Piccolo gritted his teeth.
"And who the hell are you calling weak, woman?! I'm the Demon King Piccolo, and you dare say I'm weak?"
His face had already gone green with anger, and now it somehow looked even greener. He stormed over to Goku and snapped, "Move. Today I'm going to show this woman exactly how I got my name."
Then Piccolo lifted the sedan chair.
And wow.
"Huh. Didn't expect you to do that well, Mr. Piccolo…" Aeris drawled lazily, leaning against the armrest of the chair as she mocked him.
Piccolo had no energy to waste listening to her teasing now. He was already in too deep and there was no backing out. All he could do was grit his teeth and keep going.
That said, he wasn't doing much better than Goku. He only managed to go about one meter farther.
Clap clap clap.
"As expected of Demon King Piccolo. You actually made it two whole meters. Amazing. Good for you."
That tone, like she was praising a child, made Piccolo grind his teeth even harder. If looks could kill, Aeris would've died hundreds of times already.
Still, he was a little proud of himself. After all, he had gone farther than Goku. Of course, that was only because he'd forced himself to keep moving. Unlike Goku, who moved one meter and immediately put the chair down.
After resting for a while, the two of them finally behaved and lifted the chair together, slowly making their way up the mountain.
They stopped and started like that until they reached halfway up. By that point, they really couldn't lift it anymore, so they had no choice but to set the chair down and rest.
Goku flopped onto the ground immediately, gasping for breath. Piccolo wasn't doing much better, leaning against a nearby tree and breathing just as hard.
After a while, Goku sat up, looked at the summit, then glanced at Piccolo, and in the end he just couldn't help laughing.
"Didn't think I'd ever get this tired together with you, Piccolo…"
Piccolo shot him a speechless look. If he had the energy to chat, he'd be better off using it to rest a little more. Then he looked over at Aeris.
And there she was.
At some point, that woman had started drinking red wine on the sedan chair.
Wonderful.
Here he was working his ass off carrying this damned woman, and she was over there enjoying herself.
Aeris, meanwhile, felt pretty helpless too. Sitting on the chair was genuinely boring. At the speed these two were moving, they probably wouldn't reach the top until nightfall.
Once they had rested enough, the miserable climb resumed.
Aeris sat there in the breeze, sipping wine in complete comfort. At some point, she even pulled out a book from nowhere and started reading.
After a while, though, even that got boring. Today was honestly a little dull. Watching those two struggle to carry her had been fun at first, but after a while it lost its charm.
So, before she knew it, Aeris fell asleep.
She only woke up when a heavy thud jolted her awake. When she opened her eyes, she saw Goku and Piccolo sprawled flat on the ground.
Aeris sighed and got up. After glancing around, she realized they had already reached the summit. Judging by how exhausted they looked, they must have made one last push and climbed all the way up without stopping.
Then Aeris pulled a capsule out of her pocket and tossed it to the ground.
Pop.
A pile of food and drinks appeared in the clearing.
Goku and Piccolo took a long time to recover before they finally started eating, but once they did, their table manners were absolutely savage. One second they were tearing into giant chunks of meat, the next they were drinking soup straight from the pot.
Sometimes they nearly started fighting over the same piece of meat. Apparently, now they were butting heads over food too.
Watching the way they ate, Aeris quietly pulled out a huge jar of ridiculously spicy chili sauce and poured it into the soup they were drinking.
After that, she backed off and watched from a distance.
Soon enough, Goku was running around breathing fire and desperately looking for water. Then came Piccolo, who had no idea what had happened and drank the soup anyway.
"HAHAHAHAHAHA!"
Aeris clutched her stomach and rolled on the ground laughing.
The two fire-breathing idiots couldn't really do anything about it. It wasn't like they dared lay a hand on Aeris when they couldn't beat her. All they could do was run to the nearby lake and gulp down water like their lives depended on it.
It took a good while before that horrible burning finally faded. They had no idea what kind of chili sauce that was, but it was viciously hot.
And when they turned back around, they saw that Aeris had even recorded the whole thing.
After they were full, Aeris ordered them to carry her back down the mountain.
Going downhill was much faster, since it didn't drain nearly as much stamina as climbing up. There wasn't any blazing sun now either, so compared to the trip up, this part was much easier.
Aeris was in an especially good mood after seeing Goku and Piccolo embarrass themselves, so she hummed all the way down.
Unfortunately, that only made things worse for the two poor bastards carrying the chair. It would've been bad enough if she had only been humming, but she was also swaying along with the rhythm.
Then, after humming for a while, she started singing out loud.
"Gradually, I'm drawn to you
By that dazzling smile of yours
Together we break through endless darkness
I don't care about the pain
Hold my hand
The first time I met you
It became a childhood memory treasured in my heart
When I look back
On that moment
That kind of beauty
I still can't forget it even now
The winding trail
Of light and shadow
Can you still remember it now?
Sometimes
I want to turn back
There are moments like that too
But even so, I still hold love and courage in my heart
And fight proudly to the very end
Never giving up…"
As she sang, Aeris gradually started to feel that something was off.
It was too quiet.
At a moment like this, shouldn't Goku and Piccolo be in the middle of their usual bickering?
So she glanced at them in confusion.
When kids suddenly go quiet, they're definitely up to something.
Then again… whatever. She'd already tormented them enough today. She could let them off for now.
Tomorrow, on the other hand…
At that moment, Goku spoke up.
"Hey, Aeris, what was that song just now? It sounded pretty nice."
Aeris teased him immediately.
"Oh? So Mr. Goku actually knows music? That's rare. I figured you only cared about martial arts."
Goku laughed awkwardly. "Well… Chi-Chi sings sometimes too, so I've heard a few songs…"
Aeris raised a brow.
"Huh. Didn't expect that. So Mr. Goku actually knows Chi-Chi likes music. Ever thought about taking her to karaoke sometime?"
That made Goku look a little embarrassed.
Truth was, he'd never been good at earning money. He'd tried working a few times before, but he could never settle down and focus properly. More than once, he'd messed things up so badly that even Chi-Chi got scolded by the boss because of him.
These days, all he could really do was farm a little, go hunting, and help support the household that way. And now there was a child too.
Thinking about it, Goku did feel like he'd let Chi-Chi down.
But giving up martial arts?
That was impossible.
If he didn't have enough strength, he wouldn't be able to protect them. After all, he had made plenty of enemies in the past.
Seeing that side of Goku made Aeris feel a strange sense of unfamiliarity. But it only lasted for a moment before he returned to his usual carefree self again.
…Whatever.
If not for the fact that they'd both been abandoned by their parents, she probably wouldn't have bothered. Still, maybe she could look after him a little.
Piccolo gritted his teeth.
"Son Goku! Can you carry properly?!"
Goku laughed awkwardly. "Sorry, sorry…"
Three hours later…
Goku and Piccolo were sprawled on the ground like dead dogs. Even if food were placed right in front of them, they probably wouldn't have moved.
"Looks like you two are really exhausted…" Aeris muttered. Then a grin slowly spread across her face. "…But… hehehe…"
Just thinking about tomorrow's training made her mood brighten all over again.
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