Dragon Ball Roshi

Taro, following his whims, decided to settle in this abandoned village.

When he first moved in, it was the height of summer. The only remaining residents of the village were an elderly couple who lived nearby. On his frequent hunts in the mountains, Taro would often bring back some wild vegetables, fruits, or game for the couple—wild chickens, fish, and the like. During his idle moments, he would sit under the old tree with the phoenix, listening to the old man ramble on with vague, half-forgotten stories.

"Ah, they're gone. All of them are gone…" the old man muttered from his reclining chair in the shade, seemingly speaking to no one in particular.

Taro sat nearby, holding a palm fan in hand, gently fanning himself. With his level of mastery, even the simple act of fanning could generate cool, refreshing breezes that dispelled not only the heat around him but also the warmth lingering near the old man.

Before long, the old man drifted off into a peaceful slumber. Overhead, flashes of fiery red darted among the dense tree leaves—it was the phoenix, restless and seeking amusement. The old man's wife, despite her age, was not one to sit idle. Wearing a straw hat, she moved at a slow but steady pace to tend to the small orchard and vegetable garden behind the house.

Though Taro stayed in the village and looked after the couple in his own way, he didn't go out of his way to be overly attentive, allowing the old woman to go about her work as she wished. Truth be told, in terms of age, Taro was much older than the elderly couple.

When night fell, the mountains behind the village grew silent. If the hunters who once lived here had remained, they would have noticed that the strange occurrences in the mountains had all but vanished.

Taro had not fully concealed his ki. If Ashura, residing in the mountain caves, paid attention, it wouldn't have been difficult to sense Taro's presence at the foot of the mountain. With such a formidable being nearby, Ashura dared not let its subordinates wander the mountains freely.

Time passed swiftly. Summer gave way to autumn, and the falling leaves heralded the changing season.

As the chill in the air deepened, the first snowflake fell, marking the arrival of winter. The elderly couple did not survive the harsh season, passing away within days of each other as the cold grew unbearable. Over the months, not a single soul returned to visit the village. And so, the once-inhabited village was left completely devoid of its original residents.

Taro buried the couple, but he did not leave the village.

As the snow melted and early spring quietly arrived, the first vibrant wildflower bloomed by the roadside.

With spring's warmth came a resurgence of life. The paths and corners of the abandoned village at the mountain's base became overgrown with unnamed wildflowers and grasses. There were no children laughing and playing, no livestock calling or barking. The only sounds were the occasional chirping of insects and the calls of birds, scattered amidst the desolate village, barren trees, and overgrown weeds.

Taro was "cooling off" in the courtyard.

At his current level of cultivation, neither severe cold nor scorching heat could faze him. Yet he maintained the appearance of leisurely cooling off, unaffected by the weather. Ever since moving into the village, this had been his routine—relaxing in the courtyard day after day.

His eyes were half-open and half-closed, as if caught between wakefulness and sleep. Surrounding him were countless strands of imperceptible energy, flowing like delicate, invisible ribbons. These strands crisscrossed and intertwined around him, forming a dense web without ever touching each other. Such precise control would leave any master who witnessed it in awe and fear.

High above, a massive fiery bird soared back and forth through the sky.

After the elderly couple passed away, the phoenix had taken to playing the pitiful act in front of Taro every day. Relenting, Taro lifted the transformation spell that had kept it in a smaller form, restoring its majestic and powerful appearance. Thrilled with its regained freedom, the phoenix spent its days darting through the skies, rarely willing to descend.

A loud, sharp cry of the phoenix echoed from above, and its fiery-red shadow darted down, flapping its wings as it landed in the courtyard. It trotted over to Taro, who was reclining in a chair, and tugged at his sleeve with its beak.

Taro was momentarily startled, counting a moment in his mind before he realized. Smiling, he stood up and entered the back room, retrieving a package he hadn't touched in over half a year. He opened it and took out a small wooden box, inside which were seven bright orange-yellow beads.

The one-year hibernation period was over, and the Dragon Balls had regained their power.

Taro smiled faintly and flipped the box over. The seven beads immediately tumbled out and rolled across the muddy ground of the courtyard, glowing and shimmering as they collided with each other, their light pulsating as if breathing.

The phoenix stood quietly at Taro's feet, preening its feathers. It had seen this happen several times before, and with its intelligence, it had guessed what would come next. Sure enough, almost as soon as the seven Dragon Balls had gathered together, Taro's voice rang out:

"Come forth, Shenron..."

Boom!

The bright sky suddenly darkened, turning pitch black!

Crack!

A golden lightning bolt arced like a dragon from the village courtyard, streaking across the darkened sky.

At this moment, people all over the Earth, whether still rebuilding their homes or living peaceful lives again, looked up in astonishment at the sudden change in the sky.

Many recalled the events of a year ago, pointing excitedly at the sky and shouting, "It's the Dragon Balls! The last time Master Muten gathered the Dragon Balls to resurrect the dead, the sky looked just like this!"

(with time, the people, following the same line of thought of Long Bam, Changed Mu to Muten, as form of gratitude; Muten can be translated as heavenly martial arts.)

"Yes! It's definitely the Dragon Balls! The Dragon is appearing again!" others echoed.

"Did Master Muten gather the Dragon Balls again?" some wondered in confusion. "What is he asking for this time?"

But there were also those who were skeptical, including some of those who had been resurrected by the previous wish. They hadn't witnessed the battle with the demon race and thus hadn't felt the same shock as those who had survived. However, they knew enough to understand… the being they referred to as the Master Muten was not someone to be offended.

"Last time, someone saw the Martial Immortal's divine bird… why isn't it around this time?" someone murmured.

Meanwhile, high above, the slender, greenish-blue Earth Dragon had coiled into the shape of an "∞" and was slowly descending, its deep, powerful voice asking, "State your wish… No matter what it is, I can grant it…"

If the Dragon had the capacity for humor, it would surely be puzzled by why, ever since its creation, it had always been summoned by this same individual.

Taro's expression remained calm as he looked up and made his wish: "I wish… for the Dragon to seal up any and all time-space rifts or flaws that could connect the demon world with the human world, both now and in the future… so that these rifts will never appear again."

"I see," the King Kai nodded to himself, while Bam, who stood behind him, thought, 'If this works, even if the demon race were to emerge again from the demon world, they would never be able to invade the human world.'

"This wish… is simple," the Dragon replied. The Dragon could only answer with "simple" or "impossible" based on the nature of the wish. It had no hesitation in responding truthfully. Then, its crimson eyes flared with light, and a mysterious power surged, breaking through time, space, causality, and order...

On the ocean, the time-space rift that had allowed the Red Demon Queen and Black Demon King to lead the demon warriors into the human world, opening to the Black Blood River of the demon world, vanished without a trace.

In the Demon Mountain Caves, Shula was shocked to discover that the link between him and the Demon Mountain had changed. After testing, he realized he could no longer open the gates to the demon world using the Demon Mountain. Stunned, he suddenly remembered something and, using his power, summoned a human body from the stone-carved demon statue on the cave wall. He sighed with relief, realizing that while he couldn't open the gates to the demon world, he hadn't lost the body he had painstakingly refined over many years.

"It must be that human's doing…" Shula muttered, holding the naked human body and staring as if his gaze pierced through the mountain's wall. After a moment of contemplation, he shook his head. "Forget it, anyway… after that human interfered, my work is almost complete." He tossed the human body back into the stone-carved demon statue, where it once again vanished from sight, resembling a spring-sleeping begonia blossom.

"Your wish has been granted, Farewell."

The Dragon's immense voice grew fainter as the golden light on the ground surged toward the sky. The dark sky began to brighten again, and the blue of day returned.

A ball of golden light hovered in mid-air for a moment, then with a "pop," it split into seven golden beams that shot off in all directions.

At this point, Taro, who had not intended to keep the Dragon Balls, suddenly thought of something. His brow twitched, and in the next moment, he vanished from the courtyard. The phoenix looked up, tilted its head, unsure of where Taro had gone. However, it wasn't worried, as Taro would definitely return... And indeed, before the phoenix had even begun to preen its feathers, Taro reappeared.

But this time, something was different. Instead of being empty handed, seven stone-like beads floated beside Taro. These were the Dragon Balls, now in their dormant state after granting the wish.

He had managed to catch them again, even after they had scattered so quickly.

Why had he initially let them go, only to chase them down afterward?

Taro smiled, waving his hand at the phoenix lying on the ground. "Let's go."

The phoenix flapped its wings joyfully at Taro's signal. But when it landed on Taro's shoulder, it immediately felt something was wrong. It had gotten smaller again! It looked at its own body in frustration, noting that it wasn't as small as last time, but it was definitely no longer the size of a large bird. It had turned into a pigeon instead of a sparrow...

---

At the foot of the mountain, a figure slowly emerged from the village and drifted off toward the vast horizon. As this figure walked, the white stones floated around him, following his every step.

The stones hovered beside Taro, and with each stride, he casually waved his hand at them. Every time he did, one of the white stones transformed into a streak of light and shot off into the sky, disappearing into the distance.

Taro had suddenly remembered… Earth's people were already aware of the Dragon Balls and their appearance. If he let the seven Dragon Balls scatter like this and they landed in a densely populated city, their true form would soon be revealed, causing unnecessary chaos. So he decided to catch the Dragon Balls again and play the role of the Dragon, sending them one by one to isolated, uninhabited places.

Just as he was about to send off the last Dragon Ball, he glanced at the dejected "little pigeon" on his shoulder. He smiled, his lips moving as he performed a transformation technique, shrinking the floating white stones down to the size of marbles. He then conjured a small red string.

With the small string, he tied the "marble-sized Dragon Balls" together and hung them around the little phoenix's neck. The phoenix blinked its eyes in confusion. The Dragon Balls had turned into ordinary white stones, and without their mystical energy, it felt no connection to them. It seemed a bit lost...

The figure shifted, and in an instant, thousands of miles had passed.

Taro and the phoenix once again traveled far beyond the horizon.

This time, there was no goal of setting up the evil king Piccolo's rice cooker, no aimless wandering due to his wife's pleas, no quest to find the Dragon Balls, and no mission to send Bam to the Shula Cave… So, where was he going now?

He didn't know.

So, he kept walking. Perhaps, no matter how far he went, he would never figure it out. Or perhaps… by walking, he would eventually understand.

After all, hadn't he been living this way for all these years?