Chapter 3

Kuririn yawned as he tried to stave off sleep, and he went for another cup of coffee. For the fourth time, he wondered why he'd volunteered to stay by the stranger's side. Fortunately, 18 had let him stay; after all, he'd rather not face her angry. The stranger stirred in his sleep again; he muttered something about punishment, You know, Kuririn thought, I hope he comes out of it soon, if for nothing else so he can tell us his name. Deep in thought, Kuririn was caught by surprise when Yamcha stopped at the door.

"Yamcha! What are you doing here at this time of night? I thought you went back to your training!"

"You mean time of day. It's already 11 in the morning; I guess you just lost track."

Kuririn finally took a look out the window, and realized just how long he had spent watching the man. He winced. "18 will kill me for staying out this long."

"If so, tell me when. Anyway, when I was finished doing my training for the day, I decided to check on him. I didn't think you would be standing watch for this long."

"Occupational hazard. Good samaritans always do more than they should."

Yamcha chuckled, and took a seat opposite the bed. "How is he doing?"

"They said that they've never seen so many injuries on one man, except when they admitted Goku. Still, he's healing faster than expected. The doctors don't understand why, but I don't think he's human. That would make sense if he came from another planet. So far, all they've really had to do was place his bones, and they said at his rate they would heal fine on their own."

"Sounds strange. You've been with him a long time; what's his power level?"

"You were never on Namek, so you didn't have to fight the Ginyu Force, but-"

"Actually, I did on King Kai's planet. He invited them over to fight with us and help our training; of course, he didn't tell us that until after we beat them."

"Really? Well, then, he's about as strong as the blue one."

"That's nothing compared to some of the things we've fought before."

"Well, we shouldn't have to worry too much about how strong he is. I haven't sensed any evil intent from him either. Still, I'm going to stay here until he wakes up."

Yamcha fixed Kuririn with a look of disbelief. "Do you really think you're going to be able to? If you keep going like this, you'll kill yourself before 18 gets to so much as touch you. Give me that coffee and get some sleep, I'll watch him for you."

Kuririn seemed overjoyed to hear Yamcha's proposal, though he tried to hide it. Once he had said his goodbyes, Kuririn left Yamcha alone with the stranger as soon as politeness would allow. Good, he looked like death warmed over. Putting Kuririn out of his mind, Yamcha turned towards the stranger. "Who are you?", he whispered. "Why did you come to Earth? And why do I regret us helping you so much?" Yamcha took a drink of the coffee, and settled in. He would have a long time to think about those questions for today.