Chapter 11

Yamcha arrived at Bulma's house the next day. He'd set Jendo against Kuririn for the next few hours to give him enough time to get the information he wanted. He felt a slight chill as he stepped up to the door and knocked. Everytime I come here, I feel like I'm intruding on...What? The answer came to him in another moment. ...a past life.

Bulma opened the door for him. if she felt anything similar, it didn't show; at least, he hoped the look of annoyance she wore wasn't directed at him.

"Yamcha! What do you want?"

From inside the house, Vegeta's voice echoed.

"WHERE IS MY LUNCH, WOMAN?"

"Hold on a second, please."

Yamcha covered his ears; that kind of polite tone usually meant another outburst. in another second, he was proven right.

"MAKE IT YOURSELF, YOU UNCIVILIZED SAIYAJIN! I'M NOT YOUR SLAVE!"

Bulma opened the door, and the look of annoyance increased.

"Let me guess: You want some food."

"I can get that on my own, Bulma. No, I'm looking for something I can't make myself."
"Something technical, I assume?"

"That's right. Am I asking too much?"

"As long as it doesn't involve inventing something, I'm up for it. I'm just too tired right now to build anything from scratch; Vegeta's already destroyed the gravity room three times in the past month."

Yamcha stepped inside the door, and was rewarded with a glaring Vegeta. Yamcha wasn't all that surprised; he'd sensed Vegeta's presence there before he entered. He followed Bulma into her lab, Vegeta still glaring.

* * * * * *

"Alright, Yamcha. What exactly do you need?"

"Is it possible to scan outer space for foreign objects?"

Bulma snorted. "Laughably easy. Why do you ask?"

"That's what I need, is all."

"That's it? I was expecting something more complex."

"No, that's it."

Despite how tired she claimed to be, Bulma looked disappointed with the fact.

"Well, let's do a quick scan and see what we come up with."

She made a few deft motions on the keyboard; in a few minutes the terminal she was working at flared to life with data, most of which Yamcha couldn't read. Evidently, though, Bulma could.

"Well, let's see...looks like something's approaching Earth. It's too sculpted to be a meteorite...has to be a spaceship, it corrected its flight a few days ago to make sure it intercepted us...Is this related to that alien you found?"

"Closely related. His name is Jendo, by the way.'

"Jendo? Weird name. Who is it?"

"That's a long story."

"Well, whatever the story is, it looks like someone wants to meet him."

"When will it be here?"

"From the looks of it, it should arrive in another 2 or 3 days; 4 at the most. Of course, that's if they stay at the same speed."

Yamcha felt uneasy talking to Bulma; he was afraid it would drift back to their past before. Still, he wanted some input.

"Bulma, I came here for another reason too."

Bulma turned around with a bored expression."

"And what would that be?"

"It's about Jendo. The other day I saw him looking up at the night sky."

"So? It's not like that's so unusual. The view can be quite pretty."

"I wouldn't have suspected him, but I saw something else in his face....something like possession."

"I'm not following you on this, Yamcha."

"Well, it was a look of avarice, like he-"

"Like he owned them?"

Yamcha almost jumped as the Saiyajin prince spoke behind him, but he controlled himself in time. He wasn't going to show fear to Vegeta.

"Exactly, Vegeta."

Vegeta scowled as he walked over to Bulma's side; obviously he'd hoped to scare the "weak human" out his his wits. Yamcha wasn't giving him that pleasure.

"Vegeta." Bulma seemed amused. "Did you actually make your own lunch?"

In response, Vegeta glared at her. Yamcha wondered if the Saiyajin had any other expressions.

"Very funny, woman. I came here to speak to you, hu-Yamcha."

Yamcha was puzzled. For Vegeta to acknowledge him like this was strange, in and of itself. What did he want?

"What about?"

"Just come."

Yamcha went, feeling slightly annoyed but curious. Vegeta stopped in the doorway and spoke in a whisper.

"What is the story behind this alien? I know what you have told Bulma and the others, but you're not telling the whole truth about it, are you?"

Yamcha smiled at the Saiyajin. "I don't know what you're talking about, Vegeta. I have nothing to hide."

Vegeta snarled. "Liar." He slammed a fist into the wall besides Yamcha. Cracks webbed out from the impact. "You've been training hard with the midget, I can tell. That's not very interesting, but I sensed a third person there, someone I didn't recognize. And since that woman forces me to meet most of you on a regular basis, I should know who it is. What have you been doing?"

He decided to come clean with Vegeta. "All right, you're obviously not going to stop asking. Jendo's being hunted by someone...a bounty hunter, he says. We've been training him so he could fight the bounty hunter without involving anyone else directly. That's why I came here, so I could ask Bulma when the bounty hunter would arrive. That answer all your questions?"

Vegeta was silent for a few moments, as he seemed to absorb this information. Suddenly, he started laughing. "You think that bounty hunter is a threat? Human, from what I sensed, even you could defeat him easily!"

"I told you, Vegeta, we did this so that no one else would get directly involved. Yes, I could defeat him, but that's not the problem. What if the fighting came here, and Bulma was caught in the middle?"

Vegeta stopped laughing, and scowled at Yamcha as though he had threatened Bulma in some way. "Kuririn and I didn't do this because we're scared of him. We'd just rather not fight someone else's battles for them. Do you have a problem with that?"

Vegeta smirked at Yamcha. "Of course not, human. If you're too much of a coward to fight, I understand."

That remark triggered something, and without warning, Yamcha kicked Vegeta hard in the gut. Caught by surprise, Vegeta hit the wall behind him. Without even any acknowledgement of the pain, Vegeta got back up and took a ready stance. "Oh, so you have some backbone now? I guess I'll have to break it for you."

Yamcha didn't even notice Vegeta's second taunt. All he wanted to do was fry the Saiyajin, as someone should have done long ago-

"YAMCHA! VEGETA! WHAT DO YOU THINK YOU'RE DOING?"

Yamcha froze, and Vegeta looked annoyed as Bulma stepped between them.

"Woman, this doesn't involve yo-"

Bulma cut him off before he could finish. "Vegeta, if it involves you, it involves me. Especially when it also involves Yamcha and this building! Or do you think those cracks in the wall came free-of-charge from the builders?"
Yamcha was about to apologize for the damage when Bulma took his arm and started leading him out of the building, despite Vegeta's protests about her interference. When they got to the front door she stopped for a moment to open it, and he tried again. "Bulma, I'm sorry about the-"

She cut him off with a wave of her hand. "Don't be. Vegeta isn't able to train as much with Trunks because of school, and Goku doesn't visit much because of how ChiChi misses him when he's gone. That doesn't leave him much of an outlet. I don't know what he said to you for you to attack him, but whatever it was must have been pretty nasty, knowing Vegeta. I'm sorry you couldn't leave on a better note, but I hate being near any sort of fight. Maybe you should come back when Goku visits. Vegeta won't be as combative then."

Yamcha stepped through the door, the rest of his apology left unsaid; it didn't seem necessary. "Goodbye, Bulma."

"Goodbye, Yamcha! See you later!" Bulma closed the door, and Yamcha was alone outside again. Rather than wallow in self-pity, though, he started flying home. He still had a few days to prepare for the arrival, and he didn't want to waste them.