The next moment, the entire match turned completely one-sided.
Ever since Lance fell down, he hadn't even touched the ball again. The whole game had become Kaito's personal show.
To be honest, Kaito wasn't really that good at basketball. But with his absurd physical abilities, even when he deliberately held back, all the others could see were afterimages of him darting across the court.
Lapis stood frozen, his mouth agape. He muttered,
"Is he even human? Was he just asleep before this?"
Lazuli bit her lip lightly, finding Kaito more and more mysterious by the second.
In the end, the match ended with a crushing score of 100 to 41. When the bell signifying the end of the game rang out, Lance collapsed to his knees, doubting his very existence.
Kaito, meanwhile, walked off the court amidst thunderous cheers.
A crowd of girls who had been waiting eagerly rushed up to him, offering handkerchiefs and towels, but as they got closer, they realized—there wasn't even a single bead of sweat on him.
Kaito politely declined one offer after another. But then, someone handed him a bottle of water—and that someone was Lazuli.
In Kaito's eyes, Lazuli was without a doubt the future Android 18. He hadn't been entirely certain before, but when he saw her twin brother, his theory was confirmed.
And since Android 18 happened to be his favorite female character in Dragon Ball, Kaito gladly accepted the bottle of water she handed him—breaking the hearts of countless girls in the stands.
Lazuli hadn't expected him to actually take it. It was her brother who had pushed her to bring the water in the first place. Normally, she would've scoffed at such a thing.
But since it was Kaito... somehow, she found herself going along with it.
Kaito twisted the cap open, took a sip, and smiled.
"Thanks."
A faint blush appeared on Lazuli's usually cool, aloof face. She hesitated for a moment before speaking stiffly,
"No need to thank me. I just... didn't expect you to be so good at basketball."
Kaito chuckled. "Heh, I'm not that good. Honestly, I'm worse than a chicken."
Lazuli blinked, tilting her head slightly—a move that looked unexpectedly cute coming from someone like her.
"A chicken... plays basketball?"
"Sure does. That chicken can play basketball, sing, dance—you name it, it's got it all covered."
Kaito mimed a few exaggerated moves, making Lazuli laugh despite herself. Her impression of him rose considerably.
The two chatted and laughed as they walked back toward the school building. When they reached the door of Lazuli's classroom, Kaito was just about to say goodbye—when suddenly, a fluctuation rippled through the Sky Net.
These days, the Sky Net could practically be called divine sense—it covered the entire Earth. That fluctuation could only mean one thing: something had entered the planet's atmosphere.
Kaito raised an eyebrow, a faint smile curling on his lips. He turned his gaze skyward. With his Rinnegan's enhanced vision, he immediately spotted a spherical spacecraft blazing through the atmosphere like a meteor.
"So... they've finally arrived."
"Huh? What's coming? Kaito-kun, what are you talking about?"
Lazuli followed his gaze upward, but as an ordinary human, all she could see was a clear blue sky.
Kaito smiled. "It's nothing. Lazuli-san, I'll leave you here. Let's meet again if fate allows."
He turned to leave, but paused mid-step. Then, with a flick of his wrist, he produced a miniature golden Flying Thunder God kunai and handed it to her.
"Lazuli-san, someone as beautiful as you should be careful. Take this charm—it's for protection. If anything... unusual happens, just hold it tight and say my name. I'll come to protect you."
Lazuli curiously examined the tiny kunai, but when she looked up again, Kaito was already gone.
She tucked the kunai into her chest and murmured softly,
"What a strange guy..."
...
The spherical spacecraft crashed—just as expected—into a farm on the outskirts of town.
Raditz emerged from the pod, gripping a bullet between his fingers and pointing it at a terrified farmer.
That farmer, of course, was the legendary "power level five."
The farmer stared in shock. He couldn't comprehend how anyone could just catch a bullet with their bare hands.
Raditz sneered, flicking the bullet casually. The shot he fired with his fingers was even faster than when it had left the gun.
But just as it was about to strike—
The bullet froze in midair.
That eerie sight startled even Raditz. In an instant, he realized there was someone powerful nearby. The weakling before him couldn't possibly have done this.
He quickly pressed the scouter on his ear—but it displayed nothing. No power readings anywhere.
Yet the bullet remained suspended.
Just as Raditz began to wonder if his scouter was broken, Kaito suddenly appeared in front of the farmer—dressed in his school uniform.
His sudden appearance alone made it clear he wasn't an ordinary person.
Raditz's face hardened. He activated the scouter again—
And what he saw made his eyes nearly pop out of his head.
The number displayed: "1."
Lower than the farmer's!
Raditz frowned. His scouter had to be malfunctioning. That speed—he hadn't even seen it clearly! How could someone like that have a power level of just 1?
Kaito folded his arms, noticing the number on the scouter but not surprised in the slightest.
At this stage, his power had already reached what Dragon Ball Super would call "God-level." His energy was so completely contained that a scouter couldn't detect it.
Sensing danger, Raditz's expression grew tense. He was a coward at heart—his power level was only around 1,500, and he knew full well there were plenty of beings in the universe who could crush him like an ant.
"Who are you?" Raditz demanded. "Are you... from Earth?"
Kaito smiled.
"Of course I'm from Earth. Otherwise, how could my power level be only 1?"
"Heh. Don't joke with me. You mean to say you're even weaker than that guy behind you?"
Kaito said nothing more. He hadn't come here to talk—he just wanted to get a rough sense of where his own power stood.
A thought flickered across his mind, and suddenly, his eyes blazed with golden light. His long white hair lifted in an invisible wind, and the divine aura of the Ōtsutsuki God began to pour forth.
The sky darkened in an instant. Winds howled violently across the land, and a suffocating pressure radiated from Kaito's body.
Raditz froze, his face twisting in disbelief.
His scouter finally started responding—the numbers climbing so fast they were almost unreadable.
It skyrocketed...
And when it hit 21,000, the scouter exploded with a sharp pop!