Kamehameha

The Flying Nimbus streaked across the heat-distorted sky like a meteor.

High above the clouds, Luo Chen's mind raced as he reviewed what was about to happen.

"If I remember right, Master Roshi's Bansho Fan, the one that can summon wind and rain, had already been thrown away as garbage after getting stained with wonton soup."

Facing the howling wind, Luo Chen's lips curled into a confident smile.

"In the story, the Bansho Fan was gone, so the old man had to put out the fire himself. One Kamehameha not only extinguished the flames but also blasted the castle flat. It saved us the trouble of looking for the Dragon Balls, and more importantly... this is a great chance to get the Kamehameha for free! Son Goku learned the ultimate move just by watching it once in the original story. I should be able to do the same!"

An hour later, Kame House came into view across the vast ocean.

The door swung open.

Master Roshi, wearing a Hawaiian shirt, was sprawled in front of the TV, engrossed in the swimsuit models on a workout channel. Blood was about to run from his nose down to his chin.

"Grandpa Roshi, watching TV?" Luo Chen leaned halfway through the doorway.

"Holy crap!" Master Roshi jumped, then coughed twice to cover his embarrassment.

"Goku! What brings you here all of a sudden?"

"Fire Mountain's burning. Uncle Ox-King wants to borrow your Bansho Fan to put out the fire!" Luo Chen got straight to the point.

"Well, about that..." Master Roshi rubbed his bald head and nervously scratched his cheek.

"A while back, I was eating wonton soup in the clouds and accidentally spilled some on the fan. It got all dirty, so... I just tossed it out!"

Just as expected.

Luo Chen chuckled to himself, but put on a helpless expression. "What do we do now? Uncle Ox-King's waiting for someone to put out the fire."

"Well, it's not as if there's nothing we can do. I'll just go over there myself!" Master Roshi sighed, but the next second his dignified air crumbled. Rubbing his hands together, he sidled up to Luo Chen.

"But, Goku, I can't go all that way for nothing. That blue-haired girl who was with you last time has a nice figure... If you agree to let me feel her breasts after I put out the fire..."

Seeing the lecherous old man's delighted expression, Luo Chen didn't know whether to laugh or get angry.

"Deal!" Luo Chen agreed without hesitation.

"Once you put out the fire, you can touch whatever you want!"

"That's my boy! I like your style!"

Master Roshi lit up as if he'd been injected with adrenaline, practically drooling as he dashed outside and whistled.

"Come on out, Turtle!"

A splash broke the surface, and a small Sea Turtle crawled onto the beach. Its limbs suddenly tucked into its shell, and then it began spinning at high speed like a flying saucer. With a buzzing sound, it hovered in midair.

Master Roshi leaped onto the spinning turtle's back and sped off toward Fire Mountain. Luo Chen followed behind on the Flying Nimbus.

Below Fire Mountain, flames blazed into the sky.

When Master Roshi descended from above, his disciple, Ox-King, greeted him with tears in his eyes. "Master! You're finally here! Where's the fan?"

"I didn't bring it!" Master Roshi clasped his hands behind his back and gave a deliberate cough, striking the pose of a grandmaster.

"But this is just a little fire. Why would I need the Bansho Fan? I only need to lift a finger to put out this sea of flames!"

Ox-King froze. Bulma, sheltering under a beach umbrella with Oolong, was left completely dumbfounded, too.

Oolong stared at the old man with his pig eyes. "Hey, old-timer, this fire's burning across an entire mountain! Are you planning to spit on it until it goes out?"

Bulma looked just as doubtful. She couldn't imagine how this lecherous old man was going to extinguish such a raging inferno.

"Foolish youngsters!"

Master Roshi gave a haughty snort and strode toward the towering wall of fire. He stopped, slowly removed his sunglasses, and casually pulled off his Hawaiian shirt.

Meanwhile, Luo Chen paid no attention to the others' bewilderment.

Standing firmly at the perfect vantage point, he had stilled his breathing completely. His martial awareness surged to its peak as his gaze locked onto the scrawny figure.

He knew—

The main event was about to begin!

"Haah—!!!"

Master Roshi's roar rang out like a great bell!

A shocking sight unfolded. His scrawny body swelled like a balloon! Muscles like granite bulged, straining against the limits of his tendons, while veins coiled over him like writhing dragons.

In an instant, he had become a hulking, two-meter-tall man, radiating an overwhelming presence!

"Holy crap!" Oolong was so startled that he dropped onto his butt. He knew for a fact that this wasn't a transformation technique.

Bulma covered her mouth in shock.

"That's Master's ultimate technique!" Ox-King cried, thrilled.

The musclebound Master Roshi dropped into a horse stance and drew his hands to his waist, palms facing each other.

"Ka—"

A vast mass of pale blue light began to gather between his palms! The air around him seemed to be sucked away, forming a series of violent miniature whirlwinds!

"Me—"

The blue light blazed brighter, and the frenzied energy sent great swaths of sand and stone floating into the air!

"Ha—me—ha—me—HA!!!"

With a final roar, Master Roshi thrust both hands forward!

"BOOM—!!!"

In an instant, a pale blue beam several meters across erupted from Master Roshi's palms! Like a giant dragon breaking free of its chains, it carried the terrifying force of a landslide as it slammed into the sea of red flames!

BOOM—!

For a moment, the world lost its color. Blinding white light swallowed everything, leaving everyone temporarily unable to see.

Amid the earth-shaking blast, the burning Fire Mountain was erased from the earth in a single attack, along with the sea of flames and the castle at its summit... reduced to rubble that scattered across the sky!

When the dust settled, silence returned.

The fire was indeed out, but Ox-King's entire livelihood had vanished along with it.

"My castle..." Staring at the vast plain before him, Ox-King dropped to his knees with a thud, on the verge of tears.

"Goodness... I may have overdone it a little!" With a sound like air escaping a balloon, Master Roshi's bulging muscles instantly shrank back into the body of a scrawny old man. He pulled out a handkerchief, wiped the sweat from his forehead, and smugly admired the stunned looks on everyone's faces.

Luo Chen, meanwhile, slowly closed his eyes.

Deep in his mind, a precise and orderly diagram of energy flow had taken shape.

That was incredible! So that's how the Kamehameha works?! Luo Chen marveled to himself.

"Force the scattered, disordered 'ki' within the body through a specific circuit of meridians, draw it into the palms and compress it, then release it all in a single burst."

He slowly opened his eyes, a knowing smile flickering in their depths.

"It's certainly impressive, but there's a tremendous amount of energy lost while gathering ki, and the windup takes a long time."

Luo Chen raised an eyebrow almost imperceptibly.

"If I used the true qi produced by the 'circulation of the heavens' in my dantian and released it through this method..."

He acted as soon as the idea came to him. Without the slightest hesitation, he walked up to a hard boulder that had just rolled down from the mountain. It was as tall as a two-story building.

"Goku, what are you doing?" Bulma poked her head out from behind him, looking confused.

Master Roshi rubbed his bald head and joked,

"Kid, it took me a full fifty years to master this technique! Don't tell me you're thinking of—"

He didn't finish. It was as if an invisible hand had clamped around his throat, cutting him off mid-sentence!

His eyes bulged behind his sunglasses as he stared at the boy before him as if he'd seen a ghost!

Luo Chen lowered his center of gravity slightly and brought his hands together at his waist, mimicking Master Roshi's movements.

There was no exaggerated burst of muscle or terrifying gale. Yet an energy far more restrained and pure than before was silently gathering in Luo Chen's palms!

Not a trace of blue light escaped. Luo Chen's hands compressed it into a high-pressure energy sphere no bigger than a baseball, yet so dazzling it was frightening!

"Ka-me-ha-me—ha!"

Luo Chen's gaze was cold as a blade. He thrust both hands forward!

"SHOO—!!!"

A beam of blue light, only as thick as an arm but condensed as if it were solid, shot from Luo Chen's palms like lightning!

With a soft hiss, the boulder as tall as a two-story building was pierced straight through!

The beam didn't lose any of its force. It tore through the air and shot toward the heavens, slicing through the thick, rolling clouds with sheer violence and carving a straight gash several kilometers long that lingered without closing.

"Crack, crack, crack..."

A breeze passed. The boulder began crumbling around the smooth hole bored through it, breaking into fine powder that scattered in the wind.

Dead silence fell. Only the wind blowing across the barren land could be heard.

Oolong's mouth gaped wide enough to fit an ostrich egg. Everyone stared at Luo Chen's back, their minds completely blank.

Master Roshi's sunglasses clattered to the ground and shattered. His thin lips fell open as he looked from the gash in the sky to Luo Chen, his hands trembling like he had Parkinson's.

"F-fifty years..."

A tear slid down Master Roshi's cheek. It was impossible to tell whether it came from excitement or despair. "I spent a full fifty years mastering this technique... and you learned it just by watching once? How is yours even stronger?!"

Luo Chen slowly lowered his arms. Feeling drained and exhausted, he turned to Master Roshi, who looked on the verge of a breakdown, and gave him an innocent smile.

"Grandpa Roshi, that move's really useful!"

He'd dealt the killing blow, then twisted the knife.

"Beep, beep, beep..."

In the eerie silence, a glimmer flashed from the depths of the ruins, and the Dragon Radar in Bulma's hands began beeping.

"A Dragon Ball!"

Overjoyed, she rushed into the ruins and dug an intact orange sphere out of the ashes.

"Found it! The sixth Dragon Ball!"

Now they were missing only one!

Just then, Master Roshi, who had been completely frozen, finally snapped out of it. Rubbing his hands together and swallowing, he sidled up to Bulma with a lecherous grin.

"So... ahem! The fire's out, and you've got the Dragon Ball. According to our agreement, let me have a feel!"

The smile vanished from Bulma's face. She backed away in alarm, covering her chest. "W-what agreement?!"

Luo Chen gave a mischievous smile and snapped his fingers at Oolong.

"Oolong, it's time to give Grandpa Roshi his reward."

Oolong shuddered and nodded nervously.

"Bang!"

A cloud of white smoke burst into the air!

To Master Roshi's eager delight, a two-meter-tall man appeared, his chest covered in thick black hair. Wearing a leopard-print bikini, he opened his arms shyly.

"Darling~~~ Come have some fun~~~"

"Bleegh—!!!"

Below Fire Mountain, the martial arts god's shrill screams and retching echoed across the plain.