A high-speed spacecraft had arrived on Planet Namek.
Tights pressed her face against the cold glass, practically flattening herself against it as she looked down at the enormous green planet.
She wished she could stick her eyes out for a closer look at the strange world.
"Wow!"
She let out a gasp of amazement.
"So this is Planet Namek!!"
She remembered reading about the planet in an obscure journal of space geography.
Planet Namek, a planet illuminated by three stars, a land of eternal daylight with no night.
"A world without night..."
What would its civilization be like?
How did the creatures here organize their days? Did they need sleep? Or had they evolved some other way to rest?
The plants, the buildings, the entire social structure here would all be built around the central concept of "eternal daylight"!
It was a treasure trove of inspiration!
But her sense of novelty did not last long.
When her gaze happened to sweep over the silent figure beside her, she instantly came back to her senses.
Turles stood there with his arms folded across his chest, calmly watching the scenery outside the window.
Right, she was aboard a pirate ship.
She turned to Turles, seeking confirmation with a hint of wariness in her voice.
"We... we're not here to invade this planet, are we?"
"You weren't lying to me, were you?"
The planet looked so tranquil, so peaceful. She simply couldn't imagine it being engulfed in the flames of war.
Hearing that, Turles finally deigned to draw his gaze away from the window.
He gave Tights a speechless glance.
"Would you please stop assuming the worst of me all the time?"
His voice was plainly irritated.
"I've told you many times, you rude lady from Earth!"
Turles took a step forward and looked down at her, declaring with righteous conviction.
"I don't like taking over other people's planets!"
"The Frieza Force is a force for justice in the universe!"
"..."
Tights felt that something might have gone wrong with her hearing.
What a thick face!
The roar of the engines gradually faded.
The shock absorbers beneath the spacecraft touched the ground, sending a slight tremor through the vessel.
The ship settled smoothly onto a patch of green grass.
A hiss of releasing pressure rang out.
The hatch slowly opened outward.
Turles was the first to step down the ramp.
As soon as he set foot on Planet Namek's soil,
his gaze was drawn to a small hill nearby.
A figure stood there.
He wore a simple Namekian robe.
The two antennae on his head trembled slightly.
Nail stood atop the hill, looking down at the uninvited spacecraft below.
With his senses,
he could of course tell that the Saiyan gave off a powerful sense of pressure.
However,
it didn't seem quite as extreme as the Grand Elder had said.
By Nail's judgment, he was, at most, evenly matched with him.
Nail strode down the hill.
Facing the gazes of the three,
"Aliens."
"On the Grand Elder's orders, I have been waiting here for you for some time."
Turles was taken aback.
The Grand Elder knew I was coming?
As expected of the Grand Elder!
But this was a good thing.
Since the Grand Elder knew he was coming and had sent Nail to welcome him, it at least showed that he meant well.
Turles composed his expression, a gentle smile curling his lips.
"Thank you, and thanks for the effort."
Tights poked her head out from behind Turles. When she saw Nail's green skin and the antennae on his head, her eyes went wide.
"Wow..."
"So green. Is this a Namekian?"
Nail turned his head and flew straight into the sky.
While Tights was still distracted, Turles held out his hand to her.
"What are you spacing out for? Hold on tight to me."
"Huh?" Tights blinked.
"W-why... why do I have to hold on to you...?"
An indescribable blush even spread across her cheeks.
What the heck are you blushing for?!
Turles urged her on seriously and irritably. "Hurry up. What's going on in your head? You can hold on to Cacao instead, or would you rather stay here by yourself?"
"Huh?" Tights looked at Cacao.
"No!"
She'd hold on to Turles, then. At least he was a person...
She turned her head away, taking Turles's hand with one of hers and wrapping her other arm around his waist.
"Y-you, fly slowly, okay...? It's my first time going up in the air like this..."
For once, Turles didn't scold her. He simply gave Cacao a signal with his eyes.
Then he went straight after Nail, who was already flying away.
With one arm around Tights's waist, Turles followed Nail across a stretch of rolling hills.
The wind whistled in their ears.
A cluster of white buildings appeared below.
The houses were oddly shaped.
They looked like giant mushrooms growing out of the ground.
Tights clung tightly to Turles's waist with both hands and leaned out to look down.
Several young Namekian children ran out of the houses.
They had green skin and two antennae on their heads, and wore simple robes.
They tilted their heads up, curiosity appearing on their faces.
Since they weren't flying too high,
one child even raised a hand and waved at the sky.
Tights was just about to reach out and wave back
when she remembered that she was being carried through the air. She hurriedly wrapped her arms tightly around Turles's waist again.
Planet Namek was vast.
But viewed from high above, its settlements were pitifully few.
After flying for so long, they had seen only a handful of clusters of buildings.
For a civilization occupying an entire planet, such a sparse population would make travel and communication a major problem.
Though they seemed to be able to fly...
The terrain ahead began to change.
The green hills gradually fell behind them, replaced by a desolate expanse of rocky desert.
The ground was cracked and dry, and vegetation was sparse.
The wind swept up yellow sand, drawing long streaks across the empty land.
Tights frowned.
"Isn't that a little too much of a contrast?"
Everything had been lush and green just moments ago, only to turn into this in the blink of an eye.
Turles looked through the layers of windblown sand toward the distance.
At the far end of the desert, a pillar of rock rose from the ground.
It stood alone on the barren plain.
At the top of the pillar was a white building.
It was just like the mushroom houses Nail had shown them earlier, only larger and older.
Turles and Cacao adjusted their positions and descended close behind Nail.
Nail turned around.
His gaze fell on Turles.
"The Grand Elder is inside."
Turles nodded.
Cacao and Tights were just about to follow him
when Nail turned sideways and held out an arm, blocking their path.
"Only he may enter. The Grand Elder said nothing about seeing anyone else."
Turles turned around and was just about to say something
when an aged voice came from inside the building.
"Let them come in together, Nail."