Dragon Ball: A Better Bulma

"Remind me again why you thought it was a good idea to wear these clothes, please," Bulma said as she drove an open car that glided inches in the air over the dirt road in front of her. 

The Capsule Corps logo on the side already showed its origin, it was a white vehicle with some deep blue accents. It was barely audible, except for a low hum as it moved.

"It was something I inherited from my mother..." Chi-Chi muttered with her head down, but the red in her cheeks was more than visible. 

"I think you misunderstood very badly under what times a woman would wear such... free clothes," Bulma said, choosing the right words when talking to a 12-year-old girl. 

Bulma, Goku, and Chi-Chi started their journey to the next Dragon Ball that the radar detected, but there was something sinister in the future, two Dragon Balls had already been collected, so it was obvious what would happen next. 

Dragon Ball canon? At least until Raditz arrives on Earth, many things will undoubtedly be different, like this situation. If it was Pilaf who had those two Dragon Balls, they would probably face him in the next direction they went. 

"My mom said she wore these clothes when she fought my dad before I was born," Chi-Chi said with a little more energy, but Bulma only bothered to look at her through the rearview mirror. 

"Girl, I don't think your mother was very precise with her words, she was probably using an understatement," Bulma said, then concentrated on the road ahead, even though she didn't have to.

The benefits of scanning two spaceships in her childhood were not only hard improvements in technology, but also in subtler aspects like automatic piloting, but unlike many people, Bulma loved to use the machines, so she paid attention to the road while driving, even though she could easily let it go. 

"I see, that suit always looked weird to me anyway," Chi-Chi finally looked up, not as embarrassed as before, so she could appreciate the scenery the car left behind. 

The land of Dragon Ball has something very remarkable, and that is that it had many wooded or isolated areas, the population was really concentrated in a few big cities and a few small towns or remote villages, after that everything was inhospitable. 

If you add up all the species that should be extinct but still exist, animal people, humans turned into animals, intelligent animals, and who knows, Kami-Sama, how many other creatures, Earth was one of the most vibrant planets in the entire Universe 7. 

It was an untouched paradise on a cosmic level, a Garden of Eden of biodiversity, and maybe the Kaio-Shin who had the great idea to imprison a being of pure evil on this planet had something to do with it. 

Bulma suspected that Shin, or Nahare, whatever you wanted to call him, had a lot to do with the absurd situation on Earth. Or maybe Earth was so lucky that it had been able to withstand the extinctions that were supposed to reduce life on it much better. 

In that sense, life on Earth was very tenacious. But when Bulma saw trilobites at dinner in her childhood, she realized that things might be even more exaggerated than she thought. 

Speaking of prehistoric life, a giant Tyrannosaurus Rex appeared in front of the car and out of the trees. It wasn't like any of its variants, it was more like what people had in mind when they thought of that dinosaur.

Only it was huge, with greenish skin and a crown of protruding horns on its head. The creature caused Bulma to stop the vehicle, but it was obvious that this matter would not end just like that. 

This dinosaur was intelligent, there was that spark of wisdom in its eyes as its mouth was full of teeth filled with saliva. The creature seemed accustomed to vehicles, as if it had seen them before and even ambushed them.

It didn't speak, just let out a ferocious roar before moving its heavy body towards them, and while one might expect slowness, the creature was actually fast, perhaps it had a lot to do with the Ki readings Bulma sensed in the animal. 

"79 power points, what a thing, Goku, do you want dinosaur steak?" Bulma said with the detector goggles on, even if she didn't rely on them to sense Ki, a quantification was always welcome. 

"I do!" Before the monkey boy could fight back, Bulma opened the door of the carriage and slowly stepped out, not caring about the threatening proximity of the enemy.

"Good, then let's cut this thing properly," Bulma circulated her Ki in her body and guided it gently to her right hand, which was raised towards the approaching dinosaur, which came towards her with an open mouth and red eyes. 

"Mono Molecular Cut" Bulma's purple Ki transformed into a grid of ultra-thin energy strands that flew towards the creature. 

The lattice expanded rapidly, covering the dinosaur's entire body, before dissipating. In front of Bulma, the creature soon fell, sliced into large square chunks of bleeding flesh. 

"How amazing!" exclaimed Chi-Chi, not disgusted by the blood as she was used to worse sights, not to mention her father hacking people up with a giant axe. 

"Complicated technique," Goku said as he got out of the car, a shrunken red staff attached to his back, a gift from his grandfather to have a good time on the adventure. 

"You can learn it if you study hard Goku, you got a B- on your last exam and that's not good," Bulma scolded Goku, who scratched his neck as he laughed.

"B- is better than a C+!" the brat said strangely proud of those bad grades, but maybe because of the particular inspiration of this world, Bulma did not tolerate much that Goku got such low grades, so she hit her head hard.

"I got good grades! Can I do that?" asked Chi-Chi, who was already gently touching one of the evenly cut pieces of meat. 

"Yes, even if your power can only increase slowly, my golden grapes will make you gain potential in the long run, so don't stop consuming them," Bulma said with obvious pride in her voice. 

Her attempts to create a modified fruit with her Ki had ironically paid off, but aside from some strange results, the Golden Grapes were undoubtedly what she appreciated the most. 

The grapes had a function Bulma had never expected, it fueled the potential of whoever consumed it. The grapes didn't increase your power, but the heights you could reach with the necessary effort and dedication. 

Though tiny, consumption over the years could work wonders, and Bulma had no qualms about sharing this discovery with those close to her, her mother and sister were more appreciative of the Beauty Peaches she was able to create, oddly enough, Goku was very fond of those peaches. 

But back to the grapes, they were another step in Bulma's goal to make humans relevant. Imagine that the humans were left behind not because of a lack of training, but because of a lack of potential.

Yes, they were able to reach the stars in time because of their intelligence, but on a fighting level, they were far behind, only a few exceptional beings could reach a power of 10,000 or more, something quite "good" in the galaxy, but tiny compared to what was to come in the future. 

"But they are very sour," Goku said with obvious discomfort, which was reflected in Chi-Chi's face.

The grapes were beautiful, they seemed to be made of gold, and even their juice was golden, but they were extremely sour, even making anyone's face crinkle comically. 

But properly processed with some by-products developed over the years, they had produced an extremely delicious wine, which Bulma tragically could not taste too much of due to her status as a minor. 

Though she had plans for the future, she wanted to use the Ultra Divine Water as part of a wine that would not only increase the drinker's potential but also their power, albeit in a less drastic and painful way. 

Perhaps she could modify the drink to give the user even more potential since Bulma was more guided by the idea that power should come from one's efforts, opportunities, or potential, not from desires or secondary objects.

Some fools in the future wanted to be the strongest in the universe and were easily surpassed, which meant one thing: their strength, however high, was illusory, and it was doubtful that they would even reach really important levels like that of a God of Destruction.

The fact that Ultra Divine Water couldn't be drunk by humans didn't matter to her, Goku could do it, and to the gods, every race was 'human' so to speak, so it had nothing to do with humans in general, maybe something to do with earthlings, there had to be more factors in this situation.

Lack of talent perhaps? The water found nowhere to draw power from and consumed their lives, that could be a possible answer, in a way explaining something strange in Dragon Ball, Goku's heart disease caused by an unknown virus.

Whatever these answers are, it was because of this curiosity to know more and to explore the wide universe of Dragon Ball that Bulma never thought that wishes like more strength, Saiyan blood, etc., as a good Chinese protagonist would say, would only hinder her path... yes, let's not forget the particular influence in this universe. 

What she did accept were the products of her hard work, like the ability Guru had on Namek, which just gave you the power you should be able to use, but for reasons you couldn't, or what old Kaio-Shin could do, which drew power directly from your potential, but gave you the ability to keep growing. 

"At least the energy strawberries are tasty, although I don't understand why it tastes like fried chicken, everything tastes like chicken..." Bulma muttered as she packed the dinosaur meat. 

Soon the journey continued and without complications, they arrived at a small village where the Dragon ball they were looking for was apparently. Although it was a remote place, the lights in the houses and on the streets indicated the presence of electricity, making it easy to find a hotel to stay. 

The next morning, they went to the house of an old woman who was busy with her garden, though along the way, many people looked at the trio curiously, especially Chi-Chi, and knowing the context, Bulma just pursed her lips. 

"Looks like I'm going to have to bash a pig's head in," the blue-haired woman muttered when they reached the old woman. 

The woman quickly noticed the visitors and was startled by the sight of Chi-Chi, so she opened the door to her house and motioned for the three to enter quietly. 

"Children, are you strangers? You shouldn't have come, there is a cruel monster who has taken many girls from the village to marry them, but none have returned, you should leave," the old woman warned when she felt that the closed door of her house was safe enough. 

"Actually, we are here to hunt this monster," Bulma stopped Goku from speaking and took over the conversation. 

"Do not waste your life on this, many strong men in the village have tried and failed. You are a delicate young girl; how will you be able to handle that monster? Go away, they shouldn't stay any longer, the villagers..." The sound of knocking on the door interrupted the old woman, who was visibly frightened. 

"Old woman! Let the outsiders out! It's for the best and you know it!" said a man, probably the one who was knocking wildly at the door. 

"The disaster in our village is only our own doing, it shouldn't affect others," said the old woman, but her words were drowned out by the constant chanting for the outsiders to be captured and handed over to the monster.

"What bad people," complained Chi-Chi, who had not expected to see the meanness of humanity, at least not like this. 

"This is what we are like when we are afraid, Chi-Chi, don't forget that," Bulma said before summoning a ball of Ki and throwing it at the door.

The explosion shattered the door and pushed those behind it, Bulma did not care about the mess of screams and cries, she would not pity people who advocated handing her over to a monster, even if it was fake and harmless. 

"Get out of my way before I leave a trail of blood, your blood," Bulma threatened with a raised hand, creating another ball of purple Ki. 

She would not kill for the sake of killing, that was not what she had learned, but threats were always good in a situation like this where people were acting irrationally. 

The people backed away and Bulma looked at the shattered door on the floor. She could have handled it better, but she was at that stage in everyone's life where hormones made her very irritable. 

"I apologize for my rudeness earlier," Bulma apologized, but the Ki Ball never left her hand, Earthlings could do crazy things when the situation forced them to. 

"No.... we understand. We overdid it, but it's just..." A man stood up, his arm was red from the blood gushing from the wound on the limb, but the pain on his face was not from the damage, it was something deeper. 

"We'll help you," Bulma said and her Ki Ball exploded into small balls that covered each injured person and healed them little by little.

An expensive technique, but it was worth it, she never intended to attack again, she just wanted them to calm down and behave rationally. Bulma then looked at the old woman, who was smaller than her, so she crouched down in a sign of respect. 

"Old woman, you have something in your house that we need, in exchange, we will get rid of the monster," Bulma said to the woman who nodded as she put a hand on Bulma's head and ruffled her hair.

"You're a good girl," the old woman said, making Bulma smile.

"I do my best."

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AN: Lol, this chapter was supposed to show Oolong straight up, but it went overboard and took a turn I wasn't expecting, but I liked it.

Also, a lot of the plots from Dragon Ball, Dragon Ball Z, Dragon Ball Super will obviously be different, especially the ones from the last two series, not to mention that almost no one watched Dragon Ball. So except for a few key moments, the rest will probably be left to mentions while I focus on the important stuff, its characters, the tournaments and of course Piccolo Sr.