Bitter Battle

Although I knew its weakness was the core, the damn thing is the same color as its body! Tights must have hit it by pure luck earlier for that effect to occur.

"Whatever, I'll just attack and see what happens!" Karochi stopped overthinking and took a stance.

He vanished from his spot with a high-speed movement, reappearing right in front of the Mimic! He threw a punch directly at the spot Tights had attacked earlier.

Bang!

The opponent made no attempt to defend, instead throwing a punch of its own!

Trading damage for damage? But this thing can't even be hurt! Screw it.

Karochi didn't dodge or parry, taking the punch head-on while his own fist slammed into the target area. Both were sent flying hundreds of meters away.

"Cough, cough, cough!" Karochi stood up, coughing violently. The opponent's punch had real weight behind it, and taking it clean forced him to spit out a mouthful of blood.

"Karochi, are you okay? Are you hurt?!" Tights' anxious voice reached his ears, her worry plain to hear.

Spitting out the remaining blood and wiping his mouth, Karochi replied, "Don't worry, Tights, I'm fine." In this situation, he could only report the good news and hide the bad.

In reality, he was far from fine; he'd broken two or three ribs! With injuries like these, he couldn't focus his energy for battle.

Taking advantage of the fact that Tights couldn't see him, Karochi secretly ate a Senzu Bean. He always carried four or five for emergencies, though he never thought he'd need them on this trip to Bimos.

"Judging by that reaction, its core must have shifted positions!" Karochi sighed. Trading damage for that single piece of intel felt like a bad deal.

From Tights' side came the rapid clacking of a keyboard, followed by her voice: "That's right, its core is constantly moving throughout its body! The missile I fired earlier had a tracker attached. I'm modifying the Power Level Scouter now; hold on a little longer."

Holy crap! A tracker? You're a genius! Karochi was overjoyed.

Just then, a fist punched through the dust, heading straight for him.

He couldn't see the body, only the fist, and the arm was stretched out to an absurd length! The entire arm and fist were wreathed in strange black energy.

Are you a rubber man who ate the Gum-Gum Fruit too?! Karochi thought, finding the ability to stretch at will completely ridiculous.

He dodged the attack, using a Ki Burst to blow away the surrounding dust!

The opponent's eyes glowed with an eerie red light, and pitch-black energy surged from its body! It gave Karochi an incredibly uncomfortable feeling, especially since it was wearing his own face.

He didn't know if it was just his imagination, but this thing reminded him of the Shadow Dragon from Dragon Ball GT, which were born from the negative energy of people using the Dragon Balls to make wishes!

The Shadow Dragon was created by the accumulation of negative energy from too many wishes.

This [Yitai Wonder] shouldn't be that, right? After all, if it were Dragon Ball negative energy, it wouldn't be this weak. This was likely just a collection of negative energy!

Karochi thought to himself while parrying the Mimic's onslaught.

Bang! Bang! Bang!

The sounds of collision were constant as the two figures shifted positions! The surrounding terrain was left pitted and in shambles.

Karochi seized an opening and landed a whip kick, sending it flying a hundred meters away, but as it flew, it stretched its arm and punched him in the face!

Pain flared as Karochi was sent flying! Damn it, why does everything love aiming for the face? Did I hit your face? I don't think so, did I?

"Karochi, does it hurt?!" Tights' voice came through with a hint of teasing. Before Karochi could retort, she opened the aircraft door and tossed him the scouter: "I've finished the modifications. Put it on and you'll be able to see its core!"

Karochi was overjoyed, catching it and strapping it to his face immediately! He flipped the switch.

The first thing displayed was the opponent's power level: 10,750. Tch, it's already broken the ten-thousand mark! He figured his own was around the same. Then, a purple dot appeared within its body, moving around constantly at a slow pace.

"Alright, finally time for my counterattack!"

Karochi steadied himself and lunged forward, engaging it once more! He had to time it right and strike when the core reached an easy-to-hit position.

The purple dot moved slowly until it reached the chest! Now! To observe the core's movement, Karochi had already taken over a dozen hits and was covered in wounds.

But it was worth it. He held his left hand's fingers together, gathering a point of brilliance between them.

[Ki Light Blade]

This was a close-quarters, single-target cutting skill he'd adapted from Krillin's [Destructo Disc]. The blade was 60cm long, a deep blue, and wrapped in a white edge of ki!

This ki edge wasn't static; it flowed at ultra-high speeds, making it look perfectly still to the naked eye.

He thrust it straight toward the chest. The opponent seemed to sense his intent, and a look of panic flashed across its otherwise expressionless face.

It suddenly unleashed a Ki Burst, its ink-black aura wrapping around it as if to block this fatal blow!

Too bad. Karochi's [Ki Light Blade] was designed to pierce through protective ki. This level of defense was no better than paper to him. After all, in the original story, Krillin—with a power level of only around 20,000—used the [Destructo Disc] to slice off the tail of Frieza's second form, whose power exceeded 1,000,000.

He tore through the defense and pierced the core directly.

"Wuaaaaaaah!"

A roar of agony erupted, and a violent black light burst from its chest, scattering in every direction!

Karochi had already leaped away; this ink-black energy made him feel extremely uncomfortable, and he didn't want to touch even a drop of it.

BOOM!

The Mimic Karochi exploded, a massive cloud of dust rising into the sky.

What happened? Both Karochi and Tights stared unblinkingly at the dust.

After all, there are three laws of Dragon Ball: 1. The one who initiates the beam struggle always loses. 2. If there's smoke, there's no damage. 3. Never engage a Son family member in a beam struggle.

The "no damage if there's smoke" law was usually quite accurate; the bigger the smoke, the less the damage! That was common sense.

As the smoke cleared, Karochi let out a long sigh of relief when the Mimic figure did not reappear.

It seemed he had already broken two of his three laws; back when he fought Shadow, he had been full of confidence, convinced that the right-hand advantage was his, only to be beaten until he questioned his own existence.

With this much smoke, the enemy must have been reduced to ash and was likely dead through and through.

"Does this mean I might be able to clash beams with the Son family in the future? Maybe I could even win!!" Karochi muttered to himself.

"What Son family??" Tights' puzzled voice drifted over upon hearing Karochi's words, her tone filled with a sense of relief.

After all, this battle had been truly terrifying!! She had been so flustered she didn't know what to do.

Even now, she still hadn't figured out what that Yitai Wonder thing actually was.

But none of that mattered anymore; as long as Karochi was fine, that was all that counted. She really had to make it up to this stinky little brother of hers later.

"It's nothing, Sister Tights, let's head back!? This planet is weird and creepy." Karochi changed the subject. Goku hadn't grown up yet! The only member of the Son family around right now was Son Gohan.

Fighting an old man would be far too embarrassing!

"Stinky little brother, catch me!!" Tights' voice rang out, and he saw her retract her flight vehicle.

She plummeted straight down. Tsk! Sister Tights was truly daring; this was far more thrilling than bungee jumping.

Karochi didn't dare to delay, catching her mid-air in a perfect princess carry.

Muah!

He felt a slight dampness on his cheek.

Hm? Had he been ambushed again?? Karochi looked at Tights, confused. What was she doing? It was one thing to be handsy with a kid like him, but if she started using her lips, he was going to call the police!

"What? I was just rewarding you for working so hard. What's with that look? Oh~ are you wishing that little girl named Lazuli would kiss you instead!" Tights didn't feel the least bit embarrassed, nor did she blush.

What was wrong with kissing her own brother anyway?? It wasn't against the law, and it was only on the cheek!

"Tsk, Sister Tights, your way of thinking is dangerous. I think you're looking at a prison sentence!" Hilarious. Anyone with strange thoughts about little girls was a pervert.

He, Karochi, was definitely not a pervert. He was a good boy of the new century, born under the red flag and raised in the new world!

He had been a virgin for two lifetimes!!

"Alright, enough bickering with you!" Tights pulled out the flight vehicle they had arrived in.

The two of them climbed back inside!!

Before long, they returned to the spaceship, and a wave of exhaustion washed over Karochi.

He fell into a deep sleep before the hatch of the flight vehicle had even opened!

Having gone through a bitter battle, Karochi still bore many wounds left behind by the Mimic!!

As long as there were no more battles in the immediate future, he didn't plan on using a Senzu Bean.

Healing slowly was also a way of growing. Although Senzu Beans were convenient, he always felt they were a bit beyond the norm.

After all, they were grown using Ultra Divine Water, and the Ultra Divine Water itself contained a "toxicity" that stimulated potential! It felt as if the Senzu Bean was just squeezing out one's potential to force a recovery.

He would use them as little as possible!!

Tights couldn't carry Karochi; she was on the slender side, so she simply called for a service robot to help.

Seeing the wounds on his body, Tights couldn't help but feel a pang of heartache!

"It's a good thing this ship has a medical bay!!" Dr. Brief had designed a specialized Healing Pod for treating injuries.

In terms of appearance, it wasn't much different from the ones Frieza used, where the body was submerged in medicinal fluid with a mask covering the nose and mouth!!

"You really worked hard on this trip!!" Tights' voice echoed through the cabin, but Karochi was already in a deep sleep and didn't hear a thing.