Super Dragon Ball: Paradise Hysteria

Life And Times of Two Launches

Tenshinhan's feet lightly tapped against the pavement while he looked around the busy evening streets of the Central City with unease. He had never fully gotten used to busy cities and all the noise. Whenever he visited a busier city center, it was usually because of some heroic business that related to the necessity to save the Earth, so he had enough distractions from all the cacophony. Whenever Tenshinhan had the option, he preferred smaller villages or selective solitude.

Wondering why Bardock could've chosen such a location, Tenshinhan advanced on foot toward the Saiyan's Ki signature. He completely ignored the wayward stares and the civilians that scratched heads, wondering why some monk-like-looking guy descended from the skies right in front of them and just walked around like nothing had happened.

Wearing civilian clothes, Bardock was relatively hard to pinpoint. The battle scars decorating his face and his subtle cybernetic modifications didn't quite stand out that much from a larger crowd and while he had the same wild hair as his more distinguished son, that hair in of itself didn't differentiate the veteran Saiyan from fifty or a hundred of other civilians. Quite impossible to miss, however, was the Egyptian-blue hair of Launch's gentle personality.

The two were seated on opposite sides of an outside café, seemingly just talking to each other. Bardock acted uneasy, out of his element, Launch, meanwhile, looked quite happy. The shining face of the gentle version of the woman Tenshinhan considered a good friend eased the bald martial artist into approaching the duo of friends. Whereas Bardock's eyes widened and his speech stuttered upon seeing Tenshinhan approaching, Launch picked up on Bardock's cues and turned to clap with glee at the sight of her friend.

"Tenshinhan-san!" Launch exclaimed. "What a surprise, what brought you to Central City?"

"Launch-san, it's... Tough to explain..." Tenshinhan began scratching the back of his head, wondering where he should have begun explaining himself from. "Truth be told, I came here to check up on you."

"Check up on Launch?" Bardock wondered.

"Well... It's... A peculiar thing to explain but... Launch... The other Launch, I mean... She contacted me a week ago with a letter left in the mailbox of my dojo and requested that I met her in a rundown bar she liked. I took her up on her offer, I can't begin to delve into the reasons, but... When I arrived, she wasn't there," Tenshinhan looked like he would rather tear his skin off of him and toss it out there like a distraction just so he could bury himself underground and disappear. Explaining all this stuff felt awkward, and he kept stumbling through words despite having faced far more terrifying odds with a thousand times the bravery and reckless abandon.

"Oh... The Other Me must have transformed..." Launch gasped. "I'm terribly sorry, Tenshinhan-san, I have no memory of anything like that happening."

"Heh..." Bardock snickered. Initially, Tenshinhan looked up at him with spite, figuring that the Saiyan might have been mocking his stumbling speech or his mannerisms, but then he noticed the kind nature of the Saiyan's smile. It wasn't mockery that beamed out from Bardock's expression. The Saiyan could relate to Tenshinhan's struggle, Tenshinhan could read it from Bardock's face. "Discussing business that has something to do with Launch is a real hassle, huh?"

"Eh?" Launch gasped.

"Launch... This blue-haired and squeaky-voiced version, that is, called me up on the phone and asked me to meet her here too. It hadn't occurred to me at the time but... Now that I think of it, her transforming and standing me up because of being oblivious of what the other version of her had thought up feels like something that definitely could have happened," Bardock tried his best to restrain himself from laughing but a few cracks did bust through his façade.