Chapter 32 – Yarr!
The ocean was sliding by again, the sky was clear, the sun was shining and the last Dragonball blinked on the radar screen, closing in every minute.
"I wonder how much trouble the last Dragonball will be," Yaten commented, stretching his legs and yawning widely.
"Well, we already met," Trunks started counting on his fingers, "a murderous phoenix, some evil music, a possessed monk, rabid mermaids, Goku's dead father and Master Roshi. I mean, is there anything worse we could possibly run into?"
"The great dragons of the southern seas?" Bulma guessed.
"Naw, they're actually very nice," Goku claimed.
"Is the Dragonball far away?" Vegeta asked Haruka who shook her head.
"We should get there in the evening."
"In that case it is far away!" Trunks complained with a wide yawn. "What are we supposed to do this whole day?"
"Practise bungee jumping or something," Haruka suggested with a sarcastic frown, "then you won't be around to whine so much."
"Hey, great idea!" Trunks pulled the door open and leaped out of the plane. "You coming, Goten?"
"Sure thing!" The other kid dashed outside too and Hotaru calmly shut the door again. The two brats whizzed past the windscreen and waved frantically at the others.
"Apparently they forgot the rope," Seiya commented with his eyebrow twitching.
Vegeta got up. "Actually this was a good idea. I've been neglecting my training lately, about time to start with it again. Kakarot, will you join me? I need someone to punch."
"You can start with punching those two wannabe seagulls off the windscreen," Haruka snarled. Trunks and Goten were floating in front of the windscreen and making faces at them.
"That's exactly what I had in mind," Vegeta nodded and left the plane. Goku followed him and closed the door.
The whole day was quiet. The Saiyans flew along with the plane and trained while flying, Haruka and Bulma took turns flying the plane, they landed once to tank the plane and when the sun finally touched the horizon, Haruka said:
"That should be the town. The Dragonball is in there."
Everyone came closer to the dashboard and admired the view – a small town by the ocean that was glittering in the setting sun. The town was surrounded by fields and woods and everything looked so picturesque. But Bulma frowned with concern.
"This Dragonball came farther than ever before," she said. "People don't come to these lands often. Not much is known about this area and that's mainly because most people who've made it here don't make it back home again. The journey is dangerous and people don't come by plane either because there just isn't any reason. These are old and forgotten lands, poor and boring. Some newer books don't even have their maps any more."
"The more forgotten a land is, the less boring it gets all the time," Trunks claimed, entering the plane again. "We should look around a little, whatcha think, huh?"
Haruka landed the plane and put it in the capsule, then she turned around to face the little town in front of them. Everyone else was standing still and looking at the town.
"Well, it sure looks… old," Taiki commented.
It really did. The houses were made of wood and the streets were narrow. There were no cars in sight – not even a bike, as a matter of fact. But there were many horse carriages and wagons. The streets were noisy and filled with people but they all wore clothes that were fashionable about two hundred years ago. Linen skirts, cotton jackets and leather boots… but no jeans or mini-skirts in sight.
"This looks like a medieval fair or something," Michiru said, looking around as they went on down the narrow street.
"It's not a fair… it's everyday life," Vegeta said with a frown. "Time is standing still for them. They obviously haven't had contact with the world outside this land for many centuries."
Trunks and Goten were about to fall over. "Whoa… this is so cooooool!" They stared around with their mouths open. "Man, I can't believe it!"
"Yeah, these people have never heard of cars or planes because nobody ever came here to tell them that such things existed," Bulma said with her eyes widening. "Or even if someone came, they most likely didn't believe him or her."
"Burned like witches," Hotaru agreed with a silent voice. "Where exactly are we going?"
"Well, if someone would cover my back, I could probably risk with taking the radar out and checking," Haruka remarked. "But…" they passed an execution stage that moment, "I think I'll rather wait until we find a more or less private place. I think this street leads to the harbor."
"At least they have ships… I'm sure they have some sort of contact with the rest of the world," Seiya said. They reached the harbour and stopped.
"Then again, I'm sure your newspapers would've remarked something if one of those showed up in Western Capital, right?" he asked after a short pause. Bulma nodded slowly.
Clippers. Barkentines. Brigantines. Whaling vessels. Trawlers. Schooners. Hundreds of masts reached out for the sky, hundreds of reefed sails waved slightly below the yards, hundreds of braces cut through the air like spider webs. The harbor was filled with people and everyone had something to do. A ship had just come in and Trunks's mouth fell open when he examined it. He poked Goten.
"Look… up there!"
"What?" his buddy looked up too and his mouth also fell open.
"This… is too… awesome!" he announced breathlessly. Trunks nodded frantically and the others looked up too to see what the kids had seen.
It was a ship like everyone else, a small schooner that had obviously seen better days. Many better days, as a matter of fact. The ship was dark: the wood it was made of had aged. The sails were bleached and above those sails, high above the main skysail yard, a black flag was dancing in the wind. A pitch-black flag with a grinning skull on it.
"Pirates," Yaten remarked calmly.
"Well, not worse than Master Roshi," Vegeta agreed. "Do they have the Dragonball, Haruka?"
The girl pulled the radar out and stepped behind Goku's big shoulder, just in case. "Let's see… no, not here. According to the map, it should be in…" she turned around, "there."
They looked at the tiny house for a while.
"A tavern," Goku finally said, deciding that nobody else felt like saying the word.
"A pirate tavern," Michiru replied with a concerned frown. "There must be many of them in there… look." She gestured towards the long row of ships before them and now the others also noticed that most ships had a black flag in the gaff. Trunks and Goten ran out of words.
"Well, pirates or not, we need that Dragonball," Yaten claimed, looking at the tavern's scarred door. "Does anyone feel like kicking some scallywag butt?"
"Yup," Vegeta nodded.
"Good, then you get the glory. Let's go." Yaten started off towards the tavern and Vegeta followed him with a slight grin. The others looked at each other and then moved on too.
The tavern was, of course, crowded. Cigar smoke floated below the ceiling and the air was thick of all the different smells and sounds. Nobody paid much attention to the newcomers but that was about to change because Vegeta made his way through to crowd to the middle of the room and raised his voice:
"Listen up, you seadogs," now everyone turned their heads, noting that the guy was a complete stranger, "I'm looking for a small orange crystal ball and I'm not leaving before I have it."
The tavern was quiet for a few seconds, then ominous muttering started in a few corners. Who's that foolish landlubber anyway, marching in here and asking questions? Some pirates pulled their swords out. But Haruka raised her hand and the Space Sword appeared too.
"Easy, buddies, someone might get hurt," she warned.
A second later all swords in the tavern had been pulled out. Predictably enough.
"Make it better "someone will get hurt"," the girl said with a frown, pulling the sword out of its sheathe. All of a sudden she was surrounded by red glow. The nearer pirates gasped.
"Where's the Dragonball?" Vegeta asked Haruka who pulled the radar out and activated it.
"Witch… witch… witch…!" frantic whispering started in the corners – pirates are usually pretty superstitious – while Haruka announced, pointing at a pirate captain sitting by a nearby table: "He has it."
"Ye will never get me crystal ball!" the captain grunted, pulling out his cutlass. Haruka raised her brows, walked up to the captain, glanced curiously at the sword and then – whzzzt. A piece of steel fell on the floor, giving a sad "cling" as the captain stared at the rest of the sword in his hand.
"Cheap toy," the girl muttered while the other pirates attacked her. But now Vegeta dashed forward too and Goku was suddenly in the middle of the ruckus. While Haruka cut another sword into pieces, the pirate who was about to stab her in the back suddenly discovered that something had blocked his move. The discovery that it had been the arm of a little kid didn't make him feel any better either.
All of a sudden the whole tavern was filled with furious yelling and gunshots. Pirates attacked from every side, nobody could clearly understand whom he hit and whether he missed or not. The whole place was nothing but a fierce, roaring, steel-packed mass of anger. For a whole two minutes.
"That was fun," Goten remarked as the last pirate fell down. Bulma, Michiru and the Three Lights had been watching the whole thing from the doorway as they didn't have much chance against the swords and guns. But Haruka's eyes were gleaming with joyous excitement and Sailor Saturn's Silence Glaive towered victoriously above the tables.
"Down here," Goku called helpfully, seeing that Vegeta was looking around and pulled the pirate captain out of the pile of other pirates. The seadog opened his eyes and glared at him.
"Just give it here," Vegeta suggested as his black eyes promised another painful experience. The captain muttered something and dug a Dragonball out of his bag.
"Now we have them all," Michiru said as they left the tavern and went down the street. "Now we can go home."
The others nodded but nobody said a word. Leaving that planet wasn't going to be easy… after so many adventures and fights together with the Saiyans.
"Does anyone have any Senzu beans left?" Haruka finally asked, breaking the silence. "Some wizeguy shot my arm back at the tavern."
"What?" Michiru gasped and grabbed Haruka's hand. The bullet had drilled itself right through the biceps and dark blood was dripping down her arm. "Why didn't you say anything?"
"I just did," Haruka frowned. "Thanks." She swallowed the Senzu Vegeta had given her and the wound disappeared. "So… are we going to use the Dragonballs right now?"
"Let's leave the town first, shall we?" Bulma suggested with a sigh. "People could have a problem with us calling the Eternal Dragon in the middle of the street."
So they left the town and found a small plain near it. Bulma bit her lip and poured the seven crystal balls out on the grass.
"Well, that's it," she said and her voice was shaking a little. "It was great having you guys around and all…" Trunks and Goten nodded.
"Yeah…" Haruka nodded too. "Let's not get all weepy now… call that dragon, okay?" But her voice was soft too.
The crystal balls were glowing brightly when Bulma turned to them, cleared her throat and called: "Eternal Dragon Shenlong, I summon you!"
The sky turned dark. The sun had been setting one way or another but now it was covered by thick black clouds. The Dragonballs glowed more and more brightly and then flashed. And the huge golden dragon figure…
… didn't dash out. Instead of that, something sparkled in the air about two feet above the crystal balls and then something square, small and white landed on the ground. The clouds faded away and the Dragonballs turned into stones.
"What the hell?" Goku asked, crouching down and picking the thing up.