"Wait, we can really start training again, Tarble!?" Pepper asked excitedly, slipping into a white tee shirt that she'd borrowed from me, since she wasn't willing to go back to her room and face Lynn yet.
"Yeah. I figure I gotta lift the ban sometime, so happy birthday, Pep." I told her with a shrug.
Pepper crossed her arms, her tail wagging behind her cautiously in a way that said 'I'm suspicious!'
"Wait… My birthday present… is training?"
"No, your birthday present is the fact that I didn't kick you out the moment I noticed you in my room." I replied, "That's not going to happen again. Fix things with Lynn, and sleep in your own bed tomorrow, Pep."
Pepper waved her fists in the air, "That's not fair, Tarble! I want a real present! You promised! We celebrate birthdays, something called Christmas, New Years, and something called Easter! You said!"
"Then consider the go ahead to train your present."
She crossed her arms again, shaking her head. "You just wanna work on that form of yours. It doesn't count unless it's a present for me!"
I clicked my tongue. She was getting smarter. This was bad. I had no choice but to give in. Hopefully, she didn't want anything too difficult. I didn't mind a private training session, or developing a new technique with her- "I wanna see Earth!"
"No." The reply came out before my conscious brain even realized what she was asking.
"I wanna see Earth. I want that to be my present. Take me on a tour of the planet. I wanna see everything. I wanna eat the food, see the sights, and talk to the people! Take me out now! That's the only birthday present I'll let you give me!"
…Was that really how birthdays worked? It felt wrong.
But, this was a dangerous line of thinking. Pepper never gave up when she wanted something. If I did deny her here, I knew exactly what'd happen. She'd eventually sneak off to see the sights herself, which could turn into a truly massive problem. Knowing her, she'd make a spectacle in some city, get lured off by a stranger with candy, and somehow end up beating Tao Pai Pai up along the way, leading Shen from the Crane School to develop some sort of complex for people with tails. I could see it all play out in my head now.
Then, eventually, Shen's searching would lead him to stumble across either our settlement, or Goku after he showed up on Mt. Paoz, and who knew how that'd end up turning out.
"...Fine. I'll take you on a tour of Earth, but only on one condition." I decided after a moment's hesitation. "You have to invite the rest of the team. Starting with Lynn, after you make nice with her."
I grinned at her suddenly fearful expression. The chances of Pepper actually managing to muster up the incredible courage necessary to face Lynn was about 50/50. It was the best opportunity I had to decline Pepper's request for a tour.
As I watched Pepper slink out of my room, almost in tears, I couldn't help but consider her request.
It wasn't that I didn't want to give a tour. I wanted to explore this planet as well. Desperately, in fact. Honestly, I was probably even more eager to see this version of Earth than Pepper was.
After all, in the Dragon Ball Universe, Earth held a special position, for plot reasons that were never actually fully explained logically.
In all of my searching, I'd never heard anything about a planet having an actual official God overseeing it, but Earth had Kami, as well as a 'Whis'-like attendant in Mr. Popo, not to mention wherever Korin came from.
As for the afterlife, it wasn't exactly common knowledge, but weird doorways into Otherworld weren't unheard of in the greater Universe.
However, the sheer number of those weird doorways into other dimensions that existed on Earth probably outnumbered the rest in the entire Northern quadrant of the universe by a wide margin. Mt. Five Elements, Baba's place counted, the Lookout probably had something like that, and I even remembered some sort of door to the demon world appearing some time during the original Dragon Ball series.
Then, there was the whole 'Majin Buu landing here' thing, and the fact that the head of Snake Way, which was the only clear path to the planet that belonged to the North Kai (who oversaw a quarter of the entire universe, a space so massive that it'd take the fastest spaceship available several decades to cross), began at Earth's Otherworld Check-in area.
I couldn't help but be curious about the secret behind that all. Why was Earth such a divine hotspot? Did that have something to do with how crazy weak humans were?
I wanted to explore everything, figure it all out, and learn the history behind Earth's uniqueness in this reality, but there were a few things that I wanted to avoid above all, which was why I wanted to wait until I'd had time to analyze exactly what I could do and what was almost certain to butterfly out of control.
For example, I wanted to stay away from Capsule Corp, so that Bulma's destiny didn't change much, and she eventually created the Dragon Radar.
I wanted Gohan to raise Goku, so that the boy grew up to be the character that I'd been obsessed with in my other life. That was a personal one to me. I also needed him to keep his Four Star Dragon Ball so that the whole adventure was bound to eventually start when Bulma began looking for them.
I needed to be careful with Pilaf and the Red Ribbon Army, too. Pilaf, Baba, and Kami were the only ones who could possibly find the sealed rice cooker with King Piccolo in it, and Baba and Kami weren't likely to talk, knowing what they did about the guy. And the Red Ribbons only began searching for the Dragon Balls after the dark clouds from Oolong's stupid wish tipped them off to their existence. A single misstep could lead to them moving their timeline up and getting in the way of everything.
Plus, I wanted it to be Goku who took care of those guys, so that I could take advantage and deal with Gero before he started making real strong Androids. If someone from my camp walked in and began trashing the army in a complete, one-sided rout of epic proportions, Gero would probably vanish off the face of the Earth before I could track him down. He wasn't exactly the picture of bravery.
Then, there was the obvious, not wanting to cross paths with Tao Pai Pai. I didn't particularly fear Shen's rage, but I knew that pissing off the Crane would affect Tien, and Tien was the only human (Roshi didn't count) who never gave up martial arts. I respected that a lot, even if I'd always found it annoying how he'd ended up fading into the background and never learning any new techniques after the show he'd put on at the 22nd World Tournament.
…If I did end up giving Pepper a tour of Earth today, was there anywhere that I could take her that'd satisfy her and have no risk of botching something important up the road?
I sank deep into thought, considering it.