There were two sides to the story. Just as Turles was fretting over how to get stronger quickly, Raditz was having a grand old time.
The spaceship cruised smoothly through space. Seated in the cockpit, Raditz slid his finger back and forth across the star chart, as if flipping through an interesting atlas.
"Namek..."
"Here!"
After locating Namek, he marked every nearby inhabited planet along the route between his current position and Namek.
"I should've done this ages ago."
He no longer had to stumble around like a headless fly.
Raditz was getting excited.
He set the course.
The spaceship shot forward at full speed like an arrow loosed from a bow!
One month later.
The "arrow" was stuck in the dirt.
Raditz lay back in his chair, the excitement on his face long since faded.
He was a little frustrated.
Things hadn't gone quite as he'd expected.
During this time, he'd landed on planets like crazy, visiting more than he had in the previous half-year.
But the system was as silent as if it had shut down.
"The system's sign-in tasks don't seem to be random. The planets have to be special."
"Or maybe they're special points in time?"
Raditz reluctantly gave up on the idea of continuing to "grind the map."
Namek was close now.
"Estimated arrival in ten minutes. Please prepare for landing on Namek," the ship's main control system announced.
Raditz stood and looked ahead through the window.
In the depths of space, a verdant planet slowly grew larger in his field of vision.
Namek.
Green skies, green plains, green hills.
Moori walked along the village path, leaning on his wooden staff.
This was the village he looked after. It wasn't large; a dozen or so domed houses stood scattered about.
Inspecting the village was something he did every day.
As the village elder, he had to make sure every member of the clan was present and that nobody had fallen ill.
After making the rounds, everything seemed as it should.
Moori nodded in satisfaction, then turned and headed out of the village.
In a patch of wasteland just beyond the village, several young Namekians were crouched on the ground, carefully planting saplings.
"Elder." One of them looked up and nodded to Moori.
Moori walked over and bent down to examine the saplings.
"This batch is growing better than the last one. Keep it up."
The young Namekian smiled shyly.
Moori gazed at the land before him, filled with emotion.
Namek's environment was especially fragile and had once suffered devastating damage.
Drought, disease, and a string of other disasters had nearly driven their race to extinction.
Fortunately, the Grand Elder had turned things around, preserving their race and leading them in rebuilding their home.
The environment was recovering. It was good that they could do their part, however small.
Moori looked away and headed back into the village.
He entered the stone house at the very center of the village. Unlike the other houses, nobody lived here.
The room was dim. At its center, a giant Dragon Ball lay quietly on a stone pedestal.
Moori walked over, took a cloth from a nearby rack, and carefully wiped it clean.
The seven Dragon Balls created by the Grand Elder had been distributed among six villages, with each one kept by the village elder.
Moori didn't know when the Dragon Balls might be used, but he knew that as long as they had them, they had one more reason to hope.
"Thud, thud, thud."
A hurried patter of footsteps suddenly came from outside, followed by the voice of a young clan member.
"Elder, you have to come see! A spaceship! A spaceship is landing!"
Raditz dressed himself properly and opened the hatch.
At a glance—
"Uh... so many Piccolos."
An obviously older Namekian was walking toward him, accompanied by a group of others.
Their faces were wary, and their eyes stayed fixed on Raditz.
Raditz even sensed someone's ki rapidly moving away. They must have gone to alert someone.
"Outsider, what are you doing here?" Moori stepped forward and asked sternly.
Raditz gathered his thoughts and did his best to keep his tone gentle.
"Hello. I'm from a distant planet called Earth. I've traveled a long way to your home on someone's behalf."
Moori was puzzled. Their race had always kept a low profile in the universe, and nobody had ever considered them particularly special.
The only thing people knew about them was that they were said to possess mysterious magic.
Why would anyone make a special trip here?
"On whose behalf?"
Raditz kept his tone unhurried. "A Namekian's."
That was a lie.
Kami didn't even know he was an alien, let alone ask him to come to Namek.
"A Namekian?!"
Moori was incredulous.
Were there still members of their race living far away?
"Yes. The Namekian on Earth fled there several hundred years ago. He said his homeland had suffered a great upheaval. Time passed, and he never returned to his home."
Moori had still been half-skeptical, but at the words "his homeland had suffered a great upheaval," the wariness on his face eased somewhat.
"One of our own..." he murmured, his eyes reddening slightly as if lost in memories.
The clan members behind him also began discussing it heatedly in low voices.
Raditz stood where he was, awkwardly watching them reminisce while leaving him off to one side.
"Oh, right." Moori finally came back to himself and hurried over, his tone much warmer. "What message did that clan member send? Didn't he come back himself?"
"Mm. For certain reasons, he couldn't come in person." Raditz nodded. "So I came in his place."
The reason was simple: Kami had split apart and lost his memories. He didn't even remember that he was a Namekian.
"He wants to ask if he can borrow the Dragon Balls from his homeland."
"He wants the young man before you to use them. He's Earth's most outstanding martial artist."
Raditz said it all without batting an eye.
What could he do? He liked to stick to the truth.
At the sudden mention of the Dragon Balls, Moori took a step back, the warmth on his face instantly freezing.
His gaze toward Raditz turned wary.
"I'm afraid I'll have to disappoint you. We don't have anything like Dragon Balls."
Raditz: "..."
Playing dumb? Did he think the Dragon Radar in my hand was just for show?
The atmosphere grew tense.
Raditz couldn't call out Moori's lie, and he didn't want to start a fight.
Even though he was strong enough to crush them all.
"Ta-ka-ra-put, to-to-ra-pon..."
Raditz suddenly spoke.
At his words, Moori and the others' expressions changed abruptly.
It wasn't just because the man before them had recited the words to summon Shenron. He had even said them in the Namekian Language.
It never hurt to have a few extra skills. Raditz could say he'd taken a foreign-language class outside Kami's Lookout, though he only knew this one phrase.
"You..."
"Dragon Balls exist on my planet, too," Raditz explained honestly. "They were created by that Namekian, who serves as Earth's guardian."
"If he could create something like that, then surely his homeland has something similar, right?"
"..."
By this point, Moori could no longer deny it.
He sighed. "I'm sorry. Since this concerns the Dragon Balls, I can't speak freely. The slightest misstep could bring disaster."
Raditz nodded to show he understood.
The Namekians didn't even use the Dragon Balls to restore their planet's environment, for fear of inviting unnecessary trouble. That showed just how wary they were of the Dragon Balls.
"Guest, I understand what you and that distant member of our race are asking for, but I must report it to the Grand Elder and let him decide."
Moori's tone softened. "If you don't mind, you can rest in our village."