"This damned rain, honestly…" a middle-aged man complained, peeking at the gloomy sky through the edge of his umbrella. "Been goin' on since October, it's all doom and gloom like that."

"Oh, stop complaining, you sound like a grumpy geezer or something," his female companion scolded the man while the two walked past a bald old-timer that looked rather troubled by the choice of words of the passing-by lady and was about to object when the blue-haired woman by his side interrupted him.

"If they don't hurry up, they'll be late." Launch looked around while clutching to her umbrella. The May weather was warm though the rain hadn't really stopped since the clouds had drowned out the sky. These whole past six months it's been drizzle or full-on rain the whole time. Even when the rain did subside for a blink, there was no time at all for a little bit of sunlight to penetrate the dark shrouds.

"Haven't they been training with Kami himself? With this lousy weather and being late to the tournament, honestly… Just what kind of a guy this Kami is, exactly?" Muten Roshi sighed. A heavy hum distracted the pair, forcing Launch to move her umbrella and expose Muten Roshi to some cold droplets behind the collar of his shirt. While the cold sensation normally would have made him quiver, the sight of an actual spaceship over his head made the old man flip out in a bit more comedic manner compared to Launch's more reserved surprise.

"Are we being invaded by aliens!? Have the other Saiyans finally found us!?" Muten Roshi stumbled back staring at a tiny vessel.

"Oh my…" Launch uttered while the spaceship navigated around the passing taxi cars and somehow managed to position itself onto a nearby parking spot, disturbing a taxi driver that shook his fist at the unknown flying object after appearing from the front driver seat window of his vehicle.

With the top of the ship opening up, a blue-faced alien in a violet bodysuit jumped out. Muten Roshi scratched his cheek, confused that what he had been seeing didn't look like a Saiyan at all. He didn't know if any other alien races even knew of Earth, judging from the fact that he had not encountered one since first meeting Goku, he had assumed that wasn't the case.

"How can you be this late when there's no traffic in the skies?" Bulma pressed her knuckles to her hips which her tight, black dress accentuated, pointing her index finger at the troubled blue-faced shorty.

"Jeez, what a nag, you're just like your sister…" the alien grumbled before Bulma and a little taller young woman with short, blond hair performed a synchronized cross straight to the face of the alien driver which sent the poor thing stumbling and reeling back while rubbing his face.

"Don't forget that I've got samples your transmission technology, I can let everyone in the Galactic Patrol know just what kind of Super-Elite they employ. How would they like it if they realized what sort of coward works for them, I wonder?" Bulma winked at the shaking alien.

"N-No way! I thought we had a deal! If everyone back at HQ knows that I've been taken hostage by a pair of powerless Earthling women, they'll never let me hear the end of it!" the alien shook his hands out in front of him.

"Powerless!?" both young women put their dukes up ready to bully their chauffeur some more. Lamenting his fortune, the alien wrapped his arms over his head and sat down, preparing to accept the mildly inconveniencing punishment in store for him.

"Bulma! It's been a while!" Launch ran up to the most curious scene as if she had not just seen an alien park in front of her, blocking off the street for the stream of increasingly frustrated taxi drivers and have her friend appear from its spaceship.

"Ah, Launch, Muten Roshi is here too! Nice to see you, we haven't really met up since the resurrection, huh?" Bulma smiled at the pair and waved to Muten Roshi who was only now accepting this garish scene as a part of his daily reality and began contemplating just how soaked he was by the rain.

"I guess not, all this experience was just too weird, I suppose. Are these your friends?" Launch gave the blonde and the alien a warm look.

"They are, this is Tights, she's my older sister. She's been away for the longest time though she seems to be coming and going lately. This is Jaco, her companion that takes her around the galaxy and helps her to come up with material for her novels." Bulma introduced everybody.

"I wrote the "The Hysterical Rose and Wimpy Policeman: A Space Story", you might have heard of it…" Tights rubbed her wrist by her collar with a proud look on her face.

"Oh, you wrote that? I heard it was doing pretty well! You're impressive!" Launch gasped. "Nice to meet you too, Jaco-san!" she extended a hand for a greeting.

"Wow, you're not a shrill harpy at all…" Jaco observed while thunderbolts cracked behind him in the shape of two outraged young women, ready to pound the self-proclaimed Super-Elite into submission. For someone who feared their temperament, Jaco sure had no reservations about speaking up ill about them.

"That is very impressive indeed, Tights-chan, I wasn't aware that Bulma was related to someone this talented and… Pichi-Pichi…" Muten Roshi was about to let his lesser tendencies overcome him before Bulma switched the object of her beatdown to Muten Roshi.

"What's that supposed to mean, you pervy old-geezer!? I'm a Super-Genius, you know! I've built a spacecraft capable of traversing all the way to Planet Vegeta, wherever that is. Do you know how many decades ahead of Earth technology such a feat is!?" Bulma ground her teeth.

"So, you're interested in the tournament too, Tights-san?" Launch switched the subject by striking up a conversation with Tights.

"Umm… Not really, though Bulma said this tournament tends to get crazy and the potential for a good classical martial arts tale intrigues me. It isn't advised for a writer to just switch genres like that after garnering an audience but I want to try everything once in a while, you know?" Tights voiced her thoughts on the promising prospect.

"Pheh… Earth truly is a planet of uncultured hicks if they grab trash like that off the shelves…" Jaco crossed his arms as if challenging the two sisters to inflict grievous bodily harm upon him. His yellow eyes beamed that challenge out at them at the same time.

"What do you know about culture? Aren't action movies your favorite?" Bulma raised a mocking eyebrow.

"That's right, it's my No. 3 favorite thing in the universe!" Jaco struck a pose.

"I thought…" Tights raised her index finger to object in an inquisitive gesture but then gave up halfway, realizing that this was not something she needed in her life.

"What? Favorite things ever can sometimes change order… It just so happens that I love justice and explosions a bit more now." Jaco objected crossing his arms again.

"So Yamcha isn't with you then?" Muten Roshi asked Bulma.

"No idea where that bum is!" Bulma looked up into the sky with spite. Given how all she knew was the rumors that he was training with Kami, she just sort of blamed the sky and the poor weather on her boyfriend gripes this whole time. "Couldn't care less either!" she tried cutting it short.

"You're clearly lying, the venom dripping from your Gaspean-Dragon mouth suggests you'll kill him the first chance you get…" Jaco observed bluntly.

"If you don't stick to your own business, you might not live to see that!" Bulma flipped out on the overly blunt alien patrolman. "Honestly, while it's nice to have an extra pair of hands and someone with a background of space technology, I don't think I'll miss you at all once you leave."

A gust of wind picked up and blew Muten Roshi's hat right off. The old man rushed to chase after it seeing how it was his only protection from the rain until Launch stopped talking with the blue-faced alien and returned with their only umbrella. A chipper laugh ringed behind his back.

"Yo! Been a long time, sorry 'bout that, old-timer, we were in a bit of a rush…" a young man seated atop of an ancient though well-maintained Persian carpet waved at everyone. Sitting alongside him was a young woman wearing a similar coat to his though of a much brighter shade of blue. The young lady must have been quite fond of this man since she had her arm wrapped around his and kept running her hand over the messy and spiky black hair of the young man.

"Huh…?" Muten Roshi turned at the curious pair while he leaned to pick up his hat. "Are these more of your alien friends, Tights-chan?"

"No, these are Bulma's friends, right? We've met them briefly on that huge tower…" Tights seemed to recall.

"Look, Muten Roshi, I'm really glad you look okay but we really should be registering already. Chi-Chi insisted that we took the scenic route so we kind of soared over clouds and oceans and got chased by dinosaurs and stuff…" the young man jumped off of the carpet and began emoting at Muten Roshi who looked increasingly confused by this youth.

"Chi-Chi? That's Ox-King's daughter's name, isn't it?" Muten Roshi jumped up and ran to the young woman who looked flushed with red, embarrassed that her plus one did not offer her aid in getting off of the magic carpet. "Wow, you've gone along and got all grown up! How is your old man?"

"I haven't seen him whole year, daddy was just fine when I left though without me by his side he's slacking off his training, no doubt." The young woman noted. "Pleased to meet you all. I'm flattered to finally meet the friends of Goku-sa."

"Goku…Sa?" Bulma muttered under her own nose before losing her composure. "You're married to Goku!?"

"Why are you all talking about me while I'm right here?" the young man Chi-Chi arrived alongside with objected standing right next to Bulma, the genius inventor went pale and her head twitched in bewilderment as she faced a greatly grown version of the monkey boy she once knew.

"G-Goku! No way!" Bulma pointed right at Goku, forcing the Saiyan to cross his eyes in order to focus his attention on Bulma's large, red fingernail.

"Jeez, what's wrong with you guys, of course it's me…" Goku crossed his arms looking a bit peeved that everybody was acting so strange.

"Wow, you got so much taller…" Bulma muttered to herself as in her current state she simply lacked the energy to properly exclaim just how surprising all these developments were.

"Guys, seriously, we need to register like… Right now." Goku objected before Chi-Chi jumped off of the carpet and landed on his back, seeing how her husband didn't seem at all interested in helping her get off.

"Hey, there they are!" Oolong's squeaky yet low-pitched voice reached the crew and they turned to meet a pair of familiar faces in Tsuru-Sennin style uniforms yet donning the logo of "Kami" in the middle of their chests. The two shapeshifter pals accompanied Tenshinhan and Chiaotzu both of whom donned Chinese-styled straw hats as well as some straw padding on their shoulders to protect them from the constant downpour going down for the last six months.

"Ah, Tenshinhan, Chiaotzu, these guys took off the day before so of course they'd be here already," Goku smirked at the pair and greeted them with a cheerful salute with two of his fingers. Tenshinhan mirrored the greeting while Chiaotzu just nodded with that signature creepy smile of his.

"Say, isn't that Mr. Popo's magic carpet? The one that can take you anywhere instantly?" Bulma wondered, pointing at the magic carpet that slowly followed after Goku after Chi-Chi jumped off of it and crawled down on the ground from Goku's back.

"Huh? Oh, yeah…" Goku nodded with indifference as if he had just noticed the thing.

"Then how on Earth were you almost late?" Muten Roshi waved his hat beside him to shake off the accumulated rain off of the soaked thing.

"I told you, Chi-Chi wanted to take the scenic route and look at a bunch of things, she asked me to slow down as slow as it goes, to go over the clouds and over the oceans so that we could splash around, she kept wanting to pet the wild tigers and let the dinosaurs chase us around. She keeps telling me I'm childish and immature but, honestly, that was pretty weird…" Goku scratched his head. "Then she unwrapped the turbo off of my head and just threw it away because she said she wanted to feel my hair…"

"A turban, Goku-sa," Chi-Chi corrected.

"That's so romantic!" Bulma kept shaking in excitement.

"Right? Goku-sa has no sense of romance at all, sometimes it's as if we're not even married…" Chi-Chi nodded in agreement.

"What!? Goku got married!?" Oolong flipped out. "No way, how'd you score with a hot chick like that!?"

"That is weird," Bulma objected. "How come this is the first time any of us is hearing about it? How come you didn't invite us to your wedding?"

"Huh? You're welcome onto the God Temple anytime, we figured you'd all be too weak to climb the Korin Tower…" Goku shrugged.

"It's just that when Upa-san became the new Kami, the opportunity presented itself to be married by Kami himself so we went for it. It was a private ceremony but I do intend on convincing Goku-sa into a more extravagant wedding celebration down on the ground level." Chi-Chi began daydreaming herself.

"Hmm? What's there to convince? Just tell him how it is – a wedding is a celebration with a feast involved. Let him eat his fair share and he'll be all over it…" Bulma squinted at the big goof walking and looking ahead all clueless-like.

"Really!?" Goku's jaw dropped. "No way! Chi-Chi, we've gotta do that real marriage thing after the tournament!"

"B-But Chi-Chi has been bugging you about that for months now. You were always the one telling her you don't want to skip training…" Chiaotzu pointed out while Tenshinhan walked alongside him with his eyes closed and a light blush on his cheeks.

"Maybe we should look for a shelter. Those that aren't competing won't be allowed into the premises anyway…" Launch voiced the object of her pondering.

"Really? You'd find us all a spot? That's awfully nice of you, you're an incredibly nice lady!" Jaco observed. Launch sniffled her nose, all this spring rain didn't work too well with her fragile immunity and body strength, it seemed. A wet-sounding sneeze shred through the sudden silence between the present members of the Dragon Team.

"Oy! What's this creepy-looking rat-bastard right here!? I bet yer some sort of a demon, aren't you!? I'll fill ya right up with lead, you dumbass!" Launch, in her blond from, browsed her handbag for a gun but couldn't find one, given her lack of proper demon-slaying weaponry, she employed the next best thing – her bare hands.

"Launch-san hasn't been reacting too well to this weather. It has been giving her frequent sniffles ever since the whole thing started. Just a few hours ago she packed a whole arsenal only to leave it all at the airport when she transformed again." Muten Roshi sighed.

"Y-You're not a nice lady at all! You're the least nice lady out of them all!" Jaco cried out and pulled out his blaster, setting it to a stasis field and paralyzing Launch in place. "That's it, I'm outta here, I got you shrill harpies here like you asked, now I'm out, you're on to deal with this transforming witch on your own!"

Just as he claimed, the Galactic Patrolman dashed to his spaceship and after shrugging off all the of the protests from the stuck taxi drivers that were blocked off by his weird parking choice blasted off into space, forcefully ripping off all the parking tickets stuck to his window and leaving all the elderly policemen of the Papaya Island just tilting their hats and scratching their necks in bewilderment.

"What, he's just gonna take off like that!?" a taxi driver objected.

"Well… He seems to have taken off to space… That's… Kind of… Outside my jurisdiction…" a frail-looking policeman objected. "I'm just two days off my retirement, I don't need no alien trouble right now…"

"A bit too late for that, isn't it?" a young woman of spiky, black hair and a tail politely waggling by her side, accompanied by a long-haired young man with a face covered in scars voiced an observation to the police-man. "Don't worry, member of Earthling authorities, I'll make sure to give that scaredy-cat a proper earful when I next see him."

"Chayote, Yamcha!" an excited shout reached the pair approaching the gate leading into the tournament grounds. They looked up only to see the golden blur of Kinto passing by and a short baldy in yellow, baggy pants and a red jacket landing in front of them with an overjoyed smirk on his face. "So you two hooked up, huh?"

"W-Wait, what!?" Yamcha took a wild step back and switched his attention between Chayote and Krillin, his face completely pale as the oaf feared for his life just because such an outrageous implication was voiced.

"The two of us? Nah, we just trained together for a while…" seeing how calmly Chayote reacted to this question made Yamcha gulp one down in relief.

"Huh? You trained with Chayote?" Krillin's mouth went ajar. The pair stopped to let Chayote walk off a bit out in front of them so that they could exchange a few words. "Are you suicidal!?"

"Well, she was as brutal as you'd think but… If I wanted this tournament to mean something, I had to really push myself harder than ever before." Yamcha declared. "After all, Tenshinhan, Goku, and Chayote all were leagues ahead of me in the last tournament so I couldn't have just did my best and hoped to catch up. I needed to work the hardest I ever could."

"Wow, Yamcha, that's so inspirational!" Krillin cheered his friend.

"Plus, if I ever hook back up with Bulma, this might be my last chance of training in my whole life so better make it count, right?" Yamcha chuckled with a sense of imminent danger lingering down in his chest which made his voice seem a bit unsure of his own future.

"I… Wow, I wish you really didn't say that and ruin that cool vibe you had going…" Krillin shriveled up in disappointment. "Anyway, Goku might start a family life with Chi-Chi too, now that Piccolo Jr. isn't a threat anymore, Chayote's probably gonna go off into space too. This might just be our last good bash together. Let's just enjoy ourselves while we still can."

"You're right," Yamcha nodded. The pair then noticed that the registrations were about to close so the developing events forced them to hurry along. Chayote met the two late birds with a mean-spirited stare from the middle of the line, being a poor receptor of other people's judgment, Krillin just rubbed the back of his head awkwardly and his embarrassed face under the beak of his black cap.

The qualifiers of the 23rd World Martial Arts Tournament were just about to start.