A hovercar let out the howl of an abused, overfed dog as it turned around in a drastic 180. A bald head, covered up by a large and wavy white Panama hat, peeked through the window. Krillin's eyes had been wide to where they tested the integrity of the vessels keeping them in their sockets, while his jaw had nearly reached the same ground that his bargain sale car hovered over.
"Chayote?" Krillin bawled out and jumped out of his car to land right beside a bored young woman who was smoking outside by the door to a skyscraper tangled in a network of monorails all the way from its center to the top floor. "Didn't expect to see you here! It's been years! Are you smoking?"
"Huh? Yeah, blame it on Bulma, the lab's always been smoky so I kind of had no other choice but to pick up the habit…" Chayote pulled out the cigarette from her mouth, stared at it for a few seconds before pinching it thirty-two meters away to the nearest trash can. "Are you gonna get all over my ass about it, or did you want one?"
"Heh, I guess some of Bulma rubbed off on you in these last three years, huh?" Krillin giggled all by himself and took off his hat to remind the world of his bald head as it reflected the rays of May's sunlight in concentrated beams of pure flash. "I was gonna say that it's a major health risk. Cigarettes are responsible for well over 840 000 deaths in West City alone yearly. In fact, second-hand smoking alone kills 32 000 people every year. It's way worse in places that can't afford groundbreaking medical treatment."
"Yeah, well, working for Bulma may have introduced me to it, but it was my own job that nailed it in for me. Who knew managing a private military was such a pain in the ass?" Chayote rubbed her neatly kept hairdo, forcing a handful of disobedient spikes to stick out from her sleek knotted bun. "When I signed up for it, I sort of expected to do a bunch of fighting but nobody told me that people I hire will have to do the fighting for me…"
"Heh, I guess so…" Krillin giggled, pressing his hat to his oversized suit of matching colors. "Have you ever thought that maybe Bulma suckered you in with empty promises just so she could get you to work for her for a few years?"
"Wouldn't be surprised if that's the case…" Chayote sighed. She took off her neat glasses and blew into them before placing them back.
"Do you have problems with your eyesight? I figured Saiyans would take longer to encounter those than humans, if at all. Also, doesn't just staining your glasses make it harder for you to see?" Krillin scratched his cheek as he raised a meek finger to point it out.
"Oh? Those? No, I don't need them. It's just what humans wear to work to look professional. Bulma said that it actually helps and, whatever her intentions were bringing me up to this lifestyle, she wasn't wrong. I've been dismissed from a military tribunal case I would have lost a ton of money in settlements in if I didn't show up in glasses." Chayote pointed out.
"I sure hope you don't drive or fly in those…" Krillin squinted. "Over 320 000 thousand people each year around the world die in hover car-related accidents, that's not included deaths from hover cars plummeting and burning up before they reach the ground or hovercars colliding with monorail tracks causing a bi-vehicular calamity."
"What are you a socialist now?" Chayote scratched her neatly made hair in irritation, making an even bigger mess of it.
"I believe you meant a sociologist, also no, I sell life insurance." Krillin fixed his loose tie, making a face that suggested that he was either very proud of his profession or was incredible at convincing himself he was proud of it.
"That… Actually checks out…" Chayote sighed. "I haven't really stayed in touch with anyone but Bulma and my work partners. After my first company collapsed, starting it all from scratch was really time-consuming. It's just… There's a threat that I could rip apart with my bare hands right before me but instead, I have to hire mooks and equip them with the right gear for the job…"
Krillin leaned back, frightened when Chayote's body gained a few centimeters and began bulking up, which in terms tested the integrity of her suit. Jolts of electricity began accumulating in the air, making Chayote's stray hair stand up in the static field and shocking Krillin a few times with the voltage that stung like a wasp. Only after she noticed she had begun to lose control did Chayote take out a cigarette and light it up, after blowing a few clouds of smoke out, her size returned to the old meek self, and the hair that had spiked up settled down to an awkward, untidy hang over her face.
"Heh… Heh, I sure hope you weren't training in the meantime…" Krillin pressed his hat tighter to his chest and looked down. This may have just been embarrassment over his own lack of training in the past three years talking.
"I have, though I didn't have time to train myself properly. Most of the time I just have the guys in the underground cook up some weapon of mass destruction and try killing myself with it. Some of them invoke a Zenkai boost, most of it is just useless scrap." Chayote tapped her heel at the ground under her feet just to give herself some activity to distract herself from the stressful breakthrough that nearly made her bulk up before.
"Hey, wait… That Ki…" Krillin turned to his right, then looked up at the monorail station hanging hundreds of meters overhead. Despite his suddenly piqued interest, an overflowing blast of brute force flung Krillin back on his butt and shoved him to roll back all the way over the street until he slammed into the hydrant on the other side, causing general mayhem to the traffic of hovercars using the ground level. "Are you… Okay?"
"Yeah… It's… Yamcha…" Chayote clenched her fist in front of her, undoing her suit before it tore up from the sudden increase in muscle mass that she's been gaining. The Saiyan closed her eyes, breathed in and out, muttering something under her nose while those leaving the monorail stepped onto the platform in the station, lowering them onto the ground level. While Chayote settled down and tied her loose hair behind her back again, putting herself back into a presentable shape, Krillin stood up and rubbed the back of his head carrying a mean scrape where he slammed into the hydrant with.
As Yamcha emerged from the crowd leaving the descending platform, the bald insurance salesperson ran around the wild torrent of water that sprayed from the busted hydrant and ran up to Chayote. This mayhem did not end up unnoticed by Yamcha and his female companion in a deep-blue dress with starry gleams decorating it.
"Ugh, what is that? You said that this would be a nice place, Yamcha-kun!" the curly-haired woman of tanned skin and minuscule eyes pressed her curvaceous figure to Yamcha to avoid the shower in the middle of the street.
"Ugh… Well… I guess… The plan to go to the park is a bust…" Yamcha scratched the back of his head, erupting into a chuckle of a helpless dolt. "You know, this skyscraper right here is a well-known meeting hall. I could still buy a floor just for the two of us."
"You would do that? As expected from a big-shot superstar!" the long-haired woman dressed for an evening gala, apparently, rubbed herself against Yamcha's arm.
"That's Blitz-Wolf Home Run Supernova, Spinelette-san…" the oaf laughed out to himself, displaying the same manner of self-convinced, faux pride Krillin displayed admitting to his profession selling life insurance earlier.
"Actually, he won't!" Chayote interjected, crossing her arms with a strict expression as she sent a death-inducing glare at Yamcha. "That's because Capsule Corps and Puri & Co have already bought out the entire building for their meeting. Your hambone of a boyfriend may be rich, but he's not quite that rich."
"Is that true, Yamcha-kun?" the lady sharing her name with a gemstone, which, apparently, was Yamcha's type these days, gave her boyfriend puppy-eyes. Chayote could only snort at her pitiful attempts, as her bodily proportions and beady eyes weren't well-suited for such a display of cuteness. "Eek! I think I got some of that street water on me!"
"Don't worry, babe, I'm gonna protect you!" Yamcha pumped his fist as he gently positioned his girlfriend behind him and stood with his chest proudly puffed up before the spray of water on the other side of the street that occasionally reached the passers-by all the way on the other side too.
"Wow, a barracuda that can't handle a splash of water…" Chayote rolled her eyes. Krillin broke into a chuckle even though he immediately restrained himself and couldn't look up at Yamcha afterward because of the profound sadness.
"You know, Chayote, just because it didn't work out between the two of us, it doesn't mean that you can just jab at me and my girlfriend!" Yamcha turned to the passively aggressive Saiyan standing outside in the fresh air as she waited for the destined meeting between the two business titans that couldn't wait to gobble each other up to start.
"Wait… You… And Yamcha…?" Krillin scratched his sweaty, bald head with a shaking hand while his hat-holding hand had a tiny twitch that made him let go of his hat so that it fell into the moist pavement.
"Humph…" Chayote turned away. She tried to buzz the button that opened the door and would have let her into the building, but she applied too much force into it and left a dent on the foundation of the skyscraper thrice the size of an ordinary human. It also appeared to have jammed the panel since the doors buzzed and sparked but didn't open up.
"I thought I already told you, Chayote, you're a really hot babe and all, but I literally saw you grow up! Even though it's legally and technically not creepy, it doesn't make it not creepy for me! I'm pretty sure Bulma wouldn't date Goku because of that same reason!" Yamcha barked out with a defensive tone.
"You're an idiot, Yamcha. A cheap one at that, always taking the easy road…" Chayote turned around and pressed her back to the massive dent she just left in the building. Had it not been built to withstand various natural disasters and the withering pressure of centuries passing by, someone might have gotten worried over the safety of such a state to the building.
"What's that supposed to mean?" Yamcha threw a fit.
"Man… I didn't expect it to get this awkward…" Krillin muttered to himself. He jumped up in terror when a soft, feminine frame nudged him with her shoulder.
"Tell me about it…" Spinelette sighed. "Yamcha-kun has had so many girlfriends since he returned to the stadium and breathed new life into his career. It's just like this every time… I guess that's the price of being Yamcha-kun's girlfriend."
"Doesn't it feel even a little cheap, using all that power, all that speed in sports, and always being the best despite hardly even trying at all?" Chayote threw her hands up.
"It's not my fault you decided to ground yourself and not use your power to improve your own life!" Yamcha crossed his arms and turned away. "I've trained my body and mind up, so it's up to me how I use that power and speed. I'm done fighting aliens and demons and dealing with back-alley goons and nearly getting my head pulled off my shoulders! Just once I want to use all that power for myself and make something out of my life with it! I'm not doing anything illegal, I'm not cheating, training your entire life to become stronger and faster than everyone else isn't like popping some magical pill or being born on another planet and being naturally super-strong! I'm not doing anything my competition doesn't do, it's just that I'm ahead of the curve!"
"Wow, you've gotten pretty good at standing up for yourself…" Chayote stretched out her numb neck and fixed her hair and glasses after getting a message on her phone that the meeting was about to start.
"Um… Thanks?" Yamcha didn't know what to make of being complimented in the middle of a quarrel.
"If only you'd have been this feisty when standing up to yourself in front of Bulma, maybe she wouldn't have conceived the actual heir to the Saiyan throne?" Chayote stabbed the knife in the opening and twisted it before kicking off and flying away to look for the nearest open windows to slip into the building through.
"Jeez… Bulma bred her to be just as brutal as she is…" Yamcha dragged his hand over his face, still reeling from the last hit.
"A Saiyan that can kill without throwing a single punch, I wonder what's the lethality rate on that, I'm not sure I'd sell you any insurance with that factor in your life, bud." Krillin patted his old-time friend on the back as the two stared up at the sky long since Chayote had found her opening to skip the busted doors.
"Hey! I'm back!" Gohan waved his hand over his head while gliding over a perfectly preserved bamboo forest. Gine's head stuck out through the doorway of the home that once shared a name with the vigorous child who flew all the way from Orange City where he was attending grade school. Commuting was hardly a bother to someone capable of flying faster than sound without breaking a sweat.
"Gohan-chan!" Gine emerged through the doorway, followed shortly by a man in a flannel shirt and a buff, masculine build. Gohan's grandfather had never skipped a day of training, even though brawling it out with dinosaurs was a bore to him. It was nigh impossible for a fighter to suppress their energy to the level where such primitive predators were of any real threat to them. Then again, that was a challenge of Ki control all in itself.
"You weren't waiting on the bench like you normally are!" Gohan pouted and pressed his tiny fists together. "Are you busy, grandma?"
"No, just a little short of breath, I think. Old age must be catching up to me after taking this long…" Gine laughed it up to herself. "Are you sure your mother is okay with us slipping out for our afternoon stretch?"
"Sure she is!" Gohan insisted. "Don't worry, mom's regiment was so strict that I've skipped four years ahead of my class in studying. I do my homework during the class, while everyone else studies material I already know!"
"My little genius!" Gine stroked Gohan's head before gently doing her best to caress it back into shape so that Chi-Chi isn't mad about it.
"Maybe you really are under the weather or something?" Bardock smirked. Usually, he meant such remarks as a mockery when spoken to his Saiyan friends back in the day, but now there was a hint of worry behind his voice. "You seemed to need help to drag that dead meat back into the storage room in the morning."
"That thing weighed 88 tons, Bardock!" Gine waggled her finger. "I'm not a brute like you guys, I've spent my days on Planet Vegeta processing meat."
"That's okay, grandma, we can stop by home and you can ask my mom if she's okay with it. I'll want to change out of my uniform into my gi. I've seen a family of dragons settling down in the mountains to the northeast. Dragons are incredibly rare. We can both play and study by observing them!" Gohan insisted, shaking in excitement.
"Okay then, don't let my feeble old bones stop you, Gohan-chan…" Gine laughed out, stroking her grandson's head as Gohan took off in a blaze of crystalline Ki aura.
"You're gonna let that hybrid little runt beat you in a race?" Bardock teased his wife. "I recall you running away from me faster than that back home."
"Maybe I'm just getting too old for this stuff…" Gine shook her head and blasted off to do her best and keep up with little Gohan. Sweat poured down the woman's forehead, but she caught sight of Gohan before he landed by his home that was seemingly just within a hand's reach from the home that Goku once occupied while living with his grandfather at Mt. Paozu.
"Mom! I'm back from school, is it okay if I spend some time playing with grandma!?" Gohan ran into the house.
"Jeez, you've been so lively since your grandparents settled down!" Chi-Chi straightened her back and positioned her hands over her hips. "Well, young boys do need a balanced schedule of both physical activity and studying to become fine young men. The magazines said so. Just make sure that you're back in time to do your homework. I'll pack your lunch."
"Hey, mom!" Goku ran up to his panting mother as he had been shadowboxing around the house, just stretching his limbs after a strong lunch. "Wow, Gohan's been keeping you on your heels, huh? You look tuckered out already and you guys haven't even started playing yet."
"Yeah…" Gine straightened her back out and gave her son an enthusiastic thumb up. "I guess tag is out of the question. You've raised your boy to a spry young lad, Kakarot, I'm so proud of you and Chi-Chi and Gohan too."
"I'm ready!" Gohan emerged from the house with a neatly tied box of lunch that he had to carry over his head. The young man had changed from his school uniform into a Hanfu-style yellow and green top and appeared to be ready to seek out and study the mysterious and rare dragon species that had settled on the Mt. Paozu range in the north-south.
"Alright, let's take off then." Gine nodded. Gohan didn't need to be asked twice. The two rocketed over the southern skies of the continent while heading north. "You know, it would have been a lot closer for you if you headed there straight from Orange City," Gine noted.
"I know, that's when I noticed a dragon flying by. I think she might be a mother dragon. Do you think we might see some baby dragons?" Gohan became more and more pumped the more he spoke about it. "I wonder when do dragons breed, do they lay eggs or not? There isn't much data about them because of how rare they are. People see the few specimens that show up in the eastern, mountainous parts of the continent and no researchers come here because of all the dinosaurs, sabertooth tigers, and boar-bandits around the area. We may be the first ones to record all that!"
"You know… Maybe we should… Stop for a little… So you can eat some of that large lunch box?" Gine panted in mid-flight while her voice grew weaker and weaker. Just as Gohan was about to reply and assure his grandma that he was just fine–she was gone.
Gohan scooped Gine out of the sky before she could slam into the ground or the lakes and foamy rivers that washed the mountainous regions. Gohan landed on a nearby mountain to deposit his lunch so that he could better hold his grandma on his way carrying her back home. The Son Family home was closer. Plus, Gohan didn't exactly trust his grandpa with medicinal matters as he did his own mother.
"Grandma! Are you okay? Grandma!" Gohan tried reaching his grandmother, but she kept hyperventilating and sweating up a lake of her own as her temperature started rising in Gohan's hands. She seemed completely out of it, passed out, and it didn't look like anything Gohan could say or do could reach her anymore. If it wasn't for her heavy panting, Gohan would have been seriously afraid for her life.
What a terrifying twist to what seemed like an exciting and happy day! Even so, little Gohan would give away an entire year of days like this just so that his dear grandmother turned out okay and recovered from whatever ailment befell her.
Author's Notes: Sorry for no chapter on Sunday, had to give me some more time to work on TONM Annual #6, not that this one has any schedule or that I intended to update it consistently originally. In any case, this is the beginning of the Android Saga. I originally intended to end this story at Frieza Saga. The ending of that one was meant to be a little different to make it a bit more final though. Still, despite not having originally planned this saga, I've got a pretty good idea of what I want to do here and I've introduced plenty of stuff already earlier in the story for this saga. It might already feel a whole lot different from not only the OG Dragon Ball Z storyline but also to the Paradise Lost style in general. It might be different and experimental and get weird in places, but I hope that those that like the story or are just going through it to see how it ends find something to like in it regardless. I know that I'll still love writing it despite flipping the table in more than a few places.