Chapter 97: Shouting at the Sky

"How could I catch a cold? This is ridiculous! How could I get sick at a time like this... This is the Dragon Ball world!"

Yamiru cursed himself internally.

After enduring various forms of torment in the Red Ribbon base's laboratory, he had fled overnight, braving the freezing cold with only thin clothes, and had been traveling nervously in poor physical condition. Catching a cold and fever was actually quite normal, considering he was human and not a Saiyan with that insane physique.

However, because of the fever, instead of making a straight dash out of the mountains, he had somehow circled back toward the Red Ribbon base... This frustrating turn of events made Yamiru, weakened further by his condition, feel a surge of despair. He wondered if fate really wanted him to die. Was this what he was destined for? To endure Gero's torment?

For a brief moment, he was lost.

Thoughts like, "Well, I'm just an ordinary person, failure is normal..." flashed through his mind. But in the next instant, those weak thoughts were violently crushed, igniting his strong desire to fight back. "No, I won't fail! I'm not just an ordinary person! I have the Golden Veil! I can't give up..."

Out of the corner of his eye, Yamiru saw Blue's signature energy coming closer with a group of people. They must have noticed something.

With immense willpower, he endured the unbearable itching and pain in his lungs and throat. His face turned pale and his body shuddered with suppressed coughs, the fever flushing his cheeks.

Clutching his blade tightly, he extended the long edge.

Yamiru carefully touched the cold, hard ground beside him, and with a swift motion, he plunged the extremely sharp long sword from Jiora into the earth at a slanted angle, toward the center.

Despite the cold temperature, even the mud was as hard as cement in the mountains, but the blade slid through effortlessly, sinking deep to the hilt. Yamiru fought the urge to cough, feeling as though waves of ants were gnawing at his nerves from his lungs to his throat, making his face flush. Holding the blade, he carved a quick circle around the tip, then used it to pull out the cone-shaped hard earth beneath him. By this time, Blue and his team were already very close.

Yamiru quickly sliced off the larger portion of the cone, leaving only a trapezoidal cylindrical cap behind.

Taking a deep breath, he forced his weakened arm to hurl the chunk of earth away in the opposite direction, then immediately jumped into the pit, pressing the cap over the hole. Darkness and dampness engulfed him. He could no longer hold back his coughs, muffling them as he curled up at the bottom of the pit. His voice was hoarse and wet, his palm warm against his mouth. Even with his Golden Veil, he couldn't see whether it was blood or phlegm.

Yamiru vaguely heard the sound of something heavy hitting the ground. It was the chunk of hard earth he had thrown.

Weakly panting, Yamiru opened his golden eyes and looked up.

Although he couldn't see anything in this pitch-black darkness, his Golden Veil allowed him to sense the energy in the area. Blue's energy, leading the group, was just above him. Yamiru froze, holding his breath, not daring to make a sound, keeping his hand still, pressing the earth cap in place.

"What was that sound?"

Of the seven energies, one of them asked in confusion.

"I think I saw something fly by just now\..."

"Yeah, I saw it too, thought I was seeing things!"

"Could it be the kid we're after? No way, he's too fast..."

They discussed for a moment, and Yamiru, weakened but still vigilant, kept his eyes fixed on Blue. As for the other six, even in his weakened state, he wasn't afraid of them. But Blue... Even if Yamiru were at his full strength, he didn't have the confidence to defeat him. In the pitch-dark pit, Yamiru's other hand instinctively tightened around his blade.

Blue's energy made no sound as it moved around, seemingly searching for something.

"He must have heard my cough earlier..." Yamiru silently thought. "Although this germaphobe is weak in the grand scale, he was compared to Goku who graduated from the Turtle School! He was stronger than Tao Pai Pai at the time! This guy... he's definitely stronger than me now\..."

"Alright, go check over there," Blue's energy finally made a sound.

"Yes."

Just as Yamiru was about to move, he suddenly froze, staying curled up, holding the cold, hard earth cap. Using his Golden Veil, he watched Blue's energy move a short distance before it suddenly turned around, height changing as though he had jumped into a tree and quietly returned here...

"Good thing I didn't move," Yamiru thought, relieved. "Good thing I have X-ray vision..."

Blue's energy paused briefly in a nearby tree before confirming that Yamiru's presence was gone and then left.

Still, Yamiru didn't move. He remained in the pit.

He clearly saw that after Blue's energy had moved a certain distance away, it paused not far off.

"Is he using binoculars to keep an eye on me? Or is he just stopping for something? Surely not just tying his shoelaces..."

Yamiru's Golden Veil could see the energy but not the specific posture or movements of the person, so he couldn't be sure if Blue had really left or was still watching. His arm was growing increasingly weak, his chest heaving with each breath as he fought the urge to cough, his head pounding and his nose becoming blocked. His back and spine were beginning to ache faintly...

The situation was dire, but Yamiru gritted his teeth and endured.

He imagined himself as a piece of scrap iron in flames, being tempered.

"Whatever doesn't kill me makes me stronger."

Yamiru's mind was foggy, and his body was starting to grow cold again.

---

Finally, after over an hour, with no signs of any energy nearby, Yamiru pushed the earth cap off the pit.

He was about to jump out when he realized his body had stiffened. Every movement felt like an electric shock of pain.

Especially in his joints, where his bones cracked, and some of his muscles felt cooked and rotten, numb. Yamiru sweated in pain. He curled up, trying to move his joints one at a time to loosen the muscles that had been tense all day from the position he had been in. Looking up, he saw the narrow opening of the pit above him, the clean night sky. It was already the second night.

"Did I fall asleep without realizing it... because of the fever?"

Yamiru thought it was unbelievable. There was no reason for it to already be dark again! Had he really spent an entire day in this pit? No wonder his body was so stiff! He did feel an overwhelming fatigue, his throat burning with dryness, and his eyes felt like they were on fire. Every time he closed his eyes, his eyelids seemed ready to burn.

"Am I... like a frog at the bottom of a well now?"

He thought wryly, finally able to move without pain, and slowly crawled out of the pit. Weakly, he rolled to the side, almost losing his grip on his sword.

The cold ground, though making his body shiver, felt strangely comforting. It was a sign that his condition was really bad. He could no longer rely on sheer willpower to get through this... He needed a doctor. But in the vast wilderness, near the Red Ribbon Army base, in a den of wolves and tigers, where would he find one?

Not daring to stay too long, Yamiru grabbed his sword, tightened his coat, and staggered away, his face flushed with fever.

But he never imagined that his cold would worsen so much! And that he would be trapped in this mountain for so long... Perhaps it was the worsening of his cold that left traces of his movements, drawing the attention of the Red Ribbon soldiers, who had started with a smaller search party but suddenly increased their numbers.

They laid out an enormous search net throughout the mountains.

The area where Yamiru was hiding was slowly being compressed.

In the laboratory at the base, Dr. Gero looked at the two severed legs and one severed hand, preserved in formalin, with a smile.

"I didn't think much of it at first, but... to think they could regrow severed limbs instantly? Heh... All that was taken from the laboratory were that unknown tech-made long sword and a strange bean identified only as food. The sword obviously can't heal severed limbs, so..."

He pressed a button and coldly ordered, "Since we know he's still hiding in the mountains, increase the manpower! We need to find him!"

"Yes!"

"Cough! Cough!"

In the mountain forest, a small shadow staggered, coughing hoarsely, before suddenly collapsing to the ground, rolling a few times, and lying still, only the back rising and falling with each relentless cough. After a while, Yamiru, enduring unbearable pain, forced himself to rise. He had been hiding and running in the mountains for over five days.

At this moment, Yamiru's cheeks were yellow and gaunt, his appearance haggard. His eyes were bloodshot, but his golden gaze had become even more determined, his look terrifying.

It seemed these torments and sufferings had made him even more resolute.

Blood froth hung from his lips, and on the ground, there was a puddle of liquid mixed with dark red blood and yellowish phlegm.

After he left, the Red Ribbon squad quickly traced his movements here.

"Ah!!"

Blue, the leader of the team, screamed as he accidentally stepped on the contaminated liquid on the ground where Yamiru had fallen and coughed. For him, this was more painful than being killed.

He immediately threw off his military boots and stomped on the cold ground barefoot, hissing as he inhaled sharply, thinking, "That kid... he's been walking barefoot in this weather for days? His feet must be a mess!" Then, laughing, he ordered, "Notify the other teams, tighten the encirclement, he has no way out now! Haha, let's go, let's catch up to him!"

"Ha... ha..."

Among the sparse trees, Yamiru hung between the branches, his chest weakly gasping for air. He knew he had nowhere left to run.

The Red Ribbon Army was a first-class military group, and as long as his combat strength was still not on the same level as Goku's when he destroyed the Red Ribbon Army, this terrorist army was an overwhelming, suffocating threat to someone like Yamiru, who was still within the realm of an ordinary person. Even when he was at full strength, he wouldn't dare face the Red Ribbon Army's machine guns and cannons head-on, let alone in his current half-dead state.

He even felt that, without the Red Ribbon soldiers lifting a finger, just being trapped by them for a few more days would likely lead to his death from the worsening cold.

Yamiru felt like every breath he exhaled was polluted, carrying tons of viruses.

"Heh... heh heh..."

He suddenly laughed, thinking to himself, "Even that mysterious old man, who seemed so powerful, never would have guessed that I'd die in such a ridiculous place, right?"

"The Red Ribbon Army... What a joke! I'm going to die here, at this time, in the hands of these weaklings... I can't accept it..."

But as he laughed, he exhaled and suddenly felt a little lighter.

Should he remain an ordinary man who just eats and waits to die, or take the path of a martial artist that might have no future at all?

It didn't matter anymore, though. He was close to death now.

Yamiru, the traveler, was nearing his end. He chuckled bitterly.

It was a shame, though, that he never learned the Kamehameha or got to experience flying freely. That would've been so exhilarating, wouldn't it? He didn't know what it felt like to train under ten times gravity, or what it would be like to sense energy... He didn't know what goku or Super Saiyan truly looked like...

But none of that mattered now.

Yamiru tightened his grip on the sword in his hand and pulled out the long Sword.

Pushing through the branches, he saw the Red Ribbon soldiers had surrounded him in a circle.

But Yamiru's Golden Veil quickly locked onto one energy signature—the energy of Blue.

"I've come to this world, and you're probably the only enemy I have. Although... you're not very impressive... but since I'm going to die anyway, I might as well take you with me." Yamiru took a deep breath, gathering the last of his strength, and concentrated it all in his right arm that gripped the long Sword. He laughed heartily, "Sorry, Tao Pai Pai, I'm taking your kill!"

Whoosh!

Yamiru threw the Sword!

It was faster, more accurate, and more ferocious than when he was in peak condition!

There was no surprise. The sharp long Sword, gifted by Jiora, pierced Blue's head before he even realized something had come flying toward him. The hilt struck Blue's forehead, and the heavy inertia caused Blue to stumble backward a few steps. His throat emitted a gasping noise as he reached out toward Yamiru, who had fallen from the tree nearby. With disbelief and reluctance, Blue collapsed.

The Red Ribbon soldiers were momentarily thrown into disarray, but quickly regained their composure. Two soldiers were sent to check Blue's body, and others, constantly alert, noticed Yamiru falling from the tree and immediately began directing soldiers to close in on him...

"Cough, cough! Can't make a move... One for one, it seems..."

Yamiru fell to the ground with a thud, landing on his back. But he couldn't feel the pain anymore; it was nothing compared to the suffering caused by his illness. He felt as if he were high, his mind not entirely clear. No, he was very clear-headed—more so than ever before. He could instantly count the number of humanoid energy signatures surrounding him: thirty-five in total, with the nearest group of six only twenty meters away.

He also clearly recognized that he had no regrets—truly no regrets. Leaving South City was the coolest, most handsome decision he had ever made in both his lives. The path he took toward Paozu Mountain was one he didn't regret at all. Even though he didn't make it, it was a little regrettable, but it was okay—at least he left his footprints.

When a person is about to die...

Yamiru suddenly remembered a phrase from novels he often mocked—"Between life and death, there is great terror." Now, he felt he had every right and justification to scoff and say, "What a load of nonsense!" In the moment before death, the sky was simply too blue! It was so beautiful—how had he never noticed it before?

The sounds of footsteps and the clash of gunfire grew louder.

Lying on the ground, sprawled out and not wanting to move, Yamiru stared up at the endless blue sky, and a thought suddenly popped into his mind.

Does the Flying Nimbus really exist?

In that little snowy village, an old man had told Goku that the Flying Nimbus was pure and would never be destroyed by the Red Ribbon Army's cannons. But how did that old man know? Was it because there used to be many Nimbus Clouds? Was it because there were many pure-hearted children back then? Could it be that the Nimbus Clouds with Master Roshi and Korin's Tower were actually the same cloud?

"Kin-"

Yamiru suddenly grinned and shouted loudly at the sky.

"To'—"

"Un—!!"

The Red Ribbon soldiers, who had been approaching, were startled, and the sound of guns being reloaded immediately rang out. But when they saw the boy inexplicably shout and then burst into laughter, they had no idea what he was laughing about... Huh? Huh? Huh? Wait... is there... a golden cloud flying down from the sky???

"What is that?"

"A shooting star?"

"A rainbow?"

The Red Ribbon soldiers, being humans like everyone else, had curiosity. They all tilted their heads back in unison, staring at the Flying Nimbus as it sped down and "whooshed" to a stop beside the sprawled Yamiru. The cloud hovered just above the ground, trailing a small tail of golden light, its body rippling with golden waves, like the creature was breathing.

Even Yamiru himself found it unbelievable. But with his fever still raging, his mind was already in disarray. Laughing hysterically, he didn't care if he could actually sit on it. As the Red Ribbon soldiers where still in confusion, he quickly scrambled onto the Flying Nimbus, slapped the golden cloud, and shouted, "Take me away!"

"Not good!"

"He's standing on the cloud?!"

"What are you staring at? Don't let him escape!!"

The Red Ribbon soldiers finally snapped back to reality and opened fire with their machine guns, "Rat-tat-tat!" But after receiving Yamiru's command, the Flying Nimbus nimbly spun around, leaving a golden trail behind it. It flew past the corpse of Blue, who had been impaled by a Sword, and charged through the Red Ribbon army's ranks, soaring into the sky!