THE TENNIS BALL EFFECT

"Ten-chan, what's the butterfly effect?"

Tenpou blinked and turned away from his book, adjusting his glasses to focus on Goku.

"Why do you ask?" he returned. The monkey shrugged.

"I dunno. Ken-nii-chan and Konzen were talking about it when he came to visit. Konzen said that sleeping with random women was like the butterfly effect, and would get him kicked out of heaven." He pursed his lips in thought. "But I've taken naps with Konzen before, and nobody's kicked me out yet." The field marshal laughed.

"Konzen was referring to a different kind of sleeping," he explained gently, still chuckling.

"There's different kinds of sleeping!" Goku exclaimed, utterly confused. Tenpou held up his hands in a calming gesture.

"You'll learn more when you get older," he said. Goku lapsed into a temporary thoughtful silence.

"So what's the butterfly effect?" he asked again.

"Well…" Tenpou closed the book and set it aside, folding his hands together. "How do I explain? You know what a butterfly is."

"A pretty bug with wings."

"How does it fly?"

"By flapping its wings."

"Right. Have you learned about vibrations?"

"Kind of."

"When a butterfly flaps its wings, it creates vibrations, or disturbances, in the air. The 'butterfly effect' is a theory that if a butterfly flapped its wings in Brazil, it would cause a tornado in Texas through amplified disturbances in the air over a long distance."

Goku blinked, a blank stare settling on his face.

"What's Brazil? When's Texas? Where's a tornado? I don't get it at all."

Twenty minutes later, Goku's face finally lit up in semi-understanding. Mentally exhausted, Tenpou smiled weakly at him.

"You understand?" he asked.

"That's pretty amazing though," Goku marveled. "Just a little butterfly causing something like that?"

"It's just a theory. But yes, it is remarkable," Tenpou admitted.

"Can only butterflies do that?"

"If the theory was correct, I'm sure it would apply to other situations."

Goku picked up a tennis ball lying on the field marshal's desk and tossed it up and down.

"Like, if I dropped this on the Lower World and it landed in Somalia, would the earthquake it caused make a big tsunami wash over India?"

"Quite possibly, although I wouldn't recommend it," Tenpou mused, taking his glasses off to clean them. "First of all, it would take a very long time to reach the Lower World."

"How long?"

"Five hundred years or so. You would live to see it, but probably forget about it between now and then. Secondly, the consequences for such an action would be devastating." Again, the blank stare. "It just wouldn't be a good thing to try."

"Oh, okay…" Goku turned and stood, looking back to smile at his older friend. "Thanks, Ten-chan, I'm gonna go now."

"All right. See you tomorrow, Goku." The field marshal leaned back in his chair and closed his eyes. He failed to notice the absence of the tennis ball from his desk.

500 YEARS LATER…

BREAKING NEWS:

SUDDEN TSUNAMI SWEEPS AWAY SANZO PARTY, DESTROYING WORLD'S LAST HOPE

DEMON KING GYUUMAOH RESURRECTED—

EARTH IS DOOMED

See A2

OTHER NEWS:

B1 – 1000 mile crater in Somalia formed by… flaming tennis ball?
C2 – The butterfly effect: proven by scientist Nii Jyeni.
D3 – Devastated fan base searching desperately for Sanzo Party!