Dragon Ball Roshi

Taro paused for a moment, glanced at his wife, and said with a smile in his voice, "Heh, so… you have a lot of faith in that girl Bulma, huh? Are you sure she can rationally assess this whole situation? Aren't you afraid she'll get scared, or develop a bias against Goku?"

"Hmph… Don't you have a lot of faith in Goku yourself?" Hathaway chuckled, tapping Taro on the forehead before continuing, "Every time I see Bulma, I feel like I'm looking at my younger self."

"She's far worse than you were," Taro said, catching her hand.

"You rascal... Have you been keeping an eye on Goku and the others? How are things now?" Hathaway smiled.

Taro led her back into the house, glancing up at the darkening sky. In the starlit heavens, a full moon was about to rise. He murmured, "They're probably at the end now… By my calculation, tonight is the full moon."

---

Elsewhere, in the Pilaf Castle.

The massive castle had erupted from underground, and now stood in a desolate region, surrounded by a newly risen complex of strange buildings.

"Hehehe… No matter how good your martial arts are, you still couldn't resist my powerful hallucinogenic gas, could you?" Pilaf grinned smugly as he watched the monitor. In the small sealed room displayed on the screen, four people and a creature lay weakened by the special gas.

Pilaf's voice echoed from speakers embedded in the walls of the sealed chamber.

Yamcha, Bulma, and Krillin were seething with rage—especially Bulma, who was practically fuming. Because of Pilaf's trickery and their own carelessness, the six Dragon Balls they'd collected so far had all been stolen!

It's all my fault! I never expected someone else would actually build a Dragon Radar!

Bulma blamed herself deeply. She'd always seen herself as the team's brains, so falling into someone's trap stung her pride all the more. Krillin and Goku were supposed to protect her, but she had failed to support them at a critical moment. It was a huge blow to her pride.

Yamcha was also ashamed—he'd been knocked out by nothing more than a glance from that long-haired girl on Pilaf's team...

"Despicable!" Goku said angrily, but no matter how hard he tried, he couldn't summon any strength.

The sealed room was filled with a special gas that kept them weak and lethargic.

"Bulma, can the Dragon Balls really grant any wish?" Krillin asked nervously. "What if they use them to do something evil?"

"That's nothing to worry about. Grandpa Taro is still around. Who could really become some kind of 'big bad' in this world?" Bulma dismissed the concern, gritting her teeth. "It just pisses me off that I got outsmarted by someone like him! Disgusting!"

She glanced over at Goku, who was slumped against the wall. The little monkey didn't even have the strength to twitch his tail. Since he'd appeared in the World Martial Arts Tournament, Pilaf had dosed him with the strongest knockout agent.

"If Goku still had his strength, he could probably blast this place apart with that 'Ki Blast' or whatever," the girl muttered, unwilling to accept defeat.

"'Ki Blast'? What's that?" asked Puar, Yamcha's shape-shifting pet, who seemed less affected by the gas, probably thanks to its unique physiology.

"You—you mean the 'Kamehameha'?!" Yamcha exclaimed, surprised. "I've heard of that move. It's said to be a technique passed down directly by Muten Roshi—it can only be learned from the Muten School! Goku, you know that move?"

Goku nodded, "Yeah, but I can't use it right now… so annoying."

"Sigh…" Krillin sighed and looked down. He was startled to see the floor glowing. Lifting his head, he peered through the reinforced glass ceiling and saw a round, glowing full moon. "The full moon… how beautiful…"

"Full moon?!" Bulma's face went pale at those words.

"Yeah, what a beautiful moon. Too bad we…" Yamcha also looked up and sighed. If he'd known it would end like this, he might as well have stayed a desert bandit—it would've been better than being a sitting duck like this.

Goku looked puzzled. "Does a monster come out or something?"

Perhaps because his body was so weak, he looked up casually… but then froze in place, staring wide-eyed at the moon. He didn't even blink. A faint red glow flickered in his pupils.

"Hey, hey, what's going on, Goku?" Yamcha was the first to notice something was wrong.

Krillin turned as well—and now Goku's eyes were completely blood-red. Thump, thump… thump, thump—Krillin could clearly hear the deep thudding of Goku's heartbeat from across the room.

Heartbeat?! Just how powerful would your pulse have to be for it to be audible from this distance?

"Goku, Goku—hey! Goku!" Krillin's eyes widened in horror as he saw that same terrifying look flash across Goku's face, the same look he'd glimpsed briefly one night before. Fear gripped him, and he involuntarily backed away.

Bulma pressed her lips into a tight line. A storm of theories whirled through her mind...

Full moon!

Monster!

Werewolf!

Tail!

"Urrgh…" Goku started growling low in his throat. His limbs and body suddenly swelled, bulking up visibly in an instant. Yamcha and Puar jumped in fright, instinctively retreating from the pressure radiating from him.

Within mere seconds, Goku shot up in height. His clothes tore apart as thick fur erupted from beneath his skin, growing rapidly.

"GET TO THE WALLS!!" Bulma screamed with all her might. Her voice jolted Krillin and the others into immediate action.

Fumbling, Bulma grabbed the pen she always kept on her—one that Gohan had entrusted her with before they set out.

Goku was growing like his own Power Pole, stretching in the wind. Within a few breaths, his head slammed through the reinforced ceiling. Even the bulletproof roof shattered as his now ape-like head burst through it, and the special gas began to leak out violently.

"ROAAAAR!!"

The black Great Ape roared and swung his massive arms, smashing the room's four walls like they were made of papier-mâché. His huge legs and thick tail flailed wildly below. With one kick, he punched a hole through the wall, and Bulma and the others scrambled to escape through it, barely avoiding death.

With the gas now dissipating, their strength slowly began to return. If they hadn't escaped, they would've been squashed flat by the transformed Goku.

In the monitoring room, Pilaf and his two henchmen—a girl and a dog—stared dumbfounded at the scene of chaos on the screen. Then the feed cut to static—the camera had been destroyed.

"RUN!" Pilaf shouted, grabbing the box containing the seven Dragon Balls and leaping from his chair, ready to make his escape.