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01. Drug Dependency (Dragon Team)
Yajirobe hugged a jar of Senzu Beans, munching on them leisurely. The Cat Sage didn’t stop him from wasting them, letting him eat as he pleased.
One day, a man with a distinctive crab-shaped haircut appeared abruptly, looking hurried. He stretched out his arm anxiously and demanded, “Cat Sage, Senzu Beans!” From his youth to middle age, nine times out of ten, the man visited Karin Tower to ask for Senzu Beans.
The white cat-like Sage glanced at the jar of Senzu Beans, once brimming but now nearly depleted from daily consumption. The Sage packed the last three beans Yajirobe hadn’t eaten into a small cloth bag and handed it over.
The crab-shaped haircut man came in a rush and left just as quickly.
For the past seven years, the Cat Sage hadn’t grown any Senzu Beans. These weren’t snacks to be eaten on a whim, and he wasn’t a free Senzu Bean supplier.
He decided not to change his mind for now.
With the Senzu Beans depleted, he hung a sign in front of the temple that read, “Senzu Beans Out of Stock,” with an additional note: “Serious Inquiries Only.”
02. Fear of Light (Future Trunks)
As night fell, it shrouded the scarred world. The sounds of attacks and explosions finally ceased, and the ravaged city could catch its breath in the darkness. The terrifying nights, where restless spirits were said to roam, ironically became a luxurious salvation. Trunks gazed at the silent, pitch-black expanse, feeling a surreal sense of calm.
But sunlight would soon illuminate the broken streets, collapsed buildings, and the bodies of the dead, sharply exposing reality. Just as, not long after, when he awoke from the chaotic darkness, the first thing he saw was Son Gohan’s cold, lifeless corpse.
04. Physical Disability (Frieza)
“No, no, no! Put away your sword, don’t cut me into pieces again, you damned—!” But the golden-haired youth swung his sword down, merciless and unhesitating, slicing through Frieza’s body from the center of his head. His face split apart, his vision shifting—one eye gazing at the clear sky above, the other fixed on the cold-eyed youth. Before he could scream, the youth struck again, hacking at his bifurcated body with rapid, relentless slashes, reducing him to fragments.
He should be grateful his body was a modified cyborg, with no gushing blood or scattered organs. The last thing he glimpsed was a dazzling beam of energy from the youth’s palm.
Frieza finally cried out, but there was no other Saiyan before him, and his body bore no wounds. Yet, he knew he had escaped one nightmare only to be thrown into another hell.
A childlike sprite floated over again, giggling and poking his face, treating him like an amusing toy. He couldn’t stop it, forced to endure this humiliating torment over and over, endlessly. The sprite’s nauseating laughter made him grind his teeth in disgust.
But he loathed himself even more.
Gifted with extraordinary talent, born at the pinnacle, his power was so immense even he could barely control it. Once an emperor, he was humiliated in death, carved into an unspeakable mass of flesh and blasted away like discarded garbage.
He had limitless potential but squandered his time. He worried about the trouble the Saiyans might bring but never trained to surpass them.
If he had trained seriously for even a few days, he wouldn’t have needed a golden form to crush them.
The screen played The Tortoise and Hare. The joke wasn’t that the rabbit lost to the tortoise—it was that he had become that rabbit.
If there’s a next life, he swore never to live so arrogantly and foolishly again—if there’s a next life.
05. Verbal Abuse (Pan)
Pan sat on Satan’s shoulders, gazing at the display case lined with golden championship belts and gleaming trophies, listening as he recounted the stories of his victories.
“You’re amazing, Grandpa!” Her grandfather was the world champion, basking in fame and fortune. She admired him and felt proud, hoping to become someone like him one day. “But, Grandpa,” the little girl said, her innocent black eyes wide, “if you’re so amazing, why do you stay home slacking off instead of going out to beat up all the bad guys in the world?”
06. Sleep Curse (Beerus)
He occasionally wondered why his dreams foretold of humans who could entertain him, yet he felt nothing when the gods tied to his existence faced life-and-death threats.
Even if he sought amusement, he knew to value his life. If possible, he should have that human who pleased him bear the risk for him, just in case.
Lost in thought on his bed, he slipped into another long slumber.
He hoped this time’s dreams would give him answers.
07. Nightmare (Old Kai)
“How can you not even understand this?” the Old Kai shouted in disdain, his face full of contempt. Though he knew it wasn’t the junior’s fault, he couldn’t suppress his urge to vent his frustration.
The young junior listened respectfully, gradually improving himself bit by bit. He understood that what the junior didn’t know now, he would eventually learn. One day, when there was nothing left for the Old Kai to teach, he would no longer be able to boast in front of him.
He wasn’t a Supreme Kai with an exemplary character. He was vulgar and lecherous, using his divine sight to spy on people bathing or changing. He was careless and negligent, allowing even a witch to easily take his Potara earring—an item that was supposed to be securely fastened and not easily removed unless he hadn’t worn it properly in the first place. During the critical moment of Majin Buu’s revival, he still haggled. He couldn’t be selfless for others, for the greater good, or for the universe at every moment.
Yet, he was the first Supreme Kai, revered by all subsequent Supreme Kais as “Ancestor.” He didn’t need to pass any previous Supreme Kai’s selection; he was the one who chose others. But before he could take on disciples, he was imprisoned within a sword. His divine career, from beginning to end, was utterly bizarre.
The attendant once again cast a subtle, sidelong glance at him. How could he not know? Only the weak gain dignity by belittling others. But he was angry, unwilling, and resentful.
Yet his harsh scolding couldn’t taint the junior’s pure heart. It was like striking the surface of water—no matter how much force he used, the soft water remained unscathed.
Gentleness prevails over strength; a single drop can wear away stone.
The junior generously shared his dwelling with him, serving tea, offering water, and showing care with impeccable manners. That serene and composed demeanor made the Old Kai feel inferior, increasingly like a clown. Whispers kept nagging at him: Look, you can’t be a good deity, and you’re not even competent at being a bad one.
08. Walking Dead (Android 18)
Android 18 no longer used her real name—not because she didn’t want to, but because she was no longer her original self. She had become a cyborg identified by a number.
Yet, the bald little man wanted to wish her back to being a normal human. Though it couldn’t be done, he had the magical dragon remove the self-destruct device inside her.
“Isn’t that pitiful? Having a bomb in your body,” the bald man said awkwardly amid others’ questions.
Her heart churned with mixed emotions.
Not long ago, she was hunting his friend. She and her twin brother were remade for that purpose—they were no longer human. What else could they do? If they didn’t kill Son Goku, their existence as androids had no meaning.
If Son Goku didn’t deserve to die, did they deserve to be haphazardly transformed?
She wasn’t a good person, projecting her pain onto others. She could have disobeyed orders but still aimed to kill Son Goku. Didn’t that mean they had internalized the doctor’s wishes? Why were they loyal to someone they despised? Even after his death, they followed his commands like an obedient dog.
She realized she was utterly wrong, foolish, and confused.
The bald man should have hated her, yet miraculously, he didn’t. Instead, he considered her feelings, treating her like a normal person, not a cold killing machine.
Yes, she was human once. Why had she forgotten? Like any human, she could feel, love, hurt, and find joy. She still had everything that made her human.
“Android 18,” she murmured her designation, her tone softening for the first time.
Using this number as a name didn’t seem so bad.
09. Loss of Trust (Krillin)
“Goku—!” Krillin was hurled into the sky by a force, unmarried, childless, unwilling to die on a distant planet—not even a death in a foreign land. His life’s wishes were so simple, yet unattainable. In his final, desperate cry, he called out to his best friend, certain Goku would avenge him and remember the monster who killed him.
“Frieza, oh, Frieza!” But Son Goku shouted the murderer’s name like he’d found a savior, wanting to bring that monster back from the underworld to join their tournament.
Krillin was sure Son Goku hadn’t lost trust in him. But his trust in Son Goku had shattered.
10. If I Die Young (Piccolo)
Piccolo lay on the ground, battered and barely breathing. The son of his former enemy knelt beside him, tears streaming, crying and calling out.
Whether it was foolish or ironic, he was born for revenge but would die for salvation.
He believed he had found something more meaningful than vengeance, and for that, he had no regrets.
But stop calling me “uncle”—I’m only four Earth years older than you.
11. Dead Rose (Chi-Chi)
The father and son returned.
Her son called out to her, his eyes sparkling, his smile radiant. It was wonderful—she hadn’t seen him this happy in three years.
Her husband scratched his head, unusually romantic, and gave her a red rose. Not a wild rose from the mountains, but a cultivated bloom from a flower field, large, vibrant, and strikingly beautiful.
She didn’t dislike wild roses—she used to pick them as a child—but who doesn’t love exquisite beauty?
She inhaled the rose’s rich fragrance, gazing lovingly at her husband. In that moment, she wished time could freeze, banishing thoughts of Earth’s crises.
The next morning, she woke to sunlight spilling over her bare arms.
The house was empty except for her—they had gone to train for the Cell Games. She was annoyed she hadn’t made breakfast, having slept too deeply, too late, but grateful they hadn’t woken her.
The rose’s delicate stem sat in a clear glass bottle filled with water, its petals so red they seemed to bleed. Recalling last night, her cheeks flushed with a delicate, youthful flush, as alluring as the rose itself.
But that joyful son returned from the Cell Games with a heavy expression, alone.
When he finally spoke, her mind clouded with shock, confusion, and a plummeting sense of loss.
She looked at the rose again. Its vivid red petals were already wilting. A rose dies the moment it’s picked; its vibrant beauty was merely a shadow of life.
The rose was dead. So was her husband.
12. Without a Trace (Master Roshi)
The girl’s almond eyes sparkled beneath long lashes, her red lips lush and inviting, the slight upturn of her eyeliner tugging at his heart. Like a fish spotting bait, his heart raced, and he eagerly swam toward her. The water rippled, his mind in chaos. Her expensive perfume filled his senses, making him crave to know how she tasted.
Summoning his courage, he asked, “Can I have your panties, Bulma?”
Slap!
The handprint on Master Roshi’s cheek was nearly as red as the nosebleed he sported.
13. Shackles (Shin)
He saw the man with golden aura gathering energy in his palm, his green eyes cold and indifferent. The weight of the entire universe pressed down on him, death looming close, a nightmare about to recur. Deep anxiety, fear, and pain gripped his heart.
He longed to abandon everything and return to a peaceful, sunlit afternoon, but he couldn’t.
14. The Past Is Dead (Kami)
“I once wanted to rule the world, to claim it as my own,” the elderly Kami said slowly, with only his attendant, Popo, as his listener.
Popo looked at him, puzzled, and brushed it off as a joke. “Kami, that’s not funny.”
Kami gave a self-deprecating chuckle. “True, it was me, but also not me.” Popo’s confusion deepened. Kami gazed at the lapis-blue sky, his eyes distant and profound. “But I think,” he said with a smile, “I fulfilled that wish in another way.”
16. Dead End (Yamcha)
Desert bandit, Wolf Fang Fist, training on King Kai’s planet… He’d broken bones, lost his life, but never stopped advancing on the path of training.
Yet a rigid hand pierced his body, his arm snapping like a paper scroll. His efforts seemed to fall into a well of despair—not only useless but a burden.
His companions grew stronger, even the once-wicked improved, but he remained at a crossroads, every path leading to death.
He was once a carefree bandit; fighting wasn’t his passion, nor was martial arts his faith. But this dead end gave him both a trap and a chance to reconcile with himself.
He closed the door to martial arts and leapt out through another window.
17. The Sun Also Rises (Son Goku)
On that strange, bewildering morning when he woke up naked in the wilderness, the sun rose as usual, just as it always had, but his Grandpa Gohan did not.
18. Mask and Weapon (Satan)
Satan had lost count of how many times he struck his signature pose and flashed his proud smile in front of the cameras; it had become second nature.
But he knew full well that behind this glamorous facade, some sneered at him, mocking him as nothing more than a boastful fraud. Those strange beings who could transform their ordinary appearance, radiating golden light with hair standing on end, didn’t even seem like humans of this Earth. Yet, even among Earthlings, he wasn’t the strongest. On some remote island lived a reclusive martial arts master, and in the snowy mountains, there were martial artists training rigorously. Even the beautiful woman he faced was part of staged matche.
He needed to uphold his reputation, while they wished for their lives to remain undisturbed. Both sides got what they wanted, maintaining a delicate balance of mutual understanding.
He couldn’t say he was entirely at peace with it; at times, he did feel pangs of unease and guilt. But he always believed that playing his societal role well was a rare and valuable skill. In his own way, he stood in front of those “special effects supermen”, shielding their peaceful, carefree lives.
World Champion Satan—the point wasn’t whether he was truly the world’s greatest. It was that he was willing to bear the hopes of the world and shoulder the pressure that came with it.
He didn’t know that the hope he carried would, on that day, become a weapon.
20. I Will Bury You (Vegeta)
Kakarot appeared in his dream, the last pure-blooded kin, smiling with gentle yet resolute eyes, standing beside a swollen, about-to-explode Cell, ready to drag everyone into another world.
The moment Kakarot’s figure vanished along with Cell, Vegeta jolted awake, greeted only by darkness, and realized the other was already gone.
“I’m done fighting,” he had truly believed back then.
But I can seek out your son. When he saw the grown-up Son Gohan, he reignited his resolve.
21. Vanishing Shadow (Zamasu)
“Zamasu!” the Supreme Kai of Universe 7 roared. “I saw your future and the crimes you’ll commit.”
Zamasu stared into those eyes, finding no trace of softness or warmth—only hard, black anger. He stood silent, as if disintegrating. He could believe no human deserved to exist, but he’d never believe the one accusing him so harshly was him.
The distance between paradise and hell was so close, hope and ruin separated by a mere thread.
He swung his ki blade at the Supreme Kai of Universe 7, but a powerful hand seized him, reducing him to fading dust.
Deep in his consciousness, Zamasu knew his form wouldn’t be remembered, his ideals wouldn’t be praised, his will wouldn’t be passed on. He wouldn’t live in anyone’s memory or find rest in their hearts. Everything about him would be forgotten in time, as if he’d never existed.
In his final moment before vanishing completely, he recalled the day they met.
“Let’s work together to maintain the universe’s order,” he had said with a warm smile, seeing the other as a kindred spirit.
The Supreme Kai of Universe 7 hesitated but ultimately agreed.
22. One-Way Ticket (Raditz)
My stubborn little brother clung to the long-lost older sibling who came to reunite with him, only to die.
The Special Beam Cannon pierced two Saiyans in one shot—Piccolo’s eternal moment of glory.
25. Drowned to Death (Majin Buu)
Born among the myriad stars, you slept in the mysterious void, nurtured and grown over billions of years.
In the end, you fell to the unified energy of creation, vanishing in smoke and ash on the verdant holy ground reflecting blue skies and stars.
26. Poison (Son Goku)
At first, it was just slight panting. He forced himself to act as if nothing was wrong, for once wanting to end the fight quickly so he could go home and rest. But then his limbs gradually went numb, his strength failed to gather, and a sharp pain suddenly gripped his heart. In front of his enemy, he collapsed to the ground, gasping in agony, unable to even speak.
He had never imagined that he, who had never been sick, would be struck so fiercely and dangerously once illness took hold. Only then did he recall that in the future timeline, he had indeed died—killed by a heart disease caused by a virus.
Will I die? This is bad—he didn’t even know where he’d tossed the medicine the boy from the future had brought him.
He wasn’t killed by a powerful foe, but absurdly defeated by a tiny, invisible virus.
He should have remembered: stripped of the strength of his warrior’s body, he was, in the end, just a mortal of flesh and blood, a fleeting grain in the cosmic sea. From massive meteors to microscopic viruses, anything in this world could kill him.
30. No One Survives (Zeno)
Someone told him there were evildoers causing trouble.
So he erased the entire world.