~Chapter 24: A Warning From The Future~
Almost a year went by after the defeat of Garlic Junior where things were pretty much normal. I kept studying, and I started writing some short stories. I even sent off a few and got some interesting form rejection letters. I also started training again. You'd think that I would have had enough of that by then, but I'd actually been training for so long that it felt kind of weird not to train. Moreover, the attack of Garlic Junior seemed like a bit of a wake-up call - we never knew when the Earth might be threatened, so I decided to be as prepared as possible. I didn't train obsessively like Vegeta or anything, but I held myself to a certain number of hours each week. Whenever I saw Yamucha, we'd usually spar - he'd been training too. He was actually about even to me at that time.
They finally held the 24th Tenka'ichi Budokai at some point. I could have participated. I could have been the champion of that tournament without using my hands or my right foot. When I heard that it was going to be held, I did consider entering, but I decided against it. I guess I had several reasons for that. First, it wouldn't have been much of a challenge. None of the best fighters I knew had the time or inclination to enter the tournament, so I probably wouldn't even have broken a sweat. I'm sorry if this is sounding arrogant, but it's only the truth. Ever since Namek, I'd been sick of competitive martial arts. It was different than it had always been before.
Before Namek, I was already way above the human level of skill. Still, back then it didn't feel like a total wash. A truly skilled master might still have been able to surprise me, and if I'd fought a lot of people or someone with a weapon, they could have easily taken me down. After my resurrection, however, everything had changed. I could strike the fleetest of fighters several hundred times in calculated places all over their body before they could so much as complete their stance. I could direct a ki blast from my fingertips that would destroy the whole arena. It wasn't fair anymore.
I've heard a lot of people say that they retired from fighting because they felt that they couldn't compete with Goku and his friends. Can you imagine how it felt for us? I can't speak for anyone else, but for me, the art of fighting died on Namek. I could no longer realistically fight anyone. I'd be constantly concentrating on controlling my movements, for fear of accidentally striking a fatal blow that wouldn't leave enough of my opponent to bury. It would feel rigid, totally unenjoyable. It was a little better fighting people more or less on my own level of skill, like Yamucha or Gohan, but even then, it didn't feel quite right. We couldn't go all out for fear of our own safety and even our surrounding environment. In fact, the only time that we could go all out was when we were fighting some monster that was terrorizing the Earth. Once, fighting had been invigorating, an honorable pursuit that led us to drive our spirit and stamina to the limit. Now, it was either boring or incredibly frightening.
If I had entered the 24th Tenka'ichi Budokai, I would have won, but there would have been no joy in such a victory. It would have felt like cheating. I can't tell you how frustrating it is to feel like you're cheating just to use your own toughness and skill that you have striven for endlessly and earned through tireless work. I did not enter the tournament. I couldn't have if I'd wanted to.
That tournament should have been a return to martial arts as they're supposed to be. Unfortunately, the turnout was pretty poor. I wish that Yajirobe or someone had entered so that we would have seen some real fighting. The way it went, Mr. Satan won it.
Mr. Satan wasn't a bad fighter - he won the 24th Tenkai'chi Budokai on the strength of his own skills and courage. What made him impossible to bear was his unrelenting arrogance. In the history of the tournament, no one dished out the trash talk like Mr. Satan. The way that he treated his opponents was very dishonorable. In the Cell Games, we found out that he was an annoying combination - an idiot, a coward and a braggart. Mr. Satan would come to be a thorn in our sides for a while, persisting in being stupid enough to think that he, the mighty hero, could defeat threats like Cell and Buu that had a few million times his power. We learned to just sigh, roll our eyes at his antics, and try to ignore him.
We've had to accept Mr. Satan since he's become Gohan's father-in-law. He isn't that bad. He may be an annoying buffoon, but you get used to it. To be fair, he's a bit smarter than he used to be.
Life at home was interesting. Muten Roshi and Oolong were quite a pair to bear living with, but I loved them. They had first gotten to know each other during the year that I was training for the battle against the Saiyans. I guess they found that they had more in common than famously large collections of pornography and disturbing obsessions with panties. Haha, sorry, I'm being too venomous. Really, Oolong has been a great friend to Roshi-sama. The old master had spent so many years alone, I wonder how long it had been since he'd met a true friend. Oolong identified with this, having lived somewhat in isolation himself. When he lost his mansion, he moved into the Kame House, where he was welcomed. When I returned, there wasn't much of a problem; Oolong and I get along pretty well. The only incident that caused trouble between us was the time that I neglectfully served bacon for breakfast. The indignant pig still hasn't forgiven me for that one, nor has he forgiven Roshi-sama, who called the offending meal "tasty".
Nothing terribly exciting happened for a while. What a hopelessly mixed blessing such times are! You're relieved that everything is peaceful, yet you are restless for something to happen. I guess it's human nature to be dissatisfied with the current situation, no matter what that is. This blessedly dull period was brought to an abrupt end the day that I sensed a powerful ki arrive on the planet.
At first, I was happy: Goku had returned! However, I quickly realized that the ki didn't feel like Goku at all - it was Vegeta, not Goku, who had returned to Earth. I wasn't sure how to feel about that. While I didn't really have any fear that Vegeta still planned to destroy our poor little planet, I didn't entirely trust him. I pondered his motives for a few hours, and then I received a phone call. Oolong rather nervously passed the phone to me.
"Hello?" I said.
"You're the human..." a terse voice replied, "...Kuririn?"
I blinked. It was the closest Vegeta had yet come to addressing me by name. "Yes."
"Come to Capsule Corporation Headquarters. Be quick," said the voice, followed by a resounding click.
My curiosity compelled me to obey. Leaving Oolong and Roshi-sama with inadequate explanation, I arrived at my destination within an hour. I met Vegeta there. He would say nothing to me until everyone arrived. Bulma seemed clueless as to what he planned to say. Gohan, Yamucha and surprisingly, Piccolo arrived to hear Vegeta's announcement. Everyone stood there and looked at him for a few seconds, all of us extremely uncomfortable. The tension was thick when Vegeta finally spoke.
"Frieza is alive," he said.
I felt a chill run through my body and sink straight into my heart. I went numb with shock, yet in the back of my mind I was thinking, "Of course he is. You cannot kill what is unstoppable. Defying Frieza is death - we were stupid to think we escaped."
"That's impossible!" said Gohan. "Dad--"
"Kakarotto did not kill him. As usual, his softness disgusts me," said Vegeta.
My voice trembled as I spoke, trying to convince myself more than anything. "But... I thought that Goku..."
Vegeta shot me a look. "Why so surprised, human? You'd have stabbed me in the back yourself if not for his pathetic mercy."
Well, I have to admit that he had me there. No one said anything for a few seconds.
"Frieza is alive," repeated Vegeta, "and he's coming here."
Dead silence followed. Someone, maybe Yamucha, said, "What are we going to do?"
"Honestly?" said Vegeta. "Do whatever you want. All the strongest fighters on this planet are standing here, and I can sense that none of you has become strong enough to fight Frieza... Enjoy your last days."
So, that was it. The time since Namek had been merely a bonus period, a little coda to our lives. We were doomed all over again.
We tried to train to fight Frieza, but we did so with the air of men who have been sentenced to death. Going by what Vegeta said, we didn't have nearly enough time to get that much stronger. I thought of contacting Tenshinhan, but I didn't know how. I gave everyone at the Kame House the bad news, but I didn't see the point in troubling anyone else that I knew with it. When Frieza arrived, he would probably just destroy the entire planet.
True to Vegeta's word, less than two weeks later I felt a tremendous evil ki approach. I instantly recognized it as Frieza. I sat down for a couple of minutes. Images of our previous battle with Frieza flooded my mind. I was so afraid. I didn't know if I could face it again. However, I realized - I had to realize that I had to fight him. I was not a coward. There were less than ten people on Earth with the power to stand some kind of a chance, and I was one of them. I had a responsibility to go.
I followed the power to its source. I ended up in a desert plains area. What I found there was a powerful ki cluster, but not Frieza. Vegeta, Yamucha, Piccolo, Gohan, Tenshinhan, Chaozu, Bulma and Pu'ar were there. I guess Tenshinhan and Chaozu must have sensed him as well. It was brave of Chaozu to come, especially since I could tell by a quick scan of his ki that my previous assessment had been right: Chaozu had hit his limit that day on Kami's lookout. His power level couldn't have been higher than 800. As for Bulma and Pu'ar, they said that they wanted to see this Frieza before they died. I guess that's admirable, but I wished they hadn't come. I was afraid that Frieza would do worse to them than just blowing them away with the whole planet as he might have done if they'd stayed in hiding.
It was a little heartening to see everyone there. The Earth was not without its line of defense. There would be a fight that day.
Of course, I realized how hopeless it was. Piccolo, Vegeta, and Gohan were the only ones among us who could make it past the first punch with Frieza. No matter how I looked at it, I was sure I'd die that day. Still, I tried to keep my courage up. I could only think that, as hard as we'd worked to get this far, we couldn't let Frieza just destroy it all. We had to fight, even though we knew it was impossible to win.
"They're here," said Piccolo.
I could feel him. Frieza's power was every bit as terrible as it had been over a year ago on Namek. Yamucha and Tenshinhan, who had never encountered Frieza, were visibly awed.
"Wait a minute," said Yamucha, "Was Frieza always like this?"
"This is only the beginning," I told him. He fell silent.
Against that terrible power, it was all we could do to hold our ground. We realized that it wasn't just Frieza - there were two kis that felt like his. It became very hard to stay brave. I honestly thought that it was the end of the world.
They had landed on the other side of a range of small mountains. We suppressed our kis and waited for Frieza to make his move. It never happened.
From the other side of the mountain, we felt a large ki appear and many kis disappear. Before we could figure out what had happened, we saw an amazing thing in the sky.
At first, I couldn't believe my eyes. Yet, no matter how I looked at it, I couldn't deny that I was witnessing the death of Frieza. A man matching Gohan's description of the Super Saiyan - vertical blonde hair, golden aura - cut Frieza into pieces with a sword and destroyed those pieces with a simple ki blast. It was almost as if he were an angel, descended from the sky to lift us from our troubles. The Earth was saved.
After killing Frieza, our savior quickly sunk back behind the mountains. Naturally, we all flew after him. Can you blame us for being curious?
We saw him fight a being that looked similar to Frieza, but much larger. For some strange reason, he gave the thing his sword - the one he'd used to kill Frieza. Frieza's companion tried to attack him with the sword, but he impaled the creature with a ki blast and finished him off with another.
It wasn't possible. How could anyone be that powerful? We couldn't do anything but wait for his next move. He looked fairly ominous, and his power was scary. I started to wonder if we might not be facing an even greater threat than--
He powered down, turned, and waved to us. "Hey," he said, "I'm gonna go wait for Goku-san! Want to come with me?"
Actually, once I got a good look at him I felt a bit silly. He was just a teenager.
After much growling and blustering, everyone agreed to follow him. A lot of us weren't sure if we could trust this powerful stranger, but for me, right about then anybody who had just killed Frieza was my new best friend. I felt so relieved that I couldn't care less about what his motives were.
He was pretty courteous to us - he seemed to know exactly when and where Goku would arrive, and he even offered us soda while we waited - but he was very secretive. He wouldn't tell us who he was, how he knew when Goku would show up, or how he could be a Super Saiyan when the only Saiyans alive were supposed to be Gohan, Goku and Vegeta. Bulma pointed out that he was wearing a jacket with the Capsule Corporation insignia on it; he wouldn't say anything about that either. As I've said, he was fine by me, but his presence really seemed to piss off Vegeta. It's probably just because he was stronger than Vegeta was. Generally, anyone stronger than Vegeta pisses him off.
He was a nice, shy young man of about seventeen with blue hair and a face that strongly resembled both Bulma and Vegeta. As it would turn out, his name was Trunks. You've probably heard of Trunks, the son of Bulma Briefs and the president of Capsule Corporation. You might also know that he wasn't born until late 766, about two and a half years after Frieza came to Earth. Are you confused yet?
Since he wouldn't tell us how he knew anything, the going theory was that he was someone Goku had met in space. It seemed reasonable enough - one more Saiyan than had previously been thought had escaped the destruction of their planet, and they'd met somewhere. Of course, that story was full of holes, and it would end up being woefully inaccurate.
About three hours later, a sphere impacted the earth nearby. From it, sure enough, emerged Goku, who was wearing some strange alien garment. Goku was justifiably surprised to find us waiting for him. We showed him the person that had told us.
"Um... who's that?" said Goku. So much for theories.
The two of them walked a good distance away from the group and started to talk. Then, they both turned into Super Saiyans. The power unleashed was staggering. Now it was easy to understand how Frieza had been defeated.
It almost looked as if they were going to fight. Then, for a frightening minute, it looked as if they were fighting. If they had been, the rest of us would have been helpless - they dwarfed us in power. However, it turned out that he was just testing Goku, and they soon went back to normal.
They talked for a long time. The rest of us got kind of upset waiting. Every now and then, Goku would scream hysterically and flail his limbs around, so we knew they had to be talking about something interesting. When they were done, Trunks left and Goku came back to us.
I was so curious I thought I'd explode. "What did he say, Goku?"
Goku just stuttered a lot. He didn't seem to know quite what to say. In the end, Piccolo had to tell us everything. We're lucky that Namekians have such good hearing.
Piccolo had a lot to say. What he told us was shocking and scary: we'd been saved from one threat only to have to face another.
The young man was from twenty years in the future; after what had just happened, this much wasn't hard to accept as fact. In his time, the human population of the Earth was down into the tens of thousands. The planet had been ravaged by two androids created by Dr. Gero of the Red Ribbon Army. Trunks had tried and tried to fight them, but they were too strong. That part was the worst to hear. It was inconceivable to me at that time that anything could be strong enough to defeat someone who had so easily destroyed the nightmare that was Frieza. According to Trunks, three years from that day the defenders of the Earth would die fighting the androids. Of all of us, only Gohan would survive. As for Goku, he was to have already perished from heart disease. The invincible Goku, killed by heart disease! What a strange thought...
The point to the whole explanation was that on a date nearly three years later, we would have to fight these androids that were powerful enough to defeat the killer of Frieza. If we weren't strong enough by that time, we would all die. He also gave Goku some heart medicine that they had in the future. We had a hell of a three years ahead of us. The only thing that Piccolo didn't tell us was the identity of Trunks. It made sense for him not to tell us. If Bulma and Vegeta had been told then that they had to have a kid together, you could have bet anything it wouldn't happen. I can just see the hysteric fits that both of them would have had. Yikes.
My feeling of relief was replaced by a tremendous anxiety that put a lump in my throat. To think that we'd have to live for the next few years under such a shadow, I almost preferred Frieza. A man from the future had basically foretold our deaths. I knew from that moment that I'd never be able to escape the pressure to train hard enough to survive in the coming battle. If I didn't, I would die. The man from the future had said so.
It was Bulma, demonstrating her famed genius, who nearly saved everything. She came up with a logical plan. Since we knew the future, we could find Dr. Gero immediately and stop any of it from ever happening. We could just use the dragon balls to determine his whereabouts.
It was Vegeta, demonstrating his famed arrogance, who prevented this from happening.
"Listen to me," he said, "If anyone does that, I'll kill them!"
Of course, I know exactly what he was thinking. It was classic Saiyan pride: the thought of an incredibly strong opponent did nothing but excite Vegeta. It was only a challenge for him to rise above; he WOULD be the strongest - if Kakarotto was a Super Saiyan, he'd just have to become one as well. Terribly predictable.
"This isn't a game!" screamed Bulma. She turned to Goku. "This is for the fate of the Earth, right?"
"Um... sorry," said Goku, "But I want to fight too."
Poor Bulma. She almost fainted, and then she appealed to Yamucha, Tenshinhan, and I. I could see the look of supplication in her eyes... It said, "You guys are human, right? You have to be on my side!"
"Forget these Saiyans," she said, "We don't have to fight! Let's just save the world!"
However, Tenshinhan mumbled that he wanted to fight and Yamucha didn't say anything at all. Bulma nearly fainted.
I sympathized with her, and I did agree that her plan made a lot more sense, but I was worried about Vegeta. As long as we had a common enemy we were all friends, but otherwise there was no knowing what he would do. As determined as he was, we couldn't just depend on Goku being stronger than him forever either. Therefore, Bulma's proposal was silently voted down, and we all agreed to train for the next three years.
There you have it - if you were ever harboring the idea that we were heroes, you can strike it from your mind now. We had the chance to easily save the world, and we threw it out. It wouldn't be the last time. This is not the way that heroes behave.
Goku also showed us on that day a new technique that he'd learned. The fact that he'd been on another planet learning this technique was the entire reason he'd refused to let Porunga bring him right to Earth. It was called Shukdan Idou - the "Instant Transmission". With this technique, Goku could instantly teleport himself to any person in the universe just by locking onto their ki. Pretty amazing. Of course, it meant that over the next three years, we literally never knew when Goku might show up. Seriously, I started to get a little paranoid. I'd be just walking along, minding my own business, when suddenly Goku would appear out of nowhere and shout, "Hi, Kuririn!" "Cut that out!" I'd scream. After a while, I think that he started doing it just for kicks. Grrr.
I've said "three years" so much that I'm starting to wear out those keys, but really, we didn't have that much time. It was more like two years and nine months. It was the hardest time of our lives. One has to try and maintain some kind of a life - you can't spend all of your time training, it would be physically and mentally exhausting. I tried to keep doing the things that I normally did - read a book now and then, do something with Gohan, stuff like that - but every moment I spent doing something other than training was a guilty moment. I couldn't really enjoy myself; all I could think was "Geez, I should really be training" and "I bet everyone else is training right now." It was torturous.
I did train a lot. I trained so much and with such intensity that I could barely move for hours afterward. I trained with Yamucha, Gohan, Goku and Piccolo, who showed me some new techniques that really helped me get more out of my training. I didn't see Bulma much during that period, and I didn't see Vegeta at all. I know for a fact that Yamucha saw both of them, but he made it clear to me that it was not his favorite topic of conversation. Don't ask me what was going on there, but I can tell you that Yamucha and Bulma were never "boyfriend and girlfriend" again. As for Tenshinhan and Chaozu, they went back to wherever it is they come from. We really don't know that much about them.
We all got a lot stronger. I wondered how much better we could get before we reached our limits. One of us did plateau, but it wasn't me.
About four months after Trunks had come from the future, I was training with Yamucha. We were both really tired. He was attacking me, but I didn't have much trouble blocking. Then, it happened.
Yamucha screamed and kicked at me, and he was suddenly engulfed in a ki flare. The kick came at me much faster than I expected, and it sent me flying. Seeing what he'd done, Yamucha ran to me. It took me a minute to get up.
"I-I'm sorry," he was saying, "I didn't mean to kick you so hard..."
I just stared at him, barely even hearing. It was to his ki, not him, that I was paying attention. The way that his ki had just spiked reminded me of something I'd seen before, but I couldn't place it. I was shocked when I figured it out.
Chaozu. Yamucha's ki felt just like Chaozu's had at the lookout. He'd hit his limit.
I looked at my friend sadly. It wasn't fair, but that was it for him.
"What?" said Yamucha, panting. "Are you okay?"
"I'm fine," I said. I didn't tell him what I'd discovered, but I was right. Yamucha never got any stronger after that, and I soon couldn't really spar with him anymore as I passed him up. I was worried that the same would happen to me, but it didn't. I kept breaking ceilings in my training, and my strength increased at an exponential rate.
I really did become stronger than I'd ever dreamed. It didn't hit me until one day when I was training near Goku's house. I was alone, and it occurred to me to test my limits.
I powered up, and I was instantly engulfed in a tremendous ki flare. The ground around me shook, and a lot of dust was thrown up. I decided to try a ki blast. I extended one hand, and a burst of energy emitted from it that seared the air with amazing speed and power. Realizing that I'd accidentally aimed it somewhere where it might cause damage, I flew to stop it. I got in front of the blast with plenty of time to spare, and blocked it easily. It didn't even hurt.
I was left looking incredulously at my own hands, at myself. "My god," I thought, "How can I be this strong? What am I?"
"That was great, Kuririn-san!" came a voice. I discovered to my embarrassment that I was being watched by Gohan.
"Uh, you think so?" I involuntarily grabbed the back of my neck.
"Yeah," he said, "You've really reached a new level... oh, here comes dad."
Then Gohan and Goku sparred. The force of their kis and their attacks was shocking to me. I couldn't keep up even watching, let alone if I had actually been participating. In the face of their power, I felt like nothing.
In that moment, a harsh answer came to the question I'd asked of myself.
"You aren't a Saiyan."
I sneaked away before they could say anything to me.
We were all a little concerned about Goku's health during that time. He kept insisting that he was fine, but most of us spent some time doing something peaceful with Goku, to try to keep him from aggravating his heart condition. Once, I went on a fishing trip with Goku, and Gohan. Man, that was fun. For once, I could almost forget what was hanging over our heads.
The time went by with surprising speed. I barely noticed my own thirtieth birthday. We finally let up in our training to rest a few weeks before May 12, 767. We rested then, in anticipation of that day: the day we'd been training for. The day of the androids.
--END OF CHAPTER TWENTY-FOUR-