Chapter 338: A Wish, and a Return
Just a moment ago it had still been dusk — the sun had set, sure, but not enough to explain how dark the sky had gone now, as if someone had reached up and swapped out the sky's color entirely.
Thick black clouds churned overhead without pause, lightning flickering between them now and then, the rumble of thunder beginning to roll.
Howling winds and crackling lightning together pushed the whole scene's atmosphere to an extreme.
A colossal dragon, its entire body a deep jade green, abruptly appeared before everyone's eyes.
Each individual green scale stood out clearly, every one of them roughly the size of a table — sturdy enough to double as a shield.
Its massive body was practically mountain-sized, its long, sinuous form near-identical to the classic image of a Chinese dragon.
Its eyes, a deep crimson glowing faintly, swept slowly over Ryū and the others.
An ordinary person, just laying eyes on this dragon, might have found their legs go weak with fright.
But among those present — Ryū, Tatsumaki, Yukari, Kami, Mr. Popo, Master Roshi, the Ancient One — who among them hadn't seen far bigger things?
A mere dragon wasn't nearly enough to frighten this crowd — especially one created by this world's Kami, when King Piccolo alone would've been more than capable of destroying it.
Ryū, for his part, had run into "dragons" as enemies plenty of times back in the Arena — Western wyrms, Eastern serpentine dragons, it didn't matter — the number that had died at his hands was already well past counting.
So no matter how imposing Shenron looked, however commanding his presence, to Ryū and the others he was just an ordinary animal, plain and simple.
Before Shenron could even get his opening line out, Ryū cut straight to it. "I do have a wish, actually. Not sure if you can pull it off, though — if you can't, am I allowed to make a different one instead?"
This clearly wasn't going the way Shenron had pictured it, and he froze for a beat — this was the first time anyone had ever asked him that question.
Once he'd collected himself, Shenron's voice boomed out. "If the wish you make lies beyond my power to grant, then yes, you may indeed make another."
Ryū gave a thoughtful nod, and with every eye on him, went on. "In that case, here's my wish. What I want is... for the Dragon Balls to only need one month before Shenron can be summoned again."
"...That wish cannot be granted. It exceeds the limits of my power."
"Three months, then?"
"...No."
"Half a year?"
"..."
The back-and-forth between dragon and man left Yukari, the Ancient One, and Tatsumaki all staring, expressions momentarily blank.
Was this seriously a move you could pull?
If that wish had actually worked, wouldn't it mean using the Dragon Balls multiple times a year?
Admin-sama really was a sharp one — though it looked like this particular wish just wasn't in the cards.
Ryū was acting like someone crashing the whole ceremony. If Shenron had any temper at all, he'd probably have been ready to curse by now — who haggled with a wish-granting dragon like this?
Once a wish was granted, the Dragon Balls turned to stone, and making another wish meant waiting through a full 365-to-366-day "recharge" period — one full year.
Had Ryū's wish actually worked and doubled the recharge speed, wishing every six months wouldn't have been out of the question at all.
But it was beyond Shenron's power — at least this Earth's Shenron couldn't manage it. A stronger dragon might have been able to, but not this one.
Not a trace of disappointment crossed Ryū's face — he'd anticipated this outcome already, which was exactly why he'd come prepared with more than one wish.
Since the first wish was a bust, Ryū moved straight to his second. "I want a cultivation method that lets Senzu Beans grow rapidly!"
"A cultivation method for rapid Senzu Bean growth? This wish... can be granted!"
The instant Shenron's voice fell silent, a sheet of paper appeared in Ryū's hand out of nowhere, covered edge to edge in dense text.
The two most prominent characters on it, standing out above everything else, were "Senzu."
Ryū had his reasons for wanting this. The chat group's enemies were only going to get stronger from here on, and in the middle of all sorts of major battles, serious injuries were sometimes simply unavoidable.
Sure, the group had Josuke as a healer, but even Josuke wasn't all-powerful — he could mend the living and the dead alike, but he couldn't restore someone's stamina.
Senzu Beans were a different story entirely — this Dragon Ball world specialty had effects so absurdly good they were basically unrivaled.
Even a Super Saiyan capable of blowing up an entire star system could take a single bite of a Senzu Bean after a critical injury and be fully restored in an instant.
The problem was their yield was pitifully low — Korin had spent eight hundred years accumulating his stock, and even then it only amounted to a few jars' worth.
If the yield could be massively boosted, and the growth rate after planting dramatically sped up, Senzu Beans could go into full mass production.
As for where to get the seeds in the first place, that was hardly a problem — just borrow some from this world's own Korin.
At this point in the timeline, Korin certainly wasn't short on Senzu Beans, after all — he'd already stockpiled several jars' worth at minimum.
Once Shenron granted Ryū's wish, his colossal form gradually dissolved back into the seven Dragon Balls.
And this time the seven balls no longer gleamed the way they had before — they'd turned into something closer to plain stone, though every bit as hard as ever.
Just as the Dragon Balls were about to scatter in every direction, a series of gap-passages abruptly opened, blocking their flight paths.
All seven stone-turned Balls shot straight into the passages and vanished without a sound.
Kami stood there slack-jawed at the sight, at a total loss for words — genuinely stunned by what this group had just pulled off.
In all his long years, he'd watched plenty of people make wishes on Shenron, but never once had he seen anyone use the moment the Balls scattered to just scoop up every single one and walk off with the whole set!
They paid absolutely no mind to the stunned Kami, or to Mr. Popo, equally dumbstruck beside him.
Ryū did a quick mental calculation of the time, then spoke up. "Well... time to go borrow some Senzu seeds. Once the quest's done, we've got to be out of the Dragon Ball world within six months — not much time left as it is."
As Ryū and the others made their departure, all that was left behind were Kami and his servant Mr. Popo, staring at each other in bewilderment, along with a field littered with so-called "demon-kind" corpses — King Piccolo's own included, of course.
As for baby Piccolo Jr., born of King Piccolo, Master Roshi had already scooped him up and carried him off.
...
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