"I... didn't die?" A young male voice sounded inside a room, with a tone of confusion and surprise.
Turning his head on the bed, he looked to one side, then the other. He seemed to not want to move the rest of his body, perhaps it was because he was lazy? No, even though he was lazy in general, he hadn't reached that point.
"I'm not in the hospital anymore... But what is this place then? I've never been in a room like this..." With a slight fear on his face, he began to move the rest of his body.
In an instant, he was sitting up in bed, his faint dark circles stretched with a genuine expression of surprise "How is this possible?!"
Looking down at his own torso, he lifted his shirt, only to see his flabby belly, without much fat, no visible muscle, but most importantly without any wounds or bandages, which was what he had expected to find.
"No fucking way! Even if I somehow got out of that alive, how come I wouldn't have a single scar? Is this some kind of pre-death vision? Or maybe the afterlife?" He was very confused.
Even though he made assumptions, he couldn't believe them, why would his afterlife be in an unknown room?
As he tried to understand the situation, he made an effort to explore his memories, perhaps somehow he had lost part of his memories, perhaps he had healed for some time, even if that didn't explain the absence of a scar, he didn't think much about it.
As he tried to explore his memories, he noticed something, as if it was a separate compartment of memories. Was he somehow remembering things from someone else's perspective?
There wasn't much, it was like it was just a few fragments, like it was filtered out only what would be useful to know. As he went through his new memories, the young man's face began to contort into a frown of disbelief.
"All this shit... It's not true, is it?!" As much as he tried to deny the veracity of those memories, he felt that they were real.
With a worried look, he got out of bed, his feet touching the cold floor before he instinctively put on a pair of slippers. He was surprised himself that he did it naturally, it was yet another obvious sign that the memories were real.
He slapped his own forehead and his hand ran down his face "Great! I got a second chance, but it was by taking the place of a shitty kidnapper!" He almost shouted, his voice was full of self-deprecation.
He then walked towards the door, but before he got there he stopped in front of a mirror, which was attached to the wall.
Looking at his reflection, he gave his hair a light touch, just enough so it didn't look completely messy "Even though I'm not the most beautiful person in the world, I'm still grateful that I kept my own appearance and not that pig's"
Still observing himself, he had a small idea, he wanted to test something he had seen in the memories. Suddenly, his brown eyes gained a vivid green color and a slight smile appeared on his lips.
"You know what, I don't care if this guy was an asshole, with power like that, I can just get away with whatever fucking crime he committed!" He exhaled through his nose, smiling.
Walking back to the door, he said to himself "This is definitely a different world, after all there's this transformation magic and people with animal characteristics, there must be more bizarre things, but that alone confirms to me that I'm in another world"
Opening the bedroom door, he found himself faced with a long hallway and stairs leading to the floor below.
He scratched behind his ear 'What should I do with the girls? That guy was a kidnapping idiot, but also very childish, so they are all fine, only the village people must think the worst...'
He walked down the hallway and then started down the stairs, all the while thinking about how he should act from now on.
'Even if he's gotten away with it somehow so far, I can't rely on luck, having this second chance to live must have already cost me all my luck, so I need to get out of this place... Maybe I can trade the girls for all the money that village has, then I'll get out of here' A smile appeared on his lips.
Reaching the end of the stairs, he turned right, following a few more steps, he began to hear female voices and also background music.
He sighed 'As I predicted, they're already awake. I don't know if I'm happy about the fact that guy is an idiot giving so much freedom to these girls, to the point that they seem to own the place more than he does...'
He slowly walked to the entrance of that room, then saw the strangely familiar scene, there were three girls in that place, all of them seemed to be around 14 years old.
'They're all here' He thought, as he entered the room, listening to the mix of voices and music, he didn't even try to filter it to understand any conversation 'As I thought, they're all too new, so it really will be better if I return them'
Not that he would want to keep a kidnapped girl, but honestly, the previous owner of the body had already let these three go, and they chose to stay. So maybe it would have been okay to take at least one of them with him, but they were too young for him.
He wasn't much older, but he was already 18, so he didn't see these three as women, they were children, so he wouldn't take any of them, but follow through with his plan to sell them back.
As he smiled at the idea of profiting from the girls' return, one of them noticed his presence.
At first she looked confused, but soon she smiled excitedly "Oh, is that you, Oolong, a new look? I actually liked it a bit... I've actually been wanting to talk to you about some things" His half-compliment didn't seem like a lie, but his ulterior motive was obvious.
He looked at the girl who said that, she was a blonde girl, she was wearing a long dress, a scarf and sunglasses, it looked like she had taken several random things from her mother's wardrobe, to feel like an adult.
'I better let her think I'm that idiot transformed into someone else, I think it will make it easier for me to disappear in the future' He thought before saying "No more stupid requests, I'll take you to your parents and they better have money to pay your ransoms"
The two other girls, who had previously not paid any attention to his presence, were now looking at him in surprise.
They lived with Oolong for a while, long enough to find it strange that he suddenly decided to send them back to their village. None of them seemed happy about the idea of going back to their homes.
"What happened Oolong? Why do you want to send us away? I thought you liked us" Another of the three girls said "You even said you were going to bring another girl today, what sudden change is this?"
Hearing this, a memory appeared in his mind *Tsc* 'There's still this shit, that idiot didn't learn anything from these three and went after another one, now the whole village will be waiting for me in fear, making negotiations more difficult'
The third one was holding a wine glass between her fingers, there was certainly no alcohol in that wine "Oolong, don't be so mean, we've kissed you whenever you ask, what more could you want?"
He refused to remember anything Oolong did with the three girls.
"I don't want to hear about you three around me anymore, I'm going to sell you to your parents and if they don't pay, I'll throw you in a hole, so do your best to convince them" He said somewhat irritated.
One of them was about to say something, but then she saw demonic horns sprout from his forehead and black wings sprout from his back "Don't you dare insist on staying!" His voice came out deep and distorted.
Even the girls who were used to Oolong's transformations ended up being frightened by it, somehow this subtle and demonic transformation was the scariest thing they had ever seen.
...
It was almost noon, the sun was almost at its highest point in the sky, there were few white clouds in the blue sky.
A car slowly stopped at the entrance of a small village, and a black-haired young man stepped out. He bent over slightly to look inside the car that had just left, while resting his left arm on the roof, he looked at the three girls inside.
"You three wait here, if everything goes well, your parents will be here soon... In fact, you can stay in my little palace, I don't intend to come back here after this" He said before thinking 'After all, I'm not stupid enough to wait for the police to come and arrest me'
The girls nodded in unison, while having not very excited expressions on their faces, but with a slight glow upon hearing about him leaving the place for them.
He then turned to the village "Well, let's see how the situation is, hopefully the negotiations will end pretty quickly, so I'll still be able to have lunch in peace"
Walking into the village, he was faced with silence, something he had already expected in a way, this was a good scenario, after all it would be very bad if everyone tried to face him.
His transformations had many uses, but there were some limitations, and one of them was the fact that he didn't have the strength or endurance of his transformation. Even if he transformed into something theoretically powerful, he would still be killed by weapons, even a knife would end his life.
If they really attacked, your best option was to transform into something that would help you escape. But it seems that none of that would be necessary.
Passing between a few houses, he could see a large tree in the middle of the small village, and in front of this tree was a figure even smaller than the three girls in the car, wearing a patched dress with a cap making it difficult to see them face.
'Is this the little girl Oolong saw yesterday?...' He continued walking towards the tree, while feeling watched 'Maybe I should tell her to call her father, and have him negotiate with the girls' parents for me...?!'
He noticed something strange, the closer he got, the more it became clear that that figure was not the girl Oolong chose to kidnap yesterday 'It looks like a boy... Did they intend to trick Oolong? But what would they gain from that, they would save the girl for now, but even if Oolong was blind, he would find out at some point and come back here full of rage, he could do nothing but threaten, but obviously they don't know that...'
While he was lost in thought, inside the surrounding houses, several people watched him with fear.
In one of the houses, the door had a fist-sized hole where the doorknob should have been. Inside, a young woman with blue hair crouched down so she could see outside through the hole.
"He just looks like a normal young man... Are you sure this is the terrifying Oolong?" The girl asked, glancing at a bald middle-aged man with round glasses.
The man was looking through a crack in the window curtain, and beside him was a girl, the one Oolong had decided to take with him.
Turning his gaze to the young woman, the man replied "Like I said, he can transform into any form, so I can't tell you for sure... But it must be him, it's on time and there's no one who looks like that around here"
"...I hope Goku can maintain his disguise until they reach his hideout" She said with a worried tone, before looking back through the hole in the door.
Outside, the boy who was pretending to be the girl Oolong chose and the young man were silent, each for their own reasons.
'I don't doubt that they are stupid... But they must have some plan to try to send this boy in the girl's place. There are many things I don't know about this world, maybe this boy is not normal, he might know how to transform or some different magic?...' He was very uncertain about everything.
Either way, he had no intention of returning home, much less taking a fraud with him "I didn't come to take anyone, I'm actually here to return the other girls. Could you go and tell the people in the village about this?"
His voice was not loud, but it was enough for the people hiding in the houses closest to him to hear, which caused great surprise for everyone.
A door opened and it was that blue haired girl, she had an excited expression on her face "Have you come to redeem yourself from your sins? Great!"
She was being quite hasty, but who could blame her, she hadn't seen Oolong in the past, so she didn't fear him like the rest of the people in the place.
As he stared at that blue-haired girl, the disguised boy took off his hood "So I wore these uncomfortable clothes for nothing?"
"I'm not here to redeem myself..." He then muttered ~I wasn't the one who did all this shit anyway~ And soon he spoke again in a normal tone "I came to return the three girls, but in exchange I want some money, I think that's fair, don't you think?"
The girl's eyebrows furrowed "You're charging to return the girls you took yourself, how would that be fair?"
"It really wouldn't be fair, but it's the natural thing to do... Besides, why are you getting involved in this? You don't live here, I wouldn't have taken those three if there was a girl of your level around here" He said calmly, as he observed the surroundings.
The boy from before had taken off that dress he wore to disguise himself, and was now in a set of shabby clothes, an orange outfit with a sash around his waist, as if he were a martial artist. Now you could see his black hair spiked up in a unique hairstyle and a monkey tail.
The young man didn't even care about the fact that the boy had that appearance, to be honest, the Oolong from his memories was much stranger and more like an animal in fact.
'I wonder if there are girls with cat ears in this world? If there is someone who looks like Felix Argyle...' His gaze filled with a strange hope.
While he was having unrealistic and fanciful thoughts, the girl was staring at him with a mixed expression "Was that some kind of bizarre compliment? Whatever. It doesn't matter if we're from here or not, hand over the girls and get out of this place, or else Goku will finish you off!"
He noticed the girl taking small steps back as she spoke, by the time she finished her sentence, she was almost inside the house once more.
"Bulma is right, now tell us your hiding place, or I'll finish you off!" The boy made a fighting pose.
'I have no idea if this brat has any extreme strength to be so confident, but he should at least be strong enough for that girl to trust him, so at the very least he should be as strong as an adult, right?...' He let out a helpless sigh.
"I already told you I came to deliver the girls, they are inside my car at the entrance to the village, just give me some money, that way no one loses, okay?" He said calmly.
When those words were spoken, several doors opened and men and women rushed to the entrance of the village. For a moment, they forgot their fear and were determined to rescue the girls.
He then continued there, while exchanging glances with the boy and the girl, those two were surprised too, they didn't expect everything to go so well, and suspected that there might be some evil plan behind it.
A few seconds later, one of the people came back from the entrance shouting "It's them! They're fine!"
The young man let out another sigh 'Insisting on profiting from this is troublesome, they will feel more confident now, I won't risk myself in vain'
"Now that the girls are back, you don't have to attack me, right? If you still want to know where my house is, you can ask them, they know where it is. Now can you tell me why you're getting involved in this?" He questioned.
Honestly, he didn't give a damn about that, he just wanted to get away from the main issue and hopefully find out if that boy had some magic that would stop him from transforming, or anything that would make him unable to escape.
He had been given a new life, he needed to value it, so ensuring his survival was important.
There were more and more people coming out of their houses, strangely, none of them seemed really willing to attack the supposed monster that tormented them. Maybe it was fear, or because they were very peaceful, who knows.
The blue-haired girl, named Bulma, looked suspiciously at that young man, but the boy with her didn't pay much attention to that and said "We're after one of the dragon balls that is here, and they told us they'd give it to us if we saved the girls"
"Dragon ball? What is that?" This time he was actually slightly curious, should this thing be worth taking a risk on?
"Shut your big mouth, Goku!" The girl shouted, visibly irritated that the boy was about to explain everything.
'Well, this seems like something quite valuable... And even though these two seem like a pair of idiots, they must still have something that gives them confidence...'
"Well, it seems my benevolence in bringing the girls back has made your lives easier, how about letting me go with you in exchange for this help?" He asked with a smile of false sympathy.
Goku shrugged, he obviously didn't have any options for or against "I thought we were going to fight, but you don't look strong and everything is already settled, so whatever"
While the girl looked thoughtful and a little worried, the young man focused on Goku, offering a handshake "Your name is Goku, right? My name is Kael"
Bulma raised an eyebrow "Wait, weren't you Oolong?!"
"Why would I use my real name while using transformations? Oolong was a pseudonym, a character in a way, but I'm Kael" He lied convincingly.
Putting his hands in his pocket, he continued "I was going to leave this place today anyway, but I would have taken all of those idiots' money in exchange for the girls, but I gave them to you for free" His gaze was focused on the blue-haired girl "Don't you think it's fair that I get something in return?"
///
[Author's note: Oolong's personality was inconsistent. At first he seemed like an idiot teenager who kidnapped girls but ended up being used as a doormat by them, who only took advantage of his money, implying that he never did anything to them. But just a few chapters later, he drugged Bulma and Goku to try to do something while they slept.
But he won't have the chance to be inconsistent anymore, because they don't exist anymore]