Chapter 3
Bulma sighed. She had finally gotten the scouter to show ki values in terms of digital numbers. She tried it out on Kuririn and Muten Roshi and nearly fell over laughing. She knew that they were holding back on her, but the numbers were still so tiny!
Bulma wiped a tear from her eye and managed to stop chuckling. She had needed a good laugh. The whole day had been a disaster. Kuririn had chickened out on telling Chichi the whereabouts of her family, and she had followed him to the island when he had left the Son house the next morning - unbeknownst to him! She had been expecting to find her son and her husband but had found some bad news instead.
So they were all still reeling from Chichi's reaction to their explanation. She and the Ox King had left about an hour ago, and Bulma had never been happier to see them leave. Chichi had all but torn Roshi's house apart when she had heard that they had let Piccolo take her baby. She couldn't have cared less about Goku, however. As far as she was concerned, he was to blame for the whole affair! In the confusion and uneasiness they had forgotten to ask her for the other dragonballs to boot. Now they were taking it easy at Roshi's house. Bulma breathed a sigh of contentment. It had taken her a long time to figure that scouter out.
"Oh!" she exclaimed, setting it on the table. "This scouter reminds me of something that I had meant to tell you guys at the reunion yesterday."
"What's that?" Kuririn asked.
"Well," she began, "it's something I had planned to tell Goku too, but I guess I might as well go ahead and tell you two first. You may find this hard to believe, but I can..." She was cut off by a loud knock on the door.
"Hey!" someone yelled outside the door. "Come on now, I ain't got all day, y'know."
"Now who in the world could be so rude?" Kuririn asked as they all walked to the door. He opened it to reveal a short, fat man with a sword.
"Hey, I know you!" Kuririn exclaimed. "You're uh... um..."
"I'm Yajirobei, you dummy!" He said angrily. "I'm supposed to tell you to report to Karin tower for special training. And you need to bring Yamucha, that Tenshin guy, and Chaozu with you."
"Who's going to train us?" Kuririn asked excitedly.
"Kami," Yajirobei bragged. "Yeah, he's going to train me, you, and the others personally. He wants us to be ready to fight the other two Saiyans when they come."
"Wow!" Bulma exclaimed. "Personal training from Kami himself! What an honor!"
"Yeah!" Kuririn breathed. Yajirobei turned to go back to his air car.
"Oh, one more thing," he said, turning back around. "Don't wish Goku back with the Dragonballs yet."
"Why not?" Bulma asked.
"He's trainin' in Hell," Yajirobei replied, turning back towards his car.
"Just be sure you don't keep Kami waiting for too long," Yajirobei shot back as he hopped into his car. "It wouldn't be too polite, y'know!" With that, he sped away.
"Ha!" Bulma laughed. "I'll bet that guy knows a lot about being polite!"
"Bulma?" Kuririn said excitedly. "Where's Yamucha? I can't wait to tell him the news!"
"He could be anywhere right now," Bulma said, thinking for a moment. "I don't think we could find him if we looked today. But he has a big game tomorrow night in the city. I'm sure he'll be there. I think we should wait until tomorrow to round everyone up anyway. It's getting pretty late in the day, and we ought to get some sleep tonight. Especially you. I know this day has been pretty hard on you."
"I agree with Bulma, Kuririn," Roshi said. "Let's just take it easy until tomorrow evening. You'll be more alert then anyway."
"Now that you mention it, I am a little tired," Kuririn said, yawning. "Oh well. Let's go in and watch some TV. I wonder if anything good is on."
They blew the rest of the evening on Roshi's sofa watching a cheesy monster film marathon and talking about what they had all liked best about Goku. Bulma had completely forgotten about her wanting to tell Roshi and Kuririn about her fighting skills. Oh well. She would save that surprise for another day. It didn't really seem like the right time to drop that kind of bomb just yet.
Hours later, they turned off the TV and forced themselves to get off the sofa. It was already dark outside and Bulma was exhausted beyond belief. Kuririn and Muten Roshi didn't appear very energetic either. They all decided to call it a day and go to bed. Kuririn and Muten Roshi slept in the Kame house, but Bulma decided to sleep outside under the stars in her air car. She opened the skylight and relaxed in the driver's seat. Sleepily she looked up at the moon.
"Wow!" she breathed. "What a gorgeous full moon!" Vaguely she remembered that there had been something said recently about a full moon...
She was nearly asleep when the significance of her thoughts hit her. She shot into awareness and jumped out of her car. She had to get to Piccolo before it was too late! He had no idea what he was in for with the combination of Gohan and a full moon. Like a bullet she shot into the air. Straining with all her might, she scanned the horizon for Piccolo's ki. She finally found it. It was about 100 miles away to the east.
"Well, it looks like I'll have to reveal my fighting skills to at least one person," she said dryly as she flew towards the source of the ki. She wondered what Piccolo would think when he saw someone he thought to be normal - by human standards - fly up to him as if it were nothing at all. Oh well. She was going to find out in a few minutes. She hoped his policy wasn't attack first and ask questions later.
Piccolo watched silently as Gohan slept on the rock column. He glanced down at the dinosaur waiting at its base, and mused that if Gohan were to learn to control his powers their respective roles would be reversed. Gohan would be hunting the dinosaur instead of its hunting him. Gohan shivered. He still hadn't found the apples Piccolo had left him. Was it a weakness to give him those? Piccolo hoped he wasn't growing soft because of one lousy kid. Gohan woke up and discovered the apples. While he ate them Piccolo flew back a few hundred feet. He didn't want Gohan to see him. He wanted him to feel total seclusion.
Suddenly Piccolo sensed the approach of a new ki. He faced the direction of the oncoming power, and in doing so he turned his back on the rock column. "Who could it be?" he wondered silently. This island was miles away from anyone. That had been the main reason for his choosing it for Gohan's training grounds. Whoever was coming must have been looking for him. Silently he braced himself for battle. That ki was intense enough to belong to a fighter, and it wouldn't hurt to be prepared.
When Bulma first began to become discernible in the distance Piccolo wasn't quite sure what he was looking at. When she was close enough to be recognizable he was beyond speechless!
Bulma could see Piccolo in the distance. She flew to him as fast as she could, forgetting that he was unaware of her ability to fly. He braced himself for an attack as she advanced. Suddenly Bulma realized that he probably thought that she was about to attack him. Not wanting retaliation from him, she slowed down quite a bit and approached him more easily, although she was a bit impatient. She stopped about five feet away from him.
"Piccolo!" she exclaimed. "Where's Gohan? Tell me it's not too late!"
"Too late for what?" he asked, still overcome with surprise at who he was seeing in front of him.
"Oh, thank goodness!" she said, breathing a sigh of relief. "It must not have happened. He must be asleep. Piccolo, listen to me very carefully. It's absolutely necessary that you don't let Gohan see the full moon. It's his tail. I don't know how long you were at Muten Roshi's, so you may not know this. But Gohan is a Saiyan, and a tail is the Saiyan race's most deadly source of power. When a Saiyan with a tail looks at the full moon..."
A roar in the distance unexpectedly cut her off. Bulma realized in horror that she recognized that sound!
"Oh, Kami help us!" Bulma said, her eyes wide with fear as she noticed the horrifyingly familiar shape growing in the distance behind Piccolo. "It's too late! He's transformed! We've got to change him back before he hurts anyone!"
Piccolo spun around to see what she was babbling about and met with an even greater shock than seeing Bulma fly. Gohan had become a gigantic weremonkey!
"What the..." Piccolo began and tried to take off toward Gohan, but Bulma stopped him.
"Wait, Piccolo! He's even stronger than Raditz was the other day. We've got to get rid of that tail. As long as it's in the moonlight he's unstoppable. You have more fighting experience than I do. Do you think you could distract him long enough for me to get a good shot at his tail?"
"I can if you can get in close enough without letting him hear you," he said, as Gohan smashed the column of rock.
"I'm sure I can do it, but he has to be totally unaware of me. You'll really have to keep him busy."
"All right," Piccolo said. "But we have to get it right the first time. I don't think he'll give us a second chance, so I hope your aim is good enough. Now let's go, before he spots us and our plan is ruined."
Bulma flew around behind Gohan as Piccolo flew out in front. She powered up rapidly as Gohan started grabbing for Piccolo. She had just collected her energy when she heard a loud, angry yell from Piccolo. Gohan had caught him and was crushing him with his massive hands. It was now or never. Grunting with the effort, she hurled the energy ball at the base of Gohan's tail. But he must have heard her, because he jumped at the last second and turned to face Bulma, escaping her energy ball and releasing Piccolo in the process. Piccolo seemed unhurt, so Bulma decided to worry about her own safety. Gohan glared at her with enraged slits of eyes. Gulping, Bulma flew backwards, dodging Gohan's hands as he swatted at her as if she were an insect.
Suddenly he clipped her with the tips of the fingers on one of his hands, but it was more than enough to slam Bulma into the ground. Gasping in pain, Bulma stared in horror at Gohan as he lifted his foot to crush her. She knew she wasn't going to make it. Just before he brought his foot down Bulma heard an enormous explosion.
Gohan's hair began receding and he started shrinking in size. Bulma realized that he was beginning to fall forward just in time to dart out of the way. She shot up into the air, watching Gohan shrink to normal. She noticed that he still had his tail.
"How did he..." she began and looked up at Piccolo. He was facing the moon...hey, wait a minute! Where was the moon? She flew up alongside Piccolo.
"You destroyed the moon," she breathed in awe.
"Gohan was too quick and powerful. It was just easier to hit the moon than it was to hit his tail," he said emotionlessly.
Bulma sighed. "I should have known better than to alert him like that. To tell you the truth, I haven't had any fighting experience at all. This was the first time I've used my fighting skills outside of training. I could have gotten us both killed, but I wasn't thinking about that. I can see that I'm going to have to be more careful in the future. Oh well. I suppose it doesn't matter right now anyway. The moon is gone, so this problem won't come up again. I won't be back." She turned to leave.
"Wait," Piccolo said. She turned back around. He had an odd expression on his face.
"Why?" she asked.
"You're right," he replied. "You should have known better. But just because you didn't do very well this time doesn't mean you don't have the potential to improve. From what I've seen, all you'll need is some good, solid combat training, and you might actually be useful when those other two Saiyans arrive. I had intended to do a little extra training myself, so I suppose I wouldn't be too hindered by another incompetent sparring partner. I suppose you could stay and work on your fighting skills. We do, after all, have a year to prepare. I suppose I might be able to help, if what they say is true, and miracles do occur."
It wasn't very hard for Bulma to weigh her options. The idea of becoming Piccolo's own personal punching bag was not all that appealing to her. Besides, the thought of having to put up with his arrogance for a year didn't sound very amusing either.
"Sorry," she replied. "But I'll have to decline your generous offer. You'll have your hands full with Gohan, and I have some dragonballs to collect. Besides, I hadn't intended to get involved in the upcoming fight."
"Fine," Piccolo said angrily, turning away from her. "It makes no difference to me, but I guess I was wrong in assuming you wouldn't mind risking your life for your planet. But just in case you change your mind, I'd develop some sort of secret weapon if I were you, because you'll need it if you want to fight the Saiyans. Your ki is in good shape I suppose, but the fact that you have no fighting experience shows very clearly." With that he flew down to take care of Gohan.
Bulma seethed. She didn't like the way he implied that she was a coward for not planning to fight. Besides, she was still mad at herself for her errors in the previous skirmish with Gohan, and his rubbing it in didn't make her too happy either. Well, she didn't need his opinions. Nor did she need his training.
"What a jerk!" she said to herself as she took off for the Kame house. She yawned as she raced over the water. She was in a lot of pain, and she was even more exhausted than she had been before. She was going to sleep like a rock tonight!
On to the next Chapter!
