As I floated through the void, I felt content. The darkness was calming, soothing even, compared to the sheer stress I had felt while dying. Hell, it was so calming that I've even forgotten about my death, which was personally a relief as if it stressed me out during it I would definitely be feeling stressed out now if I had to think on it.

After a few more moments of the blissful void floating, a blue screen popped up in front of me.

Welcome to Dragon Ball: The Game, gamer!

Oh great, one of these things from the like 500 fanfictions out there. At least it's a universe I'm familiar with, thankfully.

First, gamer, you must choose your race before your journey can begin.

As this box vanished, a longer vertical box with a scroll wheel appeared with a list of dozens of races. Thankfully, it had a search bar on the top of it so it was easy enough to choose my race.

…Are you sure you would like to proceed as a Human? You could be a Namekian, an Arcosian, or even a Sai-

Oh I'm satisfied alright. I'm probably in the minority, but I've always thought that Saiyans ruined the series as a whole and shoved aside the great cast in favor of two monkeys and a couple half monkeys running around and constantly fucking things up when they should just be ended immediately. Dragon Ball wasn't a bad series, but everyone getting basically ignored for Goku and Vegeta will always irk me.

…

I might have some pent up dislike of Saiyans it seems, I wonder if Frieza would spare me if he knew I agreed with him, heh heh…

Alright gamer, please pick your time period!

This was possibly even easier than my race, I'm just going to select the begining of Dragon Ball, a week or so before Goku meets Bulma.

Alright! As of now, you have 5,000 Perk Points that you can use to pick up Perks! Shown below are a list of Perks, but be warned that once a Perk is fully chosen you cannot refund it!

A long list of Perks showed up, and I had seriously looked up and down the list before nodding and selecting only two. Natural Ki User, it allowed me to use Ki from the moment I appeared in the world and Teen, which "spawned me in" at the age of 15. Both of these combined only cost 1,000 of the 5,000 Perk Points. Some may call me an idiot, but I only want the bare essentials and to work up from basically nothing.

Gamer… You know that you haven't picked the Perk, The Gamer, right?

And?

It's the thing that lets you play your life like a video game, the entire point of this system!

Hmmm… Nah. Just being in the series and able to use Ki is good enough for me. I'm a proud man, I refuse to take the broken ability. I want to show the universe that Humans can be just as good if not BETTER than every other race! How the hell would I be able to do that with such a cheat ability on me that no one else will get?

That's not how you're supposed to play the ga-

Send me in!

No, stop! WAIT, WHAT ARE YOU DOING?!

The first thing I felt was the warm sun's rays and the soft grass below me…

The first thing I saw was the beautiful blue sky I didn't know I missed…

The first thing I smelt was the crisp mountain air…

And the first thing I heard was one Son Goku pick up a stick and poke me while trying to ask if I was ok.

Shifting my head up, I looked into Goku's innocent face. He wore his original outfit, blue gi with the Power Pole, and was even in the original DB artstyle. Sitting up and looking around, pointedly ignoring Goku's attempts at conversation for the moment, I noticed that everything had the appearance of being anime but also 3D… It was kinda trippy to be honest.

"Can you hear me? Are you ok? Grandpa never taught me how to deal with people who can't hear…" Goku mumbled to himself at the end, and I couldn't blame him either. I shook my head in amusement and stood up, looking at Goku.

I smiled a bit, "Yeah I'm ok, I was a bit dazed after what happened to me. What's your name?"

The boy smiled back, his tail idly waving, "The name's Son Goku, who are you?"

Pausing for a moment, I had to think about a name. My original name was forgotten sadly, so I had to think of a cool one for this new life.

"I… don't remember my name." Sadly, I didn't have the brain cells on me to figure out a cool name to steal from another anime character, because if I'm living in an anime world I sure as hell am getting an anime name.

Goku tilted his head at that and somehow sagely nodded for an 11-12 year old. "Yeah, sometimes I forget things that don't really help me fight too much. Grandpa had to remind me so often how to spell!" The boy finished off with a laugh and a sad sigh at the same time, and I winced slightly remembering how the boy's grandfather had just died.

So I decided to distract him. "Fighting? I don't really know how to fight but I think I'd really enjoy learning how."

That was the moment I learned a smiling Goku could light up the world.

Two Days Later

Two days had passed after I had seen Goku's happiness at the thought of someone training with him. At first, it had been challenging as Goku had almost no experience teaching and I had no experience fighting, but once we figured it out he helped me learn his grandfather's style.

The style was both simple and complex and had a solid balance of both offense and defense, I reflected as I grabbed a fist from Goku and forced it down only to land a blow straight to his chest. I smiled at this briefly, this was the first time I had ever gotten a solid blow on the saiyan. In my books, this was good considering I had only been training for two days now.

Sadly, as this thought had distracted me, Goku managed to grab hold of my arm and threw me behind him. "You need to stop thinking so much while you fight!" Sitting down next to me, the boy smiled widely, "But you did manage to land a good blow on me! That was pretty cool!"

After a couple minutes of idle chat, Goku sat up and walked off, saying he was going to go fishing. This was fine for me, I had something I wanted to try out anyways.

I walked next to a small pond near the Son house and stared deeply at myself in the reflection of the water. The reflection sent to me was familiar, yet vastly different. I still had my brown hair and general, if now animated, features but my eyes were now a light red color. I may not remember what my eyes used to be like, but I know for a fact that they weren't red, though it seems I've only forgotten things that have been replaced or removed as I still know what I generally looked like.

"...I look like Takato from Tamers." I deadpanned as a slight smile was brought to my face before shaking my head. I had come here for something other than being reminded of Digimon and a possible name to claim, I came here for some Ki Science… or at least just experimenting with something.

With a slight frown on my face and a bit of concentration, I opened up my hand to allow a ball of basic yellow ki form. Moving it around between my fingers with a look of concentration on my face, I idly wondered if I had the Ki Control neccessary for such a thing before deciding to test it out anyways. Progress was made by people doing things anyways.

With a concentrated glare at my right hand, the ball of ki I had summoned before had exponentially increased in size from a mere golf ball to roughly a watermelon in size. With a grunt of effort, the orb of ki slowly was directed to surround my hand. Cringing slightly at the heat but not feeling any pain, I continue to slightly morph the orb of ki that surrounded my hand.

Satisfied with the first rendition of my creation, I shakily stood up and walked to one of the bamboo growths near the house. With a rough chop, the bamboo fell down to the ground with burn marks where it was cut. A smile formed on my face as my first Ki Blade test was somewhat successful.

Soon after that though, the Ki Blade dispelled and I collapsed to the ground now sweating and heaving. "That takes way too much out of me to be used so much…"

I heard footsteps and a large object being dragged through the grass behind me, "What takes way too much out of you to be used much?"

I eyed Goku and the large fish he caught, "I'll show you after dinner, I'm exausted now."

As I stood up shakily and followed Goku to the food pit, I had to consider the applications of a large superheated blade of plasma energy that could possibly kill a normal human on touch but also couldn't be used for more than a single slash by me. So far, at least for now, the Ki Blade seems to be beyond what I can physically handle. Though to be fair, I had expected to not even be able to make it let alone use it so that's not the worst thing that's happened to me yet.

As we talked over the fish, which despite Goku being seen as an idiot by the fanbase was cooked amazingly, I started to think of other techniques that could greatly benefit me and others I might teach… Teach? I think I'd like that… to teach other humans the great heights we could obtain, kinda like Tien in Super now that I think about that.

Polishing off a large chunk of fish on my skewer, I looked over to Goku who was eating with his bare hands like a true man, "How do you even go fishing anyways? Whenever you go out I never see you take a pole with you." I know it was shown that he would dive into the water, but I kinda wanna get his perspective on it, ya know?

Goku nodded at me, "Grandpa and I used to use poles to fish, but when I grew older my appetite got bigger and small fish couldn't get me full. So what we did was use a large piece of bait, like my tail, and lure a biiiiiig fish up," he exclaimed while throwing his arms apart with emphasis on the 'biiiiiig' fish, "After a big fish caught on, one of us would dive underwater and punch is super hard to force it on land. Once it was on land, we would strike it really hard with a rock on the head to… humanely kill it I think?"

I had to smile at that while I tore into more fish flesh, even as a kid Goku would treat animals and people with respect most of the time, just not girls yet.

"By the way, have you thought of a name yet?" Goku fully knew well my troubles in remembering or even making a name, and I was getting frustrated about it too before a recent memory popped into my head.

"...I look like Takato from Tamers." I deadpanned as a slight smile was brought to my face before shaking my head.

I shrugged with a smile, "I thought of one earlier. Call me Takato from now on."

A Week Later

Sweat poured down my face as I performed my last pushup of the set, wiping my brow of the sweat as I sat down next to the Son house and gulped down a canteen of water. Feeling refreshed, I enter the house.

I look around for a brief moment, my eyes glancing over the Four Star Dragon Ball for a mere moment, looking for the calendar Goku keeps placing in random locations before finding it under the bed.

September 1st, Age 749. If my memory is correct, then that means Bulma should be driving over here today. Idly, I recalled, I had appeared in this world on August 23rd… Was that my birthday? Oh well, I'll just assume so and go on with my day.

Goku, as per normal around lunch, was out to get a large animal for said meal. I'd be more surprised at the amount of food he could take in, but ever since I started training my ki and body together I've had a very similar diet. Might not just be a Saiyan thing, but a Ki User thing in general which honestly makes sense. The body, in using Ki and an active lifestyle, demands more calories to fuel the engines so we end up eating far more than a normal person. If Goku had been born without Ki, which is impossible for Saiyans, then he would most likely have an appetite closer to that of a normal Human before he started training.

Thinking about Saiyans brought a scowl to my face. In retrospect, the race as a whole is a stain to Universe 7. The only Saiyans worth a damn are Goku, his sons, and Trunks. Vegeta makes up for it later, but until that point he's willingly the prince of the scum. The Saiyans were a race of intergalactic raiders and warmongers, and have probably killed off trillions alone. If I'm being completely honest to myself, the universe probably rejoiced when Frieza killed them all off. I know I would.

The sudden segway into thinking about Frieza was a worrying one. When he wasn't the antagonist of an arc for a television show that you enjoyed, he was one of the most terrifying things that I've ever had to think about. An alien warlord of untold age with high adaptability and full willingness to kill or enslave your entire planet? Slightly worrying if I do say so myself.

Shaking my head and slapping my cheeks, I focused hard for what was about to come. I was about to join the Son Goku and the Bulma Briefs on the journey for the Dragon Balls. I wonder if I can interrupt Oolong's wish somehow…

I winced slightly as I heard the faint screeching of tires and screaming, before a gunshot was heard across the forest. I know I shouldn't be concerned about Goku, but I'm not exactly convinced I'm bulletproof yet and I'd rather not have to test it out.

After a couple minutes, Goku walks down the road carrying the large fish and Bulma follows behind in her pink shirt. Amusingly, I can spot out the small bruise on Goku's forehead from where Bulma tried to execute him. Deciding to try and get names out of the way, I ran up to meet them.

"Who's the new girl Goku?" I ask, Bulma getting slightly surprised by another new face. Now that I'm up close to them, I can see very vaguely what looks like the ends of lavender peeking out from the tips of Bulma's blue hair. I guess this shows that Trunks getting blue hair in Super was just to be expected, huh?

Goku bobbed his head towards Bulma, "This is my friend Takato! What's your name?"

The bluenette huffs slightly, putting her hands on her waist, "Bulma's my name."

As if by cosmic insight, I instinctively moved over to bop Goku on the top of his head before he could start laughing about her name, "Oww, why'd you do that?"

I stared Goku right in the eyes expectantly as he rubbed his head before sighing, "I assume Bulma's joining us for lunch?"

After that, we approached the Son house and I started setting up the spitroast while I assumed the original series of events was going on within the house. After rubbing the fish with some of the wild herbs and spices from around the house, and god this forest was a treasure trove of those, I started the fire and stalked towards the house.

"IT'S NOT DIRTY! HOW RUDE!" Bulma shrieked as Goku obliviously avoided a fate many would wish for. I poked my head around the corner and looked at them for a moment as Bulma fumed.

Letting out a breath, Bulma turned to Goku after she cooled down for a moment. "I got it! Why don't you guys just come help me search for them? Your grandpa told you to be nice to girls, right?"

Shrugging, I turned back to the fish and moved it along the fire as the conversation played out. Roughly a minute or two later, Goku and Bulma walked outside and as Bulma was about to walk off, I decided to let myself be known.

"Hey you guys, are we just gonna waste this fish and the spices on it or…" Goku's head had whipped towards me at high speeds, a hungry look in his eyes before he rushed over. Bulma sighed and slowly walked over to sit on a bench as we cooked the fish.

As the fish cooked, the conversation played out like normal.

The Saiyan in the group looked towards Bulma, "So how are we going to find the other balls if we don't know where they are?" At this question, Bulma perked up with a proud look on her face.

Chuckling, Bulma began, "I have a reputation for my brains, you know!" before whispering mostly to herself, "Although my face is cute too!" She opened up the brown satchel on her side and pulled out the legendary Dragon Rada-

"We'll use this! The Dragon Radar! It's an invention I created that helps locate the Dragon Balls from the energy they emit! Look, these three are the ones we have," Bulma points down to the device in her hand, letting both Goku and myself get a look at the three blips on the screen, "And the next one is over here. About… 1,200 Kilometers to the west!" Goku looked confused at that while I nodded.

Bulma put the device back into her satchel and pulled out her capsule case, "Since you destroyed my car," at this Bulma glares at Goku for a brief moment, "I'll have to bring something out that'll fit all three of us assuming your friend wants to come too," Bulma talks while looking at me with an eyebrow curved up and I shrug in response.

"Might as well, I have nothing better to do without Goku around to train with," Well except try and use techniques that is, but I'd rather hope to impress Master Roshi and get some training in with him rather than just go off of nothing.

The bluenette nodded in acceptance and fished out two capsules, "I have a motorbike and a sidecar attatchment for it, if that's fine?" Goku, once again, looked confused, while I had no issues with it and said as much.

After a couple more minutes and some cutlery and plates were brought out for myself and Bulma, we enjoyed the fish. The fish tasted like a more meaty cod, and the spices/herbs from around the forest accented its flavor with slight spice and sweetness. The surprise that two country bumpkins could cook well surprised Bulma, but she quickly made a small smile as she continued eating and engaging in small talk with her "bodyguards" for the journey.

I grimaced at the topic while eating a chunk of the fish. Swallowing, I answered Bulma. "Yeah, I can't remember anything before Goku found me in a field last week. We've been training together ever since." This was a fact, besides from meta knowledge on pretty much every media I consumed, my life was veritably blank to my knowledge. While sad about it, it also allowed me to have a fresh start without many worries I guess.

Bulma cringed at the thought, "That sounds horrible, are you ok with it?" I simply shrugged in an indifferent way before having to wipe off a stray spec of fish from where Goku was making a mess of himself.

"Goku, man, you're going to need to bathe before we leave," I tell the monkey boy as Bulma looks on in a mixture of disgust and amazement. I met her eyes, "You'll get used to it, the no manners thing that is. The big eating thing is something I even have to do."

She shuddered at the thought of being near someone eating at the same rate as Goku and I found it ironic given her future husband.

After a couple more minutes of eating and Goku diving into the nearby pond while Bulma and I set up the motorbike and its sidecar, avoiding the whole fairy magic debacle for now, we started buckling up. As Bulma settled in the cockpit with Goku on her back, she looked down at me, "The sidecar stable?"

I shook it a little bit, no budge. "We're good to go Bulma," I finished with a slight smile.

She grinned back and revved the engine, "Good enough for me."

Goku's surprised scream will always make the sudden lurch forwards and my forehead slamming into the metal of the sidecar worth it.

After a bit of driving, I noticed the landscape was slowly changing from pure forest to rolling hills. I tapped the side of the motorbike getting both Goku and Bulma's attention, "It's gonna be hilly on the roads, don't go too fast!"

Bulma nodded, "Thanks," and brought her attention back to the road. I was not wanting to see if this little sidecar could survive the jump. I'd rather try to stick myself into that motorbike that is giving me serious yugioh vibes the more I look at it actually…

I blink in surprise, has Dragon Ball really influenced a lot more than I thought it did?

Suddenly, we lurch to a stop and the bike turns off, "I'll be right back, just a miniute ok?"

Ah she's going to the bathroom, I poke Goku and explain this to him before he can make a big deal about it as Bulma runs off into an area with some bushes and a tree. I ignored Goku's queries and waited a bit. Any moment now…

Bulma's screams are right on time as Goku and I rush over to see the large pteranodon with Bulma in its grip.

"Who the hell are you two? Her friends?" The dinosaur asks, slightly surprising me. Is this the only dinosaur in the series that has actually talked to people or am I remembering wrong? I shake my head briefly to clear this thought from my head as Goku asks it the same thing.

"Uh, yeah yeah! I have something to talk to her about so-"

The dinosaur never got to finish his words as I leaped forwards and ram a fist into its neck, "Goku it wants to eat Bulma!" The Saiyan's eyes harden slightly at this as he pulls out the Power Pole.

He twirls it in his hand and yells out the line, "Power Pole extend!" The pole extends at speeds that I honestly cannot fathom, it seeming almost instant in my eyes, as the pole reaches a long enough size for Goku to have the reach required to slam it into the side of the pteranodon's neck, breaking it and shoving the dinosaur into the nearby tree.

Thankfully, Bulma was dropped to the ground after the first of our two assaults on a monster's neck, and gulps as she stares at its now dead body.

After a minute of staring at it, I drag Goku back to the motorbike so Bulma can finish using the restroom. Soon after Bulma followed after us and started up the motorbike once more.

As we coasted through the country-side, I couldn't help but think about what could be possibly achievable. The Ki Blade was out of my reach now and even using it briefly to show Goku was exhausting to me. Plus, looking back, I might want to create my own technique instead of stealing one from an edgelord and Vegito.

Cupping my cheek and looking out to the right, seeing the rolling hills as we drive by, I lightly grin as several different potential abilities and their inspirations pop into my mind. Ki has shown to be incredibly malleable in nature, and can do several things that people seem to forget by the time Z rolls around. Like the Thunder Shock Surprise, general Telepathy and Mind Reading, the list can go on for days about the sheer utility of Ki that people seem to forget behind "Me go Super Saiyan me punch hard" these days…

On that note, I can't help but think about whether or not I could make a transformation or at least some sort of power boosting technique. As much as I hate to say it, I think we as Humans might need one unless the Kaioken becomes suddenly available and I rather doubt that I'd be able to go to King Kai's if I offed myself here.

Oh, I think we're stopping for the night. I get to watch Goku freak out over the house appearing, which does so in a large puff of smoke with a thrown capsule.

"A-Are you a witch or some-" I snort to myself as Bulma brings us inside. Finally, modern housing. I have missed this dearly, dearly enough that I refuse to let Bulma lose her capsules or at the very least this one… Did she really drop them into that river? I'm going to have to pay attention to Bulma a lot more, I refuse to sleep out in the wilderness when modern luxury is available to me.

Speaking of modern luxury, Bulma leans over and smells Goku only to back away in disgust," You reek! Get in the bath right now!" At Goku's questioning glance, she looked at me and I shrugged, "I tried my best to keep clean, I bathed every day in the river near the house."

She accepted this with a short nod while dragging Goku into the bathroom, "You're after me then, ok Takato?" Oh wow it's been a good while since I've heard my name, almost like I've been blocking out the one person who keeps on trying to get my attention with weird things and questions about girls needing to go pee in a hidden location. Hey, it's not my fault Gohan didn't teach Goku the basics about human interaction, even if he's an alien monkey boy.

I settled down onto the couch in Bulma's temporary home with a look of concentration on my face, focusing intently on my ki and trying to feel it out. A wave of warmth wafted over me as I basked in the power of my body and a small smile made its way to my face before I tried concentrating on feeling the ki of others around me.

After about five minutes of concentration, I could vaguely feel two energy signatures in the direction of the bathroom, Goku and Bulma of course. It kind of felt like my head was a compass surrounded in Ki and a bead of pressure pointed in the direction of my traveling companions. This was made even more apparent when I felt a third energy signature a bit behind me, probably an animal outside, that had a smaller energy signature than even Bulma.

Focusing more on Goku and Bulma's signatures, I could feel them in full. Their complexity that I could barely fathom from my seat on the couch. The way their energies pulsed was honestly beautiful in a way, Goku's oblivious innocence and Bulma's naivety. If everyone felt even somewhat similar to this…

I smacked myself in the face and shook my head, alright so I've figured out how to sense the Ki of people around me. Very useful if I do say so myself, but pretty basic in the grand scheme of things.

Soon after, Goku rushed out of the back rooms next to the bathroom now clothed again and burst out the door, no doubt looking for food, while I heard the bath drain and saw Bulma walk out in just a towel.

Feeling a bit of heat rush to my face, I busied myself by walking by and grabbing a towel before darting into the room Bulma had just left, much to her amusement I could tell.

After getting out of my clothes and sinking into a now filled tub, I couldn't help myself but groan at the nice feeling of the hot water caressing my skin. Now I definitely refuse to lose this bath!