Chi-Chi looked at Aeris and froze.
"So... pretty..."
"Thank you. You're beautiful too," Aeris said with a warm smile. "These must be your husband and son. Your husband looks very energetic, and your little boy is absolutely adorable."
Chi-Chi instantly covered her face with both hands, embarrassed.
"Beautiful and all that..."
At that moment, Goku looked at Aeris and said, "You're a martial artist, aren't you? I can't sense your ki, but I can tell you're really strong."
Aeris blinked, then laughed softly.
"My, what sharp instincts. Oh, right, I forgot to introduce myself. My name is Aeris. And if we're using your definition... then yes, I guess I'm a martial artist too."
"Just like I thought..." Goku's eyes lit up right away.
The moment he realized she was a fighter too, he looked like he wanted to throw down on the spot. Unfortunately, he was still out shopping with Chi-Chi and Gohan, so actually fighting her right now was off the table. That left him more than a little disappointed.
Chi-Chi noticed how naturally those two had slipped into conversation and felt a tiny bit annoyed.
"Goku, that's rude," she cut in immediately. "Miss Aeris introduced herself properly. Acting like that is impolite."
Then she turned back to Aeris and introduced her family with much better manners.
"Hello, Miss Aeris. My name is Chi-Chi. You can call me Chi-Chi. This is my husband, Son Goku, and this is my son, Son Gohan."
Goku looked a little dazed from that whole sequence, but he didn't say anything.
"Just call me Aeris. Formal titles feel kind of weird," Aeris said with an easy smile. "So, Chi-Chi, where are you all headed? You've got a lot of stuff with you, so I'm guessing you don't live around here."
Chi-Chi let out a quiet sigh.
"We're waiting for a ride."
"A ride? You didn't drive here?" Aeris asked, confused.
She had no idea just how broke Goku's family actually was.
Chi-Chi's expression turned awkward immediately. She started hesitating, clearly unsure how to answer.
After all, most of the family's expenses depended on her. Goku was a total fight addict, and there was no way he was ever going to settle down and work a normal job like everybody else.
It wasn't that Chi-Chi hated him training.
But sometimes, when she saw other husbands out there making money, taking care of their families, driving nice new cars... yeah, she got jealous.
At this point, all her hopes were pinned on Gohan.
Please, dear God, don't let the boy turn out exactly like his father.
Seeing Chi-Chi's embarrassment, Aeris stepped in to save her the trouble.
"Well, wherever you're going, I can give you a ride. I already held you up long enough."
Chi-Chi looked a little embarrassed, but she didn't refuse. It was a kind offer, and she accepted it.
Aeris put away the car she was currently using by sealing it into a capsule, then switched to an off-road vehicle instead. Once she loaded all their things into it, everyone got in.
"So where do you live?"
"Mount Paozu..." Chi-Chi answered, blushing a little.
Aeris didn't say anything rude. She just kept driving with a small smile.
It wasn't like she was in any position to look down on anybody.
She was basically freeloading at Bulma's place herself.
Soft life, baby.
"You must be about a year old, right?" Aeris asked Gohan.
"No," Chi-Chi replied. "He's only a little over six months old."
Aeris went quiet.
...What kind of kid looked one or two years old at six months?
Then again, Saiyan blood.
Okay, that explained it.
She had blown up a planet not long after birth herself, so honestly, who was she to judge?
A few hours later...
Aeris swore this was the longest she had ever driven in her life.
She was just about ready to swear on Anaga's life again, but then stopped herself.
No, enough was enough.
She'd already used that poor man's life in way too many imaginary oaths. At this rate, he probably owed the afterlife a terrifying number of deaths already.
When they finally arrived, Aeris stared at the tiny place the whole family lived in and fell into silence.
Even the room Bulma had given her was bigger than this.
Before she could think too much about it, Goku had already hauled everything inside at top speed. Then he jumped straight back out the window and landed right in front of Aeris.
"Aeris, let's fight," he said, looking way too excited.
"Goku!" Chi-Chi snapped. "How can you say that? Aeris is our guest. You can't just..."
Before she could finish, Aeris raised a hand with a smile.
"It's fine, Chi-Chi. Honestly, I think that kind of personality suits a martial artist."
She took off her coat, tossed it onto the car, then pulled out two thick stacks of yen and a string of pearls from her pocket and handed them to Chi-Chi.
"Please don't refuse right away. In a certain sense, Goku and I are connected. What kind of connection, though... well, let me keep that as a surprise for now."
She didn't give Chi-Chi a chance to reject it.
The moment she finished speaking, Aeris shot into the sky and flew off.
Chi-Chi stood there in a daze.
Connected to Goku?
What was that supposed to mean?
Not that kind of connection, obviously.
She didn't look like a romantic rival.
So what, then?
Some kind of relative?
That didn't make sense either. Chi-Chi knew Goku's background pretty well.
In the end, she gave up trying to figure it out.
Then she looked down at the money in her hands.
All of it was in ten-thousand-yen bills.
Two full stacks.
Chi-Chi immediately rushed back inside and counted it.
Two million yen.
She almost got dizzy on the spot.
It wasn't that she was greedy.
She was thinking about Gohan. Thinking about the future. Thinking about all the things they needed and how hard things already were.
This kind of money was a huge relief.
Aeris and Goku flew out to the Dragon Ball world's traditional sacred battleground:
A deserted wasteland in the middle of nowhere.
"This should be fine, Mr. Goku," Aeris said as she stopped.
Goku started warming up immediately.
Once he finished, he dropped into a fighting stance and stared at her seriously.
Aeris, meanwhile, didn't move at all.
That made it worse.
The pressure she gave off was enormous. Completely different from Piccolo's.
Goku attacked first with a probing strike, whipping a kick straight at her face.
Aeris caught it with two fingers.
Just two.
"Mr. Goku, I don't think there's much point in opening with little test attacks like that. Let's skip ahead."
Her meaning was obvious.
Use your full strength.
Goku heard her, then jumped back to where he had started.
"All right... then I'm getting serious."
He drew in a breath and powered up.
"HAAAAAAAHHH!"
A violent white aura exploded around him in wave after wave.
Aeris watched with interest.
"Not bad."
"I'm coming! Hah!"
The moment he finished powering up, Goku shot forward like an arrow released from a bow. He launched several ki blasts at the same time to cover his approach.
"Good attack," Aeris said. "But against overwhelming power, it doesn't matter."
She vanished.
Instant Transmission.
The next second, she appeared behind him and slammed a kick into him.
Goku flew into the distance like he'd been hit by a truck.
That kick was not light.
He coughed up blood the moment he hit the ground.
"Cough... damn, you really are strong..." He forced himself upright and grinned anyway. "Then try this."
He bent his knees, lowered his stance, and drew both hands to his side.
"Kame..."
"Hame..."
"Ha...!"
A massive wave of energy roared out from his palms.
"Nice attack," Aeris said. "But the wind-up's too long."
She casually flicked out a ki blast of her own and shoved the Kamehameha right back at him.
Why?
Because eighty million battle power against a few hundred was basically using a nuclear missile to kill a mosquito.
If she hadn't held back, Goku wouldn't still be standing there.
Let's be serious.
Goku watched in shock as his own attack got pushed back at him with crushing force. He gritted his teeth and tried to resist, but it was hopeless.
The difference in power was far too large.
Then the blast exploded right in front of him.
"Cough, cough... ahhh, I lost..." Goku said at last, sprawled out and grinning despite the pain. "But wow... Aeris, you're insanely strong."
Aeris fell silent.
For some reason, ever since meeting Goku, she had started acting weird.
She had openly admitted she could fight.
Driven his family home.
Accepted his challenge.
Something was wrong with this man.
Was he contagious?
In the end, all she could do was sigh.
Whatever.
When trouble came, she'd deal with it then.
"Can you still move?" she asked.
After all, he looked like that because of her. A little concern was only fair.
She helped pull him to his feet.
"For a second there, I thought I was gonna die," Goku admitted, scratching his head. "But man, you're really amazing. I couldn't even last one round."
"Strength like this only comes from clawing your way through life and death over and over," Aeris said, rolling her eyes. "If I weren't strong, I'd have ended up as a corpse in some wasteland a long time ago."
Still, she supported him and flew him back home.
By the time they got back, Chi-Chi had already finished cooking.
"Oh, you're back," she said. "Perfect timing. Dinner's ready. Go wash your hands and come eat."
The second he heard the word dinner, Goku came back to life.
He practically teleported to the table and tried to start eating immediately, only to get hit with one look from Chi-Chi so sharp it sent him retreating to wash his hands like a disciplined child.
Aeris watched their whole routine and found herself strangely envious.
She didn't really know why.
Maybe it was because she had always been alone.
When someone like that saw a home this warm, this lively, this close-knit... envy was only natural.
After washing up, she sat down at the table.
"Thanks for the meal."
She pressed her hands together in front of her chest before starting to eat.
Goku, of course, had no patience for any of that.
The moment he sat down, he started inhaling food like a starving demon reincarnated into human form.
Watching him eat like that actually made Aeris hungrier too.
The food on the table, though, was a little unusual.
Lizard soup. Fried scorpions. Centipedes. Frogs.
The fish was probably the most normal thing there.
Still, none of that bothered Aeris.
She had eaten far weirder things on other planets.
Hell, she had eaten some of the locals on a few of those planets too.
Chi-Chi noticed Aeris eating in small bites and assumed she wasn't used to the food.
"I'm sorry, Aeris," she said apologetically. "This is all we had... maybe it's a little too strange..."
It was one thing if it were family.
But Aeris had just met them.
Serving a guest this kind of meal was... not ideal.
Aeris shook her head.
"It's delicious. Your cooking is wonderful, Chi-Chi. I'm only eating slowly because I want to enjoy it properly. You can't find food like this anywhere else."
She ladled herself a bowl of lizard soup and drank it slowly.
Only then did Chi-Chi relax. Aeris clearly was not forcing herself to eat just to be polite.
Once Chi-Chi finished feeding Gohan, she sat down beside Aeris and started chatting with her.
Aeris watched quietly from the side, then sighed inwardly.
Saiyan genetics really were strange.
When they were little, they grew fast. Then their height basically stalled for a long stretch. After that, around their late teens or early twenties, they shot up all over again.
Only Saiyans could pull off weird shit like that.
Eventually, Chi-Chi could not resist her curiosity anymore.
"Aeris... when you said you had some kind of connection to Goku, what exactly did you mean?"
She had to ask.
If she didn't clear this up, she was absolutely not going to sleep tonight.
"Oh, that?"
Aeris reached for her waist, loosened the sash there, and let her tail show.
"That should make it clearer."
Chi-Chi stared.
"A tail? You have one too?"
Goku finally looked over properly.
Still chewing, he glanced between them, swallowed in a hurry, and rushed over.
"You've got a tail... just like I did when I was little. And like Gohan... You... you're..."
"In a certain sense, yes. We're from the same race," Aeris said, lightly brushing her tail with one hand. "And there's a good chance we may be the only two left. Maybe there are others somewhere. But so far, you're the only one I've found."
"What do you mean?"
"I mean exactly what it sounds like. Our race was wiped out. I survived because I was abandoned as a child and happened to avoid the disaster. As for you, I have no idea how you made it."
She said it in a flat, matter-of-fact tone.
Chi-Chi's face immediately filled with worry as she looked at both of them.
For anyone, that would be hard to hear.
Aeris noticed and sighed.
"Come on, Chi-Chi, don't make that face. Our race didn't exactly have a good reputation. Honestly, with the things Saiyans did, dying once or twice would hardly have been enough to pay for it."
Her tone had turned a little bitter.
The Saiyans really were infamous.
You could easily call them irredeemable.
Chi-Chi looked completely lost.
She clearly did not understand, but she was definitely shocked.
Aeris had no intention of explaining the whole history.
As long as they understood one thing, that she meant them no harm, that was enough.
The rest?
She couldn't be bothered.
Besides, for some reason, she really had been acting strange all day.
And modifying their memories directly was not an option. That technique had strict conditions. It was not something she could just throw around whenever she felt like it.
So they let the subject drop and moved on to other things.
No point dwelling on something so unpleasant.
That night, Aeris lay out on the grass and looked up at the stars.
A moment later, Goku dropped down out of nowhere.
"Aeris, teach me how to train."
"Huh?"
That came so far out of nowhere that Aeris genuinely stared at him in confusion.