~Chapter 6: The Kame House~
After consulting for a moment, Uranai Baba showed us the location of the dragon ball - in a moving car about 200 kilometers away, which upset Bulma because being in a car didn't go with any of her theories on why the ball hadn't shown up on the radar. As usual, Goku didn't waste any time, and he sped off on Kinto'un to fetch the ball. It took him probably 20 minutes, during which those of us who remained mostly murmured to each other. We didn't have a lot to say - we were all afflicted with the numbness that seems to come for a little while just after Goku leaves, as if somehow all of the excitement in the world had just been focused on us, but was now taken away, leaving us out of the spotlight. It's a funny feeling.
I'm not sure exactly what Goku had to do to get the dragon balls, but I do remember that when Goku got back, not only did he have the dragon balls, but he was also wearing a completely different set of clothing. When I pointed this out he only smiled nervously. He only stuck around for about 30 seconds, long enough to mention that he'd gotten the ball, grab Upa, and speed off to Karin Tower to summon Shenlon. I was kind of dissapointed that I didn't get to see Shenlon then. Actually, I wouldn't get to see Shenlon for a very long time. As fate would have it, whenever anyone was summoning the dragon I was always either dead or somewhere else. Come to think of it, I saw Porunga before I saw Shenlon. But, I'm getting ahead of myself. After Goku left again, we all speculated about the time he must have had getting that ball, and about how strong he'd become. Right around then, the fortune teller casually let one of her predictions drop.
"That boy is amazing," she said. "One day he'll save the world."
We glared at her for a second, and I looked off in the direction that Goku had gone and smiled. It didn't seem so hard to believe.
Yamucha took the opportunity to appeal to Muten Roshi to become his student. That went well - Roshi told him that he had seen him fight, and that he had enormous potential. He made him promise that he would take his training seriously and never shirk, and when Yamucha agreed, Muten Roshi accepted him as a student. That made him and Pu'ar very happy, and it made me happy too. It meant more company around the Kame house, and Yamucha seemed like a pretty agreeable person to have around.
As we stood there celebrating that, suddenly the sky became completely dark. It was darker even than night, for there were no stars showing. I started panicking, but Yamucha put his hand on my shoulder and smiled confidently. "It's Shenlon," he said, "Goku's summoned the dragon." I was awed. I wished that I could have been with him to see it.
I thought I saw something bright streak over our heads, and then the sky got bright again. Soon, Goku was back. Goku smiled and said excitedly that Upa's father had come back to life, and that Upa had been really happy. It was a really happy moment for everyone - that kid had looked really forlorn, and it was awfully nice of Goku to do that for him. We really gave him a hero's welcome, but he said that he had to pee really bad and ran over to go off of the side of the arena. Oi. This was the world's savior? It was hard to take Goku seriously in those days.
It seemed just then that it was the end of our adventure, and it had felt like a pretty big one. It's funny that looking back on that action-packed week after the 21st Budôkai now. Somehow, that time seems very easy and carefree to me now, in total contrast to how it felt at the time. I guess I'm just jaded. Anyway, I pondered aloud what we'd all be doing next. Goku proudly declared that he'd start training for the next tournament, and everyone else expressed something similar. I tried not to show it then because I didn't want to dampen the good mood everyone was in, but my heart sank a bit. Was I the only one who was troubled by the fact that we were just going to go back to training? The Tenka'ichi Budôkai was important to me too, but it was three years off. Would we really spend that whole time training? Somehow, it made me feel a bit empty. Back at the temple, I used to imagine how life would be on the outside, and I'd always thought that there was more to it. I couldn't believe that life was just what happened between martial arts matches. I didn't say anything, of course - this was only a vague feeling at that moment, and it wasn't until later that I really got to thinking about it. Besides, everyone else seemed so excited, and surely everyone else knew better than me.
Vague ponderings aside, I was pretty happy at the thought of all of us going back to the Kame House again. Goku said that he'd be happy to come back and train with us, and he probably would have, but Muten Roshi stepped in. He told Goku that if he really wanted to be stronger, he should go out, have experiences, and expand his horizons - that was the way to become better. Roshi impressed us with a pretty big poetic speech about it, classic stuff. Of course, it was completely lost on little Goku. I couldn't help but laugh as the old master fumed at the uncomprehending kid. Goku's heart was pure, but back in those earliest days there weren't too many lights on upstairs. So, Goku agreed and decided to go off and find his own adventures. Muten Roshi said that we'd meet again at the 22nd Tenka'ichi Budôkai in three years. Everyone accepted this camly and with excitement - well, everyone except me, that is. Again, I found myself wondering whether I was the only sane person in the world, or if there was something going on that I just hadn't gotten the memo about. Three years may not have seemed too long to Muten Roshi, but to me it sounded like an eternity. I would miss Goku.
(Incidentally, it occurs to me that right about then would have been a good time to for Goku, Yamucha and I to go around the world and make sure that all of the Red Ribbon's operations were really shut down. Who knows, maybe we could've stopped that sick piece of trash Dr. Gero early on, saving the whole world a load of trouble in the long run. Oh well, I don't have any regrets. After all, if we'd done that then, I'd still be single. I'm getting ahead of myself again. Sorry.)
Roshi told Goku that he'd have to go without the Kinto'un to enhance his training, which was pretty shocking to us - what was he going to do, run everywhere? - but Goku just shrugged and ran off on foot. I can only imagine the sort of adventures Goku must have gotten into over those three years. Knowing Goku, they'd probably make an exciting story. I could have set off on an adventure myself, but I'm just not made from the same stuff as Goku. I'd had enough adventures, thanks. I wanted to go home, and home we went. Bulma and Pu'ar went back to Capsule Corp HQ, and the old master and I took Yamucha back to the Kame house with us(It disturbed me a bit that Bulma, who was supposed to be Yamucha's girlfriend, would so easily let him go. Muten Roshi offered to let her stay at the Kame house, of course, but I think we can all guess what his motive for THAT was).
Lunch was waiting for us again at the Kame House. She was in her cute and harmless form when we got there, but she sneezed within the first couple of minutes, which was a bit of a shock for Yamucha, who'd seen her in both forms but had never actually had the transformation explained to him by anybody. Muten Roshi told Yamucha that his first training excercise was to make her calm down, and we went and hid behind a rock. Poor Yamucha, it was a few days before he was well enough to start training.
I had a bit of a sense of deja vu as we packed up the Kame House and moved back to the large island where I'd trained before. Yamucha had to go through exactly the same thing that Goku and I had. For the first day, I went ahead of him to demonstrate what to do. All of the excercises were pretty old hat to me, so I pretty much breezed through them and enjoyed the horrified looks on Yamucha's face - he couldn't believe that ANYONE could do what I was doing. I expected to have a lot of fun watching him struggle through the training, but he surprised me. Yamucha was very determined. Although the training was very hard for him at first, he took it better than Goku or I had. He rarely complained after the first day, and when Muten Roshi presented him with the turtle shell, he only swallowed hard and put it on. Yamucha earned my respect pretty quickly - there was more to that guy than I'd thought.
Of course, when he wasn't training, Yamucha wasn't so serious. He was a clever and healthily cynical guy, and he and I became fast friends. He and I could just sit back and seperate ourselves from the world, and speak of how crazy everyone else was, and how little things that other people did never made any sense. It was all right. Yamucha and I are still just as good of friends today.
One of those days, Yamucha told me about his early adventures with Goku, that all happened pretty much when I was trying to make my way to Muten Roshi's to train. It was all pretty funny. He told me about a rabbit that turned people into carrots, and a weird guy with delusions of world domination named Pilaf. I also got a good portion of Yamucha's life story, a really fascinating tale. You ought to ask him sometime if he'll tell it to you.
Yamucha finished the training that had taken Goku and I nearly eight months in only three months. I was impressed. Muten Roshi admitted to Yamucha that he'd taught him all that he really could, and he was as shocked as we'd been. Roshi told him that it was now up to him to further his own training, and sort of angrily added that the same went for me. I was a bit embarrassed - I had spent most of the time Yamucha had been training slacking off. There are a lot of things we could have done to further our training then, but Yamucha and I no longer had the initiative to do much more than stick around and spar with each other. That's okay, though, that went pretty well. We got quite a bit more powerful that way. At first Yamucha was far weaker than me, but he caught up fairly quickly. I taught him how to leave after-images, and he showed me the fist of the wolf-fang, which I didn't have that much use for, but I did use the basic technique behind it to increase my speed quite a lot. The sparring was fun and good for us, and it was enough to let us say that we'd spent our time training.
Hey, I've gone on about Yamucha for a while. I did more during that time than get to know him. I didn't have much to do while Yamucha was undergoing that first training regimen, so I helped Lunch with the housework. She taught me how to cook several things as well. In fact, it got to the point where I was the cook as often as she was. It seemed like just something to pass the time then, but I started down a path then that would eventually lead me to become what I am now, which is basically a housewife. Hey, I have no complaints. As for Lunch herself, she kept transforming, but we finally started to get used to it. She stopped freaking out quite so much when she changed, and the event of her transformation was reduced from a disaster to merely something that set us on edge. She'd stay transformed for days at a time, and "Kushami"(her alternate personality) became another one of the gang, and not an entirely undesirable one. She did keep us on our toes, after all.
Muten Roshi, as much as I respected him, was still as embarrassing as ever, and seemed to resent not being a hermit anymore. So, I started taking longer than I really needed to on those trips to the market for groceries. Eventually it got to the point where that wasn't really the main point of my going out anymore. I went out to the city a lot, and sometimes Yamucha came with me. There was a lot to do out there for a kid like me to keep occupied with. However, I often had a hard time of it out there. I caught a lot of stares and bullying from people, and I knew that it was because of my height. Yamucha would always stick up for me, but even that was a bit annoying, as I rarely got the chance to demonstrate that I could take care of myself perfectly well. I have to admit that I was very, very short. Yes, I'm aware that I am still short, but at least now I'm in the normal human range of height, even if I am at the bottom of it. Back then, I was just a freak, and my short height gave me all kinds of problems. I kept hoping that I'd get taller - after all, I was a teenager - but it never seemed to happen. I did grow an inch or two, but not enough to make any real difference.
After the first year, Pu'ar came to live with us. Yamucha had gone to visit Bulma, and Pu'ar came back with him. I guess that she couldn't bear to be away from him any longer. I've never known quite what's going on between Pu'ar and Yamucha. For decades they were practically inseperable, and Pu'ar was fond of calling Yamucha "Yamucha-sama" and other titles of respect. Pu'ar has always looked very cute hovering around Yamucha, and he seems happier when she's around, so I never questioned it. I guess they're just close friends. You know, Pu'ar is a lot more intelligent and brave than people give her credit for. She was nice to have around.
I could talk a lot more about those years, but the gist of it is that we were just passing time. Time dutifully did just that, and it was time for the Tenka'ichi Budôkai practically before we knew it. The night before we left for the tournament, Yamucha and I decided to have one more good spar. We went out late, able to see each other only in the moonlight. The seabreeze chilled us as we took our stances, and we smiled. We knew that we'd become a lot stronger, and we were excited about the tournament.
"Well?" I smirked at Yamucha.
He smirked back. "Please, you first."
I came at him like a rocket, and he countered similarly. We must have exchanged a couple hundred blows and blocked them all, pretty standard fare for the battles later on, but a first for us. It was harder for him to guard against me because I was so much shorter, so I got in a good hit and knocked him back. He came at me again and I danced circles around him. He struck at air a lot.
"No, Yamucha," I shouted, laughing, "You're supposed to hit ME!"
He snarled. "Roga-fuu-fuu-ken!"
Damn, that fist of the wolf fang always was a bit of a surprise. He beat me around a bit, and I kicked him in the stomach hard. We both landed on the ground and slowly got back to a sitting position.
"Well," I said, "Maybe we ought to save some for the tournament."
We went to bed that night feeling happy and excited. We were going to have a great tournament, and we'd get to see Goku again. Maybe one of us would even be able to win. We were looking forward to having a good time. Why can't things ever be that simple?
--END OF CHAPTER SIX--