Yo! Son Goku and friends! Saiyan Saga (Chapter 25)
Piccolo
The Demon walked right past the ghosts and ghouls fighting in the arena just outside the palace. One in bandages and wraps, a mummified giant shivered at the sight of the white-caped figure.
"I didn't mean to get in your way, sir!"
"Not in the mood to talk, Bandages." Piccolo sharply shot back.
Bandages the mummy shimmied out of the way, a bit of loose wrapping trailing behind him like leftover toilet paper. The Demon strided regally through the arch-way and stared with a sharp brow at the black cloaked elderly lady watching over her crystal ball. The elderly magician snickered and scoffed as The Green Man entered her haunted house of mystical curiosities.
"What am I going to have to do to use your services this time, you old witch!?" Piccolo growled, crossing his arms in a declarative manner.
"You think you're hot shit, coming in here and just demanding me to take you back to King Kai's over and over again."
"My Telepathic training's not complete yet, you old hag. I can't just stay there forever either and I have other obligations. I'm not on death's door like you are."
"Put a sock in it, gumball. I oughta take all those pink fleshy bits off your body and blow a bubble with em'."
"You're a freak."
"You're the one trying to get ahold of my services, dunce. You don't treat me with respect, I don't take you where you need to go, it's that simple."
"I'm tired of being your lapdog quite frankly."
"Well I'm so sorry You-" She pointed a declarative finger at The Demon. "-decided to drag The Demon King's namesake through the mud by fetching all my needed ingredients and artifacts."
"You never take me where I need to go unless I go grab your trinkets you old bitch."
"Ho-ho-ho." Her wild cackle shook the various items in the palace, a bone-rattling cacophony. "This is why I like you, Piccolo."
The Demon scoffed with great annoyance.
"Just my luck." He shook his head, rolling his eyes while he was at it.
"So do you want passage or not?"
"Yes!"
"Alright." Baba maneuvered her hands in an incantation and the image in her crystal ball warped and distorted. "Here."
Piccolo stepped in close and examined the new item he had to gather.
"This one is called the Devil's Bracelet." The orb zoomed in on the gold bangle, it laid dorman on the red sheets of a bedframe. "This one shouldn't be too hard but there are a bunch of monsters still prowling Lucifer's domain guarding his items in the Devil's Hand. Lucifer himself perished in the battle on The Lookout I believe but I'm not going in there. I'm too old for that shit."
"Of course you are. You're too old to do anything."
"Well? Off you go, shoo."
"Grrrrr…" Piccolo bared his fangs and pivoted on the spot before marching out of the archway. His white cape kicked up before he blasted off in a trail of Ki, throwing the nearby ghouls and goblins on their asses. "Why am I subjecting myself to this garbage?" Piccolo ruminated, grunting as he pointed his index and middle finger at his forehead.
His purple vest and parachute pants turned into a deep blue, and a white circle with a red outline and black kanji was on the chest of his top instead of it being empty with no design or pattern. The top colour of his turban also changed blue to match with the rest of his attire. The Demon cracked his neck limply as he flew onwards, even more Ki bursting. Billows of clouds snapped off his form as he broke the sound barrier with repeated sonic booms. The Demon flew for a while before a gorgeous sight of the red and purple sunset set over the enormous finger-like mountains of what Piccolo could assume was: 'Devil's Hand.'
"Seems about right." Piccolo thought to himself with closed eyes, sending a pulse of Ki Sensing and receiving low-level Ki users back in the ping.
As The Demon breached the thick fog surrounding the cavernous structure, a titanic serpentine beast leaped from the clouds below with snapping jaws only to be denied by a nonchalant backhand. The sniveling snake wailed with an epic roar, causing The Demon to wince at the high volume. Various ogres, goblins, gremlins and the like dashed over to the holes at the end of the cave systems to look at whatever caused their guardian to screech. All at once, the monsters gazed upon his glory and gasped in awe.
"DEMON KING PICCOLO!"
Piccolo smiled deeply at the uncanny adoration and floated down until he was level with one of the many demons.
"Where is the Devil's Bracelet, peons!? Don't make me ask twice!"
"Yessir, right away sir!" A small brown gremlin with an enlarged right eye squeaked out before scurrying away.
"Daimo?" A hardy voice bellowed out from the catacombs before an enormous red demon with white robes fluttering about reinforced the question.
"Yes, I am the reincarnation of The Demon King. Lucifer was only allowed to crawl around in this realm due to my father's negligence. You had better be grateful."
The large red oni got right into Piccolo's face, his sweaty and drooling maw actually dropped a few bits of liquid onto The Demon. The crimson ogre snarled and growled at Piccolo, trying to intimidate The Demon.
"This is the Devil's Hand, Daimo, no-"
Before the creature could even speak, Piccolo gutted it with a left hand and threw it into the abyss. The litany of creatures looked on in shock for a moment.
"Didn't ask."
"Aie, Aie AIEEEEEEEEEEE!"
The howled and cheered, laughing all the while causing Piccolo another bout of discomfort before he breathed in slowly and tuned it out, the noise dimmed by his focus.
"I should thank my lucky stars that bothersome Kai taught me how to do this. I don't know how the old man can stomach all these loud noises." He mused for a while until the well-dressed hobgoblin in a suit came back with the gold gauntlet.
"Your majest-" He took a deep bow as if beckoning to him.
"Do whatever you want, I'm not here to lead you heathens." Is all Piccolo said before he left in a hurry, leaving the bombastic barbarians to continue their barbarism.
Muramasse looked on, not from the Devil's Hand, but from a cliff nearby. He strutted the opposite direction in time with Piccolo's flight path, his large sword flung over his shoulder.
Bulma
The blue haired executive paced around the room in a frantic manner while Yamcha just stared at the ceiling, Gohan sitting at the ends of his feet.
"I mean it can't be that hard, can it?"
"Yamcha!" She yelled. "Whew." She breathed out harshly through her cheeks, tightening her hands into fists and dragging them into her stomach. She breathed in deep before answering "Sorry for yelling, I'm just stressed. People already pretty much knew but dad actually handed me the keys last month so I'm trying my absolute best to not make the company look bad."
"It's one email, babe. If you take every single one of them so seriously you're gonna explode."
"This one's worth taking seriously!" She said as her shoes squeaked about the loft tile in her huff.
"You say that about every email."
"Fine, you wanna see why it's so important?"
"Sure." Yamcha laughed out before Bulma brought over her laptop and dropped it onto Yamcha's chest.
The laptop wasn't the only thing dropping and he shot out a bunch of rapid-fire blinks like a camera shutter.
"No way."
Bulma just made an exaggerated face, tilting her head and filling her cheeks with air, her eyes almost popping out of their sockets. She put her hands on her hips and leaned in close with a cripplingly sassy air about her.
"Okay, maybe it's a little more important than usual."
"Yeah. It is."
The email was an admittedly desperate cry for help from the Tenkaichi Budokai staff. They didn't have the funds necessary to rebuild an entire stadium, preliminary area, and bleachers from scratch after its destruction following the events of The 23rd Budokai. They were willing to partner with a big company like Capsule Corp. so they could modernise and advertise on social media and build hype for the event. Bulma didn't want to mess this up.
"Should I go tell Goku?"
"Definitely not! Well… at least not until we know if it's gonna happen. I don't think this email is a hoax but I'm not gonna lend a shit ton of Zeni to investors just to have it squandered. I'd need to know that the brand my dad built from scratch isn't gonna be conned out by some scumfucks."
"Amen." Gohan waved his index finger, eyes glued to the not-so-informational program on the TV.
"Well hey! What if we set up a meeting at a neutral location, and get Goku and Piccolo to show up? We could build the main event to be like the rematch of legends!" Yamcha brought out his wingspan wide to allude to this grandiosity of it all.
"Yamcha, for the first time in my life, I think you might have said something that made a lot of sense."
"I mean… I'm a lot more than just a pretty face." Yamcha replied, stroking his chin and smiling like a goofball.
Bulma shook her head and the pair came in close for a kiss, smooching and then pulling away quickly seeing as the little Saiyan was still in the room.
"Mm-mm." Yamcha grunted out with his right fist over his mouth. "So?"
"We'll see." Bulma responded after The Wolf handed back the laptop from the couch. "You'll be the first to know, that was a pretty good idea actually. Then you go talk it over with Goku if I get the green light."
"Dope." Yamcha flopped back onto the couch, leaning over next to Gohan. "Who's winning?"
"The guy with the shades."
"Oh, sick. I like his leather jacket." Yamcha commented as the tan man on the TV screen landed a banger of a high left roundhouse onto his opposer's neck. Yamcha agreed, as evidenced by his nod at the impact.
"It is pretty neat." Bulma looked over for one moment before tapping away at her keyboard, she scratched her scar on the right side, smacking her lips and pouting at the volume of it.
Raditz
The two brothers clashed back to back with various blows just outside the main building of Capsule Corp, Mr. and Mrs. Brief clapping up a storm at their martial artistry.
"Hyaaa!" Goku cried out as he turned tight into a back thrust kick with his left, throwing Raditz onto the grass in a furious manner.
Raditz backhandsprung off the grass, hopping up a bit and tearing through the lawn with his somewhat clumsy backpedaling.
"Nice one, Raditz! You're getting more fluid, you were so stiff before! Huh-Hah!"
Raditz wore a goofy smile at his brother's compliment, brushing off the loose dirt and hiking his left knee up for his bouncy stance.
Raditz had pretty much accepted Bulma's wardrobe for him. Wearing almost exclusively the open hawaiian shirts and low-key khaki pants with sandals since she gave them to him over a year ago.
"You were a warrior before. Now I'm gonna teach you how to become a martial artist! Since we're no longer on King Kai's, I got my own teachings I want to help with."
"Hit me with your best shot, brother."
"Oh I will, just expect that it might hurt a bit."
"I've never wanted anything less."
"Okay! Here we go!"
Goku ran like mad at Raditz before juking many times left and right as he readied up.
"The principle of all martial arts is flow." Goku stated as he feinted with a left only to go under and check the gut with a low right hand. "I forget who said it but-"
Goku threw a left hook which his brother ducked expertly, Goku had planned for this and shoved his weight onto Raditz with a weighty tackle. Raditz' poor footing due to the duck had been checkmated by Goku's attack and he stumbled into a roll on the grass.
"If you are formless like water, you can shape yourself into the best tool for the job. If you need to be a bottle, you can be a bottle, if you need to be a jug, that too!" Goku jumped in high, twisting his body around and landing a snappy, well-formed left roundhouse.
Raditz skidded along the grass again. His younger brother landed and bounced on the balls of his feet.
"That guy, Vegeta."
Raditz' head perked up at the statement.
"He was way stronger than us, but he had a rigidness to him. If he was free form and let loose those angry thoughts that didn't matter he could have broken up our teamwork no problem. He was really strong."
Raditz got up from the ground with a bounce akin his brother's, but with more than a couple shades less pep.
"I remember thinking that, if he was angry, he'd probably run right into The Power Pole after I kicked him." Goku laughed loudly while rubbing the back of his head. "And then that's what he did, hee-hee-haugh-haugh!"
"I didn't know him much personally, but he was still far and away our superior. We got lucky, Kakarot."
"I dunno, maybe. But me and my friends have been getting lucky for a long time. I remember Demon King Piccolo said I kept getting lucky."
"Hmm." Raditz closed his eyes in thought for a moment. "You mean Green Man?"
"No, Piccolo is actually Piccolo Jr. I'm talking about his father."
"I've got some history to catch up on."
"I guess you do! Huh-Hah! You ready for round two?"
"Of course!"
Goku smiled and the two brothers got right back at it.
Tien
Tien and Launch sat entangled at the top of a mountain, staring at the fading orange skyline. Tien looked down and smiled, Launch looked up and giggled. The couple stared out for a long time before the blonde girlfriend tackled him and they shifted their focus to the stars. Tien breathed in sharply before asking:
"So I've been thinking…"
"Wow! That's not like you, Sweetheart."
He chuckled.
"I, I, …"
"Damn, you gonna spit it out like this yea'?"
"I want to spend the rest of my life with you."
Her face flushed with red and she stared into his being.
"If youa' lyin' ta me you know Ima' chop off youa' bawls, you know that right?"
"Yeah, that's why I gotta ask the right questions."
She swallowed harshly, Tien could hear her heart beating out of her chest.
"I know we're not gonna get married, criminal status and all."
"I, I, I always knew that. I was always fine with that."
"Do you want kids?" Tien kind of manhandled her, grabbing her tight just above her elbows on each side, his three eyes impossible to lie to.
"I uh… I'm sorry, hun. But I don't think I'd be a good mutha'. I've never been good with kids, but I'd try if you wanted em'." She brushed her poofy yellow curls to the side sheepishly. "I, I guess."
"I don't want kids either. I just wanted to know, because I'd give them to you… if you wanted." Tien also said back, showing some weakness.
Tien let loose his grip and Launch fell onto him. Their beating hearts timed up with each other's as they laid, the searing red of the sunset falling away into the indigo of nighttime.
"The guys that we fight, they're so strong. And I don't want to be responsible for the death of my family if I can't protect them. I learned the hard way how difficult it is to keep cool during combat." Tien finally shifted his gaze away from his girlfriend and back out into the night sky. "My martial arts are so important to me, Launch. I know it's kind of selfish… but… I don't want to give away my free time to raising kids. I'm not like Goku. I just don't know if I could make that sacrifice. And having little ones running around would take away my alone time with you..."
Launch didn't say anything, only rubbing her hand along the large scarry divot on his chest.
"I don't want to have to raise my kids on the run all the time. They don't deserve a mutha' who's a criminal."
Tien brushed her poofy hair for her, smiling with warmth. She looked back at him with a blush, bopping his nose with her left hand.
"Youa' supposed to say I'm not a criminal, Sweetheart."
"But you stole my heart."
"Oh so you want me to blow your back out, hah!?"
The cold winds kicked up a bit as Tien turned his head about the vacant cliffs, not even an animal in sight.
"I don't see anyone around here, do you?"
"Even if there are, I don't care." Launch declared, throwing her green top all the way down the mountain.
Krillin
Krillin sat on the top of Roshi's abode, flipping through a blue book, eyes locked to the page like a hawk.
"You're really taking your studies seriously."
"I always have, Roshi. It's just that this time, I guess I don't really have Goku to come and outshine me."
"Don't say that."
"Nah, Goku's amazing. I'm glad he's gotten so good, you're assuming I'm jealous." Krillin looked back to his old master with a bright smile. "He deserves everything he's got. I gotta build my own legacy now." Krillin closed his reading material and set it down on the red shingles.
"You ready?"
"Yeup!" Krillin belted out, throwing his navy blue waistcoat right next to his book on the roof and rotating his right shoulder.
Krillin undid his tie and white button up, revealing his solitary arm and large scar over the stump of his left.
"Why didn't you wish your arm back with the Dragon Balls? The dragon grants two wishes on Namek, doesn't it?"
"Yeah, I dunno. I just felt like it wasn't my place. Chiaotzu's life is way more important than my stupid limb." Krillin shot back, shifting his positioning in time with his master, the pair rotating in a clockwise direction.
"Are you gonna wish it back a year from now?"
"Nah, I think I'll wait on it. See how I feel." He looked to the empty space with sorrow before cheering up. "Come on, I'm not waiting any longer to learn your last technique, old man."
"Hegh. All you bastards have done is steal my shit ever since you set foot on this island."
"Please, you needed the company. A pervy old man like you was bound to go stir crazy unless we showed up. You haven't taken on any new students since us and it's been like 14 years."
"Don't remind me."
"Yeah, I'm havin' trouble comin' to grips with the fact that I'm 26 myself. Time really flies."
Bulma
Bulma sat opposite of a poofy haired blonde suit. The table wasn't all that big and the room wasn't all that nice a few stains on the ceilings and a few cracks of the paint near the corners. Goku, Piccolo, and Yamcha stood behind their scarred blue haired executive like bodyguards, an intimidating presence rolled off of them despite Goku's goofy smile.
"Please, call me Mic."
"Well, Mic." Bulma straightened her belongings, tilting her head to the side. "Pardon me, but I thought you were just the announcer. I didn't know you were the CEO."
"Why would I be in this business if I didn't want to get in on the action!? I'm not gonna let some soulless corporate take over the martial arts world, that's something I'm NOT gonna stand for." Mic's volume and enthusiasm were infectious, Goku was bubbly and receptive to the blonde man's charm. "You see... I think I could get the money together by some point in the future but I don't want to let anyone else get the chance cause I know they won't care about the competition as much as I do."
Piccolo's antennae wriggled and he nodded at the man's statement. A bead of forehead sweat rolled down as he looked over at The Demon before he continued his statement.
"There's a reason I reached out to you, Bulma. Ah-hmm~" He cleared his throat and tightened his red tie quickly. "Since I'm out there, in the arena. I noticed that you were actually in attendance for the last three tournaments in a row, along with Goku and Yamcha here. Oh, uhh, you're Yamcha right?"
"Smart of you to remember The Wolf." Yamcha mimed the wolf maw with both hands, a sly smile.
Bulma shook her head, eyes almost falling out from their full rotation.
"Glad I didn't mess that one up." He tapped the top of his hair quickly. "But since you've actually been to these tournaments, that makes me think that Capsule Corp. isn't some corporation that's gonna screw over us little guys." He put his palms together and rubbed them back and forth nervously. "And that rematch idea is one of the best things I've heard in a long time, I couldn't have come up with anything better myself. What do you say?"
Bulma looked over at her entourage and nodded.
"We're in."
She quickly signed her name on the bottom of the paper and slid it over to the other side.
Yulin
The fog was thick enough to swat away and that's exactly what a youthful woman walking the path did. Her angry voice called out into the nothingness.
"Ugh! This sucks!" She pouted sassily, gritting her teeth and trying to wave away the mist.
The woman wore a green gi top and yellow belt with the right arm totally exposed, showing skin down to her wrists where she wore black bands. She wore a red skirt underneath her green gi top and sharp black thigh high boots. Her deep black hair was tied into a bow at the back of her head and her hair was styled in an even bang across the front with tassels of hair dangling down on each side. She was angry, clenching and unclenching her jaw.
"If I don't find Natade Village soon I'm gonna blow a gasket."
The girl stomped through the forested fog for a long while, but before she knew it the trees opened up into a wide road down a path to a community of straw hut houses.
"Ugh!" She raised her arms partly for declaration, partly to stretch. "Finally!"
The fog permeated from every inch of the forest and the hilly lands as she trudged her way down the path. More rural looking folk with button ups and dresses warped into view from the mist and looked on with raised brows. A man with a particular mound of bushy weathered hair called out to the easily-standing-out girl, her silhouette cutting a sharp figure.
"Miss! Miss!" He cried as he ran out the house and down to the main path of the village.
Her patience was wearing thin and she tapped her right foot on the ground with sass as she waited for the priestly looking man to meet her face to face.
"Are you the-"
"Yes! You said you got a monster problem and that you'd pay good Zeni to get rid of it."
"Well we said we'd pay handsomely but Zeni…"
The woman's brow bent into an unnatural contortion and she stared down at the elderly man before her. The man's nerves fired his vocal chords into a shifting note as he spoke.
"We have a problem in our village, our priest: Maloja. He has been sacrificing our people to the beast once a year for over three years now." He parted with as he raised the corresponding number of shaky, weathered fingers. "We are not a large community so-"
"Well come on now, spit it out, gramps."
"We can't keep following his doctrine if we want to keep our people safe, sure the monster is no longer attacking us like it used to but we are losing people all the same. If I remember correctly, there are powerful fighters in this world who practice martial arts on an entirely different level. One of their names was Master Mutaito I believe. You're one of them, aren't you?"
"Yeah, that's me." She finally broke out into a cocky smirk, crossing her arms and leaning back onto nothing. "Mutaito's old news though. New martial artists surpassed him as long ago as The 21st Budokai. I'm far stronger than that old fart ever was. Point me in a direction and I'll nuke that fucker from orbit, grandpa."
The cocky girl snapped and a green ball of ki flickered like a flame in the palm of her right hand.
"My days…" He stood bewildered, staring at the magic before him. "You really can do it, can't you?"
"Mmhmm." Her cocky smile grew even sharper as she saw the old man's mysticism written all over.
"Follow me. I cannot thank you enough for coming so quickly, you are just on time darling."
"Why is that?"
"The sacrifice is supposed to be today but I can call that off now that you're here."
"Lucky lucky." She replied, raising her brows, clearly not very enthused. The woman fired off glances at the sighs of relief the nearby villagers let out at the sight of her. She shook her head, that was not their expression just moments earlier.
The elderly man looked back at her with a warm smile.
"I never asked your name, miss."
"Yulin. Self-taught crane school martial artist and Jiang Shi practitioner."
"Ahhh, how intriguing. What is Jiang Shi?"
"Ghost magic, and using the power of seals." She shifted her breast wraps to the side and pulled out a thin sheet of paper with a kanji on it.
She snapped quickly and the paper burst into flames.
"Remarkable."
"I know."
"Well, it is nice to meet you, Yulin. My name is Zalador."
"Yeah yeah, nice to meet you."
Zalador chuckled to himself as they walked down the rest of the path and into a gathering. Many individuals crowded together by a fire in front of a stage as a man with a purple rope tied around his head spoke with confidence.
"That is our priest, Maloja." The man pointed to the spokesperson on stage. His thin staff housing a sparkling orange orb at the top.
"Didn't ask." Yulin replied as she filed in behind Zalador, bumping the crowd aside to get to the stage.
"You're a wily one, aren't you? Hagh-heh."
"I like how you think, gramps. Usually people just call me a bitch, and I mean… they ain't wrong."
Yulin and Zalador parted through the rest of the crowd and stood face to face with Maloja, his stage presence drawing the eyes to him as he pranced and paraded around a young blonde girl with poofy hair. Yulin's eyes widened at the sight as she saw another elderly man crying in the front row across from her.
"It's okay, grandpa. I'm doing it for us." She endeavored to calm the old man down.
"Damn…" Yulin thought to herself. "That kid's a badass, ain't no way I'm letting this poser throw her to the wolves."
"Maloja!" Zalador cried, stomping his own staff on the ground in a commotion.
"Zalador! Please! Not right now, you know that I lead the village on this day, not you!"
"Not anymore!" He bellowed, pointing an accusatory finger at him. "We have hired someone from outside the village to solve our problems. We no longer need your services!"
Yulin let Zalador talk for her and rifled through her chest wraps again to find another slip. She brought it up to her left eye and eclipsed Maloja's frame with the paper. A moment later an ethereal yellow glow glinted around his staff and from his stomach over the sheet like a magical x-ray. Yulin nodded and burned the paper up just like the rest.
"He's not bluffing. That guy up there has some magical prowess, gotta be in that staff by the looks of it." She pondered.
"Oh yeah! What's gonna happen if she came all this way only to get killed and mess up our offerings!? If she's strong enough to handle the monster why doesn't she show a demonstration of her prowess!? "
"I can do that." Yulin answered loudly, right away, putting her fingers together and cracking them outwards. "Just try not to look too surprised, Wispy Lips. If I impress you, you gotta shave off that God-awful mustache." She talked her shit as she climbed up on stage.
"You're the one who needs to prove yourself, stupid girl! You can't just show up and make demands of me!"
"I mean I can if they're gonna pay me for it. Your work here is gonna dry up pretty quick when I send that plague to kingdom come."
"You've got a lot of nerve!"
"Well…" She said as she kissed her teeth. "I'm really good so~" Yulin cocked her right arm in a sharp 90 degree angle, an infantile yellow orb of light over her solitary index finger. "Dodon Ray!" She echoed, shooting a thin line of energy right through Maloja's staff.
Zyuuu~Kow!
Maloja's eyes went berserk at the sight, he clearly couldn't believe it as he sank to his knees, jaw wide open in awe. Glitters of gold and orange dust fluttered onto the wooden plank platform.
"Sorry bud but uhhh~ you got any magic you can cast without that staff?" She shrugged her shoulders.
The crowd roared out in cheers and Yulin just wore a cheesy, shit-eating grin under the applause, taking a dramatic bow.
"Thank you, thank you."
The blonde girl couldn't believe it either, waltzing over to Yulin.
"How'd you do that, Miss?"
Yulin smiled more sincerely in front of the child, squatting down to her level. She pulled out another slip of paper from her breast wraps and snapped, it too burst into flames only to rekindle as a beautiful yellow flower. The child was awe-struck as Yulin handed it over and shushed her with her right index over her lips.
"A magician never reveals her secrets."
"Heeheehee~" The little girl giggled as Yulin stood up and shifted her gaze back to Zalador.
"So? Who's ass am I kicking?"
"The beast lives past the ridge." Zalador pointed a long ways away. "He usually prowls around that massive waterfall a few miles from here."
"Miles?" She shot back, hands on her hips.
"Well, it's not like we intend to live very close to it. I daresay that's a conflict of interest."
She nodded her head to the side, duck lips in tow.
"The creature's stature is massive, it really can't be understated. A few miles for us is an easy trek for him."
"Is he like a dragon or something?"
"Yes. It is a dinosaur with great intellect. That is the reason we had to rely on Maloja for so long, it understood our pleas."
Maloja looked on with malice, gathering his busted up staff and walking off the premises. Yulin shot a quick glance and a cocky smile as Zalador relayed the last bits of information.
"Bye bye, make sure to shave that mold off your lips!"
"Well?" Zalador said with raised brows.
"Yeah, yeah, I'm goin'." Yulin hopped off the stage and got in a preemptive stance, bouncing up and down the road before tearing down the path in a blaze, almost knocking everyone over.
"My goodness." Zalador stood shocked. "That girl really is trouble." He smiled.
The woman strided down the path in dashing gallops, kicking up mounds of dirt and dust in her impressive speed. A lone deer walked right into the road, unaware of the woman's immense momentum. Yulin dove over the innocent fauna in a ballerina spin landing backwards and continuing on her way in several backdashes before turning back around and booking it the rest of the way. Without so much as a minute having passed, Yulin came across the several waterfalls draining into the basin below. Grey stones led down into an impressive quarry, all manner of exposed gems and crystals glimmered in the almost-morning.
"Alright. Where are you, you big bastard?" She stated quietly, really only to herself. She looked out with a right hand acting as her visor from the dim sun rays that penetrated the more light fog in this area.
She felt the rumbles of a titan as the beast broke through the fog on her right side, splashing tons of water out of the pond with his weighty gait. It was red and had an ivory horn atop its maw, pointing at Yulin as soon as it noticed her.
"URAAAAAAAAGHHHHHH!"
The beast shook the foundation around her, the trees rustling and selling the immense stature of the T-rex.
"Okay, we get it." Yulin called out, taking her fingers out from her ears.
The beast sharpened its focus on the small creature before him and looked to smash down with its left hand. Yulin deftly dashed outside on the left before running along his arm. The dinosaur panicked and drew his hand up quickly, tossing Yulin aside.
"Crap!" She yelled as she careened through the air.
Gathering a green orb of energy in her right hand, she fired a sizable beam at the beast's horn and blew it away, forcing it to fall over on its ass as she blasted back towards the waterfalls.
VYUUUU~Slashhhhhh!
"Gah!" She cried out, landing in an awkward position, upside down.
Yulin adeptly hopped back onto her feet and jumped, leaping from hold to hold before she got to the basin of the waterfall. She dashed alongside the water until she reached the titanic dinosaur, punching it one more time in the stomach for good measure. The beast let out a yelp before its tongue limply flopped out. Satisfied but perplexed, Yulin poked at her bottom lip.
"Now how am I gonna carry this?"
Kami
The old green God delicately walked around the perimeter of The Lookout, dangerously close to the edge. Korin paced right behind him.
"Did you ever find out if those two boys were resurrected by the wish?"
"I don't think they did, Kami. I think we'd have to deliberately wish them out of The Dead Zone if we wanted better results. And if I didn't know any better, they're probably long gone by now. Lost in space or killed by Garlic's demon army he had housed in that dimension."
"Their sacrifice weighs particularly heavy on me you know, I forced their hand to protect this planet in my stead. They should not have been punished for my incompetence."
"See this is why I'm hesitant to put on your mantle, Kami. I don't want to turn into some nagging nancy." The little cat looked up at The Guardian of Earth's strained face. "No offence of course."
"Heh-heh. I suppose the wear and tear of painstaking attention to detail in the mundane day to day could wear on anyone. I do not blame you."
Korin's whiskers twitched and he breathed in deep through his wet orange nose.
"Well, pardon for asking. But what happens when your time inevitably comes to an end?"
"If I pass away then The Dragon Balls are no more, each Kami has to craft their own with their unique powers. Also, if I pass away due to any circumstances without an heir a new Kami cannot be named unless chosen by our ancestors in The Shinsekai. My spirit will also not live on in The Shinsekai unless I can name an heir, and as such~" He maintained sharp eye contact with Korin. "-that is why I went to Other World." Pointing at the sky with his staff. "A Kami is not supposed to go to Other World when they pass, they are supposed to live on in The Shinsekai."
The Guardian of Earth let out a loose breath he was unaware he had been holding, a slight dizziness washing over him.
"It is considered a failure to not pass on to The Shinsekai."
Korin required a moment of pause, trying to take it all in. The pair stopped walking for a moment before the white cat broke the silence.
"Who was Kami before you?"
"It has been so long now…" Kami responded as he shifted his gaze to the aether. Taking in a deep inhale through his nostrils, antennae jiving back and forth.
Goku
"Wow, this place is gonna be huge." Goku rubbed the back of his neck as various construction workers slaved away at their machines and schematics in the dusty and mostly empty wasteland. Grasses and the like on the outside of what had clearly been started work on inside a massive square. Workers threw Capsules down here and there which immensely helped the work-load with big structures already seeming to be pre-built into the little devices.
Yamcha patted away at the dirt, picking up a pinch between his index and thumb and then letting it breeze away from his hand.
"Wow, the memories we had here were just awesome. I'm glad they're building the stadium in the same place."
Yamcha said nothing as he stood up and patted his black jeans.
"What's up?"
Yamcha just shot back a loose glance at Goku's inquisitiveness.
"Hmm?"
"You seem kind of out of it, Huh-Hah."
"I don't know, just thinking about all those times I lost I guess."
"Why are you thinking about the bad times? Last time you were here You defeated Piccolo, not me."
Yamcha averted his gaze to the construction, barking orders here and there, many employees sweating hard under the sunlight.
"It was only cause I had the entire squad to dogpile on him with me." He broke a bit, showing some teeth as he looked back to his friend. "And that was after." Pointing his index into Goku's chest. "You mollywhopped him for like an hour straight. You were so good bro you could handle that monster at his peak. On Your Own."
"Nah." Goku threw his arm around Yamcha. "You should be proud of yourself, you guys helped me see that I shouldn't have to do this dangerous stuff alone. I mean besides, Piccolo beat me."
"Only cause he got a cheap shot."
Goku just smiled.
"And Mic says that in the tournament record he wrote the fight as a draw so~"
Goku's bright whites ushered a quick laugh from Yamcha.
"Me and you both know I wasn't getting up from that."
"And to think you tried to stop me."
"..." Goku looked to the empty ground for a moment. "Huh-Hah-Hah! Yeah… That was pretty stupid."
"So how long do you think they're gonna be at it?"
"I'm definitely not the guy to ask."
Goku released his grasp on Yamcha and stretched it out.
"I gotta get back home now, tell Bulma I said hi. NIMBUS!"
"I will."
Goku's buoyant friend came along as soon as it was called and the younger brother hopped on top, waving The Wolf off as he shot into the air.
Raditz
Raditz stared out from the balcony on the loft at Capsule Corp, his open button up flailing daintily in the wind as his thoughts swam in the colours the stars above provided. His tail teardropped back and forth in a loop as he leaned over the railing.
Raditz recalls his early life on Planet Vegeta
Bardock walked into the beat up room and rummaged around the counter for something.
"Gine!"
"What?" A very thin Saiyan woman walked out of the back, cleaver in hand with a raised brow.
"I need a Scouter, woman. Mine got busted and they're not replacing it until tomorrow and I'm going to work with Turles."
"You can use mine."
"Heh. Like you'd ever need it in the first place."
She didn't respond, just handing over the electronic construct donning yellow glass. Bardock fidgeted with it and sharpened his brow.
"Agh~" He grunted as he shifted it over his right eye. "I guess this'll have to do."
"Why don't you bring Raditz with you? He just turned 11 yesterday."
"He did?"
Raditz walked around the corner with starry eyes, a bright smile across his face.
"Wha-hat? Hell no, that kid's a joke, just like you, you know that." Bardock laughed it off, rotating his shoulders before flying away into the stars above.
"He's so dreamy…" Gine blushed, jaw dropped at the Saiyan as he left.
"Mom…" Raditz thought to himself as he shyly backed away into a corner. "Why do you just let him do that..?"
Raditz recalls the first time he met his brother
"I'm Turles!" The little Saiyan proudly proclaimed, thumb aimed right at his chest. "And I'm gonna be the mightiest Saiyan in the universe!"
"I'm Raditz! Nice to meet you!"
The two boys stared at each other but Turles neglected to shake or make contact with Raditz' offering of his tiny hand.
"Is that all you've got, Raditz? You sound really stupid!" He crossed his arms and puffed out his chest. It didn't go very far, seeing as it was contained by the Saiyan chestplate fitted for a kid.
"I dunno what I want to be when I grow up."
"Well that's why you're destined to be a low-class warrior! Dad says he only got with your mom because he was bored! He even said it himself!"
Raditz' little eyes widened.
"He said your mom's genetics were a waste of Saiyan blood! Mlem!" He stuck out his tongue in defiance and hit Raditz onto the ground with a weighty but still distinctly toddler-like punch.
"Brother, why would you do that?" Raditz' eyes watered under the pain and heartache.
"We're not brothers, don't get ahead of yourself. I'll let you live, so don't embarrass yourself."
The tiny Saiyan smirked with malice and flew away, leaving Raditz to sulk by his lonesome.
Raditz recalls the time Planet Vegeta required all hands on deck for a mandatory evaluation.
"You know why I'm here, monkeys." Lord Frieza stated nonchalantly, eyes rolled and arms behind his back.
A few Saiyans sighed and walked forward. Bardock put a hand on the back of Gine and pushed her forward, she blushed and giggled like a schoolgirl as she stepped in front of the small lord.
"Your population is not to be over 5,000 and yet we have readings of over 5,032. You can see why that would make us unhappy."
Frieza didn't care one bit, checking his nails as he said it.
"So?" He widened his eyes with sass. "I'm only seeing a few of you apes here, definitely not 30."
"You should be happy at the chance, just like your mom. So go ahead and do us a favour, it'll be the only thing you've ever done that'll be worthwhile." Turles cackled, patting Raditz' back hard and forcing him up front
Lord Frieza looked upon the final 32 Saiyans, Gine and Raditz among them. The Lord's piercing gaze scanned every candidate until it got to Raditz at the end. He blinked a few times and then furrowed his brow, staring into the soul of the young Saiyan. Raditz gulped harshly as they made eye contact. The Lord pointed his finger harshly at the little boy with his right hand.
"Who put this little boy up here? You cowards can't open death's door by yourselves? You've got to send a child to do it for you? That's whack and you don't need me to say it out loud, you're all grown ups, aren't you?"
The crowd visibly sweat it out as their overlord eagle eyed all of them at once.
"That wasn't a rhetorical question." Frieza belted out as he domed a random with the point of a finger. Saiyan blood spilled as the elegance of Frieza's blast was like laying a blanket over the man and tucking him in. "Speak up and I might not have to limit you guys to 3,000."
Turles shook his fist angrily as he stared at Raditz.
"You cur." He grunted quietly. "That brat hasn't done anything and yet Lord Frieza's giving him a pass..."
"Well!?" Lord Frieza's voice echoed through the dust.
A heavy man with the black muted blue Saiyan armour without pauldrons and a bowl cut spoke up.
"I did it."
"Fool." Frieza shot out a purple ray of energy, killing the man instantly. He had a smile on his face.
"Shugesh…" Bardock thought to himself for a moment.
Lord Frieza then relayed a purple shield of energy around Raditz and blew up the entirety of the Saiyans presented to him with one wave of his hand, the shockwave of which blowing everyone else back on their asses. Raditz was shivering under the pressure of his lord and Frieza looked him dead in the eye before releasing his Ki construct and walking away like nothing happened, arms behind his back like always.
"Everyone's crazy. They're all crazy…" Is all Raditz could think about as the nearby Saiyans not swallowed up by the burst of regal spirit cursed Lord Frieza's existence. Lord Frieza may have just spared him but he also just killed his mother right in front of him.
Raditz is brought back to reality by the smell of hot chocolate.
"Damn, you even here buddy? Helloooo~"
Raditz grabbed her hand harshly, out of instinct. He realised he had gripped tightly and apologised.
"Sorry. I was out of it, my mistake." He turned back around to face the stars before Bulma bumped him with a warm mug.
"Hey!"
He looked back.
"I brought you some hot chocolate, dummy."
"Oh." He accepted it, almost bowing to her as he took it into his hands with a softness. "Thank you."
"You spend a lot of time out here."
Raditz got caught up in the stars above again, taking a long time to respond.
"Oh-ho. Yeah… mm-hmm!" He paused for a moment. "This is just a nice spot to look at the stars, reminds me of home."
"Yeah?"
"Yeah…"
Bulma leaned over the railing next to him.
"Good memories?" She smiled wide.
"Not at all."
"Awwhhh."
"Not even one bit." He took a drain from his mug.
"That sucks." She averted her eyes to the steaming caramel colour of her drink.
"Well, there's a reason I came here, so~" He sipped on it again.
Bulma let the air breathe, not saying much and just taking steady drinks with him. After a while Bulma tried to break through the suffocating silence.
"I came out here to say something so I'm just gonna say it."
Raditz looked over at her with a loose brow.
"You and Piccolo are alright, I was skeptical at first but you guys have really turned it around. Good for you." She patted him on the shoulder and turned to leave quickly, kind of embarrassed.
"Thank you."
The genuineness of Raditz' words stopped her stride, half-way to opening the sliding door.
"You guys have treated me so well and you didn't need to." He turned back around to gaze at the stars. "I know what it's like to feel like trash and Kakarot never let me feel that way. So~" His voice wavered a bit. "Thanks…"
"I'll tell him you said that." She turned back around, only seeing the large man's mound of hair.
She bit her lip before closing the door and Raditz let a few tears fall from the railing onto the ground below.
Tien
Tien skirted the edge of the mountain top as the blizzardly winds impacted him and his passenger.
"Oh no, I just might fall."
"Eat my ass, you can fly! You just like seein' me nipped up, admit it you pervert!"
Tien laughed out a bit before shifting around his tongue, pressing up against his cheeks as he prepared for a question.
"You liked it here last time, didn't you?"
"It was alriiight!"
"Honestly."
"Yeah, it's pretty nice. My nose gets a bit stuffy in the cold though."
"Well, I thought about it a lot and… do you like traveling all the time?"
"I mean…" Launched looked down the mountain, the cold blue view and pelting snow clouding the surroundings. "It's fun but I guess it can get tiring."
"That's what I was thinking."
"Yeah?" She laid her head flat on his back as he continued their voyage up the knee-length snow.
"Jingle Village is really far away from the cities. You could probably lay low from the cops here for the rest of your life. Hegh-hegh, provided you don't go relapsing on me, Princess."
"You got sum' nerve callin' me that!"
"Well?"
"Ahhh~" She didn't even try to fight back, laying her head right where it was a moment ago. "Yeah, could be nice."
"I thought so too. I remember you~"
"AHH-CHUU!"
Launch belted out a spray of snot that Tien dodged expertly with his head movement, her bushy blonde hair smoothed out into a nightly indigo.
"Whew. I would have had to kill her ass if she went and hocked up a loogie on me." "You okay, Princess?"
"Yeah." She wrapped her arms even tighter around Tien's neck. "I love it when you call me that. So romantic."
Tien blushed a bit.
"Sorry, I just wanted to take in the view a bit. Let's hurry inside."
"Great! I'm freezing."
Tien blasted off the snow, practically kicking up an avalanche in his wake. Not too much later he touched down just outside the cabin, opening the door, talking up the clerk and getting a room key.
"Sorry, didn't really plan ahead of time like I did last year. We're just gonna have to chill in the inn until we can get something going."
"Fine by me!" Launch launched up, pecking him on the cheek and tightly grabbing around his left arm.
Tien walked her up the stairs and to the room in the back labeled:
Room 225
The couple flung open the door and peered inside, a large bed and a bath on the right side from the entrance. There was a small desk and a single chair, across the room next to the bathroom was a bookshelf. Everything in the room was a nicely furnished oak. Tien nodded.
"I guess it'd be a fire hazard but I'm pretty sure they've taken their measures against that." He knocked on the hard wood as Launch took off her dress and flopped onto the bed.
Tien swallowed hard, closing his three eyes and breathing in deep, one solitary gland of sweat.
"Launch?"
His girlfriend beckoned to him like an infant does when it wants to be picked up, a cheery and blush-filled smile. Tien nervously smiled back and fell into his other half's arms.
"What is it?" She asked seductively, peering into his eyes as she drew her finger around his jaw.
"What do you think about having kids?"
She got up in a hurry, beet red. Her flustered movements tore the covers away and she hugged him tight.
"Kyaaaaa~ I thought you'd never ask!"
"Fuck."