ChiChi rested the phone in the crook of her neck and tapped her fingers on the countertop nervously. After what seemed like going through an entire switchboard of operators at Capsule Corporation, she had finally reached Tayhei. Apparently, Mirai Bulma and the jinzouningen had already left for the hospital, which made ChiChi worry a bit more. The image of all those angry people gathering in Satan City had sent a chill down her spine. Not only was she concerned for Juuhachi-gou and Juunana-gou, but she was worried about Mirai Bulma and the others as well. People that angry didn’t stop to think about innocent bystanders. If they spotted Mirai Bulma with the jinzouningen, they were going to think that she was guilty as well. After all, Bulma was a highly respected, well known figure in the world --- anyone that saw her would recognize her as the famous Bulma Briefs of Capsule Corporation. And if the famous Bulma Briefs was spotted with the monster that had destroyed Satan City? The indications would be anything but pleasant. Luckily, Tayhei was doing her best to calm her down and sooth her nerves.

“It’s probably nothing to be concerned about.” The young girl told her calmly. ChiChi could hear the gentle clicking of a keyboard in the background, as if Tayhei was still working on something while talking. She didn’t know why, but that made her feel slightly better about the situation. If Tayhei really thought that it was something vitally important, she would have been more attentive. But her voice sounded more calm and rational than panicked. “Once the others complete their dragonball hunt and make the wish to bring back everyone that was killed in Satan City, I’m sure that all of this commotion will die down. They will be so thrilled to have their loved ones back that they will forget the jinzouningen ever existed.”

ChiChi bit her lip, but relaxed her grip on the phone a bit. Tayhei had a good point. As soon as those angry people realized that their loved ones had come back to life, they would probably be more amicable towards the jinzouningen. And they had already set out to find the dragonballs. They should be making the wishes very soon. However, a tiny little sliver of worry was still embedded in her mind. Maybe it was just her motherly instinct, but anyone would be able to see that this situation could have some very horrible endings to it. “Is there any way that you can phone Mirai Bulma and let her know what is happening?”

“Hai.” Tayhei answered authoritatively. “I’ll do that right away, and if you’d like. I’m sure I’ll catch her before they go into surgery.”

“I would really appreciate that.” ChiChi said with a smile, feeling a little better. Mirai Bulma would be smart enough to be extra cautious and keep her guard up. After all, she came from a world where she had to do that every single day. If she knew about the jinzouningen protestors, she would certainly develop some kind of plan that would keep everyone safe.

She hung up with Tayhei and stood in the kitchen for a moment, gathering her thoughts. Her heart was still racing from the first hit of panic and she was a little out of breath as well. But now that she felt a little better, she would probably be able to relax a little more and just keep a watch on the news. She was certain that Tayhei would be keeping an eye on the developing stories as well, but it would make her feel useful to be able to do this. If she saw anything even remotely suspicious, she would call the young girl again and ask her to relay the message to Mirai Bulma. She smiled to herself, feeling satisfied that she was finally able to do something important. She was always being left out of the loop and out of the danger. It made her feel like she was more a part of the group when she was able to actually do something.

Gokuu walked in through the door then, carrying a small armful of fire wood. There was a large fish draped over his shoulder and his shirt was off and tied around his waist. He looked from her to the phone with a happy smile on his face. “Who was that?”

“Tayhei. I saw a piece on the news about the jinzouningen. Apparently, there are some very angry people who want the jinzouningen dead. And since Mirai Bulma was in kind of a precarious position, trying to fix them, I didn’t want anything to happen to her or the people that she was working with. I just wanted her to be on her guard. Tayhei said that she would contact her for me and let her know what’s going on in the news.” ChiChi explained to him in a rush. Then she realized that she had left the ironing board out in broad daylight, right where Gokuu could see it. She moved over to the doorway and tried to block it the best she could, babbling on incoherently while she tried to think of a way to hide it before he saw it. “Tayhei didn’t sound very worried, but she never really does. I think if you told the girl that her leg was on fire, she’d just calmly brush it out or even ignore it. Nothing seems to make her nervous.” “ChiChi….” Gokuu began sternly, looking over her head. “Why is the ironing board out?”

“You can’t just expect me to sit around all day and do nothing, Gokuu!” She exclaimed in exasperation. “When I was pregnant with Goten, I did all of my chores right up until the day that he was born.”

“It’s different now, ChiChi.” He told her with a smile. Then he kissed her gently on the forehead and dropped the firewood and the fish on the counter. Then he strode past her to the ironing board, looking as though he were determined to iron. “I’m here this time. You don’t have to do these things.”

The hospital was busy --- very busy. Kuririn guessed that patients from Satan City were still coming in and out, and it looked as though the hospital staff was frazzled and tired. To him, the commotion was almost unbearable. It made his headache even worse, and he swore that he could hear just about every heart monitor in the entire hospital. They all beeped at different intervals, creating one long, droning tone that hurt his ears and made him squeeze his eyes shut. Walking in front of him, Vejiita seemed to be unruffled by everything that was going on around him. The Saiya-jin Prince didn’t even seem to notice that nearly everyone stopped to stare at him as he walked past. With Vejiita’s wild black hair and powerful stature, it probably wasn’t anything new to him. Kuririn looked down at his tiny body and nearly cursed with jealousy. No one ever took the time to stop and stare at him.

Mirai Bulma came down the hallway towards them, still carrying a handful of papers and a small phone. She looked every bit as chaotic as the other people running around the hospital --- some of the carefully placed turquoise curls had come of her pony tails and were bouncing loose around her shoulders. There was a permanent crease in between her eyebrows from frowning too much. She stopped when she reached him and Vejiita and lowered her voice so that only they could hear them. “According to Tayhei, there is a bit of an uproar over the jinzouningen at the moment. The government and some vigilantes are out searching for them, and they are wanted dead or alive. This doesn’t really bother me at the moment; their bodies can withstand basically any kind of human destruction, including most weapons. However, after the surgery they might be a bit vulnerable. In that instance, we will just have to be extra cautious not to reveal any kind of information about them, and to be watching over them at all times. I’ve checked them in under anonymous names, just in case. Juuhachi-gou is now Ethel Pickensnell and Juunana-gou is her brother, Bob.”

“Ethel and Bob?” Vejiita said with a raised eyebrow, then let out a short, cruel laugh.

“Do you have any better ideas?” Mirai Bulma snapped at him, then turned to look at Kuririn with a slightly less vicious expression. “Kuririn, let me show you where you are going to be waiting. Vejiita is going to actually be in the operating room for security reasons, but you are going to have to wait on the outside.”

He followed her down the hall to a barely noticeable door, which she opened quietly and stepped inside. It was a small, dark room with nothing more than a television and a plastic chair. On one wall though, was a large window which looked into the operating room. Kuririn peered through it and saw Dr. Cho’s assistant setting everything up and preparing for the surgery. Mirai Bulma crossed her arms and stared at him with a stern expression. “You can just take a seat here and watch the entire thing through this window. I am going to have to ask that you don’t open the door to the operating room, though. Not under any circumstances. It isn’t sanitary, first of all, and secondly, you might interrupt Dr. Cho’s concentration. During something as important as this, we really can’t take any chances. Agreed?”

He nodded. “Hai.”

“Oh, and be sure to keep the outside door locked at all times. We don’t need any extra staff in there with us --- we already have all the assistance we need. This operation is supposed to be rather secretive, so I would appreciate it if you wouldn’t say a word to anyone about what is going on. If you can, just stay in here and be quiet. Hopefully no one will bother you. Oh, and you can keep my phone for me. Tayhei might be calling to keep us posted on the jinzouningen protest situation. If there is any kind of emergency and you need to get my attention, please refrain from tapping on the glass. There is a button here that you can push if you need to speak to me. That’s only for emergency situations, though. And Kuririn?”

“Hai?”

She smiled gently, her blue eyes twinkling. For a moment, she reminded him of the Bulma that he used to know. The Bulma that he missed so much. Then she patted him on the head and started back out towards the door. “Try not to worry so much. I am going to do my best to bring them out of surgery safely. By the time we finish, your wife and brother-in-law will both be human.”

When Goten saw the black Capsule Car slow down and land next to a dense forest area, he slowed down at well and dropped to the ground. He looked around him warily. They were in a clearing between two different forests, really. The one on the right side was a forest like the one that he had grown up in: bright, cheerful, and full of tall, beautiful pines. But the one on the left side was different. He noticed that it wasn’t the normal kind of forest that surrounded his home; it wasn’t made out of pine trees, but large, twisted trees with thick leaves and visible roots. Instead of pine needles littering the ground, there was nothing but bubbly muck and a thick layer of insects. There were no birds chirping here either, and although the sun was bright and hot, it didn’t seem to shine through the dense trees at all. He didn’t want to call it ugly, because he loved every part of nature, but it wasn’t exactly attractive. The worst part was the smell that was wafting through air --- something like a mixture of fertilizer and mud.

The door to the Capsule Car opened and Marron stuck her head out, holding the dragon radar in her hand. She nodded her head towards the ugly forest and climbed out of the car eagerly. “It’s somewhere in the forest there. Straight ahead if we just keep walking.”

“Walking?” Koronu asked skeptically. She stared at the forest with more open disgust than Goten had been willing to show and crossed her arms. “If we walk, it’s going to take us all day. Why don’t we just fly through the trees until we find it? It can’t be that hard, right? I mean, how can you miss a bright yellow ball with stars on it?”

“I suppose I could stay here.” Marron agreed after a long moment. She looked a little crestfallen, though Goten didn’t understand why. He wouldn’t want to go into that wretched forest unless he absolutely had to. Marron however, looked disappointed that she wouldn’t be able to tromp through the muck and swat away insects. She handed the dragon radar over to Gohan and smiled at him, trying desperately to look as though it wasn’t bothering her. “You can take the dragon radar and go into the forest.”

When the others took off the ground, following Gohan into the forest, Goten chose to stay behind with Marron. She looked as though she could use some company. Her normally big, cheerful eyes were slightly downcast, and she kept tugging at the ends of her pigtails as if she were nervous. Goten tilted his head, wondering why she had even wanted to go into the forest in the first place. He couldn’t imagine any girl actually wanting to go in there. Tayhei wouldn’t have even considered it and Bulma would have probably opted to stay by the Capsule Car as well. His mother was probably the only one that would have bravely headed into the forest, but she would have complained the entire time. Marron though….Marron had actually wanted to do it. Then a realization hit him. Marron probably wasn’t too eager to into the forest…..She just wanted to be a part of the mission. She just wanted to help.

“Are you disappointed that you couldn’t go on the first hunt?” He asked her with a smile, glad that he could understand women for once.

She looked as though she were going to say yes, then pursed her lips in thought. After a moment, she finally shook her head and smiled at him. “Not really. It makes sense for just them to go. My Capsule Car is fast, but there is no way that I could maneuver it through trees that dense. Maybe if I had more experience, but this is only my first time driving it. I might get to participate in the next one. And if not, it doesn’t even really matter. I am not here because I want to hunt dragonballs and have some fun. I’m here because of my mother. It doesn’t really matter who gets the dragonballs --- the only thing that matters is that I make my wish.”

Piccolo couldn’t but notice the horrible smell that was creeping in through his nostrils. This forest, which was more of a swamp actually, smelled particularly alarming. He couldn’t even think of anything to compare it to. All he knew was that he wanted to get out of there and back into the nice, fresh air as soon as possible. Gohan had dropped down out of the air a few minutes ago, and they were now wading through ankle deep mud, searching on the ground for any signs of the dragonballs. Koronu was right --- it would be easy to spot in here. The only colors that he saw anywhere were black, brown, and a putrid green. The light yellow dragonball would be a welcome sight in such a dingy area. He just hoped that they found it soon so that they could get the hell out of here. A swarm of tiny bugs had settled around his head and were practically eating him alive.

“It’s lovely here, isn’t it?” Koronu asked darkly.

Piccolo tried unsuccessfully to swat the insects away from his face and sank down slightly as his foot sloshed through another patch of muck. “Yes, lovely.”

“I wouldn’t be too hard on it, you two.” Gohan scolded. He turned back to them for a moment and pushed his glasses back up his nose --- Piccolo could practically feel the lecture coming. Just as he suspected, Gohan’s intelligent voice launched into a defense of the disgusting area around them. “Swamps can hold numerous endangered animals. The climate and conditions in areas like this are excellent for some of the most fragile creatures and insects in the world. It’s a shame that so many people take the lives of these creatures for granted. They look at them and don’t realize how special and delicate they really are. That’s why they’re endangered, you know.”

“I hope he’s not talking about these little bugs --- I’ve already killed about two dozen of them.” Koronu muttered, while slapping her neck and grimacing as she wiped the remains of the insect off of her hand.

Gohan snapped out of his lecture and cast another glance down at the dragon radar. Then he pointed to a grove of trees and what looked like a large pond filled with the same disgusting muck that they had been traveling through this whole time. Piccolo didn’t know for sure, but he was almost certain that this pond was where the horrible smell had been originating from. It had certainly grown stronger as they approached it, and there was a strange, filmy steam coming out of its depths. Gohan placed a hand on his hip and squinted out at the pond. “It appears that the dragonball is in that area over there, but that doesn’t make much sense….”

“Why not?” Piccolo asked him, swatting more bugs away from his face. For such tiny little insects, they could certainly bite hard. He swore one of them had actually drawn blood.

“Well, there is nothing there but just swamp water. Unless the dragonball is actually under the water.” Gohan suggested, while looking vaguely disturbed over the idea. He scratched his head and looked back down at the dragon radar in his hands, then back up at the steaming pond again. “That might be possible, although it looks as if the surface of this water hasn’t been disturbed in years. Do you see the layer of green sludge along the surface of it? I’d estimate that it’s probably about an inch thick. And the swarms of insects can only mean nests and eggs, which probably lay along the surface as well. If the dragonball is indeed under there, it must have been here for a very long time. It might even be a part of the swamp’s ecosystem by now.”

“And just how are we supposed to get it out?” Piccolo asked cautiously.

“I suppose someone will have to go in and fish around for the dragonball.”