Goku did his usual warming up routine, stretching out his waist, his arms, and his legs before just standing up straight. No stance, just his legs spread out as wide as his shoulders and his arms hanging tightly beside him. He was relaxed but his body looked ready to tense up at any moment. From the martial arts perspective, Chayote couldn't read him at all. If she ever went up against Son Goku again, her superior strength, speed, and toughness would have to be her aces. In terms of martial arts, the boy was in a whole different world.
Just what was it that Korin taught him?
"We'll destroy you for what you did to my castle!" Emperor Pilaf threatened Son Goku and threw a capsule up in the air. Had it been Chayote confronting the shrimp, she'd have tried snagging that thing in mid-air.
By now Chayote had learned how those Earthling capsules worked. One pressed the button and flung them to a larger space, in the air or on the ground. Then, whatever was sealed inside came out in a puff of smoke and a pop. If one was to catch a capsule in mid-air and then hold the pin down, they might have stopped the process of revealing the object, it was just a theory, but it was one Chayote would have been confident betting her victory on.
A green round, blue mechanical suit slammed onto the ground. Pilaf scurried inside while his goons, Shu and Mai, revealed their own mechanical suits: Mai's was the most massive and pink, Shu had one that was the tallest but his suit was all in the length of its legs. Like a spider in a way…
"You've no idea what trouble you've put us through!" Pilaf clutched his fist out in his mechanical suit. "After you've demolished my castle, then the Silver Ribbon Army totaled the Sky Fortress… I'm broke now, broke!"
"That's right, Pilaf-sama was willing to sacrifice his wish for the Dragon Balls, he was willing to wish for his money back." Shu butt into his master's speech.
"That's right, but then it hit me, if I am in charge of the entire world, I'll have all the money I want!" Pilaf chuckled while a repulsing drool weighed down from his lip and his cheeks blushed. He was daydreaming in the middle of his fated encounter. Clearly, he had a bone to pick with Son Goku and yet he was daydreaming. Chayote was not shocked at all to find out that Goku had once destroyed a castle of his and foiled something that this loser tried to accomplish.
"So you guys have the last Dragon Ball and you want to fight for it?" Goku wondered.
Without answering, Pilaf's mechanical suit withdrew its limbs and rolled out at Son Goku like a bowling ball. Goku extended his hands out, stopping the wrecking ball in progress without even breaking a sweat. The monkey boy even took the time to show a filthy facial mimic to the worked up and busted Pilaf who was shaken by the sudden stop of his rolling robot suit.
A black shadow covered the ground underneath Goku, Shu's mechanical suit took a wild dive from up above, trying to stomp Son Goku. The shock from the stomp sent Pilaf in his suit stumbling back shortly after he made his limbs re-appear. Goku had dashed back at the last moment and was keeping his eyes on the pair, he did not even notice that Mai's robot was gone as well. No… There was no way he missed that, hers was the largest suit of them all.
Goku thudded into the metallic giant and the powerful arms of Mai's robot slammed Goku in between them, threatening to crush the boy. Chayote sharpened her glance, she knew exactly what Goku's play was, there was no reason why he would act this careless and get caught by something this harmless. These three buffoons were no match even to the Pirate Robot from the cave which Son Goku demolished with a single punch through its core or any of the Metallitrons that the Saiyans had met.
"Ho ho ho ho!" Pilaf laughed out, showing off a peace sign with his mechanical hands. He likely only had it designed with fingers solely for that reason… "We do not have the Dragon Ball, this mean old hag that lives inside this temple does. We came here to take it from her but this mean ghost told us it's being held here for you."
Mai's arms exploded into metallic bits and snapped wires. Goku burst out from the robot's grip without any effort whatsoever, flipped over in mid-air after kicking off of the top of Mai's mechanical suit and landed on both feet right in front of the two robots with a bland and just a tiny bit gleeful stare directed at the two robot suits.
Mai's eyes were as ajar as her red lips, she still struggled to believe that her treasured suit would get totaled like this.
"M-Mai! How are we supposed to merge now!?" Pilaf slammed the buttons of his control panel, his mechanical suit fired out its arms at Goku, the hands were held by thick and extended string of steel wire but Goku dodged the rocket-chop by just leaning his head to the side, the shooting chops hit Mai straight in the chest and sent her robot falling down. Goku held his head bent to the side while Pilaf's robotic limbs snapped back to their original location.
"If you guys don't have the Dragon Ball, this is kind of a waste of our time, sorry." Goku smiled and became just a transparent blur.
"He disappeared!" Pilaf and Shu yelled out in perfect synchrony.
The next time Pilaf saw Goku was when the boy was right in front of his suit, with a light tap of his palm, Goku crushed the mechanical suit to pieces while sending Pilaf out of it with just minor bruises and just enough force to tumble the little dweeb until the nearest wall of the nearby temple. The tail of Shu's mechanical suit leaned out over the head of the robot and aimed at Goku, blasting a loose stream of flames at him but Goku was no longer there to burn in them.
"Yoink!" Goku laughed out while ripping out the long leg of Shu's mechanical suit and then crashing it into the fallen suit, forcing it to erupt in a small smolder and a spray of sparks. Shu powered out of the wreckage of his suit not too long after and just collapsed on the ground nearby.
"We… We didn't even have a chance to grab his tail…" Shu wheezed out. Chayote's look changed from one of feeling like her time was being very wasted to one that was dead-serious.
"You should kill them, Son Goku." She declared without any nonsense to her voice.
"Huh? I don't think they're really all that evil." Upa scratched his head. "They seem more like the prankster type, even if they think highly of themselves."
"It does not matter. They know the Saiyan weakness. Our strength disappears when our tails are grabbed." Chayote explained.
"Hmm? You did not kill Nam and he also grabbed your tail." Goku pointed out.
"Maybe, he was just a martial artist though, he did not want to kill me nor did he stand in my way." Chayote shrugged. She blushed a bit when even someone like Goku pointed out the flaws in her mean talk. He was right, she was getting soft. She had a decent excuse now but… Just how long until she surrounds herself with friends like Goku and forgets where she's going and what has to be done?
"Nah, they're harmless." Goku waved his hand at the recovering Pilaf and his minions. "I'm long past the point where they would have been a threat. Plus, I bet if we train hard we could strengthen our tails. My grandpa used to tell me about it all the time when he trained me but I never went around to doing that. It's hard to train something that saps your strength every time you put pressure on it…"
"Hmmm… If such a thing is truly possible…" Chayote scratched her chin. In a way, she liked the adrenaline and the possibility of a challenge of having a clear weakness like that, it made her stay on her toes even against pathetic weaklings like the Earthlings but if the other Saiyans truly were coming… She might have needed all the advantages she could get. "Fine, keep them alive but make sure to toughen up your tail. And I'll be doing the fighting from this point on, you waste too much time!"
"Sure, whatever, I've just fought so it will be your turn anyway…" Goku shrugged.
The trio proceeded inside, the other brawlers and martial artists inside whimpered and got out of their way, blown aback by the immense speed and strength displayed by Goku. At least his prolonged scuffle against the Pilaf Gang served to accomplish that much…
"Welcome, Fortuneteller Baba has been waiting for you. Please, come in." the Ghost Usher pointed for the opening in the temple wing that led to a long and dark corridor. "The rest of you, please wait for your turn, kindly."
The Ghost Usher floated on ahead, even in total darkness he appeared to possess some unnatural luminescent properties that illuminated the way forward. Chayote was not sure what sort of Earthling creature this floating being was, she had never met anything like him but he did seem similar to those souls she saw back in the Other World.
The corridor led the Saiyans and Upa to another, much larger temple wing, likely the one in the center that appeared the largest of them all. At the very end of the temple wing, standing just beside the exit through which sunshine still beamed inside floated a familiar weathered shape of Fortuneteller Baba. The old lady chuckling, moving around her floating glass ball and approaching Son Goku and Chayote, clearly lacking the proper patience to wait for them to come to her.
"Hello, hello!" she croaked. "I am glad to see you here, Chayote, also, glad to meet you officially, Son Goku."
"Huh, you know my name?" Son Goku pointed at himself.
"I do, now that I know who you are. I must admit, because of the circumstances that led to Chayote's presence in this world, I've led a much more hands-on approach to the situation, ho ho ho!" the woman laughed out.
"Whatever, old hag, you said you had the Dragon Ball for us. We'd like to have that and be on our way." Chayote extended her hand.
"Yeah, old-timer has shrunk himself trying to peek at Pichi-Pichi gals again," Son Goku pointed out. "We need the Dragon Balls to resize him back."
"I see, so my senile brother has gotten himself in a pickle, that's why you need the Dragon Balls…" Baba scratched her chin. Even if she claimed to follow much more fortunes much more closely after the circumstances that put Chayote on Earth, apparently she did not care to check in on her apparent brother from time to time...
"Wha! You and old-timer are brothers!?" Goku yelled out in shock.
"If it's a boy and a girl it's brother and sister." Upa pointed out.
"Yes. Although that is all the time I will spare on that old coot. I am willing to part with my Dragon Ball, I've come to ask my fighters to secure it before someone took it from you and held it for safekeeping." Baba reached out under her black gown and pulled out a Dragon Ball which she put into Chayote's extended hand.
The Saiyan handed it out to Son Goku to put it along with the other Dragon Balls while she patted her hand to her own bottom because of how warm and icky the Dragon Ball felt. There did not seem anything particularly wrong with it, except for the "mental germs" that Chayote imagined it having after being in the pocket of this old lady long enough to get so warm.
"Why would you do that?" Upa wondered. "You don't seem like a very warm and welcoming person, ma'am."
"Oh…" Fortuneteller Baba croaked out before floating up above Upa and pulling on the boy's cheek as grannies did to their little shrimps. "What a cute boy. Yes, indeed I would not go out of my way like that under normal circumstances, however, I'd like to extend a special, one of a kind opportunity which is why I secured the Dragon Ball to get on your good sides."
"Offer?" Chayote wondered. "Given how you did not know all that much about Son Goku, to begin with, I'd assume that offer is for me…"
"Both of you, actually." Baba nodded. "Initially I only intended to reach out to Chayote but after she revealed to me that Son Gohan's little brat is also a Saiyan, well… Having two Saiyans working for me, that's just perfect!"
"Working for you?" Chayote raised an eyebrow. She did not like that one bit. "Sorry, I'll pass…"
"Oh, come now… Don't be that way. It will take a short while until your spaceship is built, correct? You will need something to do, I offer you to serve as one of my fighters and train up here before leaving. Who knows, maybe you'll like it enough to stay for a little bit longer?" Baba haggled.
"That is exactly what I don't want happening. I want to return home and go back to serving King Vegeta and Lord Frieza immediately. I've already wasted too much of my time. These martial arts were interesting but I feel like I'm hitting the wall of what I can learn here. Plus, I can feel my strength and ruthlessness waning each day." Chayote spoke with more investment and frustration than she spoke with ever before, even Goku looked surprised and when she was done, the Saiyan found herself short of breath with her heart racing.
"You're afraid…" Baba stated without even having to glare at her crystal ball. "Right now leaving would be the worst option for you. Stay here and study martial arts under me. At least until the next World Martial Arts Tournament. Then, I promise, you will meet a martial artist who knows martial arts better than anyone you've met yet. A natural prodigy who might still be a far cry from you at the moment but who leaves you in the dust in raw talent. Don't you wish to face him and see that unpolished gemstone?"
"You're setting me up for another disappointment." Chayote shriveled, her hands weighed down. "Just like Korin was. Every day I spend here is a day I could have been training with my peers, serving Lord Frieza, fighting truly powerful opponents and conquering planets. Martial arts teach me a better way to fight but without the strength to match it is useless. No martial artist on Earth is a match for me and Son Goku."
"Who said anything about an Earthling?" Baba's near-toothless mouth twisted. "My array of fighters is full of mystical beings, demons, and devils of all sorts. You will fit right in and I will have a better shot at keeping an eye on you so that your deal with Whis-san is kept and our Universe remains intact. Everyone will profit from this."
"Whis?" Goku wondered, his tail waggled suggesting peaked curiosity. "What deal are you talking about?"
"Why… Chayote came here on Earth after dying, of course. Back on her home planet, she got herself killed." Baba smiled with that crooked smirk only she could muster up. "There is a whole nasty commotion up in the Other World and it turns out that Chayote is a very special kind of Saiyan, a very rare one that must under no circumstances die so she was allowed another chance to live here, where nobody could actually kill her. And yet… She keeps on trying to escape, like an unruly beast busting out of its cage where it is fed, watched over and accounted for."
"What?! Then you absolutely can't leave, Chayote!" Upa grabbed Chayote's thigh and shook it. "If your planet is so mean that it has already killed you once, you have to stay here on Earth!"
"Heh," Goku grinned. "Now when I hear about somebody killing Chayote on her home planet, I'm getting the shivers. I kind of understand why she wants back. Either way, I'd like to train on my own. I still have to toughen up my tail so I'll have to decline your offer, Fortuneseller Baba."
"It's Fortuneteller Baba!" Baba croaked out, shaking her fist over her head. "Oh well, I'll somehow manage without you then. How about it, Chayote?"
"I… I don't know…" Chayote whimpered. All this time she felt so adamant about just putting her spaceship together and blasting off into space but now it all came flooding back, the memories of her death, flashes of them anyway, all the reasons Baba listed why leaving would be a bad idea. She would have been lying if she told herself she was not intrigued to meet those mystical fighters that Baba spoke of or that unpolished gem of martial arts she referred to who would appear in the next World Martial Arts Tournament.
"Tell you what, girl. I won't force you to answer me now. How about you guys fight my five fighters and, if you can win, you'll know better if you want to train here, or not. Plus, I'll give you something very special." Baba extended a shriveled piece of paper with a coffee stain on it that looked barely held together and stapled in the middle.
"What's that?" Goku was about to grab and pull on it when Baba pulled it back and roared out at him.
"Don't touch it, it's very fickle! If you tear it apart again it will be done for! King Enma told me that much when he stapled it back together the first time!" Baba said.
"It's King Enma's?" Chayote wondered.
"Well… I won it from him in a game of cards. It is a Free Return Ticket." Fortuneteller Baba waved it in front of her face. "I've spilled coffee on it once, accidentally cut it alongside the picture in the papers of the pichi-pichi boy I've cut out but it still works."
"What does it do?" Chayote wondered.
"Heh heh heh, I can't help it, with you it would be just too perfect, almost as if I won it exactly for you!" Baba chuckled to herself into her palm. "It allows a soul of the dead person to return back to their body, as long as the cash-in happens within two hours of the time of death. It is an extremely rare item. What will you say?"
"So… If I die back on Planet Vegeta, somebody can use it to bring me back to life once?" Chayote wondered. That was wonderful, if another Saibaman killed her again, instructor Yuca could have used it to bring Chayote back that way and she could give it another shot.
"Oh… I'm not sure about that. It can only be used by giving it directly to King Enma himself and the person who dies loses all their possessions. That means that only someone with access to the Other World can give it to King Enma and cash it in." Baba shrugged. "That means you would have to stay here, on Earth, I could cash it in for you if somebody brings it after picking up from your corpse."
"Fine, let's give it a shot then. It's my turn to fight anyway." Chayote stretched out her shoulder. That was the Saiyan way of solving dilemmas such as the one she found herself in. After facing Baba's five fighters, she would find out the answer for sure!
"Okay, then I'll fight too!" Goku shook his fists "If Chayote loses, then Upa, I'll go right after them!"
Upa went pale. "I… I don't think I'll be fighting… I'm not… Much of a fighter…"
"Don't be shy," Goku smacked Upa's back lightly, nearly tumbling the boy over. "You'll see how fun it is, though if you won't want to, I'll gladly take your turn!"
With an alleviated smile, Upa nodded.