The Fujimura estate was also the headquarters of the Fujimura Group, with dedicated cooks responsible for making big communal meals for the members who lived there.
All in all, suddenly having one more mouth to feed was no problem.
"Do you need me to help you with something?"
In the middle of shoveling food into his mouth, Broly suddenly asked. This was something he had just learned to say—here, it seemed like one could trade work for food instead of Baaya blood.
"Hahaha, what can a half-grown little brat like you even do?"
Taiga Fujimura laughed as she patted him on the head. The boy's fluffy hair felt great under her hand, and she could not help wanting to keep petting it.
"What can I do?"
Broly thought for a moment, and some information surfaced in his mind.
"I can destroy the Earth."
He said this very seriously. As a Saiyan whose normal power exceeded ten thousand, he did indeed have the power to destroy a planet.
Even if that "Earth" referred to the Dragon Ball world's Earth, was the Earth of the Type-Moon world really bigger or tougher than that one? Not necessarily.
"You really know how to brag, kid!"
Taiga did not take it seriously at all. Nor did she notice how, deep within the Swirl of the Root, the two great Counter Forces were suddenly breaking into a cold sweat at those words.
"If you really don't want to eat for free and insist on helping, how about you wipe down the bamboo swords and armor in the dojo for me?"
Handguns were rarely used in yakuza scuffles; cold weapons were the real mainstay. The Fujimura estate had a private dojo for training.
Taiga had no interest in inheriting her grandfather's underworld business, but swordsmanship was something she had picked up from constant exposure.
Right now, the only work in the house suitable for kids was tidying the equipment in the dojo. That was the simplest job.
"Big Sister Fujimura, I don't want to eat for free either."
Young Sakura raised her hand at this point.
"Then little Sakura can help too."
Taiga was even-handed with her kindness and ruffled the girl's hair as well.
One head was fluffy like a puppy's, the other soft like a kitten's, and she felt thoroughly satisfied petting both.
Except…
"Broly, little brother, how long has it been since you last washed your hair?"
Taiga sniffed her palm and could not help asking.
"Wash my hair? What's that?"
On Planet Vampa, water was scarce enough that even having enough to drink was hard; using it for cleaning was out of the question.
If anything counted as "cleaning," it might be rolling around in fine sand a few times. Broly had never actually bathed.
"You're kidding me…"
Taiga's expression turned a bit strange. It was not that he smelled unbearably bad, but there was definitely a beastlike odor.
"After you eat, you two should take a bath first. Sakura, you go too."
Broly had no objections. As long as he was fed, he did not care what others told him to do.
It was just that…
"Is this kid a walking rice bucket? How many bowls has he eaten?"
Only after the kitchen had cooked more than ten extra pots of rice and several more woks of dishes did Broly finally stop.
He patted his round little belly, looking completely satisfied.
"There's no way this kid is normal."
The Fujimura members muttered among themselves, and even Taiga was a little shaken by the boy's monstrous appetite.
"Are you okay?"
She asked worriedly.
"I've never been this full before."
Broly burped contentedly.
In the past, the only food had been Vampa spiders, and they tasted so terrible that as long as they could fill their bellies without wasting food, neither he nor his father Paragus would go out of their way to hunt more spiders just to stuff themselves.
"Incredible… how did all that food even fit into your stomach?"
Taiga pressed her hand lightly to the boy's belly. Once she confirmed he would not actually burst, she finally relaxed.
"It's like watching a magic trick."
Of course, it had nothing to do with magecraft. It was purely that a Saiyan's digestive system was terrifyingly efficient—most food that entered the stomach would be broken down until nothing was left.
"So should I take that bath thing first now, or wipe the stuff you mentioned?"
Once he was full, it was time to work. Broly felt power surging through his whole body. It felt great.
"Going straight to bathe on a completely full stomach isn't good for you. Walk around first and let some of that food digest.
"Right, I just happen to be about to teach someone a lesson. You two can come watch and be my cheering squad!"
"Cheering squad?"
Broly and Sakura were brought to the dojo, where the scar-faced man from earlier had also been summoned.
"Please, Miss, have mercy…"
The scar-faced man looked miserable.
"Cut the crap. Put your armor on. We're having a proper kendo match!"
She called it a match, but she really just wanted to hit someone. Her sword skills were excellent and her strength ridiculous; even with armor, there were always spots that could not be fully protected.
"You two better cheer for me properly!"
Taiga donned a kendo uniform herself. After saying this to the kids, she stepped forward and urged the scar-faced man to begin.
Once he stepped up, the match started. The sound of bamboo swords striking rang out—sharp, rapid cracks echoing through the dojo.
Broly watched the two in the center of the dojo with puzzlement. He did not really understand what they were doing, hitting each other with sticks like that.
"Go, Big Sister Fujimura!"
By then, Sakura had already started cheering for Taiga.
Snapped from his daze by her voice, Broly hurriedly joined in as an echo.
Every time the girl shouted, he repeated the same words, getting more and more fluent at it.
"Strike centerline, Master Fujimura!"
By the end, he was even calling out attack commands based on random bits of information popping into his head.
"Ow, that hurts. I give up, Miss!"
With one thrust that knocked the scar-faced man to the floor, he promptly conceded defeat.
"Having people cheer you on really does feel different!"
Sweating from the match, Taiga decided to rest a bit before washing up.
"So, can you two bathe by yourselves?"
After the kids finished wiping down the equipment, Taiga asked.
Before they could answer, she remembered Broly's earlier question about what a bath even was.
"Forget it. The bath here is pretty big. We'll all wash together."
They were all just kids, so Taiga did not think much of it. She had the maids prepare two small sets of clothes for them, then took both of them into the changing room.
"Hey, what's this?"
As she took off Broly's clothes, her hand brushed against the tail curled around his waist.
"You even have a tail?"
The tail flicked and smacked her hand away, making Taiga exclaim in surprise.
"It's normal for Saiyans to have tails."
Broly explained.
"Saiyans? What's that?"
This time it was Taiga's turn to ask back.
"They're… vegetable people?"
The word "Saiyan" read backwards was "Yasai," which in Japanese sounded the same as "vegetable." That little pun popped up in Broly's brain, and he blurted it out, though he did not really understand it himself.
"Vegetable… people?"
Taiga was completely confused.
"Forget it. Can big sister touch your tail?"
But very quickly, she stopped thinking about it and asked instead.
"You gave me a lot of food. You're a good wife. You can touch my tail."
Hearing this, Broly nodded and obediently held his tail out to her.
Taiga took it from him. Feeling the slight vibrations running through the fluffy tail, she thought it was amazing. Almost instinctively, she squeezed and kneaded it—and heard a muffled groan Broly tried to hold back.
"Hey, hey, hey, don't make weird noises like that!"
She hurriedly clapped a hand over his mouth.
"A Saiyan's tail is a sensitive spot. When you squeeze and knead it like that, it gets really tingly."
Broly mumbled the explanation. For the sake of all the food he had just eaten, he forced himself to endure the numbness.
Taiga: "…"
She quickly let go of his tail.
"You should've said something earlier. If I'd known, I wouldn't have grabbed it like that."
The stick-like shape, the springy, spongy feel—at first, Taiga had not thought anything of it. But once she heard what Broly said, she suddenly remembered some very not-wholesome content she had seen in certain not-so-wholesome books.
Her whole face flushed, and her gaze on the boy drifted down unconsciously toward his lower body before she slapped herself across the cheek.
Taiga, Taiga, pull yourself together. You can't let yourself get led astray by a kid's tail. You are not a pervy girl!
Without lingering in the changing room any longer, she marched into the big bath with the two kids, ignoring their puzzled looks as they watched her slap herself.
"First, before soaking, you have to wash your body."
The girl did not need help—anyone could tell she knew how to bathe herself. The boy, though, needed watching.
He was looking around everywhere, obviously fascinated by the whole bathhouse.
More importantly, as soon as his feet got wet, he started leaving little black footprints on the floor. All that dirt had been completely hidden before.
Broly was plunked down on a small stool while Taiga turned on the hot water and rinsed him off. Once his hair was soaked, the dust started running down. The water that poured off him was so discolored that both Sakura and Taiga were stunned.
"Just rinsing with water isn't going to cut it."
Taiga said as she reached for the bath products. She had meant to let Broly use them himself, but after seeing him squeeze out some shampoo, sniff it, and then pop it straight into his mouth, she abandoned that idea.
"Oh, come on, that's not food. Spit it out…"
Once she had fished the shampoo out of his mouth—
"Forget it. I'll wash you."
Taiga set Broly on the small stool in front of her, then pulled up another stool and sat behind him.
Her bare thighs stretched past either side of the boy's small body. She squeezed a generous mound of shampoo onto his filthy hair and started scrubbing.
His hair was quickly buried in foam. Broly grabbed some of it to sniff and was just about to taste it again when his hand was smacked away.
"I said, that's not food. If you try to eat it again, I won't be your wife anymore, and I'll throw you out of my house."
At that, Broly instantly did not dare mess around.
"Wow, that really works. Close your eyes, I'm going to rinse you."
The water washed away all the foam, revealing pure black hair underneath.
"I thought it was gray-brown. Didn't expect it to be jet-black."
Taiga did not know whether to laugh or cry. Looking at the boy's slightly brown-toned skin, and worried he might try to eat the soap next, she went ahead and washed his body for him as well.
Sakura had already finished washing herself. Seeing how busy Taiga was with the boy, she shyly offered to help.
Taiga had meant to refuse, but the look on the girl's face—so eager to prove her worth—made her change her mind. Not knowing what Sakura had been through, she handed her a bar of soap and let her help scrub.
The pair of girls, one big and one small, scrubbed the boy like they were washing a big dog. Only when the washcloth could no longer rub even a speck of dirt off him did they finally finish this major cleaning operation.
"This is more exhausting than beating someone up."
Taiga said honestly.
"But it's more satisfying than beating someone up."
Seeing the filthy boy cleaned spotless by her own hands really did feel like an achievement.
"Mm."
Sakura agreed wholeheartedly. Even at her age, she was already showing a talent for housework and cleaning.
"All right, you're clean. You can soak now."
Taiga grabbed Broly and dropped him into the big tub.
She had thought it would be easier after this.
But…
While she washed herself, she could feel the boy lying against the edge of the tub, staring at her.
"Hey, what are you looking at?"
"I want to learn how to bathe."
How innocent those words were. But was the way a girl bathed really the same as how a boy did?
"You little perv, no looking!"
Before Taiga could toss a washbasin at him, Broly obediently turned his head away.
"What's a little perv?"
Still, he had a lot of questions. He even wanted to know what "little perv" meant.
"A little perv is someone who's still young but likes staring at other people's bodies."
Taiga explained.
"Then she's a little perv too."
Broly pointed at Sakura, who was staring at him.
"Eh?"
Pointed at so suddenly, Sakura's face was a mix of confusion and "you can call it that?"
Taiga: "…"
"That's not how it works. When a boy stares at a girl, that's called being a perv, but when a girl stares at a boy, it's not."
"Why?"
"Because boys and girls are different."
"What's different?"
"Their physical structure."
"What's physical structure?"
"Look, this is a girl's… Wait, why am I explaining this to a little brat like you?!"
"You wanted to prove that it's only pervy if boys look at girls, but not if girls look at boys. That's why you were explaining it. So why is that?"
Taiga had wanted to argue it out with him, but as Broly kept firing off naïve yet pointed questions, she realized she could not really answer.
Men and women were supposed to be equal nowadays, but common attitudes did not really reflect that. This left the fifteen-year-old girl suddenly wrestling with the question of whether the world truly treated men and women equally.
Soaking in the hot water after washing up, she was still thinking about gender equality when the sound of gulping water snapped her out of it.
Looking over, she saw Broly with half his face underwater, gulping down bathwater like crazy.
"Hey, what are you doing?"
She yanked him out of the tub.
"I was thirsty. I'm drinking."
Broly replied honestly.
"That's bathwater."
"You can't drink it?"
Taiga rubbed her temples.
"Obviously not."
"Why?"
"There is no 'why.' Just remember this: only boiled water can be drunk."
"What's boiled water?"
"I…"
In that moment, Taiga got a very early taste of how exhausting it was to raise a child who asked endless questions.