"Finally, my daughter has a date!" Bikini excitedly hugged Bulma, whose face showed her confusion as she was squeezed by her loving mother's strong arms.
They were hanging out in front of the Briefs' house. A few days had passed since Bulma updated her apps, even making the Emperor of the Galaxy, Freezer, one of the platform's moderators, a strange milestone in the universe.
"Mom, we're just hanging out. It's not a date; we're friends." Bulma was now furiously regretting telling her mother about it.
The topic just came up. While she was peacefully sunbathing, her phone vibrated, indicating that she had received a message. Only after she exchanged a few messages did a smile appear on her face. Mysteriously, her mother appeared behind her.
She had to explain the reason for her smile and how the situation had led to this moment where Bikini was patting her youngest daughter's head with pride.
"You don't know how happy it makes me that you finally have a love interest. It's about time! I can finally help you with makeup, clothes, and..." the woman began, listing extensive and meticulous preparations that made Bulma's head start to smoke.
Doctor Brief, who was nearby watering the strange sunflower his daughter had created years ago, stiffly turned his head. He felt that same sense of dread he had experienced in the past.
"I wish you luck, little one," the doctor said, slowly letting things settle and trying to back away. But the cat on his shoulder, Tama, meowed, attracting Bikini's gaze.
"My love! Don't you have an interesting super invention that could help our cupcake? She's going on a date!" The blonde moved closer to her husband and caught one of his arms in a tight grip to prevent his escape.
"You can't miss this important moment. You weren't planning to, were you?" For the first time in a long time, Bikini's eyes opened wide. The scientist felt as if he were facing a terrible monster.
Her bright blue eyes bored into her husband's body and made Bulma feel a twinge of fear. This confirmed many things, especially that no matter how strong a person was, his mother would be more powerful.
"But Bulma said it's just a normal outing with a friend to pass the time..." The voice of Doctor Brief gradually diminished until it became an indistinguishable whisper.
"Our darling daughter is finally going on her first date! A DATE! I can feel the love in the air. How can you guys be so ignorant? Lazuli is gorgeous! She even looks like me!" Bikini's words made Bulma feel weird.
Did Bikini and Lazuli look alike? Except for their hair and skin color, they didn't look alike at all. At first, Bulma thought of Lazuli's blue eyes, but they were technically gray, so she dismissed that idea.
Perhaps because Kami-Sama was answering the inner prayers of the father and daughter, Bulma felt two energy signals rapidly approaching her, making her sigh.
'Good. Mom can focus on them,' thought the blue-haired girl as she saw Goku and Chi-Chi descend on the Kinton, the golden magic cloud.
They were wearing school uniforms and carrying backpacks, indicating that they had just left school. Bikini's eyes narrowed as she saw them arrive. She approached them with open arms.
"Bulma! I've arrived!" Goku greeted her happily before his face was suddenly enveloped in something soft and big.
"My little sprouts are back!" The blonde hugged both Goku and Chi-Chi profusely. Bulma waved at them before soaring into the air and flying off at high speed.
"I must remember not to answer messages in front of my mom again," the young girl muttered as she set her Ki on fire, increasing her speed to get as far away from home as possible as quickly as possible.
"It's not like I'm going on a date with Lazuli. It's just a normal outing. We're friends," Bulma justified, though a goofy grin had appeared on her face without her realizing it, and her flight had visibly accelerated.
It was just having a good time with a friend; there was nothing romantic about it.
...
Amenbo Island is a landmass located nine kilometers from the Southern Capital in the open sea. In other timelines, this location would be known as the place of emergence of the dangerous Androids.
When Bulma reached the island's airspace, she focused her energy perception to sense the Ki of Lazuli and Lapis. She detected their presence in a forest outside Papaya City and quickly descended toward that location.
As her altitude decreased, Bulma thought about things she had recently been exploring. Aside from training, because she had never neglected it, she had also not neglected her strongest point:
Science. Her apprenticeship with three of the greatest scientists of the day—her father, Doctor Norimaki, and Doctor Omori—had endowed her with immense knowledge, as well as a relentless desire to progress.
She had not stopped creating inventions; many of them were proofs of concept or ideas. Over time, she accumulated much practical knowledge, making future projects relatively easier.
For example, she improved her time-scanning machine. In the Dragon Ball universe, time could be manipulated by different beings using different methods.
Bulma was not interested in creating a time machine. It wasn't because she was incapable of doing so; she felt that, if she focused all her attention on it, she could have a prototype in a couple of years.
However, she was more interested in accumulating knowledge about how time operated in this universe. The so-called fourth dimension was a place unexplored and only inferred by physical phenomena in her first life.
Here, however, it was something she could analyze. Her time-scanning machine could pick up information from alternate timelines. As she mostly thought of it, time travel was nearly impossible, probably only something an angel could master.
Mortals and lesser gods could pause time, see scenes from the past and future, and travel to other timelines. The interesting thing about Dragon Ball was that there were 12 concrete universes, but many alternate timelines.
After Bulma upgraded her machine, she got to explore more timelines, categorize them, and filter them. She could also attempt to communicate with them, though she hadn't yet.
'Like the infinite multiverse, it's not wise to easily mess with timelines, but prying is possible. I won't go into those places. I'll let them flow naturally,' thought Bulma as she landed in front of a log cabin in the middle of a forest clearing.
Except for the possible intervention of an alternate Trunks in the future, Bulma didn't care about other timelines. She already had a vast universe to explore: The Northern Galaxy, also known as the Milky Way, was already enormous.
Plus, there were 11 extremely interesting and underexplored universes! She didn't want to mess with time or become a temporal guardian; she just wanted to satisfy her curiosity and her desire for knowledge.
But that didn't matter now because, just as she landed, the door to the hut opened, and a black-haired boy appeared. Lapis looked at Bulma curiously before raising an eyebrow and smirking.
"It's the Sub-Champion! Please bring my younger sister here before ten, okay? And keep your hands to yourself." Lapis' words earned him a smack on the head from Lazuli, his younger sister.
"Stop joking around! It's just a walk with friends," the blonde girl explained. But her words only sounded like justification to her twin, who simply nodded, still wearing his teasing smile.
"Sure, sure~ but I hope you come back walking properly and without pain. Little sister, why are you so serious? I just want the best for you!" This time, Lapis had to create an energy barrier around himself as he finished speaking. He did this to protect himself from two Ki attacks launched by the girls.
"Get out of here!" Lazuli shouted, blushing slightly. Understanding that he had already achieved his goal, Lapis entered the house. Although he kept his energy barrier up, he didn't want to be ambushed.
"Sorry, my brother is a bit of a clown," Lazuli tried to explain. Bulma waved her hand nonchalantly.
"My mom was worse. If it weren't for Goku coming home and distracting her, I'd be wearing tons of makeup and dressed like I was invited to a coronation," Bulma commented on her situation. Having been through similar things, they smiled.
"We seem to be surrounded by people who are very ... 'Concerned' about our affairs," Lazuli said, fixing a lock of her hair and tucking it behind her ear as she leaned against the doorframe.
"You don't say! Imagine the look on my mom's face when she found out about my older sister's first alien boyfriend. Now, imagine her reaction when she found out he had red skin and four arms." Bulma raised her eyebrows several times, making the blonde giggle.
"Wait, four arms? Did he also have four eyes?" Lazuli asked, rather curiously. Bulma nodded.
"And according to my sister, she also had double..." The blue-haired girl made an obscene gesture, letting the blonde know the answer. She burst out laughing loudly.
"YOU HAVE TO TELL ME!" Lazuli approached Bulma, grabbed her arm, and brought her face close to Bulma's, trying to press her to tell her the whole story.
"Okay, I'll tell you on the way to the city. Where do you want to go first?" Bulma asked, feeling nervous about Lazuli's approach. Instead of rejecting it, she decided to bring her face closer to the blonde's.
"Hmm, there's a new movie I want to see! They say the actors learned real martial arts, so the fight scenes are authentic, according to the reviews," commented the girl, piquing Bulma's interest.
Watching an action movie with real martial arts? Bulma had never given up on entertainment; she had even become a fan of anime, movies, and video games.
"Do you know the lead actor's name?" Bulma asked, her curiosity piqued by Lazuli's words.
"Bruce Lee! They say the name of the movie was inspired by an old dragon legend. Come, let's go see it." Under Lazuli's initiative, both girls started walking along the path that led out of the forest.
"Oh, I've heard of him. By the way, were you able to solve the problem you told me about?" Bulma asked quietly, even though they were practically alone at the moment.
"Hmm, we were able to get rid of those guys' pursuit. However, in their last attempt, we found a mechanical man," the blonde answered with a more serious countenance. Her words interested Bulma even more.
"Did you preserve its remains? You don't have it in your house, do you? They can track you down!" The blue-haired girl answered, but Lazuli nodded calmly.
"Yeah, don't worry. We left it lying thousands of miles away. We can go see if it's still there," Lazuli suggested, making Bulma smile. This expression on her face was like the blooming of a flower.
The angle of the light filtering through the tree canopy gave the girl a different vibe. Lazuli stood still, staring steadily at her face before averting her gaze, her cheeks burning.
'This is just a normal outing. She likes mechanical things. There's nothing more to it than a couple of friends spending time together,' Lazuli thought, trying to lessen the blush on her face.
Lately, the concept of 'Time' has seemed to have some relevance in their lives.
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AN: No, I won't mess with time(?) Yes! I will write more interactions between Lazuli (C-18) and Bulma~ And tomorrow (On Wednesday) is my birthday! Give a gift reading my original novels(?) Cof cof.