Bulma walked into her and Vejiita’s room, intent on taking that nice long nap. Preparing for this trip had been absolutely exhausting, from building the last minute additions onto the ship and the frantic packing job to the emotional drain that had been occurring ever since ChiChi’s disappearance. She could almost feel her energy draining out of her, and now that they were set on course and there was really no need for a pilot for a while, she could finally relax a little bit. She had been tired a lot lately.

I guess I just don’t have the energy that I used to. She thought, fluffing up the pillows on the bed and pulling down the soft purple covers.

She paused for a moment, catching a glance of herself in the large mirror on the far side of the wall, and turned to look at herself. She frowned and dropped the comforter back on the bed.

Is that a wrinkle?! She thought, horrified. Stumbling blindly to the mirror, she stared at herself, noticing for first time, the lines that stretched across her face.

How could she have gotten old so quickly? Had she fallen asleep and woken up ten years later, or had this been a gradual thing, with her delicately aging throughout the years, each month giving root to another gray hair or another wrinkle? Her beautiful face was no longer young and fresh, it was no longer smooth and flawless; there were actually wrinkles around her eyes, and for some reason, they had lost their vivacious blue sparkle. When did that happen? She wondered, touching her face gently. How could I not have noticed this before? Have other people noticed?

Tears quickly came to her eyes, threatening to spill over and ruin her morning makeup job. She had always been Bulma Briefs, the richest, most intelligent, most beautiful woman in the world. She had prided herself on that, built her life on that. Without her beauty, why would Vejiita bother with her anymore? Their relationship was basically physical anyway (at least, on his end of the deal). Why would he want her now though, when her hips were starting to lose their slim look and her bust was beginning to feel the effects of gravity?

He wouldn’t. She answered herself, and then nearly fell, sitting on the bed, wrapping her arms around herself. As hard as she tried, she couldn’t tear her eyes away from that mirror, she couldn’t make herself look away, look at something else. The only thing she could see was herself, crying viciously with streaks of mascara running down cheeks that weren’t as fresh from eyes that were a dull and boring blue. A pitiful woman sitting all alone wearing an outfit that was much too tight in some parts and all together too baggy in others.

She burst out sobbing, closing her eyes as tightly as she could to get rid of the image of herself. She sobbed for several things; self-loathing, her interminable vanity, the loss of beauty, and the pain of eminent rejection.

About the same time that she realized her wailing had not been exactly silent, she heard a click as the door to her room opened. Wearily, she looked up through tear filled eyes, hoping that it was no one, nothing, that she had just been hearing things.

Juuhachi-gou stood in her doorway, her impassive face fixed on Bulma’s. She quietly shut the door with a thin, well-muscled arm and looked down at the floor, as if trying to find the right words to say. Bulma put her head back down on the bed and looked away from her. Juuhachi-gou was the last person she wanted to see right now. Not only was the jinzouningen cold and unfeeling, but she was also astoundingly beautiful, and even though Juuhachi-gou was nearly as old as she was, she still remained looking as though she were eighteen years old, and always would. She almost couldn’t bear to look at her, with her thin, young body or the way that just a tee shirt and jeans could look so gorgeous on her. Bulma curled up into a ball on the bed, as if to protect herself.

“Go away.”

Juuhachi-gou cleared her throat. “I have to talk to you.”

Bulma began to get angry, and curled herself up tighter, wishing with ever fiber of her being that Juuhachi-gou would just go away and leave her alone. Why, she wasn’t exactly sure, but she knew that she couldn’t stand to have that beautiful face stare down at her ugly old one. “Then you can just wait!” She spat out, yelling out the last word like a death threat.

“This is important.” Juuhachi-gou countered, and she sat down on the bed. “I need to know about Dr. Gero, about what I am.”

No longer hiding any anger, Bulma sat up straight and glared at her. “You’re jinzouningen! A damn vacuum cleaner! A windup toy! Is that want you wanted to hear?! Get the hell out of my room!”

Juuhachi-gou narrowed her eyes and Bulma felt a slight tinge of fear, recalling the damage that she was actually able to cause. The jinzouningen crossed her arms. “That is not what I meant. I want to know if there is any possible way to become completely one hundred percent human. Is there some sort of procedure that I could go through, some certain operation or any other way to get the machine parts out of me? I am tired of feeling like this. I don’t want to be a cyborg. I just want to be normal.”

It didn’t seem possible, and if someone had asked her yesterday, or even five minutes ago, she would have laughed right in their faces, but right then and there, Bulma did something that she thought she’d never be able to do. She felt sorry for Juuhachi-gou. Not just a little sorry, but actually pained for the poor girl.

I may have lost my looks, but she has lost herself. At least without my looks I still have my memories and hopes and dreams; at least I can feel love and happiness and sadness. She has nothing. Absolutely nothing. She might as well be dead in this world.

Bulma wiped the tears away from her cheeks and straightened out her clothes and hair, feeling suddenly very self-conscious around Juuhachi-gou, who looked so flawless it was almost painful. Juuhachi-gou stared at her with emotionless blue eyes, and did not move, but there was sorrow in her somehow, beneath the painted surface. Bulma frowned.

“I don’t know, Juuhachi-gou. I don’t know.”

She sighed. “Could we go through the old plans for Juunana-gou and myself? There has to be some way. If he created us from normal humans, then there should be a way to reverse what he has done and be a normal human again. I know with Juuroku-gou it would have been hopeless, but I am still part human.”

She spat out that last part desperately, as if she wasn’t just trying to convince Bulma, but herself as well. Bulma knew very little about the jinzouningen, but she had never really thought of them as human before. They had always been the cold, unfeeling robots, one of which just happened to be married to a short bald guy that just happened to be a friend of hers. Though she wasn’t sure if she could help Juuhachi-gou or not, she still felt honored that Juuhachi-gou had come to her for help. It showed Bulma that Juuhachi-gou at least admired her intelligence.

At least I still have my mind. Bulma thought as she stood up and wearily glanced in the mirror. Juuhachi-gou stood up as well, and brushed herself off, as if she had been sitting there for hours.

“Hai, Juuhachi-gou, I’ll do all that I can to help you.” Bulma asserted, and almost reached out to pat her shoulder comfortingly, but thought better of it and put her hand back down. “I have a been keeping volumes and volumes of scientific research and Gero’s projects ever since the Red Ribbon corporation was formed. It isn’t too difficult to mark a scientist’s progress in technology, though it is a little difficult to decipher exactly how he created his new inventions -- like yourself. I’m afraid that even if I did research it thoroughly and I did find something that I wouldn’t be able to do it. Sometimes certain experiments will only work once. Even if the method is completely full proof.”

“But you will try.” Juuhachi-gou insisted. “How soon can you start?”

Bulma thought for a moment and bit her lip. “I suppose I could start working on it as soon as we are back on Earth. I don’t have any research materials with me at the moment, and besides, all of our concentration needs to be on the mission at hand. I can’t exactly drop everything that I am doing and try to help you when one of my best friends is in serious danger.”

“Is that what you were doing when I walked in here?” Juuhachi-gou wondered, her eyes narrowing as she crossed her arms. “Concentrating on the mission at hand?”

Bulma spun around and placed her hands on her hips. “That is none of your damn business!”

“This is important to me!” Juuhachi-gou stressed, her eyes flaring. “I don’t want to be a machine anymore.”

Bulma fought back tears. “And I wanted to stay young for the rest of my life, but that isn’t going to happen either. Sometimes things happen in life that no one has control over; that no one can help. You’re just going to have to accept that not everything is going to happen the way you want it to! This isn’t just your life, Juuhachi-gou. There are other people on this planet too, and frankly, I care about them a lot more than I care about you. I told you I’d help you, but right now, I have more important things to do. So if you’re going to complain, complain to someone else -- I don’t want to hear it!”

She stomped to her door, opening it so forcefully, she almost hit herself in the face with it, then pointed to the hallway wordlessly. Juuhachi-gou stared back at her, also silently and the two had a mental showdown with each other; a battle of wills, so to speak. Blue eyes narrowed at blue eyes and neither one refused to move.

It was then that Trunks poked his head in the doorway, startling both of them out of the staring contest. He entered in hesitantly, sensing the tension between the two and stood self consciously in the middle of the room, rubbing the back of his head with his hand.

“Ah....Kaasan? I kind of have a problem.” He said softly. He looked up and met both of their eyes, looking very ashamed. “It kind of involves both of you.”

“What is it?” Bulma snapped.

“Well....Piccolo-san went to down to the cargo hold because he heard something. You know how good his hearing is; he can hear practically anything! Anyway, he went down there to investigate, and I don’t know why he didn’t call anyone else for help or anything like that because we were all just down the hallway, or Goten and I were anyway. He could have easily came and got us too, but he just decided to go down there by himself and when he got in there he went down those stairs---”

“Trunks, get to the point.” Bulma interrupted. Her and Juuhachi-gou were standing side by side now, both with their arms crossed, looking at him angrily.

He paled. “Right. Ah....Well....um.....”

“Trunks!”

He sighed and looked down at his boots. “Tayhei and Marron are on the ship.”

“WHAT?!” Bulma and Juuhachi-gou cried out in unison, uncrossing their arms and looking almost frantic.

Bulma almost fainted. No way! We were watching so closely to assure that Tayhei didn’t come aboard, and Marron? Why had Marron come? What were those girls thinking?!

She better have a damn good reason for coming along, Bulma steamed. She knew that Tayhei was a very determined girl, but she didn’t know she was that determined. She had just put the entire mission in jeopardy by sneaking on board. It was going to be difficult enough without two young girls to worry about. And it wasn’t as though they could turn around or anything, not at this point. If they did, they would have to wait another few months before they could prepare the ship to go into space again.

“Does Vejiita know?” Bulma inquired, feeling rather scared. He was not going to be happy when he found out. Trunks shook his head, looking every bit as frightened as she was.

“Where are they?!” Juuhachi-gou demanded quickly, stepping to the door.

“They’re in the kitchen with Goten. When Otousan finds out, I’m going to die and I don’t want to die yet. Please don’t tell him that they’re on the ship yet.” Trunks said worriedly, wringing his hands in front of him. “He told me to make sure she didn’t get on or else I was really going to pay. He’s going to kill me, isn’t he?”

This just really isn’t my day, is it? First I realize that I’m growing old, then I almost get into a fight with Juuhachi-gou, and now this. I wonder if all of this has just been building up for years and years and suddenly just jumping on me today. I wonder what’s next? The ship is headed on a crash course towards a meteor? Capsule Corp. has gone broke? Vejiita is secretly in love with Gokuu?

She was suddenly very angry. Not really with Tayhei, or Trunks, or anyone, just angry at all of the bad circumstances that kept falling into her lap. Why had she been cursed with enough bad luck for twenty people all of the sudden? It just wasn’t fair! What had she done to deserve this?

She let out a low growl, and both Trunks and Juuhachi-gou looked at her in surprise at her. Ignoring them, she pushed her way out of the door and into the hallway. She needed something to take her anger out on, and quick.

Chapter 29
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