"Guh—"
Tien spat blood, his body rocketing upward before it came crashing back down to earth. He had nothing left.
"Tien!" Chiaotzu cried out in alarm, then bit down hard and flung himself straight at Vegeta — arms spread wide, fully intending to self-destruct on contact.
SLAP!
Vegeta caught Chiaotzu by the neck in one hand, and without missing a beat, delivered two sharp smacks across his face with the other.
"So you want to self-destruct, do you?" Vegeta said coolly, and struck the back of Chiaotzu's neck with a flat palm.
Chiaotzu's eyes rolled back. He went completely limp.
From the moment Vegeta had moved to when the last opponent hit the ground — ten seconds. That was all it had taken.
Only Krillin and Gohan were still standing.
"The two of you — going to keep going?" Vegeta said with a cold snort.
Krillin was shaking.
Gohan's fists were clenched tight, trembling even harder.
"If you'd rather not fight — get your friends onto Frieza's ship and head home. Now." Vegeta turned and flew off toward the spacecraft without another word.
Gohan and Krillin stared at each other, completely at a loss.
Vegeta... let us go?
That doesn't feel like him at all.
Did Goku beating some sense into him actually change something?
"Uncle Krillin... what do we do?" Gohan had no idea where to begin.
"Do what he said." Krillin took a breath and said quietly, "I think Vegeta really has changed. He didn't go for the kill — not once."
"Or maybe he's going to Earth to get revenge on my dad." Gohan said, worry edging into his voice.
"I'll give him that — Vegeta has definitely gotten stronger. But compared to Goku right now? He's still nowhere close." Krillin said with a dismissive smile, unbothered.
"So... we follow his ship to Earth?" Gohan asked.
"We go." Piccolo said, his voice steady with resolve.
Then, Krillin and Gohan split up and went about the work of carrying the unconscious members of the group aboard Frieza's spacecraft one by one.
Whoosh!
The ship surged into the sky and shot off toward Earth at full speed.
The moment it lifted off, Vegeta disappeared back into the training chamber and threw himself into another round of training.
Barring any major changes, Trunks from the future should arrive in this timeline about a year from now.
Once I'm back on Earth, first stop — Bulma's place. I'll ask her father for a gravity chamber.
Wait...
Why go to her father at all? I can just ask Bulma directly.
Bulma's technical ability is way beyond her father's.
The woman who built a time machine in the future, after all. Even Whis and Beerus were a little impressed by that.
I have to recover my Super Saiyan Blue power as fast as possible.
Five days later.
The spaceship descended and touched down on Earth.
Vegeta strode out of the training room in long, purposeful steps.
In the main cabin, Piccolo and Krillin and the rest watched him with barely concealed wariness from the moment he walked in.
They had all behaved themselves for the past five days. Nobody had been willing to go anywhere near Vegeta.
Because picking a fight with someone you can't beat is just signing your own death warrant.
But what none of them could figure out was this: what had Vegeta been doing locked in his room the entire time?
He just... kept training.
And more to the point — what was this man doing going to Earth?
Was he there to challenge Goku?
Now that they had landed, everyone was burning with curiosity about what Vegeta's next move would be.
Was he going to try to take over the planet?
Under Piccolo and the others' watchful eyes, Vegeta rose straight up into the air and flew off without sparing them a single glance.
"Where — where is he going?" Yamcha scratched his head, thoroughly puzzled.
"He flew west... What's west of here? Goku's house isn't west." Krillin scratched the back of his head, equally confused.
"Has Goku even come back to Earth? Does he know Vegeta's here?" Tien said, his voice low and measured.
"Gohan — take me to your place first. Let's see if your father has made it back." Piccolo made up his mind and issued the order without hesitation.
"Yes, Piccolo!" Gohan nodded firmly.
"Krillin — you and Yamcha tail Vegeta. But do not provoke him." Piccolo turned to Krillin and Yamcha and gave his instructions. "Just keep tabs on what he does and report back."
"How do we contact you?" Krillin asked.
"Uncle Krillin, just call our house." Gohan suggested.
"That works. Let's do that." Krillin nodded.
"You two trained at Kami's Lookout, didn't you? Go to the Lookout now." Piccolo turned to Tien and Chiaotzu with a final instruction. "Through Kami, you might be able to track Vegeta's movements more effectively."
The group looked at each other with wide, impressed eyes.
As expected of Piccolo. Every instruction precisely placed.
All six of them moved without another moment's hesitation, splitting off to carry out their roles.
Krillin and Yamcha fell in quietly behind Vegeta, suppressing their Ki. They kept their distance.
"Vegeta seems... different." Krillin murmured under his breath.
"Different or not, what's that going to change? He's not going to turn into a good person." Yamcha shook his head.
"Maybe he will. Goku did say Vegeta ends up becoming a good guy eventually." Krillin smiled.
"Sure, Goku said that. But the Vegeta in front of us right now is still dangerous." Yamcha said, not entirely convinced. "This guy was ready to wipe out all of humanity not that long ago."
"What's weird though... where is he actually flying?" Krillin didn't take the bait and instead stared ahead in genuine bewilderment, keeping his voice down. "The direction he's going... it kind of looks like he's heading for West City."
"West City?" Yamcha stopped for half a beat — and the color shifted in his face.
What is Vegeta going to West City for?
"Don't tell me he's going to Bulma's place." Yamcha couldn't help saying it out loud.
"Let's just see... " Krillin said, not quite sure what to make of it himself, quietly speculating, "What would Vegeta want at Capsule Corporation?"
The bad feeling in Yamcha's gut grew heavier by the second.
"I've figured it out," Krillin suddenly said with a laugh, tossing out a joke, "He's after Bulma."
Yamcha: ...
Yamcha turned and fixed Krillin with a withering glare.
"Don't, don't — just a joke. No offense." Krillin waved it off with a nervous laugh.
"That is not funny." Yamcha said through gritted teeth.
"Relax, Yamcha — I'm pretty sure Saiyans aren't interested in women." Krillin offered by way of comfort. "Saiyans are only interested in fighting. Even look at how Goku got married — he rushed through it. Just grabbed some girl and tied the knot without a second thought."
"When you put it that way, I guess you've got a point." Yamcha nodded slowly. "I remember Goku meeting Chi-Chi when they were both little kids — some kind of promise made in childhood — and then they just casually got married when they grew up and had Gohan."
To be continued…
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