Chapter 4: The Journey Begins!
Minutes later the two had made it to Goku's abode.
"What a run- down place…" Bulma whispers to herself while looking around.
She wasn't wrong, most of the structures that were privy to the elements were missing corners with splinted rooves and cracked walls. It was clear that Goku wasn't particularly good at fixing things. As Goku pulled the doors open and strolled in, Bulma was expecting his grandpa, but before wondering about that, her eyes were drawn to something else.
"Grandpa, look! It's a girl!" He cheerfully prayed to the shrine. On it, of course being the orb.
"That's the Dragonball!" Bulma couldn't contain herself, pointing at the ball. "I knew it was somewhere around here!"
"Huh? You know grandpa?" Goku asked curiously.
"Grandpa?" She was confused but brought back to her senses after she remembered what she came here for. "Fine, fine, I'll explain it for you." She reached into the bag on her waist, and to Goku's surprise pulled out two balls almost identical to grandpa!
"Eeehh! G-grandpa, you have two of them?!" He exclaimed out to Bulma.
Bulma leant down and placed the two orbs down on the table. "Hehe, these are called Dragonballs." She informed the boy.
"Dragon… Balls?" Goku's head twisted in confusion.
Bulma picked on up and looked into the two stars sat in the centre. "I found one in the cellar at home, I was wondering what it was, so I asked around. Though no one knew. But after doing a lot of research I found some documents that recorded some myths from hundreds of years ago!" She excitedly placed the ball back on the table.
"Apparently they are called 'Dragonballs', there are seven in all. They all shine mysteriously and have a number of stars on them, ranging from one to seven!" She recounted, looking back at Goku he was glancing closely at his own Dragonball.
"Hey, you're right! Grandpas has four stars!" He pointed out white his beady eyes reflected of the surface.
"Yeah, I found the 2- star ball in my cellar. This one I found in a valley to the north around ten days ago." She lifted the Dragonball with five stars.
"Wow so you're searching for them all?" He asked back.
"Yeah! Collecting all seven is going to be pretty difficult." She grimaced, though she secretly enjoyed the challenge. There was a reason she was searching for these after all.
"But why are you collecting them?" He questioned inquisitively, he wasn't that interested at first, but when it came to his grandpa's memento, he became much more curious.
"That's the thing, according to the legends, something amazing happens when you collect all seven!"
At this Goku was sat on the edge of his seat, listening earnestly. "What- what happens?!"
Bulma chuckled, thinking of his reaction to this part. "Apparently after reciting specific words when all seven are together… Shenron, the dragon god appears to answer a single wish!"
"EEEEHHHH!" The boys' eyes almost shot out of his skull. "That's AMAZING!"
"Yeah, it's what the legend states. Though I don't really believe that part…" She whispered the last part before realizing something and turning back to Goku. "Say, you talk about your grandpa a lot, but where is he?" She had a bad feeling in her stomach, but she wanted to clear it up first.
"Hmm, he's right here." He pointed down to the ball he was carrying.
"G-goku, you know that's just a ball, right?"
"No! It was grandpa's memento, he left it behind when he went away!" This all but confirmed the bad feeling she was having.
"What do you mean by 'went away'?" She asked carefully.
"The full- moon monster got him and took him away! I was asleep at the time, but the only thing left was the ball." He pumped the ball in the air. "A few days later a little old person came here to say that grandpa had gone somewhere else, and we will meet again someday. He told me that the ball was grandpa's memento and to keep care of it!"
Bulma grimaced at the news, it sounded like he passed away. But from how the story went, Goku could have been abandoned… Usually she didn't feel much when other people lost their loved ones, she never had any friends to care about either. Though something hit differently with this young child completely accepting that someone will be gone from their life forever, especially when it's the only person he's ever known…
"Hey, Goku?"
"Hmm?" He questioned earnestly.
"Why don't you come with me to search for the Dragonballs?" She blurted out without thinking.
"Huh? You mean like, away from home?" He asked.
"Yeah, it will be like a big adventure to find hidden treasure! What do you think?"
Goku was in thought for a moment, his eyes drifted to his grandpa's Dragonball, then round the room he had lived in his entire life. For some reason he never thought about leaving, he knew he could come back, but for some reason it never even came to mind. After a few moments of thinking, a wide grin spread across his face.
"Yeah! Let's go on an adventure!" He beamed upwards before grabbing his staff and bolting through the door.
"Huh? W-wait! Goku!" She had only just made it to the door with Goku around twenty meters away already, looking back at her, obviously waited to see what she wanted.
"I've got to fix my car first; I can't run as fast as you and the journey will take way too long anyway!" She blurted out, the kid's absentmindedness, while soothing at first was starting to get on her nerves.
"Oh!" He sat on the ground by the path. "Oh yeah, hahaha!" He chuckled away as Bulma slowly caught up to him with a sigh.
*sigh "This is why I hate kids." She murmured with a smile.
Fixing the car would only take a few hours, after that the journey would begin!
Goku and Bulma were now on their way to gather the next Dragonball, they had just left Mt. Paozu; where Goku lived, and were driving along much softer hills.
"Wow! This thing goes even faster than I can run!" Goku cheerfully exclaimed with his little head poking out the window. Although he'd fell of mountains and such, this was a feeling that was vey new.
"Of course, it is." Bulma beamed with a proud smile. "I made it after all."
"Wooaah! Really?" He questioned as his head popped back in through the window.
"Yup! Pretty great, aren't I?" She grinned.
Although obviously impressed, he started to fidget in his seat. "Yeah! By the way how close are we to the next Dragonball?"
"Hmm." She pulled out the radar while driving.
"What's that?" He asked.
"This? It's a radar I made." She tapped the button on top and a pulse travelled through the screen, lighting up some areas and directions. "It shows us how far the Dragonballs are from us."
"That's so cool! Collecting them will be really easy now."
"Wait, you didn't think we'd just be looking for them randomly, did you?"
"Hahahehe!" He just started chuckling away in his seat.
*Sigh "It will take at least a couple of days driving to get near the next one you know."
"What!" He shouted. "How far away are they!?"
"Not too far, the world is just a really huge place." She opened a small compartment in the car and pulled out one of a couple of maps. "Look." She pointed towards a small illustration of little mountains on the far left of the map. "This is how small your home is compared to the whole world."
Goku excitedly took the map and just started at it for a while, occasionally glancing up at the surroundings and comparing it to the map. "Wow!..." Though he evidently still didn't understand fully.
With a chuckle, Bulma stopped the car and got out.
"I'll be right back. Just wait here a minute, okay?" She chuckled back at him, hoping he would get the message.
"Eh? What, where are you going?!"
… Of course. "I-I need the bathroom okay."
"Huh, what's that?"
"I need to damn pee okay!" She stormed off with a scowl.
Goku was perplexed with the sudden mood change and watched her stomp away. "Why is she going that far? What a weirdo…"
He just stood there picking his nose. "But boy, the world sure is a huge place!" Though he couldn't think much before a scream was heard.
"AAAAEEHH!"
"Hm?" He started jogging over to where he heard Bulma shout. "I wonder what happened. Maybe her peepee was bitten by a snake?"
He turned the corner to find a large pterodactyl holding Bulma in its hand, who was almost shaking.
"Arrgh?" It screeched, looking down at Goku. Before grinning malisciously.
"Hey who's your friend Bloomers?"
"It's Bulma!" She screeched. "Help me already!" Caught in the creature's grasp, shaking her fist furiously.
The pterodactyl swung its other hand down on Goku, but the kid just sidestepped the blow.
"Oh! You wanna fight!" He cheered, pushing off the ground sharply.
The beast could only watch as the child leapt up to its face with his fist cocked back.
"Take this!" He slammed his fist right in the creature's cheek.
It was positively startled that something so small could hit like this. If you looked closely, it almost seemed like it was about to cry.
Goku just hopped into a fighting pose. "Come at me!"
Much to his disappointment, the creature just quickly turned and started to fly away with Bulma still tight in its grasp, still flailing away. Probably cursing some god she didn't believe in.
"Wait, that's not fair!" Goku started jogging to catch up. "Damn its really high up, how am I gonna get to it?" He questioned himself while running with his hand on his chin, deep in thought.
All Bulma could thing was. 'Yup, I'm gonna die here…'
Suddenly Goku's head flicked up. "Of course!" He pulled the short pole out of the holster tied to his back.
Bulma, seeing this was a bit more elated. "Quickly, throw it or whatever!" she screeched as she got further and further from Goku.
The beast just turned back with its grin, not believing something could catch him this far up. Though what happened next shocked them both.
"Pole, get longer!" With these words the pole in his hands quickly grew in length, five meters, ten, twenty, forty! Before ending at a sixty-metre-long pole!
The pterodactyl and Bulma's eyes were shooting out of their sockets seeing this. Though Goku leapt far into the air, filling a fourth of the distance before heavily swinging the pole down.
"AAhhhrrg!"
The dinosaur could only watch the pole getting closer while waving a small white flag. Though it would do nothing as the pole smacked into its neck with a crunch, sending it flying down to the ground and letting go of Bulma, who was now screaming in free fall.
Goku landed back down briefly before leaping back up and snatching Bulma from the air, then landed gently.
"Hehe, he wasn't that strong." He laughed at Bulma.
"Thanks, but. Put me down I need to damn pee!" She yelled, leaping out of Goku's grasp and running to some bushes with Goku laughing in the background.
Meanwhile, further west in a dark tomb, voices could be heard.
"Umm, are you sure it's here Pilaf sir?" A rather goofy voice sounded out.
"Quiet Shu, of course I'm sure!" A high pitched, nasally voice replied.
A large door slowly creaked open, revealing the interior of the room. It was a large stone room with no light, the walls were engraved with some symbols and a large statue sat at the far end of the room. The path towards it was lined with suits of armour with a small set of stairs leading up to the statue, in front of it being a small alter with a lightly humming orange orb sat on top!
"See? There it is!" The voice continued as a small man walked into the room followed by two others.
He was a very small, blue, imp-looking man that wore a green, red and black tunic with a white frill at the collar. He had blue pants and black shoes with a red and blue striped hat. In the middle of his tunic was a kanji symbol.
"Ha, you should know not to question me, Shu!" The prementioned man beamed with a strange sense of pride.
"Yes sir, sorry sir…" A slightly larger but still short figure moped in behind him.
Shu was a short anthropomorphic Shiba- inu dog with light brown fur covering his entire body and a white face and paws. He wore a ninja uniform consisting of a purple hood, kimono with a yellow undershirt, purple pants with a white sash, black socks and straw sandals. He carried a short Katana on his back that was fastened round his figure.
"Sir, there could be traps." A third voice broke in, this one much softer that the rest.
In walked a woman with blue eyes and long black hair with straightened bangs. She had red eye shadow and lipstick, she wore a teal trench coat with a red start insignia on each shoulder, a brown belt with a pistol holster attached to it from the right hip, beige slacks and brown combat boots.
Still, the three wandered up to the altar with the short blue imp carelessly swiping the orb off it.
"Finally we have one, just six to go! See Shu, we didn't need Wheelo to go do this." He turned abruptly and knocked a suit of armour over.
Much to their horror this cause a chain reaction, knocking almost every set of armour to the floor. Old remains flooded the floor with snakes and millennia old insects crawling out of them.
"AAAAHHHH!"
Three screams could be heard through the temple. Now on their way to collect the other six.
(End)
(This little section is just for fun, don't take it too seriously, though if it pulls you out of the story too much, please say and I'll get rid of them.)
[Son Goku]
Strength: 4
Vitality: 5
Agility: 3
Intelligence: 1
Wisdom: 1
(Skills):
(Techniques):
Goku Style Martial Arts (E-)
(authors note:)
It should be obvious enough now how much I'm planning to change their characters. Hope I still managed to inject decent humor into despite taking a lot out of the original source.
Again, please say if the chapters are too short, too long or whatever. This chapter is a little shorter since I think it's a better end point.
The little bit at the end is just a fun little thing for me.
Movie villains confirmed?
I have some fun ideas for the power pole. (not at all inspired/ taken from god of highschool...)
Don't expect many differences till we get to Pilaf's castle other than character and dialogue changes since pretty much everything here dicates how the story flows moving forward and adding anything would just make it filler here.
Excited to finally get into the power system eventually, just hope I can balance it being fun but also slightly more complex
