Synopsis: Having finally caught up with the monster that murdered Kuririn, Goku angrily demands that the creature give back the Dragon Ball and Kuririn's life. The creature is at first confused as to who Goku is, but quickly realizes that Kuririn must be the name of the fool that tried to stop him from taking the Dragon Ball and the list, and is overjoyed to hear that he truly did die. Goku is even more enraged to see how gleeful it is over Kuririn's death and swears to avenge his friend, but the creature merely laughs and thinks it'll be amusing to kill someone who's out to kill themselves. Goku swiftly tries to attack the creature, but it dodges easily and kicks Goku away, only being saved from falling by the movements of kinto'un. Goku realizes now that all of his energy is still spent from the tournament, but the creature laughs some more and assumes there's just not much to Goku in the end. Goku says if he could just get something to eat then he'd make short work of him, but the creature decides to end things here. Launching a quick blast from it's mouth, it destroys kinto'un, leaving Goku stranded in mid-air, only to follow up with a vicious swipe of it's hand that sends Goku hurtling to the ground. The creature laughs and remarks about how much it enjoys killing, before it continues on it's way back to it's master. As Goku lies on the ground, seemingly dead, night begins to fall. Back at the tournament grounds, Bulma wishes she'd never let Goku take the radar and hopes he comes back soon, but Roshi thinks that it's already been too long, and he's probably not coming back. He says they need to get back home and bury Kuririn, and Yamcha curses King Piccolo for what he's caused, vowing to find some way to stop him. Bulma angrily asks him what he thinks he can do against a guy like that and if he wants to add himself to the body count, but Yamcha reminds her that with the tournament roster in Piccolo's hands, he's already on the kill list. Oolong is overjoyed at the realization that he won't be on that list, causing Bulma to angrily retort that he still won't do well if Piccolo really does take over the world. Tenshinhan asks Roshi if he knows how to use the Mafuba that his master used to seal away Piccolo before, and Roshi says that Mutaito passed away without having the chance to pass the technique down to anyone else. The announcer surmises that calling the police probably won't do any good in this situation, so instead he'll have faith in all of them to save the world. Roshi thanks him and asks him to pass on word that they've gone home on the off chance that Goku does turn back up. Tenshinhan asks if he and Chaozu can accompany them after all, and Roshi thinks that's a good idea as they'll all be stronger together. Oolong comments that his future is looking bleak, causing Lunch to rebuke him by saying this isn't all about him. Back on Pilaf's airship, the creature presents King Piccolo with the Dragon Ball, confirming that Pilaf's radar truly does work. Piccolo is happy to think that eternal youth will soon be his, and is made even happier when his creature reveals it also retrieved the tournament roster for the last ten years or so. He asks his creature to paste them on the wall, and Pilaf offers to help. When the creature gets to Kuririn's picture, it laughs and crumples the paper, saying there's no need for that one as he already killed him. Mai finds Goku's picture and the Pilaf gang are astounded to learn that he came in second place twice now, but realize that this explains why he was too strong for them to deal with. Seeing that picture as well, the creature says it's pointless to put it up as well, as he also killed him. The Pilaf gang are taken aback that their long-time enemy could be killed so easily, and the creature says that if he was considered the second strongest, then King Piccolo has truly come back in an age of weakness. Piccolo thinks this will just make things easier, but he still wants to proceed with his plan as is just to be on the safe side. To ensure that he'll never have to face the Mafuba again, he wants every martial artist listed in the roster killed as soon as possible. They also still need to gather the remaining Dragon Balls, and once that's done, world domination will come easily. As Goku's body continues to remain motionless on the ground below even as the sun finishes rising again, Shu and Mai ask Pilaf if maybe they might have made a mistake in reviving King Piccolo. Review: We haven't seen Goku so readily defeated like this since the likes of Taopaipai, but while Goku's far stronger now and that suggests a pretty extreme level of strength for Piccolo's creature, I don't know that I'd say his loss here is anywhere near as shocking. When Goku first lost to Taopaipai, he was coming at him with a similar sort of rage, but also in seemingly peak condition at the time, so the assassin's victory over him is as shocking as can be. Here though, Goku's running on an empty tank, so a creature strong enough to kill Kuririn taking him out just isn't as shocking. His seeming demise however still manages to land pretty solidly (just like Goku's body hitting the ground actually), since that is one hell of a fall he just took. We'll check back in on him soon enough though. In fact, Goku's brief fight with Piccolo's nameless (for now) minion has another similarity to a previous fight in that it results in the destruction of kinto'un, just like Goku's, er, “fight”, with Colonel Silver did. Poor cloud just can't go very long without getting incapacitated or restricted one way or another, can it? After Goku's defeat, his still body ironically still manages to serve a purpose in this chapter by helping show the passage of time in relation to his defeat. We see him laying on the ground when it's daytime, only for night to come in the next scene, followed by daylight in the following scene that ultimately ends up showing us his body once more, still lying there. If only time passing was always shown so clearly in this manga. At any rate, there's not really much to talk about with Goku's friends just yet. While it was good that Toriyama showed us how long they waited for Goku's return and where they're now moving to now that they've been forced to more-or-less give up hope, there's not really much in the way of plot progression with them yet as they mostly just go back over what we already know. The only interesting things brought to the table here are Tenshinhan deciding to stick with them all for now after all, and his questioning if Roshi might know the Mafuba, something that Roshi shoots down immediately. Hmm... No, the more interesting exchanges come this time in the scene with King Piccolo and his minions with the Pilaf gang. To help further drive in the idea that they'll be killing every Tenkaichi Budokai participant, we briefly see posters for both Namu and Ranfan being put up before Piccolo's minion starts pointing out Goku and Kuririn as people he's already killed. Pilaf finally learning just exactly who he was dealing with all this time is amusing, but it's immediately thrown off by the creature's reveal that he's killed him too. This revelation brings both parties on the aircraft to different conclusions. While the Pilaf gang now start asking themselves if maybe things aren't getting out of hand very quickly, King Piccolo is being put into a place where he's going to be severely underestimating what the remaining martial artists can throw at him. Well, sort of. Don't forget that while Kuririn was probably also a little tired from the tournament, he wouldn't have been anywhere near as winded as Goku, and the creature did still manage to kill him. If he's that strong, Piccolo's sure to be even stronger, but despite that, he still wants both the Dragon Balls to restore his youth and the death of all martial artists just to be on the safe side. As a villain who's already lost once before, he's not going to take things as lightly as any villains we've seen prior to this. You don't get to be the Demon King without being careful after all. Until next time! Favorite Panel:
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