36 Chapter 36

"Are you sure you want to leave the planet?"

Kakarot follows after me, having remained while everyone has already left. He doesn't sound very concerned, rather he sounds curious for reasons I don't know. I understand that he of all people would be interested in coming with me, but I don't get this questioning.

"Is there a reason you're asking this?"

"You never know what you can find out there" he answers, speeding up to walk at my side, "my father was stronger than all of us combined, hell his exact number was ten thousand "

I pause, "ten thousand?"

Kakarot nods and the look on his face is one of pride and awe, "yes, that was his power level. He was one of the strongest and most respected, especially among the lower class. The hierarchy system states that a low-class Saiyan could never reach such amazing power levels, but my father was as strong as our king"

That does sound impressive. It's the first I'm hearing of a hierarchy system though.

"So, what you're trying to say is that we may encounter trouble we may not survive?" I wonder, to which he nods.

"I mean, my father was strong, but there are stronger out there. Other civilizations are stronger than humans and other planets have higher gravity, making said civilizations naturally stronger overall. They are also more advanced when it comes to technology and travel through the galaxies. It's not a hard thing to imagine running into such creatures" he explains, "case in point, I'm pretty sure planet Vegeta was under the rule of someone with immense power. Freeza, if my memory is correct. From what I know he's supposed to be stronger than anything we can imagine, and he has basically a kingdom of powerful beings under his hands. If we were to run into anyone working for him, I don't think we have much chance of survival"

That is grim. Alright, I now understand why he would need to know if I were certain about my decision. It seems there is something that can stop me from venturing out into the unknown. Now, this has been brought to my attention, there are two possible choices here. Either I don't go and ensure my safety here on Earth, or I do go and make sure I have everything in place to avoid instant death. If I were to be held back simply because of the possibility of stronger creatures out there, would I ever be able to venture off this planet? No matter how strong one becomes, there will always be a being stronger than that. Kakarot speaks of this Freeza who has immeasurable power, but even if we were to be as strong as him, there would be another being who outclasses such strength.

"I'm going," I say, and Kakarot regards me carefully.

He grins, "I didn't expect you to change your mind, but at least I tried"

"You're coming, aren't you?"

"Of course, of course," he says casually, "wouldn't miss it for the world. I just needed to make sure you knew the dangers"

"I appreciate the heads up" it's always good to know now what to expect, "now, regarding power levels, how strong do you estimate us to be?"

"I need a scouter" he replies, "I had one in my ship, do you have it?"

"Is it that odd device that can be attached to one ear?" I ask, and he nods. "Then we have it. I couldn't understand the language"

"I don't think I'd understand it either," Kakarot says as if suddenly realizing this fact, "can you change it?"

"Oh yeah, I've done that a long time ago"

I just haven't used the device. It's not very useful to me seeing as I can sense another's strength. It seems this device was created because Saiyans or whoever they worked for could not sense ki.

The device is kept in the lab amongst the many other things I've worked on over the years. I hand it to him and he inspects it with some enthusiasm.

"I've never used this" he reveals.

"Probably a good thing. It was hooked to some channel and from the things you told me, I made sure to disconnect it as soon as discovered it"

We don't know who could be on the receiving end of this detected channel and I would rather not summon some space overlord to measly Earth because I was not careful with an obvious communication device.

Kakarot presses the buttons on the side of the device and holds it up, facing me. There's this beeping sound once he has me in his sighs and I can see the numbers on the device jumping.

"It works," he relays, "but you're suppressed right now"

At least we know it works.

The device beeps again once I work on releasing my true strength. Staying suppressed has become such a habit that it's an easy thing to do. Releasing this hold on my strength feels like a big stretch after a good night's rest.

"What do you read?"

"Six ten," he says with a massive grin, "nice"

That is a big number, but it feels like nothing compared to ten thousand. It's clear that Kakarot's father was a strong man, but now I can fully comprehend how powerful this man must have been. And there are stronger creatures out there.

"I'm not even twenty percent your father's strength"

At that Kakarot laughs, loud and proud, "of course not, that man is a monster!"

He sounds like one.

"Try me, try me" Kakarot is like an excited child now and hands me the device. He shows me what to press and how it works before standing in front of me.

Unlike me, Kakarot does not take the time to carefully lift his suppression. He releases everything in a burst of energy that sends a few papers flying. He'll be the one cleaning it up since he wants to be so reckless.

Kakarot's action causes the numbers on the scouter to spike abruptly, jumping from the twenty it had settled on to a staggering six hundred and ten.

We're even.

"Six ten," I tell him and he beams, "we're even"

"We're always on the same level," he says easily. He seems to like it that way. "I'm not surprised. Now the question is, what do we do now we know how weak we are?"

"What do you recommend?"

"A power level of at least one thousand," he says with a nod of his head, "if we go as we are now, we're easy pickings"

"So four hundred more to go"

"Four hundred more to go"

~~~~~~~~~

"Hey, Bulma!"

Kakarot comes skidding across the corner quite suddenly. Bulma looks surprised to see him, having likely thought that he had left since she did not see him with me. She looks at me then, almost accusing, before setting her attention on Kakarot, who approaches with his Saiyan armor in hand. He smiles this bright thing when he sees Bulma as if he's so incredibly happy to see her. As if he hasn't seen her in days. I don't understand why he smiles at her like that every time.

"I thought you left"

"I did," he says, "I came back"

He holds his clothes up towards Bulma as if offering her something sacred. Bulma looks at the clothes in his hand, then at the short boy who stands in front of her with that almost innocent smile on his face.

"What?"

"Could you recreate my armor?" he asks

"Why would I do that?" Bulma asks back

"It fits all sizes" Kakarot begins to explain, "It can stretch to accommodate our great ape transformation. And our great ape transformation is huge. Really huge"

Bulma is thoughtful, I can see it in the most simple thing she does. She chews on the rubber of her pencil eraser, something she does far too often.

"That's useful" she eventually says. "I could do a lot with material like that"

"Yes you can" Kakarot agrees wholeheartedly.

"And the breastplate, that stretches too?"

"It does"

"But it's sturdy enough to be used in battle?"

"It is"

"That's really good material," Bulma says and this time, she sounds very tempted

"Yeah, it is" Kakarot agrees again. He seems to understand that this is the best way to get Bulma to agree to his request, "you can do whatever you want with the material, I just need you to make me some more. I can't keep wearing the same one all the time. Also, could you color the next one black and green please?"

Bulma regards him for a moment, eyes searching, clearly debating this. Does she have the time to make clothes right now, when she wants to focus on expanding our ship to accommodate our group?

The answer is yes because she greedily takes the armor from a grinning Kakarot, whose twisting tail betrays his joy.

"You're so damn lucky you have such amazing things" Bulma makes sure to tell him.

"You'd do it anyway" Kakarot replies

"You're not that special"

"You lie!"

"Shut up"

Kakarot quiets at the order and simply stands at Bulma's side, leaning this way and that to try and see what she's doing to his things.

"Kakarot, move"

And he does. He stands next to me now.

"Is this how she treats you?" he asks me.

I shake my head, "no"

"Because unlike you, Durian is useful in the lab," Bulma says quite bluntly.

Kakarot does not respond, but he does give me this incredibly cheeky look behind her back. He's amused, if nothing else, and takes no offense to Bulma's words. She can be so mean sometimes.

While Bulma busies herself with Kakarot's armor, the boy himself holds up his scouter, directing it at the distracted Bulma with interest.

It beeps once, the number jumps.

"Huh"

"What is it?" I ask and he hands me the scouter. The number is not even in the double digits, yet, from Kakarot's expression, it's still impressive.

"Humans usually stand at one," He says. "But Bulma is at eight"

Now he explains it, that is impressive.

"If she were more focused on raising her strength she would have been in the double digits by now" He continues, "even a measly ten is superhuman"

She'll get there soon enough. Bulma isn't very focused on gaining strength, rather she's just fascinated by the concept of life energy and everything you can do once you're aware of this. Scientifically oriented as she is, it makes sense why she would show such interest in something that is seemingly supernatural.

"Come back in two days" I hear Bulma say to Kakarot.

"Really?" He looks amazed. "You only need two days?"

"One actually" Bulma admits, "but I'll make you four of these, so two days"

"Oh" Kakarot seems all too happy, "okay, two days. I'll be back in two days"

~~~~~~~~~~

"This material doesn't tear easily" Bulma mumbles, pulling on the stretchy fabric to prove her point. She swivels this way and that in her chair, unable to sit still in her excitement. Anything new gives her too much energy. "And it really does stretch incredibly far" she continues jotting something down on a notepad and going through a drawer of tools moments later. "And the breastplate can handle a lot more force than I thought. And it's just as stretchy as the body suit, despite being made of something denser" the breastplate is left on her already cluttered desk and she wheels over to another "the boots are the same"

Bulma really can't stay still when she's like this.

I've offered her some food, but she's so focused that it has been put aside and barely touched. The notes she has written regarding the armor lay scattered across her desk, barely resembling anything orderly as she goes around the lab left and right. Glancing at the clock, I realize we're in for another late night.

"Durian, why are you just eating?"

I pause, a spoonful of oats almost in my mouth, "I'm hungry?"

"You ate over three bowls of the stuff" she points out.

"I'm still hungry"

At this she rolls her eyes, appearing incredulous, "what's with your fluctuating appetite? One day you're satisfied with one bowl and the next you can eat as much as Kakarot"

While she does bring up a good point, there's not much I can say about her observation. Some days I'm more hungry than others, that's just how it's always been. Today in particular I have an odd craving for oats, so I shall eat oats until satisfied.

"And why oats of all things?"

"Sudden craving"

"You're so weird sometimes"

"Should I be offended?"

I'm met with silence and a pointed look before Bulma returns to her task at hand.

She's quite the busybody when she gets like this. With nothing better to do while I eat, I simply watch her move around the lab in her chair. It's a wonder she doesn't bump into tables and whatever lay scattered on the floor here and there. Then again, she does do this often so she may have developed some odd skill.

Eventually, she comes to a stop, quiet and distracted by the materials on her desk. In such a state she does not notice much of anything else. Nothing else exists when she finds herself in this mindset. She's in her own world and I never like to break her out of it. Sometimes I must wonder what goes on in that head of hers, what interesting thoughts make her the person she is.

She moves again, twisting in her chair in search of whatever and sparing me a glance.

"You're staring," she says and her nose scrunches up with the statement, "why are you staring?"

"No reason"

Bulma doesn't believe me. It's easy enough to tell when she's not convinced, especially with the eye roll.

"You don't stare for no reason," she says with a huff

I smile and she doesn't like it.

"Perhaps I was simply admiring your beauty" that sounds like a good reason to stare, doesn't it? "is that satisfactory?"

For a moment her face flares, flustered, and she swivels away from me, "it would be if you were telling the truth"

"You always see through my lies" it's too easy for her. No matter how insignificant the lie may be, Bulma always knows when I'm being deceptive. It makes it very hard to play tricks on her, I've learned.

Bulma scoffs something about my idiocy, her back still to me. She's quite amusing.

"You truly are beautiful," I say. Perhaps she took that for a lie as well. Perhaps she knows better - she always does - but when it comes to things like this, I often question whether she believes my words are not. She has an odd way of accepting such compliments from me.

She turns to face me again, face red and eyes searching. Again, she gets very odd when I compliment her in this manner and I'm not sure why that is.

"Sometimes I think you're very aware of the things you do," she says accusingly, "but then I realize that it's not very likely" the accusing tone has faded into something lighter and she snickers, "you're a dense fool"

Why did she feel the need to say that to my face?

"That's rude"

"It is" she agrees, considering, "you're a handsome dense fool"

She smiles.

"I don't think that makes it better"

I appreciate the compliment thrown in there, but that doesn't erase the insult, now does it?

"That's all you're getting, so deal with it"

"An apology would have been good enough"

"Well, you won't be getting one" she states, "tough luck babe"

"Babe?" That's new

She hums "yeah?"

There's silence and she grins.

"I was fooled" I realize

"Yeah," Bulma says, nodding, "and what do we call those who have been fooled?"

Wow.

"Fools"

"Exactly"

~~~~~~~~~~

Night has already fallen and unsurprisingly, Bulma is still in the lab, which means I'm still in the lab. She's sipping on her second cup of coffee while she watches the armor's breastplate in the odd machine she has placed it into. I'm not sure what it's meant to do and haven't bothered asking. I doubt Bulma would answer me in the state she's currently in. She barely blinks as she watches the machine scan the object within, but she seems more than content to simply watch the process.

When she looks away from the machine, she's staring in the direction of the small ship she had built some years ago. I follow her gaze, curious as to what she could be seeing at this moment. It's a simple design, very similar to Kakarot's own, with the key differences being the bigger size and the proud capsule corp logo painted on the door. It's big enough to hold three people, though not big enough to have much of anything else other than the controls and some seats. Bulma plans to build a bigger ship, one with a couple of rooms, a kitchen, a bath, and everything else.

"I could've gone to space with that" I hear her say with a sigh. I look at her and she's still staring at the ship. "When I built it, I was happy because with this ship I can finally see what's out there"

It's been a childhood dream of hers. It's not something kept under lock and key, she's very open and talkative about it on the few occasions the thought strikes her. I'm surprised she didn't attempt to leave the second the ship was deemed safe and functional.

"Is there a reason you didn't take off the first chance you got?"

"I don't know what's out there and I didn't want to go alone. It would be amazing to get a glimpse of what lies outside earth, but there's the obvious danger of the unknown" she admits, sighing. "And I did not want to go alone. I figured I'd ask you because I knew you'd agree without a second thought. Obviously, I never brought it up"

"Why did you never bring it up then?" I would have said yes, she herself admits this, yet she never asked me.

In reply, she simply shrugs and my question goes unanswered. Her attention returns to the machine that has now stopped and quieted.

She won't answer me.

I guess it's fine.

"Doesn't matter then" in the end everything works out. "Now you get to go and you definitely won't be alone"

She nods in agreement to this, "Kakarot and Chichi and the others will be there"

"Yup"

She hums, though it's not an enthusiastic thing. I truly can not understand her at times. She does not want to go alone, and that is understandable. Now she isn't going alone, everyone will be there with her. It's bound to be an enjoyable adventure, and yet she doesn't seem as happy about it as I had expected her to be.

"You don't seem very enthusiastic"

"I'm happy," she says, and I suppose she is, but still.

"But? There's a but right?"

"No buts," she says smiling, "none at all"

"I don't believe you" it's obvious she's lying. "What's the problem"

"There is no problem," she says now.

I can't bring myself to believe that.

"Bulma-"

"There really is no problem," she says again, "it's just..." there's a pause and she's still for a moment, "I want-"

Bulma goes quiet again, and she returns her focus to the task at hand.

What does she want? Why won't she tell me? What could be so hard to explain to me? If there's no problem, why is she behaving this way? And if there is a problem, why won't she tell me?

What could she possibly wa-

Huh

"You want to go with me"

It's as if she's been caught in some sort of trap with the way she freezes up. She curses moments later, ugly words I've only heard her say now and then.

Oh wow.

"You couldn't tell me that, Bulma?" I'm a bit hurt actually

"It's embarrassing"

"It's flattering"

"Shut up, Durian"

She must be embarrassed if the red ears are anything to go by. She's so odd sometimes. If she wanted to go with me, she should have just said so.

"Well, you'll be going with me either way"

"It's different" she protests. "You know it's different"

"Because you want it to be just us two?" I wonder and she bristles.

"Why do you ask questions you know the answer to?"

"Because I would like you to answer" it's just that simple. It's always better when Bulma admits these things. She's always dead set on keeping such things to herself, either too embarrassed or too ashamed to voice her thoughts.

"Why?"

"Communication, Bulma. I like when you tell me what you want or what you're feeling. That way I know what you want so I know to give you what you want. If you don't tell me, how am I to know how to proceed?"

She's quiet again, this time appearing quite bashful, "I hate you sometimes"

"That's a strange way of expressing your affection"

"I was not expressing any sort of affection!" red in the face and likely tired of me already Bulma looks about ready to hit me as hard as she possibly can - which isn't very hard funnily enough.

In the face of her outburst, I can only smile, an action that seems to placate her just a bit.

"I don't feel like telling you anything anymore," she says, pouting.

"That's alright"

Bulma has already confirmed what she wants, so there's no need to provoke her any further. Ah, but I would have liked for her to actually say it. Alas, beggars cannot be choosers.

"We can go to the moon" I suggest, "what do you think?"

"Would be fun"

"It would"

"We should put a flag there or something" Bulma muses, thoughtful.

"We can put a house there" wouldn't that be worthwhile? "Call it a little vacation home. Or build a whole facility there."

"We'd be the first to do something like that"

"Yup, it's perfect isn't it?" fun too.

Bulma agrees, appearing quite joyful now, "a space station would be the ideal thing to put on the moon"

Well, seems she's in a good mood now. With that thought and image in mind, she returns to her work with Kakarot's armor, expression brighter than it was before. I'm sure she's entertaining thoughts of a glorious space station on the moon. Maybe even a small city of buildings monopolized by her and her alone. It would be truly groundbreaking to do such a thing in this day and age. Despite the amazing technology we have in hand, space travel has not been something we as humans could properly grasp. Yeah, we could build ships, but it would take centuries of travel to get anywhere. Now there is a ship that can travel lightyears within days, and Bulma's the one who built it. It took just a few days too. One would think it'd take years to build a ship with such capabilities, considering the type of engine and tech it would take. Though Bulma did have something to work with, copying something from out of this world is another impressive feat. She's a genius and even that feels like selling her short.

And the genius wants to go to space with me. I'm sure it's been a lifelong dream, so it's something dear to her. And she wants to share it with me.

The realization induces a wonderfully warm feeling.