Chapter 36 – There's no place like home
The huge Eternal Dragon took his sunglasses off and looked at them thoughtfully. The fighters glared back at him, waiting for the answer to their question. Really, why would one of the most powerful creatures in the Universe want one of the most powerful items in the Universe?
"It's shiny," Shenlong declared.
There was complete silence for a short while.
"Dragons will be dragons," Taiki mumbled.
"You have got to be kidding me," Vegeta snarled. "Wouldn't you just go for, I dunno, a handful of glass beads or something?"
Shenlong seemed thoughtful. "Well, that'd be just as good but this better be one heck of a handful then."
Haruka, who had loosened and now seemed pretty clueless gazed at his gigantic paws. "As I understand this, we need to go on a scavenger hunt in order to get back home."
"So, does anyone know where to get a truckload of glass beads?" Goku asked, looking at the others. Michiru's ultramarine eyes seemed absent for a minute, then she looked up and said:
"Let's get on the plane. Haruka, take us to that little tavern."
"Planning to ask Sailor Pluto?" Hotaru wondered as the plane took off. Trunks and Goten waved frantically at the humongous dragon who put his sunglasses on again and waved back before lying down to sunbathe. Yaten muttered something about never knowing what he was saying the last time he said "now I've seen everything".
"If she's there, but I wouldn't bet my paintings on that," the girl replied. "I'm sure someone in that place can help us though. Taverns are always useful sources of information and this specific one, well, you have to agree that you'd expect to find just about everything there."
Haruka sighed. "I'll be really glad to get back to our normal everyday demon fighting again once we manage to get away from here."
"Aw come on, it's not that bad out here," Trunks claimed with a wide grin. "Having you guys around has been a blast! So much more fun than just everyday training and some occasional alien scum showing up!"
"Kid, your birth was the result of some alien scum showing up," Goku remarked.
"Don't push it, Kakarot," Vegeta warned him. The others tried to hold back laughter.
"Well, it's true, or what?" the Saiyan defended himself. "Don't disturb me now, I need to find some auras, otherwise it'll take us years to get to the tavern… great, I found Baba's! Hold on!"
The plane swished through an instant translocation and landed in front of the small tavern a few minutes later. Goku pushed the door open and slammed it straight into some small leprechaun's face.
"Watch it, you ape!" the midget yelled, rubbing his nose. "I'm fully able to replace your head with your hiney, wiseguy!"
"Whoa, I'm really sorry," Goku apologized, scratching his head sheepishly. "Didn't mean to, really."
"Oh yeah?" The leprechaun glared at him. "Have you any idea who I am? I'm warning you, mess with me and you'll regret it for the rest of your…"
"Put a sock in it," Vegeta snapped, passing Goku. "He said he was sorry, picking a fight any longer already means digging your own grave, halfling. Get lost and don't drink so much beer. Is that the green-haired woman we were looking for?"
"I don't see anyone else," Goku agreed, digging himself through the crowd to get to Sailor Pluto's and Baba's chess board. Vegeta tried to follow him but the angry leprechaun slammed his small sharp teeth into the prince's foot. The Saiyan threw him out of the window and went after Goku.
"Check," Baba chuckled by the time he got to the table. "You may be older than me but you're not smarter."
"You haven't won yet," Pluto replied calmly as usual. "Can I help you guys? What is it this time?"
"A truckload of glass beads," Goku announced.
The woman stared at him. "You're kidding, right?"
"Never been more serious," Haruka claimed, catching up with them. After hearing the story Sailor Pluto bit her lip, slowly shook her head and said:
"I can think of someone to help you but he won't be happy to, one thing certain."
"We're pretty desperate here, at least let us know who you're talking about, it's always worth trying," Seiya replied, rubbing his head – he had showed up while Haruka had been telling the story. "Who threw a leprechaun at me, bytheway?"
"Talk to King Kai," Sailor Pluto said, turning back to her chess game.
"Why him?" Goku asked with his eyes widening.
"You're saying that the little weirdo you lived with back when you were dead collects glass beads?" Bulma demanded. The plane was high above the yellow clouds and Vegeta was driving as Haruka had announced that she was now officially on strike.
"That's what Sailor Pluto told us," Goku agreed. "Maybe he'll be so nice and lend us some of his beads."
"Lend?" Vegeta asked over his shoulder. "That little lizard is far from giving the beads back once he gets them, or I know nothing about dragons in general."
"Have you ever seen any dragons beside Shenlong?" Taiki asked, looking up. He had been reading one of Goten's history books, for him it was far more interesting than for the kid.
The prince shrugged, causing the plane to fall for an eerie moment. "I go training in the mountains. That place has random dragons flying around once in a while."
"Yeah, I saw those sweet little cartoon-type meatballs," Taiki agreed. During their long journey many dragons had passed the windscreen but they were all the kind of dragons Gohan had ridden when he was younger – fat, friendly, with huge eyes and blunt claws. He had been wondering how those creatures managed to survive in the wilderness. "But I can't imagine them collecting treasure or something."
"I didn't mean them," Vegeta snorted. "Those critters would make good pets." Goku nodded at that. "There are many different types of dragons and the ones that live up in the rocky mountains are far from cuteness. Those are real dragons. Fangs, claws, fiery breath, huge piles of treasure, the whole set. And they live for their treasure, taking some away from them wouldn't end well, even for someone like me. They're very tough and their skin is almost unbreakable. To annihilate one, you must destroy it with one blast and that usually destroys its treasure as well. So I've never seen much point in hunting them. Where exactly is King Kai, Kakarot?"
"Should be on Dai Kaio's planet," Goku replied. "We oughtta be there in… okay, okay, I'll push it a little."
Dai Kaio's planet didn't help them though. Goku sneaked around in front of Dai Kaio's palace for a while and eventually found Paikuhan who was once again really glad to see him and said that King Kai had gone away for a few days. In business.
"Where to?" Goku had asked him. The reply made him stare – and the others too, once they heard the news.
"What's he doing down there?" Bulma asked when the plane skipped a few billion miles again.
"Paikuhan didn't know," Goku replied and sat down. "But he said that King Kai left for Hell every weekend and came back on Monday."
"Who is this King Kai?" Seiya asked. Goku scratched his head and then tried to explain as well as he could about the purpose of Kais, their job, appearance and characteristics.
"King Kai of the North is actually a really nice guy," he summed up, "just a bit weird from time to time."
"Anyone who regularly visits the Hell at weekends must be a real nutcase," Bulma remarked.
"We'll find it out soon enough because we're almost there," Vegeta said from the wheel. "Hold on, I'm landing."
"We've crossed lightyears today and ended up at the exactly same spot," Yaten grumbled, getting off the plane. "Where's that little nutcase then?"
"I can feel his aura," Goku replied, looking around. "He's near. Actually…" his eyes widened, "his aura is not the only familiar one I'm sensing. If I could now remember who…"
"Bad memory, Kakarot," Vegeta snarled, gazing at a huge tree nearby. "I recognized them right away. Let's go and greet them, shall we?"
There was a poker table standing in the shade of the tree. The uttermost villains the Universe has even known had gathered around it, all completely lost in the intense game. One of the players didn't seem that fierce of powerful though. He was quite fat, had a blue skin and small round sunglasses.
"King Kai!" Goku shouted, going closer. King Kai looked up in surprise and so did the others.
"Would you look at that, if it isn't Goku," Freeza snarled, putting the cards down. "Long time no see."
"Not that long," Goku grunted back. The others caught up and looked at the company with vague curiosity.
"What are you doing here, King Kai?" the Saiyan asked, being a lot more than just vaguely curious.
"I'm a member of Freeza's poker club," King Kai announced.
A little bird chirped in the tree. It had three eyes and it was blood red but it was still a little bird.
"Uhuh?" Goku managed to get out after some silence.
"I thought it was some villains-only club thing," Vegeta remarked.
"Generally, but everyone who's willing to pay the entrance fee is free to join," Cell explained.
"And bureaucrats are evil," Jeice added. "Everyone knows that."
"Too true," Bulma agreed.
"So… King Kai… we need a little help," Goku said after some hesitation.
"Hurry up then, I was about to win here," King Kai grunted. Goku took a deep breath and then announced what they were after. Freeza's poker club gave a group stare. The little bird in the tree hushed and tried to sneak away very quietly.
"Have you LOST it?" King Kai yelled. "I'm NOT giving away my glass bead collection as long as I LIVE!"
"What if we gave you something in return?" Haruka asked with a frown. Freeza and the gang glanced at King Kai suspiciously. Nobody who has the power, even if theoretical power to send residents of Hell off to the Sea of Void to bring banana splits to Shenlong shouldn't be angered just like that.
"Whadda you got to offer?" Trunks asked her. "If we had something equally valuable, we could've just offered it to Shenlong!"
"I may have something," Seiya said slowly, digging in his pockets. "But note that, I'm not giving them away too happily and I wouldn't do it at all if it didn't help me to get back to Earth."
King Kai gazed at him suspiciously. "Whatcha talking about?"
Seiya scanned through another three pockets and finally found what he had been looking for. He reached out his hand, showing the item to King Kai – a pair of black, smooth, shiny and ultra-cool-shaped sunglasses.
King Kai's eyes widened. "Are you serious? For me? These… are too… cool!" He grabbed the glasses and put them on, throwing Seiya a pair of keys. "Over there, next to the blood pond. How do I look, eh?"
Seiya tried to figure out what just had happened as Goku grinned unconfidently and muttered something like "uhuh, pretty cool". Vegeta glanced towards the blood pond King Kai had pointed at while the new owner of the glasses turned back to the table, shining with satisfaction.
"Give me the keys," he said then, starting towards the pond.
"Aren't you going to beat Freeza and the gang up?" Trunks asked curiously, following him.
"Maybe later," his father grunted. "Right now I'm too hungry. Should've grabbed some cheese sticks at that tavern."
"That cheese was green," Michiru remarked, going after the others.
"Ripe in that case," the prince said. "Okay, who feels like driving for a couple of million miles?"
There was an old truck standing next to the pond. It had obviously seen better days and it was loaded with a huge pile of glass beads glittering in the sun. There was a crooked Mercedes badge taped on the radiator of the truck. Taiki's eyebrow twitched.
"Okay, this is getting absurd."
"Naw," Haruka claimed, "once someone's as old as that dude there and spent most of his life collecting those beads, a truckload is the least you'd expect. Looks like it's ours now. And I'm still not driving."
"We wouldn't all fit there one way or another," Hotaru remarked. "Is there enough room in the plane?"
Bulma calculated a little. "If we all curl up and try not to move while travelling… this just might work out."
"Come on, Kakarot. Do something useful for a change," Vegeta called, opening the plane's door and then lifting the vehicle up. "Pour it in."
There was a merry rattle when a few tons of glass beads slid from the truck into the plane. Trunks and Goten whizzed around, catching the beads that missed the door. Eventually it turned out that there was not much room for everyone else once the beads had been replaced.
"We'll just have to squeeze ourselves in somehow," Michiru grunted, glaring at the door. "A few broken beads won't reduce their shininess, come on!"
The experience was rather annoying as the cold beads slipped under their clothes and also in their mouths when they opened them so they just tried to bear it as well as they could while Vegeta took the plane off. Goku used his little trick and they didn't have to suffer for more than five minutes altogether when the plane already bumped into the hard ground next to the Sea of Void.
Shenlong glanced at them over his sunglasses. "You again? I hope you come with a reason."
"Yeah," Goku snarled, spitting out a few beads and peering at the refilled glass of banana split, "we got a truckload of shiny beads for you. Will you take our friends home now?"
"Really?" Shenlong leaned over excitedly, turned the plane upside down and grabbed the glass beads. "This is great! Thank you!" He pulled his gigantic claws through the pile of beads and purred with joy. "Even better than the Golden Crystal!"
"I'm glad you see it that way," Haruka remarked, thinking of the, well, hell that would've broken loose if Shenlong had preferred quality over quantity. "Can we go home now?"
The dragon sat up. "Yeah, I guess so. How many of you and where to?"
The Outer Scouts and the Three Lights stepped up. "The six of us and to planet Earth where we come from," Haruka declared. "And don't even try to bend some words and make something funny!"
Shenlong nodded. "Fine. So be it." He took his sunglasses off – most likely because of the impression – and his eyes started gleaming. "Need a moment of goodbye?"
"Wow, he usually doesn't do that," Goku commented, raising his brows. "Looks like he really loved the beads."
"Well, guess this really is goodbye," Michiru said, turning around. "We'll miss you guys."
"We'll miss you too," Bulma nodded softly.
"We can visit you any time though if we feel like it," Goku added with a grin. The others glanced at him.
"We can?" Trunks asked.
"Yeah, now I know their aura," the Saiyan explained. "Unless another magnetic storm appears, I'll be able to track them down on their planet. Until now I didn't know any auras on their planet, I had nobody to find."
"Cool!" Trunks exclaimed. "Then we can visit you guys when things get boring around here, right?"
Haruka nodded with a smile. "Right. You can always come. Just don't expect a feast or something when you don't tell in advance. We're always on the run and don't keep the fridge stuffed." Something cracked in her voice, there was a small flicker in her eyes but she hid it quickly, looking up at the dragon.
"Let's go."
Shenlong's eyes flashed. The six scouts felt a tingle in their spines, the landscape in front of their eyes started swirling and for a moment they felt dizzy. Then all of a sudden everything went clear again. And on that same second they were soaking wet.
"Well, that was fun," Yaten remarked, looking around. "Drat, it's still raining?"
"Has it been raining all the time we were gone?" Michiru asked in surprise. The weather looked exactly as it had looked like when they left. "What happened, has the whole Pacific Ocean vaporized or something?"
"How long were we actually away?" Seiya asked, looking up at the sky that was pouring down on his face. "I lost track on days ages ago."
"Some manager will remind it to you soon enough," Haruka predicted. "Come on, you two, let's get inside." She went to the front door and stopped. "Michiru… who has the key?"
Michiru blinked. "Must be inside… on the table. I asked Setsuna to lock the door and it looks like she used the Garmet Orb."
Haruka shrugged and kicked the door open. "The lock was old anyway. Hotaru, get inside before you catch a cold."
Michiru laughed and waved at the Three Lights who were now walking away in the rain. "Bye, you three!"
"Just look at that weather!"
It was the afternoon of the next day. Haruka and Michiru were sitting by a small table in a cozy open-air café. The air was warm, the sky was blue and the birds were singing like crazy. The rain had finally stopped.
"That unwanted vacation was actually quite nice," Michiru said with a smile, "but I'm glad to be back home." She sipped a little from her coffee cup.
Haruka nodded. "It looks like the place didn't get blown up after all. I wonder what happened to all our enemies."
"Haruka! Michiru!" Usagi and her friends stopped behind the hedge that was separating the table from the pavement. "We haven't seen you in a while!"
"Yeah," Haruka smiled, putting her coffee cup down, "we were away for a while. How were things when we were gone?"
"Kinda quiet," Rei replied. "No demons or other enemies in sight. Must've been because of that rain. Who would want to fight in such rain anyway?"
"Where are the Saiyans?" Makoto asked. "They were staying at your place, weren't they?"
"They went back home," Michiru said. The girls turned sad. "Don't worry, I have a feeling that we'll see them again. After all, there are so many ways to travel between planets."
"Hey look!" Minako suddenly shouted. "The Three Lights!" The three guys were really coming down the street.
"Heya all," they greeted the girls, stopping by them. Haruka turned her head away and sipped from her coffee cup.
"Where were you all that time?" Minako instantly demanded. "I've been worried sick!"
The guys laughed. "That's nice of you," Yaten said, "but we were just having some time off."
"You always said you couldn't afford it," Usagi said in surprise.
Seiya nodded. "True, but we had some… unexpected things to deal with." He looked at the two girls behind the table. "Say Haruka…"
Haruka didn't even move her head. "Yeah?"
"Once they come here again, will you let us know?" the guy asked. The Inner Scouts blinked in confusion.
Haruka seemed thoughtful. "If you're still around by that time… I guess I could do that." Now she looked up and an echo of a smile actually slid over her face. "By the way, Yaten, what did you do with your feather?"
"Feather?" Usagi asked as Yaten dug in his pockets and eventually pulled the phoenix feather out. "Right here, looks like it's almost unbreakable. Doesn't look scruffy or anything. I wonder what it could do when used with some knowledge…" Usagi and friends blinked and stared at the glittering feather that was now waving in the wind.
Haruka finished her coffee and stood up. "Hang it in front of a speaker on your next concert and see what happens. Let's go, Michiru."
"What was that about?" Ami asked as the two left down the street.
"Nothing special…" Seiya mumbled, looking at his watch. "Whoa guys, we have to run! See you girls around!" The three hurried off.
"I wonder what happens when another ambitious nightmare shows up," Michiru said thoughtfully. Her hair waved in the wind as Haruka's yellow convertible headed towards home. The heavenly flower bouquet was hanging on the rear-view mirror.
Haruka smiled. "Then we'll defeat it. Without a single doubt."
The E…
Bulma: "Or actually The Flashback to yesterday by the Sea of Void."
Wha?
Bulma: "You have some unfinished things here, m'dear. The story isn't done yet."
-eyebrow twitches- Gimme a break… I've been writing this for more than a year!
Bulma: "Then another chapter won't kill you. Vegeta, remember your promise?"
Vegeta: "Wha?"
Bulma: "You promised to take me shopping to Hell, remember?"
Trunks: "Yeah, and you were supposed to beat Freeza and the guys up on your way back!"
Vegeta: -eyebrow twitches- "You have got to be kidding me…"
Bulma: "Promises are promises, honey."
Vegeta: "Ugh, fine. Just don't call me honey."
Author's Note: dung. This story isn't letting go of me. Ahwell, guess one final hysterically absurd chapter won't kill me…