Smartphones

Earth, on Mount Paozu.

Son Goku and Piccolo were fighting in the sky.

Son Gohan found training every day a little boring, so he sat cross-legged on the grass by himself.

Suddenly, as if he'd thought of something, Son Gohan took an ancient mirror out of the system.

It was the Heaven-Reaching Mirror.

As soon as he took it out, three figures quickly appeared on its surface.

One was short, with blue skin all over and a little round cap on his head.

This was Pilaf, the antagonist of the first Dragon Ball series.

The other two were his subordinates, Shu and Mai.

The three of them were working on a battle robot.

Although Pilaf had never managed to collect all seven Dragon Balls, he still hadn't given up on them—or on his dream of making his ambition to rule the world come true.

When Son Gohan saw the three of them, he immediately touched the mirror's surface. In the next instant, he was transported right in front of them.

Pilaf and the others were startled when Son Gohan suddenly appeared.

"Wh... who are you?"

Son Gohan smiled.

"My name is Son Gohan!"

"Son Gohan? Why does that name sound so familiar?"

"Yeah, it's a lot like that guy called Son Goku!"

Shu said, rubbing his chin with his right hand.

"Son... Son Goku!"

The two of them went pale as soon as they heard the name.

Son Goku had been the stuff of nightmares for all three of them. If it hadn't been for him, they would have collected the Dragon Balls long ago and ruled the world.

"You know my dad?"

"Y... your dad!"

The three of them took several frightened steps backward.

"Yeah!"

As he spoke, Son Gohan walked up to the robot they were building.

"Is this robot yours?"

"...Yes!"

"Then why are you making robots?"

"N... nothing. We're just making it for fun!"

Pilaf gave an awkward laugh.

"Right, just for fun!" Mai chimed in.

"Really? Then could you make me a phone?"

"A phone?"

"Yeah!"

Son Gohan picked up a sheet of paper from the table and drew a smartphone.

The Dragon Ball anime had been created in the eighties and nineties, so the phones Akira Toriyama knew about were the kind from his own era.

That was why there were no smartphones on Earth in Dragon Ball Z. Smartphones only appeared later, in Dragon Ball Super.

"What kind of phone is this? It doesn't even have any buttons!"

"This is called a smartphone!"

"A smartphone!"

"Right. You tap the screen to use it, so it doesn't need any buttons!"

"A touchscreen?"

Son Gohan nodded.

"By the way, we've been talking for so long, and I still don't know your names."

"My name is Pilaf!"

"I'm Mai. My name's written with the character for 'dance'!"

"I'm Shu. My name's written with the character for 'repairing air conditioners'!"

"Pilaf, Shu, and Sister Xiao Wu!"

"Wait, why did you call Mai 'Sister' but just use our names?"

Pilaf asked, looking displeased.

Son Gohan looked at the two of them.

"You're about as tall as I am, so I thought you were kids too!"

"What did you say?"

Pilaf immediately grew angry.

"King Pilaf, calm down!"

Shu and Mai hurried to hold him back.

"Forget it, King Pilaf. He's just a kid, so don't take it personally!"

"That's right!"

Pilaf snorted and said nothing.

"Anyway, Pilaf, Shu, let's keep talking about the phone!"

"The phone!"

"Right. Besides tapping the screen, I also need to tell you about the phone's other features!"

"Other features?"

"Yeah. It has Bluetooth and GPS, and it can connect to the internet..."

Son Gohan told them all about the different things smartphones could do.

Pilaf had originally planned to make some kind of phone just to get Son Gohan off his back.

But when he heard how much money there might be in smartphones, he couldn't help getting interested.

The only problem was that they'd never made anything like this before, and it might take a lot of time.

"If you make these phones, we can promote them everywhere and develop lots of apps!"

"We can help make the phones, but how are we supposed to deal with the mobile network?"

"Don't worry. I'll ask Aunt Bulma to help with that!"

"Bulma—the heiress of the Capsule Corporation?"

Mai asked.

"Yeah! Do your best, then. I'll get going!"

"Okay!"

Pilaf nodded.

He'd been eager for Son Gohan to leave from the start.

Seeing that, Son Gohan used Instant Transmission and disappeared.

"H... he's gone!"

Shu exclaimed in surprise.

Mai nodded.

"King Pilaf, are we really going to help that brat make smartphones?"

"Yeah!"

Pilaf nodded.

"Then, King Pilaf, aren't we going to look for the Dragon Balls?"

Shu asked.

"Of course we are!"

As he spoke, Pilaf tapped Shu on the head.

"If we can make smartphones and earn a fortune from them, we'll have plenty of money to use in our search for the Dragon Balls!"

West City, at Bulma's house.

Bulma was reclining leisurely in a chair in the backyard, reading a newspaper, when a figure suddenly appeared in front of her.

It was Son Gohan.

"Aunt Bulma!"

Hearing his voice, Bulma lowered the newspaper in her hands and looked up.

"Gohan!"

Son Gohan nodded.

"Gohan, what brings you here today?"

Son Gohan smiled.

"Aunt Bulma, I want you to increase the gravity in my Gravity Chamber to five hundred times normal!"

"F... five hundred times!"

Bulma was startled.

"But Gohan, I only increased it to three hundred times not long ago!"

"It's okay, Aunt Bulma. I've completely adapted to three hundred times gravity now!"

"By the way, Gohan, didn't your mom want you to study hard? Is she not making you study anymore?"

Son Gohan gave an awkward laugh.

Of all the things she could have brought up, she had to mention that.

"No. I have a clone at home studying for me."

"A clone?"

"Yeah!"

Son Gohan plucked a hair from his head and turned it into a clone of himself.

"T... two Gohans!"

Bulma exclaimed in surprise.

Son Gohan smiled.

"Aunt Bulma, the other one is my clone!"

"Gohan, can your clone do everything for you?"

"It can, but it has one drawback!"

"What drawback?"

"It doesn't need to eat or drink, or use the bathroom like a normal person!"

"..."

Bulma was speechless.

Was that a drawback? It was obviously an advantage!

But then she thought about it. If Chi-Chi brought food to Son Gohan's clone while it was studying, wouldn't it be easy for her to find out?