Blending In
3



Dozing off wasn't Tonkeshin's intention, but it happened anyway. Something about the warm sunlight, the soft sand and the sound of the ocean always lulled him to sleep. He could've easily slept the whole afternoon away.
Then a volleyball bounced off his head. Startled into awareness, Tonk sat bolt upright.
"Sorry!" A young man's voice called. "Could you toss that back?"
Getting annoyed would be easy. But Tonkeshin knew it was an accident.
"Sure!" He climbed to his knees and swept the sand with his hands until he encountered the rough, hard ball. "Say something else so I can aim, okay?"
"No problem." The first voice called.
A second voice, slightly rougher than the first, joined in, "Just toss it straight ahead!"
Tonkeshin overhanded the ball towards the voice. His sharp ears picked up the slap of hands against the round object. He nodded to himself and combed the sand again until he found his flip-flops and cane.
Brief silence fell when the cane made its presence visible. Tonk knew it all too well, and ignored it. He waited quietly for the questions to start flying.
And they did. Just not the questions he expected.
"Hey!" The first voice moved a little closer. "You're not Dende or Piccolo. . .so who are you? How long have you been here on Earth?"
Tonkeshin faced the voice in surprise. Dende was on this planet?!
"Uh. . ." Tonk wasn't sure which question to answer first. He had no idea who this Piccolo was, but he remembered Dende. They lived in the same village back on Namek before Freeza blew it up. The little guy was a few years younger than him, but nobody could tell. Tonk was an early bloomer, fighter-types always were, so everybody told him he looked way older than his healer and farmer-type brothers. "My name is Tonkeshin, I'm the ninety-eighth child of Saichirou-sama. I was wished here with my brothers when Freeza destroyed Namek. I chose to stay because I wanted to explore this new world and learn what life is like here. And I love it so far, it's great!"
The light, innocent voice cut in, "Did you lose your eyesight because of Freeza?"
"Goten! That's not a polite question!" Snapped the rougher one.
"No, it's all right," Tonk laughed, rubbing the back of his head. "I was born blind."
He wiped some sand off his legs and went on, "I'm afraid you have me at a disadvantage. You know my name, but I don't know yours."
Feet shifted around. A strong hand grabbed his and pumped it eagerly up and down, startling him a bit. The first voice spoke, "Sorry about that. I'm Goten! It's nice to meet you, Tonkeshin!"
"Don't mind him, he just gets excited easily," said the second, rougher voice. "I'm Trunks, by the way."
Tonk nodded towards them, smiling. "Pleasure's mine. If you don't mind. . .please tell me why Dende is here. I'd like to know."
"He's Earth's Guardian now!" Goten tittered from the left, bouncing the volleyball audibly between his hands. Tonkeshin faced him as the voice went on. "See, a long time ago, this mean guy named Cell almost destroyed the planet. But Piccolo rejoined with the original Kami to become more powerful. We needed someone to reactivate the Dragonballs, so Goku went to Namek and got Dende. Goku is the one who beat Freeza on Namek, by the way."
So this Piccolo person was also a Namek. Tonkeshin nodded slowly, taking the story in. "Saichirou-sama always said Dende would be something special."
"Yeah, well, I guess he was right." Trunks added softly. He sounded like he wasn't sure how he should act.
Gripping his long cane in one hand, Tonk tapped a button on his watch. It spoke the time out loud. Almost four o'clock.
"Egad! I'm really sorry, but I have to go. I intended to start training for the Tournament and wound up dozing the day away. Looks like it's gonna be a late night for me."
Which was true. He needed to dig out his old clothes from Namek, prepare his essentials for the trip in advance and look up the hotels on the island where the Tournament would be taking place. If he arrived a few days before the actual event, he'd have time to learn most of the layout and wouldn't waste time fumbling around. He'd also be free to enjoy the scenery, visit the shops and explore. Greg might enjoy that, too.
So much to do!
Goten sputtered, "You're gonna - OOF!" An impact, probably an elbow to the gut, cut him off.
"Nice meeting you, Tonkeshin." Trunks cut in. "We'll let you get on your way."
"Likewise." Tonk nodded to the voices, "Excuse me."
More feet shuffled as the two teenagers moved aside. Tonkeshin stepped between them. His sharp ears picked up excited whispering.
He ignored it.
Sand became gravel. His swinging cane went from making fit-fit noises to tap-tap. The rough, hot substance crackled under his sandals. He strolled all the way across the walkway and used the cement lip on the other side as a shoreline. The street leading into the city started where the lip ended.
Cool sea breezes dissipated the heat on his face and neck. Tonkeshin drank it in like a plant absorbing water. The lip ended. He swept his cane around the corner and turned, shaking the last bits of sand off his body.
Dende is on this planet. . .apparently this Piccolo lives here as well. I wish I knew where to find them. Tonk sighed. He pushed the thoughts from his head. "Quiet, you. Focus on what's important."

Steaming hot spray poured down over Tonkeshin's head and neck. He stood with his back to the showerhead, letting the hot water massage him. Taking a hot shower always settled him down when he felt too wired to think. It drowned everything else out.
He located the soap and started scrubbing every inch of himself. The suds tickled their way down his muscular body.
Soap splashed into his eye. Tonk winced at the sting. He directed the spray at his face to wash it out, finished rinsing and touched the wall until his hands located the handles. Three twirls in opposite directions turned the water off. He heard a steady dripping, then nothing else.
A silent stillness, profound as the shower's roar, settled. It made Tonkeshin's ears ring.
He leaned forward, rested his hands flat on the wall and hung his head. Droplets spilled off his antennae, nose and chin. My entering the Tournament is getting all the wrong attention. Everybody's focusing on me being blind instead of ME. Was this all a mistake? I won't be able to stand it if I get nothing but pity when I show up there. I want to be famous because I fought well, not because my eyes don't work! There is much more to me than that.
Tonkeshin's thin lips curved into a smile. He lifted his head and stared vacantly at the wall in front of him. His natural frown lifted slightly. "I'll show them just how 'helpless' I really am. Heh, heh!"
Climbing from the shower, he wrapped a towel around his waist and crossed the hall to his bedroom. The towel went flying a second later, leaving him with a bare butt. He threw on a pair of silk boxers and walked back out. Trailing the wall until his fingers located the hallway closet door.
Old, familiar scents reached him. Tonkeshin's probing fingers encountered a thin wooden stick with finger-sized grooves carved in one end. The first cane he ever used. Painfully short, barely half the length of the one he used now, but it worked perfectly when he was little. He pulled it closer and ran his hand lovingly down the length of the age worn object. The grooved part was still pretty smooth and in great condition, the other end felt beat up and "battle-scarred" from use.
Certain objects were to Tonkeshin what photographs are to sighted people. They each held special memories. He became upset if he discovered a treasured object to be damaged, broken, or worse, missing.
And the wooden stick in his hand held many hardships, laughter and bouts of curiosity that got him into trouble.
Lians, the blind elder that taught him his alternative skills, made the cane for him with his own two hands and showed him how to tap it across his path when he walked. Armed with the cane, Tonkeshin remembered chasing his brothers around the village. Sometimes the games went too far and they trampled somebody's garden. He fondly remembered how he, Dende and Cargo would point at each other every time, so all three had to be punished. Spreading stinky fertilizer over the Ajisa seeds so they grew was not a pleasant experience. Yet he and the other two wound up doing it almost every other week!
The next object Tonkeshin discovered was what he sought - his old Namekian clothing. Even after all these years, they still smelled clean.
He removed the garments from the hanger and donned them. His outfit was just like Nail's, right down to the colors.
They still fit. Awesome!
A full-length mirror hung inside the closet door. Tonkeshin poked the cool glass curiously with a long finger and wondered if the person reflected back at him looked just like his mentor. Passing a hand over his own face didn't give him much info, the tactile feedback from both surfaces made exploring his features pretty difficult. He was pretty sure he had the sharp jaw and defined cheekbones common to fighter-types.
He smiled and undressed again, hanging the precious clothing back up. The wooden cane found its home again against the wall just inside the door.
Tonkeshin headed to his bedroom and threw on a pair of jeans. Then he slipped into his favorite shirt, which was made of satin with a Mandarin collar and several loops instead of button-holes. Donning it required much patience and steady hands. It was the only satin shirt he owned, so he knew it was red without checking the braille label. Red sounded like a nice color, so he called it his "favorite".
Now that he knew his old clothes still fit, he was free to go online and check out those hotels. The packing could wait until morning. But before he could get to his computer, the phone rang. Tonk smashed his knee on the coffee table in his haste to answer it.
"Argh! Hello?"
"You smashed your knee on the coffee table again, didn't you?" Greg's voice answered. Static in the background suggested a cell phone.
"What gave you the first clue?" Tonk rubbed the sore spot with his free hand.
A snorted laugh. "Argh! Hello?"
"Wrong pitch, buddy," snickered Tonkeshin. "So what's going on?"
"Well." Something plunked in the background. "I just pulled up outside your building. You better brace yourself, there's a reporter and a camera getting ready to raid the place. Looks like Mr. Latte had a little chat with the press after you left yesterday morning."
That made Tonk groan and flop facedown onto the couch. "Thanks for the warning. Are you gonna come up?"
"Yeah, I'll be there in a few. Hey Tonk, you should let 'em interview you. Let the world see you and make its own judgment."
"Oh, sure!" Tonkeshin laughed heartily, "After the interview, I just know they're gonna add on a bunch of 'oh isn't he brave?' speeches. I can just hear it now. It'll be more cliché than a cheesy romance novel."
Greg burst out laughing on the other end. "All the more reason to turn the news on and check the morning paper tomorrow. Okay bud, I'm coming up."
"Right. See you in a few."
Click.
The cordless phone was immediately returned to its cradle. Tonkeshin had the bad habit of leaving it where he last used it. That didn't make finding it in a hurry very easy. Afterwards, he dumped himself back onto the couch and put a pillow over his face.
Someone pounded on the door. "Hey, it's just me!"
"It's unlocked!"
Greg's heavy breathing indicated how fast he climbed the steps. The door clicked shut behind him. "I really need to lose some weight. . . anyway, they're gonna be here any minute now."
"Ugh. I'm getting famous for all the wrong reasons." Tonkeshin lowered the pillow and smiled wryly. He turned his face and eyes towards Greg's panting. "Does my hair look okay? How's my makeup?"
Greg snorted. "Gee, your lipstick is smeared and your curls are crooked."
"Thanks a lot. Just the impression I wanted to make." He grinned wider, "Should I hold a tin cup and pencils when I answer the door?"
"Nah, strip naked and pole dance for them." Greg's footsteps approached the couch. His weight displaced the cushions a little. "Tell them you're a stripper on the side because your day job doesn't pay you enough. See if they put THAT on the nine o'clock news!"
They both howled with laughter.
Two minutes later, footsteps approached and someone else knocked on the door. Tonkeshin swallowed hard, stood up and padded over to answer it.



Author's note: So ends another chapter. I threw in the little shower and bare butt bit for the ladies. mischievous grin

A friend of mine said that on DBZ, in the scenes with Saichirou(Guru) on Earth, there is a Namek dressed exactly like Nail helping tend to him, and that he had his hands on the Elder's arm when he faded away. That's Tonk. Grin I think it's the perfect way to make him fit into canon without changing anything, and you can always check your tapes to see him for yourself.

By the way, I pronounce "Lians" as "Lee-yans". Just in case someone wonders.