Chapter 7: Splash Zone
Greetings #DragonBall fans and welcome to part 7 of Chandler Kinney's suggested, What If: Grandpa Gohan Got Through to Goku, where the now Master Gohan took a different approach to the rambunctious little terror. He challenged him to a fight, instead of dropping him off a cliff, and then, because Kakarot remembers a couple of things, he also got to avoid being squished like that bit of putty that, to this very day, is probably still firmly embedded in your parent's carpet.
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A What If in collaboration with and thumbnail fan art by Chandler Kinney /chandlerdrawsthinge
#DragonballZ #WhatIf #GrandpaGohan #Kakarot
Previously Kakarot has made pretty good on his goal of becoming the strongest, via his master's training. He has ventured out to explore the world with Bulma, as she pursued her dreams of strawberries, or a boyfriend. He has made other friends along the way, in the form of Oolong, who he maybe doesn't want to eat anymore, as well as Yamcha and the hover cat, Puar. Are cats too cute to eat? I bet he thought about it though.
After the 21st world martial arts tournament, Kakarot went off to secure at least the 4 star ball and ran straight into the Red Ribbon Army. Well, more like the Red Ribbon army ran afoul of a rigorously honourable Saiyan, in battle armour that Bulma, and possibly Capsule Corp as a whole, have been having a little bit too much fun with.
Nothing the Red Ribbon could throw at him managed to stick. Not Major Metallitron, not Ninja Murasaki, certainly not the passive Eighter. Not Tao PaiPai, nor, ultimately, that giant mech piloted by Commander Black could make a dent. Then amid the final round of the 22nd World Martial Arts Tournament, that somewhat ancient assassin for hire's brother, the equally ancient Master Shen has also met his end by his own attack when Tien refused to straight up kill the boy and sought to defend himself against his own master's dishonour.
Unfortunately for Tien, Kakarot has been paying more attention to his surroundings, and with several more years of tutelage under his master Gohan, combined with the lack of a Nimbus cloud, has come up with his own method of flight. If only in the moment.
Tambourine still attacked in order to obtain both the 4 star Dragon ball and the tournament roster, but was unable to kill off the stronger and faster Krillin, who's spend a decent enough portion of those interleaving years training with what amounts to a full body turtle shell, courtesy of Bulma's tinkering with Kakarot's Saiyan body armour and then his space pod too.
Krillin is still alive, and Kakarot did not fly into a rage and give chase so they had some time to plan. And plan they have. While Krillin recovers from his recent brush with death, Roshi, Gohan, Tien and an uninjured Yamcha plan to seek out the Mafuba while Kakarot will secure at least one Dragon Ball. Following Mai's advice, he will hide it in a lead lined box, hopefully removing it from the board.
Samurai's Sanctuary
When Kakarot retrieves his little flier from his old, somewhat beat up armour, and pops the capsule, Mai shakes her head and steps back in, saying that, while she doesn't relish the thought of meeting the little emperor again, she does feel that she owes them something for their attempt to revive Sho, so she'll come too. This is partly her mess after all what with that satellite they used to eavesdrop on Mutaito's exposition.
After an appraising look at her, Kakarot agrees and pockets his re-capsulized flier. I'm sure it has nothing to do with the fact that Mai's ride looks way faster than his dinky little one. Once airborne, on the radar, he can see the one ball moving away from them pretty quickly and while Kakarot's impulse is to chase down what he's sure is his, or rather Gohan's 4 star ball, they did have a plan and there is another blip relatively nearby that is not moving that much.
"Huh." Kakarot says to himself as he clicks around, watching the first dot as it approaches and then passes the other one.
'What was that?" Mai asks, taking her eyes off the controls for only a second.
"That demon thing doesn't have a radar with him." Kakarot says, holding out his. "See, he just flew straight past one."
A very wide eyed Mai ogles the compact little thing for a moment, then smiles grimly and nods.
"Our radar was the size of a house." she says, "They'll be heading back this way soon enough, though!"
They circle the sight of the other ball once, then descend to the jungle and start poking around through the vaguely tropical underbrush. Following Kakarot's nose to the sweet smell of grilled fish as well as the blip on the screen, they find the lone samurai, Yajirobe, happily tucking into said fish. When Mai steps into view though, Yajirobe splutters for a bit, and at least attempting to be a gentleman, despite the mess he's made of his meal so far, he offers her a bite. Oh, she's got a kid? Ugh, well, I mean, I guess he can have a…
And with that, what little is left of the fish is devoured, right before this self proclaimed lord's eyes.
After trying to placate the pudgy and very indignant Samurai, Mai takes note of the ball hanging from his neck and is about to inquire about it when Kakarot sits up and points into the sky. It looks like that thing Krillin had described is coming back. Well, close to it. He'd not mentioned that it was so big.
Close Encounters
Cymbal lands and demands the ball too only to find Kakarot and Yajirobe quibbling over who gets to fight him. Yajirobe is both a bit miffed that a good 3rd of his fish got, well, not stolen per say, but he is also a bit distracted as he wants to put on a good show for the pretty lady, so Kakarot wins the rock paper scissors and proceeds to wreck Cymbal's career with disappointing ease. Not even his lightning attack thing phases the boy who just dodges out of the way.
What little is left of Cymbal still ends up on the spit and this time Kakarot is game to try some. That mere shred of fish was barely enough to satisfy him, especially after that fight with Tien so Mai is left trying not to gag as Kakarot shares his kill with this supposedly strong and blustering Yajirobe guy.
They are mid way through their meal, while Mai digs through the supplies in the plane, searching for some lead to make a box out of, when there is more flapping and a skinnier version of Cymbal appears and is, well, he's not pleased to see what is clearly the remains of his brother, slowly getting increasingly crispy over a fire.
This time Yajirobe is intent on killing the thing, since Kakarot got to do the last one and similarly to their recent meal, Tambourine is ultimately sliced and diced. Yajirobe has quite a bit more trouble with the nimble Tambourine, than Kakarot had with Cymbal but with a wing eventually clipped by the shiny sword, the fight evens out.
Man, Yajirobe was pretty ridiculous back in the day, wasn't he.
Mai has finally assembled what she hopes is a good container for the dragonball, and asks Yajirobe if they can please put that thing around his neck into the box. The round little samurai doesn't really want to though. These creatures that keep coming for it are pretty weak, after all, so, why worry? What're they gonna do? Send more meals?
Kakarot and Mai relay most of what Master Roshi had said about the mighty King Piccolo and after a moment of self reflection, Yajirobe hands the ball over. If those legends are true, it's not worth the risk. Mai says that they don't want to take the ball from him, just put it in the box and bury it somewhere, you know, not right next to the campfire and um, the, um, the two demon corpses?
Yeah, no thanks. Yajirobe thought it looked pretty but wants nothing to do with that King Piccolo guy. Not if those legends are even vaguely accurate.
"Oh right!" Kakarot says. "I've finally tasted a Demon!"
"Ugh." Mai barely suppresses a gag and goes just a little bit pale.
"It was delicious!" Yajirobe says patting his belly. "Some salt maybe? Or would that make it shrivel up?"
"No, no." Kakarot laughs. "That's Slugs!"
Mai makes a b-line for a bush and retching noises can be heard in the background as Kakarot and the bottomless pit of a Samurai, Lord compare culinary notes. Straight up Demon? Check! Demon Pig? Well, turns out Oolong's not actually a demon so, no point in waiting on that. A T-Rex? Yajirobe has never had a T-Rex before. Bit chewy huh? Wait, a girl killed it? Chi-Chi eh? She sounds cool! What do you mean she's the Ox King's daughter? Oh, what is Yajirobe getting himself caught up in. King Piccolos, Ox Kings, it's just too much. Next they'll be saying they've met the legendary Muten Roshi too! Well that would certainly explain the boy's apparent strength.
When Mai gets back to the campfire there is a distinct lack of a box, though she is still a bit on the pale side, having lost what little remained of her lunch. They are about to say their goodbyes when the sound of propellers draws their attention and they look up to see an airship lumber into view.
Mai can see 3 figures peering over the railing. The short one looking down at her with Binoculars? Pilaf! Well that's just great! She's a bit busy staring down, or up? the little emperor to notice the 2 larger men. One well dressed black guy and a green one. The black one is shouting something and pointing at them, or maybe at this Kakarot kid? Eventually she notices the airship's label. It's not just Pilaf. There's some funny looking bowtie looking mark. Wait, she knows that mark. The Red Ribbon Army? Weren't they defunct?
The green one steps over the edge and descends to the ground with barely a thump. Mai looks back and forth between Kakarot this, presumably King Piccolo guy and, oh, it looks like that Yajirobe guy has vanished. So much for chivalry huh?
"So," King Piccolo says, glancing up at the airship, "They seem to think you're the one who killed my children! Surely one so small could not be responsible for such destruction."
Kakarot just stares back at him, with a massive grin on his face. Masters Roshi and Gohan had warned him away from chasing down and confronting the demon king himself, and he hadn't. He hadn't even needed to! Here he is, right in front of him. He's supposed to be really strong! A real challenge, like Tien, only better!
Splash Zone
Kakarot glances down at his wrist to see the armour's current setting. 5? 5 What? How heavy is that? And where's the control slider? It used to be right there but there's no knobs, no buttons. Nothing. Nuts! In his haste to head off he hadn't waited for Bulma to give him the rundown! That could be a problem.
As he assumes a stance, readying himself for what will surely be a fight to remember, he casually runs a finger down where the old weight slider used to be. The number drops, he instantly feels lighter and King Piccolo's eyebrow goes up. Nuts! Had he seen the motion like Mutaito had?
"Interesting!" King Piccolo says, smirking, "You just raised your strength with a single stance! Not even that annoying Mutaito insect could do it that smoothly. All that grunting and straining and my my, the shouting! How trite!"
Kakarot's grin widens while he breathes an internal sigh of relief. He hadn't seen, he'd only felt the excess energy that wasn't being used to hold himself up under whatever that number 5 meant. Kakarot moves his feet slightly, testing the weight of himself and decides that he's about 1/5th as heavy so, it's a weight multiplier? Ahh, Bulma had said something about it using gravity? So it's like being a bigger planet or something? There's a memory there but he can't quite grasp it so he files that away for later.
Kakarot's first strike on King Piccolo sends them both tumbling off through the underbrush. Mai just sits there on the ground for a moment staring after them, having not even seen him move! One moment they're standing there actually smiling at each other? Then they just vanished and a shockwave knocked her and a decent swath of trees over. She looks up to see the airship wobbling and spinning, his little majesty clinging on to the banister for dear life as that big man grapples at the controls to right the thing.
She thinks about pulling her gun but can't bring herself to shoot at them. For years, he'd been her boss. She'd looked after him, done his every bidding. Bandaged his booboos and, and, he'd not even cared that Sho was dead. Only that he'd need a new henchmutt!
Her train of thought is broken by a distant boom and something goes flying by, crashing into the bushes, taking out several more trees. Looking back in the direction whatever that was had come from, she sees the green man, gliding through the air like a wraith. Then she smiles slightly, actually seeing the man. His clothes are torn and he's bleeding and clutching at an arm that looks, well, wrong. It's kinda backwards, broken? He glances down at her as he passes and she can feel his terrible anger washing over her, pushing her over again, pressing her down, into the ground.
As King Piccolo glides past, he starts to say "I'll get to you soon enough my dear!" but is cut off by someone shouting from the treeline.
"Kaaah!"
King Piccolo stops, looks around at the noise and visibly tenses up.
Mai can feel the weight on her lessen as his focus goes elsewhere.
"Maaaaay!" The sound comes from somewhere else.
"You won't be packing me away again, boy". King Piccolo shouts, turning again to face the sound.
"Haaaaa!" From somewhere else again.
"Oh." The green man relaxes. "It's not the Mafuba!"
"Maaaaay!" from right behind Mai, and she lays as flat as she can.
"Come out, come out, wherever you are!" King Piccolo calls, almost mocking.
Nothing. Nothing happens. There is no sound. No shouting, just the slight huffing of King Piccolo as he looks around and around, following something Mai can't even begin to feel. Seeing the moment though as his anger is now wholly focused elsewhere, she rolls away into the underbrush, then up to her feet and she sprints away.
Kamehameha, huh? Oh, she knows what comes next. She'd seen it first hand at Fortune Teller Baba's and seen the tapes they'd retrieved from the rubble of the castle. The bright light, the explosions. Yeah, no thanks.
As she runs she senses movement behind her then hears that final part.
"Haaaaaaa!"
The world goes white, and Mai trips, dropping to the shaking ground.
End Chapter 7
And so as Mai rolls, tumbles and grinds to a halt, we will bring part 7 to a close.
Will Kakarot's Kamehameha be enough to stop King Piccolo?
How do you think Roshi, Gohan, Tien, Yamcha and Krillin are doing with their Mafuba training?
Will they get to use it or will it all be a waste of time?
If Kakarot manages to kill King Piccolo here and now, what ramifications could that have on the future of this world?
Find out next time on Dragon Ball, What If: Grandpa Gohan Got Through to Goku.