A Strange Saiyan

"Hmm? Two power levels are heading this way. Pretty fast, too."

Jiang Che spoke softly, then suddenly opened his eyes, his gaze shooting toward the sky like lightning.

He stared hard into the distance. Two tiny black dots were rapidly approaching on the horizon, as if some invisible force were pushing them toward him.

The dots grew larger and larger, until in the blink of an eye they became two figures.

Their flight paths cut straight across the sky. Their clothes snapped in the gale, and two white trails of energy streamed behind them.

Whoosh! Whoosh!

The two landed almost simultaneously, sending a wave of dirt bursting out around their feet.

Cracks spread from beneath them like a spiderweb. Stones flew everywhere, clattering as they hit the ground.

Dust filled the air, like a sudden veil of fog.

Jiang Che stared at them, momentarily stunned.

His gaze first fell on the man to the left.

He had a lean, powerful build, with muscles sharply defined as if carved from stone.

His hair stood up in an inverted triangle, making him look like someone not to be trifled with.

He wore a reddish-brown vest and blue pants, his arms folded across his chest and his fingers slightly curled, ready to fight at any moment.

His eyes were as cold as ice, his gaze cutting into Jiang Che again and again, tinged with arrogance and disdain.

—Vegeta.

The young man on the right looked much gentler.

His long black hair fell to his shoulders, the light strands swaying in the breeze and giving him a carefree air.

He wore a light blue shirt with the collar open, exposing his sturdy collarbones.

He looked surprised, eyebrows slightly raised and mouth parted, as if he hadn't expected to run into a stranger here.

His expression was warm, but cautious too, as if he were ready to deal with anything unexpected.

—Gohan.

This was... the GT timeline, wasn't it?

Jiang Che wondered to himself, quickly taking in their clothes and hairstyles.

The maturity in Vegeta's bearing and the sharpness of his features were more pronounced than in the Z era. He even had a little stubble on his chin.

As for Gohan, he was no longer the hot-blooded young man he had once been. He stood firm, shoulders relaxed and hands hanging naturally at his sides, yet his presence was undiminished. No one would dare underestimate him.

"Who are you?" Vegeta asked coldly, his voice like ice chips hitting the ground. There was no room for argument.

He stared at Jiang Che. His gaze paused for two seconds when he saw the tail behind him, and a flash of wariness crossed his eyes. "Judging by the look of you, you seem to know a lot about us."

Jiang Che didn't answer right away.

He could feel Vegeta's gaze stabbing toward him like a blade, and his tail instinctively tightened behind him.

He forced himself to steady his breathing, and his heartbeat gradually slowed.

Why was that guy so wary?

It was simple: he was a Saiyan.

And a pure-blooded Saiyan, at that.

The dark brown tail behind him swayed gently, its tip occasionally brushing the ground and leaving a faint mark.

The thick, sturdy tail was the clearest proof of his Saiyan identity.

In this timeline, only Son Goku and Vegeta remained pure-blooded Saiyans.

Goku was who knew where now, as if he had vanished from the universe altogether.

The genius warrior Vegeta stood before Jiang Che, every muscle taut like a drawn bow. There was no way he'd let his guard down when a strange Saiyan appeared.

The air grew heavy all at once.

Vegeta's gaze was like a knife, trying to cut Jiang Che open and uncover whatever secrets he held.

In the distance, a few withered leaves were swept up by the wind, spinning toward the sky before silently settling back into the dirt.

"Hey, I asked you a question." Vegeta's voice turned even colder, like a piece of iron just pulled from an ice cellar—sharp and hard-edged.

A faint golden aura rose around him, spreading like ripples. The pressure in the air gave Jiang Che goosebumps.

"Who are you, exactly? What are you doing here?"

Vegeta took a step forward, and small stones scraped together beneath his feet.

It wasn't an attack, but the warning was unmistakable.

Gohan also stepped forward, dressed in a loose martial arts uniform, his back straight.

He didn't assume a fighting stance, but his gaze had grown wary, like a light suddenly flaring in the dead of night.

He raised his right hand slightly, holding his palm out in front of him. It seemed peaceful, but could turn into a blade at any moment.

"Sir, we mean you no harm, but your appearance here is certainly strange. Could you tell us your name?" His voice was sincere, though a hint of caution still crept into it.

The wind swept past their clothes, making them rustle.

Several birds were startled from the woods. They circled once, then landed somewhere else.

Jiang Che looked at the two childhood idols in front of him, his gaze passing between Vegeta's clenched jaw and Gohan's steady eyes.

He couldn't help curling his lips into a faint smile. It held both the wistfulness of a long-lost dream and the fondness of memories from the cartoons of his childhood. Back then, he had been a viewer. Now, he was a character in the story.

"My name is Jiang Che."

He spoke calmly, neither intimidated nor flustered.

He tilted his head slightly and looked into the distance, where rolling green hills stretched beneath a clear blue sky.

"As for why I'm here... honestly, I have no idea either."

Vegeta narrowed his eyes, his amber pupils narrowing into two sharp slits, like a leopard fixing on its prey.

His nostrils flared, as if he were picking up on the faint scent of something off about Jiang Che. "You don't know?"

"Right."

Jiang Che nodded, his tone frank, with a hint of a helpless smile.

He slipped both hands into his jacket pockets, his shoulders lifting slightly.

"I just went to sleep, and when I woke up, I was here. Then I realized I'd become a Saiyan, and that I had some... special power."

He kept it vague. He wasn't lying, but he wasn't explaining much, either. He spoke as if it were nothing important.

Vegeta didn't say a word.

He stood motionless, like a statue the wind couldn't budge, and watched Jiang Che for a while without haste.

His gaze slowly moved from Jiang Che's face to his tail, then back to his eyes, as if searching his pupils for a lie.

Only the wind and the rustling leaves disturbed the silence.

After a long while, he finally snorted, which was about as close to accepting the explanation as he would get.

Gohan gave a wry smile and rubbed the back of his head. His gesture carried a touch of awkwardness and helplessness. "It sounds pretty bizarre... but in our world, bizarre things are normal."

He paused, then glanced at Jiang Che's hands in his pockets. "By the way, you said you had a special power. What exactly do you mean?"

Jiang Che didn't answer right away.

He slowly raised his right hand, moving as if gently touching the air.

His fingers spread slightly. The air swirled between them and gathered, as though drawn by some invisible force.

A wisp of pale golden light quietly appeared, like the first hint of dawn rising in the night. It grew brighter and more intense, until it finally condensed into a fist-sized Ki Blast.