'Why do I think she's mad at me?' Raditz wondered as he quickly crossed his arms, shielding his face, and curled up as much as possible, hoping to minimize the damage from the impending attack.
Bulma's purple Ki beams rained down on him. These attacks didn't explode like a typical burst of energy; instead, they pierced through his armor, a piece of equipment that had undergone many upgrades over the years.
The elastic material was incredibly durable, but Raditz knew that his armor was outdated. There were even rumors that a new generation of these suits had gone into production.
His armor should have withstood a great deal of punishment; after all, it had saved his life on many occasions. Yet Bulma had breached this supposedly powerful protection and injured him.
The Ki lines cut through the armor and reached his skin. They collided with the Ki emanating from his body, shattering that layer of energy and piercing his flesh. Finally, they came to a halt in his bones.
'I can't leave him crippled. But I also don't think this attack will work again. It's easy to destroy the structure of those threads once you get the hang of it,' Bulma thought as she channeled energy into her right arm and flew toward her opponent.
Despite the pain, Raditz didn't lose consciousness. He had suffered far worse injuries and was accustomed to staying awake despite his injuries, so he realized that Bulma had controlled her power extremely well. If she had gone all out, he would be in a much worse state.
Then, Bulma's Ki-covered fist struck his arm, causing a massive shockwave that pushed Raditz's body slightly upward. As he recoiled from the impact, his body gradually rose into the air.
Not wanting to give him time to recover, the blue-haired woman vanished in a blur and reappeared in front of him, kicking him again at the same angle. It was clearly a deliberate move on her part.
Raditz's limbs felt light, his body was covered in blood, and his eyes were narrowed. He could see the subtle smile on Bulma's face as she flew toward him at high speed and struck him with a powerful hook to the liver, piercing his armor in the process.
The Saiyan tried to regain control but soon sensed something strange about his energy. As his body rose into the sky, he realized he might have fallen victim to a special combo of attacks.
Bulma had put him in a state of rigidity by drawing on all the fighting and energy techniques she had seen and experienced. After all, she had been learning, understanding, and refining something that suited her needs ever since reaching that mental realization during the legendary tournament.
Furthermore, thanks to her training with the immortal Karin, Bulma understood the structure and use of ki much better. This enabled her to achieve special effects that might appear to be magic to the untrained eye.
In that sense, she was similar to the people of the planet Yadrat in her use of energy. Although Bulma hadn't dealt directly with them, she had some knowledge of them because she had made some special friends over the years.
"Bulma, I've verified what you told me. Those two Saiyans, Vegeta and Nappa, seem to be planning to go to your planet. Calculating the distance and the technology they use, their journey will take between ten and twelve months." Bulma heard this message not through conventional means, but directly in her mind.
"Thank you for that, Kaio-sama. When this fight is over, I'll have Goku tell you some of the jokes he's written lately," she replied, striking Raditz again and finally causing his body to break through a thick layer of clouds.
"Hehehe! Being a god lets you see so much. A Saiyan who knows how to tell jokes is unheard of! Anyway, Bulma, I'm going to take care of some other business. Be careful with Raditz; not all Saiyans are like your younger brother. Always be suspicious of them. Don't trust them so easily," Kaio-Sama advised, before unilaterally cutting off the connection he'd established with Bulma. Knowing his habits, Bulma didn't respond.
'I guess we think alike. I'm still not sure if I should trust Raditz, but he makes a good punching bag,' Bulma thought, smiling sinisterly and scaring the poor Saiyan who was trying to regain control of his body. He was gradually managing to do so as time passed.
"I'll let you try out one of my ideas. Classic ki blasts usually explode, so can these implode?" Although the distance between them was great enough that he shouldn't have been able to hear her, Raditz heard Bulma's mocking voice right in his ear. This caused him to focus his bloodshot eyes on the woman.
"What the hell...?" Raditz barely managed to utter those words before an intense chill ran down his spine, snapping him out of the slight daze he'd fallen into during the final seconds of the confrontation.
The Saiyan saw Bulma pointing her index finger at him, where a small sphere of purple ki was concentrated. It was as small as a speck of dust, but as it spun, it emitted a powerful beam of light, like one of those pulsars often used as reference points in the universe.
"Don't worry. We have the means to heal any wound. You might even benefit a little," Bulma remarked nonchalantly, as if her words alone were enough to calm the nervous warrior.
She fired the carefully prepared attack. The tiny Ki pellet shot through the air at great speed, leaving a thin purple trail marking its path.
The energy attack struck Raditz's body almost instantly, and he was soon enveloped by a sphere of purple energy. The ki tore through his skin, flesh, and bones, spraying blood and body fragments everywhere.
The sphere didn't last long. Instead, it began to collapse inward, shredding Raditz further in the process. Soon, the attack vanished without a sound or an explosion, leaving behind only a battered Saiyan who fell into the sea, completely unconscious.
"Maybe... I went a little overboard, but I had to do it. Otherwise, Lazuli would have been angry with me for not helping her get revenge on you. Who told you to praise my beautiful, perfect appearance so much?" Bulma muttered, knowing Lazuli would be calmer now.
Raditz's comments had been quite honest, but over the line by human standards. On top of that, they had upset Lazuli, who was a little jealous, though she didn't show it.
Bulma knew that if she didn't do something, Lazuli would give her the cold shoulder for quite a while, which she didn't want. She loved hugging her partner and spending time with her! How could she let someone's comments deprive her of that?
"Someone had to pay, and it had to be you. How awful," Bulma said with feigned pity, even 'wiping' away tears she hadn't shed. Then, using her psychic powers, she flew at high speed toward the fallen Raditz and caught him before he hit the sea.
She pulled a small green bean from her pocket and placed it in the Saiyan's mouth. He swallowed it instinctively. Soon, Raditz's body began to undergo drastic changes. His wounds closed, the pallor caused by blood loss disappeared from his face, and his bones cracked as they realigned themselves.
Bulma carried the still-unconscious Raditz to Kame House, but soon realized there was a problem; the man was partially naked. It wasn't anything compromising, but his armor was in shreds and barely clung to the warrior's shred of dignity.
"This is why I learned magic," the blue-haired woman said to herself. With that, she pointed her hand at the Saiyan and fired a beam of energy whose fluctuations were very different from traditional Ki.
The broken armor soon fell away from Raditz's body. At the same time, a blinding glow worthy of the strictest censorship covered his naked body before disappearing. He was now wearing a simple white T-shirt and black pants.
In Bulma's hand were the remains of the armor, piquing her curiosity about how it worked and causing her to raise an eyebrow in intrigue.
She had expected the armor to be hard or heavy, but it was soft, stretchy, and surprisingly light. The latter might be because it was in pieces, but that's a minor detail.
"This can be investigated, along with the ship Raditz brought. Let's take these things as your payment for living on Earth. However, I don't trust you. But we can believe you for now.
If you dare to try anything..." Bulma's blue eyes turned cold, making the unconscious Raditz shudder. He was floating next to her due to her psychic powers. He was probably having a nightmare.
Soon, Bulma arrived at her destination, where the others were waiting. Lazuli was the first to approach her. She glanced at the unconscious Saiyan, then looked at her partner before giving Bulma a gentle smile.
"Even though we could feel the fight from here, it looks like you really gave that savage a beating," Lazuli said calmly. Bulma could sense her pure, effervescent joy.
'You really are a mean person. It's a good thing I sorted things out in time,' Bulma thought. However, she didn't dare mention that in public, so she simply left Raditz in the arena after hugging the blonde. She had already sensed that the Saiyan was about to wake up.
"He's a tough guy. I really had to push myself hard from the start, or the fight would've dragged on. Luckily, I don't have that bad habit," Bulma replied, looking at Goku. Sensing her gaze, he scratched the back of his neck, not understanding what she wanted from him.
"AH!" Raditz woke up abruptly and sat up in the sand, looking around as if he'd just emerged from a terrible nightmare. Cold sweat dripped down his forehead. But he soon realized something: Why didn't his body hurt?
The Saiyan looked at himself and realized he was unharmed, with no visible wounds, broken bones, or burning nerves. He even noticed that he felt unusually light.
As he stood up, he realized his right knee no longer bothered him, just as it had before he was injured during one of his invasion missions. He had apparently recovered from the injury, but subtle aftereffects remained. While they weren't problematic under normal circumstances, they were a disadvantage in critical situations, which is why he avoided staying on the ground while fighting.
As he mentally scanned his body, he realized those subtle discomforts had vanished. The faint phantom pains that accompanied his war scars were gone, making him feel like a healthy, inexperienced child again.
"What the hell happened to me? Did I die in the legendary Other World?" Raditz asked in astonishment. But, upon seeing that he was surrounded by Earthlings, he realized that wasn't the case. The answer must lie with Bulma, the person who wounded and likely treated him.
"That's the result of one of our world's specialties. We have plenty of things like that here. Welcome to Earth, Saiyan," said Bulma, tossing her blue hair arrogantly as she saw Raditz staring at her in amazement.
"Earth..." Raditz murmured, feeling a hand on his shoulder. He turned around and saw his younger brother, who was much shorter than him. Kakarot had a big smile on his face, which made Raditz smile too.
"Welcome, Raditz. I hope we can get along," said Kakarot. Raditz nodded and looked up at the blue sky dotted with peaceful white clouds.
'Earth...'
--------
AN: La Tierra, lo má' duro' del sitema. Woooo.
Now, in English, the Internet says that Raditz is 1.90 meters tall. Goku is 1.70. Woah.