"Oh… heheh. Right, forgot about that…"
Chichi glowered at him before sighing. "Come on Goku, we are getting you to bed." She helped him up before glancing at Tien. "That was a very good leg sweep. Come along Gohan." The little boy nodded and the Son family headed back to the research station, Goku the last one everyone heard as he complained about missing out on training and how he'd need to work 'three times as hard' tomorrow to make up for it.
'Honestly with Goku though the idea of having an excuse for working even harder was probably a wonderful thing,' Roshi thought to himself with a sniff before turning to Tien and Chiaotzu. "Chichi was right, that was a good leg sweep, Tien. Good to see you remember that there is more to a fight than just throwing punches!"
"When he has to fight me all the time he learns how to be sneaky!" Chiaotzu declared with a smirk.
"That's right," Tien said before narrowing his eyes, his own smile forming. "And since I just lost Goku I think its time you and I began doing some sparring."
Roshi laughed at the look of surprise that flashed across Chiaotzu's face.
~MC~MC~MC~
Krillin walked away from the temple, grumbling under his breath as he hefted his bag on his shoulders. It was a bit fuller than it had been when he arrived, as it was stuffed with his robes and sandals and the left over soaps from the bathhouse. He'd paid a lot of good zeni for those useless things he wasn't going to toss them aside. The monks had made a bunch of offers to clean them, pack them, or recycle them for him but he was just so tired and done with their scams that he hadn't even been able to muster the energy to yell at them. Instead he'd merely moved past them, glowering the entire time as they asked him to return.
'Maybe I can get Raditz to destroy them first before we fight him,' Krillin thought bitterly as he continued back along the path. 'All that work just to be told the secret is in me?' He shook his head. He'd gone through the book several times but only the first page had any writing on it. The rest was completely blank. A search of the room had shown that there weren't any hidden text so it had just been that book… and that lousy, unhelpful message. 'I knew I shouldn't have trusted that guy Kayos and his stupid scroll. I wasted three weeks I could have been training finding this place!' He patted his back pocket just to make sure that his wallet was still there, not trusting the monks to have pickpocketed him. 'And wasted a year's worth of savings too!'
"So, ya enjoy the tourist trap?" Barley called out from his hammock as Krillin walked by the old hermit's shack.
"Yeah, it was a blast," Krillin muttered as he continued on.
Barley, undeterred by Krillin's anger, continued to mock him. "I warned ya! I told ya it was a tourist trap! That get ya with them fancy soaps of theirs and their robes? They have that soap delivered via cargo robot… probably costs about 20 zeni!" He laughed at that. "Everyone falls for it! Seeking out quick answers in order to make themselves feel better about everything."
Krillin's eye twitched but he kept walking.
"Well, you go scurry back to your mansion and have your servants tell you it was worth it! That's what most of you deluded rich folks do!"
He tried to remain calm. To be patient. To let the insults just roll off his back.
But all his life Krillin had been mocked. Taunted about his looks, his height, his skills. Told that he would never be good enough. That he was the weak link. That he would only hurt others by getting in the way.
And all that came bursting forth.
"Shut your mouth!" he roared, whipping around and stalking back towards Barley. "You think this is a game? A joke? You could have told me it was all a scam. Actually explained what they were doing instead of giving me veiled references! But you didn't! You just wanted me go off so you could have a sick laugh!"
"Now see-"
"YOU SEE!" Krillin thundered. "Rich man? I just lost most of my life savings thanks to those con men! But I don't care about that… I would have given up everything I had if it had given me the answers I needed. My friend died for me and now his killer is coming back and we have to stop him because if we don't he's going to kill everyone on the planet! My friends are training to be ready for him and this was my way of helping… I know they are stronger than me but that doesn't matter so long as I can hold my own against that bastard and make him pay for what he did to Yamcha! And all I got to show for it is being told the answer is within me? That isn't going to help protect Gohan or Bulma or Master Roshi or anyone else! So you keep your insults and your comments to yourself because I. Am. Done!"
Barley stared at him as Krillin panted.
"Well? What insult do you have now to throw at me?" Krillin demanded.
The old man slowly got out of his hammock.
"Come on," he said, motioning for Krillin to follow him.
"What are-"
"Ya deaf as well as poor? I said come on!" Barley proclaimed before walking towards his front door. After a few moments Krillin sighed and followed after.
"I don't-"
"You had your chance ta rant and rave now you're gonna listen ta me," Barley said, opening the door and not bothering to look back to make sure that Krillin was following him. "I was a business man… though not by choice. I went to school and was told that's what I would become and… well… that's how things were. You were told what your job was and you just did it. I didn't mind though, because I was told that's how I could make a lot of money… and all I cared about was making money."
The shack was just like what Krillin expected it to be. One large room with a worn and chipped table, an ancient woodstove with a half rusted tea kettle sitting on it. The living area… if it could be called that… was just a rug and a half collapsed chair that had been repaired many times before. He saw a small doorway with no actual door and within he saw the very edge of a tiny bed. There was nothing really to draw the eye or keep one's attention. Just a drab little living space.
"We were very good at it… very good at it." Barley smiled at that, shaking his head. "Rouge and I… we were good at business but not good at life. Only cared about ourselves and didn't really even care about that. Didn't make money to use it… just to cling to it. Horde it. Still can't break out of that habit, to be honest." He shook his head. "It wouldn't have mattered… until I got sick."