"Tights, is something wrong?"
In a quiet corner of the front yard, Gine followed Tights to a secluded spot, her expression puzzled.
Tights hesitated for a moment. "That Piccolo," she gestured by raising two fingers to her forehead, mimicking antennae, "was the Kami of Earth before you, right?"
Gine chuckled at her gesture and nodded. "Yes. He was the one who passed the title to me..."
"But I distinctly remember—" Tights frowned, her delicate brows knitting together in confusion, "many years ago, before you and Uncle Bardock were truly revived, you both met the Kami of Earth as spirits... Was that Kami the same Piccolo we know now?"
"Of course," Gine replied, though now she too seemed puzzled. "According to Mr. Popo, Piccolo had already been the Kami of Earth for several centuries. So back then, it must have been him."
"Mr. Popo?" Tights' confusion deepened, her frown tightening. "Several centuries..."
She took a deep breath and pressed further. "Then what about Piccolo's master? Was he also a Kami of Earth? When did—"
"Well, the master of a Kami would naturally be a Kami too, right?" Gine reasoned. Just like her relationship with Chi-Chi—if she ever stepped down, Chi-Chi would be the obvious successor. "I think I've heard Piccolo and Mr. Popo mention the Kami before him, his... master..."
As she spoke, under Tights' increasingly bewildered gaze, Gine suddenly realized the inconsistency.
She murmured to herself, "But at the martial arts tournament, Piccolo called Yamiru his master... That can't be right. Back when Bardock and I were still spirits, we went to the Lookout with Yamiru and met that Piccolo... How could Yamiru be his master?"
"Exactly!" Tights planted her hands on her hips. "Those six years Yamiru was missing—it definitely wasn't just some boastful story about the Demon Realm like he claimed last night..."
Gine let out an awkward "uh" and asked, "So... what do you plan to do?"
Tights looked up at the sky. "I want to go to that Lookout and ask for myself..."
---
A short while later, with Gine's help, Tights piloted a plane carrying Gine and Chi-Chi toward the hemispherical structure floating high above the endless sky.
Normally, the Lookout's barrier prevented any mortal from detecting it—whether through satellite signals or passing aircraft.
But with the current Kami of Earth guiding them, the magical barrier offered no resistance, allowing Tights to land smoothly on the Lookout's plaza.
"Ugh... it's hard to breathe..."
The moment she stepped out of the plane, Tights felt the thin air weighing heavily on her lungs.
The vast sea of clouds and the high altitude made the environment unbearably harsh for an ordinary human like her.
As she turned her head, she spotted a short figure—pitch-black all over, with only two white, ring-like eyes and a mouth resembling a red sausage. The figure raised a hand in greeting. "Hello." Then, as Gine and Chi-Chi landed beside the plane, he added, "Kami."
"Mr. Popo," Gine greeted warmly, waving while simultaneously sensing the surrounding ki. "Is Piccolo here?"
"He is," Mr. Popo replied.
From the shadows of the palace doors in the distance emerged a tall figure, his white cape fluttering—Piccolo himself.
His sharp hearing had caught their conversation from afar. With a cool expression, he asked, "What do you want?"
Gine opened her mouth to speak, but Tights stopped her.
Taking another deep breath—not out of nervousness, but simply struggling with the thin air—Tights strode across the checkered tiles of the plaza, locking eyes with Piccolo.
"Let me ask you something..."
She stared up at him, her gaze unwavering.
"Is Yamiru your master?"
"..." Piccolo lowered his eyes, studying the determined Earth woman before him. After a brief silence, he replied calmly, "I didn't know at first, but—yes. Yamiru is my master."
"How… could this be…?"
Getting confirmation only seemed to drain Tights of her strength. Her limbs felt weak, her head dizzy—though she told herself it was just the thin air.
Gine stepped forward, equally baffled. "But how is that possible?" She spread her arms in disbelief. "Over a decade ago, when Bardock and I were still spirits, we came here with Yamiru. Back then, you were already the Kami of Earth, weren't you? And Yamiru was just… How could he have been your master?"
Chi-Chi, standing beside Gine, couldn't hold back her own confusion. "Mr. Piccolo, why did you say earlier that… you didn't know Yamiru was your master at first?" Could there have been some kind of mistake?
"I didn't know because my master always wore a mask, and I couldn't sense his ki." Piccolo glanced at Chi-Chi, then his gaze swept past Gine before finally settling on Tights. His voice remained calm. "Nothing is impossible. Though I, too, find it strange… Six hundred years ago, I first met my master. Over four hundred years ago, I formally became his disciple and trained under him at the Lookout—until now. Regardless of how it seems, this is the truth."
"A mask?" Chi-Chi blurted out in surprise.
"Over four hundred years ago?!" Gine gasped.
Tights felt her palms tingle, her fingers weak and numb, unable to clench.
"Six hundred years ago… six hundred years ago…" she muttered under her breath, her brow furrowed in disbelief. This answer was completely beyond anything she had imagined.
Piccolo met Yamiru six hundred years ago?
How could that be?!
Yamiru started teaching Piccolo over four hundred years ago?
Was this some kind of joke?
Fragments of memories flashed through Tights' mind—
Their first meeting in that rain-soaked city, their reunion at the seaside café, how he always seemed so ragged yet gazed into the distance… The unexpected reunion at Mount Paozu, the moonlight spilling through the window of that little cabin that night…
'This has to be a joke, right?'
She thought back on the past decade—his serious expression while training, his laughter during their travels, the way he'd frown when troubled…
'This can't be real…'
And then, six years ago, after losing to Goku at the martial arts tournament, he left without looking back…
'It's a joke. It has to be a joke.'
The memories shattered like glass under a hammer, scattering chaotically in her mind.
Four hundred years?
Six hundred years?
'How…?'
'Have I really been absent from his life for that long…?'
Tights' hands trembled as she clenched them, her eyes reddening before tears spilled over.
"It wasn't just six hundred years, you know," Mr. Popo chimed in, hands behind his back, his tone eerily flat. "Over forty thousand years ago, the first Kami of Earth and Lady Annin fought together against the Demon Clan… and ultimately saved the world."