Dragon Ball/Z/GT Fan Fiction ❯ The Prince and the Sorceress ❯ Training ( Chapter 19 )

Disclaimer: I don't own Dragonball Z.

Chapter 18

Bulma staggered at a slow pace behind the floating Vegeta.

"It's not fair." She panted. She was almost at the top of the mountain, her legs wobbling. "You can fly."

"It takes just as much effort as running."

"Liar!" Bulma gasped. Her legs were now so numb she couldn't feel them anymore.

Vegeta smirked at her effort. "The more you exercise the more you can build up your ki." Vegeta explained.

"But what if I drop dead?" Bulma moaned.

"We'll just wish you back with the Dragonballs." Vegeta said. "In another year."

"I hate you!" Bulma spat as she continued the slow climb. She had stopped running a mile back. She was now at a kind of slow walking stumble. She was almost there she could make it. Bulma could see the goal she just had to keep going.

'I'll show that ass.' She thought as she gritted her teeth walking on. Eventually Bulma made it to her goal and she dropped down on her knees.

"There made it...." She gasped.

"Hmmm...so you're not dead?" Vegeta chuckled.

"No thanks to you."

"Now where here you have to do the kata I showed you this morning." Vegeta said smirking. "Without any help from me, I want to see it perfect."

"WHAT?"

"So you've lost your hearing as well as your powers."

Bulma bared her teeth and stood up. Her legs shook with the strain and she began placing her feet. She managed to remember a few of the first moves but she quickly ended up just waving her arms around.

Vegeta deeply chuckled at her. "Pathetic..."

"I don't care this is....stupid!" Bulma panted. She landed back on her knees exhausted. She had given everything she had to prove to Vegeta that she could do what he asked.

"Then lets go home." Vegeta said. "I expect the same level from you tomorrow plus a lot more."

"What more training?" Bulma gasped.

"Just now I'm going to take you back home." Vegeta picked her up. "I have my own training to do and I always do it alone."

"This is just impossible…" Bulma sobbed.

"I'm actually being soft on you." Vegeta growled.

They landed back on Capsule Corps and Bulma was put down on the ground. Her legs still weak and unable to support herself she sat where she'd landed.

"Now meditate." Vegeta ordered. "Sort out your ki and regain your strength. I have my own training to do. I don't have time to baby-sit you."

"I don't need babysat." Bulma grumbled but Vegeta was all ready flying away. Bulma watched him go feeling her own self-pity rise again. There was once a time she would be able to heal herself through such meditations or at least focus away the pain.

'No I can't think like that.' Bulma scolded herself. 'I have to get myself back to my level of magic. I can't give up.' She crossed her stiff legs and began her ritual salute to the elements. It originally made her levitate in the air. But today she stayed firmly attached to the ground. She turned her senses inward and was astounded at what she saw.

'My energy has changed.' She thought. 'It's so low but there's something new added. Is this Vegeta's ki?'

She tried to separate the new force within her but it stayed mixed with her own life force. It explained what her tutor Baba had meant when she had said their ki's were bonded. She focused on the alien energy again. The more she trued to isolate it the more it blurred with her own. Though she eventually noticed the familiar feeling it produced. It was Vegeta's ki.

'So this is what kept me alive.' Bulma thought. 'I wonder if it shall disappear when I'm back to my full strength?' She doubted it; the ki was very much a part of her now. As Baba had said they were bonded.

She remembered how Vegeta's face had looked when the old witch had said it. He had turned pale and looked slightly concerned. Bulma made a mental note to ask her favourite grumpy prince when he got back.

Vegeta had found the perfect place to train. It was quiet and peaceful and there wasn't a life form in miles around. It was the side of the now silent volcano. Everything had been destroyed by the hot molten rock. The air was still thick with the poisonous gas making breathing hard. The dried up streams of lava had crusted over but where still red-hot.

The savage landscape tested Vegeta's endurance just as he licked it. Which was in a small way what he had tried to do with Bulma but on a much lower level. He hoped she'd pick up the pace tomorrow, she was far too slow and weak. It was a joke that he was training her.

Vegeta growled and reminded himself why he was doing it. She needed to be strong again so she could make his gravity chamber. One that would push his limits further, helping him get to his true goal, super Saiyan.

"Hey! There you are!" Someone shouted.

Vegeta turned to see his rival flying towards him.

"Wow, I hardly recognised your ki!" Goku said amazed. "It really is different now!"

"That's none of your business Kakarrot!" Vegeta hissed.

"Is Bulma okay?" Goku asked seeming slightly shifty. "I mean she hasn't gotten bigger or anything?"

"No she's the same size as you last saw her." Vegeta snapped. "She's at her mothers."

"So what's wrong with your ki's?"

"I told you it's none of your business!"

"Gee Vegeta, don't get your panties in a bunch!" Goku said scratching his head. "I didn't know Bulma had a mom."

"Will you just go away." Vegeta growled. "I'm not in the mood for your idiocy."

"Just being friendly." Goku huffed. "I was only really looking for any survivors of the volcano but I'm glad you're both okay I was getting worried for a moment."

Before Vegeta could snap, 'Why would you be worried?', Goku had teleported away. Vegeta roared loudly, his temper getting irritated by the Earth Saiyan. It reminded him further of what he had still to achieve.

He pressed on in the blazing heat, determined to try even harder to reach his goal.

Back at Capsule Corps. Bulma was deep into her meditation. She was basically reacquainting herself with her life force. It had taken the majority of her time to roughly realign her ki. It would be out of synch by tomorrow but it was something she needed to work on to get sorted. She was partially glad of Vegeta's run in the morning. It had left her with her core energy. The rest being burned off was slowly regenerating.

Bulma could feel the ground underneath, the sky, the rustle of the leaves. The world was in harmony and she would be again.

"Coo-ee!"

Bulma was jerked awake by the call.

"I thought I'd come and ask if you wanted to go shopping?" Her mother asked.

"No." Bulma spat. "I'm busy."

"Sitting on your butt is more like it." Mrs. Briefs giggled. "I never got to save much of your clothes from the palace, sop we'll need to buy new ones. Perhaps a trip to the mall will help stop you feeling so down."

"I was meditating." Bulma hissed.

"If you don't come I shall pick out your clothes for you."

This was the last blackmail of a mother; it always worked.

"Okay I'll go." Bulma agreed standing up. "But can I first get a shower?"

"I'll be waiting in the car in 30 minutes!"

Bulma had in her youth always avoided large towns and cities. Mainly for the fact her parents could be looking for her. Small villages she could cope with but the full-scale noise and pollution of a city was something else. As they drove in Bulma watched from the window in silent confusion.

"It's so crowded." Bulma said as the passed all the domed buildings.

"I think it's wonderful." Mrs. Briefs simpered. "So many people all going about their duties."

Her daughter didn't comment. Instead she began mentally preparing herself for the horrors that awaited her. She regretted going on the trip, but Bulma didn't want to think what her mother would buy for her. She remembered the times when her mother was known as Mrs. Blunt. She had always given her clothes that she had hated.

"Cheer up dear." Her mother said. "I remember a time when you loved going shopping."

"That was toy shopping." Bulma huffed. "I doubt they have any toys that interest me now."

"There's an over 18 shop on the top level."

"MOM!" Bulma screamed completely embarrassed. "I meant a proper magic shop! With equipment I could use for MAGIC!"

Mrs. Briefs giggled at her daughter. "You're so easy to tease!"

Bulma crossed her arms and tried to ignore the bubbly blonde. They had reached the Mall and where heading for the parking area. The new and terrifying world of Shopping lay before Bulma.

Author's note: So Bulma's scared of shopping? Has the world gone mad? No, it's only that Bulma away from her rich family hasn't had the time or money to go shopping.

Chibi Bulma: "It's horrible!"

Mz D: "What is?"

Chibi Bulma: "To be scared of the Mall!"

Chibi Vegeta: "I don't like the Mall it seems sane to me not to go there. I mean there's all those old people and kids just hanging around!"

Mz D: "Ah well Bulma has been brought up as a country girl."

Chibi Bulma: "The poor deprived soul!" Starts crying

Mz D: "Yeah poor deprived Bulma and poor deprived readers who went for ages without me updating!"

Chibi Vegeta: "What happened?"

Mz D: "I had to put the story on back burner because of my many computer troubles and college finals."

Chibi Vegeta: "Lame excuse."

Mz D: "Hmm so what's that burning smell?"

Chibi Bulma: "Oh no Veggie! You've been put on back burner too! You're on fire!"

Chibi Vegeta: "AHHHH!" runs around with his butt on fire.

Mz D: "Oh yes I'm back!" evil cackle "Next chapter Vegeta continues training in the volcanic mountain and Bulma goes shopping and perhaps they get one step closer to being together."