DD/N: WOW! I don't know what to say… really… I didn't think that I would get three reviews already! Thank you so much for reviewing, I really appreciate it. Love ya all!
Chapter II: 23. Tekaichi Budokai756, 7th of May, Papaya Island
The sky was ash gray, covered by clouds and the rain fell en masse. Although the weather was terrible, the Tekaichi Budokai arena was packed by the many contestants and onlookers, many of them talking about the last finalists and how spectacular this Budokai might become, when even the last one was unforgettable.
The blue haired Launch looked around, expecting to recognize a to her familiar face, but no avail, there was no one: "They're late…", she pointed out.
The old man next to her nodded thoughtfully, looking around in worry and wondering when his former students and friends would arrive. They didn't have much time left to arrive and register for the tournament; the registering booth was going to close in twenty minutes.
Suddenly the voice of a young woman reached them: "Launch! Muten Roshi!"
They turned and saw a blue haired woman running as fast as she could with her umbrella towards them. Behind her were two transformers they knew too well: Oolong and Pool, also protected from the rain by an umbrella.
Launch beamed: "Bulma!"
Bulma reached them and greeted Launch happily. The two women started to chatter, while Muten Roshi was left adoring Bulmas built. Well… drooling over her built.
"You have grown so much more mature, Bulma…", Muten Roshi pointed out and reached out to touch her buttocks. A second later, his sunglasses were broken and bent and his left eye swollen.
Bulma whirled around: "DON'T YOU TOUCH MY ASS EVER AGAIN, OLD PERVERTED FREAK!!!"
They heard a low chuckle and Oolong faced the young man standing next to them: "What's your problem?"
Bulma and Muten Roshi turned around too and mustered the young man. He was fairly tall, taller than Bulma at least, and he was wearing a black high neck pullover without sleeves, that was now soaked from the rain and baggy jeans, stuffed into a pair of big black boots. His wild black hair was dripping wet and the most of his spikes hung deeply into his face, because they were heavier, since they were wet. Raindrops dripped from his chin and some traveled down his neck and disappeared in his collar.
The young man lifted his head, so that they could see his eyes and they were surprised to see that they were pure black. (DD/N: Oh please... everybody would have recognized until now who this hunk is!) He stepped towards Bulma and dove under her umbrella: "May I? The rain kinda surprised me on my way here."
Bulma blinked. Somehow she recognized the young man next to her, but in another way also not. His voice was deep and soothing, but still a little dry, it seemed like he just came out of puberty and yet he looked older. The blue haired genius decided to ask the young man: "Do we… uh… know you?"
Again he chuckled and stuck his hands into his pockets: "Yeah… but I admit I changed a lot. Specially in height."
The way he talked. Simple and carefree. Pool knew his way of talk from somewhere: "You do look familiar. When did we see you?"
"Bout three years ago, also here at the tournament… no wait… I saw you after that too. Kame Island, just a day after Piccolo was defeated. Ring a bell?", he cocked his head to the side, so his hair went along with his movement, sending a few water droplets onto Bulma.
Launch cocked her head to the side too, puzzled: "Really?"
"Yeah… common guys… it's not THAT hard to guess. Who wasn't around after the fight with Piccolo? Tenshinhan was there. So was Yamcha and the others were well… yeah… sorta not around, but it would be weird seeing dead people walking around.", the man casually chattered.
"Wait a second…", Bulma lifted her hand and combed some of his wet spikes out of his eyes. Blue met black. Sea met coal.
The young man blushed a little and backed away: "Err… yeah, my eyes are kinda outta place too I guess."
Bulma gasped and laughed: "Oh my god!"
Launch and the others looked puzzled and the blue haired woman continued: "Really, he's right! It's not too hard to find out who he is. We just didn't consider it."
Muten Roshi blinked and set his new glasses right: "Really?"
The man grinned: "Aw, Sensei. How many black-eyed, spiky-haired, at tournament-appearing freaks do ya know?"
"Oh my…", Launch gasped and clasped her hand over her mouth: "It's…"
He cut off her sentence by smirking at her: "Let em guess for themselves, Lunch-san."
"Wait… spiky-haired freak? Also: tail-owning?", Oolong suddenly babbled.
"If you mean this one…", a furry appendage appeared behind the young man and started to wave around freely.
"GOKOU!!", Master Roshi, Pool and Oolong finally called out.
Gokou pulled up a brow: "Sure took you guys a hella long time to figure that one out."
Oolong nearly lost his umbrella: "I can't believe it! Little Gokou!!"
"Hey!! I'm not little!", Gokou scolded playfully: "I'm six feet two!"
Launch looked up at him: "You grew so handsome!"
A hint of pink touched Gokou's cheeks: "Um… thanks…"
Bulma looked at Launch: "What do you mean 'handsome'? He's sexy!"
Gokou's cheeks went from pink to red, while he looked a little peeved: "You didn't change ONE bit, Bulma…"
"What do you mean with THAT?!", Bulma glared at him.
"Nothing.", Gokou answered nonchalantly, not wanting to start an argument with his old friend.
Suddenly Bulma stared: "Did I just see you blush?"
Gokou blinked confused: "Err… dunno… I guess…"
The woman (DD/N: No pun intended.) placed her hand on her hip: "You are full of surprises this time, aren't you?"
Again the teen chuckled: "Yeah."
"Oi, quit flirting with the girls and get registered before they close the booth, sonny.", Muten Roshi said, interrupting the talk.
Gokou turned around too him and started walking towards the booth. He shot a grin towards his former master: "Getting jealous that ya can't talk with girls without getting called a pervert, huh?"
"Wha… WHAT?!", Muten Roshi gasped, startled by the cocky answer he had gotten.
Gokou smirked at him in a cocky manner: "What? Didn't get what I said or surprised?"
Oolong snickered, loving the way Gokou had embarrassed Muten Roshi, when Gokou turned to him: "Hey, keep ya trap shut or I'll let another comment loose… about YOU."
The pig fell silent and Pool grinned at him: "Well, finally somebody decided to get back at you two!"
"Well… I'm goin to register now, guys. See ya in a sec.", with that the young teen jogged off towards the registering booth, getting wet again.
Lunch lifted a hand to her mouth and called: "If you keep on running in the rain you'll catch a cold, Gokou-chan!"
"I've gone through worse, don't worry about it!", Gokou grinned at her, while looking the registering form over: "Hey, wait a sec! They never asked for heritage!"
The guy at the booth looked him over, somewhat skeptical: "Well, now we do, so please get on with the signing boy, there are other contestants that haven't gone through worse than a cold."
Gokou frowned and made a cross in one of the boxes, then he passed the sheet back to the man and stalked off. He dove under Bulmas' umbrella again and grumbled: "Geez, that guy's got an attitude problem! And what was up with the starin? Somethin on my face?"
"Calm kid. He just doesn't like sitting in the rain and I think he was staring because you're so skinny.", Bulma explained.
Gokou gave her an odd look: "I'm not skinny! Just… well… thin!"
"Yeah, keep on saying that and I might believe you. What's up with you being so skinny… I mean 'thin', in the first place? You reduced your appetite to normal human standards?", Bulma asked.
Gokou shot her a dirty look: "Ha, ha, Bulma, very funny. My appetite increased, if that's what you wanted to know."
"Boy, the guy at the booth isn't the only one with an attitude problem.", the blue haired woman pointed out, making Gokou look at her with even more anger and a low growl emitted from his throat.
At first Bulma blinked, then she lifted her index finger and pointed at the ground: "Down! Bad dog!"
Gokou went along with the joke and bared his teeth and growled again, Bulma and the others laughed and Gokou joined in, dropping his dog act.
"Hey, what's so funny?"
They turned around and faced two tall men and two rather small ones. One of the tall men, who had two scars, one running cross-like across his cheek and the other across his right eye, had his hands on his hips and he frowned at Bulma: "Who's the kid?"
Bulma looked at Gokou and back at the man, who she suddenly recognized: "Yamcha!"
Pool quickly threw her umbrella into Oolongs arms and hugged Yamcha the best she (DD/N: Here in Germany, Pool sounds awfully like a girl…) could: "I missed you so much!"
"I missed you too, Pool.", he returned his gaze to Gokou and Bulma: "So, what's up with the kid?"
Gokou quickly caught on why Yamcha looked at him with so much dismay and burst into a fit of laughter. Bulma, Lunch and Muten Roshi looked at him oddly, while he tried to recover: "Geez, Yamcha!! Easy! No need to get jealous!"
Yamcha blinked and Gokou went up to the taller man, grinning: "I couldn't get her if I wanted and tried. She loves ya too much to… WHA?!"
He turned and saw Bulma smirking at him and as he lowered his gaze, he saw her hand grasping his tail. Bulma pulled a little: "If I hear you one more time commenting about my feelings, of which you by the way DON'T know, I'll make sure it hurts!!"
Gokou blushed a deep crimson and his eyes became a little hazy: "Bulma! Damn it! Let go!"
"Why? Does it hurt?", Bulma asked teasingly, not knowing why Gokou was panicking.
"Bulma!!", Gokou hissed through his teeth, as if trying to restrain something in the back of his throat: "The opposite!!"
"Huh?", she asked, wondering what he meant.
Muten Roshi caught on: "Bulma, let him go, NOW."
And she let go, still wondering why Gokou was quivering and puffing, trying to restrain himself from something she hadn't recognized.
Gokous' knees gave out and Tenshinhan had to catch him before he fell onto the hard concrete.
"I still don't get what was wrong with you, Gokou…", Bulma pointed out.
"Don't ever, I mean really EVER, grab, touch or just even stroke my tail, got it?", Gokou explained sternly.
"Why?", Bulma asked, puzzled.
"Just don't.", Gokou said, the tone of his voice changing from baritone to something bass-like, making his words sound like a threat and his eyes locked Bulmas' with a dark look, a hint of brown glistening in his pupils.
Bulma only nodded, obviously surprised by his sudden change of attitude. Goku grabbed Tenshinhans shoulder and stood: "Thanks Ten."
"Gokou???", Tenshinhan asked, staring surprised at the teen.
Gokou turned, his voice and eyes changing back to normal: "Yea?"
"It's really you?!", one of the smaller men asked and it turned out to be the nose less Krillin.
"Yeah… who else should I be? Bali Khan?", Gokou asked teasingly. (DD/N: Dragonball, Book no.40, after Boo killed Bibidi, the guy in the magazine of the girl who Fat Boo wanted to kiss.)
Krillin hugged Gokou, who laughed and his smaller friend looked up at him with watery eyes: "Thank you for everything…"
Gokou blushed a little and rubbed the back of his neck: "Aw, Krillin! You're embarrassing me!"
Tenshinhan noticed that Chao-zu looked at Gokou strangely: "What's wrong?"
Chao-zu looked at him: "Don't you think he looks awfully familiar? I know it's Gokou… but…"
Tenshinhan looked at Gokou again. His eyes were jet-black and seemed to be endless and his hair was just as black as his eyes. A few spikes hung into his face and the rest stood off wildly. His face was hard and concentrated, showing no sign of emotion. A long and nearly elegant neck followed… Tenshinhan gasped: "You're right!"
Yamcha looked at him: "What?"
"You didn't see him back then… but… remember the volcano incident? Where Krillin said you had a guardian angel? Don't you think it's kinda odd that Gokou's eyes are jet-black?", Tenshinhan pointed out.
Yamcha looked at Gokou, who was laughing with Krillin and noticed too that his eyes were pure black: "Gokou… where… uh… were you one year after you defeated Piccolo?"
"Training of course. With Kami-sama. Didn't Shenlong tell you that?", Gokou asked, bewildered.
"No, he did, but… did you take any small trips down here or something?", Yamcha asked on.
Gokou cocked his head to the side: "Yeah, couple of times actually. Kami-sama made me do a lot of odd things and mostly I did them here on Earth. Why?"
The scarred man stared at him, while Krillin caught on: "You didn't happen save Yamcha sometime, did you?"
The younger teen blinked, then he pulled up his brows in surprise and blushed a little: "Oh that! Yea, it was me who saved Yamcha. But I wouldn't have come down if Kami-sama would of held me up longer. 'They have to learn to take care of themselves.' Geez, sometimes he does overestimate people."
Yamcha was a little shocked by the fact: "Uh… thanks…"
Gokou grinned: "No prob. I thought that something like that was going to happen, but I wasn't expecting you to be the one playing the hero."
Yamcha frowned: "Is that supposed to mean that I'm weak?"
"No… it's just ever since we first fought you are tending to underestimate yourself.", the teen answered, while looking into Yamchas' eyes: "And at other times you overestimate yourself. That brings you into the same situation as two years ago. I'm not always around to save others."
Again his voice switched into the deep and dangerous bass, again his eyes glistened in a nearly aggressive brown. Chao-zu's eyes widened when he noticed this, but he kept silent and shot Tenshinhan a knowing look. Something had changed Gokou over the three years of absence, but Tenshinhan had the feeling that it had been in him the whole time, just not as strong as now and Chao-zu knew what it was.
Geez, it's so hard to find a place to cut the chapter!! I was writing on and on and on… -__-. Sorry it took a little longer, but I got my PC on and running now, but went for skiing over the week with MCcH (school organization… not for fun) and our classes. Now… Cc says I should answer my readers… ok!
Ichigo: Thank you! You don't see many threesomes with Gokou/Bulma/Yamcha I guess… but hopefully it'll change someday!
Lauryn S.: I got the idea from MCcH actually (yeah, I know… I talk a lot about her.). She drew this really cool picture of Gokou as an angel for her homepage. I think I'll let him get the wings back later on, but I don't think it will be very soon. And Muten Roshi's sensei is Master Mutaito.
KC Matthews: Thank you.
Thank you to everybody again for reading and reviewing. Hope you all keep on reading.
Buh-huy,
Melli