Yamcha story (CH2)

If he didn’t have such a unique name, Yamcha may not have thought much about his reincarnation. That is to say, being reborn out in the boonies didn’t give him much of a clue of where he found himself.

However, even before confirming that this was indeed the world of Dragon Ball, he already started training. It was perhaps a bit crazy, assuming his second life would be taking place in a fictional universe from a Japanese comic book, but he thought it was safer that way—worst case, he’d just make himself look like an idiot with his weird experiments.

Thinking back, it felt like his reaction to his rebirth was far too mild, eschewing everything else in favor of training. This was Dragon Ball, after all. Dragon Ball! Honestly, it was pretty special to him, growing up as a kid. The world, the characters—they were so vibrant and unique. He’d read and watched nearly every issue, every episode and movie.

Though, he had somewhat started to lose interest as Super progressed, being only vaguely aware of what happened after the tournament of power. As far as gaps in his knowledge went, he’d include maybe a few videogames – he hadn’t played the Xenoverse sequel – and what could be attributed to the passage of time. The first saga was a particular blind spot, given he hadn’t seen it in over a decade.

Unfortunately, a perfect memory hadn’t been included in his starter pack, nor really anything else. Well, that was perhaps not entirely true. Whichever god sent him here hadn’t given him a Saiyan body or that of some other powerful race—a disadvantage, certainly. However, well, it seemed a bit ridiculous to say so, but Yamcha was actually extremely talented for a human.

His past hadn’t been shown in the manga, and the current him’s experience couldn’t really be relied upon, but, well, everything just felt so easy. Having spent nearly thirty years in a normal human body, the difference was… incredibly stark. He’d hardly been a sickly individual in his past life, but thinking back, it was impossible not to notice the differences. Having had a mild case of asthma, a stiff right knee – inherited from his dad – allergies to pollen, being naturally skinny, along with various other biological quirks that weren’t necessarily advantageous, he was hardly an example of male perfection.

‘Yamcha’ had none of those issues. His body just… worked. Though, saying that was perhaps being conservative. It wasn’t just that he was free of illness or minor inherited defects. He was naturally fit, learned things quickly, gained muscle easily, was handsome… the list went on and on.

At first, he’d thought the humans from this Earth were just built different. However, as the years passed, he learned that wasn’t the case. Most people really were completely ordinary. They were just as frail and prone to illness as those from his past life.

Yamcha was an exception. He, and likely every other human depicted in the manga. 

In fact, he suspected Yamcha may have the best talent among the human Z-fighters. Aside from womanizing, he was perhaps most well-known for his laziness, yet he kept up with Krillin and Tien.

Thinking back, even during the first saga, he was pretty strong. Hadn’t Goku and Krillin enrolled in the Turtle school while he refused, returning to the wilderness to mess around? He couldn’t quite remember.

In any case, getting to the point where one even had the ability to participate in the canon fights was pretty impressive, especially with minimum effort. How strong could Yamcha get if he continued training? Would he be able to surpass Goku and Vegeta, who, by all accounts, weren’t slackers either? 

Yamcha would like to flatter himself, to imagine he was smarter and more hardworking than the two Saiyans, but that simply wasn’t true. He wasn’t a bum in his past life, but neither did he have the work ethic to really become outstanding at anything.

Canon Yamcha certainly didn’t either, and in this type of situation, he doubted a double negative would turn into a positive. In the end, Saiyans just loved training and fighting too much. Hadn’t Vegeta nearly killed himself trying to turn super Saiyan for the first time? That was a tremendous amount of dedication to a single goal, something Yamcha didn’t think he possessed, if he was being entirely honest.

Among humans, he was confident in becoming the strongest, but surpassing the Saiyans… well, it was a pipe dream. As the saying went, ‘hard work beats talent if talent doesn’t work hard’, but he didn’t have that much talent comparatively, and wasn’t naturally a hard worker.

If that were the end of it, Yamcha might have just called it a day, content with letting Goku beat the bad guys, with some help from Vegeta and Gohan. However, there were plenty of power-ups to be grabbed in this universe, the titular Dragon Balls being the most obvious.

Yamcha had no qualms about ‘cheating’, not when his competition was so much better than him. The Saiyans weren’t even the most egregious example, powerful as they were. Frost demons were even stronger, being able to dominate nearly every species in the galaxy with natural strength alone.

Then, there were beings like the Kais, Majin Buu, Cell and the androids… The point was, being proud and insisting on getting powerful with effort alone wasn’t a good idea. If Yamcha was going to perform better than his original version, he needed to make use of every advantage available to him.

Off the top of his head, he remembered the sacred water from Korin—not the fake, but the real version which brought someone to the brink of death. If they recovered from it, they would have their power boosted by a considerable amount. If he remembered correctly, it was this water that allowed kid Goku to defeat demon king Piccolo for good.

There were plenty similar powerups, though they were a lot further off into the future. The fruit of the tree of might was an example, though it might not even exist in this universe.

Alternate realities were a thing, so the movie stuff should be canon somewhere, but banking on being able to take advantage of them was probably a bad idea. That said, there were more power-ups available in the main universe too, like Guru and elder Kai’s potential unleashing techniques.

Funnily enough, the Ultra Divine Water was also a potential unleashing item… One would think this couldn’t be used repeatedly, but Gohan had benefitted from both Guru and old Kai. Yamcha believed it was worth taking a chance, seeing if they stacked.

There was also Shenron, who, after being upgraded by Dende, could further unleash someone’s potential without using up a wish. Yamcha hadn’t really thought much of the orange Piccolo and Gohan beast forms, but the idea of him benefiting from something similar was appealing.

However, it would be a while before Dende came to Earth…

In the end, the most dependable option remained the dragon balls, at least as a start. Using them for a wish was something he’d certainly do. He wasn’t selfish to the extent of hijacking important wishes, but the frivolous ones, like Oolong’s wish for panties, were just a waste. There were a few evil ones too, if he remembered correctly, like the one made by ‘emperor’ Pilaf.

However, thinking of what to wish for was a challenge in and of itself. The dragon balls were certainly overpowered, but they weren’t capable of anything and everything. Notably, Shenron couldn’t elevate someone’s power beyond his own, nor could he outright kill such powerful entities. Apparently, his power-level was actually pretty low, less than someone like Frieza, who, by all accounts, wasn’t even really a final boss. Not until the most recent chapters of Super, anyway.

So, what could he wish for, then? Really, he wouldn’t know until he tried. However, simple wishes that didn’t try to brute-force things were likely to work. An idea that came to mind immediately was switching bodies. Depending on which universe this was, evil Broly might exist. If that were the case, Yamcha certainly wouldn’t mind taking the Legendary Super Saiyan mantle for himself.

Really, there were so many options that he’d started taking notes. When the time came to make a wish, even if a few weren’t possible, one of them would stick.

That said, he hadn’t been idle until now. Most of his time in this new world was spent training. At first, he had no feeling for Ki, and meditation didn’t help either. He remembered it being around the dantian area, at least Gohan’s explanation to Videl hinted as much. There was the super Saiyan transformation as well, which described a tingly feeling near the spine—basically the same area.

Yamcha’s upbringing made it rather easy, given he found himself in the midst of a bunch of bandits; getting stronger, that is. Fighting ended up being his main method to train. Not a bad strategy, all things considered. In the end, doing something was perhaps the best way to get better at that something, as opposed to rote exercise.

Doing push-ups and long-distance running might increase one’s strength and fitness, but it did nothing for skill. Besides, martial arts itself was rather physically taxing—doubly so when weighted clothing was used. It was a neat trick from the manga, and one that was actually pretty applicable to real life…

Spending the night at an inn in a small town, Yamcha’s mind wandered for a long time. Seated at a little wooden desk, clarity only returned to his eyes hours after sunset. Sighing to himself, he shut his journal, encrypted by virtue of being written in the language from his past life.

He got up, stretching his arms above his head. Less than three years remained till the advent of Dragon Ball’s first saga. Not content to while away his time doing nothing, Yamcha decided to go on a road trip. Travelling from dojo to dojo, he challenged the strongest opponents he could find. Unfortunately, after awakening his Ki about three years ago, those were in short supply.

Ultimately, Goku was his only hope. As a Saiyan, he was one of the few people on this planet who could keep up, or even surpass, Yamcha’s growth.

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