Search For The Dragonballs
Chapter 3: Bulma meets Son Goku!
The first day of autumn basked a valley in a beautiful visage, the steep cliffs and vivid fauna glowing off the morning sun. A herd of deer gracefully drank from the clear rivers and groups of cheerful monkeys bashfully played around in the trees above.
But one child in particular could be seen riding an object on a long path down the cliffs, this child was happily humming along riding a spinning log down the winding path. He had dark, spiky black hair; with three bangs hanging to the right of his forehead and two bangs hanging to the left, it stood up in the front with four spikes and three bangs in the back, it truly was a unique hairstyle that would stand out wherever it was seen. He wore a small, dull blue Gi with a white sash wrapped under his navel, two salmon-coloured armbands on each wrist and little buttoned up shoes.
He continued bobbing his way down the bumpy path with a large saw rested on his shoulder, seemingly twice his size. Watching some of the animals poking out of the trees his tail as always was waving energetically.
"Hey, morning!"
He readily greeted the monkeys hanging out of the tree, they leaned back and seemed to wave at him as he continued down the path. Every now and then he would flip off the log and land back on it a bit further down the path for a bit of fun.
From the path he could clearly see down the mountainous terrain, although there being very little flat land, mostly rounded out hills and small mountains, there was still a vast amount of greenery growing all around even at the tallest of heights. The low clouds weaving through the bumpy hills made the scenery look truly fantastical.
Further down the path a quaint little home sat, it was rather small, only enough to fit a couple of people in. There was a small shed for storage next to it, a wash basin, an outhouse and a small field filled with poorly planted crops. Next to the house was the small boy, stretching to either side. He pumped himself up slightly before wandering over to the cut stump he rode here on.
"Eyaaaahhhh!"
He gave a little battle cry before grabbing the chunk of wood that he could barely fit his short stubby arms around, but surprisingly with a little bit of effort and another encouraging shout he managed to lift and throw it into the air! He bent his body and leapt up after it when it came falling back and kicked it, splintering the slab of wood into half a dozen fragments. As they chaotically impacted around him, he took a deep breath in then out, then with a grin started collecting the fragmented pieces.
"Yay, all done chopping the wood!" He exclaimed to himself and hurriedly gathered them together.
The child then moved as much as his short arms could carry towards the little shed when his stomach gave a low gurgle.
"Boy, I'm hungry…" He mused as he dropped the last bits of wood of then jogged energetically over to the house.
Inside the house as expected had very little inside, some water skins and fruit hung up, a mostly broken broom in the corner. A simple but confident painting of the nearby hills hooked onto the walls next to a large bed which had a little lamp and a book and a table with some shelves behind it. The room was slightly grubby, with clear attempts to clean up being a little unsuccessful, expect for a small podium at the back of the house that was clearly cleaned religiously. It had a soft red cushion and on top of that being a strange orange orb.
The young boy tied a pole to his back with a simple rope and hopped on over to the orb, he put his palms together and started talking to the orb.
"Grandpa, I'm going to get some food. I'll be back soon!" He mentions over the orb before turning to take off. Though a small glow resounded through the ball that didn't go unnoticed by the boy, turning around only when the light had died down.
"Huh? I could swear I saw you glowing Grandpa." The boy talks over to the orb, only to receive nothing in response. "Well, that's weird." He concluded with before taking off outside down the path with a spring to his step. The orb he left behind slowly emitting another small glow, as if it was calling to something.
"Hmm, what should I eat today?"
Nearby on the long mountain trek, a small vehicle stopped by, screeching to a halt. The car was a clear teal and very compact with only two main seats, the back of the car had some boxes with supplies and food inside.
Out of the car stands a young adolescent woman, surveying the area. She had bright blue hair in a braided ponytail with a red ribbon, she wore a tight purple scarf and a short light pink dress with 'Bulma' Imprinted on it and black and blue sneakers. She gazed around the area little longer before grabbing what seemed like a large, circular watch from her bag fastened on her waist.
"It should be somewhere around here…" The girl murmured to herself.
She flicked a small switch to the side of the watch, calling the screen to life. All the screen was covered in a green grid like a radar, as she pressed a button on top of the watch a pulse went through the screen, lighting up a couple of sections on the watch with bright dots.
"Hmm, I think a little more to the west." She mused to herself before re-entering her car.
"It's gotta be around here somewhere!" The girl expressed resolutely while driving further down the narrow path, with a familiar orange orb nestled in her bag, releasing a soft, humming glow.
The previous boy was now skipping down a forest path whilst thinking to himself before grumbling out.
"I just ate a bear earlier… What should I have?"
He then started jogging and before long was hopping off mounds of earth and swinging off the branches of trees in pursuit of a tasty lunch. It wasn't long before he happened across an apple tree, happily setting himself down on a branch he picked an apple and started consuming as many as he could, including the stems.
Though on the ground a tiger was licking its lips, also searching for a catch of the day. Suddenly it noticed a swinging tail from a branch and locked eyes with the youth sat on top, it wasn't an animal the cat had seen before, but meat is meat.
Goku just playfully peered down at the Tiger, happily finishing off the apples at an amazing speed. But the tiger leapt up a surprising distance, homing in on the kid. But he just wrapped his tail around the branch and spun round backwards, completely dodging the blow whilst chuckling.
"Come on! You can do better than that." He taunted the beast whilst hanging upside down.
It definitely worked, the tiger had veins protruding from its forehead, angered beyond belief and started chasing the child with a roar. In response the boy playfully roared back and started to run away at an alarming speed. The two weaved through the woods, bushes and plants. To the tiger's surprise, the child was just as fast as it was! They broke out into a clearing and just as it was gaining on the boy, the child disappeared.
The tiger tried to screech to a halt only to not feel the ground beneath it, with a terrified gulp it slowly moved its eyes downwards to find a massive drop with a river below. The tiger fell down into the river while catching a glimpse of a small monkey like boy hanging on a small tree at the edge of the cliff.
"Hehe, that was fun." He beamed to himself.
Looking down the valley he spotted the fresh stream trickling through the rocks, he decided!
"Ok! Time to eat a fish once in a while!" The boy exclaimed as he threw himself off the branch down into the valley below.
He sprung off a couple of branches before hopping on some rocks expertly to the riverside below. After surveying the water slightly, he bobbed his tail into the waters and patiently waited, it wasn't long before something took interest, a large blue fish with razor sharp teeth was slowly approaching the floating object, probably thinking something along the lines of 'Haha, what do we have here. A monkey maybe? Time to eat!' As it shot forwards, but the boy pulled his tail back just in time for the fish to come flying out of the river.
"Hyaaah!" With a little battle cry he jumped at the fish, kicking it square in the side of its head, knocking it out completely before it splashed down it the water. The child pulled the fish out and started hopping along whilst carrying a fish almost three times his size behind him.
"A big fish, a big fish!" He hummed along as he shortly reached the path.
But on his way back when his house was just in view, he heard a strange sound.
'Vrrrrrm!' The sound of engine was getting nearer.
"What's that sound?" The boy wondered with a curious gaze as he heard it rumbling nearer.
Until suddenly a large object came zooming up the hill. The boy was terrified in the moment with this weird contraption flying towards him, the girl driving had just looked back over to the road in time. "What!" She screamed before just turning the car in time to keep if from hitting the child. As it skidded up alongside him the two had completely different routes of thought, the girl was a bit annoyed while thankful she didn't hit a child, but the boy.
"Y-you monster! You're trying to steal my catch aren't you!?" He blared out at the car, obviously never seeing one a day in his life.
"Huh?!" She was just about to exit the car when she heard this, obviously confused she then felt the car tipping slightly.
The boy had grabbed the undercarriage of the car, lifting it slightly while straining. "Uurgh! I won't let you get away with that!" He roared as he tipped the car over with his bare hands so violently that one of the wheels broke off! The girl inside was just sent tumbling, with a banging head and very confused.
"Come on! I'll fight!" The child roared, holding his staff out in front of him in a challenging manner.
The girl then managed to partially climb out of the top window, still confused, looking at the strange boy.
"Ah! Something crawled out of the monster!?" The boy exclaimed while holding his fighting stance.
"H-hey clam down!" The girl fearfully shouted; she wasn't sure whether this child had somehow flipped her car over!
"Eh? It talks!?" He questioned back; he had never come across a creature like this before. On top of it all it seems like it spat out some sort of fairy that spoke! Truly bizarre.
"Of course, I talk!" She shouted back; half scared half irritated. It took a second for her to get her thoughts back in order. "Hey, listen can I get out of here? I'm just a human like you, you know?" She continued on; she wasn't sure how to treat the child. So far, he seemed quite territorial, possessive and strong. She secretly hoped she hadn't wondered across some roaming barbarian or something.
"Huh? Really!?" He asked the girl with a much softer look than before.
She then carefully climbed down the side and stood a few meters away from the boy for safe distance.
"Yeah, I am, see?" She concluded to the boy.
"Oh!" He exclaimed. "Okay then, hahaha!" Trusting the stranger immediately he dropped his guard and start to laugh heartily.
While the girl tried to keep a calm outside appearance, now that the aggression seemed to die down, she was panicking a bit. 'What the hell?! First, I almost hit a kid, second, he thinks I'm a monster, third, he flips my damn car, and now he's acting like best friends… Yep, this is a day alright…' She thought to herself as the boy wondered over.
"You look different to me and Grandpa." He questioned. "You look really soft and weak!"
"Well, I'm a girl of course, don't tell me you've never seen a girl before?" She replied.
"Girl? I think Grandpa told me about them once…" He sat on the ground and started to think while rubbing his head.
Now she finally had a moment to relax a little, looking at the boy he really looks around five or six with how short he is. Looking back at her car she cursed inwardly. 'Damn, the wheel and motors just broke right off!' Looking back round at the kid she saw the huge fish he was carrying; it was bigger than her! 'Okay, maybe he did flip the car with his bare hands… better not him angry…' She grumbled in her mind. Though it wasn't long before the boy shot back up.
"Ah! That was it! Grandpa told me about those before!" He beamed a smile upwards. "He told me to be nice to a girl if I ever met one."
"Sounds like a good man." She looked up to the small house in the distance. "Do you and your grandpa live there?"
"Uh, yeah." He answered a bit delayed as he was observing the wrecked car. "Say, what is that thing? Did you catch it?" The boy asked earnestly.
"No, it's a car. It's a machine built by humans." She explained back to him, she was feeling a bit better now that it seemed like he was actually clueless and not just putting up an act.
The boy jumped onto the car, again surprising the girl that he jumped almost twice his height.
"A car?" He sat back down. "Maybe grandpa told me about this? Hmmmm…" He thought further before turning back. "Oh, does this mean you come from the city?"
"Yeah, it's quite far west from here."
"Awesome!" He leapt off the car with sparkles in his eyes and picked the fish back up. "Come to my house, since grandpa said to be nice, I'll give you a little bit of food and you can tell me about the city!" He started jogging along before she gave her answer.
"Huh- wait!" She glanced round while summarizing the damage to her car. Though she started walking after him, she could try and fix it anytime. "You're really strong for such a small kid!" She praised.
"Hehe! Grandpa trained me!" He continued chuckling as they walked down the path.
"What's your name?" She asked.
"Me? My name is Goku. Son Goku! What's yours?"
"Bulma."
"Hahaha, what a weird name!" Goku laughed along.
"Shut up!" Bulma retorted back with a bit of anger.
Though all Bulma could think of now was 'What a weird kid…'
(Authors Note:)
Pretty much just canon scenes this chapter, Bulma and Goku's interactions will be changed slightly. But don't expect huge changes till maybe the end of the first arc. Would you rather me deviate from canon more?
I'll keep it how I've written it till the end of the first arc, after then tell me whether I should deviate more.
Hopefully some of the character changes I've implemented make sense. I've tried to take their backgrounds and history into account while still making them feel like their respective characters.
The core of their characters are Bulma is smart but hot tempered and Goku should be naive and fun loving.
The coming characters will be a little bit more difficult to write for, I'm still planning to get Goku and Chichi together but need to find a more organic way to do so.
You don't have to worry about Goku staying stuipid for comedic purposes, I have allready planned a character arc out for him, but I don't want to turn him into an OC.
