10.0

Vegeta finished talking to The Supreme Kai of Time and walked out of her tiny home, spotting Trunks standing and scratching at his head. "Boy! What are you just standing around for?" He asked his son.

Trunks looked over. He was used to his dad's grumpy tone, and his constantly referring to him as 'boy' despite Trunks becoming a grown ass man seven years ago. "Father..." Trunks sighed a little. "...Goku came by. He was acting very strange."

"Kakarot? What, you mean he was more of an idiot than usual?"

"No. Not quite...you see, he had Rhuda with him. From what I gathered, Goku was trying to make me upset at something." Trunks shook his head. "I have no idea why, though."

"What do you mean, he had Rhuda?" Vegeta's nerves went all on edge.

"Yeah. He just showed up here with her, saying he was going to make off with her. It was all a little odd."

"WHAT!"

Vegeta stomped over and grabbed his son's leather jacket. "And you what? Just stood there looking like an idiot! While he took her to God knows where?!"

"I don't understand--" Trunks jerked free. Vegeta's energy was skyrocketing.

"You imbecile! I can't believe this! When I find him, I'm gonna rip his damn throat out!"

"...He was kidding, Father. We both know Goku wouldn't do that." Trunks assured his dad.

It didn't work. Vegeta's angry vein was popping out of his forehead. Trunks heard him muttering, "What if he tries to train her? He could kill her--No, worse, what if he tried to take her somewhere--if she faced someone like Buu it could only go wrong--"

Trunks had heard enough. He needed some answers. "Father. I noticed that Rhuda was...different, than usual. What's going on?"

"I don't have time to explain. Think like a clown, Trunks. Where would he take her to?"

"Ah..ha...Maybe to get food?"

At once Vegeta was gone. Trunks sighed. "Man...what a day."

Goku rose his hand to pet Rhuda's head. When she flinched in fear, his hand lowered. "Hm? I'm not gonna hurt you. Promise."

"It's a reflex. I can't...control it," she admitted shamefully.

"A reflex? You mean, you were trained to be like that?"

She nodded. Goku had brought her to the top of Orange Star High School. Why, she didn't know, but they sat cross legged on it's rooftop. Goku frowned at her a bit. "What kind of training is that? Sounds like a rip off."

"...Believe me. It was."

"Well there you go! I can retrain you." He nodded. "So, in order to do that..." his dark eyes swept her over, then looked across Conton, "...we'll need somewhere to train." When he spotted the woods he stood up. "C'mon!"

Feeling like she was going to regret it, Rhuda took his hand and they jumped from the building. Down below them, the people of Conton where looking up and pointing. She could hear them shouting about spotting Goku as if he were a celebrity. She supposed to them, he was.

They arrived at the forest. It was filled with tall bamboo trees and a tiny lake at the back of it. Goku tapped down. "Okay. We made it. Alright, so for your first lesson, I'm gonna take a few swings at you. Nothing too serious. Now your job is going to be not flinching. Think you can handle it?"

Rhuda mutely nodded.

"Here we go."

Goku made a fist and swung at her face.

Rhuda scuttled back; his fist had been a hair away from crashing into her nose.

"Ha..ha.." She panted in fear, heart hammering like a hamster on a wheel.

"Let's try that again."

His foot swung out--Rhuda cowered to the ground. Goku dropped his foot back down and wore a frown on his usually cheerful face. "This will be harder than I thought. Man, here I thought you would be like Vegeta--I was totally off!"

"Sorry. I--I don't mean to be like this." Rhuda's green eyes filled with tears. She hated who she was. Despite being in a new place and body, her memories of her former life were still intact.

"It's no biggie." He smiled, but seeing her eyes shining with dew caused him to bend down. "Hey. It's okay, alright? There's nothing wrong with you. I'm guessing some stuff happened to make you that way."

She nodded. If Rhuda spoke she knew it would only make her sob, so she didn't reply.

Seeing tiny Rhuda holding back tears softened the saiyan Goku's heart. He calmly wrapped his arms around her supportively and pet the back of her hair. "...Nobody's gonna hurt you. You gotta believe me."

He was warm, gentle and caring. All the things she had never had before. Rhuda breathed in his sunshine and happiness, wanting to trust in his words. "...Thank you..." she whispered.

"Anytime. Heh; that's what boyfriends do, right?"

There was that cheeky grin again. He stood, eyes darting off to the right. "Vegeta's coming. Ah--looks like Trunks is with him, too. Aw man. I bet I'm gonna really get it."

Vegeta landed, Trunks not too far behind.

The intensity of the prince of saiyans was intimidating. Rhuda watched as he sucker punched Goku, who took the blow easily. Only his boots dragging through the grass could show it had even done anything.

"You big idiot! What the hell do you think you're doing?" Vegeta bellowed.

Goku put his fingers in his ears at Vegeta's yells. When Vegeta's head finally deflated back to normal size he answered, "Nothing! Promise! Just uh, hanging out with my new girlfriend!"

"WHAT!"

"Yup! Don't be too jealous now, guys." Goku laughed. "I'm sure there's other fish in the sea."

Rhuda wanted to die. Literally. She sank down to the dirt, ears steaming.

How could Goku go and say such things so easily?

"AREN'T YOU FORGETTING ONE IMPORTANT THING, YOU CLOWN!" Vegeta barked.

"What's that?"

"YOU'RE MARRIED!!"

Goku backed up and looked to Rhuda for help. She turned from him, wanting to become a nice bamboo tree or even a speck of dirt on the ground.

"Psst, can I speak to you, Vegeta? Alone?" Goku jerked his thumb.

With a growl of annoyance Vegeta was led away from the group. Rhuda couldn't hear what was said, but the anger had faded from the prince, replaced with the usual annoyed expression.

"You could have just said that," Vegeta was saying as they walked back over.

"Sorry sorry!"

Trunks eyes narrowed. He really didn't like being left out of the loop, and didn't like that Goku--a married man--was apparently dating the newest member of the Time Patrol.

"Can someone explain what's going on?" He asked.

Vegeta smirked a little at him. "Hn. Maybe you should ask Rhuda."

The girl in question slowly met Trunks' eyes. The green of them was lit, glowing with emotions that he couldn't decipher. She was trying to convey something. But what?

"...Rhuda?" He piqued.

"It's as he said." She mumbled. "W-W-We're dating. Okay!"

Trunks' lips thinned. He was no closer to an answer than before. And that alone was annoying--so annoying he turned from them all. "I see. If you're all done messing around, I actually have a job to do."

He left--and Goku started laughing his ass off.

"Did you see that?" He asked Rhuda.

"See what?"

Vegeta smirked. "My son was clearly jealous."

Rhuda's face flamed. She didn't think that was true, but didn't say anything.

The conversation turned to a different subject.

"So she really doesn't remember anything?" Goku asked.

"Obviously she knows some things." Vegeta answered. "Just nothing about her childhood or Broly."

"Wow! How crazy!"

Then, as if something struck him Goku's brows lowered. He looked at the girl who's memory was supposedly gone, wondering how she could possibly react the way she had earlier. Something didn't add up, but he wasn't about to stand around and do some dumb old math. "Hmmm, well that could be a real problem."

"I'm aware."

Rhuda wanted to get away from the wild saiyan prince and his even wilder friend Goku. "...Shallot is supposed to be doing a parallel mission with me," she said.

"Forget it."

Her brows rose. Vegeta gave her a scowl and added, "In case you forgot, you don't know how to fight."

"I-I can learn."

"I'm gonna have to side with Vegeta on this one," Goku said with a nod. "Going into a battle without knowing how to fight is like going to school without a pencil."

Vegeta gave him a look. "Like you've even been to school."

"Eh heh he!"

The tsundere within Rhuda overrode her demure reply. She gave them both a glare, "I'm fighting if I want to. Now get out of my way."

Without waiting for them to protest she jumped away and back to the Plaza. Shallot was there still, chatting with another pretty girl. She looked like a human but her outfit said she was a time patroller. Rhuda frowned; he was such a playboy. Dating him would be torture.

"Shallot," she called. Her brown tail wagged in aggravation.

"Oh, hey Rhuda. Finally ready to go on that mission?" He asked.

The human girl beside him flipped away her red hair and looked Rhuda up and down, glaring through brown eyes.

"And just who is this, Shallot?" She asked haughtily.

With a smirk Shallot replied, "My girlfriend."

"What! You--you two timer!" The girl smacked Shallot, which did nothing at all, before storming off in a huff. He took his hand and wiped his cheek, sighing. "Another one bites the dust."

To Rhuda he asked, "So? Think it over? Wanna date the baddest saiyan here?"

"Pfft..." Rhuda chuckled. "I'm here now too, so I don't think you qualify."

"Oh?" Shallot leaned over her tiny form. His tail swayed in interest. "Do you want to PvP? Or just talking shit?"

"...I'm going to take away your title," she declared.

As he looked into her cute green eyes, Shallot could see that she was serious. It looked like he'd need to watch his back. But that knowledge only gave him excitement; he was beyond tired of the same boring days passing by. "I'd like to see you try." He replied, lifting a section of her auburn hair between his fingers. "Be sure to call me daddy when I defeat you."

Rhuda's face grew hot. She snatched her hair from his hand. "Are we going on a mission or not?"

"Yeah. You've got items, right? I'll be honest. I don't want to waste my time on One star missions." He sneered, "But I'll help you grind your way up."

"G-Grind?"

"Man...you know nothing about video games do you?" With a disappointed shake of his head he explained.

"Grinding is the art form of killing enemies for the sole purpose of getting stronger. Of course, it's best to start with what you can handle...but with me, that won't be a problem. I'll tank them all and you just rack up the EXP."

"Why do you want to help me?" She asked warily.

"I don't need a reason." Shallot answered.

She watched as a sort of darkness filled his face. His brown eyes shut. "But if I had to say, it's because you interest me. Since I got stuck in this damn game I've tried every way to get out of it. But it only made me stronger, made me the target of every villain who shows up here. Somehow I don't think it's bad to have another saiyan beside me. Maybe...it will give me purpose."

"..." Rhuda didn't know what to say. First Shallot was a goof ball who didn't seem to take things seriously, then a playboy, and now he was a sad soul who lacked meaning. She looked up into his face and gave him a reassuring smile. "Thank you."

"You gonna elaborate on that or just leave me guessing, noodle head?"

"I just meant...I feel like I know you a bit better now. And I understand...exactly where you're coming from." Rhuda grinned. "Maybe I know what you mean a little too well."

"Heh." He looked off to the robots surrounding a dome counter area, "Over there's where you pick a mission. Ah, yeah, I'm gonna send you a Friend Request. After you accept it I should pop up on your MAP."

A screen popped up.

[System: Friend Request: Shallot]

[Yes / No ]

"Yes."

[Friend Request Accepted.]

[System: Shallot inviting Rhuda to Party Invite]

[Accept Party Invite? Yes / No]

"Yes."

[System: Shallot Joins Party as Party Leader]

"You said Items before," Rhuda said to her team leader, "What do I need?"

"Like I said. I'll be tank but I can't say one hundred percent that you won't get hit. That's where Items come in handy," Shallot replied, "It would suck to die and not get any EXP from the missions."

"Right. And where do I...?" She looked around.

"Over there. That Robot will sell them to you. Wait, you do have TP medals right?"

"Yeah. Trunks gave me some earlier. He said if I needed more to ask him."

Shallots mouth twisted into a frown. "Huh. So he offers to help you. Probably because you're different. Or maybe because he has the hots for you."

"H-He doesn't!"

"Pfft. I was kidding, noodle head." Shallot grew serious, "But if you really want those Super Dragon Balls, you'll need to be in good with him."

"I-I know. But I can't...do that just to-to-" her cheeks grew pink, "--I'm not like that."

"Jeez..." Shallot rose and pet her head.

Why did everyone always pet her like she was some kind of dog or cat?

Rhuda looked off as Shallot added, "It's a game. All of this...is just a game."

"But it's my life now."

"Where were the girls like you when I was alive?" He sighed up at the sky. "If I were you I'd have every one of those guys so pussy whipped they'd still call me daddy."

"Hahahaha!"

Rhuda's laughter, it was his first time hearing it. Shallot's heart raced--it was so pure, so bright, he swallowed down his nerves. "...Let's get going."