Synopsis: With Goku dead and his Dragon Balls in hand, Taopaipai considers his job at an end. He decides that he can't possibly return to receive his pay with his clothes in such tatters however, and resolves to go to his tailor before returning to Red Ribbon HQ. As he starts to ready the pillar for another flight, Upa angrily picks up a rock and throws it at the man for the terrible things he's done. Taopaipai merely blows it back with his breath, the rock knocking Upa in the face, with the assassin laughing at the boy's pain and telling him he should thank him for leaving him alive at all. With that, Taopaipai throws the pillar again and leaps on, leaving Upa alone in the land of Karin.
At Red Ribbon HQ, Red smugly declares that Taopaipai must have pulled it off and things are finally going their way, when Black notices something odd on their radar. It shows that Taopaipai is leaving the land of Karin with only three Dragon Balls, leaving a fourth behind, and that he's going somewhere other than returning to their base. Red wonders what in the world the assassin could be up to. Elsewhere, Taopaipai has arrived at his tailor and sketches him a drawing of exactly what he wants his clothes to look like. Taopaipai asks the nervous man how long it will take, and the tailor says perhaps a week. Taopaipai tells him he has three days as he can't make due with the spare clothing the tailor gives him any longer than that, and when the tailor starts to object, Taopaipai reminds him of who he is. He then borrows the tailor's phone to call Red, telling him he'll return in three days with the Dragon Balls and that Goku is dead. Red is pleased, but tells Taopaipai to check and see how many balls he has, as there should be four. Taopaipai discovers that he really does only have three of them, and says the target (Goku) must have been carrying one on his person when he killed him, so he'll go retrieve it before he comes back. Red says that should be fine as there shouldn't be any more interference if Goku's dead, and he hangs up, happy to have finally won out over that annoying child, Goku. Back at Karin, Upa has finished burying his father and begins to burry Goku as well, when the dirt landing on him wakes Goku up. The four-star Dragon Ball rolls out of the hole left in Goku's shirt by Taopaipai's Dodonpa, and Upa surmises that it must have been that ball that absorbed most of the damage and thus saved Goku's life. Goku looks over at Bora's grave, and as Upa cries, he looks down at the Dragon Ball and comes up with a plan – he'll gather the rest of the Dragon Balls and use them to bring Upa's dad back to life! Upa asks if that's really possible, and Goku says it should be as Shenlong is supposed to be able to grant any wish you ask of him. Upa reminds Goku that Taopaipai took the other balls Goku had, and Goku says the assassin must not have realized he had this one in his clothes. He guesses that Taopaipai will probably come back for it, and when he does, Goku will just have to beat him...but how? Goku says that Taopaipai is incredibly strong, and that he doesn't know how he could ever beat someone that much stronger than he is. Upa says Goku should try climbing Karin Tower, and Goku remembers what Bora had told him about how there's supposed to be a wise old sage at the top of the tower that can make you way stronger. Goku says it'd probably be easy to get there if he used kinto'un, but that would be cheating, and Upa confirms that the sage is said to make sure that anyone trying to climb the tower does it by their own power. Goku thinks about it and then says he'll do it, but first stores the four-star ball in a bag at his waist, saying that Taopaipai will probably come back for it so Upa should hide until he gets back. With that, Goku begins climbing the tower. Goku quickly climbs out of Upa's sight, but the further he climbs, Goku finds that there's only even more tower left to go as he can't even see the top. At one point, he almost falls and is only saved by his tail. Goku continues climbing through the night, eventually only stopping to take a nap while clinging to the side of the tower. By the next morning, Goku has resumed climbing and is just about ready to give up when he finally spots something in the distance. He forces himself to climb further, eventually realizing he's just about reached the top when he sees a room at the top of the tower's pillar. Review: Picking up from right from where the last chapter left off and the dark feeling it overall left us with, this chapter definitely carries a feeling of 'What now?' throughout it's pages. We'll get to the biggest part of that in a bit, but let's cover some of the smaller moments of this chapter first. It's almost a little surprising that Taopaipai leaves Upa alive, and in doing so, he actually shows that the world's greatest assassin...actually isn't that smart overall. Red already told him to kill anyone that gets in his way, and while it can be argued that Upa really doesn't, or rather can't, do that, leaving Upa alive does leave a loose thread, and that thread is wrapped right around the last Dragon Ball that Taopaipai doesn't realize he's missed. If Taopaipai were a smart man, then the second he realized he'd missed one of the Dragon Balls, he'd have considered the possibility that Upa would find it within Goku's clothing and make a run with the ball, leaving him to chase after the ball until he found the kid again. This probably wouldn't have been the hardest task in the world what with the Red Ribbon's radar at his beck and call, but it's still a pain in the neck when he really could just go get the ball, kill the kid, and be done with it, with nobody left alive to talk about that time Taopaipai's clothes got ruined either. That said, this clearly cannot happen for the series to proceed further, especially once what Goku is going to be doing comes to light, so chalk this up as plot-induced stupidity to allow the series to move further along. Better get used to that sort of thing as well, because this is far from the worst, or the last, time that sort of thing will happen honestly. I do love that Taopaipai is so serious to the point of becoming hilarious himself though, what with his refusal to go anywhere in clothing he deems silly. It might make his work ethic questionable, but it does make him more entertaining, and helps keep things from getting TOO dark. Likewise, I like that it was Gohan's Dragon Ball that just happened to save Goku's life. This might seem like a stretch to some, but I think it's just thematically sweet enough to be forgivable, at least this one time. Goku's spent the entirety of this arc looking for just that one particular Dragon Ball, and now that he has it it saves his life. It's almost poetic. It also allows Goku to segue into his new goal for the arc. I mentioned before that Goku doesn't really have any plans for once he gets the four-star ball, and that if he'd gotten it far earlier into the arc, he probably wouldn't even still be on this journey. But as things turned out, Goku didn't get this ball until near the end, and it's now lead him to a situation where he actually has something he wants to wish for. The wish is also a nice elevation of what's come before, as Goku wanting to wish Bora back to life is way more altruistic than any of the wishes our heroes had in mind the first time, and definitely more so than the wish that was ultimately made. It also brings up the question of just what exactly Shenlong is capable of as well, as Upa wonders if it's even possible. On the one hand, he has no idea about the Dragon Balls, not really, as he's only just recently heard about them and hasn't witnessed them being used. On the other hand, Goku has seen them used, but let's be honest – giving a pig a pair of panties is hardly the greatest showing of a dragon's wish-granting powers. It's not exactly a lot to go on to answer whether or not he's capable of bringing the dead back to life. The legends do say that he'll grant ANY one wish however, so...it's an interesting quandry for this section of the story for sure. And it's not like there's any other plans that could work for the time being, so it's really Goku's only (and best) shot. At the same time, Goku realizes that he's just not capable of beating Taopaipai. He's been in a lot of fights in his short life, and a good handful of them were with people who were at least marginally stronger than him, but none of them had ever been able to take him out like Taopaipai has. This is where the idea of climbing Karin tower comes back into play, and the reason for Taopaipai's plot induced laziness/stupidity. Goku is going to have to attempt something that has never been accomplished, at least so far as Bora knows. That and the look of the tower itself already speaks volumes for how long and arduous climbing it must be, so it's not the sort of thing that can be done in an afternoon. Goku's going to need time, and that time is only allowed by Taopaipai not doing the logical thing and coming back right away. That said, is three days really enough time for Goku to make up for the difference in their strength? Well...about that... 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
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