Bulma was feeling particularly suspicious. She had seen some interesting interactions between Goku and Kagome over the last few days of traveling with them, but this - this was just a little bit... different. It was completely innocent, and neither one of them showed any signs of taking the contact as anything serious - but they were still touching, and it wasn't the first time. Maybe it was a brother-sister type thing, or something?
Her inner girly-girl was too busy cooing over how cute they were to actually think any further on the 'why'.
"Hey, everybody," Goku finally called out, pointing skywards. "Look up there!"
They all glanced up to see the ship coming back.
"Took 'em long enough," Turtle announced. "I could have been faster than that!"
It landed heavily. "They better have a lot of groceries!" Bulma complained.
The roof slid back and the little bald boy from the tournament and a woman with dark blue hair climbed out.
"Hi, guys!" Goku shouted happily, running up to greet them.
"Hi!" the woman chirruped back.
"Goku!" the other boy - Krillin? - called excitedly.
Goku laughed, the sound bright and relaxed. "I'm so happy to see you guys!"
"What a machine!" Bulma grinned. "This sub is fantastic!"
The pair walked down the ramp, arms laden with groceries. The bald little boy gave her a polite bow. "Well, hello again! It's always nice to see you again, Bloomer!"
She snarled. "It's Bulma! Bulma!" she corrected.
"Oh, and who's this?" the woman questioned, eyes drifting back behind them.
The raven-haired girl walked up beside Goku and shot them a smile. "I'm Kagome. Nice to meet you both."
"Wow," the bald boy gaped. "You're really pretty, miss."
Kagome blinked down at him twice, surprised. The boy, seeming to realize what he had just said, turned bright red and started trying to stutter out an apology - but the older girl just laughed. "Well, thank you. Krillin, right?"
He blushed even darker and nodded. "N-nice to meet you..." he mumbled shyly.
"We've been waiting for you," Roshi scolded lightly. "Why are you so late?"
"Uh... well... Launch had one of her episodes while we were at the market today," the boy admitted.
"Thought so," Turtle sighed.
The woman just giggled. "Yeah, I sneezed again."
Goku gaped for a second before laughing. "Sounds like you two had a big day!"
Kagome bumped the kid's shoulder with her hip. "Care to share?" she requested.
He blinked up at her. "Oh, Launch turns into a different person when she sneezes," he shrugged.
The black-haired girl just nodded, accepting that without another question. Bulma felt like a little more information was necessary, herself, but she was starting to get used to not getting straight answers thanks to the older girl's tight lips.
Krillin turned to the other boy with a wide grin of his own. "Hey Goku, why are you here anyway?" he asked.
Goku laughed again and jumped right into the explanation.
xxxx
"Uh-huh," Krillin nodded some time later as they all (except Master Roshi and Launch) sat around a table inside, studying the chart that had been unrolled out onto it. "Judging by this map, you're definitely gonna need a submarine."
Goku grinned, relieved. "That's great! We'll have it in no time!"
"And I think - yes, if it really is around here you should be able to find the pirates' treasure easily!" the other boy added excitedly.
Goku turned and blinked at him. "Pirates?"
"Treasure?" Bulma repeated, her eyes shining. "Did you say treasure?!"
"Sounds like a sham," Kagome sighed.
The old hermit walked in, interrupting them. "Say, Bulma, would you like a nice glass of iced tea?" he was quick to ask.
The girl glowered at him. "I'm not thirsty, thanks."
"A-and you, Kagome?" he offered eagerly.
"No, thank you," the older girl rejected simply, not even looking up at him.
"Anyway!" Bulma dismissed, turning back to Krillin. "So, go on, give us the scoop on this treasure!"
The bald boy glanced over his shoulder. "Master Roshi knows more than I do..."
"What's that?" the old man questioned.
"You know," the older disciple insisted. "The story that you always tell me - the legend of the missing pirates' treasure!"
"Hm?" the master thought for a second as he walked over to join them at the table. "Oh, yeah! The pirates' treasure. Long ago, these waters were infested with pirates who pillaged and plundered everything in sight; not the sort you'd invite over for fruit punch, I'll tell you that! Pirate ships were heavily populated and armed. Many royal vessels carrying precious jewels and riches fell prey to their attacks. Legend has it, much of the stolen bounty ended up on the ocean floor-and is still there today! Yessir, whoever finds that treasure is going to be rich as a king."
Bulma gave a dreamy sigh. "How romantic. We have to find this treasure, I mean we just have to!"
"Yeah, sounds awesome doesn't it?" Krillin agreed. "I'd love to go with you and help."
"Really?" Goku grinned excitedly. "We could sure use another person!"
"Can I go Master, please?" he requested. "I know this map like the back of my hand!"
The old man nodded. "I suppose. But finish your chores first!"
"Yes, sir!" he cheered.
Kagome shot them all a collective look. "If it sounds too good to be true, it probably is," she warned. "Just keep that in mind, okay?"
Bulma stuck her tongue out at the other girl. "Oh come on, don't be a killjoy!"
The blue-haired girl and Krillin both got up and started to leave, but Goku turned his full attention up to Kagome. "Do you think something bad could be down there waiting for us?" he questioned worriedly.
She shrugged, looking away with a sigh. "I don't know," she murmured. "Maybe I'm just paranoid, but... From my experience, there's no such thing as something for nothing. Everything has a price, and it's the things that seem free at first that end up costing the most when all is said and done."
He gave a quiet sigh of his own. "Don't worry," he assured her with a grin. "Nothing bad's going to happen! I promise."
The girl stared at him for a long, weighing moment before her face softened into a smile and she stood up, offering him a hand to help pull him to his own feet. "Well, I guess I'll just trust you on this one."
The boy laughed brightly and let her yank him upright.
xxxx
Kagome sighed as they lifted into the air, thinking to herself that maybe she should have stayed behind after all. In all the initial hype, everyone seemed to have forgotten something kind of important...
The 'submarine'? Yeah, it only had three seats.
"There's something I don't understand," Goku spoke up, apparently not having any real problem sharing a chair with her. Honestly, it was actually more room than flying on Nimbus. "If we want to go under the water, then how come we're in an airplane?"
"I was actually just wondering the same thing," the priestess chimed in.
"This baby does both," Bulma explained excitedly. "It's a submarine and an airplane!"
Goku's jaw dropped and he glanced out the window. "Wow... an air-fish!"
She couldn't help but laugh, letting herself also get lost in the scenery. "Oh-ho, no. You have never seen an air-fish," she teased, "until you've been to the Western coast right before sunrise and watched the Lords from the mainland-" she cut herself off abruptly, slapping a hand over her mouth with a wince as the plane lurched.
Dammit. She was giving out way too much information lately.
"Lords?" Bulma gaped at her.
Kagome cringed. "It's nothing," she mumbled. "Forget I said anything."
The girl stared at her suspiciously for a long moment. "Kagome, are you like... a noble?" she finally demanded, her expression thunderstruck. "Is that why you never want to tell us anything about yourself?"
The miko bit her lip. "Hey, where's your rucksack?" she tried to dodge. "I thought that the dragon balls were in there."
The teen glared at her. "Don't think that's going to - oh, God! I totally left it at Roshi's!"
"Don't worry," Krillin assured a little awkwardly. "Nothing's going to happen to it there."
Bulma hesitated a moment before nodding. "I guess you're right... Now Kagome, I mean it! Are you like a princess or something?"
She buried her face in her hands with an exhausted groan.
xxxx
Goku was just a little bit upset with his friends. If Krillin hadn't lurched their air-fish, and Bulma hadn't started bugging her, he got the feeling that Kagome was actually about to start talking about her past a little more. He may say that she didn't have to tell them anything, and he really did mean that - but that didn't mean that he wasn't still curious. He just wanted her to be able to tell him about herself when she was comfortable with it. Like with her age! She had told him how old she was when she was ready.
Part of him was pretty sure that she would've been more ready if it was still just the two of them, but... Well, he wasn't going to push her into talking. She'd gotten more than enough pressure lately from others.
"According to the radar, we need to head South," Bulma announced after a while. "Mm, about... thirty miles."
"You got it!" Krillin grinned, speeding them up just a bit.
The younger boy glanced up, studying Kagome's face from the corner of his eye. If she really was a princess, like Bulma thought, that would be pretty cool - but he doubted it. According to his grandpa, princesses were pretty, graceful girls who had really sheltered lives. Sure she was pretty and (usually) graceful, but she had obviously gone through way too much to be considered 'sheltered', and she even knew a little about fighting on top of that.
It didn't really matter, he supposed. Kagome was just Kagome.
"Okay, we should be right above it," his blue-haired friend spoke up after a few minutes. "Dive here!"
"Gotcha!" Krillin confirmed, pushing a couple of buttons.
"You mean we're really going under the water in this thing?" Goku wondered curiously.
"Yep," his fellow disciple nodded. "That's the plan!"
He pressed his forehead against the window, watching the water rise up to meet them. "Wow... neat!"
They dove, and the world turned blue.
"Whoa," Kagome murmured, so quiet that he was pretty sure he was the only one to hear her. "It's so... bright. Shouldn't it get darker the further down we go?"
"Everything looks so beautiful!" he bounced excitedly.
A funny-looking fish floated up alongside them, and Goku gasped.
"That's a pufferfish," his black-haired friend confided. "When they get scared, they puff up like that to try and scare away predators."
He gaped. "That's handy..."
Another fish came up beside them, this one even more funny-looking than the last.
"Kagome?" he asked. "Why does that big fish look so sad? What's its name?"
"I don't know," she admitted, blinking at it for a second before turning her attention down to him with a teasing grin. "Maybe it just can't find its lunch?"
He gasped, horrified. "That's terrible! Don't worry, little fish, you'll find something!"
For some reason, she started laughing. He felt like he was missing something funny, but it was good that she was in a better mood again.
"Stop here, Krillin!" Bulma instructed. "The radar shows it should be right beneath us!"
"Right," the bald boy nodded, messing around with the controls again.
They sank, and some lights came on at the bottom of their ship.
"I guess you were right," Goku sighed, looking up at Kagome. "It really does get darker the deeper we get."
She snorted wryly. "Honestly? This still isn't all that dark."
They stared out at the ocean floor for a long moment, and the boy tried to imagine what it would be like if it was even darker than this. He decided that it might be kind of fun, but that he was glad it was this bright while they were looking for the dragon ball. "Where is it?" he groaned after a few minutes of looking. "All I see down there is a bunch of pretty fish."
"It's down there somewhere," Bulma huffed. "The radar doesn't lie."
"Maybe one of them ate it?" Kagome suggested with a sigh.
"Ugh, who knows!" the other girl grumbled. "One of you go look for it."
The older girl shot her a look. "Remember what I said earlier about putting everything in the form of an order?"
Bulma made a face.
"It's okay," Goku assured, dragging out some of the funny diving equipment that Krillin had showed them earlier and pulling the mask on. He paused, glancing around and blinking. "No wonder that fish is so sad. He's hungry and all he can see is blue!"
"That's nice, bye," the blue-haired girl rolled her eyes.
"Be careful out there," Kagome added as he sank down into the tube that led below.
He gave her a wide grin, right before Bulma closed the lid. "Okay!"
The boy swam for a bit, but froze and started freaking out - something was in his clothes! He hurried to pull a fish out of his shirt.
It looked really, really weird. "This one must be called a tickle-fish!" he laughed. "Neat."
"What are you doing?" he heard Bulma's voice come out of nowhere. "Stop goofing off!"
"Wow," he gaped as he continued to swim. "How did your voice get in my helmet?"
"Remember what I said about phones and speakers?" Kagome's voice joined in.
"Ohhhh," he nodded to himself. "Got it."
"Goku!" the blue-haired girl spoke again. "Goku, what's going on? Did you find it?"
He stared down at a giant crab, a slow grin overtaking his face. Darting down, he lifted it and brought it up where his friends could see. "Hey guys, look at this!" he laughed. "It's the biggest crab I've ever seen in my whole life!"
"Is that so?" Kagome teased. "I have to say, I've seen bigger."
"Whoa!" he gasped. "Really? What was the biggest one you've ever seen?"
She giggled. "Well, it may or may not have been around the size of a house..."
"Would you quit playing around and find the dragon ball?!" Bulma growled.
"I wanna hear some more about this house-crab, actually," Krillin requested, voice tinged with awe.
Kagome gave a bright, tinkling laugh. "It was on the Western coast," she described as he returned to the search, her words distant and full of cherished memories. "Brother got a report that something was attacking the villages along the beach, and he passed it off to me because he was 'busy' dealing with some 'political matters' - his little girl told me later that he'd really been off drinking with an old friend so that he could get away from the Council and his mother for a while. Anyway, it turned out that she - the crab - was really trying to get his attention, and threw a fit when he didn't show up. After I finally got her to calm down, her dad showed up and literally tossed her ass back into the water before sending me home with a huge apology and barrels of the best seafood in the ocean... They both ended up becoming really good friends."
Goku grinned. This was what he was talking about: letting her come out and share what she was comfortable with sharing when she was comfortable sharing it, without pressuring for more or interrupting her. This was the way it needed to be for her to tell them about herself and not regret it or get mad later.
"That's so cool," his fellow disciple declared with an awed sigh.
He agreed.
"Any luck?" Bulma spoke after a few more minutes. "You should be right on top of it."
"Nothing here but sea-fish and coral," he announced.
"This is strange," the blue-haired girl murmured. "Maybe the radar is acting up..."
The boy swam around a bit more, finally seeing something strange. "Look!" he called. "There's a big crack in the ground! It seems deep. Do you think maybe the dragon ball could have dropped down inside of it?"
"Wait a minute," Krillin requested curiously. "Let me guide the submarine-jet down there and investigate."
"If Goku's right, this might be more difficult than I thought," Bulma sighed as they sank down into the depths of the trench. "I need to adjust the search grid to compensate for the depth differential..."
"Uh, yeah," the bald boy agreed uncertainly. "O-okay. You mean... closer to the wall?"
"Yes," the girl grumbled, a couple of beeps suggesting that she was messing with the radar. "Closer to the wall, okay? Goku, I... I think you may wanna come see this."
He blinked down at the crag. "I'd like to, but I don't think I can fit," he admitted.
"We may need that micro-band back," Kagome sighed.
Bulma made a weird noise. "Wait a sec..."
"What's up?" Krillin questioned.
"Judging by the shape of the ditch, it looks like it leads to something!" the younger girl declared. "I'll switch radar magnification and see if I can't get a better view... There! See? It's a cave of some sort! Maybe we can get inside - it might lead to the dragon ball!"
"We can go in there?" the boy asked, interested.
"Come back to the sub so we can check it out!" she instructed.
He did as he was told and swam over to it quickly.
"Welcome back," Kagome chuckled as he climbed back inside.
He laughed and took his helmet off, shaking his head and throwing water everywhere. "I'm back!"
"Geez, kid!" Bulma shouted. "Watch it!"
The other girl just scooted closer to the window, giving him some room on the seat next to her. "Ignore her. Apparently she thought that she could go underwater without getting wet."
All of them but the blue-haired girl in question broke out laughing.
"Go straight ahead a little farther," Bulma ordered petulantly after they had gone on for a ways. "We should see the entrance just beyond this ridge... There it is! We found it, we're almost there!"
Kagome suddenly shuddered.
"What is it?" he asked.
She shook her head. "I just got a bad feeling all of a sudden. I'm sure it's-"
The wall blew up ahead of them, scaring them all.
"What was that?!" the boy yelped.
"Look, there's another submarine behind us!" Bulma wailed loudly. "They fired at us!"
"I don't think they're too friendly!" Krillin winced.
"There's only one group mean enough to do this," Goku scowled. "The army!"
"A-army?" the blue-haired girl whimpered. "You don't mean the... Red Ribbon Army?"
"That's them," Kagome confirmed gravely. "They've been going after the dragon balls as determinedly as we have."
"But they're much more dangerous and mean about it!" he added.
"Eeehhhh?!" Bulma cried.
"Mean?!" the other boy repeated shrilly. "I'd say trying to blast us into fish food borders on psychotic! Why didn't you tell me we were expecting company? I never would have signed up for this crazy mission!"
Kagome kicked the back of his seat. "Enough sniveling, more moving!"
The bald boy let out a sob and they darted forward.
"Faster, faster!" Bulma screamed. "Would it help if I got out and pushed?!"
"At this point, I'm willing to try anything!" Krillin shouted back.
The blue-haired girl turned on Goku and Kagome. "Why didn't you tell us these guys were after you?!"
"No one ever asked us about the Red Ribbon Army," he blinked.
"Why did you think I was so serious about you learning how to deal with conflict earlier?" his black-haired friend snorted. "I thought we might get asked to tea? This kind of mission is never straight-forward. There's always going to be some kind of fight."
"We may be in luck!" Krillin announced excitedly. "The cave is getting narrower!"
"Faster!" Bulma shrieked, choking the bald boy. "Hurry up, just go!"
Kagome reached out and yanked her hands away from his neck. "That's not helping us! Calm down! Look, they already stopped following!"
The blue-haired girl pulled away and looked behind them, letting out a cheer.
"Let's just get this done fast," the older girl sighed heavily, slumping in their seat even as the others celebrated. "Before they find another way of coming after us."
Curious, Goku glanced over his shoulder and winced. "Uh, Kagome...?"
"Yeah?" she asked, looking down to meet his gaze.
He pointed behind them. "Too late."
Bulma started screaming again.
xxxx
"Oh, my gosh, they're still after us!" the blue-haired girl babbled. "Only now they have two ships, and they don't look happy!" She turned and snarled at Krillin. "Are you trying to get us killed?!"
"Trust me!" the bald boy shouted back. "I don't wanna meet them, either!"
"Did I mention that they have torpedoes?" Bulma sobbed.
"What are torpedoes?" Goku questioned.
"Torpedoes are the things they've been shooting at us," Kagome explained, cutting the other girl off before she could turn her temper on the boy. "The things that have been blowing up the walls."
"Oh, okay," he blinked, turning his attention back to their tail. "So that's a torpedo."
"It must be nice to live in complete oblivion," Bulma sniffled. "Which is about what we're gonna be!"
"I'm trying!" Krillin defended.
The priestess rolled her eyes and joined her little friend in watching their pursuers. "Complete oblivion? Apparently Bulma hasn't been paying much attention to you," she murmured so that only he could hear.
He blinked twice before glancing up at her with a bright grin.
She shot him a wink.
"Come on, Krillin, step on it!" the blue-haired girl growled. "They're gaining on us!"
"I hate back-seat drivers," the bald boy grumbled.
One of the enemy subs sped up and rammed them from behind, tossing them all around in their seats. Kagome gave a yelp and clung to the back of their chair, letting out a louder one when they scraped the roof of the cave. Somehow, they got away and made it into an air pocket further in while their pursuers banged into each other, getting temporarily stuck.
"Wow," Goku gaped as the roof slid up and they all climbed out onto the rocky shore. "What happened to all the water?"
"We're still in the ocean," Kagome explained tiredly. "But there's air in the cave."
"Lucky for us," the boy sighed.
"I wouldn't call it luck," Bulma argued. "Those maniacs are still after us! Come on, let's get out of here!"
They quickly ran deeper in.
"Whoa, stop!" the blue-haired girl wailed as the other three passed her easily. "What are you trying to do, leave me behind?!"
Goku jolted to a halt, unknowingly clotheslining the bald boy. "Wait a minute. Why are we running away? Why can't we just talk this out?"
"No!" Krillin tried to convince him. "They're not here to talk, they have guns!"
The priestess frowned and knelt so that she could hold her pint-sized guardian's eyes. "They aren't the kind of people that would hear us out," she informed him with an apologetic smile. "I know that you don't want this to get violent, and I do understand, but that's what they're after. Just like with Silver and White, remember?"
"What's it matter?" Bulma groaned, slowing down a bit. "What's wrong?"
"I'm going to try talking to them," he announced stubbornly. "They might be different, like 8er was!"
Bulma and Krillin both immediately ducked behind a jut in the rock.
"Ugh!" the blue-haired girl moaned. "Goku, I knew you were strange but I didn't know you were crazy! Do you have a death wish or something?!"
Kagome heaved a sigh and stood, turning to face the approaching soldiers with him. Still considerably weak though she may be, she was at least back up to enough strength to take one or two pathetic little humans down.
Wait. Oh, gods! Did she really just think that? Damn you, Sesshoumaru...
For some reason or another, the enemy retreated before showing their faces.
Goku blinked. "I don't understand," he spoke. "Why don't they wanna come down here and talk to us?"
The priestess's eyes narrowed. "I don't know, but this doesn't feel right."
"Way to go!" Bulma cheered. "You did it, guys! Now let's hurry up and go before they decide to come back!"
"Maybe Goku scared them off," Krillin guessed. "Or maybe they're going back to get some reinforcements! Let's get moving!"
"Oh, this is it for me," the blue-haired girl bemoaned. "No more adventures!"
Kagome snorted as she and the boy joined the two of them. "Yeah, we'll see about that. They tend to grow on you."
She received twin horrified looks from Bulma and Krillin both.
"Bulma?" Goku asked as they walked. "Are you sure this path will lead us to wherever the dragon ball is hiding?"
"Pretty sure," the younger girl confirmed. "Unless the Red Ribbon Army gets us first..."
"I don't see anybody following us," the bald boy murmured.
"I can't see anything at all," Goku announced. "It's way too dark in here."
Bulma groaned. "I know! We could put Krillin up front - his head could light the way!"
The boy shot her an embarrassed glare. "That's not funny."
"We could always put you up front, Bulma," Kagome offered blandly. "You know, just in case there are pits or drop-offs. Your sacrifice would keep the rest of us safe, how about it?"
The boys snickered, but it was the teen's turn to glower. "Shut up, Kagome."
Goku paused for a moment, staring at something on the wall.
"What is it?" the priestess asked.
"A button," he answered, reaching out and pressing it.
A bunch of overhead bulbs came on, flooding the area with light. They all gasped.
"Neat!" Goku laughed. "I didn't know there were lights in the ocean!"
"That's because there aren't," Kagome winced, glancing this way and that. "These are electric lights. Someone put them here."
"Okay, now I'm scared," Krillin quivered.
"One thing's for certain," Bulma murmured. "We're not the first ones in here! I just hope they aren't still running around... Strange," she murmured. "Who builds a base at the bottom of the ocean?"
"Other than pirates?" the priestess joked.
"Hey, look at me!" Goku laughed, popping up with a skull on his head.
Bulma screamed, and even Kagome jolted in surprise. "What the heck! Where did you find that thing?!" the priestess shuddered.
"Goku!" the other two shrilled.
The boy laughed harder. "Gotcha!"
The blue-haired girl leapt back to her feet with an angry snarl. "You almost gave me a heart attack, you little twerp!"
"Goku," Kagome got his attention. "Where did you find that thing?" she repeated.
"Next to the suit," he explained, pointing over to a skeleton.
She shivered, unable to help it. Well, at least there was no meat still hanging off of the bones... That was always so creepy, no matter how many dead bodies she'd seen. Which of course meant that her dear, sweet, sadistic adopted brother loved to screw with her whenever they came across one.
"Oh, that's gross!" Bulma wailed.
"Wait," Krillin gasped, his eyes going wide. "The skull! The mark of a pirate! This must be the place that Master Roshi was talking about! The pirates' sunken treasure - it's here!"
The blue-haired girl gasped, mentality instantly doing a one-eighty. "All that gold and jewelry and diamonds! Oh, please let there be diamonds!"
Kagome shot her an unimpressed glance.
"He's a pirate?" Goku wondered.
Krillin laughed excitedly. "Yes, we did it! We discovered the pirates' treasure!"
"Who needs the dragon balls?!" Bulma squealed. "We're rich! We're rich!"
The two cheered excitedly, but Goku and the priestess stood off to the side more sedately. She frowned.
"Let's keep a lookout, okay?" she sighed, bumping the boy's shoulder with her hip.
He met her gaze and nodded, even though he didn't really seem to understand.
xxxx
A/N: Alright, so Kagome's starting to open up a bit more. Looks like Goku's approach really is yielding the best results, huh? Thanks as always for reading!
Edit: 7/02/16