Chapter 12


The next day, Bulma set out for the western mountains, camping capsules in tow. Her parents seemed to like the idea of her taking it easy for a while, but Yamucha was a little pouty when she refused to let him go with her. She said he needed to train hard while she was gone so that he could train with her when she got back. Of course, he understood that, but he still wanted to join her. Oh well. She was pretty sure he’d get over it.

After a couple hours’ flight, she was hovering over the fairly large mountain range, trying to decide where she wanted to set up camp. She could see a good-sized river running down the large valleys between the mountains, but she preferred something a little quieter and less imposing. She flew around toward the western face of one of the largest mountains and flew leisurely along above it, searching for a promising spot to try out. She finally settled on a small clearing just inside a large forest of trees, which had a small stream running a little less than a mile away from it. It seemed like the perfect place to relax, she decided.

In less than an hour, Bulma had set up her tent and started a fire. She started a pot of water over it and sat down on a small but comfortable folding chair. Then she listened quietly to the sounds of the woods around her. It was nice and secluded out here, and she knew she could get a lot of meditation done if she really wanted to. She could always go the Piccolo route, after all. But Bulma was too adventurous to stay still for that long. It wasn’t more than a half-hour before she had left the campsite to go prowling about in the woods. Technology freak though she was, she always did enjoy hiking out in the middle of nowhere. Totally secluded, untouched nature like this was hard to come by these days, and whenever she got the opportunity to go soak some of it up, she usually jumped on it.

Bulma spent the entire day and most of the evening hiking and exploring the twenty or so acres surrounding her campsite. She figured she’d better familiarize herself with the local topography in case she had to dash off somewhere for some reason. She kind of doubted anything would happen all the way out here, but you never knew out in mountains like these. Flash floods weren’t uncommon, and neither were freak storms. She was on the windward side of the mountain, after all, and most of the weather hit that side. All the moisture in the air deposited itself on the western side, leaving nothing for the east, hence the large desert that spread out over hundreds of miles beyond the mountains. Bulma doubted she’d have anything to worry about if some kind of freak act of nature happened along, but nevertheless, it usually paid to be cautious.

That night Bulma built the fire up pretty high and recapsulized everything but the tent so as to not attract too much attention from the local scavengers. There were a lot of bears in these woods, and any food she might leave out would just be asking for trouble. She went to bed at around eight o’clock that night, but it had already been dark out for several hours when she did. Once the sun went over the peaks of the adjacent mountains to the east, the light didn’t remain for long.

Things remained pretty peaceful during the next week or so, and Bulma gradually began to regain her strength and vigor. The calm peaceful quiet of the mountains was having the desired effect on her, and the crisp, clean mountain air was doing wonders for her appetite. Everything was going quite well, and she didn’t have a single, unpleasant experience at all during her stay. She’d grown pretty friendly with the local wildlife too; it had gotten to the point where they were more curious than afraid of her. It seemed that every evening she had an occasional deer amble by for a quick peep at her, or one of the rabbits plucked up the courage to sneak up and sniff her tent. The real fun came from the predatory animals, though. It didn’t take the bears long at all to get curious, and before long she had some regular visitors coming by to beg for a handout. She had plenty of food, and she didn’t mind sharing, but she didn’t want them to think all people were harmless, so she made sure to shoo them away whenever they got too comfortable around her. But the mountain lions were hilarious. They seemed to have gotten it in their heads that they could intimidate her, and they tried pouncing on her once or twice, but she turned out to be better at wrestling than they were, so they soon gave that up. For some reason, though, Bulma got a kick out of egging them on, so sometimes she would pretend to be afraid of them, just to get them to chase her.

All in all, it was a very quiet, calming time that she had in the solitude of the mountains, and although by the end of the third week she knew she had to go back home, she really didn’t want to leave. But she couldn’t spend the whole time out there relaxing. She had less than three years to go before the Jinzouningen were scheduled to appear, and she wanted to get a good head start. So early on a Friday morning, Bulma packed up her things and headed out for home.

Much to her relief, she came back to find Capsule Corporation in one piece, along with Yamucha, who was still alive and very much less the worse for wear than she’d expected to find him. In fact, he and Vegita hadn’t butted heads even once while she was gone. She was, at the very least, very impressed with Yamucha. Maybe he’d grown a brain recently or something. As for his training, he was now taking it very seriously indeed, having broken thirty-five g’s already. But still, Bulma could tell that she was going to have to talk to her father about building another gravity room. Yamucha was getting stronger fast, but he hadn’t caught up to her yet, and Bulma was determined to make the most of the time she had left - which meant pushing herself as hard as she could. And she couldn’t very well do that in only thirty-five g’s.

But surprisingly, her father was very understanding about it all. She and Yamucha had sat down with him and her mother and told them about the upcoming situation with the Jinzouningen. He’d even agreed to start searching through all the scientific journals he had for anything on Dr. Gero, as per Bulma’s request. At any rate, production began on Bulma’s gravity room right away, and this time only Bulma and Dr. Briefs worked on it. Yamucha was still training hard, and Bulma refused to let him stop to help her and her dad. They could handle it without him, even if it did take an extra couple of days’ work to get it done. She told him that her old gravity room was his now, and that she hoped he’d be able to give her some competition from now on. Of course, he only grinned at that.

Bulma had the new gravity room configured for two-hundred g’s - just in case the impossible happened and she ever did break over one hundred before time was up. They finished it after a couple of weeks, and Bulma began the process of breaking it in right away.

Bulma had seen neither hide nor hair of Vegita at all since she got home. But she knew where he was. He was locked in his gravity room all day - and most of the night on more than one occasion - training fiercely. He was still obsessed with surpassing Goku, and Bulma figured that if his savage training regimen didn’t kill him, it might just help him achieve his goal. To say he was dedicated was an understatement.

The only good thing about Vegita’s keeping himself locked in the gravity room was that he didn’t spend as much time staring at her as he had in the past. He did come out every so often, though. And whenever he happened to run into Bulma, he rarely said anything. It was always very unsettling, though, because he would stare at her with an almost hungry look on his face - one that almost always sent her away in a hurry. She never could understand why he did that. And surely he must have known how terribly unnerving it was for her, but that apparently didn’t mean anything to him, because he never did seem to make an effort to act normally around her. Of course, Vegita wasn’t normal anyway, and Bulma was almost certain that he was just working himself too hard. The kind of training he was putting himself through would have killed a person like her after the first day of it.

Whatever the reason for his unsettling behavior, Bulma eventually resorted to just avoiding him altogether. Whenever she sensed him coming, she just did her best to get away. Really, it was easier that way, and less worrisome. As for Yamucha, he ignored Vegita entirely. This was definitely a good thing, and Bulma was very glad of it. At last she was beginning to feel like she didn’t have to worry about any more fights occurring between the two of them, which gave her unheard of relief.

If not for these chance encounters she had with Vegita these days - which were few and far between, due to her rather evasive methods - Bulma might have been totally at ease for a change, and she figured she could definitely live with that. Things were finally beginning to settle down a little in her life, and Bulma was really getting into her training routine. Things were running so smoothly, in fact, that there were even times when Bulma forgot Vegita was around. But unfortunately, such blissfully calm and worry-free times didn’t often last long in Bulma’s complicated life, and it wasn’t very long before all that peace and serenity blew all to pieces along with Vegita’s gravity room.

Bulma was, not surprisingly, training in her own gravity room when it happened. She had just turned the machine up to sixty for the first time when she heard - and felt - the groundshaking explosion rock the compound. Crying out in surprise, she shut off the machine and raced outside to find out what had happened.

She followed the newly billowing cloud of dust and smoke to an overwhelming pile of rubble where Vegita’s gravity room used to be. Bulma stared in horror at the devastation before her. She couldn’t believe her eyes. But she knew at once what had happened. Vegita must have gone too far and let his ki blow up and destroy the entire building. That was the only explanation. Bulma knew that had to be the case, because there was no other way the design she and her father worked out would ever allow for the building to totally break apart like this. But this was no time to worry about what went wrong. What was more important was the fact that she couldn’t sense Vegita anywhere in there. She had to find him quick, because she had a feeling that he was in worse shape than his gravity room. She began digging frantically through the debris as Yamucha arrived.

“What happened?!” He cried in shock. “It’s been completely obliterated!”

“Quick!” Bulma cried frantically. “Help me find Vegita! He’s got to be under this stuff somewhere, and we need to get him out of here!”

Yamucha hesitated for a second, but not for much more than that. He soon was working the opposite end of the pile with a grim but determined look on his face. He rather doubted that Vegita had survived. He couldn’t sense him either, and it was saying a lot when you couldn’t feel the guy’s power anywhere.

Suddenly a scratched and blood-smeared arm shot up out of the debris in front of Yamucha. He jumped back in surprise.

“Bulma!” He cried. “Over here!” Bulma didn’t need to be told twice. She flew over and immediately started pulling all of the debris off of Vegita. She was throwing it back so fiercely, in fact, that Yamucha had to back off a little to avoid it. But within seconds, she had completely unearthed Vegita, and to her relief, found him still in one piece.

“Vegita!” She shrieked, carefully lifting his upper body until he was sitting upright. “Vegita, are you all right?”

He gave a raspy kind of chuckle. “Be silent, woman,” he said, trying to rise. “Of course I am!” But he was hurt worse than he thought, apparently, because he promptly fell back into Bulma’s arms with a grunt of pain.

“No you’re not, you big, dumb ape!” Bulma said fiercely, shaking with relief that he was still alive. “You’re going to kill yourself if you keep training so hard! And you’ll probably take all of the rest of us with you! Dammit, Vegita, you could have died!”

Vegita groaned, and pushed himself upward again, this time succeeding in getting to his feet. He wobbled a bit as he turned around to face her. For once she didn’t look away when her eyes met his.

“Feh,” he snorted. “You insult me if you say that such a tiny blast could harm me! Just watch your step, woman, or I might get angry with y-…” He broke off suddenly as he blacked out, and he then fell with a crash down onto his back.

“Vegita!” She cried, stumbling through the rubble to his side. “Say something!” She lifted him up and shook him a bit. He had gone totally limp.

“Call the hospital!” Bulma ordered, pulling Vegita’s arms over her shoulders and lifting him up. “Tell them I’ll be there with Vegita in five minutes!” She then rocketed off with him for the city, while Yamucha ran to the house for the phone.


It actually took Bulma six or seven minutes to get Vegita to the hospital, but that was because she was having trouble keeping his body balanced on her back. Vegita was a considerably bulky load, and his legs kept sliding off whenever she tried to pick up speed. Even unconscious, the man had to be difficult. But despite all that, she finally landed outside the hospital gate, where a doctor and a nurse had a stretcher waiting. They just remained rooted in place when she landed, apparently too amazed at the sight of a person dropping down out of the sky to take the usual course of action they followed with new cases.

“Well, don’t just stand there!” Bulma snapped as she laid Vegita’s broken body out on the stretcher. “This man needs treatment immediately!”

It took her a good minute or so to snap them out of it, and then they finally scurried their new patient into the hospital, while she followed close behind. She let them wheel him off into the emergency room while she sat down in the lobby with all the paperwork they needed her to fill out about Vegita. That was definitely an experience. She didn’t even know if Saiyans had different blood types, much less what this one’s was. But she filled in all the fields to the best of her knowledge, and after giving it back to the nurse at the front desk, she waited impatiently for a doctor to come and tell her how badly Vegita’d been hurt.

After about an hour, a gray-haired, familiar-looking doctor came out into the lobby and called her name.

“Bulma Briefs?” He said, looking up from his charts.

“Yes?” She said, getting up and walking over to him. “That’s me.”

“You’re the one who brought this uh… ‘Vegita’ in, am I correct?”

“Yes,” Bulma said impatiently. “How is he?”

“He’s suffered from multiple fractures and contusions in a great many unrelated areas of his body,” the doctor began, looking sternly at her over his medical chart. “Whatever got ahold of this boy did a very professional job of messing him up.”

“Will he be okay?” Bulma asked anxiously, lines of worry beginning to appear on her forehead.

“It’s difficult to say,” the doctor sighed, shaking his head. “It’s my opinion that he’ll probably not make it through the night. I must admit, however, that I thought the same thing of Son Goku when you brought him in.”

Bulma realized all at once why she thought she remembered this doctor. He had been the one who was in charge of all of them after the fight with Vegita and Nappa!

“Just what happened to this boy, Ms. Briefs?” The doctor said, eyeing her angrily. “And don’t tell me that it was a fight with aliens, because I didn’t believe it then, and I certainly won’t believe it now.”

Bulma sighed. “Whether you believe this or not is unimportant,” she said, looking him straight in the eyes. “But it just so happens that the man I’ve placed in your care is none other than the very alien who attacked us last year. It’s a long story, and I don’t have time to tell it. Not if what you say is true, and that Vegita has only a small amount of time left to live. I’ve got to go. Whatever you do, keep that man alive. I don’t care if you have to put him on life support, just don’t let him die!” And before he could say anything in reply, she flew out the hospital doors and shot straight for Karin tower. She prayed as hard as she could on the way there for Karin to have a Senzu bean on hand. It wasn’t until she reached the tower that Bulma realized she didn’t know exactly where Karin’s place was. She’d been to Kami’s lookout of course, but she’d never been to Karin’s. All she knew about it was from what Goku had told her, and he’d said it was in Karin tower. She looked all around it for something that might resemble an entrance to the gigantic bowl atop the tower, but was having no luck.

“Yo, Bulma!” A familiar voice suddenly yelled from the underside of the bowl-shaped top. “Down here!”

“Yajirobe!” Bulma cried, flying down there to see him leaning over a small hole in the underside. “Is this where you live?”

“Yeah, Karin lets me stay here with him,” Yajirobe said nonchalantly.

“Is he here?” Bulma said eagerly. “I’ve got to see him right away!”

“Who, Karin?” Yajirobe said. “Yeah, he’s here. Come on in. He’s right in here with me.”

Bulma floated up into the little hole and found herself in a large, spacious room. She found - much to her surprise - that this room was open on all sides via a balcony that she had somehow missed seeing in her frenzied searching. Then she noticed the small, portly white cat with his cane, and she immediately bowed.

“Please, Karin-sama,” she said quickly. “I’m dreadfully sorry to intrude on you like this, but I have an emergency! I need to take a Senzu bean from you if you have one!”

“And just why is that?” Karin asked politely.

“Vegita’s badly injured,” Bulma replied. “The doctors don’t think he’ll survive through the night, and I…”

“Calm down, Bulma,” Karin said, raising a paw to silence her. “I already know what’s going on. I just read your mind. And I have to say that this leaves me with a bit of a moral dilemma. On the one hand, Vegita has killed countless worlds of people, and because of that, he has quite possibly already doomed himself to Hell. On top of that, this recent fiasco is all his own fault. He lost control of himself in the gravity room, and he knew quite well that such a thing might happen if he pushed himself too hard. Because of all that, I don’t really know if I ought to give you one for him.”

“What?” Bulma gasped. “But Karin!”

“On the other hand,” Karin continued, ignoring her protest. “He does seem to have changed a little bit. At least he’s opted for hurting himself instead of others. And he will come in handy when those Jinzouningen show up…” He seemed to be thinking it over in his mind.

“Please, Karin,” Bulma pleaded. “I don’t want him to die!”

“I know,” Karin said, nodding. “And that’s why I’ve decided to give you a Senzu bean.” He tossed the small bean to her, and she all but glowed with relief.

“You have no idea how thankful I am for this!” She said, bowing deeply in gratitude.

“Ah, consider it a favor to you,” Karin said, waving it away. “I don’t much care for Vegita, but I’m willing to give him a chance if you are.”

Bulma was too elated to notice the strange look that he’d just given her. “I’m so glad,” she sighed. “I’d better hurry then. There’s no telling how much longer he has left!”

“Wait a minute,” Karin said, causing her to stop. “Just so you know, the doctors are wrong. He would have been fine without that thing. He’s not hurt as badly as they think he is. Don’t forget that Vegita’s a Saiyan. It’ll take a lot to snuff him out.”

Bulma was speechless. Karin just chuckled at her.

“I know what you’re thinking,” he said with a sly smile. “And just forget about it. Don’t think of it as a wasted trip. Think of it as a service to that hospital. I’d hate for Vegita to take out his frustration at being bedridden on the nurses! Just keep in mind, however,” he added, adopting a more stern expression, “that the fact that these things grow on trees doesn’t necessarily mean they’re easy to come by. If Vegita pulls a boneheaded stunt like that again, don’t bother coming here a second time. One chance is all I’m giving that guy.”

“I understand,” Bulma said, nodding solemnly. “And thanks again for your kindness, Karin-sama. I’ll never be able to repay you.” She then turned to leave.

“One more thing,” Karin said, causing her to stop again. “Kami’s already told me about the Jinzouningen threat that’s coming. I just thought I’d mention that I’ll be laying in an extra large supply of beans for you, and that when the time comes, I’ll send Yajirobe out there with them. But I sincerely hope you won’t need them.”

“Thank you,” Bulma said gratefully, bowing again. “And I hope we won’t either. But it’ll be good to know they’re available.” She waved goodbye as she ran for the balcony. “Goodbye, Karin-sama!” She cried, taking off. “You’re the best!”

“Heheh,” he chuckled. “Yeah. I know.”


Bulma arrived at the hospital just as Yamucha and her parents drove up. She told them what the doctor had said, and then what Karin had said, and they were all very relieved to hear that Vegita was going to be okay. They went into the lobby with Bulma, who asked the receptionist to let them in to see Vegita.

“I don’t think so!” She said sharply. “I can’t allow you all to go in there! He’s in no condition to have so many visitors! You’d better limit yourselves to just one. Any more, and I could lose my job!” “I’ll go,” Bulma told the others. “I’ll probably be the last person he’ll want to see him like this, but at least I might be able to control him a little when he wakes up. Don’t worry; I’ll call to warn you before he leaves. Just go home and get things back to normal. I don’t think either of us will be here for too long. Oh, and Dad?” She added, turning back before following the nurse to Vegita’s room. “Could you do me a big favor and begin reconstruction on Vegita’s gravity room as soon as you get back? I’m going to let him use mine when he gets back, because I know there’ll be some friction if he comes home to find that he doesn’t have a place to train. And I definitely don’t want to lose the use of mine forever!”

“You’ve got it, hon!” He said, nodding firmly. “I’ll get right on it!”

“And I’ll help him,” Yamucha added with a smile. Bulma smiled back at him.

“Here, Bulma,” Mrs. Briefs said, handing her a small bundle. “It’s a change of clothes for Vegita. He might prefer these over a hospital smock.”

Bulma smiled. “Thanks,” she said, waving goodbye. “I’ll see you all after he gets back.”

“Oh, and Bulma!” Yamucha called, grinning impishly at her. “Try not to let Vegita blow up the hospital!”

Bulma stuck her tongue out at him and followed the nurse down the hallways until they entered a well-lit, single-patient room with nice big windows. Vegita was bandaged from head to foot, and was still asleep on his bed. They had a heart monitor going on him, and an IV of some kind was sticking out of his wrist, but aside from that, there was nothing else.

“You can go ahead and leave us,” Bulma said, sitting down in the chair next to the bed. “I’m going to wait here with him until he wakes up.”

“All right,” the nurse said, looking at her with a great deal of pity in her eyes. Bulma just smiled at her. She figured the nurse probably thought she was in denial or something. Well, they were all in for a big surprise; that was for sure!

Bulma sighed as the nurse quietly exited the room. She would have liked to give Vegita the Senzu bean right away, but she supposed she’d just let him sleep for a while. She’d give it to him when he woke up. It would just figure that if she tried to feed the thing to him now he’d choke on it just to spite her. She sighed. The big dope. She didn’t expect any gratitude from him; she knew better than that. But she figured somebody should stay to keep him from killing someone when he woke up.

Bulma stayed in there with him all that night and on into the morning. She dozed off sometime after ten, and awoke to the sounds of Vegita’s bed squeaking.

“Huh?” She said groggily, starting as she awoke. “Whazzat?” Yawning, she blinked and looked up. Vegita was sitting on the edge of the bed and staring at her with a rare look of surprise.

“Oh,” Bulma said, yawning again. “Awake already, huh? Goes to show how little that doctor knew about Saiyans, I guess.”

“Where the hell am I?” Vegita asked quietly, looking a bit more annoyed than usual.

“You’re at a hospital,” Bulma said, getting up and stretching a bit. “I brought you here. It’s a bit more primitive than the healing processes you’re used to, I know, but it was all I could think of at the moment.”

“If you think you’re going to keep me here, you’re out of your mind,” Vegita said coldly.

“As much as I’d love to,” Bulma said dryly, shooting him an angry grin, “I know better. Here.” She took the Senzu bean out of her pocket and held it up for him to see. “Remember these?” She asked him, noting the way his eyes shot open when he saw it. “Goku gave you one on Namek. Bon appetit.” She poked it into his mouth, which was hanging open in surprise.

“Oh yeah,” she said, rummaging through the bundle her mother had given her while Vegita chewed furiously. “Mom brought you a change of clothes. Hospital clothes are… well, they don’t cover much.” Bulma pointed briefly to the smock he was wearing and tossed him the clean blue sweat suit her mother had packed him. Then she quickly spun around as he immediately began to change.

“One more thing,” she said, shivering a little at his lack of modesty. “I’m giving you permission to use my gravity room until we get yours fixed. My machine only goes up to two hundred, so you’ll just have to make do. But if you dare try blowing mine up, I’ll finish the job your old one did on you!” She snapped, whirling around to glare at him, only to find an empty bed and an open window. Growling angrily, she stomped out of the room to go call home, and then tell the doctor that his patient had just checked himself out.

Bulma had a hard time explaining to the doctor that Vegita was back to full health, but of course, she didn’t blame him for being skeptical. She did explain to him about Senzu beans, but he said he didn’t put much stock into holistic practices, and he didn’t believe a word of it. But after some gentle coaxing - and a generous donation from her father to construct a new pediatrics wing for the hospital - he let it go.


When Bulma returned home, she found the whole compound in an uproar. As it turned out, Yamucha gave Vegita a formal greeting a little after he got back, and he did so by making a snide comment on Vegita’s carelessness with the gravity room. Of course, Vegita simply knocked Yamucha into the side of his own gravity room, where he smashed completely through the wall, leaving a large, gaping hole on one side. Then Vegita commented on Yamucha’s carelessness with HIS gravity room, and that had been the beginning of the end. Yamucha was now on the verge of flying at Vegita, and Bulma’s mom and dad were doing their best to hold him back.

“Go ahead and let the fool go,” Vegita laughed as Bulma landed behind him. “Let me put him out of his misery!”

Bulma marched straight up behind Vegita and clobbered him on one side of his head. She then marched straight up to Yamucha and did the same thing to him. “Stop it, both of you!” She yelled, glaring first at one and then the other. “I thought we were through with this already! Now, I don’t care what started this, but it’s going to stop, and I mean right now!”

Vegita, apparently unaffected by Bulma’s form of reprimand, only smirked at her, while Yamucha rubbed his head where she’d belted him. “Your friend seems to disagree,” Vegita said casually, while Yamucha glared back at him with contempt. “Why don’t you mind your own business, woman, and let us continue this? Only a true weakling would hide behind a woman!” He added, leaning to one side and shooting a taunting sneer at Yamucha.

Yamucha howled in fury and broke free of Dr. Briefs’ and Mrs. Briefs hold on him. But before he had taken two steps, Bulma executed a swift, sharp chop to the back of his neck, knocking him senseless. He then fell in a crumpled heap to the ground.

“Whatever happens at Capsule Corporation IS my business,” she said icily, turning slowly to face Vegita. “And I won’t have you picking fights around here, Vegita. Do you understand me?”

Dr. and Mrs. Briefs looked on worriedly. Vegita shot an “I’ll do whatever the hell I please,” smirk at her, but gave no verbal reply. Still, it achieved more or less the same effect the actual words would have.

“Mom, Dad,” Bulma said quietly. “Take Yamucha into the house and stay there. I’d like a few words alone with Vegita.”

“Oh, but dear,” Mrs. Briefs said in protest, trying to reason with her. “You can’t possibly…”

“Just do it,” Bulma said softly, her eyes ablaze with fury, but staring unwaveringly and fixedly at Vegita. Her parents could tell there was no use arguing with her, so they quickly picked Yamucha up and did as she asked.

When they had left Bulma and Vegita to themselves, Vegita crossed his arms and sent her an arrogant smirk. “Just what words would you like to have with me?” He asked her.

Bulma’s fists were clenched, and so were her teeth. “How dare you?” She growled softly. “You are a guest in my house, you insufferable jerk! I didn’t invite you here so you could threaten to kill my friends! If anything, it was to prevent you from killing the rest of the human civilization! At least if you’re here, you can keep yourself out of trouble. Or so I thought. You can’t even seem to do that.”

“So what are you gonna do about it?” He asked her with a sneer. “Are you going to beat me up? Oh, no, wait; I know! You’re going to talk me to death, aren’t you?”

That was it. She had exhausted every last bit of patience she had on him, but to no avail. Without even realizing what she was doing, she darted forward and brought her hand forward to slap him on the face. But it never even reached its target. Without the slightest bit of effort at all, Vegita snapped his hand forward and snatched her oncoming limb by the wrist, wrenching it to a stop just a few inches from his face.

Bulma’s trapped hand clenched in a tight fist, and her eyes glittered with rage. “Let go of me,” she said quietly, her voice strangely low. “Right now.”

Vegita snickered. “And if I don’t?” He said just as quietly, but with a very different tone of voice. Mirth and amusement were evident in his voice; not the rage and anger that were present in Bulma’s.

Growling in frustration, Bulma drew her free hand back and then shot it forward to punch him in the face, but it fared no better than the first. In the blink of an eye Vegita had snatched this one right out of the air and clamped his fingers around her wrist. Then he laughed as she writhed and struggled to wrench herself free of him.

“You seem to be running out of hands,” he laughed, managing to infuriate her further.

“Let go of me, Vegita!” She screeched, powering up and pushing against him with her feet in an effort to pull free. She pushed as hard as she could, but she only succeeded in hurting her wrists when his iron grip didn’t give. She then opted for kicking viciously at his legs in the hopes that she’d throw him off balance. No luck there, however, as he blocked each of her kicks with his shins. Bulma cried out in frustration, but finally succumbed, if only briefly. She stood weakly on her tired, sore legs and panted angrily. God, she hated him!

“Damn you,” she panted finally. “You’re such an asshole!”

“Now just what did you expect to accomplish by challenging me?” Vegita said, his voice having taken on a rather boastful air. “I would have imagined that the first two times would teach you a lesson, but apparently I was wrong!”

“Go to hell!” She spat at him. “I could knock the stuffing out of you any old time I want to!”

“Oh yeah, you’ve really got me begging for mercy now,” he laughed, floating into the air and lifting her by her wrists just enough to make her lose her balance and dangle precariously by her already sore arms.

She hollered in protest and kicked at him again, but her efforts went ridiculously wide and struck only empty air. Vegita certainly knew how to make her act and look like a fool, and he was doing so now with great pleasure. She struggled fiercely, trying with all her might to wiggle free of his grip. Unfortunately, Vegita knew exactly what he was doing, and he was a lot stronger than she was. Bulma was stuck, and she knew it.

“You… you… you terrible man!” She panted, hanging limply by her wrists. “I hate you! I wish I’d never begged Karin for that stupid Senzu bean! You weren’t even worth the trip, much less my having to beg a demigod for a special favor!”

“Aw, I’m touched,” Vegita said with a sneer. “You did all that for me? How shall I ever repay your kindness?”

Bulma just glared at him, her eyes burning with hate. She meant every word she’d said. She had been a fool for thinking that he’d changed at all. He was just the same old cruel jerk that he always had been. He’d just been too tied up in his training lately for her to notice. She hated him. And she hated herself for getting so worked up when he’d nearly killed himself yesterday. He should have done them all a favor and kicked it then.

“I know!” Vegita cried suddenly, his eyes sparkling with mischief. “I could let you spar with me in the gravity room! Oh, but a person with your awesome fighting abilities would smash a weakling like me to a bloody pulp in a mere two hundred g’s, wouldn’t you? No, I’d better not do that. I wouldn’t want you to have to clean up the mess.”

“Go to Hell,” she said again, only more quietly this time. Much as she despised him, she had nevertheless resigned herself to the harsh reality that, for the time being at least, she was at his mercy.

“What?” He said with a grin. “Don’t you find that amusing? You don’t think I can be a comedian too?”

Bulma didn’t answer him. She was so angry with him that she was momentarily incapable of speaking. The humiliating nature of her situation wasn’t helping, either. She had become so frustrated and ashamed of herself for letting him get the better of her like this that it was actually bringing tears of bitterness to her eyes. Still, her angry and indignant glare remained unwavering. Vegita’s grin faded a little, and he stared back into her newly moistened eyes. He pulled her a little more closely to him, and Bulma suddenly felt a chill surge throughout her body as he paralyzed her with that unbearably frightening look of his again. It had always chilled her to the core, that look, and now was certainly no exception. And unfortunately, she was now unhappily aware that the sensation was many times more frightening and severe close up. Without even realizing it, she began to tremble as if the temperature had suddenly dropped fifty degrees. All the fear and anxiety that Bulma had managed to subdue during her vacation came flooding back to her, and as she stared, helplessly frozen in terror, into Vegita’s inescapable, penetrating gaze, she suddenly found herself growing more than a trifle dizzy.

She would have given anything to be able to struggle against him again, but her arms and legs had turned to lead. Her breath began to come to her in shuddering gasps, and within seconds her face had gone terrifically pale. But either Vegita hadn’t noticed, or he didn’t care, because he made no move whatsoever to ease up on anything. He just held her rigidly in place, his eyes terrifyingly bright and glittering.

“Please let me go,” she choked out at him, unable to utter anything more than a frantic whisper. She shook her head to and fro slightly, but was still unable to tear her widened eyes from his. “Please, Vegita!”

But Vegita didn’t answer her. Instead, he pulled her more closely to him, and he slowly relaxed his grip on her. Then, one at a time, he let go of her wrists, and as each of Bulma’s arms fell limply to her sides, he shifted his hold on her to her shoulders. But Bulma was strangely oblivious to this. The only sensation she could feel now was fear; pure, blinding, abject terror that was pushing her to the very brink of her own sanity. His eyes were mere inches away from hers, and they were what held her frozen in place. There was something wild in them; something wild and frightening that she’d never witnessed anywhere before in her life, and simply viewing it was almost more than she could bear. Something in the back of her mind told her to scream, and although she was somewhat aware that she had attempted to do so, in actuality, nothing more than a low moan managed to escape her lips. Her whole body shuddered, and for a brief moment she saw herself falling headlong into the endless black pools of his pupils. Then her remaining senses went numb and her body went limp, as, for the first time in her life, Bulma fainted.