." Goku replied quite stubbornly, not pausing his cooking as he talked, "besides, Sky seemed really keen about taking a nap in the middle of the day, so I bet he didn't catch as many fish as he'd planned on. He's not too good at tail fishing yet after all."

Oh, Sky realized with a blush, so Goku had noticed him during his… visions, he supposed. And done nothing, apparently. Though he supposed he shouldn't have expected anything else from his friend. The whole thing was rather hard to explain after all.

At that moment, Goku seemed to notice him approaching. "And speaking of Sky, he's just arrived." The boy said, continuing his conversation with his guest. Glancing up to face his friend from across the clearing, he spoke up, "Hey, you better hurry up or I'll have eaten lunch before you've had any, it's almost ready!"

Sky sighed. He'd been meaning to begin introductions himself, but the moment had passed. He gave a quick wave to the newcomer, who'd turned to look at him herself, and took a closer glance at her as he approached the fire. There was something familiar about the blue haired girl, who was by his guess a few years older than himself, though it was hard to judge from her expression if she too recognized him. His train of thought was soon interrupted by her waving her hand in front of his face. When had she approached him? He really needed to stop getting lost in his head.

"Hey are you alright? Hello?" Her voice was that of confusion and slight annoyance. Which, admittedly, was fair given he'd just been staring at her. Or into empty space, Sky had been too lost in thought to notice. God this felt awkward. Did he do this alot?

"Ye-eah, sorry about that, I kind of zoned out for a minute." He awkwardly replied. He seemed to be struggling to respond. "Anyway, my name is Sky, what's yours?" Mentally, he slapped himself. Goku had just told her that, though he supposed he could pass this off as being polite.

"Name's Bulma" She spoke briefly, her tone betraying a sense of impatience. Sky supposed Goku had kept her waiting for some time by now, given what he'd just overheard.

"It's a pleasure to meet you" Again, a part of him seemed to resonate with the name she had given as well. He didn't know why or how, but he somehow knew her. Then again, maybe he knew of her more than anything else. Was she famous or something? "Not to be rude or anything, but what's your last name?"

"My last name? Why would you want to know that?"

"I err…" Sky paused for a moment, this was getting harder to actually articulate than initially planned, "I… don't really remember anything. Like, at all. But you seemed familiar, so I was wondering if I'd heard of you… or you were someone I'd met."

Bulma frowned at this, "An amnesiac? Well, that's new. I've certainly never met a boy with a tail before, so I can tell you we've never met. But, I do happen to be the daughter of the founder of Capsule Corp, so maybe you saw me in a picture next to my father."

Sky sighed. Another dead end it seemed. "Yeah, I suppose that explains it. Although, I'm pretty sure I didn't always have a tail. It just… appeared. I think. Not sure really, still don't have any memories to work with."

"I'm sorry, what?" This was proving to be quite the day for Bulma. Maybe the books she'd read hadn't been so outlandish after all, the world was proving to be crazy. "You just… grew a tail one day?!"

Sky shrugged. It did sound insane when she put it like that, but it was what he felt was the truth. "Yeah, that sounds about right."

"Oh, that's… I've certainly never heard of such a thing, sorry." Bulma was beginning to notice an awkward pause building in their conversation, which was thankfully interrupted by the sudden sounds of eating from behind them.

"Hey!" Sky exclaimed as he rushed to get some bites in before the entire carcass was devoured, "I thought you were going to wait for me!"

Goku only gave him an innocent look as he continued to chow down, much to Bulma's horror. Just what were these boys? They were eating an entire deer down to the bone, just the two of them. At such speed, too! The girl was surprised they had time to even breathe between bites. If she'd had an appetite at the moment, she was sure she'd have lost it. In less than a minute by her count, the entire animal had been stripped clean.

As Goku shook his hands clean, he gave a quick grin to his guest. "You weren't hungry, huh? That's alright. Follow me in, I'll show you Grandpa!"

This caught Bulma completely off guard. "What do you mean 'Grandpa'?", she asked, clearly confused by the absurd statement.

"Just go with it." Sky spoke quietly.

"Okay… Sure, why not?" her voice exasperated as the day just seemed to keep getting weirder and weirder. Was she going to have to get used to this? Bulma certainly hoped not. She soon noticed that the two of them were waiting for her to move. Once she stood, the two of them started to walk through the doorway towards the bedroom where Grandpa rested.

Once she saw the orb, Bulma heard a large amount of beeping from her back pocket, where a small device, almost like an old fashioned pocket watch, sat. Pulling it out, she immediately saw that the radar was flashing with one of the orange dots right at the center. This had to be a real one. The kid wasn't lying. Now that she had found it, all she had to do was devise a way to take it.

While this was going through her head, Sky and Goku were standing by the orb's pedestal, waiting for her to reach them. It wasn't a long wait, soon enough Bulma stood beside them, yearning to examine the artifact. Then Goku spoke.

"Hey Grandpa, this is Bulma. She wanted to see you for some reason." His voice seemed to carry a sense of fondness towards the orb in front of her, which stopped any and all thoughts running through her head.

"Why are you calling the dragonball grandpa?" She was genuinely confused by this.

"What do you mean? That dragonball is Grandpa." Goku spoke cheerfully, blissfully unaware of how confused his guest had now become.

This only served to confuse Bulma more before she finally began to put together the pieces. The small clean room, the pedestal, the lack of any dirt, and the large picture of an old man and Goku. This was a shrine. This dragon ball probably was the last thing Goku had of his grandfather. Regret soon filled her head as she thought about all of the plans she had hatched to take it. She had just tried to take part of a shrine for her stupid wish. What was wrong with her?

Whilst Bulma was going through a crisis, Goku and Sky were left in complete silence as they simply watched, bewildered by the strange turn of events. Bulma's face seemed to change emotions on a dime, and yet she hadn't made a single sound, leaving Goku confused, while Sky simply watched. He was slightly amused by this. This was proving to be quite the day.

Then the silence was broken by Goku.

"Hey, are you okay? You've been standing there staring at Grandpa for a while now." Goku spoke, none the wiser to her plight. She soon shook herself out of her stupor and turned back to the young boy who had invited her into his house.

"Yeah, I'm fine." her voice was subdued, but loud nevertheless. "I was wondering if I could hold the dragonball." Her voice was steady and quiet.

"Sure, I don't see why not." Goku spoke kindly, still confused as to why she was acting so weirdly. Still he walked forward and grabbed the dragonball with both hands, then slowly walked towards Bulma before handing it to her.

There it was. She was finally in front of the dragonball, the third of many she needed, and yet she couldn't take it. She couldn't convince herself to do it. It just didn't feel right. All of that effort to find the thing, and she couldn't even take it with her. She sighed, and before long she gave the small ball back to Goku then backed away from the pedestal.

Sky, tired of the whole quiet business, decided to ask the all important question. "Why did you want to see the ball so badly?" His voice was firm and serious, not wavering in the slightest.

The statement caught Bulma off guard. "Well, do you remember what I said about the Dragonballs?"

"Oh yeah!" Goku remarked, "You were describing them, then said something about a wish!"

"A wish, yeah," Bulma went on, "They're normally scattered all across the corners of the Earth, but if you manage to gather all seven, you'll be able to make a wish." And then, the seven balls scattered once again, as far apart as they had started. But the boys didn't need to know that.

"A wish?" Sky asked, "Like, any at all?"

"That's right." Bulma had an idea where he was going with this, but let him go on.

"Could they restore someone's lost memories, for example?" It felt like a rather large task just to get back something he'd once had, but Sky was getting desperate. There were so many questions popping up he desperately wanted an answer to.

"They absolutely could. From what I've heard, there's next to nothing the dragon can't grant you."

"Wait, a dragon?" This seemed to finally catch Goku's attention, unlike all the wish talk. He was perfectly content with his life as is, but now this dragon ball talk was getting exciting.

"Yeah," Bulma went on, "The balls summon a dragon when gathered, which then grants you your wish."

"Just one then, huh," Sky sighed, "And I suppose you have a wish of your own then. Though we do still have one of the balls, which puts us at an impasse."

"Oh, about that, I was just gonna use the balls to get myself the perfect boyfriend…" Bulma looked down sheepishly. It was beginning to feel rather silly compared to all the options available. Though it was better than her first idea.

"You were gonna travel the world, gather the seven balls, all for a boy?" Sky didn't know much about how the world worked, but that seemed just a bit overcomplicated. Then again, he didn't know much about love or anything, so he supposed he couldn't judge too much. Still, it almost felt like a waste of the opportunity. Although, his own idea for a wish was rather selfish too.

"Yeah," Bulma answered, "I mean, why not?" She was uncertain about the end goal, but ultimately, this was supposed to be her adventure. So what if it was just a little bit petty? People had done more for less.

"Well, if you're going to get your wish, then you probably need to take our dragonball with you, right?"

"Right."

"Well, let's say that we are willing to give it to you…" Sky began, choosing his words carefully.

"Wait, really?" Bulma was caught by surprise, was it really this simple?

"But, if we do give it to you, then you have to promise to let us go with you." Sky gave her a moment to think about it. This was a big proposition, but then again, this was a big opportunity. If he traveled with this girl, he just might find something that gave him more clues about his past. Or convince Bulma to let him wish for his memories back, ideally. That felt like a stretch, he hardly knew the girl, but still the opportunity was too large to ignore.

Bulma, standing before him still, was taken aback. "What?" Why did this kid want to go with her? What could he possibly want with it? She had explicitly stated what she had wanted to do after all.

"Wait, we can go with you?!" Goku jumped into the conversation. He hadn't been fully paying attention, but that sounded like what they were discussing.

"I never said…" She was interrupted once again, frustratingly.

"Yep you heard her, we can go with her" Sky jumped in, striking while the iron was hot.

"What are you..." She tried in vain to speak.

"Really?!" Goku's excitement seemed to skyrocket at the revelation. He had never been away from the mountain, so who knew what sort of adventures he could find? "I didn't wanna let Grandpa leave without me, so this is perfect!"

"Well, I guess it's settled then. We're going with you." Sky spoke with a smirk clear across his face.

Bulma gave a half sigh. This was the only way she was going to get this ball, wasn't it? Well, at least one of the kids was apparently bulletproof, so at least she could think of them as bodyguards or something. A country bumpkin and an amnesiac, both children, but bodyguards nonetheless. What had her life come to? "Alright then. Let's head out then. I wanna get my wish as soon as possible, after all." She finally addressed them, letting Goku pocket his 'Grandpa' in a pouch as the two boys prepared to leave. Why did she get the feeling this was the start of something she would never be quite prepared for?

A/N: Sorry this took a few months to get out to anyone interested. Both me and my co-author are college students, this is to be expected. Ideally the next chapter will be out sooner, but I make no promises.