The muscular transformation learned from the Turtle Hermit—dubbed the "Pump Up"—was something Yamiru couldn't sustain for long. After letting King Kai observe it briefly, he released the form.
His body shrank like a deflating balloon, quickly returning to its original size, though he panted heavily for a moment.
But such were the perks of the Heavenly Realm. The instant Yamiru exhausted his stamina, the golden halo above his head eagerly funneled a surge of Heavenly Qi into him, restoring him to full strength.
"I was planning to drain most of my energy first before trying the Kaio-ken," Yamiru admitted, shaking his head.
King Kai had sensed Yamiru's ki plummeting and rebounding, but he raised an eyebrow. "You could've just refused the replenishment. This is a heaven benefit, not a mandatory rule..." He pointed at Yamiru's halo.
Yamiru blinked, then chuckled. Of course. It was like how no one before Goku had thought to reject the Instant Transmission from Shenron—some things only seemed absolute until someone dared to say no.
A few seconds later, an explosive surge of power erupted across the planet!
Yamiru reactivated the Pump Up, his body swelling into a hulking, muscle-bound titan. Violent, jagged flares of ki erupted around him as gusts of wind tore across the tiny planet.
King Kai clung to the grass, while Bubbles latched onto the deity's stubby leg, both struggling against the hurricane-force winds radiating from Yamiru's glowing form.
With a casual swing toward the sky, Yamiru unleashed a wasteful but spectacular wave of energy, scouring the heavens clean.
"Damn it, warn a guy first!" King Kai yelled over the gale.
"Ook!" Bubbles agreed, fur blowing backward.
Wave after wave of raw energy spilled outward from King Kai Planet, each a tsunami of unchecked power. Even without refined control, any unfortunate soul caught in these blasts would be lucky to survive...
Then, as abruptly as it began, the storm of power vanished.
Yamiru knelt, drenched in sweat, his ki bottoming out. His golden halo twitched, eager to restore him—but this time, he focused his will and suppressed it, just as King Kai had suggested.
"Incredible," King Kai muttered, polishing his sunglasses as he approached.
Grimacing, Yamiru stood. Ironically, even at my weakest now, my base power still dwarfs my peak from before.
His current battle power—even depleted—hovered around 600-700. That was double his former maximum. Yet now, it felt pitifully frail.
Above, the lingering energy from his earlier outburst had thickened into dense, layered veils—thirty-plus strata of residual power encasing the tiny planet, slow to dissipate...
Now...
Yamiru's golden eyes sharpened. The memory of King Kai's demonstration replayed in his mind.
Instantly, his ki—pooled like gasoline—ignited. The Kaio-ken's principle was the spark.
FWOOM!
Red flames erupted around him as his battle power skyrocketed—from 600-700 to nearly 1,000 in an instant!
"You actually learned it?!" King Kai's sunglasses reflected Yamiru's focused expression.
Not stopping, Yamiru fed the flames—Double Kaio-ken!
1,300!
His muscles bulged, veins standing out as crimson ki seethed around him.
"You're really—" King Kai started.
"HAAH!"
"What—?!" King Kai's jaw dropped. "How?!"
Yamiru's body swelled further, his power climbing wildly:
1,400! 1,500!
1,800! 1,900!
"More. Not at the limit yet."
Lost in the Kaio-ken's rhythm, Yamiru pushed further.
4x Kaio-ken: 2,500!
10x Kaio-ken: 6,600!
20x Kaio-ken—
From a drained 600-700, his power multiplied to an astonishing 13,000!
His frame had expanded, though not grotesquely—the muscle growth was less about bulk and more about containing the ludicrous energy now raging inside him.
Finally, Yamiru exhaled, releasing the technique. His ki plummeted, leaving him even weaker than before—his reserves halved, landing precisely at 300, his original peak.
The 20x Kaio-ken had been released, but its toll on Yamiru's body remained. Unlike the Pump Up, his swollen muscles didn't deflate—they stayed rigid, every movement sending sharp waves of pain through fibers on the verge of tearing.
King Kai watched silently as Yamiru finally relinquished control, allowing the golden halo to unleash a torrent of Heavenly Qi. The energy flooded his body, reconstructing it from the void—flawless, optimized, renewed. In an instant, his form reset to peak condition, muscles and ki perfectly balanced.
"Lord Kaio," Yamiru began, noticing the deity's stare, "something wrong?"
"Nothing." King Kai coughed into his handkerchief. "Just... impressed. You actualized a theoretical multiplier for the Kaio-ken. Even I hadn't tested beyond double."
Yamiru shrugged. To him, it was logical—like how mastering the Afterimage Technique naturally led to Multi-Form at higher levels. If the body could endure, why wouldn't the Kaio-ken scale?
"But tell me," he pressed, "what's the core difference between the Kaio-ken and the Pump Up?"
"You've already noticed." King Kai's sunglasses gleamed. "The Kaio-ken manipulates ki—forcing the body to adapt. Your Pump Up? It rewrites the body itself."
Yamiru nodded. Years ago, the Turtle Hermit had demonstrated this very technique in the Spirit Realm, lamenting its flaws:
---
[Flashback]
"The limits you speak of... me and shen faced them," the old master had said, his frail frame suddenly expanding before Yamiru's eyes.
"But we took wrong turns. This form grants power, yet mobility suffers. And the strain..." He grimaced. "Every use is agony. Reshaping bones, muscles, even organs—it hurts."
"If the lungs don't scale, you suffocate. If the skeleton won't support the mass, you collapse. Shen chose a different path—molding his body into a crane's form, evading all attacks. But neither approach was right."
"Super Saiyans... S-Cells..." The Turtle Hermit had sighed. "Perhaps that's the true evolution. Saiyans... they're something else."
---
[Present]
"What if," Yamiru mused, gazing at the dissipating energy clouds, "the Kaio-ken and Pump Up are two sides of the same path? Your method tempers ki; my master's reforged the body. But where does that road end?"
For a moment, the skies of the Other World seemed to shimmer—a fleeting vision of crimson hair wreathed in gold-red aura flickered at the edges of his sight.
And so, Yamiru remained on King Kai Planet, sparring and theorizing with King Kai.
Unnoticed, four more years slipped by.