Synopsis: Vegeta scoffs over having lost three hours waiting in vain for Kakarot to show up, deciding that he must be a coward as well as a traitor. Gohan insists that his father isn't a coward, but even Kuririn is starting to wonder where he is at this point. As Nappa prepares to fight again, Kuririn wonders if they're all going to die, but Piccolo says he has a plan, one that's a long shot and they only have one chance to get it right. He tells Kuririn to distract Nappa while he goes for his tail, and tells Gohan that he can't freeze up this time and will have to attack the Saiyan once Piccolo has him subdued. Gohan agrees, and Piccolo reminds him that he's even stronger than his master is when he puts his mind to it.
At Kami's sanctuary, Kami finally senses Goku's energy quickly approaching Enma's, and teleports to the check-in station to pick him up, with Kaio-sama himself marveling at how quickly Goku has made it back. Kami meets up with Goku and grabs hold of him before teleporting him back to the sanctuary, leaving Enma to be impressed that Goku actually made it back from Kaio-sama's after all. Goku tells Kami and Popo that the training went well, and immediately leaps off of the sanctuary. As he falls down through the sky, Karin spots Goku and tosses him the last two senzu beans he has, and Goku eats one to replenish his energy before calling for kinto-un and heading in the direction he can sense various large energy sources from. Kuririn rushes Nappa, causing the large Saiyan to assume he wants to die first, though Vegeta thinks the Earthlings must have some sort of plan. Kuririn flings his arms out as if he's going to grapple with Nappa, but instead fires an energy blast into the ground just before he reaches Nappa, rocketing himself into the air and causing Nappa to look upward in confusion. Seizing the moment, Piccolo quickly rushes behind Nappa and grabs his tail, yelling for Gohan to attack. Gohan complies and runs towards Nappa to attack, but Nappa calls them all fools before slamming his elbow hard into Piccolo's skull, knocking him out cold. As Gohan and Kuririn watch in horror, Nappa tells Piccolo not to die yet as they still have to ask him about the Dragon Balls. Vegeta laughs and says they were stupid to think that Saiyans of their caliber hadn't made efforts to do away with such an obvious weakness. Review: Three hours wasn't quite enough time for Goku to show up on the battlefield apparently, but just as things start to look really bad for our heroes, it's shown to be just enough for him to have made it back to Earth! While things are still looking really bad, this is definitely a needed moment of hope with how dire things have been for the past so many chapters. Seeing how quickly Goku made it back also does wonders to really reinforce how much stronger he's gotten since the first time he ran the Serpent Road as well, just as Kaio-sama said it would. Speaking of quick movement though, Kami really does sort of just teleport to Enma's and back again, doesn't he...huh. I honestly forget that that's how it's shown half the time. Given a later technique we'll learn about, two of them actually, it's a little curious to see how this is treated as just a regular thing Kami can do here. Must be one of the perks of being God, I suppose. I also like the quick scene of Karin tossing Goku two senzu beans, in particular Goku eating one of them himself. It's a nice, quick acknowledgement of the fact that Goku wouldn't be anywhere near at his best at this point without it. Don't forget, the first time Goku ran Serpent Road, it may have taken six months or so but he was dead and could make due without eating (reluctantly anyway). This time though, while Goku made it back in about two days time, that's two days of constant, high-speed flying and running while alive, and without ever getting to eat. That would be strenuous for anyone, and perhaps all the more so for someone as hungry as Goku is known to be. Eating a senzu definitely puts him back in a place where he can actually come for the Saiyans with everything that he has. While that's all really good for our heroes however, they aren't aware of it yet, and unfortunately on the field of battle, things just got that much worse in Goku's absence. I guess I shouldn't really say Piccolo's plan was a bad one – it's basically a more nuanced version of his previous plan to catch Nappa off-guard, and a Saiyan's tail being their weakness is definitely something of a known quantity. That said, it does feel pretty foolish for none of them to think about even stronger Saiyans than Raditz potentially having taken care of that weakness. I guess it's forgivable enough that neither Gohan nor Piccolo would have thought of this given that they're relatively new to the concept of dealing with Saiyan tails (Gohan had one, but he's never had to deal with it being grabbed), but Kuririn himself literally fell victim to this very same trick once before himself. You'd think it would have occurred to him to mention that Goku once overcame that same weakness, especially since he likewise doesn't know that Raditz HADN'T overcome said weakness, unless Piccolo explained that part to him as well. Poor, inadequate, Raditz... Until next time! Favorite Panel:
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About the AuthorAspiring author and big anime/manga fan, just trying to do my best in the world. For more details, go to About Me. Archives
September 2022
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