Dragon Ball: A Better Bulma

"Ouch! Why would a hero resort to a sneak attack!?" Gora asked, angered and in pain from the blow Bulma had dealt him. He had fallen back several steps, and his helmet was completely dented.

Lazuli took advantage of this, swinging her sword in a lunge. She had never wielded a real sword before, but as a martial artist, she had excellent body control, so executing simple moves like this was relatively easy.

Bulma, for her part, felt her heart grow lighter. Looking at her staff differently, she squeezed it tightly. Perhaps she now understood a little more of Goku's fascination with bashing heads with a stick.

"That was de-stressing," murmured the blue-haired girl as she watched Lazuli and Gora begin to fight.

Gora had a simple appearance and attitude; in other words, he looked dumb, but he was a demon with much more fighting experience than Lazuli. He used his strength to parry the blonde's attacks and respond with his own.

They were similar in power, but this aspect was not a key factor yet. In the future, however, everyone measured each other's Ki size to determine who was stronger.

'Luckily, that nonsense stopped in Super, but in a real universe like this, you have to pay attention to it,' Bulma reflected. Despite having power level detectors, she did not obsess over them, preferring to leave that aspect aside.

She realized that counting energy did not mean knowing how strong one is. Obsessing over it without refining power control or gaining experience was useless.

The best a martial artist could do was aspire to what Muten Roshi and Son Gohan achieved: creating their style and developing their perceptions and ideas about energy, martial arts, and the world.

This was something that both Bulma and Goku had not neglected. The blue-haired girl had found her way and realized that simply measuring your power with a machine was silly.

'The same goes for stats. The best thing you can do is use them as a guide to know yourself better, use your abilities properly, and improve. Don't obsess about scoring points.' Bulma remembered how she had made a different detector to track her stats like a game. This allowed her to focus on her weaknesses.

She didn't use it much because, over time, she learned to understand her own body better than a machine could. However, such a tool would come in handy on other worlds because Ki is a power that is not as abstract as other energy systems.

'But now I'm on my own RPG adventure...' she said with a smile as she watched Lazuli use her shield to hit Gora in the hand. This caused him to lose his grip on his weapon. Then, she pointed her sword at him, and the demon raised his hands in surrender.

 "Human! You are strong, but we demons are stronger!" Gora stimulated the demonic power within him. Covered in a shadowy aura, both Bulma and Lazuli, the demon's main enemy, felt his increased power.

"Come on, demon!" Lazuli exclaimed. She felt that she could improve a lot during this fight and tightened her grip on the sword's handle. However, she had some doubts about its integrity because the edge was nicked.

After all, it was just a normal sword created by magic—nothing spectacular. Lazuli coated the weapon with Ki to improve its integrity and strength, but the original material was already giving way.

Gora's muscles trembled. His already huge body seemed to grow, becoming more imposing. Even his eyes began to glow with a sinister red light.

The demon stomped his foot and ran swiftly toward Lazuli, swinging his sword in a strike that would decapitate the blonde if it fell. The wind whistled in the wake of the demon's movement, seemingly dragged by the blade of his weapon.

Lazuli raised her shield, reinforced with Ki, in response to the threat of Gora's attack. The clash of metals produced a shockwave that lifted rocks and leaves from the ground. Even Bulma's blue hair fluttered wildly.

The ground beneath Lazuli cracked from the impact's power, but she took advantage of the moment to slash her sword upward. Her arm was covered in lightning, which improved her speed.

Because of the coat Gora was wearing, which barely covered his torso and was held together by a few threads, Lazuli's sword cut the demon's skin. Although it didn't dig deep, purple blood splattered.

Lazuli smiled before kicking Gora's body and using it as a platform to retreat. The demon didn't follow her, but felt the wound on his body. While it wasn't fatal, it was quite painful.

"You... Heroes are troublesome. Mera, since you showed up, why don't you fight?" Gora looked off into the distance, specifically at a large tree.

On top of it was a female figure with slightly pink skin, not because she was blushing, but because her skin was that color. With her sharp ears and her demonic aura she emitted, it was clear that she was a demon.

Her red hair was adorned with a blue crown, and she was wearing a blue suit. She had a sword sheathed on her back with a red tassel on the handle. From what Bulma and Lazuli could sense, this demon woman was not wielding that weapon merely for adornment.

"Fool! Don't you know who those humans are? They're strong!" said Mera, who looked warily at Lazuli and Bulma, especially the latter, since she knew who they were.

As a human-demon hybrid, she was one of the few of her race exposed to humans. Unlike the others, she openly explored the world without looking down on humans.

Her appearance did not attract much attention due to the diversity of species on Earth, so she was able to live a normal life and spend time in the human world.

She knew Earth society well and saw the tournament! However, she never bothered to tell anyone because she didn't like the supposed leader of the demons, Sura.

Because of this, she was the only one who knew the true power that humans could achieve. Since she didn't despise humans, she openly participated in the forum that Bulma opened because she wanted to become strong.

'If those two women can help me, maybe I can free myself from Sura,' thought Mera, focusing her attention on Bulma. After all, Bulma was the strongest one there and hadn't made much effort to hide!

"Aren't they just the human heroes?" asked Gero, who had used his demonic power to cauterize the wound inflicted by Lazuli, thus avoiding shedding more blood.

"They are powerful, especially the blue-haired girl," Mera pointed out to Bulma. Realizing that the demon woman knew her identity, Bulma smiled.

Bulma had detected this woman before and had used her empathic ability on her. She had realized some interesting things, so she looked at Lazuli.

"Finish with that guy. I'll have a little chat with this pink girl," the blue-haired girl said to Lazuli, who nodded.

"Okay, I want to try some things with this dude," the blonde replied, covering her body with blue lightning.

Her figure became a blur as she attacked Gora in a single flash. Although the demon used his sword and energy to defend himself, small lines of blood on his arms showed that he couldn't protect himself from Lazuli's relentless attacks.

The blonde's figure seemed unreal as she circled the oversized demon like a wolf hunting prey. She pushed her sword to its limits, so much so that the metal began to redden due to the intensity of her movements and the energy she was expending.

Because of this, Gora could only cover his body with a faint layer of demonic power. Although this did not prevent damage to his body, it mitigated it. The blood covering his skin spread more and more.

Though his size and past attitudes might suggest he was unintelligent, his red eyes were not clouded with stupidity or anger. Instead, they assessed how Lazuli fought, trying to find a gap in his movements.

...

"So, beauty, why don't you help your friend?" Bulma flew toward the tree where Mera was. The demoness tensed up as she could feel the young girl's energy floating toward her.

While normal humans were like tiny fireflies, Bulma was an extremely bright and hot light bulb. Although demons weren't classic evil entities weak to light or positive things, Bulma's power was different in that it had an inherent temperature.

Many martial artists had felt this before, but Ki was so varied and special that differences like this were normal. After all, life is diverse, and since Ki is essentially the power of life, it can change depending on the person.

"We are not friends, perhaps companions, but not friends. I have different duties than he does," Mera replied after calming down. However, Bulma had already sensed his emotions:

Fear, anticipation, and deep down, hatred. Bulma didn't like mixing with other people's emotions, so she only faintly sensed them. Still, they always served as a guide for her in dealing with people.

"Ah, some kind of division in your dimension?" asked Bulma, causing Mera to take a step back. The blue-haired girl was quite insistent, getting close to the demon woman.

"Weren't you the ones who always harassed the nearby villages and behaved like classic demons?" Bulma continued. The reason she hadn't attacked and killed both Gora and Mera was that she felt no trace of evil in their energy.

Demonic power might have a gloomy atmosphere, but it was a normal energy, like any other. It was probably the unique way demons had of manifesting Ki. What mattered were the stains on one's aura.

Your actions impacted your energy. Although ethics and morals did not matter to the universe, certain actions affected how others perceived your Ki and could change its fundamental nature.

Bulma is an example of this. Because of her unique nature and personal actions, her Ki was similar to the sun. However, if someone felt Freezer's energy, they would sense the coldness and ominous aura that destroyed entire civilizations.

Bulma did not kill these two demons because she did not sense evil in their energy. However, she could not say the same for other demons who had a reputation for harassing humans living near the dimensional gate.

"Gora's just a scout, and I'm just a spy!" Mera finally replied, breathing shakily as Bulma removed the subtle pressure she had been emanating and restricted her Ki, making her presence as minuscule as that of a normal person.

"Carry on," Bulma said, making a simple gesture before sitting down in the treetop. Though she seemed silent, waiting for Mera to speak, some ideas were hovering in her mind.

'This girl uses a sword and has an interesting atmosphere. Maybe she and Yamcha can get along. As long as he doesn't do something stupid, maybe he won't be so lonely in the future!' Bulma imagined little pink-skinned children with Yamcha's hair, causing a strange smile to creep across her face.

Mera, who saw Bulma smile, and Yamcha, who was in the distance, both felt a shiver run down their backs. They sensed that something was about to happen to them.

'Although heroes always get the beauties, I already have one, and that's good enough for me.' Bulma watched the end of the fight between Lazuli and Gora with great interest.

What an interesting denouement that had been!

-----------

AN: TheAnPlayer2 gave me a tip: Promote my original stories every 5 chapters. So, read my original novels: Steam and Heart, and Witch's Adventure. You may or may not like them, but give them a chance. c: 

Mera first demon waifu on DB.