(Meanwhile – Above the Planet)
Back up in orbit above the planet, the spherical pod containing the fiery haired Kana had stationed itself above the easterly half of the continent once again. Able to make out the faint outlines of cities and urban areas far below, the visitor from outer space had a perfect, unobstructed view of all of the major communities and towns in sight. Despite there being over two billion people living on the planet, the investigator was confident that she would be able to track down and find the person she was looking for. Just a quick browse through the information in her system and a few seconds of number crunching, she found her target's home in an instant.
However, having already tried this method twice before, with rather awkward results on both counts, the huntress knew right then and there that she needed to use a more precise method of tracking. Through trial and error, Kana realized she couldn't rely on her old means of searching for her target on such a large and diverse planet. She also realized she couldn't rely on the scouter system either, since she knew that there were many beings out there capable of concealing their energy levels, which was why she wasn't able to pick up anything on the first scan.
She was overzealous in her approach, which led to two muck ups.
Therefore, since she couldn't depend on one system to find what she was looking for, she decided to combine both and expand down her parameters.
So, upon suspending herself in orbit above the planet, instead of just rocketing down to her desired location the moment her sensors honed in on it, she spent another couple of seconds making sure she had all the data she needed before making her next move.
After all, she didn't want to make the same mistake a third time.
"The Son household is located on the edge of the region known as Mount Paozu," Kana murmured, the hologram screen in front of her bringing up a large crosshair over a satellite image of the landmass far below. That was where her target's home was located. "There are currently two family members taking up residence in that domicile. One of them is the mother, Son Chi-Chi, and the other is her eldest child, Son Gohan." A smile crossed her lips when she saw two life signs blink onto her screen when she zoomed in on the site, both of them appearing as red dots. Just as she expected.
Crunching the numbers, Kana then got an immediate readout on the two life forms through her scouter system, the scores of which hovered above both figures. The investigator raised an eyebrow. "The mother has a reading of 140 riki. Interesting." She then looked at the second one. "Son Gohan has a power reading of 135 riki. Hmm… that can't be right…" Her brow furrowed somewhat as she looked upon the profile figure of her target, "For someone to have fought against Frieza…"
However, just as she was watching the signatures mingle about inside the home from her orbital position above the planet, she suddenly saw one of the red dots take off at an incredible speed in a northeasterly direction. This immediately had the numbers on her screen go haywire and a new reading appear above the fast moving Son Gohan, which had Kana's eyes widen.
"15,000,000 riki?" At this, Kana realized the boy must have been suppressing his power inside of his home so that he didn't accidentally damage anything or draw any attention to himself. When she did, an excited grin formed on her face, "Now that's more like it." She then ran through a swift line of code before several new numbers appeared on screen.
Calculating the boy's speed and trajectory across the country, the visitor to the planet figured that she would be able to intercept the super human directly over Satan City. So, upon punching the numbers into the system, her pod then shot straight down towards the planet at breakneck speed, piercing the atmosphere seconds later.
OOO
(Satan City)
"Man, there are so many people out today," Krillin mumbled to himself, looking through the window of the coffee shop he was in and watching as hundreds of civilians ambled down the road in two different directions. Seeing the multitude of bodies on the move and hearing the clamor of the crowd seep in through the open door brought a chuckle from the short Z-fighter as he quietly reached for his cappuccino, "Good thing I'm not on the street right now… otherwise I'd be swamped."
He was a little guy in one of the biggest cities in the world. How could he not think about stuff like that? Having lived on a tiny island for so many years surrounded by only a couple of people in his life, the transition into a concrete environment where the population suddenly skyrocketed definitely had more than a few compasses spinning.
Smiling as he stirred his coffee, the man turned back to the quiet store laid out around him, where he could see only a couple of people occupying the tables and booths. "Ah well, as long as there aren't any wars going on or evil aliens dropping down from the skies to invade our planet, then I'm not complaining."
Determined to make the most of the free time that he had, the young Z-fighter had decided to drop out of his training for the day and dropped by Satan City to have a look around. With the earth now in a state of peace and with no diabolical villains threatening to spoil their days, Krillin was adamant in getting back out there in the world and living it up. He even thought about giving Yamcha a ring to see if he wanted to go clubbing tonight and mingle with the common folk. It'd been a while since either of them had really done something like that, and it was high time the scar-faced former ranger and mercenary got himself a girlfriend.
Krillin on the other hand wasn't fussed about that. Reason being was that he had his eye set on somebody else and would often think about whenever he was on his own.
Speaking of which…
"I wonder how Android 18# is spending her day," the short man thought curiously, taking a sip of his coffee while staring down at the table.
It'd been a while since he last saw her. Ever since the group left the balcony of Kami's Lookout two months ago, he swore he'd only seen her twice; once when he was training on another island and he swore he saw her watching him from a distant tree, and another time when he was out in the village doing shopping and he caught a glimpse of her in the streets.
Since then, there'd been no other signs of her. Complete and utter radio silence, which sort of brought the man's mood down a couple of pegs.
A heavy sigh escaping his lips as he absently stirred the contents of his cup, Krillin spared a moment of thought to the beautiful blonde android that had, for all intents and purposes, disappeared from the limelight. "Is she going to show up out of the blue and say 'hi' or something? It'd really make my day if she did." She did say that she would. To be more precise, she'd said to all of the Z-fighters within ear shot while her back was turned to them that she would drop by to see him sometime soon. It was a pretty comforting notion, "Unless my heart's just playing tricks on me."
Damn it. Being a love struck fool was not an easy thing to live with. It made him all gushy, paranoid and edgy.
"Well… I can't blame her if she's not interested in seeing me again. I mean, there are a lot of better looking guys out there… and after all the crap we had to go through, I wouldn't be surprised if even she just wanted to have a little bit of normal for a change," Krillin sighed, bringing his cup up and taking another sip. Pondering on the idea of a long term peace and what it would be like to spend with the blonde girl, the man looked up with a murmur…
He then did the most hilarious spit take ever when he saw Android 18# standing right there in front of him and made sure to aim the hot brew to the side.
"E-Eighteen!" the monk exclaimed in shock, drawing a few glances from the surrounding bystanders. Hitting his chest and coughing out the rest of his coffee, he looked up at the woman standing there with her arms folded, "W-What are you doing here?"
The cool beauty, wearing a casual set of clothes consisting of a pair of jeans and a black halter top, stared back at the man momentarily with her ocean blue eyes. After which, she then shrugged and looked away, "I was just…" She paused for a second, "walking around the shops and having a look around, seeing if there was anything new on sale. I then spotted you from outside and came in to see how you were doing." She said that in the same tone of voice she was best known for.
"Oh. Really?" Gulping and feeling his insides turn to jelly when she glanced his way, the man then mustered up whatever courage he could and smiled warmly in her direction. "I mean… that's great! It's… it's really good to see you again, Eighteen."
A bit of warmth appearing in her cheeks at the man's smile and words, the blonde looked away again in another direction. The two of them remained quiet for several moments, one rubbing his head and thinking about what else to say, while the other stood there, trying to focus on something else that wasn't the short Z-fighter.
After a bit of uncomfortable silence, the girl turned back to the warrior and nodded down to him, "You mind if I join you?"
"Huh? Oh. Yeah. Sure! Of course," Krillin exclaimed, beaming enthusiastically as he hopped to his feet and pulled up a chair for the woman he hadn't seen for ages. When she sat down and tucked her hair behind her ear, the man came back around and sat down as well, looking completely nervous. "Would you like me to get you something?"
Finding a comfortable position, the woman then looked back at the man and smiled a very small smile. "Sure," she nodded. "I'll have a black tea. Plain."
Grinning, Krillin looked over to see the waiter come stand with his hands gingerly laced in front of him. "The lady will have a standard black tea, please. No sugar."
"Very good, sir," the young man nodded, before quickly hurrying off to tend to the order.
Gently nudging aside his cappuccino and leaning against the table, Krillin gazed across at the woman now sitting quietly across from him with her hands in her lap, "So…" He began nervously, "What've you been up to lately?"
The blonde android shrugged, "Not much, just up and down… trying to find some things and a place to fit in."
"How's that working out for yah?"
"Not very well I'm afraid," the woman replied with a distasteful frown. "I haven't been able to find my brother, wherever the hell he is… so I've been on my own for the past couple of months."
"You're not upset about it, are you? I mean…" Krillin quickly rephrased his question by clearing his throat, "Are you doing okay?"
"I can't complain," Eighteen answered, giving it a moment of thought while suddenly finding an interest in the wall across the way. "I've been moving around quite a lot lately, not really settling down anywhere, and I've had plenty of time to myself to think. After the whole Cell ordeal, I just needed a bit of space to clear my head." She then glanced at the martial artist, giving him a genuinely straight look, "And you? I heard you got into a bit of trouble at the Intergalactic Martial Arts Tournament a month ago…"
"Oh? You heard about that, huh?" Krillin laughed uneasily while scratching his head, but then saw the woman staring at him without so much as a twitch. Swallowing a little, the monk continued, "Yeah… we got into a bit of a fight with this guy named Bojack and his gang, some hotshots who wanted to conquer the universe or something like that. I don't know… it was all pretty much of a blur to me. The person I ended up fighting knocked me out with just a few kicks and sent me into a wall."
Eighteen blinked, her expression relatively unchanged, "Are you alright?"
"Uh…" A little bit surprised by the woman's sudden question and seeing her staring at him with great intent, Krillin quickly came up with an answer, "Y-Yeah. I mean, I got a few nasty cuts and bruises here and there, but I'm feeling great now." He chuckled and brought his arm up, rotating it while gripping his shoulder. "It'll take more than a few hits to bring this guy down. Don't you worry about that."
This news brought a relieved sigh from the woman, who then gave the man another small smile, "Well… I'm just glad you're okay."
Noticing the strangely pleasant look she was giving him, Krillin remained speechless for a moment. But after a few seconds of gathering his thoughts, the man chuckled and rubbed his head, "Th-Thanks. I'm… glad to see you're doing okay as well."
Beaming, Eighteen was then about to move on to another question until something in the air suddenly startled both her and the Z-fighter out of their conversation. Eyes snapping upwards, the pair then leapt out of their seats, with the monk inadvertently knocking his over while the two of them focused all of their senses on the thing that was fast approaching them. Sweat broke out on both their faces when they got a better read on it.
"S-So much power… what is that?" Krillin asked, looking absolutely stunned.
Whatever it was, it was heading straight towards them from above the planet…