Aeris shattered the thing binding her and stepped out.
"Why the hell are you laughing? It's annoying as shit."
"Cough…"
Piccolo barely managed to stop laughing and just stood there looking at her.
"When did you get back?"
"Yesterday…"
Aeris felt more than a little speechless.
Alcohol really wasn't a good thing.
See?
This was exactly what happened when you drank.
Then she looked Piccolo over and felt out his ki. Compared to before she left, he was about twice as strong.
"Not bad, not bad. Looks like you've been training hard too. You're a lot stronger than when I left."
If she had to put a number on it now, he was probably somewhere around twelve to thirteen hundred. And if Goku hadn't been slacking off, he was probably around the same level too. Those two were always pretty close in strength anyway.
Piccolo turned his head away with a proud little huff.
Aeris found a piece of dead wood and sat down on it, just watching him like that. She genuinely liked Piccolo's awkward personality. It was fun.
"You Namekians really are interesting. Nail was the same way. Same kind of personality."
Then she tilted her head.
"Though sometimes I feel like you're kind of different from the other Namekians. The ones I met never seemed to eat anything. I barely ever saw them consume anything at all."
Aeris looked at Piccolo in confusion.
Because really, she had almost never seen them eat. At most, they drank water or picked some special fruit from trees. So if that was the case, had the way Piccolo used to eat before been completely fine?
"I'm not too sure about that," Piccolo said. "But my need for food is very low. It doesn't really matter whether I eat or not. A single glass of water is enough."
He looked at his own hand for a moment, then continued,
"But if you're asking whether there's actually any problem with it, then no. There isn't. Most of the time, I just absorb energy from sunlight to maintain my body's basic needs."
Aeris nodded.
So it wasn't that they couldn't eat.
It was that they didn't need to.
Or rather…
There just wasn't much point.
Alright.
Now she understood.
Back on Namek, she had completely forgotten to ask Dende and the others about that, and honestly, that would've been awkward as hell.
Whatever.
Forget it.
If she kept thinking about it any longer, she was gonna grow a brain.
"Well then, I won't interrupt your training anymore. I've got some things to take care of back there. We'll talk again if we get the chance."
As soon as she finished, Aeris flew off directly, completely ignoring the hand Piccolo had just started to raise.
As she flew, she enjoyed the feeling of the wind brushing across her face.
That feeling…
It was freedom.
Aeris slowed down a little.
At that moment, she found herself thinking that if life could just stay like this forever, that actually wouldn't be so bad.
No noisy crowds.
No annoying enemies.
Just her, the breeze, and this hard-earned peace.
It felt good.
Then Aeris realized her thoughts had started drifting off in weird directions again.
By the time she flew back to Capsule Corp, she found Bulma sitting on the sofa, staring dead at the doorway.
More specifically—
Staring dead at where Aeris was standing right now.
"Umm… did something happen, Bulma?"
Aeris asked in confusion. It was the first time she had ever been looked at like this.
"Oh, now you want to ask? You've got some nerve. Tell me, Miss Ghost, what exactly did you do last night?"
"Ghost?"
"Mhm."
That only made Aeris even more confused.
Did something happen after she got drunk last night?
Bulma didn't waste time explaining. She directly showed Aeris the morning news report about what had happened the night before.
"According to this morning's report, last night in—"
Aeris shut the news off before Bulma even finished the opening line.
No need to ask why.
She had already seen the picture.
The idiot under the bedsheet in that image was obviously her.
Who else could it possibly be?
That made her face burn even redder.
Because yes.
That really was her.
And yes.
It really was that humiliating.
For one brief moment, Aeris seriously considered leaving Earth again for a while.
The shame had already gone worldwide.
"Aaaaaahhhh… just let me die… I can't do this anymore… this is too humiliating… wuuu… Bulma… I don't want to live anymore…"
As she said that, Aeris threw herself into Bulma's arms and acted like a miserable little wreck on the verge of death.
Bulma just watched her perform.
"Go on, tell me. Why were you drinking all night… actually, forget it. Just don't drink that much next time, or you'll embarrass yourself again. Like this time. Got it?"
"Mhm, mhm. I won't drink that much next time…"
As she said that, she rubbed against Bulma's chest a little more. If Bulma had looked down right then, she probably would've noticed that the shameless little thing in her arms had a grin stretched almost to her ears.
Bulma patted her on the head and told her to get out of her arms already.
Aeris obediently pulled herself back out, then looked at Bulma.
"Bulma… I want vanilla pudding…"
Bulma looked at Aeris helplessly.
How exactly had she ended up stuck with someone like this?
Still, what else could she do?
All she could do was indulge her.
Watching Bulma head toward the kitchen, Aeris stayed behind and started flipping through some other news. That was when she saw a report about a luxury villa near Capsule Corp being sold off cheap.
Only twenty million.
The reason for the low price, according to the owner, was that the place was haunted. Last night, some ghost had wandered around near the villa for a long time before disappearing.
The moment Aeris heard that, she knew exactly whose fault that was.
All she could do was silently offer the owner an apology in her heart.
Then she took a closer look at the villa's size and interior style and immediately felt tempted to buy it. After all, living in Bulma's house forever wasn't exactly ideal.
Still, she glanced toward the direction Bulma had gone.
Better to go look at the house first. Bulma probably wouldn't have the pudding ready that quickly anyway.
With that thought, Aeris left a note behind and drove off toward the villa.
Twenty minutes later…
Aeris got out of the car, looked at the villa in front of her, and walked inside.
"Anyone here?"
The moment she finished speaking, someone came hurrying out from inside.
"Yes, yes, I'm here. You're here to see the house, right? Your agent should've already explained the situation around this place to you, yes?"
Aeris shook her head and said she had seen it on the news. After all, the owner was one of the wealthy figures in the area, so naturally news about him selling a house had been reported.
The man didn't say much else and simply led Aeris inside for the tour.
The villa had three floors, plus a private underground garage. Out back, there was an open-air swimming pool.
As for the interior layout, it was somewhat similar to Bulma's place.
The first floor had a kitchen, a reception hall, a gym, and several smaller rooms for miscellaneous use.
The second floor had guest rooms and a reading area.
The third floor was where the owner himself had been living. Of course, some people preferred the second floor, some preferred the third. It mostly came down to personal taste.
After the owner rambled on and on with a long introduction, he looked at Aeris with obvious expectation.
People had come to see the house before too, but the second they heard it was haunted, they were too scared to buy it. So now he was pinning all his hopes on Aeris.
After all, he had already lowered the price as much as possible. The location was excellent, transportation was convenient, and it wasn't far from the lively city center either. At this price, it was honestly a steal.
After looking around for a while, Aeris asked him to show her all the paperwork related to the property.
If there were no problems, she would buy it on the spot.
The wealthy owner lit up the second he heard that and immediately called his team over.
The whole thing was wrapped up in less than half an hour.
Pretty fast.
Well, I guess that's what money does. It lets everything get done this fast.
But by the time Aeris finished having that thought, she realized the villa's former owner had already vanished without a trace.
…That fast?
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