Chapter 8


Bulma awoke to the sound of one of her father’s cats mewing in her ear. She looked at it sleepily, and, yawning, rolled away from it, only to roll over onto someone.

“Oof,” he mumbled. “Knock it off, Bulma.” He pushed her back again, and it took Bulma’s tired brain a few seconds to tell her that it was Yamucha’s voice that had said it.

Bulma jerked awake then as she tried to remember where she was and how she’d gotten here. She remembered that she and Yamucha had been blowing off some steam in the gravity room. They must have fallen asleep in there.

“G’ mornin’ honey!” Dr. Briefs cried from the doorway. “Gee, if I’d known that this was what you two wanted the gravity room for, I would have put in a bed for you!”

The silly grin on his face immediately alerted her to the fact that he wasn’t talking about sleeping. “Dad!” Bulma cried, standing straight up, her face very red indeed. “How can you say such a thing?! And about your own daughter, yet!”

“Oh, don’t be so modest, Bulma!” Yamucha said suddenly, grabbing her around the waist and wrestling her to the floor. “He knows all about our wild nights together by now, doesn’t he?”

“Yamucha!” Bulma screeched, trying to wiggle away from him, and managing to reward him with a sharp smack in the face. “Stop encouraging him, you jerk!”

Both Yamucha and Dr. Briefs laughed as he let her go, and she flew like a bullet out of the room. She zipped up about twenty feet in the air above them, her eyes flashing dangerously.

“Honestly!” She yelled down at them. “You two are worse than teenagers, for heaven’s sake!”

The laughing only got louder, so she flew off toward the house. Men! But she giggled a little as she landed just outside the kitchen. Yamucha really was a lot like her father in some ways, she thought to herself. And they had always seemed to get along together so well, those two. “Oh well,” she thought with a sigh as she walked into the kitchen for breakfast.

“Good morning, honey,” came her mom’s chipper voice as she walked in. “I don’t suppose you want to tell me what happened last night, do you? Yamucha darted out in the middle of the movie, saying he needed to check on you. The next thing I know, you’re carrying him in, saying that he and Vegita got into a fight. What happened? Is it something you don’t want to tell me, Bulma?”

Bulma sighed. Her mother could read her like a book. But did she really want to worry her with this? It wasn’t going to happen again, after all. But still, she did feel like she owed her mother some kind of explanation. She might as well just get it over with.

“Well, it’s like this,” Bulma sighed, sitting down. “I did something really stupid. I got angry with Vegita for something silly, and to get back at him, I sabotaged his new gravity machine to make him look bad. Well, he wasn’t too good-natured about it, as you can imagine. He was on the verge of killing me when Yamucha showed up. For some reason, Vegita went for him right away, and only had to hit him once to knock him out. I teleported Vegita away from him then, and somehow managed to talk him out of killing Yamucha by promising to fix his gravity machine.”

“Wow,” Mrs. Briefs said, sitting down across the table from Bulma. “And how did you keep him from killing you? You’re the one who made him so angry in the first place.”

Bulma shifted uncomfortably. She didn’t really feel like telling her this part. “It’s really strange, Mom,” she said. “At first I thought he was going to beat me up, but he didn’t. Instead, he did something… well… weird.”

“What did he do?” Mrs. Briefs asked eagerly.

“It was really very frightening,” Bulma said, squirming in her seat. “He… he put his hand behind my neck and pulled me so close to him that our noses were less than a couple of inches away from each other…”

“And then?” Mrs. Briefs said excitedly, holding her breath.

“He just stared into my eyes and scared me out of my mind,” Bulma said, shuddering. “I’ll never be able to forget those cold, smoky-gray eyes of his,” she said quietly. “It felt like he was staring right into my soul.” She shuddered again. “I can’t tell you how much that man scares me, Mom. But now that I’ve fixed his gravity machine, I’m hoping he’ll just hole himself up in there and ignore me. I don’t want to have to deal with him again. I usually hate to admit it when I’m afraid, but I feel no shame in telling you that Vegita frightens the life out of me.”

Mrs. Briefs sighed, her face having assumed a rather disappointed expression. “So what happened after that?” She asked gently. “He just let you go?”

“Yes,” Bulma said, nodding. “He told me that as long as no one tries to challenge him again, he’ll leave us alone and just go about his business. I don’t know why, but I believe him. Maybe it’s just because I want to so much.”

Mrs. Briefs nodded. “Well,” she said, “I passed your message along to Yamucha last night when he came to, and you were right. He ran out of the house right away, muttering something about having to find you before it was too late. That was the last time I saw either of you. Where did you two end up?” She asked, arching an eyebrow at her. “And were you still together when you ended up there?”

Bulma smiled. Her mother never was one for beating around the bush. “We ended up going to my gravity room to spar and let off some steam in the end,” she replied. “We wore ourselves out pretty well, I guess, because we ended up falling asleep next to each other on the floor in there. Dad’s the one who woke us up, and of course he teased us about using our gravity room for unusual purposes.”

Mrs. Briefs laughed. “That’s your father, all right,” she giggled. “Well, I’m glad you told me, Bulma. I was pretty worried about you two. At least everyone’s okay.”

“Yeah,” Bulma said, forcing a smile. “That’s true. At least no one got hurt.”

Mrs. Briefs perked up then, and she whistled as she got up to leave the room. She was almost always in a good mood, Bulma thought to herself. Oh well. At least someone around here was. Bulma made herself some breakfast, ate, and then went upstairs and cleaned up. Then she told her mom she was going out to the city for some shopping.

“Tell Yamucha that I’d like to be alone for a while and that I’ll be back this evening,” Bulma said, waving goodbye as she left.

“Okay,” Mrs. Briefs said cheerily. “Be careful dear, and have fun!”

“Thanks Mom,” she called back as she walked out the door and leapt into the air. She really did feel like a long walk in the city today. She flew out to the outskirts of town and landed on a fairly deserted stretch of road just outside the main sections of the city. Then she started walking briskly toward the busiest section of town. The more noise and distraction she could find today, the better. She’d decided that the loud distractions of the city would be good to take her mind off things. Besides, she hadn’t had a chance to do some real shopping in a while. Maybe she’d buy something nice for Yamucha. His birthday would be coming up in a month or so.

It wasn’t too long before Bulma had settled down and lost herself in the bustling activity of the city. It really was a nice, large, busy city with lots of people and lots of noise, and it was exactly what Bulma had wanted. Sometimes it was easier to be alone in a large mass of people you didn’t know.

As Bulma was passing one of her favorite dress shops, she suddenly heard gunfire and screams from across the street. She turned her head to see several large thugs with guns and bags of money out in front of one of the banks in a standoff with the city police. Bulma groaned and rolled her eyes. So much for being alone, she thought to herself. Grumbling something unintelligible about the incompetent cops in her area, Bulma took to the sky, shopping bag in hand. She was wearing a casual spring dress instead of her gi, but that didn’t really matter much. If these bozos had to rely on guns, she wasn’t going to have to move around too much.

Bulma landed in between the police and the bank robbers amidst a flurry of gasps from the crowd. “Hold this, will you please?” She asked, tossing her shopping bag to the nearest confused policeman. She turned back around and glared at the four armed and very surprised bank robbers.

“Well, what have we here?” The largest one asked, grinning sloppily at her. “Whatsa matter, cutie? Come ta make a deposit?”

He and the others laughed raucously at this. They must have mistaken it for humor.

Bulma frowned sternly. “All right,” she said calmly. “If you four gentlemen would kindly go quietly with these officers behind me, I won’t have to hurt you. Sound like a good deal?” She said, advancing quickly until she was less than four feet away.

They all burst out into riotous laughter then, and one of them stepped closer until he was right in Bulma’s face. He grinned at her. “Yer gonna hurt me?” He asked her in a snide, coarse tone.

Bulma smiled politely at him and didn’t back away. “I’d rather not have your broken bones on my conscience,” she said sweetly, winking smartly at him. “But I’m not afraid of you, either.”

He laughed. “Boys, I just got me an idea!” He cried. “Since this chick isn’t scared of us, why don’t we make her our new ‘special partner?’”

They all stared at him blankly for a few seconds before they finally caught what he meant, but then they were all smiles. Bulma just glared at them.

“Are you finished gabbing yet?” She asked them, crossing her arms and tapping her foot impatiently. “’Cause I don’t feel like wasting my entire afternoon on you turkeys!”

“Sorry, Babe!” The guy in front of her said suddenly, lunging at her. Bulma thought she’d humor him a little, so she let him catch her, and he pulled her around in front of him until he held her in a headlock between him and the police.

“Okay, all you pigs listen up!” He called out to the angry, distressed policemen in front of them. “I want a gassed-up helicopter capsule here in less than ten minutes, or wonder woman here gets it in the head.” He held a large pistol to her temple as he said it.

“Now, don’t do anything rash,” one of the policeman said, motioning for one of the other policemen to call in on a CB. “We’re making the order now. Just stay calm, miss; we’ll get you out of this.”

“Don’t bother,” Bulma replied with a slight smile. “There’s no need for that. They won’t hurt me.”

“Oh no?” The thug laughed, pressing the gun more tightly against her skin. “I wouldn’t be so sure of that if I were you, girlie!”

“Perhaps I should have been more specific,” Bulma replied, reaching up and grabbing the gun out of his hand with lightning speed. “What I meant to say was,” she continued, flipping him over the top of her with her free hand, causing him to land hard on his back. “You CAN’T hurt me.”

She slowly turned around to face the other thugs, and as she did so, she slowly twisted and crumpled the other’s pistol until it was nearly beyond recognition. She tossed it casually in the air behind her, and it hit the head of her would-be attacker, who, having snuck up behind her to tackle her, got knocked unconscious by his own gun.

Bulma then darted forward, and before anyone could blink, she had snatched the guns from the hands of the robbers. “You won’t be needing these where you’re going,” she said slyly, tossing them up into the air. Then, grinning at their horrified expressions, she shot a powerful heat blast at the guns, which melted them together. They landed, still smoking, on the ground in front of the bank robbers.

“Now,” she said, frowning sternly at them again. “I will ask you only one more time to give yourselves up. You have a choice. You can walk to the patrol cars, or you can be carried there on stretchers. It’s up to you. Which will it be, boys?” She asked, stepping aside and pointing to the policemen. The three frightened crooks then ran nervously past her to the relative safety of the policemen, and as Bulma picked up their unconscious comrade and followed casually behind, the crowd cheered thunderously. They’d never seen anything like this before!

After the bank robbers had been loaded into a couple of squad cars and sent on their way, a veritable swarm of TV reporters crowded in around Bulma. They were screaming questions at her and pushing and shoving to get in close to her. Sighing, Bulma reached over and grabbed her shopping bag from the policeman she’d tossed it to.

“Sorry everyone,” she said, smiling politely, “but I really don’t have the time to answer all of your questions. Goodbye!” And with that, she shot up into the sky and took off at top speed for Capsule Corporation. “Great,” she thought glumly. “So much for a nice, peaceful day of shopping.”

She flew home quickly, hoping she wouldn’t be followed, and at the rate she was flying, she knew there was no danger of that. When she landed outside the kitchen door, she sighed again. The day couldn’t get much worse than this.

She walked inside and set her shopping bag on the table. Glancing at her watch, she realized that it was barely lunchtime. She hadn’t spent more than a couple of hours out shopping! Bulma groaned. She still had half the day left, and she just knew it was going to be boring. Oh well. She could always take Yamucha out to visit Kuririn and Roshi at the Kame House. If nothing else, the old pervert would make their stay anything but boring!

Bulma walked into the living room, expecting to find Yamucha watching TV with her mom. Only Mrs. Briefs was there, however, but she’d been right in thinking she was watching TV.

“Hi, Bulma honey!” She said, smiling cheerfully. “I’m just watching a little TV. How was your trip to the city?”

“Annoying,” Bulma said, rolling her eyes. “Everything was nice and peaceful until four idiots tried to rob a bank. Then it was anything but peaceful, so I left.”

“Oh my!” Mrs. Briefs laughed. “So you ARE the one they’ve been going on about! You’re quite a celebrity now, Bulma!”

“What?” Bulma cried. “But it’s only been five minutes!”

“Take a look!” Mrs. Briefs chuckled, pointing to the screen as she flipped it to channel twelve. There was a well-dressed male reporter standing out in front of the bank, and he had a policeman standing next to him. Bulma recognized him as the one who had held her shopping bag throughout the whole fiasco. She watched in angry astonishment as the reporter interviewed him.

“This is officer Tanaka Hirohoto,” the reporter said, introducing him. “Now, officer Hirohoto, I understand that you were the first person that this strange woman addressed when she literally dropped out of the sky in front of you all. What happened?” He extended the microphone to the policeman, who scratched his head and chuckled good-naturedly.

“Well, she told me to hold her shopping bag for her,” he said with a grin. “I guess it is hard to fight crime when you’ve still got your bag of purchases to look after.”

“Yes, well,” the reporter said impatiently, “what happened then?”

“Well, at first I didn’t know what to make of it,” he said, frowning slightly. “I mean, she sounded real sure of herself; like she thought she could take on all four of those hoodlums alone. I’ll admit, I didn’t think for a second that she had a lick of sanity at the time. I guess she proved me wrong. Anyway, I thought everything had taken a real turn for the worse when Vinny grabbed ahold of her. He’s the crazy one of the bunch. Heheh. Vin’s gonna be out for a while yet, too. I don’t know how the heck she twisted his gun up like she did, but I crack up every time I remember the way she clonked him over the head with it!”

“About the weapons,” the reporter persisted. “We’re hearing rumors that she did more than just twist them beyond recognition. Your squad has already gathered what remained of the others for evidence, but tell me, just what happened to them? Those of you who we talked to say that they could scarcely believe their own eyes! Try to explain it to our audience, if you can.”

“Now THAT was pure amazin’.” Hirohoto said flatly. “She just flung them things up in the air and shot fire at ‘em from her hands. I’ve never seen anything like it. And I know it was real, too. One ‘o our forensics specializes in chemistry, an’ he says it would’a taken temp’ratures upwards ‘o two-thousan’ Celcius to melt that iron so quick! Now that’s pretty darn amazing, since most iron forges don’t go any higher’n sixteen-hundred!”

“Incredible!” The reporter agreed. “Indeed, this woman must truly be amazing! But who is she? And where is she from? Have you ever seen her before?”

“I don’t know ‘bout the first two,” Hirohoto said, his face taking on a rather serious expression. “But I can say that I’ve never seen her before. I’d ‘a remembered. Anyway, I can say this much: I’m glad she’s on our side. We’d be in a bad fix if she ever had a notion become a criminal, instead ‘o fightin’ ‘em. We’d never keep up with her! Oh, an’ if she’s watchin’,” he said, looking into the camera and grinning. “Thanks so much for all your help! Me and the guys over at the forty-sixth all take our hats off to ya, Ma’am! We been after these four for a long time!”

“Well, there you have it,” the reporter said, as Hirohoto left to resume his task of calming down the crowd. “This mysterious woman, who some of our viewers have already dubbed ‘The Blue Angel,’ remains a mystery. If any of you out there have any clue as to the whereabouts and/or identity of this amazing woman, please contact us immediately. Wait a minute,” he said suddenly, holding one hand to his ear as he got some message from his earpiece. “I’ve just been informed that one of our crews managed to get some footage of her just before she left. We will now switch you over to that tape.”

The picture switched over to Bulma smiling and waving goodbye, and then taking off into the air. The camera followed her ascent, and managed to get a very revealing shot up her skirt, just as she took off and zoomed out of view.

“Gaah!” Bulma shrieked, mortified at what she’d just seen. “I can’t believe…! Well of all the…! I never…! I ought to sue that station for all they have!” She exploded, her face the color of a beet. “How dare they do such a thing to me?! On national television! Why… I’m so mad, I could scream!”

“Oh, don’t worry, Bulma dear!” Mrs. Briefs laughed, trying to calm her down. “At least no one who knows you is watching this!”

“The Blue Angel!” Bulma grumbled, looking angrily down at her turquoise dress. “Of all the ridiculous things!”

Suddenly the telephone rang, and Bulma got up to get it. She checked the number on the ID. It was the Kame House!

“Hello?” She said, picking up the receiver. “Is that you, Kuririn?”

“Hiya, Bulma, you fox!” Kamesennin’s voice blared from the receiver. “Just saw the news, and I must say, that was a nice piece of work you showed, er… did! How’s about comin’ over here and lettin’ me ‘uncover’ the rest of the story!”

“Go soak your head, you old pervert!” Bulma screeched into the phone, her eyes nearly bugging out of her head. Her face had turned red all over again, and her mother could just barely be heard stifling her giggles in the other room. “I can’t believe you had the lack of taste to call me just for that!”

Kamesennin laughed good-naturedly. “Well then,” he said jovially, “that’s good, because this isn’t the real reason I’m calling anyway.”

“It damn well better not be!” Bulma grumbled, fire flashing in her eyes.

“The real reason I’m calling you is t’ tell ya that Kuririn’s on his way to visit. He should be there in a few minutes.”

“Really?” Bulma said excitedly, her face brightening completely. “That’s great! Thanks!”

“No problem,” Roshi said. “You can pay me back by sending me a full-color picture of your…” Bulma cut him off by hanging the phone up on him. Beaming happily, she darted for the door. She flung it open and dashed outside, only to crash headlong into Vegita.

“Ouch!” She cried, bouncing backwards and landing hard on her back in front of him. She looked up angrily only to meet his stern gaze, and almost instantly her anger melted into fear.

“Oh,” she said, getting up and stepping back away a little. “Vegita… You’re back. Uh… well… Your machine is fixed.”

Vegita didn’t reply. He just stood there, staring at her. Bulma wondered if he was still angry with her. She backed away some more, and then she gulped, glancing furtively first to the right, then the left, trying to decide which was the more promising escape route.

Fortunately, she didn’t have to try either, because Vegita simply gave a light harrumph and strolled right past her and on into the house. He must have been on his way in for another refrigerator raid. Bulma let out a sigh of relief before she took off for Yamucha’s place. That was close! She shuddered as she landed on the ground outside Yamucha’s door. Vegita was back. That meant that everyone was going to have to be very careful around here. She knew that Kuririn would be okay, because he was inherently cautious. She wasn’t so sure about Yamucha, though. She sighed. Oh well. Maybe there’d be safety in numbers. As long as she and Yamucha stuck together and stayed away from Vegita, everyone would be fine.

“Yamucha!” She called, knocking on his door. “Yamucha, come out! I have great news!”

“Over here, Bulma!” Came his voice from the other side of the building. Bulma sailed over it, too excited to bother with running around the side.

Yamucha and Puar were relaxing in lounge chairs. Yamucha grinned at her when she landed.

“Puar and I were taking in some sun!” He said, folding his hands behind his head. “It’s a great day to be lazy, Bulma! Why don’t you join us?”

Bulma laughed. “Get up off your lazy butt, you ninny!” She said, and she promptly turned the chair up, dumping him out onto the ground. “Kuririn’s coming over!”

“What? Really?” Yamucha cried, scrambling up onto his feet. “When?”

“Well, judging from that speck up in the sky, I’d say in about fifteen seconds!” Bulma cried suddenly, looking up and waving excitedly at the swiftly approaching man above them. Kuririn shot straight down to them and landed silently on the grass in front of them.

“Hi guys!” He said, laughing at their beaming faces. “Gee, I’ve never seen anyone look so happy to see me! Wow!”

Bulma laughed. “We just missed you, I guess,” she said happily. “So, what brings you here?” She asked, looking with interest at the duffel bag he was carrying.

Kuririn looked down at it too, and he shuffled his feet a bit. “Well, I know this is kind of short notice,” he said timidly, looking back up, “but could I possibly crash here for a few weeks? At least just until you wish Goku back?”

“Sure!” Bulma said, her face aglow with joy. “We’d love to have you over! And there’s plenty of room! We’ll just set you up with a Capsule house next to Yamucha’s, okay?”

“Thanks so much,” Kuririn said with a relieved sigh. “I can’t tell you how much I appreciate it.”

“No problem,” Bulma said, returning the grin that Yamucha had just shot her. “Is there any particular reason why you wanted to stay here?”

“Nah, it’s just Roshi,” Kuririn said, raising his eyes to the sky. “A guy can only stand so much talk about sukebe and panties before he’s had enough. I needed to get away from him for a while. That, and I kind of miss you guys. It got kind of lonely with only Umigame and the old man around.”

“Well, we’re sure glad to have you,” Yamucha said, clapping a hand on Kuririn’s shoulder. “We could use an extra man around here, anyway. Vegita’s causing problems, and I’d feel a lot better if you were here in case we need your help.”

“Wha?” Kuririn said, his pupils shrinking to the size of pinpoints. “Vegita?”

“Don’t be stupid, Yamucha!” Bulma snapped, smacking him in the back of the head. “You make it sound like you want us to wage a war on him or something!”

“He’s already attacked you twice!” Yamucha exclaimed. “I’m just saying that I don’t trust him to do what he told you, all right? And maybe with Kuririn here too, he’ll think twice about trying anything else!”

“Wait a minute!” Kuririn interjected. “What did I miss? Vegita attacked you, Bulma?”

“It’s not like that, really,” Bulma said uncomfortably. “It was more my fault than anything for provoking him. I should have known better than to make him mad.”

“Did he hurt you?” Kuririn asked, his expression darkening.

“Do I look hurt to you?!” Bulma said angrily. “No! He didn’t hurt me! And I don’t see why you guys automatically assume that he’s going to do anything else! Just leave him alone, all right? He won’t cause any trouble if you just keep away from him! For Heaven’s sake, just don’t make him angry!”

Bulma was on the verge of hysterics. This was definitely not what she had in mind by thinking of safety in numbers! These two were being complete idiots!

Kuririn was astounded. In all the time he’d fought alongside Bulma, he’d never known her to be so hesitant about confrontation. If anything, she was usually the one who brought it up. What could it be that made her so terribly afraid of Vegita? It didn’t make sense. It made him think that he wasn’t getting the whole story somehow.

“Well,” he said finally, crossing his arms and furrowing his eyebrows, “I’m not saying I agree with you completely, but I do think that it’s best that we don’t go out of our way to annoy Vegita. I mean, let’s face facts here. If it came down to just the three of us having to take him on, we wouldn’t stand a chance.”

“See?!” Bulma cried, flinging her arms up in the air. “That’s exactly what I’ve been saying! Guys, I don’t care if Vegita DOES think he owns this place! He scared the hell outta me on Namek, and he scares me even more here. The very last thing I want in the world is to give that man an excuse to lose his temper. So I’m telling you two right now: leave him alone. I may not be physically capable of kicking him out, but if you two start bothering him, I won’t hesitate to kick you out. You’re my best friends in the whole world, but I won’t let you put yourselves and my family in danger simply to satisfy your own suspicions.” And with that, she turned on one heel and marched off toward the house.

“And just where do you think you’re going?!” Yamucha called after her angrily.

“To change!” Bulma barked back. “I can’t very well train in the gravity room in a dress, can I?”


Ten minutes later she was in the gravity room working out her frustrations in thirty g’s. The nerve of those two! Coming into her house and threatening to disrupt whatever fragile shreds of peace were left! The very thought of it infuriated her. As she punched and kicked the tar out of an imaginary foe, she heard a knock at the door.

Grumbling angrily, Bulma turned off the machine and went to the door to open it. When she did, there were Kuririn and Yamucha, dressed in training gis and looking very determined about something.

“What is it?” Bulma asked impatiently.

“We want to spar with you,” Yamucha said. “Can we come in?”

“Sure,” Bulma said curtly, “if you think you can handle it, that is. I’m training in thirty g’s right now, and I don’t intend to slow down for you.”

Yamucha glanced at Kuririn, who had lost a little color, but was nodding nonetheless. “All right,” he said, looking back at Bulma. “That’ll be fine with us.”

Bulma nodded and let them in. After she shut the door behind them, she went straight to the machine and turned it on.

“Wow!” Kuririn gasped, lurching forward as the gravity took effect. “You TRAIN in this, Bulma?”

Bulma flashed him a grin. “I didn’t start out this high,” she said, giggling a little as she actually began to forget that she was angry with them. “You’d be surprised at what a great environment this is to build your strength up!”

“It doesn’t surprise me in the least,” Kuririn said, grunting with the effort of taking a few steps. “This is intense!”

Yamucha looked a little uncomfortable too. He was only just barely ready for twenty-five. But he did his best to fend off Bulma, while Kuririn just did his best to walk around the room.

“Come on!” Bulma cried in exasperation after the third time she knocked the wind out of Yamucha. “You’re better than this, Yamucha! I want a real match, dammit!”

“Calm down, Bulma!” He groaned, bending over and resting his hands above his knees. “You know I’ve barely broken twenty. This isn’t easy!”

Bulma backed off, panting slightly. “You’re kidding!” She said in frustration. “That’s the farthest you’ve gotten? What have you been doing? You should be way past me already!”

Yamucha laughed, and raised one hand behind his head in embarrassment. “I guess I’m not as dedicated as you. I mean, the world IS at peace now, Bulma!”

Bulma just gaped at him. “I can’t believe you just said that!” She practically exploded. “One of the first things you ever taught me was that a true martial artist doesn’t allow himself to be lulled into laziness by times of peace! What the heck’s gotten into you?”

“Yeah, I know I said all that,” Yamucha said, looking down at his feet. “But Freeza’s gone. The only real threat we have around here nowadays is Vegita, and if you’re right about him, then we really don’t even have to count him as one. We don’t have to be so serious about it, Bulma. It’s not like we have another terrible battle coming up or anything.”

Bulma puffed up a little. “Well, you can slack off a little if you want,” she said angrily. “But I wanna stay sharp, so I’ll be serious. That okay with you?”

Yamucha just shrugged and grinned playfully at her. “I’ve created a monster,” he laughed, walking off to the other side of the room to do some less strenuous exercises.

Bulma sighed. Maybe he was right. Maybe she was overdoing it a bit. But it was the only real release she had, this gravity training, and she certainly didn’t want to stop improving. Oh well. The heck with him. Frowning, she wiped a little sweat from her face and resumed her training exercises. At the very least, she and Kuririn were going to be a lot stronger before they wished Goku back.

“Hey Bulma!” Kuririn yelled. He was flailing sluggishly on his back across the room. “Do you think maybe we could try it a little lower? I can’t even get up in this gravity!”

Bulma groaned and shook her head. She had a feeling that the next few weeks weren’t going to be flying by too quickly.



On To Chapter 9 ~~~>