20 - Battling Tao Pai Pai and Meeting Goku

Ten days had quickly gone by. While it was much longer than Goku's training with Korin was in the original series, this simply allowed him to get much stronger. In the end, his strength was greatly increased, and he felt he could take on Tao Pai Pai and the Red Ribbon Army in this state.

"Wake up."

Korin shook the sleeping body of Jesse, but he simply slept through it, snoring loudly.

"I said wake up idiot!"

He slammed him on the head with his staff, immediately making Jesse jolt awake, covering his head with his hands.

"Ow! What the hell!"

"There's a battle about to start down below us, an evil assassin is there for your Dragon Ball, you should go."

Jesse stopped holding his head and raised his eyebrows.

"It must be Tao Pai Pai!"

'I've gotta stop him from killing Upa's father!'

"Could you lend me a dark nimbus so I can get down there faster?"

Jesse quickly asked, some nervousness in his voice, it'd be pretty annoying if he had to deal with Goku also wanting a wish, plus he didn't want someone to die for no reason.

"How do you kno- Eh, whatever, here take it."

'Guess he knows he's not pure, what a weird guy.'

Korin thought to himself as Jesse hopped on the Dark Nimbus and zoomed down as fast as he could. Quickly, he saw the scene of the battle, standing there was Tao Pai Pai, holding the native man's spear in his hand. The larger man was completely helpless as he struggled to move his spear from Tao Pai Pai's grip.

"Shit. I told him to run away!"

Tao Pai Pai lifted the man into the air and suddenly launched him upwards.

"Here is your spear back!!"

"FATHEEER!!!"

"Oh no!!! Kintoun!!!"

The three at the ground yelled as Tao Pai Pai had thrown the native man's spear at him. Seconds before the spear would have pierced the Upa's father, Jesse jumped off the dark nimbus and used the boost technique he'd made before, which he had named Zenpo, to snatch the spear out of the air and catch the man with his other arm.

"I made it!"

Kuro Kintoun, or the Dark Nimbus, caught Jesse, then quickly lowered him to the ground. Putting the spear and the man down beside him, he looked over at Mercenary Tao with a serious expression on his face.

"Uwaa!? That guys got a black kintoun! And he's fast!"

Goku yelled out in surprise.

"Y-You're back… thank you for saving me."

Upa's father thanked him, and Jesse nodded in appreciation. Jesse got off his black cloud, then stepped forward. Tao Pai Pai was staring at Jesse with a shocked expression, one of of disbelief.

'Hes fast! Another kid in my way?'

"Who are you? I wasn't hired to kill you so you can run away while I still feel like letting you."

"Run away? Don't you want this?"

Jesse smirked and said in a mocking tone as he pulled out the Four-Star Dragon Ball.

"Eh!? Grandpa's Dragon Ball!"

"A Dragon Ball! Who exactly are you? Well whatever, it doesn't matter, I'll make short work of you and then the boy."

Still smirking, he repositioned himself, setting his hands to their sides.

"He knows the kamehameha!?"

Goku yelled out surprised. Energy began to build up in between Jesse's hands slowly as he charged the attack. It's charging time was still quite long, since he hadn't practiced it enough.

"Kaaa… Meeee… Haaaa… Meee…."

"An energy attack? Hah, I'll just kill you now then! Dodonpa!"

A much thinner yellow beam came shooting out Tao Pai Pai's finger towards Jesse's face. As it did however, Jesse finally released his attack.

"Haaa!!!"

A large blue bleam came blasting and rocketing out of Jesse's now forward-facing hands. The blast quickly ate up the weaker the Dodonpa from Tao Pai Pai, and before he even knew it, it had engulfed the man's body. Unlike the Kamehameha Goku had shot Tao Pai Pai with around now in the original timeline, this beam hurt him. In fact it did more than hurt him. As the assassin yelled out in pain, his entire body was incinerated as trees behind them were destroyed, Jesse was much stronger than him.

"There, all dealt with."

"Hey, you're really strong! Who are you?!"

Goku came up to him excited, wondering who this strong fighter was.

"You knew the Kamehameha! Are you one of Master Roshi's students too?!"

Jesse stood with his hand behind his head awkwardly from his questions, it was nice to meet Goku but how was he gonna explain knowing the Kamehameha?

"I'm not one of the Turtle Hermit's students, I've just heard of him! I just uhhh... happened to pick up the Kamehameha in my journeys!"

'Thats a believable enough explanation, especially for Goku...'

"Oh I see… Ah! You have my Grandpa's ball!"

Goku suddenly remembered the ball held in Jesse's hand.

"Could you give that ball to me!?"

Jesse shook his head.

"I can't, at least not yet. I can give it to you after I make my wish on Shenron though, and you can have it sooner if you help me find the rest!"

The monkey boy tilted his head slightly.

"Why do you wanna find the Dragon Balls? You're not one of those red ribbon guys are you?"

Goku suddenly got into a fighting position while saying this.

"U-Uh n-no no, I'm not part of them. I just need the Dragon Balls to revive my friend!"

Jesse denied the boy's words and shook his hands in front of him. Hearing this, Goku got out of his fighting position and smiled.

"Alright then! I'm Son Goku! I already have three of the balls and Bulma's radar can help us find the rest!"

Jesse nodded, pretending to be slightly surprised at the radar. He'd been knowing information totally inexplicably a little too much.

"Great! My names Jesse. Before we go searching for more though, you should go up there and train with Korin! I can wait down here for you."

Jesse exclaimed while pointing up to Korin Tower.

"Were you training with him too?! Is that why you came flying down from up there."

"Yep! He gets you many times stronger, the climb might be tough though!"

Goku ran up to the base of the tower and slapped his bicep.

"I don't mind!"

Immediately, he began to climb the tower, disappering into the sky.

"Alright, everything's going well, really really well…"

Jesse said as he leaned onto the tower, starting to take a nap since he couldn't get a full sleep with Korin waking him up. Seconds later he began snoring, ready to take on the Red Ribbon Army in three days.

'Just hold up a little longer in the afterlife Truffel…'