55: All the pretty girls liked me.

"Good job, Krillin!" Goku shouted as his partner returned.

"I don't think I did a good job, but thank you!" Krillin said in a low tone, but he had a big smile on his face, happy that he had fought well. 

"No, you did an excellent job. Was that a new technique?" Yamcha asked, touching Krillin's shoulder and looking at him with interest. 

"Yeah! Do you think I'm falling behind? You guys are always coming up with new techniques, I don't want to just have an arsenal of unused techniques and none of them be mine," although Krillin's comment was normal, even full of determination, something sparkled in Bulma's eyes when she heard it. 

'If you only knew...' Bulma thought as she looked sideways at Goku, remembering that his 'original' version barely had one or two original techniques, and the rest of his arsenal was techniques created by other people. 

Even though there are powerful techniques in the world of Dragon Ball, Bulma has always believed that what you create is best for you, not only because it allows you to learn more about yourself, but in many cases, the creator is the only one who can bring the performance of that technique to 100% unless it is taught well to someone else.

So she was very supportive of innovation among her peers; each new technique, no matter how simple, was an example of what they had learned and the path they had traveled. 

"And it seems to be an interesting technique," Bulma said, and her comment made Krillin scratch his neck. 

"Hearing that from you, I guess I did well," Krillin said excitedly.

He recognized Bulma as his 'big sister', so the girl's words were quite comforting to him, because what could be better than receiving recognition from a person you care about?

"Bulma, you came up on the screen," Chi-Chi said suddenly, making Bulma look at the screen.

Bulma's name appeared next to Lan-Fan's, and soon she felt someone behind her looking at her intently. When she turned around, she saw that it was Lan-Fan winking at her. 

"The next contestants are Bulma and Lan-Fan! Please come up!" the announcer called, making both fighters step into the arena. 

"Hi, sweetie~!" Lan-Fan waved her hand gently at Bulma, who felt a strange sensation as if something 'soft' was caressing her mind. 

Suddenly, Bulma's eyes narrowed, releasing a strong pressure that dispelled the strange sensation from her mind. Annoyed, she looked at Lan-Fan, who burst out laughing as she covered her face.

Every movement of the woman radiated a great charm, as if she had integrated sensuality deep into herself and tried to attract everyone's attention with every gesture. 

"Oops, looks like you're a little alert, too bad~" Lan-Fan whispered, and although her tone was sweet, her eyes glittered menacingly.

Bulma didn't need to use her empathic ability to notice Lan-Fan's strangeness, it seemed as if the false mask on this woman's face was falling, revealing a bit of her true self.

"Begin!" Roshi announced, and the starting gong was struck, signaling the beginning of the match. 

"Chanting? Seduction? I never thought I'd see a technique like that," Bulma said, a little annoyed by Lan-Fan's attempt to mentally attack her.

"Honey, a woman's best weapon is her charm. If humans can create ki, punch, and kick techniques, why not charm?" Lan-Fan ignored the pouty face Bulma made when she heard his words, she just looked at the audience. 

"Isn't that right, my fans~?" said Lan-Fan, and although she did not shout, her voice was heard by everyone present.

This showed Bulma how well the woman in front of her controlled her energy, but the most interesting thing was yet to come. Soon, the crowd seemed to be overly in love with Lan-Fan, shouting her name at the top of their lungs.

"See, the boys have a crush on me, but my 'radar' says you're not interested in boys... so look, all the beautiful girls have a crush on me," Lan-Fan said with a strange smile on her face. 

Yes, many women in the audience seemed to have pink 'hearts' in their eyes, all of them calling out Lan-Fan's name as if they were madly in love with her. Bulma was not bothered by this, but she noticed something very strange.

A strange fluctuation of energy was being generated in the crowd, and slowly that energy was falling on Lan-Fan, empowering her. Bulma didn't want to see her rival's changes, so her purple Ki surged in her body, ready to stop Lan-Fan. 

"Don't get impatient, don't you know that the strongest force in the world is love?" Lan-Fan raised an eyebrow when she saw that Bulma was about to attack, so she went to work as well. 

Although she hadn't collected all the 'love' from the audience yet, she was already strong enough to fight Bulma, because Lan-Fan was aware that her normal strength would not be enough against the blue-haired girl in front of her. 

She had noticed it before, because as a martial artist, her sense of alertness and crisis was on high alert. When Bulma did her power demonstrations, she knew that she had to use her best technique. 

She had discovered this strange power called 'Love', all under the guidance of a strange woman who was very ugly to her, but was called very 'beautiful'. This so-called beautiful woman taught her this power and how to use it.

Although she did not follow the strange path of this supposed woman, she was inspired to develop a subtle seduction technique capable of generating the 'love' she needed to become stronger. 

Now... she wanted to use this special power against her rival, Bulma. By the way, it was this power that showed him the special tastes of his rival, because since it was the power of 'Love', it could sense people's tastes in that area. 

Lan-Fan's body glowed with a pink energy filled with a strange feeling, and many fighters suddenly felt that Lan-Fan was unusually beautiful, and although they were strong-willed people, they could not help but feel a certain attraction to the woman. 

Even Nam, who was an ascetic who had mastered his desires, looked at Lan-Fan with some interest, but perhaps the only person who did not suffer from this strange influence was Goku, who simply scratched his head. 

"I don't understand, why is everyone acting weird?" wondered Goku quietly, watching as his friends and even Chi-Chi looked at Lan-Fan strangely, only he was immune to the fighter's abilities due to his purity of heart and youth.

"I hate memetic abilities," Bulma complained, flying low towards Lan-Fan. 

"It's just my beauty that attracts everyone's attention~" Lan-Fan took a fighting stance and punched forward.

The two women's fists collided, and to Bulma's amazement, Lan-Fan held still even though the ground beneath her cracked from the force of the impact. 

"You are strong, but love makes me so much stronger, sweetheart~" Lan-Fan whispered to Bulma before throwing a kick to her stomach, but her rival was able to lift her leg to defend herself. 

Soon, the two began to exchange blows, constantly moving around the arena. Each blow between them constantly cracked the sand and expelled air, gradually creating a vortex around the women. 

Lan-Fan's influence spread beyond the island; each spectator, each person who caught their eye, felt a strange attraction that provided small crumbs of energy that empowered them more and more. 

It was this growing strength that allowed Lan-Fan to hold her own against Bulma, and to some extent, to be on equal footing. Even if Bulma was inclined to use energy attacks, Lan-Fan's increased power was enough to not only protect herself but also to counterattack.

'This is too absurd,' Bulma thought, but a smile tugged at the corner of the girl's lips. 

She wasn't a Saiyan, but she was looking forward to this fight because she rarely had the chance to fight with her full power, and her strength had been growing slowly. Sure, she had Gohan and Arale to compare herself to, but that would be a crushing defeat, nothing that would help her grow. 

Bulma's effort was slowly reaching the maximum she could exert, using all of her strength, but Lan-Fan's influence was like a black hole, attracting the 'love' it generated in all who saw it. 

What they didn't know was that by using this kind of power, a derivative of Ki from another universe, Lan-Fan attracted the attention of a certain being who was a little curious about the situation. 

But the fight continued to increase in intensity. Bulma had clasped her hands together, channeling her Ki into the opening of her palms, creating an ever-growing, spinning ball of blue energy. 

"Kame!" Bulma shouted, and this made Lan-Fan stay alert, even with so much 'love', a lot of it was wasted, and she could not fully utilize it, so she could not crush her opponent, something that annoyed her. 

"Hame!" When she saw that Bulma was going all out, to the point that loose pieces of shattered sand were rising up and even falling apart. 

So Lan-Fan quickly used one of her techniques, an extremely hot crimson aura erupted from her body, channeled into her palms, and extended in Bulma's direction. 

"Ha!"

"Blast wave!

Both girls screamed in unison, a blue and a red energy beam colliding head-on, exploding in the middle of the arena. Both energy attacks collided hard, not moving from place to place. 

"Is that all you have? You can't go any further! While the love of the world makes me stronger," Lan-Fan said, feeling the slow but sure increase of her energy as her attack pushed Bulma's Kame Hame Ha in her direction. 

"Hehe... but that's not your power," Bulma pointed out the crux of the matter. Yes, it was impressive the power Lan-Fan could achieve with the power of 'Love', but Bulma could see that she was using it in a very crude way. 

Her actual Ki had not increased! If Lan-Fan's Ki increased with this power, it would make this woman much more dangerous, because she could grow constantly if she became some kind of idol on a universal level. 

But that was not the case. Any power that doesn't belong to you is useless, something Bulma felt very strongly about. And even though she was using all of her energy right now, she didn't care if her attack was returned to her. 

Because this situation could make him draw more power from within! Her Kame Hame Ha was barely extended from her body, the heat from Lan-Fan's attack even made her sweat, but Bulma could feel her limits.

'Finally... I haven't had a good fight like this in a long time,' Bulma thought, feeling those limits inside her like a big stopper, but as she was pushed into a corner, her determination grew more and more. 

"Come on... a little more, a little more," Bulma muttered, feeling her energy dwindling, even her Kame Hame Ha was weakening; she hadn't expected Lan-Fan to be so different from her canonical version, but that was good, wasn't it?

More diversity! Only this diversity would make this new life a unique and different story from the 'standard' one. Then, just as she was about to be hit by Lan-Fan's attack, something inside her opened her eyes. 

The Kame Hame Ha turned purple, unlike Lan-Fan's red-hot energy, Bulma's Ki radiated warmth, but a strange pressure surged from the blue-haired girl's body, as if something was looking down on this world with disdain. 

It was only a small part of all the power hidden within her, but it helped her to break through that barrier, and even though her energy was about to run out, her attack seemed to revive with new strength. 

Soon, the two energy attacks returned to the starting position. This time, Lan-Fan looked at Bulma with some fear. Why did this girl seem to be emitting more energy when she was exhausted? 

She didn't understand any of this! But this was the basic core of the best fighters in this universe, to draw energy from deep within themselves, to push their limits, to constantly overcome.

Only a certain being, who decided to watch this fight out of curiosity, looked at Bulma with even more interest, noticing a bit of her true nature and causing his eyebrow to raise.

The butterflies continued to flap their wings, adding to the chaos in this universe.