"That is what I will teach you. I will show you how to make every drop of KI matter. You will attack with punches that use only the bare minimum you need. Your strikes will be small… but devastating. You will be able to destroy 40 showy fools who waste their time and energy just to try and impress others. Not because you want to be strong! Not because you think you have to prove yourself! Because you know you need every ounce of strength so you can protect your friends! Your family! Your world!" He pointed a spindly finger at Krillin. "Are you ready to learn?"
Krillin nodded his head, tightening his gi. "I am!"
"Then… let's show you the secrets of Selfless Style!"
"Bulma?" I called out as I walked back down into her lab. "Feeling any better?"
"Oh, so much!" Bulma said as she came out of a room, brushing her hair. She'd changed into a nicer outfit, had done her makeup, and most importantly looked like she'd actually gotten some sleep. "Hey, lunch!" She paused, considering the plate I had brought down full of… well, frankly it was all Japanese food so I had no fucking idea what any of it was and was just glad that the robots in the kitchen could make pizza and burgers. "Or is it supper?"
"Technically for you it's brunch considering you just got up," I stated, "but it's a late lunch for everyone else."
"Oooooh," Bulma bemoaned, "I shouldn't have done that… so much time wasted-"
"Noooooo," I said slowly, drawing out the word, "you shouldn't have tried to go multiple days without sleep. You need sleep to keep you sane."
"Oh?" Bulma asked. "What is that supposed to mean?"
Thankfully it was Isco who answered. "It means that when you humans don't power down properly you tend to get manic ideas. And as someone who relies upon you to make sure I operate at peak efficiency I don't like the idea of going into Safe Mode only to awaken with half my shell now made of water and coconuts."
"You wouldn't mind spider legs though," I commented.
"Well, naturally," Isco replied.
Bulma stared as down and I prepared myself for her to begin screaming and ranting about how we had no idea what we were talking about… only for Bulma to let out a disheartened sigh. "Yeah… yeah, you're right." She dropped her gaze, staring at her hands. "I just feel so… useless!" Bulma began to pace the floor, Isco and I following after her so it became less pacing and more her leading a small parade. "I just keep trying to think of ways to help everyone train and… I can't figure out what to do! Krillin is gone so I can't help him out until he gets back. Piccolo says that he is fine and honestly I don't want to press him on any of that. Chichi has a thousand notes for Gohan with half of them being "I don't want my baby to be training for anything!". And Goku…" She let out a groan. "Do you realize how hard it is to help Goku train when he can't even decide himself what he wants?"
"Considering when we asked him last week what he wanted on his burger and he just began rattling off ingredients?" I said.
"Its worse than that!" Bulma bemoaned, throwing her hands up in the air. "At least then I'd have something to work with! But all Goku says is "Oh, I don't know! Anything would be great!" Then does that stupid laugh of his. "heheheh!" You know the one?"
Isco chimed in. "Where he shuts his eyes and rubs the back of his head?"
"Yes!" Bulma exclaimed, pointing at him. "That's it exactly! Ooooh, I am growing to hate that laugh!"
"Bulma," I said gently, "calm down."
"Don't you tell me to calm down!" she thundered, spinning around and jabbing a finger under my nose. "I am going to be as uncalm as I want, thank you very much!"
"Fair enough," I said quickly, holding up my hands in surrender.
"I'm just so tired of trying to figure out a way to help him! Any of them! Even when I come up with a good idea they crap all over it. I suggested coming up with a better weight lifting system and Master Roshi just laughed because it was 'easier to have them all lift trees!'. Just… gaaaah!" She let out a frustrated cry and kicked at a garbage can, causing it to topple over and send wadded up pieces of paper flying everywhere. Of course within moments little cleaning droids began to run about, gathering the paper and putting it right back in the bin.
"Making the children work…" Isco muttered in disgust, staring at the droids. "The nerve of…oh, wait… no, they are just little droids. That's fine, they deserve to suffer then."
I decided not to poke that bear and instead focused on Bulma. "Can I be honest?"
"Sure," Bulma stated, having moved to a chair and slumped down on it in defeat, her rage leaving her and depression returning.
"You are thinking of this all backwards."
"Oh?" she asked, though she barely mustered the energy to do that.
"Yeah." I paused. "How would you defeat Goku?"
"What?" Bulma asked, confused.
"How would you defeat Goku?"
"Like… I don't-"
"If you right now had to take him down, ensure he couldn't fight… what would you do?"
"I don't know."
I shot her a cold look. "Don't lie to me."
"I'm not!" Bulma protested. "I have no idea how I'd defeat him! I don't think about fighting my friends."
"Yes you do," I replied. "You think about it. Just like Goku has. And Tien. And Krillin. Everyone does it. Nothing wrong with it, completely natural. It is something everyone considers at some point: how would you take out a friend. Goku has done it for all of us, mark my words. Thought about how he'd get into Capsule Corp. What to do if Tien went berserk. Even how to defeat Master Roshi. Its nothing evil its just… that's how fighters think."
"Like you and your poison idea?" Bulma asked.
"I am NEVER going to live that down, am I?" I grumbled, both Bulma and Isco shaking their heads (or rather Isco just wiggled his entire form from side to side). "My point is that there is nothing wrong thinking about how you might fight someone. Daydream about it. Think of all the ways you could take someone down. So I ask you again, Bulma: How would you defeat Goku?"
Bulma considered my question very carefully. "…so going at him with straight kicks and punches aren't going to work. Not only because Goku is super strong but he's also super tough. So even getting something to augment my strength wouldn't help that much. He's fast too but I could counter that if I were able to plan ahead and figure out where to have the fight… lead him into someplace that wouldn't be easily for him to escape from. He couldn't see it coming though because if he had time to study it he'd probably just blast his way out."
Bulma got up and began to walk about, this time Isco and I remaining put as she worked over the problem carefully in her head.
"So its not brute force. And you can't hold him in a trap for long. Give him even a minute or two and he can figure out how to get out of a nasty situation. That's why I ruled things out like poison gas. Goku would realize what was going on. Gravity crushing him down is the same thing… he'd figure out how to either break the machine or fight in high gravity-"
"Speak of we should discuss that idea later," I said, not wanting to derail her thoughts but… if she could build a Gravity Chamber early the group could race ahead by leaps and bounds.
"Electricity is what I've been thinking of. Something to shock him, fry his nerves. Hard and quick so he can't think. You'd have to pile it on… couldn't make it prolonged though. So a quick hard burst. And I'd need a way to get out of his path…" She rubbed her chin before suddenly looking up at me. "Okay, I get what you are going for. Raditz is Goku's brother so reasonably whatever works on Goku would work on Raditz. There is just one problem: the only person that might be willing to use any of these ideas is you and you're all in with magic."
"Not all in," I stated. "I'm willing to have a few science tricks up my sleeve."
"Still, you said yourself you aren't a fighter."
"Yeah, that's true," I admitted. "And it wasn't me I was thinking of."
"Then who?"
I just stared at her.
"What?"
"Bulma… you ever think about Power Armor?"