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Chapter 15: The Tenkaichi Budokai Tournament, and Explaining Power Levels and Saiyan Transformations
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Days and months had passed since Trunks and Goten brought Son Goku back to life.
During this time, Trunks, Goten, Vegeta, and Goku had been constantly training together.
This was Trunks' suggestion, and both Goku and Vegeta agreed with his reasoning that Saiyans grew stronger through continuous battles.
That's why the plan was to fight every day until the start of the Tenkaichi Budokai Tournament, the very event that would set off the Majin Buu saga.
During this period, Goku, Vegeta, and even Goten had completely mastered Super Saiyan 2, and their power had increased—perhaps even doubled—compared to the original story.
As for Gohan, he had also been training, and it could be said he was closer to reaching Super Saiyan 3 than Goten was.
…
"Trunks… Trunks!" shouted Goten as he flew toward Trunks' house.
At that moment, Trunks was relaxing and enjoying some fine sweets.
"What is it, Goten?" Trunks asked, annoyed at having his rare rest time interrupted.
"Dad told me there's a world martial arts tournament… it's held every five years!
Are you going to join? He said there might be strong opponents… maybe."
Goten spoke so quickly that most people wouldn't understand him, but Trunks managed to keep up. The moment he heard "tournament every five years," he immediately realized it was the Tenkaichi Budokai.
Since he knew the story, Trunks was certain this tournament wouldn't end peacefully.
Instead, it would mark the beginning of the rise of Dragon Ball Z's strongest enemy—Majin Buu.
Even so, Trunks didn't feel fear.
With his current strength, he was confident he could crush Majin Buu with ease. In fact, he was excited at the idea of fighting and defeating him in order to obtain Buu's regenerative abilities.
On top of that, the Supreme Kai "Shin" and his attendant "Kibito" would appear there.
Defeating them would grant him access to techniques that only gods possessed.
"And maybe I'll gain divine ki too…"
Just thinking about the possibility of acquiring god ki and evolving into Super Saiyan God or Blue filled Trunks with excitement.
By this time, he had already mastered Super Saiyan 4 completely, but he had reached a plateau.
He couldn't raise his power much further, at least not easily.
It was clear—he needed god ki and the training required to reach Super Saiyan God and Blue, just like in Dragon Ball Super.
Or maybe… he could break the limits of Super Saiyan 4 and reach a higher form, like Full Power SSJ4.
But that was extremely difficult, if not impossible, since in GT Goku had only achieved it with the help of all the Saiyans channeling their energy into him.
It was similar to the Super Saiyan God transformation, which required five pure-hearted Saiyans transferring their energy to a sixth.
Still, Trunks remembered that in one of the Dragon Ball Super movies, Vegeta had achieved Super Saiyan God through training alone.
"If Vegeta could do it, then why can't I?" he thought.
While lost in these thoughts, Trunks told Goten of course he would participate and aim for first place.
He didn't want to kill Goten's enthusiasm by pointing out that kids like them would only be fighting against other kids.
"Alright, see you Trunks… oh right!" Goten suddenly remembered something, turned back, and said:
"My brother told me to remind you: we're not supposed to use Super Saiyan in the tournament…"
He waved his hand and flew off.
Trunks chuckled.
"Nonsense… he just doesn't want us to ruin his peaceful life."
He felt that Gohan simply didn't want to become famous, preferring instead to enjoy his university life with Videl.
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I know this chapter is short, but I wrote it specifically to explain the power system and transformations.
First of all, we all know Dragon Ball doesn't really have a consistent or proper power system. You often see random multipliers and numbers for Super Saiyan that make it feel like the author is just arbitrarily boosting the characters' strength.
Anyway, I've come up with a structured power system of my own, and I'll explain it here. If you disagree or have a better idea, I'd love to see your thoughts in the comments so I can adjust it.
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Power Levels and Transformations
Even in their base state, Saiyans may not possess overwhelming power, but their potential is limitless.
They also have unique traits that accelerate training, such as growing stronger after surviving near-death battles.
So while their base forms are strong, they don't exceed into the billions.
I originally planned to create an entirely new power system, but I thought that might confuse or annoy readers.
So instead, I'll focus on explaining the multipliers of Super Saiyan.
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Super Saiyan 1
It has three forms in my story:
1. Initial Form (unstable): Energy drains rapidly, not very strong. Multiplier: ×50.
2. Power-Bulked Form: Focuses on strength but sacrifices speed. Multiplier: ×70. Body becomes large and slow, with heavy energy consumption.
3. Perfected Super Saiyan: Multiplier: ×60. Maintains speed with almost no energy drain after transformation.
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Super Saiyan 2
This form doesn't have multiple versions, but with mastery energy drain decreases and multipliers rise.
Beginner: ×200–250, heavy energy drain.
Intermediate: ×300, less drain.
Perfected: ×400, very efficient energy use.
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Super Saiyan 3
Unstable, as Goku explained in Dragon Ball Super.
Beginner: ×500–600 (can be ×400 if user hasn't mastered SSJ2).
Intermediate: ×700–800.
Perfected: ×900–1000, but consumes massive amounts of energy.
In this story, I call it Super Saiyan 3: Hyper Form.
Trunks can use it at ×2000, though the energy drain is enormous.
But since Trunks has near-infinite energy reserves, it isn't much of a problem.
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Super Saiyan 4
In GT, it was said to be ×4 billion, which is exaggerated.
So I've revised it into three stages:
1. Base SSJ4: Starts at ×10 million, increases with training.
2. Full Power SSJ4: Requires energy from other Saiyans. Range: ×500 million–1 billion.
3. Ultra Full Power SSJ4: Range: ×1.5 billion–10 billion, with a cap at ×16 billion.
This allows SSJ4 to rival or even surpass Super Saiyan Blue, especially when combined with god ki.
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Dragon Ball Super Transformations
Super Saiyan God (Red): Starts at ×25 million, up to ×200 million with mastery.
Super Saiyan Blue: Starts at ×300 million, up to ×1 billion. Manga perfected version reaches ×2 billion.
Blue Evolution: ×4–5 billion.
Ultra Blue Evolution: ×8–10 billion.
Thus, the strongest form of SSJ4 is roughly on par with Super Saiyan Blue.
There are also forms like Ultra Instinct, Ultra Ego, Beast Gohan, and Broly's Legendary Super Saiyan, which I'll explain later.