The old woman stared blankly at her furious little granddaughter, at a loss for what to do. She couldn't understand it at all.
How had her once sweet, well-behaved, and considerate little granddaughter turned into this?
"Hey! How can you treat your grandmother like this?"
Bulma looked at the somewhat fierce-looking little girl before her and couldn't hold back any longer. She stepped forward and gave the girl a stern lecture.
"Would you really turn your back on your own family for this fake prosperity?"
"Would you really let this monster imprison you just to enjoy a little wealth?"
She shouted as she pointed at Oolong.
Oolong's ears sprang straight up in fright. He wished he could find a crack in the ground and crawl into it.
"N-no, this has nothing to do with me! This whole situation is giving me a headache too, which is why I wanted to find a cute girl!"
He hurried to defend himself.
Son Gohan had nothing to say about what was happening, so he let Bulma lecture the girl while he patted Oolong on the shoulder.
"Let Bulma and the others handle things here. Goku, come with me!"
After calling to Son Goku, the two brothers and the pig left the hall.
"Now we've fulfilled the first condition. We only need to complete the second part of our deal, and we'll be done."
Pig-headed Oolong stared blankly at the two of them.
"Both of you want to learn? Weren't you supposed to be the one learning?"
The more people who learned the skill, the less valuable it became, so Oolong felt a little reluctant.
"Hm?"
Son Gohan gave a faint snort.
"Great! If both of you learn it, you can check each other's work!"
Oolong's heart gave a little jump, and he quickly forced a smile.
It was as if Son Gohan could see right through him. Ever since the two of them had talked outside the village earlier that day, Oolong had lost all his bluster and been completely at Son Gohan's mercy.
Since he couldn't fight back, all he could do was lie back and let himself be pushed around.
"Let me warn you first: for certain reasons, I never learned all of the Transformation Magic. So the part I teach you will have the same fatal flaw as the part I learned!"
"You mean that after five minutes, the transformation automatically wears off, and you have to wait another five minutes before transforming again?"
"As for the 'certain reasons' you mentioned..."
Son Gohan glanced at the lecherous pig and thought better of exposing his secret.
After all, there was no need to rub his face in it. If Oolong got rebellious and refused to teach them, that would be a problem—even if it wasn't very likely.
A bead of cold sweat appeared on Oolong's face. Son Gohan had exposed the flaw in his transformations yet again.
Oolong had lost count of how many times he'd been humiliated that day. His whole body felt as clammy as if he'd just been pulled out of the water!
"The Transformation Magic I learned works by sensing the Magic Power inside your body and learning to control it. Then you recite the transformation chant to resonate with it. Once the two resonate, you can transform!"
"But remember, you have to keep the target's build, appearance, voice, and other details firmly in mind."
"Otherwise, even if you can transform, you'll look very different from the intended target."
Son Gohan suddenly remembered the short, chubby "Bulma" from the anime and shuddered. He urged Oolong to hurry up and continue.
"When you transform into small objects, you can usually use their functions too, like keys, rockets, or mops."
"Of course, once you become proficient, you'll be able to control your Magic Power more precisely and naturally extend the transformation's duration. There are even advanced techniques that can make a transformation permanent, letting you end it whenever you want—but I can't do that myself."
"What is this Magic Power, then? How can you tell whether you have any inside you?"
Son Gohan asked thoughtfully.
"Every animal person has Magic Power inside them. The only difference is how strong it is."
"But my Magic Power is weak, and I never learned the complete transformation chant, so everything I turn into has some kind of limit..."
That was why the monsters he transformed into were all show and no substance.
When he transformed into something enormous, just maintaining its shape consumed most of his Magic Power. Smaller forms, like a rocket, were different: he could use his extra power as fuel and make it move faster.
As Oolong explained further, the Son brothers mostly understood how it worked, though Son Goku looked a little dazed and seemed to understand only part of it.
Son Gohan, however, had a rough idea.
"Magic Power—something every animal person has... That sounds a lot like ki!"
"And the chant he mentioned sounds more like a path for channeling ki!"
"Could transformation be another special way of using ki?"
As for the prerequisite for learning it—"animal person"...
Son Gohan looked at his and Goku's tails and fell into thought.
"So Goku and I should count as animal people too, right?"
"Thanks for explaining. Now, Goku, let's see how we do with our own training!"
"Yeah!"
Son Goku was eager to learn Oolong's transformation skill too. Just thinking about it made it seem incredibly cool!
The brothers were both naturally gifted, and thanks to years of meditative training, it didn't take long for them to settle into a trance.
They concentrated and recited the chant, sensing the ki continuously flowing out from within them.
Once they sensed the ki, they guided it along the special route.
Before long, both brothers opened their eyes.
They looked at each other, then shouted, "Transform!"
With a boom, Son Goku turned into Son Gohan, and Son Gohan turned into Son Goku!
They each looked at the other, then burst out laughing at how they'd instinctively chosen to transform into each other.
The brothers had relied on each other for years on Mount Paozu. They'd grown up together, even running around naked, and knew every last hair on each other's bodies. So, without even thinking about it, they'd chosen to transform into each other.
"Hey, not bad, Goku! This is my first time admiring my own handsome figure and face from this angle!"
Son Gohan praised himself in Son Goku's clear voice.
"Ahahaha, you're not bad either, Gohan!"
Son Goku's voice, meanwhile, had become much deeper.
"What a pair of terrifying monsters!" Oolong muttered to himself as he watched it all happen.
Back when they learned transformation at kindergarten, they'd all suffered and struggled for it. It had taken them over half a year to learn.
Even a gifted animal person needed ten days or half a month to master transformation!
Just then, Bulma came around the corner of the hall, looking rather displeased.
"That made me so angry, Gohan!"
Before you continue