The Eve of the Storm

Lazuli's first time joining the Turtle Hermit School's group morning training came on an utterly ordinary morning. Before dawn had even broken, the beach in front of Turtle Hermit House was already packed. Goku and Vegeta's Super Saiyan forms cast the sea in pale gold, Lapis stood beside Vegeta loosening his wrists, Tien Shinhan adjusted his breathing, Chiaotzu floated at his side, Nappa alone took up the space of two people, and Master Roshi stood at the front of the group, leaning on his cane.

Lazuli stood in the last row. This was her first time standing among the morning trainees as a "Turtle Hermit School disciple," rather than standing amid ruins as "Android 18," looking down on these people.

"Newcomer." Master Roshi suddenly called her out. "Step forward. Spar with Krillin."

Krillin ran out from the line, his hands already forming the seals for Qi Net. Lazuli stepped forward, and the two stopped ten paces apart. The sea breeze swept across the beach, gently stirring her long golden hair.

"Your energy blast accuracy is already excellent, but energy blasts are only condensed qi—qi itself has far greater uses." Krillin formed a seal with both hands, and a golden Qi Net spread from his fingertips. "Today isn't about severing. It's about connecting. Last time, you said you didn't really understand Qi Resonance, so I improved the connection method. I used to stack everyone's qi together with the net, but your permanent energy reactor's output is too high. Ordinary qi threads would snap under the strain. So I changed it to a star topology—you're the central node, and everyone else draws qi through you. All output passes through your reactor, then gets precisely distributed back to everyone. Nothing will break, because you're the core."

"A star topology? When did you change it?" Lazuli looked at the few qi threads connected to her wrist.

"At night over the past few days. Bulma helped me analyze your reactor's output waveform, then I redesigned the net's topology." Krillin grinned. "Talos said Lapis should practice severing, while my job was connecting. Connecting is harder than severing."

Lazuli lowered her gaze to the few golden qi threads on her wrist, thin as strands of hair. They were connected not to her energy core, but only to the output nodes at her wrist. Krillin had not touched her core directly—he had deliberately avoided it. She fell silent for a moment, then raised her hand. The qi threads flickered faintly at her fingertips. "How do I use it?"

"Send your qi through. You don't need to control the direction—the net will distribute it automatically."

Lazuli poured her qi into the threads. Golden light flowed through the topology network toward every connection point—Goku's speed, Vegeta's strength, Tien Shinhan's precision, Lapis's endurance—all of their qi completed a perfect cycle around her in that instant. For the first time, she felt this kind of connection. It was not an order, nor was it coercion, but flow. Within this network, her permanent energy reactor changed from an output source into a metronome, each beat driving everyone's qi into synchronized resonance.

"The star topology... worked." Krillin released his hand seal, and the Qi Net dissolved into golden motes scattered through the morning light. Wiping sweat from his forehead, he smiled with genuine warmth. "From today onward, you're our central node. Not Android 18—Lazuli. The Turtle Hermit School's thirty-seventh-generation disciple."

Master Roshi watched from nearby and took off his sunglasses.

After morning training ended, Lazuli sat on a reef. The Turtle Hermit School's martial arts manual was open to its last page, and she began reading again from the title page. The note that read, "Control is freedom," was tucked into the chapter on "Qi Resonance." Its edges were slightly worn from repeated caresses.

Tien Shinhan stood atop Turtle Hermit House, gazing out at the distant sea. Chiaotzu floated beside him, his little round hat slightly crooked from the sea breeze. It had been nearly six months since Piccolo left. During that time, Tien Shinhan and Chiaotzu had been working to develop a new substitute for their combination technique—without Piccolo's stretching arms to lock down enemies, the window for landing Third Eye Beam needed to be recalculated.

"Chiaotzu, has your psychic power improved lately?"

"My paralysis technique lasts longer than before." Chiaotzu closed his eyes and used his psychic power to lift a pebble from the roof into the air. "But the range still isn't enough. If the target is too big, I can't immobilize its whole body. I can only immobilize part of it."

"A part is enough. Piccolo isn't here, so locking down the enemy is your job now. Use your paralysis technique to immobilize the opponent's joints, and my Third Eye Beam can strike precisely in that instant. We don't need to immobilize the whole body. We only need a fraction of a second. If we coordinate well, the result won't be any worse than with Piccolo."

Chiaotzu nodded hard.

Nappa came running over from the beach, carrying a reef boulder taller than himself while doing squats. "Tien Shinhan! When is that green-skinned kid coming back? With him gone, I've got way too much front-line firepower—I've got nobody controlling the field!"

"Soon. The Grand Elder said two years. There are about three months left."

"Three months is too long! Is there a faster way?"

"The Hyperbolic Time Chamber."

"Then I'll go to the Hyperbolic Time Chamber!" Nappa threw down the boulder, smashing a deep pit into the beach.

"Who are you going in there to train with?"

Nappa thought for a moment, then broke into a grin. "Chiaotzu. He immobilizes them, I break their guard. His paralysis technique doesn't have enough range, so I'll learn to compress. I'll compress my Tri-Beam down to the smallest possible area and pair it with his precise paralysis. It doesn't matter if he can't immobilize the whole body—if he can immobilize one arm, I can blast it apart."

Chiaotzu floated beside Nappa and nodded seriously. From then on, every day outside the Hyperbolic Time Chamber at The Lookout, Nappa's roars and Chiaotzu's apologies could be heard—"Sorry, sorry, I immobilized the wrong spot!" "It's fine! Again!"

Goku sat at the edge of The Lookout's plaza, staring at the sky. Since defeating Frieza, he had developed a new habit—every so often, he would use Kaioken layered over his Super Saiyan form to sense qi throughout the universe. Not to search for enemies, but to feel that increasingly clear intuition.

"Lately, I keep feeling like something is getting closer." Goku looked down at his palm, where the golden aura of his Super Saiyan form slowly spiraled. "It's not Cell, and it's not Frieza—it's something older."

"Majin Buu." Talos sat down beside him. "A magical creature that existed in ancient times, sealed away on Earth. The seal hasn't loosened yet, so what you're sensing now is only the qi of the seal itself. But the fact that you can sense it in advance means your perception has improved again."

"What if it comes back to life?"

"Then we fight. At its core, an ancient magical creature is an uncontrolled eruption of energy. Your Kaioken is an ordered amplification, and Super Saiyan is an ordered breakthrough. Order against disorder—the key isn't who has more power, but who is steadier."

Goku was silent for a moment, then grinned. "Then I'll train Kaioken until I can layer it stably over Super Saiyan. Right now, it's 0.4 seconds—once I can hold it steady for more than three seconds, I'll blow it apart."

In Bulma's laboratory, the third-stage report on Cell cell research had just been completed. She pushed up her goggles and looked at the cell-division images beneath the microscope. The corners of her mouth kept curling upward, but a faint unease lingered in her eyes.

"The good news is—the 'Saiyan Near-Death Amplification Factor' has been successfully isolated from Cell's cells. I can use it to improve the existing gravity-training equipment, allowing Saiyans to gain a similar amplification effect without relying on near-death experiences. The bad news is—we still haven't found out why Cell's backup power supply activated at that exact time. I've checked every known circuit diagram in the research facility. The battery pack in that hidden compartment was never connected to the control room by any wiring."

"You're saying it wasn't activated automatically."

"Right. Someone activated it. Not from an internal console, but from outside. There are still hidden devices in the research facility ruins that we haven't found. The most likely location is the fourth underground level—when Talos took Trunks to seal away Cell's embryo, they may have triggered some kind of sensor. But if that's true, then before Dr. Gero died, he had already arranged another plan somewhere completely beyond our sight."

"He activated something that should never have been activated. So did we—Krillin's Qi Net precision, your cell research, Vegeta and Lapis's Hyperbolic Time Chamber training. The storm is coming, but we aren't standing still waiting for it." Talos turned toward the door. "Before the storm arrives, we'll take every preparation we can make to its absolute limit."

He walked out of the laboratory just as the morning light over The Lookout's plaza fell across those orange battle uniforms. Goku was testing new limits for layering Kaioken with Super Saiyan, Vegeta and Lapis were trading blasts, Krillin was explaining Qi Net variations to Lazuli, Tien Shinhan and Chiaotzu were repeatedly refining the timing of their new combination technique, and Nappa carried a reef boulder from the beach to The Lookout and back again. Everyone was growing stronger on their own battlefield. They were not fighting alone—they were each growing stronger, then converging on this beach to form a single net.