Dragon Ball Human

Yamiru let out a playful whistle.

"Bull Demon King? Are you two from Fire Mountain?" he asked.

The bull-headed and horse-faced men exchanged confused glances, still kneeling, and replied, "What's Fire Mountain?"

Yamiru froze for a moment, then turned to the driver. "Have you heard of Fire Mountain?"

"No, never," the driver answered.

That's when it hit Yamiru—Fire Mountain only got its name after it caught fire. As he tried to recall what it was called before that, the bull-headed man awkwardly explained, "We brothers just heard about the famous Ox-King from Fry-pan Mountain, and his reputation scared us, so we borrowed a similar name… Heh heh…"

"Heh heh, my foot!" Yamiru kicked the bull-headed man. "You're bandits, and you're stealing someone else's title? Have some shame!"

He turned to the horse-faced man, still kneeling. "And you! He's a bull-headed man, so calling himself Bull Demon King makes sense. But you're a horse! What the hell is Horse Bull Demon King supposed to mean?"

"Heh heh…" The horse-faced man forced a sheepish laugh, hoping for a swift kick to ease his aching knees.

Yamiru obliged with a kick.

The unlucky pair had clearly picked the wrong target. They'd been robbing this road for days without issue—until they ran into this deceptively childlike powerhouse. Instead of scoring loot, they'd been thoroughly beaten.

This desolate rural path didn't even have a single passing police officer to save them! Then again, that was precisely why they'd chosen this spot for their ambush…

"Ow! Ow!"

The two bandits clutched their heads as Yamiru continued using them as punching bags, treating it as practice. After all, during his sparring with Jiora earlier, he'd been on the receiving end and was itching to let off steam.

When his arms finally felt sore, Yamiru paused to catch his breath. "So," he asked, "what's the deal with picking such a remote spot for highway robbery? Getting much business here?"

"Ow… We didn't use to come here, but recently we heard there's more traffic… So we tried it out… Ow…" the horse-faced man, now bruised and swollen, explained.

The bull-headed man, whose head seemed even larger than before, grumbled, "If I'd known it'd turn out like this, I wouldn't have come!"

Yamiru turned to the driver. "Have there been a lot of bandits around here lately?"

The driver looked puzzled. "Not that I've heard…" Suddenly, his face changed, and he murmured, "But… now that I think about it, the news did mention a lot of recent disappearances in the area… Could it be—?!"

"Disappearances?"

Yamiru recalled the uncle and nephew he'd saved from the bear earlier. The uncle's brother and niece had also been missing for days without a trace.

Still, Yamiru shrugged it off. It wasn't his problem—he wasn't a cop, just a passerby with places to be.

"Uncle, this area seems dangerous. You'd better turn back and stick to the main roads," Yamiru advised.

Yamiru couldn't realistically keep playing bodyguard to this little truck driver forever, could he? That wasn't practical.

The driver glanced at the two bandits, who were still lying on the ground pretending to be dead, and then at Yamiru. He didn't have the heart to trouble him further, so he turned back and took a detour on his own.

"Whatever," Yamiru thought. He didn't consider himself a bad person, but he wasn't the kind of saint who'd step in every time either. While he might not be the type to be a cold observer, being a cold listener was more his speed. After the brief interruption, he couldn't be bothered with the two bandits anymore. He gave each of them one last kick and walked off with his bag, leaving them behind.

The two bandits waited until Yamiru had disappeared in the distance, then finally sighed in relief. They got up and scurried off, crawling away in a hurry.

Meanwhile, Yamiru continued on his way, walking briskly for another half-day. As the temperature began to rise, a small forest suddenly appeared ahead of him. He couldn't tell what kind of trees they were, but it was the middle of summer, and there were hardly any leaves left. The bare trees made the forest look eerie and desolate.

Yamiru checked his map, but the barren forest wasn't marked, indicating it was a small, unlisted patch of trees. Having already passed through untamed wilderness, Yamiru wasn't afraid of such a small place and casually walked into the forest.

The bare forest was eerily quiet.

There were occasional rustling sounds in the distance.

Yamiru didn't alter his pace, crushing the dry leaves underfoot. His dark eyes suddenly glowed with a golden light.

His eyes darted around.

Since he hadn't studied formal martial arts, much less advanced ki theories, he had to rely on his ordinary senses to observe his surroundings.

Shh, shh.

A gray shadow quickly flitted through his peripheral vision, vanishing almost instantly, like a mirage.

"Something's off," Yamiru thought, a sense of danger creeping over him. He instinctively reached into the pouch at his waist and grabbed the small, hazelnut-sized ball inside.

Whoosh!

A sharp, whistling sound came from behind him.

Yamiru didn't have time to turn around, but thanks to his gaming experience, which had honed his sense of hearing and spatial awareness, he quickly rolled sideways.

Thud—

An arrow embedded itself in the ground where he had just been standing, the plastic fletching still quivering from the impact.

There!

As he rolled to avoid the arrow, Yamiru's Golden Veil scanned the forest in the direction the arrow had come from, quickly locating the target.

It was a tall, thin figure.

Yamiru drew the sword Ball from his pouch, squeezing it tightly. The ball instantly expanded into a tall, gleaming blade, which he hurled toward the target with all his might!

The blade tore through the shadowy trees, leaving behind a flash of bright light.

A muffled cry of pain came from the figure, indicating Yamiru's strike had landed.

"Nice!" Yamiru inwardly cheered.

But then he noticed the figure turning to flee. Yamiru wasn't going to let that slide. The attacker tried to escape after ambushing him?

The fleeing figure, wounded in the shoulder by the long blade, grimaced in pain as they pulled the knife from the wound. However, upon examining the blade, they seemed impressed by its quality. After wiping the blood from it, they gripped it upside down and continued running.

Looking back over their shoulder, he saw the young lamb he passed earlier—Yamiru—was actually chasing them down.

"Such a temper?"

The would-be ambusher cursed his luck. He had run into a tough one. But noticing the boy still carrying all his bags, he felt slightly reassured. He couldn't help but scorn the kid—how could someone with all that weight on his back possibly catch up in this forest? What a fool!

However, when he glanced back again, his heart sank as he saw the boy's emotionless golden eyes getting closer and closer!

"Damn it!"

The ambusher pushed himself harder, weaving desperately through the bare trees. What he didn't know was that his attempts to confuse the boy with erratic movements were utterly useless against Yamiru's Golden Veil.

Yamiru was so confident that even if faced with a magician performing the old trick with cups and dice, his Golden Veil would see through it without a doubt.

"You think you can run?"

Yamiru made his final sprint, leaping high into the air. In the barren forest, he seemed like a mountain with a travel bag, using the trees to propel himself before landing a powerful split-kick aimed at the ambusher's injured shoulder.

If he had kicked the ambusher's head, it would have exploded, but Yamiru chose the shoulder instead.

The ambusher, stunned, collapsed face-first onto the ground.

His shoulder, already injured from Yamiru's sword, couldn't withstand the extra blow, and he lost all ability to resist.

Yamiru picked up the knife and slapped it against the fallen man's back. "Enough of playing dead. Why does every bandit around here like pretending to be dead? Now, tell me, why try to ambush me?"

The fallen ambusher had no words. He was thinking, "A little kid, walking alone in this desolate, barren forest. Who else should I ambush if not him?"

"I was blind, please forgive me!" the ambusher begged.

Yamiru wasn't about to let him off so easily. He interrogated him further, but the ambusher kept evading the questions.

Finally, when Yamiru wasn't paying attention, the ambusher grabbed a handful of dirt and threw it at his face.

But before the dirt could hit, Yamiru, thanks to his Golden Veil, had already seen the movement. As soon as the man raised his hand, Yamiru could clearly see the dirt falling between his fingers.

Before the dirt could land on his face, Yamiru closed his eyes and swiftly stepped back two paces.

The sound of hasty footsteps faded as the ambusher fled. Yamiru wiped his face, opened his eyes, and saw that the man had gotten away. After a moment of thought, he didn't immediately give chase at full speed. Instead, he performed a little trick, mimicking the Uchiha Itachi's blade maneuvers. He almost sliced his own wrist in the process, which startled him, so he quickly sheathed the sword, making it compact again and returning it to his pouch.

Yamiru followed at a distance.

Before long, he spotted a small building ahead—a likely inn.

The man didn't go through the front door. Instead, he circled around to the back of the inn, climbed over the wall, and disappeared.

Yamiru took a closer look at the inn's sign. There were no words, only a picture of a carrot.