…

Join Bulma and accompany her home or do something else? Yamcha didn’t know which was the correct answer. What would give him the most benefits? 

 

In this small decision, either choice would be to dance with death, the raper’s scythe getting closer to his neck with each passing second. 

 

He was playing a chess game, where an opportunity would be gone with each piece he lost, and with each lost piece, the reaper’s scythe would get closer to his neck. 

 

Yet, for some reason, he was calmer than ever. His mind had never been clearer.

 

A strange sense of excitement at the unknown future bubbled in his chest. 

 

Maybe I am an adrenaline junky? Yamcha wondered. In his first life, that wasn't the case at all. He doubted the original Yamcha was one, either. But being in a world like this could affect someone's mind in many strange ways. Because even through the dangers, Yamcha felt better than ever. 

 

In the end, the best choice he could make was to decide with his knowledge and do so calmly. “Sure, I don’t think about returning to my previous job as a desert… guide. Would be as exciting as coming along with you, Bulma."

 

Yamcha smiled, showing his sincerity. Or at least as much of it as he had. 

 

“Really?!” Bulma's face shone brightly.

 

“Yes.”

 

How far had Dr Briefs come with gravity technology, Yamcha wondered.

 

Puar jumped on his shoulder, and Yamcha patted his (her?) head. With Oolong looking at the ex-desert bandit suspiciously while the Carrot Gang stood by the sidelines. 

Yamcha couldn’t help but smile at how comfortable the sun felt on his face, as all the worries he had during the last few days washed away. That feeling of nervousness was already gone. 

…

The flight to West City was a fast one, and except for the plane being a little too tight with everyone on it, Yamcha spent the rest of the time talking with Bulma about her high school. 

 

Surprisingly, Bulma had some friends. Not a lot, but still some, which had surprised Yamcha more than he liked to admit. 

 

He glanced at the green-haired genius. It isn’t like he thought of her as a loner… but yeah… she had the vibe of someone very few people would be friends with. Bulma was a kind girl deep down; there was no doubt in Yamcha’s mind about that. But being the most intelligent person in the room was both a curse and a blessing. 

 

In this world, if Bulma entered a room, very few people would be able to compete with her intelligence. So that didn’t make things easier either.

 

As everyone stepped out of the plane, it was like a clown car, with more and more people coming out of the vehicle.

 

Bulma’s father and her mother were there to greet their only daughter with happy looks on their faces. 

 

"Oh, honey, you have already grown so much!" The blonde bombshell of a woman that barely looked over twenty-five came and gave Bulma a big hug. 

 

"Mom~" Bulma whined and tried to escape her mother's clutches while looking at Yamcha, embarrassed. "I was only gone for ten days. The journey wasn't that long ago."

"It seems like you made some new friends too." Dr Brief, her father, had a respectable mustache and a tiny black kitten on his shoulder. 

 

Yamcha couldn't help but wonder if that woman was really Bulma’s mother and immediately used Observe on her. He knew from the show that she was, but seeing her for real was a different matter. 

[Bikini - Lvl 4]

[A woman who always looks her best…

.

.

. (PL: 3)]

 

A long screen of explanations popped in front of his eyes: there were hobbies, her favorite kind of tea. But nothing about her being Bulma’s biological mother, and at the same time, there wasn’t anything about her not being either. 

 

Yamcha had often attested that the Gamer Interface could describe things in a literal sense. If Bulma’s mother didn’t look so young, he wouldn’t doubt anything. 

 

Maybe Dr Brief had created some kind of anti-aging machine or serum?

 

When watching the anime, he never really cared about small details, but now this was his reality, and he was curious by nature about everything in this world. 

 

He shook his head, dismissed such thoughts for now, and decided not to use the Observe Skill at every moving and non-moving thing around him. Curiosity is what killed the cat, after all, and he didn’t want to try something against a super genius scientist. 

 

Yamcha wants power but can't just ask Bulma’s father about gravity technology. What if someone was spying on them and got the idea to use it for themselves? The whole planet was one Raditz away from being annihilated. 

 

“So, have you seen the latest Sports Illustrated Magazine?” Yamcha whispered to Dr Brief, having used his Observe to look into his hobbies. The magazine mentioned was the man’s favorite and had specific pictures of scantily clad ladies. 

 

Dr Brief smirked. “Your name was Yamcha, right?”

“Yes.”

 

“Well, Yamcha, I think we’re going to get along just fine.”

“What’s wrong with Yamcha and dad?” Asked Bulma, looking at them weirdly as Yamcha put an arm around her father’s shoulder. They smiled like old friends. 

 

“Oh, you know, men will be men,” Miss Briefs shook her head with a knowing look in her eyes. 

It took about five minutes before Dr Brief showed Yamcha his lab, which was whacky as hell, and it had a half-built space rocket in the middle of the room with many other gadgets around it. 

 

“Look at this, it’s a flying car. Not many in the world have one of these. Especially not as fast as mine, it can keep up with an airplane, and the glass is made of a transparent aluminum plating,” the old man explained. 

 

Yamcha nodded along as if he understood all of this. “That’s cool,” since the talk had started to wander toward flying cars, he decided to change the conversation. “How can this car fly? Is it some kind of gravity technology?”

 

“Yes, I got it from an alien who crash-landed on earth and then helped an old man on his island. Also, that old man is a dear friend who developed a time machine.” 

 

When he heard the words ‘time machine’ Yamcha’s heart almost stopped. “Time machine? Like… it can travel to the past?”

 

Everything became blank around Yamcha as he concentrated on Dr Brief’s following words. 

 

“No, traveling to the past is impossible. But stopping time for a little bit is possible. Admittedly, I don’t know how far the effect of his machine is since it was only used once, and even then, I wasn’t there to see it. I would have liked the schematics if it weren’t such a dangerous machine to build.” 

 

Relief washed over Yamcha in an incredible way, as the first thought that had come to his mind was if he had messed up the timeline somehow and created a time traveler. After calming down, Yamcha decided to continue with his plan. “That’s an amazing story, so can this gravity technology that makes the car fly make things heavier too?”

 

Dr Brief frowned at the question, took out a cigarette, and lit it. After a dozen seconds passed in silence, the old man finally shrugged. “It should be… maybe?”

Then Dr Briefs started picking the car apart and didn’t say anything after. Yamcha took that as his cue to leave.

******

A/N: The wild alien story Dr Brief told in passing which Yamcha is wondering if it's a joke… is actually canon, not just something I pulled out of my ass. If you want, you can check the Manga (Jaco The Galactic Patrolman by Akira Toriyama)

 

P.S: My last year of college has started. It’s a nightmare. Also broke up with my girlfriend of three months. She wasn’t that great, so she didn't matter too much. Still, the school year hasn’t started great for me.