(A few days later)
(Back on Earth)
"Let's see… if I'm washing cotton whites then I should set it to… sixty… right?" Zangya murmured, checking the instruction booklet before looking back up at the control panel in front of her. After several glances between the pages and the device she was currently trying to operate, the orange haired woman wearing the kimono frowned deeply and fixed a death glare on the complicated piece of equipment, "Okay. What aspect of the machine do I set to sixty?"
It'd been well over a month after the whole Zeru incident and life on planet earth couldn't have been more peaceful. Thanks to the wishes granted by the dragon, not only had the Z-fighters been able to mop up all of the spills caused by the alien's unexpected arrival, but they'd also made living on this beautiful ball of blue and green a thousand times better. If one were to actually calculate the amount of human conflicts and natural disasters that'd taken place since the extra terrestrial's attack, you would find a very empty spreadsheet staring back at you. This was probably due to earth's many nations coming together in the name of protecting their planet from a newly identified common enemy…
Aliens from outer space!
If anymore unfriendly extra terrestrials were planning on visiting their home to cause the kind of destruction their most recent visitor had done, the governing bodies knew that they had to be as ready as they could be to combat the threat.
While a hearty congratulations had been given to the branches of the military that'd stepped up to fight off the beast, a special thanks was later handed to the mysterious group of super-powered warriors that'd been sighted that day. For what seemed like the third or fourth time in over two decades, the leaders of the planet, King Koku especially, had openly expressed their thanks and gratitude to the unknown heroes who'd stepped up and defended the planet from a creature far more powerful than the greatest weapons their forces could possibly muster.
Even the world champion Hercule Satan had told the press who'd visited his house that same day how grateful he and the entire planet was for the Z-fighters' actions. Though he did approach the news crews with his usual flare for the dramatic, the man had the good conscience to withhold the identities of the group's members and deny any claims of his association.
After all, not only did he know it was in the Z-warriors' best interests to keep a low profile for the time being, he also knew his daughter and her best friend had been involved. Considering how often their family was already badgered by the press, Hercule didn't want to place any further stress upon his little angel by saying she was one of the fighters that'd been there that day.
Heck, the only real names to come out of that incident were hers and Tien Shinhan's names, but even the navy and air force had suspiciously gone quiet about it. Perhaps a little bit of convincing from a certain 'World Champ' had helped out with that.
All of the excitement from the event eventually subsided soon afterwards and, once all the necessary praise and thanks had been given out, the people returned to their lives and the world kept right on turning. This inevitably led to a lot of the Z-fighters kicking back and taking it easy, with the only exceptions being Gohan, Vegeta and Zangya. However, this didn't mean the three of them weren't able to experience some instances of normalcy in their day to day activities.
Like today for example.
Inside the Son household, Zangya was currently occupying her day off practicing her basic housekeeping skills. On the surface it was a great stress reliever and allowed her to contribute around the house in Chi-Chi's absence, the mother having gone out to do some shopping that morning. This left her in charge of vacuuming, cleaning the dishes, and doing the laundry.
In retrospect, doing the laundry wasn't that big of an ask. However, it should also be noted that on one of her most recent trips to West City, Chi-Chi had bought a state of the art super washer. A new product from Capsule Corp, it was designed for those really specific washing tasks and was even capable of dry cleaning your clothing, if you can believe it or not.
The only downside to this, as Zangya was finding out right now, was that operating the damn thing was hideously complicated.
"Seriously? Whatever happened to; insert powder, set to spin-dry, and let it rip?" the Hera asked to herself as she tapped her finger impatiently against the booklet she was reading.
She'd already spent the last half-an-hour standing in front of this Godforsaken household appliance and she was getting tired. With most of her shirts and unmentionables shoved into the thing, leaving her standing there in a purple kimono, Zangya was all set to move onto the next phase. But while loading the machine had been a real pleasure, it was getting it going that was driving her nuts.
"Damn it. I'm not book smart and I hate these unnecessarily complex electronics,"the Hera grumbled, craning her head to look for the 'on' switch. "How in the world do other earthlings cope operating these damn things?"
While she was busy mumbling and groaning to herself, the woman completely missed the sight of Gohan walking past the open door directly behind her. It was only a couple seconds later the teen backpedaled and peered into the room to see what was going on.
Seeing the Hera just standing there with her nose in a booklet and noises coming out of her mouth prompted the demi-Saiyan to raise an eyebrow. "What are you doing?" Gohan asked, taking note of the fact that her shoulders were trembling with frustration.
Jumping slightly at the voice, Zangya turned to see her spiky haired training partner looking in on her. "Oh. Hey. Nothing, I'm just trying to get this stupid machine to work." She then raised an eyebrow in his direction. "Shouldn't you be studying for your high school entrance exam tomorrow?"
The boy simply gave her question a dismissive wave and walked in with his hands in his pockets, "Ah, I finished my work over an hour ago. I've just been procrastinating the entire time." He then coasted to a stop behind her and looked over her shoulder at the appliance that was giving her so much grief. "I was going to clean up the kitchen before mum got back and hit the gravity room for a couple of sessions, but it looks like you've got some problems of your own right now."
"Tell me about it. Your mum is a real whiz when it comes to picking out stuff that literally requires you to have some sort of engineering degree to understand," Zangya remarked, obviously taking a shot at Gohan's ludicrous homework before glancing across at him once again. "I had no problems working the last washing machine we had. But all of a sudden this thing comes along and I'm giving myself an aneurism trying to get it running."
Gohan tilted his head curiously, "Couldn't you just wash the stuff in the river? I figure if you're having so much trouble…"
This had Zangya give him a slightly deadpanned look, "Washing it in the river's a little bit…" She wanted to say old-fashioned. However, considering the circumstances that wasn't such a bad idea. "Anyway, according to the instructions, to turn the machine 'on', you have to press… this button." She then reached forward and pressed it.
The moment she did so the entire display screen lit up with all sorts of readings and graphs, causing the two users to balk in surprise. With a loud hum, the machine's engines also activated, letting the pair know it was ready to rock.
However, after seeing the display screen light up, the duo immediately started having second thoughts.
Breaking out into a nervous sweat, Zangya grinned up at the demi-Saiyan, "Hand washing it is then. I call dibs on the tub."
Murmuring uneasily, Gohan slowly formed a fist and held it up encouragingly, "Let's keep trying. I'm sure we can do it. Mum was really happy when she finally got this thing installed and, let's be honest, we're gonna have to learn how to use this machine sooner or later."
"Hmm. Good point," the Hera replied, once again directing her attention to the infernal contraption. "Alright. Let's give it a shot."
And so the pair got to work. Working in tandem, both Gohan and Zangya followed the instructions detailed in the manual from step one to step zeta, and dialed in the specifications. Calculating the power to weight ratio, strangely enough, and setting it to the amount of spin that they wanted, they eventually got the washing machine running. In a matter of minutes, the room was filled with the gentle hum of Capsule Corp's latest creation massaging the Hera's clothing of all its stains and imperfections.
The two strongest warriors on the face of the planet remained in front of the appliance, wearing proud smiles on their faces and enjoying the sight of the clothing spinning through the fiberglass side door.
"I can't believe how quiet it is," Gohan exclaimed cheerfully.
A relieved sigh escaped the accompanying woman's lips, "Thank Kami. And here I thought I was going to be stuck here forever." At least now she could rest easy knowing that her undergarments were being well looked after. This remained the only prevailing thought in her mind as her training partner proceeded to read the rest of the manual he was now holding.
While scanning the paragraphs one after the other, the demi-Saiyan then balked a little when he landed on a particular section. Glancing up at the machine and then back down at the booklet a couple of times, he then looked across at his friend and smiled. "Uh, Zangya."
"Yeah?"
"You said you're washing your whites now, right?"
"And my underwear. Why?"
"Well… this part of the instruction book says you should make sure to separate whites from colored items that may bleed," Gohan informed, making sure to point out the passage with his finger. "I'm guessing since the machine is so powerful it can effect even the most durable of materials."
"No duh. How else are you going to get wine and sauce stains out of your sheets? The stuff is so strong it literally takes an entire packet of dapax to get out." Narrowing her eyes, Zangya quickly looked across at her friend, "Why?"
The young warrior then pointed towards the washing machine door, "I think some red managed to get by you." When all eyes turned to the door, they saw a pair of brightly colored underwear and a bra slapping against the glass as the batch of material spun round and round at high speed.
Freaking out at the sight of the brightly colored items, the orange haired woman dashed forward and began randomly pressing buttons on the control panel. "Cancel! Please, cancel! Damn it!" When she heard the machine start to make a loud clunking sound after jabbing at a couple of keys, the girl began breaking out into a cold sweat. "How are you supposed to stop this thing?!" Quickly growing desperate, the Hera then clenched her fists and slammed them against the top of the appliance in frustration.
This seemed to have the exact opposite effect to what she was inevitably hoping for. The instant her fists buried into the surface of the machine, the household item sputtered before beginning to rumble and shudder violently. Backing away under the shaking of the pure white apparatus, Zangya then gave a startled cry when the front end suddenly exploded and a blast of water washed over her.
Seeing his housemate literally get swamped by the miniature tidal wave, the demi-Saiyan waited for the water to stop running before raising an eyebrow down at the crumpled female, who was now sitting in a puddle of foamy hot water. Just when he was about to say something clever, the boy then recoiled when he noticed that not only was she completely soaked to the bone, but her kimono had come undone and was clinging to her in the most provocative way imaginable.
Blushing to the roots of his hair, the half-Saiyan tugged on the collar of his white shirt and quickly averted his gaze, "I… see you're one of those people who likes to go commando, huh?"
Dripping wet with her kimono hugging her curvaceous figure, the orange haired fighter sniffled before she started to cry. "That's how you wear this type of kimono!" She then dropped her face into her hands and began weeping freely.
From the way she was kneeling there with her kimono open and exposing a lot of her front, she looked absolutely pathetic in a very moe kind of way. It was hilarious.
Unable to see a friend so defeated and upset, Gohan quickly fetched a towel and wrapped it around Zangya's body, rubbing her shoulder while keeping his gaze fixed squarely above her neck. While she bawled away and sobbed into her palms, the spiky haired warrior smiled, hugged her tightly, and began rocking her back and forth in a comforting manner. "It's okay. This stuff happens to everyone."
Now that the machine had been forcibly and temporarily knocked out of commission, they now had a new chore to do before Chi-Chi got home, and that was to mop up the pool of water that'd formed from opening the door prematurely.
They were sure to get right on it… just as soon as Zangya stopped crying…
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