Subtle, vertical telekinetic waves rippled in circular shapes from the tips of Chiaotzu's fingers. Goku's body froze in mid-fall. Seeing how Yajirobe was too nervous to approach Goku since Piccolo Jr. laid not too far away from him, Chi-Chi snagged the Senzu out of his hands and browsed for a bean to feed her injured husband. While Goku wheezed in the beginning, feeling difficulty speaking, after a few seconds of ingesting the Senzu he chuckled. It was a sign of vitality to follow. Not a handful of moments later from his first expression of joy, the Saiyan jumped on his feet and stretched out.

"I feel amazing! We should give Piccolo one too!" Goku turned to Chi-Chi who clutched her feminine hand over the sack and crossed her arms over her chest, cradling the beans away.

"No way! He almost killed you!" Chi-Chi objected.

"Yeah, but I've gotten way stronger since recovering, I could knock him out easily now if he tried something…" Goku winked with one eye and raised his fist to show off his recovered health.

"Even if you are stronger now, Piccolo has Kami's spirit in him too. He's more than just a strong fighter, he can trap you in a Bankoku Bikkuri Sho or seal you with a Mafuba!" Tenshinhan objected.

"Yeah but Papaya Island would probably be for the better if Piccolo picked himself up and scrammed, rather than if they waited for him to recover and get out by himself…" Krillin leaned back on his arms and looked across the area to where Piccolo laid unconscious and almost crushed into the dirt with injuries only a Namekian could survive.

"Don't forget, Piccolo is now tied to the Dragon Balls too. You can't afford to let him die if you want them around. I'm not roaming the Universe to collect the Ultimate Dragon Balls again…" Chayote grumbled. Chi-Chi looked at her hand that had just clutched the Senzu in confusion as the sack with the beans was no longer there. By the time she realized what had happened, Chayote had flicked a magical bean right into Piccolo's open mouth.

"It might be the right choice but it sure isn't easy to watch…" Krillin groaned.

The beady pupils of Piccolo's eyes came back to life. His revitalized body flexed in tension and the reincarnated Demon King kicked up in one mighty leap. He turned back at the rest of the gathered Dragon Team and reared his sharp teeth at them. His scowl said it all – he knew that his enemy was stronger than him now. Goku might have lucked out with winning against him the first time but his second victory would be much more conclusive. Even if Piccolo did kill Son Goku, he'd wear himself out to the point where any one of the Saiyan's friends could finish Piccolo off by themselves.

"Hmph…" Piccolo grumbled and took off without saying a word. The ground rumbled underneath his feet as he skyrocketed away to an unclear destination. His Ki signature faded away once the Namekian concealed it by suppressing himself. Something told Chayote that the Dragon Team would be feeling that Ki signature every day when the reincarnation of King Piccolo trained.

"This can't be over…" Tenshinhan let out a hefty breath. "Piccolo has some mean genes in him. He's got the toughness of a demon. We can't let up on our training if he ever tries to take over the world again."

"I don't think this is about taking over the world…" Goku continued looking in the sky. "I think that Piccolo's become a whole lot different from King Piccolo. He's a martial artist now, he can't possibly want to conquer the world anymore. It would be too boring for him if all martial artists that can resist him would die. He will challenge us again, I don't doubt that, but it will be to prove he is the strongest martial artist alive."

"We'll see about that…" Tenshinhan clenched his fists and turned around, he'd have taken off if Chiaotzu wasn't turned to the Dragon Team still, prompting the three-eyed warrior to look at his friend to encourage him to leave after him. "I am not satisfied with how this tournament went down either. When we next meet, Piccolo will not be the only one with something to prove!"

Chiaotzu turned to his lifelong friend with a smile and nodded. Tenshinhan's expression softened when he saw warmth in Chiaotzu's face and the two took off together in the direction of the God Temple. It made sense that they'd head there if they hoped to push themselves even further and work even harder than they've worked up until now. No matter how hard they would try though, beating that power gap would not be a simple task to accomplish, it would take a lot more than just sparring once or twice more than usual.

"Well… I think I'm gonna head back to West City," Yamcha declared. Everybody turned to him for an explanation even if nobody was really surprised to hear this. "It seems that Tenshinhan and Goku have this, plus, we've got Chayote around to pitch in too. Bulma's ire is something I can no longer ignore, I'm afraid…" the poor dolt chuckled to himself though he was the only one laughing, the rest looked sorry for his misfortune.

"I don't know…" Goku turned to Chi-Chi. "Chi-Chi wants to get married and start a family life, or whatever… I'm not sure how much training I can squeeze in and how effective it's going to be down here."

"You guys have to promise to visit and train with Goku-sa as often as you can! Goku-sa needs to stay strong so that nothing threatens our home and the family we'll be starting together!" Chi-Chi gave everyone a strict look as if she was demanding it of them.

"I'm beginning to feel bad for their future kid…" Krillin leaned in closer to Yamcha, whispering to him which prompted the past desert bandit to cover his mouth and barely restrain a fit of laughter. It all came to Chayote as ripples of the present, an ability of extreme awareness that never gone anywhere since she's last trained with Fortuneteller Baba.

"Don't count on me to protect your space rock all the time, you fool!" Chayote scolded Yamcha. "As it happens, I'll be leaving off to space and I'm not sure when I'll be back too."

"Huh!?" everyone turned to the Saiyan in shock. "You're leaving!?"

"I've always told you guys I wasn't going to stick around. Dr. Brief must have repaired my spaceship a long time ago already. I've got something in space that I've gotta do," Chayote pointed at the sky with her thumb as if it was something within an arm's reach right behind her.

"Don't worry about us, Chayote," Muten Roshi walked out in between the circle of friends. "We are all martial artists, after all. I am as hopeful about this generation as I am grateful to it for everything they've done to our world and the craft of martial arts in general. Be they married, working, or living normal lives, I have a feeling that none of us will be forgetting our roots. To grow stronger, seek new limits to break through and live one's life to the fullest, that's the only way for a martial artist and one cannot be satisfied with anything less than that."

While Chayote saw the infinite vastness of the universe at her fingertips that she still had to explore in her training, the rest looked up to see the creeping night's sky with all of the blinking in stars as a representation of the starlit path of the future.

"Huh? Your spaceship? It's wherever you left it…" Dr. Briefs took out his cigarette to blow out smoke into the air of his lab for his air filters to clean up. A tad taken aback by Chayote's visible irritation at the fact that nobody seemed to care enough to recover priceless combination of Earthling and Frieza Army technology, Dr. Brief shook his hands out in front of him in an attempt to appease the vexed Saiyan. "That's alright because I've duplicated and improved on your spaceship a pair of times since you've left."

"Huh? Really? So you've got a handful of spaceships capable of intergalactic travel?" Chayote wondered, impressed by the scientist's ingenuity and handiness.

"Of course," Bulma showed her thumb up with a cheerful smile. "Just like you martial artists have to flex your muscles to say hardy, we scientists have to keep polishing our brains working on something more and more challenging to stay sharp too!"

"Then you wouldn't mind if I took one, right? I mean that's the least thanks I should get for helping restore the Dragon Balls that revived Bulma…" Chayote crossed her arms over her chest, almost expecting the old professor to request something lewd of her as was the tradition with elderly Earthling males.

"Wait, so that's where Bulma was gone off to? I thought she left for a field trip or a conference or something…" Dr. Brief pressed his index to the cheek, recalling the long time that his daughter was gone and tying the knots back together.

"You don't have to rub that in all the time!" Bulma's eye twitched as she contemplated hitting the blunt Saiyan as hard as she could, hoping that the young woman had been suppressing her power and would feel it. "You can take the damned spaceship, take the fastest one for all we care, we'll build a better one in a couple of weeks anyway…"

"Thanks, Bulma, when we first met, I thought you were a shrewd harpy, I'm glad to have been wrong…" Chayote nodded her head, trying to act restrained. A spark of colorful stars erupting from her eyes before the pain of a direct cross to the nose suggested that she did something wrong though.

"You dumbass…" Bulma grumbled but her voice softened at the latter half. The offense stretched out like the longing she predicted to be feeling once the Saiyan would take off. "I have to say, I'm glad I was wrong about you too. I thought you'd be dangerous and couldn't wait for you to finally leave when we first met. Though I never thought I'd feel myself choking up when the time actually came…"

"Oh my, did you eat crayfish again?" Dr. Brief turned to his daughter who sunk her head down in her neck and turned to her old man shaking in fury.

"It's not allergies!" Bulma yelled out while shaking her fist over her father's head. "I'm sad to see Chayote leave, what if she will never come back!?"

"I'd like to… Come back, that is…" Chayote nodded. "It's just that… I've figured something out and I've got to change something about myself before I can return. I've actually given up on joining the Frieza Army, I want to live on Earth now."

"So you're going somewhere on Earth? Oh, I see… A conference maybe? In that case, you should take the airplane, a spaceship would be very impractical for such short-distance trips, plus, I can't for the life of me figure out how to put a stereo system in one of those things…" Dr. Brief looked up, daydreaming about schematics while looking for a suitable gap in the planning to stuff a stereo into. "Those spaceship designs are so streamlined, not a single detail is unnecessary…"

"Ignore him, you don't have to leave though. If you want to live on Earth peacefully, you've more than earned that right already. You've helped make Earth so much safer – you've eliminated the Red Ribbons, helped eliminate the Rainbow Brigade, and helped us stop Demon King Piccolo and the demonic invasion. It doesn't matter what planet you're from, honestly, my own sister is traveling alongside a crude alien as well and sometimes he feels like a part of the family," Bulma tried comforting Chayote though what she saw wasn't even Chayote's true expression. It was just a face she adopted to seem cool and in control, sort of how she imagined cool people like Tenshinhan looking.

"Truth be told, I was wrong when I told you about me and Kakarot. I'm a Saiyan but I might not be like him or any other Saiyan. Something's different with me and I think it might be because of those C-Type S-Cells or whatever… It's just that… I get so really, really mad sometimes and I can't control myself. I've put everyone in danger by lashing out in the tournament and I must learn to control my emotions. Until I feel safe that the Earth is no longer in danger because of my recklessness, I will keep looking for answers in space," Chayote explained. "Up until that point, I'll just keep acting like I think Tenshinhan would act. He's a guy that seems to be in control all the time…"

"I can't say I understand exactly what you mean, alien biology isn't exactly my forte but… I guess if you're having anger management issues, that's something all of us could benefit from learning a thing or two about. Good luck, Chayote, I hope you find what you're looking for and come back here. Come back home." Bulma nodded and took hold of Chayote's hand. It was more than just a friendly gesture, a capsule stayed in Chayote's grip when Bulma stepped away.

"You could definitely use some anger management, ever since you've become a teenager, you've been acting out. If I wasn't so afraid of you, I'd intervene, mother was afraid you'd become a delinquent…" Dr. Brief raised his index up as if making a fair point about some scientific hypothesis. "Though I guess you turned out alright…" he then shrugged.

"So, you've got any hints about where your mysterious secret to self-control might lie?" Bulma looked to Chayote with a friendly smile after sighing at her father's remark.

"Yeah. One of the Ultimate Dragon Balls was on Planet Beiko on the edge of the Frieza Army territory. The locals there could control their emotions perfectly while maintaining perfect control of their Ki as well. It appears those two are linked together. They said they'd train me if I returned, that would be the first place I want to check," Chayote scratched her neck, feeling a bit uneasy about that idea. Ki control was not exactly one of her strengths.

"I see… Well, you should call us all the time then! That way you won't miss out on a whole lot of stuff that'll happen while you're gone. It'll feel like you've never left in the first place," Bulma winked with a cheerful gesture.

"Calling… For no reason at all? That seems crazy enough to be something Earthlings would do," Chayote nodded, imagining Tenshinhan in her head and not seeing an image of him laughing out or mocking Bulma for saying something he thought was silly, "I will consider it," she bowed her head in a respectful gesture.

"Hey, Krillin, done eating already!?" Goku waved at his friend who was sitting on a small hill and staring at the sky over his head while tapping his bare feet against the grass while his boots and socks laid untied and tossed aside beside him.

"Goku… It still looks weird seeing you in a suit…" Krillin laughed out. It's been a long time since he could smile and laugh without some feeling of something huge on the horizon threatening to squash that smile. Now all he had ahead of him was the natural mysteries the future always held.

"Yeah, I'd take it off but Chi-Chi seems to like it and I promised it to wear her whole day today," Goku sighed and collapsed on the hill beside his friend. A cheerful burst of laughter brimming with Yamcha's voice boasting about something he'd accomplished filled the air behind the two. "Apparently it's this wedding thing…"

"It is…" Krillin nodded. "Chayote took off without even waiting for the wedding. I don't think she'd have liked wearing a fancy dress either!"

"She's pretty smart, she understands about as much as I do about everything around her though she always ends up avoiding the weird or the troublesome promises…" Goku sighed.

"Heh, even if she did make a dumb promise, she'd just not do it, you know," Krillin laughed out. "Though she did promise us to leave one day and whoosh back into the sky she went…"

"Yeah…" Goku nodded.

"The sky… It feels weird, doesn't it?" Krillin rubbed his index under his nose, stroking the tip of his nose as if it felt itchy.

"What does?"

"You know… I could be getting married tomorrow, or Yamcha… The sky is the limit now, after all," Krillin pointed out, letting his toes brush through the grass.

"Yeah, I guess…" Goku nodded. The oaf was always incredibly easy to surprise but he was also the first one to get used to the new way of things. It was more than likely that he had already gotten used to peace and gotten bored of it just like he felt itchy inside of his fancy, white suit. "Do you think Chayote's finding some strong guys to fight out there in space?"

"Sure, that must be why she took off. Regretting getting married and tied up now, Goku?" Krillin turned to his friend with a smirk.

"Nah… Maybe… I dunno!" Goku grabbed his head and exclaimed feeling torn. "This family thing feels kind of new and I do like making Chi-Chi happy because when she's unhappy, I'm unhappy but… I do want to fight some more strong guys too. It would be great if they came down to us, now that we're all getting tied up, you know?"

"Well… There's always another World Martial Arts Tournament in three years. Who knows who might show up there, even guys from the Demon Realm aren't afraid of crossing dimensions to take a shot at Earth…" Krillin laid on his back so that he could get a better view of the evening sky without making his neck hurt. Instead, he noticed the tournament announcer standing behind them, he looked so familiar in a formal getup that Krillin's instincts worked up and forced him to jump up on his feet as if the man was counting down to ten.

"Not in a while, I'm afraid. Papaya Island is totalled, it will take decades to rebuild it…" the announcer fixed his shades.

"Heh, I guess we might need to collect the Dragon Balls and restore it to normal at some point," Krillin squinted at Goku, nudging the newlywed for the second time family man with his elbow.

"I'm not sure what these Dragon Balls are but even if they did restore the island back to normal, it will take decades for the public to visit it again after literal demons invaded it…" the announcer sighed. "I might be out of a job… I figured that's what you two were doing here – lamenting your loss of income. You didn't get paid the prize money for your victory, did you Goku?"

"Nah, though Krillin's right. It all started with collecting the Dragon Balls. I've met all kinds of people and made a lot of friends, met a bunch of strong guys too. It's decided. When it gets boring, we'll just all meet up and collect the Dragon Balls again!" Goku wanted to pull on the straps of his belt but remembered that he was still wearing a suit and his belt was of a different nature.

The two friends of his noticed it immediately and the trio shared a laugh. It was a laughter of no strings being attached and nothing dark looming on the horizon. A rare yet most precious kind of laugh that people only get to have for a few times in their entire lives. A laugh of only happiness that stretches out into infinity and one that would never be forgotten.