OK... so here I go with the first chapter. I hope you enjoy it, and if you wish to comment, please do. Just don't flame, OK?

DISCLAIMER: I do not own Dragon Ball, Dragon Ball Z, Dragon Ball Z Kai, Dragon Ball Super, or Dragon Ball GT. That is the property of Funimation, Toei Animation, Fuji TV, Shueisha, and Akira Toriyama.

Chapter 1: Somewhat Normal Life


In a day and age where a mundane world mostly ignored the strange, powerful people who fought over it, there were still extraordinary sights.

After being dead for almost a year and being brought back to life, Yamcha was still a martial artist. But what made him seem to blend in with was now preparing for Baseball season with his team, The Taitans.

Yamcha, being the star player, was ultimately a team unto himself, and his coach knew this. Simply put, he was unstoppable. Though he didn't seem it, he was among the strongest people on the Planet Earth. Dwarfed by some of his friends, but still among the most powerful.

Yamcha himself was feeling quite confident in that he would be making a killing load of cash every year from now on, thanks to his prodigious fighting skills. Everything in his life seemed perfectly fine...

That is, until the topic regarding his long-time girlfriend, Bulma, came up.

The desert bandit and his rich girlfriend had been in an on-and-off relationship ever since they were both 16. However, most of their relationship that didn't involve happiness was Bulma accusing Yamcha of being unfaithful, due to past interactions with women. There were many times he could've called her out for flirting with other guys, including men from the past such as General Blue of the Red Ribbon Army, and Frieza's right hand, Zarbon. He could have, but he hated to even think about stooping to that level. Recently, Bulma had been cracking down on Yamcha due to how many admirers he earned as a baseball player. A lot of them were women. And Yamcha had told Bulma multiple times that he couldn't help that a lot of his fans were girls. He was simply cursed from birth due to his extremely good looks. He was unable to control whether women paid attention to him or not. Of course, this didn't seem to register with the inherently stubborn Bulma.

In order to give Bulma some time to breathe while he found peace at mind, he came here to the dugout at the stadium to practice with his teammates. He was thankful for practice time, as it helped him relax and get his mind together while he trained for the upcoming season.

At an absent stadium in West City, Yamcha's team was watching in awe as their ace player faced against an automatic ball shooter. Firing 1 ball per second, Yamcha was casually batting away each ball with a perfect amount of force: just enough to send each one into the empty stands.

Soon, the machine had run out of balls to shoot. Predictably, the last ball flew right out of the stadium. The ex-desert bandit sighed and took his baseball cap off to wipe his brow. He turned to his team. His coach, a man with a blonde crewcut and narrow eyes, was giving him a congratulatory thumbs-up.

"You're certainly not rusty," chuckled Coach Hime. "I swear, you'll be taking names yet again when baseball season starts up."

"Thanks, Coach," said Yamcha, placing his cap back on his head and raising his bat.

A fellow player placed several more baseballs into the machine, and Yamcha went back to hitting home run after home run. He almost moved like a machine, repeating each single swing without falter.

Unbeknownst to his team, despite Yamcha looking entirely focused, his mind was double-tasking. One half focused on when to swing when a baseball was shot. The other was dwelling on his turmoil of a relationship with Bulma.

Yamcha had been together with Bulma for years, but really the only reason the two got together was because Bulma was looking for a boyfriend. She had originally intended to wish on the Dragon Balls for one, but eventually took a liking to the desert bandit. Yamcha was inherently scared of girls due to having been around none his entire life (his cat, Puar, didn't count), so he was quite timid during their first years of being together. But he eventually learned to grow more comfortable around her and they started a relationship.

Their decade-old relationship had its ups and downs, but it was nice. However, while most couples would have taken each other's virginities at this point, Yamcha and Bulma had never done the deed before. In fact, despite their age, they still had not gone that far. Reasons for this seemed to point towards the on-again-off-again tendencies of their bond. But Yamcha had been thinking up to this point that maybe he should finally take that next step. Perhaps then, Bulma's constant nagging about his whereabouts and who he'd been with and whatever.

He had done his best to prove he was loyal to her. He would do so again.

For now, though, Yamcha was finishing his batting spree. The last ball he hit soared clean out of the arena. The ball shooter was out of ammo, and the test was ended. Yamcha took a winded exhale and leaned on his bat.

"ATTABOY!" yelled Coach Hime, marching over to give Yamcha a pat on the back. "I tell ya, my boy, we're gonna be superstars once again because of you!"

"Just doing my best, Coach," said Yamcha modestly, taking off his baseball cap yet again so he could wipe his brow. It was nearly summer, so a great deal of sweat had accumulated there.

"You do damn good for your best, too," said the coach, eyeing his ace player up and down. "Either way, that should be enough practice for one day." He turned to the team. "Taitans! Let's call it a day! Get freshened up in the showers, and I'll see you next week for practice!"

The team voiced their relief and headed off to the shower. Yamcha was the last in, tossing his bat at the field cage while they headed for the locker room for a cold shower.

After having received that quick refresher, Yamcha had dried himself off and had changed from his Taitans uniform into a modest white long-sleeve with black jeans. Though his long, scruffy hair sort of took away, his appearance made him look quite cleaned up.

Parting ways with his team, Yamcha left the stadium, soon walking down a mostly clear sidewalk in West City. At the current, he was walking next to a small shopping district a few miles from Capsule Corp, where Bulma lived. He was caught up in thought, so much that he completely forgot to fly. On his spare time with his Taitan teammates, they had been giving him advice on his rather difficult relationship with Bulma. Just earlier today, before practice, he had been in a conversation with a fellow teammate: Targus.

"I'm guessing things with you and Bulma must be going well. You haven't complained about her all day."

"Well, she did get a little suspicious yesterday when I said I was going to see my friends."

"I don't know, Yamcha. The way you talk about her sometimes, it's like she treats you as her own personal doormat."

"It's not that, Targus... OK, I know she's always been a little demanding, but I at least get where she's coming from. She's just a little... nosy."

"Man... sometimes when the time is right, you've gotta think about yourself. Just say screw it and move on. There are a lot of women out there who want all the control in the relationship, so men never get no freedom. If I were you, I'd stop kneeling to her every time she starts assuming."

"Kneeling? I'm not her slave, Targus."

"Then don't let her dictate everything you do. Just... think about what I said."

Yamcha therefore wondered to himself. Was he really just Bulma's doormat? Had he truly been nothing more than her stool? He wanted his relationship with Bulma to work, but he wanted them to be equal in their relationship. But was such a thing possible?

Then he took Targus' advice into account. Should he simply give up on her? No, no... he loved Bulma too much for that. They had been in an active relationship for years, and even now they were still together after everything. Yamcha fancied that there was still something special and unbreakable about their relationship, despite their constant disagreements (which usually involved Bulma yelling at him). Though they had argued over the years, they still came back to each other. But it was true that Yamcha very much wished to work the rough edges out of their bond. But how?

Yamcha was so busy working out his thoughts that he didn't notice what was up ahead. A woman in a magenta dress with blue sneakers was jovially exiting a clothing store with a bag of newly-bought attire in hand, and she let out a rather content sigh as she took in the surrounding. Unfortunately, she didn't see a very distracted Yamcha until the last second. He collided with the woman's side, and both yelped and fell. The woman slumped on the still-open glass door, and Yamcha fell on his behind. The ex-bandit recovered first, getting up to help the woman to her feet.

"Oww..." complained the woman as she rose to her feet, rubbing her head where it impacted with the glass door. She pulled her shopping bag up with him.

"Oh, my... I'm sorry, ma'am," Yamcha apologized, profusely attempting to get on the woman's good side. "I was caught up in thinking, and I..."

The woman looked up to see him eye-to-eye, and Yamcha trailed off. For a second, he believed that he had ran into Bulma, but it was actually another girl with blue hair that he knew. Unlike Bulma's turquoise shade of hair, this girl had a pure sky-blue color for hers. He also noticed her slightly more curvaceous build, which was a margin more impressive than Bulma's features. Yamcha got an accidental glimpse at her cleavage, noticing her slightly bigger bust, but quickly back to the face of the girl. It was someone he hadn't expected to see in a long time.

"M... Maron?"

A blush crept upon his face as he recognized his friend Krillin's ex-girlfriend. He had forgotten just how ravishing she was.

"Do I know y...?" the woman began, interrupted by realization as she remembered she knew this man. "Hey, I remember you... Yamcha? Wow, it's been a whole year since I saw you!"

Yamcha felt quite light-headed upon seeing the only other blunette he knew. The last time he saw her was about a year ago, when she had been Krillin's girlfriend. And now she was inches from him, acknowledging how long it had been since they parted ways.

"You OK?" asked Maron. "You're blushing a whole lot."

Yamcha snapped out of his stupor and let go of Maron, stepping back to give her space.

"Heh heh!" laughed Yamcha. "Sorry, I just didn't expect to see you again. That, and I sort of... forgot how... attractive... you were."

Maron gave him a knowing look with a prideful smile. "Well, I am quite fabulous, so I guess I can't blame you for looking..." she purred.

That elicited a rather bashful response from Yamcha, who went a deep shade of red.

"...but aren't you still dating that Bulma lady?"

That inquiry brought Yamcha back to Earth.

"Oh!" Yamcha shook his head. "Well, yeah, yeah. But... we're kinda going through a rough time. S... Sorting things out, I guess."

"Problems?" asked Maron.

"A lot," groaned Yamcha, pinching the bridge of his nose. "Like... nah, I shouldn't bore you with it. And you probably don't really care that much anyway..."

"Oh, I don't know..." the blunette replied thoughtfully. "Maybe I can lend an ear. Wanna walk with me?"

"Uh..."

Yamcha was unsure how to respond as the blunette began to walk ahead along the sidewalk. The bandit didn't know if even walking alongside to another woman was a very good idea. Say Bulma just happened to be out in town and saw them? She'd go insane.

Maron seemed to notice Yamcha's hesitance, because she turned around and giggled. "Hee hee... I'm not trying to stand between you and your girlfriend," she tittered. "Come on!"

Yamcha took a moment to look around, as if possibly expecting Bulma to just hop out of nowhere and threaten him with her finger. Then he resigned himself and caught up to the blunette.

"My house isn't far from here," explained Maron as Yamcha closed the walking distance between them. "I live near the beach because it's such a lively place. In fact, I actually met Krillin at West City Beach. It was also where we..." Her eyes began to drift to the sidewalk.

"...broke up," finished Yamcha.

"Yeah..." sighed Maron, looking less happy than before.

"Yeah, I wanted to ask," said Yamcha. "What happened? Why didn't you two work out?"

"I... really don't know," confessed Maron, giving Yamcha a look that was a mixture of sadness and bewilderment. "I've had a bunch of boyfriends in the past, after all. But most of them were just simple flings or something like that. Krillin was the first guy I actually got serious with. And then he just... ended it. I don't know why."

"Krillin told us that it was because he felt like he wasn't enough for you," said Yamcha.

"That's what he told me," Maron replied. "But I wasn't smart enough to try and beg Krillin not to leave me or demand a good reason. I just rolled with it and left like I'd never cared. And then I let some guy pick me up in his car, and I totally forgot about Krillin!"

'Wow... that bad, huh?' thought Yamcha. He had remembered that when they first met her, Maron hadn't necessarily been the brightest person. But hearing her now, she seemed to feel extremely bad for being so dense.

"I was a total dumbass," said Maron mournfully. "I was too stupid to realize that Krillin was the best boyfriend I ever had..."

"That's rough..." admitted Yamcha, looking to the side.

"Don't I know it..." groaned Maron. "At least you have a girlfriend to keep you company. I'm still stuck in the single department..."

"Yeah... about that..."

"Hmm?"

"...I don't really know if me and her are actually doing that good right now."

"Oh..." Maron exclaimed quietly. "Right. Problems."

"Yeah, things have been a little rough," admitted Yamcha. "Remember the times Master Roshi told you about our friend, Goku? And the Dragon Balls?"

"Roshi was the old pervert, right?" giggled Maron. "Yeah, I remember."

"Well... I spent a year dead," explained Yamcha. "I don't think I ever told you about that... it's a long story, and you probably wouldn't believe..."

"Why not?" interrupted Maron. "Wasn't there some mist that made you and everyone else attack me and Krillin one day? Because that's a story I wouldn't have believed anyone telling me unless I'd seen it."

That was right... Garlic Junior, a villain they fought about the same time they met Maron, set out a strange "Black Water Mist" that caused Yamcha and his friends to become hostile, attacking anything they saw. Krillin and Maron had not been affected as they were in the ocean when the mist hit, and Maron had hilariously defended herself from Master Roshi with a chair.

"Yeah... right," said Yamcha slowly. "Well, are you sure you wanna hear it? It's a long story... and it involves aliens."

"Yeah, tell me!" said Maron cheerfully. "I mean, why shouldn't I believe you? Some of your friends are talking animals, and you own a cat who floats and talks. I doubt it can be that weird."

"Well, this is a whole different level of weird..." Yamcha replied. "...but you make a good point." He cleared his throat. "OK, strap in..."

And so, as they walked, Yamcha decided to reveal to Maron the only tale she hadn't heard: the arrival of the Saiyans, his death, and the conquest on Namek. He told her about the unsettling reveal that their friend, Goku, was an alien. The person who revealed this to Goku, his brother Raditz, having come there to destroy the planet. The death of said brother. Then a year after Raditz was slain, the arrival of Vegeta and Nappa, which Maron actually recognized due to the Saiyans having been televised reducing a city to a glass floor. His death, as well as the deaths of Tien Shinhan, Chiaotzu, and Piccolo. His time in Other World while Gohan, Krillin, Bulma, and later Goku had travelled to a distant planet called Namek to use the Dragon Balls there to bring them back from the dead. The alien tyrant named Frieza who had destroyed the Saiyan race. And of course, the aftermath in which everyone who had been killed in the past year was brought back from the dead.

Maron was left contemplative,.

"So basically, you're not just really different..." she began.

"...but we also protect the planet," Yamcha finished for her. "I told you it would be weird..."

"Yeah... hee hee!" Maron giggled, an adorable little sound that could make any man's heart flutter. "Yeah, I think that's enough a dose of crazy for me today... not that it doesn't sound very exciting. Also... sorry about your death."

"No need to apologize," chuckled Yamcha. "If anything, death is cheap with us."

"Yeah, Dragon Balls..." Maron reminded herself. "But you sound like you lead an exciting life. It sounds scary, but exciting. But enough about that... what about you and that o..."

She stopped herself from saying "old lady."

A year back, when she first interacted with Goku's wife, Chi-Chi, as well as Bulma, they berated her for strutting around in a very skimpy, yellow one-piece every time she was on the beach. She would laugh at them and say they were jealous, calling them old to their faces. Hence, Chi-Chi and Bulma had always hated her.

"...you and Bulma," she corrected herself. "What's going on with you?"

"Well, things could be better..." admitted Yamcha, rubbing the back of his head. "I mean, I heard she was heartbroken when I died and happy when I was brought back, but since then, she's been really paranoid about everything. It's like she has to keep tabs on me no matter where I go. She literally wants to know all about where I've been and who I've been with when there's never been a who. It's like she'll interpret anything as cheating if she sees me with someone else. And she never changes her mind. She's always acting like she's in the right. I feel like she wants to put an antennae in my head and control me with a remote. I just..." He sighed in exasperation. "I mean, I love Bulma a lot, but nowadays, I feel like I have no freedom of expression when I'm around her."

"Then why do you stay with her?" asked Maron, giving Yamcha a look of disapproval. "She's always seemed grumpy to me. Why keep around her? How long have you known each other?"

"Since we were 16," answered Yamcha.

Maron stopped in her tracks, prompting Yamcha to stop as well. The blunette looked at him in surprise.

"16?" repeated Maron. "You mean you haven't even tried to tie the knot by that point?"

"I know, it's a long time," admitted Yamcha as they started to walk again. "It was years ago that I met her, too. Y'see, I used to live in the Diablo Desert as a bandit. No one but my cat, Puar, keeping me company. All I ever did was scare people off and demand money. When I first met Goku, he was just a kid, and I stomped him from one end of the desert to the other. When I fought him again, Bulma was with him. I used to be really afraid of girls, so when I saw her, I froze up. And then I got wasted."

"You were afraid of girls?" asked Maron. "I'm not making you uncomfortable, am I?"

"No, you're fine, Maron," said Yamcha. "OK, maybe I'm still a little, er... timid... but I'm not stark scared anymore. See, I literally grew up in the desert. I never even knew my parents, so I knew nothing about women. And Puar was the only friend I had until I met the others. Pretty much, I was never told about girls growing up, so you can see why I'd be a little nervous around the opposite gender. And then there's the mention of..." Yamcha's blush was back. "...doing it."

Maron nearly blushed herself. That would be an awkward subject.

"And it doesn't make it better that me and Bulma haven't even veered into that territory," continued Yamcha, feeling rather embarrassed. "We're still practically innocent. I guess that must sound really silly. Me, a full-grown man with a girlfriend, and I still haven't had the balls to go that far."

"I've never done it either," Maron answered back, not skipping a beat.

This time, Yamcha stopped walking. His face went redder than ever.

"You're not the only one," Maron admitted, shrugging. "I've been told a lot of times that I'm a beautiful woman, and boy, do I know. And you're a very handsome guy, Yamcha. I mean I'd never stand between you and your girlfriend," she added hastily, giggling at Yamcha's expression. "But... I guess I've been busy with other things..."

"You mean you never..." Yamcha was surprised that Maron would reveal such information about herself. That she was still a virgin not only made him feel a little better about himself, but confounded him that someone so breathtaking had never relinquished her innocence to anyone was a surprise, too.

"No," Maron said, brushing her hair and locking her fingers together as she resumed her pace on the sidewalk. Yamcha followed.

"I guess I've been a bit more busy with other things in life," explained the blunette. "It's not that I don't wanna see what it's like, but I'd rather wait until I find someone who respects me. Someone who doesn't see me as a walking sex toy. Like Krillin. But..." Her gaze drooped.

"But...?" Yamcha urged, gently as to not press her too hard on the subject.

"...but I haven't met a single guy like Krillin since we broke up," finished Maron. "It seems like every single guy with good looks is only thinking about sex, and they don't feel like waiting. I hate people like that. And just my luck, I went through three boyfriends just like that: men only looking for a tumble. I'm taking a break from dating because of it. It just makes me wonder why the 'single woman seeks good man' thing is so hard..."

"Yeah, I think every man feels that way at least once..." admitted Yamcha. "I mean, I'd never force Bulma to do anything she wouldn't want unless she said 'yes,' but sometimes I have one thing on my mind, too. I want to do it with her and not be a virgin anymore, but I don't wanna come across as just wanting sex. I want it to mean something."

"I dunno," said Maron. "Not every girl is like me."

"Whatcha mean?"

"Maybe she seems the person who needs someone to make her a woman," Maron explained. "If you wanna get someone like her to stop bearing down on you, then be bold. Maybe try it the next time you're alone? I had a friend once who did the same thing with his girlfriend, and he got along fabulously with her."

Be bold? Did that mean actively seek sex? While Yamcha was not one to be particularly brave around women, this suggestion did show promise. And Bulma was quite hard to get through to. In fact, he had been planning to get it on one day with Bulma, so why not soon? And using the same method Maron proposed should benefit him. If it worked with someone else, he didn't see why it shouldn't do good for him.

"That's... a good idea," Yamcha said at last. "I do need to act a little more like a man in front of Bulma anyway. Thanks, Maron."

"Don't mention it, Yamcha," Maron answered, smiling. Then she pointed ahead. "Oh, hey! We're at my house!"

The time they had said this, the sidewalk was now running along the side of a fence which barred anyone walking along the sidewalk from going past that line, as it was on the edge of a deeply sloped hill which drooped into the valley, where a bunch of beach houses lined the coast of the ocean beyond. They were about a few miles away from the beach. Up ahead, on a slight protrusion of a hill overlooking the beach houses below, was a simple two-story home that had seemed to be designed for the beach. A wide porch adorned the front, complete with a small table and a few chairs on the left side, and a hammock on the right side. On the back side of the home, on the second story, was a fairly-sized balcony that gave whoever was on said vantage point a perfect view of the ocean a few miles away. Yamcha and Maron walked up a narrow wooden pathway to the top of the hill in order to reach the house.

"This is where you live?" asked Yamcha as they finally reached the house, stepping up the porch. Yamcha walked over to the left side of the porch to lean against the railing, looking past the side of the house to take in the scenery. "This... it's beautiful."

"I always wanted to live near the beach, you see," explained Maron. "I saved a good deal of money to get it, and being near my favorite place on the planet always makes me feel good. It's not the biggest house in the world, and it's no mansion... but it's home."

Maron searched for her keys in her purse as Yamcha returned from the side of the porch. The blunette soon found her key and inserted it into the lock, twisting it to unlock it.

"Thanks for walking me home, Yamcha," said Maron, putting the key back in her purse. Instead of opening the door, she turned back to Yamcha. "It was nice seeing an old friend."

"You too," replied Yamcha. "I rarely get to see friends from the old days. I'm just happy you're doing well for yourself."

"And I hope you and your girlfriend start getting along better," replied Maron. She gave a wink. Just remember what I said.

"I will." Yamcha winked back. "Hey, uh... see you again sometime?"

"Of course!" said Maron. "Just don't tell your girl, or she might get jealous."

Yamcha made to reply when Maron gave him a tender hug, showing how genuinely happy she was to see a friend again. Naturally, Yamcha's face went redder than a tomato.

After saying their "see-you-later's," Maron returned to the inside of her house, while Yamcha backtracked a little off the porch before taking flight. His mind now clear, he was ready to fly back home. He expected Bulma might have something to say about being late, but he was ready. Ready to take his relationship to the next level with the woman he had devoted himself to for years.

He didn't notice, but Maron saw him fly away. A smile brought on from reminiscing the past curled her lips as she watched the desert bandit soar away.

"Hmm..." she hummed. "I always knew there was something different about those guys..."

With that, Maron left the window and prepared to take a break for the day.


First chapter at last. Whew.

So, yeah. Me and Childhood Enigma decided the story should begin with Yamcha having a run-in with some girl he knows from the past. And she's not the only one... there will be other characters who will appear in the future who are from the past. And maybe more...

Until then, thanks to Childhood Enigma for his help. I will see you all next update!

Sky-Kaiser out.