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After finishing the spaceship, Broly originally planned to head to Planet Namek on his own, gather the Dragon Balls, and revive Piccolo and Krillin. He also thought it'd be a good chance to meet Frieza.
Broly suspected the fifth-ring mission's enemy was almost certainly Frieza. But after thinking it over, wouldn't it be easier to let Goku and the others reach Namek first, then simply lock onto Goku's ki and teleport straight to them?
Of course, Broly wasn't going to Namek because he was some kind of saint. He just felt partly responsible for the deaths of Piccolo and Krillin. He clearly had the power to kill Slug easily, but he got cocky, fell for Slug's trick, and the two of them paid the price.
That was Broly's personality. He hated owing people favors, but hated making others pay for his mistakes even more. If their deaths had nothing to do with him, he wouldn't bother with this mess at all.
Once the ship was complete, sign-ups for the Namek trip began.
Goku registered first. No surprise there. Goku was basically a single-cell organism: Piccolo and Krillin died, he was sad for about five minutes, then went right back to normal. And going on adventures was his favorite thing in the world, so of course he'd be the first to volunteer.
Right after him was Gohan. When his mother, Paresa—Goku's rich heiress wife—heard the news, she exploded on the spot. It took Goku and Gohan repeatedly promising her they'd be careful before this usually gentle and soft-spoken woman finally agreed.
Considering Gohan and Piccolo's… special father-son bond, him wanting to go was no surprise.
Vegeta was the last one. After Bulma's team finished the ship's new design, Vegeta promptly took the craft that originally belonged to him. No one knew what he intended to do with it. But somehow Goku convinced him to come along. Broly shook his head and refused to think too deeply about it. If he let his mind wander, he might end up imagining some terrifying deal between those two.
When it came time to launch, Goku, Gohan, and Vegeta were dumbfounded. The ship had been rebuilt with Earth technology in mind. None of them could fly it. Even Vegeta, who had used plenty of spaceships before, was completely lost.
And even if one of them could pilot it, if something went wrong mid-flight, the consequences would be terrifying. With luck they could crash-land on a nearby planet. Without luck, they'd die pathetically in the void.
So they decided to bring someone who actually understood the ship's systems. Naturally, that person was Bulma.
And because Broly didn't trust leaving Bulma alone, he ended up going too. He knew Namek wouldn't be smooth sailing. Because of his butterfly-effect interference, Krillin was already dead—who knew how much the original plot would still hold once Frieza entered the picture?
If Bulma was going, he had to protect her. Broly couldn't help complaining in his heart: If only my Instant Transmission were fully mastered already. With the universe being this huge, traveling anywhere would be easy. Instead, we're putting in all this effort and I don't even know what Planet Namek looks like.
He still had two more levels before mastering the technique completely. Once he finished the sixth-ring mission, he'd reach the level of Kibito Kai. But the final step could only be reached through his own enlightenment. Once he broke through, a single thought would be enough to reach any corner of the universe.
"Hubby, you have to protect Bulma and Gohan, okay? And think about us every day!" The three women hugged Broly tightly before departure. Round trip to Namek would take at least a few months.
The girls kept nagging Broly and Bulma, though Chi-Chi was the loudest. Under Broly's influence—and his subtle hints—her personality and fashion sense had changed so much she was practically a different person from the original story.
"Got it, don't worry. I'll think of you every day," Broly said, rubbing their heads affectionately.
That night, because Broly and Bulma would be leaving soon, the other three women tried their absolute best to drain him dry. Bulma sensibly stayed out of it at first, but against Broly's monstrous endurance, resisting was impossible. In the end, she was pulled into the night-long "battle" to help the others defeat him.
By dawn, after dying and reviving metaphorically countless times, the four women finally surrendered. Before leaving, Broly tied the four Life-Bond Strings he'd earned from defeating Slug around their fingers—just in case anything happened while he was gone.
On the ship, Goku finally blurted out the question he'd been holding in.
"Broly, when you beat Slug, you looked completely different. Your power jumped dozens of times in an instant. That wasn't Kaioken. How did you do it?"
Vegeta, who had been pretending to nap with his eyes closed, twitched an ear. He wanted to know the answer too.
"That form is called Super Saiyan. But it isn't the complete transformation. It's a transitional stage between a normal Saiyan and a true Super Saiyan. I call it the Pseudo Super Saiyan."
Broly didn't hide anything. There was nothing worth hiding anyway. With Goku and Vegeta's strength, they'd find out eventually whether he told them or not.
"In that form, you unlock part of your latent potential. Your power shoots up—about thirty times your normal state. But there's a drawback. Your consciousness shuts down for a moment. Once your awareness returns, the form drops immediately."
"But from what I saw, your mind was completely clear," Vegeta said suddenly, opening his eyes and staring at him.
"Yeah! Otherwise how'd you block almost all of Slug's self-destruction energy?" Goku added.
"That's because my bloodline is different from yours. I can stay conscious during the transformation, but you two probably won't be able to. So my suggestion is for you both to aim straight for the real Super Saiyan form."
Broly had no intention of explaining his unique bloodline, but not saying something didn't necessarily mean others wouldn't figure it out.
"Super… Super Saiyan? I remember now," Vegeta muttered. "Our race does have a legend. A warrior who, from birth, can reach Super Saiyan even without training. Don't tell me… that person is actually you?"
"....."