CHAPTER FIFTY-ONE: RETURNING TO EARTH

“Hello, Kakarat,” Bardock said in a expressionless fashion as he greeted his son in the morning.

“Hello, Bardock,” Goku replied in the exact same tone as the two went to breakfast. That was the last time that any enmity of the sort appeared between them. It was almost as though the previous night had been completely forgotten, although considering that it’s Goku who we’re talking about, this was not unusual for him.

And so, the normal daily routine began with Chi-Chi working as hard as she possibly could to make enough food for all three of them, and still have a small half-portion for herself. A half-portion was all she needed. One look at those people eating would be enough to take away anybody’s appetite.

However, during the entire meal and up until all three males in the family got up and left, her eyes were focused on Bardock. Something didn’t seem right about him, something was out of place, but she couldn’t put her finger on it. It was like the friend of yours who got the new haircut that you didn’t notice, but you knew that something was different. It was only after they had left when Chi-Chi figured it out. Bardock was missing his tail.

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Bulma hummed to herself as she drove her little air car toward Kami House to pick up Krillin. She was having a surprisingly good day-no, make that a good week.

Bardock had volunteered to give some of his blood, “For science’s sake,” and Bulma had been studying it alongside Goku’s and Gohan’s DNA. What she found was amazing. Human and Saiyan samples were very, every similar. Not only could they interbreed easily, producing half-Saiyan, but even the hybrids were capable of having children! Not only that but the exact mixture between the two species seemed to supercharge everything.

Gohan, at his young age, was already more powerful than Goku was at that age-although that might not stay that. She had also managed to find the exact genes which stimulate that oh-so-interesting transformation every full moon. Bardock had told her about it a while ago, at the same time that she had taken his blood sample, and she had found him to be only partially right.

Yes, the tail had some kind of special sensory organ that collected the Brute rays, but they had to be transmitted through the eyes first. Now, if only they could find that werewolf who turned Human every time he saw the moon from about ten years back, maybe they’d be in business. Maybe she could somehow set it so certain young individuals wouldn’t have to worry about transforming, tail or no tail...or that they could even learn to control themselves at an earlier age, or even be born without a tail...

It didn’t matter that she’d probably never implement any of it. All that mattered was that she had FOUND it all, DISCOVERED it, that BULMA BRIEFS had unlocked all the secrets of the mysterious warrior race ALL BY HERSELF!

In the meantime, she was going to pick up Krillin to get a sample of Human DNA-a very strong fighter human, that is, and since Tien was off who knows where in the woods and Yamcha hated needles almost as much as Goku (just the memory of what she and the other lab workers had to do to get Goku to sit still long enough for the blood sample was horrible enough to discourage any thoughts of Yamcha being a good sample), she had decided on the short little bald man. Even the fact that Roshi was probably going to be up to his old tricks again couldn’t discourage her from the joy of seeing that Nobel prize-although she probably would lose to some former terrorist or something.

She landed the air-car on the island and, still humming, literally swung over into the small house that took up about 75% of the land. She knocked on the door, still smiling.

“Krillin? Oh, Krillin!” Bulma called out rather cheerfully.

She was answered by the World’s #1 Dirty Old Man himself, Master Roshi, all decked out in a tux complete with a bow tie.

“...Master Roshi?”

Roshi bowed extremely deeply, catching a look up her short skirt in the process.

“At your service,” he said.

Bulma completely ignored him, not really in the mood to beat the stuffing out of the old man again this time.  Things were going too well today-and simply barged past him and into the house.

“Where’s Krillin?” she asked after realizing that the midget was nowhere to be seen.

“He’ll be here,” Roshi said, sneaking up behind her in an attempt to grab her rear, “He’s taking a shower right now. Want to?”

This time Bulma couldn’t resist the urge to pound the old man and backhanded him across the kitchen, where he smashed into the wall and fell into a lumpy heap. Bulma sat down and waited for Krillin.

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“There it is, Earth. We made it,” Zarbon muttered to no one in particular. “Now, where did they live again...” he muttered again as he set the ship to pick up Bardock’s ki signature.

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Piccolo watched Goku, Gohan, and Bardock leave their house. There they were, looking none the worse for the wear, except for Bardock who was missing his tail.  He silently wondered to himself whether he should continue to watch quietly, out of sight from them, or if he should just confront them now and be done with it. He was still debating this inside himself when the saucer ship first appeared in the bright morning sky.

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