Tapion's Grief; Tarble Returns with the Thief

Just then.

Tapion noticed the colossal figure in the sky suddenly turn to look behind him. Its mouth opened and closed, and a majestic voice rang out.

"Your first wish has been granted!"

"You have two wishes left. Please make them quickly!"

Seeing this, Tapion realized that the unknown creature in the sky hadn't been speaking to him.

Its actions made it clear that there was someone else here.

The realization startled him.

He spun around and saw several strangers standing behind him, all dressed in strange clothes.

His pupils abruptly shrank.

Who were they?

As he wondered, the tall man near the front, dressed in orange, suddenly looked up and called, "Shenron, we'll only make one wish this time. We'll save the remaining wishes for next time!"

Far away on North Kai Planet, North Kai: I'll curse you to the ends of the universe!

I knew you couldn't be trusted!

Shenron?

Tapion looked back up at the colossal figure in the sky, frowning.

He realized that the name "Shenron" was completely unfamiliar to him.

Shenron...

What was going on?

In the sky, after hearing Son Goku, Earth Shenron slowly nodded its head.

"I understand!"

"Until next time!"

As soon as it finished speaking,

Earth Shenron's entire body turned into a dazzling beam of light. The Dragon Balls on the ground flew upward along the beam, eventually forming a rapidly spinning ball of light.

The ball of light immediately burst into an even brighter glow, then shot seven tiny, meteor-like lights in different directions.

In the blink of an eye, they vanished from sight.

At the same time, the sky cleared once more.

The intense light made Tapion squint again.

After adjusting to it, he warily looked at Son Goku and the others and asked in a low voice, "Who are you?"

"Why am I here?"

By now, he had realized that the people before him had released him from the box.

As for how they had done it, he guessed it was probably connected to the unknown creature from before.

Noticing that Tapion didn't seem dangerous, Son Goku smiled and slowly approached him.

"You're the hero Tapion, right?"

"I'm Son Goku, the Saiyan Son Goku!"

"And I'm the one who freed you from the box."

Hearing this, Tapion suppressed his anger and stopped Son Goku from coming any closer.

"Don't come any closer!"

"Tell me, how did you hear my name, and where did you get that box?"

"And how did you know I was sealed inside it?"

Son Goku was baffled by Tapion's reaction.

He couldn't understand why Tapion was so angry all of a sudden.

Still, he stopped as asked and answered honestly. "The box came from someone named... What was his name again..."

Unable to remember, he couldn't be bothered to think any harder and turned to Vegeta.

"Hey, Vegeta, what was that old man's name?"

"That sneaky old geezer was named Hoi!"

"Kakarot, you idiot. You can't even remember a name!"

"Thanks, Vegeta!"

With Vegeta's less-than-willing reminder, Son Goku finally remembered the name of the pink old man.

He turned to tell Tapion, only to see anger written all over his face.

"Huh?"

"Why do you look so upset?"

At that, Tapion could no longer contain his anger and roared, "Damn it!"

"Why did you help him?"

"Why did you meddle?"

"Why did you free me from the box?"

"Why were you stupid enough to believe him?"

"You have no idea what will happen because you freed me!"

"You have no idea!"

"You have no idea..."

By the end, his voice had grown much weaker.

He knew that these people didn't understand the situation and had only freed him out of kindness.

But he would rather have gone without that kindness.

Watching him go from frantic to dejected left Son Goku and the others utterly confused.

They had gone out of their way to save him, and not only had he failed to say "thank you," he'd turned around and cursed them out.

How could he be so ungrateful?

Tapion slumped to the ground and murmured, "Has this day finally come..."

"It seems my old fears are about to come true..."

"No, wait!"

"If he managed to find these people and get them to help him, then my little brother must have already..."

"Damn it!"

Thinking that his younger brother, Minosha, might already be dead filled him with grief.

Then he thought of the monster sealed inside him, which might now be released to wreak havoc on the world. Anger flared within him.

For a moment, grief and fury overwhelmed him.

Thud!

Thud!

"Damn it!"

"I won't let you get away with this!"

Tapion angrily pounded the ground twice. After shouting, he quickly got to his feet, turned, and tried to flee.

He felt no gratitude toward Son Goku and the others, only anger.

It was the anger one felt toward people who didn't know any better.

Right now, he didn't have the strength to worry about any of this. He just wanted to find somewhere deserted and think through what to do.

However,

just as he took off running, two figures suddenly appeared in front of him.

More precisely, it was a young man dressed just like Son Goku, carrying another figure in black robes.

Tapion frowned at once, but didn't stop.

He pivoted and changed direction, determined to get away.

But he had barely taken two steps when a remark from the person who had suddenly appeared stopped him in his tracks.

"Where do you think you're going?"

"The culprit is right here. Don't you want to take your revenge with your own hands?"

The speaker was Tarble.

The person he was carrying was none other than the Mage Hoi, who had slipped away earlier.

"Tarble, you're finally back!" Son Goku cried happily when he saw him.

A moment later,

he noticed that Tarble was carrying someone. Unfortunately, the person was face-down, so he couldn't see his face.

Even so, he recognized the old man who'd slipped away—Hoi.

"Huh?"

"Tarble, isn't that the old man who slipped away earlier?"

Tarble nodded. "That's right. It's the old geezer."

"I'd been keeping an eye on him from the start."

"While you were all focused on Shenron helping to open the box, the old geezer used some special trick to slip away the instant it opened."

"Luckily, I'd made sure to memorize his ki."

"Otherwise, I might not have been able to catch him!"