C.11: Retirement? What a joke!

With an ero magazine on his head, to shield himself from the afternoon sun, Roshi relaxed in his garden chair. Dr. Brief was working on the spaceship just a few meters away, while his wife silently accompanied him. Reading a book, while encouraging him every now and then.

Slumped in his chair, like he was asleep, Master Roshi contemplated life.

...

Just a few hours ago, he found a heavily injured young fugitive, washed up on his front porch. After healing him up, he dug out the boy's escape vehicle, and accompanied him to West City. Now he was resting on the lawn of the richest man in the world, while Leon ran off to play with little Bulma.

And that wasn't even the craziest part!

Apparently the kid was an alien. An alien that could transform at the full moon. Into a monkey?

'10 times as strong. 100 times as hairy.'

That's how Leon described it. His eyebrows subconciously creased at that memory.

He couldn't believe it. Until Dr. Brief confirmed it.

'The egg really is a spaceship.'

Glancing at the half-dismantled space pod, he sighed.

'That begs another question. If Leon is so strong at that age, then where is the alien that tortured him?'

Having witnessed the mental state Leon was in, he couldn't help but frown. The physical wounds on his body, may have healed in no time. But the mental trauma was the real deal.

"Bunk."

A silly name, for a man with such a disgusting hobby. Torturing a pure and talented young boy for nothing. His old knuckles turned white. Gritting his teeth, he compared Bunk with Master Shen, and relaxed.

'That bird may be a vicious old man, but he still has his standards.'

While Roshi gave up on living. Planning to sacrifice himself for a few more years of peace, if necessary. Master Shen never stopped teaching the Martial Arts. Not giving up on finding a talented successor. To replace him as one of Earth's guardians.

He may be a sadistic old man with a black heart, but Master Roshi still had to respect him for that.

The real problem was the following.

'If Leon was born with so much Ki, how strong must that Bunk guy be?'

The presence of Leon also confirmed the presence of others like him. Meaning, that there could be even more King Piccolo's out there in space.

This conclusion made him feel cold, despite sitting in the sun. At first he thought that Leon was simply a kind of chosen one. Born on earth. But now there was the possibility of somebody like Leon being just another child in the universe.

'If someone like Leon is nothing special, then what about humans?'

This chilled him to the bone marrow. On Earth they called him 'The god of Martial Arts', but what about space?

'Dust. Earth is nothing but dust.'

Shakily, he took another sip of tea. He was a fool.

Retirement for the sake of dying gloriously to keep the peace?! What if 10 like Leon came? 100? 1000?

'What a joke! What a cruel joke!'

Tears built up in the old man's eyes. This beautiful world. This beautiful planet! That he and his fallen brothers fought so hard to liberate, was nothing but a frog at the bottom of a well.

Insignificant.

This broke the old Master's heart. What use are incredible Martial Arts like the Evil Containment Wave, if a dozen random aliens can gang up to beat you to death?!

"Aaaagh"

He groaned. Dizzily, he held onto his chair.

'I need to keep it together! If I die now, who will protect the planet?'

Clutching his heart, he calmed his breath. Looking into the direction where Leon was sleeping, he could only pray, that there was still hope to find.

An uncaring cosmos. What if it started to care about Earth?

The consequence was extinction.

***

Bulma felt better than she felt in, like forever!! Her belly was full and the sun was warm, thanks to her father's weather machines. And the games they played were So. Much. Fun!. Her new friend seemed to feel the same way. She was very glad to have made a friend that was close to her age.

She was always way smarter than other children, and older kids didn't want to play with her because she was too young. Leon could actually talk! Really talk! Like her, or her father! And he wanted to play with her too! She was practically bursting with happiness. She didn't think that catch would be much fun, since Leon is way faster than her. He proved her wrong.

While Leon was way too fast for Bulma's short legs to catch up, he proposed to walk on his hands. Which she mercilessly exploited. Planning ahead every step of the way, she took the hardest route possible for him to follow. Giggling like the kid she was, she used capsules to drop obstacles in his way. Like talking toasters, funny weatherclocks and derpy dishwashers. If it wasn't for him being allowed to jump every few seconds, he would've never caught her.

'Having friends is fun!'

Looking up at Leon supporting her, she felt happy.

***

When Bulma was tired from all the running, Leon decided, that it was time to confront Master Roshi. Bulma insisted on coming along. He didn't mind. She already knew that he was an alien. Her hearing about the rest is no problem.

'To think that Isekai protagonists always struggle to reveal the truth.'

He shook his head. Well, it certainly was helpful that he was orphaned the moment he reincarnated.

With a spring in his step, they made their way to the little tea gathering. Half supporting, half carrying the exhausted girl, her feet barely touched the ground.

Bulma made a game out of touching the ground with the tip of her toes, as her feet floated jost above ground. Making it look like she was walking on the tip of her toes.

"Hehe."

A little chuckle escaped her, as they got closer to the little tea gathering + reverse engineering session.

Coming closer, Leon noticed that dark clouds seemed to hang over Master Roshi. And he seemed to have aged drastically too! His beard hairs sprawled all over the floor! Leaving him bald on both ends!

Seeing him, Roshi shot a weak smile.

"Master Roshi! What happened to you!?"

Seeing the always upbeat old man in such a weak state, he couldn't help but ask in worry.

'He should be immortal, right? He ate the Paradise Herb. Why does he look like this?'

Roshi waved it off, his last remaining teeth wobbling out of his mouth as he answered.

"Don't worry about it. It's just the worries of an old man. Tomorrow might be cold. And these old bones don't get any younger."

Leaning against his cane, he shakily stood up. Straightening his back, he walked towards Leon with firm steps.

"Leon my boy, would you like to learn Martial Arts from me?"

His voice was hoarse, and there was a sense of desperation, that the Old Master failed to conceal.

"Ye- Yes of course I would like to be your student."

Taken aback by the sudden offer, his mind was blank.

'Shouldn't he first make me find a pretty girl like he asked of Goku and Krillin?'

He knew that this wasn't the Anime, and things wouldn't go the way they would in the series. But Roshi was one of the characters who were the easiest to predict.

To Leon's distress, Roshi genuinely smiled at that. Taking off his sunglasses to wipe his tears, before putting them back on.

Frantically trying to change the topic, he saw Bulma looking at them curiously from her mother's lap.

"Actually, I wanted to tell you something important."

Roshi just nodded at that and gestured him to sit too with a serious expression. Clasping his hands, Master Roshi focused all his attention on Leon.

Relieved that the Turtle Hermit stopped crying, he continued.

"I'm a Saiyan. Saiyans are a warrior race that can turn into giant apes that are 10 times as strong. As long as they look at the full moon."

Roshi nodded at that seriously. While Bulma's mom and dad didn't seem to pay them much attention.

"Adult Saiyans can have a Power Level, or Ki-value ranging from 1000 to 10000."

Having already expected something like that, Roshi nodded grimly. Not expecting the silence, Leon kept going.

"And I'm reincarnated."

Hearing this, Roshi scrunched his brows.

Saying something like that would sound very ominous to normal people.

Like, if a child ran up to you, tugging your shirt. Telling you that it died in this and that place once, you would either run like hell, or think it's a lame prank.

However, Roshi was aware of the otherworld and reincarnation through his sister Baba.

While Bulma, although very smart, was still too young to have a real grasp of life and death. To her, it was just yet another attributte of her alien friend.

Having anticipated that, Leon could admit it without fear. The good thing about the Dragon Ball world was, that Heaven, Hell and reincarnation were a guaranteed fact... As long as the god of destruction doesn't erase you from existence.

Figuring it's part of some new game she didn't understand, Bulma's mother 'Bikini' didn't think much of it. And continued stroking Bulma's hair. (Yes her name is canonically Bikini.)

Master Roshi on the other hand got even more serious.

To his knowledge, reincarnation without losing one's mind / spirit was impossible. He wanted to ask how, but opted to hear him out first.

"Furthermore, I know the future."

Seeing Roshi's looks, he cringed inwardly. He was going all strong about telling everything important about himself. Speaking up without fear. But more than anything, he cringed at his lack of creativity at this very average confession.

'Maybe I should have prepared a speech?'

Bulma recovered first.

"What are the lottery numbers?"

Leon shrugged at that.

"Oh. I don't know small things like that. But I know that the Red Ribbon Army will threaten to overthrow the government in a decade. And that Emperor Pilaf will unseal Demon King Piccolo if nobody stops him."

"Ah."

A little disappointed, Bulma took a leftover cookie to cheer up.

Unable to be even more surprised, Roshi just slumped back in his chair. Rubbing his face he evaluated how much of what Leon said is true.

Just because he was right once about being an alien, he wouldn't just start to believe everything he heard, without mulling it over.

'For one, I don't know enough about whether reincarnation with the old spirit intact can be possible. But that's not really crucial information, is it.'

Furthermore, there was no reason to lie about that.

Roshi didn't care if Leon was from Mars, Venus, or a random star in the Milky Way. He didn't have a problem with him being reincarnated either. In fact, he was happy that he still had a Pure Heart. This spoke volumes about his character.

The majority of children were pure enough to use the Flying Nimbus. The really important part was to retain or regain that purity throughout puberty and adulthood.

Glancing at the boy, his evaluation of him rose.

'About knowing the future... Nowadays few people even believe King Piccolo to be more than a legend. And Emperor Pilaf...'

Roshi drew a blank.

'Is that someone important?'

Roshi didn't remember. But Leon knowing the future was already confirmed by him knowing about the Dragon Balls. Since it was very improbable for him to know about their existence otherwise.

'It's not even a big deal. My sister Baba looks into the future all the time...'

He rationalized. And relaxed, knowing that Earth isn't at risk for the next ten years.

"I believe you."

Observing Master Roshi's behavior throughout his confession, he took a guess.

'He feels like he isn't strong enough to face the future.'

He could understand that feeling. Since despite all the years of his training, Roshi still didn't surpass King Piccolo in strength. He didn't know about the best way to train yet.

Leon continued.

"In the future, there will be many strong enemies. But don't worry. We'll be fine."

Roshi wasn't sure whether if he could feel relieved just because of that one sentence, but smiled anyway.

Bulma didn't quite understand what was going on, but cheered, cookie in hand.

'After all, if it comes to training. Among mortals, I know it best.'

This was his true advantage ín Dragon Ball. And he would abuse it.