The Power Ball ignited the sky.
Silver, blinding moonlight cascaded down over the island with unnatural intensity, bathing everything in an eerie, harsh glow. The ocean reflected the light like a trembling mirror.
Raditz staggered, breathing heavily before roaring as his body began to change. Goku braced himself, and Piccolo's jaw tightened as he sensed the rising power level.
Yamcha, though, didn't move.
His Byakugan flared open, veins rising sharply, the crystalline blue of his right iris shining like a polished gemstone.
He stared directly into the unfolding transformation.
And for the first time in history, a human witnessed the true biology of a Saiyan's great power.
At first, Yamcha saw exactly what he expected:
The light of the Power Ball struck Raditz's eyes, and pupils dilated in response to the lunar radiation surging down the optic nerve.
But then Yamcha saw something even more profound; the surge didn't go straight into the heart or core, it traveled into the tail.
With this, he knew exactly what was happening. Memories of Goku transforming into a giant monster under the full moon came back to him. He remembered the now-named Oozaru stomping through the ruins of Pilaf's castle.
As he watched on in fascinated horror, the light-speed ki shot from Raditz's spine, racing through the coiled muscles and nerves of the tail, where it twisted into a very specific rhythm.
Yamcha gasped.
"So the tail… is the converter?"
As his focus deepened, he saw that the tail wasn't producing energy. It wasn't the true source of the transformation.
It was more like a biological tuner, a built-in genetic tool that shaped the primal Saiyan ki into the exact flow pattern required for Oozaru transformations.
A natural circuit board.
A biological filter.
A ki conductor designed to take moonlight-triggered energy and convert it into the "primal pattern," synergized with innate Saiyan biology.
The tail simply guided the ki in a preset formula. It was a self-activating switch.
Yamcha watched the pattern form:
A spiral of yang energy focusing at the base of the spine, then wrapping upward along the spinal column and into the core, where it ignited the transformation.
"As long as the tail exists, it makes the process automatic," Yamcha murmured. "But…" His enhanced right eye saw something deeper, something he doubted even the Saiyans themselves knew.
To Yamcha's interest in both biology and ki, it was as subtle as it was beautiful.
There was another pattern buried under the main one. A latent pathway that had been superseded by the simpler process provided by the Saiyan tail.
The same primal ki, the same power, the same beast-like energy, but flowing through the major yang meridians instead of relying on the tail's catalyst.
A purely internal circuit that the tail had attached itself to as a shortcut. It was stable, controlled, and perfectly functional. If someone were able to memorize that pathway and ki pattern…
Yamcha's breath caught in his throat.
"It doesn't require the tail…"
The tail just made it easier, a built-in shortcut, but it wasn't necessary.
Goku didn't need it.
Gohan didn't need it.
Any Saiyan with sufficient ki control and mental discipline could activate that circuit themselves.
The ki pattern was clear now:
A spiral initiation, downward circulation to the lower core, expansion through the yang channels. Then a controlled flare through the heart, or as he knew it, the Gate of Death, before stabilizing behind the eyes.
The tail's job was simply to force that pattern instantly.
But Yamcha had seen it. He had memorized it, and, he believed, he could teach it.
"This is it…" Yamcha whispered. "A whole new power-up, Oozaru's power without the ape. If Goku can learn this… if Gohan can learn this… they could access ten times their power with full control."
But there was one catch.
His new eye perceived the emotion embedded in the process.
Saiyan biology relied heavily on a primal yang energy, combined with the final gathering of power centering behind the eyes in the frontal lobe…
Aggression.
Instinct.
Fury.
Wrath wasn't an optional part of this power, it was part of the circuit.
But it didn't have to be mindless.
"With enough mental training…" Yamcha breathed, "…it should be fully controllable. If his brother can stay conscious, Goku should be able to do the same."
The discovery could reshape Saiyan evolution, but there was no time to celebrate.
Raditz's transformation completed with a monstrous snap of bone and surge of muscle—
And the island trembled beneath the weight of a massive Oozaru.
Goku gulped, the familiar guilt of what happened to Grandpa Gohan stirring faintly in his chest.
Piccolo cursed; Raditz was already stronger than them individually, and now even together they didn't come close to his power.
Yamcha exhaled slowly, lowering into a stance, his Byakugan glowing bright.
"Alright," he muttered, "I've seen enough."
He tightened his fists, and threw a quick glance over his shoulder to Goku, giving him a small smile.
"Let's survive this, so I can teach you how to use that power properly."
The Oozaru roared.
The battle was about to truly begin.
As the now massive form of Raditz threw its head back in a victorious laugh, the trio below could only break out in a cold sweat.
"His power dropped? Then exploded to this level?" Piccolo observed.
Goku was just as awestruck; this was the first time he had ever seen this transformation from the outside.
"Yeah," Yamcha agreed, glancing briefly at Goku beside him, "this transformation usually only happens under a full moon. That strange technique he used ate up about a third of his energy to reproduce the effects of moonlight."
Goku swallowed his emotions for now. He would have time to process later; for now he had to make sure everyone got through this fight.
"It feels like his power shot up at least ten times with this form," he added in. "This isn't going to be easy."
Before he could respond, Raditz tensed. Yamcha had expanded his perception to check the surrounding archipelagos for life, but just a few miles out from shore he sensed several familiar presences. He could feel the dawning horror emanating from them at the sight of the giant ape.
"Shit!" he cursed, drawing Goku's attention. "The group from Kame House are on a boat a few miles out watching."
Goku's eyes widened, but before he could respond, Oozaru Raditz stomped forward, each footfall shaking the island. He swung one massive arm, and the wind pressure alone felt like an incoming ki blast.
"Split!" Yamcha shouted.
The three scattered, each fighter separating again into a loose triangle formation around their foe.
A huge fist slammed into the stone where they'd just been, pulverizing a chunk of the island. The shockwave still caught them, hurling all three through the air.
Piccolo righted himself first, firing a wide blast into the ape's face. Oozaru Raditz reeled back, wiping at his eyes and roaring.
Goku rocketed up along the giant arm, using it as a ramp, slamming a kick into the side of Raditz's cheek; the beast barely moved.
Yamcha darted under the other arm, palm striking a cluster of nerves around the joint in the elbow. A pinpoint shot of ki aimed at disabling instead of obliterating.
For a moment, it worked.
Raditz's limb jerked, his body jolting at the shock to his nerves.
Then his aura flared, raw power steamrolling over the subtle damage.
He shook off their combined assault like water, then with a vicious grin he launched into a counterattack.
The tail came first, a massive whip the size of a tree.
It smashed into Piccolo and hurled him end-over-end into a rock formation, shattering it on impact.
"PICCOLO!" Goku shouted.
Raditz's other arm swung in a huge backhand.
Yamcha tried to dodge, but the air pressure itself hit like a wall. He managed to block at the last second, the ki reinforcing his arms mitigating some damage, but the sheer force still launched him across the ground, tearing a trench through stone.
His bones screamed.
Goku dove again, fists flying in a rapid flurry, striking the Oozaru's snout and forehead.
"Over here!" Goku yelled, trying to draw the beast's attention away from Yamcha.
It worked.
Raditz focused on Goku.
Unfortunately.
The Oozaru's giant hand snapped up with a terrifying speed unnatural to a beast its size.
Goku gasped as fingers like stone pillars closed around him mid-flight.
"Got you," Raditz rumbled, voice distorted and booming.
He squeezed.
Goku howled, ribs cracking audibly.
"GOKU!" Yamcha croaked, forcing himself to his feet.
Piccolo staggered out of the rubble, head bleeding with one arm hanging limp.
"If he crushes his chest, he's done," Piccolo snarled.
Raditz reared his head back, ki gathering in his mouth in a growing ball of searing light.
"He's going to fire point-blank," Yamcha realized, eyes widening. "His chest won't matter if he's disintegrated!"
No time to think.
Yamcha exploded into motion, gathering as much ki as he could into his hand.
He flashed up along Raditz's side, ki condensed to the extreme in his palm again—
"Hazan—!"
He slammed his hand into the Oozaru's wrist, right where nerves and tendons clustered.
"—Break!"
The shock reverberated up the arm. Raditz roared, an audible snap of tendon sounding out as his fingers spasmed open.
Goku dropped like a stone, barely catching himself with a desperate ki burst before he hit the ground.
The mouth blast still fired, but wild and skewed, tearing a burning line through the air instead of Goku's body.
A distant mountain range didn't make it. But, while the shockwave still smashed into all three warriors, sending them tumbling, they did live.
Goku hit the ground hard, coughing blood. "Nngh—!"
Yamcha crashed down away from him, the shock wave separating them. As he hit the ground this time he felt something tear in his side.
Piccolo came out the least damaged, having had time to roll out of the main impact, but the accumulated damage on him was still building up.
They were hurting.
Badly.
Raditz loomed over them, chest heaving with fury.
"You gnats…!" he thundered. "You filthy little worms! I'll crush all of you! I'll wipe out this rock and everyone on it!"
His ki flared again. Even in this weakened state from creating the Power Ball, his transformed power still dwarfed theirs.
Goku tried to stand and dropped to one knee.
"Dammit," he hissed. "He's way too strong like this."
Piccolo wiped blood from his mouth. "Even together, we can barely scratch him."
Yamcha's vision swam for a second. He forced it to focus.
He could still feel Goku's ki, crushed and battered, but not broken.
He could still feel Raditz's enormous energy pressing down on them like a storm.
And behind it all, distant but there…
Bulma.
Toshi.
Everyone from Kame House.
Waiting.
Trusting, but afraid.
Fear flickered in his chest.
"If we fall here… that's it."
He gritted his teeth.
"No," he hissed under his breath, pushing himself upright. "Not yet."
Raditz took a step forward, each massive footfall cracking the stone.
Goku struggled to get back to his feet, swaying. "We gotta… we gotta hit the tail. Like before, with me. It's the key."
"Easier said than done," Piccolo growled. "Getting close to it now is suicide."
Yamcha's hand drifted to the pouch inside his gi.
He felt them with his fingertips.
Senzu.
Only a handful left after years of training and experimentation.
He glanced at Goku, barely standing. At Piccolo, already pushing past his limits. At the mountain of murderous ape looming over them.
He made a decision.
"Piccolo," Yamcha said, voice low but steady. The two had landed close, while Goku's battered form had tumbled further.
Piccolo shot him a sideways glance. "What?"
"I need time," Yamcha said. "Just a few seconds."
"For what?" Piccolo hissed. "In case you haven't noticed, even with all of us we're having trouble not dying."
Yamcha pulled the pouch free just enough for Piccolo to see.
Realization flashed across the Namekian's face.
"You've been holding out on us," he muttered. "Figures."
Raditz reared up again, preparing another stomp or blast; it didn't matter which. Either could end them if it connected cleanly.
"Can you distract him?" Yamcha asked. "Give me just a bit of space to get to Goku and fix us up. After that…"
His eyes hardened.
"…we go for the tail."
Piccolo stared at him for a heartbeat.
Then he smirked.
"You'd better make those beans worth it."
With a grin, and a subtle movement, Yamcha flicked one of the five remaining beans to the Namekian.
Crunching through it, Piccolo's wounds and ki quickly recovered, then his energy erupted skyward as his muscles began to swell again.
"Fine," Piccolo growled. "I'll buy you your few seconds."
He shot forward, body growing, casting a new shadow against the towering ape.
Yamcha turned, already moving toward Goku's battered form as fast as his shaking legs would allow, fingers closing around two precious senzu. They needed to heal together; if Raditz noticed before either were ready, dispatching Piccolo and charging them would be no issue.
"Hang on," he muttered, more to himself than anyone. "Just a little longer."
The ground shook as titans clashed overhead. Yamcha ran, clutching their last hope in his hand.
If he had been focusing inward, he would have noticed his ki beginning to react to his will, the dregs of his power beginning to wrap around the first gate of his body.
As he pushed himself forward, he barely noticed the pulses of increased power that kept him moving.
Yamcha slid to his knees beside Goku, chest burning, blood dripping down his face. Goku forced a groan, eyes only half-focused.
"Yamcha…? Heh… you still alive? That's good," he wheezed.
"Barely," Yamcha muttered, pulling out two senzu. "Open up."
He shoved one into Goku's mouth and one into his own, crushing both at the same time.
The effect was immediate.
Goku's lungs expanded with a violent gasp, broken ribs knitting themselves back together like snapping branches in reverse. His aura flared, bright and clean again, washing the battlefield in a wave of heat.
His ki skyrocketed.
Yamcha felt it even through the roaring chaos above them.
Before healing, Goku's ki had felt weak, ragged, and fading.
Now though? It was steady, growing, and surging.
A Saiyan's natural, broken abilities came into play.
Goku rose to his feet trembling with new strength, shock flashing across his face as he felt it settle. He was probably even a little stronger than Raditz had been in his base form.
"Whoaaaa—! Yamcha, I feel incredible!"
Yamcha, though, didn't respond.
Because something else was happening.
Inside his own body, his ki, now brought back to its peak, continued working on its task. The rhythm he'd been chasing for months finally clicked.
He felt it.
One pulse, then another.
Then a deep thrum like the beat of a second heart.
He felt his ki thrum in time with the Gate of Opening. He felt it flowing into the left hemisphere of his brain, and exiting substantially stronger. As it swirled in a subtle spiral through his body, he recognized it immediately—the same motion he'd been trying to emulate in training, the foundational motion of the First Gate.
Except this wasn't forced. It wasn't tearing him apart or resisting.
It was aligning.
His new eye shone brighter, instinctively watching the flow inside his own body. His ki wasn't battering at the gate like before; it was flowing with it, wrapping around it like water embracing stone.
"H…ha…"
Yamcha's breath trembled as power rose inside him, clean and refined.
"First Gate," he murmured to himself, just loud enough for Goku to hear, "Gate of Opening: Harmonized."
Light burst off Yamcha's body in a shockwave that kicked up shards of stone. His aura sharpened into a focused, searing blue-white flame. Muscles tightened, veins surged with ki, but there was no burning pain this time.
Only strength, controlled, coordinated, perfect.
Goku blinked. "Y-Yamcha?! Your power—! It just—!"
"I know," Yamcha whispered.
He felt everything.
The heaviness in Oozaru Raditz's movements.
The weak points in the giant's posture.
The ki pattern of his new Oozaru physiology.
The rhythm of Piccolo's desperate distraction, each blast buying only seconds.
And his own power, five times higher than just moments ago.
His aura erupted upward, smashing a crater beneath him as he stood.
Raditz froze mid-roar.
The Oozaru's massive head turned toward the sudden spike of energy, one so strong that it didn't require the ability to sense ki to feel it. There was a pressure in the air now, one that bore down on the giant ape with malicious intent.
Goku grinned wide. "Looks like he's spotted us!"
"Yeah," Yamcha agreed softly. "And if he had any sense, he'd turn tail and run."
Piccolo, still towering in his giant form and bearing many more cuts and bruises than he had previously, shot a glare down. "If you two are done glowing dramatically, I could use a little backup!"
Yamcha spread his stance, ki flaring behind him in spiraling currents. Goku mirrored him, the fire returning to his eyes.
The two stood side by side.
In perfect unison.
"He's still got the edge individually, but together we're stronger than him," Yamcha said, a confident smirk returning to his face. "Let's take the tail and end this!"
Goku cracked his knuckles. "Yeah!" He grinned fiercely. "Let's finish this together!"
Raditz roared, preparing to crush them both.
Yamcha and Goku shot forward—
—their combined power shaking the island.