After the somewhat predictable movie ended, both girls went outside and realized it was getting dark. The newly reconstructed moon illuminated the sky alongside the city lights.
"Do you want to go see the fireworks?" Instead of being separated, they held hands and strolled down the busy avenue. Lazuli decided to propose to Bulma.
Since the blue-haired girl had dared to take such an important step as kissing Lazuli on the cheek, the two had begun to notice that something different was growing between them, small but constant.
Aware of this closeness, Lazuli remembered that there was a festival in their city where fireworks were shot into the sea. This was undoubtedly a common scenario in many stories, but Lazuli thought that if it was used so much, there was a reason for it.
'I hope it's as special as they say,' Lazuli thought, gently squeezing Bulma's hand.
"It's okay. I've been to several similar festivals with my relatives," Bulma replied, agreeing with Lazuli.
It was the perfect time to have fun! However, certain people were not willing to give them a moment of privacy. Several hundred meters away, a group of people dressed in soldier uniforms watched the two women walking in the distance.
There would be nothing strange about this, except their equipment was visibly sophisticated, their expressions were serious, and their clothing had a distinctive logo on it: two white Rs on a red background.
"We have the target in our sights. There's an unrelated person next to her. We're identifying who it is, but she looks familiar," said one of the soldiers who was observing the girls with binoculars.
"That's Bulma Briefs! It wouldn't be wise to kill her. Her father owns Capsule Corp. However, if we can kidnap her, we could get a good ransom." Another soldier working on a computer found some basic information about Bulma.
He put her picture into an internet search engine and quickly got results. His excitement at the prospect of winning millions of Zeni, though, made him forget that the girl had participated in the 21st Martial Arts Tournament, which is why she seemed so familiar to everyone.
The prospect of capturing a "big shot" while on a mission to eliminate a key target flooded these soldiers' minds, but not their commander's. The young, blonde-haired man glared disdainfully at his foolish men.
'These uneducated bastards only think about money. There's more and more trash in our army,' the man complained mentally. But he kept silent. This was no time to impose discipline.
For General Blue, fools only learned through bad results. He knew who Bulma was; after all, he had watched the tournament several months ago and was even a user of the two forums she had created.
Did he want to capture her? No, how could he be so stupid? He was a standard psychic. He attended an occult school for young psychics and trained his skills on his own, taking advantage of the army's resources.
He didn't care about the supposed cause because he knew the true purpose of the army's greatest figure: a foolish wish. When he learned of it, he decided the best thing to do was to act alone.
'But I can take this opportunity to solidify my position and train with someone so strong,' Blue mused. He felt a twinge of interest in Bulma, but only to fight. The girl didn't seem attractive to him.
After all, his tastes were different. Although some people in the army made fun of him for this at first, even making up nasty rumors about his sexual orientation, he knows he's only interested in men his age.
That's why he killed everyone who dared call him an "improper friend" of minors. At that time, he was a lower-ranking soldier and could only endure such treatment due to the intolerance of the uneducated savages.
Because of this, he was able to quickly rise to the rank of general. All the soldiers came from isolated villages with no education, so excelling was easy for him. At least his soldiers were more cultured and open-minded due to the education grants he helped introduce.
"Calm down. Those women are warriors. If you look at them too much, they will notice. Control your greedy emotions; they are a beacon to anyone halfway decent," Blue warned. This caused his men to calm down and avert their gaze. However, it was too late; they had already noticed the women.
Bulma had activated her empathic ability and sensed Lazuli's emotions, but she also detected growing greed directed at her from a distance. She concentrated her emotional and Ki perception on the source of these emotions.
He could easily spot a dozen men, especially one who was particularly strong compared to normal humans, and some fighters from the past tournament.
"Looks like someone is targeting us," the girl warned Lazuli. She also used her Ki perception in the direction Bulma pointed, narrowing her eyes with obvious anger.
"Let's go to a secluded place. Who knows what kind of weapons those guys have?" Bulma indicated, taking flight. Instead of letting Lazuli fly by herself, Bulma grabbed her by the waist, and they both flew together.
Blue watched the two women leave. A self-critical smile appeared on his face before he shook his head. Then, his expression became cold and serious. Those guys were acting like fools by watching people fly, which displeased the general.
"Fools! Let's go to the vehicles. Don't let them out of sight," Blue warned, setting off with his men in several jeeps.
In one of the jeeps sat a huge figure with pink hair and black glasses covering his eyes. He looked at Blue, who sat down next to him. With difficulty, he sketched a smile, but it looked unnatural and stiff. The blonde felt a deep shiver.
"Sergeant Metallic! I want you to stay out of the next fight, okay?" General Blue ordered. The sergeant nodded.
"Order accepted. Are you going to exterminate?" asked the big man.
Blue smiled, but shook his head as he started the car.
"No, I just want to fight a little." With those words, he drove toward Bulma and Lazuli, followed by the other jeeps.
...
"I think this will be fine here." Bulma drove into a vacant lot on the outskirts of Papaya City. She still held Lazuli's hand, and the two remained close.
"When are you going to let go of me?" the blonde asked softly.
Bulma burst out laughing and turned away. Just as she was about to respond, she turned her head in the distance and saw something glowing heading toward them.
"Starting strong, apparently," Bulma noticed. What was approaching was a decent-quality projectile, at least as far as she could tell from her technical knowledge.
With a simple wave of her hand, a blast of purple ki was fired, but something interesting happened. Instead of crashing completely into the energy attack, the missile spun and fragmented into several smaller versions.
The designers of this weapon were aware of martial artists' offensive capabilities, so they created weapons capable of evading simple ki blasts. However, Bulma's attack was no simple matter.
The ball of energy she threw spun under her control, mimicking the projectile's movements and splitting into smaller balls of energy that attacked the small missiles individually, shattering them.
"That's a good idea for a weapon. I should write that down," Bulma muttered before focusing on the jeeps parked a hundred meters away.
Her enhanced vision allowed her to see two familiar figures: General Blue and an android named Sergeant Metallic. She was particularly interested in the latter because his scanner was a sign of how subtle and powerful Dr. Gero's technology was.
That scanner had detected that Goku was an alien! In a world with fantasy creatures, talking dinosaurs, people with animal traits from a drug, and Earthlings born without noses, this android could tell that Goku was not from Earth.
If she stole the design, Doctor Gero wouldn't care that much, would he? She licked her lips, imagining herself examining the android's body. She was intrigued by its design.
Before Doctor Gero's technological breakthrough, his creations were not as strong as martial artists, at least in the official storyline. However, she knew such things did not affect her universe. Who knows how strong this metallic sergeant was?
General Blue, a mockery in the original series, was very different from what she expected. The blonde glared at Bulma with intensity, and a psychic aura alluding to his nickname surged from his body, causing an intense pressure in the atmosphere.
"Bulma Brief! I am General Blue of the Red Ribbon Army. We're not coming against you. We know how powerful you are!" Blue declared, surprising his soldiers.
When one of them tried to speak, a bluish glare prevented his mouth from opening.
"When I speak, they go silent, you know? Damn pigs!" Blue shouted angrily as he looked back, but then he focused his attention on the blue-haired girl.
"Our target is your friend. She's a traitor," the general explained, but he didn't move from his position. With Bulma here, how could he eliminate Lazuli?
"So, why are you looking at me so provocatively? Do you find me attractive?" Bulma struck a modeling pose, demonstrating her charms and forgetting her promise never to pose again.
"I just want to test my strength. You?" Beautiful, yes, but not my type," Blue said openly, not caring to talk about such things.
His 'radar' told him that the girls in front of him were just like him. Blue's statement made Bulma smile, but she pointed at Lazuli, who had been in a fighting stance since the soldiers introduced themselves.
"First fight, Lazuli. You both have names related to the color blue. Wouldn't a confrontation between you two be interesting?" Bulma's suggestion made the two people stare at each other for a few moments before finding each other's existence distasteful.
They were too similar in appearance! The only difference was their sex, which undoubtedly made them uncomfortable. A yellowish aura then emerged from Lazuli's body, and the psychic energy in Blue began to fluctuate more strongly.
"Looks like we'll have to fight each other, traitor," said Blue, walking slowly toward the blonde, who smiled as she did the same.
"I've been itching to punch the RR bastards, not just their androids and drones," Lazuli replied, clashing their fists together and generating small electric sparks.
"Why did you decide to betray us? We paid for your education! Your growth! My proposal benefited you. You owe me," Blue pointed out, showing that this matter was personal to him.
"I already paid for all that. Why insist on a hopeless path?" Lazuli asked, causing Blue to doubt internally. This manifested itself in his psychic power, which seemed to weaken.
He wanted to say and do the same thing as Lazuli. But he was already too involved with the RR. How could he separate himself from it when he had the grandiloquent rank of general?
Bulma sensed this personal conflict and the mess in his emotions, but she didn't focus on Blue. Instead, she approached the Metallic Sergeant, who looked down to observe the curious young woman who dared to be in his presence.
"Detected, human mutant. Protocol: gene harvesting. Warning: protocol clashes with General Blue's last orders. General Blue's orders are the priority," a stiff, robotic voice came from the android, causing Bulma to narrow her eyes.
She didn't like what she heard. When she didn't like something, she either threw a tantrum or destroyed it.
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AN: Blue is gay, or so they say. Since it doesn't affect the plot, I made him gay. Anyway, Bulma is already a lesbian.xD
However, these issues are not the main focus of the novel. Blue is more than just a gay character, and Bulma is more than just a lesbian. I felt it was important to clarify because average readers just 'read' and don't understand.
By the way, the scenes of Blue being a PDF are just filler; in the manga, there's nothing like that. Dragon Ball, at least in its anime version, tends to have a lot of changes depending on the country. Did you know that in Spain, Goku is vengeful and bloodthirsty? In the Latin version, he is more relaxed.
TheAnPlayer2 gave me a tip: Promote my original stories every 5 chapters. So, read my original novels: Steam and Heart, and Witch's Adventure. You may or may not like them, but give them a chance. c: