Project Cloud


Chapter 7 - The Preliminary


Just one month away from the tournament.

Since there was no longer a home to go back to in West City, Bulma had no other choice but to remain in hiding alongside Roshi and the others while they continued to train. Because of the fact that Panchy and Dr. Briefs had been murdered, there was a lot of investigating, given that there were so many questions left unanswered as to who would do such a thing and for what motive.

Bulma went through her grieving, which was a rather quick phase that had been immediately substituted by hatred for the Red Ribbon Army and resentment for someone she used to look to as a little brother.

Despite the death of her parents and even their cute family cat, Tama, this didn't mean all of Bulma's family was completely, though. There was still one person she could turn to. And though they only spoke over the phone, Bulma decided to leave her older sister be for the meantime to let her mourn as well. She would give her more time, but upon realizing that Goku's an alien, she remembered her sister's connection with a certain extraterrestrial as well.

That was when an idea sprouted in her mind.

On East City's large body of water in the sea, Oolong is driving their boat over to a rather big island up ahead. It was a nice and cool day out with the calm shores and breezing winds as the sun brightly glistened over the pearly white clouds.

"All this time and I never even knew you had a sister," Oolong says as he steers the boat "Why keep it a secret?"

"I never kept it a secret. You just never asked is all."

"Touche."

Bulma used that as an excuse but even if she were asked about having extra family, she'd beat around the bush about it. Her sister found her own way to estrange herself from the family. It's not to say that Bulma's older sister didn't love or didn't want anything to do with Bulma and the others, but she didn't want to feel overshadowed by the pinnacle of her father's life: Capsule Corporation. She had her own dreams and talents as a creative mind and she wanted to go in her own direction. Bulma, despite having her father's genius, was sure to take the mantle after him, but even still, Bulma had ideas that would make her pop out as to not being like her father - but if anything, potentially better than he.

"Why come here now of all times anyway?" Yamcha inquires.

Unlike Oolong, Puar and Yamcha had some know knowledge regarding Bulma's older sister, Tights. From what he could recall as how Bulma described her, she was very different to her. If anything, Tights was more like her mother in not just appearance, but mind as well, though she was very book-smart and creative in arts, just not science. She had been writing books for as long as she could remember.

Regardless, Yamcha knew that Bulma had some motive to come here, but he couldn't just quite put his finger on what exactly.

He's left with no choice but to sit back and observe, meaning he will keep his mouth shut and thoughts to himself.

Pulling up on the shores of homey island, the first thing that caught everyone's eyes as they pulled up was the tree house way high on the island as dead smack in the middle was a mountain of rocks bunched up together. From afar they saw a small figure making her way down on a man made ladder.

Oolong shuts the engine off to look back at Bulma. "Must be your sister, huh?"

Tights came jogging down the pathway in a black cut up shirt with overall jeans covering it. Her ponytail bounced around as she made way over to them.

As soon as Bulma got off the boat, she ran over to her sister and the two embraced one another for a long time.

Ever since their parents died, Bulma didn't do as much as call Tights over the phone to check up on her. Bulma knew that her sister probably needed space, but at the same time, there were many times she just wanted to check in on her and ask if she was okay. Still, Tights didn't take it the wrong way and knew her sister had good intentions.

Once they let go of another after hugging for a solid two minutes, the two wipe away the subtle tears forming in their eyes and turn back to Yamcha, Puar, and Oolong with a smile on their faces.

"So, guys, this is my sister Tights!" She then points to the three one by one. "That's Oolong."

"Nice to meet ya," Oolong waves with a chuckle.

"That's Puar."

Puar waves with a cheesy grin.

"And that's Yamcha."

Yamcha says hey and asks how she's doing.

"Very good, it's nice to finally meet you all." Tights goes to shake each of their hands respectively before looking over her shoulder to Bulma. "All of you can come right inside in that little house over there if you want."

"What about the treehouse?" Oolong asks as he marvels at it.

Tights giggles. "Oh, that thing? It's REALLY cool in there. Me, Omori, and some of his friends all worked on it a while back and it's just a place of nothing but collections, memories, artifacts, books, little creations - you can go check it out if you want!"

"Oh, sure thing!"

Oolong shapeshifts into an Eagle and begins flapping his wings.

"Hey, wait for me!" Puar shapeshifts into a little peregrine falcon and quickly keeps up to join in on the fun.

"You sure have some interesting friends, Bulma," Tights remarks.

"Heh. That's not even the half of it."

As Yamcha is walking behind the two sisters as they have small talk, he notes the very big contrast in both sisters. Bulma is dressed just as easy going as her sister is, yet one style is city like as the other is totally country like. Bulma's hair is straight iron curls while her sister's is in a simple ponytail.

He wondered how siblings could be this different but so alike just by seeing them together for not even just a few minutes.

After they make entrance inside the little house, Tights tells them all to take off their shoes and make themselves feel at home as she goes to prepare tea. The little house is homey for the most part and not very lavish as Bulma's home back in West City is — well was before it got completely ransacked and repainted with blood.

Looking around, Bulma's notices that there still happens to be one person missing. After a few minutes she didn't say anything as she assumed that the old man would come from the bathroom or outside fishing or something.

So Bulma finally asks.

"Where's Mr. Omori?"

One thing about Mr. Omori was that he also partook in the field of science as well. Bulma was really young when she met him for the first time. She didn't think much of him at the time because of the fact that he didn't fix a very complicated yet simplistic ship at the time, but as she got older, Bulma came to the realization that Mr. Omori was a true scientist at heart whenever Tights informed her of his history. He had his own research lab where he was hell bent on learning the ins and outs of time travel, to where he could even potentially make a time traveling machine, but after an incident, his wife and many people died. The government scrapped his project yet he continued to work on a time machine in private.

Such technology was very advanced and out of this world, and the fact that Omori dedicated a great portion of his life working on such meant that he was a dedicated scientist. She just hoped she could talk to him and poke his brain a little in hopes of learning more.

"He passed not long ago," Tights answers them as she pours hot tea. After coming out with a plate and three small cups of tea with a tea pitcher in the middle, Tights sets it down on the table in the living room. Getting up with her hands on her hips, she finally muscles up the courage to ask Bulma the big question. "Who would do something like that to our parents?"

Bulma looks down at her reflection through the steamy tea that shook in her small cup, unable to answer.

"The Red Ribbon Army," Yamcha speaks up for Bulma.

"You can't be serious!? Why!?"

"It's a long sto-"

"Well, I'm listening," Tights cuts her little sister off.

"Capsule Corp isn't being under attack," Yamcha assures Tights.

From then on, he explains everything to Tights regarding their friend Goku and his abnormal strength and how he had been taken in by this evil doctor and converted to their side. Of course, Yamcha couldn't explain all of the story without mention of the Dragon Balls, which didn't really surprise Tights. After all, Bulma did come to visit Omori and the others to inform them of her journey for the Dragon Balls. And it wasn't very long after that she met Son Goku.

The blonde was always aware of the potential danger that hunting for such powerful tools could bring, but by far never did it occur to her that matters this tragic could happen — and to her own family.

Taking everything that had been told to her into consideration, Tights nods her head, being as understanding as possible. Of course, there was no doubt in her mind that Bulma loved her, but she was just like their parents — a bit too into themselves and their own little hobbies.

"You didn't just come here to talk about life and catch up did, you, Bulma?"

Bulma frowns. "That obvious?"

Tights sits down next to her sister and places her hand on Bulma's lap. "Don't feel bad about it. I understand, okay? So tell me, how can I help my baby sister?"

"I was wondering...do you still happen to be in contact with your old pal, Jaco?"

This definitely wasn't what she had been expecting, but she'd be a damn liar to say that she couldn't contact him. Though Tights has a look of surprise plastered on her face, she doesn't question her sister and instead decides to help her any way possible. "No worries. I can get in touch with him right now." Tights gets up to go over to the telephone and types in a few numbers. She looks back and mouths, "It's ringing," before the call picks up.

She says hello after getting a hello back and says that her little sister needs a favor. After a bit of back and forth between the two, Tights hands Bulma the phone.

Bulma goes over and grabs it. As she goes for it, Tights mouths to put him on speaker.

"Hello?"

"Long time no hear! Ya know, you really don't sound like the same little girl that made me want to tear my ears off years ago. You must have grown."

"Yeah," Bulma says. She clears her throat before she gets straight to business "Hey, can you do me a favor?"

"Just like your sister. You only call me whenever you need something. I am a busy Galactic Patrolman and I have important matters to attend to. I know ya don't know me and all, but my job comes with high risk, so ya can ask me how I'm doing or what's been going on or if I have a girlfriend. I'm out here saving the world and killing bad guys ya know."

"But didn't you come to Earth all those years ago to rid the Earth of the alien baby you said that's supposed to terminate all life on this planet?" Tights cuts in. "From what I gather, killing a baby isn't the same as killing a bad guy - alien or not."

Jaco immediately falls silent.

His momentary silence gives Bulma some time to think. After going over what was just said in her mind, Bulma soon comes to the realization that it must have been Son Goku who's been given that mission to exterminate all life on the planet. Maybe he forgot about it or something because he was always the most pure-hearted person in the world! Maybe Gero reprogrammed him. So many thoughts were running through her head now.

"What...about...it?" Jako slowly asks.

"Bulma's friend is probably the kid you're talking about! He has a monkey tail and stupid looking hair!"

Jako shrieks.

"My sister's words,' not mine," Tights reminds him.

But that was all Jaco needed to hear in order to realize that this was definitely a Saiyan she was talking about. Cool sweats was falling down from his head to his knees. Just when he thought everything would be okay in his life, this just had to pop up. For the longest, Jaco had merely been hoping that the Saiyan wasn't causing any trouble, otherwise it'd all fall back on him and he'd really be in trouble.

Despite the fact that Jaco missed the ship's landing, he should have actually did his job and went out of his way to find the child any how. Damn, if only Tights and the others could see how he was kicking himself in the ass right about now.

"So...is he causing trouble?"

"Yes," Bulma tells Jaco. "He's working for the worst organized crime organization there is. They all plan on taking over the world and they're going to use Goku to do it."

"Sounds like a you problem to be honest," Jaco says. "As long as your planet isn't conquered by the brat and sold under the Freeza Force because of him, I'm all good."

Tights knew Jaco would be a bit stubborn at first. Despite being respectful and nice when it came to people — a trait she took after her mother — Tights could also be like her little sister and threaten people to get her way. Jaco just needed that extra motivation.

"Or I could just contact the Galactic King and tell him about your fail of a mission all those years ago! I'm pretty sure my sister has living proof of this kid's existence and if he really does look anything like you call a Saiyan, monkey-tail and all, then you'll be in a lot of trouble, won't you?"

Jaco seethes his teeth. On the small off chance that this kid wasn't a Saiyan, Jaco still didn't want to take any chances. If he played it safe, he could help fix a problem and nothing would fall back on him. But still, he didn't want to partake in fighting a Saiyan.

"But you do realize that I can't take on a Saiyan right?"

"I don't need you to take him on," Bulma tells Jaco. "I can handle that myself."

And that's when all eyes in the room came over to Bulma, especially Yamcha, curious as to how in the hell she could do that.

Jaco ponders it with an audible hmmm through the phone. After giving it some thought, he complies. "Alright, I can help you out in other ways - perhaps pull some strings. I know you're a super genius since you even fixed my ship all by yourself when you were just a little kid, so I am under the impression that if I give you some advanced alien weaponry tech, you could cook something up?"

Bulma smiles. "That's all I needed to hear. Bring your best."

"You got it."

And so everyone's plans for the tournament were finally all set.


Papaya island is where the 22nd Tenkaichi Budokai is held literally every few years that it takes place. Though a relatively small population resided in the area, the island became much more condense whenever the tournament rolled around every so often. All the bars and clothing shops would be full from sundown to sunrise, as well as all the hotels and apartments, as people tended to go on vacation there anyway.

It's early in the morning and many people have been coming in to participate in the tournament.

Roshi is there accompanied by Yamcha, Tights, Krillin, Oolong, Puar, Mai, Pilaf, and Shuu. He continues to check his watch as he looks around for a certain person.

"Weird," Roshi says as he tips his hat. "I haven't heard from Bulma ever since last night and she isn't nowhere to be found at all." He turns back to Yamcha. "Did she tell you that she wouldn't be here?"

Yamcha plays dumb as he shrugs his shoulders. "She told me that she would make it here, but knowing her, maybe something came up. She's been super busy on her creations these past few weeks."

"True." Roshi then checks his watch again. "But we have just under three minutes left. Upa better hurry up too if he plans on making it in time."

Puar gives Yamcha a certain look, but the latter of the two just puts his finger over his lips and signals for Puar to shut it.

"Well, well, well, if it isn't the turtle master…"

Hearing that familiar voice caught Roshi's attention. No longer after he turned his head to face a slightly taller old man with a crane as a hat, he grimaces.

"I'm rather shocked to see you're still alive."

"As passive aggressive as ever, I see," the crane master chuckles. "I heard that your disciples put on quite the show last tournament. Though to be quite honest, that just shows how much this tournament has fallen as a whole. So I've entered my disciples as well to put on a show as to what true Martial Arts look like."

"If you call dishonor and snottiness true martial arts, your head must have been stuck up your a-"

"Master!" Turtle cuts Roshi off.

"If you fools will stop your yapping and hurry up and register, we would appreciate it very much."

Roshi and Tsuru both turn around to catch a glance at two young twin siblings with their arms crossed. Not acknowledging them any further, they walk right between the two old men, shoulder bumping them along the way.

"Register Lapis and Lazuli," the two tell the men taking names at the front.

"And me, don't forget me!"

Krillin looks up into the sky. "Look, there's Upa!"

Roshi squints his eyes to get a better look at the small figure coming down. "A-Are you sure?"

"He's on the Kinto'un!"

Upa hops right off the Kinto'un cloud in a white gi with the name Korin in kanji from behind. Despite the change in clothing, he remains with a turtle shell on his back, though the one he's wearing now appears to be twice the size as the last one. It was a wonder as to how Upa was capable of carrying such humongous weight without falling over on his face.

Roshi is quick to go and register Upa in at the very last second.

Once he finishes, he gets a good look at Lapis and Lazuli heading into the gymnasium after all the participants were called in. One thing he noticed was the fact that they hid something in their wrapped fists as they entered.

He knew that they had to be watched.

"Now that my training's done, I can take off the shell right?" Upa asks after running up to Roshi.

"Ahem," Roshi clears his throat. "Yes, of course."

Upa drops the shell, which puts a big crack in the ground, scaring some people that passed by from behind. The kid proceeds to run over into the gymnasium as Pilaf, Mai, Tights, and Shuu head into the audience just to wait for the preliminaries. Roshi then takes off his shades and heads to the nearest restroom.


Everyone was tight in the gymnasium, which held only a handful of rings. Nearly 200 people had came in and drew a piece of paper with a number on it as entry into the preliminary fights, as the real fight would only qualify for eight total fighters in a total of three rounds.

With everyone already in, the last person to enter is the old man Jackie Chun.

Everyone in the room looks immediately his way, recalling his performance as the last tournament's winner.

Of course, Goku was amongst the crowd. He was one of the few to come in earliest just so that he could manage to blend in later on. It wasn't as if he was hiding in the first place, but everyone already recognized him from last year. So by the time Jackie Chun showed up, eyes went from the runner up over to the real winner of the 21st Tenkaichi Budokai.

"Roshi," Goku says under his breath. Before, the kid was forever oblivious to the fact that Chun was Roshi, but by being more intune with his senses and using his own sense of smell instead of letting smell get to him involuntarily, Goku immediately matched Chun's scent with Roshi's. It all made sense as to why the old man was so strong. However, if he even had a chance of remotely being able to make it back out alive, he had another thing coming.

Everyone was separated into four totally different blocks as there were only five rings in the gymnasium. Some were lucky to be split up from others, while others...not as much. After the rules were spoken of during the preliminary rounds, it was finally time for the first bout in block 1.

"First up," the announcer of the preliminaries call out, "Number 15 vs. 35!"

Everyone looked on at the two people getting up to the ring. This was perhaps the most peculiar match, but it was what caught people's interest. Number 15 stood at a height of 5'5 with a yellow jump suit and black stripes down from the shoulders to the side of the pants. It was obvious that this person was a female due to her perky breasts pushing against the clothing, though nobody could see her face because she wore a yellow mask that covered everything but her light, blue round eyes.

As for number 35, it was a short pale skinned pipsqueak with big red circled dots on each side of his cheeks.

It was a female and a short midget going head to head against one another.

The purpose of the preliminaries was to eliminate the weaker fighters so that only the strongest remained in the end, but for two weaklings to start off? Funny.

Tien, student of the crane school, looks over at number 35, who looks back as he hops onto the arena. Despite the fact that they were looking at one another, they were speaking telepathically.

Tien warned the little guy of this person, telling him that there was something about her that he just felt was off - as if she had ulterior motives. It was in his best interest to be careful.

Chaotzu, Tien's martial arts peer, steps up. "Are you ready to lose?"

"Something like it," she scoffs.

Everyone stares on intently in this block as the match is said to start.

Tien pays attention as to how Chaotzu goes all out this very first match by raising both his hands and using his telekinesis. Tien didn't know why, but he knew something was up. This person didn't have any outstanding chi energy or anything of the sorts, but there were definite intentions. The fact that Chaotzu's telekinetic powers didn't have any effects told him a lot.

Chaotzu's eyes and mouth get wider and bigger the more that his opponent walks through his telekinesis. Chaotzu goes as far as exerting all his power in order to try and keep the person still, albeit to no avail.

One punch to the stomach was more than enough to send Chaotzu off his feet and on the ground off the ring, which shocked Tien and everyone watching.

Goku was rather surprised, but he didn't show any expression of such. Just like he knew who Roshi was in his disguise, he knew exactly who this person was, too. He understood why she decided to enter and he actually looked forward to seeing her proceed.

As the preliminaries rage on, one student of both Turtle and Hermit school face the misfortune of going up against someone with more advantages than them. Chaotzu had been knocked out thanks to number 35, who went by the name of Hanayome, and Yamcha had to face Tien.

Regardless, the preliminaries went smoothly.

Jackie Chun lived up to expectations and breezed swiftly through the qualifying rounds with general ease.

Tien showed that the crane school wasn't to be underestimated as he dominated every single of his following opponents with just as much ease as Chun, making it seem as if the two were on the same playing field even. Of course, Tien wasn't going to put all his cards out on the table in one fight. He wanted to keep the real fighters guessing.

Upa had a big challenge right off the bat by having to go toe to toe with King Chappa, a person considered to be one of the most lethal Martial Artists, as he participated in a past tournament where none of his opponents managed to lay a single finger on him.

Upa averted expectations by holding back against King Chappa and getting a feel for his way of fighting, which many people started to believe Upa was doing just to mock him. But once he had Chappa figured out, he read the man like a book and one single surprise kick to the cheek was all it took to knock him out.

It was here that Krillin realized that Upa definitely wasn't to be taken lightly. His master's words rung loud now. There was definite competition in this tournament. He started to grow concerned.

But Krillin's doubts within himself quickly faded as he had absolutely no trouble breezing through the preliminary rounds as well like a hot knife through butter.

But the most surprising show of all was the two twins, Lapis and Lazuli. The two seemed nothing more than to be normal kids. But all it took for them was one single hit or maybe just a few for them to send their opponents falling back as their legs buckled.

As for Son Goku, he got just as many eyes as Jackie Chun, perhaps even more. Everyone was looking forward to the runner-up, especially as to why he no longer represented the Turtle School. The kid lived up to the hype and beat everyone that came in his path with one single blow. Being the underdog when it came to being compared to Roshi, many were hoping that Son Goku would be able to prove himself better than before.

Goku wasn't there for the tournament. He was there for the Dragon Ball. Yamcha, Krillin, Roshi, and the others knew that.

The two who couldn't keep their eyes off him the most were Jackie Chun and Hanayome.

After the preliminaries, there were only eight qualifying fighters left.

Son Goku, Jackie Chun, Krillin, Upa, Hanayome, Lapis, Lazuli, and Tien.

Each and every one of these individuals, with a goal special to their own cause.


Thanks, WhamBam for another awesome review. I like how you see how I'm not scared to actually make big decisions with characters and that you see how balanced things are when you take the lives of normal people (or delinquents such as Lapis and Lazuli) into consideration. As you can see regarding Turtle school, Upa has taken Goku's place. And even though Mai and Shuu have gotten training, they're not participating in the tournament. I look at Dragon Ball just like you do. Thank you again for the review.

Same to you, luffyssjg. Thanks for the review.

Hope you're enjoying the story, guys. More to come soon.