Shenron wasn't as imposing as Porunga had been back on Namek, but he still carried the same imposing weight of something that I just couldn't see through, no matter how much I tried.
He didn't comment on the wish, and he didn't bother to go into detail on exactly what effect the wish had produced.
The wish itself was worded carefully. Tater, Roshi, and Bulma all had their own thoughts on the exact wording, which were represented in the eventual sentence. "Please revive all killed as a result of Lord Slug's attempted invasion of Earth, in optimal physical condition." I'd asked.
"Very well… Your wish has been granted. Farewell!" Then, in a beam of light, the dragon was gone, along with the dragon balls.
Bulma and I both reflexively noted the exact time, then she jumped back into her car and blasted away without another word, leaving a mildly annoyed Roshi on the mountain with us.
Only mildly annoyed, though. We all knew that figuring out of Zeck was alive or not took priority over everything else right now.
I made a mental note to ready the spaceship, just in case the wish hadn't brought him back. As I did that, Roshi opened his mouth. "So there were aliens?" He asked.
"Yeah. We took care of them. Don't worry about it." I reassured him, waving it off.
He shook his head, "Demons, aliens, gods, other dimensions… I can't keep up with you youngsters anymore." He muttered to himself.
"Demons and other dimensions?" I asked.
He nodded, "Apparently, Kakarot got pulled into some demon world. He sent a letter about it, if you wanna read it."
Intrigued, I took the letter Roshi handed me. It was covered with the wild, barely legible scrawling of a kid who'd learned to read and write fluently, but didn't actually care much about either, and therefore didn't put much effort into clearing up their handwriting. It read as so: "Hey, Master Roshi! Chi-Chi and I got sucked into some sort of demon world thing, and it's filled with all sorts of strong people, though some of them are pretty mean. I met this guy, he calls himself Hoss, and he seemed nice, but he's actually a big meanie! Luckily, I met this guy, Kadan, who reminds me a lot of Uncle Ox! He's helping me get stronger, so that I can take that Hoss guy down, so I can't go home just yet, but don't worry, I'm perfectly fine, and I'll be back someday. Best Wishes! Kakarot."
Reading it, I facepalmed. "...He's in the demon realm…?"
"Apparently. With that kid, I'm not really worried, though." Roshi replied, taking the letter back from me, "Maybe he'll bring back some hotties!"
"...No." I stopped him, deadpan, before the old man could perv out in front of my family.
Since the World Martial Arts tournament where I'd met Kakarot, I'd routinely kept in contact with Roshi, often consulting him for training purposes. He wasn't exactly my 'teacher', but our relationship was somewhat adjacent, with him as something of an experienced mentor offering tips to me, his junior, to parse however I saw it. We had a mutual respect going, but that was as far as it went.
"What's the demon realm, Tarble?" Tater asked.
I shook my head, "...With Kakarot, he'll probably be fine. We might, eventually, have to wish him back ourselves, though. Let's give him five years or so." I decided.
The beings in the Demon Realm past Super Saiyan level, for the most part, were gathered in the First demon world. Dabura, for example, along with, likely, the Glinds that, despite being strong enough, weren't picked to be Kais for some reason, and the lady who could make Majins. The vast majority of the Demon Realm was the first and second worlds, where the strongest tended to hover around Super Saiyan level. With his freakish natural talent, Kakarot would thrive in the third world, if he'd already met King Kadan. I was annoyed, but not particularly worried about the issue.
Tater shrugged, letting the matter drop. He had other things to talk about, anyways. "We need to talk… the second spaceship was filled with Saiyans. Over twenty of them."
…
Vegeta's eyes snapped open instantly, his hands instinctively reaching to claw at his throat for air, as mouth opened in a silent plea for air, which caused his throat to be flooded with some strange liquid that didn't taste like water at all, nor did it taste like the Frieza Force nutrient solution that he was so familiar with.
Without hesitation, he did the first thing that came to mind. He burst forward, smashing the strange glass in front of him, falling out of the tank that he'd woken up in and dropping to the floor, spluttering strange blue liquid, as his face slowly regained color.
Mel was instantly on her knees by his side, helping him cough it out, evening his breath with controlled pressure on his back.
Before long, Vegeta had composed himself enough to catch a glimpse of himself in one of the shards of shattered glass littering the floor. He sucked in a breath. A jagged scar ran from his temple down to just above his jaw. He couldn't help but stare at it for a long moment.
The moment was broken by a casual voice. "Revival successful. Limits of revival regeneration method confirmed, Specimen is alive, however the regenerative effects seem to have left mild scarring along the line of initial wound. Rough limit to cellular regenerative effects surrounding revival mechanism can be extrapolated from data. Specimen was not revived with air already inside lungs. Future revivals will require external supply of air."
"...Revival…?" The Saiyan spluttered, confused.