"Two days from now, we'll be passing a giant planet called 'Akasque.' It's a planet capable of supporting life, though!! I need to go gather some material." Right, this wasn't a discussion. He was just telling Karochi the itinerary!
Karochi had gotten used to it. After all, Tights had made him act as her private chauffeur to Planet of the Elves several times, too!! She'd gone there seven or eight times over the past year. Sigh! What a fine Elf princess, and Tights had gone and claimed him for herself!! It left him feeling rather uncomfortable.
"By the way, you said Cooler was Frieza's older brother!! Is he strong?" Last time Karochi had started telling him about it, Rielbea had contacted him, so he'd abandoned his crash course in East Galaxy knowledge.
Karochi stopped eating and answered with a serious expression. "Very strong. He's many times stronger than Frieza!! Cooler is a fully grown Frost Demon, so unlike Frieza, he doesn't need to suppress his power to adapt."
He took a sip of the juice on the table, apparently choking because he hadn't swallowed all his food yet!!
"Wow~! He's that strong?" Tights had already pulled out her little notebook and started taking notes. Throughout their journey, she'd either explored unknown planets or listened to Karochi tell her all about the universe's secrets.
"Yeah. Frieza needs to transform three times to bring out 100% of his power! But even then, his battle power is only 120 million. Cooler, on the other hand, has a base battle power of 150 million and still has one transformation left." In the movie The Incredible Strongest vs. Strongest, Cooler had even watched Planet Vegeta's destruction.
He'd also known that Kakarot had escaped, but hadn't told Frieza! He probably hadn't expected that the Saiyan he let get away would become a Super Saiyan more than twenty years later, defeating not only Frieza but Cooler himself as well.
"Hmm~~! Is there more? Since you say that's his base form, he must have an even stronger technique, right??" Tights was already building the story in her head.
Karochi didn't really want Tights to learn too much about these evildoers. Of course, that was only compared to the villains from the Z era. Compared to the brainless Goku in Dragon Ball Super, even the Frieza Race counted as great benefactors! After all, Goku had single-handedly sparked a crisis that threatened to wipe out all twelve universes: the Tournament of Power.
"He still has one transformation left. His power will surge several times over in an instant, reaching around 470 million!" Well, even if she didn't learn about him now, they'd run into him sooner or later. Earth had a way of attracting trouble.
Just as Karochi was sighing to himself, a sketchbook was thrust in front of him! He stared at it, speechless. His drawing skills weren't any good, so why did she have to make him draw it?! Wasn't this just picking on an honest man?
"It's really hard to picture him just from your description. Since you know so much about him, you must have seen him before, right? Please?" Tights pressed her palms together and asked earnestly.
Karochi wanted to say that of course he hadn't seen him. What a joke! If he'd met Cooler, would he still be alive?! He didn't think Cooler would spare him just because he was a kid!! Still, to stop Tights from asking more questions, Karochi took the sketchbook and started drawing with a pained expression. At least the Frieza Race had fairly simple features.
If it had been Cell, forget it! Karochi would rather wait until he successfully became a Super Saiyan 2 and dragged Cell in front of Tights so she could see him for herself.
No wonder Cell was the only villainous boss who'd been left out of so many stories!! He was hard to draw, and the author really didn't like him.
After more than half an hour of painstaking work, Karochi handed Tights a scribble of a drawing. Tights looked at it with disdain. She was even wondering whether she should sign up for an art class.
Karochi didn't care. She'd asked him to describe Cooler, and he had. She'd asked him to draw him, and he had. If it looked bad, that wasn't his problem. He went back to eating and drinking.
Two days passed in the blink of an eye!!
Tights finally saw the planet she'd wanted to visit!! It really was enormous—bigger than the Sun in the Solar System. That made no sense. A planet that huge should have incredibly high gravity, but the data showed that it was no different from Earth.
"It's so huge~!! This is unbelievable. It's astonishing that a planet this big isn't gaseous." Tights wore an exaggerated expression and was just about to begin her landing approach when Karochi stopped her.
Tights looked at him in confusion. "What is it?" Karochi's expression was slightly grave.
"Tights, did the data say what classification this planet, Akasque, falls under?" He could sense powerful ki—at least 100,000 battle power by his estimate.
Tights immediately started looking it up. A moment later, she said, "No intelligent life has evolved on this planet. It only has some strange, dinosaur-like creatures with enormous bodies!! It's classified as a high-level planet."
A high-level planet meant that its strongest inhabitants had a battle power above 10,000. But Karochi could sense several auras exceeding 100,000.
That didn't make sense, did it? After all, exceeding 10,000 and exceeding 100,000 were two entirely different things. Maybe he was just being paranoid, but to be safe, Karochi still had Tights send over a probe.
It wasn't that he was afraid or anything. What a joke—his battle power was 3 million now! He'd also developed a transformation ability. Unless they ran into some truly outrageous opponent, they'd be a piece of cake.
The main reason for checking things out was to confirm who they were dealing with. If they were intelligent life forms, the two of them could approach as visitors!! If not, they could at least make sure Tights didn't put herself in danger.
The images came through quickly!! The figures that appeared on-screen shocked Karochi. Tights also used the secret Spirit Eye technique to see their information.
Name: Salza Race: Unknown Battle power: 150,000 Notes: Captain of Cooler's Armored Squadron. He once competed against Ginyu for the position of captain of the Ginyu Force and won.
Salza had blue skin, short blond hair, and a Scouter. He wasn't very tall, standing only 170 centimeters. He looked a lot like Jeice of the Ginyu Force, but their battle powers were worlds apart.
Name: Neiz Race: Old Zoldian Battle power: 123,000 Notes: Due to the environment of his home planet, he is amphibious.
Unlike Salza, he wasn't humanoid. His head was somewhat flat, like a frog's, and his skin was earthy brown. He was the tallest of the three, probably over 2.5 meters.
Name: Dore Race: Old Bepan Battle power: 167,000 Notes: A champion of the Universal Wrestling League with a 300-match winning streak. He is cruel and bloodthirsty.
Dore's skin was even greener than a Namekian's, and he was exceptionally muscular! A cruel grin hung on his face. His Scouter was the strangest of the lot, looking like a safety helmet.
"Th-they're...!" Tights was a little shocked. She hadn't expected them to encounter Cooler's elite squad right after they'd talked about him two days ago.
"Yeah, they're Cooler's elite squad!!" Karochi was pretty surprised, too. What a coincidence!! They'd run into the Armored Squadron.
Although Tights was surprised, she wasn't very nervous. The other side was strong, but Karochi was stronger! The Scouter showed his battle power as zero, but her Spirit Eye technique clearly showed that he had a battle power of 3 million.
"Hmm~ What are they doing here?" Just like the Ginyu Force's sudden appearance on Fidel Planet, it made no sense! As Cooler's elite squad, they would normally be expected to stay by his side.
But there weren't any powerful auras in the surrounding area! Cooler clearly wasn't nearby, and the three of them seemed to be searching for something.
"What should we do now? Leave, or...?" Tights didn't finish her question, but Karochi understood. She was asking whether they should take them out.
In terms of battle power, Dore was clearly the strongest of the three, and that was still true twenty years later!! But in the movie, Dore and Neiz were killed by Piccolo, while only Salza managed to hold Piccolo off for a while.
Keep in mind, this Piccolo had already fused with Nail on Namek. His power had once suppressed Frieza in his second form, so his battle power was definitely over a million.
How had Salza managed to hold Piccolo off?? One possibility was that although Piccolo had fused with Nail, the fusion had a time limit. Once that time passed, the effects of the fusion disappeared!
But there was a plot hole in that explanation: the Namekians of Universe 6, Saonel and Pirina. They had fused with the power of their entire race, bringing their combined battle power to 20 billion—the level of a Super Saiyan 3.
Their power hadn't noticeably declined even after a long time had passed! The only explanation was that the author had deliberately weakened the Z Fighters' top fighters, even taking Goku out of the story for a time!!
Karochi thought for a moment. "We should take them out. These people have done plenty of evil, so we'll be doing the universe a favor!! Mostly, I want to find out why they're here. Cooler's elite squad has been sent to look for something, and I'm curious about anything that could catch Cooler's attention."
They couldn't hear what the three of them were saying!!
"Okay. Be careful out there!" Tights couldn't help reminding him. It sounded like the concern she'd show for family!!
Heh~ What a joke. His battle power was 3 million now. If he still managed to lose, he might as well bash himself to death with a block of tofu!! Besides, he had plenty of supernatural abilities, like Time Stop, Bind, and telekinesis. Beating up three little pushovers with battle powers in the tens of thousands would be as easy as playing a game??
"Don't worry, Tights. They're no match for me!!" Karochi was brimming with confidence. After two and a half years of training, he wasn't the same person he'd been before. He no longer needed to be as cautious as he'd been against the Ginyu Force!
And although these three had high battle powers, they didn't have any supernatural abilities to worry about or strange signature techniques like Ginyu's Body Swap!!
With that, white light enveloped Karochi, and he vanished from before Tights with a whoosh.
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