Ginyu Force

Ginyu lowered his head to look at the shattered fragments of the scouter on his chest, his purple lips slowly splitting into a grin.

"Interesting." He raised a hand and tore off the broken shell hanging by his ear, metal fragments clinking as they hit the ground. "It's been years since anyone made my scouter explode outright. Vegeta, is this brat you brought some new breed Zarbon and the others failed to report?"

Vegeta did not answer. A cold smirk hung on his lips as he folded his arms and took half a step back. That half-step made Ginyu raise an eyebrow—Vegeta never yielded in the Frieza Force, no matter who he faced.

"He's not under my command." Vegeta's voice carried unmistakable glee at another's misfortune. "If you want to ask him, ask him yourself."

Ji Ming took two steps forward.

Golden flames cast flickering light across the white stones of the Dragon Ball Altar. With every step, the stones beneath his feet were pushed aside in small rings by the waves of energy, rustling softly. He stopped a dozen meters in front of Ginyu and looked up at the Special Forces captain, who was nearly twice his height.

"Captain Ginyu." Ji Ming's voice was calm, as though greeting someone in a cafeteria. "Your body-change technique won't work on me. You can't afford to take my body."

Ginyu's smile froze for an instant.

Body change was his trump card. No one in the entire Frieza Force knew that skill existed—not even Frieza himself. Those who knew his secret were either dead, or had been silenced after he took their bodies. How did this child, whom he had never met, know?

"What exactly are you?" Ginyu's tone changed. The teasing was gone, replaced by the instinctive vigilance one felt toward an unknown threat.

"An Earthling." Ji Ming tilted his head. "With a bit of Saiyan blood mixed in. Also—I suggest you don't use power levels to judge any of us. Your scouters' upper limit is too low."

Recoome jumped down from the stone platform, smashing out a shallow crater. The muscular bald giant rolled his neck, his vertebrae cracking loudly. "Captain, leave this runt to me. It's been a long time since I tore apart a Saiyan. Vegeta got away last time, so I'll start with the little one for an appetizer."

Burter landed beside him, his lanky blue figure making almost no sound as he touched down. With his hands on his hips, he gave a cold snort. "By speed, I should go first."

"Stop arguing." Ginyu raised a hand, cutting off his two subordinates.

He stared at Ji Ming for three seconds, then leaped backward and ceded the battlefield to his team. "Recoome, Burter, Jeice, Guldo, formation. Standard Special Forces tactics. Leave no survivors."

The four landed at once and lined up across the stone platform. Recoome stood at the center of the front line, Burter prowled to the left, Jeice opened up an angle on the right to provide cover, and Guldo dropped to the rear, his thumbs locked together as he prepared to stop time at any moment.

Ji Ming tilted his head and glanced at Nail. "Hold off the fast one on the left for the first half. The one on the right and the last one are mine. Vegeta—"

"I don't need you assigning me anything." Vegeta was already walking toward Ginyu. With every step, the purple flames around him grew more intense. By the time he stopped face-to-face with Ginyu, his energy had condensed into a thick layer of purple radiance several inches deep. "This one is mine."

Ginyu watched Vegeta approach, and his smile returned, though it now carried a trace of solemnity. He had noticed that Vegeta's energy had risen again.

"Ninety thousand? No—almost a hundred thousand. What kind of medicine did you take?"

Vegeta did not answer. He merely raised one hand and curled his fingers in a "come here" gesture.

The battle exploded in the next instant.

Recoome attacked first, charging at Ji Ming like an out-of-control rhinoceros. There was no technique in his attack, only sheer brute force—his right fist swung out, and the pressure of the wind it generated swept the white stones from the ground into a spiraling torrent. Ji Ming did not dodge. He caught Recoome's fist with one hand.

Boom—! The shockwave uprooted the spherical vegetation around the altar, while white stones blasted outward and struck the stone pillars in dense, crisp bursts. Recoome's full-force blow had been steadily caught by a tiny palm. At the point where fist met hand, golden flames and Recoome's red energy tore at one another.

Recoome's eyes bulged like two boiled eggs. "Impossible! That punch can shatter a small satellite—"

"A small satellite?" Ji Ming raised his eyes, his emerald pupils utterly devoid of emotion. "Then you've never fought a real Saiyan."

His five fingers suddenly clenched, and Recoome's finger bones cracked sharply. Then Ji Ming twisted his body and used the momentum to swing Recoome's entire body around, hurling him toward Burter. Recoome's massive body spun through the air toward Burter. Burter dodged sideways with his speed advantage, but had to adjust his posture in midair, green blood seeping from between his fingers.

In that opening, Jeice attacked. The purple-skinned Special Forces member cut in from mid-range, pressing his hands together as a rapidly spinning purple energy sphere formed at his fingertips. "Crusher Ball!" The energy ball shot toward Ji Ming's back with a spiraling trail, exploding into a sky full of purple light on impact. Dust and smoke billowed upward, swallowing Ji Ming whole.

But before Jeice could even withdraw his hands, a small palm reached out from the smoke. It steamed faintly, yet its skin was not even scratched. Ji Ming stood at the center of the explosion, the golden flames around him completely unscathed. With a turn of his palm, he fired a golden energy wave straight from his hand. It struck Jeice in the chest, blasting him and his armor away.

"How is that possible?!" Jeice crashed into a stone pillar, rubble cascading down and burying him. Green blood trickled from the corner of his mouth.

The instant Ji Ming lowered his hand, the air froze.

All four of Guldo's eyes lit up red as his thumbs locked tightly together. Time stop—everything within a hundred meters seemed sealed in amber. The scattered stones hung motionless in midair, and the lingering flames of the energy wave congealed into still bands of light.

Guldo staggered over, gasping heavily, the veins on his forehead bulging from the strain. His time stop could only last a few seconds at most, and each use consumed enormous amounts of stamina. He stopped before Ji Ming, raised his right hand, and condensed a sharp purple energy spike at his fingertip. He aimed it at Ji Ming's brow and stabbed downward. "Super Saiyan or not, once time stops, you're nothing but a target."

The energy spike came down.

But it struck nothing.

Ji Ming vanished from before him and appeared behind him in the next instant. Guldo's four eyes widened at once. Time stop was still active—how could anyone move within stopped time?

Before he could figure it out, Ji Ming's knee had driven into his lower back. Guldo's body folded like a shrimp, blood spraying from his mouth as the time stop was instantly released. The scattered stones fell again, the lingering energy flames dissipated into the air, and every frozen image resumed its flow.

"Time stop really is impressive." Ji Ming looked down at Guldo sprawled on the ground, his tone as flat as if he were reviewing a dish. "Provided you can activate it before I make my move."

Burter had watched Guldo get crippled in a single strike, and the veins on his forehead throbbed violently. He was the fastest in the Special Forces, yet he had not even seen how Ji Ming moved within stopped time. This guy was monstrously strong, completely beyond anything he could contend with. Why the hell hadn't Raditz made that clear?

Gritting his teeth, he erupted with energy beneath his feet and shot into the sky at top speed. He no longer attacked Ji Ming—he had already abandoned any thought of a frontal assault. But Ji Ming appeared in the direction of his escape route an instant earlier, grabbed his ankle with one hand, yanked downward, then planted a foot on his chest and smashed him from his accelerating flight straight into the ground.

A deep crater exploded where Burter landed, dirt and rubble raining down like a storm. He looked up at the golden figure gazing down on him, his green lips trembling several times before he managed only a garbled whisper. "Mon... monster..."

Grabbing Burter by the ankle, Ji Ming swung him sideways with force and hurled his body like a flail at the distant Recoome. Recoome was getting up from the ground. He had barely found his footing when he saw his teammate's body flying toward him. Unable to dodge in time, he was struck head-on by Burter. The two tumbled into a distant hill, smashing a human-shaped gap into it as rocks collapsed with a clatter and buried them beneath.

Nail was locked in combat with the remaining two Special Forces support members. Catching sight of this from the corner of his eye, his antennae trembled slightly. On his way here from Guru, Planet Namek's strongest warrior had wondered just how strong a child could be. Now he knew.

Ji Ming did not pursue them further. He stood at the center of the altar and lightly dusted off his hands. In less than a minute, all four Special Forces members had fallen. Golden flames burned quietly around him; in his Super Saiyan form, he could now stabilize his power level above four hundred thousand.

At the other end of the clearing, Vegeta and Ginyu's battle was shaking heaven and earth.

Ginyu truly was strong. His apparent power level was one hundred and twenty thousand, but the truly terrifying part was not the number—it was the combat instinct accumulated through countless battles. His punches were not as ruthless as Vegeta's, but every move was precise to the smallest fraction. He moved only the minimum distance when dodging, and every punch he pulled back became the windup for the next. In his entire career, only Frieza had ever suppressed him to this extent.

But today, the one pressing him down was Vegeta.

The Saiyan prince, whose potential had been awakened by Guru, was like a blade tempered in fire. Every punch carried the hatred he had endured for twenty years. His fists were now faintly exceeding Ginyu's reaction limit, striking at the moments when Ginyu's defenses were weakest and forcing him to retreat again and again to bleed off the force.

Purple and orange flames collided madly above the altar, shockwaves spreading outward in wave after wave and shaving layer after layer from the surrounding mountain walls. In yet another head-on clash, Vegeta's fist tore through Ginyu's defensive net. An uppercut shot through the opening and struck Ginyu squarely on the chin.

Ginyu's body was blasted high into the sky, purple blood spraying from his mouth in an arc. He flipped several times before steadying himself, then looked down at Vegeta on the ground. Vegeta did not pursue. He stood where he was, raised his right arm, and aimed his palm at Ginyu.

"Galick Gun—!"

A purple ki blast surged from Vegeta's palm. This attack had been designed to concentrate the destructive power of the Galick Gun onto a single target, piercing the defenses of opponents on Frieza's level. The beam was as thick as a giant tree, splitting the night sky in two. Ginyu had no time to dodge. He had barely crossed his arms to block when the purple light swallowed his upper body.

The flash of the explosion illuminated the entire Dragon Ball Altar. The shockwave tore spherical vegetation from the ground in the distance and blasted away the rocks covering half the hillside.

The smoke and dust slowly settled.

Ginyu knelt on the ground, his arms charred black and most of the chest plate on his battle armor shattered. He was still alive, but he could no longer raise his arms. His head hung low, his shoulders heaving violently, his breathing as harsh as a broken bellows.

Vegeta landed before him.

"This punch is only the beginning."

Ginyu laboriously raised his face and looked at the Saiyan prince before him. Beaten into such a state, he actually laughed, purple blood continuously streaming from the corner of his mouth. "You've become stronger... but do you think this is Lord Frieza's true power? You're still not worthy—"

"I know I'm not worthy." Vegeta cut him off, his voice as cold as ice yet unnaturally calm. "I've never been worthy. But I will be. Before I meet Frieza, I'll use you for practice."

Vegeta raised a hand and aimed it at Ginyu's chest. A ki blast began gathering in his palm, the purple-black sphere growing denser and brighter as it compressed. Ginyu's pupils suddenly dilated—he saw the answer in those eyes. Vegeta was not merely talking tough. He truly intended to kill him, then go after Frieza.

"Wait! Wai—" Ginyu abruptly pressed both hands to his chest, and a blinding ring of white light burst from his entire body—his Body Change Technique. "Change—!!"

A beam shot from his chest straight at Vegeta. But as it passed through him, Vegeta dissolved into an afterimage. Ginyu's pupils had only just contracted when Vegeta himself appeared behind him.

He had known about this move all along.

"The weakness your Body Change Technique exposes is that you can't move during the instant you glow. Even if that gap lasts only a fraction of a second, it's enough at my current speed." Vegeta gave no further explanation and struck the back of Ginyu's neck with his palm.

Ginyu's eyes rolled back, and his massive body crashed to the ground, kicking up a ring of dust. The last remnants of purple ki flames on the ground slowly faded, and the wilderness fell quiet for the moment.

A few hundred meters beyond where Ginyu had fallen was the valley where Guru resided. Nail lowered his combat stance, his chest rising and falling slightly, then gave Ji Ming a solemn nod. That nod held more than gratitude—it was one warrior's acknowledgment of another.

"The locations of the remaining six Dragon Balls have been confirmed. Three were hidden by our people in the canyon temple to the north. Another two are in the eastern village—but Frieza has already moved in that direction. The last one is in a cave to the southwest, surrounded by Zarbon, Dodoria, and their soldiers."

"We'll take the three in the north first," Ji Ming said. His Super Saiyan form had already faded, his hair returning to black, with a fine layer of sweat beading on his forehead. He had maintained Super Saiyan for nearly two minutes longer than during training this time, but the drain on his stamina was still immense.

"I'll lead people to retrieve them." With that, Nail rose into the air, his cape leaving a white streak behind him.

Vegeta stood beside Ginyu's fallen body, watching the white figure disappear into the sky in silence for a moment. He did not lower his guard. Ki still burned around him.

"Zarbon and Dodoria." He repeated the two names, the corner of his mouth twitching slightly. They stirred up many memories—the humiliation of being ordered around by Frieza, the rage of being mocked behind his back by them, and even earlier, before Planet Vegeta was destroyed, when Dodoria had pinned an injured Saiyan warrior to the ground with one foot and snapped the man's neck right in front of him.

"You know them?" Ji Ming walked over.

"Old acquaintances." Vegeta's expression darkened like the sky before a storm. "Frieza's right-hand men. They used to be stronger than me, but now— You go get the two Dragon Balls in the east. As for the southwest cave..."

Before he could finish, Ji Ming had already taken two Senzu Beans from the cloth pouch Chi-Chi had sewn. He handed one to Vegeta and held the other in his own hand.

"We're going together."

There was no room for negotiation in his tone.

Vegeta accepted the Senzu Bean. Looking at the shriveled little bean, he remembered the one Ji Ming had handed him after he had collapsed from exhaustion in the Gravity Chamber for the first time. He tossed it into his mouth, chewed twice, and swallowed. Fatigue surged from his muscles, only to be forced back by the Senzu Bean's power. Every minor injury healed at once.

"Let's go." Purple flames erupted beneath his feet, and his body became a streak of violet light shooting toward the southwest.

Ji Ming swallowed his Senzu Bean as well. Once that warm vitality flooded through every limb and bone, golden light flashed beneath his feet, and he followed close behind. Behind them, Nappa launched himself from the direction of the spaceship, following in silence.

The entrance to the southwestern cave was sealed by a pale blue energy barrier.

Three Namekian warriors lay outside the barrier, green blood soaking the white stones beneath them. Their injuries were not fatal, but several bones had been broken, and their breaths were weak. They had clearly endured a fierce battle. Two Frieza Force soldiers lay not far away, their limbs twisted at unnatural angles. They had already lost all combat capability.

Zarbon stood inside the barrier, his long green fingers resting on the control panel. He looked down at the fallen Namekians outside with a smile as if he were looking at insects. Under the barrier's blue glow, his refined face appeared somewhat sinister. Dodoria stood beside him, stepping on the final Dragon Ball with his arms crossed, grinding it back and forth beneath his foot.

"Pathetic Namekians, daring to block Lord Frieza's path." Dodoria spat onto the ground. "This ball is pretty tough. I can't even crush it."

"Stop playing around." Zarbon's voice was elegant, as though he were savoring tea. "Lord Frieza dislikes delays."

Dodoria was about to answer when a streak of purple light descended from the sky and slammed into the open ground outside the cave. Rubble flew everywhere. Amid burning purple flames, Vegeta stepped out of the light. Then came a second streak of gold. Ji Ming landed beside Vegeta, with Nappa touching down afterward in heavy strides.

Zarbon's smile vanished instantly. Dodoria's foot also moved off the Dragon Ball, and the pink-skinned fat man's expression changed several times. "Vegeta? Weren't you supposed to be gathering intelligence for Lord Frieza's mission? Why is your battle power reading—"

Dodoria lowered his head to look at his scouter. The number jumped wildly before finally settling on a figure. The pink-skinned fat man's face changed drastically, and he nearly tore the scouter off his face.

"Don't look." Zarbon reached out and pressed down Dodoria's wrist, but his gaze remained fixed on the smaller figure beside Vegeta, whose body was wrapped in golden ki flames. "That little one—Ginyu sent an emergency transmission earlier. He said he had encountered a four-year-old Super Saiyan. The scouter reading... I didn't get a clear look before Ginyu's signal cut out."

Dodoria's pupils contracted violently. Countless thoughts exploded through his mind in an instant, but all of them pointed toward one conclusion he did not dare face—the Ginyu Force might already be finished.

"Zarbon." Dodoria shifted half a step back, sweat forming at his temples. "Open the barrier."

Vegeta looked at Zarbon's refined, elegant, hypocritical smile and recalled how, years ago, when he had lowered his head to salute Frieza, this man had stood nearby lazily spinning a communicator in his hand, wearing the curved smile of a spectator enjoying the show. "Zarbon, I still remember how you laughed at the Saiyans' extinction." Vegeta raised his hand, spreading his fingers slightly. "I'll give you a chance. Open the barrier, and I won't hit you in the face."