Chapter 30: Demon Clan and the Four-Star Ball

The giant ape climbed to its feet, roaring in fury at Taro. Its eyes were blood-red, filled with rage.

 "You should head back first. I'll take care of clearing out these things from the mountain." Taro said to the villagers, who were staring at him as if he were the monster.

 "This…" The villagers exchanged cautious glances before speaking hesitantly." We're not sure, Lord... how much do you charge for this kind of service?"

 "Charge? There's no need." Taro waved his hand, his back to the giant ape as he dodged one of its swipes. He then extended his leg, sweeping it against the ape's lower body. With a loud thud, the ape crashed to the ground.

 Taro grabbed one of the ape's thick legs with both hands, and with a low growl, he swung it with force, "Bang!" The ape was sent flying 180 degrees, slamming into the ground on the other side, then bang! tossed back again.

 Bang! Bang! Bang!...

 The villagers stood frozen, eyes wide in disbelief as they watched Taro toss the terrifying giant ape around like a toy, their hearts nearly stopping from fear.

 "Why are you still here?" Taro paused, frowning as he looked at the villagers.

 "Ah, yes! Yes! We're leaving right now!" The villagers jumped, and in their eyes, Taro had become a humanoid monster. Compared to him, the giant ape looked as weak as a kitten, and it was still being tossed around by that person!

 The villagers hurriedly retreated, silently praying that Taro would really take care of all the creatures on the mountain.

 "You're not leaving?" Taro then turned his gaze toward the three-eyed expert, who had been standing frozen. After a moment, the expert said.

 "I thought perhaps I could help…"

 Taro shook his head and didn't look at him again.

 "No need. You should go."

 The three-eyed expert opened his mouth as if to say something, but in the end, he just walked away, his face filled with frustration, limping as he went.

 Once everyone had left, Taro continued to observe the strange giant ape beneath him. The ape, one foot still held by Taro, was now in a highly humiliating position, lying on the ground. It was angry, unwilling, and frantic. It glared at Taro, still looking ferocious, but no longer daring to shout recklessly.

 It had been beaten.

 "You little thing, what's so strange about you…" Taro muttered to himself. After thinking for a moment, he gripped the ape's leg and suddenly surged with energy, throwing it with force. Whoosh! The ape was flung deep into the forest!

 Boom, boom, boom, boom, boom—the sounds of the ape crashing echoed, followed by a thud as it hit the ground. Then came the frantic sounds of the ape scrambling to get up, and the noise gradually faded as it ran off.

 Taro hovered in mid-air, sensing the ape's presence ahead of him, leisurely following it.

 But in a place even Taro couldn't notice, in the deepest corner, within the shadow of shadows, there was always a dark figure, hidden between existence and non-existence, quietly following Taro from afar...

---

The Lookout

 The kami wore a white robe emblazoned with the word "God." He sat cross-legged, floating in mid-air, deep in meditation.

 After a long while, he finally opened his eyes, looked at his hands, and then gazed toward the distant sky. At that moment, Popo walked over and asked.

 "Kami-sama, it seems like something is troubling you?"

 "Yeah. I've been thinking... why, back then, did I suddenly develop the aura of the Demon Clan?" Kamk murmured to himself.

 After becoming a god, he learned that not everything could be called "Demon Clan." The true Demon Clan consisted of beings who, after death, could never enter the afterlife.

 And his evil split-self, Piccolo, was one of those beings.

 But... He was certain that he himself was definitely not part of the Demon Clan.

 So when exactly did the aura of the Demon Clan infect him?

 At first, when the previous god told him that he still had evil thoughts preventing him from becoming the true god, he thought it was due to spending too much time in the lower realms, being tainted by the evil thoughts and desires of mortals.

 However, after separating the evil thoughts from his heart, which he now recognized as the Demon Clan aura that had once been part of him... he realized more than once that negative thoughts like "selfishness" still lingered in his heart.

 For example, he had once secretly interfered to stop Mutaito from delivering fatal blows to Piccolo for the sake of his own life. Or, when he had secretly influenced Mutaito, pushing him to develop the "Mafuba" technique, which could only seal Piccolo.

 In reality, the so-called "Mafuba" was something he had developed himself to seal Piccolo alive.

 The Kami sat cross-legged in mid-air, silently gazing at the sky, his heart calm and still. He couldn't count how many times he had started to think, how many times he had started to recall... the first half of his life before becoming a god.

 Then, he remembered his lonely childhood in the Yunze Plateau. During those thirty-plus years, in the more than ten thousand days and nights, all that repeated every day was cold, waiting, hunger, and disappointment... That period of his life was nothing but black and white in his memory.

 Later... he came to a world where humans actually lived, and he gradually realized his differences from others. Not just in terms of appearance, but more so... in intelligence and martial ability.

 He was smarter than every human he met on Earth, and the martial arts he naturally knew allowed him to easily defeat many so-called martial artists from around the world. After hearing the legends of the gods, he climbed the Korin Tower, then ascended to the Divine Temple.

 So... during the time from leaving the Yunze Plateau to reaching the Divine Temple, how had he been tainted by the aura of the Demon Realm?

 The God-like Piccolo did not know.

 What he didn't know was... as a member of the Dragon Clan, a rare genius among the Namekians, he possessed a mind and body more sensitive than those of ordinary Namekians. Once, while practicing martial arts on a mountain, an aura that had leaked from the Demon Realm quietly polluted him...

 At that time, a group of highly spiritual monkeys often surrounded him, imitating his martial arts movements.

 "Hm? It stopped?"

 Tarl floated through the dense forest, observing ahead where the old tree stood beneath a mountain wall. The fierce ape quietly climbed back up the tree, gently moving as if licking its wounds.

 "That strange aura... it's even more intense now..." Taro narrowed his eyes slightly and slowly flew forward, carefully observing the movements of the monkey in his sight.

 At this moment, there was no trace of the fierce beast's previous ferocity. Its face showed a remarkably human-like expression of sadness and nostalgia. It softly whimpered, slapping the old tree beneath it, as though calling out to long-lost companions, yet no familiar monkeys appeared before it.

 They had all been killed by the mad version of itself.

 The monkey whimpered, taking out a yellow-orange orb hidden in the tree. It carefully placed it in its hands, but when it began to play with it, it accidentally dropped it.

 Roll, roll...

 Mu Taro eyes widened, his gaze fixed on the orb rolling down from the monkey's tree and onto the ground.

 It was a yellow orb with four red five-pointed stars on it.

 It was the Four-Star Dragon Ball!!