Dragon Ball Human

"You're still holding on!"

Shen's tone was laced with irritation, but deep down, he couldn't help admiring this golden-eyed kid... Wait.

Something was off.

"What's wrong with your eyes?"

It turned out that after being starved for sixteen days, surviving only on occasional sips of stream water and rain, Yamiru's physical strength had nearly run out.

With his body at its limit, the Golden Veil coud not be sustained anymore.

But because Shen and Tao Pai Pai had been deliberately ignoring Yamiru to break his spirit, combined with the boy's habit of hanging his head low, the change in his eye color had gone unnoticed until now.

Shen's face, full of questions, was reflected in Yamiru's now dull, black-brown pupils. Yamiru wavered briefly before his vision went dark, and he collapsed.

Tien Shinhan quickly knelt to check for breath.

"Master, he fainted from hunger. His breathing is really weak."

Shen frowned and squatted down, prying open one of Yamiru's eyelids with two fingers. "So they've really turned from gold to black… Could it be the golden color was just a disguise all along? But why? Does this have something to do with why that old pervert took an interest in him?"

Behind them, the three bandits were still shouting, their noise grating on Shen's nerves. He turned sharply and barked, "Shut up, you fools! Do you have a death wish?"

With a swift motion, he raised a finger and unleashed a Dododo Ray.

A white beam of energy shot out from Shen's fingertip, blindingly fast. It appeared and vanished in an instant, leaving behind a fading streak of light in its wake.

On the receiving end of the beam, the three bandits fell simultaneously, each with precise, fatal wounds to their head, heart, and throat—executed with a perfect angle that pierced all three in a single shot.

Tao Pai Pai clapped in admiration, his voice tinged with amazement. "Brother, that was incredible!"

He was no stranger to the Dododo Ray, nor to killing, but to pull off what Shen had just done—instantly analyzing the positions of the bandits, calculating the exact trajectory needed to take out all three with one shot, and executing it flawlessly—was a level of precision even Tao Pai Pai, the self-proclaimed greatest assassin, couldn't guarantee.

"Alright, strip them of anything valuable and let's move," Shen commanded, brushing off his display of skill.

He stood up and instructed Tien Shinhan

---

Yamiru was awakened by a beautiful warm feeling.

After regaining consciousness, he realized where the warmth came from—his abdomen. To be more precise, in the stomach

He opened his eyes and saw a bald head. However, there was an eyeball in a strange position on the front of the bald head. The black pupil in the eyeball suddenly turned and met Yamiru's gaze.

So weird...!

"You're finally awake?" A voice came from beneath that peculiar third eye.

Yamiru realized who was carrying him.

"No wonder everything felt so bumpy earlier." He Thought. "Oh, it's Tien Shinhan. Right... I remember now—I've been tortured by those two old bastards, Shen and Tao Pai Pai... Wait, this isn't just a bad dream?!

"Yeah," Yamiru replied absentmindedly to Tien.

"I gave you a few bowls of hot porridge earlier. Feeling stronger now?" Tien Shinhan asked.

"Ah... so that's why my stomach feels better for the first time in forever." Yamiru nodded. "Put me down. I can walk."

"Alright," Tien Shinhan exhaled as he set him down.

The moment Yamiru's feet touched the ground, his knees buckled, and he almost fell.

Steadying himself with his hands on his knees, he waited for the dizziness to subside. After a few breaths, he adjusted and looked ahead. Shen and Tao Pai Pai were walking not far away.

Yamiru felt both weak and confused.

When he spat in defiance earlier, he had expected one of two outcomes: either to be starved to death or beaten to death by Shen. Both were possibilities he had accepted.

But what he hadn't anticipated was surviving.

"Your master and his brother… what are they thinking?" Yamiru asked, trudging slowly behind the two with Tien Shinhan. "They won't set me free… but they won't let me die either. What do they want?" Even speaking left him out of breath.

"I don't know," Tien Shinhan replied after a pause. "But I was also picked up by Master. He took care of me and taught me martial arts..."

"What's this guy trying to say?" Yamiru glanced at Tien Shinhan's three eyes. "Does he want me to replace that dumpling guy? I'm not wonton soup..."

"If they won't let me die, does Shen want to mold me into a disciple of the Crane School? So he can show me off in front of Master Roshi?" Yamiru could only guess. It was hard to understand the whims of a two- or three-hundred-year-old weirdo.

"It's like trying to comprehend Master Roshi's obsession with women. Seriously, three hundred years old and still interested? Shouldn't someone that age have achieved 24-hour sage mode by now?"

Lost in his thoughts, Yamiru followed the Crane School trio on their journey.

Perhaps they had confirmed his unyielding will—not wanting to die but refusing to live on his knees—because, in the days that followed, Shen and Tao Pai Pai stopped trying to starve him outright.

Although they never directly shared meals with him, they didn't object when Tien Shinhan quietly gave Yamiru bits of food.

Yamiru was no longer haunted by the fear of starving to death, but Shen seemed intent on testing his limits. He only allowed Tien Shinhan to "secretly" feed Yamiru when the boy's body was at the brink of collapse.

"So they're trying the soft approach now?"

Sitting at the foot of a mountain, Yamiru tore into the hard flatbread Tien Shinhan had given him, washing it down with a bottle of water.

His golden eyes had reactivated. After finishing his meal, he looked up and saw Shen holding Tien Shinhan by the collar while Tao Pai Pai floated effortlessly above the cliff edge. Against the sunlight, they cast three ominous, human-shaped shadows down the cliffside.

"Tao Pai Pai can use Flight?"

Yamiru was a little surprised.

"Finish eating and climb up on your own. You're not planning to run, are you?" Shen's voice came from above.

Yamiru looked down, clenched his fist, and slammed it into the rock wall, leaving a hole. Taking a deep breath, he closed his eyes and exhaled. Then, with deft movements, he scaled the cliff, leaping onto the top with ease.

Tao Pai Pai shifted to land as well. Once his feet touched the ground, he thought to himself, "This Flight technique is so inefficient! The energy I waste on it could kill a hundred people with my fists or even with Dodon Rays!"

Noticing Yamiru watching him, Tao Pai Pai frowned. "What are you looking at, kid? Careful, or—"

In a flash, Tao Pai Pai appeared behind Yamiru. "Your eyeballs might fall out!" he sneered, his killing intent palpable.

Yamiru felt a sharp pain in his eyelids, and then everything turned red!

He instinctively touched his eyes, horrified. "Did he just blind me?!"

Soon, Yamiru realized it was a false alarm. The blood-red vision was merely from two shallow cuts Tao Pai Pai had made on his eyelids. Using incredible martial precision, Tao Pai Pai managed to wound him without breaking the eyelids, making it clear the move was a warning.

Shen descended leisurely, carrying Tien Shinhan, and chuckled, "You'd better not provoke Tao Pai Pai too much. If he really decides to kill you, even I won't be able to stop him."

Yamiru lowered his head. "Got it." But he didn't deactivate his golden Fire-Eyes. Even though Shen and Tao Pai Pai had likely deduced that the golden eyes weren't natural and were instead some sort of superpower, keeping them active gave Yamiru a minimal sense of security.

"Are you really not going to explain what your eyes can do?" Shen asked with feigned friendliness.

Yamiru replied in a low voice, "It's just a basic enhancement of vision and observation. I've grown so accustomed to this clarity that reverting to my original eyesight would make even walking feel strange..." The usual mix of truth and lies—80% truth, 20% deception.

Shen didn't respond but thought to himself, "This kid... he's hiding something. Superpowers, huh? They've been around since Mutaito's time. Maybe I should find another little superpowered runt to raise—it could be interesting."

"As for this one..."

Shen's sunglasses gleamed as he watched Yamiru's back.

"Training him as a Crane School disciple, sending him to challenge that old turtle, and then watching him get killed—now that'd be amusing. Hohoho... But who knows if we'll even run into Master Roshi. If I get bored one day, I might just kill the kid myself."

In truth, Shen had no elaborate plans. His actions were driven purely by fleeting whims.

For the past century or two, that had been his way of life—rarely finishing anything with sustained enthusiasm.

Life was too long, and merely existing often felt dull. To stave off ennui, he sought frequent, brief thrills to keep himself entertained. Just as the old turtle indulged in his boring perversions, Shen indulged in his own brand of wanton indulgence.

Wherever he went, he did whatever he pleased. If something intrigued him, he took it. If something annoyed him, he destroyed it. As for laws and morality?

What did any of that have to do with Shen? He did as he pleased.

"Master," Tien Shinhan's voice interrupted Shen's wandering thoughts.

"Hmm?" Shen looked down at the three-eyed boy, who gazed up expectantly and asked, "Can I learn it too? The Flight technique?"

Shen snorted. "How should I know?"

"Master, I really want to learn. I want to fly freely like you and Tao Pai Pai," Tien Shinhan said.

"Fly? You call that flying? It's just hovering!" Shen scoffed before snapping, "You want to learn this and that! Should I teach you the Kikoho while I'm at it, you little brat?"

"Oh..." Tien Shinhan looked down, unsure how to respond.

Ahead, Yamiru trailed behind Tao Pai Pai and asked, "Tao Pai Pai, where are we even going?"

"Huh?" Tao Pai Pai turned, shooting him a sharp glare. "You've got some nerve talking to me."

"Never mind," Yamiru muttered, dropping the subject.

But a few days later, Yamiru seemed to have found the answer to his question.