The flight back to Frypan Mountain, despite being notably faster than the search for Chichi, was notably more… difficult. Due to the fact that, for every second they wasted, the fires burned longer, Kakarot and Chichi didn't even consider walking back.
Instead, the non-flying Chichi, rode Kakarot piggyback-style. In bikini armor. Kakarot could basically feel everything.
He almost fell out of the sky every single time she started to wiggle.
Which only made her hold onto him tighter, making the problem infinitely worse. It was an incredibly effective torture… or mental training technique?
Kakarot chose to think of it as a mental training technique. That made it so much easier. In that moment, he thanked Kami that his Saiyan nature made understanding Roshi's level of perversion nearly impossible. His attraction to the opposite sex existed in direct relation to their strength.
Unfortunately, Kakarot had never met a woman as attractive to him as Chichi was. His defenses were awful. His mind couldn't help but wander, making it difficult to control his flight.
But, eventually, he made it back to Bulma and the Ox King, blushing Chichi in tow.
…
Bulma looked on as Kakarot stood atop a crumbling wall, posed to concentrate his energy. The young Chichi in bikini armor beside her watched the boy with stars in her eyes.
Meanwhile, Bulma was more curious about energy readings.
"Kaaaaaaaa…."
Discreetly pressing the button on her watch, Bulma looked curiously at the readout. This wasn't the first time she'd scanned Kakarot for his power level, but she still found herself surprised, every single time she did.
According to what the Saiyans called the 'Universal Power Level Assessment Scale', the average adult male had a power level of five. Children were around half that.
Capsule Corp's newest, highly-trained security team, averaged around 25-35, and they were the strongest people you could find on the streets.
Bulma had always figured that humans and the Celatian village's inhabitants simply existed on different scales. But ever since she'd met Kakarot, that had seemed to change, in Bulma's eyes. It was like the boy just attracted an entirely different world of people.
The Ox King's power level? Over a hundred. Chichi's fluttered around twenty to twenty-five or so, even at her young age.
And then there was Kakarot himself. His power generally had three settings.
His normal power level, a steady 1250 or so. From what Bulma understood, this wasn't exactly his resting power level, but his 'daily' power level, his high level of control naturally holding some of it back from being detected at all times.
Then, when he slept, it dropped a bit, fluctuating between 1000 and 1250 or so in time with his breathing.
And finally, Kakarot's 'real' power level. It only appeared for a few moments when he felt like a challenge and got that feral grin on his face. Around 1,750. After appearing, it'd usually go down massively, to something near his opponent's.
But now, Kakarot was concentrating his energy into the form of an orb of some sort.
In other words, it was probably a ki wave. A way of condensing chi power and shooting it out. Bulma had gone over thousands of different variations of ki waves, computer simulations, with Zeck, trying to figure out how to create a more effective one.
This one seemed to condense ki into a ball outside the body, then continually compress it. Incredibly effective for immediate power and penetration, but requiring high levels of control. A powerful variation, as far as combat effectiveness went… but to put out a fire? Bulma wasn't so sure that it was the right choice. Too dense. One wrong move, and the castle would simply vanish from existence.
"Meeeeee…."
The display on Bulma's energy reading watch blinked into existence, and Bulma's mouth dropped open with shock.
"Haaaaaa….." Bulma picked up the nearest rock and chucked it at the back of Kakarot's head.
It destroyed his concentration, knocking him off of the top of the crumbling wall.
"Hey!" Chichi and the Ox King both exclaimed, looking at Bulma in surprise.
"What'd you do that for?!" Kakarot jumped up indignantly, rubbing the back of his head in pain.
""YOU IDIOT! DO YOU WANT TO BLOW UP THE WHOLE CONTINENT?!" Bulma shouted, walking over to the boy and whacking him over the head once more with a nearby stick for good measure.
The power level display on Bulma's watch slowly faded from view as she hit the protesting boy.
The readout: 21,342.
A concentrated blast worth around 500 was enough to raze cities. Enough to destroy this entire mountain… or destroy the moon, with a well-aimed shot.
1,000 was enough to sink islands large enough to show up on world maps. A concentrated blast like that would create a crater so large that it'd be nearly impossible to see both sides unless you were looking from very high up.
10,000? Enough to visibly affect the planet's overall mass. A concentrated shot with 10,000 would be enough to pierce the core of an Earth-sized planet.
In other words, the Kamehameha that Kakarot was about to unleash wouldn't have just destroyed Frypan Mountain.
It would've turned it into a massive trench that would've stretched for at least a dozen kilometers, probably more.
"...Oh, really? Sorry, guys!" Kakarot rubbed his neck embarrassedly, when Bulma explained that to the pale-faced Ox King. "Let me try again. I'll use something different, this time. Everything's going to be just fine."
And the young Saiyan ended up being completely right.
"RRRRRRRROOOAAAARRRRR!!!!!!"
This time lowering his power level to a respectable six hundred or thereabout, Kakarot simply roared for all he was worth.
Using a move that he'd originally created to help him mimic flight, during his battle with Zeck. Kakarot utilized his own throat to create a massive shockwave that rolled over the entire mountain like a hundred thunderclaps, all going off at once.
Chichi and Bulma covered their ears, while the Ox King just stood there, marveling at the incredible way the boy controlled such primal strength with such ease. Unlike the girls, he could tell instantly that all of the power had been properly concentrated, and their ears were not in danger.
Luckily, the flaming peak was devoid of any other life.
When the shockwave finally abated, there wasn't a single sign of flames anywhere on the mountain.
At least for now, they'd been quenched.
Too bad it was only temporary. Not that anybody on the premises knew that.