Tapion's Grief and Anger; Tarble Returns with the Thief

Just then.

Tapion noticed the colossal creature in the sky suddenly turn its head toward someone behind him. Its mouth opened and closed, and a solemn voice rang out.

"Your first wish has been granted!"

"You have two wishes left. Please make them quickly!"

Seeing this, Tapion realized that the unknown creature in the sky wasn't speaking to him.

Its actions made it clear that there was someone else present.

The realization startled him.

He whipped around and saw several strangers in strange clothes standing behind him.

In an instant, his pupils contracted.

Who were they?

As he wondered, the tall man near the front, dressed in orange, suddenly looked up and shouted, "Dragon God, we'll make just one wish this time. We'll save the remaining wishes for next time!"

Dragon God?

Tapion looked back up at the colossal creature in the sky, his brow furrowing.

He found the name "Dragon God" strangely unfamiliar.

Dragon God...

What was going on?

In the sky, Earth Dragon God heard Son Goku's words and slowly nodded its head.

"I understand!"

"Until next time!"

As soon as the words fell, Earth Dragon God's entire body turned into a dazzling ray of light. The Dragon Balls on the ground flew into the sky along the beam, eventually forming a rapidly spinning ball of light.

The ball of light then suddenly burst into an even more dazzling radiance, before shooting seven small, meteor-like lights in every direction.

In the blink of an eye, they vanished from sight.

At the same time, the sky returned to normal.

The intense light made Tapion squint once more.

After his eyes adjusted, he warily looked at Son Goku and the others and asked in a low voice, "Who are you?"

"Why am I here?"

By now, he had realized that the group before him had released him from the box.

As for how they had done it, he suspected it had something to do with the unknown creature from earlier.

Faced with the questions, Son Goku saw that Tapion didn't seem dangerous and approached with a smile.

"You're the Hero Tapion, right?"

"I'm Son Goku, the Saiyan Son Goku!"

"I'm also the one who freed you from the box."

Hearing this, Tapion suppressed his anger and stopped Son Goku from coming any closer.

"Don't come any closer!"

"Tell me, where did you hear my name? Where did you get that box?"

"And how did you know I was sealed inside it?"

Son Goku was bewildered by Tapion's reaction.

He couldn't understand why Tapion was so angry all of a sudden.

Still, he stopped as asked and answered honestly. "The box came from someone named... Um, what was his name again..."

Unable to remember, he gave up and turned to ask Vegeta.

"Hey, Vegeta, what was that old man's name again?"

"That sneaky old man was called He Yi!"

"Kakarot, you're an idiot. You can't even remember a name!"

"Thanks, Vegeta!"

With Vegeta's reluctant reminder, Son Goku finally remembered the name of the old man with pink skin.

He turned to tell Tapion, only to see that his face was now filled with anger.

"Huh?"

"Why do you look so upset?"

Hearing that, Tapion could no longer hold back his fury. He roared, "Damn it!"

"Why did you help him?"

"Why did you meddle?"

"Why did you free me from the box?"

"How could you be so stupid as to believe him?"

"You have no idea what will happen if you free me!"

"You have no idea!"

"You have no idea..."

By the end, his voice had grown much weaker.

He knew the people before him didn't understand the situation. They had freed him with good intentions.

But he would rather they hadn't.

Watching him go from wild-eyed to utterly dejected, Son Goku and the others were completely baffled.

They'd gone out of their way to save him and hadn't even gotten a "thank you." Instead, he'd given them an earful.

How could he be so ungrateful?

Tapion slumped to the ground, murmuring, "Has this day finally come..."

"It seems my old fears are about to become reality..."

"No, wait!"

"If he was able to find these people so precisely, that means my younger brother must have..."

"Damn it!"

Thinking that his younger brother, Minosha, might already be dead filled him with grief.

Then he remembered that the monster sealed inside him might be released to wreak havoc on the world, and anger flared within him.

For a moment, grief and fury consumed him.

Thud!

Thud!

"Damn it!"

"I won't let you get away with this!"

Tapion angrily pounded the ground twice. After roaring, he quickly got to his feet, turned around, and tried to flee.

He felt no gratitude toward Son Goku and the others, only anger.

It was the anger one felt toward the ignorant.

For now, he had no interest in dealing with any of this. He just wanted to find somewhere secluded and think through what to do.

However.

Just as he started to run, two figures suddenly appeared in front of him.

More precisely, it was a young man dressed like Son Goku, carrying another person in black robes.

Tapion frowned, but didn't stop.

He twisted on his heel and changed direction, determined to leave.

But before he could get far, a voice from the person who had just appeared made him stop dead.

"Where do you think you're going?"

"The one responsible is right here. Don't you want to kill your enemy with your own hands?"

The speaker was Tarble.

The person in his grasp was none other than He Yi, the Demon Cultivator who had secretly slipped away earlier.

"Tarble, you're finally back!" Son Goku exclaimed, delighted to see him.

A moment later,

he noticed that Tarble was carrying someone. Unfortunately, the man was facing down, so Son Goku couldn't see his face.

Even so, he recognized him as the old man who had secretly run off—He Yi.

"Huh?"

"Tarble, isn't the person you're holding the old man who ran away earlier?"

At this, Tarble nodded. "That's right. It's that old geezer."

"From the very beginning, I never took my eyes off him."

"Just now, while all of you were focused on the Dragon God helping to open the box, the old geezer used some special trick to escape the instant the box was opened."

"Fortunately, I'd been careful and memorized his energy signature beforehand."

"Otherwise, I might not have been able to catch him!"