Indeed.
The "illusion" was so bad that it was almost like self-hypnosis. For him to achieve this, Goku truly was a rare talent.
A sense of admiration rose in the hearts of the three bystanders at the cave entrance.
"The more innocent and single-minded a fool is, the more easily they can be deceived by simple, crude things," Yamiru said helplessly. "He'll probably grow out of this when he gets a bit older and gains more experience."
Tights smiled. "But who can say that such growth is a good thing?"
Bulma, still a child herself, didn't quite feel the weight of their words but added, "This is just a preliminary analysis based on the result. It would be better to extract some of his tail cells and analyze them."
Both Yamiru and Tights agreed.
"Hey — Yamiru — Bulma — Tights — are you there—?"
At that moment, Son Goku's voice echoed from below.
"Tights — are you there—?"
"Sis — are you there—?"
The voice sounded like it was coming from a very large, empty cave, with an almost reverberating echo.
"Shall we go check it out?" Yamiru suggested.
"Of course," Tights said excitedly. "A hidden cave we just discovered — wow! I smell adventure!"
Bulma peered into the black abyss of the cave below, worried, "What if it's dirty down there?"
She was quite the refined young lady and didn't want to get dirty.
Yamiru, with one arm around each of the sisters, jumped down into the cave.
The three of them were greeted by a musty, damp smell as they landed safely.
It was very dark inside.
After they landed softly, the sound of approaching footsteps quickly came from the darkness. It was Son Goku, coming over at the sound.
"Ah — you're here!" Son Goku exclaimed happily, running over. "You guys are unbelievable, disappearing so suddenly!"
"The one running around is you, isn't it?" Yamiru said irritably. Not to mention that his keen eyes could see through the human energy form, his ability to discern sound and location was also highly developed, thanks to years of martial arts training. Tights sensed Yamiru moving quickly away from her side in the darkness, seemingly heading toward Goku's voice. Then she heard Yamiru murmur, "How naive can you be to fool yourself into transforming like that?"
"Ah... I just remembered," Son Goku chuckled. "I must have remembered what Bulma said before about how I transform when I see the full moon. It really works! That's scary."
"The ones who should be scared are us!" Yamiru remarked, venting his frustration for the lady Tights.
Bulma and Tights didn't share Yamiru's exceptional vision or balance in the dark.
Bulma fumbled through her bag and pulled out a flashlight. Click. As the beam illuminated the area, she was startled to see a dried-up skeleton with horns nearby. The light quickly shifted, landing on Son Goku's large face. That's when Tights realized what the two of them were doing — Yamiru had one arm around Goku's neck while his other fist was pounding on Goku's forehead.
Click. Bulma instinctively turned off the flashlight in fear.
"Why did you turn it off?" Son Goku asked, puzzled.
Yamiru let go of him and gave him a light punch on the head. "Bulma, don't worry, turn it back on. This kid has mental precautions now, so he won't transform again."
Tights pointed out, "Also, from an energy perspective, even the battle-hardened warriors Jaco mentioned couldn't manage to transform twice in such a short time, right? Even disregarding the expansion of Goku's power you mentioned, Yamiru, just the physical enlargement and shrinking would consume an unimaginable amount of energy. I think even if you put a full moon right in front of Goku now, he wouldn't be able to transform again — his body just couldn't handle it."
"An interesting hypothesis," Bulma said, turning the flashlight back on. "I didn't expect you to come up with that, sister."
"Hmph." Tights crossed her arms proudly.
"Huh?" Bulma waved the flashlight around, suddenly spotting something. "There are words and pictures on the wall."
Tights, Yamiru, and Son Goku followed her over.
Under the beam of the flashlight, on the grayish walls of the cave, were strange, mysterious images carved into the stone.
It was hard to say how many years had passed, but the traces of the murals had faded significantly over time. As the four of them walked and observed, they noticed that the murals on the surrounding walls of the cave were uneven, clearly drawn at different times. The oldest section was so worn that only vague outlines could be made out.
"Overall, it's just the legends of monsters and demons..." Tights summarized the content of the murals.
"The most faded part is a mess, can't really make out anything. As for the later murals, look, that big guy..." She pointed to the mural closest to the blurred section. "That should be the corpse of the big guy who was sitting above earlier, right?"
Yamiru and the others looked toward the shattered remains that had fallen with Son Goku.
The body had shattered almost completely, even the armor and clothes had turned to dust. No matter how great or terrifying it was in life, it couldn't withstand the passage of time.
Yamiru stared at the mural, then looked back. The figure resembling Dabura appeared in many subsequent murals.
"If these similar figures are all this big guy, how long must he have lived..." Yamiru muttered.
"Probably a monster, some kind of demon king, right?" Tights let her imagination run wild. "In that case, having a long life would be pretty normal."
Bulma added, "There are even vampire in storybooks!"
"Right, right?" Tights said. "Monsters and demons with lifespans longer than humans is a pretty common setting, isn't it?"
Yamiru speculated, "Monsters, demons... do you think there's any connection between these and monster-type humans?"
He was thinking about the three branches of humans on Dragon Ball Earth: normal, animal, and monster types. In the Trio of criminals they just have encountered, Pilaf was a monster-type Earthling.
"A monster-type is human, right?" Tights looked at Yamiru. "Are you one of those people who discriminate against the other two types? That's politically incorrect!"
Yamiru lifted Son Goku by the tail. "I treat this alien, who I'm not even sure if it's a human or a monkey, like a brother. Do you really think I'd discriminate against animal or monster-type Earthlings? It's just a guess. Since the differences between them and normal humans are so vast, there must be an origin, right? After all, normal humans couldn't possibly give birth to monster or animal-type offspring."
Bulma said, "But whether it's monster-type or animal-type, their lifespans are the same as normal humans, within the normal range. It's totally different from monsters and demons who might live for a thousand or ten thousand years." She pointed to the giant figure of "Dabura" that appeared in murals from different eras.
Son Goku, who had been silently following along, suddenly spoke up, pointing at the other wall. "What's that? What a strange picture."
The other three looked over.
Bulma's flashlight beam followed, illuminating the wall.
"It's not a picture! It's a line of text!" Tights exclaimed. "It looks different from today's writing, but I can vaguely make it out... Bulma, can you read it?"
"'Dare to ask heaven, is there immortality?'"
"..."
Before Bulma could finish reading, Yamiru suddenly interjected. She and Tights looked at him in confusion, and he smiled casually. "Haha, just kidding. Go ahead, read it."
"...What kind of joke is?" Tights asked, confused.
"Mm..." Bulma illuminated the ancient characters with the flashlight, the script already fading but still exuding an ancient charm. "Monsters... to this end, according to the agreement... my watch, ends here..."