Chapter 27
It was no surprise to Bulma that Vegita didn’t have much to say at dinner that night. But in all honesty, she was still too angry to say anything civil to him anyway. They both ate their dinner in silence, much to the discomfort of Bulma’s parents. Vegita finished first, and he left without so much as excusing himself. Then Bulma finished, and she curtly bid her parents an early good night, informing them that she was going out for a late night flight, and wouldn’t be back until much later, at which time she was going to go to bed.
“I have to get up early in the morning too,” she said as she got up to leave. “I’ll be picking up my training with Vegita in the gravity room tomorrow, and I’ll want to go to bed soon. Do me a favor and check on Trunks for me, okay?”
“Okay, Bulma,” Mrs. Briefs said, nodding at her. “We will. See you tomorrow, okay?”
“Yeah,” she said, stepping out and shutting the door behind her.
Bulma’s quiet flight did help to cool her down, fortunately enough. She could understand why Vegita would be angry, but at the same time, she didn’t think she was in the wrong, either. He would just have to get over the fact that he was being too overbearing, and she wasn’t going to tolerate it. Vegita was a bit hardheaded, but maybe she could make him see that. She rolled her eyes as she realized that she was going to have to talk to him about it tomorrow. She couldn’t count on him making the first move towards resolving this little spat. And she didn’t want to stay mad at him, ideal as that had seemed an hour or two ago. Oh well. It was going to work out somehow. She’d make it work, whether Vegita wanted her to or not!
The next morning, Bulma got up bright and early so that she could make a nice breakfast for her parents and herself. Also, she had planned on the fact that the extra time would give her a chance to come up with the right approach to use when she talked to Vegita. After serving breakfast to her parents and spending a little fun time with Trunks, she finally stepped out to make her trip to the gravity room. She had decided to just be as straightforward about this as possible. There was really no point in starting off in an unrelated area and working up to it. Not with Vegita. She found the door to the gravity room unlocked, so she just walked in.
Vegita was there, and he was in his usual place, leaning up against the gravity machine, arms crossed, and staring at the door so that he could look her dead in the eyes when she walked in. Bulma’s gaze met his as she walked in and shut the door behind her, and she smiled, despite herself. She had missed this.
“Vegita, I wanted to talk to you before we begin,” she said, stepping forward a little and crossing her arms. “I want to talk to you about yesterday.”
Vegita closed his eyes and frowned slightly, but he nodded as if he had expected this. “I’m listening,” he said quietly.
Bulma nodded back. “Look, I don’t think I was wrong to say what I said,” she said matter-of-factly. “But that doesn’t mean that it was really necessary to say it. I didn’t want to sound like I don’t give a damn for your opinion. Because that really isn’t true. It’s just that there are some things that belong only to me, just like there are some things that belong only to you. My choice of friends is one of those things that only belongs to me. I know you weren’t telling me that I can’t ever see any of my friends again, but you implied it. And I know you may think that hanging around Goku is dangerous to my health, but I’ve known him too long to believe that. So I don’t want you to take it personally when I tell you that I won’t agree with you. It’s not that I don’t care what you think, Vegita. It’s just that I don’t agree with it. And I don’t want to keep up this silent treatment anymore either. It’s pointless and silly. If we can’t discuss this problem civilly, then we shouldn’t even be together. And since I believe that we belong together, I want to work this out now, before it gets in the way of what’s really important to us.”
She stared resolutely at Vegita, and he opened his eyes and looked up at her. “All right then,” he said at last. “I’ve heard what you had to say. And now I have some things to say to you. I don’t think that what I said was wrong either,” he said, scowling at her. “But I can see that when it comes to those idiot friends of yours, what I say has no meaning. I can live with that. But I won’t tolerate it if any of them does anything like what I saw yesterday. You can’t talk me out of that.”
“I don’t want to talk you out of that, Vegita,” she said soothingly, walking over to him and winding her arms around his neck. “I don’t want you to stop wanting to protect me. I just want you to trust me when I say that none of my friends, especially Goku, is a threat to me. We have much worse enemies to worry about, and we’ll be relying a great deal on these friends of mine to help us in the very near future. I don’t care if you don’t like them. That’s one of those things that belongs to you. I can’t change your opinions, and I don’t intend to. That’s up to you to decide. I just don’t want to fight about this.” She looked earnestly into his eyes, and he sighed and shook his head.
“Honestly, I don’t see how I ever ended up with such an idiot,” he grumbled, snaking his arms around behind her and pulling her to him more tightly. Bulma giggled and she kissed him, feeling extremely relieved when she felt him kiss her back. It was done. The quarrel was over, and they were back to normal.
When they finally stopped kissing, Bulma smiled up at Vegita. “I’m glad we’ve reached an understanding about this,” she said happily. “I don’t want to fight with you.”
Vegita smirked at her. “Is that your way of trying to get out of your exercises today?” He asked with a snide grin.
Bulma grinned back. “Dream on!” She laughed at him. “You aren’t getting off the hook that easy, pal! You’re stuck with me for the next eight hours! And there’s nothing you can say to get out of it, either,” she jeered, sticking her tongue out at him.
Vegita snorted and let her go. “Well, you may feel differently soon enough,” he said, sneering at her. “Because I’m not going to coddle you. We’ll start at your maximum and work from there. But today we are going to do something a little bit different,” he added, his smirk fading a little.
Bulma laughed a little and gave him a look that said she was ready for anything. “How so?” She asked him.
“First of all, we aren’t going to be training here,” he said, leaning away from the gravity machine and heading for the door. “There won’t be enough room in here for what I want to do today.”
There was no denying the curiosity on Bulma’s face. “What do you mean we aren’t training here?” She asked, following him outside. “We always train in the gravity room! What makes today so different?”
“Come on,” he said, motioning her to follow him as he leapt up into the air. “We aren’t going to get where we’re going any faster if we have to wait on you to finish yammering.”
Groaning impatiently, she took off after him, and they began to fly at a moderate pace into the western sky. “Come on, Vegita!” She called to him after they flew the first couple of miles with the sound of their ki auras being buffeted by the wind being the only audible noise. “I want to know what this is all about! What is it that we can do out this way that we can’t do in the gravity room?”
Vegita smirked, as if impressed by the enormity of her stupidity. “Plenty,” he said casually. “But I only intend to focus on one thing today.”
“Well?” Bulma said impatiently. “Out with it! What is it then?”
Vegita glanced over at her, his face as straight as a board. “We’re going to fight today,” he said quietly. “For real. I want to see how you’ll handle yourself in a real battle. What we’ve done in the gravity room up until now; that has all been strength, endurance, and agility training. This will be the true test to see just how much you’ve accomplished. You want to know how you’ll fare in a real fight, don’t you?” He asked, frowning at her.
“Well, yeah,” she said, taken quite by surprise. “I guess I do! But why do this now, Vegita? And when you say ‘fight,’ just how ‘real’ are we going to make it?”
“As for why I chose to do this now,” he said, turning his face straight ahead again, “I have my reasons, and there’s no need for you to concern yourself with them now. But as for how real we’re going to make it, it’ll be as real as possible. I’m not going to kill you or anything. But I’m not going to go easy on you either. And by the same token, I don’t expect you to hold back on me. This battle won’t end until one or both of us can’t fight anymore.”
Bulma swallowed and looked down at the ground below. They were flying over the desert now, and Bulma understood why Vegita had chosen to do this out in the open. “Is that the only rule then?” She asked him. “What about my control over the flow of time? Is that disallowed in this?”
Vegita looked back at her, the look on his face as serious as any she’d ever seen. “I want you to fight me in the same way you would fight an enemy who intends to kill you,” he said solemnly. “I very much doubt you have a chance at defeating me, but I KNOW you won’t if you don’t go all out. I want you to fight me as if your very life depends upon your victory. And that’s an order.”
“Okay,” Bulma said slowly, staring resolutely at him. “I’ll do my best.”
“Good,” Vegita said with a nod. “We can land now. We’re far enough out to begin.”
They flew down to the sandy ground below and landed about fifteen yards away from one another. They got into position, and Bulma couldn’t help feeling just a little bit excited. She knew it was going to be hard, but the idea of the challenge of it thrilled her. She had been able to immobilize Goku earlier. Vegita couldn’t go Super Saiyan, so she might conceivably be able to do the same to him. But on the other hand, she hadn’t been able to deal Goku much damage. She was going to have to come up with a way to hit Vegita hard, or she was going to wear herself out with all that jumping around for nothing.
“Are you ready?” Vegita called to her, jerking her away from her thoughts. Bulma gulped and nodded.
“Yeah,” she called back. “Let’s do it!”
Immediately, Vegita darted forward, and it was all Bulma could do to slow time fast enough to dart out of his path. “Whoa!” She thought frantically, skipping back a few paces as he turned sharply and leapt back at her, swinging well-aimed punches at her face. “This is harder than I thought it would be! Vegita wasn’t kidding! I’m going to have to slow it down even more if I want to be able to hit him at all!” She focused her power as much as she could and slowed time’s flow to a mere crawl. Even after that, she still had to exert herself to stay ahead of his blows. This wasn’t at all like it had been with Goku. Although Goku had sincerely tried to fend her off, she had still taken him by surprise. And besides, he wasn’t as serious as Vegita was now. But that was the trouble. Not only was Vegita dead serious about this, but he also knew all her tricks. There’d be no element of surprise in this fight. It was going to be a hard battle; that was certain. She was just going to have to put all her mind and effort into it, and hope for the best.
But she knew that dodging and running away wasn’t going to win her any victories. She was also going to have to fight back, and that was easier said than done, considering how little room for movement Vegita was allowing her. Gritting her teeth, she stopped time all the way, stepped around behind him, and then let it resume at the slow pace she had willed it earlier. She wrapped an arm around his neck, and with a sweep of her leg, used his own momentum to send his legs flying out from under him. Then she pounded him to the ground with her other elbow, and leapt back up again as he jumped to his feet. She didn’t give him time to react, which was a good idea, since he certainly was about to. But she promptly stopped time again and jumped in to uppercut him in the chin. He stumbled backward, but leapt to the side as she went for another hit to his face. They exchanged many more quick blows like this, and a few of Vegita’s connected, wherever Bulma left a place unguarded. Likewise, a few of Bulma’s connected, wherever she had enough time to gather her strength and stop time’s flow so that she could get just far enough ahead of him to hit him. It was hard going, and it was more than apparent to Bulma that she wasn’t doing nearly as much damage to Vegita as he was to her. And she knew that if she kept doing things this way, she was going to wear herself out long before she actually did manage to make any headway with him. And she could tell just by looking at the smug grin on his face that he knew it too. It was time to get dirty. She didn’t want to do anything dangerous to him, but she knew he wouldn’t respect her if she didn’t go all out.
She leapt back several hundred feet, and swiftly gathered her energy as he began to charge her down. She knew he’d be expecting something, but he wouldn’t expect this—considering he’d never seen it before. It was something she had come up with purely on the spur of the moment. Naturally, it was something that hadn’t been tested, and therefore was a rather risky move. But Bulma was open to any options right now, and she figured it couldn’t hurt to try.
He was almost there now. Only twenty feet to go. Fifteen… ten… Finally, Bulma decided that she could wait no longer, and with a fierce yell, she concentrated all her energy on what she would later call a time barrier—a thin wall of space to shield herself from her opponent. In this space, she distorted time so that it was flowing at a much slower pace than normal. Although it was invisible to the eye, and undetectable by way of ki sense, Vegita could tell right away that she was up to something, and he stopped short, just as his fist met Bulma’s barrier.
It’s a very good thing for him that he did. Because when his fist hit the boundary between normal space-time and Bulma’s distorted space-time, it was as if he was striking the densest, most impenetrable substance imaginable. The shock of the blow jarred his shoulder so that he stumbled backward, grunting loudly from the pain. He gaped at his hand, which had turned quite red, and was already throbbing with pain. That had been some blow!
Bulma hadn’t known what to expect, but she didn’t let her good fortune slow her down, regardless. She immediately dissipated her barrier and flew at Vegita, her face set with determination. Smirking, Vegita dodged to one side, and gave her a brutal kick to the kidneys, knocking the wind out of her. But Bulma quickly stopped time and made a hasty retreat, having decided to reconsider her strategy a bit.
“I seemed to hurt him with that last time distortion,” she thought to herself, rubbing her middle where he’d kicked her. “I can use that. Maybe if I create smaller regions, and attack him with those…” An idea was forming in her head. She could quite conceivably create a smaller area of distorted time—perhaps in the shape of a little ball or orb—and move it around, with the intent of striking him with it. She would be able to control the thing in much the same way she controlled her sokidan. And besides, he wouldn’t be able to see or sense it. She’d just have to be inconspicuous about it.
“Okay,” she said finally. “Round two, Vegita.”
She let time flow again and quickly formed a ball of super-slow space-time, about the size of a softball. As Vegita began to make a beeline for her, she sent it whizzing at him, and it beamed him in the right eye. After impact, she sent it sailing upwards, as Vegita screeched to a halt and grabbed at his eye with one hand. Then, Bulma sent it flying down again, and she hit him as hard as she could on the top of his head with it.
The blow sent Vegita crashing to the ground, and Bulma withdrew her little projectile and let it hover a few inches away from her face as she watched Vegita for his reaction. “I’ll call you a ‘tokidan,’” she thought, glancing at her little creation and smirking a little. “I think I like this technique.”
Vegita hadn’t moved since he had fallen. Warily, Bulma stepped a little closer and leaned her head forward a bit to look at his face. She couldn’t see a muscle move anywhere. She was pretty well convinced that she had knocked him out, but she had been mistaken about that once before, and she didn’t want to get any closer until she was absolutely sure he wasn’t going to get up and move of his own volition for some time.
She waited for two or three minutes, and finally, she thought it would be safe to go and check his pulse to make sure she hadn’t sent him into a coma or something. “Hey, Vegita,” she said, when she found his pulse very slow, but not life threatening. “It’s time to wake up now.” She shook him a little, and slapped him on the face a couple of times. It took a few more seconds of this, but he finally stirred, and with a groan, he opened his eyes.
“What the hell happened?” He said groggily.
“I guess I knocked you out,” she laughed in reply. “Does that count as a win?”
Groaning again, he picked himself up and shook his head a little. “You got lucky,” he growled. “It’s not over yet. I can still fight.”
Bulma tilted her head at him and shot him a skeptical look. “I disagree,” she said calmly, standing upright. “I think it should be counted as a win. If you had been a real enemy, I could have killed you by now. You lost fair and square, Vegita. We can go for another round if you like, but even you have to admit that you lost this one.”
Vegita scowled fiercely at her. “Just what the hell did you do, anyway?” He asked testily, obviously avoiding answering her. “What did you hit me with?”
Bulma explained what she had done, and at first, Vegita didn’t say anything. He just stood there, thinking it over, and frowning a little. Finally he grunted and nodded his head. “At least I know you’re able to adapt to your situation,” he said grudgingly. “That might keep you alive a little longer. But you’re still too weak. You need to work on your strength. All the hits you gave me did nothing to me.”
“Yeah, I know,” Bulma admitted. “When it comes to that, I’m in a whole other league from you and Goku, and even Piccolo and Gohan. I can’t possibly hope to build my strength up to where you guys are. I can only resort to whatever other methods I have.”
Vegita nodded, and he seemed to be thinking something over again. Bulma waited patiently for him to continue, and when he did finally begin to speak again, she listened eagerly, hoping to hear some kind of reluctant compliment. She didn’t know it, but she was in for a surprise.
“Woman, there’s another reason why I chose to train with you out here today; why I wanted to test you like this,” he said finally. “There’s something I have to do that I’ve known was inevitable for quite some time, but until now, I wasn’t sure what effect it might have on you.”
“Well, what is it, Vegita?” Bulma asked, very much surprised that Vegita would even mention considering her when deciding upon some course of action. It did seem rather unlike him to do so.
“I have to leave,” he said, staring resolutely at her. “I can’t stay here and train the way I have been any longer. If I want to become as powerful as I intend to be, I’m simply going to have to train elsewhere. I’ve realized that it won’t be possible for me to finish my training here with you.”
“But… but why?” Bulma asked, sounding confused and just a little bit hurt. “What’s wrong with the training you’re doing now? And just where do you intend to train, if not here?”
Vegita shook his head. “I’ve come to the realization that the steady, even pace I work at in the gravity room is not the right environment to bring about the Super Saiyan transformation. I need real conflict and real danger. Without them, I may never succeed. And I WILL succeed!” He said fiercely. “But here, I have too many distractions. You and the brat will always be hanging around and interrupting me, and besides, even if I were able to transform in the middle of my training here, it could very well destroy a large part of the compound when it happens. I can’t go any further. Not here.”
Bulma swallowed hard, but looked at him with as much understanding as she could muster. “And what about all this today?” She asked him. “What was the point of all of this?”
“I wanted to see how you would handle yourself in a real battle,” he said, looking gravely back at her. “And I can honestly say that I’m still very worried about how embarrassingly weak you still are. But on the other hand,” he added, sighing and shaking his head in an act of blatant disgust, “I also think that you’ll be responsible enough to continue your training as we have already done, and you will work on that as best you can. I would rather you were stronger than you are, but it can’t be helped. I can’t delay my trip any longer.”
“So where will you be going then?” Bulma asked him, looking more than just a tad huffy at his remarks.
“I will go to space,” he said calmly. “I will find a harsh, perilous place to train, and will continue my training there. When the time comes for the Jinzouningen to arrive, I will return to fight. By then, I will have become a Super Saiyan, and we won’t have to concern ourselves about victory any longer.”
Bulma sighed. “I guess I understand why you think you have to do this,” she said bitterly. “But I can’t in good conscience say that I want you to do something so extreme. Super Saiyan or not, I’ll be worried sick about you while you’re gone. How would you feel if I told you that I intended to go choose the most deadly circumstances I could find and use that as a training ground? I suppose you’d think little of the idea, wouldn’t you?”
Vegita smirked. “I suppose so,” he admitted. “But it won’t do YOU any more good to train that way than it will to train as you have been. That’s the real difference between us.”
Bulma scowled. She could see his point, but she didn’t want him to go. She wished there were some other way. “How are you going to travel?” She asked him. “Are you going to use my father’s spaceship?”
“Yes,” Vegita replied. “I’ve already told him my plans and that I want the ship ready by tomorrow morning. I’ll leave then.”
Bulma turned her head away and gave a shaky sigh. “I guess you know better than I what you have to do,” she said, shaking her head bitterly. “But keep this in mind when you’re battering yourself to a bloody pulp out there,” she said, turning her head back toward him and flashing her eyes at him angrily. “If you dare let yourself get killed, I swear I’ll never forgive you!”
“Don’t be such a fool,” he sighed, pulling her to him and shaking his head at her as she stifled a sob. “I’m not going to get myself killed. You don’t have to be so dramatic about it.”
Bulma shook her head and curled her hands into fists. “I’m not being dramatic,” she sniffed emphatically.
“Humph!” Vegita snorted, obviously not convinced.
Gritting her teeth, Bulma raised her head and wiped her eyes dry on her arm. “All right then,” she said finally, pushing away from him and looking him in the eyes. “Let’s get back to work. Whether you’re leaving tomorrow or not, you still owe me another seven hours. Come on!”
Vegita nodded, and they both assumed defensive positions. Then they resumed their battle, and Bulma could never remember fighting him so earnestly—for training purposes, that is.
That night, Bulma slept beside Vegita, and they enjoyed one last night of passion, because they both knew that the next would be long in coming. Bulma didn’t cry anymore, but her lips trembled a little when she brought Trunks out to see his father off, and she kissed Vegita one last time. Her father had worked all night to get the ship ready, and by morning it was parked out in the middle of the compound, fueled up and loaded for a ten-month trip into space. Bulma and Trunks weren’t the only ones there to see Vegita off. So were Dr. and Mrs. Briefs.
“Come back safely, Vegita,” Bulma said quietly.
“You know I will,” he said, snorting derisively at her, turning to get into the spaceship. “For once you don’t have an unreasonable request in mind, is that it?”
Bulma smiled and shook her head. “Come back a Super Saiyan then,” she said with a soft laugh. “But I won’t think any less of you if you don’t. Just as long as you come back.”
Vegita grunted and nodded. Then, with a short nod of goodbye to each of Bulma’s parents, he stepped inside the ship and closed the hatch. Bulma stepped back away with her parents as Vegita fired the engines and took off. The ship flew very quickly for the heavens, and before long it was completely out of sight.
“May he come back to us swiftly and safely,” Mrs. Briefs said, putting an arm around her husband.
“Indeed,” he answered her. “Are you okay, Bulma?” He asked her, noticing that she was still looking up at the sky where his ship had disappeared, and hadn’t moved for several moments.
“Yes,” she said at last. “I guess I’d better get this little guy his morning bottle. Come on, Trunks-chan,” she said, kissing Trunks on his nose. He giggled at her, and she walked inside with him, holding him very close.
Dr. and Mrs. Briefs exchanged looks. They both could see that Bulma was pretty torn up about this, but they also knew that she was going to have to deal with it in her own way.
“Thank God she has Trunks,” Mrs. Briefs sighed as they both turned to follow her inside.
“Yes,” Dr. Briefs agreed. “At least she has him. She’ll be all right though. You’ll see. Our daughter is a strong one, and she has a fine head on her shoulders, too. She’ll get over it soon enough. And I’m sure that Vegita will be back on time too. Everything will be fine, dear; I’m sure of it.”
“I hope you’re right,” Mrs. Briefs sighed. “I really do.”
Although the remaining months seemed to fly by for everyone else who was in training, they seemed to crawl to Bulma. She spent the greater part of every day in the gravity room doing weight and agility training, and the rest of the day with her baby. Although it was apparent to her mother and father that she missed Vegita terribly, she never said a word about it. She wanted so much to see him, to touch him and hold him. But she didn’t tell this to anyone. She didn’t want her parents to know how worried she was, and how hard it was for her to train alone when she’d been doing it with him for so long. But she trained anyway, and very fiercely at that. She put herself through more punishment that Vegita usually did, and there were several reasons for this, the largest of which being that while she concentrated on her training, it was easier to ignore her worry about Vegita. As a result, she made extraordinary increases in strength and speed during that last year. She was gradually beginning to lose that gnawing worry about how she’d fare against the Jinzouningen on that fateful day in the future.
And that day was getting closer, no matter how slowly time seemed to be moving for Bulma. By the time there was only a month remaining, you could no longer see a glimpse of Bulma that didn’t look like she was on pins and needles. Vegita hadn’t yet returned, and Bulma knew, although her father never dared mentioned it to her, that he should only have enough provisions left for a couple more weeks up there. Bulma was training her most fiercely now, making a desperate effort to ward this thought from her mind. But neither devastating training nor the cheerful, happy face of her son could keep it entirely away for any given moment. Bulma was really worried, and there was no help for it.
As much as she worried, however, Vegita didn’t return. Bulma refused to believe that something had happened to him, so when she went to bed at night she always just assumed that he’d arrive the next day. Her assumption seemed to be less and less plausible as time wore on, because even on the morning of May 12, the very day that the Jinzouningen were scheduled to arrive, Vegita still hadn’t come back. It was with a heavy heart that Bulma set out that morning to meet the others at the edge of the city that the mysterious boy from the future had determined that the Jinzouningen would appear. Bulma kissed both her parents goodbye and told them to take good care of Trunks for her while she was gone. Her mother didn’t quite manage to keep from crying as her daughter hugged her one last time, but she knew in her heart that when Bulma told her she’d be back that she really would.
“Be careful, Bulma,” her father said as she hugged him. “Your mother and I will be praying for you and your companions. Keep in mind though that there’s no shame in coming back if you know there’s no way you’ll win. We’ll love you no matter what you do.”
Bulma smiled. “Don’t worry, Dad,” she said. “We’ve all been training really hard. We aren’t going to lose. I’ll be back soon. But if I don’t come back today,” she said, hesitating a little before taking off, “then I want you two to take Trunks to the Turtle hermit’s and hide out there. I have a feeling that the Jinzouningen would more likely be drawn to a large city than to a small island out in the middle of nowhere.”
Without giving them a chance to reply, she took off at top speed for Metro South. There was no more time to waste worrying about Vegita, she tried to tell herself as she raced past mountains and desert rock formations. The time had come to focus on the threat that they’d all been preparing for for three years now. The Jinzouningen were coming today. And with or without Vegita, they had to be ready to fight.
When Bulma finally reached Metro South, she noticed that a few of the others had already gathered atop a wide cliff overlooking the city on the east side. She flew down to join them, and greeted everybody as cheerfully as she could.
“Hi guys,” she said, waving as she landed lightly on the ground amongst them. Tenshinhan and Chouzu were there, and so were Yamucha and Kuririn. The others hadn’t gotten there yet, apparently.
“Hi Bulma,” Yamucha said. “You sure look pretty fit!”
“Yeah, you look like you’ve been training hard,” Chouzu said, looking at her impressively. Bulma realized that this was the first time Tenshinhan and Chouzu had seen her since Goku had gotten back three years ago.
“Thanks,” she said, nodding appreciatively at them. “You guys look like you’ve been working pretty hard yourselves, she commented, looking around at them.
Kuririn laughed. “Yamucha made a great sparring partner,” he said, grinning and poking Yamucha in the ribs. “He was a pushover most of the time, but it came in handy to have someone to knock around a little here and there!”
“Don’t say that!” Yamucha laughed, putting Kuririn in a headlock and pretending to punch him in the face. “You big liar!”
“Hey, knock it off!” Kuririn said, his cheeks burning in embarrassment. He pushed away from Yamucha and laughed uncomfortably.
Bulma laughed. “How about you two?” She asked Tenshinhan and Chouzu. “You guys been working as hard as these two clowns, or did you actually do some serious training?”
“Hey!” Yamucha and Kuririn protested in unison, while Chouzu giggled at them and looked up at Tenshinhan with a grin.
“We’re a lot stronger now than we were three years ago,” Tenshinhan said with a confident grin. “Chouzu and I have trained nearly non-stop. I think we’re ready.”
“That’s good,” Bulma said, nodding approvingly. “I hope you’re right. There’s no telling what we’re getting ourselves into, you know?”
“Here come the big boys,” Kuririn said, shading his eyes in the sun and looking up at three figures that were rapidly approaching from the mountains. A few seconds later, Goku, Gohan, and Piccolo arrived, and they all greeted each other again.
“Well, here we are again,” Kuririn said, yawning and stretching a bit. “I guess all we can do now is wait, huh?”
“Yeah, we still have another half-hour,” Bulma said, looking at her watch. Maybe we should come up with a strategy for finding these things when they arrive. I’ve never even seen an artificial human before—at least, not that I know of. I wish you’d asked that boy what we were supposed to be looking for, anyway, Goku.”
“Sorry, Bulma,” he said, frowning and shrugging. “I guess I didn’t think to do that. Oh well. I guess we’ll just have to do our best, won’t we?”
“I say we split up and take separate areas of the city to watch for any signs of unusual activity,” Piccolo said, looking over the cliff at the peaceful image of Metro South below. “There are enough of us that we can cover the area pretty thoroughly.”
“Yeah, but we still aren’t all here yet,” Gohan remarked, looking around. “Bulma, where’s Vegita?”
Bulma looked as though she’d been stung. “Er… he’s not here yet,” she said quietly. “He went out to space to train alone about ten months ago, and he hasn’t come home yet. But I’m sure he’ll come back soon,” she said quickly, nodding emphatically.
Piccolo and Goku looked at each other, and the looks they wore were not filled with confidence. “Okay then,” Goku said, putting a hand on Bulma’s shoulder. “If he said he’d come back, he will, Bulma. But for now, we’ll just work with what we have. He’ll know what to do when he gets here. Don’t worry.”
“I know,” she said, nodding at him. “I’m not worried.”
“Hey, look!” Chouzu cried! “There’s a car coming over here!”
“A car?” Kuririn asked, looking where Chouzu was pointing. “What the heck would a car be doing all the way up here?”
“That’s Yajirobe!” Goku cried, pointing at him. “It looks like Karin sent him down here after all!”
Yajirobe landed on the grass beside them, and he grunted noisily as he stepped out of his air car. “Well, here I am,” he grumbled. “I hope Karin’s happy. I came to deliver his stupid beans.”
He tossed the bag of Sensu beans to Goku, who nodded at him in thanks. “Thanks Yajirobe. Here, Kuririn, I’m going to give this to you,” he said, handing the bag to Kuririn and nodding. “When we all go down there, I want you to stay posted up in the air above the center of the city. That way, you’ll be able to keep an eye on all of us. When it looks like one of us has found the Jinzouningen, you should be the first one there in case of trouble.”
“That’s another thing,” he added, looking up at everyone. “We’re going to be separated down there, so let’s not try to do anything by ourselves, okay? If one of us finds the Jinzouningen, fire a shot in the air or something to let the rest of us know, and we’ll all come to help. There’s no need for any of us to get hurt today. We’ve all trained too hard to prepare for this. And we’re strongest as a group, so that’s how we’ll fight. Agreed?”
“Agreed,” everyone answered, except for Yajirobe, who had decided to sit on a tree stump and eat a lunch he had packed.
“We still have fifteen minutes,” Bulma commented, looking at her watch again. “Do you suppose we should go ahead and head down there?”
“I think that’s a good idea,” Goku replied, nodding at her. “You take the center, below Kuririn, Yamucha,” he said, nodding at Yamucha. “Bulma, you go west a few blocks, to where that shopping center is down there. You Gohan…”
After everyone had been assigned a place, they all hopped down off the cliff and headed for their respective assigned spot. “See you later, Yajirobe,” Bulma called to him before she left. “Thanks for bringing us the Sensu beans.”
“Yeah, whatever,” he said, shrugging at her. “Don’t get yourself killed, Bulma.”
She grinned at him and flew down to the intersection bordering a large shopping complex in the western end of Metro South. She glanced at her watch and took up a position atop one of the taller buildings so that she could see things better. It was only a matter of time now.
“Please hurry, Vegita,” she thought anxiously, looking wistfully up at the sky and wondering what could be keeping him.
On to the next chapter!
