The girls blinked once, twice, then three times before their mouths dropped open, but not as wide as the fourth member of the team, who was blushing furiously at this abrupt revelation.
"What?!" Ruby stopped crying instantly and jumped to her feet with a high-pitched scream, looking at her teammates and seeing them blush too. "Y-You three want to... be together-together with Vegeta!?"
She hadn't even noticed!
No wonder so many people treated her like a child...
But like, her childishness aside, how would that even work?! There were three of them and only one Vegeta!
That said, Yang and I are daughters of two different women... Ruby couldn't forget that detail, and that the number of women in Remnant outnumbered men by two to one. Even so, one of them will end up alone!
While that was sad, she couldn't contain this feeling of anticipation and curiosity that made her little heart beat faster!
Just like that, the situation had completely changed. Going from scary to embarrassing in the blink of an eye!
Instead of answering Ruby's question, who was having a teenage girl moment with an overdose of sweetness, Weiss, Yang, and Blake looked at each other, reading their reactions to confirm what they already suspected to be true.
Somehow, they had all developed strong feelings for Vegeta, and he knew it.
Honestly, it was no surprise. Not only was Vegeta a man among men that even Professor Goodwitch seemed interested in, as they did a very poor job of hiding their true intentions, but it was still extremely awkward.
At least now they understood the reason behind all of this.
"So that's why you were acting like a crazy idiot?!" Yang swallowed her shame and fear before standing up as well, struggling to contain her anger and the urge to punch this clueless guy in the face! "This has to be the worst rejection ever!"
I mean, who the hell threatened to destroy a planet just to make a point?!
This could have been resolved with a simple, "I'm sorry, I'm not interested." Or "I haven't recovered from my last relationship yet."
You know, like a normal person!
Unfortunately, Vegeta was anything but normal.
That must be why Yang's eyes were still shining with tears, unable to forget what she felt during Vegeta's revelation.
In this man's eyes, Yang and her pretentious attitude reminded him of someone he loved, and that hurt him, much more than it hurt her, and that sucked.
"I have to agree." Blake also stood up, but without knowing whether she should hate Vegeta or her own taste for broken and insanely dangerous men. "There are better ways to deal with a situation like this."
One that didn't include visiting an alien planet or destroying almost three moons!
Like, who does that?!
And she thought Adam had problems!
If there was a silver lining to all this, it would be that Blake had an experience like no other to use as material in her book and a lot of emotions to express in words.
Because damn, it hurt.
Although... call her an idiot, but even though Blake had been rejected, in an extreme way, she still wanted to save Vegeta from the path of no return he was on.
After all, that was the duty of a Huntress.
Weiss, on the other hand, wasn't having any of this.
If Vegeta really wanted to reject them completely, he could leave Remnant and never come back, or simply cut them out of his life.
He had the power to do so.
Instead, Vegeta was trying to discourage their feelings by revealing his origins and the kind of man he used to be before Bulma came into his life, the woman who changed everything.
In Weiss's eyes, this was no rejection!
Not really.
If anything, considering everything she had learned on this day and that conflicted expression on Vegeta's face, it seemed more like a cry for help!
And helping was exactly what Weiss was going to do!
This time, she would be the woman who changed everything in Vegeta's life!
"No!" Weiss said as she stood up, her tears freezing before they even hit the ground. "I won't give up on you!"
A statement that came straight from the bottom of her heart and was able to make her soul respond like never before!
A giant Glyph manifested above her head and another under her feet, her Aura resonating stronger along with her emotions and Ki until they became one. For a moment, it seemed as if she was about to summon something, and perhaps she was, but not in the way her older sister used to. As a result, her white hair took on an icy blue hue similar to sparkling crystals that spread to her pajamas, turning them into a beautiful, ethereal combat dress that looked like it came straight out of a fairy tale!
Somehow, Weiss was wearing her own power!
Yang and Blake gasped in surprise as they were struck by the power radiating like a winter night from this angelic girl, while Ruby squealed like a little girl at Christmas, none of them expecting such a response or change!
Weiss had become even more beautiful, taking another step toward becoming a true goddess!
That, and she was completely out of her mind!
Had she already forgotten everything that had happened?!
While they could understand where this determination came from, especially when this must have been her first love, Weiss had to know when to give up!
Especially when the planet they were on could be turned into space dust at any moment!
If the goal was to save him from his own suicidal tendencies, that could be done later and with time, when they were back in Remnant!
In Ruby's eyes, however, Weiss had just become the coolest person in the universe!
And that had nothing to do with the fact that she was basically a magical girl... Okay, it totally does, but who cares?!
Go for it, Bestie! Ruby was blushing like crazy and feeling like she was going to faint from embarrassment, but she couldn't take her eyes off Weiss. Show him the power of love!
Power that had just reached another level, surpassing tenfold everything either of them had even after recovering by eating that Senzu Bean!
As for Vegeta, he was no less surprised by this change, not only in appearance, but in power as well.
Suddenly, Weiss had gone from nothing to almost nothing.
She just combined her Ki and Aura into one, much like what I do with my Super Saiyan Blue... Vegeta had already determined that the forms Weiss and Ruby had obtained after accessing their Ki were incomplete because of the disparity in quantity between their two sources of power. Now, her Aura has grown to rival her Ki reserves.
Thanks to that, Weiss obtained a transformation unique to her and a power capable of facing a Saibaman.
While that wasn't anything significant, it was still ten times more than before and enough to replicate what Vegeta had done with those three moons.
Something worthy of praise and which served to show this girl's potential in reaching the level of a low-class Saiyan.
All of this in just one week.
At the same time, it also served to show how much Weiss really cared about him, and Vegeta could only curse.
After all, this sudden increase in Aura level and transformation must have been triggered by pure emotion... just like a Saiyan.
If that was indeed the case, then Vegeta could only imagine the state of this girl's heart.
All because of him...
However, Vegeta couldn't let himself be shaken... any more than he already was.
Immediately, he narrowed his eyes and his power responded to his own emotions, appearing in the form of white flames embroidered in blood-red.
"Are you deaf?" A rhetorical question, Vegeta knew, but one that seemed necessary to try to understand what was going on in this reckless girl's head. "If not, then you must be crazy!"
For only that could explain such stubbornness!
Vegeta had literally revealed the kind of person he was and what he used to do with conquering and destroying countless planets! As if that weren't enough, he was willing to die fighting Kakarot, even when it meant abandoning the only reason he had to live!
So why hadn't this girl given up on him yet, just like the other two?!
Worse still, why the hell did Weiss remind him so much of Bulma!?
That attitude, determination, and lack of fear when looking at him as if he were more than just a monster...
All of this made Vegeta's resolve waver, especially with what she had to say next.
"Maybe I am," Weiss smiled as her face flushed, soon taking a step forward toward Vegeta, refusing to feel fear of him and his power once again. "But compared to everything I've seen today?" Her smile softened, becoming more shy. "Liking you isn't so bad."
Quite the contrary, if she had never met this man, she would have lived her life in ignorance, or worse, died along with her planet at the hands of another being from beyond the stars.
While yes, she had feared him more than once, he had never hurt her or anyone she knew directly, much less intentionally.
Even now, as Vegeta tried to isolate himself and put on a show of power, she did not feel threatened.
If anything, it only made her want to get closer to him.
"You're not making any sense!" Vegeta released even more power, his hair turning golden along with his aura. "Having feelings for someone you barely know!" Another shout and his power grew to the absolute limit of his Super Saiyan transformation, to the point of engulfing everything and everyone around him for miles, visible even outside the planet's atmosphere. "Someone who will die in a year!"
Someone who had no future!
The girls felt their breath grow heavy as they were struck by Vegeta's endless power, unable to understand how it was possible for someone to possess so much, let alone that there was someone out there who surpassed all of this.
Just how powerful was Kakarot?!
However, what really shook Weiss and her teammates was Vegeta's emotions.
At that moment, they were inside his Aura and Ki, his heart and soul, feeling everything he felt, and... it hurt.
There was so much suffering and regret in his heart that it brought tears to their eyes again.
If Vegeta intended to discourage Weiss's feelings, he was doing a terrible job at it.
In fact, now she wanted to save him even more!
"I know you well enough!" Weiss continued advancing, somehow feeling less resistance now that she was inside this ocean of power than before. "I connected with you when I awakened your Aura, remember?"
A unique moment she would never forget as long as she lived, and she was sure Vegeta felt the same if the way his eyes widened meant anything.
"That's why I believe you won't die fighting that man!" Weiss stood directly in front of Vegeta, her fingers gloved with her power, touching his shocked face. "You will become stronger and live!"
After all, that was why he was in Remnant: to train!
Just look at what Weiss had achieved by merely accessing her Ki!
No matter how powerful this Kakarot was, now that Vegeta had his Aura, it was only a matter of time before he was the strongest!
Or so she wanted to believe.
"That's easier said than done." Vegeta could see where this girl's optimism came from, especially given the power she had gained in such a short time. "Unfortunately, reality tends to be disappointing."
While he appreciated the vote of confidence in his ability, Weiss didn't understand the ramifications of the level he needed to reach to have a chance against Kakarot, especially when she didn't know what he was capable of.
"Just so you know." Vegeta took her hand from his face and pointed to the golden aura that engulfed the entire area around him. "This is not even a percent of a percent of my full power."
Which meant he was more than ten thousand times stronger than this, and Kakarot still surpassed him by an absurd margin.
For the girls, again, this was a revelation that their minds couldn't comprehend.
Truth be told, even this level of power they were witnessing now was already too much!
How could a living being be so powerful?!
"Wow!" Weiss's blue eyes sparkled as brightly as Ruby's, who joined her, both moving closer to a surprised Vegeta due to their enthusiastic reactions. "You're amazing!"
Even if Blake and Yang didn't share the reaction of their fearless teammates, they had to agree.
Vegeta was something else, and unfortunately, that also served to paint an even more monstrous picture of Kakarot.
Now they could understand why he was considered the strongest mortal in the universe.
At the same time, it also raised other questions.
If Kakarot was the strongest "mortal," that meant there were gods out there who were even stronger.
The universe was truly vast, unknown, and utterly terrifying.
As for Vegeta himself, his response to these girls' reaction was one of sadness.
Once again, Weiss and Ruby reminded him of Bulma and Trunks, of the unconditional love and admiration his family had for him.
Suddenly, it seemed that everything Vegeta had lost was within his reach again, waiting for him to take a step forward and hold them in his arms to never let go, but his fear and guilt prevented him from even trying.
Fear of losing everything again and guilt for remotely considering replacing his family with two girls he barely knew.
Unfortunately or fortunately for Vegeta, Ruby and Weiss could feel and understand exactly what was going on in his head through his Ki and Aura; the conflict that threatened to tear his heart apart, already broken by loss.
This was even more impactful for Ruby, whose eyes now shed tears nonstop, and for good reason.
Just today, Vegeta had replaced the heroic image of her mother in her mind and become what Ruby aspired to be. Now, she discovered that the man she admired saw a shadow of his own son in her.
Honestly, it felt like an honor to her.
For a moment, Ruby even felt like calling him father, but she stopped herself, knowing that it would only make things worse, and opted for the next best thing by bringing Weiss with her to give Vegeta a tight hug.
The shock Vegeta felt was such that his power faded along with his transformation, leaving all local illumination to the two broken moons in the sky above.
He didn't know what to do, and even if he could get these girls off him without even trying, he found himself unable to do so.
I'm such a coward. Vegeta could only curse his own weakness, especially as he felt tears falling from his eyes. How can I hope to kill Kakarot like this?
Without being able to let go of his past?
It reminded Vegeta of when he was learning the Hakai, being held back by the guilt of wanting to carry the sins of all Saiyans on his back.
However...there was a difference.
Just as it was with Weiss just now, Vegeta's Aura was also responding to his emotions and growing stronger.
In fact, he even felt as if something had changed inside of him, but he didn't know what exactly.
Only time would tell.
The same went for his feelings towards these girls and what he should do going forward.
Maybe, just maybe, Weiss was right, and Vegeta could reach the level of power needed to defeat Kakarot without having to give up his life.
Again, something he would only find out with time.
However, one thing Vegeta knew for sure: he was going to train like never before!
As for the girls, Weiss and Ruby could feel the change in Vegeta's heart and smiled, one happier than the other to know that they had been able to help him see some light.
While that wasn't enough, it was a good start, and they still had a year to convince him not to throw his life away for revenge.
Yang and Blake, on the other hand, had their hearts overflowing with emotion for a different reason as they watched everything from afar.
"I can't believe it," Yang muttered through her own tears. "He's... crying too."
Of everything that happened on this day, seeing Vegeta show such a vulnerable side seemed the most unbelievable one.
"It's just the rain," Blake said as she rested a friendly hand on her partner's shoulder. "It's raining everywhere today."
Yang didn't understand what she meant by that, but only until she looked at her friend's face and saw her crying too.
"Yeah." She smiled a little as she pulled Blake into a sympathetic hug. "You're right."
At least they weren't out in the rain suffering alone, and that was enough.