A small figure came over the ridge at a dead run.
She hit the slope without slowing, took three long strides and landed on the far side already running again. Her clothes were ragged and torn. Her tail streamed out behind her.
Halfway down the wash she slowed, then stopped.
There was a pond there.
Rori leaned over it and looked at herself.
"Aw. I'm all dirty again."
She crouched, cupped both hands, and scrubbed at her face, then dried herself.
Her stomach made a long, mournful noise.
She looked down at it and rubbed it.
"I'm hungry."
A pause. Then her whole face lit up.
"I know! I'm gonna catch that big lizard again!"
She was off before the sentence finished, bounding up the far bank, leaping rock to rock.
"He's tough," she told herself between jumps, "but every time, somehow I knock him out without even noticing! I must have gotten super strong!"
High above her, two figures hung in the air, keeping pace.
"Don't intervene this time," said Piccolo.
"Shut up," said Raditz.
They followed her.
She came up onto a shelf of rock and there it was.
The dinosaur stood at the edge of the lake with its neck lowered, drinking. It was enormous a long-tailed, with a notch cut out of the tip of its tail.
Rori planted her feet. Took a deep breath. Puffed out her chest.
"OOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOY! I CAME TO TAKE A SLICE!"
The dinosaur's head came up so fast it sprayed water in an arc.
It turned, saw her, and went rigid. Its pupils shrank. Every muscle in its body prepared to be
somewhere else immediately.
Then it stopped.
It looked left.
It looked right.
It craned its neck back and scanned the sky, slow and careful, checking every direction above the lake.
Nothing.
Empty sky.
Something changed in the dinosaur's face. Its shoulders came down. Its tail gave one lazy,
confident sweep across the shale.
Its mouth pulled back at the corners in the shape of a smirk.
"Oh, you look pretty confident today," Rori said, cracking her knuckles. "Doesn't matter! LET'S FIGHT!"
She jumped.
Straight at it. Directly. In an entirely uncomplicated line.
The dinosaur watched her come from about a mile away.
It rotated its whole body, unhurried, and brought the notched tail around in a flat arc.
*BOOM.*
It caught her across the entire body and she went backward like a thrown stone, hit the rock, and put a crater in it. The overhang cracked, sagged, and came down on top of her in a slide of rubble.
Dust rolled.
The dinosaur waited. Then it started walking over. Slow, heavy steps, until it stood over the pile of broken rock.
It lowered its head.
*BOOM.*
Rubble went in every direction. The dinosaur reared back, blinking grit out of its eyes.
Rori stood in the middle of the debris field with her arms and legs spread out wide.
"IT BARELY HURTS!"
The dinosaur lifted one enormous foot and brought it down.
Rori dove between two toes and rolled out past the claw.
"I'VE ALREADY SEEN THIS ONE!"
It stomped again. She was gone before it landed.
"I WON'T FALL FOR IT TWICE!"
The dinosaur stopped.
It looked down at the small, extremely fast, extremely loud thing bouncing around its feet, and something in its expression became genuinely aggrieved, it was doing an enormous amount of work for a meal that would not even fill a corner of its stomach.
It watched her jump.
And then, at the top of her arc, it brought one of its small T-Rex arms around and swatted her out of the air.
"OUCH!"
She hit the shale and skidded and came to a stop sitting up, head wobbling, eyes going in two
different directions.
"You're using tricks-"
A shadow fell across her.
She looked up.
The foot was already coming down.
"CRAP-"
The dust settled around a very large foot with Rori trapped beneath it, only her head, shoulders and one flailing arm sticking out at the front.
She squirmed.
Above her, the dinosaur made a low huffing sound through its nostrils.
Something extremely close to laughter.
Rori stopped squirming.
"…Don't you mock me!."
She narrowed her eyes.
"That's it. I'm using my hidden power to knock you out!"
The dinosaur's mouth opened and it came down slow, jaw spreading wide, teeth huge, lowering its head to bite her in half.
Rori squeezed her eyes shut and threw both arms up over her face.
The jaw stopped.
It hung there, open, ten centimeters from her.
The dinosaur's eyes had gone very wide, fixed on something above and behind her, and beads of sweat were rolling its way down the scales of its snout.
Raditz hovered above with her arms crossed.
The dinosaur closed its mouth. Carefully.
It lifted its foot off the girl.
It took one step back. Then another, the
whole posture communicating with great sincerity that there had been a misunderstanding,
that it had never wanted any trouble, that it was simply going to head off in this direction
now-
Raditz fist came up under its jaw with a crack.
The dinosaur's head snapped up, its legs folded, knocking it out.
By the time the dust cleared, Raditz was gone.
Rori sat up and looked around.
"HA! Got him again!" She punched the air. "I really gotta learn to control that hidden power, though." She put her hands on her hips and nodded firmly to herself. "So I can show Papa when he gets back."
She trotted off toward the tail to cut herself a slice.
—
"This is going nowhere," Piccolo said floating behind Raditz.
She didn't answer. She was watching Rori, tongue between her teeth, entirely satisfied with herself.
"She's stronger than she was. I'll give her that." He folded his arms. "It isn't enough. It won't be enough in ten months, you are hindering her training."
His eyes stayed on Rori. "We can't sit up here hoping Son walks out of the sky at the right moment. He might not. He might not come back at all." A pause. "We need a plan on our own."
Raditz said nothing for a long moment.
Then she uncrossed her arms.
"…I might have something."
Piccolo turned his head.
She was still watching Rori, the small shape below, hauling a slice of dinosaur tail twice her size across the shale.
Piccolo watched Raditz.
*She moved faster than she was two months ago. Stronger, too. Considerably.*
His eyes moved over the set of her shoulders, the ki she wasn't quite bothering to hide.
*She's training on her own. At night, probably. She'd never say so.*
*Losing to Son did that. One defeat and she's gone up faster in eight weeks than most fighters
do in five years.*
The girl below gave a triumphant shout and fell over backward with her slice of tail.
*I hope she isn't a problem when the rest of her kind arrive.*
—
During the next ten months everyone trained.
That was the shape of the months that followed, and there is not much else to say about them. Krillin, Yamcha, Tien and Chiaotzu on the white tile of the Lookout.
Kakarot on the small green world with Kaio. Piccolo and Raditz in the red rock with Rori.
Four months went by.
Then Eve came home.
Goku's message had reached her from queen Vegeta in the past, and then for six months of
travel. She came down through the atmosphere on a clear morning and put the spaceship built by Bulma and Dr briefs behind the house, and by the time the hatch opened half the family was already running across the grass.
Eve climbed out alone.
She looked at all of them looking past her, at the sky over her shoulder, and she had to say it out loud because nobody else was going to.
"He's not with me."
She explains to them what happened and how he sent her a message to go back to the present and he will be back.
During the last six months Eve stayed in his house.
She looked at photographs. Goku younger, Goku at the tournament, Goku holding babies, Goku asleep in a chair with three children stacked on him. She read the notes stuck to the refrigerator. She was catching up
Goku's daughters adopted her asking her questions about him during their mission and rapidly got attached to each other, without mentioning her relation with him.
—
The waiting was over, it's been a year since Goku left and the arrival of the Saiyans was soon.
Gohana came up the drive from the mailbox with the post held properly in both hands.
On top of the stack was a folded flyer.
She read it twice on the way across the lawn. Then she came to the table under the awning where her mother was sitting with the others and stopped in front of her.
"Mother." She held it out. "I found this in the mailbox. I don't understand the content."
Chi-Chi took it, glancing at the other women. "Let me see."
The title ran across the top in enormous letters.
"'Special Tenkaichi Budokai,'" Chi-Chi read aloud. "'A special edition of the Tenkaichi Budokai, starring as special guest, the savior of Papaya Island-'"
Lunch wandered over from the doorway holding a baby.
"So what? It's just that stupid tournament again."
Chi-Chi's eyes moved down one line.
They went very wide.
"'-*SON GOKU.*!?'"
"WHAT?!!"
Bulma was out of her chair so fast it went over backward. "Let me see that. LET ME SEE
THAT-"
"He's on Earth?" Mai had both hands flat on the table. "He's- how long has he been on
Earth?"
"Papa's back?" Nappi looked around at all the shouting adults with her head tilted, entirely
lost. "Where is he? Is he in the house? Why is everybody yelling?"
"He's not in the *house*, sweetie-"
"Then why does the paper say he's here?"
"That is an excellent question," said Bra, arms folded, "and I would also like it answered."
Mina had gone very quiet.
She was standing beside her mother's chair with her hands twisted in her dress, looking at the
flyer, and her voice came out small enough that only Mai heard it.
"…Why didn't he come home first?"
Mai's hand closed over hers.
"He would have," Mai said. "He would have come home first."
"Papaya Island is a very long way," Panchy offered helpfully, from behind a tray. "Perhaps he
simply hasn't had the time, dear-"
"He's had time to headline a tournament, Mom."
Bulma snatched the flyer out of Chi-Chi's hands.
She read it all the way through. Top to bottom. Every line, including the ticket prices.
The garden gradually noticed she had stopped talking.
Bulma folded the flyer once. Then again. Then her fist closed around it slowly and the paper crumpled inside it with a small crackling sound, and when she spoke her voice was completely level.
"Son."
Everyone looked at her.
"You have some explaining to do."
"Now, dear." Panchy set down the tray and patted her daughter's shoulder. "I'm sure he has a perfectly good explanation."
"He'd better," Bulma said, still perfectly calm. "Because if he doesn't, I am going to strangle him."
Gohana raised her hand.
"Yes," said Chi-Chi.
"When is the tournament?"
Bulma uncrumpled the flyer.
She looked at the date.
"…Three days."
—
Two Days Later.
"Is everyone ready?"
Bulma stood in the entrance hall with a bag over one shoulder.
"I CAN'T WAIT TO SEE PAPA!"
Nappi came down the stairs, dragging Mina behind her by bothhands.
"Ye-yes!" said Mina, arriving at the bottom slightly airborne.
Outside, in the garden, four figures dropped out of the sky and landed on the grass.
"Man, I can't wait to see Goku." Krillin shook out his shoulders. "Wait till he sees how much I've improved. He's gonna flip."
"I think I'm still a long way behind him." Tien flexed his hand open and closed, staring at it. "Even now."
"My priority is getting rid of those damn aliens," said Yamcha.
Chiaotzu floated silently at Tien's shoulder and said nothing at all.
The kitchen door slid open.
"Ara~ Goku's friends!" Panchy stepped out onto the patio with a tray already in her hands. "Come inside, I'll put some tea on."
The four of them stared at her.
"…She seems awfully calm," Krillin said out of the side of his mouth.
"She's like that," said Yamcha.
"Thank you, ma'am." Tien bowed slightly. "But we need to prepare. The Saiyans could arrive any day now."
"LET'S GO ALREADY! I CAN'T WAIT TO STRANGLE HIM!"
Bulma came out of the house.
"I'll hold his arms while you do it," said Chi-Chi, following her.
Behind them came four girls with tails: Gohana with her hands folded, Bra with her chin up, Nappi at a full run, and Mina clinging to the back of Mai's jacket.
Krillin watched the entire parade cross the lawn.
"Uh… hey, Bulma?" he said. "Wha- what's going on?"
Bulma stopped.
She turned. She reached into her pocket, pulled out a folded square of paper, and slapped it
directly onto his face.
"THIS!"
Krillin peeled it off. The other three crowded in behind his shoulders to read over the top of
his head.
Their eyes moved down the page together.
"'Special guest…'"
They reached the line at the same time.
"'SON GOKU?!'"
"I'M GONNA GIVE HIM HELL!" Bulma shouted from halfway across the garden.
Then the front door opened again.
Eve stepped out.
The flyer slipped out of Krillin's fingers and drifted toward the grass. Tien caught it.
"Hello!" Eve said, walking over.
"H-hi." Krillin's voice came out low. "Hi. Hey."
"So- how'd the time travel go?" he managed.
"Oh, you know." She waved a hand. "Great. Great, mostly."
"Okay. Okay, cool. Cool."
A pause.
"And, uh. Goku didn't come back with you?"
"No." Her smile went a little smaller. "There was a problem. He said he'd come back another
way."
Krillin let out a breath and laughed.
"Man. That is so him. Only Goku could get stuck in another time period and go *eh, I'll find my own ride.*"
"Right?!" Eve lit up. "He's so cool. I wish I could-"
She caught herself.
"-I mean. He's cool."
Krillin's laugh trailed off. He rubbed the back of his head and looked at the grass.
"Yeah," he said. "He's really cool. And handsome. And great. Yep."
"STOP WASTING TIME! LET'S GO!" shouted Bulma.
They loaded into the cars.
All of them, five women, four girls, and Eve wedged into the back with a bag on her lap. The boys stayed on the lawn.
Mai leaned out the window. "You're not coming to the tournament?"
"Nah." Krillin shook his head. "We've gotta be ready when those two Saiyans land. Someone's
got to try and stop them."
"Without Goku it's going to be rough," he added, more quietly. "If they're even close to as
strong as Raditz was-"
"Well, we're going to the tournament," said Chi-Chi, "and when I find him there, I'll send him straight to you."
"No need."
Everyone turned around.
Eve was looking out the back window.
"They'll come to the tournament too," she said. "The two Saiyans."
Bulma twisted in her seat. "How do you know that? How can you possibly be sure?"
"Because I know what they're looking for."
"Raditz said they were coming to wipe the planet and sell it."
Eve met her eyes in the mirror.
"Believe me."
Nobody said anything for a moment.
Then Bulma turned back around, and looked at Chi-Chi.
"…Krillin, guys" she called out the window. "Get in the cars."
They left a note taped to the front gate of the mansion, written in Krillin's handwriting.
*GONE TO PAPAYA ISLAND, GOKU'S THERE, MEET US*
Two hours later, three shapes came down out of the sky and landed in front of it.
"PAPA'S THERE?!" Rori was already back in the air. "LET'S GO LET'S GO LET'S GO-"
"Get down here."
Piccolo pulled her down, he read the note.
*Son is already back,* he thought. *Good.*
Behind him, Raditz stepped up to the gate without a word and looked at the paper.
She read it.
Her hand came up and closed around it and pulled it off the gate, and the tape tore, and the
paper crushed slowly inside her fist.
*Goku.*
*I have trained. Every day. Every night, this past year.*
*You are going to pay for that humiliation.*
Piccolo watched her out of the corner of one eye and said nothing.
Then all three of them went up, and turned south, and were gone.
One person did not get the message.
On a small world of green grass, a young Saiyan woman finished her training.
"Thanks, Kaio-sama! I'll see you around!"
"Kakarot, wait-"
She was already gone.
She hit Snake Way at a dead sprint and accelerated, and the little blue man stood at the edge of his world and watched her go.
He kept watching after there was nothing to watch.
*I have never seen anyone grow strong that fast. Not once.*
His hands tightened behind his back.
*Is there anyone left who could beat her?*
—
The next day, tournament morning.
They arrived just before the registration doors opened.
The grounds outside Papaya Island's arena were already thick with people, fighters stretching, families entering, vendors shouting.
And almost all the conversations were about Son Goku.
"I'm telling you, I was there. Piccolo dropped a ball of light the size of a stadium and then a deafening sound and the ball was gone."
Old man in a folding chair was holding court over three younger ones.
"I've followed him since his very first tournament. A little kid, this high. Blind"
"Blind?"
"Yes, he was blindfolded. He nearly won the tournament. And he shouldn't have lost that final. I've said it for years."
"Wasn't that the Jackie Chun fight?"
"Robbery," said the old man. "Absolute robbery."
Gohana had stopped walking.
They stood, listening to strangers argue about their father.
"…I didn't know Papa was this popular," said Nappi.
"I did," said Bra.
"No you didn't." answer Gohana. "He never mentioned the tournament."
Mina had gone up on her toes to see over the crowd, and she was smiling.
"Everybody here knows him," she said quietly.
Chi-Chi came up behind them and put a hand on Gohana's shoulder. "Come on let's go."
Three shapes came down out of the sky and landed at the edge of the crowd.
Nappi turned around.
"RORIIIII!"
She hit her at a full run and clung on, crying.
"I missed youuuu!"
"You look stronger!" Said Mina.
"You're a girl! How do you have all those muscles?!" said Bra
"Did you wash properly? Rori. Rori. Did you wash properly?" added Gohana
"WHERE'S PAPA?!" Rori was trying to see, Nappi still attached to her midsection. "I wanna show him! I got so much stronger, I wanna show him RIGHT NOW!"
"We haven't seen him yet." Bulma came up behind the pile of children. "The second those doors open I'm going straight to the desk and asking."
Off to the side, Raditz stood with her arms crossed and watched the crowd instead of the reunion.
Something tugged at her shirt.
She looked down.
Mina was standing there holding Raditz shirt, looking up at her, smiling.
Raditz looked at her for a long moment, and put a hand on the top of the girl's head, and rubbed once.
"Even at half," she said, "you're still a Saiyan."
"Piccolo." Krillin walked over with his hands in his pockets. "Guess you're with us this time, huh?"
Piccolo grunted.
"We spent a year getting ready for two Saiyans," he said, watching the gates. "Turns out the main event is Son."
"Hey, how's Kakarot gonna know to come here?" Yamcha said. "Nobody told her."
"I left a note on the door," said Bulma.
Piccolo twitched.
So did Raditz.
Rori looked at them. "Didn't Auntie Raditz rip the-"
A hand closed over Rori's entire face.
"Let's go train," Raditz said, already walking, carrying her sideways under one arm.
"MMPH-"
---
Four hundred kilometers north, the sky changed.
Two points of fire came down through the cloud layer, separated, and hit a city.
The impacts flattened two blocks. Dust rolled outward through the intersections. Car alarms
started up in every direction at once.
In the bottom of the craters, two spheres hissed and cracked open.
One figure climbed out enormous, a wall of muscle, rolling her shoulders as she rose. The other came out unhurried and much smaller, athletic, compact.
Above them, at the lip of the crater, people were gathering. Staring down.
Vegeta looked around at the ruined street, the buildings, the sky.
"So this is where he lives."
"We've got an audience." Nappa raised two fingers toward the crowd, grinning. "Want me to
make them go away? Heheh-"
A hand clamped around her forearm.
"Don't."
"But-"
"We find him first."
Nappa's grin faltered. "O-okay."
Vegeta rose out of the crater and set down on the cracked pavement in front of a man who had
not managed to run.
She was a head shorter than him. She had to look up.
He was shaking so hard his glasses were rattling.
"You." Her voice was flat. "Does the name Son Goku mean anything to you?"
"H-huh?" He stared down at her. "Um- no. No, I don't- I don't know-"
He left the ground.
Nappa had him by the front of his shirt and was shaking him hard enough that his shoes came
off.
"ARE YOU TELLING THE TRUTH?! DON'T YOU DARE HIDE HIM FROM US!"
"HIIIII! I SWEAR! I SWEAR I DON'T KNOW HIM!"
"Wait- Son Goku?"
Both Saiyans turned.
A girl at the edge of the crowd went rigid as every eye in the street landed on her.
"You know him?" Said Vegeta.
"N-n-no! No, I don't, I just-" She fumbled a folded paper out of her bag with both hands shaking. "I just read this! The flyer! About the savior of Papaya Island and the tournament-"
Nappa snatched it out of her fingers.
She held it up. Turned it around. Turned it back.
"…Can't read it."
She grabbed the same man again.
"READ IT TO ME!"
"AAAH-"
Vegeta wasn't listening.
Her head had come up.
Somewhere above them, high, something enormous had just entered her range, a ki signature.
She turned her face to it.
A figure was descending toward the street.
Vegeta's eyes narrowed.
*Son Goku?*
*…No. Too slim.*
*But she looks like him.*
"What're you staring at, Vegeta?"
Nappa dropped the man and followed her gaze. Her hand went to her scouter.
*Beep.*
*Beep. Beep. Beepbeepbeep—*
The scouter cracked, sparked, and blew apart against the side of her head.
Nappa took a step back.
"Sh-she's strong."
The figure came down slowly, arms loose at her sides, a smirk already forming.
Kakarot landed in the middle of the ruined street.
"I felt two big power levels the second I got back from the other world," she said. "So I came."
She cracked her neck.
"You're the two Saiyans, right?"
"I heard you came to conquer the Earth."
Kakarot rolled her shoulders once.
"I'm not going to let you."
Vegeta didn't respond.
She turned a quarter of the way away, crossed her arms, and looked around.
Nappa stepped between them, grinning.
"Oh, you're the one." She leaned down, hands on her knees, putting her face level with
Kakarot's. "You're the one who couldn't put down that weakling Raditz. Had to get rescued, didn't you?"
Kakarot looked up at her.
"What exactly," Nappa said, "do you think you can do?"
"Beat you up. Obviously."
Nappa's grin died.
"Tch." She straightened to her full height. "You think you can beat us? I'll destroy you-"
She stepped forward and the pavement cracked in a ring beneath her boot, and her fist came around in a punch.
Kakarot didn't move.
"Enough."
The voice came from behind Nappa. Not loud. Sharp enough to stop the arm mid-swing.
Vegeta hadn't uncrossed her arms.
"We came here for one thing, Son Goku" she said. "We're going to that place. Papaya Island."
Kakarot eyes went wide.
"But Vegeta-" said Nappa.
Vegeta turned her head.
"…Tch. Fine."
Nappa unclenched her fist and stepped back, muttering.
"Hold on!"
They both stopped.
Kakarot had come forward a step, and the fighting posture was completely gone out of her.
"You know Goku." Her voice had changed. "You know where he is. He's on Earth?"
Vegeta paused.
Then she turned around.
"What is that to you." Her eyes moved over Kakarot's face. "You know him?"
"Of course I know him."
Kakarot's fists came up in front of her chest, and she was smiling now.
"I've been training a whole year to fight him. He's the strongest person I've ever met."
"…I see."
"Oh, and he's my husband."
Vegeta's eyes went wide.
"What-"
"Hah!" Nappa's grin came roaring back. "The bastard doesn't waste time, does he?"
Vegeta's hands closed at her sides.
"So?" Kakarot tilted her head. "Do you know if he's here or not?"
For a moment Vegeta didn't answer.
Then she reached over, snatched the flyer out of Nappa's fingers, and threw it.
It fluttered end over end across the gap and Kakarot caught it against her chest.
"We'll meet there," Vegeta said.
She was already in the air. Nappa went up after her, still laughing about something, and the two of them cut south over the rooftops and were gone.
Kakarot watched them go.
"…What a weird person."
She scratched the back of her head.
Then she looked down at the paper in her hand.
She unfolded it. Read across the top. Read down.
Her whole face opened up.
"EEEHHH?! Goku's in a TOURNAMENT?!"
She looked up at the sky, where the two Saiyans were already specks.
"Well, that's perfect!"
She crushed the flyer in her fist and grinned.
"Goku! Get ready to be surprised!"
The pavement cratered where she'd been standing.
She launched herself to papaya island.
High above the city, Nappa flew with her hands behind her head.
"Married," she said. "Married. You believe that?"
Vegeta said nothing.
"The Queen still have the ring after 20 something years." Added Nappa.
"Shut up."
—
Back at Papaya
They registered in a line: Piccolo, Krillin, Tien, Chiaotzu, Yamcha, and Raditz, who wrote her
name on the form in characters nobody else could read and handed the pen back without comment.
"So that's everyone?" said Bulma.
"Now we wait outside for the preliminaries," said Mai.
"No." Chiaotzu closed his eyes and raised one finger. "They changed it this year. They're
measuring everyone's strength with a punching machine. The sixteen highest scores go through to the Tenkaichi Budokai proper."
"Nerd," said Krillin.
"ME TOO!"
A small voice, from somewhere around waist height.
Rori had both fists full of Bulma's pant leg.
"I wanna enter! I gotta show Papa how strong I got!"
Bulma looked down at her. "Rori, honey, you're way too young. You couldn't even enter the junior division."
"That's right, dear," Panchy agreed.
"NO! I have to meet Papa in the RING!"
"Give it up, Rori." Gohana didn't look up from straightening her own sleeve. "Rules are rules."
"NO! WATCH ME!"
She took off toward the registration desk at a sprint.
Bra watched her go with her arms crossed.
"Ohh," she said, a smirk starting. "She's going to try and trick the staff."
"That girl," sighed Chi-Chi.
"Bonjour, everyone~!"
A voice behind them, old and cheerful.
They turned. Master Roshi came ambling across the concourse with his walking stick, Oolong beside him, Puar hovering overhead and waving with both paws.
"How's everybody doing?"
"Master Roshi!" Krillin said.
"Ohh?" Roshi stopped and squinted off toward the registration desk, where a very small girl was arguing with a very large man. "Is that Rori? My, my. The training must have gone well, she might already be stronger than Goku was at fourteen."
A snort came from behind him.
Raditz was leaning against a pillar with her arms crossed.
"Something funny, young lady?" Roshi said.
"She's a Saiyan." Raditz's tail moved once. "Of course she's strong."
At the desk, Rori had both hands planted on the counter and was standing on her toes.
"I wanna enter the tournament!"
The staff member leaned over and smiled at her.
"Sorry, kiddo. You're a little too young for this one."
"No I'm NOT!"
She held up both hands and started counting fingers.
"I'm one, two, three, four-"
Everyone watched her run out of fingers.
"-thirty!"
Silence.
Gohana put her face in her hand.
"What an idiot," she said.
"Thirty," Oolong repeated flatly.
The staff member did not appear to be convinced.
Rori came back across the concourse with her head down and her tail dragging along the pavement behind her.
"That guy must be the smartest person in the world." She said, impressed, "He saw right through me."
"WHO WOULD BELIEVE THAT?!" Gohana shouted.
Rori scuffed the ground with one foot.
"…I just wanted to show Papa how strong I got."
Krillin crouched down beside her.
"Hey. Hey, don't worry about it, Rori. You can show him right after the-"
"I'll handle it."
Everyone turned.
Bra had already started walking.
"Wait, where are you going?" said Oolong.
She didn't answer.
They watched her cross the concourse, reach the desk, and stand up on her toes to speak to
the staff member. He leaned down. She said something. She kept talking.
"I can't hear a thing," Krillin said.
"What do you figure she's saying, Bulma?" asked Yamcha.
Bulma folded her arms and watched her daughter.
"I have no idea. She got that from her father." A pause. "She's completely unreadable."
Off to the side, Piccolo's ear twitched.
His eyes went wide for exactly one second.
"What's wrong, Uncle Piccolo?" said Rori.
"…Nothing."
Bra came strolling back with her hands laced behind her head.
"All done," she said. "You can enter, Rori."
"REALLY?! It's okay?! THANK YOU THANK YOU THANK YOU!!!"
Rori hit her at full speed and got both arms around her.
"What on earth did she tell that guy?" Yamcha said.
"I don't know," she said. "But she reminds me of her dad." Said Oolong.
They finished registering and went in through the gates together.
---
A few minutes later, Vegeta and Nappa arrived and came down out of the sky and landed in the middle of the crowded concourse.
The crowd went quiet, looking at them.
"So now what, Vegeta?"
Vegeta didn't answer. She walked.
She stopped in front of a staff member at the registration desk and had to tilt her head back to
look at him.
"Where is Son Goku."
"Son Goku?" The man blinked down at her. "He's at the tournament, miss."
"I need to meet him."
"Ah, sorry, but Son Goku's only making an appearance at the very end. To present the
prize."
A shadow fell over the desk.
Nappa reached past Vegeta, took a fistful of the man's collar, and lifted.
"We're not asking," she said. "We're demanding."
Boots hit the pavement behind them.
"Relax."
Kakarot strolled past, leaned over the counter, and picked up the pen.
"You can meet him when you make it to the finals." She started writing her name. "If you can."
Vegeta and Nappa both turned.
"You arrogant little bi-"
Vegeta's arm came up across Nappa's chest.
"Very well." She was looking at Kakarot, and something behind her eyes had settled. "I'll entertain you. And I'll show you exactly how wide the gap between us is."
She stepped up to the desk and wrote her name without breaking eye contact.
Kakarot didn't look away either.
Nappa dropped the staff member, cracked her knuckles, and signed hers underneath.
The man landed on his feet, straightened his collar with shaking hands.
"P-p-please. Right this way."
---
Deep inside the tournament building, two staff members backed out of a private room
carrying empty trays stacked five high.
"I'll bring you more right away, sir!"
The door slid shut.
They walked ten paces down the corridor before either of them said anything.
"…He sure eats a lot," one of them sighed.
"Yeah." The other adjusted his grip on the stack. "Doesn't look that impressive, though. In person."
"Fool." The first one rounded on him. "That's the number one mistake anyone can make. Never judge a true martial artist by his appearance."
They walk in silence.
"…He has gotten fatter, though."
"Wait, you've actually seen him before?"
"Y-yeah." The man's voice dropped. "I was here when Piccolo tried to destroy Papaya Island.
Mr. Son Goku was standing right out there in the open. And this energy ball came down, the size of a building, and he just… roared at it."
"Roared at it?"
"Yeah!"
The second man stared at him.
"That doesn't sound like the guy in that room."
"Well, he looks a lot smaller now. And rounder." The first man frowned. "Then again, I was pretty far away."
"People change, I guess."
They reached the kitchen doors.
"Come on. Let's get him more food before he starts shouting again."