Thanks for reading! Another chapter is finally here!
Again, Bulma is about 26 and Vegeta is closer to 28. They may not always act like they are in their mid-late twenties, but then again these are two pigheaded/spoiled "elites" that are used to only getting their way. ;)
There was a nudging at Bulma's shoulder, and she rolled over to her other side in the bed. There was another nudge, the perpetrator obviously feeling relentless. With a grumble, the Bluehead pulled the blanket higher up to her chin.
"Bulma." Vegeta's voice muttered. "Hey. Wake up..."
Her lips were pursed, and she shook her head. "Give me a few hours..." She slurred, not yet ready to start the day. "I'm really tired... I won't be able to handle it yet..."
"No, Woman. I don't want that."
Reluctantly, Bulma finally opened her eyes and rolled back to see the man that was stubbornly prodding her ribs. Vegeta was kneeling at face level by the bed, and as soon as she had turned to him they locked eyes. "What is it?" She asked, blinking the sting of grogginess back from her lids.
"I'm about to leave for the dragon ball." Vegeta whispered – and he really was speaking so quietly… It was as if he thought he might hurt her ears if he spoke any louder, which seemed a bit odd…
"Oh..." Bulma mumbled. She made to sit up, but the saiyan put a hand on her stomach to hold her in place. "No. Don't get up. I just needed to inform you that I'll be leaving. That's all."
He was looking at her, his features dimmed from the early morning light. Bulma raised an eyebrow, unsure where any of this was coming from. "You're coming back, right?"
"Of course." He replied, still whispering as if he were letting her in on some elaborate secret. "You will wait for me here."
She didn't understand what the point to any of this was. Of course she would wait for him in the house - it was too cold for her to venture out on her own. There was no reason she should need to be instructed of such a thing. And it seemed obvious that if Bulma woke to see Vegeta gone the morning after receiving the fixed dragon radar, then she would have easily assumed he'd left to track down the ball.
So why had he felt the need to wake her? Just to tell her he was leaving? This was so unusual for the introverted man she'd grown to know. Feeling uneasy, Bulma made to sit up again. But Vegeta just held her down once more. "No," He repeated. "Go back to sleep."
"Is everything alright?" She asked.
"Of course." He replied. The saiyan was still kneeling at eye level with her. As the sun continued to rise into the sky, the room was becoming less dark. She could make out his facial expression with more clarity now, and he was staring at her with that same look he had when he would watch her intently during their love making.
Bulma stared back at him, feeling less concerned than she had a moment before. He certainly didn't seem as if he were worried about anything happening while he was gone - not with a face like that. Maybe he really had woken her up just to say goodbye? Still, even if that actually was the case, it was quite out of character for this tightly wound man…
"Alright." He announced, rising to his feet. "I'm leaving, then. Go back to sleep." He was looking down at her as he stood, his eyes still locked with her own.
"You sure you're coming back?" The Bluehead mumbled, pulling the blanket back up to her chin.
"Why do you keep asking me that? Of course I'll be back."
"I just don't get why you'd wake me up for something like this, and then just tell me to go back to sleep. I'm worried you know something that I don't."
"No. I already said that I just needed to inform you that I'm leaving. Accept that, and stop catastrophizing things."
That was when he set his palm down to cup her cheek. Not moving from where he stood, rubbing her face with his thumb.
It was so random, so unprovoked, so unusual. Yet, as he stared into her eyes and caressed her face, the worry began to fade away. Instead Bulma just became reacquainted with the remaining fatigue that was still fogging her head, and quietly the Bluehead dozed back to her dreams...
.
Go back to sleep.
This was something that Bulma had loyally done. And when she woke up hours later to see that the sun was now high in the sky, she threw the blanket off and jumped out of bed.
There was no telling how many hours had passed since Vegeta had paid her a visit just to say goodbye... But judging by how she had woken on her own will, and not as a result of a slamming door or stomping feet, it was evident that Vegeta had not yet returned from his hunt. Bulma was alone in this house, which was isolated in the snow, and for the first time in days she had nothing to keep her occupied.
The anxiety was hitting her again, and it was washing over all at once. The desperate worry that something terrible was currently taking place. The sinking sensation that something awful was about to happen, if it hadn't already, and there wasn't any single thing she could do about it. By now it had been about four days since Bulma had heard from any of her loved ones, and that was simply four days too long.
"Oh, god..." Bulma thought, panting as she hysterically paced around the living room. How could this have happened? Four entire days?! It didn't feel like four days! All she'd been doing lately was flying the plane, nearly dying of frostbite, working on the dragon radar, and... well, shagging Vegeta...
She'd been so blissfully and utterly carefree! And when the threat of anxiety did start to stir, Vegeta had been there to occupy her body and mind instead.
But now?
Now she was alone, and there wasn't anything to stop what was happening in her head.
Bulma ran for the monitor of the house's phone system and slapped her palm onto the power button. This system, which her father had repaired during her recent stay at the house, was still shotty at best. The screen buzzed as it came to life, and the Bluehead quickly typed in the identification number to her parent's home.
The buzz of the vacant line gave way to the loud ringing sound that was beckoning one of her parents to answer the call. Bulma, her mouth going dry as she waited impatiently for the call to be answered, began to hold her breath.
The ringing continued as the seconds slowly ticked by... When so much time had passed that Bulma had lost the ability to hold her breath and let out a gasp for air, the ringing was still slurring on the monitor...
"Why isn't anyone answering?" Bulma breathed. She slammed her hand down to end the call, shaking her head. Then, with shaking fingers, she typed the identification number into the system again.
And, again, the ringing noise lingered so long that it seemed as if it were doing such a thing just to mock her.
"Pick up!" Bulma snapped. "Answer the phone, already!"
But the call was never received. And, as Bulma sat by the monitor and held her head in her hands, all she could think of was the many things that this could mean...
.
Vegeta stepped into the house, rubbing ice crystals out of his hair and kicking soggy snow from the bottom of his boots. It had been annoying, but the saiyan had confiscated the fifth dragon ball from a temperamental polar bear that had decided that both him and the ball would be its lunch.
"Only two more to go." The saiyan muttered, marching down the hall so he could stow the ball in the Bluehead's duffel bag. And speaking of the woman, he hadn't bothered to sense her aura at all that day. He was already disgusted with how reluctant he'd been to leave her that morning – he didn't need any more distractions while he'd been hunting for that ball... It came to his surprise, then, when he walked into the room to see that she had evidently been having a bad day…
Bulma was sitting on the bed with her back turned to the saiyan, looking down at her lap. Her arms were moving hastily in front of her as she worked at whatever it was she was doing.
Raising an eyebrow, Vegeta continued deeper into the room. Perhaps she hadn't heard him enter? She hadn't even twitched in his direction! But, as the saiyan stepped closer and his footsteps grew louder, Bulma still did not cease in her trance-like movements.
Curiously impatient, Vegeta finally cleared his throat. The Bluehead's swift arms still did not pause in their actions, and the saiyan just couldn't take it anymore. "What are you doing?" He finally said, and it was then that Bulma jumped. Seeming to hear him for only the first time, the Bluehead turned to glance at him over her shoulder.
"Oh. Hey. I need to know how my parents are doing." She explained, and there was no hint of cheer in her eyes. Her cheeks were sunken into a heavy scowl, her brows furrowed with concentration as she turned back to what it was she was working on.
Her words had done nothing in answering Vegeta's question, but he ignored this. The sun was high in the sky at this point, but it was only a matter of time before it started to lower again. "We need to go." He announced. "We still have two more balls to find."
"Just give me a minute..." Bulma glared down at her hands, though Vegeta couldn't see the look on her face.
"We don't have a minute. We need to leave now."
Bulma's shoulders rose at this, and her arms abruptly stopped moving. Completely frozen, she took in a deep breath. The saiyan, who still had his eyes pinned on her back, cocked his head to the side as he watched her. After a moment of silence the Bluehead cleared her throat, and carefully she turned to eye Vegeta again.
"They're dead, aren't they?" She muttered, her blue irises glistening.
"What?"
"My parents. I can't get in contact with them... They won't answer any of my calls..." She coughed, an effort to mask the cracking in her voice. "I just want to see them... I just wish I could go back to check on them..."
"You can't do that." Vegeta shot. "You know the risks that would involve."
"But I just need to see them..." Bulma groaned. "Oh, what if they are still alive? I can try to convince them to come with us! I-"
"No, Woman. That won't happen. We are too far away to lose all the time it would to go back there. We need to find the rest of the balls."
"And if they are dead, I just... I need to know." Bulma continued, not acknowledging what the saiyan had just said. "God, this is awful. I feel terrible, Vegeta! I'm going crazy just wondering what's going on!"
The saiyan bit the inside of his cheek. He hadn't been tracing her ki at all that day, indeed. But now that he was in the same room as her, it was clear to tell that she was verging on turmoil.
"Just give me a minute before we leave, okay? I want to finish what I'm working on." She was saying now. Her cheeks were turning pink, and she turned her back to the saiyan to mask the tears welling in her eyes.
"What are you doing, anyway?" Vegeta stepped forward to try and look over her shoulder.
With a sigh, Bulma pushed several strands of blue hair behind her ear. She scooted to the side to give the saiyan a better view, but she did not look back up at him. Still fighting back the tears, the Bluehead only stared at her lap as she let Vegeta get a look at her latest project.
He raised an eyebrow, taking in what he was seeing. Bulma had scattered several tools around her, including swcrewdrivers, a set of plyers, wrenches, and nuts. In the middle of the crafty debris was a chunk of metal that resembled a bird, a round plate of glass attached to the bottom. "What is it?"
"A camera." Bulma sighed, putting a pale hand on the specimen. She wasn't anywhere near as enthusiastic about this mechanism as she had been about the gravity room she had built. Vegeta had learned that this Woman seemed to get great joy out of creating these items, but this time around she was evidently getting no such fulfillment. If anything, if only seemed to be adding to her mental distress.
"This camera," Bulma continued, "Will fly to West City with coordinates I program into it. I'll be able to receive the images on the house phoen. That way I can see for myself if my parents are alright..."
"Woman..."
"I know they aren't." Bulma groaned, pulling her hand back to her lap. "Why else wouldn't they be returning my calls? Something must be wrong. But I just need to confirm. I can't keep playing these guessing games!"
"Woman." Vegeta grunted, stepping closer to the bed. "Your parents... they live."
"I don't know..." Bulma sighed. "I have a really bad feeling."
"No." Vegeta replied. "I can sense their power. They are alive." He then clapped a firm palm on her shoulder. He meant to be gentle, but he still used enough force that she fell back on the mattress.
"Hey!" Bulma quipped, but there was a smirk to her face. She'd learned enough about the saiyan by now to understand that it took a lot of concentration to hold back on his strength. And, while it might have been intimidating for a normal person to think of what type of damage Vegeta could inflict without even meaning to, Bulma found it amusing. He hadn't ever really hurt her, though she found his touch a bit rough at times. He was always careful to correct himself when she pointed it out though, and she found this part of her persona to be nothing short of a quirk.
Vegeta, recognizing the amusement on her face, shot her a devious grin back.
"Do you promise they're okay?" Bulma asked. "You can really sense them?"
"Yes." The saiyan replied. "Next time, just ask."
"How can I trust you? I won't believe it until I see it for myself." She batted her head to the side, and her statement had only been half true. Vegeta had told her multiple times that he wasn't trustworthy, and that he didn't want her to have such faith in him, yet she still did. She took his word seriously, believed that if he was stating something then it had to be worth regarding.
"Finish that camera on the plane, and you will see for yourself." Vegeta put a calloused hand on her leg now. "I'll pilot."
"You mean it?" Bulma replied, her smile growing brighter. "But if you steer then you won't get your training done."
"I can pilot." He repeated. He grabbed her other leg and pulled her to the edge of the bed. Now standing against her pelvic region, he leaned down to her face. Still smirking, he gave her thigh a firm squeeze. "I just want to go. Now."
And that was just what they did. Within 20 minutes the Bluehead had packed everything up and moved her project into the back of the plane. And, as Vegeta promised, he steered so that Bulma could finish tinkering with her work.
By the time they landed for the night they had made enough distance to have gotten out of the snow. Still chilly but nowhere nearly as debiliating, they set up the capsule house in a grassy pasture that gave a clear view of the moon above.
"I finished the camera." Bulma said softly as Vegeta walked in through the front door. She was still standing outside on the doorstep, and the Bluehead spoke with just as little enthusiasm as she had earlier that day. She was regarding her project as if it had been more of a strain than it had been an achievement, a grim frown on her lips.
"Good." The saiyan grunted back.
"Watch..." Bulma turned outward to face the chilly night. As Vegeta peered from inside the house, Bulma clicked the metallic bird into life. It spread its aluminum wings and let out a hiss as it charged up, and soon enough it was hovering at face level. In only a moment it had gained enough charge, and it went shooting off into the dark sky.
"Interesting," Vegeta muttered.
"Yeah... it should reach West City by the end of the day tomorrow..." Bulma replied. She ran a hand through her blue waves, and with another sigh she turned back into the house.
"You do know they're alive." Vegeta said when she shut the door behind her.
"Well, if they are, then there's definitely something wrong. I should have heard from them by now." The Bluehead replied. "Anyway, you should use the training room tonight until you're ready to go to sleep. I'm going to go lie down."
And that was that. Bulma didn't say anything else to Vegeta before locking herself away in the bedroom. She didn't say inspect the refrigerator for dinner, didn't bid the saiyan goodnight. She didn't even ask the saiyan to come sit with her as she fell asleep, as had become routine for them over the past few days.
It had been so out of character for her that Vegeta didn't think she was actually going to sleep, and he was quick to take her up on her suggestion of spending the rest of his night in the gravity room.
It wasn't until Vegeta emerged from the training room two hours later that he finally reached out for Bulma's ki, for the first time that day. He felt her, dim and swelling with trepidation, and he had gone in to check on her. What he found in the bedroom was a dozing Bluehead buried within the thick blankets, which had taken him by surprise. Never had she felt so foreboding as she slept, yet she did now…
'She really is stressed.' The saiyan thought. Feeling uncomfortable with this mental comment, he ran a hand through his spiky hair as he slowly stepped back out into the hall...
.
The next morning Bulma wasn't feeling much better when she pulled herself out of bed and carefully slipped into the bathroom. It was still dark out, and she could hear Vegeta's deep breathing from the couch that indicated he was still asleep. Bulma couldn't remember if there had been a time when she had awakened earlier than the saiyan to start the day - other than the time she spent working on the gravity machine at her house.
But she just couldn't take the restless sleep anymore, and she was desperate to do something else! The Bluehead ran a bath and soaked until she heard movement in the house to alert her that the saiyan was awake, and it was then that she drained the tub.
She didn't speak a word before they took off in the sky, other than to insist that she wanted to pilot the plane. And she didn't say anything after, staring blankly ahead as she fell into a monotonous robotic state of checking the controls and confirming that their path was clear.
She stayed that way for some time, resting her cheek in a hand as she hypnotically watched the sky ahead. Hours passed with hardly any change, and it wasn't until Vegeta came bursting out from the gravity room that she snapped out of her stupor.
"We're taking a detour!" He exclaimed, jumping into the copilot's chair and quickly buckling himself in.
"What?" Bulma replied, blinking at him.
"We need to head west." The saiyan said, with such urgency in his voice that Bulma obliged without further question. The plane dipped to one side as she adjusted the route, and when the vehicle had stabilized once more she turned to look at the man beside her.
Vegeta had sweat dripping down the side of his face, and Bulma couldn't tell if this was from the workout or if it was from his own stress. "What is it?" She asked.
"I feel something... I need to see what it is." He replied. "Keep going straight for another half hour, and then land. I will investigate."
"What do you feel?" Bulma pressed, but the saiyan merely shook his head. She knew it couldn't have been those kids who had nearly killed him - Vegeta had already told her that they had no discernible auras. And he didn't seem to be upset enough to think it was Frieza… Her curiosity peaked, but not necessarily afraid, Bulma continued on the path that had been instructed to her without a second thought.
When they landed exactly 30 minutes later, Vegeta made no hesitation in unstrapping himself and jumping from the seat. "Stay in here and wait for me." He commanded, making for the door.
"Wait a second, tell me what's going on." The Bluehead replied. "How long am I supposed to just wait?"
"I'm sensing a considerable ki not too far from here." Vegeta said. "It will take another half hour for me to reach it. I do not foresee any danger, but there's no reason to risk your involvement."
"So you'll be gone for at least an hour?" Bulma sighed. "What am I supposed to do for an hour?"
"I don't know, Woman!" He growled. "I need to go!"
"Just wait a minute!" Bulma replied. "What are-"
"Find something to occupy yourself, and make due! And don't even think about leaving this plane, understand!?"
"You can't tell me what to-" Bulma started to snap back, but Vegeta had already kicked the door open and taken off into the sky.
"Oh!" She bit her lip, curling her small hands into fists. As she ran for the door to watch the saiyan's figure fading into the distance, Bulma was starting to feel as if she were on the verge of some kind of breakdown. She was growing tired of constant travel, sick from the constant worry of what was happening at home, and bored of being locked up in either the plane or the house. What was she supposed to do now?!
"I can't stand this!" She barked, dropping to a seating position and holding her head in her hands. "Dammit, dammit, DAMMIT!"
.
That ki had been teasing him.
It had suddenly erupted when Vegeta was training in the gravity room, and it hadn't let off since. Rather than a typical spike he felt when someone was apparently on the verge of death, this ki was pulsating…
…In a pattern.
It would spike for 30 seconds, lower to half power for 15, and then disappear for 10 seconds before spiking once again.
Someone was baiting him - they knew he could feel them, and they wanted him to understand.
He very well could have been flying right into a trap. But the ki he felt, albeit quite high, was nothing that he thought he couldn't handle. It wasn't even as powerful as the aura he had encountered a few days earlier, just after sleeping with Bulma for the first time!
If this was a fight that someone was trying to instigate, they would receive it. But there was no way he was steering the Bluehead into the path of any crossfire. No - this was an intriguing situation he was going to investigate on his own.
If this person knew that Vegeta could sense them, then surely they must be able to feel him too. He had no doubt that they would stay put as he flew to their whereabouts, and he was making a straight path for them.
Tree tops swirled below as he raced by. After spending quite some time in a land only covered in ice, it almost felt surreal to be once again surrounded by green. And when Vegeta finally spotted blue, a clearing in the trees that made room for a lake, he knew he had reached his destination. The source of the ki was just down below, standing behind one of those trees.
Vegeta was feeling irritable with anticipation of a good match, not having had one in months. Licking his lips as he prepared for the surge of adrenalin, the saiyan landed on the lake's shore and crossed his arms. Staring at the specific tree that the perpetrator was standing behind, he cleared his throat and waited for this person to walk out.
And, after a few second of suspense, they did.
Vegeta was somewhat taken aback when he saw him. The man didn't look native to this planet at all, which was fairly uncommon for these rural, backwater galaxies...
This man was not from around here at all…
His skin was a rubbery green, and the scowl on his face was just as pointed as his ears. The man had his eyes fixed on Vegeta as he stepped further out from the trees. "I was wondering when you would show yourself" He growled.
"How long have you been anticipating my arrival?" Vegeta replied, narrowing his eyes.
"I've been keeping tabs on you since you landed on my planet." The green man said. "I was suppressing my energy until the right time..."
'Idiot!' Vegeta thought, the mental insult directed at both himself and the man in front of him. Who was this guy? Vegeta understood the concept of spiking ki, but to disguise one's own aura - something Vegeta hadn't yet realized was fathomable. The saiyan prince was used to everyone on Frieza's base using their scouters to trace his exact whereabouts at all times - that he had grown used to. It had been such a normal part of his life that he hadn't even considered he could manipulate his aura, and now he felt like a fool for not considering of it sooner. Vegeta was trying to mask his surprise, but he could tell by the smirk on this green man's face that he hadn't done a very good job of it.
"Well?" Vegeta hissed, raising an eyebrow. "If you're so calculated, then why did you bait me here?!"
"Why do you think?" The green man replied, and slowly the smirk faded from his lips. To the average eye the man suddenly disappeared into thin air, but Vegeta could still see his actions clearly. The saiyan spun around in enough time to block an attempted punch, the two men's eyes locked on one another. The man nodded before disappearing again, but Vegeta was able to follow his movements with even more ease. He flew up into the air, chasing this stranger's path. And, ten meters above the lake, the two began to engage in a spiral of dodges and punches, an assessment of each other's capabilities and technique.
This green stranger was good, that was to be certain. But he still wasn't quite on the same level as Vegeta, who was the first to land a hit. His fist collided with the man's jaw, knocking him back and sending him into the lake below.
Vegeta, dusting off his hands as if he'd just completed some minimal task, calmly landed his feet on the lake's shore to wait for the man to rise.
When the stranger went shooting out of the water a few seconds later, he didn't seem to be angry. Instead, he calmly landed across from Vegeta, and confidently he nodded his head. "You're as good as I thought."
"Perhaps if I weren't a saiyan you might have intimidated me." Vegeta nodded back. "Now tell me why you baited me here, or next time I hit you I'll actually put some effort into it."
Instead of responding, the green man turned towards the nearby trees. "It's okay, kid." He called then, eying the leafy grove. "You can come out now."
Kid?
Jaw locked, Vegeta looked up to the brush that this stranger was calling to. As he watched, the leaves began to rustle, and out stepped a familiar looking face…
Gohan, his hair knotted looking almost grey with sand, came tiptoeing out from the shrubbery. His eyes were to his feet, and his face looked much more pale that it had been when Vegeta had met him about a week earlier.
His ki was even more dim than it had been during their last encounter, and the saiyan prince hadn't recognized his aura at all. "What are you doing here?!" Vegeta snapped, his mood growing even more sour at all of the surprises he'd received in the last ten minutes alone.
"What he means to ask if why he didn't know you were here." The green man growled, nodding at Gohan. "Tell him, kid."
The boy, his head drooping on his shoulders as if it was too much weight for his neck to bear, slowly began to pick his face up. Hesitating, as if one look at Vegeta might turn him to stone, Gohan took his time in looking up to the saiyan prince.
When the two finally locked eyes, the boy had a scowl on his dusty cheeks. There was no light in his bitter eyes, which now almost appeared to wrinkle on his adolescent skin. "You didn't know I was here," Gohan said. "Because Mr. Piccolo has been teaching me how to disguise my power level."
"YOU?!" Vegeta croaked, and in that moment his left eyelid was twitching. "You? Even for an offspring of a third class commoner, your ki was laughably weak to begin with! Why should you need to mask your ki!"
"It was good enough that even you didn't recognize him, so shut up!" This man - Piccolo, as Gohan had called him – was quick to jump to the boy's defense. "This kid is a lot stronger than you give him credit for, and I've been teaching him how to harness his power."
"That boy is a dud." Vegeta shot back with a cackle. He had initially thought that this stranger had invited him over for the sole purpose of humiliating him, but who was laughing now? "Gohan couldn't have even hurt a small rodent with the ki he was eliciting when I met him a week ago. And he did not even know how to preserve his energy back then! What use is it in trying to teach this boy anything?"
Piccolo's face was turning even more green than it naturally was as Vegeta gleefully mocked them, and he turned back towards Gohan as if considering the saiyan prince's words. "I don't think you know who this kid's father was." He grunted. "While dormant, his power may be dull. But when he's instigated, his strength almost reminds me of his dad."
"Hm." Vegeta, a residual chuckle in his voice, turned to Gohan, too. "And what would make Piccolo come to such a conclusion, boy?"
"It doesn't matter." Piccolo spat before Gohan had the chance to reply. "He doesn't need to tell you. What does matter is this kid might he our key in stabilizing this planet's fate."
"This kid?" Vegeta balked.
"Gohan told me that you and Bulma were the ones who warned him of those two teenagers that are killing everyone off. So don't play dumb, you know exactly what will become of Earth if they aren't stopped."
"And you actually want me to believe that this kid is supposed to be the saving grace?!" Vegeta spat. "Now you're really starting to piss me off! If they were a challenge to me, then how do you think this infant will defeat them!? What an insult!"
"There's no doubt you have experience, and yet you're talking like a complete idiot." Piccolo shot back. "If we're going to beat those kids, then obviously we need to work together as a team. Gohan has the potential to accomplish way more than I can, even I know that."
"The way you two can help in defeating those guys is to stay out of my way!" Vegeta barked back. "All I need is time to prepare, and a place to keep that Woman safe during battle. I don't need your help!"
"Don't be such an Idiot!" Piccolo retaliated, but Vegeta was already too far gone in his anger to be spoken down from.
"Why don't you do me a favor, and stop wasting my time!" The saiyan prince barked back. It was then that he spit on the ground, and in the next instant he was shooting into the sky like a bottle rocket.
Piccolo, chewing on his tongue, just watched as the saiyan disappeared from view. How could this man be so stubborn? What was wrong with him?
"MR. VEGETA!" Gohan called, and this was the first time in days that Piccolo had heard so much emotion in the boy's voice.
"He's not coming back!" Piccolo growled. "Not now, at least. He'll be back after those kids beat him half to death – if they don't finish him off, that is…"
"I've gotta go after him, Mr. Piccolo!" Gohan exclaimed, turning to his companion with a strained look on his face. "I didn't even get to ask him about Miss Bulma!"
"Rmmm..." Piccolo growled. "… Fine. Go. But watch yourself. Obviously, the guy has a sensitive ego. He might take it out on you if he's still in a bad mood when you catch up to him."
"I'll be back!" Gohan shouted, and he was already taking off into the air.