CRACK!
Goku shifted — and in an instant he had become Super Saiyan 4.
Red fur had spread across his body. His hair had turned black. A crimson tail gleamed brilliantly in the light.
Super Saiyan 4 — transform!
In this moment, Goku had finally surpassed the peak of his previous life.
"Again!" Goku said, his expression sharpening. The energy in his body surged without restraint.
CRACK!
Goku's hair turned red in an instant — matching the color of the fur covering his body.
Super Saiyan 4 Full Power.
Through relentless training over this period of time, combined with everything accumulated from his previous life, Goku had reached the point where he could go directly into Super Saiyan 4 Full Power.
In this form, his hair became the same vivid red as the fur on his body.
"Come on, Broly!" Goku called out from high above.
Broly's pupils contracted slightly. He looked up at Goku, hovering in the sky above him, and something indistinct stirred behind his blank eyes.
Who is this person?
Sounds like the same voice as the one I was beating up earlier.
Doesn't matter — keep hitting.
Whoosh!
Broly launched himself into the air and came at Goku in a ferocious charge.
CRACK — CRACK — CRACK!
Goku extended a single finger — and effortlessly deflected every attack Broly threw.
The Supreme Kai's jaw dropped.
Kibito's eyes went wide.
Both nearly lost their chins to the ground.
How did Goku become this strong all of a sudden?
And what kind of transformation is this?
It looks so unusual.
Old Kai, on the other hand, was genuinely moved.
So this is what Goku called Super Saiyan 4.
Impressively strong.
Broly was already operating at a formidable level — and Goku was blocking his every assault without effort.
With a single finger.
"Haha!" Goku laughed with pure, open delight. Super Saiyan 4 Full Power felt exactly as natural as he'd hoped.
BOOM!
Goku drove a kick straight into Broly — and sent him crashing down from the sky into the earth below.
KABOOM!
A deep, bottomless crater opened in the ground with a thunderclap. Lightning crackled and snapped around its rim.
"Is it over?" Goku looked down at the crater below.
"AAAAAAH!"
What happened next surprised even him.
From deep within the crater, Broly let out a series of guttural roars — and a dark green light began to blaze from his body.
Whoosh!
A column of deep green energy surged upward from the crater, shooting straight into the sky.
Crackle — crackle — crackle—
Dark green lightning erupted wildly from the pit, coiling and wrapping around Broly's body.
Goku stood in genuine awe.
Broly transformed again?
This guy is incredible.
I'm getting the feeling he's approaching Four-Star Dragon territory.
Broly rose slowly from the crater, dark green flames radiating from his body.
Crackle — crackle — crackle—
Bolt after bolt of dark green lightning wound around him, crackling without pause. The atmosphere had become overwhelming.
By comparison, Goku's own form looked almost calm — a quiet blaze rather than a storm.
"Green." Goku said, watching Broly with quiet attention.
"GRAAAAAAH!"
Broly let out a war cry, and his energy exploded outward once again.
Goku's expression sharpened.
In this moment — Broly's power genuinely feels like it has no ceiling.
Can it really keep growing without limit?
"What kind of person is this Broly?" The Supreme Kai was completely at a loss.
Goku reaching Super Saiyan 4 had already seemed impossibly strong.
And yet this Broly was still getting stronger.
"It's possible this Broly is the Legendary Super Saiyan — the one born only once every thousand years." Old Kai paced back and forth a few times and delivered his conclusion.
"The Legendary Super Saiyan?" Goku blinked and looked over in Old Kai's direction.
"Oh — you're listening, Goku." Old Kai sighed quietly. "Best of luck to you."
"Understood." Goku's expression settled into something more serious. He descended from the sky and landed on the ground facing Broly, dropping into his stance.
Whoosh!
Broly came screaming toward Goku, trailing a comet of green flame.
Goku watched him come — and met him with a light, almost casual guard.
CRACK!
Goku executed a graceful spin, seized Broly's arm, and hurled him into the ground with a clean suplex.
SLAM!
Broly hit the earth hard.
But immediately he sprang back up, came at Goku again, and launched into a ferocious barrage.
Goku had no intention of taking it head-on. He deflected a few exchanges casually, then flickered out of existence.
In the blink of an eye, he appeared behind Broly — and drove a kick directly into his back.
CRACK!
Broly pitched face-first into the ground.
"Broly — you need to come back to your senses. You can't land a hit on me like this." Goku said with a light smile.
Broly twisted his head and glared at Goku. The dark green energy around him surged again.
"The energy keeps climbing." Goku noted with mild amusement, unbothered. "But pouring on raw power while losing your mind makes your fighting instinct weaker, not stronger."
Broly wasn't interested in conversation. He launched at Goku again at full speed.
Goku raised one hand, deflected a few strikes — and flickered away again.
Broly's eyes went wide. He wheeled around, searching.
"Hey — up here, Broly." Goku called from the sky above.
Broly looked up, fixed on Goku with a burning glare, and opened his mouth.
Whoosh!
A beam of dark green light erupted from Broly's mouth, cutting through the sky like a pillar of energy, aimed directly at Goku.
Goku flickered out of existence — reappeared behind Broly — and kicked him in the back.
CRACK!
Broly went face-first into the ground again.
"Alright — now I'm going on the offensive." Goku settled into his attack stance.
"GRAAAAAAH!"
Broly roared with fury, green light pouring from his body in a blazing torrent.
Goku came in fast — and the two of them locked together in close combat.
BOOM — BOOM — BOOM!
The exchange was fierce and relentless.
Watching from a distance, the Supreme Kai and Kibito were frozen in place.
"Something doesn't add up — going strictly by energy output, Goku's should be lower than Broly's." The Supreme Kai thought it through, looking puzzled.
"I feel the same way, my Lord." Kibito nodded from beside him.
"What do either of you know?" Old Kai gave them both a flat look. "On the surface, yes — Goku's raw energy is lower than Broly's. But Goku controls his Ki with exceptional precision. He suppresses it and conserves it, then releases it exactly when he needs to. That way he manages his output efficiently — instead of just flooding the field mindlessly like Broly is doing."
"But Broly's energy seems to have no limit." The Supreme Kai scratched the back of his head with a quiet murmur.
"There's no such thing as no limit. He simply hasn't hit his ceiling yet." Old Kai clasped his hands behind his back, shook his head slowly, and then said with quiet certainty, "And as a matter of fact — he's at his ceiling right now."
"So... Goku is going to win?" The Supreme Kai asked.
"Truthfully — even when Goku was in Super Saiyan 3, fighting the way he is now, he probably could have won." Old Kai's eyes lit up with deep, genuine admiration. "This young man... whether it's his mental approach or his fighting method — he's already reached the level of a true grandmaster."
The Supreme Kai: ...
The Supreme Kai pressed his lips together.
Lord Grand Supreme Kai — aren't you praising him just a little too much?
His mental approach AND his fighting method have reached grandmaster level?
Is that really not an exaggeration?
CRACK!
Goku opened his counterattack — an uppercut that connected directly with Broly's abdomen.
The dull impact rang out. Broly doubled over, spraying bile, his whole body reeling.
"Broly — can you come back to yourself?" Goku asked, even as he kept pressing the attack.
For a stretch, Broly could do nothing but take hits and roar.
In truth, the energy levels of Goku's Super Saiyan 4 Full Power and Broly's Legendary Super Saiyan form were close in scale.
But as Old Kai had noted, Goku's control over his Ki was far superior — allowing him to dramatically reduce energy expenditure. Broly, by contrast, was fighting purely on instinct, throwing power without direction, his mind gone.
Between the two approaches — who had the advantage was no longer in question.
Broly had awakened his true Legendary Super Saiyan form.
But what Goku had was Super Saiyan 4 Full Power.
Three minutes later.
Broly was driven into the ground. The dark green light around his body collapsed and scattered. He reverted to normal.
THUD.
Broly's head tilted to the side — and he passed out on the spot.
"Hah..."
Goku let out a long breath.
"Won. Finally." Goku said, with quiet, sincere relief.
When he saw Broly was out, Old Kai finally walked over from a distance, hands clasped behind his back.
The Supreme Kai and Kibito came along.
"So this is Super Saiyan 4?" Old Kai looked up at Goku and walked a full circle around him to study the transformation.
"That's right." Goku nodded, and leaned in toward Old Kai with a grin. "Lord Old Kai — compared to Lord Beerus, how much do I still have to go?"
Old Kai held up a single unhurried finger.
"One... times?" Goku blinked.
Old Kai shook his head.
"Ten times?" Goku's chest tightened.
Old Kai kept shaking his head.
"Don't tell me — a hundred times... That's... that's a terrifying thought..." Goku trailed off, inhaling sharply.
"No." Old Kai said with total composure. "What I mean is that you're not worth one of Lord Beerus' fingers."
Goku: ...
"I really do want to meet Lord Beerus one day. Just to see how strong he really is." Goku rubbed his chin thoughtfully.
"Don't be an idiot. If you do ever meet Lord Beerus — whatever you do, don't say anything that sounds like a challenge." Old Kai glowered, his mustache bristling. "Lord Beerus is the God of Destruction. You are nowhere near his level."
"I'll keep working at it!" Goku clenched his fist.
"One moment — if I may." The Supreme Kai raised a somewhat embarrassed hand.
Goku and Old Kai both looked over.
"This Lord Beerus you keep mentioning — who is he?" The Supreme Kai scratched the back of his head.
Old Kai: ...
"What? Lord Supreme Kai doesn't know? I thought we'd talked about him before." Goku said, briefly at a loss.
CRACK!
Old Kai hopped up and landed a solid headbutt on the Supreme Kai.
"You idiot! You don't even know who the God of Destruction is?! What kind of Supreme Kai are you?!" Old Kai barked.
"With respect — Lord Grand Supreme Kai, why are you hitting me? I'm the Supreme Kai. Why would I necessarily know about the God of Destruction?" The Supreme Kai argued back with some conviction.
"Didn't your master teach you about this?" Old Kai fumed.
"Lord Grand Supreme Kai... the Supreme Kai's master died very early on..." Kibito interjected gently.
Old Kai turned his head away and decided he was done speaking.
How did I end up with such a foolish descendant?
"What are you planning to do with the Broly boy?" Old Kai ignored the Supreme Kai entirely, looked down at Broly passed out on the ground, and addressed Goku.
The Supreme Kai: ...
Lord Grand Supreme Kai.
Could you possibly finish a line of thought before changing the subject?
This is genuinely exhausting.
"I'll see how he is when he wakes up." Goku replied with an easy smile.
Earth. Capsule Corporation.
Bulma had kept Trunks for dinner.
Trunks ate like he hadn't seen food in weeks. Half the dishes on the table had disappeared before anyone noticed.
"Weren't you eating in the future?" Bulma winced with concern and stepped over to ruffle his hair — and plucked a single strand.
"There's almost nothing left to eat in the future. Most of the cities have been destroyed by those two Androids." Trunks answered between mouthfuls.
Bulma pocketed the strand, reached up and pulled one of her own hairs out, and waved over one of her household robots.
"Miss Bulma?" The robot chimed.
"Run a paternity test on these." Bulma instructed, holding out the two strands.
"Of course!" The robot took them and departed immediately.
Vegeta: ...
Trunks: ...
Father and son exchanged a glance, equally speechless.
Are you genuinely doing a paternity test right now?
"What are you two looking at? Of course I'm doing a paternity test. What if he's not actually mine? That would be a terrible waste." Bulma crossed her arms with a brisk sniff.
Trunks quietly wiped a bead of sweat from his brow.
Vegeta opted for silence.
The result came back quickly.
"He is my son!" Bulma was ecstatic. She swept forward, wrapped an arm around Trunks' neck, and pressed her cheek against his.
Trunks went crimson in an instant.
Mom... do you have to be quite this affectionate?
I'm extremely embarrassed.
At that moment, Bulma's parents came strolling in from down the hall.
"Oh my — Bulma, you've gone and found yourself another boyfriend?" Dr. Brief asked with a warm, amused smile.
"This new young man... he looks a bit more handsome than that Vegeta fellow." Bikini studied Trunks with an expression of growing approval.
He does seem a bit cuter than that Vegeta.
Vegeta: ...
"Hehehe — Vegeta's jealous, isn't he?" Dr. Brief chuckled.
"He is, he is." Bikini smiled along.
Vegeta had been living at Bulma's home for nearly a year now. Both her parents knew him well enough by this point.
Cold exterior on the surface — but genuinely attentive, and good to Bulma.
Better to her than Yamcha had been, honestly.
Which was probably why they felt comfortable teasing him.
"Dad! Mom! He's not my boyfriend! If I told you who he really is it would absolutely knock you off your feet!" Bulma said, her expression going delightfully smug.
Dr. Brief and Bikini both blinked, then looked at Trunks again.
Who could he possibly be?
"He's my and Vegeta's son — from the future." Bulma said with a radiant grin.
As Bulma had predicted, both her parents were rendered completely speechless the moment the words landed.
A son. From the future.
Is that actually real?
"The future version of me built a time machine and sent our son back to this era." Bulma said plainly.
Fortunately, the Brief family were all dedicated science enthusiasts. They adapted to the idea with remarkable speed.
Bulma's parents crowded around Trunks and examined him from every angle, growing more delighted the longer they looked.
Trunks stood there, flushed, feeling very much like a small creature on display.
"Trunks — once you've finished eating, I'm taking you to train." Vegeta said suddenly.
"To train?" Trunks blinked, and looked at his father with uncertain eyes.
"I'll be direct with you. As far as I'm concerned, those two Androids are nothing I couldn't put down with a single slap." Vegeta said without any particular emphasis. "But what I want is for you to build your own strength and defeat them yourself."
"Huh? Dad... really? You can really beat those two Androids that easily?" Trunks stared at his father with wide, disbelieving eyes.
"Obviously." Vegeta smiled with easy confidence.
"Trunks — your dad is really something." Bulma said from the side.
Trunks gave an awkward smile and said nothing more.
He believed his father was strong. But he wasn't quite ready to accept that Vegeta could casually handle the two Androids.
"I'll spend a year training with you here, and then we'll go to your future world together." Vegeta had already decided. He intended to make that trip with Trunks.
There's a good chance that going to the future world might give me the chance to catch that Zamasu character while I'm there.
Last time, it was Goku Black — Zamasu — who killed me.
This time, let me show you what I've become.
"Training here for a year?" Trunks' expression stiffened slightly. He looked at his father with a strained smile. "Dad... a year seems like a long time. I'm worried about what might happen in my future while I'm gone."
"You have nothing to worry about on that front." Vegeta said lightly. "I know a place where spending a year inside only equals one day in the outside world."
"There's somewhere that extraordinary?" Trunks said, surprised and hopeful.
Trunks finished his meal quickly.
"Let's go." Vegeta rose from his seat.
"Vegeta — where is this place you're talking about? Can I come watch?" Bulma asked.
"You can't go in there. The gravity is ten times Earth's — you'd die." Vegeta said matter-of-factly.
Bulma: ...
"The place is at the Lookout." Vegeta added.
"The Lookout?" Trunks frowned slightly. The name didn't mean anything to him.
"The place where the Guardian of Earth lives?" Bulma asked.
Vegeta gave a quiet nod.
"The Guardian of Earth — Piccolo's other half?" Trunks realized immediately.
"Correct." Vegeta confirmed.
"I didn't know the Lookout had something like that." Bulma was mildly amazed.
"I hear Kakarot trained there for three months once when he was young, and the conditions nearly drove him to madness." Vegeta said with a thin, contemptuous smile.
"So Goku trained there." Bulma marveled.
"Are you ready, Trunks?" Vegeta looked over at him.
"Yes, Dad!" Trunks snapped to attention.
"Then let's move." Vegeta said, and launched into the air.
"Mom — I'm going with Dad to train!" Trunks called back to Bulma, then turned with a slightly self-conscious expression to Bulma's parents. "Grandpa, Grandma... please take care of yourselves."
"Once you're done training with your father, come back and visit." Bikini said warmly.
"I will, Grandma." Trunks nodded, then launched into the air and flew after Vegeta.
The two of them left twin streaks of light across the sky, speeding toward the Lookout.
The Lookout.
Kami: ...
"Lord Kami... what's the matter?" Mr. Popo asked, puzzled.
He had noticed that Kami's expression had gone somewhat off.
"Vegeta is heading toward the Lookout. He has that boy Trunks — the one from the future — with him." Kami said, his voice quiet, his expression shifting.
"Vegeta? The Saiyan prince who wanted to conquer the Earth a year ago?" Mr. Popo's face went through several rapid changes.
"Over this past year, Vegeta has been... behaved. He hasn't caused any trouble." Kami sighed softly. "And I can clearly sense that the dark energy in him is gone... perhaps he really has changed."
"Has he really? Goku said he could become a good person, and it turns out he was right." Mr. Popo's face brightened.
A short pause.
"Lord Kami... you said earlier that it was Vegeta who defeated Frieza?" Mr. Popo asked.
"Yes... Frieza was wiped out by Vegeta without any real difficulty..." Kami said with a note of quiet awe. "The power he displayed in that moment was formidable."
"He's probably not as strong as Goku, though?" Mr. Popo tilted his head, then mused quietly to himself. "I wonder what he's coming to the Lookout for. Does he want to use the Dragon Balls?"
"They'll be here soon — we'll see." Kami said.
To be continued…
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