Disclaimer:  All characters portrayed in this story are the property of 
their respective creators and companies.

This story takes place after volume 38 of the Ranma manga and a few 
years after the end of DBZ.  It largely overwrites most of DBGT.

C & C welcomed.

Dragon Ball R1/2

by

Donny Cheng

Chapter 6

	"Is that your uncle Goku in the regeneration tank?" Bulma asked 
as she walked into the kitchen to eat dinner with her family.  Her two 
children, Bra and Trunks, pointed inconspicuously to their father who 
sat with the paper in front of him.  His entire face was covered from 
view.

	Years of being Vejita's wife had taught her to know when he was 
in a good mood and from the way he didn't grumble at the mentioning of 
her long time friend, she figured he was in a _very_ good mood.  She 
could imagine that infernal smirk of his behind the paper, just waiting 
for her to demand an answer from him.  She decided against asking him 
about Goku directly as his ego seemed to be big enough for a dozen 
Saiyajins at the moment.  He was most insufferable when he was like 
this.

	She rolled her eyes for the benefit of her children, knowing what 
they must have gone through asking Vejita about Goku.  "Well, Trunks?"  
She asked, turning to her eldest child, deliberately ignoring her 
husband.

	"Oh, Dad brought Uncle Goku in.  I think they had one of their 
fights again."  Trunks was still slightly surprised to learn that his 
father had surpassed the Super Saiyajin Two mark into the third 
transformation.  He smiled when he remembered his father's jaw lock 
into place when both he and Bra said they must have missed it.  The 
gravity rooms were designed to block most of what went inside from the 
outside world and vice versa.

	"He looks pretty badly beaten.  Did he have a fight before this?" 
Bulma asked loudly, noticing the paper Vejita held twitching 
uncontrollably.

	Bra managed to hold her giggle in at her mother's implication of 
Daddy only putting Goku in this state because Uncle was softened up.  
"No, I don't think so.  I haven't felt any sudden rise in chi from 
people other than Daddy and Uncle for a long time now," Bra smiled when 
she saw the paper stop twitching.  "It's more likely Uncle was still 
tired from his last fight with Daddy.  Daddy does have those 
regeneration tanks and Uncle doesn't."

	*Oh dear,* Bulma thought as she saw the veins on the hand 
gripping the paper pop out.  She gave a look to Bra, admonishing her.  
Bulma shook her head as her daughter simply smiled impishly back.

	"Oh, Daddy, you know I love you," Bra giggled as she went over 
and wrapped her hands around his neck.  She gave him a peck on his 
cheek, his stony face didn't even soften a bit.  "Congratulations.  I'm 
happy that you've reached a new level."

	Vejita merely straightened the paper he held as if only caring 
that his daughter's open show of affection had creased it.

	Bra wondered if she had went too far, but she then felt her 
father's hand on her own.  It was gentle like always when he wasn't 
training her.

	"Your chi level has raised.  Yours too, Trunks."

	"A little bit.  I'm going to train some more now.  Pan said she 
will be back later tonight," Bra said, surprised her father had 
detected that.  She blushed as he patted her hand again, indicating he 
approved.  *He must really be happy today.*

	"Ah, yeah, I guess a bit.  The next tournament is going to be on 
soon and I thought I might enter this year," Trunks said, trying hard 
not to stammer as the spotlight centered on him.  Pride welled up in 
him as he heard his father give a noncommittal grunt.  Anytime his 
father didn't say anything at all or outright disapprove of it was a 
good sign.

	"I'll come by later and see how your training is going."

	"Okay," Trunks said.  He was beginning to wish he hadn't been 
training all afternoon.  The fight his father and Uncle Goku had must 
really have been something to watch for his father to be this happy.

	Bulma watched with a smile as her children left the table.  
"Looks like it's just us two for dinner again.  They sure grow up 
fast."

	"You coddle them.  Trunks should have been off on his own years 
ago.  Bra should be married to a strong warrior by now."

	Bulma ignored her husband's words.  He didn't really mean the 
things he said.  This was a man that nearly destroyed a school when Bra 
had a paper cut when she was still in elementary school.  Not to 
mention the number of boys that Bra brought home to meet him, fleeing 
after only a minute of talking with him.  Bulma also remembered the 
time Trunks had been going through his rebel days and threatened to run 
away and nearly did one time.  It had been Vejita that flew after the 
boy, carrying her sleeping son back over his shoulder.

	"Hmph.  Call Chi-Chi and tell her to pick up her husband in the 
morning.  The injuries his body took might take awhile to fully heal."

	Bulma blinked.  "Okay, that's it.  You are not my husband.  Is 
that you Oolong?  What are you trying to pull here?"

	"What!?" Vejita thundered.  "Are you out of your mind, Woman?"

	"Now that's the Vejita, I know," Bulma said as she put her 
fingers to her ears, muffling the loud deafening noise.  She could now 
see her husband's face.  It was angry as usual.  "Finally.  I was 
wondering when you would take that damned news paper away and talk to 
me."

	Bulma was shocked to see her husbands angry frown lighten up as 
she neared him.  While he never remained angry at her for long, he 
never forgave that quickly before.  "You can't be that happy about Goku 
in the tank and you out here, can you?"

	"Of course not," Vejita lied.  It was so silly, but what Bulma said was true.  A Saiyajin should never be happy at so small a victory, but he was.  Well a small part of it since Goku had been mostly acting as his punching bag.  His contentment had come from something even more stupid a thought than winning a mere match.  When he was younger, being anything less than the best was enough to send his blood boiling.  Now, he was happy with a simply gain on his quest to 'catch up'.

	"Well, I suppose you want to 'celebrate' later.  Should I cancel 
my evening appointments?" Bulma asked as she sat on her husband's lap, 
initiating things between them for once.  Vejita had an utter lack of 
interest in what age she was when they were in bed.  Try as she might, 
but convincing him that a woman in her fifties was different from the 
woman he first met was impossible.  Bulma had to admit though that it 
did wonders for her self-esteem.

	"I knew I married for some reason," Vejita growled softly as he 
nestled his nose at the hollow of her throat.

	"What?" Bulma asked, giggling like a school girl as his nose 
tickled her.  He would always answer that question the same way.  His 
answers were often frustrating:  Sex, bear my children, you have wealth 
and power, you were the closest...  Bulma's ire grew as she remembered 
the past reasons her husband gave her.

	"I... you."

	Bulma blinked.  "What did you say, Vejita?"  She couldn't make 
out the word between the 'I' and 'you'.  Did he say it?  All she got 
back from her husband was a grunt as he excused himself from the table 
to go looking for Trunks, leaving her there with a look of bewilderment 
on her face.

			* * * * *

	Trunks frowned, his good mood disappearing quickly as he entered 
the gravity room.  It seemed Ranma was back at work training.  The 
boy's stamina was amazing.  From the logs in the computer he knew that 
Ranma had just started with training in the room at twenty times the 
force of gravity.  And now here was he was again.

	"Hey," Ranma said after noticing Trunks entering the room.  He 
carefully put the dumbbells down.  Everything he did had to be done 
carefully as even the smallest error could pull his arm from its 
socket.  He couldn't even contemplate how Vejita and the others could 
work out at four hundred times the force of gravity.

	"Hey.  You mind if I use this room to train?  Pan and Bra are 
using one of the two rooms I just had installed and the other one is on 
the fritz."

	"It's your house," Ranma shrugged.  He sighed with relief when 
the older boy returned to room to its regular gravity.  He felt the 
sudden wash of power surging in his veins now that the power was no 
longer needed for him to move in the room.  It took only a second for 
him to dissipate the power his will controlled and he was left with an 
empty feeling that he had gotten used to.  

	"Never ever seen a human rise as fast as you," Trunks said, 
starting the conversation.  Just what was it about this human that made 
his father take notice?  Trunks couldn't believe it was power since as 
impressive as Ranma was for a human, he just wasn't all that impressive 
when you looked at the people his father associated with.

	"Well, I am the heir to the Saotome School of Anything Goes," 
Ranma grinned modestly.  "But from what Vejita tells me, I'm slow in 
improving compared to you.

	"M-My dad said something about me?" Trunks asked, not sure if he 
could believe it.

	"Yeah, you reached that first stage of that transformation thing 
you guys do faster than he did," Ranma recalled from his conversations 
with Vejita.  Well they were more like the other man talking and Ranma 
listening.  Vejita was not a man of many words but when it came to 
motivation, the use of taunts was not above him.  Ranma hated the 
grating voice telling him of how even a person like Trunks, who had not 
fought seriously for almost ten years, could beat him in three seconds 
flat.

	Trunks was still quite shocked by the fact that his father even 
thought of him at all, so he did not notice the glare Ranma sent his 
way.  "He mention anything else?  He never tells me these things."

	Ranma felt kind of silly glaring at a now melancholy looking 
Trunks.  The expression on his face dropped as he sat down where the 
older boy was.  "Heh, better than what I get from my pop.  All he wants 
from me is martial arts.  Vejita doesn't seem that obsessed with you 
learning it as much as my pop is."

	"Maybe," Trunks replied.  His thinking however was the opposite 
of Ranma.  Trunks could still remember when he had told his father that 
he wanted to do other things in life other than fight.  His father 
argued with him but in the end he got his way and his father never 
trained him again.  *Why didn't you stop me, Dad?  I would have if you 
did.  You're the lucky one, Ranma.  Your father cared enough about what 
he wanted of you.*  "Then again, maybe not."

	Ranma felt suddenly uncomfortable as a long silence enveloped the 
two of them.  "Say, you want to spar?  I need to get rid of some of the 
kinks I have that the workout couldn't take care of."

	Trunks looked over at the grinning human.  An image of his father 
superimposed itself over Ranma's face.  Trunks shook his head to clear 
the illusion.  That grin is almost identical to Dad's.  A grin appeared 
on Trunks face that mirrored Ranma's and his father's exactly.  "Sure."

	"Hold it," a loud voice said.  "Boy, what did I tell you about 
over training?"  Vejita walked into the room with a frown on his face.

	"Ah, wasn't really over training.  Just a light workout to finish 
what I started this morning.  Passed out before I could."

	"You passed out because you were going too fast.  Get out of here 
now.  Besides, I have to test Trunks for the night.  Go do something 
else."

	Ranma deliberately walked slowly to the door.  Vejita's 
intimidation had not diminished a bit since Ranma had first met him.  
It increased if that was believable, but that had strangely made Ranma 
more determined not to let his fear show.  He nearly succeeded before 
Vejita's scowl deepened and his legs involuntarily moved faster.  *I 
just need a breath of fresh air,* Ranma thought quickly to himself.

	"Heh, was I ever like that?" Trunks wondered aloud.

	"Worse."

	Trunks couldn't believe his eyes when he saw his father's 
expression, no matter how he long looked at it, was not taunting or 
even angry.  "Uh, so what did you want to do?" Trunks asked as a 
familiar frown greeted him suddenly, making him wonder if he had been 
mistaken earlier.

	"I've been going through the logs of the computer the past week.  
You've stepped up the number of hours you train recently from what you 
normally do."

	"Y-You monitor my progress?"  *Does that mean you do care?*

	"It's one thing to decide you want to do something else, but 
quite another thing to give it up entirely.  No son of mine will be 
like that bookworm Gohan."

	Trunks failed to even grin as he normally did when his father 
complained about Gohan.  Gohan had reached the level two of the 
Saiyajins the earliest of them all at eleven years old.  It was not so 
much as wounded pride rather than regret, Trunk knew.  Regret at never 
having fought the person that could have been the strongest ever known 
had he tried.

	*How long have you been monitoring me, Dad?  Since I first 
decided to stop?* he wanted to ask.  Instead he just nodded his head as 
his father assessed how his training was going.

	"I've seen the readings also.  If I'm right you should be at the 
pinnacle of the first transformation.  One more step and you should 
surpass it.  Do you want to reach it?"

	*No,* Trunks remembered had been his answer when he was younger.  
He knew what Vejita's question meant.  His father would go all out on 
him, causing him pain unimaginable.  The thought of that happening has 
sickened him, and yet he would have done it if his father had pushed 
the idea on him.  Before he had thought his father didn't care enough, 
but now he didn't know.

	"Yes, father.  I want you to train me."

			* * * * *

	Bra fidgeted as she stood outside the gravity room waiting for 
Ranma.  *Thank you, Daddy!* she thought.  She wondered if her father 
would have asked her to watch over Ranma for the night to make sure he 
didn't train again, if he knew what she had in store for the pigtailed 
martial artist.

	"Oh, hey, Bra" Ranma said as he exited the room.

	"Hi, Ranma!"  *No, stupid, too loud.  Act natural.*

	Ranma looked on nervously as the aura around the girl flared 
brightly.  *Does she want to fight me?*

	"Um, you missed dinner.  I know how much you like to eat, so I 
wondered if you want to go out and get something to eat."

	"Food?  Hey, sure.  Now that you mention it, I am feeling hungry.  
Just let me get dressed and we'll be off."

	Everything was going perfectly.  *I just know this is one date 
where I won't get dumped!*  It then occurred to her that she was 
forgetting the small matter of a girl coming to train with her.  Bra 
raced to a phone and dialed the Son household.

	<>

	"Hello?  This is Bra.  Look something came up.  I can't train 
with you today, okay?"

	<> the voice said 
suspiciously.

	"Nothing is going on here.  Don't you trust your very best 
friend?"

	<>

	"Wait a minute..."

	Ranma came back from his room only to see the aura around Bra 
flaring uncontrollably.  There were remnants of what used to be a phone 
in her hand.  *I think this was a bad idea.*

			* * * * *

	*This is just too good to be true,* Bra thought as she scarfed 
down her ice cream, watching Ranma do the same.  *He doesn't really 
care how I eat!*

	Pan was in heaven as she ate another bowl of ice cream.  
*Finally, a date where I can eat decently for once.*  She remembered 
the horrors of the previous dates where she had to go through, starving 
but feared eating anything large lest her Saiyajin heritage rear it's 
ugly head.  Once she got eating, she just couldn't stop and this tended 
to make for very messing evenings.

	*Now if only she wasn't here,* Bra and Pan thought as she glared 
at each other.

	The store owner looked on with mixed emotions.  On one hand the 
business was good with three hefty eaters, but on the other hand, all 
his other customers sitting around the three had left in a hurry.  The 
strange thing was that as messy as they were, none of the ice cream 
landed on themselves.

	Ranma was oblivious as he continued to eat.

			* * * * *

	Dende laughed as the older Namek threw him up into the air and 
then into a bone crushing hug.  "Is it really you, brother?"

	Nail laughed.  "Yeah, it's me.  I haven't changed that much have 
I?"

	"But, I thought Piccolo and your were merged," Dende said.  "Your 
old body was too injured for you to live on."

	"It has been thirty years ago, Dende.  My body has healed in that 
time, but I had freely given myself to Piccolo so I had no right to 
demand to be free.  However, Piccolo has decided otherwise and given me 
a second chance."

	Something then clicked in Dende's mind.  "The block!  He couldn't 
pass through the block barring his way from increasing his power.  The 
both of you are going to join again, aren't you?" Dende asked sullenly 
as reality came crashing down upon him.

	Nail turned to his younger brother and sighed.  "It's the only 
way.  The both of us will train until we reach that block neither of us 
could think of a way to pass.  At that time, we'll have a fight to see 
who gets control of the remerged body."

	Dende saw a familiar glint in Nail's eyes as he talked.  He was a 
Namek made specifically for battle.  This was his calling, Dende knew.  
"I want to cheer for you, but..."

	"I know.  Piccolo has been treating you well.  It was not 
entirely my influence that did that.  You would have to thank Gohan for 
that actually.  Besides, if I win, it would not be like I would force 
Piccolo to remain inside me forever.  If nothing else, I'll do that 
silly fusion dance routine so the process only lasts thirty minutes."

	Dende perked up at this and smiled.  "This year's Tenkaichi-
budokai will be something to watch then."

	Nail only smiled.

			* * * * *

	Buu watched Satan's deflated face and was worried.  The list of 
participants was growing larger with the number of the top martial 
artists of the world.  Satan's only chance of survival was if Vejita or 
Piccolo didn't win.  From the power he had felt recently, he knew that 
the Saiyajin had quite a large chance of winning this year.

	Looking dejectedly at the cake in front of him, Buu ignored it 
and got up from his couch.  His bulk waddled in response.  He needed to 
get some training in, it would seem.

			* * * * *

	Goku slept blissfully unaware of what was happening outside the 
regenerating tank.

			* * * * *

The End. (maybe)

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