Vegeta's Pride

Vegeta looked over his transformed body with satisfaction. Not only had his power increased by so much, he now had enough strength to settle things with Kakarot. He was almost impressed by his own genius.

"Hahaha, excellent!" Babidi's triumphant laughter echoed through the control room. "I'll find you a nice place to fight!"

"Baba wuba."

Babidi cast his magic again, teleporting everyone on the third level to the Martial Arts Tournament.

At the Martial Arts Tournament, Android 18 had just collected her prize money!

"Ah, why did those guys suddenly appear?"

"Where did they come from?"

The audience was startled by the sudden appearance of Son Goku and the others. Damn it, I was enjoying the view of those beauties—what's with you guys popping up out of nowhere?

"Um, Son Goku, you're late. The tournament's already over," the Blonde Announcer said.

Babidi looked at Vegeta in the crystal ball and snickered. "Vegeta, go ahead and fight to your heart's content. Steal their energy. You can even kill them."

Hearing Babidi's sleazy laughter in his mind, Vegeta's face darkened. "Get lost. I only want to fight Kakarot. The others have nothing to do with me."

"He actually resisted my control? Th-this is the first time..."

Babidi was stunned. What the hell? This wasn't right. If the bastard was under his control, he was supposed to come crawling over and lick his boots.

Vegeta raised one hand and pointed at Son Goku with a menacing grin. While everyone looked on in confusion, he closed his fingers into a fist and aimed it at Son Goku.

Whoosh.

A yellow blast of energy shot from Vegeta's palm like a cannonball. In the confusion, Son Goku could only cross his arms to block the attack.

It was no use. No matter how weak a Super Saiyan Vegeta's energy blast was, Son Goku couldn't stop it without even transforming into a Super Saiyan.

The blast pushed Son Goku backward little by little. In the end, unable to withstand it, Son Goku instinctively dodged, and the energy blast hurtled straight toward the stands.

At the crucial moment, Son Goten finished transforming while Son Goku held off the blast. He appeared in its path as if he'd teleported, raised his short leg, and kicked the blast with all his strength, sending it toward the sea.

Boom!

A deafening explosion rang out over the distant sea. A massive mushroom cloud rose before everyone, and the fierce wind blowing in from the water sent their hair whipping wildly.

Vegeta calmly lowered his hand, as if nothing had happened.

"Waaah!"

"Run!"

The audience, who had lived in peaceful times, had never seen anything like this. They screamed in terror and scrambled in every direction.

"Ve... Vegeta!" Son Goku glared at Vegeta furiously. If Son Goten hadn't stepped in just now, who knew how many people would have died? And they wouldn't have been left in one piece.

"D-Dad..." Trunks looked frightened. Vegeta looked much scarier than usual. To Trunks, Vegeta had once been no more than a strict father. Now he looked like a murderous demon, through and through.

"Ah, what a pity. If that attack had hit, at least two hundred people would have died," Babidi said regretfully.

"Enough talk, Kakarot. Hurry up and fight me," Vegeta snarled. "Unless you want this place piled high with corpses. And next time, you won't be so lucky."

As if he'd figured something out, Son Goku said gravely, "Vegeta, could it be... you let Babidi control you on purpose?"

Having achieved his goal and thoroughly outsmarted everyone, Vegeta didn't want to say a word. He wanted to enjoy his intellectual superiority for a while!

Vegeta aimed his hand at the stands to his right and fired an energy blast toward them.

Bang.

Boom.

Trunks hurriedly transformed into a Super Saiyan and caught Vegeta's energy blast. But this time, he'd only transformed in a rush to intercept it. He managed to divert it slightly, but it still killed quite a few spectators.

Son Goku's pupils contracted sharply. Seeing the look in Vegeta's eyes—as if he were saying, "Hurry up, or I'll do that a few more times"—Son Goku transformed too.

"Don't!" Supreme Kai cried anxiously. "If you fight here, you'll be doing exactly what Babidi wants. Majin Buu will absorb your energy and awaken!"

But nobody paid him any attention. Supreme Kai was deeply hurt. He was a Supreme Kai, for goodness' sake, and they wouldn't even listen to him. He felt utterly miserable.

"Vegeta... you deliberately let Babidi control you because you wanted to fight me seriously, didn't you?" Son Goku asked, watching Vegeta intently.

Oh, you finally figured it out. Not bad, not bad. A hint of mockery flashed in Vegeta's eyes.

Son Goku raised an eyebrow. What was with that look, as if to say, "I'm acting brilliantly, you loser. You should just bow out"?

"If I hadn't done this, you wouldn't have fought me. You can only stay in this world for one day, and then this happened..." Vegeta said irritably.

"You... you did all this over something so foolish..."

Son Goten's mouth twitched when he heard Supreme Kai. What was with that feeling that someone had just been dumped by his lover?

"Foolish? You're calling this foolish?" Hearing Supreme Kai's words, Vegeta seemed to explode—no, he had already exploded. He roared, "This is the most important thing to me! I don't care about Majin Buu or any of that!"

"That guy... that guy is actually stronger than me! We're both Saiyans, yet he's always stronger. I'm the Saiyan Prince with absolute power, but he surpassed me... I've even been saved by him before. I can't stand it. I absolutely can't!"

Vegeta's pride flared up again, and he roared madly, as if Son Goku had screwed him over.