Kaito and his two companions chatted and laughed casually, completely ignoring Dr. Gero standing across from them.
Dr. Gero couldn't hold it in any longer. He finally spoke.
"How about it? Let's cooperate. As long as—"
"Universal Pull."
Buzz!
Before Dr. Gero could even finish his sentence, his body was violently yanked toward Kaito, who caught him by the throat in one swift motion.
He hadn't yet undergone any self-modification, which meant—put bluntly—he was just an old man without the strength to truss a chicken. Even if his lab was full of traps, he didn't have the strength to use them.
Forget Kaito—even Lapis alone could crush him with ease.
Terrified, Dr. Gero looked at Kaito, who was now only inches away, and stammered,
"What are you doing? Are you going to kill me?"
"What do you think?"
"W–wait! I still have countless research results that could overturn the world! They're all in my mind! If you kill me, they'll disappear forever!"
"Hmm. Your research results are indeed valuable..."
Kaito loosened his grip and stepped back slightly. Dr. Gero slumped to the ground with a loud thud, his face lighting up with relief, thinking he had just escaped death.
But then Kaito suddenly placed a hand on his head— and pulled.
In an instant, Dr. Gero's soul was forcibly ripped out of his body.
Countless streams of information poured into Kaito's mind. He immediately began filtering through them, deleting the useless fragments and keeping only the essential data about android research.
Dr. Gero's body, now an empty shell, fell face-first to the ground, eyes rolled white.
Kaito glanced indifferently at the corpse, then turned toward the lab table.
A loud boom echoed behind him. Dr. Gero's body exploded, bursting into a cloud of blood mist and vanishing completely. Only two Eternal Energy Reactors clattered to the floor, perfectly intact.
Kaito stretched out his hand, and the two reactors flew straight into his palm.
All of Dr. Gero's life's work now belonged to him. From this moment on, he truly deserved the title—Dr. Kaito.
Within Gero's memories were detailed blueprints for various android models, including even the early prototypes of Cell. But the most refined designs were undoubtedly those for Android 17 and 18.
Dr. Gero's designs were truly ingenious.
Who could have imagined that a human scientist could create beings capable of fighting a Super Saiyan?
Kaito gave him a silent nod of respect.
18 and Lapis approached him. 18 frowned and said,
"Kaito, this place gives me the creeps. Let's get out of here."
Kaito smiled faintly.
"Don't be in such a hurry. Tell me—would you two like to have long lives and power enough to destroy the world?"
"Huh?"
18 shivered, her whole body trembling. That sentence sounded exactly like something that lunatic doctor had said earlier.
She quickly grabbed Kaito's hand.
"Kaito, what are you talking about? You're scaring me!"
Lapis' imagination ran wild. He had just seen Kaito pull a humanoid soul out of Dr. Gero's head. Having read plenty of manga, he quickly put two and two together—that must have been Gero's soul.
And since that soul had clearly entered Kaito's body afterward…
A terrifying thought flashed through his mind, his eyes going wide.
"Wait—did my brother-in-law just get possessed!?"
You had to admit, his imagination was impressive.
The first half of his theory was correct— but the second half was pure nonsense.
As the master of the Six Paths and reincarnation itself, there was no way Kaito could be overtaken by the soul of an ordinary old man. Even if he absorbed every human soul on Earth, it wouldn't shake his own consciousness in the slightest.
Unaware of Lapis' absurd suspicions, Kaito lowered his head, pressed a gentle kiss on 18's forehead, and whispered,
"Nothing's wrong with me. Don't worry. In fact, this could be a good thing for you."
He then explained everything about androids in detail.
Lapis and 18 nodded vaguely, not fully grasping it.
Then 18 suddenly looked up and asked softly,
"Kaito... are you... a god?"
Before today, she might've still thought of him as just an unbelievably strong martial artist. But after what she'd seen—the powers he displayed had long surpassed anything human. In her eyes, only a god could do such things.
Kaito blinked, thought for a moment, and then said,
"I suppose you could say that. But I'm not a god from Earth."
He was, after all, the second Ōtsutsuki god after Ōtsutsuki Shibai—the God of the Naruto Universe itself.
You couldn't even compare that to Earth's so-called "gods" from the Dragon Ball world.
The "Gods" of Earth were nothing more than Namekians with slightly more power—perhaps unique because they could create Dragon Balls.
Of course, this was all far beyond what 18 or Lapis could comprehend. Explaining it to them would be pointless.
But even so, the fact that they were standing before a real god left them completely stunned.
18's expression dimmed. After a long pause, she whispered,
"Then... as a god, you must be immortal, right?"
"That's right."
"I see... then, Kaito—please turn me into an android."
Her eyes were firm and resolute. She didn't want to face the day when she'd grow old while Kaito stayed eternally youthful.
Even if Kaito never abandoned her, she knew she couldn't bear to see that happen.
For Kaito, this wasn't a difficult request at all. He was perfectly capable of performing immortality surgery—and as an Ōtsutsuki god, such a transformation was almost trivial for him.
Besides, androids weren't truly immortal—they simply aged at an extremely slow rate.
What mattered most was the power they gained. For an ordinary person, it was like ascending to heaven in one step. Even after all their years of training, people like Krillin still couldn't hold a candle to Android 18's power.
So yes—for 18 and Lapis, this was nothing short of a miracle.
Especially since their creator wouldn't be Dr. Gero— but Kaito himself.
If Gero had done it, he'd have implanted bombs inside their bodies, rewritten their human memories, and subjected them to an excruciating, bloody process of replacing their organic parts with machinery.
But with Kaito—the wielder of the Op-Op Fruit—it was completely different. For him, performing a little body modification was as easy as breathing.