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Broly stared at the planet in front of him, which didn't even seem as big as the Bulma family estate, and honestly had no idea how the North King of the Kai managed to pass the time here.
The moment Broly arrived on King Kai's planet, he felt a sudden, crushing weight pressing down on him, almost knocking him flat. Of course, a gravity ten times Earth's was manageable for him—after a few hours, he'd be fine.
The real problem? Broly was still wearing his weighted training suit. The combined pressure was thousands of kilograms, spread across every part of his body. Under ten times gravity, the stress on his body wasn't just his weight plus the suit multiplied by ten—it was something much worse.
As Broly struggled to adjust to the overwhelming force, a small, pudgy figure pulled up beside him in a little car. Two antennae poked out from his head, his skin was blue, he wore black sunglasses and the classic King Kai uniform, and he was, without question, the most famous—and most often seen—of the five Kai, including the Grand Kai. This was the North King himself.
"Who are you? Here to race with me or something?" the North King asked as he stepped out of the car, eyeing Broly, who kept bouncing up and down in place like a hyperactive kid.
Broly felt a strange sense of familiarity as he looked at the North King. It reminded him, oddly, of the protagonist from some famous mystery series in a previous life…
(Huh… what do you guys think?)
Broly muttered to himself, thinking hard about how to get the North King to teach him his techniques. Then, remembering the cold jokes Goku once told the North King in the original story, a spark of inspiration hit him, and Broly felt his stomach twist.
No way. There was no way he was going to humiliate himself like that. Even if he couldn't learn the Kai Ken or Spirit Bomb, he could just wait, save up points, and exchange them through the system.
"Uh… race? I'm not here to race. I came to learn from you. Besides, your planet is tiny, and the track is only one lane. If we were racing and hit each other, people could get thrown off… you know, flying off the road," Broly said, pursing his lips. This actually seemed like a serious problem.
"Hit each other? Fly off the road?" The North King froze, repeating the last two sentences in utter shock. Then, red-faced, he broke down into uncontrollable laughter, rolling on the ground.
Broly watched in disbelief. Seriously? That joke wasn't funny at all. He couldn't believe how low the North King's humor threshold was. And judging by his strange mix of intellect and social awareness, Broly sometimes wondered how this guy even became a Kai.
"You've got potential, kid. Why don't I train you in the ultimate art of joke mastery?" the North King said, eyes gleaming, as if he'd just found a hidden gem.
Broly initially felt pleased—maybe this training would help him pick up those techniques. But the last part made him want to gag.
"…Uh, I think I'll skip the jokes. That's… too much for me. Let's just stick to martial arts training," Broly said.
"Seriously? You should've said so earlier. Fine, since the two jokes you just told are officially the funniest I've ever heard, I'll give you a little martial arts training instead," the North King said with a grin.
Though the four Kai might seem underwhelming in terms of combat, Broly didn't take the North King lightly. After all, he knew the real story: Bojack had been sealed at the edge of the galaxy by the four Kai. It was only because Goku brought the nearly self-destructing Cell to King Kai's planet and accidentally killed him that Bojack broke free.
Bojack had appeared in several movies, particularly as the main villain when the galaxy was in crisis. Even Super Saiyan Vegeta and Gohan couldn't defeat him at full power; it took Gohan turning Super Saiyan 2 with Goku's help to finally take him down.
By strength, Bojack was at least on par with perfect Cell, maybe slightly stronger—somewhere between Super Saiyan 1 and 2. And yet, four Kai combined to seal him. That alone made Broly take the North King seriously. Plus, this was the same North King who had created techniques Goku would use all the way through Dragon Ball Z, GT, and even into Super—the Kai Ken and Spirit Bomb. Who knew how strong he really was?
Broly trained under the North King for about four months. During that time, he occasionally teleported back to West City to check on the two women, but he never stayed long before returning to King Kai's planet.
By the end of the four months, Broly returned to West City. His speed of learning and power growth had been staggering.
At first, he refused to remove his weighted suit while adjusting to the planet's gravity, forcing his body to endure three grueling days before he even started to feel better. He began by catching the North King's two pets—just like Goku—but the North King demanded he catch both in a single attempt. Broly went from not even touching them to completing the task in mere seconds.
In the final month, Broly finally mastered the North King's two greatest techniques: the Kai Ken and the Spirit Bomb. Once he could use them in combat, the North King admitted he had nothing more to teach; the rest was up to Broly himself.
Before leaving, Broly bowed sincerely, thanking the North King for his wholehearted guidance and instruction, then returned to West City.
What Broly didn't know was that the North King had been keeping an eye on him even before he arrived. With his antennae, the Kai could sense Broly's pure, unyielding determination and terrifying potential.
The North King had been impressed from the start. Even if Broly hadn't accidentally cracked a joke that sent him rolling on the ground laughing, he would have trained him anyway.
"....."