After a while, Aeris finally stopped chasing them and sat down on a rock, watching Goku bare his teeth in pain while Piccolo kept roasting him from the side. A small, genuine smile appeared on her face.
This kind of feeling…
It wasn't bad.
But it still wasn't the life she wanted.
She had already reached a bottleneck. Her strength had stalled out, and even when it did improve, the progress was painfully slow.
So Aeris had started to feel anxious.
She had to find a way to break through.
Which meant she needed to go back into space and search for whatever chance or trigger would let her become stronger.
Once she made up her mind, Aeris stood up and told the two of them what she was planning.
"At this point, I've already taught you everything I can. The road after this is up to you. Besides, you two fully adapted to the five-times gravity chamber last year already. And as for me… I need to go find my own path."
Goku blinked. "But doesn't that gravity chamber still have other settings?"
The moment he said that, Aeris got annoyed all over again and unloaded on him immediately.
"You've got some nerve bringing that up. Did you forget who broke the damn thing in the first place? It was bad enough before, but the second you mentioned it, I got pissed off all over again!"
Goku scratched his head. "Then why not ask Bulma to fix it?"
Aeris's jaw clenched.
"First, Earth doesn't have the right materials.
Second, the internal structure of that machine can only be repaired up to five times gravity.
Third, that kind of machine has a built-in weak point for emergency destruction. That spot is the most important part of the whole thing."
She pointed straight at him.
"And somehow, with that truly miraculous level of bad luck, you hit it exactly there."
Goku immediately looked guilty.
In the end, Aeris just let out a breath.
"Whatever. It is what it is. I'm leaving. And who knows when we'll see each other again."
With that, she slowly floated up into the air, ready to leave.
Goku called out, "You're not saying goodbye to Bulma?"
Aeris replied without turning back, "She already knows. So then… this is where we part ways. I just hope that one day in the future, you'll be able to stand against me properly."
Then she flew off.
Fast.
So fast that even Goku and Piccolo could only stare.
Aeris headed straight for where she had left her ship.
"Tch… there's way too much grass and flowers growing on the outside now. Though… I guess it has its own charm."
She took a deep breath and activated the ship.
The vessel slowly rose off the ground and began climbing into the sky. As the Earth grew farther and farther below her, Aeris found herself feeling strangely conflicted.
Then, while the ship was still ascending, she spotted a few familiar figures flying toward it from below.
None of them said anything.
They just stayed at a distance, silently watching her ship rise higher.
Aeris only lifted a hand near the window and waved once in farewell.
Down on the ground, the group watched as her ship entered the atmosphere, each of them feeling at least a little sentimental.
Especially Goku, who had spent the most time with her.
Not far away, perched in a tree, Piccolo was there too, silently seeing her off in his own way.
As he stared at the ship until it vanished from sight completely, something stirred faintly inside him.
Sure, Goku had a terrible habit of getting chased down and beaten because of food, and yes, Aeris had made their lives absolute hell more times than he could count.
But even so…
Piccolo had to admit it.
These had been the happiest years he'd had in a very long time.
He ignored everyone else. Once the ship was fully gone, he turned and left. A moment after Piccolo disappeared, Goku looked toward where he had been standing.
"Huh. So Piccolo came too…"
Bulma looked at Goku in confusion. "Goku, what are you mumbling about?"
Goku laughed awkwardly. "Nothing. I just got hungry all of a sudden and started thinking about food. Hahaha…"
Bulma gave him a look that clearly said, Of course you did.
————————————————————
Inside the ship, Aeris sat in the cockpit reading a novel with an extremely serious expression on her face.
"What kind of garbage novel is this? How much do these protagonists hate their original world? Why do they all have to go to somebody else's? I swear, other worlds are practically getting clogged up with reincarnators at this point. And what the hell is this one supposed to be? You got reincarnated and you're still this stupid? No wonder you died in your last life. So what, your body got sent back but your brain didn't make the trip?"
She flipped another page and got even more irritated.
"And seriously, what is with this obsession with romance? Can't you just focus on getting stronger first and deal with all that crap later? If you conquer the world first, won't you have whatever you want anyway?"
Aeris kept going, getting more and more heated as she read.
"And another thing… if you've got money and power, why the hell would you waste time trying to please someone who doesn't love you? Then what happens? Your wife teams up with some pretty boy, steals all your money, and kills you. I swear to— and then you get reincarnated again? What kind of idiotic setup is this? And it's the same problem as before. Still no brain brought back with the reset."
She slammed the book shut for a second, then opened it again just to complain more.
"And why the hell are you refusing to divorce no matter what? Then you go flirting with younger girls on the side, pretending it's all about making your wife regret it. What kind of brain-dead logic is that? Even if you can't get divorced right away, use the damn legal system! Seriously, I'm done. And these villains too—rich and powerful, yet somehow too stupid to use any of it properly…"
The more she read, the more her liver hurt.
In the end, Aeris tossed the novel aside, puffing up with frustration.
What even was this nonsense?
Sure, she wasn't exactly a genius herself, but at least she wouldn't throw away time that could be spent training just to roll around in romance drama. And those protagonists…
Just imagining it was terrifying.
Her tiny brain was already under enough pressure as it was. If it got nerfed any further, that would be the end of her.
Nope.
Absolutely not.
Love was terrifying.
Better to get stronger first and worry about everything else later.
Aeris started imagining herself defeating the strongest being in the universe and ruling over the entire cosmos. The fantasy was so good she ended up grinning stupidly to herself.
The only problem was…
She had no idea who the strongest being in the universe actually was.
So in her mental image, that "strongest being" turned into a giant blur she was stepping on dramatically.
The blur even had the words Strongest in the Universe written across its face.
Although for some reason…
The silhouette kinda looked like a cat.
Weird.
Somewhere far away, a certain lazy giant cat suddenly twitched in his sleep.
"Forget it. Training."
With that, Aeris got up and headed toward the gravity chamber.
After training for a while, she came back out looking irritated.
She had no idea why she was so annoyed, but she was.
So she grabbed a handheld game console and started playing.
Then, not long after, she suddenly threw that aside too.
"AAAAAHHH! So annoying!"
Aeris started pacing back and forth through the ship with her hands behind her back. For some reason, she couldn't shake the feeling that something bad was about to happen.
In the end, she gave up.
"Whatever. If I can't figure it out, then I'll just go sleep. It's still more than a month before I reach the next destination anyway."
Since she couldn't make sense of it, she stopped trying.
Sleep sounded better.
And so, for the next week, Aeris drifted around the ship with nothing much to do.
"Ugh… next time… next time I'm definitely getting a better ship. This one's engine is terrible. It's completely useless for long-distance travel. It was only good enough for the me who got lost all the time…"
Aeris slumped limply in her chair.
And right at that moment, the control panel suddenly started blaring an alarm.
Warning! Warning!
Detected ahead…
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