Goku watched on in worry as the flames rose. Every time he attempted to get closer, the Flying Nimbus would pull him away, even as he prepared himself to face the flames. Bulma had mentioned that Jazz had slathered on some fire-re...whatever it was called to withstand the flames, but had taken the stuff with him. Now Master Roshi was preparing to get rid of the fire, but Jazz told him to wait. Goku's instincts told him it meant danger, and he flew around the castle with his flying nimbus, preparing to catch Jazz as soon as he popped out of the castle.

Soon, he felt a chill fill the air, and he turned back to Master Roshi. The old man had bulked up massively, then cupped his hands together. The world seemed to go silent for Goku, then the world started again as he heard a massive crash. Turning back to the castle, he saw a figure inside a plane crash through a castle wall and begin to careen to the flames. Forcing Kintoun forward, Goku smashed through the cockpit of the plane and dragged the figure off. Not a second too soon, a wave of blue destroyed the fire, mountain, and surrounding area.

Goku turned to look at the unconscious person, gritting his teeth he rushed towards the group.

…

Roshi felt his muscles relax. 'I overdid it…' He surveyed the destruction, vision narrowing, 'did I kill that child? He told me 90 seconds, but we didn't have the time.' He was about to turn to apologize when Bulma shouted, pointing to Goku, carrying a burnt body down towards the group.

"It's Jazz!" Bulma shouted, rushing towards the badly burnt boy.

Chi-Chi gasped in shock at the severity of the burns, it was like looking at blackened charcoal in the shape of a person. "Is he…" she was too scared to finish asking her question.

At a distance watching, even Yamcha looked serious, he had little impression on Jazz, other than the boy being relatively skilled given his ability to deflect the Ox-King's thrown ax, but the boy's injuries were too much. "...This is the danger associated with such a journey…" Yamcha's fists trembled. 'Had I truly wanted to steal the dragon balls from this group?'

Roshi could only look at the boy in pity, 'such a young child, lost…' he widened his eyes as Bulma gasped.

"He's alive!"

"What?!" They collectively shouted, but as they got closer, they heard murmuring and breathing.

"...Mom… I'm sorry, I'll be home… soon, don't worry about me mom…think… think about Mark… he's suffering way more… I promise mom… I'm okay… I'm a big boy now…" A weak whisper escaped Jazz's lips.

Ox-King trembled, "in times of war, many dying soldiers would call for their mothers, I've heard it before… he doesn't have much time…"

Bulma burst into tears at that and began to sob on Jazz's chest. "NO!"

Roshi grit his teeth, "no, we can save him." The others looked at him in disbelief as he turned to Goku. "Goku, you must take him to my Master."

"T-turtle Sage's master?" Ox-King shouted in shock, "Master Mutaito?"

Roshi shook his head, and simply ushered Goku unto the Kintoun and placed Jazz into the boy's waiting arms. "We don't have much time, Korrin lives across the world, further West than the West Territory, tell Kintoun to take you to Korrin, it doesn't matter if you don't know, Kintoun knows the way."

"B-but we're still in the east!" Oolong trembled.

Bulma scowled, "idiot! The world is round, Goku! Just go East, if we're already as far east as can be, then the far West is closer if you go East!"

Goku nodded and rocketed off, due East.

"...Will he make it?" Bulma asked.

"...I don't know, but if anyone can save him, it is my Master, I received many injuries from him while training, but I was able to be healed, with nary a scar. We can only have hope."

…

An 8-year-old boy was sullen as he sat in the administrative office. The school faculty officer watching the boy was perplexed.

"You bit off another student's finger and beat him within an inch of his life, and now you're calm?" He shook his head angrily, then scratched his head in annoyance. The entire situation wasn't ideal. The student in front of him, Jasper Duncan, had been the target of harassment for half a year, with multiple students, along with Jasper, reporting an upperclassman for the harassment. The complaints ranged from shoves to name-calling, to a punch in the back of the head that was caught by the teacher and led to the student's suspension. The student had been told to write a letter of apology privately and hand it over to the student after he came out of suspension. 'But that brat had to be difficult,' the man sighed, the disagreement came from the older student making fun of the younger student for being mix-raced, calling him names like "mutt", "mutant", "freakshow", and "circus family". The school didn't bother to read the note before it was handed off, and the note contained a dead hamster and awful insults and threats. That's what caused the fight, and while he understood the 8-year-old, that didn't make his job, or all the paperwork easy. Eventually, two people entered the room, the boy's mother and father. The mother was a woman of Asian American descent, with soft long black hair and gentle blue eyes. She was dressed in a conservative sweater and skirt and looked like she was back from an office meeting. The man looked to be black, he had a military crew cut but sported a neatly trimmed beard, his eyes seemed serious, marked with hardened lines. He was imposing, both in stature and build, and wore overalls as if he had just been in a garage fixing a car.

Sensing some trouble, the officer turned to the father, prepared to say or do anything to placate the man. To his surprise, it was the mother who rushed over and smacked her child.

"WHAT DID I HEAR ABOUT YOU?!" She screamed out angrily, "you bit off a child's finger?!" Before she could raise another hand, her husband tapped her shoulder.

"Even the school explained the circumstances." The man said, "you and I know that's rare when they're still in the middle of investigating what happened."

Jazz sat and trembled, tears welling in his eyes. "I'm sorry m-" he hid his words as he caught his mother's glare.

The boy's father thanked the officer as the mother entered the disciplinary office to speak to a counselor and sign off to pick up her son. "I'm David." he said, smiling, "I'm very sorry this has happened." David held up his hand.

"No, no," the officer sighed, "I'm sorry, someone should have overseen the letter being handed off, apparently the kid looked so 'apologetic', so they let him give it to the boy personally." He continued to shake David's hand. "Ah, I apologize, I am-"

"Samuel, right?" David said, smiling, "my son would talk about you."

"Jazz would?" Samuel looked intrigued.

"Well, getting you your favorite candy bar every week would normally be outside of the standard 8-year-old's allowance budget, wouldn't you say? He always said the school cop was so cool and wanted to help him out."

The officer was about to smile, but his expression darkened. "I'm sorry." He began.

"It's not your fault." David smiled sadly, "sometimes adults just can't see the things that go on in their child's life. I should have done a better job protecting my son, and the problem boy's parents should have done a better job teaching their child empathy." David bid Samuel a farewell as the former's wife, Noelle, stepped out of the office, they took their young son, who clung to David, and left.

On the car ride home, Noelle was silent, she was still angry and red-faced, but there was little she could say or do at the moment. After reading the report, she couldn't help but feel shocked. The bully had taken the class pet, with whom it had been Jazz's turn to take care of, killed it, and stuffed it in the envelope alongside the threatening letter. Jazz had been reprimanded by the teacher for losing the class pet before he could enter the class as the disciplinary committee had only notified the teacher by email that Jazz would be held up to receive an apology letter from his bully. When Jazz came to class and opened the letter, the teacher had immediately sent him to the Principal's Office and called the School Resource Officer, the Principal had called the bully into his office, but Jazz had heard the bully's voice and stormed the office to confront his bully. Just as the faculty realized that the bully wrote a threatening note and killed the hamster via CCTV footage, Jazz rushed up and attacked his bully, eventually biting off his index finger as the Administration staff attempted to pull them apart.

"...Jasper…" she began but paused, Jazz was still trembling, which left her feeling a wash of guilt and self-hatred, 'my baby was attacked and harassed, but I hit him?!' These thoughts swirled through her mind and made it difficult for her to say any other words. "You know that it's wrong to hit people." 'SHIT' Her thoughts invaded her intrusively, with the context of the entire situation, she knew this was the wrong thing to say at the moment, but at the same time, she couldn't congratulate her son on what he did.

"Jazzy…" she turned to her husband David who spoke suddenly.

"...Yeah dad?" Jazz's voice was quiet and tiny.

"Mark told me you started reading one of his manga, Dragon Ball."

"...Yeah dad." Jazz seemed to perk up a bit.

"What do you like about it?" David asked as they reached a stop sign. At this point, Noelle turned to look at her husband in confusion. Why was he talking about manga? She never read manga growing up, her father nursed a severe distaste for the Japanese stirring from his experiences from World War 2, and even though he pushed 80, those feelings never went away. She didn't impose the same restriction her father did, but she never hid that she thought little of comics and cartoons.

"I like Goku!" Jazz said, "he's a kid, like me! But he's strong, and he's fast and strong, and nobody can bother him, no matter what they say or do."

"No matter what they say or do?" David repeats.

"Yeah! He just blows all the bad guys away!"

"What about Krillin?" David asks.

Jazz is confused at first, "Krillin is Goku's friend."

"Yeah, but they weren't friends at first, and who's fault was that?"

"It was Krillin's, he was mean and bad."

"But Goku didn't blow him away, right?"

Jazz nodded, "yup."

"Why?"

Jazz gaped in confusion. "I don't know dad, why?"

"Tell me when you think you know the answer," David said quietly.

…

Goku had flown on Kintoun for hours, and at this point, he was beginning to feel tired, but he continued undeterred. As long as Jazz continued to breathe and whisper, he would keep going.

Eventually, he felt Kintoun drag him upwards towards the sky as he came across a forest and giant tower that stretched beyond the clouds. Eventually, Kintoun pushed him past cloud cover and he found a small cylindrical room that seemed to hover just above a layer of yellow clouds. Standing in the center was a large white fuzzy cat with large whiskers holding a cane.

"Nyah?!" The cat turned in shock at the sight. "Who in the blazes are you?"

"I'm Goku! And you have to help my friend!"

"No no, I wasn't… no, never mind." Korrin shook his head and had the child bring Jazz's burnt body forward. "Geez, this kid's in pretty bad shape." He walked towards a vase full of light green beans. Picking up two, he handed one to Goku. "Here, you look exhausted."

Goku sniffed the bean suspiciously, then took a bite, he felt energized. "I'm not tired… or hungry!"

The cat snorted, "yes, that's good, now, as for you." He placed the bean in Jazz's mouth and began to open and close the boy's jaw, making him emulate chewing then swallowing the senzu.

…

Jazz returned home and immediately ran to his older brother Mark's room.

"Here's my little bro." Mark, who stood a towering 6 feet tall at only 13, gave Jazz a warm hug. "I heard something crazy happened at school."

"Do you think I was bad?" Jazz asked, trembling.

"I mean, biting someone wouldn't be the first thing to come to my mind, but I want to hear the full story, otherwise, you're still my good guy kid brother."

Jazz smiled as he buried himself in his brother's warmth. After a few minutes, Mark extricated himself, and Jazz reluctantly let go too. "Bro," he began, only to get flicked in the forehead.

"I don't think it's a situation where you can be reading manga right now, mom probably wants you to be in 'remorseful mode'."

"...Remorseful mode?" Jazz cocked his head.

"Look, regardless of whether you did something wrong, sometimes parents and adults just want you to look like you're sorry or sad, you'll be able to tell if they begin scolding you or getting upset because of something you did or they think you did. It's often easier to just nod and say you're sorry, even if you aren't.

"Why?"

"People are awkward." Mark said, "people get mad, sad, happy, and crazy quickly depending on what's going on. If someone's in charge, their actions will affect everyone worse, so sometimes, just so that you don't have to face as much trouble, it's easier to pretend that you're sorry." He laughed, "of course, there are times when you have to absolutely stand your ground."

"Should I have stood my ground?"

"I don't know." Mark shrugged, "I don't know everything, I don't think anyone does, it's just based on what you feel about the situation."

"But what if I don't know what to feel!" Jazz grumbled.

"Well, then you better start learning."

Jazz sighed, then perked up, "oh wait, Mark, I wanted to ask you a question."

"Yeah?"

"How did Goku and Krillin become friends. Wasn't Krillin a jerk?"

"Well, yeah, Krillin was a jerk, but we found out he was bullied."

"Krillin was bullied?" Jazz widened his eyes.

"Don't you remember It was by monks in the Orin Temple?" Mark replied, "anyways, just cause you were bullied doesn't mean you should bully other people. Krillin is still in the wrong, but Krillin warmed up to Goku because Goku worked hard, Krillin came to respect him. You see, Krillin was jealous, but Goku never made him feel bad for being jealous."

Jazz looked down. "When Rodney was mean, sometimes, I'd be mean right back sometimes, and my friends would make fun of him too…"

"Well…" Mark scratched his chin, "everyone's circumstances are different, and I'm not asking that you should have acted like Goku, I mean, he can literally jump hundreds of feet in the air, fly, and kick the butt of super-powerful aliens now.

"I didn't read Z yet!" Jazz grumbled.

"Oh, sorry, no spoilers, yet, anyway, you don't have to act like Goku, and your bully wasn't necessarily like Krillin, we don't know how he grew up, but that makes life hard, doesn't it?" Jazz yelled into Mark's pillow out of frustration. "Hey! Don't drool on that brat!" Mark grabbed Jazz's sides and began to tickle and drag him off the bed. Jazz burst out into a fit of laughter.

…

Goku couldn't believe his eyes. Like a lizard shedding its skin, the burnt skin on Jazz literally peeled away, cracking and falling off to reveal slightly pinkish-pale skin, as supple as a newborn's. Jazz's breathing began to regular, and his complexion smoothened out. But despite the good news, Korrin's expression only darkened.

"Meow… this isn't good." Korrin scratched his chin, "he consumed a being of fire, and so his insides threaten to burn up again."

"Wh-what?!" Goku asked.

"A phoenix is a magical creature that is reborn from the ashes of its old body, it looks like someone tried to possess this boy to do just that, but they ended up failing for some reason." Korrin shook his head, "not good, not good at all, the boy's body will burn up, and even if we heal him with the senzu bean, it will happen again and again, and as amazing as they are, if he's too hot for too long, his brain will melt."

"What do we do?!" Goku asked.

"Well, I can give him the Ultra Divine Water, but it might kill him."

"W-what?!" Goku asked, angry.

"The Ultra Divine Water will unlock someone's potential. The energy of the being who tried to possess him is still inside, but the entity is well and dead, the water could cause the boy's potential to dramatically shift, allowing him to absorb the magic and make it a part of who he is. It will change him of course, but such a change is still better than nothing, but it's dangerous even if it succeeds, the child may wake up a changed person." Korrin turned to Goku, "you're the only one here, you know the boy, if he's too weak of mind to survive the Ultra Divine Water, you can simply let him die." Korrin observed Goku's expression, and smiled. "Alright." He took out a teapot, poured a cup, and gently slid it down Jazz's throat. The boy subconsciously swallowed the liquid, then began to scream out in pain.

…

"So, you don't know the boy's origins?"

By the time Goku arrived at Korrin's tower, the rest of the group over at FryPan Mountain had already found the dragon ball and sat tight to rest for the night.

Roshi had asked the question to Bulma, who shook her head despondently.

"I met him about 7 months ago as I was on my way to see an old family friend and tell him about the dragon balls." She smiled sadly, "he was a goofy kid back then, and couldn't even look me in the eye without reddening. Then in literally one day from when I met him, he was strong enough to not bat an eye when a bunch of stupid teens started harassing us. Then in 7 months, he became so strong."

"You mean he wasn't this strong before!?" Roshi was alarmed.

"No?" Bulma was confused.

"His body must be in great imbalance, to change from a normal child to such a strong one in 7 months? He would have had to have gone through torturous levels of training, perhaps that is why he was still alive."

"Will they make it?" Bulma asked quietly.

"Whenever they make it…" Oolong said, "we won't find out till morning."

…

"...Dad, mom?" Jazz walked into the family common room, Jazz's mom was snuggled next to his dad, it looked like she had been crying, but she turned away to hide her tears and bloodshot eyes.

"Yes, son?" David asked, smiling.

"I think I have the answer." Jazz sniffled a bit, but continued, "Krillin and Goku were both students of Master Roshi, and they both wanted to improve. Goku didn't hate Krillin because they both wanted to improve."

Noelle turned to look at her son, their eyes met, she was about to speak, when her husband interrupted, emulating the sound of a buzzer.

"NAAAAH! WRONG ANSWER!" David shouted, smiling, "I love your answer son, but that was the wrong answer. Wanna know what the answer is?"

Jazz was confused, and a little embarrassed, but nodded.

"Goku's a simple kid, he doesn't think about complicated stuff when he's that young, the reason he never got mad was...he never noticed."

"...What?" Jazz was confused.

"Goku never noticed how jealous Krillin was, and so Krillin misinterpreted Goku's ignorance for altruism and changed all on his own."

Jazz looked confused.

"Jazz, someone bullying you is never your responsibility, your only responsibility is in how you act, react, and get help if they become better, it is because of them, if they get worse, it is also because of them, just as if you fight, run, cry, or hide, it is because of you. Son, I'm proud you stood up for yourself, but you should never act when you're in the heat of the moment like that." He smiled, "imagine a scale." He pulled out a scale.

"...You just have that honey?"

"Shhh…" David continued. "Imagine this is what he kept doing to you." He placed rock after rock on one side of the scale. "You hold it in, more and more, and more and more until you retaliate." He put a large rock on the other end, evening out the rocks. "But no one remembers everything that happened except for the one who was hurt." He began removing rocks from the small rocks pile, and the scale began to tip to the one large rock's side.

"Oh…" Jazz nodded, eyes widening. "I… I was mad about Jazz about everything, so I hit him because I was mad about everything, Jazz was only in trouble for the note and Hammie…even though I was mad, I got in trouble because to everyone else, even though it was fair for me, it wasn't fair to them." Jazz made a sour face, "I don't like that."

David hugged his son. "Life isn't fun or fair, your mother knows that first hand, so she's scared for you." Jazz turned to look at his mother, who began to openly weep, and he felt something in him break, as tears also began to run down his cheeks.

…

Jazz woke with a gasp. Standing up, he noticed a few things. He was extremely naked, it was very cold, and it was very hard to breathe. Looking around, he noticed Goku's sleeping figure, then turned to see a white cat.

"...Korrin Sama…" Jazz bowed.

"Hmm… you know me already? Not everyone knows I'm a cat."

Jazz flinched, looking up as the cat began to chortle. "It's alright, I won't out you, I could sense you weren't hostile, though not very pure of heart. Normally, I'd hesitate to give you the Ultra Divine Water, but your life was in danger."

Jazz winced as he remembered the castle, "it was from my own stupidity."

"Understanding and admittance of a problem is the first step to improving." Korrin nodded sagely. "But, forgive me if I do say, I was brought to Earth to help the Guardian guide its steps, and I've seen many a thing in my 800 years of service, but I've never seen a thing like you."

Jazz was confused. "I…I understand. The truth is I'm not from this Earth, I'm…"

"No no, I was already made somewhat aware by Kami, what I mean is." He poked Jazz's chest. "Your ki is tainted and flickering in the minutia like you're constantly at a state of near-death…"

"...Come again?"

…

…

Jasper(Jazz) Duncan

Age: 15 (and 3 months), physical appearance: 15

Hair color: Brown

Skin color: white (slight new born pink)

Race: Quarter Caucasian(White American of English-Irish decent), Quarter Aisian (Korean), Quarter Black(African-American), Quarter Hispanic (Cuban)

Height: 5ft 7inches | 170 centimeters

Weight: 150 lbs | 68 kilograms

Skills: Decent Sports Talent for Age, Semi-Above Average Intellect for age, basic martial arts skills,below average ki control, decent pain tolerance, trap building, basic weapons mastery, basic boxing, basic mma, street fighting skills

Powers: Magic Materialization (Fire) (Dormant ability)

Powerlevel: 25 (drank part of the Ultra Divine Water)

…

Afterword:

Did you all bear with me? Good, I hope you enjoyed the chapter. Just wanted to cover some of Jazz's backstory a bit more, establish a bit more of his past, and his relationship dynamic with his family members. If you remember, in Chapter 1, I established that Jazz is considered to be the "Responsible one" by his mom, Mark is going through some sort of Crisis, and something happened to Jazz's dad that he doesn't like talking about. This will be explored some more in the early portion of Jazz's life in the dragon world. Now, as for Jazz drinking and surviving the Ultra Divine Water that killed everyone else that drank it except for Goku? Who will drink it at some point due to the story? Well, I'll let the story explain things.