Finding the Dragon Balls wasn't too tough.
About half an hour later, Uchiha Hikari spotted one in a shallow ditch, picked up by the radar.
It was the Two-Star Ball.
Since last year, after Hikari's group made their wish, this ball must've flown straight here, landing in a dried-up tree crevice. When she found it, the surface was caked in thick dust, barely recognizable as a Dragon Ball if not for its perfectly round shape.
Hikari grabbed some water, gave it a quick rinse, and watched the two pentagon-shaped stars inside reappear. Hugging the ball, she leaped back up to the surface.
"…This is the 'Dragon Ball' you were talking about?" Esdeath asked, arms crossed, eyeing it with skepticism. "Just a little bead, maybe a bit shinier than most. Can it really grant wishes? Any wish at all?"
"Not quite," Hikari shook her head, correcting her. "There are seven of these, and you need all of them to make a wish. Plus, it's gotta be a reasonable one. Something crazy like 'become an omnipotent god' or 'rule the universe' won't cut it."
"Shenron?" Esdeath tilted her head, picturing something. "Like the East Sea Cloud Dragon, some kind of super dangerous beast?"
"Kinda similar in look, but not as big," Hikari replied honestly.
A massive creature like the East Sea Cloud Dragon was rare in any world. Shenron was decently large, maybe a few hundred meters, a bit bigger than a Susanoo, but next to the Cloud Dragon, it'd look puny.
That said…
If it was Namek's Porunga or the Super Shenron, things might be different. The latter was supposedly as big as a planet, massive even by cosmic standards. But Shenron's status was tied to higher rules, revered even by Kaioshins, so taming one as a mount or pet was a pipe dream.
Hikari knew her limits. She entertained the thought for a moment before brushing it off.
Esdeath, meanwhile, squinted, saying nothing, probably mulling over what counted as a "reasonable wish."
"Let's go," Hikari called, ready to move on. "No one's likely to come here. Let's head west—might run into some Red Ribbon Army folks on the way."
"Mm."
They set off again.
This time, Hikari traveled for half a day before stopping above a dense primeval forest. She circled briefly, then descended. After dealing with a couple of annoying Tyrannosaurus rexes, she summoned over a dozen shadow clones. They scoured the area for two hours before finally finding the second Dragon Ball at the bottom of a stream.
But as she climbed out, dripping wet, and dispelled her clones, Hikari froze, turning toward the stream's source. "Did you hear that, Esdeath?"
"Yeah," Esdeath replied, looking the same way, eyes narrowing. "People coming… sounds like a lot of them."
They stood in the breeze, waiting quietly for a few minutes.
Then, they saw several armored vehicles emerge on a dirt road across the forest, "RR" flags flapping—the Red Ribbon Army's mark. A group of heavily armed soldiers, decked out with guns, flanked the vehicles.
As Hikari and Esdeath watched from afar, the soldiers noticed them.
"Who's there?!"
"This area belongs to the Red Ribbon Army! You've got one minute to leave, or we won't hold back!"
After a few threatening shouts, one soldier whispered to his officer, "Sergeant, that thing they're holding—it looks like what the Colonel ordered us to find!"
"Hm?" The officer raised binoculars, then grabbed a megaphone, bellowing, "You two women up there! Drop what you're holding and put your hands up, or we open fire!"
"…Hmph," Esdeath sneered, cracking her neck and glancing at Hikari. "You take them, or I do?"
Hikari didn't answer, just gestured invitingly.
"Go easy. Leave a few alive so we can ask about their headquarters."
"Got it," Esdeath said with a casual wave, then dashed forward, closing the hundred-meter gap in a flash, charging straight at the convoy!
"?!"
The soldiers froze, then opened fire on command. The armed troops pulled their triggers without hesitation, weaving a dense net of bullets that blocked Esdeath's path.
Facing the onslaught, Esdeath didn't slow down. Twisting her waist, planting her feet, and sidestepping, her movements were subtle but precise, dodging bullets by the narrowest margins.
It looked a bit like Master Roshi's "automatic dodging technique" from a few days ago, but Esdeath's version was rougher. Some bullets hit her, only to be deflected by a thin layer of ice.
Frowning, clearly dissatisfied, Esdeath stopped, clenched her fist in the air, and summoned an ice sword. With a single swing, she slashed forward!
Whoosh!
The blade gleamed.
A flurry of continuous strikes followed!
A web of white sword energy, denser and deadlier than the gunfire, formed in her hands.
Amid a clatter of metal, every bullet within two meters of her was sliced in half, falling to the ground. In moments, a pile of perfectly cleaved bullet casings surrounded her, their cuts mirror-smooth.
"Impossible!"
"Cutting bullets with a sword… for real?!"
Under the Red Ribbon soldiers' terrified gazes, Esdeath smirked, looking bored. "What a bunch of small-timers. Fighting opponents like these is such a drag."
"…Kill her! She's a demon!" the sergeant roared from the armored vehicle.
The vehicle's turret kept firing, and the soldiers emptied their clips in under thirty seconds, their guns clicking empty. As they scrambled to reload, Esdeath snorted, swinging her sword again.
Clang!
A sharp whistle and sonic boom rang out. Her ice blade, moving too fast, disintegrated mid-swing, turning into countless ice shards that shot toward the soldiers like throwing knives!
"Hundred-Finger Bullet Piercer!"
This move was inspired by the Bone Pulse technique.
The principle behind "Ten-Finger Bullet Piercer" wasn't complex, and Esdeath had replicated it after seeing it once in the Land of Demons.
Blood sprayed instantly!
The soldiers were heavily armed, but their necks and eyes were vulnerable. Esdeath targeted those weak points. Even tiny ice shards, launched at sonic speeds, caused devastating casualties.
The armored vehicle's hull was scratched with white marks but not pierced.
Before the occupants could relax, Esdeath raised her hand. A massive ice pillar, meters wide, materialized in the air and smashed down like a hammer, crushing the turret gunner into paste and crumpling half the vehicle like a crushed can.
"Tch," Esdeath clicked her tongue. "This big mech is that flimsy?"
In under thirty seconds, she'd taken out most of the Red Ribbon soldiers. She dragged the sergeant and a few survivors aside, interrogated them thoroughly, then returned to Hikari.
"I grilled them. That guy's a major from the Silver Corps. He's too low-ranking to have been to headquarters, but he says there's a Red Ribbon base nearby, led by a 'Colonel Silver.' Wanna check it out?"
"Sure."
Taking down Colonel Silver was a breeze.
In the original story, he was a minor character, the first to be defeated by Goku and lose a Dragon Ball, earning a death sentence from Commander Red.
In this timeline, Hikari and Esdeath dispatched him just as easily. Esdeath, with her slightly sadistic streak as an imperial general, interrogated him, thoroughly enjoying the process.
Given the Red Ribbon Army's crimes, a bit of torture was just karma.
Once Esdeath was done, Hikari used her "Yasaka Magatama" to subtly confirm the intel, then activated "Shangri-La," teleporting them from the base to a dense forest in Earth's west.
"The Red Ribbon headquarters should be around here. Let's look around," Hikari said, summoning shadow clones that flew into the sky to search for the base.
She found a clearing, sat down, and pulled out chocolate and soda to refuel, tossing some to Esdeath.
Esdeath eyed the snacks suspiciously before eating, then used her "Demon's Extract" to create dozens of ice knights, sending them galloping in different directions.
Hikari had tried teaching Esdeath chakra and ninjutsu, but with limited time, Esdeath was still at the tree-climbing and water-walking stage, far from mastering advanced techniques like Multiple Shadow Clones. Still, after seeing Naruto's abilities, she'd tweaked her ice knights into a knockoff "ice clone" version.
These clones lacked the sentience of shadow clones, but if destroyed, Esdeath would sense it, pinpointing the location. They were good enough for scouting.
Time passed quickly.
Suddenly, Esdeath looked up, her gaze sharpening toward one side of the forest. "A few of my ice knights got smashed… that way. Red Ribbon Army?"
"Let's check it out," Hikari said, standing and waving Esdeath over. They headed toward the disturbance.
In just a few minutes, the last of the jungle parted, revealing a sprawling castle complex. Tanks and armored vehicles surrounded it, their cannons aimed their way, ready for action.
Between Hikari, Esdeath, and the castle, several shattered ice knights struggled to reform, only to be blasted apart by cannon fire.
"…More intruders! Fire!" a Red Ribbon officer barked, no attempt at negotiation.
Black cannon barrels and missiles with trailing flames roared toward them!
Esdeath raised a hand, conjuring a massive ice wall that shielded their area, blocking the incoming barrage.
Hikari, meanwhile, used her Flight Technique to soar up, her hands flashing through seals at blinding speed. She exhaled sharply: "Fire Style: Majestic Flame Destroyer!"
In the next instant, ice and fire erupted into the sky!
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