Chapter 8
Krillin
After the attack at the Mall was resolved, Krillin and Videl reported back to the Station along with Marron, Eighteen arrived to pick up Marron about an hour later, after the paperwork was filed. When Eighteen saw Marron's face, she was beyond pissed off. She looked at Krillin and said, "I want to know who attacked the Mall." "I can't tell you that, Eighteen," Krillin firmly said. "So you're just going to let the animals that attacked our daughter-" "MOM!" Marron spoke up, "It was my choice to fight. This is what you've been training me for. And it worked. I won that fight. I don't need your help protecting me from thugs like them. Also, if you kill those guys, or hurt them, it could hurt Dad's investigation. I appreciate you're looking out for me, but I'm seventeen years old now, I can fight my own battles." Eighteen and Krillin both looked at their daughter, shocked that she actually stood up to Eighteen. Marron's legs were shaking, but her eyes were on Eighteen's as she said, "I can take care of myself. Just trust that you and Dad helped prepare me for these situations." Eighteen sighed and looked at Krillin, "She's inherited yours and your friends' stupidity, I swear." "I like to think of it as 'courage' personally," Krillin responded. Eighteen snorted, but kissed Krillin goodbye anyway before she took Marron home.
Krillin watched them leave and scratched his head, there were only two explanations now for those ki wielding criminals, Tien, or worse, Tien's old Master, Shen, the Crane Hermit. "You have any ideas?" Videl asked him when he returned to his desk. "Yeah, the Tri-Beam is Tien's signature technique, but he learned it studying under his original master, Shen, aka The Crane Hermit. Think of him as an evil version of Master Roshi, they both trained under the same Master centuries ago, Master Mutaito. Master Roshi stayed on the path of good, but after Mutaito died sealing away Piccolo Daimao, Shen saw how powerful the path of evil was, and fell into it. Haven't seen that guy in decades, I thought he had died, I guess that was just wishful thinking on my part," Krillin explained, and noticed Videl wasn't weirded out at all, "You seem to take the thought of Master Roshi being hundreds of years old pretty well."
"Well, let's see," Videl said, bringing up her fingers, "I'm training to basically be a superhero, with my half-alien husband, raising a quarter-alien daughter who is babysat regularly by the reincarnation of an evil alien who called himself 'The Demon King', when he was nine years old my husband defeated a biological android made with the DNA of numerous aliens and superpowered humans only for my Dad to steal the credit, the God of the Earth is childhood friends with my husband, and I live in a universe filled with magical wish granting dragons. Plus, we regularly eat with a God of Destruction and his angel. I've basically accepted that my life is insane at this point." Krillin chuckled at that, "Yeah, you got a point, our lives are super weird." "So then, what are we going to do?" Videl asked. "I'm going to ask the Chief if we can go visit Tien tomorrow, then, if we eliminate him as the one teaching these thugs how to fight, then we need to focus on finding the Crane Hermit."
Krillin headed to the Firing Range to see the Chief still putting bullets into his target. The Chief emptied his gun and saw Krillin. "I heard the news. You did a good job, yet again," the Chief told him. "Marron's the one who handled those punks," Krillin told him, "I just finished what she started." The two of them headed to the Chief's office and Krillin got straight to the point. "During the fight, one of the robbers used a technique that only two people I know could have taught him. I'd like your permission to talk with one of them tomorrow, but I'll have to go pretty far away to see him. My old pal Tien runs a dojo, I think these punks might be former students of his," Krillin said. "Alright, you can go. Garbanzo and Cashew will go too, since they're the detectives officially assigned to this case," the Chief told him. "You sure about that?" Krillin said, "I was hoping to keep this closer to the vest." "We have rules and procedures for a reason, Krillin," the Chief said, "We are dealing with extraordinary circumstances, we need to keep things by the book so that when the trials start, we nail whoever is responsible to the damn wall. If you wish to investigate by yourself, you need to take the Detective's Exam and get your gold shield. Otherwise, Garbanzo and Cashew are going with you." "I understand, sir," Krillin reluctantly agreed.
The Next Day
Krillin was waiting outside the Station, he had called Goku and asked if he could take him, Garbanzo, and Cashew to Tien. Goku told him he could, since it would only be for a day, Chi-chi had no problem with it since he was helping the police 'like a respectable grandfather'. Garbanzo and Cashew drove up and Garbanzo said, "So, when are we going?" Garbanzo was a guy only a head taller than Krillin himself, a bit rounder too, with a full beard that would make him look like Santa Claus if it wasn't dark black, but he had good investigative instincts and was a devoted public servant. Cashew was a promising young man who had gotten his gold shield four months ago, he was a solid six feet tall and built like a track star with bright red hair and cobalt blue eyes. Garbanzo was dressed in his usual blue suit, while Cashew was dressed in his tan suit and overcoat. "Any second now," Krillin told Garbanzo.
Goku arrived just then using Instant Transmission. "Hey Krillin," Goku greeted him. "Hey Goku. You ready to go?" "Sure thing," Goku said, then saw Garbanzo and Cashew, "Oh, so you're the detectives huh?" "That's right, we are," Cashew said, "You're Son Goku, one of the new deputies. You're not wearing your badge." "Oh, right, where did I put it…" Goku said, then patted his gi down before pulling it out of his belt and put it on. "Alright, everyone ready?" Goku asked. "Yep," Krillin said. "You guys need to hold on tight to me if you want to go see Tien," Goku told Garbanzo and Cashew. The two detectives grabbed Goku's shoulders while Krillin grabbed the back of Goku's gi, and in an instant, they were in a mountainous village. Tien and Chiaotzu were carrying packs of groceries along with their dozen students. "Yo, Tien!" Goku greeted. "Hey, Tien, long time no see," Krillin greeted.
"Goku! Krillin! It's great to see you guys," Tien greeted. "Hey Goku, Krillin, sorry we couldn't come ot Marron's Birthday, she like the presents we sent her?" Chiaotzu asked. "She loves them actually, those statues of Shenron and Porunga are on her nightstand as we speak. But…we're not here to talk about that, this is serious police business," Krillin explained. Tien and Chiaotzu nodded at this, "We understand. If you'll let us finish our supply run, then we'll answer any questions you have." "Very well," Cashew said, eying Tien and Chiaotzu. After another twenty minutes in the village buying supplies, Tien, Chiaotzu, and their students led Goku, Krillin, Garbanzo and Cashew to their dojo, it was a pretty long walk, by the end, Garbanzo was gasping for breath, and even Cashew was breathing a little harder. Chiaotzu led the students to put away the supplies they bought, while Tien led their guests to his private chambers.
After everyone was settled down, and a student brought some water for Garbanzo, Krillin cut to the chase. "Tien, there are some new ki users in Satan City right now, Master Flying Stork and his Assistant, Emu. Also, there have been two incidents so far where I had to fight other ki users, young punks using their power to steal jewelry and stuff. The last ones I fought were a pair…actually, it was Marron who fought them, I just arrived in time to help finish off one of them. I didn't catch his name, but he knew how to use the Tri-Beam," Krillin said. Tien's three eyes all opened in shock at this information and he said, "I see, you think that they might be failed students of mine." "Sorry buddy," Krillin said, "But I gotta make sure." "Do you recognize any of these men?" Garbanzo asked, taking out photos of Kiba, Mohawk Guy, and Camo Guy. Tien looked at the photos closely for a minute before saying, "I'm sorry. I've never seen any of these men before. It is true, I have had to reject a number of people, and have expelled several students who proved themselves untrustworthy, but these are not them. Also, I've only taught the Tri-Beam to my four most advanced students; Akira, Yurin, Takeshi, and Masao, and made sure to stress the danger of using it."
"So, Yurin's one of your most advanced students, huh?" Goku asked. "Indeed, she's long since learned the error of her ways, and has proven a very dedicated martial artist," Tien said. "So, do you know of who else could have taught this…Tri-Beam technique?" Garbanzo asked. "Only one other that I can think of, my former Master, Shen the Crane Hermit. You mentioned two masters, do you have a picture of them?" Tien asked. Cashew took out his phone and showed him an onling video of a demonstration Master Flying Stork had made. Tien watched the video and said, "I can't recognize the other one, but Master Flying Stork is indeed Shen." Krillin slapped his forehead, "Oh man! I'm such an idiot! I should have recognized him!" Krillin berated himself. "It's not your fault, Krillin," Tien told him, "You only met Shen a handful of times, and it's been decades since you last encountered him, but I was raised and trained by him. I would recognize those stances and style anywhere."
"Alright, then let's go get him then he must be the cause of all this!" Goku eagerly said. "Hold on Goku! We can't just go beat the guy up! Shen has no open warrants for his arrest, if we go in there and beat him up without proof he's involved, then we'll be the ones getting in trouble!" Krillin yelled. "Oh man! Seriously!? You heard Tien, and come on, Shen's the kind of jerk that would teach his students to go around stealing and stuff," Goku said. "We have no real proof, yet, of that. But, we do have enough for a search warrant at least to check his dojo," Cashew said, "If there's any evidence of wrongdoing there, we'll find it." Goku scratched the back of his head, "Yeah, I guess. Man, being a police officer sure means following a bunch of rules and stuff, huh?" "Definitely," Krillin agreed.
Videl
Videl arrived at the station and heard that Krillin had already left with Goku, Cashew, and Garbanzo to see if Tien knew who trained the guys that attacked the Mall. She went inside in time to see Yamcha head into the Exercise Room. Yamcha was already having the officers going through various exercises, the whole place reeking of sweat. Videl changed into some exercise clothes and decided to run a little on the treadmill while she watched Yamcha train his students. There were eleven men and ten women total who had volunteered, but the only one Videl recognized was Detective Pinto. Videl felt a twinge of jealousy as she watched Pinto doing her exercises, Pinto was wearing black baggy pants and a sports bra that showed off her freaking six-pack, no matter how much Videl had trained back in the day, she never got that toned! After about thirty minutes of exercises including super burpees, finger pus-hups, weight lifting, and one-handed chin-ups; Yamcha had his students stop, then assumed the Lotus Position, as did his students. "Now then, ki is a spiritual energy, it resides in all living things, even plants. It is the energy of life. You need to focus your mind, and look inside to find it," Yamcha told them.
"Erase all distractions in your mind; and focus inside yourselves," Yamcha said. Videl watched as she ran on the treadmill, then decided to practice sensing for ki. She stretched out with her mind to sense the power. Yamcha's was the most apparent at first, while nowhere near as powerful as Gohan, he was still clearly the most powerful human in the room, his ki felt like a massive bonfire compared to everyone else's, like Gohan had said, they felt like candles in comparison. Suddenly, she felt one, then another, and then three more ki signatures start to grow stronger. Videl sensed as the fire inside of the twenty-one training slowly grew larger. Videl saw as ki started to appear around Pinto and four other officers; three men and another woman. Yamcha smiled, "Yes, search deep within yourselves, search for that power, it's all yours, if you have the focus, the courage, and determination to let it out. Let it flow through your whole body, like a river." Another thirty minutes passed, but no one else managed to gather their ki.
Videl sensed that it wasn't much really, she figured she could take any three of the five all by herself, but it was a good start. The officers all stood up, and the ones who managed to unlock their ki were amazed. "I…I never felt so strong before!" one of the men said. "I know, right?" Pinto agreed with him, "It was like…a dam had burst, and all the water was raging through me!" "Don't get too cocky now," Yamcha told them, "You've still got a long way to go before you're ready to use that power in a fight. This was under the easiest conditions we had, in battle, you need to learn to summon your power in an instant!" Yamcha demonstrated by summoning his own ki aura. Yamcha turned to the ones who unlocked their ki and said, "You're all doing very well, we'll focus on more specialized training to help you use that power in battle, and help it grow next time. As for everyone else, you all did amazingly! There's no shame in going slow and steady, it took me two years to figure this out on my own." Everyone headed to the locker room and Videl went inside to shower and change into her uniform.
Before she could get her uniform shirt on, the other woman aside from Pinto who had summoned her ki went to Videl. "So, you've been doing this for a while, huh?" the woman said. Videl got a better look at her, she had blonde hair and green eyes and was about two inches taller than Videl herself, and seven years younger than her. "I first learned in High School, but I didn't keep up my training so I'm not as strong as I could be," Videl answered. "Really?" the woman said. Videl's hand moved before she could think, as she grabbed her fellow officer's fist before she could land her punch. "That being said, I've recently decided to pick up where I left off," Videl said, looking at the woman. "That's enough, Suki!" Pinto yelled as she walked up to them, "I see you pull another stunt like that, I'm reporting you." The blonde officer, Suki, stepped back, saying, "At least I earned my spot here, unlike some people."
"Excuse me?" Videl said, getting her uniform on before grabbing her shoes. Suki got dressed and said, "I didn't need my Daddy to get where I am." "Suki," Pinto said threateningly, and she dropped it, but not before tossing a glare at Videl and Pinto. "Sorry about her," Pinto said. "It's not your fault," Videl said, "I heard it all the time at the Academy. I'll admit, Dad helped me get in, but the rest was all me." "Yeah, well Suki still crossed the line, trying to start something. She's always been like that, since we were kids," Pinto said as she and Videl headed out of the locker room. Videl then said, "So, she's your sister then? Not much resemblance, aside from the eyes." "Half-sister; same Mom, different dads," Pinto explained. Yamcha was doing some one-handed hand-stand pushups in the Exercise Room and Pinto whistled. That distracted Yamcha, who immediately lost his balance. "GAHK!" Yamcha said as he fell on his back.
"Oh no! I'm so sorry!" Pinto exclaimed as she went to Yamcha and offered her hand. Yamcha looked up and saw her and quickly said, "NO! No! I'm fine! Completely!" He then jumped up to a backflip and said, "I've been through way worse than that!" "Okay…good to hear," Pinto said as she put on her silver sunglasses, "See you later, Yamcha-sensei." "See you later, Pinto," Yamcha said and she left the Exercise Room, heading over to her partner, Lima. Videl smiled at the two and Yamcha blushed, "W-What's so funny?" Videl only chuckled as she told Yamcha, "She's thirty-six you know." "S-so? W-Women of all ages can be beeee-nevolent and gracious, yeah," Yamcha said, blushing even redder. Videl chuckled and told him, "You know Yamcha, for a man whose, what, fifty-eight-" "Fifty-five, thank you," Yamcha corrected. "Fifty-five, there might still be hope for you," Videl said, leaving him with his jaw dropped before leaving the Exercise Room.
Krillin, Goku, Garbanzo, and Cashew went into the Station then and Krillin groaned as soon as he reached his desk. "What's wrong?" Videl asked as she handed him a cup of coffee. "We talked to Tien, he didn't train those guys, and we showed him video of 'Master Flying Stork' and he confirmed my worst fears. I'm such an idiot," Krillin said before taking a sip of coffee. "So, who is he?" Videl asked. "He's Master Shen, the Crane Hermit. Master Roshi's old rival," Krillin said. "So, he IS the one training those ki users," Videl said. "He must be…unless he turned over a new leaf," Krillin said. "You think that's possible?" Videl asked. "Maybe? I don't know, I mean, a lot of people I know started out bad, but then turned good. Yamcha used to be a desert bandit, Tien and Chiaotzu were Shen's students and they were super jerks who didn't care if they killed the people they fought, Vegeta was basically a space pirate and probably killed a WHOLE bunch of people back in the day, Piccolo was the Demon King, and Eighteen was supposed to be a killer cyborg that would wipe out humanity. But look where they are now!" Krillin pointed out.
Videl still couldn't imagine Piccolo as a 'Demon King', the way he used to play and still played with Pan was as far from a 'Demon King' as you could get. Videl thought back to her 'fight' with Master Flying Stork, aka Shen, especially how he grabbed her butt before slamming her into the ground, "I highly doubt that he's changed much." "Well, until we have concrete evidence, we're sunk. I don't know if Tien and Chiaotzu saying that he isn't who he says he is will hold up in court. Plus, I don't think there are any warrants out for Shen's arrest either," Krillin pointed out. "So, what, we just sit on our butts and do nothing!?" Videl asked. "No, we're going to do our job. We're going to go out on patrol, and whenever one of those maniacs shows up, we take them down. Trust me, Videl, I've known Garbanzo and Cashew long enough to know that they're two of the best detectives we got. If anyone can oncover the evidence we need, it'll be them," Krillin assured her. Videl nodded and they both headed out, but the day was a quiet one.
Author's Note: In Krillin's defense, I don't think he had much personal interaction with Shen or Tao, at most he was even in the same vicinity as them for a few days, at most. And it was decades ago in Dragon Ball Time, the fact he remembers them at all after all the stuff that happened in Z and Super would be pretty amazing. Expect a little Marron and Goten shipping along with Yamcha proving he still has it next chapter.