Dragon Ball Roshi

Taro slowly stood up. In the process, he noticed that the gravity here was nearly identical to Earth's. Moreover, the environment seemed to have developed air. The basis for his judgment was simple — when he stood, he felt resistance.

With Taro's current level of mastery, the subtle difference between a vacuum and an environment with air resistance was impossible to overlook.

Tack.

Taro took a step forward—

And his heart skipped a beat.

Because the moment he took that step, the ki that had grown faint since arriving in this world suddenly increased — just a tiny bit!

Or rather, it was more accurate to say it had recovered slightly.

He halted, pondering briefly. Raising his hand, he struck the shimmering, iridescent wall beside him with a palm. Though the strike appeared light and effortless, it carried immense power.

Pa! His palm landed on the wall.

The stone was neither damp nor cold but rather smooth and warm to the touch.

The strike caused no spectacular result — no cracks formed, and no sound echoed from the impact. It was nothing like the strikes of a high-level martial artist, resembling more the gentle caress of a hand across stone.

Yet Taro keenly sensed that Muken had returned.

Not fully, but compared to the complete inability to activate it earlier, it was now functional. That palm strike had used only a fraction of his ki — barely ten percent — but its effect had been amplified to slightly over twenty percent.

Taro looked toward the cave's depths. The radiance of the crystalline walls on either side reflected an ethereal, almost paradisiacal glow.

Without hesitation, he pressed forward.

As he delved deeper, the environment continued to transform. The air grew richer, more suitable for life, and even the barren ground began to show traces of green. Tender sprouts emerged from cracks in the stone, glistening with dew—

"Plants… and water…"

His gaze swept over the green shoots as he murmured. With air now serving as a medium, his voice could finally resonate in this space.

Sticking close to the walls, Taro followed the only available path deeper into the cave. Periodically, he struck the walls with his palm. As the green vegetation became more abundant, the force of his strikes increased proportionally.

By the time he stepped out of the passage and into an enormous spherical chamber, his ki had returned to its original five million. His mental energy, once drained to near emptiness in this desolate world, now felt like a vast, overflowing ocean.

"What is this…"

The massive chamber's walls shimmered with an iridescent glow. One section bore a small, dark opening — the exit of the passageway. Taro stood there, stunned, his face betraying a rare look of awe.

Before him floated a single, radiant sphere of aurora-like light. It churned and shifted as though it contained the condensed essence of the entire universe. Within its shimmering hues lay the mysteries of the cosmos, the laws of life, and all existence.

No words could adequately describe the overwhelming majesty of this sight — not even the slightest fragment.

Taro stopped.

He neither advanced nor retreated.

When his ki and mental strength had recovered earlier, he had realized that his Instant Transmission ability had also returned. He suspected that his powers and techniques were restored only because he was near this light. If he returned to the barren wasteland outside, everything might vanish once more.

Outside was desolation — cold, dead, and empty.

Here, this light radiated vitality.

Outside, there was nothing — complete void.

Here, this light encompassed everything.

Taro recalled the dark purple "sky" outside, its churning clouds, and the faint sense of familiarity they evoked. He sat cross-legged at the end of the passageway, his face devoid of expression, staring silently at this cosmic light that seemed to represent the universe's final sanctuary. His heart was devoid of joy or sorrow.

He vaguely felt that the answers to his questions — where he came from, where he was headed, and the mystery of the sword bearing traces of another traveler — all lay here, in this place where barrenness and prosperity coexisted. Yet, for now, the truth eluded him.

But his heart was calm.

He was neither frustrated by the impenetrable mysteries nor consumed by a desire to unravel them. He had seemingly forgotten everything — his troubles, his goals, and his relentless pursuit of mastering Muken. He sat like the universe's first lifeform, reverently gazing at the radiant light that symbolized the universe's ultimate hope and sanctuary.

He did nothing but watch.

Sitting motionless, Taro fixed his gaze on the ever-changing light. Within its radiant dance, he saw glimpses of his past: not just his 100 years of struggles and discoveries in the Dragon Ball world, nor merely the descent of the man named Uchiha Taro into madness in the cannibalistic ninja world. Even his brief and ordinary first life as a human on Earth was laid bare before him.

After wandering Earth in the Dragon Ball world, pouring his soul into his art and writing, Taro had severed ties with his first and second lives. He had not expected to encounter them again here. But severed they were, and now, looking back, he felt like a stranger observing a familiar figure reliving moments of joy and sorrow. He knew what would happen, understood the trials and triumphs, but no longer felt any attachment.

Time lost all meaning.

Taro sat as though he would remain there until the end of time, until the seas dried and the rocks crumbled, until the universe itself reached its conclusion.

And within the aurora, the scenes reflected in the light dwindled to two solitary fragments, endlessly looping…

---

Several decades earlier...

Around year 557 on Earth.

On the magical planet.

Under the pale purple sky, a massive crimson bird soared through the air. A tall, elderly man flew beside it, his face wrought with worry. He glanced repeatedly at the unconscious young man lying on the bird's back. The youth's eyes were tightly shut, and his face occasionally contorted in pain.

This was the result of the desperate actions taken by the Holy Mage, who had forcibly activated an incomplete potential-unlocking spell on Taro to give him the power to counter the rapidly growing strength of the Gemini Fusion. The spell violently extracted Taro's latent energy from his cells, disregarding the natural barriers of the human body. Though it temporarily unleashed immense power, it also caused irreversible damage to his foundation, with his physical body beginning to collapse at its core.

Taro could still recall the excruciating pain that engulfed his entire body during his unconscious state. It felt as though a million ants were devouring his heart, as if billions of unseen claws were tearing apart every fiber of his flesh. Even with his indomitable will, he was on the verge of collapse. Such pain was utterly inhuman.

The scenes replaying in his mind weren't memories he personally witnessed. At the time, he was unconscious, and even if he hadn't been, his memories wouldn't have manifested from a third-person perspective.

These scenes were recreated through his elevated mental state, piecing together descriptions from the North Kai, the Holy Mage, and even a fragment of thought conveyed by the Phoenix. With an almost divine detachment, as if observing from above, he reconstructed the events in his mind with perfect clarity.

Yet, the question remained unanswered: "Why did my body remain intact when it should have collapsed completely?" At the time, the explanation was attributed to the God Tree Physique he had recently acquired.

Ironically, that guess was precisely the correct answer.

---

"The God Tree Physique, huh…"

Sitting at the end of the passageway, Taro fixed his gaze on the immense, crystalline radiance — a beauty so pure it defied description. The images from his time on the Magic Planet replayed in his mind. The transition from agonizing unconsciousness to the sudden cessation of pain repeated endlessly in his thoughts. However, this time, the images began to change.

A pale purple sky.

A young warrior defeating a powerful foe, plummeting from the heavens.

A crimson bird swooping down to catch the unconscious youth.

An elder and the bird flying through the skies with the young warrior in tow.

The youth, lying on the bird's back, grimacing in pain…

And then, something different emerged.

As the youth lay trembling in pain, his body inadvertently convulsing, faint wisps of an unknown substance dissipated into the wind created by the high-speed flight. These wisps were carried into the youth's trembling body.

---

This was one of the final scenes preserved in the aurora.

The other…

---

Around year 566.

After resolving the chaos of the Demon Clan's invasion, sending Long Bam to the Demon Realm from Shula's domain, arranging for his posthumous care with North Kai, and sealing all spatial passages between the mortal and demon worlds with a wish, Taro embarked on a solitary journey across Earth.

This journey had no destination, no purpose. He simply wandered and trained.

One day, Taro arrived at a great waterfall.

It was a colossal cliff, with the waterfall cascading down like a silken ribbon of immeasurable length. It struck the deep pool below, creating frothy white waves. The thunderous roar of the water was akin to rolling thunder.

Even now, as Taro observed the silent reflection of that scene, he could vividly recall the deafening sound filling his ears. In the reflection, he stood by the pool, unable to hear anything else. The entire world seemed to consist solely of the boundless waterfall and the crashing water.

Sitting cross-legged, Taro slowly closed his eyes. The fleeting sensation he had once jokingly called enlightenment resurfaced, crossing the river of time and breaking through the barriers of the past.

Amid the overwhelming roar, all the world's noise seemed to fade into a muted backdrop. In the vision, Taro stood for a long time, gazing intently. Gradually, sound and motion returned, as if ink drops were appearing on a blank canvas.

He heard the rustling of leaves in the underbrush as a fox passed by. He heard the chirping of birds in a lively dispute, as the Phoenix perched near a nest, its fiery red feathers provoking the protective mother bird to bare her fangs in defense of her chicks. He heard the faint, rhythmic patter of tiny steps on the soft ground as a line of ants carried a decaying fruit core.

Sitting in the presence of the radiant aurora, those forgotten sounds returned to him — branches snapping, flowers wilting, morning dew evaporating, lake waters rippling in the wind. All of it, once more, filled his ears and flowed into his heart. The seeds buried deep within him finally sprouted and began to grow.

---

Taro opened his eyes and saw the wind moving before him.

Though the immense, crystalline aurora was vast and turbulent, it was not a physical substance capable of creating wind. Yet, the "wind" he observed emerged from the shimmering walls of light, fluttering toward him. These were strands of ki.

If the Kaioshin Realm after its calamity was a desiccated corpse, then this cavern, where the aurora dwelled, was the stubbornly beating heart of that corpse.

Only near the heart could air exist, life persist, laws take form, and hope survive.

"Ha… To think the path I was meant to take would bring me here." Taro chuckled softly, bracing one hand against the ground. Rising slowly amidst the swirling ki, he became the center of the world. The pale white energy swirled around him like children returning to their mother, embracing him joyfully before merging into his body.

God Tree.

Perhaps this was the divinity the Grand Kai had faintly glimpsed within Taro.

Hidden in plain sight, the brilliance of the Muken overshadowed the treasure that lay dormant in Taro's body — the God Tree Physique. From the very beginning, it had always been there: after intense gravity training, a single night's rest would greatly enhance his strength. This wasn't because he shared the Saiyan trait of rapid recovery, but because his body, exhausted to its limits, would naturally absorb minuscule amounts of ki from the natural world to rejuvenate. When his body teetered on the brink of collapse from untapped potential triggering magic, it instinctively began to draw ki from nature to repair itself.

"If I'd known earlier… I should've coaxed the Spirit Bomb technique out of King Kai back then."