The Soul and The Flesh Part VIIII They rounded Yamcha up at his small, messy room at Capsule Corp. He seemed to be glad to see Bulma, and was startled to see Kurilin and Raimi with her. He stared at Raimi; obviously he thought she was pretty. She smiled at him, and promptly turned her attention to Pu'ar, his shape-shifting cat companion. She observed him on the sly, and decided he was definitely very handsome. The scars on his face gave him a rakish air, and his long blue-black hair only added to his bad boy charm. No wonder Bulma always made up with him whenever they broke up!

She listened as Kurilin and Bulma explained about the events of yesterday and Goku. Yamcha was stunned, and Pu'ar began to cry. Raimi picked up the small furry cat and held her gently, feeling sad again too. Yamcha perked up a little when he heard about the offer to be trained by Kami. Pu'ar, however, cried harder.

"Oh, Yamcha, you'll be in terrible danger when these horrid men get here, won't you?" Pu'ar squeaked in her high voice. Kurilin looked at Raimi, looking for a reaction to these worried words, but she held her face in a calm, neutral expression. She stroked Pu'ar comfortingly.

"Well, sure, but after we all get trained, we'll be ready for anything! Right Kurilin?" Yamcha said, not worried. Of course he hadn't seen Raditz in action, but still, he was always so confident, it didn't really matter. They waited as he packed some things, and they all piled into Bulma's aircar again, Yamcha realized they had no idea of where Tien and Chauzu were.

"Hey how are we gonna find them?" He asked. Bulma proudly pulled out her scouter. He stared at it, confused. "This is going to find them for us! Now let's see…" Bulma put it on her ear, and it beeped and showed her the way.

Finally, they had everyone, their stuff, and were flying to Karin's Tower, the lowermost part of Kami-sama's palace. The men were quite bummed to find that they were going to have to CLIMB the Tower, which was unbelievably tall, rather than fly with the aircar or even their own Chi.

"Hey, I didn't write the rules! It's just how things are! Am I right Kurilin?" Raimi protested. He sighed and nodded.

"Yeah, she's right. Karin won't help us, unless we climb up. But how are we gonna do that? It's so tall…" They looked out the windows at the structure, which looked like it was a mile tall. Clouds were actually gliding BELOW the living space on top of it. Bulma was grinning with wicked glee, glad she didn't have to climb that thing.

"Hey, Raimi, you up to that climb? Or you gonna chicken out?" Tien asked, only half joking. His trust was hard to get, and he was still very unsure about her. She wrinkled her nose at him.

"Oh, I'm ready, Tenshinhan, are you? My question is, do we do it now, or wait until morning? I say morning, so we can see…" She said as Bulma landed. They agreed, and got out, staring up, and up, and up at the odd slender support they were going to climb. Bulma popped a Capsule house for them, and they sat quietly, thinking about the reason they were there in the first place. They quietly talked about Goku, and how strange it was that he was gone. Finally they went to bed, too sad to talk anymore.

The next morning they woke before dawn. Raimi and Yamcha were hungry, though Tien and Kurilin decided to not eat, so as to be lighter when they climbed. Then it was time to get to it. One by one, staring with Tien and Chauzu, they started off. Kurilin insisted on following Raimi, making him the last to go. Bulma waved goodbye, and took off back to the Kame House.

For Raimi, the climb was nerve racking. She was strong, and it was certainly helpful to be strong when you were climbing straight up for almost a mile. But she couldn't miss the view, and the view reminded her of how high in the air she was. She had to keep reminding herself that she could fly.

Then, there was Tien, who was climbing a lot faster, so fast that Yamcha, Kurilin and herself were hard pressed to keep up.

"He's…going…to get tired real…fast, don't you think?" Kurilin panted as he peered around the pillar at her. She smiled evilly.

"Well, we'll just…have to laugh when he…has to rest and we pass him, right? Hope he doesn't fall off, he'll have to…start over; sounds very…very tiring to me!" She chuckled. Kurilin laughed too, and then decided to save his breath. Raimi couldn't believe that Goku had once climbed this thing in only three hours. So she was surprised when they reached the ladder to the door in only five hours. Panting, they filed into Karin's house.

"Well, well, look at this! You look ready for a nap, not for training!" They heard a gravely voice say. They noticed a white bi-pedal cat standing before them, holding a strange staff. The staff had a small jug hanging form it, and Raimi smiled as she realized that it was the famous Chou-water. It had taken Kame-sen'nin THREE YEARS to get it away from this tubby kitty. She bowed to him and pointed at the bottle.

"Pardon me, Master Karin, but could I have some of your water?" Karin humphed, then all of them blinked as she snatched it away from him too fast to be seen. "You don't mind, do you?" She said sweetly. After a moment of stunned silence, the cat began to laugh.

"I like you, you're spunky, like Go-ku," He said, stretching the name out oddly. "Yes, have some, but not too much, it's pretty potent, even for a strong little Saiyan like you. And since she got it from me, she can share with all of you, but only this once…" Kurilin and Yamcha exchanged glances as Raimi took a swallow of the Chou-water, and pointedly handed it to Tien. He grimaced and took a swig, and passed it on. When they all had had some, and had realized that they were re-energized, Karin cleared his throat for their attention. When they looked over, they were surprised to see a tall figure behind him.

"Kami!" The men all breathed reverently. Raimi stared at him, amazed by how similar to Piccolo he looked and yet so different as well. Kami was also green, with antennae and pink patches of skin on his arms and legs. But his face held a totally different expression; while Piccolo was dark and intense, and very angry, Kami was calm, and looked to be at peace. Raimi liked him instantly. She walked over to him and bowed politely.

"I am truly honored, Kami-sama. Thank you for taking such an unworthy student such as myself." She said softly. Kami smiled back, and rested his hand on her head.
"I have found that all are worthy, my child. Now, let us begin…take my arm, girl." Raimi hooked her arm through his, and watched as he motioned the others closer.

Kurilin and the others gathered around them and waited as Kami looked at each of them in turn. He nodded and then his eyes flashed…

Suddenly they were outside, standing on the edge of a large white tiled platform. They looked around for a moment before they realized that they all were wearing additions to the clothes they had had on just moments before. All of them, including Yajirobei who had mysteriously appeared, had heavy black shirts under their various uniforms. They also had extremely heavy boots on their feet, which looked like the ones Goku always wore, and wrist weights as well. But the most startling change was in Raimi's attire. She had been wearing jeans and a Capsule Corp. T-shirt, but now was wearing exactly the same uniform that Kurilin and Yamcha wore, except for the Turtle symbol, which was the name "Kami-sama" on hers. She looked down and smiled proudly at her emblem.

"These weights are part of the secret of strength training that I discovered long ago. You've all seen that Goku wears the weights I gave him almost constantly. And when he removes them, his power almost doubles; his speed increases as well. You all have strength and abilities that we can use to fight off these Saiyan warriors, but you also need to improve these skills and that is the main goal I have in mind for you as a group. I also hope you will share some of the techniques you have picked up in your years of fights and training. Now then, why don't you warm up and spar with each other, while I speak with our newest edition?" Kami said to them, then, with Raimi still holding his arm, he disappeared.

"What does that mean?" Kurilin wondered, just as Chauzu playfully tackled him and shocked him with a nice blast of Chi. He was forced to turn his attention to the matters at hand.