Chapter 040 - From Another Time
The mysterious man didn't lead them very far away; within a couple of minutes he descended down to the ground. Amongst the crowd following, Corset landed several feet away from him eyeing him up suspiciously.
On closer inspection this man appeared to be younger than she originally thought; he looked like a teenager rather than a grown-up, though he wasn't far off being a grown-up. His light purple hair was short and almost covered the tops of his eyes, separated down the middle. He wore a purple jacket and dark grey clothes underneath, his sword kept on his back. So that had been the weapon he'd used to defeat Freeza...
He suddenly reached into one of his jacket pockets, Corset relieved to see him pulling out a capsule container. He selected a capsule and tossed it out. In a puff of smoke it transformed into whatever the capsule had contained. It looked like some kind of storage box.
"Watch it, he's pulled out something weird!" Yamcha warned from behind her.
Corset watched as the teenager opened the door, spotting what looked like canned drinks inside.
"We have almost three hours until Goku arrives here," the boy smiled reaching to grab a can, "There are plenty of drinks inside here so please help yourselves."
"... I'll have some," Bulma smiled.
"Me too!" Gohan agreed.
Corset willingly followed as her mother and Gohan looked at the selection of drinks. She peered through a small gap and looked at the different drinks. She didn't recognise some of them but spotted there was a lemon and lime soda and grabbed it.
"... Maybe I'll have some too," Krillin walked towards them.
"I'm starting to like this guy," Bulma smiled, "he has root beer!"
Corset scrunched her face up in disgust; she'd tasted root beer before and thought it was gross! She couldn't believe her mama could drink that yucky stuff! Eager to forget the taste she opened her soda and took a big gulp, gasping for air as the carbonated drink made her eyes water.
"Hey, he's got grape in here," Krillin's voice trailed off as Corset went to stand beside her mother; she was talking to the mystery man.
"Have we met before?" She was asking.
"Er... No," the teenager shook his head.
Corset raised an eyebrow; she didn't recognise this guy at all. He seemed strange to her but he had given them drinks. "Thank you for the drink," she bowed.
"Oh, it's nothing," the teen replied glancing away from her. This confused Corset even more. His behaviour was strange. She momentarily paid little mind to this and gulped down another mouthful of soda, her face souring as the carbon got to her eyes once more.
"How do you know my dad?" Gohan asked.
"I've never met him," the teen answered, "I've only heard about him."
"... Then how do you know he'll be here in three hours?" Bulma asked confused.
"Well..." the man seemed a little uncomfortable, "... Sorry, I can't tell you."
"Why not?" Vegeta barked over interrupting the conversation. "Who the hell are you? How did you get so much power?"
"... I'm sorry, I can't tell you that either." the man answered. He seemed uncomfortable but also a little saddened. His behaviour confused Corset a lot. He was weird...
"You were a Super Saiyan when you defeated Freeza, weren't you?" Gohan asked.
"Yes, I was."
"So that's what a Super Saiyan looks like?" Corset gaped in awe, turning to Gohan. "Wow... So your daddy looked like he did?"
"Lies!" Vegeta spat. "The only Saiyans still alive are myself, Kakarrot – the one known as Son Goku here – Kakarrot's half-breed son and my half-breed kid. There's no way you can be a Saiyan!"
Even if he was putting the man's identity in jeopardy, Corset was overjoyed to hear her father actually refer to her as his kid! He'd never spoken about her like that before or ever even identified her as being his child so to hear it now was amazing!
"But we saw him turn into a Super Saiyan and beat Freeza..." Gohan pointed out.
"Didn't you know all Saiyans have black hair?" Vegeta muttered.
"... Hey," Bulma spoke up, "you've got the Capsule Corp logo on your jacket! Are you one of our employees?"
"N-No, not really..." the man answered with a smile.
"Is that a secret too?" Bulma playfully asked, "Can't you at least tell us your name or how old you are?"
"I can't tell you my name but I'm seventeen years old," he answered.
"Why can't you tell us your name?" Tenshinhan asked.
"There's no reason to hide it," Yamcha added. Neither of them seemed too happy with this man's answers.
"Hey, let's stop asking questions," Bulma butted in, "the guy's obviously too uncomfortable. He did save the Earth and all..."
Corset smiled; her mama always seemed to be able to defuse situations such as these, unless of course she was the one creating them!
Things had gotten quiet. Everyone sat around the small clearing in the rocks, seemingly left to their own thoughts. Corset sat on the edge of a small rock beside her mother and Krillin. She hated long periods of time like these especially when she had nothing to do but wait. The lack of conversation or entertainment magnified time and she'd quickly found herself growing bored. Now she wished she hadn't been at school and had grabbed something to play with. Even getting to read would have been more fun than this!
The sound of shuffling feet caught her ear and she nonchalantly glanced around, head cupped in her hands. Gohan had wandered over to Piccolo and she could just about hear what he was saying.
"... Piccolo, I've been wanting to ask you something," Gohan mumbled.
"What?" Piccolo grunted, back still to Gohan and the others.
"Why... why didn't you go with all the other Namekians?" Gohan asked. "They're your people."
It was a good point, one that Corset herself had wondered but never asked. She felt like Piccolo would have told her it was none of her business and yelled at her.
"It's not much of a reason but I didn't want a peaceful, boring life," Piccolo answered. "Sometimes ties run deeper than where a person is from or the colour of their skin."
"So are you still fiercely training every day?" Gohan asked.
"Pretty much," Piccolo nodded.
Corset frowned. Again she was now feeling bad for not training as often as before.
"Vegeta disappears every day," Bulma mumbled to Krillin, "he must be working out somewhere."
Her attention turned to her mother's conversation. Corset knew her father was still staying with them but she barely saw him around the house. On most days he wouldn't even show his face.
"He probably still wants to beat Goku," Krillin replied. "He has so much pride. I hear he was the Saiyan Prince."
"Hey, don't those tow look alike?" Bulma asked discreetly nudging her head over towards whatever was ahead of her.
"Who?" Krillin raised a confused brow.
"Vegeta and that mysterious kid," Bulma replied. "Don't they sort of feel similar?"
Corset glanced over to her father and the lavender-haired teen. What was her mama trying to say? She could see something was similar between them; they had similar eyes, albeit different colours. "... I thought most Saiyans had mean-looking eyes..." she mumbled, "... that guy doesn't look so mean. He looks like a nicer Saiyan." She smiled.
"That's if he really is one; Vegeta doesn't seem to think so," Krillin answered. "I'm not so sure they feel similar to me; their personalities are totally different! That guy seems pretty calm and a little introverted where as Vegeta's aggressive, violent and agitated..."
There was no arguing there, Corset agreed with what Krillin said! She continued to look over towards her father and the other guy, eyes falling a little more on the mysterious man. Something about him did feel strange to her. Corset didn't really know why but he felt familiar to her, something about him made her feel happy. Was it because he defeated Freeza, or because he was supposedly a Saiyan? Corset wasn't so sure that was it...
"What are you looking at?" Vegeta's outburst made Corset jump back, almost certain he was talking to her! "If you're really Saiyan, I shouldn't be such an unusual sight!"
"S-Sorry..." The mysterious boy answered.
Corset looked over at him again; he seemed a little embarrassed.
Time once again became a painful concept. The minutes seemed to slowly trickle by and once again Corset had grown rather bored and fed up. She'd ended up watching the clouds slowly drift across the skies, oblivious to Krillin rattling an empty drinks can with his foot, or any of the small conversations any of the adults were having amongst themselves. The cry of an unfamiliar bird fell on deaf ears as slowly she felt herself drifting away from her surroundings, falling into a sleepy state...
"...He should be arriving now." The mystery man's voice brought her back. Corset opened her eyes and realised she'd fallen asleep! Embarrassed she sat up quickly, face quickly glancing up as a strong and familiar ki appeared; they were closing in on the planet.
"I feel it!" Tenshinhan cried. "I feel a ki!"
"Something is coming!" Yamcha stood up. "I don't believe it!"
"Then he was right about the time and place?" Bulma gaped; Corset could see her mother struggling to spot where this ki was. She hadn't exactly found it either but had a rough idea of where it would appear from.
"It's Dad's ki!" Gohan sounded excited; Corset couldn't blame him. It had been more than a year since he'd last seen his father on Namek, now finally he was coming home to his family. She knew Gohan did deeply miss his father, even if he didn't show it so much.
A bright dot appeared high above them, slowly growing larger and louder as a high pitched squeal hit her sensitive ears. There was little doubt in her mind that it was a spaceship coming in to land and that Gohan's dad was on it.
In an instant the thing seemed to speed up, striking the ground not too far from them with a heavy and powerful amount of force, dust and rubble scattering high into the sky.
With no warning several of the fighters rushed towards the ship, Corset about to join them before being snatched back. Confused she turned; her mother had grabbed onto her. "I am not being left behind again!" She spoke sounding a little angry.
Corset held onto her mother and carefully took off after the others, cautious not to fly too fast or too high. Luckily they didn't have too far to go and she landed amongst the others just off the edge of the crater. Everyone's necks were craning to get a better view over the edge and Corset was no different; she took a couple of steps closer and stood beside Gohan.
The crater was pretty big in size, Corset not sure just how wide it was but guessing it was around fifty metres... or how long she thought fifty metres was! A small round sphere sat in the centre of the hole, half covered by a trail of dust rising into the air. It looked like a Saiyan space-pod just like her father's!
The pod door opened and Goku emerged.
The group all began to cheer, seemingly catching the Saiyan by surprise. Corset just stood and smiled, suddenly grabbed by Gohan as he jumped up and down happily, Corset letting herself be pulled into the madness and joining him.
"My dad's finally back!" Gohan cheered. "He's back!"
Through all the voices, Corset could just about make out Goku speaking, although she wasn't sure what he said. She and Gohan stopped jumping on the spot and turned to face the Saiyan, who'd risen to their level floating in mid-air.
"This young man told us," Bulma spoke, referring to the lavender-haired fighter. "He knew you were going to be here."
"You know him, don't you, Dad?" Gohan smiled.
"... Who is he?" Goku asked.
That sent Corset into a deeper whirl of confusion. Never mind how this mysterious Super Saiyan knew where and when Goku would arrive – how was it that Goku didn't recognise him? It made no sense to her! She raised a baffled eyebrow and folded her arms, expecting someone else to come up with a reason why.
"You don't know this kid?" Bulma replied shocked.
"No," Goku shook his head looking indifferent, "should I?"
"... But he knew you were going to arrive at this spot at this moment," Bulma explained.
"Really?" Goku looked surprised, as if he was being genuine about not knowing this man. "... Of course Freeza knew I was coming. He spotted my spaceship so he probably knew when I'd be coming to Earth. So who was it that defeated Freeza? That was some impressive ki! Was it you Piccolo, or you Vegeta?"
"This guy did it instantly," Piccolo answered referring to the lavender-haired man. "He became a Super Saiyan and wiped Freeza out!"
"A Super Saiyan?!" Goku repeated impressed, turning to the mysterious man. "That's incredible! You're so young too! I didn't even know there were Saiyans besides us!"
"There aren't!" Vegeta interrupted sounding angry as always. "It's impossible! There can be no Saiyans but us!"
Corset turned her eyes onto the lavender-haired man once again. He seemed a little down-hearted with her father's words. She almost wanted to tell him not to worry and to ignore her dad, strangely she felt genuine concern over him. The feeling bemused her and she stayed quiet.
"... Well, whatever," Goku shrugged his shoulders, "he sure was a super something, wasn't he?"
"What do you mean whatever?" Bulma grunted. "You've always been way too trusting, Goku!"
"... Actually... Son Goku, sir..." the supposed Super Saiyan spoke up, "... can we talk – just the two of us?"
The seven-year-old girl watched as Goku and the mystery man flew off to the other side of the crater, indifferent to the grumblings of some of the adults in the group. She knew there was something about him that seemed to interest her so what was it? She spent quite a bit of time trying to work it out, interrupted by a brief moment of shock when Goku suddenly transformed into a Super Saiyan! The boy did the same seconds later.
"What's going on?" Bulma gawked. "Goku's hair went blonde!"
"He became a Super Saiyan," Gohan replied.
"What a huge ki..." Yamcha spluttered, "... and he's not even fighting yet!"
"The kid did it too," Tenshinhan added. "What are they going to do?"
That was a good question and once again Corset waited for someone else to come up with an answer! It never came – the boy suddenly went to attack Goku! His sword stopped inches from Goku's head; Corset confused and speechless over what she was sensing and what was going on. Why were they fighting? Why had the boy not hit Goku? Why were they Super Saiyans in the first place?
The fight continued, Goku blocking the boy's sword with nothing but a finger. After a few shots the boy jumped back, chucked his sword into the sky and transformed back down, catching his sword nimbly with his case.
"... Gohan?" She mumbled.
"Yeah?" Gohan asked, eyes not moving from his father.
"... Your dad and that guy are cool."
"Did you see that?" Tenshinhan asked.
"Yeah..." Yamcha nodded, "... but I don't believe it!"
Once again the two began to talk, although this time they did far more talking. Corset wondered what they were saying and wished she could find out, yet she knew it would be rude to go over to them when the man had asked to speak to Goku alone. Her curiosity was irritating her. Every-so-often she was sure they would look back over to them and continue to talk. Why were they looking back? What were they talking about?
After what felt like an eternity, the young man ran and took off into the sky.
A stunned and confused expression etched its way across her face. Where was he going...?
"He's leaving!" Yamcha cried.
It did seem that way... Goku was also walking back towards them, arms folded. He seemed to be struggling with something...
The news was a shock to her ears and her imagination. What Goku – and Piccolo – had described sounded like Freeza, only far, far worse. The mysterious lavender-haired boy was from the future? In three years' time Corset and Gohan would be the only survivors of a big battle with some androids? The Dragonballs would vanish and the world would be plunged into darkness? She would eventually be killed... again?
It sounded so unbelievably horrible, like a living nightmare... Yet it sounded so unbelievable... How could anyone be worse than Freeza? Apparently she wasn't the only one struggling to believe this man's word.
"No way, it's too far-fetched!" Yamcha smiled. "He could just be claiming he's from the future!"
"Yeah!" It seemed her mother wasn't buying it either, "A time machine?"
"If you don't want to believe, fine," Piccolo muttered looking as serious as ever, "Stay out of our way! I'll train – I don't want to die!"
A small noise from Gohan caught her ear and Corset looked at him, focus turning onto where he was looking up to. She spotted it not too far above the ground. It was some sort of machine, glowing and making a strange humming sound. The lavender-haired boy sat inside of it. With a wave he vanished, ki completely wiped out.
She found it difficult to confirm what she'd seen but at the same time found it fascinating!
"He's gone..." Krillin mumbled.
"... I'm gonna train..." Tenshinhan decided.
"Me too," Krillin agreed.
A smile appeared on Corset's face, "... I wanna train too..." She mumbled quietly to herself.