By Donny Cheng
"Is that your uncle Goku in the regeneration tank?" Bulma asked as she walked into the kitchen to eat dinner with her family. Her two children, Bra and Trunks, pointed inconspicuously to their father who sat with the paper in front of him. His entire face was covered from view.
Years of being Vejita's wife had taught her to know when he was in a good mood and from the way he didn't grumble at the mentioning of her long time friend, she figured he was in a very good mood. She could imagine that infernal smirk of his behind the paper, just waiting for her to demand an answer from him. She decided against asking him about Goku directly as his ego seemed to be big enough for a dozen Saiyajins at the moment. He was most insufferable when he was like this.
She rolled her eyes for the benefit of her children, knowing what they must have gone through asking Vejita about Goku. "Well, Trunks?" She asked, turning to her eldest child, deliberately ignoring her husband.
"Oh, Dad brought Uncle Goku in. I think they had one of their fights again." Trunks was still slightly surprised to learn that his father had surpassed the Super Saiyajin Two mark into the third transformation. He smiled when he remembered his father's jaw lock into place when both he and Bra said they must have missed it. The gravity rooms were designed to block most of what went inside from the outside world and vice versa.
"He looks pretty badly beaten. Did he have a fight before this?" Bulma asked loudly, noticing the paper Vejita held twitching uncontrollably.
Bra managed to hold her giggle in at her mother's implication of Daddy only putting Goku in this state because Uncle was softened up. "No, I don't think so. I haven't felt any sudden rise in chi from people other than Daddy and Uncle for a long time now," Bra smiled when she saw the paper stop twitching. "It's more likely Uncle was still tired from his last fight with Daddy. Daddy does have those regeneration tanks and Uncle doesn't."
*Oh dear,* Bulma thought as she saw the veins on the hand gripping the paper pop out. She gave a look to Bra, admonishing her. Bulma shook her head as her daughter simply smiled impishly back.
"Oh, Daddy, you know I love you," Bra giggled as she went over and wrapped her hands around his neck. She gave him a peck on his cheek, his stony face didn't even soften a bit. "Congratulations. I'm happy that you've reached a new level."
Vejita merely straightened the paper he held as if only caring that his daughter's open show of affection had creased it.
Bra wondered if she had went too far, but she then felt her father's hand on her own. It was gentle like always when he wasn't training her.
"Your chi level has raised. Yours too, Trunks."
"A little bit. I'm going to train some more now. Pan said she will be back later tonight," Bra said, surprised her father had detected that. She blushed as he patted her hand again, indicating he approved. *He must really be happy today.*
"Ah, yeah, I guess a bit. The next tournament is going to be on soon and I thought I might enter this year," Trunks said, trying hard not to stammer as the spotlight centered on him. Pride welled up in him as he heard his father give a noncommittal grunt. Anytime his father didn't say anything at all or outright disapprove of it was a good sign.
"I'll come by later and see how your training is going."
"Okay," Trunks said. He was beginning to wish he hadn't been training all afternoon. The fight his father and Uncle Goku had must really have been something to watch for his father to be this happy.
Bulma watched with a smile as her children left the table. "Looks like it's just us two for dinner again. They sure grow up fast."
"You coddle them. Trunks should have been off on his own years ago. Bra should be married to a strong warrior by now."
Bulma ignored her husband's words. He didn't really mean the things he said. This was a man that nearly destroyed a school when Bra had a paper cut when she was still in elementary school. Not to mention the number of boys that Bra brought home to meet him, fleeing after only a minute of talking with him. Bulma also remembered the time Trunks had been going through his rebel days and threatened to run away and nearly did one time. It had been Vejita that flew after the boy, carrying her sleeping son back over his shoulder.
"Hmph. Call Chi-Chi and tell her to pick up her husband in the morning. The injuries his body took might take awhile to fully heal."
Bulma blinked. "Okay, that's it. You are not my husband. Is that you Oolong? What are you trying to pull here?"
"What!?" Vejita thundered. "Are you out of your mind, Woman?"
"Now that's the Vejita, I know," Bulma said as she put her fingers to her ears, muffling the loud deafening noise. She could now see her husband's face. It was angry as usual. "Finally. I was wondering when you would take that damned news paper away and talk to me."
Bulma was shocked to see her husbands angry frown lighten up as she neared him. While he never remained angry at her for long, he never forgave that quickly before. "You can't be that happy about Goku in the tank and you out here, can you?"
"Of course not," Vejita lied. It was so silly, but what Bulma said was true. A Saiyajin should never be happy at so small a victory, but he was. Well a small part of it since Goku had been mostly acting as his punching bag. His contentment had come from something even more stupid a thought than winning a mere match. When he was younger, being anything less than the best was enough to send his blood boiling. Now, he was happy with a simply gain on his quest to 'catch up'.
"Well, I suppose you want to 'celebrate' later. Should I cancel my evening appointments?" Bulma asked as she sat on her husband's lap, initiating things between them for once. Vejita had an utter lack of interest in what age she was when they were in bed. Try as she might, but convincing him that a woman in her fifties was different from the woman he first met was impossible. Bulma had to admit though that it did wonders for her self-esteem.
"I knew I married for some reason," Vejita growled softly as he nestled his nose at the hollow of her throat.
"What?" Bulma asked, giggling like a school girl as his nose tickled her. He would always answer that question the same way. His answers were often frustrating: Sex, bear my children, you have wealth and power, you were the closest... Bulma's ire grew as she remembered the past reasons her husband gave her.
"I... you."
Bulma blinked. "What did you say, Vejita?" She couldn't make out the word between the 'I' and 'you'. Did he say it? All she got back from her husband was a grunt as he excused himself from the table to go looking for Trunks, leaving her there with a look of bewilderment on her face.
Trunks frowned, his good mood disappearing quickly as he entered the gravity room. It seemed Ranma was back at work training. The boy's stamina was amazing. From the logs in the computer he knew that Ranma had just started with training in the room at twenty times the force of gravity. And now here was he was again.
"Hey," Ranma said after noticing Trunks entering the room. He carefully put the dumbbells down. Everything he did had to be done carefully as even the smallest error could pull his arm from its socket. He couldn't even contemplate how Vejita and the others could work out at four hundred times the force of gravity.
"Hey. You mind if I use this room to train? Pan and Bra are using one of the two rooms I just had installed and the other one is on the fritz."
"It's your house," Ranma shrugged. He sighed with relief when the older boy returned to room to its regular gravity. He felt the sudden wash of power surging in his veins now that the power was no longer needed for him to move in the room. It took only a second for him to dissipate the power his will controlled and he was left with an empty feeling that he had gotten used to.
"Never ever seen a human rise as fast as you," Trunks said, starting the conversation. Just what was it about this human that made his father take notice? Trunks couldn't believe it was power since as impressive as Ranma was for a human, he just wasn't all that impressive when you looked at the people his father associated with.
"Well, I am the heir to the Saotome School of Anything Goes," Ranma grinned modestly. "But from what Vejita tells me, I'm slow in improving compared to you.
"M-My dad said something about me?" Trunks asked, not sure if he could believe it.
"Yeah, you reached that first stage of that transformation thing you guys do faster than he did," Ranma recalled from his conversations with Vejita. Well they were more like the other man talking and Ranma listening. Vejita was not a man of many words but when it came to motivation, the use of taunts was not above him. Ranma hated the grating voice telling him of how even a person like Trunks, who had not fought seriously for almost ten years, could beat him in three seconds flat.
Trunks was still quite shocked by the fact that his father even thought of him at all, so he did not notice the glare Ranma sent his way. "He mention anything else? He never tells me these things."
Ranma felt kind of silly glaring at a now melancholy looking Trunks. The expression on his face dropped as he sat down where the older boy was. "Heh, better than what I get from my pop. All he wants from me is martial arts. Vejita doesn't seem that obsessed with you learning it as much as my pop is."
"Maybe," Trunks replied. His thinking however was the opposite of Ranma. Trunks could still remember when he had told his father that he wanted to do other things in life other than fight. His father argued with him but in the end he got his way and his father never trained him again. *Why didn't you stop me, Dad? I would have if you did. You're the lucky one, Ranma. Your father cared enough about what he wanted of you.* "Then again, maybe not."
Ranma felt suddenly uncomfortable as a long silence enveloped the two of them. "Say, you want to spar? I need to get rid of some of the kinks I have that the workout couldn't take care of."
Trunks looked over at the grinning human. An image of his father superimposed itself over Ranma's face. Trunks shook his head to clear the illusion. That grin is almost identical to Dad's. A grin appeared on Trunks face that mirrored Ranma's and his father's exactly. "Sure."
"Hold it," a loud voice said. "Boy, what did I tell you about over training?" Vejita walked into the room with a frown on his face.
"Ah, wasn't really over training. Just a light workout to finish what I started this morning. Passed out before I could."
"You passed out because you were going too fast. Get out of here now. Besides, I have to test Trunks for the night. Go do something else."
Ranma deliberately walked slowly to the door. Vejita's intimidation had not diminished a bit since Ranma had first met him. It increased if that was believable, but that had strangely made Ranma more determined not to let his fear show. He nearly succeeded before Vejita's scowl deepened and his legs involuntarily moved faster. *I just need a breath of fresh air,* Ranma thought quickly to himself.
"Heh, was I ever like that?" Trunks wondered aloud.
"Worse."
Trunks couldn't believe his eyes when he saw his father's expression, no matter how he long looked at it, was not taunting or even angry. "Uh, so what did you want to do?" Trunks asked as a familiar frown greeted him suddenly, making him wonder if he had been mistaken earlier.
"I've been going through the logs of the computer the past week. You've stepped up the number of hours you train recently from what you normally do."
"Y-You monitor my progress?" *Does that mean you do care?*
"It's one thing to decide you want to do something else, but quite another thing to give it up entirely. No son of mine will be like that bookworm Gohan."
Trunks failed to even grin as he normally did when his father complained about Gohan. Gohan had reached the level two of the Saiyajins the earliest of them all at eleven years old. It was not so much as wounded pride rather than regret, Trunk knew. Regret at never having fought the person that could have been the strongest ever known had he tried.
*How long have you been monitoring me, Dad? Since I first decided to stop?* he wanted to ask. Instead he just nodded his head as his father assessed how his training was going.
"I've seen the readings also. If I'm right you should be at the pinnacle of the first transformation. One more step and you should surpass it. Do you want to reach it?"
*No,* Trunks remembered had been his answer when he was younger. He knew what Vejita's question meant. His father would go all out on him, causing him pain unimaginable. The thought of that happening has sickened him, and yet he would have done it if his father had pushed the idea on him. Before he had thought his father didn't care enough, but now he didn't know.
"Yes, father. I want you to train me."
Bra fidgeted as she stood outside the gravity room waiting for Ranma. *Thank you, Daddy!* she thought. She wondered if her father would have asked her to watch over Ranma for the night to make sure he didn't train again, if he knew what she had in store for the pigtailed martial artist.
"Oh, hey, Bra" Ranma said as he exited the room.
"Hi, Ranma!" *No, stupid, too loud. Act natural.*
Ranma looked on nervously as the aura around the girl flared brightly. *Does she want to fight me?*
"Um, you missed dinner. I know how much you like to eat, so I wondered if you want to go out and get something to eat."
"Food? Hey, sure. Now that you mention it, I am feeling hungry. Just let me get dressed and we'll be off."
Everything was going perfectly. *I just know this is one date where I won't get dumped!* It then occurred to her that she was forgetting the small matter of a girl coming to train with her. Bra raced to a phone and dialed the Son household.
::Hello, Son residence, Pan speaking.::
"Hello? This is Bra. Look something came up. I can't train with you today, okay?"
::What? You were the one that made me beg my mom to go over there. Something wrong is going on there,:: the voice said suspiciously.
"Nothing is going on here. Don't you trust your very best friend?"
::Now, I know something is up. This doesn't have anything to do with Ranma, does it? I'll be over in a second!::
"Wait a minute..."
Ranma came back from his room only to see the aura around Bra flaring uncontrollably. There were remnants of what used to be a phone in her hand. *I think this was a bad idea.*
*This is just too good to be true,* Bra thought as she scarfed down her ice cream, watching Ranma do the same. *He doesn't really care how I eat!*
Pan was in heaven as she ate another bowl of ice cream. *Finally, a date where I can eat decently for once.* She remembered the horrors of the previous dates where she had to go through, starving but feared eating anything large lest her Saiyajin heritage rear it's ugly head. Once she got eating, she just couldn't stop and this tended to make for very messing evenings.
*Now if only she wasn't here,* Bra and Pan thought as she glared at each other.
The store owner looked on with mixed emotions. On one hand the business was good with three hefty eaters, but on the other hand, all his other customers sitting around the three had left in a hurry. The strange thing was that as messy as they were, none of the ice cream landed on themselves.
Ranma was oblivious as he continued to eat.
Dende laughed as the older Namek threw him up into the air and then into a bone crushing hug. "Is it really you, brother?"
Nail laughed. "Yeah, it's me. I haven't changed that much have I?"
"But, I thought Piccolo and your were merged," Dende said. "Your old body was too injured for you to live on."
"It has been thirty years ago, Dende. My body has healed in that time, but I had freely given myself to Piccolo so I had no right to demand to be free. However, Piccolo has decided otherwise and given me a second chance."
Something then clicked in Dende's mind. "The block! He couldn't pass through the block barring his way from increasing his power. The both of you are going to join again, aren't you?" Dende asked sullenly as reality came crashing down upon him.
Nail turned to his younger brother and sighed. "It's the only way. The both of us will train until we reach that block neither of us could think of a way to pass. At that time, we'll have a fight to see who gets control of the remerged body."
Dende saw a familiar glint in Nail's eyes as he talked. He was a Namek made specifically for battle. This was his calling, Dende knew. "I want to cheer for you, but..."
"I know. Piccolo has been treating you well. It was not entirely my influence that did that. You would have to thank Gohan for that actually. Besides, if I win, it would not be like I would force Piccolo to remain inside me forever. If nothing else, I'll do that silly fusion dance routine so the process only lasts thirty minutes."
Dende perked up at this and smiled. "This year's Tenkaichi- budokai will be something to watch then."
Nail only smiled.
Buu watched Satan's deflated face and was worried. The list of participants was growing larger with the number of the top martial artists of the world. Satan's only chance of survival was if Vejita or Piccolo didn't win. From the power he had felt recently, he knew that the Saiyajin had quite a large chance of winning this year.
Looking dejectedly at the cake in front of him, Buu ignored it and got up from his couch. His bulk waddled in response. He needed to get some training in, it would seem.
Goku slept blissfully unaware of what was happening outside the regenerating tank.