Cheerful music, muzzled only by hefty wooden gates, rattled within the thick walls of a church. Suddenly and loudly, the massive wooden gates shot wide open with a tall, spiky-haired Saiyan grinning ear-to-ear while an elderly priest pressed himself to the left side of the doorway. This impressive feat of strength let the cheerful and grand music boom out loud across the rest of the futuristic town.
"You've got the strength of Samson, my dear boy!" the priest exclaimed, looking stupefied, while Goku chuckled and yanked his white tie left and right to loosen up the collar of his shirt.
"See, old-timer? I told you that you didn't need to call anyone. I'm strong enough to open some old, large doors!" Goku saluted the old man while guests began flooding into the square. The colorful, gorgeous, and happy crowd breathed deep breaths, letting the fresh air of the park that surrounded the church to replace the stuffy old room air from inside.
Having just needlessly done the job of local clerics, Goku neatly strutted back to his wife and pulled young Goten off her side to swoop him up on his broad shoulder. The young Saiyan was at the age where he would no longer spontaneously die if left unattended, but he still spoke in elementary gibberish and resorted to pointing to things and cheering at them for communication, only choosing to speak for the most monumental of instances.
"Goku!" Krillin ran up to Goku, pulling the oaf away from his family for a second while Goten wrapped his tiny feet around his father's neck and began dangling his impeccably polished baby boots with meek kicks through the empty air.
"Hey, Krillin. I've got to say, it surprised me to hear you were getting married. Back when Chi-Chi and I got married, you seemed to keep repeating about how my life was over like Chi-Chi would gobble me up or something…" Goku snickered, having barely had the chance to speak to his best friend that entire day. Even now, it was only because Lazuli was surrounded by ladies in soft-colored dresses and was patiently receiving her share of congratulations that Goku got the chance to congratulate Krillin.
"Yeah… Hard to believe it myself, actually!" Krillin laughed out, rubbing the back of his head while goofily guffawing over his friend's observation. After a brief pause, he got more serious and playfully nudged Goku's shoulder with a knuckle. "Thanks for agreeing to be my best man. I know all that ritualistic stuff bored you a lot, but there probably aren't any safer hands to keep the rings in than yours. Assassins, terrorists, aliens, demons, or robots… Nothing would take those off you, I bet!"
"Actually, I almost ended up losing them by accident while training. Then Gohan nearly ended up blasting them up while they were in my pocket when we were sparring…" Goku stroked the back of his head with an apologetic look at the tall roof of the church, moving his eyes left and right to recall every instance between when Krillin and Lazuli handed him the rings and now that he nearly ended up ruining their ceremony.
"H-Huh? You kept them on you during training!?" Krillin's jaw dropped. "M-Man… Lazuli paid the equivalent of my three-year salary for them. I think she'd have actually killed me if you lost them…"
"Yeah, that's more or less what Gohan told me when he found out I always had them on me. He said that protecting the rings is more of a cerealimonian thing than an actual protection job…" Goku scratched his cheek before shrugging with a goofy grin. "Oh well, it all turned out okay, anyway! You're looking great, buddy!"
"It sure did, your speech made me blush a bit, but I guess that's one of those ceremonial things too…" Krillin nodded with tiny specks of crystal tears forming in the corners of his eyes.
"Oh! That's the word Gohan said!" Goku became serious for a second before Goten began pulling on his hair, trying to drive his father like a giant robot. Goku, being his goofy self, submitted to his son's commands, spread his wings like a plane, and began running around in near supersonic speed, burring like an actual old-timey airplane. Thoroughly entertained by his father's antics, little Goten just cheered and clapped his hands.
There weren't enough guests outside of the inner circle of the Dragon Team to get confused by this behavior. Mostly it was the members and the crosier of the church that couldn't stop gawking at Goku playing with his cheerful son. Vegeta followed Goku's goofy antics with a stern look, with Trunks mirroring his father's vibe, leaning against the side of the nearest pew. His attempts at looking strict and cool would've looked much more effective if he wasn't of preschool age.
"So, you finally tied the knot, huh? Given how Tenshinhan's probably some sort of martial arts monk, you're the last one of the old gang, aren't you?" Yamcha teased Krillin with a nudge of his elbow. Krillin unbuttoned his suit to get to raise his arm up more comfortably while he gave Yamcha a flustered look.
"Aren't you still a bachelor?" Krillin squinted. "I recall Paragus' party crashing your last wedding before you committed."
"Huh? You almost got married once? You never told me that!" a young and short lady with a short white satin dress, standing by Yamcha's side, with a white bowl cut of hair looked up at Yamcha with melancholic, honey-colored eyes.
"Sorry, Pearl, it just never came up…" Yamcha played it off with a goofy cackle.
"So… The groom is your friend, right?" Pearl wondered, biting into the fingernail of her index finger with a look that betrayed her being deep in thought.
"Oh yeah, Krillin and I go way back. We must have started learning martial arts at about the same time. Granted, I had some backup experience as a bandit from even farther back in the day," Yamcha waved it off while Krillin's face stretched to the sides with sweet nostalgia washing over him.
"Hmm… I'm surprised you're so cool with this wedding, then. That bride of his sounded quite rude and couldn't stop talking about all the money she'd squeeze this poor guy out of. Sorry to tell you this as an outsider, but I think your wife's a bit of a gold digger…" Pearl seemed to scold Krillin like a teacher, confusing the poor dolt to the point of leaning back and adopting a defensive body stance to defuse this baffling conflict.
"Don't worry about Lazuli," Yamcha winked at his newest girlfriend. "She used to be a bad guy and tried to kill us all and convert humanity into robots, so she's still a bit shy about acting more akin to her genuinely nice nature. She actually really loves Krillin and, surprisingly, tolerates all of his friends. She nearly sacrificed her life for us recently when we were fending off an alien invasion…"
"I thought you were a baseball player…" Pearl's face soured.
"Oh, I was. Nowadays I just play in the big-money All-Stars event games. We all do martial arts too as our hobby, which is how most of us met. We either fought each other at a tournament or started out trying to kill one another. I tried blowing up Goku and Bulma there with a rocket launcher, Goku met Krillin training with Muten Roshi there and I met him when we both signed up for a martial arts tournament. As I said earlier, Lazuli was an Artificial Human fighting for Puri and Co to force the people to convert into robots and kill anyone who resisted. She's okay though, she only did it out of boredom and because of the pay," Yamcha explained their entire dynamic to Pearl who just nodded, never stopping to question a single thing lest the tidal wave of ludicrous concepts swept her away.
"That, and because, for someone who's in her mid-twenties, she's surprisingly into chocolate and way too easy to bribe with candy. Lazuli and I got off on a strange foot for sure. She tried to kill me at first, but then I made her laugh so she kept me as a kind of funny pet. The thing is that Lazuli is pretty lazy, so she liked that I was working multiple gigs, trying to figure out what I wanted to do with my life that's not about martial arts. She claimed she kept me around to pay for her clothes and luxuries, but she actually paid for this whole thing out of the absurd money she made working under Bulma's contract back when she accompanied Bulma to space to look for Vegeta, who at the time tried to exterminate the Machine Mutants but ended up infected by Baby," Krillin explained for the pair while admiring his splendid wife talking to the other guests from afar.
"Oh my god, what is your life?" Pearl gasped.
"God, that's right!" Yamcha jumped up as if scolded by boiling water. "What about Kami Upa? Why didn't you get married in God's Temple? Doesn't get any more official than that."
"Wait, you know God too?" Pearl gasped with an adorkable long stretch to her face.
"Hmm…" Krillin stroked his chin, "The thought came up to me, but Lazuli didn't want it. She said she wanted a bombastic big city wedding, not some drab, basic poor people excuse of a wedding. Besides, with Goku and Chi-Chi and Chayote and Trunks already doing it, I guess she wanted our wedding to be special."
"W-Wait just a goddamn second, didn't you say that Bulma's son's name was Trunks…!?" Pearl pulled Yamcha toward her, almost begging him to confirm what she was thinking wasn't true.
"Umm… Yeah, why? Oh… Oh, no… Krillin meant a different Trunks… Well… The same Trunks, kind of, but from the future. Future Trunks…" Yamcha mulled over his words, trying to put it in a way his girlfriend could better understand.
"Time travel, seriously!?" Pearl nearly pulled handfuls of her hair out before walking off, forcefully rubbing her arms with her hands with nervous eyes, chattering her teeth.
"I think I better check up on Pearl. We only met recently, so I haven't really clued her up to a lot of stuff. I don't want to seem too cocky, like I'm boasting, you know… I just let things naturally come up," Yamcha shook Krillin's hand while straying his glance to his panicking girlfriend who kept wondering which guests were aliens, which ones were gods or demons, and who came from the future. "Anyway, congratulations, man! Wish you two best of luck!"
"Yeah, you too. Pearl seems nice. Hey, maybe we'll see each other at Bulma's later? Lazuli and I are leaving to help look for the Ultimate Dragon Balls for our honeymoon," Krillin waved at Yamcha while the latter dashed off to take care of his unnerved girlfriend.
"We do need to get on with that, don't we?" Yamcha chuckled while waving back at Krillin. "Oh man, how am I going to explain leaving to space for a few months so that the Earth doesn't blow up to Pearl?"
Once the party spilled out into the courtyard, Lapis excused himself from speaking his congratulations to his sister to levitate atop the church's roof. Piccolo sat with his feet crossed and eyes closed, deep in thought. When Lapis hovered closer to him, Piccolo's eyes opened, although the Artificial Human didn't have a Ki signature.
"That's a strange way of coming to a wedding," Lapis broke the ice by acknowledging the fact that Piccolo neither seemed to be in a festive mood nor taking part in the actual ceremony.
"It was the Demon King Piccolo who carved the "Devil" symbol onto the nexus of his worldly domain. While I have as little to do with Demon King Piccolo in my essence as Dende does right now, I don't believe that Earth's priests would welcome my presence in the church. I don't mind. I care little for their religious customs and I can hear the parts I care about just fine from here," Piccolo replied with a bit of a grumpy disposition. Even a steel-faced Android like Lapis knew that something peeved the Ultimate Namekian.
"I'm disappointed. A small part of me wanted to come here just to see you entertaining the idea of an Earthling suit," Lapis smirked.
"These clothes came into being via Namekian materialization magic. It's our cultural legacy. Wedding or funeral, this is how we're dressed," Piccolo replied before standing up and straightening like a needle on top of the church tower. The priest and the pastoral staff all pointed fingers and mumbled between each other, but, given how no one else minded the odd-looking visitor, they didn't bring it up with the newlyweds or try to shoo him away.
"I see. The boring part is over. If you want to talk to Krillin and congratulate him, now's your chance," Lapis encouraged Piccolo to join the group before preparing to turn around and hover back to the party that was preparing to move out of the church courtyard and straight to the heart of West City where the Capsule Corps building loomed in a district all of its own.
"I will in due time. That being said, I also wanted to talk to you. This wedding proved convenient since it drew you out of your little reserve. You aren't an easy man to get a hold of," Piccolo flew after Lapis, leveling himself to his companion so that the pair landed in the church courtyard together.
"Me? Why would you want to talk to me?" Lapis scratched his head.
"There's something I might need your help with. Our previous meeting provided me with some interesting information about your profession. I think that I have a problem in which your particular skill set could be useful while solving that problem might end up benefiting your job. I've noticed that you seem to care more than most other things about your job and this woman who gave you your second chance. Even after all you've done. I'm offering you a chance at impressing your boss and making a statement of how invaluable you are at your job," Piccolo suggested.
"You're buttering me up for something. Spill it out already," Lapis leaned his head and turned to Piccolo with a grumpy retort. "For your information, I care about the flora and fauna for my own reasons, not just out of loyalty to my boss."
"There is a creature that I've been looking for. It's eluded me for over a year, almost as if it knows how to hide from me specifically, almost like it knows an awful lot about an awful lot of things. At times, it's almost like it's not only intelligent but like it straight up can predict the future. This is troublesome because the Earth's future depends on us finding it," Piccolo replied.
"Hmm…" Lapis just let out a noise. "How do you know it's a monster? It could just be some guy. A demon, an alien… You guys fight an awful lot of weird creatures. Monster Island is exactly what the name suggests–a sanctuary for rare and endangered monsters that don't fit anywhere else. If your mystery creature is intelligent and allegedly malicious, it's not a good start for your case."
"I cannot say for certain if it is a good fit for your reserve, but if it is actually a mythical monster like the other denizens, do you think you can afford just letting it live in the wild where it will inevitably be put into danger or endanger other people? Isn't that part of the reservation part? Making sure that these creatures you protect don't hurt anyone else. Is that part not as important as the part where no one else gets to hurt them?" Piccolo wondered out loud.
"Maybe you're right. Tell you what, I'll find you after the celebration. We can go look for your mystery creature together. I'll lend you everything I know about how to track monsters without needing to rely on Ki sensory and my Artificial Human radar technology, but if we find it and I think it deserves to be a resident of the Monster Island–that's where I'll take it, whether you like it or not," Lapis looked Piccolo straight in the eyes with a look that was impossible to define fully with just one title. It was cold, but also friendly, somewhere on a far deeper level. It was solemn but also warm.
"If it is a danger to Earth, I will make it get gone. That being said, if there's a chance that your Monster Island can keep it detained and keep Earth safe from the doom it threatens to bring, I'll consider letting you keep it. Let's not fight about it now, let's talk it over when we know more for certain," Piccolo suggested with an extended hand for a shake.
"Agreed, this is Lazuli's day. And Krillin's…" Lapis nodded. The Artificial Human even went as far as to put up a subtle smirk as he shook Piccolo's hand. "Just so long we're clear if it is a monster that is a good fit for the Monster Island and you try to kill it, I won't hold back. Even if it's against you."
"Give Lazuli my regards. I don't know her that well for my word to mean much, I think," Piccolo waved farewell to Lapis, eluding the subject with a smile that was as kind as he, the Ultimate Namekian and the merged successor of the Namekian Warrior Clan tradition, could muster up.
"Right, Krillin's still a bit on edge around me for some reason, so do the same for me," Lapis sent one right back at Piccolo with the two parting ways to join the groom's and the bride's rides, respectively. Ironically enough, because of their aversion to tight spaces, neither Piccolo nor Lapis ended up riding to Capsule Corps in the respective vehicles with Piccolo just flying slightly above Krillin's gifted cabriolet and Lapis keeping up with Bulma's capsule airship that the ladies rode to West City in.
Krillin and Lazuli couldn't have picked a nicer day for their wedding. Sun was caressing with its loving tenderness and a little breeze didn't let the big ball of fire feel a tad overprotective for a second. With the demons, aliens, robots, and robot aliens repelled, there was not a single worry to think about. It was a long time since the last festive occasion such as this one. Given how casually the threat of the Ultimate Dragon Balls destroying the Earth in a year felt at this point and how safe the universe felt, not even the threat of imminent doom rained on Krillin and Lazuli's parade that day.