Another Popo Again

The wind over the Lookout Plaza seemed to have stopped.

After exchanging a few pleasantries, Piccolo stepped forward. His gaze moved between Son Goku and Son Gohan before settling on Son Gohan.

"Though I'd long expected you to have great potential, I never imagined I'd get to see you grown up like this." Piccolo spoke gravely. "That monster Cell is preparing to hold a World Martial Arts Tournament. If you joined us now, we'd be sure to win."

"No!"

At that, Son Goku whipped around and interrupted Piccolo without hesitation. "Piccolo, this is our fight!"

Watching Goku's anxious expression, Son Gohan chuckled inwardly.

As expected of Goku. That pure-blooded Saiyan battle lust hasn't changed at all, even after dying countless times.

Goku circled Son Gohan, his eyes feverish, as though he were looking at a priceless treasure. "I can feel it—you're absurdly strong now. If you joined in, Cell wouldn't be able to withstand even one of your fingers. That'd be no fun! I don't want to miss the chance to fight Cell."

Piccolo's face turned green, and he sighed helplessly. But he didn't press the point. With Son Gohan standing there, it was like having a pillar holding the sea in place; he no longer had to worry about what lay ahead.

However, as Piccolo looked at Adult Gohan, his brow gradually furrowed again.

"Gohan." Piccolo fixed his eyes on Son Gohan. "I've been meaning to say this since earlier."

"Your energy... why does it feel so evil? Like a beast ready to tear everything apart at any moment."

Adult Gohan froze. Though he'd forcibly suppressed the Legendary Super Saiyan's wild nature within his body, a trace of its violent afterglow did seep out in his normal state. He was just about to make up some excuse.

"That is the aura of the Legendary Super Saiyan."

Popo's emotionless voice rang out abruptly across the plaza.

Adult Gohan's heart skipped a beat. He turned to look at the dark, heavyset man. This fellow really was mysterious. He knew far too much.

Goku, Kid Gohan, and Young Trunks, who had been following close behind Adult Gohan, all turned to look at Popo in unison.

"The Legendary Super Saiyan?" Young Trunks' eyes widened. Adult Gohan had been too busy training him to death in the Hyperbolic Time Chamber to tell him anything about his origins, though he'd heard Gohan mention the term.

Popo's round eyes remained placid. His voice echoed directly in everyone's minds. "Ordinary Super Saiyans break through their limits with powerful emotions such as anger. The Legendary Super Saiyan, however, is a mutated bloodline that appears only once every thousand years among the Saiyans. It embodies pure destruction and wildness. After transforming, its power has no limit and continues to grow throughout battle."

Kid Gohan's eyes lit up. He looked at Popo. "Mr. Popo, will I be able to transform like that someday?"

"No," Popo answered bluntly. "The rules and development of each timeline and universe are different. In any one universe, only one Legendary Super Saiyan can exist at a time."

Popo paused, his gaze seeming to pierce the clouds. "There's already one in your timeline."

At his words, everyone except Son Gohan was stunned.

Adult Gohan knew exactly who Popo meant: Broly, the one who had been exiled to Planet Vampa. But he had no time to worry about the guy who was currently playing an electric-shock game with his dad.

Goku wasn't interested in the Legendary Super Saiyan at all. He stared fixedly at Gohan before him, golden flames flickering faintly around his body.

"A Saiyan legend who appears once every thousand years? And has no limit?" Goku grinned, wearing his trademark, excited smile. "That's my Gohan! Fight me! I want to see just how strong you've become!"

Seeing Goku brimming with fighting spirit, Son Gohan felt the battle lust inside him stirred to life as well.

After two years of pushing himself to the limit, his normal-state battle power had reached forty billion. He also wanted to use the Goku of the main timeline to measure just how strong he'd become.

"Sure." Adult Gohan took off the tattered top of his martial arts uniform and casually tossed it to Young Trunks beside him.

Piccolo seemed unable to bear the sight of Gohan taking off his outerwear and discreetly turned away.

His muscular upper body was covered in scars, and despite having lost his left arm, he stood as straight as a spear. Without powering up or even letting a trace of energy escape, Son Gohan assumed a fighting stance and beckoned to Goku with his only remaining hand.

"Come on, Dad. I'll stay in my normal state."

Goku's eyes narrowed. He didn't feel insulted. Instead, he sensed a pressure unlike any he'd ever felt before.

Boom!

Golden flames surged into the sky, and the stone slabs of the Lookout Plaza were instantly blown away. Goku went straight into Super Saiyan Full Power, holding nothing back.

Whoosh!

Goku vanished from where he stood.

Adult Gohan remained in place, merely tilting his head slightly.

Bang!

Goku's heavy punch, carried by a violent gust, slammed into the air to Adult Gohan's right. A calloused palm caught it firmly. A violent shock wave exploded around them, sending Piccolo, Kid Gohan, and Young Trunks stumbling backward.

"So fast!" Kid Gohan cried.

A faint smile tugged at Gohan's lips. Too slow. To his senses, sharpened by a normal-state battle power of forty billion, Goku at Full Power moved as if in slow motion.

"Again!" Goku shouted, charging forward once more.

Countless afterimages burst across the sky. A white figure and a golden one clashed wildly above the Lookout.

More accurately, the golden figure attacked furiously, while the white figure, not even surrounded by an aura, effortlessly deflected every strike with nothing but his right hand.

He'd already gotten a feel for it: Son Goku's current Full Power was around thirty-five billion, provided he didn't use Kaioken.

Adult Gohan hovered in midair, calmly blocking Goku's storm of attacks as he extended a thread of his energy to sense what was happening below.

Two familiar energies were rapidly approaching Kami's Palace.

Whoosh! Whoosh!

Two figures landed heavily on the Lookout Plaza.

Gohan glanced down. The man in front wore a tight blue Battle Suit and had the unmistakable upright hair and haughty expression of Vegeta.

Behind him was a young man with purple hair parted down the middle and a sword strapped to his back: Future Trunks.

"Piccolo! What's going on up there? Who's Kakarot fighting?!" Vegeta demanded as soon as he landed, staring fixedly at the one-armed figure who was overpowering Goku in midair.

He and Trunks had been training when they suddenly sensed a presence at the Lookout, an energy even greater than Son Goku's, but not Cell's.

Piccolo stepped forward and quickly explained how the timelines had become jumbled, and how Son Gohan and Young Trunks from a parallel world had accidentally ended up here.

Adult Gohan heard every word from above. He punched Goku back and cast an intrigued glance down at the plaza.

On the plaza below,

Young Trunks was staring blankly at Vegeta. The fourteen-year-old boy had only ever seen his father in photographs. Now the living, proud Saiyan Prince was standing right in front of him.

"D-Dad..." Young Trunks took a step forward without thinking, his voice trembling slightly.

Vegeta whipped around, his sharp gaze landing on Young Trunks.

He looked at the purple-haired boy in tattered clothes, whose eyes held a wild, hard edge. A flicker of emotion crossed his eyes, almost too subtle to notice. But the pride of a prince made him instinctively snort.

"Don't look at me with that pathetic expression! If you're a descendant of the Saiyans, then show some backbone!"

Young Trunks was taken aback by the shout, then straightened his back.

Vegeta's gaze swept over the boy, and his brow suddenly jumped. He sensed that this teenager, who looked only fourteen or fifteen, possessed an energy even greater than that of the Trunks standing behind him.

A normal-state battle power of one and a half billion!

"Even this little Trunks has surpassed me." Vegeta gritted his teeth, inwardly shocked.

But his attention was quickly drawn to the commotion in the sky.

Up in the sky,

Gohan and Goku separated again.

"Now that was fun!" Goku wiped the blood from the corner of his mouth. Though he'd been completely outclassed, the light in his eyes only grew brighter. "Gohan, your power now feels absolutely bottomless!"

Son Gohan hovered in the air, looking down at the people from the main timeline.

At last, Future Trunks got a clear look at the one-armed man's face.

That face, that scar, that missing arm.

Future Trunks' pupils contracted sharply. His eyes reddened in an instant, and his voice cracked completely with shock and joy.

"Brother Gohan?!"