It was odd.
The sun was still warm.
The grass was still soft and even left that familiar faint grass smell as he lay on top of it.
And the Dinosaurs…
No, that wasn't right.
There were no dinosaurs before.
There was a large T-rex-looking dinosaur drooling over him. Like, literally drooling, and it kind of freaked him out a bit.
It was honestly scary, yet at the same time, his heart wasn't pounding; he felt eerily calm, like this was…laughable.
The large carnivorous dinosaur went to bite him, and he just grabbed its mouth, lifted it comically up off the ground, and threw it at a nearby rock…or rather, the base of a mountain.
Judging by the way the dinosaur's eyes rolled back, blood seeped out, and it stopped twitching on the ground, it was most certainly dead. The large dinosaur-sized imprint on the mountain also lent credibility to this theory.
He sighed, sitting up properly before standing up all the way and walking over to the now-corpse of the dinosaur that tried to eat him.
He grabbed it and dragged it back over to where he had been lying down previously. Luckily, his fire from the previous night still had some embers, so he didn't need to restart it.
And he'd never had dinosaur steaks before; the thought filled him with a strange twinge of excitement.
He walked over to a tree, and with a slash of his palm, he cut it cleanly. What need was there for an axe to cut it down when his hands were stronger than steel?
He cut up the pieces into easily manageable firewood.
After picking up some random twigs and easily burnable moss, he tossed them on the fire, building it up.
The fire was still hot.
Oddly, with his newfound strength and durability, fire still hurt to touch. He didn't know how that worked, when a literal dinosaur wouldn't be able to break his skin.
Was it an intentional thing?
Ki was weird.
Then again, this whole situation was weird.
Everything was so familiar and different.
He looked down at a pan of water he had scooped from a nearby river some hours ago. And a face that he didn't recognize looked back in the reflection.
Well, that wasn't quite right either; he recognized the face, it just wasn't the face he was used to seeing in his reflection. Or was that not right either?
"Why am I Yamcha?" He asked, looking up at the sky.
@***@
Yamcha decided on one fact since waking up here.
Dinosaurs were fucking delicious.
He now understood why dinosaurs weren't extinct in this world. It must have been intentional to let them breed and populate so they could be eaten.
He also decided that he would use the name Yamcha as well.
Despite remembering his old name, it just felt…right? Like it clicked properly in his mind to refer to himself as Yamcha.
To do the opposite gave a strange sense of body dysphoria.
He still didn't know how it happened, but he was now Yamcha. And it felt like he had been Yamcha for every year that Yamcha had been living. Actually, he couldn't even say for sure that he wasn't Yamcha before. Maybe he was always Yamcha, and what he got was someone else's memories that changed him?
Frankly, it was even stranger now to try and think of himself as not Yamcha.
Now, he didn't know what to do.
The memories didn't come rushing into him; he didn't suddenly remember either. They were just there; he had lived them. He was Yamcha in every way that mattered at this point.
He was supposed to be training.
For some reason, Yamcha decided that the best way to train is to come out into the wilderness…
Of course, this is training for the Androids that are supposed to arrive in three years. The androids that were explicitly said to be stronger than Frieza. Frieza, whom Yamcha had sensed when he came to earth as part machine.
Yamcha sensed Frieza's power and still thought, "Hey, I'm going to go train in a random forest," and didn't stop to question himself as to why that was a bad idea.
What was the point?
There was literally nothing in the forest, other than himself, that could hurt him.
He could have stayed sleeping with that dinosaur from before trying to chew on him, and he wouldn't have felt a thing.
Yamcha looked down at his hands, and he called up his Ki.
He didn't start yelling to make it explode out in a display of power and strength; he just subtly pushed it outwards.
It was warm, almost intoxicating with how strong it made him feel. He could casually blow up the mountain next to him with a blast of Ki.
That was utterly insane, yet also rather…mundane?
The conflicting viewpoints were slowly being settled in as he seemed to feel more and more at ease with his newfound situation.
Waking up one day as Yamcha when he had only ever seen him from the other side of a screen.
Yet, the intoxicating feeling of strength quickly disappeared. Maybe it was this reason why Yamcha didn't originally have the same level of enthusiasm as he had just now. Because, at the end of the day, what did it matter?
He was no Namekian.
He was no Android.
And he certainly was no Saiyan.
He was…just human.
He was laughably weak compared to everyone else in their group. Even Krillin was leagues ahead of him at this point.
People liked to think that Krillin was the comic relief, but Yamcha…Yamcha was the real joke. Krillin, despite being weaker than the enemies that appear, always stood there at the side of Goku, fighting the good fight.
Even now, half his thoughts were about going into town, picking up some girls, and going out to party. Despite being warned about a world-ending threat, Yamcha thought about playing around.
He thought about playing around.
With this new perspective, he could admit it to himself. He only came out here for a token, half-assed effort of training to make himself feel good.
To say that he 'trained,' to lie to himself and pretend that he was still 'part of the gang' despite being left in the dust.
Krillin and Tien, the two 'weakest' members next to him, could each take ten of him without breaking a sweat.
Tien blasted a Semi-Perfect Cell into the ground repeatedly.
What did He ever do?
Yamcha found a newfound resolve. Yet, despite this, there were still the thoughts pricking at him, the unconscious desire to just give up. To say that his half-assed efforts were good enough.
He stood up, putting out the first, grabbing all his stuff, and putting it in a capsule before taking a hesitant leap into the air, his body not falling down, defying gravity.
He was flying.
If it was even minutes before, he would have been ecstatic and playful about it. Yet now, he only had a grim look of determination on his face.
First, he needed to make a pit stop in the nearest city.
@***@
Yamcha flew through the air, several bags in his hands that he was careful not to drop or damage despite the wind whipping past him.
He marveled, briefly, at how Ki created a sort of air-resistance bubble around him that made flying practical at these speeds.
Ki Sensing was another thing; he could sense basically all his friends around the world even when they weren't showing off.
It was faint, and he had to put in a lot of effort, but he could sort of find them.
Particularly, he was heading towards the strongest, and one that would be among the strongest soon.
He was nervous when he touched down in front of a house sitting in the middle of nowhere.
Goku's house.
He knew Goku; he was friends with Goku. Yet, at the same time, he had never met Goku. It was another one of those strange contradictions that had yet to smooth out, even if it wasn't causing him any distress.
At most, he felt nervous and perhaps a little giddy.
It was Goku.
What fan of this series wouldn't want to meet Goku?
He knew that he had already been sensed, yet Goku didn't come greet him immediately, nor did Gohan.
That didn't bode well, but he was prepared.
He politely knocked on the door and waited.
It was neither Goku nor Gohan who greeted him.
"Oh, it's you." The woman who answered spat out upon seeing him.
"Hey Chi-Chi, it's been awhile." Yamcha tried his best to put on a good-natured smile.
However, she didn't reciprocate. "I heard Bulma finally dumped your butt."
"...yeah, that was a few months ago." Yamcha nodded. "I brought groceries and some books for Gohan." He held up the bags.
Chi-Chi raised an eyebrow, as if deciding on his fate. "Fine, come in." She stepped to the side, letting him inside.
Hesitantly, Yamcha walked inside and saw Goku sitting at the dinner table, looking very happy to see him but clearly keeping it contained.
Yamcha knew the situation well enough to know that Chi-Chi was obviously in a mood, which is why Goku was sitting here 'suffering.'
She unceremoniously grabbed the bags from his hands. "Fresh fruits and vegetables—that's nice. I won't have to make the two-hour ride to town this weekend." She hummed. "Did you pick up books on this year's college recommendation list?" Her eyes perked up. "Oh, these will be perfect for Gohan."
Yamcha wisely didn't ask how she even knew that. He basically asked a bookstore owner what books would be good for a kid trying to prepare for college.
"I'm glad you like them." Yamcha said carefully.
"Gohan!" Chi-chi yelled, and the little kid came hurriedly out of his room.
"Mom, I was studying, I promise!" Gohan quickly defended himself, anticipating an argument.
"Yamcha brought you some new books." She set them on the table for him before taking the groceries and started putting them away.
"Oh….yay." Gohan's shoulders slumped.
Silently, Yamcha reached over and pushed a couple of the books to the side, then flipped open the cover of the book that mentioned something about advanced calculus theorems.
Gohan's eyes widened, and he was about to blurt something out as he looked up at Yamcha, but Yamcha quickly put a finger to his lips to silence him.
Gohan grabbed the books tight into his arms with an excited look on his face and ran back into his room in a hurry.
He had slipped a popular novel into the lot, hidden under a fake covering. Something that a kid his age would enjoy.
Goku just sat at the table with his chin in his palms, looking mildly amused by the whole thing. I don't think he understands reading for fun, but seeing Gohan get excited, he could understand that at least.
With that, Yamcha took a seat across from Goku. "It's been a while, Goku. How's the training coming along?"
There was an abrupt, almost shattering clang of glass from Chi-Chi's side of the kitchen, where she momentarily paused.
Goku looked at him and shook his head silently.
Yamcha understood; it was that bad.
Chi-Chi wasn't…comically helicopter parenting or controlling of Goku. But there were moments where it did line up with what he could remember of the 'series.'
If she were in a mood, then Goku wouldn't be getting any training done in the next few days.
Though, usually, it's Goku who does something to push Chi-Chi to that point.
"Well, how have you been, Goku?"
"Oh, you know." He leaned back. "I've been planting some radishes; they're going to be great when they grow up!" He smiled widely with that air of innocence and nonchalance that became charismatic.
"Carrots should grow well in this area too."
Goku's eyes widened. "That's a great idea! Chi-Chi, let's get some carrot seeds too!"
"Sure, we can get some next time I go to town." Chi-Chi didn't reject him. "That is a good suggestion, thank you, Yamcha."
"Hey Yamcha, what did Chi-Chi mean when she said that Bulma dumped you? Did she throw you from her plane or something?"
Yamcha's lips twitched because that was also rather accurate, both from his and the other Yamcha's memories.
Goku really was naive about relationship things. Or rather, vernacular or insinuations or anything like that went over his head. You had to be…direct with him.
"It means we're no longer dating. No longer boyfriend or girlfriend." Yamcha explained, seeing Goku tilt his head. "It means we won't ever get married."
"Oh!" Goku understood that. "How come?"
…great.
"Yeah, how come, Yamcha?" Chi-Chi parroted, though that was somewhat mockingly.
Funnily enough, Chi-Chi and Bulma were really good friends despite not seeing each other often. Maybe it came from the fact that they were the only women in their group.
Yamcha realized that he had to be very careful with what he said next.
"I was a bad boyfriend." Yamcha said bluntly. "It would never have worked out between us, and I was too selfish and happy with all the attention I was getting after becoming famous and rich."
One of the biggest discoveries was that Yamcha was actually loaded.
As a professional baseball player, he made a lot of money.
"Hmph, Bulma said you cheated on her." Chi-Chi scoffed.
"I did not." He defended himself. "But I can understand why she thought that. I was happy getting all that attention from girls around me." He let out a sigh.
Looking back at his life, while they were dating, Yamcha happily went to clubs and had girls on both his arms, and he never rejected them. Sure, they were mostly trying to squeeze money out of him and what-not, and he never actually cheated, but that was still way over a line when he had a girlfriend.
She was right to dump him.
"I let it go to my head."
Chi-chi was actually looking at him now. "I hope this isn't some self-pity attempt so you can convince me to talk to Bulma for you."
"Why would he need you to talk to Bulma?" Goku seemed confused.
"Hush, Goku." Chi-Chi shushed him, staring at Yamcha still.
"Oh, no." Yamcha quickly shook his arms. "That ship has long sailed, and I'm never going to board it again. Bulma and I would have never worked out even if I hadn't been a bad boyfriend; we're way too different. We're better off as friends."
"That's…oddly mature." Chi-Chi muttered. "Not like what Bulma said about you."
"Well, I've had some time to think about a lot of things." Yamcha awkwardly scratched the back of his head.
"Well, alright. Spit it out then. What did you come here for and bribe me to get?" Chi-Chi put her hands on her hips.
"...can I borrow Goku for a few hours?" Yamcha asked.
Goku perked up but didn't speak.
Chi-Chi stared at him for several long moments. "Dinner will be done in two hours, not a minute later." She pointed a finger.
"Thank you, Chi-Chi!" Goku shot to his feet even before Yamcha could utter a word and dragged him out of the house.
@***@
"Oh boy, I owe you big, Yamcha." Goku let out a sigh of relief as they took off into the air.
"What did you do this time to make her so angry?"
"Um… I may have accidentally hit the ship and made it not work…?" Goku replied in clear embarrassment.
"Yeah, that'd do it." Yamcha could understand; flying cars were damn expensive, and Chi-Chi couldn't actually fly. But that gave him a thought. "Have you ever considered teaching Chi-Chi to fly? It might make her a bit less grumpy about groceries in general."
Goku blinked a couple of times. "I hadn't thought about that. I'll ask her later."
Goku followed Yamcha down, setting foot on a large rock formation, devoid of any real life beyond some dinosaurs or other creatures nearby.
"So, what'd you want to do? Want to spar or something?" Goku said playfully, that signature grin of his.
"Kinda…" Yamcha rubbed his head. "Goku, I need a big favor from you."
"What's up?"
"I…want a fight."
"Sure!" Goku replied immediately without hesitation.
"No, I mean." Yamcha took a deep breath. "Let me explain. Do you remember when we fought in the 21st Martial Arts tournament?'
"Of course! Those were the days, weren't they?" Goku said nostalgically.
"Back when I trained with Master Roshi."
"Yah huh!"
"Goku, what do you think of my 'power level'?"
"Your power level?" Goku rubbed his nose. "Well…I mean, it's a lot stronger than when you died the first time…"
"Goku, don't sugarcoatit. I'm weak; I've barely gotten stronger. Look at Krillin; he's magnitudes stronger than I am in comparison. I stopped training, I stopped fighting, I…stopped trying."
Goku went silent, an almost out-of-place look on his face, no longer joyful or happy.
"Fight me, Goku. Really fight me."
"...Are you sure?" Goku was hesitant, the guy who would never pass up a fight for any reason.
"You don't need to be gentle with my feelings, Goku. I completely understand how easily you can beat me. You have more power in your pinky than I do in my entire body. Even if I land a hit, I don't think I can even hurt you."
He didn't say anything, and he didn't argue either.
Despite his desire to fight, Goku was also a very kind person.
And Yamcha was asking something mean of him, to beat his friend into a pulp.
"Goku, I need this." Yamcha said quietly.
Goku's face hardened. "Alright."
Because deep down, Goku also understood what Yamcha wanted too. "Get ready."
Goku took a stance, and Yamcha felt a shiver down his spine.
Yamcha also took a stance, but…it felt rusty. In comparison to Goku, he knew he looked out of place.
There were no bells, no signals to start.
Yamcha shot at Goku at his top speed, throwing a punch at his face.
Goku didn't even blink; with a casual flick of his wrist, he deflected it, then kicked Yamcha in the stomach, sending him hurling back into the mountain, shattering dozens of feet of solid stone at the impact.
Yamcha had barely any time to think before a blast of Ki came flying towards him. He dodged, barely, the ki blast obliterating the mountain behind him as he pulled himself out of the way.
He still didn't have time to think because Goku's fist came right at his face, knocking him to the ground with a boom.
For the briefest moment, Yamcha felt like he lost consciousness; everything went dark, but just as quickly, he regained his senses.
He swept his leg at Goku's, but on impact, Goku's legs didn't even move an inch or give at all.
Goku let out a shout and threw a punch down as Yamcha crossed his arms to block it.
The ground beneath them exploded from the impact, and Yamcha found himself having been sent down to the base of the mountainous area, hitting the ground and bouncing a few times.
Maybe it was instinct, but he threw out a Ki Blast of his own right into the air, and it collided with Goku.
Goku, of course, blocked it casually with a hand, but it made him pause for a fraction of a second that allowed Yamcha to slide back onto his feet.
The air whistled as Goku threw another punch, and Yamcha could barely see it, his head tilting to the side ever so slightly to avoid it. His cheek split open, blood seeping out just from the wind pressure.
However, he stops to think about it. Yamcha threw his own punch at Goku's face.
Goku, with much more grace and ease, tilted his own head out of the way. Yamcha released a flurry of punches that made the air vibrate and hiss, yet Goku, not moving from the spot he was in, dodged every single one.
Yamcha's Ki flared up in a burst of speed and power, and his punches multiplied instantaneously; however, they came to an abrupt stop when Goku grabbed his hands mid-punch.
Yamcha tried to kick, but Goku twisted his hips and used the heel of his foot to slam into Yamcha's thigh, nearly knocking him off his feet with the slight maneuver.
And just as quickly, Goku's knee found Yamcha's stomach.
Yamcha's eyes nearly rolled back as blood mixed with spit and went flying from his mouth.
Goku, before Yamcha's feet touched back on the ground from the force of the knee sending him upwards, spun his body and kicked him with the full force of his momentum.
Yamcha went flying again into another mountain, shattering it and continuing through it until he hit a second, shattering dozens of feet of stone before coming to a stop.
"Is that enough, Yamcha?" Goku appeared before him before Yamcha could blink, an expressionless mask on his face.
"Haaah!" Yamcha roared, sending out a blast of Ki.
Goku flicked his wrist, deflecting it with ease, and he didn't even blink as Yamcha tried to use that as an opening to send a palm at Goku's chin.
Goku tilted his head back to avoid it by a hair's breath, then he let his body fall backwards while floating in the air and flung his leg up, using his entire body to send a kicking upper cut to Yamcha's chin.
Again, Yamcha felt like he blacked out; there was a buzzing sound in his ears, and he was fairly sure he had a concussion. He forgot where he was for a moment until his senses returned and he found himself free-falling from hundreds of feet in the air.
He tried to pull on his Ki to stop his descent, but his head was rattled and he couldn't focus. The only thing he felt was the pain of hitting the ground after falling hundreds of feet in the air.
It hurt; he felt all the pain from the last seconds of their 'fight.'
But what hurt even more was that Yamcha looked up, and he saw a Goku who hadn't even broken a sweat.
Literally.
"Is that enough, Yamcha?" Goku asked again, with the same expressionless face he had the last time.
Yamcha was breathing too hard to even answer if he wanted to. That, and his throat was full of blood.
Instead, he let out another roar; his Ki burst out without any grace of skill, simply pushing it out in the most blunt way possible. He then shot at Goku, punching towards his face.
But it couldn't reach; Goku's fist was already pushing against his cheek. He barely had time to register the new pain as Goku's hands then grabbed his head and pushed him down into his oncoming knee for another knee to the face.
Yamcha didn't hit the ground; Goku grabbed his arm and then threw him again into another stone peak.
Yamcha didn't know where he was at this point in relation to where they started. It was already difficult for him to even see if it were night or day at the moment.
His vision was blurry from the constant hits, the concussion, and also because blood was seeping down his face, making it hard to see.
"Is that enough, Yamcha?"
Yamcha didn't see him, but he spat out a mouthful of blood again, his lungs feeling like they were on fire, but he forced himself to respond. "I can do this all day, Goku."
Goku appeared in the corner of his vision, and Yamcha saw something that made his heart drop.
Goku was frowning now.
The next thing he knew, Yamcha was being sent flying through the air again, yet a flurry of blows hit almost every point of his body.
Yamcha was being pinballed between multiple Gokus. And it wasn't Goku using something like the Multi-form technique. He was simply moving so fast that he could be at the next spot before it even registered to Yamcha, looking like there were multiples of him.
It hurts.
Why am I doing this?
Just give up.
What's the point?
For every near broken bone, for every new bruise, for every cut and bump that now adorned his body, those same thoughts kept popping up.
Every excuse he could think of to stop, to say it was enough, to tell himself that he tried and it's okay to stop.
Yamcha lay prone on the ground, and Goku stood over him.
"Is that enough, Yamcha?" Goku asked again.
Yamcha couldn't respond; he could barely even move. The only thing that came out was a soft groan of pain.
I want to stop.
That was the thought that echoed in his head nonstop. Over the thumping and pain from all the hits he took, that thought screamed the loudest in his ears.
However, unconsciously, Yamcha reached out and grabbed Goku's leg.
Slowly, Goku brought his palm level with Yamcha, and his Ki gathered before being released into another blast.
Yamcha twitched.
Steam wafted off him; his clothes were nearly burned to rags. He felt like he had more blood on the outside of his body than on the inside, and he was fairly sure that most of his ribs or other parts were broken.
The dizziness was apparent too because he was now seeing multiple overlapped Gokus in the air.
Where was he, and what was he doing?
Oh right, he was fighting Goku.
Why was he in a hole?
It was dark in here.
Right, he was blasted down into the earth.
The only light came from way above at the entrance.
He could see Goku floating in the sky, and he tried to stand up, but he fell over, his legs giving out.
He couldn't feel his legs anymore.
Eventually, Yamcha fell onto his butt and then onto his back.
The glare from the sun made it hard to focus upwards.
"Is that enough, Yamcha?"
Despite the distance, Yamcha could hear him. And barely, he could see Goku's expression again, the same as before.
"...yeah, Goku, I'm—" The words died in his mouth, the barely audible words, the strained words that he could barely manage. Because he realized what look Goku had. It wasn't empty; it was something far more stomach-dropping.
He was bored.
For some reason, Yamcha felt something wet hit his cheeks. Before he knew it, he felt tears stream from his eyes.
The memories hit him quickly.
The first time he met Goku.
The fighting together, the training together. The Martial Arts Tournaments.
When they were rivals, peers.
When did he give up?
Why did he give up?
It felt like Goku had walked so far ahead that Yamcha couldn't even see his back anymore. And now, Goku looked at him with boredom.
That hurt more than any punch or kick he had taken today.
He pushed his wrist against the ground; it hurt and was probably broken. Yet, the pain seemed to disappear. He felt something in his chest, a warmth, a fire that hadn't been there for a long time.
His legs refused to stand; he clenched his teeth and forced them into the ground, pushing himself up as his body screamed in protest.
He hit rock bottom.
And since he couldn't go any lower, that meant the only place left to go was up.
Yamcha let out a shout, mustering every last ounce of strength he could manage. A small well of Ki that seemed to blaze forth in response surged outwards.
His wrists slammed together, and he looked up at Goku hovering in the air above the hole he was in. The Ki gathered between his palms, turning into a ball as he shaped it and condensed it like how he had been taught.
"Ka….me..ha…me…HA!"
He released, perhaps, the biggest Kamehameha of his life despite being on empty.
He couldn't see what happened next; as soon as the blast left him, his eyes rolled back and his body began to fall over.
Goku, from high above, as the Kamehameha came at him, his bored expression shifted to a warm smile as he blocked the blast.
He remained unhurt, not a hair out of place.
And with a burst of speed, he caught Yamcha before he could hit the ground after passing out.
"Welcome back, Yamcha." Goku said softly as he took his friend back home.
@***@
A/N
Just a random snippet Idea I had, don't know if I 'll do anything with it, but my muse suddenly forced me to write this.