"What... is this place?"
As soon as Shenron appeared, he immediately sensed something was wrong. It wasn't just the urban environment below—it was the very fabric of the world. It didn't feel like his original reality.
As the Eternal Dragon, though created by the Guardian of Earth, he was essentially the manifestation of the world's power of desire. Because of his divine origin, he held a minor seat in the celestial hierarchy, allowing him to perceive that he was no longer in his home universe.
"Shenron! Shenron! I want to make a wish!" Goku shouted at the top of his lungs.
The Dragon lowered his massive head, eyes glowing like embers. "Very well. State your wish, and I shall do my best to grant it."
Being in a foreign world, Shenron wasn't entirely certain if his powers would function properly. However, his duty was to satisfy the desire of whoever gathered the seven Dragon Balls. He would have to try.
"I want to resurrect all the soldiers who died because I turned into a Great Ape!" Goku bellowed.
Shenron's eyes flared with a deep crimson light. After a long moment of silence, he spoke: "Your wish has been granted!"
He had felt a flicker of interference when activating his power—the laws of this universe momentarily resisting the rewrite of death—but the resistance had vanished almost instantly. The wish was successfully executed.
"I must go."
His mission complete, Shenron dissolved into golden light. The dragon vanished, and the seven spheres streaked toward the horizons in every direction.
Goku leaped into the air with lightning speed, snatching four of them out of the sky before they could scatter—including his grandfather's four-starred ball.
"That way, I only have to find three next time," he muttered happily.
He tucked the four dormant stones into his magical trunk. Done with his task, he jogged over to the corner of the Stark Industries building, leaned against the cool wall, and closed his eyes.
The soldiers were alive. Now, he could finally rest and prepare for a new world of training.
...
"Mr. Son? What... what just happened?"
It took several moments for the witnesses to find their voices. Coulson scrambled toward Goku, desperate to ask about the gargantuan green creature and why it had suddenly disappeared.
But he froze in his tracks. "Mr. Stark... tell me I'm not seeing things. Did he just vanish?"
"You're not seeing things," Tony replied. He tried to rub his eyes, but his gauntlet just clinked against his helmet. "He's gone."
"Magic. It has to be magic," Tony muttered, though his intuition told him it was something far beyond a mere stage trick. "Coulson, was it? You seem to know a lot about him."
"Mr. Son is a friend of S.H.I.E.L.D.," Coulson replied, regaining his professional composure. "If you want to know more, you can ask our Director yourself."
Tony's brow quirked. "Your Director? Fine. Schedule a meeting."
"We can do that. But first, we have a mess to clean up. Your identity as Iron Man can't be exposed just yet. We'll organize a press conference, and you'll need to..."
Coulson began the "cleanup" protocols for Tony Stark while simultaneously relaying the event to Nick Fury.
...
S.H.I.E.L.D. Headquarters
"He summoned a dragon with crystal balls and then vanished... could everything he said be true?"
In his office, Nick Fury paced back and forth, his expression shifting rapidly. He had taken the intel on Son Goku very seriously, suspecting the boy was the Great Ape from New Mexico. He had scrutinized Black Widow's reports countless times.
According to Natasha, the boy's stories about Dragon Balls were likely fairy tales—the musings of a child. But now, a dragon had appeared in the middle of Manhattan.
What exactly had he wished for?
The office door burst open. Agent Maria Hill rushed in, looking breathless. "Director, we just got word from New Mexico. The soldiers killed by the Great Ape... they've all come back to life. Every single one of them."
Fury stopped dead. Now he knew.
He grabbed his phone and called Coulson immediately. "Coulson, lock it down. Full information blackout on Son Goku and the dragon. Get Stark to play along—tell the press the dragon was a Stark Industries holographic projection."
He turned back to Hill. "Launch a global search. I want Son Goku found, and I want those seven Dragon Balls. At any cost."
The power to grant any wish... if other nations or organizations learned of this, the world would descend into chaos. S.H.I.E.L.D. had to control that power.
Unfortunately for Fury, Goku was already beyond his reach.
...
Goku was back in the white space.
"Time to sleep. New training starts tomorrow!"
He didn't dwell on the chaos he'd left behind. Grandpa Dumbledore had given him a long list of things to remember, but Goku found most of it too complicated. His philosophy was simpler: if someone is a friend, be nice; if they're an enemy, punch them. If you can't beat them, train until you can.
After eight hours of sound sleep, he rubbed his eyes and walked toward the door he had pre-selected. He had decided to simply go in order from left to right.
Next to the *Harry Potter* door stood a door labeled: Demon Slayer
***
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