Chapter 02

LETTIE

"GOHAN!!!!!!!! NO!!!!!!!!" I heard Goku shout as we saw Raditz fly away from the island. That hurt more than the kick I got in the chest.

Still lying in the water, I heard Master Roshi order from the shore, "Quick! We've got to help them! Bulma, go to Lettie. Krillin, lift Goku up. I'll get some Sacred Water!" And he ran into the house at an impressive speed for an elderly person.

"Lettie! Oh, my goodness!" Bulma hurried up to me, skipping through the water, and bent down to support me. "Are you okay? Are you hurt?"

"I-I think..." I said with difficulty, holding the side of my body. "I think I broke something."

"Can you stand up?" She held me and lifted me up.

Every step was a stab in my guts. When we reached the shore, I was startled at seeing Goku in a state of fury, punching the ground and spraying water into the air while venting his anger. I've never seen a man so furious.

"NO! NO! NO!" he roared. Me, Bulma, and Krillin stared at each other in worry. However, even though he was still in a lot of pain, by noticing my presence next to him, Goku stood up and held me by the arms, "How are you?! Is it hurting?! ARGH!!!" He turned around, running his hands over his face. "How could I not protect my own son and my sister?! DANG IT! DANG IT!!! Tell me, Lettie, and don't lie to me, did that bastard do you any harm?"

"Well..." I panted, still unable to breathe properly. "Besides what you saw here, he only knocked me out in the head before kidnapping me."

"Only?" repeated Bulma and Krillin.

I just shrugged. I didn't think it was prudent to make myself the target of all compassion when we had a child in the hands of a psychopathic maniac and the threat of the complete destruction of planet Earth.

Goku then hugged me and said, "Despite what happened to Gohan, do know that I'm glad to find out you're my sister. Thank you for trying to help us."

I was about to scream in pain as I was hugged by what was now my brother, but I couldn't help but feel a wave of affection crashing into my heart with a fraternal warmth that, for someone lonely who grew up without a family like me, deep down, always wanted to receive.

I tried my best to hug him back and, despite the terrible circumstances we found ourselves in, I was thankful that at least I got some good things out of it. However, above all these feelings, the anger at what Raditz caused to us and, especially to Gohan, made me return my attention to what mattered at the moment. I don't deny I thought about my small rented room there in the clandestine arena, which was probably destroyed by Raditz's damage. I might as well apologize to these people and return to my old routine. But, looking deep inside me, I found no reason for me to go back to that miserable life.

After years and years of searching for an answer, for a goal, I finally found someone to fight for.

As we pulled away, we both fell to the ground, strengthless. Bulma and Krillin got down to hold us up.

"I need to... do something..." said Goku, gritting his teeth. "I can't leave my son in Raditz's hands." He then looked up. "FLYING NIMBUS! COME HERE!"

A little yellow cloud crossed the sky, leaving a yellow trail along the way. I shook my head, not believing that I was seeing a... magical cloud!, and concluded that after everything I saw and heard that day, nothing would impress me anymore. I was just going to accept all the weirdness that surrounded me.

The cloud stopped next to us, and my brother tried to stand up to reach it, but he fell once more.

"Don't be hasty, Goku!" Master Roshi dashed out of the pink house holding a round, blue bottle, encrusted with precious stones. "You need to regain your strength before making any decision!"

He knelt in front of us and took the cap off the bottle, handing it to Goku, who took a big gulp of its content and then offered it to me.

"W-What's in there...?" I frowned.

"It's Sacred Water from Kami-sama's Temple," replied Master Roshi.

"Huh... Translation, please?" I looked at him with doubt.

"Consider it the best medicine in the world." Krillin gave me a confident smile. "Don't worry, it's safe."

Confirming his words, Goku jumped up, with his face brightened by the recovered vitality. He then gave me a nod, encouraging me to go ahead.

A bit uneasy, I wet my lips with the liquid from that bottle, realizing that it tasted like normal water, and I risked taking a sip.

A cooling sensation ran down my throat, spreading to every inch of my body. The pain in my chest disappeared completely, as did… the pain at the end of my spine.

It felt like I had been reborn!

I barely noticed when I too stood up in a jump, staring at my hands and feeling my body, fascinated and impressed by a sudden burst of energy.

I gazed at the others and burst out laughing. That Sacred Water would've saved me a lot of anti-inflammatories, painkillers, and muscle relaxers that I had to take during all my years in the arenas!

"Wow...!" I panted, but no longer from pain. "Incredible...!"

However, my smile soon faded away when I remembered our situation, and melancholy soon hit us once again, especially Goku.

"How am I going to rescue my son and fight Raditz?" he whimpered. "Even with my strength recovered, what can I do?"

"Think, Goku," replied Master Roshi. "You have to think."

I bit the inside of my mouth, with my mind in a whirl, still processing all the information I had heard in the last few hours. Goku was right. What could we do?

"That's terrible!" sighed Bulma. "Now that you've found people from your family, one of them is so cruel and heartless!"

"This brother of yours, this… Raditz," Krillin looked at us, "he's... he's too powerful. You've got to be cautious."

"Lettie," Goku squeezed my shoulder, "could it be that if we join forces, we could defeat Raditz? After all, according to him, we're the strongest warriors of the Universe… the Saiyans. That should count as something!"

 "Look, Goku..." I made a sad expression, "As Raditz mentioned, I know how to fight, it's what I do for a living, but, as he also pointed out, I have no training. I've never had. Everything I know about fighting, I learned from years of watching other fighters, participating in tournaments, and perhaps some kind of intuition of my own." I took a deep breath. "Sorry to remind you, but he defeated us with a single blow. This guy is tough. I dare say he's a professional killer."

Everyone lowered their heads, mulling over my words.

"But," I continued, slowly, "like any race that exists, it must have a weakness. The question is, what is the weakness of a Saiyan?"

Goku suddenly widened his eyes.

"The… The tail…!"

"What?" The others and I exchanged looks.

"Raditz's tail!" Goku palmed his fist. From what he said, it seems that a Saiyan's maximum strength comes from the tail! If we manage to grab his tail, I'm sure he'll lose all his strength! It happened to me once when I had mine!"

"Yeah!" agreed Master Roshi. "You're right!"

"But do you think we can grab the tail of such a strong man?" pondered Krillin.

"I couldn't do this alone." Goku gazed at me with a bold smile and, despite the fear, I began to feel the familiar adrenaline that got into me when I was going to fight, and I smiled back.

"I'll do everything I can to help you." Master Roshi stepped forward, leaning on his staff. 

Krillin, however, wasn't so excited about the idea, "A-Are you guys sure about this?"

"Of course we are!" Master Roshi gave him a reprimanding look. "Neither Yamcha nor Tien are here, so we're the ones who have to go!"

I didn't know who these two Master Roshi mentioned were, but I couldn't deny that, whoever they were, their help would come in handy.

"Y-Yeah..." Krillin rubbed his hands in an anxious posture. "That's true. W-Well, if the four of us fight, we'll do something to... to..." He shivered. "I... But... Hmm..." He then turned to Bulma. "Listen, if I die, will you please revive me with the Dragon Balls?"

Dragon-what?

I externalized my question.

"They are seven orange spheres, or balls," replied Bulma. "When we gather all of them together, we can make a wish to Shenron. You must have seen one on Gohan's hat."

"Yes... I did see it. But who's Shenron?

"A giant dragon that grants a wish to whoever has gathered the Dragon Balls." Bulma then gave me an understanding half-smile. "Don't worry, Lettie. You'll get used to all of this, eventually."

So I hoped.

"Krillin," said Goku, "I'm sorry, but it won't be possible to do what you've asked. Kami-sama told me that you can't ask Shenron the same wish. You and Master Roshi have already been resurrected once, so it will be impossible next time."

I don't know who was more perplexed, Krillin and Master Roshi for discovering that they couldn't come back to life if they died in the fight against Raditz, or me for discovering that there was a dragon out there granting wishes, and that the young man and the bald old man in front of me have already died and been resurrected in the past.

Yeah... I needed to catch up on this story urgently.

"Still..." sighed Goku. "Would you guys help me?"

"Sure!" replied Master Roshi.

"Absolutely!" Krillin clenched his fists. "It's our turn to help you, Goku. You're our friend!"

Soon after, I saw Krillin's face become deeply saddened, with his shoulders down and eyes tearing up. The man was devastated by the possibility of dying in the fight against Raditz. Poor thing.

"Hey..." Bulma tried to cut that morbid atmosphere. "Speaking of the Dragon Balls, what if we gather them and ask Shenron to save the world from all atrocities?"

Krillin became thrilled.

"YES!!!" he exclaimed. "Excellent idea, Bulma!!!"

"And do you really believe that we'll be able to gather all the seven Dragon Balls in just one day?" Master Roshi looked at him seriously.

Krillin got worse than before. "No... I don't think so..."

"How does it work? Finding these Dragon Balls?" I asked. "Is it possible to know where they are?"

"After Shenron grants us a wish," explained Bulma, "they spread randomly all across the world. It's a quite tiring search..."

"Wait!" said Goku. "But, we have the Dragon Radar, remember?"

"Dragon Radar?" I repeated.

"OH! That's right!" Bulma opened a big smile. "The Dragon Radar is a little device I built to track the location of the Dragon Balls."

"Well..." I placed my hand on my chin, thoughtfully. "Since it apparently takes a long time to track down all the Dragon Balls to make a wish, we can at least track the one in Gohan's hat. Would it be possible?"

"Sure!" replied Goku. "Excellent idea, Lettie! We can attack Raditz right now. He must be feeling confident and he won't expect us to do such thing. Bulma, where is the Dragon Radar?"

"Lucky for you, I always keep it in my helicopter." She then headed to a mini yellow helicopter parked in a hidden corner near the pink house, which left me stunned because I hadn't seen that thing there till then, but its existence answered many questions that I had about how people get to this island.

When Bulma returned, we circled around her, and she showed us a small round grayish object, a mini radar, displaying a black screen with green checkered lines.

"Here!" she pointed to a bright dot on the display. "There's Gohan's Dragon Ball!"

"It's moving fast!" I added.

The dot suddenly stopped, making us gasp in surprise.

"Phew!" sighed Bulma. "He didn't go to space, he's still on Earth."

I suddenly raised my head to stare at her when I heard her say that "he didn't go to space", but I quickly acted natural, scratching the back of my head as I remembered that, "Lettie, helloooo!", we're aliens, have you forgotten?

"Great, let's go! We still have a chance!" Goku straightened up, clenching his fists. "Gohan, my son, just hold on a little longer…"

"It will work," encouraged Master Roshi. "We'll get him back."

"That's right!" agreed Krillin. "We can probably beat him, although… uh… the possibilities aren't that high." And his voice faded away.

"Well," I said, "since Raditz and his group want to eliminate humans anyway, we'd better at least try to do something to stop them, right?"

We gazed at each other in silence, but agreed with great determination.

"YOU WON'T MAKE IT!" A voice shouted above us.

We looked up to the skies and saw someone floating over the island, with a white cape fluttering in the wind.

So I hadn't hallucinated!

However, I got startled when I heard the others exclaim, "IT'S PICCOLO!!!"

The effect was instantaneous. A sinister and terrifying aura spread all over that place as the others began to tremble as they watched that said Piccolo slowly descend and land on the sand in front of us.

I myself held my breath as I closely analyzed the second alien I encountered that day. A great power emanated from him, I could feel that. He was unlike anything I had ever seen, much taller than my brother; with no doubt more than two meters tall. He was definitely a male being, with green skin like freshly cut grass, and the muscles on his arms and forearms had a pinkish color. A purple fighting jumpsuit covered his body, wrapped by a wide blue belt, and on his back, behind voluminous and pointed shoulder pads, he wore the aforementioned white cape that reached down to his feet with brown pointy shoes.

However, the attribute that caught my attention the most was his face; especially his eyes. They were black, small, and intense. His ears, however, were large and also pointed, like those of elves in fantasy stories, and, on top of his head, he wore a white and purple kind of turban.

But I had a vague feeling that that Piccolo was familiar to me. I felt that I had seen him before, somewhere...

Oh, that's right! Of course I have seen him! In the final match of the 23rd World Martial Arts Tournament, fighting against... Goku! Wow, that's why my brother also looked so familiar to me when I first saw him. I remember that the ticket cost me almost what I would spend at the market in a whole month. I have tried to participate in these formal tournaments, but I never got past the qualifiers.

But that fight between Goku and Piccolo… was the most intense I've ever seen.

Now, I saw Piccolo show the same frightening expression as he did in the World Martial Arts Tournament as he scrutinized each of us; going from Master Roshi, Krillin, Bulma (who literally fell to the ground in fear and crawled away). When he glared at me, he moved on to Goku. However, for about two seconds, he blinked and glared at me again, as if he hadn't seen me properly or wanted to confirm that I was there, but then he shook his head and fixed his eyes on my brother only, crossing his arms.

That gave me chills.

"Piccolo?!" exclaimed Master Roshi. "I don't believe it! W-What are you doing here?!"

"I was following that guy," he replied, without changing his frown manner.

"So you already knew him, right?" Goku glared at him with an unfriendly expression.

"Yes."

"Hang on!" I went next to my brother and also faced Piccolo. "You saw Raditz kidnap me and did nothing?"

"And why should I?" Piccolo curved his lips in a little smile. "It was fun watching you scream on his back."

"But he destroyed my house! He killed people!"

"And do I look like I have a crystal ball to know what he was going to do?"

We glared at each other for about five seconds in silence, until I looked away, feeling ridiculously helpless in front of that bulldozer, and I thought it was better to stay quiet, after all, it wouldn't be wise to annoy the guy who caused such damage in that Tournament.

"Goku, you won't be able to defeat Raditz. Not with these who want to help you." Piccolo looked at Krillin and Master Roshi. Then, he turned to me with a bored expression. "This one might help with something. I can feel that she has a considerably high fighting level, and she was the one who came up with the idea of tracking down the Dragon Ball in Gohan's hat."

I was so confused about whether I felt offended or honored by such a statement, that I could only open and close my mouth like a fish out of water, puffing my cheeks with air.

"Regardless, I'll go with you, Goku." Piccolo waved his cape in a picturesque way, which was such a ridiculous gesture that I found it funny, and I had to disguise a chuckle and pretend to cough. He noticed it and glared at me.

"You must already know very well how strong Raditz is." Piccolo ignored me and began walking around. "We cannot defeat him. It doesn't matter if the opponent is me, you, or your sister Lettie."

At first, I thought it was strange that he knew my name, but, based on his behavior (and above all, the size of his ears), I suspected that he had heard our entire conversation with Raditz. What a nosy!

"But," he continued, "if we join forces, there is a possibility of victory."

Goku sought my gaze, wanting to know my opinion, and I thought for a moment. What other options did we have? Either we made this Piccolo an ally, or we needed to fight Raditz with an old man who I suspected was already two hundred years old, and a young man who wouldn't stop to cold sweat.

As hard as it was to admit, Piccolo was our only chance to maybe (just maybe) defeat Raditz.

Goku seemed to have had the same line of thought as me, and with a nod, we agreed with each other.

"Alright, then," he concluded.

"What do you have in mind?" I added.

"First, I don't want you to misinterpret me," said Piccolo. "I don't seek the peace of this planet, and I don't care what can happen to your son, Goku. He's just interfering with my plan of... world domination!"

For the second time, I had to disguise a chuckle and cough, and, for the second time, Piccolo glared at me.

"Are you retarded, by any chance?" he asked. 

"No, no. I'm sorry." I covered my mouth and waved my hand. I wasn't getting how the others were taking that Piccolo so seriously. Poor Bulma was almost freaking out, hiding behind the sea turtle, but I couldn't believe that the same man I saw fight in the World Martial Arts Tournament could talk so much nonsense. So I ended up saying, "It's because, you know... 'world domination'? That's a bit… cliché, don't you think?"

It was Piccolo's turn to open and close his mouth like a fish out of water, while the others were astonished at my (apparently) audacity, exclaiming things like "Lettie, are you crazy?!", "Do you know who he is?", or "Do you wanna die??".

Piccolo kept glaring at me, making a tremendous effort to control his nerves, clenching his fists at his sides. I even dare say he turned red. He then closed his eyes, took a deep breath, and opened them. "I've just got my confirmation that you really are Goku's sister." Piccolo crossed his arms and leaned towards me with a little smile, covering me with his shadow. "Idiocy runs in the family."

I pressed my lips together until they formed a thin line, imitating the same behavior he just did to control his patience, feeling my face also turn red with anger as we glared at each other intensely.

"Okay, that's enough now!" My brother intervened, getting between us. "We have no time to lose!"

"You finally said something intelligent, Goku." Piccolo straightened up again, not taking his eyes off me, nor I from his. "Now, the three of us will join forces. Then, we'll defeat those two other friends of Raditz. And, at last," he turned his head to my brother, "I'll finish you off, once and for all!" He looked at me once more. "And so, I'll dominate the world and sit on a big, soft, clichéd throne."

I snorted, rolling my eyes, and turned my back to watch the sea. An icy breeze swept across the water and hit us, and I heard Piccolo's cape flutter. A chill ran through my body and I hugged myself, knowing that, deep down, I was fearful of what might happen next in our fight against Raditz, with rescuing Gohan and, I dare say, even with that "world domination" by a powerful guy like Piccolo, which I still felt his eyes on me.

"Well, I won't allow you to dominate the world." I heard Goku say and I turned to look at him. "I won't. But... It's a good idea to join forces for now." He then gave Piccolo a bold smile. "Because we have no other choice, do we?"

"Exactly." Piccolo smiled back, revealing sharp canine teeth. "Do not think that this pleases me." He turned to me, still smiling. "I find the idea of cooperating with people like you unbearable."

I ignored him and walked up next to Goku, who turned to Bulma (still hiding behind the sea turtle) and asked, "Please, give me the Dragon Radar."

"Huh? Oh, o-okay!" She felt her pockets until she found the object.

"Throw it here, Bulma," I asked, and caught it in the air without taking my eyes off Piccolo, who was still watching us with that ironic smile.

I handed the Dragon Radar to Goku, and he called the Flying Nimbus again, which stopped in front of us. In one jump, my brother climbed onto it, which really surprised me, as I never imagined that it would be possible to stand on top of a cloud without falling through it.

"Come on, Lettie." He reached out his hand for me to climb up as well.

A bit insecure, I accepted his help and, pulling me up, he lifted me and sat me on the cloud. Then, a sequence of incredulous gasps followed.

"OH!!!" exclaimed Master Roshi. "I can't believe it!"

"L-Lettie," stuttered Krillin, "can you... get onto the Flying Nimbus?!"

"What is it?" I glanced at Goku and the others in confusion. "Is there any problem?"

"It's nothing, never mind," replied my brother, who smiled at me in a way that verged admiration and, I dare say, also pride. The strangest thing was that I also noticed that Piccolo was staring at me with wide eyes and with his mouth half-opened.

I looked away and, in a shy and tense posture, I settled myself to sit behind Goku, blushing for suddenly becoming the center of attention.

"What's up, Piccolo?" Goku sat in front of me, legs crossed. "Can you keep up with the speed of my Flying Nimbus?"

I saw that Piccolo was still staring at me in amazement, and then he shook his head and blinked several times.

"Don't be stupid." He showed that little smile from before again. "To begin with, my flying technique is far superior."

I was still trying in vain to look for some kind of seat belt in the middle of that cloud when Goku said, "Sis, hold on to me and don't let go."

"Yes, sIRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRR!!!!!!!!" I let out a scream when the Flying Nimbus dashed into the sky at such an absurd speed that I hugged Goku until I heard him exclaim, "Oh, Lettie! You're going to break my ribs!", with Piccolo flying beside us and laughing out loud at my disgrace.