Five Years Ago—
Inside a room in the incubation chamber, a baby was sleeping inside a capsule marked with the identification number 65.
That baby was none other than Shallot, who had only recently been reborn.
"Mmh…"
His body had been unable to move for a long time. Although he had managed to endure for several days, Shallot could feel that he was reaching his limit.
How much time has passed… and I'm still stuck in here…
…Crunch, crunch, crunch…
Hearing the sound of footsteps, Shallot suddenly felt a bit relieved. At least someone had come to check on him.
Soon, a figure appeared before his blurred vision.
Through the haze, Shallot could barely make out the silhouette of a woman.
"Tsk, still inside? What an unlucky brat."
Memories from the past briefly surfaced in Shallot's mind, but he quickly returned to the present.
Click…
As the bathroom door opened, a woman stepped out wrapped in a towel.
She was a young Saiyan woman, not very tall, with hair that reached her shoulders.
Her face was rather pretty, and she constantly gave off a gentle and pure aura.
She was the woman who had taken Shallot in after the death of his parents—a low-class Saiyan warrior.
Melia.
From what Shallot had learned since meeting her, she didn't really like fighting. Unfortunately, she was forced into it by circumstances and by her lack of status and resources.
Another important thing he had discovered was that she was a member of Bardock's squad in this universe, the team led by Savoy's father, Bardock.
"I'm hungry. I'll go make something to eat."
"Do you want something too?"
Melia gave Shallot a gentle look.
Already used to his quiet behavior, she didn't expect an answer. Shallot said nothing as she headed toward the kitchen to prepare food.
Although this woman had taken him into her home, their relationship wasn't as warm as one might expect.
They were more like strangers living under the same roof
---
Five years earlier, the seventeen-year-old Melia had been only a rookie warrior with a power level slightly above one thousand.
She, Shallot's parents, and several other Saiyans had been sent on a mission to help a planet that was being invaded by another race.
However, the information they had received was wrong.
Several powerful creatures were hiding on that planet.
Even after transforming into Great Apes, the Saiyans were unable to compete with them.
Normally Saiyan missions were carried out efficiently, without causing unnecessary damage to the planet itself.
But with their lives in danger, they could no longer worry about that.
The battle was fierce.
In the end, half the planet was reduced to ruins.
Because she was the weakest member of the group, Melia was largely ignored by the enemy.
But as the battle dragged on, one Saiyan after another fell, and it soon seemed that they would all be wiped out.
At that moment, Shallot's parents—already mortally wounded—chose to self-destruct, taking their enemies down with them.
Melia, the last survivor, seized the opportunity and escaped from the planet.
---
Although Saiyans were generally not very sentimental, Melia was different.
She had a more peaceful nature, and she felt indebted to Shallot's parents.
After learning that they had a child who had remained inside an incubation capsule, she felt it was her duty to at least take him in and give him a home.
She went to see him in the incubation chamber.
Some of her friends told her she could simply forget about it.
But Melia decided to go anyway.
And when she saw Shallot there, helpless and alone, she felt that she had made the right decision.
Even though at first she thought she might not be able to handle it on her own, Melia still took him in.
She brought him to her home and casually prepared some food for him.
Since she had no experience with babies, she asked some of her comrades who had children for advice and tried to take care of him with kindness.
However, aside from occasionally preparing snacks for him when he was small, Melia rarely had time to truly look after Shallot.
In truth, he mostly grew up by himself.
After all, she was often away on missions for months at a time.
Shallot had to find food on his own and learn every skill necessary to survive.
When pushed to the limit, any creature can unleash extraordinary potential—and the Saiyans, a warrior race, are no exception.
Thanks to his intelligence and perseverance, Shallot managed to survive even during Melia's long absences.
---
Before long, Melia finished preparing a large meal.
The two of them sat down and ate without exchanging a single word.
Although she was a petite and gentle woman, Melia certainly didn't have delicate table manners.
The way she ate was more like a starving wolf.
Of course, most Saiyans were like that.
Constantly fighting meant they had enormous appetites and needed huge amounts of high-energy food.
Melia also had excellent cooking skills.
On a planet where combat was practically the only culture, her cooking was considered top-tier.
It was probably the only thing Shallot truly appreciated about her, besides her gentle personality.
She had never taught him her cooking skills, and Shallot was curious about where she had learned them.
But he never asked.
As long as Melia cooked delicious meals when she returned from her missions, he didn't really care about the rest.
"How did this mission go?"
While eating, Shallot asked casually.
Melia looked surprised.
Even at home, they rarely spoke to each other, and Shallot almost never asked questions like that.
Why today?
"This mission didn't go well. We couldn't save the people on Planet Kanassa. Bardock was reckless and got injured by a surviving warrior who blamed us for not arriving in time. He's still in the healing chamber."
Then she looked at Shallot with a raised eyebrow.
"Why are you asking?"
Melia spoke in her usual calm tone.
"Nothing. I was just curious."
Shallot answered indifferently and went to get more food from the kitchen.
---
Although Melia's explanation had been simple, Shallot sank into deep thought.
In some strange way, the story seemed to be unfolding almost exactly like the one he remembered, even if there were some differences.
In this case, the Saiyans had not exterminated the Kanassans.
But the outcome was still very similar to what he remembered.
And that meant something important.
Just like in the original Dragon Ball, Bardock had been injured by a psychic attack from a Kanassan warrior.
Once he recovered, he would gain the ability to see the future.
And eventually he would discover that Arctic intended to destroy Planet Sadala.
Just as Shallot had suspected from the very beginning.
Ever since he had heard people speak about Arctic in such overly virtuous terms, something had felt wrong.
To him, Arctic sounded a lot like Frost from Universe 6—a hero on the surface.
But based on what he had observed so far, Shallot felt that his true nature was probably closer to Frieza… with just a hint of Frost's deception.
---
Remembering the original story, Bardock had tried to unite the Saiyans to fight Frieza.
But no one believed him.
In the end, frustrated and alone, he confronted Frieza by himself.
He was killed by a single energy attack—along with Planet Vegeta.
Shallot even remembered an old special story where Bardock traveled back in time and became a Super Saiyan, defeating Frieza's ancestor, Chilled.
But none of that really mattered to Shallot.
The only thing that concerned him now was one simple fact.
Ever since he had begun analyzing Arctic's actions, his instincts had never been wrong.
And that thought continued to trouble him.