"Whoo, whoo…"
The hair dryer blew hot air, and Broly could feel the warm wind passing over his head as his hair gradually became fluffy and dry.
"It's starting to stick up. Guess I can't dry it completely."
Wrapped in a bath towel, Taiga Fujimura said this as she picked up a bottle of hair lotion and sprayed it over Broly's head.
The fragrant smell made Broly lift his head and sniff curiously at the bottle in her hand.
"This isn't food either."
Taiga hurriedly put the hair lotion away, then picked up a comb and had Broly face forward while she combed through his long, fluffy hair.
"You've really got nice hair!"
After washing, Broly's hair felt silky smooth to the touch, something that even made Taiga a little envious.
"Let's give you a hairstyle."
Very soon, the mirror reflected a boy with twin ponytails.
"Haha, this hairstyle is so cute. You look just like a little girl."
Broly frowned. Thanks to Taiga's earlier demonstration, he now understood the difference between himself and a girl.
"I'm not a little girl. I've got a little brother."
He protested, thrusting his hips forward a bit as if to present the evidence for the girl behind him to see.
"Showing off the elephant? Aren't you at least a little ashamed, you brat?!"
Taiga spat and blushed slightly. For a kid his age, his development was actually pretty good.
No, it was beyond what a child his age ought to have.
"Ashamed?"
Broly's face was full of confusion. Before he could transform back into a question machine, Taiga hurriedly undid his twin ponytails.
"All right, all right, I'll give you a different style."
She was already a little scared of being interrogated by this kid.
"How about a single ponytail? Clean and sharp."
Broly had no real concept of good or bad hairstyles. Seeing Taiga look rather satisfied, he simply nodded. "Mm."
"Now bring your tail over here. I'll dry it for you too, or it'll soak your clothes."
Broly obeyed without a word. Faced with the girl's instructions, he handed his tail back to her obediently.
The hair dryer roared to life again. The warm wind brought a cool, soothing feeling to his tail. Soon, his tail was as fluffy as his hair. The fluffy sensation in her hand made Taiga subconsciously start to stroke it in an indecent way.
When Broly's body shivered, she quickly let go. "Sorry, I got a little carried away."
"It's okay."
Broly did not really mind. That shiver was just his body's instinctive reaction to that strange way of stroking his tail.
"Mm, do you want to stroke it too?"
Seeing young Sakura, now dressed, staring at his tail, Broly thought for a moment and asked.
"Can I?"
Having his tail stroked would not cost him any fur. Without another word, he stepped closer and placed his tail in the girl's hands.
Sakura cupped the tail with both hands, stroking it carefully, afraid to use too much force. The light touch made Broly's tail ticklish, and he began to sway it in her hands.
"Did I hurt you?"
Sakura quickly stopped and asked.
"No. You can use a little more force. If it's too light, it tickles."
Encouraged by Broly's look, Sakura started trying to find the right way to stroke his tail.
"Is this much pressure okay?"
"It still tickles a bit."
"What about this?"
"Now it's a little tingly."
After a few rounds of trial and error, Broly's tail gradually got used to Sakura's little hands, no longer feeling strange at her touch and slowly entering a desensitized, adapted state.
To use an animal metaphor, the wary cat had begun to tilt up its chin and offer it to the human.
"Hey, hey, hey, stop playing with his tail and hurry up and get dressed. You'll catch a cold."
Already dressed, Taiga shouted, somewhat jealous of the kids who got to enjoy tail-petting time.
"Do you need me to cut a hole in your pants?"
She asked.
"No need. I always wrap my tail around my waist. My father said that way it's less likely to get hurt."
Saiyan warriors usually kept their tails that way. Those who cut theirs off were a minority, since that tail was their trump card for transforming into Great Apes.
Even if, most of the time, few Saiyans liked turning themselves into mindless apes.
Broly explained how his father had taught him to position his tail—yet in Taiga's ears, it became something else entirely.
A child with a fluffy tail had always suffered others' prejudice and bullying. To keep him from being mocked and picked on, his father had taught him from a young age to hide that unique tail. Even though that father was no longer in this world, his love for his child still showed in the smallest details.
What a great love this father had!
"It's okay. Big sister will protect you from now on."
Taiga's maternal instincts surged, and she pulled Broly into her arms.
Her figure was already developing nicely. Though she had not yet reached the ample curves she would have in the future, she was soft and well-fleshed enough to completely envelop the boy's face. Broly was a bit dazed and had no idea what was going on.
But the pleasant soapy scent made him relax. He did not struggle, letting Taiga hug him while his nose took in her fragrance.
Fortunately, Broly did not eat people. He made no attempt to bite into the soft flesh beneath the fabric pressed against his face.
That night, Taiga arranged for Broly and Sakura to sleep in a guest room. She had originally wanted to let them sleep in her own bedroom, but her grandfather Raiga refused.
"The head of the house must maintain proper reserve. If you get too close, you blur the hierarchy, and it'll be harder to manage them later."
"Grandpa, I told you, I'm not grooming future lieutenants!"
No matter how much Taiga tried to explain, it was useless. The house was still under Raiga's control.
Under another's roof, even a beloved granddaughter had to bow her head.
"Well then, you two should get a good rest."
With that, Taiga left, and the room was quiet except for Broly and Sakura.
"What do we do now?"
Sakura was a little nervous. After all, she had only met Broly that very day.
"She said to sleep, didn't she?"
Broly looked puzzled. He went over to the corner, leaned against the wall, and closed his eyes.
"You're going to sleep like that?"
"How else would I sleep?"
"Don't you lie down under the covers?"
Sakura pointed at the bedding and futons Taiga had brought them and placed on the tatami.
Seeing the confusion on Broly's face, she quickly realized he probably had never slept on a futon.
"You use them like this."
Sakura herself had never slept on the floor before, but she knew how it worked. Very soon, she had the bundled bedding spread out flat on the tatami and crawled inside, poking her head out to tell Broly,
"This is how you're supposed to use it."
"So this is how you all sleep. My father and I always slept leaning against rocks."
"Eh? Why?"
"Because there are lots of dangers on Planet Vampa. Some come from monsters, others from the planet's natural environment. My father said that sleeping leaning on a rock instead of lying down on one makes you a bit more alert."
Mainly, Broly had terrible sleep inertia. Paragus had once been attacked by his own son while trying to wake him. After that, he taught Broly this shallow, light-sleep method.
"Planet Vampa?"
Sakura did not really understand what Broly was saying. But one thing was clear: he had once lived in a very dangerous place, maybe just like she had in the Matou house.
"It's okay now. This place should be safe. You don't have to sleep against a rock."
Broly thought about it. From what he had seen in this world so far, all life here seemed weak, so he climbed into Sakura's futon.
"Eh?"
Sakura looked at the unused futon on the other side, then at Broly, who was now lying in hers, not quite sure what to say.
"Aren't you going to sleep?"
Broly, already tucked into the bed she had laid, asked her.
"I am. This is the pillow, you can put your head on it."
In the end, Sakura said nothing more. She pushed the pillow to him so Broly could sleep like a normal person.
The light went out, and Sakura slipped into the shared futon as well.
The room was very quiet, but soon a soft sobbing broke the silence.
"What's wrong?"
Broly turned his head toward the source of the sound and asked the girl beside him.
"I miss home."
Sakura said in a low voice.
Home? What's that?
"Home is where your family is. Like the cave you and your father lived in."
The Crystal Palace provided the definition, and Broly understood.
"If you miss home, just go back."
He said.
"But I don't have a home anymore. My mom and dad don't want me."
Darkness and silence were the best at drawing out one's fragility.
Sakura had not cried earlier, but lying in an unfamiliar bed and staring at an unfamiliar room, all the bottled-up sadness surfaced and smashed through the small girl's defenses.
"Host, please note: Sakura Matou's mood is persistently low. Her Happiness Value is dropping."
Broly: "…"
He had no idea what to say to the girl next to him.
"Please note: If the Happiness Value drops too low, it will affect the amount of Happiness Points converted when the target is successfully invited to become a member of the Crystal Palace.
"Note: Happiness Points can be exchanged for items the host has previously experienced, including but not limited to daily necessities, food, and so on."
Broly scratched his head. That did not seem to affect him much. He had already learned how to survive in this strange world by trading work for food.
"Reminder: The host has not permanently transmigrated to this world and will return to his own world in five days. Return countdown: 5 days, 6 hours, 38 minutes, 33 seconds… 32, 31…"
Broly: "?!"
I have to go back to Planet Vampa, back to my "home"?
"Of course. Once time-space energy is used up, you must go back."
He had been in this world less than half a day, but Broly was already deeply in love with the delicious food here.
Yet before that happiness had lasted very long, the Crystal Palace told him he would have to go home in a few days.
Just thinking about the bitter days of eating spider eggs on Planet Vampa sent his heart plummeting.
"How can I stay?"
Unlike Sakura, Broly did not want to go home. Not back to Planet Vampa.
"Please provide more time-space energy."
The Crystal Palace answered.
"What is time-space energy? How do I give it to you?"
Broly asked.
"Time-space energy is the energy of time and space. After the host returns to his own world, he can accumulate time-space energy through the passage of his own time. Of course, increasing the amount of space he moves through can speed up its collection."
"So I can't stay in this world?"
"If you wish to remain in an alternate space-time world, please provide more time-space energy."
To collect time-space energy, he had to return to his own world. To stay here, he had to provide more time-space energy. It was a dead loop.
Listening to Sakura's sobs at his ear, Broly somehow instinctively echoed her and began to cry as well.
"Uu, uu…"
Hearing the sound behind her, Sakura paused.
Turning around, she saw the boy in the same futon was also crying.
"Wait, why are you crying?"
"I'm crying because I'm going home in a few days."
"Uh… isn't that a good thing?"
"But I don't want to go back. Once I do, I won't be able to eat all the delicious food in this world. Back home, all we have to eat are Vampa spiders and their eggs.
"They're so bitter and astringent and awful. Compared to the cake, pudding, fruit, happy water, and pork cutlet rice you gave me…"
Broly rattled off a list of foods and then summed it up.
"They're totally incomparable. I don't want to go back. I want to stay here. But I can't, uu, uu…"
Sakura: "…"
She had a home she could not return to. He had a home he did not want to go back to. The stark contrast made her feel even worse.
Sakura had wanted to keep crying with Broly, but after a few sobs, she realized he was crying even harder than she was, like someone who had lost both parents, and she gradually stopped.
"Can you stop crying?"
Sakura tried to comfort him.
"Cake, pudding…"
But Broly only cried harder. Just thinking of how those foods would soon be out of his reach made his chest ache.
"Come on, it's just that you won't have tasty food anymore. Compared to me, at least you still have a home to go back to!"
Sakura said.
"If I had never seen the light, I could endure the darkness. But after seeing the light, how am I supposed to accept the darkness again?"
Broly threw out a line that had surfaced in his mind.
Sakura: "…"
She felt that deeply. Back when she'd lived with the Tohsaka family, she had been so carefree and happy. But after being sent to the Matou family as a foster child and thrown into the worm pit for modification, life had become so dark and hopeless as to be unbearable.
"Reminder again: Sakura Matou's mood is persistently low. Happiness Value continues to drop. If it gets too low, it will affect the Happiness Points converted when she is successfully invited as a member of the Crystal Palace.
"Note: Happiness Points can be exchanged for items the host has previously experienced, including but not limited to daily necessities, food, and so on."
"Eh?!"
"After going back to Planet Vampa, can I still exchange for this world's food?"
"Yes."
Broly stopped crying.
"Uu…"
Sakura was about to start again.
"Don't cry."
Broly cut off her spellcasting.