Truthfully, Bulma had been exhausted for a long time.
She and Yamcha had been fighting constantly throughout their relationship, for reasons she could never quite put her finger on.
She'd wanted to break up with him for ages.
She'd even been half-heartedly looking around for someone else — but the right person had never shown up.
And now her future husband had come walking straight through her window. A backup plan so good it could move straight to the front seat.
Hearing Bulma say she wanted to break up, Yamcha stood there in stunned silence for a long moment, completely unable to process what had just happened.
How does she just call it off like that?
What did I ever do to you?
"From now on, Vegeta is my boyfriend!" Bulma announced with a giddy smile, stepped forward, and looped her arm through Vegeta's.
Vegeta kept his expression impressively cool — though a very faint trace of red crept up the back of his neck.
Yamcha: ...
Krillin: ...
The two of them stood there in stunned paralysis, eyes wide, mouths hanging open, utterly incapable of understanding how Bulma's mind worked.
From when Bulma landed to when we followed — that was three minutes. Three minutes total.
Three minutes and you two are already an item?
Vegeta was, if he was being honest, a little flustered himself.
Bulma, you are awfully forward.
This isn't how I remember history going at all.
Is this going to throw the whole timeline into chaos?
And... Trunks isn't going to show up early, is he?
Vegeta found himself doing a lot of mental calculations at once.
Yamcha had completely lost it. His chin was practically on the floor.
Bulma, are you actually serious about this?
"Bulma... how long have you even known Vegeta? You've known each other less than three minutes and you're already committed?" Yamcha said, absolutely baffled, bordering on incoherent.
"Yes! That's pretty much what's happening!" Bulma confirmed with a very serious nod.
"And also — Vegeta literally tried to destroy the Earth!" Yamcha pointed out.
"You said 'tried to,' didn't you? That was then. He's changed now, hasn't he?" Bulma countered, completely unfazed.
Yamcha: ...
Yamcha deflated like a punctured balloon. He had absolutely nothing left to say.
"It'll be okay, Yamcha. You've still got all of us." Krillin said, doing his best to play peacemaker from the sidelines.
Yamcha wiped a bead of sweat from his forehead.
Fat lot of good you lot are.
My girlfriend just got swiped by a Saiyan prince...
This is... this is like something out of a science-fiction novel.
"You two can leave now." Vegeta waved a hand, indicating that Yamcha and Krillin were welcome to see themselves out.
Yamcha: ...
Krillin: ...
You've barely gotten together with Bulma and you're already acting like you own the place.
You've got some nerve, Vegeta.
"Or you can stay — and experience the same treatment as before." Vegeta gave a cold snort and meaningfully flexed a fist.
Krillin's mouth twitched in alarm.
Yamcha, despite his wounded pride, also felt a distinct chill run down his spine.
The two of them beat a hasty retreat and vacated Bulma's home.
"Hey — Vegeta. In the future, was it you who chased me or me who chased you?" Bulma asked with a mischievous grin, tilting her head up at him. "It had to be you falling for my charms, right? So you definitely came after me first!"
Vegeta: ...
A brief silence.
"You're better off not knowing." Vegeta shook his head.
"What?! Don't tell me I was the one who chased you. I mean — I'm this young, this gorgeous, this adorable, this sweet, with this figure... why would I ever have to chase anyone?" Bulma crossed her arms, puffed out her cheeks, and began a steady stream of indignant muttering.
Vegeta looked at her in silence.
Back when we first started out, whenever she pulled this little act, I used to just ignore it.
Funny. Right now, it actually seems... kind of cute.
A warmth he wasn't expecting crept into Vegeta's face.
Worth noting: the Vegeta who had reincarnated here had come from the events of the Goku Black arc. By that point in time, Vegeta had long since grown into a dependable husband and father — a complete contrast to the Goku of that era, who had become so consumed with training and fighting that he had all but checked out of family life. That was around the time "Goku-of-the-dog" became a popular sentiment among the fans of a certain point of view.
During the Goku Black arc, Bulma had actually been pregnant.
That was the other reason Vegeta had said what he'd said earlier.
He didn't know whether the child was a boy or a girl — there had never been a checkup. Perhaps, for the Brief family, the child's gender simply didn't matter much either way.
By now, Yamcha and Krillin had already flown away from Capsule Corporation and were hovering over West City.
"Yamcha, chin up. Women — there are plenty of them out there." Krillin said, doing his best.
"You're right." Yamcha straightened up and nodded. "Which is exactly why I'm going to find a massage parlor and unwind. Coming with?"
"Ah... I'll pass, you go on your own. That kind of thing's not really for me." Krillin said, turning red and waving the suggestion off.
"Come on, every guy's interested — don't give me that. Get over here, I'll set you up with someone nice." Yamcha grabbed Krillin by the arm and dragged him off toward the massage parlor.
Three hours later.
The two of them emerged looking thoroughly refreshed.
"Not bad, was it, Krillin?" Yamcha grinned and clapped him on the shoulder.
Krillin nodded with great enthusiasm.
A short silence.
"But speaking of which — are you really just going to let the whole Bulma thing go?" Krillin asked.
"At this point, the only option is to ask Goku for help." Yamcha rubbed his chin thoughtfully.
"Knowing Goku, he probably won't get involved." Krillin shook his head.
Yamcha immediately felt the fight go out of him.
Because the more he thought about it, the more he realized Krillin was right. Goku wouldn't take sides to go after Vegeta over something like this — not when Vegeta hadn't actually done anything wrong.
All in all, Vegeta's return to Earth had turned out to be a lot of bark and very little bite. The only real casualty was Yamcha. Everyone else simply got on with their lives.
Word of Vegeta and Bulma getting together spread quickly to Tien, Gohan, and the others.
Beyond a brief moment of silence in Yamcha's honor, there wasn't much anyone had to say about it.
Planet Vampa.
Several more months passed.
Through sheer determination and relentless training, Frieza had finally reached the point where he could sustain his Golden Form for an extended period.
"Son Goku — just you wait." Frieza let out a string of his signature high-pitched laughs, savoring what was to come.
He thought it over.
The time had come, he decided, to settle his score with Broly.
Beat the kid into the ground first — then bring him to heel as my subordinate.
Yes. That'll do nicely.
Frieza shot off toward the area where Broly lived, his body blazing with golden light as he transformed directly into Golden Form and descended like a meteor into the cave Broly called home.
"Ohohoho! Surprise!" Frieza said with a wide, satisfied smile, fixing his gaze on Broly.
"You're... you?" Broly looked at Frieza with his limited command of language.
"This time I'm going to grind you into the dirt!" Frieza snarled with glee and launched himself at Broly, unleashing a barrage of punches and kicks right from the start.
Broly was hammered back without a chance to fight back.
The main problem was that Frieza had opened with Golden Form from the very first moment.
Broly was still in his base form — he hadn't had time to transform.
"You're no match for me like this, are you, you wild ape?" Frieza pummeled Broly enthusiastically, laughing so hard his shoulders shook, practically beside himself with joy.
CRACK!
Broly had taken enough. He activated his Wrathful Form.
Even so, Broly's Wrathful Form wasn't enough. Frieza continued to beat him without mercy.
"Just transform already! You're not going to beat me in that state!" Frieza said with a light laugh.
BOOM!
A blaze of golden light erupted across Broly's entire body. His hair surged upward as he exploded into his Super Saiyan transformation.
"You think just because you're a Super Saiyan, you can beat me, Frieza?!" Frieza declared triumphantly. "Last time, I wasn't at peak condition — Ah — Oh — "
Frieza was mid-gloat when Broly grabbed him by the head and drove it straight into the ground.
Frieza's screams rang out without pause.
SCRRRAPE—
Broly showed no mercy whatsoever — he pressed Frieza's head into the earth and dragged him across it like he was trying to leave a furrow.
Frieza felt as though his skull was being flattened.
THWAM!
Broly followed with a punch that drove directly into Frieza's stomach.
"Pfgh—"
Frieza vomited and went stiff as a board, all four limbs seizing upward.
Broly seized Frieza by the tail, swung him around, and sent him slamming into the ground repeatedly — left, right, forward, back — without stopping.
Frieza's screams reached a pitch that could have shattered glass.
Thirty minutes later.
"No more — no more! I give up!" Frieza said through gritted teeth, his body shaking violently, his pupils dilated and shot through with red.
KICK!
Broly stared down at Frieza with cold, expressionless eyes, then delivered several more kicks to complete the lesson before finally stepping back.
Frieza was seething, his fists clenched so tight his knuckles ached, rage burning at an absolute peak.
In that moment, Frieza genuinely considered destroying Planet Vampa on the spot.
I'm Golden Frieza. And I can't beat a single Super Saiyan?
No. I'm not going to kill this Broly outright — that would be letting him off too easy.
I need to manipulate him into fighting Son Goku.
Let the Saiyans tear each other apart... Ohohoho!
Frieza felt a thrill of anticipation just thinking about it.
He waited a moment longer. The golden light faded from Broly's body as he returned to his base form.
Frieza recognized his opening.
Through careful observation, he had noticed that this particular Saiyan — Broly — lost all rational thought once he transformed. In his base form, though, he was calm and perfectly capable of a normal conversation.
"So — when did you end up on this planet?" Frieza asked pleasantly.
"Hm? You're..." Broly scratched his head and looked at Frieza with vague surprise.
"I'm Frieza." Frieza introduced himself.
"Your body..." Broly pointed at Frieza's injuries.
Frieza: ...
That landed right in the chest.
"That's neither here nor there." Frieza said through his teeth and immediately changed the subject. "Broly — what do you say? Want to find a way off this planet?"
"Leave?" Broly looked up at the sky.
"The universe is vast. The world beyond this rock is something else entirely. And the food here is dreadful — you haven't even had clean water to drink, have you?" Frieza leaned into the emotional appeal, smiling pleasantly. "Come with me and leave this planet. I'll see to it that you have everything you could possibly want — food, drink, the works."
"Don't understand!" Broly scratched his head with a blank expression.
"You don't need to understand. I'll arrange a ship to come here, and we'll leave together." Frieza proposed.
Broly nodded without objection.
"Stay here and wait." Frieza said, and with that, he blazed into golden light and launched straight upward.
Whoosh!
Frieza punched through Planet Vampa's atmosphere in moments and emerged into open space.
He looked around, picked a direction, ignited his golden aura, and flew.
He flew for a full month.
At last, Frieza spotted a tourist spacecraft.
He flew over, unceremoniously dumped the passengers out into space, and claimed the vessel for himself.
Then he piloted the ship back to Planet Vampa and collected Broly.
The spacecraft surged upward and re-entered the stars.
"Here." Frieza said, and tossed a bottle of water over to Broly.
Broly caught it and turned it over in his hands, staring at it with obvious confusion.
"There's a cap on it. Twist it off and drink." Frieza said helpfully.
Broly did as instructed, twisted off the cap, and took a sip.
The moment it hit his throat, his eyes lit up as though he'd just experienced a revelation.
"What is this?" Broly asked with barely contained excitement, tasting what might have been the finest thing he had ever consumed.
"It's water." Frieza said with a small sigh.
Poor kid.
He's never even had water before.
"Here — have this too." Frieza tossed Broly a bread roll.
Broly tore open the packaging, examined it carefully, and then ate it with obvious delight.
"Delicious!" Broly said with enthusiasm.
"Stay with me, and you'll have as much good food as you want." Frieza smiled with increasing warmth — and a gleam of pure calculated malice in his eyes.
Broly nodded vigorously.
Frieza looked over the spacecraft's navigation and found that reaching Earth from their current position would take approximately eight months.
Running the numbers, the sword-wielding Saiyan should be making his appearance around that time.
I can let the others live. But that sword-wielding Saiyan — I, Frieza, will personally see to his end.
I'm going to Earth to eliminate that swordsman before anything else.
Whoosh!
The spacecraft left a blinding streak of light across the stars, accelerating at full speed toward Earth.
On the way, Frieza made a detour to the planet where his father, King Cold, resided.
Frieza and Broly touched down on Cold's planet.
At the sudden appearance of Frieza, the underlings stationed there were thrown into a panic and scrambled to kowtow.
"Frieza, is it?" King Cold stepped forward, looked his son over, then cast an eye toward Broly.
"Father." Frieza greeted him with a pleasant smile.
"I heard you went to Namek. After that, you just disappeared — what happened?" King Cold asked offhandedly.
"AAAAAAH—!"
No sooner had King Cold spoken than Broly let out a sudden, earth-shaking roar. Energy erupted from his body in a surging wave.
CRACK!
Broly transformed. Super Saiyan blazed to life around him.
Frieza: ...
King Cold's eyes went wide.
Every one of the underlings stood with their mouths hanging open.
"You — you killed my father! I'll kill you!" Broly's eyes had gone blank, fixed on Frieza with pure, white-hot rage.
Frieza's earlier greeting had done it. The word "father" had triggered something in Broly's memory — something important.
This one killed my father.
The angrier Broly got, the more the transformation surged, and he launched directly into Super Saiyan.
Frieza: ...
A wave of absolute panic crashed over Frieza.
Wait — that was a year and a half ago! You're only bringing this up NOW?
We've spent six months living together on that ship in perfect harmony!
Why is it only the moment we land on this particular planet that you decide to settle the score?!
"Run — he's not someone we can fight!" Frieza shouted, and immediately fled at maximum speed.
King Cold: ...
Frieza, my son. Since when did you become such a coward?
"Frieza — have you really become this timid?" King Cold's brow furrowed. His energy surged as he stepped forward and delivered a heavy punch directly into Broly.
THUD!
King Cold's fist connected with Broly's body.
And then — there was nothing further to report.
King Cold's level was nowhere near enough to break through Broly's defenses.
Broly stared down at King Cold with an expression of cold indifference.
King Cold was completely lost. He couldn't process what had just happened.
I hit him with everything I had. He didn't even react.
Broly stepped forward, grabbed King Cold by the neck, and twisted.
CRACK.
King Cold's neck snapped with a sharp, clean sound. Bones broke. The great cosmic emperor was gone in an instant.
The era of King Cold: concluded.
Whoosh!
Broly casually threw King Cold's body into the air like discarded refuse, then opened his mouth.
BOOM!
Broly's mouth blast struck King Cold's body dead-on. There was nothing left. He was gone completely and without remainder.
Frieza: ...
Frieza's eye twitched. The color in his face had hit absolute rock bottom.
Having finished with King Cold, Broly turned and aimed a massive mouth blast directly at King Cold's base.
KABOOM — BOOM — BOOM!
Explosions chained one after another.
It went on for the better part of half an hour.
By the time it was over, King Cold's planet was an unrecognizable ruin — crumbled walls, scorched earth, devastation in every direction.
The fury had finally burned out of Broly. He returned to normal, and looked at Frieza with an expression of genuine remorse.
"I didn't... go too far, did I?" Broly asked awkwardly, scratching his head.
After all their time together aboard the ship, Broly had become far more articulate.
Frieza: ...
Frieza's face had gone as black as a burned pot.
What do you mean you didn't go too far? You killed my father.
"Your father... is there any way to save him?" Broly suddenly noticed that Frieza's father had already taken his last breath, and asked with visible guilt.
"He's dead." Frieza said, his mouth twitching.
"I'm... sorry." Broly's remorse was genuine and deep.
"I'd say we're even now, wouldn't you?" Frieza said, biting out each word.
"Yeah. Even." Broly nodded agreeably.
Frieza: ...
Frieza squeezed his fist until his knuckles went white.
Just you wait, kid.
Once you've taken Goku out — I'll deal with you next.
"Prepare a spacecraft at once. We're going to Earth." Frieza ordered one of the underlings.
The underling trembled with fear, shot a nervous look at Broly, stole a glance back at Frieza, and thought several highly inappropriate thoughts.
Lord Frieza, you are truly without filial piety.
You brought the man who killed your father here just to have him kill your father.
Ten minutes later.
The spacecraft launched and shot off toward Earth at full speed.
And so, several more months passed without notice.
King Kai's Planet.
Goku was still training there, day in and day out.
Without realizing it, he had completely recovered the peak strength of his previous life.
The one thing that continued to frustrate him was that he still couldn't transform into Super Saiyan 4.
The main reason: his tail had still not grown back.
"That's so strange... do I really need a tail to get to that form?" Goku scratched his head and muttered to himself.
He shrugged it off and didn't dwell on it.
For the time being, Goku figured that his Super Saiyan 3 was more than enough to operate freely in this universe.
Even if Golden Frieza showed up, Super Saiyan 3 would be enough to beat him.
The tail situation could wait and take care of itself.
It had happened before — when he was little, the tail had come back after falling off. Gohan's had grown back spontaneously too. So there was no rush.
"Goku... just how much stronger are you planning to get?" King Kai muttered with growing exasperation.
Goku had been training on King Kai's planet for nearly a year now. His power had multiplied beyond counting.
Throughout that time, he also made a point of using Instant Transmission to go home regularly and spend time with Chi-Chi and Gohan.
He didn't interfere in his son's path.
If Gohan wanted to study — if his dream was to become a great scholar — then Goku was happy to let him pursue that.
Protecting the Earth? That's on me.
"Still nowhere near enough!" Goku said, shaking his head with quiet conviction.
"Still not enough?!" King Kai threw up his hands. "You could defeat Frieza without breaking a sweat at this point."
"That's true — but Lord Old Kai once mentioned someone called Beerus who's extraordinarily powerful..." Goku said, and his expression became noticeably more serious.
"Beerus!" King Kai's pupils contracted sharply. His expression shifted through several shades.
"Huh? Have you heard of Beerus, King Kai?" Goku blinked.
"Of course I have! He's the God of Destruction — the most powerful god in this universe!" King Kai shuddered, then urgently implored, "Goku — please don't do anything foolish. Don't go and challenge Lord Beerus. I know how strong you've become, but compared to Lord Beerus you're not even in the same conversation."
"I figured as much." Goku smiled, and the drive to keep growing stronger only intensified inside him.
"My North Kai Planet used to be enormous — at least as large as Earth — until I made the mistake of irritating Lord Beerus, and he left it like this." King Kai pointed at the tiny planet beneath their feet.
"He did all that?" Goku said, genuinely taken aback.
"So please, never try to pick a fight with Lord Beerus. You'll end up in a very bad way." King Kai sighed softly.
"Understood. I won't challenge Lord Beerus until I've reached a level where it makes sense." Goku nodded gravely, then added, "I should probably be heading back now. Thanks, King Kai."
"Go on, go on." King Kai waved him off.
Whoosh!
Goku used Instant Transmission and vanished from the spot in the blink of an eye — reappearing beside Old Kai in the Sacred World of the Kais.
Old Kai was reading one of his peculiar manga as usual.
Goku craned his neck and peered at it for a moment, quietly pondering.
"Speaking of which, Lord Old Kai — are you studying human reproduction again?" Goku asked with innocent curiosity.
Old Kai nearly jumped out of his skin. He sprang up from the ground and glared at Goku with undisguised annoyance. "What are you here for?"
"Lord Old Kai — do you have any way to treat a Viral Heart Disease?" Goku asked, scratching his head.
"You've gotten sick?" Old Kai squinted at him.
"Not yet. But based on how the timeline should go, I'll be coming down with Viral Heart Disease before too long." Goku answered. "I wasn't sure if Trunks would still be coming to this timeline, so I figured I'd get ahead of it."
"That boy Trunks — Vegeta's son — was he traveling back from the future specifically to bring you a cure for that Viral Heart Disease?" Old Kai mused.
"More or less. He was also going to warn me about the Androids." Goku nodded.
"As for the medicine — don't worry about it. I'll have the Supreme Kai track something down." Old Kai said with total confidence. "These things are simple enough. Even if our universe doesn't have it, another universe will."
"Huh? Can't you just heal my heart directly, Lord Old Kai?" Goku asked, tilting his head.
"No." Old Kai said flatly.
"Alright, I understand. I'll leave it in your hands then, Lord Old Kai." Goku said with easy acceptance, gave a wave, and turned to leave.
Whoosh!
Goku activated Instant Transmission and returned to Earth in an instant, landing at his house on Mount Paozu.
The moment he arrived, he saw Chi-Chi standing in the doorway with a worried look on her face.
"Chi-Chi, what's wrong? What are you doing standing out here?" Goku asked, puzzled.
"Goku — you should go check on Gohan. I don't know what's gotten into him lately. He's been acting strange." Chi-Chi said, and as she spoke, her eyes began to well up.
"Strange? How?" Goku scratched his head, at a loss.
"Gohan has been training like a madman for the last few days... He promised me he was going to focus on his studies!" Chi-Chi wiped a tear from the corner of her eye.
"Training?" Goku blinked, genuinely puzzled. "Why would he suddenly want to train?"
"I don't know. He's up on the mountain with Piccolo right now." Chi-Chi pointed toward the peaks of Mount Paozu in the distance.
"Alright, I'll go take a look. Don't worry." Goku gave her a reassuring pat, then immediately flew off toward the mountains.
To be continued…
The story's other title is "So everyone is playing the damned reincarnation game huh?!"
Advance 50 chapters are up on my Patreon!
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