"Finally! I missed you so much, Earth!" I looked over blandly as Bulma was doing grass-angels, rolling around on the ground in joy as I stood in front of my spaceship.
"It's only been a year," I said dryly, chuckling lightly at how silly she looked, "Was traveling with me really that bad?"
All around us, there was a large, open plain filled with bright green grass. The sun shone down overhead, feeling warm on my skin, and there was even a river nearby. Overall, the sight was nearly as beautiful as the woman rolling on the ground in front of me.
"Nope, it was actually kind of fun," Bulma responded easily, pausing her grass-angels as she just lay flat on her back, looking up at me, "But this is still my home!"
Well, I couldn't fault her for that. Honestly, this body had never lived on Earth, and had only even been here for around a day last time I visited, but even I felt a bit happy at being back on the planet. This had been my home in my past life - well, not exactly this Earth, as there were certainly no dinosaurs in my former life, but it was close enough.
And, as I looked around, I felt a bit… uneventful? Could a person even feel like that?
When I first arrived in this world, I had assumed I would spend a lot of time here. Most of the events within the series took place here, ranging from the Saiyan's arrivals, to the androids and Cell, and even to Majin Buu. I had planned to use my prior knowledge to avoid those problems - to stop Cell from being created, stop Buu's unsealing, and overall prevent any threats to myself.
But despite feeling like I was wasting my time by not doing anything on Earth, I didn't need to do anything. There was no point in tracking down Gero before he could unleash the Androids, or killing Babadi before he could unseal Majin Buu, or even trying to track down where Cell's time machine would appear to spawn camp him. Though I did plan to do one of those things during this trip to Earth.
That was because they couldn't pose a threat to me - there was simply nothing here I needed to avoid. I didn't need to abuse my past life's knowledge to get an upper hand, because my body was the upper hand. As my strength continued to grow by the day, my growth far exceeding what even a hyperbolic time chamber could achieve, there was no fear to be had in fighting Cell or Buu. Overall, the only interesting things here were the Z-Fighters and the Dragon Balls themselves. There were certainly threats I needed to train for and navigate carefully in the rest of the universe, such as Beerus. Granola was a concern in particular, as the man was hell-bent on killing Frieza, who was now me, to avenge his people.
But I had decades to train for them, and the Earth 'threats' were much less concerning. With my current strength, I could probably already take down Perfect Cell, though it would at least take my final form to do so. I had definitely been neglecting my own training to focus on building my empire, but after today, that would change. I needed to be prepared for anything, so I'd throw myself into my training harder than I ever had before.
I might even have to track down Cooler to have a good training partner for a bit. My body's brother had yet to make contact with me since my killing of our father, and I didn't know if he hadn't found out yet, if he didn't care, or if he was just too busy with something I didn't know about. He was another potential threat, and I would need to do everything I could to prepare for the worst.
Which was why I had a few goals for this trip back to Earth, but those weren't the primary objective right now. They could wait until after I had surveyed the Z-Fighter's progress.
"I'm glad you're having fun, but we do need to leave," I spoke down to Bulma, causing the busty woman to nod as she sat up and then climbed to her feet.
She wasn't dressed in her usual loose and revealing clothing, though what she had on now made her look appealing in a different way. She had on a suit of armor, the Frieza Force armor to be specific, as the tight black underoutfit clung to her and highlighted every curve. I'd ordered her to wear it for safety reasons, as she was weak enough that if she got hit by a stray energy blast, she'd surely die.
Or, that was what I had told her, at least. I could easily defend her from any stray attacks, as there weren't many safer places in the universe than by my side, but I moreso had her wear it because I enjoyed it. There was something appealing about seeing the woman dressed up in the tight outfit.
"Should I come with you as well, my Lord?" Zarbon asked, looking at me curiously as he stood on the ramp out of my spaceship, but I just shook my head.
"I can handle this fine on my own. Either stay here or explore the planet - I don't care which," I said dismissively, but glanced over my shoulder with narrowed eyes, my eyes boring into his for a second, "Just don't harm any Earthlings, alright?"
"O-Of course, my Lord," Zarbon bowed his head stiffly, and I nodded, turning away as I was satisfied. The man had become much more lax due to my new and less-cruel attitude, so I needed to keep him in check from time to time.
Zarbon and I tended to disagree a lot on what was best for my empire, and while I was certain the man truly was doing what he thought was for the best, and as a result still kept him around, he could be annoying at times. He looked down on weaker creatures a bit too much, and I wouldn't have been surprised if he massacred a city of humans out of boredom. But with my words, I knew he would stay in line now.
"Oh! I know where we are - this is the plains near South City! My friends are probably at Kame House, so we just need to- ah!"
Bulma was cut off with a yelp as I casually swept her off her feet, carrying her bridal-style in my arms as she blushed heavily.
"I can sense energy," I said simply, grinning down at her lightly, which only caused her to blush deeper, "I don't need directions. Just hold on tight."
I shot upward into the air in the blink of an eye, leaving behind the spaceship and Zarbon as I took flight. I could've used a certain technique to get us there quicker, but spending some time with Bulma in my arms was far from a bad experience. Bulma didn't scream this time, having been carried in such a manner numerous times over the past year on other planets and becoming used to the feeling as a result. We made quick work of the journey, as Earth was pretty small compared to many other planets I'd conquered, and I was moving far faster than any jet on Earth could hope to.
I glanced around, casually sensing the various high-power levels on Earth, which stuck out like a sore thumb compared to the regular Earthlings who made up most of the planet's population. It was pretty easy to pick out who was who, and while I couldn't detect their exact power levels without my scouter on, I was already impressed.
And, as those power levels started to grow closer, despite not all of them being in the same place to begin with, I realized they were coming towards me. That was good, as it saved me the trip of inspecting each of them individually while I waited for Vegeta and Nappa to arrive. I made a change in my trajectory, heading towards a familiar area that I had seen on my last trip to Earth.
I soon landed in a large, open canyon-like area, which had a rocky floor and various rocky protrusions, as there were a few mountains in the distance. It was familiar because I knew this was where the Z-Fighters had taken on Vegeta and Nappa in the series, having chosen this location because there were no weak Earthlings nearby to get caught up in the battle.
"Where are we?" Bulma muttered, glancing around curiously, then raising an eyebrow at me.
"Your friends are already headed this way. This area is deserted in case they try to do something stupid," I answered easily.
"You… please don't kill any of them," Bulma said after a pause, looking at me a bit pleadingly, but I just shrugged with a grin.
"I don't plan to, but if they do something brash, then I can't make any promises," I replied, and Bulma nodded understandingly at my words. Unfortunately, I was lying through my teeth in the moment, but hopefully she'd forgive me for that.
It wasn't like I could just tell her that most of the Z-Fighters would be dead by the time we left Earth.
I set her down on her feet and casually stepped up to one of the miniature rocky plateaus sticking up into the air nearby. I raised my hand, effortlessly flicking my finger, and the upper half of the plateau was sent launching into space without time to even make a sound.
"There are no chairs out here," I hummed, glancing down at the slanted bottom bit of the plateau, which was still roughly a dozen feet in the air, "This will do for now, but I hope one of your friends will bring us an actual one. Maybe that old boyfriend of yours?"
That was code for 'I'm going to threaten that little coward Yamcha to get us some chairs when he arrives,' but I was a ruthless intergalactic warlord, not a rude intergalactic warlord.
"Don't… mention him," Bulma wrinkled her nose a bit, clearly still not over the way Yamcha had cheated on her, and then promptly cowered away as she was kidnapped by an alien.
I placed my hand on the top of the rocky structure, spending the next minute doing a bit of stonecarving as a ball of Ki casually sat on my palm. I carved the rock down to sittable height for Bulma, and then sat down, letting her take a seat next to me as we waited for her friend's arrival.
It didn't take long either, as the sight of two warriors flying towards us with white capes fluttering behind them came into view. They were both wearing the same outfit, as Gohan was wearing the same purple training garb and white cloak that Piccolo was. As they approached, I casually placed a scouter on my face to get an exact reading, and I was pretty impressed.
Piccolo's power level sat at nearly four thousand, which was particularly impressive overall, but I knew that he was suppressing it as well as wearing weighted training clothes. In reality, he was probably around eight thousand, and possibly even as high as ten thousand. By comparison, Gohan was at roughly two and a half thousand, though I knew he was also suppressing his power.
While in the grand scheme of the world they were still weaklings, their progress genuinely was impressive, and it seemed that my interference had changed something. Whether it was from them knowing that someone as powerful as me existed, or from Bulma being kidnapped, I didn't know, but something had caused them to become stronger.
Even while suppressed, Piccolo was already over his original full power of three thousand five hundred, and Gohan was nearly the same, as his original full power was only two thousand eight hundred.
The duo simply landed in front of me, and for a moment, I was certain Piccolo was aura-farming as he simply stood there. His eyes bored into mine, his cloak blowing in the wind as he stared me down without fear.
Sadly for him, aura-farming was my thing, so I casually flexed my power level a bit - letting out just a percentage of this form's full power, and causing Piccolo to take a panicked step back as his eyes went wide. Gohan completely fell over, looking like he was about to cry, and I almost felt bad.
Almost.
"Are you just going to stare at me?" I hummed, starting the conversation as Bulma glanced between me and Piccolo awkwardly, not knowing the Namekian or Gohan all that well, as she wasn't sure if she should say something to them or not.
"...I'm just waiting until everyone arrives," Piccolo said cooly, shaking off his moment of panic as he became stone-faced again, "Though if you're eager to fight now, I'm more than enough for you."
"I could kill you with my pinky toe," I responded casually, disappearing from my sitting position and reappearing behind the Namekian. I casually raised my hand, placing it on his shoulder as my power filled the area, and Piccolo gasped as his eyes went wide.
His body shook slightly as his death hovered right behind him, my shorter frame feeling like a giant as the Grim Reaper waited to take his victim.
"Kneel," I said simply, and I shoved down my hand on his shoulder, helping him out a bit. In an instant, Piccolo fell to his knees, his eyes still wide as my Ki filled the area. Gohan stumbled backward, his eyes wide with fear as he looked like he was about to cry again, and Bulma looked at the situation a bit nervously.
But I had no intention of killing the two - yet. They just needed a reminder.
"Be a good boy and don't speak again," I said simply, turning around as I headed back to Bulma, leaving Piccolo shaking and humiliated as he couldn't even raise his head.
No matter how much they trained, and no matter how powerful they became, they needed a reminder: They were only alive because I allowed them to be, and Earth was only still standing because I wanted it to. There was no amount of training, struggle, or power boosts that could let them challenge me.
Their lives were mine
On this planet, I was in control.
In this universe, I was in control.
As long as they remembered that, then my plan for them would work wonderfully.
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AN: Thank you for reading! The next chapter will be posted in a few days!
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