Kami and Goku appeared a moment later on a platform surrounded by yellow clouds in all directions with light beating down on them even though Goku couldn't see the sun anywhere.

"Wow Kami, where are we?" he asked excitedly as he looked around his eyes landing on a building in the distance that a row of white clouds proceeded into slowly. Kami began following and although Goku wanted to explore he quickly followed after his sensei.

"This Goku, is the gateway to the afterlife, where anyone after their die proceeds to pass through ... even me someday, I will pass through this gate." Goku just hung open his mouth in shock "Wow ... so that's why you were saying it would have been easier if I died ... but it all worked out fine didn't it." Kami nodded as they walked, "Possibly better ... since if you were to die in any future battle it wouldn't be as hard to revive you, since the dragon balls can't revive you more than once," Kami wanted to add currently and only these versions but he held his tongue.

"So what are all those clouds sensei?" Kami answered without looking as if this was all normal, maybe for him it was, "These are all the souls of the departed ... this is one of many gateways, but this one is managed by an old friend." They went into the building and the first thing or person that Goku's eyes landed on was the large ... no giant man sitting ahead of him looking through a giant book with what looked like two guards around him. Kami and Goku waited in line for a while and Goku watched as the clouds formed into people when they got to the front of the line.

He watched in shock and sometimes amazement as some people turned into clouds before floating into the sky after the large man read out about their lives in the book, the others weren't so lucky, sometimes being struck by lightning or frozen before they were carted away or simply thrown over the side. They finally got into line after a while, even though Kami had told Goku they were getting faster than usual service because of the favour he called, it still took some time before they stood before the man.

The man looked over his book at them before looking down and then doing a double take, "So Kami, you have brought him." "Yes my friend ... Goku this is King Yemma, an old friend I have known for a long time."

"Hi King Yemma," Goku said excitedly, he had never met any of Kami's friends except Mr. Popo, but he didn't think he had many to be honest.

"Him being a mortal does complicate things a bit, but let's look over his file." King Yemma went to read over his book quietly humming to himself while throwing random glances at Goku once in a while before letting out a huff. "All of it seems in order, he seems good enough," there was a rumble around the back of the building as a gate seemingly appeared out of nowhere behind King Yemma to the right of him. Kami looked at it for a moment before nodding, "I'm afraid this is where we part Goku."

Goku was startled for a moment because he didn't know what he would have to do now, Kami reached behind into his cloak and pulled out a fairly large bag handing it to Goku. He looked at it curiously before glancing inside. There was a mix of senzu beans and Capsules in the fairly sized bag, "if you had died you wouldn't need to eat or drink for this long journey but since you're still mortal, me and Bulma have packed what should be enough food for the journey."

"Journey?" Goku asked nervously, Kami had spoken about it so much without actually going into detail about what it entailed.

Kami pointed at the path that had appeared behind King Yemma, it looked like a winding path above the clouds that looked similar to Shenron's body. "That is Snake Way, King Yemma has granted you permission to travel it to train with King Kai ... he was impressed by your battle with Raditz and that you managed to defeat him." The parts clicked into place for Goku, that Kai? "Wow that sounds amazing, shouldn't take long to get there."

He saw his sensei laugh before pointing at the bag Goku had strapped to his side, Kami helped further secure it, because if Goku lost it then all of it would be over ... thinking more about it, he waved his staff turning the one fairly big bag into two and strapped either on each side of Goku.

"Goku you will need to manage your resources fairly closely, the journey will take up to a year depending on how you proceed." He saw the shock on his student's face for a moment causing him to smile, "The quicker you do this and train the faster you can come back." Goku looked thoughtful for a moment, looking down at his bag and then at Kami and the path before nodding with a determined look on his face.

"Then i bid you farewell my pupil," Kami said before seemingly phasing away in a flash.

"He may have told you it was that simple, but there's one more test ... make me laugh," King Yemma had already been told that Goku had defeated Raditz, someone he had been after for some time, he hadn't believed it till it had shown up in the book. He already had passage but he wanted a little entertainment. Goku looked thoughtfully for a moment before remembering what he would do for Gohan and Trunks, he doubted it would work, but he would try. He began to make a series of funny faces and it took a moment before King Yemma burst out laughing, causing the arena around them to shake violently forcing everyone to grab onto any surface before he calmed down wiping a tear from his eye.

"You may proceed Goku," Goku did a fist pump as he headed for the path.

"Goku," King Yemma called after him causing him to turn around, "Do your best to stay on the path, for if you fall ... we won't be able to save you and you will descend into hell ... that's what lies beneath the clouds." "Those monsters will try to reach up to you, to drag you down into their suffering ... so exercise caution and keep moving."

Goku gave him and nod before taking a step onto the path, he looked back once more before he started a slow walk and then began to run before taking off.

Far away somewhere in space.

Vegeta was stalking down the halls of one of Frieza's flagships, luckily for him, this ship was heading in the direction of Earth for part of its journey, so he had opted to hitch a ride on it with Nappa. He wanted to train, as disgusting as that might be for an Elite Saiyan such as himself to be reduced to, but the bigger problem seemed to stem from the fact that most of the Frieza force compared to Saiyans were weaklings.

But that was a problem he had found a solution to fairly quickly, find the strongest in the force and pick a fight ... not just to train, but for the power boost that Saiyans experienced after fighting near death. He had never experienced it being a Saiyan of such a calibre but he remembers the low-class Saiyans speaking of it and it being proven by the science institute back on planet Vegeta.

The idea of any of these filthy lowborns getting their measly hands on him disgusted him and Nappa had simply said that they could go to earth as they were and defeat Kakarot and his companions fairly easily ... but he had seen those power spikes, he wasn't as foolish as Nappa to think they wouldn't be increasing them further especially after that fool had told them they were coming ... and they would go, because the idea of these dragon balls was far too tempting. He doubted the earthlings would have spoken about them if Raditz was still alive but the scouter had kept transmitting. He could wish for immortality, invincibility or power to finally defeat Frieza and rule this empire that rightly belonged to him, the smirk appeared on his face.

He had no plans to tell Frieza about the dragon balls," that old fool would be in for a surprise."

Vegeta turned a corner and he finally ran into who he had been looking for, Zarbon one of Frieza's most loyal lapdogs, and a powerful one from what he heard. He just had to poke his buttons in the right way to not get himself killed but enough to get him upset to beat him half to death in a fight, then rinse and repeat. The taste of disgust was already in his mouth just from the thought of it, but he had picked him for a reason. Zarbon was rather short to anger, proud of his apparent beauty in his words but touchy about being referred to as hideous or an uppity female.

"If it isn't Frieza's most favoured lapdog," Vegeta said carrying as much smugness into the statement as he could, Zarbon took notice as he looked up from his pad. "Oh, little monkey, what are you doing here?" Zarbon said with a small smirk so dismissively that it had Vegeta itching to throw a blast a him already but he had to hold steady.

"Someone as hideous as yourself should know better than to speak out of turn, Frieza might get the wrong idea that you have thoughts of your own." Vegeta saw the sneer that quickly took place on the man's face as he put the datapad he was working on away garnering him his full attention. "I would advise you not to speak out of turn before I have you hanging like the monkey you are," Zarbon said with a cold calm, eyes locked onto Vegeta's own as if daring him. Nappa was about to step forward but Vegeta put his hand out to stop him, "Let's face it Zarbon, the only reason Frieza keeps you around is to lure in more Female recruits, maybe some males too ... but you're no fighter," before Vegeta could go on he was rocked with a fist to the jaw that sent him crashing down the long corridor causing everyone in the corridor to come to a standstill as they looked between the two.

Nappa charged but was quickly sidestepped and hit in the nape of his neck by Zarbon knocking him out as the man still had his eyes locked onto Vegeta, no longer amused by the want to cause pain. "Lord Frieza keeps you around as a consolation prize of your monkey race so I can't kill you ... but that doesn't mean I can't hurt you, really bad." Vegeta didn't smirk because he didn't want him to know he was falling into his trap and whilst the idea of him the prince of Saiyans getting beaten by the likes of him did nothing but dirty his pride, he needed the power, to defeat him, to defeat kakarot and then to defeat Frieza.

Vegeta charged momentarily catching Zarbon off guard as they began to fight each other, and Vegeta could already see that the man was toying with him, he didn't mind because that would prove his theory only right. Zarbon was more intent on showing off giving him enough to make it look like Vegeta had a fighting chance before trying to douse his spirit, exactly what he needed to do for his own training. Because Vegeta could go all out while the man taunted him in amusement.

Zarbon landed a few heavy blows that sent Vegeta reeling before he immediately charged back only further amusing the man as he openly mocked him while he continued to beat on the prince of all but one Saiyan. This went on for a while with them exchanging blows, with Vegeta sometimes surprising Zarbon during their melees. Vegeta could tell Zarbon was waiting for a while watching him stumble to keep standing with his fist still held up, bloodied and bruised with the face of determination on his face that only further amused Zarbon. The man was about to turn to walk away before Vegeta threw one last word, "You would do better, warming sheets than finishing a fight," he didn't see the blow coming as one moment he stood looking at Zarbon's retreating figure and the next it was all black.

It took a week before he was able to get back up thanks to the healing tank, luckily Zarbon hadn't gone too far, too afraid to incur Frieza's wrath. He could already feel it in his body that his power had increased and going over to the scanner in the healing chamber only further confirmed it as the smirk appeared on his face as he gleamed himself in the mirror. The method was crude and disgusting but it seemed to garner results.

So he out in new armour and was glad to find he was still on the ship, as he went out looking for his new unsuspecting training partner again, and it wasn't long till he found him.

"Seems as if I was right about you Zarbon," he said surprising the man as he turned around to see Vegeta already standing there smugly looking at him. Zarbon told the man he had been speaking with they would finish work later as he turned to Vegeta, "Another one of your admirers I guess," Vegeta said with an air of superiority, "It seems you didn't learn your lesson." "Oh no I learned, I learned I was right" Vegeta said and he could already see the tightness settling into Zarbon's body, readying to attack. He smiled to himself because this fool had no idea what he was doing, but Vegeta was inclined to show him as he readied himself.

"Then prove you're more than a pretty face."