"Bulma, why are you heading toward my house?" Son Goku asked, pretending not to know.
"Your house? You mean that house a little way ahead is yours?" Bulma asked, puzzled, as she stopped the motorcycle.
"Yeah, that's my house." At that, Bulma took out a Dragon Ball, an orange, glasslike sphere with two red stars inside it.
"Is that a Dragon Ball?"
"Yes. After I first found this in the storeroom, I eventually learned that it was a Dragon Ball, and that there was a dragon that could grant any wish, so I made the Dragon Radar to find the Dragon Balls." Bulma then took out the Dragon Radar and showed it to Son Goku.
"Goku, look! The Dragon Radar shows there are two Dragon Balls at your house!" Bulma said excitedly.
"So that's a Dragon Ball. I have two at home. I'll get them for you in a bit!" Goku smiled as he watched Bulma's excitement.
"That's great! Thank you, Goku!" Bulma turned around and hugged Goku tightly.
Goku's face flushed a little. Although Bulma was only sixteen and had yet to fully develop, any normal person other than the original Son Goku would have blushed at being held in the arms of a young girl.
"Huh? S-sorry, I-I got too excited." Bulma came to her senses too. Although Goku was only a twelve-year-old boy, it was her first time embracing a male stranger so intimately, and her face reddened slightly.
"L-let's go," Bulma said shyly after calming herself down.
"Okay!" Goku acted as though he wasn't embarrassed at all. As the saying went, if you weren't embarrassed, the embarrassed one would be somebody else.
The sun was gradually setting, its fading light spilling across the earth with a gentle air. The shadows of the motorcycle, the boy and the girl stretched longer and longer.
"Goku, your house is so small." As the daughter of West City's richest man, this was Bulma's first time seeing a little house in the countryside.
Son Goku took two Dragon Balls out of the house. "It's small, but it's full of my memories!" Looking at the little house, he couldn't help feeling wistful. He didn't know how long it would be before he returned.
"Here you go." Goku handed the Dragon Balls to Bulma, who quickly took them and put them away.
"That's great! Now we have four already. Only three more and we can collect all seven and summon the Dragon Balls!"
Goku looked at the sky. It seemed it would soon be completely dark, so he turned to Bulma and suggested, "It's almost dark. Why don't you stay here for the night and leave tomorrow?"
"Okay, I'm getting a little hungry anyway. Goku, what do you want to eat? I have lots of good food." Bulma took out several Hoi-Poi Capsules and looked at Goku proudly.
"Bulma, remember how I told you there were dinosaurs around here?"
"Yes. Why?"
"How about we have grilled dinosaur meat tonight? It's delicious, juicy and chewy when it's grilled, and I'm really good at barbecuing," Goku suggested to Bulma.
"Sure, it's been a while since I've had dinosaur meat." Although dinosaur meat was fairly precious, Bulma, as the daughter of the world's richest man, had eaten it before. It really did taste better than ordinary meat.
"Okay, wait here a moment. I'll be right back!" Goku said with a mischievous streak, then shot into the sky.
"F-f-flying?"
Bulma was still somewhat stunned by the sight, even though the boy called Son Goku had already given him so many surprises and scares.
A hundred meters above the ground, Goku flew slowly along. Though the sky had grown dark, finding a dinosaur couldn't have been easier for him, since he could sense Ki. Anything with a Ki noticeably greater than the creatures around it was a dinosaur.
Before long, Goku found his target and moved in front of the dinosaur's head at a speed that would have looked like teleportation to an ordinary person.
The dinosaur, which looked much like a Tyrannosaurus rex from his previous life, was still wondering why food had suddenly appeared in front of it when a powerful blow to the head robbed it of the ability to think.
Goku kicked the dinosaur in the forehead. The tremendous force sent the nearly ten-meter-tall creature flying over a hundred meters. Its enormous body plowed through who knew how many trees before crashing into a massive rock.
Goku picked up the dinosaur's carcass with one hand and flew slowly back toward Bulma.
Bulma was still staring blankly at the fire in front of her when she suddenly felt that the moonlight from above seemed to be blocked. She looked up.
A small, slender figure was slowly descending through the air, holding a dinosaur aloft with one hand. The faint moonlight illuminated the boy's face. His features, originally youthful yet no less handsome for it, seemed much more mature at that moment, and his small body seemed to have grown taller.
At the sight, Bulma's heart skipped a beat, but it soon settled down again.
"If only Goku were a few years older." Bulma gazed at the figure in the sky. Goku was only twelve, which meant she could only regard him as a younger brother.
"Forget it, forget it. What am I thinking? Bulma, Goku is only twelve!"
"Hey, Bulma, what are you thinking about? You're so focused." Goku set the dinosaur down in a clearing nearby and asked when he saw her distracted expression.
"Nothing, nothing. Goku, didn't you say you were good at barbecuing? Hurry up and cook it. I'm starving," Bulma said, a little flustered.
"Oh, right. Bulma, what barbecue seasonings do you have? The ones at my house are too limited." Goku asked after cutting off a large piece of dinosaur meat with his Ki.
"Of course I have some. I brought a lot of Hoi-Poi Capsules, you know." Bulma took out a Hoi-Poi Capsule and threw it at the ground, producing a pile of barbecue seasonings.
Bulma sat on the ground with her legs bent, her arms wrapped around her shins and her head resting on her knees, watching the boy grill the dinosaur meat in front of her.
Gradually, the aroma of meat filled the air.
"Goku, that smells so good!" Bulma sniffed the fragrance wafting toward her and swallowed several times.
"Of course. Would I lie to you? This small piece is done. Here." Bulma looked at the boy holding out the grilled meat to her. A smile filled his face, and she couldn't help smiling gently too.
"Thanks!" Bulma took the meat and took a big bite. The flavors of the meat and seasonings instantly stimulated her taste buds.
"Mmm, it's really delicious! Goku, how about I hire you as my chef from now on?"
"No way. I'm not a chef, and I have to train," Goku said, rolling his eyes.
"Pfft, what's so great about training?"
"You wouldn't understand."
"Right, right, right. Of course I wouldn't understand our great hero Goku."
Goku saw that his own meat was nearly done too, so he took a bite and began eating.
"Goku, can you eat all that?" Bulma asked curiously, looking at the piece of meat that was almost bigger than Goku himself.
"Easily. My body's a little special, so I eat a bit more than most people."
Hearing Goku's explanation, Bulma doubted whether that could be called a bit more than a normal person, but she didn't look into it further.
"Bulma, what do you want to wish for once you've collected all seven Dragon Balls?" Goku asked. He knew she most likely wanted a boyfriend.
"Huh? W-what wish?" Bulma was a little flustered by the question.
"I-I don't know. I'll decide when I've collected them all."
Goku frowned at that. What's going on? Could this be the butterfly effect? Wasn't Bulma's original wish to find a boyfriend?
"What about you, Goku? If you got the wish, what would you wish for?" Bulma quickly changed the subject.
"Me? I'd wish for a gravity chamber," Goku answered honestly.
"How boring. You're so young, and all you think about is training. Will you even be able to find a girlfriend when you grow up?" Bulma rolled her eyes.
"Hehe, I think I'm pretty handsome, so I probably will, right?"
"You're so vain."
"How about you be my girlfriend when I grow up?" Goku joked.
Bulma's cheeks reddened slightly when she heard him.
"What are you talking about? You're so young! How old are you, anyway? You already want a girlfriend?"
"Huh? Weren't you the one who brought it up?"
"Honestly, you're so young. Do you even know what 'girlfriend' means?"
"No. Isn't she just a friend?"
"Oh, you don't know? I thought... Pui, pui, pui! It's so dark already. I'm going to bed." Bulma realized something was wrong with the first part of what she'd said and quickly found an excuse to flee.
Goku watched as Bulma used a Hoi-Poi Capsule to produce a house and fled inside, and he couldn't help smiling.
Young Bulma was really interesting.
After that, Goku returned to his own house, washed up and prepared for bed.
In the middle of the night, Goku lay looking at the ceiling, unable to sleep. The adventure was about to begin, and the story started on this very day. He couldn't help looking forward to it.
Meanwhile, Bulma came out of the bathroom and sat on the edge of the bed. Looking through the glass at the bright moonlight in the sky, she fell into a daze.