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Chapter Text

Videl Satan was finally beginning to feel as though she was breaking free from the shadow of her father. It had taken her the better part of three years working with the police force in Orange City, soon to be renamed Satan City in honor of her father, but she felt that it was all worth it. She had never felt as much of a thrill as she did when she was taking down the bad guys that seemed to quantify her city even though her dad, the hero who had defeated Cell and was arguably one of the strongest men, if not the strongest man in the world, was living here.

Videl blinked as she looked out from her recently acquired jet copter, given to her as a 14^th birthday gift. She needed to give the street she was currently flying over a second glance as she saw a woman being accosted by some thugs, the kind that you could find on discount in the goon store. Videl didn’t even stop to think as she put her copter on a special auto pilot dive that would allow it to land. When she was close enough to the ground, she jumped out, landing squarely on the first thug's face.

Using her momentum to springboard off of generic thug A she twirled into another kick, this time toward the neck. She had learned over the years not to go easy on any of the people she took down. They were generally beefier than her and had a habit of not staying down if she didn’t get in a blow that would make them stay down. There was a flurry of punches and kicks and after a quick scramble, all of the thugs were groaning on the floor.

Videl was only slightly out of breath as she slid out of her martial arts stance. Putting her hands on her hips she turned toward the woman she had saved ready to placate that everything was okay now, only to feel her eyes widen and her breath catch in her throat.

The woman was staring at her curiously a shopping bag discarded off to the side, but unlike other women that she had saved before, this one seemed perfectly fine with the gratuitous amount of ass kicking that she had just witnessed. She was a slim figure wearing sensible blue jeans and a red long-sleeved shirt that managed to accentuate her curves with her blue hair being cut in a short style that brought out her blue eyes (which Videl noted had a spark of mischief) on probably the most famous women in the world, Bulma Briefs.

What. The. Hell?

Videl had never been struck speechless by someone she had saved before, but this someone was way different than her usual damsel in distress. Amid all the groans from the downed discount thugs, Videl awkwardly raised a hand towards a woman that she somewhat idolized.

“Hi, uh, Ms. Briefs, I hope you’re okay?”

Videl cursed herself when her voice took on a slight upward inflection at the end of her sentence. She felt heat rising toward her cheeks as Bulma’s blue eyes spark of mischief became full-blown amusement. Apparently she had noticed the confidence that Videl had exhibited and was amused by her awkward transition.

“Well now, I must say I hadn’t expected to be saved by the daughter of the ‘Hero who defeated Cell’ today.”

Videl looked to the side, slightly abashed at one of her own personal idols talking to her.

“Come on now, I need to be able to thank you properly, it’s been awhile since anyone was bold enough to try something like that so I wasn’t expecting it, usually I’m with my husband and he can glare anyone into submission.”

Videl looked up startled at that assertion and looked around at all the thugs lying on the ground. While they might have been mad in a discount factory there were still five here, so her husband must be someone pretty tough if she wouldn’t have been worried with him there.

“If that’s the case, where is your husband?”

Videl suddenly felt a chill crawl up her spine as she whirled around and dropped into her stance.

Standing right behind her was a man who was smirking down at her with his arms crossed wearing simple jeans and a pink t-shirt. His dark brown eyes and hair took her in from over a chiseled jaw. She also noticed that he was relatively short compared to the thugs she had just taken down, he wasn’t even much taller than his wife. The final thing she noticed was that his frame seemed to be exploding with muscles.

“Now what have we here?”

Videl tensed as the man said that as she felt something in the back of her mind respond to his verbal challenge. It almost felt as if she were out in the wild and had run into one of the many carnivorous dinosaurs scattered throughout the land.

“Vegeta, knock it off, she was very helpful in thrashing those goons on the floor.”

Bulma’s voice seemed to calm the man down as he uncrossed his arms and walked over to where the blue-haired woman was standing, brushing past Videl uncaringly as he did so.

“Are you hurt?”

Videl was almost surprised by the amount of tenderness in his question. Apparently even if the man was a rough figure, he did care about his wife.

Bulma playfully slapped Vegeta in the chest as she once more turned her gaze to the young Satan.

“Like I said before, just name your price and I’ll do everything in my power to try and fix it.”

Videl looked to the side in slight embarrassment. This wasn’t how this was supposed to go, usually when she beat up the bad guys, she just took them to the police station and that was the end of it. She was never thanked for anything; she did what she did because it felt right. She also had no idea what she would even ask for, she had money, she was working on fame, what could she possibly want that she didn’t already have?

The only thing she could ever want was to have her mother back, but there was no way for that to happen. Even Bulma Briefs couldn’t bring the dead back to life.

“Sorry, but the only thing I can think of is impossible.”

As she turned to walk back towards her copter, she heard Bulma call out.

“Wait! How impossible are we talking?”

Videl stopped for a second to look quizzically at the blue head.

“Unless you can bring the dead back to life, then I’d say it’s pretty impossible.”

Videl was sure that Bulma would back off with that statement, but apparently she didn’t know the CEO to the Capsule Corporation even remotely well.

“Well, if that’s what you want. Who did you lose?”

Videl blinked at the blunt statement, and was also just a little freaked out that apparently Bulma Briefs could bring someone back from the dead. Did she invent a zombie virus or something and was taking her request out of context?

“Um, I’m pretty sure even you haven’t invented some miracle cure for death yet, no offense Mrs. Briefs.”

Bulma placed her hands on her hips and gave Videl one of the greatest “try me” looks that she had ever seen.

“Well, I didn’t invent it, but there is a way to bring the dead back to life.”

Videl’s heart jumped into her throat at that statement. Her mother, her kind sweet mother, the only person who had been able to curb her father’s slightly manic tendencies, could be brought back. This, this was just too impossible, especially for something as random as saving someone from a few thugs on the street, even if it was Bulma Briefs.

“Woman, are you intending to tell her about-”

Whatever Vegeta was about to say was cut off by a motion from Bulma, and the intimidating man quieted with an expression that on any other person would be called a sulk.

“However, before I tell you, I need to know you’re not gonna bring someone crazy back to life.”

“My mother.”

Videl hadn’t even recognized her voice that let that slip out. It had come out almost as a whisper. She knew, knew, that the dead didn’t come back to life. There had to be some catch to being able to do so. Would she have to go find someone like the Demon King Piccolo and sell her soul? Need to do some other crazy act that she couldn’t even begin to comprehend?

Videl had looked away as soon as she realized she had spoken, but when she looked back, all she saw in Bulma’s blue eyes were kindness.

“It’s hard, losing someone you love. Believe me I get it. Are you sure it wasn’t her time to go though?”

Videl’s very being raged against that idea. Her mother had been full of life, she had been someone who was able to keep up with both her daughter and her husband and had had the mental fortitude to take on whatever challenges came her way. She wasn’t a fighter, but that didn’t mean that she wasn’t an amazing woman.

If Bulma was really giving Videl this chance, and she seemed to at least believe that what she was saying was true, then Videl would be foolish not to at least try and take it.

“I’m sure, Mrs. Briefs, just tell me how I’ll be able to resurrect my Mom?”

Bulma’s blue eyes took on a bit of a mad glint at that.

“Well, I can tell you that it won’t be easy. Tell me Miss Satan, what do you know about the dragonballs?”

Bulma watched as the young Satan took off in her jet copter. She was sure that with a few tweaks she could make some great improvements to the design of the product.

“What are you playing at woman?”

She sighed as she turned to her easily irritated husband. Although Vegeta was a proud member of a vicious race of warriors, Bulma knew that with her he may as well be an overgrown grumpy cat. Still, she was curious about what exactly Vegeta thought she was doing this time.

“I’d say that I’m helping a poor girl who had lost her mother out, and she did save me from those unpleasant thugs don’t forget.”

Vegeta narrowed his eyes at her before he turned back toward the copter flying away from them.

“The girl has potential for a human. I know you’ve been around fighters long enough that even you picked up on it. You think that she might be able to actually gather the full set of dragonballs.”

Bulma smiled at her husband, happy he was able to sense it as well. She knew as soon as the girl had effortlessly taken down the thugs that had been threatening her. The last time she had gotten that feeling was from Goku, when the boy had thrown her motorcycle when they had first met. A new and exciting world had opened up to her then, and she thought she might see a bit of her own cool headedness in the young Satan as well.

The girl had taken the tale of the seven dragonballs rather well on the surface, although Bulma was sure that Videl had been freaking out just beneath her blank facade as they discussed seven unimaginably powerful balls that could grant almost any wish when gathered together.

Bulma had been hearing about various instances of a young girl getting involved in the seedier side of things long before she had ever laid eyes on Videl, and her own maternal instincts had been somewhat worried. This girl wasn’t someone who had trained to really fight for their lives. Eventually she was going to come up against one of the seedier underground elements of the city that wouldn’t think twice about killing her. She was still only a girl after all, a talented fighter true, but still a girl. She needed a real teacher, not one who had tricked everyone into thinking that he had been the person who had saved the world.

Thankfully she thought that the beginning of the girl’s search would be a good stopping point for her. After all, Bulma wasn’t the person who currently possessed the Dragon Radar. She had lent it out to a friend awhile ago, but she had a feeling he would be more than happy to help someone who didn’t have any evil intentions in gathering the Dragonballs. She just hoped that the young girl didn’t mind having to deal with the perverted old man that was also on that island.

Videl was lost in thought as she walked through her father’s new mansion. She heard a faint sound of laughter as she walked through the hallways and found her father once more living it up with both booze and woman. She winced at the behavior that he was exhibiting. She had seen some of his outbursts on occasion, both before he defeated Cell and while her mother was alive, but usually her mother was able to curtail the worst of this behavior. It just seemed that Videl wasn’t good enough to take her mom’s place as the handler of her father.

Sighing, she pushed open the door more fully and walked into her father’s room, amid music, giggles, and the strong smell of alcohol.

“Oh, Videl honey! Nice seeing you! What can I do for you honey!”

Videl was somewhat glad that even obviously wasted, her dad still tried and find time for her, but she knew that as soon as she wasn't in the room, he would go right back to his partying ways. She had only really come in here to inform him of her intentions. Nothing he said or did would stop her from going after these mystical “dragonballs.” She still wasn’t sure if they were a real thing or just some sort of myth that Bulma was making up to send her on a wild goose chase as some sort of sick practical joke, but the only way she would be able to live with herself would be if she at least tried.

“I’ve just come to say that I’m gonna be going out for awhile tomorrow. A friend of mine has invited me out on a camping trip and I think some fresh mountain air will be good for my training.”

Hercule merely nodded his approval of that. Although he was living up the partying life, he knew that his daughter was rapidly becoming formidable in martial arts. She might even outstrip him soon, so he decided that letting his baby girl go on a camping trip and have some fun would be a nice break.

“Alright! Thanks for telling me, have fun!”

Videl nodded as she backed out of the room and listened as her dad went back to his partying ways. She sighed as she began to walk towards her room. She had felt a bit bad about lying to her father, but the man hadn’t even asked who she would be going with. She supposed she would just have to be content with whatever happened when she went to the island that Bulma had said her “Dragon Radar” was currently at. Apparently an old friend of hers had the device to find the dragonballs, although she never did get his name. She hoped that just name dropping Bulma would be enough for the guy to give her the device, and if not, well maybe she could fight him for it?

Master Roshi the Turtle Hermit knew he was far, far past his heyday of fighting and defending the Earth from anyone who was intending to harm his beautiful planet. He had aged with grace and after leaving behind a smattering of apprentices in his long life, most of whom he had outlived, whether through old age or violence, he needed a much deserved rest. He had done his part in training those who had become so much greater than him, and he knew that there were plenty of others to take up the mantle of “Earth’s Defender” if it was necessary.

Roshi felt an old familiar pang at the student he had been most proud of, and who had gone on to become something greater than even Roshi could imagine, but he pushed that aside with practiced ease of an elder who had taken in the Elixer, accepting that time never stands still and mounting deaths of friends (and some enemies he respected) were inevitable. For now, he would just continue to sun himself as the soft waves of the ocean lapped on the sandy beaches of his small personal island located in a place so out of the way that almost no one ever visited.

At the moment, Krillin was busy getting supplies to help with the coming months, as he and Android 18 had decided that they would move in with Roshi to help out the old man in his twilight years. Even though Roshi boasted that he had drunk the Elixer, he hadn’t survived for as long as he had by turning down help when it was offered. The two newlyweds (even if they had been married for a couple of years they were still newlyweds to Roshi) would be back soon enough and for now he enjoyed the sun on his face, warming his old bones as it glinted off of his ever present sunglasses.

Just as Roshi was beginning to really doze off, he heard a small droning sound in the distance. Looked like someone would be flying over his island pretty soon. Well, it was nothing for him to worry about. Whoever it was would just pass over and keep on going to whatever their destination was. Although not very common he did have the occasional traveler cross over his island. No one ever stopped though, despite the fact that he was pretty sure that his brilliantly colored house must look fairly odd sitting out in the middle of the ocean.

However, instead of the steady increase and then decrease of volume that he was expecting, it appeared that this particular craft had decided to land on his island. The steadily increasing engine sound and gusts of sand being blown around were something of a giveaway.

Roshi had to crack an eye open at that. As far as he knew, only Bulma would be arriving on his island in some sort of machine rather than flying under her own power.

The sight he was met with was not of the expected blue haired woman, but a much younger girl who looked far too serious for her age. Roshi examined the girl behind the glint of his glasses and took in her appearance. She was wearing a long white shirt that came down toward her knees, had on comfortable and sensible looking boots, and was sporting a pair of dark shorts. Her dark hair was tied into twin tails that hung over her shoulders and her blue eyes were studying him just as he was studying her.

Throughout this entire process he hadn’t moved an inch and gave off an aloof air as though he was napping and even her wildly loud landing hadn’t been able to disturb his slumber.

“Excuse me.”

Roshi was surprised. It seemed the girl was in fact quite young if the alto of her voice was anything to go by. He supposed he could have a bit of fun with this new intruder to his island. He couldn’t remember the last time someone new had actively come seeking this place. Course decided, he kept on pretending to be napping.

It looked like this was the right route to take as he saw the girl begin to glare in anger at him. Sometimes he really loved messing with the youth. They were so easily riled up.

“I said, excuse me!”

He made a show of jolting awake, flailing a bit for dramatic effect on his lawn char before sitting up and adjusting his sunglasses, giving the illusion of him looking her over for the first time.

“Yes, yes! Sorry, been awhile since anyone has been out here! It’s not often that anyone tries and interrupts my nap nowadays.”

The girl huffed in annoyance as she crossed her arms and took in the rest of the island. She obviously wasn’t going to see much as the only people here at the moment were himself and Turtle.

“Well, sorry to bother you, but Bulma Briefs sent me here to collect the ‘Dragon Radar.’”

Roshi felt his eyebrows rise at that declaration. What was that troublesome women up to now? After their attempt to bring Goku back, none of them had really seen a point in going after the dragonballs. Perhaps Bulma had a score to settle with this young girl.

“Well, I can hardly give something so precious to someone who just makes demands without even introducing themselves first.”

Roshi fought back a smirk as the girl blushed as she realized that she had not in fact given her name before demanding one of the few devices on the planet that could find the dragonballs almost effortlessly, possibly the only one.

“Sorry.”

Her apology came out as an almost mumble, telling Roshi that she was not used to apologizing for her actions, before she continued.

“My name is Videl Satan, Bulma Briefs said that she had left that ‘Dragon Radar’ thing here and that if I mentioned her and it in the same sentence, one of her friends would know what I was talking about.”

Roshi stroked his beard in thought as he stood and examined the girl more thoroughly. She was obviously someone who was born and raised in the city. She wasn’t even really taking the time to enjoy the pleasant ocean air that was a constant on his small slice of paradise.

“Well, luckily for you, I know who Bulma is, or else this would be a pretty awkward conversation. What if you’d gotten the wrong island?”

Videl looked at the pink shack with “Kame House” painted across its side before she replied a bit drily.

“I think it’s pretty hard to miss the only island around for miles with a pink house sticking out like a sore thumb.”

Roshi openly laughed at her reply. Well, she wasn’t wrong about that. It was almost laughably easy to find Roshi if you had the ability to fly and knew what to look for. He somewhat missed the olden days when his air of mystery allowed only those who he took an interest in being able to find him. Well, no use in reminiscing over the old days now. The girl was here, but he wasn’t going to just hand over the Dragon Radar, even if it wasn’t technically in his possession at the moment. He didn’t think the girl truly understood the dangers of hunting the dragonballs for a normal human, even one who had some potential, if the small spark of ki that he felt within her was anything to go by.

“Well then Videl, I’m sorry to tell you, but the person who actually has the Radar is out at the moment. However, I’d be quite the useless old man if I didn’t at least try and warn you about the dangers of tracking down the dragonballs, or asking your reasons for wanting them.”

Videl looked away at that, obviously uncomfortable with the topic, but when she looked back at Roshi she had some nice eyes, eyes that were hardened into determination and ready to take on anything to achieve her goals. Well then. It seemed he was going to have to be a bit more serious than he had originally intended. With eyes like that the girl might actually pull off the feat and gather all seven of the dragonballs.

“I need to bring somebody back.”

Roshi raised his eyebrows once more at that admission. Apparently someone close to her had passed onto Other World, and she was determined to get them back. Well, he wasn’t one to judge, but he supposed some sort of test was in effect. Hmm, what to do, ah! That would work!

“Well, I guess that’s as noble a cause as any, better than wishing for a pair of woman’s underwear, not that I’d say no to that!”

Videl’s look of mildly disturbed disgust (though at the wish or the acceptance of the wish Roshi wasn’t sure) made him laugh once more.

“But first! For you to be able to be prepared for what is to come, I’d say a short test is in order. You seem awfully young for this sort of journey, and the last people I let go had had years of training and an unnatural disposition towards Martial Arts.”

Videl’s eyes seemed to take on a spark of anger at that. She probably thought that her name alone qualified her as some up and coming Martial Artist. Well, he would disabuse her of that notion.

“What do you mean!? I’m the daughter of the hero who defeated the monster Cell! I’ve been training ever since then to be able to take on anyone! There’s just-”

Roshi decided that he should cut this rant off before it really got going.

“This is not a journey to take lightly young lady, and the last person who came to me that was looking for these had been training since he was a baby. And now he’s passed on.”

Videl flinched at that. Apparently she had picked up on the slight grief that Roshi couldn’t quite keep out of his voice. He respected Goku’s decision, but that didn’t make it any harder to accept that his greatest student had decided to refuse to come back. He supposed he might as well assuage some of the girl’s fears as well. She no doubt was still at least somewhat skeptical as to the validity of the dragonballs.

“Oh and just so you know, the legends of the dragonballs? They’re very true. After all, I’m one of the idiots that those things have brought back to life!”

Videl stood there for a moment stunned at the old man’s casual declaration at one time being dead. There was no way, he looked so vibrant! Sure he might be a little old, but he looked fine. For the first time since hearing about these mystical orbs that granted any wish, she started to get excited. If Roshi was living proof that they worked, then she could definitely get her mother back!

“Now then, I think I have the perfect test for you! After all, I need to make sure you’re ready for the journey!”

Videl blinked out of her stupor and glanced at the old man who had walked to the other side of the island. Although his appearance was somewhat goofy (what with the giant turtle shell, the floral patterned shirt, board shorts and flip flops. Not to mention those sunglasses) he seemed as though he was really going to test her. Her! As though she wasn’t one of the strongest fighters of her generation.

However, she forced herself to remember his brief moment of grief at the fact that apparently one of his students had died searching for these dragonballs. He was obviously just concerned.

“Now then, the only requirement for you to pass my test is to knock these glasses off my face.”

Roshi stated this with unbridled confidence and Videl simply nodded in response to that as she slid into her tried and tested stance.

“Well then, as soon as my staff drops to the sand, you may begin!”

His piece said, the old man tossed his staff up into the air and Videl watched as it reached the high point of the arc, before gravity took over and it plummeted to the ground.

Before it had even touched the sand Videl had placed the weight on the balls of her feet and as soon as the staff hit the ground, she sprang forward like a coiled cobra. She snapped her foot out in an attempt to kick Roshi’s face, but was slightly surprised as he merely leaned back slightly and watched her foot sail by harmlessly.

Videl used her momentum of the missed kick to land on her foot and plant it before spinning around and trying a punch using her centrifugal force. If she caught him in the gut and made him lose his breath there would be a brief moment of disorientation where she would be able to get the glasses. However, as soon as she was close, her punch was batted away by her wrist.

Snarling in frustration, she sprang back to take a moment to observe the old man. It was then that she noticed that although he was standing casually, she couldn’t detect any openings. It was as if the very fact that he wasn’t trying made him unassailable. Letting out a breath to try and calm herself, Videl sprang into action once more.

A few minutes later and she was panting. She had never had this much trouble before! The only time this had ever really happened was when she fought her father! And even then she had felt that she was pulling more and more even with him! Who the heck was this guy!?

“Done already, if that’s the extent of your determination, then I’m afraid that you won’t be able to gather the dragonballs and have your wish granted.”

Damn it! This guy knew how to push her buttons! With an enraged shout she threw herself once more into the battle, but after a few checked moves, she suddenly saw stars as something seemed to explode from her abdomen. She went tumbling across the beach, sand exploding in her wake before coming to a stop. Groaning she tried to stand, but fell to the ground on her hands and knees, once more panting.

“Well, that was a mistake! You have pretty decent potential, but to recklessly charge a former World Martial Arts Champion seems to be a bit on the dim side.”

Videl felt her eyes widen and the pain recede for a moment at that as she looked back at Roshi, who had not moved a single inch the entire ordeal. If what he said was true, that meant that this guy was in a league that only people like her father could touch!

“In fact, I’d say that your style is still a bit untested. You’ve been learning from your father, yes?”

Slowly, Videl nodded in acknowledgement.

“Well, it’s not a bad style, but it’s still young. Against the old styles, the ones that were made to fight for your life and not in tournaments, it’s a bit easy to counter. Unfortunately for you, I’m one of the few remaining Master’s on this planet. Well, I suppose former Master is more accurate, my surviving pupil has surpassed me long ago.”

Videl felt her eyes widen even further at that. She also noticed that the pain had mostly faded, although there was a dull ache.

“How-”

Videl had started speaking before she had really thought about what she was going to say. However, once she found her train of thought, she needed to voice it.

“How can there be someone so strong and they don’t compete in Tournaments! The best of the best gather there! Surely they want to challenge themselves!”

Roshi seemed a bit sad at her statement as he gazed out into the ocean and clasped his hands behind his back.

“While it’s true that that was the case not even twenty years ago, times have not been good to the Masters. Most of us see the way things are going and have decided to fade into the background, relics of the past if you will. However, we are out there, if people decide to search for us. I suppose you can partially thank your father for the fact that we’ve faded into obscurity. With such a flashy man and flashy style, it’s no wonder we’ve faded into the background.”

Videl almost couldn’t accept that answer. She had been half killing herself with her training, and apparently there were people out there who were so much stronger than her. She wasn’t even sure if she would be able to get those glasses off of Roshi.

However, as soon as she had that thought, she remembered why she was out here in the first place. It didn’t matter if there were people stronger than her, she would take them on and win! She had determination in spades and she would find all the dragonballs and resurrect her mother. If Roshi was proof that it was possible, then she would succeed! And nothing, nothing, was going to stop her.

Unknown to her, as she was hyping herself up, Roshi had observed tendrils of ki begin to waft off of her. Apparently she was already at a stage where she just needed the right push to be able to access it. Grinning he decided that his test was done for the day.

“I don’t care what you do! I don’t care that there are other people stronger than me! I will win!”

Her piece said, Videl crouched once more, vaguely aware that she felt better than she had ever felt before and couldn’t even feel the pain of the shot she had taken just a little bit of time ago. She fuelled more of herself into her determination, and then she exploded from her spot towards Roshi.

She watched as Roshi’s eyes widened behind his glasses, and in her instant of clarity, she threw a vicious kick at his head. He once more leaned back, but at the last second, she accelerated her attack, something even she didn’t know she was capable of, and to her shock, the glasses were grazed and went skittering across the sand.

Staring at the glasses in disbelief she clenched her fist in victory.

“I did it.”

Her soft declaration of victory was all she was able to do before darkness quickly swallowed her vision and she fell to the warm embrace of unconsciousness.

Videl began to awaken to a feeling of blankets on her body and a cloth on her head. She also heard some soft muttering that seemed to be going on near her. Interestingly, she felt as though she could feel two massive beings standing on the island, with one of them completely dwarfing everything else. In fact, she might begin to hyperventilate if nothing happened as she sat up in a panic.

That presence was massive, something that she wasn’t able to comprehend. She heard someone shout out near her.

“Krillin! Hide your power level, she’s not used to being able to sense ki!”

As soon as that was said, the presence she had felt almost reduced to nothing and Videl felt herself panting from the exertion and sweat glistening on her forehead. For a moment there was nothing but silence, but then a kind voice broke through.

“Sorry about that. It’s been awhile since a new fighter has appeared who could sense us, especially on this island.”

Videl nodded in confirmation as she tuned and took in the person who had just spoken. He had a head of black hair and kind brown eyes on a slightly tan face. He was also insanely short. In fact she thought she might be taller than the man if she were standing up. Next to him was a woman who seemed to be breath-taking in her beauty.

She had long golden tresses of hair that came to her shoulder and deep ocean blue eyes. Her outfit consisted of a skirt with tights underneath and a denim jacket over a long sleeved shirt. For the time being the woman seemed to show a slight concern, same as the man.

“Well then, it’s nice to see you’ve all met each other, Krillin, Videl. Videl, Krillin. And this is 18.”

Videl nodded to the two as she noticed Roshi introducing them. She also noticed that while Krillin seemed to have almost completely erased his presence, Roshi was still there. Although he felt much stronger than what Videl realized was her own feeble presence, apparently he wasn’t a gigantic beacon like Krillin had apparently been.

“Well, it seems you’re a natural at sensing ki. Sorry about that, usually only Roshi and 18 are here and they don’t mind if I let loose a bit.”

Videl shook her head at that. She was slightly intimidated by the man, but he seemed well intentioned enough, even if he seemed to give off the air of a predator.

“Well then, I heard you came looking for the Dragon Radar?”

Videl slowly nodded in response to Krillin’s questioning tone.

“Well, congratulations, I’ve got what you came for, and apparently Roshi here says you’ve got what it takes.”

After saying this, Krillin pulled out a round device with a green grid screen. It almost looked like a wind up clock. A quick push of the top button and the device began giving of a steady blip of noise. Videl’s attention had become undivided as she looked at the device that she had gone through that test for.

Grinning, Krillin flipped the device over to the young Satan, who then scrambled to catch the thing.

“There you go kid. If you want, I actually know exactly where one of the dragonballs is. I’m willing to show you.”

Videl looked shocked at that. Apparently she had become pretty lucky in coming to this island.

“Mind you the other six are a bit hard to come by, but the four star ball is almost always with the same family. If you’d like I can take you to them, as soon as you regain your strength of course.”

Slowly, Videl nodded her acceptance of his offer.

“Thank you.”

Krillin just laughed and waved it off.

“Call it an apology for scaring you earlier. I don’t like freaking people out, it’s not really in my nature. Anyway, get some rest and we’ll set out when you’re ready.”

A friendly clasp on the shoulder and the three adults left the room, leaving Videl to wonder how she would feel when she laid her eyes on the first of the dragonballs that she had gone to such lengths already to acquire. She would also have to confront her change in perception and the ability to feel people, but for now, she would rest.

Videl and Krillin were making their way towards one of the deserted mountain areas that surrounded Satan city, both of them were currently in her jet copter, although Krillin seemed bafflingly amused at something as he climbed in and got ready to go as she fired the engine up and took off. They had made good time and eventually Videl could see a clearing in the forest where a small house with a tendril of smoke was lazily making its way into the sky via the chimney.

Eventually Krillin told her to put the copter down and the two had walked the rest of the way towards the house. Videl felt as though something had been watching her ever since she had gotten into the mountainous area, and felt the hair on the back of her neck stand up. When she mentioned this, Krillin had just smirked and muttered something under his breath that she couldn’t quite hear.

“Come on kid, let’s get there before sundown, we might get a nice home cooked meal too, something that’ll probably be a bit scarcer on your journey as it continues.”

Nodding, she followed the man as he walked over to the house she had seen earlier and knocked politely on the door.

For a moment nothing happened, but then the door was answered by a boy that was around her age with dark hair and dark eyes, dressed in a simple green shirt and black trousers. He had defined features and Videl swore that he had more muscle peeking through his clothes than was possible for a boy his age. Currently he was looking at Krillin quizzically, but he had glanced over at her briefly, a spark of recognition in his eyes. Krillin decided to break the silence with a question.

“Yo, Gohan. Wanna go on an adventure?”

Chapter Text

Videl felt her eyebrows rise as she took in the boy in front of her that Krillin wanted to take with them on their hunt for the Dragonballs. He looked fairly non-descript, wearing modest clothes of green trousers that looked as though they were rough hewn and a somewhat rumpled white shirt. His face didn’t seem to be all that memorable either, but when Videl tried to sense the boy’s presence, his gaze locked onto her and pinned her in place.

Videl became aware of her breath catching as she witnessed his intense stare, before he once more moved his gaze to Krillin and broke out into a dazzling smile. Videl let out a sigh of relief at that, for some reason she had been intimated by a boy her own age! How was he able to do that? The only people she had ever felt intimidated by were people who were far older than her (like Krillin and Master Roshi) or when she was facing down criminals who had guns and there was a threat of death. She also couldn’t feel anything like she had for Master Roshi or Krillin and that was somewhat puzzling to her.

“Nice to see you again Krillin, how’s 18?”

Videl was rather surprised. Although the boy, Gohan she believed Krillin had called him, had a slightly gravelly voice it was still soft spoken. She almost had to lean in to be able to hear him.

“18’s doing well, she’s been recovering well from all the stuff that happened a few years ago, our marriage is still going strong!”

Gohan’s smile grew at that as he offered congratulations to his friend. Just as Videl was getting somewhat ancy, they had come here for a purpose after all, Gohan’s gaze once again fell on her.

“And who’s this that’s traveling with you?”

Before Krillin had a chance to introduce her, she decided to interject herself into the conversation.

“Videl Satan, pleased to meet you.”

Her introduction accomplished, she thrust a hand forward expectantly. Gohan quirked an eyebrow at that, before smiling in a way that made her think she was about to be the butt of some sort of joke. However, he did grasp her hand and give a firm shake.

“Any relation to Hercule?”

Videl shot a questioning look at Krillin, but he merely shook his head and had the same sort of grin that Gohan was sporting. Rolling her eyes she looked back towards the boy and let go of his hand as she answered.

“Yeah he’s my dad. Not intimidating or anything is it?”

She definitely heard Krillin stifle a chuckle at that, but Gohan merely shrugged his shoulders and shook his head in an amicable way.

“Nah, was just curious. Although I’m kinda wondering why you’re pow wowing around with Krillin.”

Apparently Krillin had an answer for him.

“Awe, don’t be like that Gohan, Master Roshi said that she has potential.”

Videl was slightly confused as to what that could mean, but she wasn’t able to respond before Krillin continued.

“In fact, I think he wants me to take her on as an apprentice.”

Videl choked on any response that she had been trying to formulate as she looked over at the diminutive man. While she was proud of her father’s style and accomplishments, she was definitely curious as to how Krillin could have such a massive presence.

“As interesting as that is, what does that have to do with me going on an adventure?”

Krillin rubbed the back of his neck in response to that, almost as if he was embarrassed.

“Ah, well, it was more 18’s idea than anyone else. She thought it might be kinda weird for a grown man to travel alone with a thirteen year old girl.”

Before Videl was able to stop herself she was already snapping a response.

“I’m fourteen!”

Apparently the two males were only amused by that response.

“I can see your point.”

Videl physically stopped herself from growling at the boy. She needed to go on this journey, and if she learned some things from Krillin in the process than so much the better for her.

“One catch though, we’re going to have to tell my mom.”

Krillin visibly winced at that and Videl was curious as to why he would. Surely he had expected that they were going to have get permission from Gohan’s parent.

“Is Chi-Chi in right now?”

Before Gohan was able to respond, a voice came from the house interior behind him.

“What do you want Krillin?”

Krillin’s face rapidly paled as the owner of that voice stepped out from the door. She was a kind looking woman with dark brown eyes and dark brown hair pulled into a bun atop her head. Two locks of her hair hung by her ears and were flowing softly in the mountain breeze.

She had a hearty look to her as she was wearing a purple dress, a yellow sash, and sturdy brown boots. Over her shoulders was an orange kerchief that was tied near her neck.  As she crossed her arms Videl noticed that the woman was sporting a red bracelet on each wrist that jangled when she moved.

“Well, I’m waiting, are you here to take my baby again?”

Gohan winced at what Videl could only assume was his mother’s tone.

“Mom,” well that confirmed that, “I think he needs to have somebody watch his back. I guess this girl here is going to gather the Dragonballs.”

Gohan said this as he gestured to Videl, and she felt her eyebrow twitch in annoyance at him not using her name. Crossing her arms and scowling she decided to correct him on his mistake.

“This girl has a name. One I just told you not even a minute ago. How hard can it be to remember? My last name is pretty famous.”

Although she had been grumbling the last part, Gohan’s mother narrowed her gaze onto her.

“Oh? And what is your name?”

Sighing, she decided to give her name once more. Meeting new people could be extremely annoying. This had to be around the fifth or sixth time that she had had to introduce herself in the span of the past two days, a commodity for someone who had become as famous as she had.

“The name’s Videl Satan. And before you ask, yes, Hercule is my dad.”

Her name merely got a raised eyebrow from Chi-Chi before the woman once more turned her gaze to Krillin.

“You must be joking.”

Videl was a bit confused at that reaction as Krillin rubbed the back of his head and gave a small chuckle of embarrassment.

“Well, no. You’re looking at what I think might be my new student.”

Chi-chi snapped her gaze to Videl once more and Videl had to fight not to look away from the woman’s searching gaze. Tentatively she tried to feel out Chi-chi’s presence, she noticed out of the corner of her eye that Gohan’s gaze had sharpened as she did so.

For a second she didn’t really sense anything, but that passed as she suddenly felt Chi-chi’s presence. Her eyes widened, while not on the level of Krillin, she could tell that this woman in front of her was strong, most likely stronger than Videl.

“So, that old pervert wants Krillin to take on a student?”

Videl merely swallowed as she nodded in nervousness. She felt like she might be being tested by the woman in front of her, but she had no idea what she had to do to pass.

“Did you know that that style was the first one my husband had learned?”

Videl couldn’t keep her eyes from widening at that as she shot a look toward Krillin, who merely gave a small nod of acknowledgement.

“I think I need to see what has Krillin and the old pervert so set on you learning that style. How about this, Gohan can go with you if Miss Satan here can land a clean hit on me.”

Both Krillin and Gohan looked surprised at this, apparently they hadn’t thought that Chi-chi would make some sort of test for Videl.

“Mom-”

“I don’t think that’s-”

The two males were cut off as Chi-chi raised a hand, effectively silencing them. Her gaze had never wavered from Videl’s as she issued her challenge. However before Videl could answer, Chi-chi had one last thing to say.

“Even though it has been sometime since I’ve been in the tournament circuit, I’m still fully capable of vetting out regular Earth martial artists.”

Chi-chi finally snapped her gaze to the other two and they shrank back at that. Smirking the woman turned once more to Videl.

“Think of this as an initiation of sorts, Miss Satan. If you can fight me you can fight any other regular fighter on the planet.”

Videl was somewhat confused at the challenge and the mention of tournaments made her blood start to pump in anticipation. Videl had fought many, many, people. However this was the first female fighter that she had come across that she felt might actually challenge her.

“I accept, just tell me where and when.”

Chi-chi smiled at that.

“Good girl, as for the when, no time like the present, and we’ll say…”

Chi-chi pointed in a general northern direction.

“…there’s a clearing a little bit north of here, it’s perfect for a small fight.”

Videl nodded and the two ladies began to walk towards the clearing. Videl heard the tell tale shuffling of footsteps behind her signaling that the two males had decided to tag along to watch the show. After a few minutes of walking they broke through the trees into a picturesque clearing in the middle of the woods.

Videl glanced around and noticed that the trees formed an almost perfect circle here, almost as if someone had deliberately made the clearing. Once they had made it to the middle, Chi-chi had stopped.

“Well then, I suppose Gohan will have to moderate, since Krillin will most likely be your teacher soon.”

Rolling his eyes good naturedly, Krillin responded.

“It’s not like Gohan is your son or anything.”

Chi-chi glared at the smaller man and he visibly wilted as the matriarch to the Son family let her silence do all the talking. Sighing and rubbing his head once more, Krillin just made a gesture as if to say get on with it.

“Fine, fine, I just want you to know that I would have been impartial. In fact, this can be my own test. Although Roshi said that you’re good, I’ve yet to see you really fight. Get that hit and I’ll definitely teach you Turtle Style Martial Arts.”

Videl nodded warily as she got into a loose fighting stance. Chi-chi smiled at her as Gohan walked forward and stood between the two fighters. Once her son was in the middle, the woman slid into her own stance, one fist pulled back towards her waist, legs a bit more than shoulder width apart and her other hand raised with two fingers up and curled.

Sighing Gohan raised his hand, before he brought it down rapidly, signaling for the two to begin.

Videl rushed forward immediately and went for a sweeping kick, but Chi-chi merely stepped over the attack and lashed out with a kick of her own that caught the teen in the side and sent her sprawling. However, Videl planted a hand and was able to flip back to her feet before her eyes widened and she had to fall backwards to avoid a kick that went sailing past her nose.

She wasn’t given any time to rest as Chi-chi then planted a foot and tried to bring an axe kick down on Videl’s body. However, at the last second Videl rolled out of the way as the foot smashed into the ground, cracking it in the process.

Videl’s eyes widened at that display of strength. How the hell did she keep running into these crazy people? This diminutive woman wasn’t that much bigger than Videl herself, and yet she was hiding that much strength in her tiny body? Gritting her teeth Videl went for another attack, this time trying for a punch, but it was easily redirected and all she got was an elbow to the stomach for her troubles.

Videl almost gagged at the blow, but even though Chi-chi hit hard, it had nothing on Roshi. Thinking quickly she grabbed the offending limb with both hands before launching into the air and lashing out with a kick.

Chi-Chi’s eyes widened at that and swayed backwards before she used a palm thrust on the now unbalanced Videl to send her to the ground once more. Videl allowed herself to bounce before she rolled back to her feet. Taking a moment, she examined her opponent.

Although their exchanges had been brief both women were now breathing much harder, although it seemed as though Videl was catching her breath quicker. Perhaps the fact that Chi-Chi hadn’t really fought in a while had left her with lower stamina? If that was the case then Videl needed to push the woman, and perhaps make her tired with other tactics.

“I gotta admit, that’s pretty good for someone who hasn’t been in the tournament scene for awhile.”

Chi-chi merely smiled at that comment.

“Oh honey, the tournament scene nowadays is nothing. I fought when there were monsters in there. However, once I had my first child I decided to leave the fighting to my fighting maniac husband.”

Here Chi-chi’s smile became much smugger than it had been before.

“That doesn’t mean years of ingrained training just goes away though. I’d say you’re not too bad, but let’s see if you can actually beat my challenge.”

Videl scoffed, her breath completely recovered.

“I’ll do one better and beat you!”

That said she sprung toward the woman once more, who sidestepped Videl’s first spinning kick and went for another palm thrust, but just as she was doing so, Videl accelerated herself so that she had twirled around and was able to grab Chi-chi’s arm. With a shout, Videl hauled with all her might and was able to send the surprised woman flying. However, Chi-chi merely flipped and landed cleanly on her feet.

Videl decided to try and press her advantage. She ran at the more experienced fighter and began an all out assault. Kicks, elbows, knees, punches, she tried everything, but the more she did the more Chi-chi merely blocked her and eventually Videl was struck with a counter that sent her sprawling once more.

Cursing in her head, Videl rolled out of the way of a dropping knee and flipped to her feet once more using her hands. This woman was good. Every attack she tried was either countered or redirected. The older woman smirked at her as she straightened from her last attack.

“You seem to be having fun, if that smile is anything to go by.”

Smile? Was she smiling? Videl felt her face and realized that she had a contorted it into a wide smile. She pondered that for a minute before coming to a conclusion. She had been searching for something like this. Something that pushed her to her limits, something that she knew she could win if she broke through those limits. This wasn’t fighting street thugs or fighting a monster like Roshi. This woman was maybe a tad bit stronger than her, but because of that, Videl felt herself becoming sharper with every hit, getting that much closer to the goal laid out.

Videl almost felt like laughing, this, this was something that she had been craving and hadn’t even known. No one in the soon to be named Satan City could give her this kind of challenge. She might have felt it when she first began encountering the underground elements of the city, but it had faded the longer she had fought.

What she was feeling now was a challenge. She had found someone who pushed her to be better and she was going to grab this opportunity with everything she had. She heard a small laugh come from Chi-chi as the woman once more took her stance.

“I swear, I’m surrounded by battle maniacs, at least there’s a bit of a woman’s touch this time.”

Videl didn’t let her smile fade as she once more launched herself at Chi-Chi. She needed to be that much faster, that much more intelligent in her fight, that much stronger. She felt her muscles scream as she began to expand her awareness, tapping into the recently unlocked power within her unconsciously and once more beginning to glow.

Chi-Chi’s eyes widened when tendrils of white energy began to roll off of Videl, but she immediately narrowed her eyes in determination.

It was as Videl was once more going for a punch that Chi-chi grabbed the girl’s arm and tossed her toward the trees. She felt a sense of satisfaction as she noticed that the girl’s form had been completely shot. However, midair she righted herself and smashed into one of the outer trees feet first.

Videl let her knees bend at the impact before she pumped her new power through her legs, not nearly as much as she had when fighting Roshi, she needed to hone this power, it was a tool for  her to use, not for it to use her.

With an explosion of wood Videl rocketed from the tree once more toward her opponent. She vaguely recognized the brief look of shock, but then Chi-chi’s defenses were up once more. Videl grit her teeth and decided to do something unexpected. She pulled her hands in and felt her body fling past Chi-Chi’s guard. A second later the two women’s heads collided with a thundering crack that rang out across the clearing.

Videl thought she heard shouts of exclamation from the two males who had been watching the fight, but her attention diverted to the woman she had been fighting.

She felt a deep sense of accomplishment just before blackness took her as she realized that the woman had been knocked out cold. She had won. With that final thought she slipped into unconsciousness.

Krillin shook his head at what he supposed was now his new apprentice. He could see what Master Roshi saw within the girl. The fact that she had been unconsciously channeling ki was nothing short of impressive. The last person he could remember that had taken to ki that easily was Goku, and that guy had been a freaking alien.

He gave a glance over to Chi-chi who was coming to as her son gently cradled her head. That last hit had been a shock, something that he might’ve expected from a kid Saiyan, not Hercule’s daughter. And wasn’t that a weird concept. Never mind the fact that the man had somehow procreated, apparently his daughter had a potential that the man himself definitely did not. It almost made him curious about who the girl’s mother was.

“Yo, Gohan, what’d you think?”

Gohan gave a contemplative glance toward the now unconscious Satan child, and Krillin heard the sound of soft snores. Krillin let out a snort at that. He needed to work on the girl’s stamina, she didn’t even use her ki that long and she was now out like a light.

“I think that I’m pretty surprised.”

The kid paused there as though searching for the right words before continued onward.

“Mr. Satan wasn’t really all that impressive a few years ago. I never would’ve expected his daughter to be as strong as she is.”

Krillin let a knowing gleam in his eye as he elbowed his best friend’s son.

“And she’s a pretty decent looker too, huh?”

Krillin felt the satisfaction of the dusting of pink forming on the most powerful being in the universe’s cheeks.

“Shut up.”

Even though it was a small mutter, Krillin let out a boisterous laugh at Gohan’s comment. He needed to make sure to rib the kid, being stuck in the mountains with only his mom, little brother, and schoolbooks made the kid far too serious.

“I think that you’d make a cute couple.”

Before Gohan could retort, Chi-chi made it apparent that she had recovered from her short bout of concussion.

“What’s this, have you got a crush Gohan?”

Gohan glared at Krillin and the man only lifted his hands in a sort of apologetic manner. Rolling his eyes, the demi-Saiyan lifted his mother back to her feet.

“Well, Mom, I’d say that she got a clean hit, she even managed to make it a draw instead of the one hit challenge that you had originally.”

Chi-Chi rolled her eyes as she gave her son a light glare.

“Well, I hadn’t expected her to use ki all of a sudden. She was even able to manipulate it to give her a boost. Honestly, how long has she had that ability?”

Krillin let out a low chuckle at the question. He was sure that Chi-Chi would be surprised.

“Apparently…yesterday. Roshi  gave her a bit of a test. Pretty similar to yours I think, but I didn’t really see it. That’s why this was a better litmus for her, no offense Chi-Chi, but Roshi’s stronger than you.”

Chi-Chi merely huffed in response as she went to the girl. Crouching down, the woman lifted Videl with ease and placed her over her shoulder. Her task done she began to walk back towards the house. Krillin supposed he should just count himself lucky that the woman was being fairly amicable, even though because of her loss her son was going to go on what was promising to be another crazy adventure.

A glance in their direction and the woman called out.

“Well, are you two coming or not? Dinner will be ready soon.”

Krillin and Gohan gave calls of acknowledgement after trading a quick glance and the two bounded over to Chi-Chi in a single jump causing the woman to shake her head. However before they completely left the clearing she obtained a glint in her eye.

“So Gohan, when can I expect grandbabies?”

Gohan appeared to choke on his spit at the question and his face flamed red causing Krillin to laugh uproariously. He had forgotten that Chi-Chi really knew how to push the kid’s buttons at the most unexpected times.

“Mom!”

With a content sigh Krillin followed his best friend’s family back to their house. He would make sure that he saved some of the food for Videl, the girl was likely to be starving when she came to.

Videl slowly returned to consciousness, noticing a delectable smell drifting into her nose first. She opened her eyes slowly, to see an unfamiliar curved ceiling. Shooting up, she immediately regretted that decision as she had to make the world stop spinning before she could get her bearings.

“Woah there, we gotta stop meeting like this. I hope you don’t make it a habit.”

Videl’s eyes shot to a comfy looking red armchair chair occupied by Krillin. Looking around she noticed that she was in a cozy looking living room and that she had taken over the couch. She felt something cool on her chest and looked down to see a wet cloth that had obviously been on her head before she had awakened.

“Where-”

Before she had even finished her question Chi-Chi came into the room, bowl of rice and meat in her hand. Although the bowl looked far too large for Videl, the smell made her stomach growl in anguish, filling the entire room.

She blushed in embarrassment as Krillin gave a small laugh and Chi-Chi smiled indulgently.

“I supposed you might be hungry after using your ki like you did.”

So saying, Chi-Chi thrust the bowl into Videl’s waiting arms and gave her a pair of chopsticks. A brief “Itadakimasu” and Videl was gorging on the meal. She knew that she probably looked like a pig, but she was too hungry and the food was too good for her to really care. Soon the entire bowl was gone and Videl was feeling much more content. She placed the chopsticks on the bowl and clapped her hands together.

“Gochisousama deshita.”

She blushed once more when she noticed the amused looks from Krillin and Chi-Chi. However, when she glance around she noticed that Gohan was nowhere in sight.

“Where’s Gohan?”

Chi-Chi had a strange glint in her eye at that question and Krillin looked incredibly amused.

“Oh, looks like someone’s got a bit of a crush?”

Videl stared blankly at Krillin for a moment before she felt her cheeks warm.

“It’s not like that! The entire reason I fought Chi-Chi was to get him to go with us to gather the Dragonballs.”

Krillin gave a low chuckle at that.

“Oh, you didn’t just want to impress his mom so that she would approve of your budding relationship?”

Videl glared at Krillin, but the man just looked incredibly amused at the situation that the girl found herself in. Raising his hands in apology, it became Chi-Chi who answered Videl’s question shifting her attention to her former opponent.

“He’s looking after his brother at the moment. I was just here to make sure that you were okay and to get some food into you. Even though you’ve only started using ki, it’s still your energy and that has to come from somewhere.”

Krillin nodded as Videl tried to puzzle out what the woman meant by ki. Seeing her puzzled look Krillin decided to expound upon Chi-Chi’s comment.

“Ki is energy that everyone has the potential to use, although it is most commonly found in Martial Artists. It’s an energy that allows us to fight stronger, faster, and longer. Once you’ve really mastered ki manipulation you’ll even be able to fly.”

Videl scoffed at that, she knew that the ability to fly were just wire tricks, but Krillin merely raised his eyebrows at her before he slowly started to float into the air.

Videl felt her jaw drop at that. Even with her eagle eyes she could see no wires anywhere near the man. He really did seem to be floating in midair.

“How-”

Her question was cut off by the currently flying man.

“You’ve already begun to harness you’re ki and you’re a natural sensor. When we first met you were able to feel my own ki, even though I wasn’t consciously channeling any of it.”

Videl felt her brain almost freeze at that and the implications of the floating man in front of her. Her dad had lied. Her dad had lied to everyone. Her dad had lied to her.

She felt a sting at that. If he had lied about the ability to fly, what else had he lied about?

“However, it might be a bit before I teach you how to do this.”

Her eyes snapped back to Krillin, viciously shoving down the complicated feelings that had been trying to consume her a moment ago. She felt her eyes widen as she realized what he was saying. The man gave her a small smile as he touched back down on the chair.

“I did say that I’d train you if you were able to pass Chi-Chi’s challenge, and you did pass, with flying colors.”

The woman in question merely grumbled as she collected the dish from Videl.

“A lucky shot, who headbutts people nowadays?”

Krillin snorted at that.

“I think the answer is your own son, but I guess that might be a story for a different time.”

As Chi-Chi bustled out of the room Krillin turned his attention to Videl once more and clapped his hands together to rub his palms.

“So… you’ve passed my test, we’re now gonna have a Dragonball in our possession and Gohan is gonna be along for the ride. An all around successful day I’d say. Just one last thing.”

Krillin straightened and his expression went from a slightly teasing one to something much more serious.

“The Turtle School has been around for a long time now, as of right now I’m the only living full time practitioner. Master Roshi is pretty much retired and the others either have other styles as well, or they have let their skills go in favor of other endeavors. I guess what I’m trying to say is… would you like to learn under me?”

Videl thought over the offer for a moment as the man waited patiently. She knew that by doing this she was taking a step in a direction that would open her eyes to the true possibilities of Martial Arts that Roshi had mentioned. However, if she went through with this she would also be abandoning her dad. She felt a pang at that thought, but another, crueler, part of her thought that he was getting what he deserved. She squashed that part down and tried to look at the offer objectively.

On the one hand, she would be learning how to utilize this ki thing and eventually she could fly. She had to admit that the thought of being able to fly under her own power made her somewhat giddy with excitement, but if that was the only reason she was sure she could figure it out herself if she tried. Krillin had said that she was natural at ki manipulation after all. However, she was a bit wary of this thinking. Both times she had used that power, she had ended up passed out in an unfamiliar house. What if she went too far and accidentally drained herself dry? She was sure that that would have dire consequences.

On the other hand she had been training proudly in her father’s style for as long as she could remember. She knew that she was proud of her accomplishments with that style, but apparently it was too tame to compete with the Martial Arts world that she wanted to step into.

If Chi-Chi had merely been the gateway and people like Roshi and Krillin were what awaited her at the end of the rabbit hole, then her father’s style would not be strong enough to stand on that stage. Which begged the question, how had her dad beat Cell?

Crushing that question into the deepest recesses of her mind for now, she looked up at the patiently waiting Krillin.

“Can I-”

She stopped as her voice came out as more of a croak than she had thought. She supposed she had spent more time thinking on the issue than she had thought she had. Clearing her throat, she attempted to answer once more.

“Can I have a night to think about it?”

Krillin gave a slow nod as he got up from his chair.

“Sure thing, kiddo. Just know that if you want to stand on the real stage of Martial Arts, not just in a tournament, one of the best ways is to go after the Dragonballs. I’ll respect your decision no matter what, but I can safely say that your dad’s style isn’t suited to what we might encounter. Just think on that.”

His words hurt, but she could see the truth in them. Videl was on the cusp and she would stay on that cusp if she stuck with her dad’s fighting style. She knew he didn’t utilize ki, knew that it was for tournaments, she had already begun to incorporate other things into her fighting to deal with the thugs in the city.

Krillin excused himself as Videl laid back and stared at the ceiling. Her mind was in turmoil, so she decided to use something to test whether or not she would accept Krillin’s offer, her fight that she had had not even a few hours ago.

She had never felt more alive than in that fight. Thugs were nothing special to her now, even the ones with guns went down pretty easily. Anyone she had fought in her father’s dojo had fallen to her prowess eventually. She had competed in the junior tournaments and had been excited to be challenged, before she crushed the competition and rose to the top. Her father hadn’t fought her in months (and now she was beginning to have horrible suspicions about that).

It hadn’t been until she fought Master Roshi that she had been thoroughly outclassed. When she had fought Chi-Chi she had felt something she had not felt since she had begun Martial Arts. Excitement.

She had been excited to fight someone who could push her. She had been excited to see if she could break past her limits. She remembered the thrill that went through her as she realized that she was able to deal a knockout blow to the woman who had had her on the ropes the entire fight.

As Videl drifted off into sleep she came to her decision. She was sure that she had made the right one, not only because of what she had felt today, but also because of the trials that were to come if she went after the Dragonballs.

Krillin sat cross legged on a rock by a waterfall within the woods with his eyes closed. He had been meditating ever since he had woken up, trying to feel whether or not he was doing the right thing in taking an apprentice. Everything had pointed to the fact that that was the right decision, but he didn’t know how well he would adapt to being a teacher.

All of his life he had been a student, first to the monks and then to Roshi. He had gone on grand adventures that he had never in his wildest dreams would have expected. Hell, he had been to other planets.

He had faced off against terrifying evil, had died more than once and had also been resurrected more than once. He had a beautiful wife whom he intended to grow old with. He had lived a crazy life and not all of his friends had made it to this point, but was he ready to teach?

Well, the offer was made, now he just needed to wait for the girl to decide. If she decided against becoming his apprentice, then that was fine. If she did become his apprentice, then he would do everything in his power to make her as strong as he possibly could.

He let his senses expand for a moment and felt Videl’s approaching ki as she headed towards him. He quirked an eyebrow, apparently she was able to sense him even when he was suppressing his own ki. Or she had just asked where he had gone, yeah that was more likely. He calmed his racing heart as the girl walked toward his rock. With a content sigh he opened his eyes and saw Videl standing near him, hands on her hips and looking determined. He supposed it was good that she was headstrong, if he taught her he wouldn't know how to deal with any kind of devious tendencies, much like his own had once been, so long ago.

He snapped his attention to the girl as she took a deep breath and clenched her fists at her sides.

“I’ve thought long and hard about what I want to do, and I’ve come to an answer.”

Krillin kept his silence, waiting for her to speak her mind. With a nod she brought her fist in front of her face and soft white tendrils began to expunge from the hand. Almost as soon as she had done so, she stopped.

“Even just that makes me feel fatigued, and now that I know about ki, I know I need to learn to control it. So far I’ve only used it in admittedly friendly spars. Even though I was seriously outclassed the first time and got a lucky hit in the last time, I know that I do it unconsciously. Even if we go our separate ways, I’m still going to use the ki.”

Taking a deep breath, Videl once more looked at Krillin.

“So if you’ll have me, I’ll study under you, Master Krillin.”

Krillin felt a small smile form on his face at that. Master Krillin. It had a nice ring to it.

“I think we’ll get along just fine, kiddo.”

Chapter Text

Videl grinned at her now new master even as he rubbed his head sheepishly, although the slightly smug grin he was sporting cast his sheepish look into some doubt.

“Well, I’m definitely glad that you decided to accept.”

Videl gave a small nod before she remembered something.

“Wait, you said we got one of the Dragonballs? When did that happen, and which one is it?”

Krillin looked confused for a moment before his expression cleared.

“Oh yeah, I forgot I didn’t tell you that Gohan was the person who’s the keeper of the four star Dragonball. He inherited it from his grandfather. After your match with Chi-Chi yesterday, he agreed to come along and to lend you the four star. We just need to make sure to find it again after we grant your wish.”

Videl felt her heart leap in her throat at that. They had already gotten a Dragonball!? It hadn’t even been a day! She was already that much closer to being able to ask the eternal dragon to grant her deepest wish.

“That’s kind of important! The entire reason I agreed to train with you and to go on this trip is to get the Dragonballs! A little heads up would be nice for future reference!”

Krillin merely laughed it off sheepishly.

“Well, you’re not wrong, how about I show you what the Dragonball looks like, that way you can get a feel for what it is you’re going to be looking for.”

He reached into his shirt and pulled out one of the most spherical glass balls that Videl had ever seen. There was no flaw in the orange glass, and inside were four darker orange stars. The Dragonball seemed to be almost luminescent in the morning sun and Videl could for the first time, since the mystical wish granting Dragonballs were mentioned, see how she might now truly be living in a fairy tale.

Just looking at the Dragonball gave a sense of mysticism and wonderment that she hadn't felt since her mother had told her stories of princesses and princes and happily ever afters. Here was the proof she needed that her journey would not be one of fallacy, but that if she remained determined, she would be able to achieve her goal.

“It’s…”

Videl searcher he memory for a way to describe the little orange ball held in Krillin’s hand, but she decided that there was only one that fit her own mood at the moment.

“…beautiful.”

Krillin grinned as he tossed the ball in the air expertly before snatching it and storing it back in his shirt.

“Yeah, it’s a pretty intense feeling when you first see them. The only thing better is when we actually get all seven of them together and summon the Dragon. Then you’ll be in for a real treat.”

Videl nodded her agreement and then focused on her master as he walked over to the rock that he had been sitting on. Placing a hand on the rock he gave it a slap or two before he nodded.

“Alright, now first things first, this’ll be the test you need to pass before we move on. You’re a natural at utilizing ki so far, but now we need to hone that ability and increase your stamina. So we’re gonna begin a bit slow.”

Once Krillin said that he lightly tapped the rock with his fist and for a second nothing happened. Then, out of nowhere, the rock crumbled into dust as Videl felt her eyes widen in amazement.

“What you have to do is learn how to apply your ki into everyday instances and to regulate it through your muscles so that even as we tear them down, you build them up. By the end of this week you should be able to at least destroy the rock into chunks, even if you can’t do what I just did.

Videl looked to the rock then back to her master in disbelief before looking at the rock again. How the hell was she supposed to copy that!?

“I can see you have questions, well for the first answer, we’re gonna work on your stamina with this!”

Krillin cheerily went over to another rock that was nearby and lifted a purple turtle shell up with one hand.

“I’m not sure how familiar you are with weighted training, but it’s the best way to begin to train your stamina and will help you with ki regulation. So, while we’re doing this training I want you to have this turtle shell on at all times, the only times when it can come off are when you bathe and when you sleep.”

Videl nodded in understanding. She had done some light weight training before and had used wrists and ankle braces, she assumed the turtle shell would be like a backpack full of rocks similar to what some of her dads’ students used to try to increase their endurance.

So it was an incredible surprise that when she went to take the shell from Krillin, she fell over from the unexpected increase in weight. This was way heavier than she had ever used. What the hell did Krillin do to this thing to make it so freaking heavy!? It had to weigh almost 100 pounds!

“Since I’ve already seen some of what you can do I’ve taken the liberty and adjusted the weight according to what I think it should be for you. I think eighty pounds is a good starting point, don’t you?”

Videl looked blankly at Krillin then looked down at the shell and realized something important.

“Wait, wasn’t Roshi wearing one of these?”

Krillin looked slightly surprised that she had remembered that small detail, but he gave a dutiful nod nonetheless.

“Yeah, he’s the one who really started the tradition of our own weighted clothing. I may not look it, but I’m carrying a lot of extra weight with me! It also helps ki manipulation so that we don’t keel over from the weight we’re carrying around!”

Videl eyed the shell warily as she slipped it onto her back and immediately began to feel the effects, it almost felt like there was another her on her back. This was already getting crazy.

“Alright, so I think we’ll start by delivering milk to the mountain area around us.”

Videl looked blankly at her master.

“We’re gonna do what?”

Krillin grumbled as he produced a crate of milk bottles from somewhere.

“I swear, this must be a sign that I’m getting old. Who the hell doesn’t know about milk delivery services anymore?”

Videl rolled her eyes and tried to shift to be comfortable, aware of the weight on her back and the bite of the straps into her shoulders.

“Anyway, unlike the city, we’re way out in the mountains and they need to have their milk delivered by the glass bottles, see?”

Videl nodded as she counted the bottles in the crate, there were about twenty-eight in all.

“Alright, let’s get going then.”

Videl brought out her trusty copter capsule, but before she could do anything, she was stopped by Krillin.

“Woah, woah, woah. Who said anything about using any kinda machines to finish these deliveries? This is something you gotta do with your own power!”

Videl stared blankly at Krillin for a moment before her eye began to twitch.

“You-”

She licked her lips and tried again, surely she had heard her master wrong.

“You want me to run and deliver all of these bottles?”

Krillin grinned widely as he nodded enthusiastically.

“Exactly! This was one of the first exercises I did as a student, and with the shell it’s a great way to build stamina and speed! Hop to it!”

Sighing Videl went over and picked up the crate of milk. Although not overly heavy, she knew that the longer she went without putting the milk down the more strain her muscles would endure.

“Ki’s all about mind over matter, Videl. Although you’re pretty good at subconsciously using it, we need you to do it consciously for it to work in your favor, otherwise you’ll be forever stuck and unable to realize your full potential. Best of luck!”

His pearl of wisdom said Krillin began to walk back towards the Son residence, whistling a merry tune as he went.

Videl watched him go and grit her teeth in preparation. She had wanted this, so she would take this training, and she would become a better fighter with it! Her mind set and stubbornness bleeding through her being, she set out on the road to begin her round of milk deliveries at a light jog. Sure she might be exhausted by the end of this, but that was the worst that could happen right?

Krillin watched as his student began a slow jog out into the world. He had to admit, seeing her run with that turtle shell on her back and carrying around a crate of milk sure did give him a sense of nostalgia. It seemed only yesterday that he had been trying to con Goku and get a leg up on his training.

Chuckling to himself, Krillin leapt into the air and hovered over his student, just out of sight. He knew that there were many sorts of predators in this mountainous area, but he also knew that Videl had an incredible amount of pride.

Even though he had only known her for a few days, she reminded him of himself a little bit, once upon a time, incredibly stubborn and not prone to taking advice if he couldn’t see the benefit. He drifted in the air calmly as he felt a presence make itself known next to him. He tilted his head and saw that Gohan had decided to come and watch the spectacle as it were.

“Yo, Gohan, here to stalk your crush?”

Gohan rolled his eyes as he crossed his legs in the air and got comfortable.

“Naw, just making sure you didn’t inherit any bad traits from Roshi, it’d be pretty hard to explain some of his habits to people in the city nowadays.”

Krillin almost fell out of the air at what his friend was implying.

“Oh, come on! I’m a taken man, plus she’s way too young for me!”

Gohan grinned before an amicable silence fell upon them. The two of them were no strangers to waiting around for something to happen. They both had a knack for patience and it helped that both were familiar enough with each other to enjoy the silence as it was. A faint sound of birds chirping carried on the wind up to their position.

“Hey, Gohan, I know this might be a bit late, but how are you doing, really?”

Gohan gazed at the ground, but Krillin knew that he wasn’t seeing anything in his line of vision. He was probably somewhere else entirely.

“It still hurts.”

Krillin winced at that statement and the tone it was made in. He had thought that Gohan might still be smarting about what had happened to his dad, but he hadn’t known that it was still bothering the kid this much.

“Hey, man. I know it sucks, but you’ve got a buncha people if you need to talk, me, Bulma, Piccolo, Vegeta-”

Gohan snorted at that last name and Krillin couldn’t help but grin at that.

“-well, maybe not Vegeta, but Tien and Yamcha and the rest can be counted on.”

Gohan nodded his understanding and the two once more fell into silence as Videl made it to the first house and delivered the milk. She looked a bit sheepish if her body language was anything to go by as the residents greeted her and most likely thanked her. It was an incredibly peaceful morning, and the warm rays falling on Krillin’s face were definitely inviting him to relax. If not for his new student he might have tried to find a good spot for a hammock and settled down for a nice nap.

It was just as he was thinking of how peaceful everything was that he heard Gohan mutter something that made his heart begin to beat a bit more rapidly.

“Uh oh.”

Raising an eyebrow, Krillin looked toward his student and saw that she was still going fairly strong despite beginning to look a bit tired. Following her projected path Krillin saw what had Gohan slightly worried.

“Hmph, she should be fine, nothing to worry about. I’ve had the same thing happen to me when I was doing this exercise.”

Gohan looked quizzically at that admittance, but he shrugged and nodded anyway. After all he had had something similar happen to him during his training as well and had gotten stronger for it, so nothing ventured, nothing gained.

Krillin clapped his hands together, he wished he had thought to bring a camera, because his student’s expression was probably going to be priceless once he got back down and talked to her.

Videl was beginning to feel the effects of carrying all the extra weight and her arms were now on fire as she grit her teeth in stubbornness. She would not be beaten by milk of all things! She was strong enough for this exercise and she would see it through damn it.

She had now delivered more than half of the milk and while it was still a strain to carry, she thought she might actually be getting used to the weight of the turtle shell on her back. She wasn’t sure why she was getting used to it so fast, but it was much easier to move around in than it had been only a few hours ago when she had begun her journey.

Still even with her becoming accustomed, the longer this exercise went on, the more tired she became. Already it felt like her legs would soon be turning to jelly and her arms were mere noodles compared to what they had been when she had started. A sheen of sweat had grown throughout the day and she was sure her clothes were ridiculously disheveled.

However, for all the intensity the training was offering her, she had never felt better. She was becoming so much more in tune with her own body as the sun marched across the sky and it was nearing noon. She had only one more bottle to deliver and then she was done. She grinned as she got ready for her victory. Of course that was when it had to all go to hell.

The first thing she noticed was the smell. It smelled like sweat and dead animals. The next was the slight shaking of the ground. With a sinking heart, Videl looked behind her and confirmed what she already knew.

There towards the end of the road she was on, was a tyrannosaurus. The lizard was huge, easily twenty feet tall, and it was slowly approaching her form. For one glorious moment Videl thought that the giant lizard had not seen her, but that hope was utterly dashed as it gave a mighty roar and began running toward her.

Videl didn’t stop to think, she merely took off as fast as she could with the shell on her. She needed to get away and get away fast!

Shit, shit, shit, shit, shit, SHIT!!!!!

Videl was running as fast as she could, but she knew that the dinosaur was gaining on her. She knew that she was too tired to outrun it by normal means. In order to complete her exercise she would have to draw up the ki energy that Krillin had talked about consciously. The only problem was they hadn’t really touched on how to do that yet.

Videl took a deep breath and tried to remember the times she had utilized the power. She always felt as though her entire being was being thrust into a single attack, but now she had to divert that instinct and have it be moved towards her tired muscles. If she could do that, she was sure she would be able to outrun this idiot dinosaur.

Alright Videl, deep breaths. Calm your mind and focus on what you want to do. This is just another way to train and another way to get stronger.

Videl closed her eyes as she ran and tried to reach for the power that she knew was there, just waiting to be called.

Unknown to her, she had begun to regulate her ki instinctively as the deliveries went on, hence how she had been able to become accustomed to the shell that was on her back so quickly. When she calmed herself and reached into her being, she found that it flowed surprisingly easily to her call.

Her eyes snapped open and with a kick that shattered the path she was on, she sprung forward in a massive leap, rocketing faster than she ever had before. Another kick and she rocketed faster and further before repeating the gesture.

Soon she couldn’t hear the dinosaur anymore and she was rocketing towards her final destination at a speed she knew she hadn’t been capable of yesterday. Laughing to herself in exhilaration she landed by the farm that was her last stop and knocked on the door.

The denizens of the household were polite enough and Videl gave a short bow before making her way back towards the Son household. When she arrived there, she saw that Krillin was sitting on the roof of the house meditating, while Gohan was standing on his chimney looking at the sky with his arms crossed.

Videl noticed that the boy had changed into something a bit more suited to martial arts, fairly similar to Krillin’s own style. She decided that she wouldn’t comment on it for now as she made her way over to her Master, who cracked an eye open as she approached.

When she got close enough he opened his other eye and smiled down at her proudly.

“I gotta say, I didn’t realize it was a tradition for someone to run into a dinosaur when they begin their real training, but congrats on continuing that one!”

Videl felt her jaw hang open at that. Was that jerk watching that entire time!?

Krillin jumped off the roof in an effortless flip and landed near the girl. She knew that she was sweaty, disheveled, and probably all around gross, but she just couldn’t bring herself to care.

“Seriously, it’s freaky how good you are with ki manipulation. It took me quite a bit longer to get used to a shell.”

Videl’s eyes widened as she glanced back and noticed that the purple turtle shell was still strapped to her back. She had honestly forgotten it was there! Apparently ki was good for letting someone run around with a massive amount of weight on their back.

“Now that you’re here, wash up and get some food. Afterwards we’ll work on meditating so you can bring out your ki in an instant in case you need to make a quick getaway again.”

Videl nodded and began heading inside, as she passed the door she looked up and realized that Gohan had been looking at her, but she couldn’t discern what he was thinking about from his expression. Shrugging she made it inside and put it out of her mind, if he had something to say to her, he would say it.

Krillin watched as his student walked in to wash up and get some food. True, he had been ready to help her out if she needed it and when the dinosaur had been gaining on her he had been ready to jump in, but Gohan had stopped him.

Then to his astonishment, the girl had once more drawn on her ki, but much more smoothly than she had before and had rocketed away from the danger, leaving the carnivore in the dust. Damn but his student was a fast learner.

“So Gohan, what was with the look?”

Gohan tilted his head as he turned his attention from the front of the door to Krillin.

“What look?”

Krillin rolled his eyes at the young half-saiyan. Sometimes it was hard to tease country bumpkins.

“I mean you were totally checking out my student, weren’t you?”

Krillin felt the satisfaction of his little buddy flaming up in embarrassment. Ah puberty, how he had been glad to see the tail end of it. As long as he was explicit in his teasing he was sure to get a reaction.

With a small kick Gohan flipped over to Krillin and landed with no sound whatsoever by him.

“You know it’s not like that Krillin, I’m just surprised.”

Krillin raised an eyebrow at that. He knew Gohan wasn’t surprised at the fact that Videl was a competent fighter just because of her gender, so it must have to do with her parentage.

“This about Hercule?”

Gohan gave a small nod of his head at that. Although all of them had decided to let Hercule have the glory, Krillin had always wondered if Gohan hadn’t been at least a bit bitter about things. After all the man had pretty much called everything they stood for a fraud.

Krillin himself was past caring about such things and he considered it a bit of Karmic justice that he had gotten that doofus’ daughter to begin training to be a true martial artist rather than the cookie cutter one she would have been if she had stayed on the path of Hercule’s own brand of fighting.

“I’m actually kinda amazed that that guy was able to have a daughter who’s able to manipulate her ki so easily. We both know how much of a fraud he is, it makes me wonder how they interact.”

Krillin gave a shrug in response to that question, even though he knew it wasn’t really directed at him.

“Probably how any sort of parent and child interact with one another.”

Gohan’s eyes flashed for a second, with some sort of emotion, before he settled down. Krillin knew that Gohan was a bit broodier nowadays, but he decided that some teasing couldn’t hurt.

“I’m more surprised that she’s such a looker, eh?”

Krillin said this as he gave a light elbow to Gohan’s side and the boy merely rolled his eyes in annoyance.

“Careful, pretty sure 18 doesn’t like men with wandering eyes.”

Krillin laughed at that. Seemed he was able to at least get his friend to respond to some of the jabs.

“Amen to that. I meant as to the fact that you were checking her out.”

Gohan rolled his eyes once and grumbled as he walked towards the house. Krillin merely grinned before follow after the two teens, it would be good for Gohan to be around someone his own age. The kid had too little friends as it was and the ones he did have were mostly his friend by association with his dad. He was sure that the two would be good friends once they got over their awkwardness with one another and actually talked like regular human beings. And hell, if they hit it off as more than friends, cool, he could strike matchmaker off his bucket list.

After they had gotten something to eat and cleaned up, the three made their way to the clearing that Videl and Chi-Chi had had their challenge in. Videl glanced around and wondered where the matriarch had gone to for the day. She hadn’t seen her the entire time she had been in the house. Before she was able to ask, Gohan answered her unspoken question.

“My mom went to town to shop and took Goten with her to keep out of our hair today. She said something about crazy fight nuts getting along with each other better when she wasn’t around.”

Videl felt a bit sheepish at that, but she was definitely not going to apologize for having fun in a fight. She had come on this trip to find the Dragonballs, but to do that she needed to get stronger and if that meant she had to fight strong opponents, so be it.

“Well, when the two of you are done flirting, we can get to what we’re supposed to be doing.”

Videl felt a faint dusting of pink near her ears even as Gohan responded.

“How can you possibly call that flirting, what type of strange flirting do you do with 18 where you discuss where your mother is at the moment?”

Krillin gave a small cough, before he turned his attention once more to Videl.

“Alright now, kiddo. You’ve been using an explosive amount of ki each time you’ve tapped into it, but today showed me you can use it just as well to enhance what you’ve already got. So this exercise is to help you access and feel the power that you have within you.”

Krillin then dropped to the ground and crossed his legs in a traditional meditative pose followed only a second later by Gohan who copied the pose. Videl shrugged and followed suit, although she thought her legs might begin to cramp the longer she sat like this.

Krillin gave a small grin her way and began instructing once more.

“Now, you need to close your eyes and focus. This won’t work if you let anything really annoy you. Gohan and I will be here until you’re able to at least call your ki up to you.”

Videl gave a small nod and followed Krillin’s instructions. She focused inwards and tried to find the power that she had already been using both unconsciously and today consciously. She now knew somewhat of how it felt and it was that much easier to pull forward once she tapped into it.

“Good. Very good. I might even say scary good.”

Krillin’s voice was fairly soothing as she worked to feel out her power. It felt like a small spark of flame meant just for her, something that she would use to fight the forces of evil and to help anyone that she could. It felt as though she had been missing a piece of herself without ever even knowing and now finally understood exactly how to find that piece.

“I think you might be the most natural ki using human I’ve ever met, Videl. And I’ve met a lot of martial artists in my time. What do you think Gohan?”

Videl tilted her head to the side at that question. Now that she thought about it, she could feel Krillin’s ki, though it was utterly suppressed so as not to bowl her over like he had done when she had first met him. However, she still felt the sense of a barely restrained presence with him.

However, she couldn’t feel Gohan at all, it was as if he didn’t have any sort of ki, but that wasn’t true. Videl had been able to sense Chi-Chi’s ki when they had been fighting and she was definitely weaker than Krillin. She had figured that Gohan would have some sort of similar amount of power as her, even if he hadn’t been doing the same exercises, they had been pretty close in age. Surely she should be able to feel his presence as well?

She felt her mouth set into a determined line and began to focus on the boy. However, the more she focused, the more she realized that it felt like he wasn’t actually hiding anything. It felt like whatever his ki was, it was just out of her reach like something standing in her peripheral vision.

Frustrated she opened her eyes and looked down at herself. What she saw made her gasp in astonishment.

“It’s pretty cool, you’re definitely a natural kiddo.”

Videl nodded as she took in the white tendrils of energy almost lazily drifting from her body. She sensed the energy and was amazed at how natural it now felt to her. She knew that she could call on this power to be able to fight now, and would be that much better at it.

She glanced at Gohan and noticed that he had a small smile, much like Krillin’s, and Videl decided that she would be a bit more forward with the boy. She was done dancing around. Not to mention she wanted to see if he had the same ability to manipulate ki as her.

“So are you able to use ki?”

Gohan looked a bit startled at the question. It looked as if he had intended to just come and enjoy the show, but he quickly recovered and gave a hesitant nod. Videl grinned at that and decided to see how much she could push the boy’s buttons.

“Well, I’ve sensed Krillin’s, I’ve shown you mine, how about you show me yours?”

Krillin laughed uproariously at that even as Gohan’s face flushed in embarrassment. However, judging by the glint in his eye, she had a feeling she was about to have her small teasing turned back on her.

“Are you sure, if Krillin’s was too big to handle, I don’t think you’d be able to work with mine.”

Videl felt herself gaping at the boy as he gave a small laugh. However, before she could get a response in, the boy decided to help her out.

“I guess I could let you feel a bit, but be careful.”

Videl was going to ask him what he meant by that, when suddenly, all of her ki instincts went haywire. She couldn’t see, she couldn’t breathe, she couldn’t feel anything. All she felt… was an intense presence all throughout the mountainside. It was as if she was a drop in a pond and she was now sitting next to a veritable ocean. There was no way in hell she would be able to survive…

With a gasping breathe Videl came back to herself as Gohan and Krillin looked on in concern. She felt sweat rolling down her brow and stinging her eyes.

“Holy hell…”

Krillin gave a small laugh at that.

“You ain’t kidding kiddo, the reason I wanted Gohan on this adventure, besides it being good for him to get out of the house, is that he’s hands down, stronger than me.”

Videl gave a shaky nod at that. If what she had just felt was Gohan’s ki, then there was not a chance in hell she could beat him.

“And I’ll have to fight people like him on our journey?”

Krillin burst out laughing and Gohan gave a small grin at that.

“Oh, hell no! If someone on Gohan’s level shows up, we’ll let Gohan handle them. For now, let’s get some food, get some sleep, and then set out for the next Dragonball tomorrow!”

Videl gave a small nod and the three of them headed back to the house to get some rest. She would be ready to face a small voice that had been nagging at the back of her mind ever since Krillin had shown her he could fly. If her father hadn’t beaten Cell, who had?

She tried to ignore the voice as it said she might have just found the answer.

Videl looked around as she followed slightly behind Krillin and Gohan. The Dragon Radar had pointed to this out of the way town that looked as though it would fit right in with a Western, complete with a Saloon, which sounded rowdy even from where they were standing.

After they had all gone in and found Chi-Chi waiting with a meal, the master and student had shared a lively dinner with the Son family, before turning in for the night. The next morning Videl had been woken at the crack of dawn and sent on the milk run once more. She had completed it in almost half the time, thanks to her new usage of ki.

Once that was done, Krillin had brought out the Dragon Radar and they had gotten into her copter before taking off for the town that they were currently in. Videl even thought she had seen a tumbleweed drift by as they walked through the place.

“Well, looks like that Dragonball is in the Saloon, might as well see what’s going on in there.”

His piece said, Krillin stepped through the double doors with Gohan and Videl following him, although Videl felt a bit peeved that they were going into this establishment, she knew that it was for her mother. However, as soon as they stepped through, a voice called out over the din of patrons.

“Holy shit! Is that you baldy!?”

This voice caused the entire bar to go silent and Videl tensed as she saw her master blink in what looked like astonishment and possibly a bit of trepidation.

Videl looked over at the speaker and saw that she was a woman who had blonde hair with a red ribbon tied neatly in it and was wearing a black tank top with a Capsule Corp jacket with green cargo pants. She had green eyes and a mean look as she walked over to the three at the door, the others in the bar parting as she passed.

Krillin sighed as he rubbed his head sheepishly.

“Been awhile, Launch.”

Chapter Text

Videl blinked as she tried to figure out how she had gotten herself into the mess she was currently in.

Krillin had greeted the blonde like she had been an old friend, but as soon as he had gotten near her, he had found himself on the business end of a handgun that she had pulled from nowhere. Honestly, where was she keeping that thing?

Videl was no stranger to firearms, it was somewhat of a requirement to deal with the seedier sides of her city, but most of the thugs she had taken on looked as though they didn’t really know how to wield their weapons. They were more of a point and shoot kind of goons. It looked like that wasn't the case for this blonde chick.

“I’ve been lookin’ for one of you, short stuff. Haven’t seen any of you in quite a long time.”

Krillin had his hands held up in a placating sort of gesture, and although he seemed a bit nervous, it looked more like an act than anything else.

“Now, now Launch, I’m sure we went over the fact that you’re not allowed to greet old friends with the business end of a gun.”

Launch rolled her eyes as she glanced at the other two that were watching the confrontation. Videl took that chance to glance at Gohan and noticed that he was merely watching the entire event with what looked like amusement if the small smile was anything to go by. Hell, he hadn’t even uncrossed his arms as he looked over at her master.

“You know me, Shortstop, nothing beats good ol’ fashion lead.”

She once more gazed toward Krillin as she cocked the hammer back.

“Now, I’ve got a question for you, baldy.”

Krillin laughed nervously as he rubbed the back of his head.

“Well, I can help you out I suppose.”

Launch looked as though she was going to finally holster her weapon, but then Krillin decided to continue.

“That is, if you’d be so kind as to fork over the Dragonball.”

Launch eyed the monk suspiciously, before giving a vicious grin, and raising up her gun and replacing the hammer so it was now pointing harmlessly at the sky.

“You’re on!”

Krillin sighed in relief, although it felt a bit forced to Videl.

“Now, how bout introducing me to tweedledum and tweedledee over here?”

Videl rolled her eyes before striding forward fearlessly.

“Videl Satan, nice to meet you.”

Before she could continue, Krillin interrupted as he gestured towards Gohan.

“And that’s Gohan, Goku’s son.”

Launch’s eyes widened at that, before softening slightly.

“Nice to meet ya, squirt.”

The blonde then slid her gaze over to Videl and she made sure not to fidget as she was looked up and down by judging green eyes.

“I’ve heard of ya, too, been making a bit of a name for yourself.”

Videl blinked at that statement. Although she had been becoming a bit famous in her own city, they were hundreds of miles away from there right now. She wasn’t sure she should be flattered or a bit scared that the gun wielding blonde had heard of her.

“Thank you?”

She was sure her voice came out a bit weaker than she had intended, but in the face of the blonde’s grin she supposed it was alright.

“I think I might like ya, kid. Now…”

Launch once more turned her attention to Videl’s master and reached into one of her coat pockets before withdrawing what was without a doubt a Dragonball.

“…if ya want this, you’re gonna answer my question.”

Krillin sighed in what was most likely exasperation before he nodded cordially.

“I said I would, and I generally keep my word.”

Launch looked Krillin up and down and gave a small nod.

“Alright, even though I remember a time when that was definitely not the case.”

Videl was then treated to the sight of her master flushing in embarrassment from the offhanded comment.

“I’ve grown up since then, and I have a student of my own now. I wouldn’t be setting a good example if I stayed the way I used to be.”

Launch snorted at that as she began to lightly toss the Dragonball into the air, and as it was glinting in the light, Videl noticed there was only one star on it.

“Ain’t that the truth. Well, guess I’ll get on with it.”

One more toss and then the Dragonball landed in her hand.

“Where’s Tien?”

Krillin blinked, as did Videl and Gohan. Videl hadn’t exactly been expecting that sort of question from the woman, but it sounded like it might have a simple enough answer.

However, when she glanced at her master, he looked decidedly uncomfortable at the question.

“Well, I’m not entirely sure-”

He was cut off as a gun was once more raised in his direction.

“Bullshit! I know you guys can sense that ki stuff, so you can find him even if you don’t know for sure!”

Krillin made a frantic gesture as he was once more within the sights of the irate gunwoman.

“I’m telling the truth, and Tien is probably one of the best there is at sensing and suppressing ki! In fact…”

Krillin then glanced at Videl and had a considering look, despite the fact that the blonde woman began to look positively murderous at the fact that she was being ignored.

“Yeah that could work.”

The words were softer than anything else so far, but Videl could barely make them out. Once they were uttered, Krillin turned his gaze toward Launch once more.

“How about this, Videl here has been having some problems with ki sensing, I think Tien might be good for her. You can come with us until we find him?”

Launch seemed to think Krillin’s offer over for a second before she gave a small nod.

“Sounds good enough for me, short stuff. However, I think I’ll hang onto this, just for insurance.”

She then proceeded to place the Dragonball once more in her pocket. Videl looked longingly at the piece of wish granting MacGuffin that she needed before giving a small sigh. She supposed it wouldn’t be fair to just take the Dragonball without at least trying to help the blonde. Even though Videl disliked guns in general (a hazard of being shot at one too many times) she wouldn’t mind traveling with another girl.

“Are you sure about taking her to Tien, Krillin? I’d say Piccolo is the best of us at that kind of thing.”

Videl shot a questioning look at Gohan for speaking up suddenly, but he was ignoring her as he gazed at his friend. She was also trying to figure out why the name Piccolo sounded so familiar to her, it was probably going to drive her crazy until she figured it out.

Krillin gave a half shrug at the question.

“Well, that’s probably true, but he’s also the best at suppressing his ki and I have no idea where he is. Not to mention he can be a bit…”

Krillin paused as he searched for the word to describe this Piccolo character, but Gohan decided to fill him in.

“Intense.”

Krillin snapped his fingers in realization as he pointed at Gohan.

“Intense! There we go! Yeah, that guy is crazy intense. I know he taught you for a bit, but I’d rather not have Videl go through that type of training if I can help it, and Piccolo might do that just because.”

Gohan gave a small chuckle at that, as he nodded his head in agreement.

“Yeah I think she might take offense at getting hurled into a mountain.”

Videl rolled her eyes, apparently Gohan had gone through some pretty tough training to get to his energy level.

“Well what are we waiting for ya pansies? Tien ain’t gonna find himself, let’s go!”

Krillin shook his head in exasperation of Launch’s antics.

“Apparently I needed to keep that pepper powder handy. Never thought I’d run into Launch here.”

Videl was trying to puzzle out how pepper powder could possibly help against the blonde psychopath, but chalked it up to one of the other weird things that she had seen so far. And to think, less than a week ago she had been ignorant to all of these things.

If I’ve been ignorant to just what I’ve seen so far, how much more am I ignorant to, and how much is my dad keeping from me?

She crushed those thoughts down to the deepest part of her soul. She had no use for doubts at the moment. She would confront her demons when she was good and ready.

“Well, looks like you at least have a girl to talk to now, so long as she doesn’t pump you full of bullets.”

Videl rolled her eyes once more, honestly she wasn’t a delicate flower and she would be able to take on any kind of gunwoman, regardless of how good a shot she was. However, she realized something as she counted their ever growing party. She only really had enough room for three people within her copter, so someone might need to be left behind.

However, when she brought this up, Krillin merely laughed at her.

“Oh man, I needed that. Don’t worry, Gohan and I will be fine, we can keep up no problem with that thing.”

Videl shrugged at that, but decided that she would just have to wait and see.

A few hours later to allow Launch to get her things together for a journey, and they were once more in the sky, Videl’s eyebrow twitching.

Apparently not only could Krillin and Gohan both fly. They could both fly fast.

She knew that it was possible to levitate thanks to Krillin’s little demonstration, but she had never thought that it was possible to be moving at the speeds that the two were currently moving at, and laughing about it.

“Chill out there pigtails. You’re gonna give yourself an ulcer if ya get freaked out by these little things.”

Videl glanced over to her passenger. She supposed she should take solace in the fact that the woman was unable to follow the two outside. Apparently not everyone she was going to meet was able to break the laws of physics.

Videl then thought of the magically appearing gun and grimaced. Well, apparently they might, just not in the same way each time.

Sighing, Videl checked to make sure she was still keeping up with the two outside before responding.

“It’s not so much that they can fly, I kinda already knew about that much, it’s more about the fact that they can fly so damn fast!”

Launch snorted in amusement as her gun once more magically appeared and she began cleaning it.

“I hear ya, but still, I’d think that you might be getting used to weird shit. After all, crazy stuff seems to follow the people that go after the Dragonballs around. Hell, I’d say that you lucke out with traveling companions, short stuff might be the one of the strongest people I know. The kid doesn't seem like a slouch either.”

Videl wasn’t sure if she should feel reassured by that fact. On the one hand it meant that this Tien person that they were going to meet wasn’t going to crush her just by being around her. On the other hand, it sounded like both Gohan and Krillin might be way more out of her league than she had originally thought.

Shaking her head she focused on the flying. That didn’t matter in the first place. They were pretty much the muscle of the journey. And while she was definitely no damsel in distress, she could accept the fact that (for the time being) the two that were defying gravity were stronger than her.

“I guess you’re right. I’ve already met some interesting characters. Although I guess I’ve had some good luck too. Krillin seems like he’s a pretty good master.”

At that statement Launch grinned in an almost menacing way.

“Hey, I don’t know how long you’ve known the guy, but I’ve known him since he was a kid. Wanna hear some embarrassing stories?”

Videl was torn for a moment. On the one hand, she wanted to protect her master’s integrity, on the other she had had some pretty intense training so far. Then she remembered the dinosaur and decided to say screw it.

“You know what, that sounds awesome.”

Gohan was soaring through the air at (for him and Krillin) a leisurely pace.

It hadn’t even been a day and already they had found the second Dragonball. True, they had to run a small errand for Launch, whom he had not been expecting to see, but it seemed like everything was going okay.

It was quite the stark difference from the other times he had gathered the Dragonballs so far. Even though they were doing it so Videl could wish someone back to life, it was nice to have no world ending events trying to get in their way as they went about it.

Honestly, he might enjoy this little adventure, it was more a vacation than anything else, and he might be able to get in a few friendly spars with Krillin if everything went well.

While his mother was of the belief that his schooling was the be all end all, and his father fell on close to the other end of the spectrum, Gohan liked to think that he fell somewhere in the middle, a solid mix of his parents.

He always felt that to train his body he also needed to sharpen his mind. Yin and yang and all that jazz.

“What you thinking so hard about that your forehead has frown lines, kiddo?”

Gohan glanced up at his father’s friend and decided that it might be fun to mess with him.

“You know, the usual stuff, contemplating our place in the universe, meaning of life, how Bulma can fit an entire house into a tiny capsule.”

Krillin gave out a low chuckle that carried on the wind at that.

“Well, at least we can say definitively that we’re not alone in the universe.”

He then sobered as he seemed to think of the various people that they had met when they went to space. Unfortunately, a lot of them had been of the evil variety.

“Although I’m not sure if that’s good or bad.”

Gohan wanted to shrug at that, but couldn’t quite manage it with their flight positions.

“I think it just is what it is, Krillin. Although I gotta say, this Dragonball hunt is going much nicer than the one on Namek.”

Krillin let out another chuckle at that.

“Man, wasn’t that your first real hunt? Talk about a crazy initiation into that kind of thing. I gotta say, you don’t do things by halves Gohan.”

Gohan smiled a bit at that, but grimaced as he remembered a time when he had let his power go to his head. It had almost destroyed the entire world and it had cost him his dad.

“Hey now, none of that!”

Gohan looked over to his friend and saw that he had been watching as Gohan’s expression had changed.

“You did good for what was handed to you, kiddo. True you made a mistake, but I don’t think it was right for us to put everything on you either.”

Krillin sighed as he went back to trying to sense Tien’s ki.

“Hoenstly, I wish we were able to do more than we did. It’s supposed to be the adult’s job to take care of things like that.”

Well, it looked like he had transferred some of his own melancholy over to Krillin. That was definitely not what he had in mind when he had agreed to going on this journey.

“It’s okay Krillin. I know you did your best. That’s all anyone can really ask for.”

Krillin let loose a slightly self depreciating laugh at that.

“It’s just hard sometimes. I’m your dad’s best friend, but he’s left me so far behind it’s not even funny. Now it’s up to me to pass on the Turtle School’s teachings and I can’t help but feel that it should be him. He’s definitely the stronger of the two of us, he always has been.”

Gohan was already shaking his head before Krillin was even finished.

“Power doesn’t necessarily equate to being a good teacher, Krillin. Although I’ve been taught by both Piccolo and my dad, I feel like I learned how to be human from you. They’re a bit too powerful, and all they really think about is the next challenge, the next fight.”

Gohan paused for a moment to gather his thoughts.

“However, I think you and Bulma helped to shape me into who I am today. Our time on Namek was scary, and there were a lot of crazy things that happened, but I think it was an experience that I needed.”

Krillin’s laugh was much more genuine this time.

“Look at me, getting life advice from a teenager, when I have to be giving advice myself. You’re a good kid, Gohan.”

Gohan merely rolled his eyes at that statement.

“And I think you might be hitting your mid-life crisis. How old are you again?”

Gohan watched in satisfaction as Krillin almost fell out of the air at that statement.

“I’m only 33, kiddo! Still plenty of time before I hit one of those!”

Gohan laughed at Krillin’s response, apparently the monk’s age was more of a sore spot than he had thought.

“If you say so, old man, before you know it, you’ll be just like Master Roshi. Living on an island in the middle of the ocean and training various people in Martial Arts.”

Krillin shook his head at that, but a small smile was growing as he did.

“Maybe I’m older than I thought, that honestly doesn’t sound too bad. I guess I’ll just have to make Videl the most kick ass girl I can, especially since she’s my first disciple.”

Gohan never let the grin fall from his face as he responded.

“I’m sure you’ll do fine…old man.”

“Oi!”

Laughing, Gohan sped a bit past his friend, with the man quickly catching up. However, a crackle on their earpieces, courtesy of Bulma, had them slowing down.

“What the hell!? You guys can go faster! Slow the hell down, I’m already pushing this thing as fast as she can go!”

The two martial artists shared a sheepish look before slowing down to a more manageable pace for the copter. They supposed they should make sure to keep their speed in check while they traveled with the girls.

Videl hated to admit it, but she was definitely beginning to get tired after their constant flight. It had been almost two hours now and they had gone further into the wastelands than she had ever been and the ever unchanging scenery had her eyelids drooping more than she wanted.

Unlike her, her passenger had no qualms about kicking her feet up and taking a small nap, and that had been around half an hour ago. Hopefully they would be able to find Tien soon, otherwise she would have to signal to the boys that she needed a rest and that was something that she was loathe to do as they had been utilizing their ki for this entire time and showed no signs of slowing down.

Videl thought about the times she had actively utilized her own ki and realized that she either had utterly crappy control or that the two on the outside had an ocean of energy while she had a middling puddle. She came to the conclusion that it was probably a bit of both.

Just as she was about to contact the two, pride be damned, the radio on her console crackled and Krillin’s voice came through.

“Well, I’ll be damned. I think we actually found him. That was quicker than I thought.”

Videl gave a small sigh of relief as she switched her radio on and transmitted her own message to her Master.

“Great! About how far is he?”

There was a pause before the radio once more crackled to life, although it was Gohan that responded this time.

“About an hour north of here. I think we should take a quick break, you can’t be too comfortable in there after such a long flight.”

Videl was about to respond and tell the boy where he could shove his suggestion, but Krillin interrupted.

“You know what, a break sounds great. I also think it’d be a good idea for you to be on the ground so we can signal Tien that we’re on the way. Gohan and I have been suppressing our ki to help you out, but that means that no one else can really sense us right now and a surprised Tien is usually something that’s kind of unpleasant to deal with.”

While Videl felt her pride smart at the comment, she had to admit that she would probably crash if one of the two let loose a bit and she felt their power. She was sure she could probably overcome the sensation, but she didn’t want to risk her passenger’s life just because of her pride.

With great reluctance she answered almost sullenly.

“Fine.”

That one worded answer had them finding a decent plateau to land on. By the time they had gotten on the ground, Launch had woken and was stretching languidly in the seat next to her. Videl made sure to force down that spike of jealously at how sensual the girl made the movement look.

Videl wasn’t one to be overly self conscious of her femininity and if asked she would probably classify herself as more of a tomboy if anything, but the blonde gunwoman would make anyone question that side of themselves while sitting next to her.

“Man, I gotta say, riding in airplanes is a weird experience after so long. A bit cramped really.”

A quick crack of the neck and the gunwoman sauntered over to Krillin who was gazing north in concentration.

“So, short stuff, you find him?”

This was said as the woman draped an arm around her master’s shoulder. Krillin rolled his eyes in exasperation, but gave a slight nod in response to her question.

“Yeah, he’s pretty close. Just about an hour north, but Gohan and I wanted to stop so that we can raise our power levels to let him know we’re on the way. I’m sure you know he can be a bit ornery when people randomly show up.”

Launch let out a small bark of laughter at that as she let go of the diminutive monk.

“Ain’t that the truth. That guy can be real cranky about the weirdest things.”

As if realizing something she then slid her gaze over to Videl, who merely met the blonde’s eyes questioningly.

“Come to think of it, what’s your last name again, pigtails?”

Videl sighed, she had had originally bristled at the nickname that she had been given by the gunwoman, but no amount of cajoling, pleading, or bargaining had been able to do anything about it so she had just accepted the fact that Launch enjoyed giving nicknames instead of using people’s actual names.

However, she supposed she could at least match rudeness with rudeness. While Videl was normally pretty respectful of her elders, that only went so far before she decided to give as good as she got.

“It’s Satan, blondie. You know, after the man who saved the world from Cell?”

Videl ignored the slight twinge of doubt when she said that, but noticed that Launch had a contemplative look once she was finished.

“No shit. Krillin you didn’t tell me you were training the daughter of a ‘hero.’”

Videl could feel the quotation marks on the word hero, but apparently even Launch could learn to quiet down if the glare her master was giving the blonde gunwoman was anything to go by.

“Alright, alright, a bit touchy eh? I’m just saying, Tien ain’t gonna like the fact that she’s related to that guy at all.”

Krillin sighed at that statement, but he didn’t disagree.

Videl looked between the two, but apparently whatever they were talking about had ended there. However, she was still curious so decided to shoot out her own speculation for why her father might not be welcomed with this Tien character.

“Did my father have a fight with this guy or something? One of the guys he beat one his way to World Champ?”

Apparently this was the wrong thing to say, as Launch merely burst out laughing. However, it was quickly silenced by the glare Krillin sent her way.

It seemed she was unable to completely contain her glee as she wiped an imaginary tear away from her eye.

“That was a good one, pigtails. Never thought I’d get such a nice comedy act when I asked for help.”

Videl felt herself flushing in embarrassment at the gunwoman’s attitude and the looks that both Gohan and Krillin were sending her way that she only really noticed out of the corner of her eye. She felt as though there was some sort of inside joke that everyone she had met in the past week was a part of and they were telling it behind her back at her expense.

“Then does it have to do with Cell?”

Well, it seemed that that was one way to kill the blonde’s mood as she almost literally choked on air, her eyes wide. However, an almost sinister smile began to flit across the blonde’s face once she had recovered. There was some sort of intense glint in her eye as she looked Videl up and down.

“Are you sure you want that question answered right here and now, pigtails?”

Videl felt her temper flash at that. She was tired of being kept in the dark and having everyone look down on her for not knowing something (even though she had a pretty good idea about what that something was). Just as she was opening her mouth (she wasn’t sure if she was going to attack the blonde verbally, or beg the blonde to tell her) a voice cut through the plateau.

“I think that’s enough, Launch.”

Videl blinked as she registered the voice. She looked over and saw that it was Gohan who had spoken this time, and she almost shirked away from the intensity that he was staring at the blonde gunwoman. Videl had been on the receiving end of that same intense stare and had felt the boy’s ki, but even without it he seemed to have some sort of innate charisma that made people listen to him.

Apparently it even worked on psychopathic gunwomen because she rubbed her head sheepishly in apology.

“Ah hell, now I’ve gone and pissed off Goku’s kid. Sorry about that, kiddo. I’ll stop for now.”

Videl was about to throw caution to the wind and demand answers, but she was cut off by a comforting hand placed on her shoulder.

“I think you’ll find your own answers in due time, Videl, but they won’t mean as much to you if you have someone else try and give them to you. It’s important to ask questions, and to question events as they’re told, but only you can really decide what is the truth and what is a lie.”

Videl glanced up at her Master before giving a reluctant nod. Although she still felt like she still had more questions than answers, maybe he was right. She wasn’t sure what would have happened if Launch had answered all her questions, but she had to realize that it wasn’t completely important to her at the moment.

With a small sigh she broke from her Master’s grip and walked away to lean on her copter.

“Might as well signal that guy now, otherwise we’ll be here all day.”

Krillin gave her a small smile, and she felt like she had just passed some kind of test. She had no idea what it was, but she supposed she should be happy she passed, even if it did leave here feeling more out of the loop than she already was.

However, she remembered the fact that not only was the man who had tried to comfort her training her, he was also helping her gather seven mystical balls that would grant her wish of seeing her mom again. She supposed she could let a lot of things slide if that was the case.

Grin still present, Krillin then let loose the tightly restricted ki he had been holding back for the past few days.

Videl felt her breathe catch as she felt the familiar power that she had first felt on Roshi’s island wash over her once more. This was the man that had decided to teach her. A presence so massive that she felt like a small flame flickering in the wind that was his power.

And yet, even with his strength washing over the plateau, Videl glanced over towards Gohan and Launch, both of whom seemed utterly unaffected by what she was feeling. When she had glanced over her eyes locked with Gohan’s and he gave a small smile of encouragement towards her. It was enough to let her center herself and make sure she didn’t embarrass herself by fainting or something. She had to remember that Gohan’s power was probably even greater than Krillin’s. She wasn’t sure if she should be comforted or terrified over the fact that these two powerhouses were so close to her.

“Well, that should at least tell them we’re coming.”

Just as suddenly as the presence had washed over her, it was once more locked tight. Videl felt herself breathing easier as Krillin once more put a leash on his power. She felt a small bit of disgust at the fact that even after these few days, she was still having trouble with being able to be in someone’s presence when they were letting loose.

While she was thinking of that, she realized that Launch was utterly unaffected by the display. However, when she asked how the blonde looked as though it was just another day at the office as they began loading into the copter once more, the gunwoman just laughed it off.

“I’m totally pants at that ki stuff. From what I gathered, I just don’t have enough training to be able to utilize it the right way and I can’t sense it for shit. In that area, ya definitely beat me, pigtails.”

Videl sighed at that, but decided that she would have to accept the answer.

“Hopefully this Tien guy can help me with that.”

She had intended for that statement to be muttered under her breath, but the close proximity of the copter let Launch hear the sentence with no real problem and the gunwoman let out one of her barks of laughter.

“Pigtails, Tien is probably one of the best ki users still alive today. If your master is the Master of the Turtle Style, then Tien inherited the title of Master for the Crane Style. Both of those schools have been around for a long time and have a bit of a rivalry. I think it’s definitely friendlier nowadays than it had been thought.”

Videl tried to take solace in that, but she felt a bit of trepidation at the thought of asking for help from a rival school. Wouldn’t that type of thing be discouraged?

She decided to ask the question over the radio, but Krillin just laughed her worries off.

“Don’t worry about that, kiddo. While Tien might have been a hardcore rival of ours back in the day, he’s definitely mellowed out since then. Things happened and now we’re definitely more friends than rivals, he should be pretty agreeable to helping you out. Especially since this ki sensitivity of yours could be a problem later down the line if you fight someone that can just blast you with their power. It would cripple you in a fight way too easily, and Tien sort of hates that kind of thing nowadays.”

Videl supposed she would just have to trust her master’s judgment on that front. Hopefully she would be able to make a good enough impression. Otherwise she might really be handicapped whenever she fought someone with the ability to use ki. She would just have to make sure that Tien taught her, even if she had to break her knee over his face to get him to do so.

It had nearly been an hour of going north when Videl almost lost control of her copter as she seemed to run straight into a massive presence that was covering a valley that looked like an oasis compared to the wastelands they were coming from.

She had been fine, when suddenly it felt as though there was a massive indistinct man with three eyes gazing down throughout the entire valley, directly at her copter. She jerked on the controls, and suddenly she and Launch were spiraling in a nose dive, with the gunwoman giving a startled yelp as gravity won against their dominance of the air.

However, they were jerked to a stop and crashed against their belts. Videl felt a bit dazed as she felt the copter lower to the ground. Shaking her head, she opened her hatch and stepped out of the copter to see that Gohan had been the one to catch them.

Apparently he could easily lift the copter, since he didn’t even look like he had put in any effort in catching them. Videl gave a small nod of thanks as she looked around at the place they had set down.

It seemed to be a small clearing within the valley that they had been traveling over and Videl could hear a waterfall roaring off in the distance. Honestly the place looked similar to the clearing that she had trained in when they had been over at Gohan’s home. She supposed Martial Art types just liked out of the way places where they could meditate and train.

“That was a close one, you okay?”

Videl gave a small nod of confirmation to Gohan’s query, but before anything else could happen, a voice she had never heard before rang out within the clearing.

“Well that’s something different, I didn’t think I would send the presence I felt spiraling out of the sky when I probed the valley.”

Videl blinked and looked up to see a man floating in the sky, arms crossed as he looked down on the people that had entered what was evidently his valley. She felt her eyes widen as she recognized him, he had definitely been the presence she had felt.

It was somewhat easy to figure out with the third eye and all. She hoped this was the guy they were looking for, because she felt like she might need a bit to recover from that unexpected assault to her senses.

Thankfully she didn’t have to wait long as Krillin’s voice rang out from the sky above the clearing and when she looked up she saw that her master was floating with his hands behind his head in a relaxed position.

“Nice to see you too, Tien.”

Chapter Text

Tien Shinhan was many things.

He had disciplined his body through the art of the Crane School of Martial Arts. He had turned from a path that he had come to hate and had become one of earth’s greatest heroes. He had won one of the World Martial Arts Tournaments and he had become one of Goku’s greatest friends.

However, he hadn’t really expected some girl that felt as though she was on the cusp of learning how to use her ki properly to come crashing down into his valley and for Gohan to put a stop to the crash as he had been meditating while Chiaotzu had headed into town to get supplies.

He had known that Krillin and Gohan were on their way, but he hadn’t felt the girl as she had been hidden from him due to the overpowering presence of the other two. He was pretty sure he had felt Launch as well onboard that copter and while he didn’t always get along with the blonde woman, he didn’t really want any harm to come to her.

As he floated casually in the sky with his arms crossed looking down on the newcomers to his valley, he couldn’t help but examine the girl that Gohan had helped out of the copter.

She seemed fairly young in comparison to the standard fighters that he saw nowadays that had begun to unlock their ki. In fact he would even go so far as to say that she was around Gohan’s age and he knew that the kid was the exception not the rule.

He glanced to his right and saw that Krillin was floating a small ways away with a sheepish expression on his face. The man had watched on as Gohan had taken care of the saving of the copter and he didn’t seem particularly worried about what had just transpired, however, Tien could tell that the shorter man wanted to discuss something with him. It might have something to do with why that girl seemed to be on the verge of hyperventilating if her shorter breaths were anything to go by.

“Uh… Tien, you mind doing me a favor?”

The man sheepishly rubbed the back of his head as he asked, but Tien decided to give him the benefit of the doubt for the time being. He uncrossed his arms as he drifted closer to his friend.

“Are you going to leave me in suspense or are you going to actually tell me what it is that you want?”

Krillin let out an embarrassed chuckle at his blunt statement, but Tien didn’t much care. He had always been someone who preferred getting to the point of a conversation.

“Well, ya see, Videl down there is a bit sensitive to feeling ki and you’re kinda blowing her away.”

Tien raised an eyebrow at that description and scrutinized the girl once more, being sure to probe her ki to see how she felt power wise. While he had somewhat felt the potential, what lurked beneath was actually fairly impressive. With a small nod of his head, he lowered his power level to a more acceptable feel for the girl.

“That should do it for the time being.”

Krillin gave a small nod of gratitude to his friend. He knew that Tien took his privacy seriously and letting them come and hang out for awhile was already fairly generous of the three eyed man. Hopefully he would be amicable enough to help out his student.

Tien sighed as he decided that he had looked down on everyone from on high for long enough and began to slowly descend to the ground. 

Once his feet connected to the ground with a soft click, he decided to clear his throat. While he had announced his presence when they had crash landed, it had been a few minutes since then and the group had been looking at the girl with pigtails (he believed Krillin had called her Videl) with concern.

For a moment no one said anything as he looked the girl over. While she still looked a little disheveled from being put on the spot with his ki output, it also seemed that she was fairly good at rolling with the punches. When she noticed him observing, she met his gaze without an ounce of fear.

Definitely headstrong then.

“My name is Tien Shinhan. While I do not mind having Gohan and Krillin coming to visit me, I must ask… why are you here?”

Everyone paused in the clearing as the girl looked as though she was a deer caught in the headlights. It seemed that whatever she was here for, she had not expected to be the one to have to explain it to him.

With a deep breath she replied to his query.

“Uh… Videl Satan.”

Here she gave a formal bow, no need to be rude to someone who was going to be helping her. However because she was in a bow she was unable to see the flash of recognition that Tien showed at her introduction. He made sure to keep his face neutral as she straightened back up.

“Honestly I have no idea really. I guess you’re supposed to be good with the manipulation of ki and as you can see…”

She made a sort of pointing motion towards herself.

“…I have trouble dealing with the after effects of being so sensitive and Master Krillin said that you might be able to help.”

Tien felt his eyebrows rise at the girl’s statement. He glanced over at Krillin who looked a bit sheepish at not having told him that information and then glanced to Gohan who proceeded to give a small nod. With a sigh, the three eyed man gave a short nod before he spun on his heel and began marching towards the waterfall that was in his little oasis.

When he didn’t hear anyone following after him he looked back and gave a questioning look to the girl.

“If you want my help, it would do for you to follow.”

As he turned back, he heard a snort come from the copter. Ah, that was correct. He had felt her energy as they had been coming in. He supposed he would have to deal with the blonde haired girl for at least a little while as he saw her out of the corner of his eye.

That was the only warning he got before the girl launched herself at him, which he dodged by moving slightly to left and watched as she soared by him with a squawk of protest.

“Oh, you’re so mean to me, darling. It’s been a while.”

Tien sighed at that. He had ditched her in the city to try and get a bit of peace and quiet, but it seemed he would just have to deal with her infatuation for a while as he helped out Krillin’s student. That man was definitely going to owe him one for this.

Videl followed along behind the man that her master had taken her to see with a wary stance. He was well-muscled, wearing a green gi that exposed his right shoulder that was tied with a red sash. He rounded out this outfit with what looked suspiciously like weighted wristbands and boots similar to what her master wore.

While she was confident that there would be no real danger to anything he would do, her master was someone who thought it was a good idea for her to outrun a dinosaur.

She also couldn’t help but feel a sense of familiarity while she observed the person who was supposed to help her. She knew that she had seen him somewhere before, but for the life of her she just couldn’t seem to remember where she had.

She felt a little annoyed at how he had been treating Launch since they had gotten here. While the woman was somewhat crazy and also had a tendency to be a bit annoying, Videl had still bonded somewhat with her. It seemed that the blonde’s dogged persistence was being completely stonewalled by Tien, but Videl supposed she he couldn’t have all the blame for that. She had a feeling she would tire of the blonde if the woman had acted like she was now too.

Eventually they came to a beautiful waterfall that she had heard when they had landed. It had slowly been growing as a roar in the background while they trudged on. The group walked up to a cliff that overlooked the waterfall and Videl took in the scenery around her.

There was a clear pool that the water was falling into and trees surrounded the place on all sides. In all honesty the place felt very serene, she supposed she could see why Tien had decided to come to this place for some peace and quiet.

“While I can feel that you’ve begun to mold your ki, you are only really just scratching the surface.”

Videl’s eyes snapped to the three eyed man’s as he crossed his arms and observed her for a moment. 

“However, there is nothing in this world that is free, and I would like to truly gauge how well you can utilize the power that is within you. Make no mistake… I believe you were called Videl?”

Videl jolted a little at being directly addressed by the man who had technically made her crash when he had put forth his probing ki. However, she recovered quickly enough, making sure to stamp down the blush that threatened to creep up her cheeks as she gave a meek nod. She glanced over toward Gohan and the boy looked as though he were trying not to smile.

“Very well then, Videl. What I want you to do now, is call your ki up from your body and let the power flow through you. It will allow you to begin to withstand more intense manipulation later on, but just that should be fine for now.”

Videl gave a small nod before she closed her eyes and reached into herself. She focused for a moment as she searched within, but she was sure it was beginning to take less time as she felt the ki begin to rise up from within her.

Grinning she opened her eyes and looked at the man across from her, but felt her grin slip as he merely frowned and examined her with more scrutiny than she was expecting. She glanced over to Krillin and Gohan, both of whom had taken up positions in the trees so as to be out of the way and even Launch had gone back toward the tree line to leaning against one. She looked as though she were thoroughly enjoying the show.

“Impressive. How long have you been able to manipulate ki?”

Videl felt a small blush creep across her cheeks once more at the praise, but deigned to answer the man’s question.

“Not very long, it’s only been a few days.”

Tien nodded, but he didn’t seem as impressed as her master or Gohan had been when she had first been able to draw her ki up naturally as she was now. However, she wasn’t sure how long she would be able to keep this up before the power became too much of a drain and she would have to stop the flow. After all, she still remembered the first time that she had really been using this power, she had knocked herself out.

Tien merely stood still as a statue and Videl had the distinct feeling that he was looking deep into her soul. Since he was one of the premier ki manipulators on this planet, he might actually have that ability.

Thankfully, before she could become too uncomfortable, the man gave a short nod and slid into a stance. For a moment Videl was confused by this turn of events, but suddenly her senses went haywire as something flooded her ki sense and she felt a burst of pain in her midsection.

Her tentative grasp on her ki fled from her and she went flying back toward the trees before she had the presence of mind to stop herself by flipping backwards on one hand. It wasn't enough to completely bleed out her momentum and she kept on skidding for a few feet before coming to a stop with dust rising near her. Blinking dazedly, her senses suddenly went haywire again and she once more was plunged into feeling essentially nothing.

However, unlike last time, she had a feeling that something was coming for her left side, so she raised her left arm up in a blocking position. Unfortunately it did little to stop the blow, but she was grateful that the attack smashed into her arm rather than her head.

She was still sent flying, but she was able to roll to her feet once more and came up in a stance ready for the next attack, but this one never came.

Instead she was treated to the sight of Tien once more scrutinizing her, causing her to drop out of her stance, before a smile began to creep across his face that made her shiver a bit. It did not seem like a friendly smile.

“Huh, not bad. You’re a quick learner. Maybe I’ll have a bit of fun after all. It looks like you actually might be a worthy successor to the Turtle Style of Martial Arts. I honestly thought that we might die out in the next generation. While it’s a bit annoying that you’ve taken on chrome dome over there’s school, I must admit that you must be a pleasure to teach.”

Videl felt her breathing finally even out (ignoring her master’s cry of “Who are you calling chrome dome three eye!? It doesn't even make sense any more, I have hair!”) and she felt somewhat surprised. Although she was sure that the hits had been fairly solid even if she had gotten her guard up in the end, she realized that she didn’t really feel all that much pain. 

In fact she felt as though most of her fatigue had fallen away from that brief exchange and if she thought about it, she could trace the time she had begun to feel more alert back to when she had first begun to exude her ki once more.

“I suppose you’d have to be some sort of special to be able to impress Krillin over there. How do you feel?”

Videl scrunched her nose at that question. While she had been feeling a bit tired earlier, she could honestly say that her fatigue had completely fled from her.

“I actually feel… pretty good.”

Tien smirked at her answer and Videl felt a shiver run down her spine at the sight of it. It seemed that the three eyed man was something of a harsh taskmaster and it looked as though she was about to feel the brunt of his own brand of schooling.

“That’s good. Very good. Now we’re going to do a little sparring and I’m going to send your ki sense into overdrive. It’s really the only way that we’re able to let you get used to fighting an opponent with a superior ki. It also looks as though you're beginning to reap some of the benefits of actively channeling your ki as you have.”

Apparently Videl’s eyes were enough to convey the question that she had, because Tien dropped into a stance of his own and immediately Videl followed suit. She would prefer not to be blindsided as she just had been once more, even if she was feeling oddly fine despite the fact that she was sure she had taken two fierce hits from the three eyed man.

“Ki allows us to be more durable, to wash away our fatigue faster. Later on it will let you do more amazing feats, but at the moment with you passively using it as you are, you can take a beating better, even when I do this.”

Suddenly Videl’s senses went haywire once more and even though she could feel an attack coming from in front of her, she was too slow to stop it from connecting and was once more flying through the air.

However, instead of recovering she suddenly felt another blow connect and then another and another. Finally when she was sure that it was going to come from her right side, she ducked and tried for a leg sweep. She felt that her sight was able to return slightly and she could see the man that had been wailing on her stop on a dime and hop over her kick.

God damn it! Why the hell couldn’t she hit anyone anymore!? She was one of the premier fighters in the world, but apparently she had been reduced to other Martial Artists' punching bag!

“To tell you the truth, I recognized your last name as soon as you spoke it.”

Videl caught her breath as she pulled herself back up off the floor. While she had been feeling better than she should have, she realized that the last attack had hurt . Apparently Tien was of the opinion that no pain meant no gain.

“However, I want you to know that your dad’s titles mean jack to me. After all…”

Tien gave her another smirk, which Videl felt like she definitely wanted to punch off his three eyed face.

“…I am also a World Martial Arts Tournament Champion.”

Krillin sighed as he watched his student begin to “spar” with Tien. The Crane was always a bit more vicious than the Turtle, not that they both weren’t massively intense in their training in their own ways, but he really should have figured that this is where things would lead. It seemed as though everyone wanted a piece of the girl as soon as they met her.

However, he wasn’t worried as he had noticed with the unlocking of her ki, Videl had become much more sturdy and was able to take a hit better than she had before. Seeing as that was something that had attracted Master Roshi’s attention to her in the first place, he supposed that was a good thing.

He glanced over to his two companions that were also silently watching the fight going on and noticed that Gohan’s fingers seemed rather strained as he watched the two fighting. 

Krillin turned back to the fight at that so he could hide his sly smile. He supposed that Tien might have to be a little bit careful when dealing with his disciple. After all, if anyone angered the black haired teen beside him then nothing would be able to stop the boy from taking it out on whoever had angered him.

“Man, pigtails sure can take a beating, can’t she?”

Krillin glanced down to his other watching companion and gave a halfhearted shrug in her direction, not that she was looking. When the blonde had walked over to the trees to make some space for Tien and Videl, she had casually thrown over the Dragonball, which Gohan’s hand snapped out to catch. At least the woman honored her end of bargains, no matter how crazy she could appear at times.

Krillin grimaced as Tien pulled a massive combo on his student. It looked as though he was really starting to get into a sort of teacher mode, however painful that may be for whoever was receiving the teaching. With a shrug Krillin decided to answer the blonde gunwoman.

“Her toughness was something that actually made Master Roshi take notice of her. She just wasn’t about to give up if she could still fight. Still…”

Krillin watched as the two paused in their fight, once more exchanging words instead of fists, before Videl’s jaw dropped open. Krillin raised an eyebrow at that. Apparently something had been said that had stunned her. Then he winced as Tien’s ki spiked once more and he had sent the girl flying back towards the tree line, much to the amusement of Launch who cupped her hands around her mouth and decided to yell at the girl.

“If you’re feeling a bit desperate you can always tag out with me, pigtails! My hunk would never really hurt me!”

Videl shot a venomous glare their way before she replied.

“Bite me, Blondie!”

Launch merely laughed that off as the dark haired girl picked herself up and once more got into her preferred stance. While it wasn’t a Turtle stance, Krillin figured he had some time to teach her those things once she was able to get her ki sensing under control.

With a scream of determination, the girl shot towards Tien once more, only to be blasted again by the man’s ki and subsequently punted around the cliff like a football.

“Well, she’s dedicated, I’ll give her that.”

Launch then winced as another hit sent the pigtailed girl sprawling once more.

“Also, it looks like Tien is having more fun than I thought he would.”

Krillin had to agree with that as he watched his one time rival kicking around his student. While the method was actually fairly sound and Krillin’s style of teaching might have waited a bit before make her a giant bruise, he supposed that this way of acclimating Videl to fighting with her ki sensing handicap was more effective than he might have thought. 

Even though she was still getting destroyed, slowly the ki blasts were affecting the girl less and less. She was becoming better able to follow Tien’s movements, even if he was holding back massively. In fact it looked like the girl was ready to once more go on the offensive as she planted a foot and sprang toward the three eyed man with her fist pulled back trying to deliver a devastating haymaker. She was even able to mostly ignore Tien’s burst of ki.

Unfortunately she telegraphed far too much to someone like Tien, and the man was able to redirect her punch and swept her legs from her before he delivered a palm thrust that had more power in it than the others. Suddenly Videl was flying through the air towards the trees and met an abrupt end as she smashed into one of them with a sickening crack before sliding down limply.

“Tien! ”

Everyone by the cliff side stopped at that voice as a wave of power washed over those there. Even Launch, who sucked at sensing ki, shivered. Krillin looked over to his left and saw that Gohan had landed once more on the ground and was walking towards the three eyed man. While the teen’s hair was thankfully not a golden blond, it was clear that he was unhappy.

“Ah, sorry Gohan. It’s been awhile since we’ve come across a human that had this much potential and I might have gotten carried away. I apologize to you as well…”

Here Tien paused and he tilted his head in thought before a devilish smirk crossed his features.

“… Master Krillin.”

Krillin felt like rubbing his temples, of course Tien wanted to joke around when a pissed off Gohan had him in his sights. This was the maniac that snapped and beat the shit out of Cell just to buy time after all.

“It’s fine, Tien. I know that your own teaching was a bit… rougher than what Goku and I went through, can’t deny the results though, I suppose, for both then and now. She was definitely getting better towards the end there, enough that you hit her semi-seriously.”

Gohan shook his head and began making his way over to the downed girl. While the kid was a natural warrior he also had more of an inclination to be a pacifist when the situation called for it and sometimes that showed in how he treated others when he was trying to train.

Krillin supposed that was actually something of a good thing as Gohan could probably break most people in half if he didn’t watch what he was doing and Chi-Chi, for all that she scared the bejesus out of him sometimes, was still a regular human. He was sure Gohan was a bit more careful when around his mom and younger brother.

“I’ve got to admit I’m a bit jealous. If I had been able to find her first, it would be my school’s legacy that was being passed down. She seems like she’d make an excellent pupil.”

Krillin smiled at the praise of his student. Although she could be a bit hard headed at times and probably had a stubborn streak that he was already beginning to see hints of, he couldn’t deny that she was a good kid deep down. It made him question how she could actually be related to that idiot Hercule.

The two Z warriors watched as Gohan bent down and picked up the girl bridal style before beginning to trudge back towards the copter that they had taken here. While the boy could deny it all he wanted, Gohan definitely was feeling some sort of attraction toward the Satan’s daughter and Krillin couldn’t really blame the kid. 

Even if she hadn’t been a girl, the kid didn’t really have many friends that were his own age and Krillin was just happy to be able to help his best friend’s son out when he could. He thought this trip was actually doing some good, seeing as it got Gohan out of the house and moving around once more instead of only studying.

“She’s a good kid, and Gohan has gotten a bit attached to her in the short time that they’ve known one another, so I’d be careful if I were you. More incidents like that and he might begin to breathe down your neck in a not so nice manner. Something I’m sure even you don’t really want to deal with.”

Tien let out a small huff of laughter at that as he began to lift himself off the ground. Krillin considered where Gohan had disappeared for a moment before shrugging and lazily drifted off himself. It always was nice to casually dismiss the laws of physics and he really had the man next to him to thank for that. They had really first encountered flight through the Crane School.

“He seems more at ease with himself, even if he was snapping at me. I suppose you dragging him out looking for the Dragonballs has been good for him.”

Krillin threw a sharp look at Tien, but the man merely chuckled at the look. Clearly he wasn’t intimidating enough to someone he had known for a long time, but it was enough to get Tien to explain.

“It’s somewhat obvious what you’re up to, Krillin. I saw Launch toss one of them to you as she made her way back to the trees.”

They both glanced down to see that Launch had apparently decided to walk back to the copter as well. Krillin supposed that even that small three hour trip endeared the girl to the blonde gunwoman.

“In any case, I’d say that it’s actually a good way to help with her training. Once she wakes up we can begin to train in earnest to curb her handicap. It might take a few days for her to completely ignore it, but it’s not something that is insurmountable.”

Krillin gave a small nod at his friend’s analysis. He had figured something like this might be needed, but while Krillin considered himself a bit more powerful than Tien, there was no doubt that the man was better at ki manipulation than he was. This was the man that was one of the first who were able to copy the Kamehameha after all, the only person he knew that had really done that was Goku, but he figured his friend didn’t count.

“I’m looking forward to her growth, Krillin. It’s been a long time since we’ve had a genuine human opponent who might one day catch up to us and give us a good fight, without strings attached of the world being blown into oblivion.”

Krillin glanced at the green clad man as they both hovered above the earth. He looked more wistful than the last time that they had seen one another, but considering that was in a desperate fight for their lives, he supposed that was only an ordinary thing to see.

Truth be told, sometimes Krillin missed the good old days. Back when there were no massive threats to Earth and the worst thing that they had to worry about was either finding the Dragonballs or fighting in the World Martial Arts Tournament to test their ever growing skills. He supposed that that was just something that fell by the wayside with megalomaniacal alien dictators and super bio androids intent on destroying the world.

Hell, even Piccolo was pretty out there when they first encountered him, thank god the dude had mellowed, they’d be pretty boned if he was still intent on taking over the world, seeing as he was one of the few people that could probably at the very least keep Gohan at bay due to the respect that the boy had for him.

“We’ve been through some pretty crazy stuff, but seeing her is definitely a breath of fresh air for me. Hell, maybe after this hunt for the Dragonballs, we should all enter into the tournament, for old time’s sake.”

Tien gave a small smile at that and Krillin reciprocated it towards the three eyed man.

“I might just take you up on that, gonna continue the tradition and enter under a false name, Master Krillin.”

Krillin rolled his eyes at that, and although his friend said it sarcastically, he couldn’t deny that the title actually felt pretty damn good. He supposed that once the quest was over he could broach the subject with his pupil. It might be fun to watch the smug smirk disappear off of Hercule’s face when he realized exactly who had entered into the tournament with him this time around. He would make sure to have his camera ready.

Videl came slowly back to consciousness and as she did, she realized that she was staring at the roof of an unfamiliar ceiling. 

With a muffled shout she shot up, but immediately regretted it as her lower back protested greatly at the sudden movement.

“I’d be careful if I were you, although ki will begin to naturally make your body stronger and help some of the healing process, it can still hurt like hell if you’re not careful.”

Videl winced at that and slowly panned her eyes to her left where she saw Gohan casually sitting on the air just outside the copter and munching on a riceball. Well, it seemed she had had an audience while she slept. Wonderful.

With a sigh she laid back down, trying to ignore the ache in her lower back. While the hit had been hard, she thought that the shock of it had been the real reason why she had been so indisposed. And she had met yet another person that she was unable to beat. He was also another World Champion, one who was so far out of her league that it wasn’t even funny. 

She closed her eyes and let herself drift as she thought about the past week or so and the many colorful characters that she had met, starting with Bulma Briefs.

That had been the catalyst that had led her to this quest and her gaining a new master, one who so far had done right by her, even when he did throw her into unreasonable situations, such as fighting a former Champion and running away from dinosaurs.

In all honesty she might have felt a bit overwhelmed. While she had always thought of herself as one of the top fighters in the world, she was rapidly coming to the realization that she was not in fact top dog on the food chain. 

She knew her flaws well enough and she realized that she needed to strive to be better if she had any chance of being able to go toe to toe with the likes of Master Roshi or Tien Shinhan. Now when she thought of World Champions, her father was not the one who immediately popped into her mind. Rather it was the former Champions who her father had said had been using tricks and traps to make the audience think one thing, but they were really doing another. 

But, she thought with a bitter smile, that’s not quite true is it?

She knew now that the people were definitely capable of all those… tricks that her father so despised. It was something that she was rapidly beginning to come to terms with and something that she would have to deal with for herself.

Unfortunately she was stilling missing some pieces of the puzzle. She was only working with a fractured jigsaw and not seeing the whole picture, something that was beginning to eat away at her like nothing had before.

She knew that she was a naturally curious person, and her curiosity and headstrong nature would definitely get her into some major trouble one day. She supposed it was lucky she had been directed toward Master Roshi instead of meeting him on the streets or something and would have been even more humiliated than she was when she had first encountered him.

She supposed that this introspection was really only staving off the inevitable and she would just have to bite the bullet. With their successful delivery of Launch they had acquired another Dragonball, and she felt that it was probably time to put some of her questions to bed, no matter how uncomfortable.

She had seen the ways that all of the true Martial Artists had reacted to her name as she had gone about and been introduced to more and more of them. She would have had to be blind not to see their reactions, and though her master was without a doubt older than the teen currently sitting in the air looking at her with concern, she knew that Krillin greatly respected Gohan and that Gohan was massively stronger than her mentor.

For a moment she still toyed with the idea in her head, but she knew that she wasn’t going to be able to keep it off any longer. Her curiosity was too great and she knew that she felt a burning need to know. So sucking in a lungful of air and letting it go in a ferocious sigh, she decided to bite the bullet.

“Gohan.”

The dark haired teen looked down at her from his floating position, but made no other move to really engage in a conversation. She made sure to maintain eye contact with the boy. Steeling herself (she was Videl Satan damn it! She could do this!) she plowed on with her question before she could have a change of heart.

“Did my father defeat Cell?”

Chapter Text

The silence stretched out after she had asked her question and in the back of her mind, somewhere buried deep within her, she wished she could take it back.

She wasn’t sure how Gohan was going to respond, he had looked slightly off guard right after, but then his dark eyes had shuttered and she couldn’t quite read the expression that was now in them. She had learned some of the various things she had been able to detect from his eyes during their short time together (they were more expressive than he had probably realized) and she was sure of the answer the minute that they had shuttered over.

While the silence could only have been a minute at most, each second felt like an eternity to Videl. She had grown up in the absolute belief in her father. It was what had originally inspired her to take to the streets and begin to try and fight crime. She had only been doing it for a very limited amount of time, but she had done it so that she would be able to become someone she herself could look up to much like her father had been before he had let the fame go straight to his head.

“Are you sure you want me to answer that?”

Videl felt herself flush in mortified rage at the answer that Gohan had given. Here she was laying herself bare and even though she could tell herself she was ready (the little voice deep inside her said she really was not) Gohan had the audacity to think that she wasn’t.

Well, if he wanted to doubt her after the things she had seen and done, then she felt as though she was entitled to getting a small fit of pique. It seemed like everything in her life was just one giant test of her merit and skill after another and while she was sure she was making progress, she was also sure of the fact that the boy in front of her was probably one of if not the most powerful person on this planet. From everything that she had seen of her father and everything she had seen of the real Martial Arts masters in the world, she needed  to have this closure or she felt she may never really begin to move on to the next stages of the training she was attempting.

“Are you sure you wanna ask me that?”

She had perhaps added a bit more bite to her own question than she had meant to. So she was mad about Gohan giving her the run around. Sue her; she wasn’t a perfect little princess like her dad had wanted her to be at one point in time.

Her annoyed tone seemed to set off something in her age mate as he let out a small smile that made something in her howl at his amusement of her own dilemma. She would wipe that smirk off his face as soon as she felt that she was able to. She wouldn’t have anyone looking down on her and her insecurities.

“No.”

One word.

It only took one word to completely turn Videl’s entire worldview completely on its head. She had thought she was ready deep down, but apparently even deeper than that she really hadn’t been. However, it seemed that Gohan wasn’t completely done with his answer, even though he had completely shattered the things that Videl had thought she had known about the world.

“Hercule didn’t defeat Cell, honestly the man’s not half bad for a practitioner in this day and age, but he’s too close minded and not nearly strong enough to have fought that monster. By now you know that the things he was passing off as special effects were incredibly real and incredibly deadly.”

Videl felt as though she might start hyperventilating as the teen continued on. She was pretty sure that she had been completely rendered mute by his casual affirmation of everything that she had been suspecting, but that she had been trying to bury deep within herself. An ostrich sticking their head in the sand, a kid hiding under the covers from a monster. If she couldn’t see it then it couldn’t see her.

“Honestly I’ve always been a bit curious about how the general public accepted the idea that the things Cell was doing were just some sort of special effects that you could find in movies, but they were also deadly scared that he was going to destroy the world. Did they think he had some sort of doomsday device or something?”

Videl let the boy ramble as she slowly but surely remembered how to breathe again. It wasn’t as easy as she thought it should be, but she felt herself almost drifting in her disbelief. She had been lied to. By someone that she had implicitly trusted her entire life. It wasn’t a very good feeling, she thought, as she stared off into space. However, she was pretty sure that she would need to stop Gohan from talking.

“Stop please.”

The dark haired teen’s mouth shut with a click and he took on a wary expression at her tone. She supposed that might’ve come out a bit more snappish than she had wanted to. She needed to get her emotions under control, but she wasn’t entirely sure what to do. All she really knew was that she had to be alone right now.

“I think I need to be alone, thank you for being honest with me, Gohan.”

Gohan merely gave her a slow nod and got to his feet. He began to leave but paused before he got too far.

"Although Hercule didn’t defeat Cell, I still respect him because he was willing to face that monster. Cell was someone that was scary for everyone involved, and I’m not sure how well the world would have reacted if they didn’t have something to hope for. Hope is a much bigger deal than you might’ve realized.”

Videl just nodded as she drew her knees to her chest and slid down the wall that she hadn’t even realized she had been leaning on. She would have to get through this. She would get through this. She just needed to be alone with her thoughts for a bit.

Krillin was lounging in a tree as he watched the sunset. It was pretty majestic, throwing shades of orange into the valley that Tien preferred to train in. The man was quite Spartan in what he utilized while he trained so there was no house in the forest; luckily Gohan had brought a Capsule and had taken Videl there to recover after her bout with the former World Champion.

He could see the appeal that Tien found in these deserted valleys, moreso than Piccolo’s odd obsession with wastelands. There was an inherent beauty that calmed the soul and the sound of the waterfall in the distance made the place ideal for meditation. He breathed in the air slowly as he sat up on his tree branch and crossed his legs. It had been a while since he had focused on his ki the way he was now. 

His slowly pulsing life force was all that he was aware of, but then he extended his senses outward. Once he did he was able to pinpoint where everyone was in the valley. He was pretty sure that Tien was busy running through some katas as Launch watched on. Gohan was moving away from his student and Krillin felt a frown forming on his face as he realized that the girl was feeling more stressed than he remembered. He supposed that Gohan had discussed something with her that had unexpectedly upset the strong willed girl.

The new master of the Turtle School opened his eyes as the son of his friend exited the small cottage that he had brought in the capsule. It seemed as though whatever was discussed in there had had an effect on the teen as well, he was just better at hiding his emotions from his ki output. Saiyans could be such drama queens.

Oh well, suppose I should’ve expected some sort of drama eventually with two teenagers in tow .

Krillin was pretty sure he should feel annoyed, but all he really felt was amusement. He decided that a little teasing was not remiss in his duties as a fun sort of uncle figure and friend to the teen.

“How’s it hanging Gohan, having a bit of a lover’s spat with my student?”

Gohan’s eyes flashed over to the monk and Krillin saw some sort of complicated expression, before he let loose a monstrous sigh and crossed his arms to lean on the tree Krillin was occupying.

“It’s a bit more complicated than that, Krillin.”

Krillin raised an eyebrow at that, but he supposed he could roll with the punches if he really wanted to try.

“Oh, so you’re admitting she’s your girlfriend now, buddy?”

He felt more than saw the stern look that the teen Saiyan directed his way. He raised his hands in surrender with a chuckle at the look the boy gave him. Sometimes it was a little too easy to rile up the son of his best friend. They had been through a lot together though and Krillin felt justified in some good old fashioned ribbing. He hadn’t been able to do any of that since he was a kid trying to get into Master Roshi’s good graces.

“She asked me about her father beating Cell.”

Krillin winced at the flat tone of the teen and then blinked in confusion. He was pretty sure he had heard that wrong, but if he hadn’t he supposed it was time for some clarification.

“Well what’d you tell her?”

Gohan sighed as he pinched the bridge of his nose, a habit that he had definitely picked up from Bulma, since Krillin and his dad were more of a go with the flow kinda people.

“The truth.”

Well, that was a blunt answer. He supposed he was all battering ram and no finesse in his answer to his student’s query as well. It seemed he had found the source of her swirling emotions that had been coming from the cottage.

Sighing, the short of stature Z warrior opened his eyes and looked down towards his friend.

“Probably shoulda been a little less blunt there. It’s not easy for people to suddenly change their worldview even if we’ve been building up to this for a bit now.”

Gohan just sighed as he got more comfortable beneath his dad’s friend.

“I think I’m beginning to realize that.”

Krillin just shook his head in pity at the poor teen. He really needed to interact with more people his age. It probably wasn’t healthy for a teen to constantly spend his time around adults, even if said teen was a hell of a lot more mature than Krillin was at the same age.

“It’s okay to make some mistakes Gohan.”

The teen looked up at him at that and Krillin almost winced at the pain that he could see buried within those eyes.

“The last big mistake I made ended up with a lot of death on my part, Krillin. I don’t want to get into that kind of situation again, or make the same mistakes when I know I can prevent it.”

Krillin felt like he might get into the habit of pinching the bridge of his non-existent nose. He vaguely wondered if Master Roshi just snapped into his perversion with having to deal with hormonal teenagers for all the years he had been alive. Nah, he was just probably wired like that.

“You’re doing fine kid, one step at a time. You were a bit too young to really have his death impact you the last time, and you spent a long time getting to know him in the Time Chamber. It might not be easy, but it’ll be okay. Eventually.”

With a languid stretch Krillin sprang from his tree and lightly landed a few feet away from the black hared teen.

“For the time being I think I have a disciple to go and get out of a funk. Just because she learned some stressful information doesn’t mean that she can do nothing but mope around. I didn’t sign up to teach her when she’s in that sort of mood.”

Gohan rolled his eyes at the short monk’s statement, but he did look better than he had when he had first exited out of the cottage. Krillin supposed that he was doing something right if that was the case. Time to go pull off another miracle; he was good at those after all, it came with the territory of dying and coming back to life he was pretty sure.

“I think I’ll let you two bond a bit, I’m going to go see if Tien is still keeping up with his skills.”

Krillin snorted at that, the day Tien stopped training was the day that the three eyed man was put into the ground for good.

“Well, have fun. Hopefully I can talk our girl through what she probably sees as a betrayal of the highest order.”

With a casual wave Krillin began making his way towards the cottage, only giving a small glance when he felt the black haired Saiyan take off towards where Tien was at. Hopefully a friendly spar would be able to pull the boy out of his funk. He then realized that Tien might have bitten off more than he could chew because Gohan was probably still annoyed about earlier.

Letting out a small huff of laughter at the sneakiness of the Saiyan, Krillin walked up to the cottage and gave a polite knock. 

He waited for a minute before the door open and he was greeted with the bedraggled face of his student. Her hair was a mess and looked as though it needed a brush and her pale complexion made the red in her eyes stand out more than he wanted. Well, he was here to fix that, so fix it he would.

“Hey there, kiddo. I think we need to talk.”

Gohan had felt his mood steadily plummeting ever since he had talked with Videl and revealed the truth. He had thought she would appreciate it more if he had been blunt about it and ripped it off like a band aid. Instead it seemed that he had once more caused distress for someone that he was coming to care for.

He supposed what he really needed right now was to vent some of his frustrations out. And he just so happened to have the perfect target, while the three eyed man was no Vegeta, he was sure that Tien would be more than happy to test his mettle against Gohan. He had been the person to defeat Cell after all and he knew that deep within all of the protectors of the Earth there was a burning desire to test themselves. It was most likely what drew them to Videl. They could see the potential that she had and they had gotten tired of becoming stagnant with their own training.

He looked up to the sky and noticed the first star twinkling in the evening twilight. He wondered if he might be able to see New Namek from where he was in the Earth’s hemisphere. The walk was calming him down even more than his small talk with Krillin had done. 

He knew that his anger could be a terrible thing and he also knew that he had become angrier than he had meant to at Tien earlier. Perhaps that was part of the reason he had been so blunt towards his pig tailed friend. She was someone who he had begun to respect and he had wanted to make sure that she knew the truth regardless of the consequences. Sometimes he cursed his impulsiveness and pride.

With a shake of the head he came to the waterfall that Tien had fought Videl at earlier and just observed as the man moved through his kata, one graceful movement going to another of someone who had trained their entire life. He might even be a bit more skilled than Gohan’s own forms. 

Gohan knew he had the power, but he was almost positive that his dad might still be able to match him due to the man’s sheer skill in Martial Arts. People like Tien and Krillin both had that skill even if they were much much weaker than the demi-Saiyan.

With one last flourishing kick, Tien returned to his beginning stance before his eyes slid over to Gohan. The man rose into a more relaxed state as he looked at the teen quizzically.

“Hello, Gohan. What can I do for you?”

Gohan began to slowly stretch as he locked eyes with the triple eyed human.

“I think I’ve been feeling a bit rusty lately. I need to practice my form more, so I was wondering if you might be interested in a spar?”

His statement seemed to startle Tien a bit, he glanced over to Launch who had been lounging near the tree she had claimed earlier and cleaning her weapons, but she just waved her hand dismissively to the two warriors.

“You boys have fun, I have other things to do rather than watch some sort of weird dick measuring contest that you guys always seem to get up to.”

Gohan raised an eyebrow at that response. He had thought the woman was more obsessed with the green clad man and hadn’t wanted to let him out of her sight since she had been ditched earlier. Actually, he was pretty sure that Launch might be good for his fellow teen if Krillin wasn’t able to get her out of the funk that Gohan had unintentionally put her in.

“Actually Launch, I think Videl might want to talk to you. She’s talking to Krillin at the moment, but she’ll be free soon enough.”

Launch grunted at that and looked over to the two warriors. Sighing she put down her oil rag and stood up with a stretch that showed her womanly charms. Gohan blushed a little at that, but he was determined not to show her how she might be getting to him. The blonde would just pounce on him in an instant. 

It appeared that Tien had gotten used to Launch’s presence and merely ignored it as she made her way towards the cottage. Gohan decided to ignore that in favor of completing his stretches, while he was confident in his ability to go from zero to one hundred at the drop of a dime, it always felt better to have a bit of time to stretch.

Tien himself merely crossed his arms and waited for the teen to complete his ritual. Gohan figured that having been running through the kata he had seen when he had first got here, Tien was probably fairly warmed up.

“What terms do you want to set for our spar?”

Gohan thought for a moment how he wanted to approach this, but then remembered that Videl’s ki sense was probably blown to hell with what she had learned.

“I think it best if we just stick to our standard forms, no ki blasts, no flying, just pure skill.”

Tien looked surprised at his ground rules for a second before a grin slowly crawled across his face. He looked almost ecstatic to be able to enter into a contest of skill. Something that Gohan was sure the man had not been able to find much of ever since the Saiyans had invaded the Earth.

“Well, if that’s how you want things to be.”

With that said the three eyed man slid into his preferred stance while Gohan slid into his own.

There was a beat of silence as the two just stood across from each other, each looking for holes in the others form. While Gohan was sure he saw a few he might be able to exploit with his speed, that wasn’t what this was for. He was content to wait for Tien to make the first move.

There was one more beat and then Tien erupted with the first move Gohan had been waiting for. It seemed that he only wanted to test the water because he had sprung forward with a kick aimed at Gohan’s head, but Gohan was able to easily block the attack. Quick as a snake, he wrapped his arm around Tien’s leg and executed a nice throw that the man recovered from easily enough and slid back into his stance once more.

Gohan gained a small grin and decided that it was time to press the advantage. He sprung from where he was and began exchanging blows with the man. Their exchanges were much more fluid than the fight that Tien had had with Videl earlier and it almost seemed as though the two were dancing to some sort of music that only they could hear.

This occurred for a few moments before Tien utilized a well executed fake and was able to land a clean hit on Gohan sending him flying back. Gohan blinked in astonishment for a moment and took in the smug satisfaction that crossed the man’s face.

“It’s like people keep on forgetting that I’m one of the best fighters on this planet. Let’s see what you really got kid, in a test of skill I’m pretty confident.”

Gohan felt a smile spread across his own face at that statement. He supposed this would be more of a learning experience than he had first thought. Even though he would try to deny it, he was still his father’s son and sometimes it was just best to cut loose and test himself against a worthy opponent. If it was someone who couldn’t quite match him in power, than he hoped it would be in skill.

Sometimes it was easy to forget just how skilled the warriors he hung out with were. The man was no slouch in his training and had been able to best his dad once upon a time. He was sure that he would be able to cut loose a little bit more than he had so far.

With a grin that was sure to melt hearts one day, Gohan declared his intent to the three eyed man.

“Challenge accepted then.”

With a blur the two continued the dance that had been put on hold.

Videl knew that she probably didn’t look the best right now. While she had been preparing for the answer that she had received she hadn’t realized how much it was going to hurt. She supposed she was a bit more of a daddy’s girl than she had originally thought. 

It explained why she was such a tomboy and had such a passion for fighting, it was something that she had inherited from her dad and she had always looked up to him. Even when he was being a bit of an idiot, he was still her dad. To find out that he had been lying to everyone all these years hurt more than she thought it would. To find out that he had been lying to her .

It was in this state that she answered the door to the cottage that she had found herself in once she became more aware of where she was after her beat down from Tien. While she was still smarting from that travesty, she was also sure that the new found knowledge that she had just gained easily trumped the sting of another defeat.

She blinked when she realized that the diminutive man was still standing in front of her and looking as if he expected her to answer something he had said. Unfortunately she wasn’t in the best state of mind right now and had no idea what her master had said.

“I-”

She barely got a word out before she was cut off.

“Guess it’s worse than I thought, I swear that kid needs to learn some social cues sometimes. Probably gets it from hanging out with a buncha people twice his age.”

Videl blinked at that and was about to try to talk once more, but she was interrupted by a blonde woman announcing her presence, violently since Krillin had to dodge a random magazine clip thrown his way.

“Oi, shorty! Me n Pigtails have to have a discussion, go do something to entertain yourself for a bit.”

Videl blinked, but then she was suddenly in a vice grip of the blonde woman and being dragged out of the cottage. She glanced at the sky and was shocked to see that the stars had come into full force. It seemed that she had been out of it longer than she had thought.

Eventually Launch stopped manhandling her and dumped her in a clearing that seemed to be away from everyone. Videl glanced towards the right, her expression pulling into a confused one as she was sure that she felt both Tien and Gohan’s ki spiking. However, before she could explore this further, the blonde woman decided to interrupt any train of thoughts she had.

“So, I heard ya needed to talk, so talk.”

Videl blinked at that, but gave the woman an incredulous look once the statement sunk into what had been said.

“What?”

Good going Videl. Brilliant comeback. She wasn’t sure she had been insulted, but just being in Launch’s presence made her feel like an idiot sometimes and she hated looking stupid. 

With a huff the gun toting woman crossed her arms under her generous assets and decided to expound on what she had said.

“I heard from Angsty Teen One that we now had an Angsty Teen Two. Since I hate angsty teens I decided to try and help out.”

Videl blinked once at that. Then again. She was pretty sure that she should be offended at the abrasiveness that the blonde held towards her, but she knew that it was just part of her personality. It was something that the gun crazy woman just kind of rolled with.

With a sigh, she decided to give in and see what kind of advice the older woman could give. Taking a breath she looked down to the ground as she began to explain.

“I’m just a bit shocked over a truth that I thought I was ready for. Turns out I wasn’t as ready as I thought I was. I guess this is why everyone keeps on testing me. If some words can hurt me that easily, what will things that ki is able to accomplish do to me?”

Videl was ready for any kind of answer from her fellow female. What she was not expecting was a sudden pain snapping into her forehead. Apparently the pain was enough to shock her out of her funk because she had a quicker response than she had expected herself to give.

“Ow! What the hell!?”

“What did I tell you about angsty teens?”

“That doesn’t give you the excuse to randomly hit people! I was pouring my heart out here!”

The two glared at each other for a minute, before the older woman cracked first and let loose a snort of amusement.

“Well I’m definitely not gonna argue with that logic. At least you’re mad now instead of angtsy.”

However, this wasn’t enough to placate Videl who had now thoroughly been riled up by the emotional roller coaster that she had been on.

“Oh you want angsty!? Fine I can do that! I’m annoyed that I hadn’t questioned anything my dad has told me over the years. I’m mad that I’ve been lied to for the longest time when he was supposed to be someone I could trust, even if he told me the truth I still would have loved him, he’s still my dad! And weirdly out of all this, I’m pissed that I can’t hit anyone anymore unless it’s in a training spar! I hate being weak!”

There was silence for a second in the clearing, before the blonde once more snorted in amusement. If Videl was a lesser person she was pretty sure she would be screaming incoherently in rage at the woman and swinging like a mad person.

“Tough shit, Pigtails. I already told ya I hate angsty teenagers and ya still’re bein’ angtsy. I swear it’s like kids don’t listen anymore.”

Videl felt as though her self control might snap at that, but before she could start trying to kill the blonde with her bare hands, she was continuing.

“I get that you’re feeling betrayed. I get that you’re feeling down. I get that you’re feeling weak . It’s something that people have to deal with every day in their lives. If you think you feel weak now, how do you think I feel? I was there before you or Angsty Teen One were even a glimmer in your daddy’s eyes. 

I’ve seen the things get crazy and just because you found out your dad didn’t beat Cell, doesn’t mean he’s not your dad. So he lied, big deal, newsflash Santa Claus ain’t real either. Sometimes the lie becomes too big until the only way out is to be found out. ”

Videl blinked at that. She was pretty certain she hadn’t said exactly what the lie was about. She was going to question how the blonde knew, but was cut off once more.

“I’ve been around these guys for years now sweetheart. Of course I knew your daddy was fakin the minute he opened his mouth and said that Cell fell to his hands. I know the people you’ve only just begun to meet and I’m damn proud of them. I’m someone who’s brash, abrasive, and knows what they want, but even though the rest have left me in the dust and bullets essentially do jack all to them now, I’ve never faltered from trying to get what I want. 

Soon enough you’ll leave me behind as well and even if you never get to the level of that Chrome Dome you call a master, you’ll still be leagues ahead of regular people. Hell, probably even your father. I say that you enter the next World Tournament just to spite him and show him how much you’ve grown since you’ve been on this trip. I think you also need to not lose sight of what you’re really trying to accomplish here.”

Videl faltered a little as Launch’s advice came to a close. She had completely forgotten what her endgame in this trip was. The thing that really made her want to step into the world she was now in and become a stronger person because of it.

“The Dragonballs.”

It was said in an almost murmur, but the blonde haired beauty seemed to have heard it anyway.

“You got it, Pigtails. Deal with the other shit when you can actually talk to your dad, for now, eyes on the prize.”

Although the woman could be incredibly annoying and had a habit of getting on the Satan’s last nerve, she couldn’t help but feel as though she was feeling slightly better after hashing it out with the older woman. She thought this might be what it felt like to have and older sister in her life. She found that she didn’t mind the feeling too much.

“I guess I need to get my head back in the game.”

“Well said.”

Videl almost screeched in fright at a voice coming from one of the trees near them. From out of the shadows of the night emerged her master, his eyes twinkling in mischief.

“Damn it, Chrome Dome, this was supposed to be girl talk!”

Krillin merely rolled his eyes at the outburst from the blonde and gave his student a relieved smile.

“That was essentially what we were going to talk about, but I feel like Launch did a better job. Maybe a bit in your face, but I suppose it gets the job done. For now, how about we go back and get some grub, I’m sure that the two muscle heads have had enough of their spar and are about to clean out our supplies.”

At the mention of food Videl was embarrassed when her stomach grumbled in response, echoing throughout the clearing. Although she felt a bit of embarrassment, especially when Launch threw her head back and started guffawing at her expense, she couldn’t help but feel as though she was now lighter.

She blinked as she realized that she was now able to sense Krillin’s ki even though she was sure he was suppressing it. It felt like a warm sunny day on the beach and she just enjoyed the sensation before she snapped back to reality when they made it to the small cottage that had become their main base of operations in this valley.

While some of the things discussed were able to lift some of the worry off her chest, she now had another worry. Something that had shaken her worldview had essentially made her forget her entire purpose that she had agreed to chase with her entire being. The reason that she was being tested and being pushed by everyone she met. The ability to bring her mother back. 

She would find out a thousand unpleasant truths to get the only person who could curb her father’s zaniness and was nothing but a warm memory back. There was no question of her resolve on that point. She would succeed in her mission. However, she supposed that some food and rest was in order for the time being, she needed to recharge after the day she had and she was looking forward to just passing out and letting future Videl deal with all the problems that had been accruing.

While she was all for this idea, it seemed that the trio from the clearing weren't the only ones who had finished what they had set out to do. While Gohan and Tien looked distinctly more scuffed up than anyone else, they were sporting a pair of satisfied smiles that spoke of training well done. Videl supposed she could relate. She also knew that she had to suck up some of her pride now.

“Hey.”

Her statement drew the two males’ attention, but Tien’s shifted to the other two with her while Gohan’s stayed. The others passed by into the cottage to give the two teens a semblance of privacy, with Krillin clasping a hand on both their shoulders in a comforting manner before he went inside.

Once the two were alone, Videl felt her insides squirm in slight squeamishness. She was so used to being in the right all the time that she rarely had to do what she was about to do.

“Sorry.”

Well, looks like the dark haired boy wanted to take the wind out of her sails and her mouth dropped open in response to his sincere sounding apology.

“What- no, I’m the one who should be sorry! I went a bit nuts on you before you went off!”

Gohan gave a small smile at that and merely crossed his arms, his dark eyes twinkling in amusement.

“I guess we’re both sorry then, unless I have some other worldview shattering information that might mess with your head once it’s revealed.”

Videl let out an exasperated sigh as she gave the teen a light punch in the arm. It felt like punching an iron wall and she was sure he felt nothing, but it was the gesture that counted in this case.

“I guess we’ll just have to both be sorry and move on. Let’s go get something to eat.”

Her piece said she walked into the cottage, but promptly froze as she took in the inhabitants.

While the other three were sitting around a nice table, they now had an extra person in the building as well. 

He was built quite small (even more so than Krillin) and was casually floating in the air as he took in the surroundings. He was dressed in a similar manner to Tien although he had both sleeves and had a pale face with rosy cheeks. 

“Oh hello, my name is Chiaotzu.”

Chapter Text

The first thing Videl thought of when she saw the newcomer was, Great, another one to test me.

Videl was beginning to think that her default emotion was going to become one of indifference. After the soul searching she had done about her father just a little while ago she just didn’t have it in her to be surprised at the fact that there was a small man that looked like he had been dipped in bleach floating several feet off the floor so that he was at eye level with everyone else within the house.

With a sigh, Videl slid her eyes to the food laid out on the table, a bit more interested in that than the newest zany character to come crashing into her life. However, she still had some manners, so she decided that an introduction wouldn’t hurt.

“Videl Satan, it’s nice to meet you.”

Chiaotzu raised an eyebrow at the casual way in which she took in his appearance and preferred mode of floating in the air and then cracked a grin.

“I suppose that it’s been an interesting couple of days for you, what with all the craziness that generally follows this group of people around.”

Videl blinked at this admission and gave a small nod of agreement toward what Chiaotzu was saying.

“I guess you just kinda learn to roll with the punches.”

Chiaotzu's resulting laugh was startlingly musical for someone with such a high pitched voice, but Videl couldn’t say that she didn’t like it.

“I guess that’s truer the more time goes on. We’ve come a long way from our younger days of fighting for the title of The World Martial Arts Tournaments.”

Videl felt like she could relate to this statement on a more spiritual level than she had expected. Was it really only a week or so ago that she was running around her city beating up crooks? Everything just seemed to keep snowballing after having met Bulma. She almost missed the next words that the diminutive man said.

“Do you regret anything you have learned so far?”

Videl paused for a moment, ignoring the sight of the background having the others in the house beginning to devour the food that had been laid out before them. The pale man was looking at her with such a patient expression that she felt the need to be honest. 

“No. Not even the things that have hurt to learn.”

Chiaotzu’s smile became more affable at that admission.

“Then I think you’re exactly where you need to be right now, Miss Satan.”

Videl startled a bit at the polite address and decided to cut that off before it could really get going. SHe preferred people to be frank with her, which she supposed might have burned her a bit earlier with Gohan. Maybe she just wanted them to be frank in certain circumstances. Oh well, food for thought for later.

“Please just call me Videl. It feels better that way.”

It was at that moment that her stomach decided to let out a mortifying grumble. Seemed she was hungrier than she had thought. She supposed the day's events were just something that eventually made her hungry. Weird, heavy stuff like this never had that effect before.

“I suppose I should let you go and get some food in you. Ki manipulation tends to drain your body's reserves more than you think. We can talk later, Videl.”

Videl found herself smiling at Chiaotzu, silently grateful for the change in address. She thought that the man had a fairly soothing presence. Hopefully she would be able to talk with him more after she had had her fill. For now she made her way to the table and sat down to dig in.

Once she was eating and laughing at everyone’s antics at the table, she realized that she would eventually be okay. Maybe not now, but eventually.

Krillin relaxed under the moonlight once more, just enjoying the tranquil nature of the clearing. The day had been a bit more fraught with drama than he had been expecting when he had woken this morning, but it seemed that everything had more or less worked itself out in the end. His student probably hadn’t completely come to terms with what she had learned today, but she would get there eventually. This wouldn’t be enough to keep her down for too long, and if the interactions at dinner were any indication, then she was already clawing her way to some sort of inner peace.

“I thought I might find you up here again.”

Krillin glanced over to his side to see that Tien had decided to join him once more, but this time he had brought along Chiaotzu. If he sharpened his hearing a little bit further he could hear Launch’s snores drifting out of an open window.

“I gotta say this sure is a peaceful place, you sure know how to pick ‘em, Tien.”

The three eyed man merely rolled his eyes and smirked at that assessment, but Chiaotzu decided to beam at his fellow diminutive man.

“It seems like such a long time ago that we last met. It was kind of nice to be able to just hang out and not have to be worrying about some sort of end of the world scenario.”

Krillin let out a low chuckle at that as he looked up towards the night sky.

“It really had been just one thing after another there for awhile. It’s kinda nice to be slowing down and just teaching for a bit, ya know?”

Chiaotzu gave an encouraging nod at that, but before any of the others said anything another voice interrupted them.

“Is this an adults only party, or can anyone join?”

The three men looked over to their left to see Gohan floating easily in the sky. Krillin felt a pang of nostalgia as he saw the somewhat devious smirk that he was sporting. Goku had sometimes looked similar when he was in a particularly sly mood.

However now wasn’t the time for a nostalgia trip, Krillin merely grinned and patted the space next to him, which the young demi-Saiyan took.

“Been an interesting week so far, eh Gohan?”

The teen merely rolled his eyes at the smaller man’s tone, but his smirk had faded out into a somewhat more content grin.

“It’s actually been kind of nice to be getting out of the house and seeing others again. It really has been too long, Tien, Chiaotzu.”

The two men gave a small nod of acknowledgement at that.

“Our earlier spar was more enjoyable than I thought it would be, it’s been far too long since I’ve been able to fight more variety of opponents. PLus with the ne Turtle School student it was nice to be able to impart some wisdom again. For someone that hails from Earth she seems to be able to soak in new knowledge of Martial arts fairly quickly.”

“Oh!, Darn, has everyone fought Videl then? Should I have challenged her tpo a duel or something when I met her?”

Chiaotzu’s teasing smile was also sending a few waves of nostalgia through Krillin, but he couldn’t deny that it actually felt a bit good.

“Nah, feels like she’s been fighting a lot of the people she’s met lately. It’ll be nice to spar with her now that her ki sense isn’t going out of whack. Maybe I’ll get Gohan to lend a hand now and then while we’re searching for the Dragonballs.” 

Gohan looked distinctly startled at this declaration, but his surprise quickly gave way to a more thoughtful expression.

“You know, I don’t think I’ve ever really fought anyone who was even around my age. Everyone has been older than me or not really sentient.”

Krillin let out a self depreciative laugh at that admission. Sometimes it was easy to forget the craziness that was their lives in relation to the normal people of the world. He also felt a bit of a pang of quilt when he thought about it.

Gohan had been far too young to be on the frontlines of the things that they had fought, but needs must and all that. Krillin was pretty sure that if the kid hadn’t been there for some key moments, then they would have failed. Hell, his fight with Cell just proved that he absolutely outclassed everyone else on the planet at the moment. Krillin figured Vegeta could probably give the kid a run for his money, but that was neither here nor there.

Maybe Krillin was getting a little sentimental the older he got, but he really hoped that the kid would be able to hang out with people his age more. Even when Krillin was younger and crazy things were happening around Goku, most of them had been at least around the same age as one another.

“Maybe it’ll be better for you than I thought then to be coming with us on this trip. Maybe it’s why your mom caved so easily to allow it. That and probably the thought of grandbabies someday.”

Gohan flushed in embarrassment at Krillin’s continued needling, but the thoughtful expression never really left his face.

“Maybe you’re right, Krillin.”

Krinllin’s eyebrows rose in a teasing manner at that, but the teen cut him off before he was able to continue his needling.

“Not about the second part, but what you said about Mom letting me go on an adventure with you. Maybe it’s not as dangerous as the other ones we’ve been on, but that doesn’t mean it wasn’t weird when she let me go just for a spar with Videl.”

Krillin’s teasing grin settled into a more natural one as he listened to Gohan’s reasoning, but it was actually Chiaotzu who chose to respond to the statement.

“It sounds like you’ve been having a bit of fun so far Gohan, maybe your mom just wanted you to have fun for a bit and get out of the house. I think I agree with Krillin a bit on his other assertions too. It’s a bit funny when you think of it like that.”

Gohan rolled his eyes as the rest of them let out a few chuckles at even Chiaotzu getting in on the teasing. However, the grin he was sporting was more relaxed than Krillin had seen in the entire time they had been traveling together the past few days.

With a sigh of content Krillin closed his eyes and extended his senses for a moment, just reveling in the feeling of all the kli signatures in the valley being at peace. Sometimes he wondered how his life would have changed if he had never sought out Master Roshi, but he honestly couldn’t imagine being more content than he was now.

It had been nice these past few days to just connect with old friends, without a world ending threat breathing down their necks and the small murmur of everyone else talking relaxed him more than he thought they would. Maybe it had been too long since they had all really just hung out together for no other reason than to hang out, or for some trivial training tip that one of them could use. It felt good.

“So what’s the plan for tomorrow, Krillin?”

Krillin came back to himself as he registered Gohan’s question. He noticed that he had been floating again with his legs crossed, but he was too at peace to really bother landing.

“Well, we need to see where the next Dragonball is leading us to, but before that I think I’m gonna drill some kata into Videl’s head. She’s got a good grasp of basics and she can certainly be creative, but she doesn’t really know how to incorporate her ki into her attacks yet. It’ll be a good stepping stone to see how she’s adjusting to her calmer sensing ability.”

Gohan gave a small shrug in acceptance of that and then turned to engage Chiaotzu into a conversation once more. Krillin’s attention was then grabbed by Tien.

“So when are you going to teach her some of the more advanced techniques, such as flying?”

Krillin merely shrugged at the query.

“We’ll get there when we get there. She’s gotta learn to walk before she can fly.”

Tien let out a huff of laughter at that as he crossed his arms and looked up to the night sky.

“I suppose I should have known you’d say something like that. It’ll be interesting to watch her development form now on. Don’t forget to try and enter her into a Tournament. Those are always good growing experiences on Earth.”

Krillin gave an acquiescing nod to those words. He thought his student would definitely benefit from competing, even if she never won. It would be nice to see how far she could go. He might be getting a bit ahead of himself though. They still had plenty of Dragonballs to collect.

After all, like he said, Videl would have to learn how to walk before she could fly.

Videl was blinking the morning sunlight out of her tired eyes as she stood across from her Martial Arts Master. The diminutive man was giving her an empathetic grin as she tried to shake the cobwebs out of her mind after being woken at dawn by him. She had thought she might get to sleep in a bit after the roller coaster of emotions she had gone through yesterday, but had been sadly mistaken. Apparently her Master wanted to train her in a few kata to now incorporate more ki into her style.

“I know you’ve been utilizing ki in some attacks now, but it’s mostly been an instinctual response. WHat I’m gonna teach you now is how to use that power in your forms. We probably won’t deviate too much from what you’ve already learned, but these kata I’ll teach you will help you get a better foundation for rock shattering punches and kicks.”

Videl perked up at that. She had been feeling that her ki regulation was more an instinctual habit than anything else, and being able to learn to use it intentionally would definitely be a boon. She paid attention as Krillin began to go through the motions slowly, waiting as his student mimicked him as best as possible. All was silent in the quiet clearing as the two slowly moved through the first kata, but slowly Videl began to feel more confident in the movements.

“Not too shabby, kiddo. Looks like you have a bit of a talent for picking up the muscle memory you need to really utilize this kata. Lets go a bit faster now.”

Videl nodded as she took a breath and focused her center. The kata felt more meditative than the familiar movements she had been using before and she sank deeper into a trance as she went through the movements. She decided to let go of the worries and fears she had been feeling for the past day and just lose herself in learning. It felt good.

Eventually Krillin called a stop to the practice and tossed her a water bottle. Videl caught it gratefully and took a deep pull. While she had done more intensive workouts (the turtle shell debacle came to mind), it was still more intense on her muscles than she had thought.

“Looks like you mostly got that down so far, we’ll take a small break and then go into a bit of a free spar. I wanna see how much you’ve grown so far and it’ll be interesting to see how you can incorporate the ki training into your base fighting style. We’ll incorporate a few more kata later.”

Videl gave a small nod of understanding and a few moments later she was standing across from the Turtle Master both of them in their respective stances. Videl noticed that Krillin looked much more relaxed in his stance than she did, but she felt as though everyone she had been meeting lately were monoliths that she was sure how to overcome, so she decided to ignore the twinge of jealousy she felt. At least she had been learning plenty as she went.

“Well then, whenever you’re ready, we can start this rodeo.”

Videl closed her eyes for a moment and let herself let go of all the doubts and fears she had been feeling. It was time to see how well she did when she was nice and centered and able to actually concentrate on a fight, rather than letting everything else affect her.

Snapping her eyes open, she let her power come more to the forefront and took satisfaction in Krillin’s slightly impressed gaze as a small breeze spiraled from her. Her ki was feeling good. Better than good in fact, this might have been the best she had felt since she had learned to utilize the power.

With a shout she blasted forward and crossed the distance to her Mater in an instant. HIs eyes widened slightly, but he deflected the haymaker she was sending his way in an instant. However Videl wasn’t done and used the deflection to twist herself into a kick aime at the man’s head. This time Krillin actually blocked and quick as a snake turned his block into a grab.

Videl felt her eyes widen as the man easily tossed her like a ragdoll, but the last few times this had happened let her be prepared for when it inevitably happened again. With a steady breath she twisted and was able to upright herself before springing once more toward Krillin.

With a grin on his face the man met her blow for blow. ONce more she was finding herself outmatched, but it definitely felt better than it had than even a day ago. Her power was flowing freely and she could feel the strength in her blows. It looked as though one of the only reasons she hadn’t been able to hit the man so far was due to experience and that was all. She relished in the challenge of trying to get a clean hit on her Master, but eventually she realized that she was beginning to tire.

A few more blows were exchanged and after a small counter in which Krillin had definitely been fixing her stance by example, he held up a hand and Videl felt herself stop on a dime as the man simply grabbed her punch and held it.

“Well, as usual, your growth is pretty scary. I noticed you were already utilizing some of the kata I taught you this morning. I think we’re gonna have to stop here though, it’s been a good fifteen minutes and I think if we go anymore you’d be gassed for the rest of the day.”

Videl nodded in acceptance, now that she was coming off her adrenaline high of having a spar, she noticed that she was sweating more profusely than before and her hair was clinging to the back of her neck somewhat uncomfortably.

“I’d say that was pretty impressive.”

Videl jumped a bit at that and looked over to see Gohan walking into the clearing with a couple of water bottles in hand. With a grin he tossed them to her and Kriilin. Giving a nod of thanks, Videl twisted off the cap and took a decent drag of the liquid. 

She was pleased to realize that although that spar had taken more out of her than she had first thought, unlike all the other times that she had been using her ki where she had been utterly exhausted afterwards, this one merely left her slightly out of breath. She let a grin spread across her face at that, it finally felt like she was making some progress.

“I see Krillin decided to teach you a few new moves, I recognized them while you were sparring. Pretty impressive that you can already incorporate them like that.”

Videl thrust her chest out proudly at that and gave the other teen a peace sign.

“You betcha, now that I’ve gotten things off my chest, don’t be surprised before I start challenging you to spars!”

Gohan had a slightly complicated expression at that declaration. If she had to say, it was one part amused, one part incredulous, and maybe, a tiny bit eager. However, it was wiped off his face quickly as a challenging grin spread across it instead.

“Well, far be it from me to stand in your way of that. Let’s see if you can talk the talk and walk the walk later. I think Krillin has some stuff to go over with you.”

Videl winced at that as she realized that she had been bantering with Gohan more than paying attention to her Master after they had done a free spar to see how she was doing. Thankfully when she turned to him, the smaller man was all smiles, although it had a distinctly sly edge to it.

“Oh no, don’t mind me. It’s always nice to see two young people flirt. I’ll tell Chi-Chi the wedding bells are ringing in the distance.”

Videl felt heat rush to her cheeks at that and noticed out of the corner of her eye that Gohan had much the same response. Instead of verbally responding to the diminutive man, she decided to chuck her still half full water bottle at his head. Sadly he caught with no problems and wiggled his eyebrows suggestively.

“I think the lady doth protest too much, but we’ll put a pin in that for now.”

Videl heard her fellow teen mumbling some sort of vengeance against her Master and if the wince he gave was anything to go by he heard it too. Well, it was good to know that the man had a healthy fear of her other traveling companion. He let out a small chuckle as he rubbed the back of his neck, looking more contrite than Videl thought he actually was.

“Ah, c’mon Gohan, you know it’s all in good fun. There’s no harm in any of it. It’s nice to treat the two of you like normal teenagers every once in a while.”

Gohan merely rolled his eyes at his friend, before both of them turned their attention to Videl. She felt herself unconsciously straighten at the attention. Maybe they would finally go over the spar instead of being teased, although she might have inadvertently walked into it after she ignored Krillin.

“As usual, your growth is a little insane, Videl. I know that you pick up things fast, but I wasn’t expecting you to already incorporate some of the kata I taught you this morning. Those were probably your sloppiest moves true, but I’d say that you’re well on your way to incorporating them into your moveset. One of the other problems I noticed was that most of your strikes seemed a little off. I think the fact that I’m shorter than you played a bit of a part in that. You’re not used to fighting people smaller than you, are you?”

Krillin paused here to give his student a chance to nod her head in agreement. Now that Videl thought about it, ever since she had really started practicing Martial Arts everyone had been bigger than her. Until recently she thought they had been more experienced too. Now she knew how much of a gulf in experience really mattered after having met Bulma and subsequently meeting everyone else so far. 

Krillin nodded in acceptance himself to her answering nod, oblivious to the tangent she had gone on in her head. He crossed his arms as he continued to break down the spar.

“I noticed your hits were a bit off balance for most of the spar, but as we went on it looked like you were starting to adjust. I’d say that last minute was actually pretty crisp comparatively. It’ll probably be better the next time we fight, but it’s something you need to keep in mind. There are fighters of all shapes and sizes, and the more you fight, the easier it gets to adjust on the fly. I’d say you’re improvement it’s scary fast compared to other fighters your age.”

Krillin trailed off as he noticed Videl giving him a look of disbelief before she sent a surreptitious glance at Gohan. Her Master sighed in exasperation at that.

“Gohan doesn’t count, he’s basically a freak of nature in the guise of a teenage boy.”

Krillin ignored Gohan’s indignant expression to keep going. Videl had to hold back a small smile at that.

“Gohan has already lived up to the potential that we all saw from a young age. While I’m pretty sure it’d be hard to top that, everyone who’s met you so far has seen, maybe not the same, but a similar sort of potential.”

With that, her Master grinned and thumped his chest dramatically. Videl was hoping he was simply choosing to ignore the light dusting of red that she knew was on her cheeks.

“Stick with us kiddo and you’ll go far! By the time we’re done you might even be putting us old timers on the ground more often than not! For now though, it’s time to do some cooldown stretches, then we’ll do a bit of meditation to keep your ki regulation in control.”

Videl gave a small nod of acknowledgment to the instruction and began to match her Master in his stretches before all three of them eventually settled down across from each other cross legged. Gohan gave her an encouraging grin, which Krillin mirrored, before the man went into his next moment.

“We haven’t really been doing meditation due to that ki sensitivity, but now we can really crack down and get the flow on track! So for now, close your eyes and relax. Let yourself drift and just kind of… reach.”

Videl let herself take a few deep breaths before she slid her eyelids shut and began to let herself drift.

As usual, Krillin had to keep his amazement in check at the progress his student had been making today. He had expected her to be able to get the kata down pretty quickly, but he had definitely hadn’t expected her to already be able to use it in her fighting style. The fact he got to tease both Videl and Gohan at the same time was just really icing on the cake.

He shot his teen friend a glance and hid a small smile as he saw that the boy had also closed his eyes and sunk into a more meditative state. A glance at his student confirmed that she was slipping much more easily into a focused state than the last time they had really done anything like this. She seemed to be getting a better handle on her overall abilities.

A content sigh escaped past his lips as he considered his student and his best friend’s son. It looked as though the two were much more relaxed than they had been yesterday, and for that, Krillin was grateful. Maybe he needed to send Launch a fruit basket or something? Well he supposed the blonde deserved it, maybe he’d contact 18 and get her to send it.

Krillin felt a small pang of homesickness thinking of his wife, but he was able to push it down. He loved his wife, but right now he needed to focus on his student. Tien was the only one in the valley who wasn’t really suppressing his ki, and while that had been a problem for when they had first arrived, it seemed that as they spent more time here, the young pig tailed teen had gotten used to the three eyed man’s presence. It was still permeating the entire valley, but he supposed it was more of a background buzz to her now rather than the all consuming roar she had first sensed. Which was actually a bit interesting in and of itself. 

He wondered if Tien had been doing that on purpose to test Videl’s sensing abilities and how they worked, or if the guy just didn’t really care what happened as long as everyone eventually left him alone. Thankfully it seemed like Videl was able to slip into a meditative state pretty easily. If she was feeling the presence of Tien she wasn’t really showing it and Krillin let a small proud smile stretch across his face. It was always nice to see people who grew before your eyes.

Krillin felt his student ping, for lack of a better word, against his senses. He also sensed as she reached out and essentially pinged everyone else in the valley.

“Not bad kiddo, don’t reach out anymore for the time being. We’ll just focus on people here for now.”

He waited as she nodded in understanding, before he continued on.

“Let your ki flow freely now and feel out where everyone is in the valley. Once you’re ready, give me a nod and I’ll tell you a name to point at each signature. I’ll tell you how right you are once we’re done.”

Krillin waited another moment as he watched his student seem to sink even deeper into her meditative state. Once it looked like she was ready, he decided to start with an easy one.

“Gohan.”

Gohan cracked an eye open at that to give him an exasperated glare, but thankfully his student was in full learning mode and was therefore more diligent than his friend. She pointed automatically to her fellow teen in the clearing.

“Tien.”

The girl frowned at that. No doubt Tien’s presence in the valley was still playing a slight bit pof havoc on her sensing abilities, but after a few seconds she pointed confidently in a direction. Krillin grinned in satisfaction at that. Looked like she was growing right before his eyes again.

“Let’s go a bit harder, Chiaotzu.”

This one took a bit longer as Videl had just met the man last night. Krillin was pretty sure she wasn’t completely familiarized with his signature and the man liked to pull his ki in for the most part. Eventually, Videl pointed in the direction that Chiaotzu was currently in, but there was a small frown of concentration on her face. Krillin nodded, the direction was right, but he thought Chiaotzu might be a bit off from where she was pointing.

“Alright, last one is gonna be, Launch.”

Krillin waited patiently as his student gave a small frown at that instruction. Launch was probably the hardest person to sense simply because her ki levels were only slightly higher than that of a base level humans. She mostly got by on her strength in fire arms rather than martial prowess. 

This one definitely took Videl the longest to actually point to, but in the end she was able to point in the direction that Launch was definitely in.

“Good job, kiddo. You’ve got all of them. Really seems like you’ve gotten over that hurdle from before.”

Videl flashed a peace sign along with a victorious grin at that as she opened her eyes. She seemed slightly unfocused for a moment, but that passed quickly enough. Krillin waited patiently as his student once more focused on him, noticing out of the corner of his eye Gohan doing so as well.

“I think all in all we’ve been able to make some pretty good strides on this little detour, not to mention we’ve acquired another Dragonball. Wins all around I’d say.”

Videl’s expression at that could only be described as content. He was glad to see that his student had really bounced back from yesterday’s bit of drama. Good. She was going to need that resilience if she wanted to go far in the world of Martial Arts. While everyone she had met so far had seen her untapped potential, including himself, the strength to fight through adversity was just as important. Seeing as he had been dead for awhile, he felt that he was definitely speaking from experience.

He waited as Videl looked to her hand and closed it into a fist, a look of determination crossing her features as she did so. 

“It feels like I’ve taken a step closer to all of you. Maybe not to match up, but enough to know that everything I’m doing so far isn’t in vain. So for that, if nothing else, thanks. Both of you.”

Krillin felt his eyebrows raise at that and his glance in Gohan’s direction told him that the half Saiyan was sporting a pretty decent blush, but Krillin decided to not tease the kid about it. He would let his student have her moment for now and acknowledge her determination to become stronger. 

“Well, far be it for me to decline genuine thanks when it’s offered. I’ll just leave you with this for now.”

Krillin paused as once more his student relaxed her posture, though she was definitely more attentive now.

“Your growth rate is great, Videl, but don’t let that stop you. Even when you think you’ve hit the peak of your potential, don’t stop trying to reach past that. Everything in the world is constantly changing, and we keep on finding crazier and crazier things, but that doesn’t mean that we can’t match that kind of crazy, as long as we’re able to adapt and change we’ll be able to meet any kind of challenge.”

Krillin watched as his words were soaked in by Videl, her blue eyes gaining even more determination than they had before, if that was even possible. Krillin knew that he had just thrown a sort of challenge to his student by saying those words, and he also knew her answer without her even having to verbalize it. Challenge accepted.

Videl was feeling much better after her time training with Krillin. It felt good to be able to just let herself go into a nice training session, with the fact that it was so meditation heavy doubling up to let her release all the frustrations she was feeling from the previous day. She had to admit that this stop over had been good for clearing her head and getting her back on the right track of what she wanted to do.

She had developed more in her ki abilities and had also been able to net a Dragonball out of the deal. Now she was ready to move on, and if she was reading Krillin’s and Gonhan’s body language right, they were beginning to get a bit ancy staying in the same place as well.

With all that in mind it was no surprise to her that after they had finished in the clearing and made their way back to the temporary house, Krillin announced it was about time for them to get back to unting down Dragonballs.

Tien merley crossed his arms and nodded in understanding at this announcement, while Chiaotzu looked slightly disappointed at their short stay. Videl could somewhat understand that, seeing as the little guy had just gotten back to the valley last night and they were already leaving. 

Launch, being Launch, decided to react to the news in her own way.

“Nice to see you on your way Pigtails, remember, I hate angtsy teens, so don’t be angtsy.”

Videl let herself have a small smile at the older woman, and realized she was going to miss her a little bit. True they had only known each other for a few days, but Launch had given her advice and helped her out when she had needed it. With this in mind, she definitely surprised the older woman when she gave her a hug in farewell.

“Ah hell, Pigtails. I’m really not one for touchy feely stuff, but for now I’ll allow it. Make sure to become the biggest baddest ass of the bunch, yeah?”

Videl smiled at that. She was sure that if she had ever had an older sister, she would want them to act like Launch.

“Don’t worry, I will, Blondie.”

Launch gave her a massive grin at that, and Videl didn’t complain too much when the older woman ruffled her hair somewhat affectionately.

“I think it’s time we hit the road, kiddo. We’ve got where we need to head to next.”

Videl looked over to see Krillin holding up the Dragon Radar, it blinking away merrily showing which way they needed to head toward next. With a small nod Videl took out her capsule containing her copter and threw it in some space. 

With a burst of smoke, her copter was once again ready to take to the skies. A few more waves to the others in the valley and soon Videl was behind the controls once more, with Gohan and Krillin rising up into the air as easily as breathing.

With a deep breath, Videl grasped her controls and sent her copter launching into the sky after them. She had learned quite a bit in that small valley and she could say with confidence that she was ready to continue on with her quest.

 It was time to get back to Dragonball hunting.