A plump and battered man flew over the edge of the Korin Tower and landed face-first onto Korin's Temple. By the time that Yamcha arrived at the tower and climbed it, while still holding Tenshinhan and Yajirobe on him, the swordsman of the prairie had regained consciousness but he was too hungry to do much about it. Even when he landed on something resembling solid floor Yajirobe just peeled his face off the floor and looked around, lacking the strength to examine or take anything he liked.
"Yamcha, isn't it?" Korin approached the trio while Yamcha stopped and bent over on his knees to catch his breath. He did after all just fight Demon King Piccolo and climb the Korin Tower with two passengers, one of whom was Yajirobe.
"Hey, Korin-sama, I'm afraid we've run out of Senzu out there. Things kind of gone out of hand…" Yamcha tried to explain but he wasn't sure where to even start. Both Krillin and Yamcha have used some of their Senzu even during the World Martial Arts Tournament and that was before the whole King Piccolo mess started. "We need some more, it's an emergency really."
"Who are these two though?" Korin bent his head to the side in curiosity while examining the almost naked Yajirobe sitting on his knees and looking around frantically, hungry for just about everything he set his eyes upon but lacking the strength to pick anything up.
"That's Tenshinhan. He's someone we've met at the tournament, don't worry about him, he's a great hero. He killed Demon King Piccolo." Yamcha pointed at Tenshinhan's panting body with an assuring expression.
"I see…" Korin stroke his chin, something about that revelation really tipped him off the wrong way. He was contemplating something heavy but that was Korin. "And this one?" he pointed at Yajirobe.
"Oh, he's just a guy we almost killed by accident. I think he's pretty strong too, he might have been the one to off one of King Piccolo's spawns and Tenshinhan nearly killed him when he blasted the prairie to eradicate the Demon King." Yamcha shrugged. "He's some sort of a hobo, I think, but we owe him food, at least."
"Yer a cat, ain'tcha?" Yajirobe grumbled. "Give me some 'a yer fish and we'll be square!"
"Square? What exactly are we to be square for?" Korin scratched his head, confused about the whole thing. He was not fond of having to rely on Yamcha to brief him in on things but he's seen plenty of interesting things happening all at once down on Earth after a prolonged period of nothing of interest happening.
"If you have some fish, we'd kindly request you give him some so he can just scram already. I felt bad about hurting him and leaving him…" Yamcha clapped his hands and bowed in front of Korin.
"Well…" Korin stroke his chin, content with the respect Yamcha showed him. "I do have some fish but I've cooked that for myself." The white cat pulled on his lower eyelid and showed his tongue.
"P-Please, Korin-sama…" Yamcha leaned back, shocked by his mentor's cold heart. "He's not a noble hero like Tenshinhan but… He does deserve some nursing back to health, at least. We can't just dump him off the tower."
"That's not what I meant…" Korin shook his head and moved to one of his wooden lids. He picked up a handful of magic beans and approached Yajirobe, handing him some. "I meant that fish won't help his trouble now. He needs Senzu."
"Beans!?" Yajirobe growled. "Figured you'd be short on food… Shoulda figured you'd screw me over!"
The chubby samurai grabbed the beans off of the cat's hands and stuffed his face full of them. Had Korin the ability to go pale beyond the white color of his fur, he'd have surely reflected the shortage of blood that his body struggled with when he saw the idiot stuff his face with a handful of bean meant to represent ten days-worth of food.
"That was your entire reward, glutton!" Korin smacked Yajirobe on the head with his cane when the plumpy began moaning and rolling around the temple with his hands on his belly, crying over the tension in his stomach from the excess of food he had ingested. "You cannot kill yourself by eating too many Senzu, but you will feel every bit of pain that ingesting that amount of food would cause you without the sweet release of death. I think that's a fitting punishment for stuffing your face full before I could explain what Senzu are."
Korin jumped up and snagged the empty satchel tied to Yamcha's belt and refilled it from a wooden barrel by his side. He did not forgive Tenshinhan either, flicking him a bean for his troubles before slumping back to Yamcha and handing him the satchel.
"You better be careful. These aren't infinite, you know. The harvest was quite puny this year and the farmer that grows them is worried they won't grow at all in the nearest future, meaning that what I've got in these barrels will be all there is." Korin lectured Yamcha, smacking him on the head with his cane as well. Yamcha bowed as if replying for the painful lump on the back of his head with gratefulness.
"I know, Korin-sama, it was a very unusual emergency with the resurrection of the Demon King Piccolo, however. Krillin is dead…" Yamcha scratched his stomach as if it might have eased the rumbling sadness deep down. "Your training didn't fail him. He gave a great fight to the spawn of the Demon King but… He was tricked."
"I see…" Korin stroke his chin. "So then that's it, no more returning for Krillin…"
"What do you mean with that?" Yamcha stepped back with a horrified expression while Tenshinhan stood up and checked his wrists. Korin's declaration forced Tenshinhan to cease his warm-ups and rounds of shadow boxing to direct all of the attention to the short, white cat.
"No. Krillin will return. Muten Roshi and the rest are collecting the Dragon Balls as we speak. Truth be told, I wonder if the Divine Dragon will make their wish come true if the Demon King Piccolo is dead already when they ask for that wish…" Tenshinhan tried correcting the feline martial arts master who only licked his paw with frightening indifference.
"Of course, if the Divine Dragon cannot fulfill a wish, he will inform the gatherer of the Dragon Balls and ask them to make a different wish," Korin replied before turning straight at the pair of martial artists with a stare of his closed eyes that seemed to wash them with boiling water even though they couldn't meet the cat's eyes directly. "It won't do any good if the Dragon Balls are inert."
"I-Inert!?" Yamcha shook his head in disbelief. "What do you mean, why would they be inert!?"
"I've sensed the Ki of the Demon King disappear a while ago. I tried contacting the attendant of the God of the Korin Tower but that was to no avail. I'm afraid that the God of Korin Tower might have died together with Demon King Piccolo." Korin sighed.
"What!?" Tenshinhan and Yamcha uttered in unison, taken aback by this declaration.
"You see, the God of the Korin Tower and Demon King Piccolo are one and the same, so to speak. Long ago, when the God of the Korin Tower was being tested for the position, he had to remove his heart of any ounce of evil, and so he did, creating the Demon King Piccolo. Despite being two separate beings, they share a life link. If one dies, so does the other. Unfortunately for you, the God of the Korin Tower is the creator of the Dragon Balls and the Divine Dragon is linked to his life as well." Korin explained.
"Gods and some balls 'a dragons… What bullshit…" Yajirobe picked himself up and stared at the trio of Yamcha, Tenshinhan and Korin. While the first pair still tried to process the news they had just found out, Korin seemed more curious about what it would be that Yajirobe would do. "I'll be eatin' that fish now, cat…" Yajirobe declared.
"You may try…" Korin nodded. "If you can get your hands on it, it means you deserve it…"
Yajirobe charged forward with notable speed for someone of his size and build but Korin swung his cane right in front of him, frightening Yajirobe as the cane ended up just barely missing his face. The swordsman of the prairie stumbled back, losing all sense of balance before falling on his butt again.
"It would be pointless to try and eat it now, it's still cooking. The air up here is very rare so it takes forever for a fire to get rolling and for the fish to cook…" Korin informed the swordsman who just crossed his legs and turned away, determined to rob the cat blind of all of his food before he left this tower. The journey back home would be a protracted one, after all.
"No, you're wrong!" Tenshinhan declared out of the blue, addressing Korin. "Goku and Chayote, they've gone to Fortuneteller Baba, they're going to cash in the Free Return Ticket for Krillin."
"That's right, knowing it's Goku and Chayote… Those two will definitely not fail!" Yamcha smiled as a refreshing wave of relief washed over his aching and weary back.
"A Free Return Ticket, huh? Yes… I do recall Baba winning something like that in Bingo… In that case, maybe the brat will still make a comeback… That's a relief indeed, being trapped in limbo for eternity is a poor fate for a talented young lad like him." Korin nodded and turned to walk deeper into the lower floor of his temple where he was cooking some food.
"Ey, wait up! I'm gonna eat everythin' ya got for that ripoff!" Yajirobe yelled and jumped on his feet, rushing after Korin, scaring everyone atop at the Korin Temple that his loincloth would soon fall off, exposing the untold, greasy horrors contained underneath it.
Bulma knocked hard on the door of a small house in a remote village on the western continent. The house was pretty much lifting off the ground and flipping over from the ruckus that it contained within. One step at a time, Bulma took subtle skids back to avoid the inevitable outrage of whoever would open the door as it was damn near impossible they'd be in a good mood with this atmosphere surrounding them around the house.
"Do you think you even need to knock? Listen to this place…" Oolong wrapped his arms over his chest and squinted at Bulma's decision to pick such a civil method to try and speak to the inhabitants of the small residential home about the Dragon Ball in their possession.
"What would you suggest!?" Bulma reared her teeth at the anthropomorphic pig and rolled back her sleeve, preparing to pound him again for speaking to her in such a tone and being an all-around insufferable swine.
"Let me handle it…" Launch cocked her gun and kicked at the door, firing a couple of series of bullets into the air before Chiaotzu and Muten Roshi could stop her. "Hey! Come outta there and talk to us, you worthless scum bastards!"
"I can't believe I didn't see this coming…" Muten Roshi slapped his forehead and shook his head. "From her, of all people…"
"Sometimes she's such a nice lady but… Then she's sort of scary…" Chiaotzu's mouth quivered as he floated a bit farther away from the rampaging blonde who was laying some serious foot-based smackdown on the door of the house where some people resided who were meant to give them their Dragon Ball.
"When Launch-san's hair is blue – she's okay and when it's yellow – she's scary!" Puar explained it to Chiaotzu before the door slammed open and a woman of curly, afro-like purple hair burst forth and laid Launch out with a pair of precise chops to the neck, a kick to her shins and a punch to the gut, all delivered lightning-fast.
"This woman's a martial artist, let me handle it!" Chiaotzu moved out in front of the rest of the group with his fingers pointed at her, ready to paralyze her.
"W-Wait… Chiaotzu…" Muten Roshi slurred with love-struck eyes. "This is Ranfan-chan!"
Chiaotzu avoided a flurry of blows from the female combatant which she directed at him for stepping out in front of the rest of the group and preparing for what she considered a martial arts technique. The ghoulish martial artist lowered his head down and dived right at his opponent like a living drill, sending her down with a screech. It was only then that Chiaotzu registered what Muten Roshi told him.
"Ran-chan… Who's that?" a man of shoulder-long periwinkle hair and a thick stubble approached Ranfan from behind and helped her back on her feet.
"Trouble…" she grunted while wiping the blood off of her lip.
"No, please!" Bulma ran out, trying to pacify the situation. "This is all just a big misunderstanding, we're not here to cause trouble at all."
Launch let the magazine slip from her gun for a visual inspection, she then slid it back and cocked her gun again. "I'm still good for some trouble!" she grinned.
"Who are you, horrible people? Why are you harassing my wife, is it because of her martial arts background? About that tournament? She's leaving it all behind so you can move on!" the man stepped out in front of his wife and began arguing with the Dragon Team in her defense.
"T-Trunks…" Ranfan muttered, flattered by the gesture of her husband. It was then that she regained some of her vitality and jumped out in front of him, moving her husband behind her with a push of her arm. "Get behind me, these guys are trouble and you're no martial artist. Let me handle it. This is what I meant, this is why I can't just leave it all behind and become a housewife as you wanted!"
"No, you can totally do that!" Bulma shook her hands, still hopeful that the situation could have been defused. "Do whatever you want, honestly, we're just here for the Dragon Ball you have found, look, the radar shows it to be in your home. We wanted to ask you for that and we're going to leave you guys alone after we've secured it."
"Probably should have opened with that and not a hail of bullets, you know!" Trunks, Ranfan's husband, answered clearly disgruntled by the violent approach of the Dragon Team.
"That is… A very good observation, in any case, you've been really loud and we needed to get your attention. Getting this Dragon Ball is of great importance to us, the entire world may go to waste otherwise." Bulma nodded a pair of times before insisting further.
"Sorry, my husband and I were having a quarrel. He doesn't want me fighting anymore… I'm okay being a mother and a housewife but… I'm not sure I want to leave fighting behind me altogether…" Ranfan put a finger to her lush, beaming red lips that complimented the overly heavy make-up she wore on a casual day while working in the kitchen. Even her skin was powdered snow-white to make the contrast of her mole stand out in a visually appealing manner.
"I wonder why… She tried stripping in front of Goku and teasing him when she couldn't cut it…" Oolong leaned to Muten Roshi while the two cringed together, only to freeze in place when Bulma's wayward stare full of rage made them jump and tense up.
"I'm okay with you fighting, it's just… Can you maybe do something about your fighting style?" Trunks tried reasoning with his wife but Bulma stepped in between the two of them, she wanted to regain all the goodwill that the Dragon Team had squandered with their gung-ho approach but she had no time to sit through a family quarrel in order to obtain the Dragon Ball, especially when Yamcha didn't answer any attempts to reach him and must have by now settled matters with Demon King Piccolo.
"Please, we just need a small, orange, crystal sphere with stars on it, one like these…" Bulma showed the feuding pair the triplet of their Dragon Balls.
"Oh, I've found it last week when tending the lawn, I thought it was some decorative leftover from a celebration or something so I tossed it over my shoulder…" Trunks shrugged.
"That… That can't be… The radar shows it to be still in the vicinity, it must be inside that house, the zoom function won't even let me zoom in any further…" Bulma checked her radar readings again.
"Yes, I've found it in our garden while gathering the herbs…" Ranfan gasped as her memory cleared up. "My husband is the man I love but he is sometimes quite a wimp, he must not have tossed it hard enough to go over the fence. I found it and asked him if he dropped it and he told me it's garbage so it must still be in the trash can."
The Dragon Team cheered about their lucky break. "Can we please have it?" Muten Roshi inquired, approaching Ranfan and making blood freeze inside Bulma's veins when she realized the sort of vile things that might have been going through the old pervert's head as he approached the woman who held the Dragon Ball and might have chosen to just not give it to them. While Launch might have always been up for some casual burglary, her forms were too unreliable to incorporate into any worthwhile plan.
"Sure, it's in the trash bags in the kitchen, please take a look…" Ranfan invited the team inside. The bunch all looked at each other with awkward stares, everyone wondering who would be the first one to show initiative and everyone relying on somebody else to check the trash bags.
"No way, I'm not burrowing through garbage!" Bulma shook her head. "I thought we've established that!"
"Rock, Paper, Scissors?" Muten Roshi suggested.
"I feel… Unclean…" Bulma chattered with her teeth even while the jet provided ample heating even for the cloud-reaching heights the Dragon Team soared through. "If it wasn't for Yamcha I'd have…" Bulma belched.
"You better believe it we're not gonna let you and your boyfriend forget it!" Oolong chuckled into his tiny hands only to freeze in place when Bulma's twitching head slowly turned to him. The four Dragon Balls laid out on a soft blanket and placed into a blue and white bag fell out and scattered all over the hull of the aircraft.
"B-Bulma-san, please focus on driving!" Muten Roshi reasoned with the blue-haired, prone to fits of rage genius. "We'll handle Oolong's long tongue…" he pleaded.
The jet soared on ahead, blasting off into the distance, nearing the completion of the Dragon Team's quest with each landing. While an unfavorable switch of Launch's forms did provide them with more challenge than most actual possessors of the Dragon Balls, so far, the Dragon Team managed to leave even those few challenges behind.