Get Ready, Everyone! The Tournament Looms on the Horizon!
Gohan couldn't believe how quickly Videl had progressed with her flying lessons. In less than two weeks, she had gone from not even understanding ki as a concept to having mastered flight. She wasn't exceptionally fast, of course, but that wasn't anything that couldn't be overcome by training like any other form of exercise.
"So," Videl panted out once they got to the end of training while Goten floated over their heads, backstroking through the air. "I guess we're done? With the training, I mean," she added quickly when she saw the hesitance on Gohan's face. "We can keep hanging out and stuff, obviously, I just figured that it might get in the way of you training Goten for the Junior Budoukai or you training with that Vegeta guy and the Great Saiyaman stuff."
"Y-yeah," Gohan agreed with a blush. "Totally, we can hang out. Do you maybe wanna–" he thought he might say "do something this weekend?" or "Go see a movie sometime?" Something that a normal person would say. Instead, the next words he said were "Ask my mom if she'd train you for the Budoukai?" Gohan was going to play it off as a joke before Videl's face lit up.
"That would be amazing!" she exclaimed excitedly. Gohan blinked in surprise.
"Really?" Gohan asked. He'd known that Videl was a big fan of his mothers but he hadn't expected this strong of a reaction.
"Are you kidding?!" Videl asked eagerly as she shook her fists as if she were about to explode with energy. "I could get to train with one of the best female martial artists of all time?! That would be the greatest thing ever!" Gohan laughed nervously at Videl's exuberance, forgetting that he still had to ask his mother about her opinion on the subject.
"Yeah," Goten added from above them, "Mama really had fun helping me and Videl learn about flying while you were fighting' Trunks' dad." Gohan's face reddened slightly as he looked down at Videl.
"D-did my mother," he asked nervously, "S-say anything?" Given how badly Suno had needled him about the idea of him and Videl being in a relationship, he couldn't even guess what she might have said without Gohan being around to cut her off. Videl just laughed.
"She just asked what kind of martial arts background I had," Videl assured him, which made Gohan let out a reflexive sigh of relief. "Aaaand if I thought you were cute," she added. Gohan was struck stiff as a fence post with a face like a stoplight, making Videl laugh out loud.
"There's no way my mother said that!" Gohan asserted in an almost panicked voice that only made Videl laugh even harder. "Y-you're lying!" Videl laughed so hard she went off her feet, swinging in the air from side to side like she was in an invisible hammock. "W-well," Gohan stammered out flusteredly, "What'd you say?" Videl just flew off, still laughing. "H-hey! Get back here!" Videl just kept on flying and laughing, her humor exacerbated by Gohan's reaction. "Videl! What'd you say?!" She flew off into the distance, her laughter echoing on the wind, mocking Gohan. He groaned and rolled his eyes, holding a hand up for Goten to take so he could take them back to the house with Instant Transmission.
"Hey, guys," Suno said with a smile. "How was trai–"
"WHAT DID YOU ASK VIDEL?!" Gohan exclaimed so furiously that it made Suno's hair blow back.
"E-excuse me?" Suno asked, startled.
"Videl said you asked if she thought Big Bro was cute," Goten explained while still hanging in the air. Suno just chuckled and shook her head.
"Wait a second," Gohan said with a sudden realization. "Goten, why didn't you say anything?"
"It was funny watching your face turn all red," Goten explained. Gohan groaned and shook his head, resting his face in his hands.
"I told Videl that I'd ask if you would train her to get ready for the Budoukai," Gohan said wearily. Suno clapped her hands excitedly and gave a squeal of delight as she went starry-eyed. "I guess that's a yes?" Gohan asked.
"Of course!" Suno assured him eagerly. She'd gotten a bit of a teaching bug from helping Goten and Videl with their flying lessons that one day. Obviously, she was a teacher but she'd never taught anything related to martial arts before. It was so fun and such a new, exciting experience that she considered doing it more often. Taking on someone with a degree of martial arts experience of her own would be a good starting point to see if she would think about doing it on something closer to a full-time basis. "Be sure to let her know that I'd be happy to train her!"
"Sure thing," Gohan said a smile crept onto his face despite his suspicions. "But," he warned her, "That doesn't mean you're gonna be playing matchmaker or anything, alright?" Suno chuckled and held up a hand as if she were swearing an oath.
"You have my word," she promised him. "I'll do no such thing." Gohan nodded and walked off to his bedroom so he could start on his homework before dinner. "For the record," Suno called as Gohan closed the door, "Videl was telling the truth!" The solid wood door barely muffled Gohan's howl of embarrassed frustration.
OoOoOoO
"I don't get it," Trunks said as he and his father stood on a small, deserted island off the southern tip of the Western Peninsula. "How come we're training out here? Is the gravity chamber busted or something?"
"No," Vegeta explained as the waves crashed high and flecks of foam blew past them on the breeze, "But your mother wouldn't appreciate me blowing holes in it. That's why we're out here."
"Holes?" Trunks asked curiously as he scratched the back of his head. "Whaddaya mean? Are you gonna teach me some kinda ki stuff?" A rare genuine smile crept across Vegeta's lips.
"Something like that," he said before crouching down on one knee to look at Trunks. "If you're going to win this tournament then you're going to need a special attack. I expect Suno or Gohan have already taught Goten Kakarot's ridiculous Kamehameha by now so you're going to need an attack of your own."
"But I've already got my own move!" Trunks protested.
"This is more important than your ridiculous Victory Cannon," Vegeta snapped before instantly pulling back when Trunks recoiled. He didn't mean to be harsh with his son but he was trying to do something important for him. Why couldn't the boy just shut up? "This technique," Vegeta went on in a more measured tone as he put a hand on Trunks' shoulder, "Was taught to me by my father. It was passed down to him from his father, and from his father before him, to the very beginning of our family line. Some day," he continued, "You will pass it on to your child." Gods willing, Vegeta thought to himself, it wouldn't be a child made from a union with Kakarot's daughter. No matter how amusing Bulma found the notion and regardless of the fact that the child would have more Saiyan blood than if each of them found human partners, he couldn't get past the idea of looking at his grandchild and seeing some measure of Kakarot's face in them without his skin crawling.
"Uhhh, dad?" Trunks asked as he poked his father's face. "You kinda zoned out on me there." Vegeta shook his head and brought himself back to the present.
"This technique," Vegeta went on as if nothing had happened, "Is the Galick Gun." He stood up and pivoted his body to one side. "Follow my movements exactly," he told Trunks and the boy eagerly copied his father's stance.
"How do I turn my ki purple?" Trunks asked. Vegeta blinked and stared off into the distance in deep thought. He… wasn't entirely sure how ki changed color.
For the next several hours, Bulma watched happily from CCMM satellite as pairs of purple ki beams shot off into the sky. It was nice to see her boys bonding.
OoOoOoO
"Kamekameha!" Goten cried as she fired the beam off toward the clouds. The beam shimmered slightly and vaguely resembled water coming out of a hose in its loose, unfocused structure. Gohan sighed and shook his head. "What?" Goten asked in confusion. "I did it, didn't I?"
"No, Goten," Gohan told his sister as gently as he could. "Come on, we've been over this, right? Watch me again." He got into his stance and brought his hands forward. "Watch my hands," he told Goten, making the movements of his hands very clear and precise. "Kame…" the blue-white bulb of light grew in his hands while Goten watched him attentively, "hame…" he put special emphasis on the first syllable. "Ha!" Gohan thrust his hands forward as a straight and true pillar of light shot out of his hands and off into the sky. "See the difference?" he asked Goten, who nodded eagerly in response. "Good. Now try again."
OoOoOoO
"Don't worry," Lapis called over the din of his and Amy's five young children and several of their pets running through the house that nearly drowned out the sound of the telephone ringing. "I'll get it!" He picked up the phone and opened a window, sticking himself halfway out of it to escape the noise as he answered the phone. "Yo, sis," he greeted cheerfully. "What's up?"
"Not much," Lazuli said on the other end. "Just checking in. How's Amy and the kids?"
"Oh, ya know," Lapis replied with the casual shrug of domestic bliss. "Rhodey and Emmy are growing like weeds. Greg, Andy, and Jamie have adjusted to living out here pretty well." Those were Lapis and Amy's three adopted children, whom Lapis had saved during a forest fire that had claimed their parents' lives. Not wanting to see the trio end up in the foster system that had traumatized him and his sister when they were kids, Lapis adopted the trio without a second thought.
"Lapis!" Amy called from inside the house. "That better not be another animal shelter! You can't just adopt every last chance dog you see in the paper!"
"One," Lapis shouted back with his hand covering the phone's mouthpiece, "It's not, it's Lazuli! Two," he added with a grin. "Try and stop me, babe!" Lapis had gotten a habit, since they'd put a Capsule House on the park he worked at, of buying and taking care of the older, injured, and otherwise unwanted pets from shelters and pounds. Why not? His job paid well and it wasn't like they were short on space.
"I will break this friggin' laptop over your head!" Amy warned him before adding in a juxtaposingly sweet tone, "Tell your sister I said hi!" Lapis rolled his eyes.
"Amy says hi," he echoed dutifully.
"Give her my love," Lazuli told him brightly. "Oh," she added. "There actually is something I wanted to talk to you about. Krillin and I are entering the Budoukai–"
"Gonna be a hard pass on that one," Lapis told her. "I'm not really into the whole fight for money thing. Besides," he went on with a grin, "You don't want me to kick your butt like last time, do ya?"
"That is not how I remember it going down," she shot back. "Besides, I figured you'd at least wanna come cheer your sister on. Buuuuut if that's not enough, Son Goku's coming back to life to enter the tournament."
"No fooling?" Lapis added as he stroked his chin thoughtfully. "Y'know it did always kinda bother me that we never even met the lady that we were basically 'created' to kill."
"I know, right?" Lazuli agreed. "So, whaddya say? Are you gonna come and see us?" Lapis flashed a grin as he slipped back into the house.
"What the heck, I'll see ya there!" After exchanging goodbyes and hanging up, Lapis cupped his hands around his mouth to shout over the din. "Kids! Amy!" He shouted. "We're goin' to go watch Aunt Lazuli and Uncle Krillin fight at the Budoukai!"
OoOoOoO
Lazuli put down her cell phone with a shake of her head and a smile before she walked into the bathroom where Krillin was standing in front of the mirror with an electric razor in one hand and a frown on his face.
"Penny for your thoughts?" she asked playfully as she ran her fingers through his thick black hair.
"They're not worth that much," he muttered dryly as he leaned back against her hand.
"Hey," she mock-scolded him, "I'm the only one allowed to put you down." He chuckled and leaned back against her as she put her arms around his neck. "Now tell me, you goofus. I won't laugh at you if that's what you're worried about."
"Well," Krillin said slowly as he looked back up at his reflection. "I was gonna shave my head for the Budoukai, ya know? Bring back the Bald Tiger look and everything. But when I looked at myself, I thought about how I hadn't really shaved my head in six years. Before that, the longest I went without doing it was a couple days at most during that whole saga on Namek. So this," he gestured to his hair again, "Is more than just a haircut. Or, y'know, lack of a haircut. It represents something. It represents us and our life together."
"Funny," Lazuli remarked as she wiggled her wedding ring under his barely-visible nose. "I thought it was this. Or her," she added as she pointed a thumb back to the living room where their daughter was watching cartoons. Krillin let out an almost-dejected sigh and Lazuli kissed him on the cheek. "I'm just teasing."
"So that's why I don't want to shave it," he explained. "But I do want to shave it because…" he chewed his lip as he ran his fingertip over the incense burns on his forehead. Or, more accurately, where the burns should be. Over seven years they had faded to such a pale white as to be nearly nonexistent. "If I don't shave my head, is anyone even gonna know who I am? Will they even remember me?" he gave a bit of a sad shrug. "It's not like I ever really did anything at the Budoukai, ya know?"
"C'mere, you goofus," Lazuli muttered good-naturedly as she tilted his head back and leaned her own head forward to kiss him on the lips. "Hey," she told him gently. "I think you're pretty great and you've got a daughter who thinks her daddy is the greatest guy in the world. That's gotta count for something, right?" Krillin smiled up at Lazuli and kissed her again before putting the electric razor back in its drawer.
"So," he said as she disentangled her arms from around him. "What're we gonna do about the prize money? Like, what happens if I win?"
"Oh, that's easy," she told him. "We'll split it."
"Same thing if you win, right?"
"Nah," Lazuli said sweetly as she sat back on the bed. "That shit's all mine."
"Hey!"
OoOoOoO
"Wolf Fang Fist!" Shouronpo cried as she attacked her father. She unleashed a flurry of right and left strikes, her fingers curled like claws as she tried to get through Yamcha's defenses. She brought both palms forward with a howl, driving them forward into Yamcha's forearms with enough force to send him skidding backward through the grass, his feet digging into the earth as he stopped himself.
"Ha!" Yamcha exclaimed proudly as he lowered his arms. "That's my girl!" Despite only being eleven years old, Shouronpo was nearly as tall as her father, though that was hardly a surprise given the height of her and Ocha's mother, Chi-Chi.
"Come on, dad," she protested. "When are you gonna teach me the Kaiouken so I can kick everyone's butts?"
"When I can trust you not to use it just 'to kick everyone's butts'," Yamcha retorted complete with finger quotes. "And when you're older," he emphasized, "So your muscles won't fly off your bones." Shou groaned and Yamcha wagged a stern finger at her. "Don't you groan at me, young lady," he warned her. Then they sparred again, their battle carrying them up into the air this time before Chi-Chi came out of the house.
"Come on down, you two!" she called up to them, cupping her hands around her mouth. "It's time for dinner!"
"Aww, come on, mom!" Shou pouted. "Five more minutes?"
"Yeah, c'mon, Cheech," Yamcha echoed. "Just a couple more?" This was a decision that both father and daughter immediately regretted as Chi-Chi flew up and took them both by the ear, twisting and pulling on their ears as she flew them back down toward the ground.
"I didn't spend all afternoon on dinner," she scolded them over many "Ow's", "Quit it's", and profuse apologies, "Just so you could blow me off to keep training! Shouronpo, you should be thankful I even let you take time off from your violin lessons to train for the Junior Budoukai, so don't you sass me, young lady!"
After dinner, it was Yamcha's turn to do the dishes and his earlobe was still a dull red as he scrubbed pots and pans in the sink. "Y'didn't have to twist it that hard," he muttered as Chi-Chi came up beside him and started to put away the dishes that had finished drying in the drying rack.
"Oh, you're fine, you big baby," she teased him with a bump of her hip. "How's Shou's training coming along?"
"Great," Yamcha told her proudly. "She's doing really well. She's a heck of a lot stronger than I was at her age. How's Ocha coming with his piano lessons?"
"He's–" Chi-Chi started to say before they were interrupted by the cacophonous clunking of keys from Ocha's room, the pair sharing a wince. "He's progressing," she admitted delicately, making both of them laugh. However, Chi-Chi couldn't help but notice Yamcha chewing his lip in thought almost as soon as their laughing ceased. "What's the matter?"
"Nothing," he lied. Chi-Chi fixed him with a look and raised one eyebrow, holding it until he caved. "Okay," he sighed, "Okay. It's about the Junior Budoukai. Suno told me that Goten's entering because Trunks is entering. Shou… she'll probably be way stronger than just about everyone else entering but those two," he sighed and shook his head. "I just worry that she'll inherit her old man's bad luck of being a side character in someone else's tournament, ya know? And that's not fair to her, she's only eleven years old!" Chi-Chi smiled sympathetically and put her arms around her husband.
"I'm sure you already told Shou the most important things she needs to hear," she told him. "That the only thing she can do is her best and that no matter what happens in the tournament, we'll be proud of her."
"Yeah," Yamcha sighed as he leaned into Chi-Chi's embrace. "I guess you're right." He put his arms around her and they stood in the warmth of domestic bliss for a moment. "I guess I could try to teach her Kaiouken–" the words were barely out of his mouth before Chi-Chi grabbed one of the wooden salad spoons off the wall and cracked it over his head.
"Don't you dare!"
"Ow! Hey! Jeez, I was kidding!"
OoOoOoO
Yamu watched his younger brother Spopovich training with some degree of concern. The man had become almost obsessed with Hercule since his rather humiliating defeat at the champion's hands at the 24th Tenkaichi Budoukai, an obsession that had only been fueled over the last seven years as Hercule had risen to prominence as Earth's hero and arguably the most famous man on planet Earth.
"Kill him," Spopovich snarled as he bench pressed an obscene amount of weight. "I'm gonna kill him. I'll kill him!"
"Uhhh, bro," Yamu pointed out good-naturedly, "You know they won't let you win if you kill him, right?" He'd meant it as a joke, something to break the tension that hung heavy in the air of Spopovich's home gym like humidity. Spopovich sat up from the bench with a snarl and hurled the weight bar away to send it crashing into the wall.
"Then I'll kill them!" he declared furiously as he started to advance on his brother. "I'll kill everyone who gets in my way!"
'My, my, my,' a sinister voice said inside their heads. The brothers turned and looked at each other to wordlessly confirm that both had heard the same thing. 'That's quite a lot of anger, isn't it?' The voice chuckled, sending cold chills running down their spines. 'So you want to defeat this 'Hercule', eh?' the voice asked. Spopovich nodded emphatically and Yamu started to say something before he was interrupted by the voice. 'You want to be powerful, is that it? I can give you the power to crush Hercule a thousand times over. In return,' it continued, 'You must swear your souls and undying loyalty to your new master. Me,' it clarified, 'Babidi.'
"We'll do it!" Spopovich declared emphatically. Yamu's eyes widened as he looked at his brother in shock. Was he so far gone that he was willing to sell his soul to defeat Hercule in a martial arts bout? More importantly, what the hell was this "we" crap?!
"W-wait a second," Yamu stammered out, "How did I get roped into–" his protestations were cut off as he and Spopovich screamed in pain, their bodies contorting in agony as they were forcibly transformed. And all the while, the voice in their heads cackled like the Devil.
OoOoOoO
Gohan opened his eyes in that starry abyss and chewed his bottom lip pensively. "Well," he muttered with a voice that echoed slightly into the cosmic void as he turned to Xi, "This doesn't mean anything good."
"I thought you liked my company?" Xī asked in a playfully-hurt voice.
"I do," Gohan assured her, "It's just that you only show up if you have something new to tell me about Majin Boo and Babidi, which is never good."
"That's fair enough," Xī admitted with a shrug. "And you're right, I do have more information about Babidi. It seems your mom might have actually had the right idea with when she wanted to return to Earth. I had a revelation the other night. I don't know how I didn't notice it before but I recalled that the first time Bibidi summoned Majin Boo, he'd used the life force of an entire planet to call it forth."
"Oh," Gohan muttered as the color drained from his face at the threat of planetary extinction. "That might have been helpful to mention earlier, yeah."
"Don't sass me," she warned him. "Just because it's a dream doesn't mean I can't slap you. Anyway," she continued, "I realized that with this tournament on your planet, Babidi has a prime opportunity to try and steal the energy from your planet's most powerful warriors to release Boo from its prison."
"Okay," Gohan said, "So am I looking for a little green man?" Xī shook her head.
"Babidi wouldn't be brazen enough to try and steal the energy himself," she told him, "He's too much of a coward. I expect that he's already used his magic to ensnare at least two people who intend to enter the tournament. You'll recognize them by his symbol," she drew a finger in the air to draw a stylized 'M' that glowed brightly. "Be ready, Gohan," she told him in a deadly serious tone. "The day of reckoning is nearly at hand."
Gohan sat up in bed with a start and looked belatedly at his alarm clock. "Three in the morning," he grumbled as he rubbed at his eyes. How was he supposed to fall back to sleep after that conversation? He'd been expecting that Babidi's attempt to resurrect Boo and the Budoukai would be close together, that was just how these things worked out. He hadn't, however, expected them to be intertwined. The battle for the fate of the universe was only a couple of weeks away. But all Gohan could think about was his growling stomach. 'I am my mother's son,' he thought with a bit of embarrassment as he got up quietly out of bed to tip-toe into the kitchen. As he began the vain search for leftovers before settling on making himself a peanut butter and jelly sandwich, he thought about Xī's words. Now Babidi was apparently going to have minions at the tournament who would try and steal people's energy. The Budoukai had suddenly gone from a fun family outing and a chance to see his mom again to something deadly serious. What was he going to tell his mother? What was he going to tell Videl? The moment the thought entered his head, Gohan lost his appetite. What was he going to do?