"So, you want to learn?"
"No, no. Absolutely not. I can't handle that kind of atmosphere." Bulma waved both hands in surrender, then looked at Aeris curiously. "By the way, are there a lot of aliens like you?"
"No," Aeris said smoothly. "I'm nowhere near that strong. If I were, I wouldn't have had to run all the way to Earth." Then she grabbed Bulma's hands, put on her most pitiful expression, and leaned in. "Bulma... can you keep this secret for me? Please? Pretty please?"
Bulma nearly died on the spot.
This was bullshit.
Complete bullshit.
How was anyone supposed to stay rational when a face that pretty was begging like that?
That was cheating.
Straight-up criminal levels of cheating.
The moment Aeris saw Bulma fold, she knew she'd gotten away with it.
Good.
She was new to this planet, knew basically nobody, and had no idea how most things worked here yet. Having someone on her side would make life a hell of a lot easier. Besides, from the way Bulma talked, Earth definitely had strong fighters. Very strong ones, apparently.
That made Aeris a little excited.
Only real fights against powerful opponents could keep pushing her forward.
Still, she couldn't show that yet. Better to observe first.
The last thing she wanted was to charge in blind and get her ass kicked so badly she had to run away holding her head again.
That would be humiliating.
Even for someone with no shame.
"Oh, right, Bulma... what year is it?"
"Age 757. Why?"
"It's nothing..." Aeris lowered her eyes and let some sadness creep into her voice. "You know... after my home was destroyed, I wandered around for a long time. I don't even know how long. I just wanted to ask..."
Bulma immediately pulled her into a hug.
There was no way she was going to stand by and watch a beautiful girl look sad.
What Bulma did not notice was the tiny smug little smile on Aeris's face while she was buried in her arms.
Now, some of you may be wondering: weren't Saiyans supposed to have tails? Wouldn't Bulma notice?
Relax.
At this point, she wouldn't.
Aeris had her tail wrapped around her waist and hidden under decorative layers. Even without that, she never let it show outside her clothes. She had heard far too much about the Saiyans' reputation across the universe, and they had plenty of enemies. She had no intention of getting dragged into trouble for no reason.
As for the whole turning-into-a-giant-ape-under-the-full-moon thing, Anaga had already taught her how to control that when she was little. All she had to do was alter her own magnetic field fluctuations and force the transformation to shut down before it started.
And even if she did transform, she wouldn't lose her mind anyway.
So really, no problem.
"Aeris, if you don't have anywhere to go, you can stay at my house," Bulma offered. "It's huge, so space isn't an issue."
Aeris hesitated.
"Wouldn't that be too much? I'd be imposing."
That part was actually sincere.
She had absolutely tricked, coaxed, and sweet-talked Bulma through half this conversation already.
"It's fine," Bulma said. "And my house has all kinds of fun stuff and cool tech. You really don't want to come?"
"Well..." Aeris gave in with a small nod. "All right."
The second Aeris agreed, Bulma grabbed her and started giving her a tour.
In the end, what captured Aeris more than anything else was the library.
The moment Bulma saw that look in her eyes, she told Aeris to wander freely for a while. Meanwhile, Bulma went off to prepare a room for her, along with some snacks and dessert.
Aeris walked over to one of the shelves, took down a book, and sat nearby to read.
It might have been a little rude to start reading so seriously in someone else's house, but she was hooked almost immediately.
When Bulma came back, she stopped in the doorway and stared.
At that moment, a beam of light happened to fall across Aeris just right, wrapping her in a soft glow while she sat there reading in silence.
Yeah.
Bulma got hit hard.
Still, much as she hated to interrupt, she eventually led Aeris to the room she had prepared.
"Thank you, Bulma."
"Mm."
After that, they chatted a little more before each going off to do their own thing.
The next morning, when Bulma woke up, she found Aeris already in the middle of her morning training.
"Morning..." Bulma mumbled, rubbing her eyes.
Aeris glanced over. "Want to join me?"
Bulma rejected that offer so fast it was almost impressive.
And just like that, Aeris ended up living at Bulma's house for three months.
Three months later...
"Hey, Aeris, what's wrong? Why do you look so miserable?"
Bulma stared at Aeris, who was curled up on the couch in an unusually gloomy little ball.
That was weird.
Normally this girl was carefree, shameless, loud, and impossible to keep down.
Seeing her like this felt deeply unnatural.
Aeris instantly turned and buried herself in Bulma's arms, looking pitiful beyond belief.
"Bulmaaa..." she whimpered. "I got fired today... That was my first job... my very first job..."
Who could have guessed that the same girl who'd once considered conquering Earth would end up like this?
Life really did come at you sideways.
Bulma patted her gently.
"There, there. Don't cry. You're amazing, Aeris. Losing you is your boss's loss, not yours. Be good and I'll make you something nice to eat."
"I want vanilla pudding... pineapple buns... and milk..." Aeris mumbled tearfully into her chest.
"Okay, okay. I'll get them."
The second Bulma left, Aeris's expression changed completely.
Her face darkened.
Veins nearly popped at her temple as she ground out the words through clenched teeth.
"You just wait... if I don't tear your shitty company apart tonight, then I'm not a Saiyan."
Under Bulma's careful feeding and emotional support, Aeris finally returned to normal.
Bulma let out a sigh.
"Seriously... why does it always feel like I'm the older one here? You're older than me by a year."
Aeris spoke through a mouthful of food.
"Hmph. Most people would kill for the chance to take care of me. You should be honored."
"Right. Of course." Bulma rolled her eyes. "Anyway, I fixed your thing. Want to see?"
She pulled out a device and handed it over.
It was the scouter.
The one Aeris had accidentally broken when she first arrived on Earth.
Aeris perked up immediately and snatched it from her hands, studying it closely.
Bulma watched with curiosity.
"What does it even do? It looks pretty advanced. Fixing it took me a lot more effort than I expected."
"It's a scouter," Aeris said. "It measures battle power."
She did not bother mentioning that it only measured surface-level battle power and was mostly useless against anyone who knew how to suppress their ki.
"That's incredible!" Bulma lit up. "Then check mine. You've been dragging me into training every day for the past three months, so I want to know how much stronger I've gotten."
"All right."
Aeris raised the scouter and scanned her.
Beep. Beep. Beep.
30
"Only 30?" Bulma looked genuinely disappointed.
She had clearly been hoping for something more dramatic.
Aeris leaned against her and explained patiently, "You're underestimating yourself. Right now you're already way stronger than normal people. Like, ridiculously stronger."
And she wasn't lying.
When Aeris first met Bulma, her battle power had been lower than the dinosaur Aeris had eaten that same day.
Now?
Now Bulma could probably chop that dinosaur into neat little slices without too much trouble.
"Really?" Bulma pouted. "Then why am I still so terrible at the flying technique you've been trying to teach me?"
That part really bothered her.
She wanted to fly through the sky like her friends did, not just float awkwardly for a couple seconds and then wobble like a drunk balloon.
"It's fine," Aeris said. "You'll get there. Take it slow."
This time, she was the one doing the comforting.
After all, different people were good at different things. Aeris had only taught Bulma this much so she'd at least have some ability to protect herself. She had never expected Bulma to become some kind of powerhouse.
"Then let me see your battle power," Bulma said.
Aeris paused.
"I'd rather not."
"Come on."
"No."
"Let me see."
"No."
"Be good. Let me see."
"No, Bulma."
"Come on, hurry up."
Before Aeris could stop her, Bulma grabbed the scouter and copied the same操作 she had just seen.
Then she pointed it at Aeris.
Beep. Beep. Beep.
303
Bulma froze.
"So strong..."
If 30 meant she could already crush most normal people, then 303 was terrifying. In her mind, a number like that probably meant someone could take over the whole world if they felt like it.
Then she suddenly thought of Son Goku.
Now she really wanted to compare them.
"Aeris, I want to take you to meet a friend of mine. He might be about as strong as you."
That got Aeris interested.
Very interested.
Her actual battle power was somewhere around eighty million by now. Adjusting to life on Earth had done wonders for her state of mind, and that had pushed her strength up even further. So if Bulma said this friend might be as strong as her...
Then obviously that meant he had to be somewhere around the same level, right?
Naturally, Aeris chose to ignore several very important little details in that line of reasoning.
Bulma continued happily, "Goku might even be a bit stronger than your 303, since I haven't actually seen you fight."
Aeris's interest died instantly.
Gone.
Dead.
Buried.
What the hell.
Here she was getting excited for nothing.
Bulma didn't notice the tiny disappointed look on her face and kept talking to herself for a while before suddenly perking up again.
"Oh! We should go visit Goku's place!"
Aeris folded her arms.
"We can go when you've mastered flying."
Bulma's face fell. "What? No, come on..."
She never got to finish.
Aeris had already grabbed her and dragged her toward the training room.
Three days later...
"Aeris... I can't do this anymore..."
"No," Aeris said calmly. "I think you can."
"I seriously can't... Aeris... this is getting weird... and I'm gonna break..."
"Just keep going a little longer. You're almost there."
"YAAAHHHHH!"
In the end, Bulma finally collapsed from exhaustion.
Aeris sighed, scooped up the sweaty, disheveled Bulma, and carried her off to rest.
"Seriously... that's all it took?" she muttered. "And here I thought we were making progress."
Then she went back to put away the training equipment.
And no, stop it.
Don't start thinking weird thoughts.
If you did, go stand in the corner and reflect on your life.
Thanks to Aeris's demonic training program, Bulma finally managed to learn how to fly.
Because honestly, if she hadn't learned it soon, she didn't want to imagine what kind of insane stunt Aeris would've tried next.
And if there was anything even scarier than that, it was the fact that during those same three short days, Aeris got fired again.
Since Bulma was unconscious, Aeris stopped bothering with her usual fake restraint and went to the pool for a proper bath.
While she was at it, she gave her poor tail some much-needed care too.
"You've had a rough day, Tail," she murmured. "Come on. Big sister's going to treat you right tonight."
Crimson King skips ahead.
By the time that was over, Aeris was lying against the edge of the pool with flushed cheeks.
"Yep... still like this..."
"No matter how much I train, my tail's still insanely sensitive... But why does it only react like that when I touch it myself? Ugh, whatever. Not worth thinking about."
She stood up.
Got dressed.
And walked out of the pool area like nothing had happened.
As she passed Bulma's room, she suddenly remembered something.
Then she pushed the door open and stepped inside.
Aeris placed her left hand gently on Bulma's forehead.
A soft white glow spread from her palm.
A few minutes later, she withdrew her hand and left the room.
"Tch... I really have gotten stupid since coming to Earth. Why the hell did I tell her about the scouter? Good thing memory changes are possible. Otherwise I'd be dealing with a whole pile of annoying problems later."
She clicked her tongue and kept walking.
"Still... this kind of change only works for a while. But whatever. It's enough. At least for now..."
She muttered to herself the whole way back to her room.
What Aeris wanted now was a quiet life.
Not trouble.
That said, she wasn't afraid of trouble either.
If somebody insisted on pushing her too far, then they'd better pray they could kill her.
Because if they couldn't, the one dying would definitely be them.
That night...
Bulma woke up.
"Ow... Aeris really is strict..." She sat up and scratched her head. "But... why do I feel like I forgot something? And why was I suddenly so desperate to learn flying?"
She frowned, annoyed at herself.
Still, no matter how much she thought about it, nothing came back.
In the end, she gave up.
Whatever.
If she couldn't remember, then she couldn't remember.
No point stressing over it.
Besides, being stronger was a good thing, wasn't it?
And more importantly, she really wanted to test how long she could stay airborne now.
Flying yourself was totally different from using a vehicle.
The second that thought hit her, she started trying it out.
And maybe, just maybe, the thing she'd forgotten had something to do with flying. Otherwise why would Aeris have suddenly gotten so serious?
So Bulma spent the next stretch of time zooming around her own house like a kid who had just gotten the coolest toy in the world.
Since she still wasn't very skilled, she inevitably bumped into things here and there.
During all that, her mother fussed over her endlessly.
From beside the bed, Aeris watched Bulma excitedly show off to her mother, laughing while the older woman giggled right along with her.
Aeris smiled faintly.
"This is nice too," she murmured. "Still, I should probably go find something to do. I can't just keep depending on Bulma forever. That's how people get lazy."
So she left the house and drove toward the market district.
If you wanted a job, that was where you went.
Aeris drove with music playing, looking absurdly carefree.
If only she didn't keep getting fired, it would've been perfect.
This time, out in the crowd, Aeris sensed a ki far stronger than anyone else nearby.
Curious, she slowed the car and looked toward the source.
She saw a man in work clothes walking down the street with a woman and a child.
He looked sturdy enough.
At least until you noticed the mountain of stuff he was carrying.
Then Aeris's eyes shifted to the little boy.
And froze.
The kid had a tail.
Just like her.
Aeris narrowed her eyes.
"So there are Saiyan descendants on this planet too... Then..."
Her gaze slid back to the man.
"Then that guy should be a Saiyan too. But why doesn't he have a tail? Was it removed? Because of the problems tails cause?"
Then she glanced at the woman.
"What about his wife? Is she one too? No... impossible. No Saiyan would be that weak. Even at the low end, she'd still be closer to the man. So she's human?"
Aeris kept studying the Son family.
Unfortunately, her stare was a little too intense.
They noticed.
All three of them turned to look at her.
And at that moment, Son Goku looked straight at Aeris.
Even though her ki was tightly restrained, his martial artist's instincts kicked in immediately.
This woman was strong.
Very strong.
Possibly as strong as him.
Maybe even stronger.
Aeris blinked, then smoothly switched to a harmless smile.
"Ah, sorry," she said. "Your little boy is just so cute that I guess I stared a bit too long."